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Magdalene’s TAC ’11: Team Ł

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44 messages over 6 pages: 13 4 5 6  Next >>
Magdalene
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5036 days ago

119 posts - 220 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Mandarin, German, Modern Hebrew, French

 
 Message 9 of 44
28 February 2011 at 11:11am | IP Logged 
Gad, took me forever to get that formatted correctly...and those question-mark-filled diamonds still show up. Those (yes, all five of
them) are supposed to be the character for this or these, pronounced zhè.

In place of posting about my progress (of which, indeed, there has been some), I'll get some wanderlust non-goals out of the way.
Something along the lines of "I won't begin learning _____ until I've _____." In most cases there's some relation between these
_____s, whether in language family or in vocabulary (i.e. Vietnamese, which claims roughly 60% of its vocabulary as Sino-Vietnamese;
that is, derived from Chinese). Turkish has some connection to Arabic (vocabulary) and therefore a tentative link to Swahili (shared
vocabulary inherited from the influence of Islamic traders; there's also the fact that both Turkish and Swahili are agglutinating
languages); Polish is tossed in there with Turkish because they're my baby languages (unlike many on this forum, I think of my
languages not as lovers but as children). Here goes, Magdalene's current Commandments of No Wanderlust:

No returning to VIETNAMESE or beginning CANTONESE until I've attained basic fluency in MANDARIN.

No PORTUGUESE until C1 fluency in SPANISH has been regained...or until 2013, whichever comes first. Gotta get ready for
the World Cup (and the summer Olympics two years after!).

No returning to YIDDISH until advanced fluency in GERMAN has been reached.

No ARABIC or SWAHILI until have reached A2 in one and B1 in the other of the pair POLISH and TURKISH (I
haven't decided which of these I'd be content having at A2 status; they'd both preferably be at B1).

At this point, Arabic and Portuguese are the most immediate tempters, Arabic because of the thrilling history being made in the Middle
East right now and Portuguese because, well, it'd be pretty easy after Spanish. And 'cause I'd love to know what Sara Tavares is
singing about...

I'll close with a word of thanks, to getreallanguage: Muchas gracias por leer y animarme. ¡Muchísima suerte con tus estudios también!
1 person has voted this message useful



ellasevia
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2011
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 6142 days ago

2150 posts - 3229 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian
Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian

 
 Message 10 of 44
28 February 2011 at 2:38pm | IP Logged 
Magdalene, I like the idea of a Lang-8 notebook for review to complement your studies. I don't have anything official like yours, but occasionally I do gaze back at things I've written in my target languages (usually in my log, where I also get corrections) and marvel that I in fact wrote that. It seems to help cement what I already know and helps me remember new words and expressions that I'd used (or should have used).

I also like your method of setting specific requirements for starting a new language. Whenever I tried to set requirements they were always far too vague, like "finish Portuguese" (whatever that means) as a prerequisite to beginning Swahili, and just look where that got me -- I had forgotten that I'd made the requirement of myself a week later and was already studying Swahili. Yours should be better since they're very specific.

I don't know if you knew this already, but another thing to contribute to the relation between Turkish and Swahili is that Swahili has actually borrowed a fair amount of words from Turkish. I can't give you any specific examples, but one of the dictionaries I use notes the language of origin for the words and Turkish pops up somewhat frequently.

Good luck with your language studies!
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Vos
Diglot
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 5566 days ago

766 posts - 1020 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Dutch, Polish

 
 Message 11 of 44
01 March 2011 at 7:11am | IP Logged 
Magdalene wrote:

@Vos: ¡Muchas gracias! Estoy emocionada de volver a estudiar polaco. ¿Le interesa
también el lenguaje?


Sí, la lengua me interesa muchísimo, y pienso que la podía ser mi lengua siguiente que estudio. Una vez que me
siento cómodo en mi español por supuesto. Entonces, ¿cuál tipos de cosas estará haciendo para mejorar tu
español? ¡Mucha suerte Magdalene!
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strikingstar
Bilingual Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5173 days ago

292 posts - 444 votes 
Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Cantonese, Swahili
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 12 of 44
01 March 2011 at 7:38pm | IP Logged 
你好。
我只想申明一件事。。。如果你对阿拉伯语和 斯瓦希里有兴趣,就别再犹豫不决了!!!尽 早开始学这两种优美的语言吧!!!我
保证你一定不会后悔!!!

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Magdalene
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5036 days ago

119 posts - 220 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish
Studies: Mandarin, German, Modern Hebrew, French

 
 Message 13 of 44
04 March 2011 at 10:03am | IP Logged 
@ellasevia: Thank you! I’m really enjoying using my Lang-8 notebook. It’s a useful reference; I can’t tell you how many times I’ve
reviewed past entries looking for words I’ve used multiple times and that keep slipping my mind, which in Chinese tend to be adverbs (more
and varying types of parts of speech slip through my sievelike mind in German; my dreadful recall in that language is another story).

I’m also pleased with the requirements I’ve set. Perhaps the greatest motivator to concentrate on my current target languages is to get a
comeuppance (of a sort) in one of them, to realize how much I have left to learn. Another great motivator: finding media that’s new and
interesting to me in a language I’ve begun to learn. But setting those non-goals (what’s the opposite of a goal?) or “not-untils,” you
could call them, works as a stopgap measure. Arabic, which interests me more and more as time goes on, also intimidates me quite a bit,
which results a disinclination to go all-in and abandon my other pursuits. And that reluctance, gentle readers, is part of what keeps my
nose to the grindstone on my current chosen ones.

