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Amerykanka’s TAC 2012 (Teams Žá & Żubr)

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Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5173 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 81 of 119
27 October 2012 at 9:35pm | IP Logged 
He comenzado a leer Spanish Vocabulary: An Etymological Approach. Me parecen muy interesantes las relaciones etimologicas entre el ingles, el espannol, y el latin, aunque confieso que a veces no alcanzo a entender todo el contenido del libro. Obviamente hay que aumentar mis conocimientos de los terminos linguisticos . . .

De todos modos, ya he aprendido docenas de palabras nuevas. Tambien he terminado cuatro capitulos del libro El Aprendiz y me han gustado mucho. Lastima que este tan apurada de tiempo que me resulta muy dificil encontrar un momento para leer.

Que me disculpen la falta de acentos etc. - estoy usando la computadora de mi abuela monolingue. Evidentemente nunca se le ha ocurrido instalar un teclado espannol. . . . :)
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Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5173 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 82 of 119
23 November 2012 at 12:42am | IP Logged 
2012 is drawing to a close in a little over a month and I must admit that the year, or at least the latter half of
the year, hasn't been very successful where languages (especially Polish) are concerned. But I had a lot of
other things going on which were not at all conducive to language study. These things are now (for the most
part) off my plate, so I have a bit more time for fun and relaxation. So I hope to get some good, hard studying
done in these last weeks of 2012!

Now it is time for an update, since I actually do have something to report for once.

POLISH
Two weeks ago I started studying Polish again for the first time in months. I have decided to start using only
Anki for my Polish flashcards - much as I will miss my shoeboxes of index cards, I must be practical. Plus I
have grown accustomed to Anki and I think having my Polish cards on my iPad will help motivate me to study
them. (I can't even remember the last time I picked up my paper cards, while I am rarely behind on my
4,000+ Spanish Anki cards.) In keeping with my new plan, I created another Polish deck and caught up on
my reviews in my other Polish deck.

I had been reading Stara baśń and I'm sorry to say that I STILL haven't finished it. I decided to read
Kamienie na szaniec instead - the writing style and vocabulary is slightly easier, so I think it makes more
sense to go ahead and read it first. So far I have read the first two chapters (40 pages) and I think I made a
good choice. Kamienie na szaniec has already contributed some nice new vocab words to my Polish
deck.


LATIN
I'm on Chapter 17 of Collins. Most of the information is review from Wheelock's, but I have picked up a few
new concepts. Which reminds me, I really need to sit down and make a list of the uses of the dative and
accusative that I have learned. And I think I have a few more uses of the ablative to note, too. . . . I read the
Mass in Latin the other day and understood almost all of it, which was REALLY exciting! I am on the verge of
being able to read a lot of things in Latin - I need to crack down and start translating some harder passages.


SPANISH
I have probably spent the most time on Spanish lately. I am making progress in Spanish Vocabulary: An
Etymological Approach
(well, I'm on page 86 or something like that). Furthermore, I just finished Chapter
14 of El aprendiz - it is definitely intended for 10-12 year olds, but I can understand pretty much
everything and I am learning some good new vocabulary words. Besides, I am enjoying the story!

What I need most right now for the development of my Spanish skills is intensive reading, which will
familiarize me with more advanced grammatical structures. I have been searching for material that will also
prove an enjoyable read. After I am done with El aprendiz I will finish El Reino del Dragón de Oro by
Isabel Allende, and I will soon be getting La Emperatriz de Los Etéreos by Laura Gallego García. Plus I
have been downloading short stories (such as Isabel Allende's Dos Palabras) to read. And then there are
always newspaper articles.

That is all for now, but I hope to be able to update this log on a more consistent basis for the rest of 2012.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! :)

EDIT: Oops, I forgot to mention that I might be adding a new language soon. Nothing definite - just
maybe! :)


Edited by Amerykanka on 23 November 2012 at 12:45am

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Gosiak
Triglot
Senior Member
Poland
Joined 5128 days ago

241 posts - 361 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, English, German
Studies: Norwegian, Welsh

 
 Message 83 of 119
23 November 2012 at 12:52am | IP Logged 
I'm glad to read that you are still doing pretty well in spite of other important things that go on in your life. Happy Thanksgiving and good luck!
1 person has voted this message useful



Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5173 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 84 of 119
23 November 2012 at 4:46pm | IP Logged 
Gosiak wrote:
I'm glad to read that you are still doing pretty well in spite of other important things that go
on in your life. Happy Thanksgiving and good luck!


