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Amerykanka’s TAC 2013, Teams Żubr & Nebun | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5169 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 105 of 176 03 May 2013 at 3:02am | IP Logged | ||
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Me hace falta escribir más en español (como vuelvo y vuelvo a repetir). Hoy consideraba mis habilidades y
me preguntaba qué debería hacer en los pocos minutos que tenía para estudiar. Entonces, como si una bombilla se hubiera encendido en mi mente, me ocurrió la idea de escribir algo. Por lo tanto quiero escribir algo, pero desgraciadamente no me siento muy inspirada. Así que ¡no esperen que mis esfuerzos produzcan una joya de escritura! Creo que me quedaré con un monólogo sobre mis estudios, pero mejor escribir algo aburrido que no escribir nada. (¿Se han dado cuenta de que no tengo nada de decir y por eso divago mucho? ¡De todos modos estoy practicando! :)) Bien, ahora voy a empezar de verdad y darles mi opinión sobre Cien Años de Soledad. MI OPINIÓN Hasta ahora he leído 167 páginas, pero ¡todavía me quedan 319! No cabe duda de que éste es el libro más largo y más difícil que he leído nunca. Sigo enseñando decenas de palabras nuevas nada más abrir la cubierta - vocablos todavía no buscados en el diccionario se apretujan en las páginas de mi pobrecito libro azul de vocabulario. Este libro me ofrece muchos retos más que las novelas de Laura Gallego García. Hice muy bien cuando decidí que me hacía falta material de lectura más avanzado. Una vez dicho eso, hay que decir que este libro no me gusta mucho. La mayoría del contento simplemente no me interesa y no me relaciono fácilmente con los personajes. No quiero maldecir del talento del autor, porque - que yo vea - está muy dotado para la escritura. Hay unas escenas muy bien descritas; traza el mundo de Macondo para que todos lo puedan ver. Para mí García Márquez escribe bien, pero de temas que no me caen bien. En resumen, voy a enseñar mucho leyendo Cien Años de Soledad, pero no voy a divertirme tanto como si estuviera leyendo algo más a mi gusto. Quería terminar el libro para el fin de mayo, pero a este ritmo no va a ser posible y no sé si puedo encontrar más tiempo que lo habitual para leerlo. Tengo que elaborar un plan de estudios nuevo. A más tardar lo terminaré para septiembre. ¡Todas correcciones y comentarios se aprecian mucho! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5169 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 106 of 176 04 May 2013 at 5:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am seriously going to stop saying that I think next week will be less busy! I was busy again this week.
This upcoming week will probably be fairly busy, too, but after that I think I can safely say I'll have more time. On a brighter note, I went to see a specialist about my hands and he didn't think it would be a lasting problem - so there are no issues with typing on the horizon! :) Anyway, here is my update. ITALIAN: 1 minute I reviewed my flashcards, but that's it. I really need to get going here! I only have about a year and a half before my projected three months in Italy. POLISH: 26 minutes Don't laugh. I know I said I'd have more time for Polish this week. I spent these 26 minutes listening to Drużyna Pierścienia. LATIN: 4 hours 47 minutes FLASHCARD REVIEW (1 hour 37 minutes) Not much to report. TRANSLATION (45 minutes) I spent this time translating a (small) paragraph and a half of St. Augustine. The cool part was that, as I was translating one line, it sounded really familiar. And then I realized that I had heard it in a popular Christian song ("Alive Again" by Matt Maher) and it turned out that Maher had based the song on St. Augustine's experiences. I was really excited! GRAMMAR STUDY & REVIEW (1 hour 25 minutes) I spent part of this time (25 minutes) on Unit 35 of Collins. I am now done with Collins - hurray! Not that I didn't like it (I did, just not as much as Wheelock's), but there's always a satisfactory feeling when you finish a textbook. I spent the other hour on the beginning of my in-depth study and review of the dative case. I have always struggled with the dative case and its usages more than with the other four cases and theirs, so I thought a comprehensive review was in line. It has been fun so far! OTHER (1 hour) Discussion in class. SPANISH: 5 hours 28 minutes FLASHCARD REVIEW & VOCABULARY ACQUISITION (3 hours 2 minutes) My Flashcard Count is 5,267 cards. LISTENING COMPREHENSION (1 hour 13 minutes) I listened to random radio stations. WRITING (30 minutes) This is how long it took me to write that post in Spanish a few days ago. READING (43 minutes) I read 17 more pages of Cien Años de Soledad. For details, see the post in Spanish above. ANCIENT GREEK No study time, but I just had to say that I can't wait until September and the start of my Greek studies! Maybe I'll brush up on my knowledge of the alphabet before then. Edited by Amerykanka on 04 May 2013 at 5:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| roberto7 Newbie Joined 4221 days ago 25 posts - 27 votes Studies: English | Message 107 of 176 04 May 2013 at 11:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I read about your method to learn Spanish language and it's amazing.
