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5 years of 日本語 TAC 13 桜/Schnitzel | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 33 of 436 23 January 2013 at 11:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well for now I think the allure of a shiny new(ish) language is winning me over. I've just signed up to do a 6WC in February with German.
I've really lost the desire to push Japanese at present. It happens from time to time, but this time it seems to have set in for a few weeks. I've been feeling pretty down lately for a number of reasons anyway. While language learning is usually a nice diversion from life's problems, this time it seems life's problems are doing all the diverting instead. I don't know if German is just another distraction, or some kind of red herring. But I think if I get myself to do something which doesn't involve me sitting around worrying about why I can't be bothered learning Japanese right now, it will be more healthy. If past patterns are any indicator, a few weeks ignoring Japanese should be all it takes to recover. We'll see. To that end, I decided not to pursue working with a tutor for now. If I can't even be bothered to switch on a TV show in Japanese (something even my husband noticed and commented on), I'm not going to make the best use of time and money through private tutoring. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4848 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 34 of 436 24 January 2013 at 1:12am | IP Logged | |||||
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I think it is okay to explore a little bit with your languages. For me, I need Japanese so I can't give up on it, but if I were to become tired of Portuguese, I would drop it in favor of something else more interesting.
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| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6621 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 35 of 436 24 January 2013 at 8:30am | IP Logged | |||||
I've never done a 6WC, but I've thought about it. Maybe I should give it a go this time. But which language to choose, Japanese or Spanish? ........ hmmm .......
I'm sort of in the same place right now. I have days when I'm too upset or stressed to think. Japanese doesn't work as well as a diversion as Spanish does. I think it is because my Japanese level is a bit too high to require intense course work, but too low to be able to easily lose myself in a book or podcast/audiobook. Movies work a little better sometimes, but I don't have many that are good enough for that. Learning Spanish requires me to listen and follow along intensely in FSI, so if I can get started on it, it is more likely to block out all other thoughts. Maybe it's the same for you with German. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 36 of 436 24 January 2013 at 9:37am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well to a certain extent I don't want to block out thoughts. There are good reasons for my mood to be low right now and I think so long as you can still look after yourself and meet important commitments, that's fine. Life isn't always rosy.
I do feel like I really need a holiday, and my chances of getting a holiday in Germany this year are much higher than a holiday in Japan, which is quite motivating. The other thing is, I don't have the same emotional stake in German as I do Japanese, it's not been part of my life for long enough yet. So if I try and fail, it really doesn't matter. Brun Ugle, you should totally sign up for the 6WC. It's supposed to be with a language you're still a beginner in, so Spanish would be ideal! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6621 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 37 of 436 24 January 2013 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Actually, the thread said B1, so I probably could do Japanese. I can't possibly be above B1, can I? It's so hard to judge yourself.
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| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 38 of 436 24 January 2013 at 7:45pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I mainly suggested Spanish because you said in your earlier post that your Japanese level is too high to require intense coursework - I think the main point of the 6WC is to motivate yourself to do this kind of intense coursework. Actually, I think some intense coursework with appropriate materials can be effective whatever your level, it's just that as a beginner you don't really have any options apart from coursework. Anyway, I just love the Twitter Bot for being so easy to use - I've tried to log my hours using spreadsheets etc and it always becomes too much of a nuisance to keep up because I have to be in front of my laptop to do it. The Twitter Bot provides a handy command line style interface I can access from anywhere with a mobile signal!
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| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 39 of 436 24 January 2013 at 8:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Please excuse the gratuitous food metaphors, but nothing motivates me more than my stomach. Plus I've spent too much time today sorting out catering for an event at work. But I have a plan (or a menu) for my approach to German over the next 6/7 weeks:
Starter: Assimil German With Ease - I shall be using this course as the starting point for everything else. Mainly to get an overview of the most important grammar and features of the language in tasty bite sized chunks. It won't leave me fully satisfied, but if it just whets my appetite for what is to come, it will be a success. Main Course: Begegungen A1+ - an A1 level textbook, which will form the meat and potatoes of my studies. It is quite similar in content and style to the free online textbook Deutsch Interaktiv provided by Deutsche Welle, but I have to admit I simply prefer learning from a dead tree book (with dead tree notepad and dead tree pencil for support). Dessert: Not an essential part of the meal, but nevertheless it can be fun to have, as long as it's not too big or heavy. I shall be using GermanPod101 and Deutsche Welle's Warum Nicht? audio course for supplementary listening material. Snacks: All German audio material I study will get loaded up onto a playlist on my phone and laptop, providing an instant source of comprehensible German input, thus offering tasty, healthy, auditory snacks throughout the day! In particular, I would like to focus on improving my listening. My experience of Japanese has taught me that listening is much more important to me than reading (which really turns my high school French experience on its head). German spelling/pronunciation is fairly predictable anyway, so I think if I can learn to listen well, it will probably take less of an effort to bring my reading level up than if I tried to develop listening skills after working on reading first. Deciding to spend some time focusing on German has also left me feeling somewhat relieved about my Japanese too. I think I'm much happier to switch my Japanese to a maintenance language than to continue battling it at a time when my heart's not in it. I've decided I'm going to continue reviewing my Kanji in Context deck on Anki, so I can pick it up from where I left off if and when my motivation returns. I haven't added anything for a while, so I don't even need to review the deck every day to keep it going. I also have 5 lesson tickets for Japonin that need to be used up before mid-February - as I've paid for them already I can't let them go to waste. I will still continue my weekly language exchange, I don't want to let my exchange partner down just because I don't feel like studying. And I will dip into TV and books if I feel like it, but not worry about it if I don't. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5185 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 40 of 436 24 January 2013 at 11:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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It sounds like you'll be doing a lot of Japanese despite not studying Japanese per se. I hope you enjoy
German. I really loved it and still do. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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