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旅立ち/Катюша-Woodsei’s TAC 2014

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162 messages over 21 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 18 ... 20 21 Next >>
Josquin
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4845 days ago

2266 posts - 3992 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish
Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian

 
 Message 137 of 162
12 December 2013 at 4:46pm | IP Logged 
Of course we would have you! Come on board! :)

2013 has been a tough year for a lot of people on Team MIR and the forum in general. There's no need to feel guilty.
1 person has voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5335 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 138 of 162
12 December 2013 at 5:10pm | IP Logged 
Woodsei wrote:
@SolfridChristin: Thank you so much! I'm decided. I want back on the Russian team, if
you
would still have me. I'll focus on Japanese and Russian for the upcoming year, like I did
in 2012.
No higher aspirations, though. I'll just focus on my two languages for now :)


That's great!!!
1 person has voted this message useful



Teango
Triglot
Winner TAC 2010 & 2012
Senior Member
United States
teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5557 days ago

2210 posts - 3734 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Russian
Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona

 
 Message 139 of 162
16 December 2013 at 7:10am | IP Logged 
Sorry to hear 2013 has been a tough year for you, Woodsei. Like Josquin said, it seems it's been a rocky ride for a lot of us this year. I hope 2014 proves to be that ladder on life's Snakes and Ladders board that we're all waiting and hoping for, and I wish you bags of luck and progress studying Japanese and Russian next year! :)
1 person has voted this message useful



Woodsei
Bilingual Diglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
United States
justpaste.it/Woodsei
Joined 4798 days ago

614 posts - 782 votes 
Speaks: English*, Arabic (Egyptian)*
Studies: Russian, Japanese, Hungarian

 
 Message 140 of 162
23 December 2013 at 5:44pm | IP Logged 
@Josquin, @SolfridChristin, and @Teango: Thank you all so much for the encouragement.
I'm hoping for the rock slide to come to a final and complete rest at the foot of the
mountain, and serve as a foothold for greater progress to come! :D
1 person has voted this message useful



Woodsei
Bilingual Diglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
United States
justpaste.it/Woodsei
Joined 4798 days ago

614 posts - 782 votes 
Speaks: English*, Arabic (Egyptian)*
Studies: Russian, Japanese, Hungarian

 
 Message 141 of 162
25 December 2013 at 12:59am | IP Logged 
So, here goes, the end-of-the-year TAC summary. The summary's probably going to be
longer than my overall 2013 progress, but oh well :D
It was a pretty disappointing year language-wise. The first few months have been an
on/off affair with Japanese, Russian, and to a lesser extent Hungarian, and then that
eventually fizzled out and remained pretty static for the rest of the year. I had a lot
of difficult personal issues going on which sucked dry any motivation for languages, or
anything else for that matter. Things are still rocky, but at least I know now what to
expect, and have more or less a stable schedule, and can finally redirect my attention
back to languages. In terms of where I am level-wise, I guess I can say confidently
that my ability in comprehending aural Japanese input has actually gotten a teeny-weeny
bit better. I was surprised, and delighted, when I recently attempted to watch a
Japanese drama, to find that in terms of listening, I haven't really lost anything. I
guess it shouldn't be surprising, given the fact that I'd amassed countless hours of
listening for most of my Japanese study. Reading has gotten a little rusty, though, and
I shamefully admit I abandoned kanji study altogether. But that is all about to change.
You ain't seen nothin' yet :D

Russian. Mostly Assimil, and children's cartoons which can be found on Youtube. Nothing
glamorous. I'd still say my level is a woeful beginner. But again, that is all about to
change. Same goes for Hungarian.

I'm probably keeping this log for the new TAC, but I haven't decided for certain yet
Maybe starting off with a clean slate would do the trick and get me back to studying.
But the thought of not coming back here again makes me teary already, so I might keep
it after all. I'll keep you folks updated.

I'll be linking this on the team thread. Brun_Ugle, where are you?!

On a final note, the summary's DEFINITELY longer than my TAC progress.

Later ;)
1 person has voted this message useful



Woodsei
Bilingual Diglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
United States
justpaste.it/Woodsei
Joined 4798 days ago

614 posts - 782 votes 
Speaks: English*, Arabic (Egyptian)*
Studies: Russian, Japanese, Hungarian

 
 Message 142 of 162
01 January 2014 at 3:37am | IP Logged 
TAC 2014 Opening Post

Hi everyone! Welcome to my 旅立ち/Katysusha JP+RU log for 2014, previously called
Woodsei's '12&'13 Sakura 桜/Mir/Janje, previously called Woodsei's い&Sputnik Tac 2012
Adventures :D Enter grad student, writer/photographer, readaholic, nature lover and
outdoor enthusiast, and language buff :) I currently live in NC, USA, but moving is a
plan currently under construction.

