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TAC 2013 Team Żubr German and Polish Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4367 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 17 of 74 23 January 2013 at 1:24am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well there is some exciting news in the language department this week:
German: Ich habe einen ALTA test bestanden! Er war meine erste Sprachpruefung, und obwohl es nicht zu schwierig war, es freut mich noch sehr, dass ich ihn bestanden habe! Ich habe jetzt eine Arbeit, in dem ich Deutsch zu lesen. Heute hatte ich meinen ersten Anruf auf Deutsch. Ich hatte Angst, aber ich denke dass er erfolgreich war. Wir haben nicht zu Englisch wechseln. Polish: This week I reviewed my past lessons and listened to Polish audio. I'm trying to ease myself back into studying. With a new job using German, it will be a little more difficult, but not impossible. *Sorry, not nearly as exciting as my German update*. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4367 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 18 of 74 04 February 2013 at 1:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm back! Well, after starting a new job in which I'm reading German all day, I can say this definitely affects my language learning time. It's hard to go from having a lot of free time to having no free time.
I think I'm going to have to re-think my learning approach for Polish. Originally I said I would focus on grammar. Guess how much time I really want to spend on grammar after reading German for 10 hours...exactly...not much! So I've decided to concentrate on listening and reading. Really, when I think about it, the part that scared me the most was tenses, which because of my German knowledge, I really don't have a problem with anymore. Past tense also isn't difficult to form, and I'm okay admitting that I'm just not ready for verbal aspects yet. That can wait until I have a little more time. So right now I'm on a mission to find good material for my level that I can listen to and read. I think I have enough grammar for now that I can handle beginner reading. It just came to the point where "reviewing past lessons" ultimately meant "just reading and not paying attention." It's also extremely easy to put it off! So, I hope my idea of a lot of reading will be more helpful at least while I have this position. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6103 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 19 of 74 04 February 2013 at 10:21am | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi F.K!
Do you use ipla? Lots of free TV viewing, although some programs are pay-per-view. Good news about your new job. May your mental reserves be replenished. Edited by Mooby on 04 February 2013 at 10:22am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| pesahson Diglot Senior Member Poland Joined 5726 days ago 448 posts - 840 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 20 of 74 04 February 2013 at 7:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
Excellent correction by Amerykanka. To answer the question, "cztery" in this context is wrong. It has to be "czworo" so your intuition was right. "Dzieci" is a plural form of a neuter noun. "Mężatka", as Amerykanka pointed out, means "a married women". The male equivalent would be an adjective "żonaty". 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4367 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 21 of 74 11 February 2013 at 12:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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Update for the week:
German Pretty status quo, although I definitely felt my ability increase over the last week. Suddenly I realized I was reading and not slowing down to focus on individual words; I just read it and knew what it said. I would certainly call that a step in the right direction! I'm able to read very interesting material, like contracts, agreements, and even those confidentiality notices at the bottom of e-mails--things that you don't necessarily come across through typical input, but things that native speakers would definitely recognize. This has greatly expanded my vocabulary, and I hope that it continues to increase. Polish I managed to read a little Polish everyday this week. I'm surprised how much I actually remembered considering I haven't done much real studying in awhile. The goal for February is to be able to write something in Polish on here at the end of the month. I haven't really done much speaking, which I'm okay with for a few reasons. First, I'm not nearly advanced enough to carry a conversation! Second, I've been told the times I've spoken a few sentences, that I speak with a German accent. While that's a great compliment on my German accent (which I worked quite hard to perfect!), it doesn't help my Polish much! So I need to keep listening to it spoken, and watch more Polish movies and tv shows. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4367 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 22 of 74 18 February 2013 at 1:27am | IP Logged | |||||
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Weekly update:
German I managed to have another good conversation moment. I had a discussion about the Pope's retirement completely in German, and even managed to throw in a disagreement! Not easy while in a group of native speakers! That would have been very difficult to do last year, so I definitely think that my listening 6 hours a week and reading as much as I do has given me a great push. Polish I had a goal of reading Polish for 20 minutes each day and not worrying about grammar. It was fairly successful. I read the same passage and today I wrote a short summary. A few observations about just reading for vocabulary and not focusing much on grammar: it really does become easier after the first few tries. The first day I looked up every word I didn't know and I wrote it down. I stapled the list to the page so that I would have something to physically go back to if it were necessary. But after the third day I didn't need my list. I also noticed grammar patterns, and I was proud of myself that I didn't drive myself crazy wondering which case was being used. I was surprised how helpful it actually was to do this; I had my doubts because 20 minutes is not much time, but I did start remembering vocabulary that way. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4367 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 23 of 74 24 February 2013 at 10:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think because it's so close to the end of the month, I should just give a general review of where I am now versus where I want to be.