Errr…that changed from a message to you, ellasevia, into a general part of my log. Back to you: I didn’t know that Swahili borrowed a lot
from Turkish! Something else to look forward to a few years from now. :)

Have you continued to memorize poems in your target languages? I’ve decided on Goethe’s “Erlkönig” (1782), which I’ve committed to memory
for a couple of projects, for my first in German. And are you still toying with Finnish?

Good luck with your studies as well!

@Vos: ¿Cuáles cosas hago para mejorar mi español?…pues en este momento, casi nada, jaja. Estoy matriculada en un curso de
literatura en español, pero no hay mucho tiempo designado para hablar en español y sólo leemos trozos de obras largas y hacemos “close
readings” de ellos. Escucho a mucha música en español: mucho rock, un poco de pop. Mi banda favorita actual se llama Los Tri-O, un grupo
que cabe en el género bolero. También escucho a las noticias de BBC Mundo Radio y practico hablar en español con unos amigos; casi todos
mis amigos íntimos tienen conocimiento básico del lenguaje.

En el punto en que estoy, mi desafío más grande es producer español natural y coloquial. Puedo decir si la escritura o la forma de hablar
de otra persona es natural—si parece haber sido dicho por un hispanohablante native—pero tengo dificultad para duplicarlo: el tono, la
sintaxis, el vocabulario; partes de estos aspectos de producir la lengua me faltan de vez en cuando.

Planeo explorar la literatura hispanohablante más este año. Tengo lo más ganas de leer algunas obras de Isabel Allende.

¡Buena suerte con tus estudios!

@strikingstar: 你好!
请别诱我啊!哈哈。我跟你同意;我知道,我 不会后悔学阿拉伯语和斯瓦希里。:) 如果我在未来数月进步得多,我可能容许我自 己学阿拉伯字母。
我祝你好运。我希望你愉快得学你的又芸芸又 有趣的语言!

Edited by Magdalene on 04 March 2011 at 10:04am

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strikingstar
Bilingual Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5173 days ago

292 posts - 444 votes 
Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Cantonese, Swahili
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 14 of 44
04 March 2011 at 1:00pm | IP Logged 
Magdalene wrote:
你好!
请别诱我啊!哈哈。我跟你同意;我知道,我 不会后悔学阿拉伯语和斯瓦希里。:) 如果我在未来数月进步得多,我可能
容许我自 己学阿拉伯字母。 我祝你好运。我希望你愉快得学你的又芸芸又 有趣的语言!



谢谢你的祝福。也祝你语言进展突飞猛进 :)
如果你不介意的话,能不能跟我分享一下你为 什么对华文感兴趣呢?

斯瓦希里其实是个相当简单的语言,而如 ellasevia 所说,跟阿语和土耳其话有几分相似。更有趣 的是,学习斯瓦希
里会让你密切的了解版图语言的形态. 这会让你建立一个有用的基础,好让你更轻易 地学习其他版图语言。 阿语的难处
不在于字母或发音,而是在于它拥有种类繁多 的规矩。 有些规矩还显然不符合逻辑,叫人对阿语觉得 又爱又恨。学习阿语
虽然艰难,但长远而言,是获益良多的。

我曾经看到你提过喜欢听周杰伦的歌。不知你 是否听过这首:v=b3Gb69rVZ9Y">《菊花台》
我不时常听华文歌,但还是蛮喜欢这首歌,觉 得它含有一种古色古香的味道。希望你也喜欢 :)

Edited by strikingstar on 05 March 2011 at 4:24pm

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strikingstar
Bilingual Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5173 days ago

292 posts - 444 votes 
Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Cantonese, Swahili
Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 15 of 44
04 March 2011 at 1:03pm | IP Logged 
Ju Hua Tai

Sorry to double-post. Couldn't get the link to work in Mandarin. Grrr。

Edited by strikingstar on 04 March 2011 at 1:04pm

1 person has voted this message useful



ellasevia
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2011
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 6142 days ago

2150 posts - 3229 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian
Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian

 
 Message 16 of 44
05 March 2011 at 9:15pm | IP Logged 
Magdalene wrote:
Have you continued to memorize poems in your target languages? I’ve decided on Goethe’s “Erlkönig” (1782), which I’ve committed to memory for a couple of projects, for my first in German. And are you still toying with Finnish?

Short answer: not really, no.

Long answer: I was doing it quite diligently with a poem per day up until Christmas Eve, but after that I didn't have the chance and I gradually forgot about that goal. I did learn poems in Greek (Στα 200 π.Χ. by Κονσταντίνος Καβάφης), Russian (Птичка by Александр Пушкин), Dutch (Holland by Hendrik Marsman), and Japanese (a couple haiku) though. The Dutch and Japanese are completely gone but I can still remember the Greek and Russian ones. I might try to jump back into that, but I don't know if I'll have time. Maybe if I count the time spent translating and memorizing them as part of my study time I'll do it. I still like the idea of using them for transition and motivation though!

I'm not playing with Finnish anymore either. I continued with my Anki vocabulary reviews for a while into 2011 but finally realized that without actually studying the language and thereby not encountering the words being used in context in addition to not having them reinforced through study and exposure to the language I just couldn't remember them for long and was forgetting the same ones over and over. I finally stopped doing the reviews altogether when I realized that they were making me start to dislike Finnish, which definitely was not the goal of that exercise. On a positive note, it seems to have somehow cured me of my wanderlust (for Finnish and other languages) because this year I've had almost no desire to start on a new language anytime in the near future. I think that next year if I manage to achieve most or all of my goals for this year I'll start on 1-2 new languages, probably Arabic and one other.


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