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TAC 2011 Team ع - Préposition [AR - RU] | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Préposition Diglot Senior Member France aspectualpairs.wordp Joined 5114 days ago 186 posts - 283 votes  Speaks: French*, EnglishC1 Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Arabic (Levantine) | Message 1 of 55 28 December 2010 at 12:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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INTRODUCTION
I'm Préposition, I study Russian and Arabic at university and I decided to join the TAC for 2011 to boost my language learning! I will be focusing on Russian and Arabic, but I hope to study Italian, Hebrew and Swedish on the side, for my own pleasure. I had a bit of a crap year last year, and decided I had enough of being mediocre at what I liked, so hopefully the TAC was just what I needed to help me own my degree! You will soon see that I am a stationery and books geek, and I love to collect both, so I end up with far too much material (although, can one really have too much material?). I also have a Christmas owl, Professor Archie Owl, and he will accompany me on my language learning adventure, and will hopefully make this log a bit more enjoyable! 
In this log, as well as on my blog, I will detail my studies, and post details, extracts, etc. I will start with my aims, my resources and my methods, and will hopefully start in January. I may not post regularly for I will be going to Russia in February as a part of my year abroad :) I- AIMS ARABIC: # A2/B1 -> C1 # + 7500 words # Finish grammar* #Being able to translate from English into Arabic and from Arabic into English RUSSIAN: # B1 -> C1 # + 7500 words # Finish grammar* # Being able to translate from English into Russian and from Russian into English ITALIAN: # A1 -> B1/B2 # + 2000 words # Finish grammar* SWEDISH: # A0 -> A2/B1 # + 2000 words HEBREW: # A0 -> A2/B1 # + 2000 words I will list the material and methods used in the next few posts, but in the meanwhile, thanks for putting up with me, and good luck in your language learning! Préposition (and Charlie) Edited by Préposition on 07 January 2011 at 1:50am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Préposition Diglot Senior Member France aspectualpairs.wordp Joined 5114 days ago 186 posts - 283 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC1 Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Arabic (Levantine) | Message 2 of 55 28 December 2010 at 5:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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II- RESOURCES
Material used: Regarding books, I have an extensive collection of PDF files, and if there's any that interest you, please feel free to PM me with your details and the name of the books, I'll be glad to share my stuff! I have a wealth of resources accessible, I probably won't use all of them (or maybe not regularly), but I like to have various books and podcasts available if needed. I'll probably edit this post is I find more resources (especially for Hebrew and Swedish). Softwares Mac and iPod apps: Softwares Mac: - ProVoc (flashcards, SRS and vocabulary test) - Audacity (recordings) - iTunes (podcasts) iPod Touch apps: - Flashcards + (free + uses Quizlet, so extensive flashcards database available for free) Podcasts: Arabic: - Arabic - Arabic Language Pod - Arabic Webcast Russian: - A Taste of Russian - A Spoonful of Russian - Speaking Russian - One Minute Russian - Learn Russian Italian: - Harry Potter Italian Podcast - Inside Italian - Italy From the Inside - Learn Italian Pod - Let's Speak Italian! - Maxmondo Incontro Italiano - My Daily Phrase Italian - One Minute Italian - Radio Arlecchino: Italian Grammar and Culture Podcasts Swedish: - SBS Swedish - One Minute Swedish - Learning Swedish Hebrew: - Hebrew Survival Phrases - Hebrew Podcasts - Learn Hebrew Pod - Zac's Hebrew Reading Books: Arabic: - Al-Kitaab 1, 2 and 3 [BOOK][PDF] - Arabic Verbs and Essential Grammar [BOOK][PDF] - Arabic-English Thematic Lexicon [PDF] - Hans Wehr dictionary [BOOK][PDF] - A Reference Grammar or Modern Standard Arabic [BOOK][PDF] - Media Arabic – An Essential Vocabulary [PDF] - Vocabulearn Arabic [AUDIO] - Bennett and Bloom’s Arabic Dictionary [BOOK] - Dictionnaire Arabe Larousse [BOOK] - 501 Arabic Verbs [BOOK] - Arabe Grammaire Active [BOOK] Russian: - Pimsleur Russian I, II and III (for revision and conversational Russian) [AUDIO] - Michel Thomas Russian course (same as above) [AUDIO] - A Comprehensive Russian Grammar [BOOK][PDF] - A Russian Grammar Workbook [BOOK] - Colloquial Russian 1 & 2 [PDF] - Intermediate Russian Grammar and Workbook [PDF] - Manuel de Russe INaLCO [PDF] - Oxford Russian Grammar and