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Luna’s Log: TAC 2012: Team 德 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Luna Moonsilver Diglot Groupie Germany lunaslanglog.wordpreRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5080 days ago 77 posts - 99 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Korean | Message 1 of 29 27 December 2011 at 11:43pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Hi, all :]. This is my first ever TAC and I'm all excited to be a part of Team 德. My
main focus languages for this year are German and Mandarin (hence the team), but I'm going to be studying Swahili too - and I'll probably (definitely) suffer from some wanderlust as well. So there'll be more than a few languages sprinkled throughout this log, I think. Now, for some info: Deutsch Background: I started learning German at school eight years ago, and I'm afraid to say that my skills at the moment do not reflect that amount of learning time. Not even close. I'm moving to Germany in September (/October) until February 2013, so I have that time to pull myself up and prepare. Current Level: B1 Goal: I'd like to be at a secure B2 level by August-ish, so that I can spend my time in Germany improving and hopefully be up to a tentative C1 by the time I leave. Specific Goals: I want to read a million words (approximately) this year, plus I've set myself specific targets for writing and media consumption. They're provisional at the moment because I'm going to use January as a benchmark to see how much I actually get done. Resources: I'll mainly be using native materials at this point. German is one of the two languages I study for my degree, so I have language classes, a speaking class and a thematic module - all taught primarily in German. My coursework will count towards my particular goals because it's all practice. I'm going to read books - I want to get through the entire Harry Potter series this year - and watch films, as well as playing games on my DS in German. 中文 Background: I began Mandarin properly when I began University in October 2010; it's the other language I'm studying for my degree. Over the summer, I had the chance to visit Beijing (BLCU) for a month and studied Mandarin intensively there. I'm going back in February 2013 - about June 2013, so, like with German, I need to increase my level - though I should also be taking Chinese classes when I move to Germany. Current Level: High A1/Low A2 Goal: B2 Specific Goals: I want to be able to read. Unlike with German, where I'm terrified of speaking (failed my speaking exam coming out of school, yay!), I'm not so bad with Mandarin and in fact scored higher on speaking with the exam I took in August than I did with reading/grammar. That being said, I have to work on my tones, because they're pretty bad. Apart from that, I'm focusing mainly on characters and going to move onto reading books at some point. Resources: - FSI Mandarin course (for tones) - New Practical Chinese Reader (we use this textbook at Uni, but we get through one lesson every two weeks. I want to get ahead) - TV series - Memrise.com - I'm going to buy 哈利•波特与火焰杯 and try and work my way through it at some point Kiswahili Background: I started learning Swahili for May's Six Week Challenge, but only clocked eight hours of study time and, after the challenge was over, promptly forgot everything I learned. I started again a few weeks ago, though I've only done three Assimil lessons since then. 2012 will be my year to make some progress in this language. I don't have any current plans to go to any East African countries, but who knows what the future holds! ;] Current Level: Non-existent Goal: A2 Specific Goals: I want to finish the Assimil course and then see if there's anything else I can learn from the Living Language textbook I have. I'll probably end up using these resources concurrently because the Assimil course is in French and though I can read bits and pieces of it, it's still very difficult for me. After that, I'll move onto any literature I can find (if I get that far this year). This is very much taking a back-seat to Mandarin and German because they need to be focussed on this year. Resources: - Assimil Le Swahili Sans Peine - Living Language Swahili - BBC Swahili Hm, that's most of my introductory points covered. Like I said, I've got a wanderlust list a mile long and some of those languages will probably be used for any six week challenges I take part in during 2012. If I start learning one, I'll add it to the list up there (even if I only learn it for six weeks!). Viel Grüß! 祝你好运！ Good luck, everyone! - Luna ETA: My Teammates: 2012 TAC Team 德: B_Hutt's Log Hidden's TAC 2012 Team 德 : German Log Jae's Log - TAC 2012 - Team 德 NickJS - Team 德 - TAC 2012 Serpent's cyclic log - Team Žá and 德 Silver's Log: 2012 TAC Team 德 WingSuet TAC 2012 Team 德 Edited by Luna Moonsilver on 02 January 2012 at 1:51am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| NickJS Senior Member United Kingdom flickr.com/photos/sg Joined 4961 days ago 264 posts - 334 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 2 of 29 28 December 2011 at 3:04am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I wish I had studied some languages whilst I was at university too...I was rather lazy
