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TAC 2009 - DaraghM | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6160 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 129 of 177 26 June 2009 at 3:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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Merci encore pour http://ifile.it/j573neg .
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| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6160 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 130 of 177 02 July 2009 at 11:39am | IP Logged | ||
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French
I've been using the French FSI course as the main body of my study, but I've decided to take a short break from it now. My main reason was to spend more time with the Living Language course, which has more modern terms. E.g. FSI: teinturerie - dry cleaners. Modern: le pressing - dry cleaners. (an uglier anglicism) I've also been using Assimil, and started into a parallel reading of L'etranger par Camus. I like the format of the parallel text, which clearly has a lot of work put into it. I couldn't locate the audio, but will look again closely at the contents of the folder, and the other documents. My language learning will experience a slight blip the next couple of days, as I'm off to New York for a wedding. As it's a Jewish wedding, I was tempted to learn Hebrew, but will try this at another stage. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6160 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 131 of 177 10 July 2009 at 11:30am | IP Logged | ||
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General
Having attended my first Jewish wedding, I got to speak Hebrew for the first time. I should really clarify this statement, and say, we were given the Hebrew prompts by the rabbi for each of the blessings. Hebrew has a hard [kh] sound similar to Spanish(la gente), which helped with some pronunciation. The marriage contract is written in Aramaic, and this was the first time I'd heard it spoken in person. For some odd reason, it really reminded me of Irish (Gaeilge). French I found a copy of the audio for Camus' L'étranger, which I spent most of last night downloading, as well as extracting some other French materials from CD. I've also been working through some more of the Living Language course. The Living language course has better coverage of material than Assimil, but a lot less than FSI. I still can't decide what's the best way to study this language ? Should I cover as much ground as possible quickly, or master the basics thoroughly ? Edited by DaraghM on 10 July 2009 at 11:36am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6160 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 132 of 177 16 July 2009 at 12:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hungarian
Since abandoning my tracking spreadsheet, I've realised I'm not balancing my languages like I should. I've just started into Unit 6 of the FSI course, and I'm trying to learn the dialogue off by heart. If I over learn the material, I can take bigger gaps between Hungarian study. The unit also covers the Hungarian definite conjugation, and it's uses, however it has left me a tiny bit confused about one thing. I'm not sure which personal pronouns are used with the definite and which ones with the indefinite. Edited by DaraghM on 16 July 2009 at 12:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tricoteuse Pentaglot Senior Member Norway littlang.blogspot.co Joined 6687 days ago 745 posts - 845 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Norwegian, EnglishC1, Russian, French Studies: Ukrainian, Bulgarian | Message 133 of 177 16 July 2009 at 1:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I got the book "Hungarian Verbs and Essentials of Grammar" and it explains those things very clearly. If my hands weren't a mess I'd copy it for you, but sadly...
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| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6160 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 134 of 177 16 July 2009 at 1:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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French
In order to concentrate on my Hungarian, I wanted to use an all audio French course on my lunch breaks. As I'd purchased All Talk French as a present for my late father, I decided to give this a go. It seems to cover a large amount of vocabulary for an all audio course (~1,800 words). It had me curious how a course would cover this much, when I estimated the Living language course has just over a thousand. Since using it I've realised it has a lot of vocabulary per unit. Each CD consists of around 40 tracks, and some of the tracks have between four and six new words. After the vocabulary is introduced, the next track tests your retention, sometimes incorporating some grammar rules. The easiest way I've found to use the course is to set my MP3 player to repeat tracks, and let the new mots repeat a couple of times. I also spent the evening L-Ring L'étranger. Initially I was reading the text on my laptop, but stopped as my eyes were completely strained. This was due to the ten hours I spent in work in front of a PC. Instead I opened an English paperback version, while letting the laptop play the MP3's. The quality of my recording is a bit crackly, but it was easy enough to follow along. Once I started losing my place, I knew it was time to stop. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6160 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 135 of 177 16 July 2009 at 1:48pm | IP Logged | ||
Thanks. I'll do a quick check in my Carol Rounds Grammar book, and see if that clears the issue. It seems like Hungarian can use the verbs as follows, You see me\us - Látsz You see him\her\it\them - Látod I'll need to look into this further as the -lak\lek ending confuses the issue. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6160 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 136 of 177 17 July 2009 at 10:33am | IP Logged | ||
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French Problems
I was going to post this in the self study forum, but I wanted to mention a number of different issues. I've a couple of problems with French, and I'm not sure how to over come them. The root of my problems stem from the fact I studied French at school almost twenty years ago, but subsequently forgot most of the language. I can list the problems as follows, #1 - Pronunciation. When I speak French, I seem to have some very serious fossilized pronunciation problems. Unlike my school days, I've doing massive amounts of listening over writing, and this has cleared some problems. The biggest problem is the extremely common words pour, de, deux, etc. If I encounter a completely new word, I'll pronounce it correctly, but I can't seem to unlearn the bad pronunciation of the common words. #2 - Writing over speaking. I find it difficult to construct valid French sentences in my head when speaking, but writing seems a lot easier. On a recent grammar exercise in the Living Language course, I could do it almost on autopilot, but I'd have a hard time using the same grammar concepts in a spoken sentence. This has led me to believe the writing and speaking\listening parts of my brain are quite divorced in French. #3. Understanding my level. I've no idea my level in French. I would rate myself as early beginner as I struggle speaking the language, but I have very few difficulties reading the language. It seems my passive vocabulary is multiples greater than my active. I don't have this large discrepancy in my other languages, though the passive is always greater than the active. Any thoughts or ideas on addressing these issues ? Edited by DaraghM on 17 July 2009 at 10:40am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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