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Languid language learning (Team Advanced) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3858 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 1 of 129 20 May 2014 at 5:58pm | IP Logged |
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'Languid' is the perfect way to describe the way I do most things, in particular
language learning. Sometimes, I languish so much I stop completely, and so I'm setting up this log in the hopes of avoiding that. The idea is that the log will make me slightly more accountable than my personal blog. I'm not very goal-oriented, but I do have certain aims which are different for each of my languages: for French, I want to increase my reading fluency, and also my conversational fluency - my main problems with French being that I don't particularly enjoy reading in French, and I find it difficult to join and/or hold conversations. For Swedish, I'm focusing on developing passive skills, in particular my reading comprehension. It would be nice to be able to speak, but at this moment I'd rather understand. For German, I hope to reach an all round B1 level over the next 12-14 months, but I'd quite happily settle for a solid A2 instead. I don't have a set or preferred method, although maybe keeping a log of my efforts will help me find what works best for me. As I have different goals for my three main languages, I will use different methods. For French, I will simply read as much as I can - currently I'll aim for about four books a month, but that is subject to change. For Swedish, I'll use a variety of different online resources and anki. For German, I would like to follow a Francais-Allemand course in the hopes that I'll reduce interference between Swedish and German and learn more about both French and German grammar. I'm also learning Esperanto 'for fun'. I would like to reach a conversational level, and am using lernu.net with French as my base language. --- TAC 2015 starts on page 6 (gosh!) --- Currently Reading FRENCH: Carpe Jugulum, Kel: Noir et Blanc SWEDISH: Låt den rätte komma in, Kallocain GERMAN: Alles Sense, Tintenherz Read FRENCH: La Huitième fille, Point de lendemain Edited by Elenia on 19 April 2015 at 2:44am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Penelope Diglot Senior Member Greece Joined 3871 days ago 110 posts - 155 votes Speaks: English, French Studies: Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 2 of 129 21 May 2014 at 11:12pm | IP Logged |
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Welcome. I hope you achieve your goals! :)
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3858 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 3 of 129 22 May 2014 at 11:28am | IP Logged |
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@Penelope: Thank you!
- French: I've been reading Manon Lescaut for a class (as a way of procrastinating the essay I ought to be writing!) I'd started it maybe a year or two ago, but I didn't get that far. However, I'm finding it pretty easy to read, and quite compelling, despite the fact that I'm not a particular fan of the litres of larmes poured forth by the characters on almost every single page. Swedish: I've also been trying to learn the song Rött och guld by Loke Nyberg. I thought that it'd be difficult to learn, as I'd barely picked anything up save the refrain from previous listening, but it's proving even harder than I had expected. It's partially to do with the individual words, but mostly to do with the rhythm of the song : it's difficult for me to get a handle on. However, it's such a beautiful song that I would like to be able to warble along, and I don't mind having it permanently stuck in my head, so I'll keep on trying! I'm also toying with the idea of dictation as a way to practice my ear and test my listening skills (although I know they're not even really worth mentioning.) I have a couple of texts that I would like to be able to understand by the end of June, and so I can practice with those, as I also have recordings of them. It'd be nice to understand the recordings as well, so it's a win-win situation. Esperanto: I made my way through another Bildoj kaj demandoj lesson on lernu. I'm wandering through it pretty slowly and not consolidating at all outside of the courses tests and recaps, but it seems to be sticking, so all is well on that front. - Otherwise, I've been idly wondering if it'd be beneficial to me to write commentaries on pieces of French texts outside of a university setting. The main benefit I can see this exercise having, apart from it being good practice for actual commentaries I have to write, would be for me to really focus on grammar. I don't tend to notice grammatical structures when reading, and so perhaps really looking for them and deconstructing them in an analytical way would be helpful. The main downfall, of course, is the fact that this is such an academic exercise that it might be difficult to apply in anyway that is meaningful to my learning. Who knows? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3858 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 4 of 129 27 May 2014 at 10:19pm | IP Logged |
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It hasn't been a very good time for language learning these past few days. My friend left
Tours (and France) this weekend, so I was spending a lot of time with him and our other friends before his departure. I got in minimal amounts of language practice while his S.O. was telling me off about the state of my room. I have only really done a significant amount for French. I finished off writing that essay I was supposed to do, and also (re)watched episode one of Les Revenants. Other than that, I finished another half a lesson of Bildoj kaj demandoj, and read maybe a page or so Låt den rätta komma in. Still nothing done for German - I'm sorry, German, it is so easy for me to neglect you! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3858 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 5 of 129 03 June 2014 at 1:31pm | IP Logged |
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I have been using Anki only sporadically, and haven't made much progress with Låt
den rätta komma in, because I am a bad student. I've done even less in my target languages than reported in my last post. However, I managed to get my hands on an epub version of La Huitième Fille (Equal Rites) by Terry Pratchett, which is extremely pleasant, and I'm making fairly swift progress through it. Although I've already read the book in English, and although the French isn't particularly challenging, I'm actually enjoying the read which is the most important thing for me right now. - Otherwise, I have downloaded the entire FSI Swedish course. It's proving quite hard for me to find French-German learning resources, but Deutsche Welle offer a few options. Hopefully I find something more as well. Then I'll start making ruthless use of my German friends :) EDIT: Typo Edited by Elenia on 05 June 2014 at 12:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| AlexTG Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 4640 days ago 178 posts - 354 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 6 of 129 03 June 2014 at 2:30pm | IP Logged |
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If you're looking for a German course in French I just finished using a good one called "Allemand Débutant".
Get it without audio and it's 8 euros free shipping from Deastore. It contains 50 short lessons, intended to be done one per day. Good if you want a shortish term, easyish to reach goal. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3858 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 7 of 129 05 June 2014 at 12:48am | IP Logged |
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@AlexTG - thanks, I'll check it out as soon as I can!
- I am now a little over half-way through La Huitième fille. I'm currently reading on my phone, which is handy for looking up words, but I'll definitely have to do a lot more reading for most of them to stick. I'm benefiting from reading Pratchett in translation - although it's been a long time since I last read Equal Rites, I find I remember quite a lot of it (in the original words). Because I'm quite used to his style, I'm seeing where and how set phrases and idioms are translated into French, which is quite interesting. I've also started working my way through the FSI Swedish course. I've done about an hour an a half of work on the guide to pronunciation, and I will probably double that at least, just to make sure. Although my goals place relatively low importance on speaking, I find that at least being able to pronounce words helps me to understand and remember them better. I have a tendency to say words during Anki repetitions, and wondering whether or not I am pronouncing them correctly really throws me off. Not to mention that being able to produce the sounds (or at least, a vague approximation of them!) will help me to recognise them when I hear them. Finally, German has gotten a little love from me. I've started with DW Mission Berlin, in French. I don't have that high an opinion of it so far, but it's very early days, and I wasn't working on it in earnest. Hopefully it'll prove useful. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3858 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 8 of 129 08 June 2014 at 1:22am | IP Logged |
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Outside of two more sections of Bildoj kaj demandoj, a little Swedish and Esperanto
listening, and reading La Huitième fille, I haven't done much for any of my languages. However, today I was invited to go on a tour of Chateau de Chenonceaux with a German friend and her Aunt and Uncle. I couldn't understand most of what was being said, although I sometimes surprised myself when I wasn't paying attention. But it was still very exciting for me to spend an entire day with German, and increased my desire to learn the language - a desire that had by no means abated, but which was being held back by my fear of all things grammar and a deficiency in easy-to-access resources. I also found myself speaking a lot more French than is usual today, so I guess that must count for something. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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