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MithradatesTAC’14 - 鹊-Lobo-Yürükler-Rare | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| MithradatesG Newbie United States Joined 4276 days ago 30 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, French, Armenian, Turkish, Italian | Message 1 of 21 29 December 2013 at 9:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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This will be my learning log for TAC 2014. I'm learning Chinese (Mandarin), Spanish, Turkish and Armenian.
The biggest impediment for me to achieve language goals is the difficulty I have holding myself to a routine. After the time-discipline of work (since I'm working full-time now), my mind tends to wander and bounce around unproductively. I've found the language logs to be one of the most interesting parts of the forum and I think that keeping one myself will help me hold myself accountable. It will also, hopefully, allow me to record the progress of my language learning journey. My goals are: Chinese: a2/b1 -> solid b1 Spanish: a2 -> b1 (focus on spoken language) Turkish: a0 -> a2/b1 (focus on spoken language) Armenian: a1 -> b1 I've studied Mandarin Chinese for more years than I care to admit. I have a knowledge of some ~2000 hanzi and can read newspapers and official documents without much difficulty (I gained much practice doing the research for my thesis). I have a much harder time reading fiction. When pursuing self-study, I have often had a nasty habit of using written materials to the exclusion on audio and video. I've also shunned some of the easier opportunities I have for speaking practice (neighbours). This has resulted in my oral and aural abilities being frankly atrociously below my reading ability. I will therefore be incorporating much more listening and speaking practice into my study of Chinese this year than in the past. I last actively studied Spanish in highschool. I've had much informal exposure to the language over the years, however, which means that I can understand much of the meaning of conversations without quite grasping the grammatical and syntactic niceties. While I need to shore up my understanding of grammar, I desire to know Spanish primarily as a spoken language. Turkish is a language I've thrown a few glances at over the years and I have a basic understanding of its grammar and many of the most common grammatical endings. I also find the vowel harmony quite intuitive. I did hear the language as a child and maybe some of the sounds stuck in the deeper crevices of my mind. As I will be travelling to Turkey later in 2014, I wish to gain a basic ability to communicate. I will attempt to master a basic vocabulary with enough knowledge of grammar and idioms to make myself understood and understand all I need to understand as a (heritage) traveller. Armenian is a language to which I've dabbled in over the years but in 2012 decided I wanted to learn it actively. While it is a heritage language, most of my relatives do not speak it. I am learning the Western dialect as it is the dialect my family speaks/spoke. I wish to gain conversational abilities but I am also interested in Armenian literature. I will spend more time reading fiction in Armenian than in the other languages. I will post some of my intended methods soon, as much as I'm sure of them. All the Best! Edited by MithradatesG on 04 January 2014 at 4:18pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Silbermond Diglot Groupie United Kingdom xuexisprachen.wordprRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4357 days ago 64 posts - 79 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 2 of 21 29 December 2013 at 10:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Mithradates, glad to see another member of the Chinese team! :) I'll be especially
interested to see your progress in Chinese, obviously - and I think I have the same problem with you in that I can't read fiction yet either :/. Hopefully we'll both improve on that this year! I look forward to reading about your progress in your other languages, too. You've got a mix there :). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4359 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 3 of 21 29 December 2013 at 10:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome to the turkish adventure as well. We will be team mates and I am in an even lower level than you!
Nice nickname btw. I assume you chose it for the languages and not the poison :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4689 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 4 of 21 30 December 2013 at 12:02am | IP Logged | ||
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Good luck with all your studies! If you haven't already, you should dig around on the forums for tanyab's discussion
of how she learned Russian and Armenian to a high level without being in-country. IIRC, she said that she was once interviewed on Armenian TV because they thought it was so unusual that a foreigner not living in Armenia would learn Armenian so well. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| js6426 Diglot Senior Member Cambodia Joined 4521 days ago 277 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English*, Khmer Studies: Mandarin | Message 5 of 21 30 December 2013 at 1:02am | IP Logged | ||
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Welcome to the Chinese team! You seem to be in a similar position to me regarding your abilities (although my
reading isn't quite where yours is yet). I also neglected speaking/listening and focused on reading/writing last year, and it is clearly evident in how poor my skills in these areas are! Looking forward to studying Mandarin along side you and watching your progress this year! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| YnEoS Senior Member United States Joined 4255 days ago 472 posts - 893 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 6 of 21 30 December 2013 at 2:38am | IP Logged | ||
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Nice selection of languages you've got on your plate. Would love to hear more about Armenian literature when you get around to studying it.
Best of luck with your studies! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MithradatesG Newbie United States Joined 4276 days ago 30 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, French, Armenian, Turkish, Italian | Message 7 of 21 30 December 2013 at 4:51am | IP Logged | ||
Thanks all for the kind words!
;) For the languages and also because it's related to a name that runs in my family. I look forward to being on everyone's team! It will make learning languages a less anti-social activity for me. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MithradatesG Newbie United States Joined 4276 days ago 30 posts - 36 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, French, Armenian, Turkish, Italian | Message 8 of 21 02 January 2014 at 5:34am | IP Logged | ||
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I started my New Year's language learning schedule a day early! I've had two days now following my schedule.
CHINESE: Each day I intend to spend ~45min on Chinese. 15min watching a Chinese television program. 15min reading Chinese news or a journal article. 15min following a textbook or practicing speaking (as opportunities arise/I take the initiative). I've been watching the second episode of 舌尖上的中国 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBnjq75tMow), a beautiful documentary about foods of China. It jumps from location to location and shows a dizzying array of different cuisines, some of which are of non-Han ethnic groups. The language heard in the documentary is an interesting mix of local dialects and accents (spoken by the people interviewed) and rigidly standard Putonghua spoken by the narrator. I'm not sure whether or not these are the best language registers to listen to in order to improve my listening skills, but the food sure looks good... I've read several articles from Caixin (http://caixin.com/). I've read Xi Jinping's New Year's wishes and an article about Chinese agricultural subsidies. Heady stuff :) I actually found the latter article quite interesting... Over the next few weeks I'll be working my way through Chinese 24/7 by Albert Wolfe. It's a beginner's book, but he maintains a rigidly utilitarian perspective and provides many good bits of learning advice. The book came out in 2009, the same year I studied in China for a semester. I really wish I had had the book when it first came out. His explanations are written in very simple language. (Not that that is necessarily a plus in my mind: I love the blue-cover TY books!). The book is review for me, but will help me refocus my studies on the spoken language, as most other textbooks I know of use too formal a register for my current goals. I definitely recommend this book for beginners! SPANISH: Each day I intend to spend 40min-1h on Spanish. 20min-30min using a textbook. 20-30min listening to the radio or watching TV. Hopefully I'll also practice speaking when I have the chance. I'm currently using the DLI Headstart Spanish for Puerto Rico program. I'll be going to Puerto Rico at the end of February which has provides a delicious motivation to both reactivate my rusty Spanish as well as develop an ear for the Puerto Rican accent. To really develop my ear for Puerto Rican Spanish, I'm watching Borinqueando on Univision PR (http://puertorico.univision.com/shows-de-tv/borinqueando/). The hosts of the show are somewhat ridiculous (although they've grown on me), but it's perfect for my learning goals as they travel around Puerto Rico interviewing people from different social and educational levels. It's given me exposure to speakers with heavy Puerto Rican accents. It's also showed me some places that I want to go to in February... I'll post updates to Turkish and Armenian tomorrow. All the Best! 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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