Evita Tetraglot Senior Member Latvia learnlatvian.info Joined 6550 days ago 734 posts - 1036 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, German, Russian Studies: Korean, Finnish
| Message 313 of 457 01 April 2013 at 9:57pm | IP Logged |
To be honest, doing this challenge made me quite depressed. I chose level 1+ and tried three different lessons before settling on one about students visiting some elderly people with gifts during holidays. It seemed like the easiest text but it still had tons of unfamiliar vocabulary and I was completely lost during the audio. I was simply guessing for most of the exercises so there wasn't much point, I started to skip them towards the end. I guess I could have worked through it if I spent a lot of time on it but I don't think trying to decipher sentences where I understand less than 50% or trying to listen to audio where I catch only 1-2 words per sentence is an effective use of my time. Or maybe I just don't want to do it because it's too difficult. In any case, I don't think I can say I completed the challenge.
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Kami Groupie United States Joined 4517 days ago 55 posts - 62 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Korean
| Message 314 of 457 02 April 2013 at 3:46am | IP Logged |
I also had a really hard time with this challenge. I picked the one about the Olympics
and who won which medal. I saw maybe three word I was familiar with out of the whole
account. It was a little overwhelming. I tried a couple of questions but I didn't finish.
I can't say I completed this challenge either.
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Haksaeng Senior Member Korea, South Joined 6196 days ago 166 posts - 250 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, Arabic (Levantine)
| Message 315 of 457 02 April 2013 at 4:51am | IP Logged |
Personally, I've always found the GLOSS lessons extremely difficult. I was shocked when I read here that the lessons that are kicking my butt are only B1! The vocab is unreal.
I can't understand much of the audio while listening, but if I follow the lesson, it can bring me to the point where I can understand it. The hints and tips and corrections allow me to read the transcript while listening, and that's how I finally get to the point of understanding the passages.
I don't know if all the languages are that way, but the Korean ones seem extremely hard. They're good lessons but I think you have to be pretty far along in your studies to benefit from them.
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Takato Tetraglot Senior Member HungaryRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5046 days ago 249 posts - 276 votes Speaks: Hungarian*, EnglishB2, GermanB2, Japanese
| Message 316 of 457 03 April 2013 at 1:42am | IP Logged |
Evita wrote:
To be honest, doing this challenge made me quite depressed. [...] I guess I could have worked through it if I spent a lot of time on it but I don't think trying to decipher sentences where I understand less than 50% or trying to listen to audio where I catch only 1-2 words per sentence is an effective use of my time. |
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Yes! That's the most efficient way. But to each his own.
Kami wrote:
I also had a really hard time with this challenge. |
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Haksaeng wrote:
Personally, I've always found the GLOSS lessons extremely difficult. |
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Yes! I think that's why it's a challenge. If it were easy, it wouldn't have been a challenge.
I consider it would've been doable if I hadn't wanted to do it in one afternoon or if I had wanted to do it even after seeing that it's challenging. Well, we'll see what the next challenge is.
Edited by Takato on 03 April 2013 at 1:56am
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kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4845 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese
| Message 317 of 457 03 April 2013 at 3:20am | IP Logged |
I'm sorry to crash the Team Crane party uninvited... but I just noticed that you all
did a GLOSS challenge. I know some of you did well with your challenge and some
didn't, so I want to pick your brains.
I did a few lessons in GLOSS, and it seems like a pretty good resource, but difficult
to use. They throw you into the deep end very quickly, asking you to do things like
match sentence fragments when you don't know most of the vocabulary. I found myself
just skipping to the entire listening audio or reading article... or better yet,
downloading the pdf and audio and working with it away from the computer and at my own
pace.
My question is: for those who enjoyed it, how did you use the GLOSS lessons? Did you:
- go through it a few times, to help you remember the new words and grammar points?
- skip some parts and just tailor it to your own needs, or did you do each step?
- learn the words from the glossary first, then started the lesson?
- take an hour to do a lesson? A day? A week?
