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Emme’s Small Steps - Team Sleipnir TAC’15 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5332 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 265 of 360 01 January 2014 at 4:29pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I use the French version "Le Russe" from 2008 by Victoria Melnikova Suchet and the dialogue is different - we'll just have to go for moral support then :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5345 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 266 of 360 01 January 2014 at 5:56pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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TAC 2014
Team Asgard Team Катюша Team Lobo Team Advanced ESL As you can see from the links above, 2014 is going to be quite busy for me as far as learning languages is concerned because I’d like to focus on four languages. I know myself well enough to doubt about my discipline and determination over the next twelve months, so I have decided to make the most of the new TAC rule which makes it possible to switch from “active” learner to “observer” in case of need. I loved the TAC in 2013, especially the constant encouragement that my teammates offered during the year, and I’m really pleased to say that most of my fellow Vikings and MIR companions will be on the new Scandinavian and Russian teams so that we’ll be able to continue our adventure together. But being on four teams also means that I will have plenty of opportunities to get to know many more forum members with whom I haven’t had many chances to interact because our paths on the forum rarely met. I’m looking forward to sharing our language-learning journey and I hope we’ll have a lot of fun on the way. This post is already long enough, so it will only deal with my target languages for 2014. If any of my new teammates is interested in a more detailed personal introduction (but I can’t see how someone might be interested — I’m a really boring person) here’s the link to what I wrote last year (post nr 71). Very little has changed since then, so is should still be up-to-date enough. Spanish The big news this year is that I’m going to learn some Spanish. I’m starting at A0 (though I could fake a CEFR A2+ level in a placement test a couple of years ago, thanks to my Italian and a background in linguistics) because I’ve never studied it and I’ve only dabbled in it for just a few hours spread over several years. The goal for 2014 is to study the entire Assimil’s Il nuovo spagnolo senza sforzo by Francisco Javier Antón Martinez. I hope I’ll be able to keep a regular pace and study one lesson a day as you’re supposed to do, but I don’t want to stress too much about it. Previous experiences with Assimil have taught me that there always comes a time when maintaining Assimil daily routine is not going to be feasible. That’s why I’ve budgeted plenty of time for Assimil and plan to devote the entire year to a course which should probably take just about six months to complete. Moreover, if time and enthusiasm allow, I may use a couple of other courses alongside Assimil and if possible delve into native materials fairly soon. Swedish The main purpose for 2014 as far as Swedish is concerned is not to rock the boat. Last year I finally found a good balance between textbook studying and immersion in native media. My aim is to keep my learning on an even keel and continue this very pleasant and productive cruise. Russian After the semi-failure in Russian last year, I’ve come to terms with the fact that Russian is not the kind of language you can rush through, especially if you can’t dedicate your entire waking life to that purpose and want to keep it as a hobby. I’m not foreseeing incredible results for 2014. I plan to keep plugging away at it slowly but steadily. As I wrote before, I need to proceed in small doses in order to let the language grow little by little. That’s why I intend to use different courses: By rotating between them I should meet the same kind of structures and vocabulary, which usually recur in all textbooks, over and over again. Hopefully sooner or later they will stick. English After several years, I’ll go back to studying English. In the beginning, at least until I see how it goes, rather than aiming for huge improvements (I’m not sure what I can achieve on my own at this level) my main goal will be to prevent the language from deteriorating further. I’ll try to brush up on all those collocations and grammar details that I keep forgetting, work on acquiring new vocabulary (though finding new words to learn is becoming harder and harder unless I start looking up really unusual words) and I’ll spend some time working on my pronunciation. I’m not interested in achieving a native-like accent (I don’t think it’s either possible nor desirable) but I can certainly clean it up a bit and stop a few sloppy habits that I’ve picked up in the last few years. I also plan to read extensively: provisionally I aim for at least 12 books (one a month), but I’m looking forward to finding out the new dispositions for the Super Challenge. If the requirements this time are sensible enough, I might take up the challenge in English. The good news about English is that since my university days my local library has acquired a few advanced courses (previously they only offered textbooks up to intermediate/upper-intermediate), so I won’t need to spend much money at least until I have a clearer picture of how I’m going to structure my studying. German & French German and French, though in very different ways, are two languages I’ve studied in the past. I’ve decided that in 2014 they won't be among the core languages for TAC (I think I’ve already far too much on my plate as it is without these two). That doesn’t mean I won’t do anything with them for the entire year, just that I haven’t planned anything yet. For German I have the vague idea to continue my failed mini-SuperChallenge at least until the new Super Challenge gets underway in May, when I may decide to enter it with German as well as English. It all depends on the new rules. Other Languages I’m always open to the idea of trying out new languages. Though I’d prefer to limit these language excursions, I know that when temptation strikes there’s no point resisting. So should this log suddenly start chronicling my learning Finnish or Japanese or whatever, don’t be surprised. General There are a couple of other things I’d love to achieve this year. First of all, I want to lose less time on this forum. As anyone of you who’s spent some time here knows perfectly well, HTLAL can be a real time-drain. So I hope to curtail it this year. Secondly, in another attempt to become more efficient and productive, I hope to use the Pomodoro technique more consistently (I know, I say that every time, and then I always stop using it, even when I see the results!) so that I’ll be able to make the most of the relatively little time I can dedicate to language learning. Moreover, I intend to see if setting SMART goals (as in Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Based) is really helpful to attain my objectives. I’m kind of allergic to making and sticking to plans (especially for things like languages which are after all just hobbies nowadays), so I may give up on the whole thing quite quickly, but I’m curious to find out if I could work with weekly or monthly targets to reach. Finally, keeping track of the time spent studying intensively (ie. no Anki, no podcasts, no shadowing, no extensive reading, no TV-watching etc., but only serious textbook studying) worked pretty well for me last year, so I intend to record those numbers for TAC 2014 too. Edited by Emme on 05 January 2014 at 11:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5345 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 267 of 360 08 January 2014 at 9:04pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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The TAC has started fairly well, apart from the fact that I haven’t yet set any S.M.A.R.T. goal for January, which I should do (and will do in the next few days, I hope).
