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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6136 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes  5 sounds | Message 57 of 127 21 April 2009 at 5:45pm | IP Logged |
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- Edited by fairyfountain on 01 May 2009 at 12:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6136 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 58 of 127 23 April 2009 at 5:56pm | IP Logged |
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Tomorrow, I'll hit the 200-hour (American English) milestone - I'm so excited!
Today, I met my tutor and talked to her extensively in English - even if my R isn't what you could call perfect, it's looking (sounding!) pretty damn good now. Moreover, most words were just rolling off my tongue, including the flowery ones. I had a weird experience last night. It happened the day before yesterday too, but I just didn't take much notice of that event. Basically, the clock read 4:45 a.m. and I was still awake, having spent a podcast-downloading night because my insomnia was bothering me. At around 5 a.m., I was completely frazzled and took the earphones off to go to sleep. Everything went swimmingly and I believe I was sleeping, until I woke up thinking I hadn't switched the mp3 player off, because I could hear a clear conversation between two Americans that sounded pretty much like what I had been listening to. It's the second time that happens, and I woke up completely wired because I was afraid the battery would die, but I groped for the device and found it, neatly put away under my pillow. Apparently, the "podcast" I was hearing was the recollection of the last podcast I played, but it fooled me! My mind was just playing tricks with me and the sound was in my head, but sounded native. That tells a lot about this method and its effectiveness. I'm now pretty sure I can achieve a native-sounding accent, since I'm memorizing the sounds of English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6136 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 59 of 127 24 April 2009 at 12:48am | IP Logged |
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This is me staying up too late for the umpteenth time :p
Anyway, I made some awesome flashcards and carried on sentence-picking. Set phrases are so handy, because you don't even have to think hard to find your words, since you're learning sentences by heart. My pronunciation is improving by the hour, it's quite scary. It looks like I've pressed the right button. I found the "magical" switch that works with me. Edited by fairyfountain on 24 April 2009 at 1:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6136 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 60 of 127 24 April 2009 at 1:02pm | IP Logged |
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I feel down in the dumps, because I'm getting tired of looking for the pronunciation of each and every word I learn. Sometimes, it feels like becoming fluent in English is impossible, but I don't want to think like that. In 3 hours, I'll have hit the 200-hour (American English) milestone. That should cheer me up!
Moreover, I did the math and 14% of what I listen to is British. Now, it all depends on what I want to do with my English, but the heart of the matter is that every second wasted cannot be made up for. 14% amounts to 1,400 hours over 4 years. Of course, I shouldn't shun British English completely, but 7 hours a week may be too much. If I bought more DVDs, it'd probably solve my problems. More $$$ would also be better :p And each cloud has a silver lining, too. Even if I don't feel that good right now, I recorded myself yesterday, and some of my Rs and words sounded perfect. Of course, it was 3 am so overall I sounded sloppy, but that's understandable. I think that speaking English made me feel ecstatic yesterday, but that I know sort of expect to keep on chatting to people everyday - the fact that I can't do that saddens me for obvious reasons, since I've always loved speaking English, even when I was barely understandable. It's almost like a mourning process - listening to English stuff all day and not being able to speak yourself is a bit ironical. Oh well, I'll have to suck it up until I get better. Apparently, one gets into the habit of doing something after 31 days. 10 days to go until flashcards and listening to English is second nature to me! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6136 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 61 of 127 24 April 2009 at 6:34pm | IP Logged |
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My hay fever caught up with me, and I just don't feel like working, but my listening challenge is still going incredibly well. I entered a voice chat room but resisted the urge to start babbling about anything in English. I'm still in the process of healing my mistakes, and it will take a long time. Silence is golden, as they say!
I'm building a good podcast library, and it's a great thing, because I'm not in the mood for mindless googling. I'm toying with the idea of dropping the words-only flashcards. Phrases seem like a better idea. That said, there's still that stupid pronunciation problem that's been hampering my progression. Learning phrases only would mean browsing the internet several hours a day to download the audio files for all the words that are in the phrases. That's what I call tedious work. Now, it's a matter of balance - I have to set my priorities. Getting rid of the fun stuff and doing grueling activities instead may not seem like the smartest decision ever, but it does pay off on the long run. Right now, it's as if something were missing if I'm not listening to something in English all the time. Before, I felt like my mp3 player was sometimes a boulder I had to carry all day. Now, it even puts me to sleep and sort of cures my insomnia! It's just a matter of getting into a habit, so I know I can do it - I just need lots of willpower :p 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6136 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 62 of 127 25 April 2009 at 3:17pm | IP Logged |
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I didn't abide by my own rules and I'm darn happy that I didn't.
Yesterday, I had the longest voice chat ever, and words were just rolling off my tongue. Of course, it's not like I'm *that* good yet, but I did improve a lot. Any word with an R in it seems to be easier and easier to pronounce. I called an American lady who asked me "Are you French?" and then talked to her daughter who was also having doubts about my nationality. She then said that I sounded "almost American". I suppose I'm pretty darn close to reaching my goal. I also called other people - another Brit thought that I was American, and blatantly said he couldn't have guessed I weren't native. Basically, I pretty much got that part down, since it happened quite a lot lately, but fooling any native is another thing. I'm not ready to sing kumbaya yet, because I still have lots of things to learn, and oftentimes you just get stuck at whatever level and you won't make any progress. Most of the time, when you get out of a plateau stage, you feel like a million dollars and then the stalling thingy comes back. I feel like my English still sounds somewhat choppy, but I guess I'll improve over time. Now the vocabulary part just has got to follow suit. That seems to be the hardest part, stupidly enough! Oh well, I'll pay a daily visit to the audio dictionary and the vocabulary book, make some flashcards and it should get better. Starting this immersion challenge was the best decision I've ever made, and a life-changing one, to boot! Edited by fairyfountain on 25 April 2009 at 6:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6136 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 63 of 127 25 April 2009 at 6:56pm | IP Logged |
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My vocabulary challenge isn't going so well, but I'm still sentence-picking. My listening comprehension's soaring, which is a great thing - I still don't understand 99.9% of what I hear, but I'm now sure I'll be perfectly bilingual one day, I have enough evidence to back up my theory.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Satoshi Diglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5831 days ago 215 posts - 224 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: German, Japanese | Message 64 of 127 25 April 2009 at 8:08pm | IP Logged |
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Wow, you seem to be doing something right, yeah!
Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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