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BAnna’s TAC 2014 Spaß-Lobo-IndRussian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4145 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes  Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 185 of 236 14 May 2014 at 12:25pm | IP Logged | ||
Don't let the bickering get you down. I agree with you…it's all very boring. I haven't logged a thing yet, since I want to wait until I finish a whole novel. But I'm happy to be participating in the SC and I look forward to seeing how much I progress! I stay out of the SC threads (although I do read them), and don't care at all about my ranking. (Good thing, since I'm currently at 0/0! Ha!) I do like the idea of weekly streaks, though, so I'll use the twitter bot to update every Saturday. Just remember the goal: read a lot and watch a lot. That's it. Have fun. Ignore the SC threads if they're bringing you down. I'm hoping that the back-and-forth ends soon, and that people start focusing more on the media that they're consuming and less on twitter bot algorithms. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4623 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 186 of 236 17 May 2014 at 5:48am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks gbod, patrickwillen and Stelle.
Luckily, I'm just too busy doing the Super Challenge right now to bother looking at or caring anything about what's going on in the discussion thread. Just like last time. On Coursera, I'm doing two courses, both of which I'm really enjoying: "Fundamentos de la escritura" (all in Spanish, designed to improve writing skills) and "Understanding Russians: Contexts of Intercultural Communication". This last one just started and has brought up some interesting questions such as "Do you think differently in another language?" I'm not pursuing a certificate for either of these, so there's no pressure to take quizzes, etc. but I'm enjoying both. If only I had more time available! Nice reference on accentuation from the above course in Spanish: Reglas de acentuación Las palabras se clasifican de acuerdo a sus sílabas tónicas (la sílaba que más suena). Si la primera sílaba de derecha a izquierda es tónica, se le llama Aguda, y lleva acento siempre y cuando termine con n, s o vocal. Ejemplos: -Can-ción: termina en n, SÍ lleva acento. -Pa-rís: termina en s, SÍ lleva acento. Si la segunda sílaba de derecha a izquierda es tónica, se le llama Grave. Estas palabras NO llevan acento cuando terminan en n, s o vocal. Ejemplos: -Re-su-men: termina en n, NO lleva acento. -Ár-bol: no termina en n, s o vocal, SÍ lleva acento. Si la tercera sílaba de derecha a izquierda es tónica, se le llama Esdrújula. Estas palabras siempre llevan acento. Ejemplos: -Mur-cié-la-go: la sílaba tónica es la tercera, SÍ lleva acento. -Mú-si-ca: la sílaba tónica es la tercera, SÍ lleva acento. Si la cuarta sílaba (cuarta en adelante) es tónica, se le llama Sobresdrújula. Al igual que las esdrújulas, las sobresdrújulas siempre llevan acento. Ejemplo: -Dí-ga-se-lo: la sílaba tónica es la cuarta, SÍ lleva acento. Edited by BAnna on 17 May 2014 at 6:07am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4623 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 187 of 236 24 May 2014 at 3:50am | IP Logged | ||
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The Super Challenge is taking up a lot of my time, but it's fun. I'll put a summary at the end of the month of what I've read/watched in Spanish and German, but I have learned that it's not worth my time watching Mexican telenovelas for a couple of reasons: first, the plots and acting are so outrageously bad. It's unintentionally funny at first, but it gets old fast. I spent almost 8 hours watching one, but eventually had to give up and go read the summary to find out the inevitable happy ending-good rewarded/evil punished. The other reason is that in all that time, I only picked up 2 new vocabulary words: "perdigones"(bird shot), and "chueco" (bow-legged), a word I used to know but forgot. Had I spent 8 hours reading, I would have picked up a lot more useful vocabulary --and "perdigones" turned up in a book I was reading... Watching/listening to Peninsular, Caribbean or South American (Argentinean) Spanish is much more likely to expose me to more unfamiliar words or idioms. My original plan was to just work through the video collection at the library, but now I'll need to be more selective.