though - but it paid off with good grades :D! Which university are you studying at if you don't mind me asking? It should be quite interesting to see your German progress as your using games to supplement it, if only reading Characters was easier, I'd do the same! I think my tones are quite ok...As I spent a lot of time focusing on them (far too much), I even had a native speaker from Shanghai spend about 3 weeks going over them with me. Alternatively I'd recommend ChinesePod (which Ari on here told me about)and use their free beginning podcasts to brush up on the tones. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Luna Moonsilver Diglot Groupie Germany lunaslanglog.wordpreRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5080 days ago 77 posts - 99 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Korean | Message 3 of 29 28 December 2011 at 3:20am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Haha, well studying languages was I could think of to do as a degree, so I guess I get to spend most of my time on my hobby, though the exams are certainly less fun. I'm studying at Nottingham Trent - which most people have not heard of, to be honest. We're not really that high on the league tables ;]. I'm enjoying the games at the moment. I'm playing Dragonquest IX, which is great because it's an RPG, but I'm having to make sure I pay attention when the characters ask me things. I tried Professor Layton, but that was hard. And ooh, thank you for that heads-up! :] I do fine reading the tones on their own, but as soon as they're put together, I get lost. Well, except for second to fourth. Lots of 不是 lol. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| NickJS Senior Member United Kingdom flickr.com/photos/sg Joined 4961 days ago 264 posts - 334 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 4 of 29 28 December 2011 at 3:38am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Hmm your right - I've not heard of that one, are the language teachers good there? I went to Salford university just outside Manchester city centre, but I just went because it was easy to drive there :D. Nice, I've just recently put some Final Fantasy games on my phone - just in plain old English though - which does make me wish I was learning Japanese sometimes! Do you find it helps your learning? As there are so many people I know that have learnt to speak English from games, but I don't know about the opposite way around. Thy definitely catch you out sometimes the tones that's for sure, the one that often tricks me is the first tone...I agree, you've gotta love the word 是 lol! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Luna Moonsilver Diglot Groupie Germany lunaslanglog.wordpreRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5080 days ago 77 posts - 99 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Korean | Message 5 of 29 29 December 2011 at 9:36pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Ha, I've heard of Salford but not the University, so I guess we're even. And yeah, the teachers are great - all native speakers except for one of my German teachers, who is English. I think that's helpful this year though, because we're preparing for our year abroad and, though native speakers are always helpful teachers, she's going to know exactly what we need to prepare. I have native German speakers for my thematic modules and speaking classes though. Haha, it's kind of helping. I learnt 'wieher' and 'wauwau' the other day -- which are 'neigh' and 'woof woof' respectively ;]. I think it'll teach me some basic essentials I'm missing, like 'Die Tür ist verschlossen' -- 'the door is locked'. It makes me pay attention to individual words because, unlike with reading a book, sometimes for tasks I need the nitty-gritty meanings. So yeah, I'd say so. If I was learning Japanese I would definitely have Pokemon by now ;]. Oh God, 是，在... the fourth tone is the one we always have to do over in class when we read anything out haha! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| silverpolyglot Diglot Groupie Canada silverchallanges.wor Joined 4916 days ago 42 posts - 72 votes Speaks: English*, Somali Studies: French, Swedish, Mandarin | Message 6 of 29 31 December 2011 at 6:35am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Luna I wish you luck in your studies and on the challenge! For another potential resource
for mandarin, there is this new app for the iPod touch/iPhone called Mindsnacks Mandarin that I really recommend. There are a lot of fun games that help you develop your ability to rapidly recall and identify certain characters, as well as be able to identify how the correct characters should look, develop your ability to hear the tones and know exactly which tone it is under a certain time limit. There is also a German version, called Mindsnacks German but without the tones and characters. All the best! -Silver 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| WingSuet Triglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 5353 days ago 169 posts - 211 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, German Studies: Cantonese | Message 7 of 29 31 December 2011 at 11:04am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Too bad they don't have that for Cantonese, it would have been fun! At least I can use it
for Mandarin later on :) Good tip silverpolyglot! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| NickJS Senior Member United Kingdom flickr.com/photos/sg Joined 4961 days ago 264 posts - 334 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese | Message 8 of 29 31 December 2011 at 6:19pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
That sounds like a good app - I recently just changed over from Apple to Android myself though, I'd had enough of iTunes lol. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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