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HŘÍBEČEK TAC13- CZECHOSLOVAK & jäŋe/ledús | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes  Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 41 of 96 15 February 2013 at 8:47pm | IP Logged |
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That is actually a very good theory. :-D
One of my best friends recetly said that I am just not for everyone. I am grateful that there are friends who enjoy communication with me but in general, I am horrible at it. Not because of being too shy (that happens rarely) but I often say things that may offend someone even though I do not mean to offend them (and if I had the chance to explain, they wouldn't feel offended at all, I'm sure). So, now I can accidentally offend people in several more languages, yay! Well, hribecek, i really admire your studies and your level of immersion. But on the other hand, I don't envy you. The Czech book market is too expensive. The publishers count on stupidity (widely spread even among readers), so they make books as large as possible so they could make the more expensive. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| nuriayasmin70 Diglot Senior Member Germany languagesandbeyoRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4519 days ago 132 posts - 162 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: SpanishB1, Portuguese, Czech, Hungarian | Message 42 of 96 15 February 2013 at 10:43pm | IP Logged |
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How funny, I'm not the kind of person who's much into socialising, either. On the other
hand, I'm not exactly shy (although I hate to speak in front of more than three people). However, I always think I'm not interested in things most people around me are interested in. For example, I've always considered it a waste of time to spend hours at a pub or watching tv. I once attended a Spanish meet-up in my town but ended up saying almost nothing and feeling quite uncomfortable because they talked about movies I had never heard of, where to drink the best beer and so on and I wss just sitting around which certainly didn't help my speaking skills at all. Language exchanges don't work well for me, either. For some reason I always meet very talkative persons who speak about 80% of the time, often about subjects I'm not interested in, and so I don't gain much from it. Therefore paid lessons are a better choice for me (and I easily drop teachers who talk more than I do) and since I started teaching German on italki I can afford 4 - 5 lessons per week as I pay for them with the credits I earn. It's a perfect solution for me. I enjoy teaching German and feel absolutely comfortable with my Czech and Spanish lessons. And I think I've accepted that I will never be a very social person. I learn languages so that I can talk to people but being able to read in a foreign language is as important to me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hribecek Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5347 days ago 1243 posts - 1458 votes Speaks: English*, Czech, Spanish Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian | Message 43 of 96 17 February 2013 at 3:56pm | IP Logged |
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@Cavesa - You're right about Czech book prices. Luckily I borrow a lot of my books from Czech friends so I don't have to get conned too much. I do buy books too though a few times a year, but I don't mind too much because I don't have a choice when my friends don't have the book to lend and I know I particularly want that book.
Regarding immersion, that's one thing that really gets to me about my lack of progress. I am so immersed and have been so for a few years now, but still I feel like a clumsy beginner when speaking to strangers or certain people in Czech. @nuriayasmin - I have the same problem with language exchanges. I always tend to end up listening to the other person most of the time or for example my Hungarian exchange partner always switches to English during the Hungarian section of our chats. As a result, like you, I lose motivation for such exchanges. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tajosto Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4655 days ago 54 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Czech | Message 44 of 96 18 February 2013 at 7:18pm | IP Logged |
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Wow, it's such a relief to hear from so many other people who don't like to socialize just for the sake of socializing.
So much of the online advice seems to be to strike up conversations with complete strangers, or do online language exchange, etc. However, I really dislike "small talk", and I'm bad at it, so I've felt quite stuck in terms of practicing my Czech. It's a relief to know that people who aren't social butterflies can also learn languages. Thank you to all of you for being so honest here! I appreciate it. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hribecek Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5347 days ago 1243 posts - 1458 votes Speaks: English*, Czech, Spanish Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian | Message 45 of 96 24 February 2013 at 8:30pm | IP Logged |
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@Tajosto - I'm also pleased to see that at least in the Czechoslovak team a lot of us seem to be similar in this way.
UPDATE My TV has just been updated to digital and as a result I now have 3 Slovak channels! I've watched a few programmes and films on it already. On STV2 there was even a Hungarian programme which I watched. I wasn't bothered about getting the update, even though it was free but now I'm delighted! I have a question about Slovak from my observations - At the end of 'Troj' in Slovak, Archilles tells his girlfriend "choď!", when he wants her to go away. Is this a difference between Czech and Slovak in the Imperative because in Czech he would say "jdi!" or "běž!"? "Choď!" would only be used to mean something like "go to school every day!" or something similar, not for a one time going away. I know the rules for using the Imperative in Czech regarding imperfective/perfective/indeterminate etc. etc. verbs, but are they different in Slovak? Edited by hribecek on 24 February 2013 at 8:31pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| hribecek Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5347 days ago 1243 posts - 1458 votes Speaks: English*, Czech, Spanish Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian | Message 46 of 96 20 March 2013 at 5:35pm | IP Logged |
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I've been so lazy with updates lately, so here I go.
