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Jo’s B2 Trifecta TAC’13 Alef, Divan,Nebun | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| JohannaNYC Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4453 days ago 251 posts - 361 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, English*, Italian Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 1 of 50 12 December 2012 at 11:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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My name's Johanna and I'm from NYC (very original) and this is my first time
participating in a TAC. I'm in 3 teams: Team Alef (Middle Eastern) Team Divan (Croatian) Team Nebun (Slavic and Romance) I'm not into horse races, but my experience with my first 6WC this past November has made it obvious that competition is a greater motivator than I realized. So I've decided to have my languages compete amongst themselves to see who wins in reaching the coveted B2 level first. I'm betting in the order I think they will reach B2, not the way I wish they would reach it in a perfect world. This is my 2013 Trifecta: 1. Italian I just started learning Italian on Dec. 1st 2012. However, because it's so close to Spanish I can understand 90% or more of the Assimil dialogues the first time I hear them with the textbook closed. Of course, when it comes to understanding natives speaking among themselves is more 65%. However, I'm tired of understanding and having to answer in Spanish because I can't speak any Italian. So starting today (12/19/12) I'm adding Pimsleur Italian, as I haven't found another system that gets me speaking so quickly. I expect to finish Assimil's "Italian With Ease" in late March and if their claims are true that means I will have reached B1. So technically speaking I could reach B2 in Italian by summer. The main thing that could hold me back from reaching my goal in a timely manner is lack of motivation. I don't have any real reasons for wanting to learn Italian other than it being so close to Spanish (i.e. easy) and because I enjoy how musical it is. I just signed for the major challenge, so hopefully between that, being on a team and keeping a log I will stay motivated. Italian Resources: - Pimsleur - Assimil Italian with Ease - Italian with Paul Noble - FSI Italian FAST - Learn In Your Car Italian Complete - GLOSS - Native Speakers happy to help - I can borrow more courses from the public library that I can possibly use in a lifetime. 2. Croatian I've been learning Croatian for about 4 months, but concentrating on it for the 6WC has given me a great boost in understanding what I hear and read. If only I could keep up the pace of the 6WC for a few more months without burning out, I would certainly reach B2 by Autumn 2013. But I did get burned-out before the last week of the challenge and I barely studied Arabic at all, let alone alone also find time for Italian. So I'll have to find a less intense way to reach my goal. Luckily, I have enough resources to last me for most of the year. I signed up for the Major Challenge (50 books, films, conversations and pieces of writing) completing it will be key in reaching my goal in all 4 areas. I will have a Croatian native staying with me for at least a couple of weeks at the beginning of the year so I expect to progress even faster than I have so far. After all in-person exchanges are a lot more fun than with strangers on Skype. B2 by the end of the year seems doable. Croatian Resources: - Teach Yourself Croatian - BCS Textbook - Pimsleur Croatian - The rough Guide to Croatian Phrasebook (with audio) - Lonely Planet Croatian Phrasebook - Basic Croatian Blog - GLOSS - Native Speaker happy to help (- FSI Serbo-Croatian) 3. Arabic I've been trying to learn Egyptian Arabic on and off for the last 3-4 years (more off than on). During this time I've done the Pimsleur course many times, but the lack of resources for this dialect (or my ignorance of what was available) was very discouraging. Luckily I found out through this forum that the Michel Thomas course is in the Egyptian dialect so now I'm once again all excited about learning on my own. I'm also learning to write Arabic script in order to acquire new vocabulary and know how to pronounce it correctly. But even in writing I'm concentrating more on Egyptian than on MSA, as unlike other dialects there's a good body of literature and popular books written in this dialect. In other words I'm still very much a beginner. I want to take italki lessons, but I first need to determine what my weak spots are. I've never taken private lessons, so this is out of my comfort zone. I'm definitely gonna be doing a lot of Scriptorium with song lyrics once I get better with the script. After all music is THE reason why I'm so adamant about learning the Egyptian dialect as opposed to MSA or Levantine. I plan on using Arabic as my TL for one of the 6WC, so hopefully I'll be able to make up for time lost this fall. I'm also taking part in a Half Super Challenge with 100 films. I wanted to do 100 films + 100 