Russian is like slogging through mud after Spanish and German, but it's very slowly getting easier. My new record is "only" 15 minutes to read four pages...woot! My polydog.org log will house my progress in Russian, but I do want to encourage others who might be struggling with the Super Challenge. I did the last one in German starting at about B1, which was not easy, but didn't feel like I had landed on another planet. It's a whole different ballgame starting the challenge at A1 in a non-Latin alphabet, but I am starting to understand more and it hasn't even been a month yet. Perseverance pays off. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4623 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 188 of 236 01 June 2014 at 8:28am | IP Logged | ||
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May 2014 Super Challenge ***=really liked /and ---=waste of time
Other stuff is in progress, will update next month on those once completed; am putting Russian stuff here after all since it's easier to keep it all together. Spanish Books Completed: Corazón tan blanco (Novel by Javier Marías-Spain) *** about secrets, guilt, trust, power, etc. Las Tres Estaciones (Detective thriller by Martin Cruz Smith-English original: Three Stations, murder mystery set in Moscow) Una Aventura Lingüística (Steve Kaufmann autobiography on Lingq site) Valor de ley (Western by Charles Portis-English original: True Grit) Rodolfo Walsh para principiantes (non-fiction bio of Argentinean writer) Nocturno de Chile (Novella by Roberto Bolaño-Chile) dying priest-literary critic under Pinochet Spanish Films/Audio Completed: Argentina documentaries: César Milstein - "Malbrán, ilusión y desencanto" and -"Descubrir o inventar- Los anticuerpos monoclonales" (2 episodes from Canal Encuentro series about the scientist, has narration partly in Spanish and partly in English, with Spanish subtitles) *** Che ascenso y caida (bio of Che Guevara) Cuba: Las aventuras de Juan Quin Quin , (political comedy) Documentary: Por primera vez (villagers seeing a movie for the first time) México: El Atentado (about attempt on life of Porfirio Díaz) Telenovela: Abismo de Pasión(---)Terrible, "abismo" is fitting, quit after 2 DVDs España: El embrujo de Shanghai (post Civil-War) El laberinto griego(---)detective story, weird plot Amantes *** true crime/love story US: audiobook Los Santos de Aguas Mansas, California (---) not very interesting short stories with owner of a botánica as a common thread, overly perky reader, quit it after a couple of hours TV documentary: Mundo al natural: Yellowstone*** beautiful filming German Books Completed: Wie der Soldat das Gramophon repariert (novel about the Bosnian War by Saša Stanišić) drags a bit at times, but overall pretty good Jerry Cotton-Bombenstimmung in New York (---) dime novel thriller Die Zeit (Newspaper) read intensively 2 issues Die Physiker (play about scientific ethics by Swiss Friedrich Dürrenmatt) Rico, Oskar und das Herzgebreche (funny tween kid book by Andreas Steinhöfel) Die Kleine Hexe (easy kid book by Otfried Preußler) Schachnovelle (novella by Austrian Stefan Zweig) Chess and insanity *** Homo Faber (novel by Swiss Max Frisch) logical engineer meets Fate *** German Films/Audio Completed: Sommerlügen audiobook***: short stories featuring melancholy protagonists This Aint California *** Documentary about skateboarding scene in DDR Die Kleine Hexe Hörspiel- Radio play for kids Der stumme Tod audiobook-detective story set in 30's Berlin Woyzeck-Werner Herzog/Klaus Kinski film, odd but interesting Der Hai, der Hummer und ich-audiobook(---)travel book by wife of Hardy Krüger TV Documentaries about "Asparagus" and "Ticks" Tatort Am NOT counting a cool silent film I saw called "Unter der Laterne", though I did get to read some German and see Berlin in the 20s. :) Russian is a struggle. It took me most of the month to get up to 50 pages, something I can do in about an hour in Spanish or German, but it will get easier with time and more practice. I'm not counting stuff I read in textbooks, though at times I'm really tempted. I'm sticking to only counting things that are more like real reading (even though arguably graded readers aren't that much like real reading). Russian Books (usually can only read a few pages in a half an hour), most of these are graded readers or children's stories (two examples out of a long list): First Reader in Russian and слон хортон и город кмотов (Horton hears a who) Real content with close, intensive reading: Кухня-transcript of TV show (see BigDog's post on polydog.org) Священная книга оборотня-Sacred Book of the Werewolf. This is a real novel that I'm reading side-by-side with the English version, one sentence at a time. It's WAY more interesting than the three bears or the graded readers and occasionally I'll even understand an entire sentence without resorting to the translation. Russian Films: Subtitles on: Шерлок Холмс-паяцы (Sherlock Holmes Clowns)*** Судьба Резидента-Secret Agents' Destiny-spy movie Неотправленное письмо (Letter Never Sent-adventure movie*** Обламов-(Oblamov)-classic Здравствуйте, я ваша тетя!