I wish you the best of luck to learn all your beautiful languages:) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5169 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 108 of 176 11 May 2013 at 5:12pm | IP Logged | ||
Thank you! Good luck to you, too! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5169 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 109 of 176 13 May 2013 at 3:29am | IP Logged | ||
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Update time - I will try to make this update quick and hopefully interesting! :)
POLISH: 1 hour 5 minutes I listened to Drużyna Pierścienia on YouTube. LATIN: 3 hours 50 minutes FLASHCARD REVIEW & VOCABULARY ACQUISITION (1 hour 45 minutes) I found a list of vocabulary words online divided into groups of 45. I already know a lot of the words, so my plan is to go through 45 words per day. Hopefully I can increase my vocabulary quite a bit over the next month. TRANSLATION (35 minutes) I translated some Cicero - and it made sense! Yay! I work on my reading comprehension by reading the Latin out loud a few times, translating it carefully into English, and then reading the Latin again. I want to be able to understand Cicero's writings automatically, not just translate them. GRAMMAR STUDY & REVIEW (45 minutes) I continued my study and review of the dative case. I'm almost done now! Next I'll move on to the genitive or the accusative. OTHER (45 minutes) Discussion in class. SPANISH: 6 hours 40 minutes FLASHCARD REVIEW & VOCABULARY ACQUISITION (2 hours 50 minutes) Not much to say. My flashcard count is currently 5,283 cards. LISTENING COMPREHENSION (2 hours 18 minutes) I listened to a few chapters of Harry Potter 1 and to a few radio stations. My listening comprehension has improved a great deal. I still have a long way to go, but I understand at least 90%-95% of what I hear. Often I understand up to 99%. Of course, occasionally there are speakers that are very difficult for me to understand; in such instances my comprehension drops to around 75%-80%, but that's the exception, not the rule. READING (1 hour 32 minutes) I read 20 more pages of Cien Años de Soledad (52 minutes). Then I read a biography of José Martí on this website and a few pages of his essay "Nuestra América" (40 minutes). I think this essay is the hardest thing I've ever had to read in Spanish - which means that I can't wait to keep reading! :) Edited by Amerykanka on 13 May 2013 at 3:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5169 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 110 of 176 16 May 2013 at 3:50am | IP Logged | ||
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News flash - I finished reading Vanity Fair this morning! I was so glad that Amelia and Dobbin got a
happy ending. :) Next book up is Agnes Grey by Anne Brontë. This is my first experience with Anne's writings, although I've read most of Charlotte's novels and I've read Emily's Wuthering Heights. I am curious to see which sister I will like the best! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5169 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 111 of 176 21 May 2013 at 2:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Here comes an update . . . and in the next post I will be revealing my exciting plans for the summer! :)
POLISH: 1 hour 51 minutes FLASHCARD REVIEW (21 minutes) Self-explanatory. LISTENING COMPREHENSION (1 hour 20 minutes) More LOTR. READING (10 minutes) A few pages of Harry Potter 1. LATIN: 5 hours 21 minutes FLASHCARD REVIEW (2 hours 1 minute) Self-explanatory. VOCABULARY ACQUISITION (2 hours 40 minutes) I am plowing right through that word list. I may be about to break the vocabulary barrier! :) TRANSLATION (40 minutes) I spent this time translating paragraphs from Cicero. Truth to be told, I was supposed to do a lot more translating than this, but then I got scared of the next paragraph and so I have been procrastinating. Not good! But my next post will contain quite a bit of info about Latin translation - I am not beaten yet! :) SPANISH: 9 hours 43 minutes VOCABULARY ACQUISITION & FLASHCARD REVIEW (3 hours 39 minutes) This time was divided pretty evenly between flashcard review and vocabulary acquisition. My Anki deck currently numbers 5,323 cards. LISTENING COMPREHENSION (2 hours 30 minutes) I listened to a lot of different radio stations and a podcast. READING (3 hours 35 minutes) I did not read any of Cien Años de Soledad last week - I decided that I needed to branch out a bit and spend a week on other authors and poets. I finished reading "Nuestra América" by José Martí and it was really, really hard. So much so that next time I have to read something by Martí I just might cry. ;) I read a (brief) biography of Rubén Darío and then his poem "A Roosevelt"; a biography of Nicolás Guillén and then his poem "Balada de los dos abuelos"; and finally a biography of Pablo Neruda and then his poem "Walking Around". I liked Guillén's poem the best and I disliked Neruda's. Tomorrow I'm going to read "Chac Mool" by Carlos Fuentes and then it's back to Macondo! Edited by Amerykanka on 21 May 2013 at 2:44am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5169 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 112 of 176 21 May 2013 at 3:20am | IP Logged | ||
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Now that I have last week's update behind me, I can explain my plans for the summer. I am very excited
about them (more details below). First, I think some statistics are in order. Total Spanish Study Time in 2013: 135 hours 59 minutes Total Latin Study Time in 2013: 89 hours 16 minutes Total Polish Study Time in 2013: 55 hours 37 minutes Total Italian Study Time in 2013: 5 hours 13 minutes TOTAL STUDY TIME IN 2013: 286 hours 5 minutes 47.53% of my study time (almost half!) has been spent on Spanish, 31.20% on Latin, 19.44% on Polish, and 1.82% on Italian. And I know that this does not add up to exactly 100%, but I am too tired to carry the percentages out to more decimal places. Besides, you get the point. Almost 80% of my time has been devoted to Spanish and Latin, so, for the next month or so, I have a marvelous new plan . . . focus on Polish and Italian! This does NOT mean that I am going to abandon Spanish and Latin. I will continue to review my flashcards, learn new words (in the case of Latin), and practice my reading and listening comprehension (in the case of Spanish). However, I plan to put Cien Años de Soledad on the back burner, so to speak, and enjoy some teen/young adult fiction. To tell the truth, I have exhausted myself focusing on these two languages for school, so I need a bit of a break. I am allowing myself the rest of May and June to have fun with Polish and Italian. In July, I will have to get going with Spanish again in preparation for my mission trip to Nicaragua. July and August will also be my Latin translation months. Bolstered by the hundreds of new words that I will have learned, I hope to make some real progress. But now to the exciting part: Polish and Italian! Polish Plans First, flashcards. I really must return to my former discipline. I also need to continue transferring my paper flashcards onto my iPad. Second, reading. I am in the middle of three different books - I keep on getting stuck, thanks to my greedy languages (read Spanish and Latin :)). Over the next two weeks I will finish Harry Potter 1 and then I am going to attack Kamienie na szaniec and Stara baśń. No more procrastination! Third, grammar. I am making a list of my weaknesses and I am going to eliminate them one by one. I will also be finishing those grammar books I found. Fourth, listening comprehension. I have actually been doing pretty well with this, so I will mostly be continuing with LOTR. I will add in some radio stations eventually. Fifth, writing. I need to start writing again. Sixth, conversation. I plan to keep Skyping. I am thrilled that I will be able to get some real Polish study time in. Much as I like Spanish and Latin, Polish is still my favorite. Italian Plans I don't have any specific plans other than making progress in Assimil. I chose Italian for practical reasons, but I am still excited to be learning a new language again. Hopefully I will get a lot of studying done, but I will also be relaxing quite a bit, so we'll see. Either way, expect to see more Polish and Italian and less Spanish and Latin over the next 6 weeks. Edited by Amerykanka on 21 May 2013 at 3:25am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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