Verbs [PDF] - Russian Verbs of Motion [PDF] - Schaum’s Outline of Russian Grammar [BOOK][PDF] - The Big Silver Book of Russian Verbs [BOOK][PDF] - The Case Book for Russian [PDF] - Using Russian Vocabulary [PDF] - Using Russian – A Guide to Contemporary Usage [PDF] - Russian in Exercices [BOOK][PDF] - Verbs of Motion in Russian [BOOK] - Russian Motion Verbs for Intermediate Students [BOOK] - In Which Case?.. – 175 exercices in cases for learners of Russian [BOOK] - Oxford Russian-English and English-Russian dictionary [BOOK] - Skazat’ – Lexique Thématique Russe [BOOK] - Как I and II [BOOK] - Russe Grammaticalement Correct ! [BOOK] Italian: - Colloquial Italian 1 and 2 [PDF] - Modern Italian Grammar and its Workbook [PDF] - Routledge Intensive Italian Grammar Workbook [PDF] - Schaum’s Outline of Italian Grammar [PDF] - Using Italian [PDF] - A Basic Italian Grammar and its Workbook [PDF] - Grammaire Italienne [BOOK] - Michel Thomas Complete Italian Course [AUDIO] - Pimsleur Italian I, II, III [AUDIO] - Drivetime Italian [AUDIO] - Learn in Your Car Italian [AUDIO] - Vocabulaire de l’Italien Moderne [BOOK] - Bescherelle – Les verbes italiens [BOOK] - Larousse – Dictionnaire compact italien [BOOK] - Fiches Bac Italien [BOOK] Swedish: - Hugo Swedish course [BOOK] - Colloquial Swedish [PDF] - Swedish – An Essential Grammar [PDF] Hebrew: - Colloquial Hebrew [PDF] - Modern Hebrew – An Essential Grammar [PDF] Edited by Préposition on 28 December 2010 at 7:25pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Préposition Diglot Senior Member France aspectualpairs.wordp Joined 5114 days ago 186 posts - 283 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC1 Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Arabic (Levantine) | Message 3 of 55 28 December 2010 at 7:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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III - LANGUAGE-LEARNING METHODS
Productivity and Time Management For my greatest displeasure, I procrastinate far too much, and I waste a lot of time of tiny, insignificant things. I need to get rid of this bad habit of pretending I can do everything later and start working for real! I use "The Study Skills Handbook" and "Skills for Success" (Palgrave Macmillan) to give me some ideas on how to work, how to break the habits and what skills I should try to develop. They may not be that helpful for language learning, but as a university student, and given that I also study other subjects such as literature or politics, it's particularly helpful. On the other hand, I am great at organising my life. Being a stationery lover makes it easier, as I always have a notebook or a file for something, and I do (sadly) love classifying pretty much anything that can be classified (that includes books, computer files, etc). I can manage my time easily as well, but procrastination is the main reason why I don't follow my timetables, so if I can improve on this, I should be ok with deadlines! I like the website Study Guides and Strategies, not only because it's useful, but also because they've translated it in tonnes of foreign languages. Motivation Because procrastination wasn't enough, I am also very anxious, about everything (so anxious, in fact, that when I went to the stationary section of my bookshop yesterday, my heart was pounding and I had troubles breathing, simply because I knew I had to make a choice, and I hate choosing, especially regarding stationery!). I generally deal with it pretty well, but it took its toll last year, and my learning didn't go very well. Luckily, I'm also generally optimistic and I believe that if a day is crap, the next one can only get better, and that I can do anything I possibly want if I want it badly enough :). This post is absolutely brilliant, and some of the suggestions (particularly Teango's, I must say) seem really appealing. I will be trying some of them, but my ultimate goals would be to graduate with a good 2:1 (that'd be above 65% for me), and especially get a distinction in my languages (awarded if you get 70%+ in your oral exam). I've only got my half year abroad left, and a year of serious university studies left, so you can be sure I'll be doing my best! Vocabulary and Grammar Learning I have read several threads on these forums with great suggestions, and I will love to try the Shadowing and Scriptorium methods as well as the Spiral method. For vocabulary learning, I really want to try Huliganov's Gold List method, and I will also attempt to make it work while using SRS and flashcards (thanks to my iPod, I should be free of ever having to carry paper flashcards anywhere!) I am sure I will find plenty more ideas, and I will definitely try them out. Conversation Improvement Regarding