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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Satoshi Diglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5831 days ago 215 posts - 224 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, Japanese | Message 73 of 127 27 April 2009 at 4:53am | IP Logged | ||
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I think a good way to increase vocabulary is by reading a lot.
Or do your plan involve audio-only input? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6136 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 74 of 127 27 April 2009 at 1:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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My plan mostly involves audio-only input for a plethora of reasons. That's the only thing I can really do everyday. I haven't skipped a single day of listening since I started my experiment, and some days, I manage to listen to English for more than 14 hours (that was the case yesterday). I'm currently not interested in reading a lot, but I do try to learn some vocabulary. However, that plan isn't panning out very well :p
I guess that my main worry is pronunciation and fluency as in "talking fast and naturally". It sort of makes sense, since I have several oral exams in a few weeks. Once I took (and hopefully passed!) said exams, I'll still listen to as much English, but may try to do more vocabulary. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6136 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 75 of 127 27 April 2009 at 6:48pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm supposed to do a translation from English to French, but I'm afraid I'll stumble upon too many unknown words. I found myself struggling with basic conversation in French before, and thought it was because I was multitasking like crazy (chatting and listening to podcasts, plus checking the clock quite a few times). I decided I'd take off my earphones and have a little conversation with my dad. It felt a little bit easier, but still quite difficult. There's a mishmash of languages running through my head, and the wrong one always wants to come out. I invent words from time to time, but I suppose that can happen to anyone :p
After 20 minutes, I ended up the conversation, too happy to get back to my American shows. I felt comfortable again with my linguistical environment. I have to fight potential Anglicisms popping in my head harder and harder, even if I still manage to make French win. Thus, my French also sounds a bit choppy to my ears now, which is quite ironical - but it sort of makes sense, since all the expressions I use go through an anti-Anglicisms filter. I guess that exchange students experience the same thing, so my method must be quite powerful. I'm giving it my all, and it seems to pay off. I limit the interactions I have in French to a bare minimum - I never chat to people more than a couple of minutes on MSN, don't call anybody in French, and I'm not as talkative as I used to be. Since Europeans aren't allowed to travel to North America at the moment because of that swine flu thingy newcasters keep on banging on about, I'm as close as I can get to living in the US, and enjoying every minute of it. The good, the bad, and the mishmashy :p Anyway, I guess I should give that translation a go. Can't hurt! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6136 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 76 of 127 27 April 2009 at 9:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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I just finished voice chatting with an American woman who was really nice to me, and pointed out the most obvious pronunciation mistakes that I made. She thought I was American for a couple of minutes, which is the biggest compliment ever :-)
Anyway, better get back to my non-work... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6136 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 77 of 127 28 April 2009 at 2:05am | IP Logged | ||
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I voice chatted with a Brit, and lost my American R, sort of. I think it's quite stupid. I was making lots of progress and got caught up with compulsive voice chatting. I talked to someone from Maine, to top it off lol. Anyway, I guess I'm just a bit stressed out. My oral exams are coming up and I'm just freaking out like there's no tomorrow. Moreover, I had some work to do for my tutor, and didn't get to actually sit still and get something done. It's probably just my tongue getting tired. I also spoke more French today, which may have contributed to the partial loss of my "good" R, but I'm sure it'll come back even better. I sound less and less choppy in English, but more and more choppy in French. I even mispronounced a word and invented a couple more words and expressions on the go. My mom's making a deliberate effort to correct me, but it just sort of makes me flip out more. My English is more fluent, but my pronunciation's getting worse. I guess that's because I'm successfully reinforcing my mistakes. I vow to not speak English until my next lessons with my tutor (Wednesday and Thursday) and to then observe a lenghty period of silence. At most, I shouldn't speak English more than 30 minutes a day, and only with Americans. I'll also avoid British English like the plague. I don't like Doctor Who that much any more anyway. As for French, there's nothing I can do, really. Speaking less would spare me a lot of stress in both languages. My French sounds off, and my English sounds off. I should just get over it and go about my business ;)
Oh and the vocabulary monster is still scaring me from time to time - I should do somethin' about it! I'm about to record some random text in French and play the recording back, just to assess the damages that my immersion experiment may have caused. I'm not so worried about it, since one can't lose one's native language, but just curious. Edit: I just did it, and also had a ball because I took an article with lots of English names in it and read it. I ended up basically mixing up both languages, which sounds hilarious on tape. Apart from the odd massacred U/R/é, I'm pretty much good to go. Then again, it's more of a thing that can happen to me when I'm really tired (right now, it's 2 am) and also when I've been talking in English a lot. My godfather, who's an English teacher (but I never actually get to talk to him more than once a year, so it doesn't really count) told me that temporarily losing one's language is a good sign, and that you should basically enjoy that "ignorance" thing in your native language, because that means you're making lots of progress in English. I did voluntarily stop the English immersion environment today (for 1h or so, no more) and I already feel my pronunciation slipping, so that's how helpful the whole fake trip to the US is. I wonder how much French I can manage to lose and then re-learn in a year. Edited by fairyfountain on 28 April 2009 at 2:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6136 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 78 of 127 28 April 2009 at 2:42pm | IP Logged | ||
I really need new podcasts. I let the Californian radio play all the time, and it's interesting enough, but I need something to keep me busy when I'm on the go - or working, or whatever.
Well, I must admit that's not what I'm doing right now. I'm waiting on my TV shows, and listening to the news isn't really funny, even if it is really easy. I guess I have to look for more challenging material. Podcasts about babies are okay, but not my cup of tea any more. The horoscope podcast is crappy - they just keep on using the same lines for different zodiac signs on given days. Oh well - at least, it taught me the zodiac signs and their pronunciations (kind of). If I'm patient enough, I'll look for awesome podcasts later, but chances are I'll just postpone my googling. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6136 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 79 of 127 28 April 2009 at 7:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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I did the dictionary test, and apparently, I have a passive vocabulary of 21,600 words. It seems like a lot to me, but I only took a sample of 23 pages to do the test. I think that rounding it up to 20K words is fair enough. It's kind of motivating to know how many words you already recognize. That said, my ultimate goal is to understand (and pronounce properly) at least 50K-60K words (including word families). I guess I'm almost halfway through, which isn't too bad.
I also noticed that I have a core vocabulary of about 2K words when I speak/ write in a rush, so since Iversen recognizes around 35,000 words and uses 3.5K words or so in his posts, it all makes sense. Apparently, your active vocabulary X 10 = your passive vocabulary. Edited by fairyfountain on 28 April 2009 at 7:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6136 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 80 of 127 28 April 2009 at 10:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Oh dear, I think my brain's somewhat exhausted. I was speaking to my mom and said "mon goal ultime est" (my ultimate goal is yada yada). "Goal" sounded quite French but was still an English word that came from nowhere, so my mom stared at me like there was no tomorrow. It's understandable enough, as "goal" is a colloquial word for "goalkeeper" in French, and she didn't get where all this was heading to.
I did English softcore today, but it's still taking its toll on my ability to not lose my train of thought in French. Weird. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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