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TAC 2011- organizing myself for TAC’12 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 49 of 161 26 January 2011 at 3:05pm | IP Logged |
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Unfortunately no French today -- only work-related stuff
The kids are sick and I'm still trying to prepare for Friday. I've reviewed most of the new Rechtschreibung. I'm pretty good at the new rules for Substantivierung, a little less sure of Kommasetzung. I've never had a problem with ähnlich klingende Wörter wie "wider" und "wieder", so that section was okay. I still need to review Getrennt- und Zusammenschreibung. Tomorrow I plan to review the Inhaltsaufgaben where the student is supposed to umsetzen indirekte Rede ins Präsens. That kind of Aufgabe interests me. I'm not real big on Lyrik/poetische Analyse, however *grübel* I'll have to go over that, as well. There's some terms I need to be familiar with before May, but not before Friday. Edited by Sunja on 26 January 2011 at 3:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 50 of 161 28 January 2011 at 9:08pm | IP Logged |
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From 6:00 this morning to just now I've been on the go. It's really hard to concentrate anymore tonight on French.
I very casually told my boss to try and find someone else to do the Deutsch class. I've been working hard on the Rechtschreibung but there's still so much of the language that I don't know. A student read me a sentence from an Aufgabe where they were supposed to find Fehler/mistakes. She read, "...wohnen im Hessischen." I thought, "in hessichen WAS?" I thought it was supposed to be an adjektive like in hessischen Schulen, oder in hessischen Gegirgen. *sigh* I see my mistake. My boss wasn't at all phased. She still wants me to do it for the next few weeks. So apparantly there's a shortage of tutors and I'm there to fill it -- for now -- So I'm feeling kind of humble right now. Maybe tomorrow something will cheer me up, and I'll keep at it. I had my adult English student this evening, too. He works in a German car manufacturing company with other Europeans where English is the common language of all. He's struggling to do his job in another language. Even though he and I aren't at the same learning levels, I told him tonight that I know how he feels! Edited by Sunja on 28 January 2011 at 9:10pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 51 of 161 29 January 2011 at 4:27pm | IP Logged |
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still trying to adapt. Today was "Tag der offenen Tür" at the franchise where I work. I've borrowed a copy of Krabat and I plan on reading it this week. I wish I could read the French version, but I have neither the time nor the skill.
I'm still piling on the books for Deutsch: Deutsch Aufsatz and 150 Grammatik Übungen. Today I helped my adult student translate a Besprechungsprotokoll (meeting protocol). There were about 20 participants from all over Europe present (per AT&T). The secretary who wrote the protocol has an engineering degree, I was told, but her English was extremely difficult to pick through. Everything was completely formless, written only using keywords and a bad use of the English passive. She kept using the wrong words; "requests" instead of "requirements", for example, and what she didn't know she just made up. This is a great example: bar it o.k. it will be cross checked by ... front door injection plate datas is just coming feasibility issues to be solved by developpment If I didn't love language so much this stuff would be a real headache. I can only imagine the poor people (like my student) who were on the Verteilung (distributions list) and what they must think. This is what English at a global company of 6,000 looks like :) I managed to squeeze in 20 minutes of Assimil. I'm trying to keep up with the previous lessons. I hope I can increase passive listening next week, despite the projected workload. If my writing appears scattered and disorganized it's because I am :p Edited by Sunja on 29 January 2011 at 4:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 52 of 161 05 February 2011 at 5:00pm | IP Logged |
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Complete stress at the moment. I've got a lot of work. The good thing about my job is that it slows down at summer break. Until then I have 15 (!) students that I'm teaching.
