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NickJS - Team 德 - TAC 2012

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
26 messages over 4 pages: 1 24  Next >>
NickJS
Senior Member
United Kingdom
flickr.com/photos/sg
Joined 4958 days ago

264 posts - 334 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 17 of 26
02 April 2012 at 1:16pm | IP Logged 
Argh TAC hasnt been going to well for me! Life got in the way, friends having children, breakups, jobs and also I'm looking at going to Australia. But thats another story and I do not wish to bore you all!

I'm currently just focusing on my Mandarin - my pronunciation is getting better and definitely more fluid, I even managed to taunt a drunk guy in a pub in Mandarin because he was annoying me by spilling a full drink on me...Luckily he didn't know a word f what I said as he was your typical British Male haha! I've also been listening/reading along with an audiobook I have called the Besieged City which is pretty good and been writing random key words down on my whiteboard so that I see them constantly.

I am quite jelous of my friend at the moment though, he is currently in Hong Kong on holiday but where he attends university in the UK he currently has lots of mainland exchange students! So I helped him out with his resources to learn a little himself as he already knows a fair amount of Cantonese.

I also spent 2 hours on Chatroulette the other night with a guy in Beijing which was quite fun as he didnt speak too much English. It was really fun being face to face for that amount of time with a native speaker :).

Nonetheless I have been reading everyone elses TAC logs when I recieve the email notification and you all seem to be doing good (much better than me!) and I hope to speak to you all soon!

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NickJS
Senior Member
United Kingdom
flickr.com/photos/sg
Joined 4958 days ago

264 posts - 334 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 18 of 26
02 May 2012 at 12:58am | IP Logged 
Just like Nick to always forget to update here haha! The key reminder for me is the other peoples logs and they seem to be very active these past couple of days, great work :)!

I noticed Portguese has been picked up by Luna...I also wandered into this as I have met quite a few Brazilians online recently, its a nice language! I've not spent an awful amount of thime on it though as I only started it last week, so I have probably clocked around 10 hours, including listening to pronunciations. I am however awaiting a library reservation for MT Portuguese, which should arrive tomorrow or the day after. I have been listening to mainly "Talking Brazilian" which is really good!

Onto Mandarin, I have not been doing so much listening to this language as I normally do, but I have been speaking it/writing it more recently as I have met someone who I get along with very well near Shanghai, so I have been getting quite a few opportunities to speak and write, as the person does not speak much English at all :P. I have not kept track of the time (its not really my thing) but I have been using Mandarin atleast everyday and night. So its slowly getting there I guess, it all does seem very familiar now, but then a word appears which shocks me out of the water.

I also just started using Livemocha too as it was reccommended to me and it seems quite good!

Boa noite!
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silverpolyglot
Diglot
Groupie
Canada
silverchallanges.wor
Joined 4913 days ago

42 posts - 72 votes 
Speaks: English*, Somali
Studies: French, Swedish, Mandarin

 
 Message 19 of 26
02 May 2012 at 1:25am | IP Logged 
Better than me haha I haven't updated my log since March! From my experience, words that
cause any emotional distress are remembered better because you can remember it from how
you were feeling when you first heard it.

Have you considered joining websites such as interpals.net or Sharedtalk.com? You can
meet people who speak Portuguese or Mandarin and write messages to them, and you could potentially move the conversations over to Skype so you can converse in real time! Just a
thought!

Looks like you're doing great, keep at it!!!

~Silver
2 persons have voted this message useful



NickJS
Senior Member
United Kingdom
flickr.com/photos/sg
Joined 4958 days ago

264 posts - 334 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 20 of 26
02 May 2012 at 4:00am | IP Logged 
silverpolyglot wrote:
Better than me haha I haven't updated my log since March! From my experience, words that
cause any emotional distress are remembered better because you can remember it from how
you were feeling when you first heard it.

Have you considered joining websites such as interpals.net or Sharedtalk.com? You can
meet people who speak Portuguese or Mandarin and write messages to them, and you could potentially move the conversations over to Skype so you can converse in real time! Just a
thought!

Looks like you're doing great, keep at it!!!

~Silver


Haha! I agree with that mate, if your talking to someone in general and your really interested, you tend to just remember as its in context.

I'm actually a member on both of those, however I seem have had quite a lot of success with Livemocha in comparison - those points you get on there for completing things are addictive :P. I almost always get chat invites when I go online there too, which is great for getting some practice.
1 person has voted this message useful



NickJS
Senior Member
United Kingdom
flickr.com/photos/sg
Joined 4958 days ago

264 posts - 334 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 21 of 26
14 June 2012 at 5:25am | IP Logged 
I've been slacking this past month...But then again I'm quite a slow learner, in cmparison to others on this forum ;).

I'm active on Livemocha still though as its good for meeting more native speakers (mostly Portuguese speakers though) and I've been working my way though Pimsleur Mandarin & Portuguese. I have also been checking out other local libraries where I live and I have noticed that have quite a lot of resources - sadly just one book for Mandarin...But plenty for languages such as Persian, Irish and Romanian!

I have found another good way for meeting native speakers and getting a conversation going - doing street photography. Check it out! It really works if you play it right.

I've also noticed that my memory has become very bad recently, I seriously think I am becoming a goldfish haha. I shall be seeing the doctor about this on Monday - maybe it is just a bad sleeping pattern.

Lastly, I'll mention again I have been reading everybody elses posts in the team (which makes me remember to do a post too haha!).

Edited by NickJS on 14 June 2012 at 5:26am

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Luna Moonsilver
Diglot
Groupie
Germany
lunaslanglog.wordpreRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5077 days ago

77 posts - 99 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Korean

 
 Message 22 of 26
14 June 2012 at 10:05am | IP Logged 
Good to see you're still around here! :D And that you're doing Portuguese too! I'm
enjoying it, but am finding it hard to get resources... but I think that's because I
picked European instead of Brazilian -_-.

Incidentally, how's your Russian coming along?
1 person has voted this message useful



NickJS
Senior Member
United Kingdom
flickr.com/photos/sg
Joined 4958 days ago

264 posts - 334 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 23 of 26
14 June 2012 at 3:09pm | IP Logged 
Luna Moonsilver wrote:
Good to see you're still around here! :D And that you're doing Portuguese too! I'm
enjoying it, but am finding it hard to get resources... but I think that's because I
picked European instead of Brazilian -_-.

Incidentally, how's your Russian coming along?


Haha cheers :). Its definitely a little harder to find decent resources for Portuguese, have you tried Michel Thomas for European? At the library near me there are plenty for European - so that could be worth a try too.

My Russian sort of slipped to inactive in favour of Portuguese haha! I'm still doing listening though for it probably around 3-4 times a week.
1 person has voted this message useful



NickJS
Senior Member
United Kingdom
flickr.com/photos/sg
Joined 4958 days ago

264 posts - 334 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 24 of 26
25 June 2012 at 6:37pm | IP Logged 
Quick update for today.

I've been working mainly on Portuguese the past few days, stil having quite a hard time with some of the pronunciations, but its getting there. I'd say its about 70% correct. One thing I have noticed is that I forget some words and phrases very quickly but the catchy ones always stick in my head and I often find myself saying them a loud - especially when making food or having a shower.

I wonder if there is any good techniques for learning that I could try out that fits this sort of approach?


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