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Hidden’s TAC 2013 Log Team Asian 鶴 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Hidden Linguist Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4360 days ago 64 posts - 87 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Sign Language, French | Message 9 of 68 02 January 2013 at 12:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, the first study day of the New Year is almost over, and I’d like to think I’ve put it to good use. I only have a few more days of ‘holiday schedule’ before I’m back to the normal routine, so I’m trying to make as much productive use of the extra time as possible.
I’ve done 2 hours of active study today, and I’ve made up some more flashcards (I like to use the good old fashioned handwritten kind), with characters on one side and pinyin on the other. So far I’m not having much trouble remembering the meanings for each character in English, so I’m leaving that off for now. I’ve also turned my room into a yellow splattered ‘post it mess’, with labels on all the things that I know the characters for. Onwards and upwards. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hidden Linguist Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4360 days ago 64 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Sign Language, French | Message 10 of 68 03 January 2013 at 1:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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I didn't manage to get as much done today as I'd hoped, but I was still able to do something. I've been listening to a show that I've found in Mandarin. Most of it is going straight over my head at the moment, but I'm hoping that it will at least help me to get used to hearing the language. I'm still having trouble distinguishing sounds and tones. I also did a little bit of work on character recognition and vocab.
Hopefully I'll be a bit more productive tomorrow. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| picnick Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 4350 days ago 22 posts - 33 votes Speaks: Tagalog, English*, Spanish Studies: Korean, Mandarin | Message 11 of 68 03 January 2013 at 8:58am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think listening to the language a lot really helps in the long run! You get used to the
different sounds in the language and your ear gets a feel for how it's supposed to "listen in Mandarin." Some may call it "lazy" since it's just passive absorption, but it's worked for me in Korean and so I'm doing a lot of that now for Mandarin :) Edited by picnick on 03 January 2013 at 8:58am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| js6426 Diglot Senior Member Cambodia Joined 4521 days ago 277 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English*, Khmer Studies: Mandarin | Message 12 of 68 03 January 2013 at 2:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I agree regarding listening to the language, I think it helps to simulate an environment of immersion. I always
sleep with Mandarin podcasts/music on, even if I only get 20 minutes before falling asleep I figure it's better than nothing! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hidden Linguist Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4360 days ago 64 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Sign Language, French | Message 13 of 68 05 January 2013 at 3:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks, I’m glad other people have good experiences of doing this. I’m not really sure if just listening to the language when you can barely make heads of tails of it is helpful or not, but I figure at least it can’t hurt. I do make a conscious effort to listen to the words though, so it’s not just on as background noise. I don’t get much of a chance to hear Mandarin spoken normally, so it’s pretty much a case of ‘take what you can get’. Mandarin It's still early days for 2013, but I’ve managed to stick to my language resolutions so far, although I think some people are beginning to worry about my sanity, as I’ve started talking aloud to myself in the little bits of Mandarin that I know. O.O Oh well, some of them think I’m crazy just for wanting to learn languages anyway (and I’ve given up trying to explain why I want to). :P Grammar I’ve decided that it’s about time I started to learn some grammar, as this isn’t really dealt with in my beginner’s course. One of my books has a mini grammar section at the end, so I might take a look at that. It doesn’t have a lot of information, so it shouldn’t be too overwhelming as a starting point. italki Although I've signed up for italki, I have yet to work up the courage to actually talk to anyone on there. I don't think my level is good enough for an exchange yet, so I'm looking at the profiles of some of the tutors, and considering having some lessons. Edited by Hidden Linguist on 05 January 2013 at 4:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4869 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 14 of 68 05 January 2013 at 3:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
Great that it's going well so far! My favourite time to practice Korean by muttering to myself is while going to the bus-stop, so I'm sure some people have thought that I'm pretty much out of it. I just try to embrace that :D Talking to oneself is perfectly acceptable.
I don't remember if you've explained to us yet... Why do you want to learn languages? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5131 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 15 of 68 05 January 2013 at 3:57pm | IP Logged | |||||
I've been having conversation sessions on italki for quite a few months now. Prices are reasonable, and the system seems to work well. I'm really glad about the opportunity to get some structured speaking practice which I can tailor to my needs, and I think I wouldn't have been able to find a similar service easily in the city I live in. Please keep us updated if you decide to try out italki. You may have to shop around a bit before you find someone with whom you can work well, but I find that paying for lessons makes it much easier to get what I'm really looking for. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hidden Linguist Groupie United Kingdom Joined 4360 days ago 64 posts - 87 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Sign Language, French | Message 16 of 68 05 January 2013 at 7:44pm | IP Logged | |||||
Well at least I'm not alone. ;) I haven’t drawn too many odd looks while talking to myself walking down the streets yet, but I’m bracing myself for that inevitability when I start getting the train again from next week. O.o
Well I suppose that part of the problem I have with explaining why I want to learn languages is the fact that I can’t really explain it, but I guess I can try… Here’s an (attempt) at an explanation, as well as a bit of my history with languages. (Warning: Possible Rambling Post Alert!) I took French at school for about a year and, unsurprisingly given such a limited exposure to the language, I got almost nothing out of it. Languages weren’t compulsory as a G.C.S.E subject at the time, and when it came time to choose my subjects I was ‘encouraged’ not to continue with French by my teachers, so I picked something else. After that languages were pretty much forgotten for a while. Over the years I’ve had a couple of failed attempts at learning different languages, usually in the form of part-time college courses that I dropped out of after a couple of weeks. This finally changed for me in 2011, when I decided that I simply couldn’t put off learning languages any longer. The difference between this decision and my previous failed attempts was that I actually sat down and thought about what I was going to do, how I was going to learn, and what I wanted to get out of lessons. I knew that the classes weren’t going to be enough for me, so I started thinking about what I could do by myself as well. This actually seems quite obvious to me now but, during my failed attempts at language courses before, I was essentially relying purely on the classes (which is probably why I became so disillusioned with them and quit). Part of the reason that I’ve chosen to learn Mandarin and German, is that I really love the way that they sound (shallow I know, but I can’t help it). :P Of course, I know that there’s far more to the languages than the way that they sound, and I can’t wait to discover it all for myself. For example; I’ve been able to read poems in German (with the help of a dictionary), that I hadn’t even heard of before I started learning the language. As for Mandarin, as well as loving the way that it sounds, I’m also fascinated by the characters, the way that they look, and the fact that they all have a set stroke order (it’s almost like an art form in itself). The tones are a great challenge for me, and I’m intrigued by the fact that saying something in a different way can alter the entire meaning of the word. I’m at the stage in Mandarin where really understanding anything seems like an impossible task. I’m still having trouble distinguishing between the different tones, and the fact that so many words seem to sound alike is confusing, but I’m really enjoying the challenge that it presents. I actually have a list of languages that I would like to attempt at some point, and it’s been quite difficult to narrow that down (I wouldn’t be at all surprised if another one or two found their way onto my list in the future). Even French is on my list, despite being discouraged from learning it in the past, and I somehow ended up with a set of the Michel Thomas French CD’s, which I still haven’t started using, so it seems a shame to waste them. Maybe one day... (ahh…language wanderlust…). For now at least, I’ve had to resign myself to the fact that I’m hopelessly addicted to learning languages. Short version: I can’t really explain it, I just love learning languages. They’re challenging, complex and beautiful and I simply can’t imagine not learning them. :) Well, I hope that wasn't too much of a rambling post. :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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