Any thoughts would be helpful.
Edited by kujichagulia on 03 April 2013 at 3:21am
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Haksaeng Senior Member Korea, South Joined 6196 days ago 166 posts - 250 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, Arabic (Levantine)
| Message 318 of 457 03 April 2013 at 6:45am | IP Logged |
Even though I find them difficult, I've also come to enjoy doing them occasionally (if I'm in the right mood) and I find them beneficial. I tried them but did not find them helpful when I was in the beginning or early intermediate stages. Too frustrating.
I follow the lessons exactly as they're set up. I read all the instructions in the target language, and switch to English if I'm not sure. Before many of the difficult tasks, the instructions direct the learner to preview vocab or use some other tips. I always do this extra preparatory step if it's available.
I just follow along step by step. I get a lot of wrong answers! But after I get something wrong (and even if I get it right) I click to read the explanations of all the wrong answers.
After I get something wrong I run the audio over and over, review the vocab, and read the explanations until I really understand it.
It takes me about 2 or 2 1/2 hours to do one of the audio lessons. I did a non-audio lesson and that was much faster and easier.
Then a month or so later, do the same lesson again.
I just do them once in a while for a change of pace. They have too much new vocab to absorb, but they're good for me to do once in a while to get some exposure to a kind of vocab that I don't run across routinely.
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druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4866 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian
| Message 319 of 457 03 April 2013 at 11:01am | IP Logged |
You're welcome any time in the Asian team thread, kujichagulia :)
I do the GLOSS lessons very similarly to Haksaeng. I attempt the exercises and don't worry if I get them wrong. Reading the explanations is usually the part that really helps and I've found that some of it sticks. Often I've started a lesson thinking that it's too difficult only to understand the gist of it in the end - I already count that as a success. I like to complete a lesson in one go and I don't think I've ever spent more than 2-3 hours on one of them. I also usually add important words I don't know yet to my Anki deck, which is maybe the biggest long-term benefit. I've found that a good strategy is to go through a few lessons with similar topics during the course of a few weeks.
I remember trying GLOSS at a lower level (around A2) and finding it frustrating as well. I think I even did the lesson about the Olympics that Kami picked. Because they always use actual native materials their lower levels are especially overwhelming. I still think it can be beneficial to look at a GLOSS lesson, even if you only understand a few words. So I'd like to say that Evita and Kami also completed the challenge.
If you haven't had much luck with the March challenge, here's April: (I apologize for being late again, I really should formulate these in advance...)
APRIL TEAM CHALLENGE 龍 dragon
Language study can be a lonely hobby. The April Challenge wants to change that. For this month, the goal is to communicate in your target language(s). As always, it's up to you to define how exactly you want to tackle the challenge. If you're well advanced, you might look for a language tandem or prepare a challenging topic for discussion with someone who speaks your target language. If finding someone to talk to in your target language is difficult where you live, you could try chat sites like Shared Talk. If voice chatting isn't possible, you can resort to text chatting or penpalling on sites like InterPals. Communicating through writing is also a good option for the less advanced learners, just like ordering food at a restaurant in your target language. We could even have a Skype meeting and complete the challenge together. It doesn't matter how much or little you say or write, as long as you've made an effort to put the language you're studying to use. Ideally, you'll do something that suits your level of proficiency and is a little challenging. You have time to post about your experiences with the challenge until April 30.
Edited by druckfehler on 03 April 2013 at 11:02am
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Evita Tetraglot Senior Member Latvia learnlatvian.info Joined 6550 days ago 734 posts - 1036 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, German, Russian Studies: Korean, Finnish
| Message 320 of 457 08 April 2013 at 6:57pm | IP Logged |
I would like to use Skype for this month's challenge. I don't know how to find any Koreans in Riga and I don't want to register on Shared Talk or similar sites just to complete the challenge. So maybe I could talk to someone from HTLAL on Skype? By "talking" I actually mean text-chatting, not real talking. If any Korean speakers would like to help me out please let me know :)
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