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Bookworm’s adventures-TAC15 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 4005 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 185 of 217 04 July 2015 at 3:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Cavesa - I just want to add my congratulations for receiving the official C2 certificate for your French exam
and that awesome oral score! Great job! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 186 of 217 04 July 2015 at 10:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for the list, Via Diva, it is certainly good to know.
Thanks, Mohave. I need to set my language studies aside for ten days, I have another exam to risk. So, I will probably do just really short and relaxing things in the meantime (Kaamelott came just in time). Other than Kaamelot, I did a few doublapages of Vocabulario A1-A2, it is like Iversen said recently in another thread: mopping the bits of unknown vocabulary in quite known topics. And I started a Memrise dack with first half of the 10000 most frequent russian words. I am at 30 words and I am pleased to see I can understand the example sentences without trouble and that I am getting slightly faster at reading azbuka. This language is gonna be fun! I love the memrise exercises and the fact you are given the keyboard in your browser (or even more conveniently in the tablet), I just hate creating courses there, it has become really annoying after the changes. So, I am using Memrise only when there is good quality content made by others, evil me. So far no progress in my coursebook, and there is unlikely to be during the next ten days. Serpent, hernias can actually be quite a bad and urgent condition that isn't that hard to diagonose, it's funny it was being used this way :-). Unfortunately, we have a similarily pejorative new meaning to an illness (because of our horrible president): you cannot say you got a virosis anymore (virosis as a normal cold without bacterial infection requiring ATB). It used to be a normal illness but now it's known as an excuse for being drunk. 1e4e6, I find if funny how people often assume you need to be a francophile without criticism if you learn French and putinophile if you learn Russian and so on. Learning the language of course influences our political views as well, as it broadens our horizons, we pay more attention to the area, understand their media and in general care more. But I don't think that new understanding of another point of view needs to necessarily go to blind support or senseless hate of the country where the language is spoken. I suppose your changes of view are surely well founded. Well, our political developments might be a good topic if we ever get to meet in person and get a beer or glass of wine to it :-) Well, if I have tons of luck, I might have the exam in July and therefore have much more free time and brain for languages. If I don't, I'll have much less and therefore november will be a hard goal. I am more and more tempted by the DELE though. There is a Cervantes in Prague, I sometimes visit their library (and I am still planing to visit their cinema one day). However, I am not sure I might dare to strive for C1 in either case. My passive skills could surely pass the C1 or perhaps even C2 from the paper exemples I've seen, unless I'd have bad luck on topics and weird speakers, which is the problem. I won't consider my listening C1/C2 until I can understand any tv series quite comfortably from the first episode. Gran Reserva, my next chosen series, is quite difficult due to the speakers being from another region of Spain probably, so I am obviously still far from my goal. My reading is as well far from perfect. I can read a lot of scientific or popular science stuff, I can read easy books like Harry Potter nearly as if it was in my native language, I can read more or less comfortably Carlos Ruiz Zafon but he is my ceiling for now. I won't dare to consider my reading skills sufficient until I can enjoy quite any book I please. And my active skills are much worse. Thanks for the kindness but my writing is certainly far from the C levels. It looks quite good (and I write the bits on this forum quite fast and without help of other resources) only because I avoid difficult grammar. I don't narrate stories from holidays, I don't get to large discussion comparing various hypothetical situations and so on. My speaking is probably a bit better than my writing, I use lots of things quite right subconsciously thanks to the tv series, but I am still very unsure and avoid a lot of things. So, my most visible obstacle is grammar. Which is quite a good thing since there is an obvious and already explored way to tackle it, I just need to put the time into it, sit down and get through my textbooks and grammars, tons of examples, practice and more practice. Once I am on the other end of my grammar shelf, I'll know which CEFR level should I aim for.