The January challenge in three out of four of my teams asked for a self-introduction. I posted them in the relative team threads, but just to have a reminder of my level at the moment, I’ll re-post them here as well. Swedish Hej allihop! Jag heter M***, men jag kallas Emme här på forumet. Jag är italienska och bor i norra Italien. Jag gillar språk. Jag har lärt mig lite svenska genom åren och planerar att lära mig mer i år. Jag har aldrig gått på kursen och tyvärr kan jag fortforande inte prata flytande svenska. Den första januari började jag läsa ett nytt språk: spanska. Kanske blir det lättare att behärska för mej, som redan talar italienska som modersmål. Spanish ¡Hola! Me llamo Emme. Soy Italiana y vivo en el norte de Italia. Estudié lenguas y literatura en la Universidad. Los idiomas son mi hobby: hablo inglés, aleman y un poco de francés y de sueco. Estoy aprendiendo español desde hace una semana. Todavía no hablo español, pero lo entiendo bastante bien porque es un idioma similar al Italiano. En mi tiempo libre me gusta la lectura y el cine. Russian Здравствуйте! Меня зовут Эмме. Я итальянка. Я люблю иностранные языки. Я изучаю русский язык уже один год. Я не говорю по-русски но я немного понимаю. Я люблю литературу и классическую музыку. Мне нравятся русские композиторы: Му́соргский (Картинки с выставки), Римский-Корсаков (Шехерезада), и Шостакович (Вальс 2). The most depressing aspect of the January challenges was that I felt it was easier for me to try and come up with something in Spanish after just one week of Assimil than writing a few sentences in Russian which I’ve been learning on and off for fourteen months now. I now you can’t compare the two languages as one is pretty transparent for an Italian speaker whereas the other has very few cognates, but still … PS. Corrections from native speakers (well, actually form advanced learners as well) are always more than welcome in my log! Thank you in advance to those who’ll help! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4663 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 268 of 360 09 January 2014 at 1:13pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Here are some suggestions. I've been very fussy as otherwise you're just too good and I'd have nothing to do!
Either lose "about" or go for something like "to have doubts about my discipline and ...". I prefer the former here.
"nr" looks odd in English (to me, but maybe I'm hypersensitive to Italian creeping into English?) "post number 71", "post #71", "post 71" or, ata stretch, "post no. 71".
"I don't forsee". Additionally, it shouldn't be a capital B after the colon but I assume that was just a plain typo. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| AlOlaf Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5146 days ago 491 posts - 617 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Danish | Message 269 of 360 09 January 2014 at 4:11pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I think it's worth noting that the rules regarding capitalization after a colon differ between British and American English. Here's an excerpt from a Wikipedia article: "Use of capitals-case after a colon varies. In British English, the word following the colon is in lower case unless it is a proper noun or an acronym, or is normally capitalized for some other reason (e.g. see segmental use hereinbefore). However, in American English, many writers capitalize the word following a colon if it begins an independent clause, i.e. a clause that could stand as a complete sentence. This follows the guidelines of some modern American style guides, including those published by the Associated Press and the Modern Language Association. The Chicago Manual of Style, however, requires capitalization only when the colon introduces a direct quotation or two or more complete sentences." 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4686 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 270 of 360 09 January 2014 at 4:53pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Using nr to abbreviate number is fine to me, and something I would do. And every
dictionary I have says that "foresee" is correct and "forsee" is not. Saying "I don't foresee" rather than "I'm not foreseeing" is probably better prose, but the latter is more what I would say in colloquial speech, so that could be a UK/US preference thing. I use a lot of progressive tenses in my speech. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5345 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 271 of 360 09 January 2014 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Thank you, dampingwire, AlOlaf, and geoffw!
With you here it’s like having my personal editors looking over my shoulder to catch my mistakes. That’s great!
Funny, because when I see “nr” in Italian I always think it’s an Anglicism. Anyway, the biggest problem seems to be that right now my English is in a rather fluid state, where it’s neither very British (the variety I was taught at school and University) nor really American (which I've picked up through exposure). I’m halfway between the two varieties but I’m probably mixing them up too much for my idiosyncratic results to still be considered correct English. That’s good to know, because that gives me something concrete that I can work on in the coming months. Please, don't worry about being fastidious or even ruthless with your criticism! I’m thick-skinned and constructive criticism is exactly what I need if I want to improve. EDIT: typos. Edited by Emme on 09 January 2014 at 5:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4686 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 272 of 360 09 January 2014 at 5:33pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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It's admirable to always be working to improve. As far as written English goes, if you
can correctly use the word fastidious in a sentence like that, assuming it wasn't just a lucky choice from a dictionary, you're likely approaching that weird stage where people can identify you as a foreign learner of English by the fact that your prose is too textbook correct to be natural. ;-) 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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