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Towards Goal-Oriented Multilingualism | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Dagane Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4513 days ago 259 posts - 324 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishB2, Galician Studies: German Studies: Czech | Message 9 of 27 11 August 2012 at 1:36pm | IP Logged |
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I'm pretty stunned because of your well-planned schedule, no matter whether you skip some hours or not. I also admire your twoness Western-Eastern, as well as your concrete elections. But, do you know what? What I like more is your week's tables!
Keep going :). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Rhadryn Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5385 days ago 53 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, French Studies: Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Latin, German | Message 10 of 27 14 August 2012 at 2:35am | IP Logged |
Update 4 (07/08 - 13/08)
Thoughts A pretty good week. I slacked off on Monday but then very nearly made up for it. Japanese I'm not sure that it's actually possible for me to reach my weekly goal. I tried really hard last week and still didn't make it. Oh well, at least I'm shooting high. As I struggle with reading Japanese more easily, I was thinking about what really brought me to literacy in French. I think it was probably reading Crime and Punishment and looking up about 50% of the words I didn't know. This is an easy way to get bored and discouraged, but it worked pretty well back then, so now I'm going to try it with Harry Potter. Also, I tried writing a Lang8 entry this week using new grammatical structures from class, and was excited to find that my errors were mostly petty and not meaning-inhibiting. However, it took me about 60 minutes to write 9 sentences, so I definitely need to work harder at writing. Non-flashcard/class-related activities:
Russian I need to step it up with Russian. I feel like I'm not really improving, just remembering things I already knew. Next week I'll definitely have a lot more to report. Non-vocabulary/flashcard-related activities:
Chinese I live in Vietnam where most people act like angry cats when you mention China (that has been my impression anyway). For some reason it was more noticeable this week, which made me want to learn the language more. So I listened to it a bit just to get a feel for it, and found it quite nice. Nothing new to report for the other languages. Edited by Rhadryn on 14 August 2012 at 2:38am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Rhadryn Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5385 days ago 53 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, French Studies: Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Latin, German | Message 11 of 27 20 August 2012 at 9:01am | IP Logged |
Update 5 (13/08 - 19/08)
Thoughts I finally reached my goal in Japanese! Well I kind of cheated to do it, because I was sick and actually took a day off from work, but still! Japanese To summarize last week's new Japanese strategy: overwhelm my lexical ignorance through sheer force of exposure. I've spent many hours reading Harry Potter this week with a dictionary, and my progress has shown in a few ways. First, a significant step: my “black page anxiety” is almost completely gone. Second, even though I'm not doing flashcards for the words I look up, I've noticed that they do stay in my memory somewhat. Today in class we covered five words that I learned just from the past week of reading Harry Potter! Finally, it's fun, fulfilling, and getting easier and faster, so it's definitely working as I'd like. Non-flashcard/class-related activities:
Russian In Russian I finished the Michael Thomas basic course, and for now I'm going to hold back on continuing that. Although it's nice to know for sure what I'm saying, Assimil packs in so much more. This week I watched the first half of the Idiot, a miniseries adaptation of probably my favorite novel. While I am almost never impressed by novel adaptations, this miniseries is fantastic, incredible, marvellous, wonderful, and in short the best cinematic production I've ever encountered. It has significantly increased my motivation for Russian. One night I went to bed thinking in Russian and hearing Russian in my sleep, although I didn't understand much of it--this is what I call a language high. As a result I'm going to start a new learning program. I'm going to use the Penguin book as a primary textbook, learning everything in it, and supplement it with Assimil shadowing and translation. And of course, lots of Russian dramas. I've already got the Master and the Margarita for when I finish the Idiot. Other suggestions would be received with gratitude. Non-flashcard/class-related activities:
Spanish (and French) When trying to read los Juegos del Hambre, I have trouble concentrating. I'd probably be okay if I were devoting my attention entirely to it, but I always read while I'm eating lunch and frequently forget what I have read whenever I look at my plate to pick up food. My Spanish must be less of a maintenance language than I originally thought so I'll need to put more time into it to make my study worthwhile. As a result I'm moving it to the dabble language section for the present. This means I'll be focusing a little bit more on French, which isn't necessary but is always enjoyable. German I also feel that I ought to concentrate more on my German to really make progress, but for now just listening to Michel Thomas is fairly low effort and moderately educational so I'll stick with that at least until I finish it next week. Chinese I spent one day listening to ChinesePod, which was interesting. Upon looking at the transcript, I was excited to recognize a few of the characters from Japanese. Edited by Rhadryn on 27 August 2012 at 9:46am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Rhadryn Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5385 days ago 53 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, French Studies: Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Latin, German | Message 12 of 27 27 August 2012 at 9:56am | IP Logged |