The last time I wrote I'd added a German class to my English and so far, tutoring the German class is working out. I'm waiting for them to come to me and say, "you're not qualified, get out", but until that time I'm putting forth a good effort. I've decided to read Krabat along with one of my students, if only for the one reason that it's such an icon of German youth literature. I look forward to it when I have time in the evenings. The student who's reading it has terrible Rechtschreibprobleme and we've put him on "Lernserver" at the moment. I have to catch myself sometimes to make sure I know everything: befiehlt, befahl, hat befohlen. My brief study of Hessisch has come in handy. One student speaks (and writes) in dialect AND he wears a retainer in his mouth. I'm actually pretty happy if I can understand him. I've been able to pinpoint his writing problems pretty well. He's reading Alice im Netz. Anyway. I'm really trying to take the advice that I give to the adult learners and just do 10-15 minutes of vocabulary with morning coffee, BUT with my kids around the breakfast table it's pretty hard. I have to get up at 5:00 if I want peace and quiet. I'd do that of course, but it's not easy since I usually go to bed at 11:00. Actually that's not true. I'm really bad about going to bed. I usually fall asleep on the couch watching "Star Trek" in French until my husband taps me on the shoulder and tells me to call it a night. I've managed to listen to Coffee Break French off and on about half a dozen times. I did want to concentrate on listening since I knew I was going to be busy. The amount of listening is -- well, less than I would want. I spend a lot of time preparing for work (lesson plans), so that's really taking a chunk out of my free time. So it's time to get creative, military style. I'll pick out a few free-time slots during the day and I'll make sure that I keep up with ASsimil. For instance, I need to pick up my kids 15 minutes earlier so I can sit in the car and do my "Activation Time". In-car acoustics are greatly undervalued, IMO. So I have to make time to "sing" Assimil. It's impossible to keep track of my language study (just too much going on right now) and I'm sorry for that. The fact that I don't record anything makes this log worthless, but maybe that will change, too. I'll try to have something to report next time. Edited by Sunja on 05 February 2011 at 5:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 53 of 161 09 February 2011 at 11:51am | IP Logged |
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French:
I just spent an hour conjugating about 10 common verbs in my notebook -- the endings all nice and color-coded. I've chapters 2 and 3 out of Qui joue avec feu. I've also been studying 71,72, 73 of Assimil, but not rigorously. The Activation Phase as slowed down considerably and I'm having to go back and study some chapters 21, 22.... I must've blanked out while I was studying those (it has been over a year since I've looked at them.) I'm reviewing them. For me to translate them from German to French is not possible right now, but I'm practicing. German: I'm terribly busy trying to prepare for all the students that I have. I won't go into it today, even though it has a lot to do with language. It's just too much to record here. German wasn't exactly on my list of things to do this year, but as it turns out, I'm spending a lot of time honing my grammar and translation skills. That may be a good, distant goal for 2012. I've contacted the IHK (Industrie-Handelskammer) on the matter, to find out if I can get some kind of a certification. C2 is too academic. I need something more appropriate for the ARbeitsmarkt. We'll see what they say. It's not a priority at the moment. Edited by Sunja on 09 February 2011 at 3:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 54 of 161 12 February 2011 at 3:17pm | IP Logged |
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I've been working on chapters 72, 73 and listening to all the lessons on CD 3.
I've been reading chapter 3 of Qui joue avec le feu, but it's slow-going. I was getting my hair cut, and I was concentrating so hard on French that I started to get tired. The book is exactly what I need but I should spend more time with it. No activation work over the past few days. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 55 of 161 15 February 2011 at 3:57pm | IP Logged |
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I have to go to work in a few minutes so just real quick...
The Activation Phase isn't working out as Assimil says it should. I'm almost running a parallel course with chapters 72, 73.. Reread and review lessons 20.... So when it says Activez la leçon 2- at the end of the chapter, I'm having to go back and relearn it. The only thing that makes sense is some of the grammar -- but expressions like "soit...soit" I would have no way of remembering after such a long break from those chapters. I'm concentrating on staying in the zone, and just picking up the book or the CD whenever I have a few minutes time. Activation will have to come later. Sometimes I think I should concentrate on translating mundane thoughts like, "I'll go to the mailbox now" or "I'm getting out of bed because it's 6:00" or something, but those aren't exactly the thoughts I have when it's actually 6:00 am-- well, I'll work on it. I've been using the Scriptorium technique and tomorrow I'll be stuck outside. My car's going in the shop. There's a forest nearby, and if it's not terribly yucky weather I'd like to go do some shadowing/walking. I wish I didn't have to lug the CDs around (they won't download, either). If I ever graduate from the first Assimil book, I'm getting the MP3 version. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6085 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 56 of 161 16 February 2011 at 9:51pm | IP Logged |
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It was indeed too cold and yucky to go into the forest today. At another point during the day I stopped for a quick coffee and.. I didn't have my French stuff with me-- I was really bummed about that -- I don't usually stop for coffee anywhere. I just hat some time between errands and wanted to grab a bite. I had my Spanish book with me, though.
German cultural stuff: Nobody but me would pay attention to the gibberish spoken around me but there were a few locals who spoke in Hessisch and I found myself trying to eavesdrop on their conversation. I could catch quite a bit, but then it started to drawl off into who-knows-what. Side note: I've discovered that "Wie denn" is not Hessisch but Umgangsprache. (I asked.) I was doing substitute group tutoring tonight and their was a young man (learning English) and I had to correct his German because he'd used dialect to write something. We'd developed a pretty good rapport within the hour so it was okay and I ended up telling him (and the whole group was present) I thought Platt was cool. He explained that the teachers don't let them speak dialect at all -- which is understandable coming from a school. I don't think the students realize how interesting it is for some foreigners like myself to hear spoken dialect. It changes from Dorf to Dorf. I had him speak it just because I wanted to hear it. Then we had to get back to doing homework. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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