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Sunja’s Newspaper/TV Challenge --TAC 09 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 73 of 232 30 January 2009 at 12:37pm | IP Logged |
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I was busy at IKnow! today. I'm in the habit of copying all the sentences into lists. I took a few pages along with me today and read them over when I could. I found something that may prove useful: "JLPT Level 3 Grammar", found here. The author isn't a native, but he's compiled 91 sentences illustrating single grammar points from the sankyuu. Since grammar is my weakest area, this should be good (whether it has to do with the test or not is irrelevant). I spent over an hour just on three lessons (I wrote 56 sentences..). He has two sentences for every grammar point and they're longer than the ones I'm used to writing. So I now have a new list, and I've highlighted in yellow the specific points; whether 為に、or わけではない, etc..
I've also been going over levels 7,8 sentences. I'm going to have to keep reviewing if I want to stay on top. Edited by Sunja on 30 January 2009 at 12:45pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 74 of 232 31 January 2009 at 8:20am | IP Logged |
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Whew. I have to take a break from the computer. I've been working all day at those IKnow! lists. I've got about 40% finished on one and the other is almost to that point as well. The new words have stopped and I can now zoom through the rest of the course. I can't say whether they will both be done by Monday..if not I'm going to move on to the next level anyway. It looks quite challenging. My skills are not nearly ready for such a task as to actually use/recognize these words anywhere, but the first exposure will be stored somewhere in my brain -- and they won't be so hard to recognize later on. Who knows. the level may prove too difficult and I may need to save it for another time. We'll see.
I have 10 more grammar points to cover on the JLPT Level 3 list that I'm working with. I've copied quite a few sentences today..how many...? ehmm, 65. I have 20 more sentences which I'll work on tonight. It looks good. Grammar stuff I haven't covered yet. Oh, good news. Doyle writes that he had his mother-in-law in Osaka read off each and every one of the sentences (there's quite a few) and he's now uploading each one into the list. I've already listened to the few he's managed to get done and I can't wait to shadow this person! Grammar and shadowing in one shot. Can't beat that. I tried to do some shadowing with level 10 sentences but it ended up just being an exercise in recognition. I've got a lot on my mind today... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 75 of 232 01 February 2009 at 8:33am | IP Logged |
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I've been working on improving my reading skills. I have a short story (audio) from
seesaa.net (unzum's recommendation) and have the transcripts here. I've just spent an hour copying 30 sentences from the 20 grammar items covered in this new IKnow! list. There's great sentences to stuff like がする、儚い、筈、がる、である、verb+会う だろう。。 I'm at 50% completion of levels 9,10 and I'm still working with my shadowing book. okay, I think we have enough links now... I still can't shadow past Unit 4. The dialogues get longer, more advanced. That's about it for today. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 76 of 232 03 February 2009 at 1:30pm | IP Logged |
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I've been working on those short stories. They're just about my speed. I'm waiting for my new printer ink to come in. Once I can print again I'll be able to read more of them. I've read two short stories so far. I can look up words alright, but I don't think I'm understanding it completely. It's not really important that I do. I'm mostly interested in vocabulary at this point. I tried putting together some flashcards of all the available vocab I could find. Words like
霊感 ("sixth") sense of the supernatural 眠そうに drowsy 悲鳴 scream 後ろを振り返る, look over one's shoulder 何気ない unconcerned, "egal" 合宿所 boarding house 不気味 eerie Man, those are great words. I makes me want to read more. Anyway, I'm at 60% for levels 9,10 and I'm making my way through another JLPT3 vocab list. I only did one lesson of the JLPT level 3 grammar since they were having some maintenance problems yesterday. I've been slowly working through the JFBP book. I'm going back and forth between lessons 3/4. I've been making notes for speaking practice drills, but as of yet I haven't felt like doing them. I did quite a bit of listening/shadowing today. I started at 7:30 (in the car); then there was 30 minutes iwth the level 9 sentences. I did those sentences twice on two different occassions. I listened to them mostly. Tuesdays are busy and sometimes the shadowing doesn't quite work out, especially since the level of material that I'm doing is slightly higher than I can follow/shadow. Tomorrow will be hectic, especially the late afternoon. I'll have do most of my studying in the morning and at night. Edited by Sunja on 03 February 2009 at 1:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 77 of 232 03 February 2009 at 3:10pm | IP Logged |
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I decided to shadow some Spanish; I want to do an experiment to see if this works for me. I set myself up to shadow an unknown short story which I got from AlbaLearning.com. I haven't read it. I can't even recall the author. Anyway. I went into the bedroom (where it's the quietest) and I have about 12 feet of pacing room. That's probably not enough but I'm going to try it anyway. I'm already "through" with my day; i.e., totally relaxed. I was able to shadow along for a time, I think it was about 10 minutes. The story is 18 minutes long and I didn't get through it. I tried to imagine that this was a song I was trying to sing -- without knowing the words -- only mimicing the sounds. It's rather easy to do. The hard part is maintaining it for a time. Most of the sounds came from the front of the mouth -- I guess that's good. It felt okay. I won't know until I practice more. It seemed to be the only way to get it to "roll" properly. I wasn't conscious of where I was going, I could have done it blindfolded. I was pacing back and forth and enunciating every sound that I could. It took a large degree of concentration and I couldn't keep it up for long. After a while I couldn't match the sound any more.. That's when I had to quit. I'll try to recreate the same for tomorrow. Consistency is key.
