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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 145 of 160 09 September 2009 at 3:46am | IP Logged |
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Not really a personal high today in terms of Arabic but after a momentary upset I got
over myself. Completely unrelated, but I went to an used bookstore and got two f&f Ted Hughes, one architecture textbook, and one art history textbook, all like new for $30!! Pretty good deal if you ask me. Now too bad there weren't any Arabic materials! Mandarin - after long thought, I've decided to set my ambitions high and hope to place in essentially the fifth level of Chinese or maybe the heritage track fourth level offered at my university. I don't think this will be a huge problem in terms of my fluency or maybe my reading abilities (which are a little more tarnished, but still all right) - there is some vocabulary I don't know yet, of course, but not a huge problem - however, I have forgotten how to write nearly all my characters!!! I'll have to start studying soon in earnest. My plan is to study every character in the level three textbook and decide where to go from there. I really hope this works out well for me. I know of at least one fluent heritage speaker who was forced into level ONE because although she spoke like a native, she simply couldn't read or write. I don't want the second person in that situation I know to be me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Woodpecker Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5815 days ago 351 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian) Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 146 of 160 09 September 2009 at 3:13pm | IP Logged |
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Don't worry, I won't turn you in.
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| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 147 of 160 09 September 2009 at 4:47pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks, man. I forgot to mention in my message the other main thing I'm not too excited about for this course - it's an "intermediate" course but we only meet 50 minutes at a time, five times a week!! Contrast against a friend at George Washington who is doing 1.5 hours at a time four times a week (I believe), a friend at Columbia who did 2 hours 3 times a week - personally, I'm a fan of more hours and more intensity, but maybe that's just me. I'm happy that we meet five days a week because it's important to do a little Arabic every day, but I feel like we never get enough done. I think the advanced classes might have even less time but I haven't checked (seems to be generally true, though).
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| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 148 of 160 12 September 2009 at 10:19pm | IP Logged |
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I have no internet.
We are on schedule in Arabic class but it feels like we're behind. But oh, at long last, we are starting the new book... thank god. I must say that I have never been as familiar with verb forms as I am now, but I am just so excited to move on! Mandarin: have yet to organize my materials. I made a mistake in my last post: I am not aiming for fifth level and MAYBE fourth; I'm aiming for fourth level and MAYBE fifth! But I have heard horrible things about the regular fourth level track, so I'm hoping to get into the heritage/accelerated fourth level track... yeah. That's all. I have procured the third level regular track textbook (which I have heard is better than the accelerated track) but have not yet cracked the spine. Oh dear. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 149 of 160 17 September 2009 at 9:46pm | IP Logged |
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Well! This week has been awfully busy. I meant to start looking for a job / volunteer
work but I haven't even had time for that. So this update will be very short indeed, mostly just demonstrating that I'm still alive. Class is slow. Students are great. Chinese work is nonexistent but I'm going to start this weekend, dammit. I bought an (inexpensive) jar of caviar and was surprised to find the box recommending me to try the darn eggs in a PIE. I have been reading about a book a day in English and probably will switch to Chinese early next week. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 150 of 160 03 October 2009 at 10:33pm | IP Logged |
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I thought I'd give a little update on how I'm doing.
In terms of Arabic, things are going slowly but steadily. I'm currently taking an Arabic class at my college, so I'm doing something with MSA every day. However, because it is a class during the school year, it goes soooooo darn slow! I don't really feel the need to speed up right now, though - it's a little frustrating, but honestly, I have other things to work on besides Arabic, so if I can learn what I'm learning right now well, that's enough for me. Chinese is a bit of a mess right now. I do get frequent conversational practice with multiple people, and I do my share of reading, but I'm not working on the one thing I really NEED to work on: character writing! I took an actually pretty well-paced Chinese course last year that unfortunately focused solely on reading (novels, short stories, poems) and involved only the occasional essay, which I typed on the computer, so now my character writing skills are, um, totally pathetic. I have, however, gotten ahold of the materials for (non-heritage) levels 1 through 3 at my university, so I'm going to just go right through the indexes and memorize every character... yeah. We'll see how fast that goes! Which now reminds me - my Classical Chinese study fell off this week, so I have to put some time in tomorrow. Not a big deal. In terms of personal life, mental health-wise, I'm actually doing really great on most fronts. My one complaint is that I'm starting to lose motivation/interest in things in general - not like when you're burned out from doing math and don't want to touch your calculator anymore, more like the general malaise that often heralds depression. I'm not too worried though because I pretty much feel fine, just disinclined to do things like update my log or work on personal projects or exercise. But I feel like I'm starting to get a second wind or something, and I sure am reading more books than I have in the last four years (about a book a day right now in English), so it's probably not going to be a huge problem... Yeah.. that's about it for now. Peace, y'all. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 151 of 160 04 October 2009 at 4:36am | IP Logged |
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Staying with my old baggage on this ole page is getting on my nerves - up to page 20 for
my mental wellbeing!!!! Edited by bouda on 04 October 2009 at 4:38am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| bouda Senior Member United States Joined 5601 days ago 194 posts - 197 votes Speaks: English* | Message 152 of 160 04 October 2009 at 4:37am | IP Logged |
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I just want a new page and a new start!
1 person has voted this message useful |
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