Thanks for the optimism, I'm gonna need it during the next ten days! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6595 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 187 of 217 04 July 2015 at 11:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yeah I know. And well this is limited to the Latin-based word, there's also грыжа which is a normal medical term. Not sure if the terms used to co-exist or not. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4288 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 188 of 217 05 July 2015 at 8:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Instituto Cervantes is generally excellent, although I have never taken classes or
anything from them, but I think that as you said, with some grammar practise, the C levels in wrtiing should come quite quickly. I did massive amounts of grammar exercises with pen and paper to improve my writing. It is very intensive (I filled up literally more notebooks than any university class, for example) with Spanish grammar exercises. The Gramática del uso books are probably some of the best written grammar books, from a pedagogical point of view of all, that I have seen for any language. You are true about how learning more languages, learn more about the culture of the country, sometimes vice versa, learn about the country and this makes interest in the language. For example, I have a few Greek friends, but never thought about seriously learning their language, at least yet, because, I already have..11 on my plate, and many of them are not at the desireable level. But after what seems to be a very clear and resounding "OXI" in the referendum today, suddenly I am interested to start Greek now. I think that we both more or less know the alphabet from science and mathematics lessons, although of course just being able to semi-read everything with mediocre pronunciation and not knowing what the words mean is not too useful. Russian should be fun, the alphabet is not scary, and Czech as said above definitely would help with some of its lingüistic similarities. After doing Mandarin at age 13, anything that has an alphabet is not really so scary though. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 189 of 217 09 July 2015 at 12:22am | IP Logged | |||||
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I made a deal with myself: I'll write this post and, in exchange for this venting moemnt, I won't open htlal more than once a day for fifteen minutes, newspaper websites at all (they are just pessimist anyways), facebook more than once a day, and anything not related to pathology in general until the exam. If this agreement with my inner procrastinating idiotic self doesn't work, I don't know what will anymore. I am getting distracted far too easily. But it is not just my mistake, the main textbooks are really writen horribly. As a reward, no matter what the exam outcome will be, I'll spend at least a week sleeping and having fun!
1.I am back at Memrise. I found some really good content that appeared while I was gone. I will give recommendations when I am back after my stupid exam. And I'll cut the damn Memrise down. Unfortunately, the software is still flawed (even though the app is much better than it used to be), Memrise still chooses the same strategy: do the right opposite of what the users want. It looks like they are taking away functions now so that they could reintroduce them later as a part of the Premium version (heh 60 dollars per year, that surprised me) 2.I've learnt around 100 Russian words so far. I'll let you know whether I'll be fluent by the time I reach 300 :-D :-D :-D Now really: I can understand a lot passively but I still cannot just read and ejoy my Lukyanenko book. Russian, while being similar, is still not just Czech in different letters. 3.Did you know there are free books for apple users in the iBooks store? And in several languages. And did you know you can buy there ebooks even in Swedish or Hungarian? Btw anyone knows whether I can get an audible account despite not being in Germany? 4.Have you heard of lingua.ly and especially their snake game? And it looks like a tool of dreams. You browse whatever you want and just make lingqs without all the disadvantages of the lingq software. Another thing on my "don't touch till the exam" list. The list is actually long as even huge cleaning and rearranging of my kitchen is more appealing than studying right now.Well, I don't expect to pass anyways this time, I just need to try. Btw I have really progressed in German during the last few years, despite the lazy approach and tons of gaps. I get quite a lot from news articles. 5.Yeah, I love Cervantes and their library but classes are classes and noone is likely to get me to those. 1e4e6e, what other grammar resources have you found awesome, please? 6.I realized I am really shy to write in French, especially on this forums (but to some extent anywhere, even just for myself). I've just been tempted to respond to a question, I even began and I was second guessing myself all the time. I am obviously scared of looking like an idiot and as if I had cheated in my exam :-D. I have no such problem with Spanish. I just write and don't care about impressions, mistakes and consequences :-) I think my low score hasn't helpe my confidence in this area and I might be in a circle low confidence when writing-not practicing enough because of the low confidence-taking too much time and making too many mistakes because of nerves-low confidence. 7.Kaamelot is awesome. It is actually the only relax that is not hard to keep from becoming procrastination. Court metrage has some real advantages. 8.I need to install the Russian keyoard even for the Memrise reviews, I think. I've noticed typing is really connected to my memory, in a way that is not that different from handwriting being a good memory strenghtener as well. Using the mouse or touching preselected letters, that just isn't the same. (one of the few flaws of the memrise ipad app: the typing is too easy as you get just the letters that are in the word + two or three more to supposedly confuse you. that and the fact you cannot choose how many words you wanna learn or review in an ipad session. And even in the browser, your choice won't override those stupid levels). But I'll probably need the russian keyboard ordered like the latin one. Or should I learn to type Russian? 9.I'm really looking forward to any kind of holiday. I hate studying. Except for languages of course. ;-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5260 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 190 of 217 09 July 2015 at 12:46am | IP Logged | |||||
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In addition to Gramática de uso del español, I found the free C1 exercises at the Centro Virtual Cervantes Aveteca to be quite useful. If they are too difficult, scroll down for the B2 exercises. The antiquated tecnology the CVC uses means that it is easier to open these in a new tab and hit "ctrl and +" a few times to make the display larger.