conversations, but that's not one of the options, so I will keep track of the conversations on here. Arabic Resources: - Pimsleur Egyptian Arabic - Lonely Planet Phrasebook - Michel Thomas Arabic - Alif Baa Textbook - Write it in Arabic - Living Language Ultimate Arabic - iTalki Skype lessons - Egyptian Arabic Dialect Course - GLOSS - DLI Egyptian Arabic Course - Colloquial Arabic of Egypt - kullu tamam! SUMMARY Goals: Italian A0->B2 by Mid-Summer 2013 DONE Croatian A1->B2 by Autumn Equinox 2013 Arabic A1->B2 by Winter Solstice 2013 (I can dream, can't I?) Plan to get to B2: Italian: 7 hours of study time per week + immersion and speaking with natives Croatian: 10 hours of study time per week + immersion and speaking with natives Arabic: 12 hours of study time per week + immersion and speaking with natives I order to avoid burn-out I'm only gonna study each language 6 days per week and on the 7th day only do fun, immersion activities. Edited by JohannaNYC on 27 June 2013 at 5:50pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 TheGreaterFool Pro Member Canada Joined 4373 days ago 65 posts - 78 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Modern Hebrew, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 50 19 December 2012 at 2:35am | IP Logged | ||
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Johanna
I love how you set up your first post! It is great how you outline your reasons and goals for each language. Reading through them is very inspiring. Good luck with the 2013 Trifecta! cheers niels 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5396 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 50 19 December 2012 at 3:03am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm glad to have you on board for the TAC, and I'm really excited to see your progress over the next year. I'm not studying Arabic, but Croatian and Italian are both on my list for next year, so I will be stalking you. :) Good luck with all your studies! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JohannaNYC Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4453 days ago 251 posts - 361 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, Italian Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 4 of 50 19 December 2012 at 3:21am | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you both, I can't wait 'til January 1st so the games can officially begin.
TheGreaterFool, I'm glad you found it inspiring as that's the idea behind the TAC, sometimes we just need to see what other people are doing to keep us going. Kerrie, feel free to stalk away I post the titles of what I watch on the Super Challenge bot page and I just added a major challenge for Italian too. If I reach all my goals this coming year I'll be stalking you for Russian the year after. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6143 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 5 of 50 19 December 2012 at 12:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi teammate! I'm looking forward to following your progress this year, particularly with Croatian. Good luck with everything and I hope you'll achieve your goals and reach B2 in all three languages by year's end.
Sretno! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JohannaNYC Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4453 days ago 251 posts - 361 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, Italian Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 6 of 50 19 December 2012 at 1:49pm | IP Logged | ||
Hvala lijepa! I'm glad we're double teammates. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JohannaNYC Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4453 days ago 251 posts - 361 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English*, Italian Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Arabic (Egyptian) | Message 7 of 50 24 December 2012 at 7:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've decided to take this last week of 2012 to slowly work myself up to what my study
routine will be like starting 2013. This is where I am right now in my Super/Major Challenges: Italian Major Challenge Read 0/50 books Watched 0/50 films Had 0/50 conversations Wrote 0/50 pieces of writing Croatian Major Challenge Read 0.5/50 books Watched 11.6/50 films Had 0.2/50 conversations Wrote 0/50 pieces of writing Arabic Half Super Challenge + Conversation Watched 0.3/100 films Had 0.1/100 conversations 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kc2012 Diglot Groupie South Africa Joined 4474 days ago 44 posts - 65 votes Speaks: English*, Afrikaans Studies: Dutch, Mandarin, Russian | Message 8 of 50 24 December 2012 at 10:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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Wow, you're awesome!
Arabic and Croatian are certainly tough languages, but I believe if you follow your routine and study hard you'll reach your goals :) Good luck in 2013!! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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