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Liammcg TAC 15- De, Fr, It, Gd | ||
Tags: Gaelic (Scottish) | Gaelic (Irish) | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | German | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4602 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 9 27 December 2014 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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German
I've been studying German for a little over a year now. To date I've made my way through Assimil German with Ease, half of a Linguaphone course, and explored native media online. My main focus to date has been on listening and reading, with very little output thus far. I'm able to follow podcasts at slowgerman.com without any real difficulty. I'm usually able to follow the more advanced "ramblings" of the same speaker on her other website “schlaflos in Muenchen”. Over the past week I've been going through Hugo German in three months, an excellent book with great drills to help with the grammar points that still aren't natural to me. Once finished with this book I plan to recommence Assimil Perfectionnement Allemand . I used the book during the Autumn, but only made it to lesson 25ish. French is a language that I've been studying, or fiddling with rather, for a number of years. For a long while I was unhappy with my level, wanting to really get a good command of the language but not having the necessary motivation to study it consistently. Thankfully, I finally got over this spell during 2014 and am now more content with my abilities. I'm happy with being able to read for pleasure on my kindle, looking up unknown words and using the flashcard feature to review them (SRS would be preferable but I'm too lazy to input the content to Anki). My main aim with French is to continue enjoying the language in reading and watching interesting TV programs ( I must see can I find some streaming sites). Italian is the new kid on the block. I've decided to learn it because (a) I love the sound of it, (b) one of my good friends speaks it natively and (c) I want to see how the language compares to French. I've been learning diligently now for a week or so using Assimil Italian with Ease and Hugo's Italian in three months. Both are helpful, though I made the mistake of buying Hugo's without the audio, which I later discovered can not be bought separately. My goals are simple; complete these two books. I'm also interested in Italian folk music and am currently looking for a source of folk songs and such. The problem, if you can call it that, is that these songs seem to be generally written in dialect so may not be the best source for learning 'standard' Italian. I'm always open to suggestions for folk,jazzy, traditional songs... don't be shy! ;) Last, but certainly not least is Scottish Gaelic. My goals with this language aren't as concrete as the others. I have two resources that I like a lot; Gàidhlig Uidhist a Deas, Fò Sgàil a' Swastika. My plan is to simply make my way through these two books (one with audio recording) and strengthen my knowledge of the language. I also have a strong connection to the music tradition of Gaelic Scotland and songs will feature in my learning. Total Annihilation Challenge 2015 This is my third consecutive year partaking in the TAC, this year with the German, Romance and Celtic teams. I'm really looking forward to getting back to regular participation here on the forum and welcome all to stop by and say hello! I hope you can join me! Edited by liammcg on 27 December 2014 at 9:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4097 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 2 of 9 28 December 2014 at 11:21am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Looking forward to read about your progress, particularly in Italian, which I'm of course also starting albeit not in as structured a way as you are, and Scottish Gaelic, which I kind of regret that I didn't learn better back at university (I did a year and a half of Gaelic without much to show for it now, except for a copy of Cothrom Ionnsachaidh sitting in a moving box, waiting for our new 'library' to be built).
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| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4602 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 9 28 December 2014 at 3:45pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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B'urrainn dhut toiseachadh a-rithist! ;) Bhiodh fàilte chridheil ort ann an sgioba TAC
againn, leis a' Ghàidhlig neo leis a' Bhreatnais :). Currently on revision lesson 21 of Assimil Italian with Ease, and week two of Italian in Three Months. Assimil lesson 19 was probably the hardest so far as the vocab took a while to stick (had to review it these past three days!). This week's series of lessons introduced the prepositions and their compound forms more thoroughly, del, della, nel, sul etc. The system seems quite logical, as is most of the grammar that I've seen so far. Things I love about Italian: -Gender: the gender system is much more approachable than the French equivalent. Most nouns can be judged by their masculine ending -o or feminine ending -a. There are of course those pesky -e ending nouns which can be either gender, and a whole lot of exceptions that I'm sure exist. Plural formation is also very simple. -Ditto for adjective agreement. Hearing a sentence like Questa è la mia camera with all those vowel agreements is quite simply beautiful. -Pronunciation is straightforward in theory. The vowels seem to be very pure, resisting influence from adjacent phonemes. I've been paying particular attention to my pronunciation, listening and repeating a lot. The main points that have struck me are the double consonants, the pronunciation of t and d and the vowels e and o. I'm I right in thinking the Italian t/d is articulated in the same spot as in French? What about aspiration? I can't hear any from my Assimil recordings, but I could be wrong (not a linguist!). Also, is there a rule about when to pronounce E and O open or closed? All of these questions could be answered by a few google searches but I've resisted doing this up until now, wanting to see if my ears are "tuned correctly" ;) I'm going to upload a recording to soundcloud in a while so I can get some feedback, I would appreciate your opinions! Edited by liammcg on 28 December 2014 at 3:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 4 of 9 28 December 2014 at 4:06pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Hey Liam,
best of luck for the upcoming TAC! I hope to read more of you in the future again. Go n-éirí an bóthar leat! The Italian consonants are not aspirated, so they're basically similar to the French ones. Beir bua, Josquin 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4097 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 5 of 9 28 December 2014 at 5:27pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Ach! One 'new' language at a time is more than enough. ;) It's a gorgeous language, but I don't think I'll ever pick it back up. It doesn't fit with my life any more. At the time, I was living in Scotland, doing a degree in Celtic Civilisation, and I intended to stay and dedicate my life to figuring out the mysteries of the Celts. Life turned out rather differently, though. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4602 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes Speaks: English* | Message 6 of 9 28 December 2014 at 8:11pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Go raibh míle maith agat, a Josquin! Táim féin ag súil go mór leis an mbliain atá amach romhainn!
I completely understand, Italian is certainly a good choice! Continued on this evening with German. Almost finished chapter 10 of Hugo's which focused on the passive voice, auxiliary verbs and the genitive case. I know most of the material but it's nice to get a refresher and to learn more of the details. Edited by liammcg on 28 December 2014 at 8:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4602 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 9 29 December 2014 at 4:29pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Just a little message to team mates, I'm on a train to Dublin and will be away for a few days to celebrate the
New Year. I'll have no wifi access during this time, but then I won't be doing much study, will I? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5554 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 8 of 9 29 December 2014 at 8:07pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I'm looking forward to following your blog and being on the same team again this year. And as you'll be away for the next few days, I'll wish you a hearty athbhliain faoi mhaise dhuit now! :) Edited by Teango on 29 December 2014 at 8:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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