I'm still getting up to speed on Japanese and Russian; hence, the same old log will get
another go to prove itself worthy this year :) Last year has been utterly
disappointing, for reasons beyond my control, and so I'm fitting to make this year the
best one yet language-wise. So here goes:

1 Japanese: I'm almost understanding everything I ca hear if it's a drama,
anime, or radio podcast. Classic stories still go over my head, as do newspapers, so I
will make reading TONS of these media, as well as all other normal activities, a
priority this year. Speaking is rusty, so self-talk and finding a Skype partner to
practice with is in the works. Writing needs serious work, so off I head to Lang-8, as
well as review my kanji, which has been slowly succumbing to the effects of fire and
smoke on the back burner for the past 10+ months. In short, active language production,
kanji review, and vocab acquisition are milestones I aim to hit this year. I want to
change my status to "speaks" Japanese at the end of this year in my forum profile. The
JLPT N1 test maybe a goal, if only to hold myself accountable (I'm the world's laziest
couch potato, and I slack off more often than not).

2. Russian: Even though I was on the Russian team for the past two TACs, I
haven't really been giving it the attention it deserves. In terms of level, I'm still a
beginner, but I want to get to a point where I can understand spoken and written
Russian, as well as produce it, towards the end of this year. I am a big fan of LR,
Tadoku (i.e. extensive reading), and natural language acquisition methods in general. I
do read up on the grammar points, but I don't usually use textbooks, and prefer using
native materials, and simply reading grammar guides for clarification of the sticky
points in the language. You'll get a better sense of how I study as you follow this log
:) However, I don't have as much resources for Russian as I have for Japanese, so I
have been experimenting with trying out RussianPod 101 and thought I'd give it a go to
kick-start my Russian studies. I've subscribed for a month, so we'll see how that goes.
I have Assimil for Russian, and while I did loosely cover the first book of Assimil for
Japanese and loved it, I haven't been feeling all that motivated to go back to the
series. Me and my learner guide-phobias :P I have a feeling I might end up ditching
Rpod altogether as well, and just simply jumping right into children's books, Youtube,
and other forms of native material, but I don't know. We'll see how that goes. I'm kind
of curious about Rpod and would like to see how that helps with my Russian and fits
into my overall methodology.

Goals:-

1. I have signed up for the Tadoku challenge for Japanese kicking off this
January with a goal of reading 2000 pages. My motto is aim high and you will finish
high!

2. 6 Week Challenge: I will register for my first ever Russian 6WC.

3. I have signed up both Japanese and Russian for this year's Super Challenge.
This should work fantastically for much-loved native material consumption (aka
reading/watching and writing on Lang-8). I'm also considering starting a blog for the
challenge. I'm so excited :)

4. Writing one entry each in Japanese and Russian a day on Lang-8. I might do
some Scriptorium, and later towards the end of the year, try to translate from English
back into both languages some passages I might come across through reading and/or
listening. Will try to get back to Anki. Love how effective it is but hate how
inconsistent I am with it.

I will decide on further Tadoku/6WC challenges throughout the year as I advance and
readjust my strategy accordingly.

So there you have it! My 2014 kick-off in a nutshell (or maybe not a nutshell :) )
Here's to creating awesome memories, and acing a perfect year with my amazing and
inspiring teammates on both Teams 旅立ち and Katyusha!

がんばってね!
Удачи!

1 person has voted this message useful



dampingwire
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4666 days ago

1185 posts - 1513 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian*, French
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 143 of 162
01 January 2014 at 4:05pm | IP Logged 
Woodsei wrote:
However, I don't have as much resources for Russian as I have for
Japanese, so I
have been experimenting with trying out RussianPod 101 and thought I'd give it a go to
kick-start my Russian studies. I've subscribed for a month, so we'll see how that goes.


I've found JPOD101 to be a tremendous asset for Japanese and Russian's on my (long
term) target list so I'd certainly be interested in your views of RussianPOD. How many
lessons are there, do they provide the same materials as JPOD101 (lesson audio,
dialogue audio track, lesson transcript ...), is the quality generally better, worse of
the same as JPOD101?

I've seen that they provide quite a range of languages but the rate at which lessons
get added seems quite slow (at least for Japanese) so it takes quite a while to become
a useful resource. What stage is the RussianPOD website at?

1 person has voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5335 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 144 of 162
01 January 2014 at 4:19pm | IP Logged 
Hi Woodsei, so glad to have you on the team again! I am also interested in RussianPod 101. Please tell us
more!


1 person has voted this message useful



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