Gosiak, dziękuję za poparcie! Bardzo się cieszę, że znowu mam czas na naukę polskiego - tęskniłam do tego
języka przez te ostatnie miesiące. Powodzenia w Twoich studiach!
1 person has voted this message useful



Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5173 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 85 of 119
24 November 2012 at 5:01am | IP Logged 
Time for another update! Due to Thanksgiving break, I have lots of free time to do things like study
languages. Although Spanish and Latin are technically school subjects anyway, so I ought to get my
studying done even when school is in full swing.

SPANISH
1 hour 10 minutes of study
- 25 minutes of reviewing flashcards in Anki
- 45 minutes of reading, listening comprehension, and vocabulary acquisition
Flashcard Count: 4,597 cards

I just discovered the wealth of Spanish resources located at http://www.veintemundos.com/en/library/ (sorry, I
don't know how to create a link). Today I listened to the recording of an article ("¡Qué difícil es hablar el
español!") and then read through it, adding the thirteen or so new words to my Anki deck. Then I listened to
the article again. I think this will prove a good system for improving my listening comprehension (and my
vocabulary).



Edited by Amerykanka on 24 November 2012 at 5:02am

1 person has voted this message useful



Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5173 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 86 of 119
25 November 2012 at 2:50am | IP Logged 
SPANISH
1 hour 45 minutes
- 50 minutes of vocabulary acquisition
- 10 minutes of reviewing flashcards
- 45 minutes of reading, listening, and vocabulary acquisition
Flashcard Count: 4,620 cards

I spent 50 minutes adding new flashcards to my Anki deck. The words came from Spanish Vocabulary: An
Etymological Approach
(I'm on page 104 now) and from A Frequency Dictionary of Spanish: Core
Vocabulary for Learners
by Mark Davies (I'm on word #1,413 of the 5,000-word list). I'm not sure exactly
why it took me 50 minutes to add 18 words - probably because some of them had multiple definitions,
and I wanted to make sure I understood the different usages. Well, and also I was reading some of the
etymological info in Spanish Vocabulary: An Etymological Approach. Very interesting!

I listened to another article on VeinteMundos - "Castellers - Torres Humanas de Tradición y Pasión" - and
went through the same process I described yesterday. I added 5 new words from this article. I must say, this
Catalan tradition is absolutely fascinating! I would really like to see it performed in real life. However, I think I
would be WAY too nervous at the sight of all those little children climbing to the very tops of the castles. How
do their parents stand it?

POLISH
25 minutes
- 25 minutes of reviewing flashcards in Anki

LATIN
Does it count that I'm about to get my assignments ready for the student I'm tutoring in Latin?

EDIT: I added more studying time.



Edited by Amerykanka on 25 November 2012 at 6:03am

1 person has voted this message useful



Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5173 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 87 of 119
27 November 2012 at 1:01am | IP Logged 
SPANISH
1 hour 20 minutes
- 25 minutes of reviewing cards in Anki
- 40 minutes of reading, listening comprehension, and vocabulary acquisition
- 15 minutes of watching news videos on BBC
- singing the Spanish alphabet song (and annoying everyone in the vicinity :))
Flashcard Count: 4,626 cards

Today I listened to and read an article entitled "Preuvas: El Simulacro de Año Nuevo" on Veinte Mundos. The
articles I've done so far have all been labelled "Intermedio" - I figured that I would do all the intermediate
articles first and then move on to the advanced ones. I wonder how much of a difference there actually is
between the two levels. . . .

As I noted above, I also spent 15 minutes watching news videos in Spanish. I get all of my news off of
Spanish websites! (Okay, that's a slight exaggeration - but I do often hear about things for the first time on
BBC Noticias.)

POLISH
25 minutes of reviewing cards in Anki

I really need to do something other than flashcards tomorrow!