Arabic, I am not too bothered, because it's pretty difficult to hold a conversation in Modern Standard Arabic. I may try to contact my old fusHa teacher back in Damascus if I have a bit of time, but in general, speaking like a book is just fine for MSA (and my university), so I'll stick to that. For Russian, I'm lucky enough to be able to go to St Petersburg for 4 months in February, so I will definitely be making the most of it. I should be living with a Russian granny (or babushka), and I will hopefully be able to discuss with her at times, else I shall find myself some Russian friends! I have friends that are native of Swedish and Italian, so I will "use" them to improve my accent and pronounciation, and regarding Hebrew, I must admit I'm not too bothered with my accent at the moment! Edited by Préposition on 28 December 2010 at 8:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5334 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 4 of 55 28 December 2010 at 7:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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You were not kidding when you said that you had a lot of resources available! I will definitely get back to you on that, I am lusting for some of those PDF files. In the mean time, good luck on your endeavour, and I will definitely keep an eye on your log as well!
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| Meelämmchen Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5083 days ago 214 posts - 249 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 5 of 55 29 December 2010 at 9:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Wow, impressive goals!! 21.000 new words in five languages. Almost 60 new words every day. I aimed naive-like for only 6 new words per day... I'm now feeling motivated to beat my tiny 6 wpd. Thanks for that! And good luck with your goals!
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| Préposition Diglot Senior Member France aspectualpairs.wordp Joined 5114 days ago 186 posts - 283 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC1 Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Arabic (Levantine) | Message 6 of 55 29 December 2010 at 10:33pm | IP Logged | ||
Hah, there will obviously be a bit of cheating! Italian words are so similar to French I need to do very little efforts to remember them, and passive learning will be far more important than active learning I suspect! Hebrew does share a lot with Arabic, in terms of grammar as well as vocab, so I except to know or recognise some words from Arabic and that will ease the thing! For Swedish on the other hand, apart from English, there isn't much linked to it, haha. Regarding Arabic and Russian, a lot of vocab (well…) emanates from European languages influences, so if they're not entirely new, I should be able to recognise some. The fact that I can get my flashcards on my iPod means I can literally practice whenever I want, and right now, I have two months of absolute nothingness to do, so that a good 10h/day I could dedicate entirely to language learning! Being a language student definitely eases the thing! Finally, I'll be spending 4 months in St Petersburg, so my Russian vocabulary will hopefully improve as much as my Arabic, as when I spent 4 months in Syria (from September to December), I managed to learn around 2000 words, and those were just from lessons, so I could definitely increase that number! Plus I thought I'd set myself high targets so if I miss them, I will still have learned a great deal :) Anyway, I'll keep an eye on your progress, and good luck to you too! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Quabazaa Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5609 days ago 414 posts - 543 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Japanese, Korean, Maori, Scottish Gaelic, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written) | Message 7 of 55 29 December 2010 at 11:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hahaha omg that owl is too cute! Or should I say حلو :)
Anyway sounds like you are going to have an amazing year, I am a bit jealous of your study abroad ;) Looking forward to following your adventures! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Meelämmchen Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5083 days ago 214 posts - 249 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 8 of 55 30 December 2010 at 1:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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Nevertheless impressive! By the way, I am lusting for the Hebrew pdfs as well and may come back to you on that, too.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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