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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 129 of 160 31 August 2009 at 10:34pm | IP Logged |
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Still having problems with motivating myself to do uninteresting work when in my house.
I'm fine when I'm at cafes... 30 min listening. Edited to remove completey irrelevant stalker story. Breakfast-ish meal (11:00): Garlic-herb cheese on garlic ciabatta Lunch-ish (5:00) meal: Buckwheat noodles with soba sauce, rooibos (sadly, pre-bagged) Edited by bouda on 02 September 2009 at 12:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 130 of 160 01 September 2009 at 4:11am | IP Logged |
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1 hr Arabic word lists, about to do my Anki. I didn't get through as many words as I
thought I would; maybe only 30. I guess I must be out of practice doing word lists or something because I usually manage more (and with better retention rate...). The Arabic materials I checked out from the library are due the 17th - gotta remember to renew/return! Today's dinner was warm tabbouleh with naan. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 131 of 160 02 September 2009 at 12:56am | IP Logged |
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Okay, I sort of forgot to check the time on the dot today, but I think I did at least 2
hours of Arabic study, mostly word lists. Still nervous about my class. ETA: The more I think about my class, the more nervous I get! My goals for tomorrow are to speak in somewhat coherent sentences at a somewhat natural speed. That's all. Or, failing that, just to speak. I'll try not to compare myself to other people because that's not helpful. Edited by bouda on 02 September 2009 at 4:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 132 of 160 02 September 2009 at 4:52pm | IP Logged |
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Class starts in an hour - still a little jittery but I think I'll do great. Plus, I'm sure there's SOMEONE in the class (with any luck, not me!) who hasn't studied and has forgotten everything... ;) So I won't feel too bad if I end up taking a while to adjust. The only thing I'm worried about is that I usually ask a LOT of questions - it's just how I learn and think. I hope I don't take up excessive amounts of time!
The first day will probably be something super simple... syllabus, introductions, what you did this summer, that sort of thing. However, it's an hour-long class, I believe, so I'm not sure what we'll do with the time after that. I'm kind of sad it's not longer, though - I have a friend who's taking an hour and a half long class somewhere else! I don't think she'll cover as much ground as we do, as this course traditionally moves quite quickly, but she'll probably get a great foundation, which is really the thing I need to work on the most, seeing as I crammed so much of my knowledge. I did learn two new words this morning... gotta do something every day ;) Edited by bouda on 02 September 2009 at 4:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 133 of 160 03 September 2009 at 2:24am | IP Logged |
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Class was great. I was at my best today in terms of Arabic and just hope I don't wreck
the great impression I made tomorrow! I'll be fine, though, not worried. I had an aha moment with Arabic today - not a big one, and it was really more of the course of the last week but only came to my notice today, but enough to make me happy. Basically, for the last few months, I've been going along all right in Arabic but struggle with thinking in the language. It's not that I have a hard time putting words together, although I'm not anywhere near fluency yet - it's just that it was an extra effort and required attention to think in Arabic, if that makes any sense, so I'd be lazy and not do it. I found myself quite naturally thinking mostly in Arabic today and was pleasantly surprised. Perhaps it has something to do with my mild sleep deprivation because I started to do that thing where you don't really know what you're thinking or what you're thinking about but words and sentences start floating into your head, except in Arabic. I count this as a breakthrough ;). Let's hope I keep it up! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Rhoda Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5604 days ago 166 posts - 196 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, Swahili, Ancient Greek, German | Message 134 of 160 03 September 2009 at 2:41am | IP Logged |
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I'm glad your class was great! What sort of things did you do?
And congrats on the breakthrough! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 135 of 160 03 September 2009 at 4:02am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the support! The class itself was not so exciting as it is only the first
day - I was just happy that I didn't keel over on the floor or anything. We did all the mundane syllabus, introductions, etc stuff. The introductions were interesting because it was immediately apparent that some people had not studied since the spring or had not applied themselves to their studies. There was at least one kid who had just been "studying" in the Middle East for the summer after completing the previous year who was about my level (and I'm probably a low-intermediate, so nothing to boast about here), which surprised me because I guess maybe I romanticize study abroad a little since a lot of people I know come back a lot better than they were before. Also, a lot of students seemed to remember only the most recently learned vocabulary, which is the opposite of my problem, where I remember best the early vocabulary as I've used it so much. It's too early for me to figure out if this is a GREAT class or just a good class or maybe a so-so class, but I'm happy so far - although some kids are a little rusty, it looks like everyone wants to learn and my initial worries about the class starting out too advanced for me seem to be unfounded, so that's good. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 136 of 160 04 September 2009 at 3:07am | IP Logged |
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So basically all the people in my class are apparently super nervous and unwilling to
talk. I have a bit of nervous energy too, which in my case makes me talk too much and too fast, so not a great combo. I'm sure it'll work out soon though. I've noticed a trend on this forum and on others to read Harry Potter in their target language. Now, I'm all for reading things that you want to read and that you are interested in, but this surprises me on several accounts. Personally, when I choose a book to read in my L2, I tend to go for books that can teach me things about the beauty of the language or about the culture. To my mind, a book written in the L2 is preferable to a book translated to the L2, if only because translations in English at least can be at times... badly done, let's say. Moreover, I try to find books that are well-written so that I can learn from the masters, so to speak, and even in English, Harry Potter hardly represents the pinnacle of literary skill. And finally, HP has, well, a lot of obscure words that you don't really need - wands? Magic spells? This isn't a problem if you know the language well and can tell at a glance that you don't NEED this word, but for a beginner - and many of these HP-readers that I see are beginners - it's hard sometimes to know what words you can avoid looking up. I did try Harry Potter long ago in Mandarin and found it unappetizing for these reasons. (I also committed the sin of looking up Hali Puota or whatever it was character by character once or twice, but that's another story). I moved on to other books that I personally was more interested in, including some pillars of contemporary Chinese literature, and found the going much easier and much more beneficial to my Chinese. But perhaps that's just because I don't like Harry Potter very much. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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