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| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 78 of 232 05 February 2009 at 4:38am | IP Logged |
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Yesterday was so busy. I did some shadowing in the evening. This time I set myself up with Breaking Into Japanese Literature, "The First Night". I've gone over Professor Arguelles' website for his scriptorium and shadowing techniques. I've decided that the short stories I was reading wouldn't be very appropriate, since I have no accurate translation of the text I'm reading. I don't think it will be effective to shadow. I'll continue reading bits and pieces so that I can keep up with my vocabulary, but since the grammar is more advanced than I'm able to understand, it's very questionable as to whether I can translate the text properly, with accuracy. So with that said, I've gone back to my book and I just finished shadowing "The First Night". I'll keep doing this for the next few days (weeks?).
By the way, I usually shadow level 9,10 sentences, but I've already reached 70% completion of these levels and the sentences are getting rather boring. Scriptorium/Shadowing results of "The First Night" -- I was only able to transcribe a few sentences last night. It takes me quite a long time to do it the way the professor describes. I sound out every reading as I'm writing and then I reread the text. I can't write pages and pages. As for shadowing, I've only shadowed the text twice; once last night and just now, and both times I was quite out of breath. I guess it's the walking. Obviously my being out of breath is because the text is completely unknown and I don't breathe where I should. It will take some time getting used to the text. As for Spanish, I'm having a friend print out the text and translation of a short story from AlbaLearning.com. (I'm also waiting on my printer ink, so whichever comes first...). Once I get that together I'll start shadowing, scripting Spanish as well. Edited by Sunja on 05 February 2009 at 4:45am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 79 of 232 05 February 2009 at 8:15am | IP Logged |
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3rd Shadowing (blind) "The First Night" from 夢十夜 (Time: 8:13) - Wow, this time seemed to go much smoother. I wasn't so out-of-breath. Just to reiterate, the text (with the exception of the first paragraph or so) is completely unknown. It will take me a lot of time to look up unknown kanji (out of the part that I copied) and commit those to memory. That will be today's task.
2nd Shadowing (blind) Spanish: (Time: 7 minutes) I just finished shadowing (again, phonetically) Sara y Agar by Emilia Pardo Bazán. As for my Spanish level, I might as well be starting from scratch. I don't have a grammar textbook, and having learned all my beginning grammar from Internet resources, well, I'd say my grammar is weak and my verb conjugation is downright terrible. I took an online test at the end of the summer, after an intensive 3 months with Spanish and scored a "B1". I've dabbled in reading but I haven't really done much with the books in my list, other than to read a chapter or two. So of course my second attempt at blind-shadowing was a frustrating experience. I just received my new printer ink in the mail and I've got my print-outs. I'm now going to use the scriptorium technique to find out just exactly what I was trying to echo. I have the Spanish on the left and English on the right. I'll edit in how much I accomplished and do another shadowing attempt tonight. EDIT: I wrote the first paragraph. I can follow the story well enough, even though it's a bit advanced grammar. I use the online dictionary to help me with that and I can look up the roots for most verbs. I didn't do another shadowing attempt for Spanish. I did one more shadowing (about 8 min.) of Japanese... Edited by Sunja on 08 February 2009 at 1:18am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 80 of 232 08 February 2009 at 1:47am | IP Logged |
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I haven't been able to keep notes on what I've been doing. Friday I was out shopping all morning. We had a Kindergeburtstagsfeier on Saturday and there was a lot that I had to do to prepare for 12 8-year-olds. We rented a room in town and I had to go pick up the keys on Friday before noon, before the Rathaus closed. Anyway, I came home and did my (how many?...oh yeah,) 5th shadowing of the Japanese story. I used the scriptorium technique and wrote down about five more sentences. I timed myself (from 2:00 to 2:40), and it takes long time, mainly because I'm trying to learn the kanji. A piece of liturature always takes a bit more effort than your average magazine article. I had to go to an Elternsprechtag that evening so that was all I got done for Friday.
I've been making flashcards of all the unknown words I've come across since Feb. 1st and I've noticed something: it's taking me less time to learn the kanji/words from this short story by Sooseki than it is for the other short story from seesaa.net -- and those were some words that I really wanted to have in my vocabulary, too! I've been over those words a dozen times and I still get hung up on the kanji. Some I just draw a complete blank (like "boarding house"). I haven't been over my cards in the last two days, so I'm interested to know what my rate of recall is! I've thrown away the flashcards from the (non-shadow-ed) short story (seesaa.net) and I'm working purely with the vocabulary from Sooseki, "The First Night". Saturday I didn't get a thing done.... did I?...oh, wait, yes I did. I did some Spanish. I decided not to shadow the short story, rather I found the the Inspired Beginner's podcasts from NotesinSpanish.com and I did some dictation of Ben and Marina talking about likes, dislikes and other real basic stuff. My spelling and accents are off -- I'm sure -- so I want to correct what I've written today. I'll make a recording of the conversation and try to commit it to memory. It will only take a few hearings, I'm sure. I also used the scriptorium technique for the short story that I've been working on (Sat.). I promise to shadow it today. It will take some work, but I'm axious to get through it. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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