German: This job has really helped my reading comprehension improve. I have a much more active vocabulary than I did when I first started. I also bought a copy of five Charles Dickens stories translated into German. Just from looking at the cover, it's clearly an old book. It starts with "A Christmas Carol" which is probably a good one for me to begin; I already know the story. This is my first time reading an actual book in German, and I'm pleasantly surprised that I can handle it as well as I do. With my listening, I finished "Roseanne" (and the ending was just as sad in German as it was in English!) and now I'm on "Little House on the Prairie." I'm choosing dubbed series first because I think it will be easier than to watch a German series with its own pop culture references which I might not understand right away. But really, I'm choosing these shows because I really enjoy them and this will make it fun. This one is dubbed pretty well though; the actors do have their own personalities, and they give their own interpretation of the characters. Polish: Eh, not exactly where I wanted to be at this point. There are a few reasons for this: 1) after working all day I really don't want to learn grammar, 2) I am missing too much vocabulary, and 3) I just assumed that because I made so much progress in German, that I could just do the same thing in Polish and it would work. I think this is the big reason for not really being as far along as I wanted to be. With German, I already had several years by the time I really started focusing on the language. It took some time to really learn and understand the grammar (which was partially due to an ineffective teaching method of not explaining to me what a case was), but once I learned it, I really improved quickly. I also can't downplay the amount of help it had to have a source like Deutsche Welle which has such a strong focus towards learners, as well as the great availability of my favorite tv shows in German. All of these were incredibly easy to find with German. I did find ipla.tv, so that should help a lot! I guess I learned my lesson that just because one method worked with a particular language doesn't mean it will automatically work the same way with another one. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4367 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 24 of 74 14 April 2013 at 6:15am | IP Logged | |||||
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I am STILL ALIVE! I haven't done much updating due to work finishing up, then taking a month to prepare for hearings, and then work beginning again. My update isn't that wonderful, but here it goes:
German: I can say the vocabulary is slowly but surely sticking. I once again started another document review project where I'm reading in German all day, so it's becoming quite natural for me to read legal documents. This of course means that my vocabulary is not "equal." I can understand contracts, but I don't know basic words for things around the house for example. I'm working to correct this, but it's hard when you don't "need" to know the vocabulary. Polish: Primarily I'm doing listening and reading. I found a show on ipla called "Graczykowie" and I'm really enjoying it. I like it because even though I don't really understand most of it, it has a good pace, and appears to be entertaining. When I come to vocabulary I know, I actually can hear it pretty well. It's not much, but it's still something! ****************************************** I think part of the reason why my Polish has progressed slowly is that I didn't have a more clear definition of what I really want to be able to do with the language. I just set a random CEFR number, and never thought about what I actually needed to do to reach that point. So here are the new goals (and we'll see how well I actually accomplish them!) Listening: To generally identify the topic of discussion, especially when there are visual clues. Reading: To be able to understand the main points of a general news report. Speaking: To start and maintain simple interactions with people, provided the topic is only related to the issue at hand, and doesn't involve giving personal opinions, views, etc. Writing: To be able to describe basic events about what I am doing, and using simple connecting words such as "and" "but," "because." My focus here is on knowing the connecting words (especially because they took a VERY low priority in German, and my language suffers because of it). So that's the big update. I'm really hoping that it won't be two months before I update again! I'll try and be better! **Edited to add** I did have a big motivation boost this week. Some of the documents I was reviewing this week contained Slovenian, and it was basic enough that I was able to figure out what was being said through my very limited Polish knowledge. Apparently being in a situation where it can be useful really motivates me to improve. So the solution? Find more situations where I can use the language! Edited by Fuenf_Katzen on 14 April 2013 at 7:02am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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