POLYGLOT CONFERENCE IN BUDAPEST The best news for me is that my place has been confirmed at the Polyglot Conference on May 18th and 19th and my new passport has arrived, so there's now very little that can go wrong. Obviously I'm not going there as a polyglot, but as a spectator. I've never been starstruck before, but I think I really will be when meeting the polyglots there, for me they're bigger stars than any sports star, royal family member or Politician etc. Unfortunately there are only 100 tickets available for it, so I guess there won't be many people from this community there. CZECH At the conference they're planning to set up situations for us to get to use the languages we're comfortable in. I wrote Czech and Spanish as comfortable and Hungarian as get by level. This all means extra motivation to get my Czech to as fluent level as possible to do myself justice. So I've read the first 2 Hunger Games books and half of the 3rd in the last few weeks. I've also had more lessons and watched lots of Czech films. SPANISH Writing that I'm comfortable in Spanish means that I really need to brush up my knowledge as I was getting quite rusty. With that in mind I've had four 90 minute conversation based classes which have been a great refresher. The Chilean teacher also gives us lots of homework, so doing that has helped too. I feel like I'm getting back towards my speaking with little effort level. HUNGARIAN As I said, the conference is in Budapest, so what greater motivation to throw myself back into intensive Hungarian study. I've been lazy with it lately, because I've been devoting so much extra time to Czech and especially Spanish, but I can feel the approach of the conference and the resurgence of Hungarian energy it is giving me. OTHER I would also like to brush up my knowledge of the Cyrillic alphabet before the conference. I know it won't be like that, but I imagine language quizzes and posters in various languages and I want to be as ready as possible for every possible scenario. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| nuriayasmin70 Diglot Senior Member Germany languagesandbeyoRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4519 days ago 132 posts - 162 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: SpanishB1, Portuguese, Czech, Hungarian | Message 47 of 96 23 March 2013 at 12:17am | IP Logged |
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It will be interesting to hear about your experiences at the conference. I had thought about going there as I would have loved to visit Budapest but then I realized it's the Pentecostal weekend when I usually work. Instead I'm now planning to spend a couple of days in Czech Republic the week before.
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| hribecek Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5347 days ago 1243 posts - 1458 votes Speaks: English*, Czech, Spanish Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian | Message 48 of 96 20 April 2013 at 6:35pm | IP Logged |
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@nuriayasmin - Enjoy the days in the Czech Republic, I can't wait for the conference, although I think I'll be quite nervous.
Update time! So my main motivation for languages these days is the Polyglot Conference in Budapest, which I will be attending as a very interested spectator. The speaker list looks very interesting with most of them being well known internet polyglots. I think I've made some important steps since my last update. POLISH I've suddenly had a rush of interest in Polish and have gone with it. I've reviewed the false friends between Czech and Polish and done lots of Polish listening and general vocabulary reviews. I'm concentrating on the spoken word this time, rather than the written form. I want to get my passive skills up to a 60% level. CYRILLIC ALPHABET As I said in my last update, I've been meaning to properly learn this for ages and finally got round to it. I've spent at least a couple of hours on it and worked through my wife's Russian Berlitz book. I'm not so bothered about learning Russian itself at the moment, just the alphabet and can say now that I can read (very slowly) in Cyrillic. HUNGARIAN I had been really slacking off with Hungarian, but it was actually a video by one of the conference speakers - Alex Rawlings - about Hungarian that suddenly awoke my interest again and the last few days I've been focusing heavily on it. I've mainly been doing vocabulary reviews, focused listening activities and a bit of speaking to myself. I can converse to a basic level and get by in Hungarian but I want to be a lot less rusty before the conference. SPANISH I've now attended eight 90 minute conversation classes in the last eight weeks and have done all of the homework (about 1 hour a week). We've been focusing a lot on the differences between the past simple and past imperfective, which is a much needed review for me. I'm content with this amount of Spanish a week to get rid of my rustiness. I've also bought a Spanish book with Audio CD - Tales from Madrid or something like that. CZECH The usual stuff. Plus I've joined my local library and borrowed a huge book of detective stories, which should keep me going for a month or 2. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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