LATIN
1 hour 23 minutes
- 1 hour of grammar study and review
- 23 minutes of reviewing flashcards in Anki

I worked on compiling my list of the uses of the different cases. I use Wheelock's, Allen and Greenough's,
and Collins' for reference and write quick summaries of the different usages. That way later on I can look at
my notes instead of having to read the whole grammar book (not that reading grammar books is such an
unattractive idea - but it is less efficient). Today I made a sheet of the uses of the accusative (that I have
learned so far) and reviewed the uses of the ablative and genitive (that I have learned so far). Uses included
on my list:

USES OF THE ACCUSATIVE
1. Accusative as a direct object
2. Predicate accusative
3. Cognate accusative
4. Accusative of place to/into which (end of motion)

USES OF THE GENITIVE
1. Genitive of description/quality
2. Subjective genitive
3. Objective genitive
4. Partitive genitive

USES OF THE ABLATIVE
1. Ablative of accompaniment
2. Ablative of manner
3. Ablative of means
4. Ablative with cardinal numbers
5. Ablative of personal agent
6. Ablative of time when/within which
7. Ablative of place from which/out of which
8. Ablative of place where
9. Ablative of separation
10. Ablative of comparison
11. Ablative of respect/specification
12. Ablative of cause
13. Ablative of description/quality

I know the above uses pretty well - although I don't know if I would be able to explain a few of the more
advanced ablative uses very well. For example, ablative of means and ablative of cause are REALLY similar.

Edited by Amerykanka on 27 November 2012 at 1:02am

1 person has voted this message useful



Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5173 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 88 of 119
01 December 2012 at 6:16pm | IP Logged 
My schedule interfered to keep me from posting updates, but I have been studying, so here is a record of
what I achieved Tuesday through Friday.

LATIN
5 hours 8 minutes
- 1 hour 3 minutes of studying flashcards
- 1 hour of translating a very frustrating passage from St. Jerome's Ad Eustochium
- 1 hour of discussing the said translation in my Latin class and growing (marginally) less frustrated
- 1 hour of studying the concepts presented in Unit 18 of Collins and adding the vocabulary to Anki
- 25 minutes of reviewing participles + completing exercises for Chapter 23 of Wheelock's
- 40 minutes of answering questions on two Latin passages

I would put my flashcard count, but currently I have 3 different Latin decks, two of which have overlapping
vocabulary, so it wouldn't really tell me anything. Eventually I'm going to have to do an overhaul of my Latin
flashcards.

My Latin class is not terribly interesting (it moves kind of slowly), but I do like the textbook I had to buy for it.
My only problem with Collins is that it doesn't really explain new concepts well, so every time I cover a new
unit I have to bring out Allen or Greenough's in order to truly understand the material presented. That said, I
like the organization of Collins and by reading through the units I know what to study next.

Unit 18 was all review except for the active periphrastic. I had never been formally introduced to it before, but
I've seen it in translations and it's really easy. If you've studied participles and you see a future active
participle with a form of the verb sum, the translation is fairly obvious! I looked up the active periphrastic
in Allen and Greenough's to get a more in-depth explanation of it, and then I did a review of all participles just
for fun. I completed the Chapter 23 Optional Tutorial exercises at the back of Wheelock's - Chapter 23 covers
participles and I thought some drilling would be good.

POLISH
I can't remember how much I studied, but it wasn't any more than about 40 minutes of flashcard review. :(

SPANISH
4 hours 10 minutes
- 1 hour 20 minutes of reviewing flashcards in Anki
- 1 hour 10 minutes of studying Spanish etymology and acquiring new vocabulary
- 30 minutes of reviewing the uses of the subjunctive and adding new vocabulary
- 40 minutes of reading
- 30 minutes of listening, reading, and acquiring new vocabulary
Flashcard Count: 4,653 cards

I spent 30 minutes listening to, reading, and learning words from another article on VeinteMundos, "Piñatas -
Mucho Más que un Juego de Niños". I also read Chapter XV of El Aprendiz and 13 pages of El Reino
del Dragón de Oro
.

I need to cut back on the "acquiring new vocabulary" - it is taking away time from genuine study. I am
considering making Saturday my "vocabulary" day and refusing to add cards any other day, but I'm not sure.
It's absurd that it would take me so long to add 30 cards to my deck. Does anyone have any advice to offer
on minimizing time spent looking for new vocabulary words?






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