-hello, I'm your aunt-weird comedy(---) Остров-The Island-drama Утомлённые солнцем-tragedy set in 30s USSR-subs off for part then subs on*** Чебурашка и Крокодил Гена-stop animation classic from USSR*** No subs Царь-Tsar-historical adventure, only watched 30 minutes счастье мое-my Joy-adventure, only watched 30 minutes три медведа-three bears-animated Тротро-Trotro cartoon Винни Пух-Winnie the Pooh начинаем читать по-русски-CD that comes with graded reader with the same title бибисева-BBC Russian language news podcast Short films on Cornell's Russian Dept site: Одолжите пятачок. Ешь суп!, В магазине не было кефира, these all have transcripts in Russian and an English glossary*** Кухня-comedy TV show(see BigDog's post on polydog.org for transcript)*** Edited by BAnna on 01 June 2014 at 8:38am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4623 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 189 of 236 09 June 2014 at 3:26am | IP Logged | ||
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Not updating or even reading the forum much, since I've been too busy with real life and working on improving my language skills (I guess that's a good thing). In Spanish and German, I have been reading a lot and watching/listening a lot, but because time is limited, I haven't been studying those languages formally very much at all. It seems I really ought to correct that and spend more time on grammar or learning vocabulary, but passively watching or reading is so much more entertaining...
I did branch out a bit and watch an Austrian TV show that I almost wished did have subs :)...the Viennese dialect took some getting used to. At patrickwillen's log, there are a bunch of recommendations for Austrian TV shows found on youtube. The one I watched (Kaisermuehlen Blues) reminded me of East Enders. And along the same lines of going outside of my usual fare, I'm watching Flaman in Spanish (set in Seville, with teenage slang and nerd references, a goofy but fun show, and providing a challenge because of the slang). Edited: removed a bunch of ramblings about Russian Edited by BAnna on 09 June 2014 at 7:32am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4534 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 190 of 236 09 June 2014 at 9:20am | IP Logged | ||
Isn't just reading and listening all you need to do at your level? Grammar and vocabulary come naturally if you interact with the language enough. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4623 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 191 of 236 10 June 2014 at 2:17am | IP Logged | ||
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Perhaps I shouldn't have deleted my long-winded commentary on Russian since it may have put some context to my guilty feeling that I should be formally studying German and Spanish. Basically, I spend a lot of effort studying Russian and can barely read or comprehend even very simple material. In German and Spanish, I don't study at all and just watch/read for pleasure, like I would do in English. Once in a great while I look up a word, but mostly not.
Perhaps it's a misguided work ethic thing, but I think the contrast between the lazy (but mostly fun) time spent in German and Spanish and the agonizing slog through wet cement that is Russian is just messing with my head. And there is this nagging doubt that doing artifical immersion in more than one language will be as effective as doing it was in one (last year for German). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4623 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 192 of 236 20 June 2014 at 7:34am | IP Logged | ||
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The last few times I've been on here, everything was dreadfully slow and there were constant errors. It seems at the moment things are behaving themselves, so I'll take advantage of that to make a quick update on the SC. I'm happy with the progress in everything except Russian reading.
I'm covering some weird combinations as far as content goes right now: World War I in Spanish, juvenile delinquents post-DDR in German, cartoons in Russian. I have also been watching some World Cup-related stuff (I'm mostly working while the games are live so don't see the actual games). I know quite a few people count watching sporting events of various sorts in the SC, but I'm just not sure about it for myself, since most sports commentary seems kind of inane to me, so I tend to tune it out and just watch the action. Maybe I can just listen to the audio without the video so I'd have to actually pay attention to what the announcers are saying. There's an idea... I continue to struggle a lot with reading in Russian, so rather than force myself to get through a couple of pages, I am trying to just progress in my studies so hopefully reading will get easier later. I just learned the past tense, hurrah! I also acquired a frequency dictionary for Russian with example sentences, so I could either try again with Anki or wordlists or just read through it and pick up some useful vocabulary. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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