Update 6 (20/08 - 26/08)
(The old graph maker was acting funny.) Thoughts This week was odd. I was highly motivated by my new Russian study plan and generally felt positive about my progress in Japanese, but for the latter half of the week it was hard to concentrate on anything for more than ten minutes. It was like my brain said: “okay, you're working too hard, and this stuff isn't fun enough, so don't think about it.” So my progress was underwhelming. Japanese Due to an unusual real life event, I slept through Japanese class on Tuesday, and the rest of the days fell like dominoes. So I feel really guilty about skipping so many classes, which makes it even harder to go back. I do feel still that I'm making good progress with Harry Potter, though. Non-flashcard/class-related activities:
Russian I spent about half the time this week learning Russian script, which I haven't taken the time to learn before. I was getting sick of trying to print in Russian, which is ugly and slow (for me). Considering how much I despise English script, it was surprisingly fun, but I'm not fully confident that I'm doing it right yet. Next week I hope to start Assimil for real. Non-flashcard/class-related activities:
French Finished Fort comme la Mort after a month of reading and started Le Père Goriot. It seems that Balzac is a lot more poetic than Maupassant, and the first 5% of the book has been fairly difficult to get through. However, I feel a bit more like I'm improving my French because of this difficulty, so it's a good thing overall. German I finally finished Michel Thomas German. At first I really liked this CD, although I thought one of the learners was too slow and stubborn in his errors, but about halfway through I felt really worn down by the teacher (who I believe was Michel Thomas himself). The last two CDs were absolute chaos, in which the teacher threw out words desperately and the learners were almost incapable of remembering anything. Though it was an interesting adventure, I'd say in the end it's a waste of money. I'll probably take a week break from German and then come back next week with Assimil, depending on how well I do with that in Russian. This week I completely skipped the other languages. I'm still hoping to be more consistent with Latin next week. Edited by Rhadryn on 27 August 2012 at 9:57am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Rhadryn Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5385 days ago 53 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, French Studies: Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Latin, German | Message 13 of 27 01 September 2012 at 10:31am | IP Logged |
Mid-July to August Update (17/07 - 31/08)
Japanese: Current: 107.82 hours Goal: 120 hours So it's not likely that I'll reach my goal at my current pace. However, I'm hoping that with with two more months of solid study, I'll be able to read more freely, at which point my time should rocket skyward. In both November and December I'll probably have more free time, too. Signs of progress: As mentioned in August 19th's log, I no longer go cross-eyed when encountering a wall of kanji. Aside from Harry Potter, I have also gone through a few Japanese websites and managed to pick out the information I'm looking for. I probably should have learned this a long time ago, but it's an important step. Aside from that, I keep encountering words that I've learned fairly recently (in the past four months or so) and wondering how I've studied Japanese so long without knowing them, as they seem to be everywhere. Russian: Current: 44.1 hours Goal: 37.5 hours The Russian goal seems fairly appropriate, and though bumping it up might be a good idea, I'll try to just stick with exceeding the goal to make it feel more fun. Signs of progress: When I began I had a passive vocabulary of maybe 100 words, I could only remember the vaguest rules about gender, and I could correctly conjugate only verbs that were familiar and in present tense. Now with a basic grasp of the past and future tenses as well, I can formulate basic thoughts, and have a vocabulary of about 250 words (although most of it was reactivated). I can now type (slowly) with the Russian keyboard. I can read and write (slowly) in script. It's difficult, but I'm really excited about future progress! Spanish: Current: 4.03 hours Goal: 9 hours Signs of progress: This period ended up being merely a gauge of my abilities, so no progress can be reported yet. French: Current: 11.49 hours Goal: 7.5 hours I'm quite satisfied with my French schedule. Signs of progress: Several times in the past two weeks I've caught myself reading in French (on the internet) without even realizing that it was French. It has become that easy, it has become second nature to that extent, and it's a great feeling. I also find myself talking to myself in French occasionally, and words come easily even though I don't practice production. But I still have a ways to go, as Balzac is teaching me now. German: Current: 15.3 Goal: 15 I think this was a good goal for German. Signs of progress: Since this was from absolute zero, I've learned quite a lot, but it's all far from long-term memory right now. One thing that I don't think I'll forget is the “weil situation,” where the verb gets stuck at the end of the phrase. It truly is a “vile” situation to me with its unfamiliarity, and this wordplay should keep the rule in my head. This week I started Assimil, and was excited by how much I could understand without looking at the translation. Latin: Current: 3.53 hours Goal: 7.5 This goal shouldn't be that difficult, but I have completely failed to be consistent so far. I'm still hoping to do better, because it is enjoyable. Progress: I've learned some, but I think very little has stuck with me. Chinese: Current: 0.88 hours Goal: (10 for the year) Just keeping it fun here. Total study hours in 1.5 months: 187.15. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Rhadryn Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5385 days ago 53 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, French Studies: Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Latin, German | Message 14 of 27 05 September 2012 at 5:43am | IP Logged |
Update 7 (27/08 - 02/09)
Thoughts I did well, but I'm still frustrated with my Russian progress. Maybe I should raise the goal after all? Japanese Reading is becoming faster and easier. Non-flashcard/class-related activities:
Russian I wasn't very consistent with my Russian this week. I'm really excited about the opportunities it will open up, but I just can't seem to convince myself to work on it sometimes. It was interesting to learn, as I was reviewing Assimil chapters, that although I could reproduce the entire dialogue from memory, after lesson 8 I didn't actually understand one out of three words. No wonder I got frustrated before. Non-flashcard/class-related activities:
French Le Père Goriot is going a bit faster with the enormous introductory exposition out of the way. I'm still encountering plenty of words I don't know though, two or three per kindle screen (so maybe 7 per page?). The story isn't exactly fascinating, but I'm not having difficulty remembering what happened, which is the important thing. German I ended up giving in and starting Assimil after all, getting through lesson 5. It was fun. Latin I managed to be much more consistent this week. I arrived in chapter 12 which teaches third declension nouns, and I'm struggling a bit with that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Rhadryn Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5385 days ago 53 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, French Studies: Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Latin, German | Message 15 of 27 16 September 2012 at 5:57pm | IP Logged |
Update 8 (3/09 - 08/09)
Japanese With this week, my nine months of studying Japanese formally has ended. The school doesn't offer a higher class in the morning, when I like to study, and the alternative would be studying Monday-Wednesday-Friday in the evening. This would leave me without a single free evening, a commitment I'm not ready to make. But I feel like my grammar could still use a lot of work, so I'm going to look for a new source for improving that. Non-flashcard/class-related activities:
Russian I did pretty well with Penguin Russian but not so well with Assimil. This week especially I felt that Penguin took up more time to finish a chapter in three days than I had expected. Maybe that was because I covered the genitive case, both singular and plural, which seems pretty complicated by my standards. Non-flashcard/class-related activities:
French Le Père Goriot is becoming more exciting and enjoyable to read. This week I just barely met my goal, though. German As with Russian, I was pretty inconsistent with Assimil, and that's my only source for German at the moment. I covered up to lesson 8, which means only three new lessons total. I can now recite the first dialogue by heart though, and greatly enjoy doing so. Latin I had pretty good consistency with Latin, and on Wednesday I actually found myself trying to think in Latin, which was a pleasant surprise. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Rhadryn Triglot Groupie United States Joined 5385 days ago 53 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, French Studies: Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Latin, German | Message 16 of 27 26 September 2012 at 4:52am | IP Logged |
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Update 9 (9/09 - 24/09)
I was going to post a chart but it's just a little too discouraging... Notes So for the last two weeks I've taken a bit of a break. First I went on vacation to a beautiful spot in Vietnam, Dalat, and then I spent a week recovering. I'm not too disappointed with this break though because I managed to do a little Japanese every day. If I could have said the same for Russian, it would have been a good break. Since there's no chart, my hour totals for the two weeks: Japanese: 13.14 hours Russian: 1.88 hours French: 2 hours Japanese I've been investigating starting a more regimented grammar study to replace my classroom study, but I didn't fully decide by the end of these weeks. I hope to have a solid plan starting next Monday. I started watching Gokusen, which is amusing and a nice change from anime to real Japanese scenery and people. However, I'm worried about the effects on my language, as most of the characters are either juvenile delinquents or yakuza, neither of whom use standard Japanese. So although there are three seasons and I'm enjoying it, I think I'll stop at the end of this first season. Non-flashcard/class-related activities:
Russian I started Penguin chapter 10 and did some flashcards. There's nothing new to report for French, and I didn't study any of the other languages during this period. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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