sergiu Diglot Senior Member Romania freewebs.com/invata_ Joined 6437 days ago 105 posts - 108 votes Speaks: Romanian*, English Studies: German
| Message 57 of 195 09 April 2007 at 4:40am | IP Logged |
I am in with Turkish ,a very interesting language of which I have absolutely no knowledge of.
Firstly I need to know what exactly will the testing consist of and how many words are you looking for us to learn in 6 weeks( I was thinking around 400).
I am going to use the internet for Turkish and any free or pirated software you consider it's best for the job.
The beginning date for all of us to start is 14th April ,right?
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shyopstv Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6718 days ago 86 posts - 91 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Esperanto
| Message 58 of 195 09 April 2007 at 9:40am | IP Logged |
I am interested in this idea. Looking at how the groups seem to be turning out, I will go with Swedish
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Raincrowlee Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 6700 days ago 621 posts - 808 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin, Korean, French Studies: Indonesian, Japanese
| Message 59 of 195 09 April 2007 at 10:11am | IP Logged |
You know, I think everyone is getting a little too focused on the test at the end. Really, how we show the improvement in the language doesn't matter. The fact that we're putting six weeks into it should.
We're not (or shouldn't be) trying to get a higher word count than anyone else, or show how word-crushingly smart we are by learning a complete language in a limited time.
This is a chance to indulge in an interest that we haven't had time for. It's also a chance to apply all the tricks we've used on our previous languages to see how they work on a new one. It's a chance to show ourselves that the myth that it takes years to study a language might not comply if you just concentrate for a little while.
The test at the end is like standing with your back to the wall and drawing a line to show that you've grown taller. Are you racing your friends or your brothers? No. You're just trying to show how far along *you* have come.
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leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6548 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog
| Message 60 of 195 09 April 2007 at 12:11pm | IP Logged |
Raincrowlee wrote:
You know, I think everyone is getting a little too focused on the test at the end. |
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Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of course. I enjoy a little competition now and then.
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aru-aru Triglot Senior Member Latvia Joined 6455 days ago 244 posts - 331 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, Russian
| Message 61 of 195 09 April 2007 at 1:08pm | IP Logged |
but a little competition now and then can create a little desire to be best and result in, well, lets say 45 minutes a day study time instead of 30.
of course, studying more is a good thing, but not in cases when the idea is to compare the effectiveness of different methods for the same kind of "easy" languages, provided the same amount of time/effort is spent.
there are two things i'm afraid i might start doing: cheating as to the time spend (have lots of it) and feeling stupid after it turns out everyone else did better than i did
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leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6548 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog
| Message 62 of 195 09 April 2007 at 1:35pm | IP Logged |
I can relate to what you're saying. Do you prefer not to be tested then?
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Declan1991 Tetraglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6437 days ago 233 posts - 359 votes Speaks: English*, German, Irish, French
| Message 63 of 195 09 April 2007 at 3:50pm | IP Logged |
I will participate in this too. I think I will do Icelandic. Is the start date still the 14th? I will use the materials Icelandic online.
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burntgorilla Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6442 days ago 202 posts - 206 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Danish
| Message 64 of 195 09 April 2007 at 4:04pm | IP Logged |
Raincrowlee wrote:
You know, I think everyone is getting a little too focused on the test at the end. Really, how we show the improvement in the language doesn't matter. The fact that we're putting six weeks into it should. |
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I agree to an extent. I'm only doing this to see how much I can learn in six weeks of thirty minutes daily study. I have exams in a few weeks and FSI French to follow, so I'm certainly not going to look at it in a competitive way. If someone wants to learn the most in six weeks, they could easily cheat, either by spending more time learning or using a language they already know something of. Personally, I wouldn't want to see it as a competition, purely because it's so easy to cheat. But maybe that competition helps some people to focus.
However, if we're going to do this in order to compare methods, some form of test would be needed. I'm wondering how useful this will be as an indication. Surely each method works differently with different people? Someone might make great progress with one method, but that wouldn't mean much to anyone else, since it might be different for them.
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