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Gary’s TAC 2012 - The Romantics | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5205 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 121 of 167 29 August 2012 at 4:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
I've not found it to be a big issue, but I do find that the first few sentences don't come very easily if I switch to one language after speaking the other for a while, as my brain has to make the switch. This even happens, albeit to a lesser extent, when I switch back to English after speaking French for a while. Also, I do sometimes accidentally slip in a French word when I'm speaking Italian: it's always a small, common one that's similar in both languages, like "comme" instead of "come" or "personne" instead of "persona" - this happened more at first but it's becoming less and less of a problem with practice. Similarly I find switching from Italian to French quite easy but French to Italian more difficult. I think it's because of Italian being a weaker language for me, and one which I don't have lots of experience speaking, so my mind easily falls back to the similar but stronger and more well-practised French, and so as I get stronger and more experienced in Italian it becomes less of an issue. Generally I think the brain just needs to see each language as a separate thing. It's part of why I believe in not starting a new language until reaching a comfortable level in the previous one, by which point it will have established itself as, say, "French" rather than "the new language". Also as you practice each one individually, they get stronger and more independent and so you get better at switching and at not mixing them up. I've written in my log before that it used to take me a while to "warm up" into "French mode" but as I kept practising it became quicker and quicker. I think switching between languages is similar. Overall I think it just comes down to practice, and "solidifying" each language. That's just my thoughts though; this is discussed a lot in all the "several languages at once" threads and people always have different experiences. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Quabazaa Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5607 days ago 414 posts - 543 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Japanese, Korean, Maori, Scottish Gaelic, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written) | Message 122 of 167 29 August 2012 at 6:25pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Cheers, sounds similar to what happens with me. I think my Spanish is just so dominant
that it tries to fill any hesitation in French I make with Spanish words. I also find I warm up though and speak much better French after a while. Switching between German and English and Spanish is much easier for me than switching from Spanish to French. I no doubt just need practice, as you say. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5205 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 123 of 167 04 September 2012 at 1:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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No more Italian conversation in the last week - not much time for Skype, no responses
when I did manage to get online, and no in-person speaking opportunities. I did re- watch a couple of films though - Sotto falso nome and Le conseguenze dell'amore. Re- watching films is always useful since you pick up things that you missed at first - even more so when you have a few more months of studying under your belt the second time round. I've also been racking up the French conversation hours, with a meetup one evening then plenty one to one chat the next day. Recently I've been getting two or three good French conversations per week in very consistently; as much as I'd love to speak it every day, I think that three per week is a good and realistic goal considering my schedule and my available opportunities. Now if only I can get my Italian up to that as well - I'm currently managing one per week, which is a good start and keeps things moving along but still isn't really enough. Italian Super Challenge Films: 20 done, 80 to go. Speaking hours: 27 done, 73 to go. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5205 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 124 of 167 10 September 2012 at 11:18am | IP Logged | |||||
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Français
I went to a French film night last week, but unfortunately I was a bit tired and not in a great mood which made it more difficult than usual to speak French well, not to mention that it was often difficult to speak to people at all - the atmosphere didn't seem particularly friendly, at least earlier on in the evening. It improved later on as the crowd got smaller, but I still felt like my speaking ability had regressed by a good six months or so. Italiano I spoke Italian for about five minutes on Skype, which was my first conversation in two weeks. Needless to say I felt rather out of practice. I also re-watched the first half of La Dolce Vita, which I'll count as one film because it's as long as one. I'm taking another look into the methods for improving speaking ability without having people to talk to, like self-talk. If I can do that sort of thing for even a few minutes per day then it'll hopefully at least stop me from getting so out of practice between rare conversation opportunities. I think an important part of developing a language learning strategy is adapting it to your situation - I think that given my goals and my learning experiences so far, a Fluent in 3 Months-style method centred around lots of conversation would suit me best, but I need to accept that that simply isn't going to happen and find ways to work round it. Italian Super Challenge Films: 21 done, 79 to go. Speaking hours: 27 done, 73 to go. So yeah, I keep talking about ups and downs - that "up" a couple of weeks ago was nice for the few days it lasted. I'm thinking about studying English teaching a bit - I currently have no intention of doing the teaching English abroad thing, but it would give me something to offer potential language exchange partners beyond just conversation and the novelty of being a living, breathing Scottish person. A lot of the other people who I see advertising for English-Italian exchanges seem to have some sort of TEFL qualification and/or experience, so I need to be able to compete! Also, the academic year has just started so there might be some opportunities to practice with all the foreign students. Hey, I can hope... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5393 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 125 of 167 10 September 2012 at 2:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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They often run groupons for online TESOL courses like this one. I took that same course last year and learned a lot from it, but it was very time-consuming. If you have the time and energy for it, it's well worth the information, and it would definitely be beneficial for helping others. They run them frequently. I get daily emails for it, so if you're interested, let me know and I can keep an eye out for a current deal for you. Disclaimer - no one paid me to say that. =) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5205 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 126 of 167 10 September 2012 at 2:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
Hmm, interesting! Unfortunately time and energy aren't things I have very much of at the moment and I don't see that changing any time soon, although if it's something I can work through in my lunch hour and other quiet times in the office then it might be possible. I don't want to lose language study time as I'm sure you can understand :), and I'm barely managing to keep up with music practice at the moment. Otherwise I could always just pick up one of the TEFL textbooks and read through that at my own pace, then I'll at least be able to say I'm familiar with teaching even if I won't have the certificate. What sort of time commitment are we talking about? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5393 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 127 of 167 10 September 2012 at 3:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
They say 120 hours for the course, and I think they give you three months to finish it. So 40 hours a month, or ten hours a week. If you have the TEFL textbooks and are not looking for a certification, I would stick with that. If nothing else, you can use it as a reference point if your conversation partner has a problem with a particular grammar point. =) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5205 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 128 of 167 10 September 2012 at 3:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
Cheers for the info. Ten hours a week isn't going to happen, so I guess I'll go for a book instead, although it's definitely something I'll keep in mind for the future. I guess I really just want to have a background in the subject so I can offer better help with grammar, writing, etc. on top of simple conversation practice, which any French or Italian person living in my city probably already gets in their day-to-day life. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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