I haven't taken the exam because of no need to do so and the expense involved in going somewhere distant to take it. It costs a lot to leave the island and our only option is by plane. Then there's arranging accommodation, food and local transportation. I would also have to leave work and that would be unpaid. It could cost me well over $1,000 US+ to do that as a special trip for Spanish or Portuguese. I can't really justify that expense. There is no test for Haitian Creole or Ladino. The testing centers should seriously think about conducting the speaking part of the exam via skype plus video. The written part and speaking could all be professionally proctored at local test centers which would be more convenient for people. One would still have to present identification so there would be no risk of fraud. That being so, I do like to test myself informally for my own satisfaction. Studying the grammar helps me to improve all aspects. Folks who live close to testing centers are lucky they can take this test for a minimum of time, travel and money. Best of luck to you! Edited by iguanamon on 09 July 2015 at 1:06am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4288 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 191 of 217 09 July 2015 at 2:55am | IP Logged | |||||
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I did almost all of the Perfect Makes Practise books when I was a teenager, which are
English base and are found in basically all Anglophone country bookstores. I still find that the Gramática de uso books to be better though. I also used the rather detailed grammar manual by Benjamin and Butt. This was later when I was around 22-23 years old. It is very good, and despite my scepticism on Anglophone sources, this one (prined in the UK), goes into quite some detail and is extremely comprehensive. It has no exercises, but is more of a textbook style text of grammatical theory with examples. The biggest, most detailed grammar book that I have ever uesd in any language, is the seriously massive Nueva gramática de la lengua española: Manual. It is very dense and weighs about 1,3 kg. The font looks like smaller than the one on this forum, and it is 1053 pages long. Extremely informative and detailed, and I did what almost no one does and instead of using it as reference, I read it like a novel. It took me a very long time obviously, but given that I am kind of addicted to grammar, it did not bother me. It is totally monolingual and is the grammar manual of the RAE and improved by the Spanish language academies of the Hispanophone world. I remember that the list had basically all of the "Academia Mejicana/Guatemalteca/Argentina/Chilena/Cubana/..." all the way up to "Filipina/Dominicana" etc. ..."de la Lengua Española" so basically the book can be used for any Hispanophone country. But it is a brick, 1,3 or so kg and maybe 6 cm high, 20 cm wide, 30 cm long. Edited by 1e4e6 on 09 July 2015 at 3:03am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5474 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 192 of 217 09 July 2015 at 3:36am | IP Logged | |||||
I got rid of facebook a couple years back now. One of the reasons (among a few strong ones) was that I wasted too much time on there. And let's face it I was really uttlerly wasting time- doing needless rubbish. Reading absolute shyte. 'oh look at this photo of a meal i'm eating' kind of rubbish. For crying out loud, i have FAAARR better things to do with my time. And as you may sense it was aggravating me that there was so much unnecessary menial posts such as this on there. Not to mention the advertising (as if I don't'get enough of that in my everyday life already). Don't get me wrong FB has some great uses and if I owned a business I'd prob look at utilizing it for it's networking alone. And of course for some people reading about silly things as I mentioned, gives them some joy, and that's fine. And I'm not silly enough to think I can avoid FB forever, I may have to rejoin one day for some purpose or another, but for now, it's so much less distracting without it. Okay, but I was going to suggest you could apply a different approach if your suggested approach doesn't work. That is I can look at as much FB and other trivial things (distractions) after and only after I have completed 'this' 'this' and 'this' (example after I've done 2 hours study on.... after i've done 90 minutes of pathophysiology and 2 hours language study). At least then you are not wasting time that you should be doing other things, but rather relaxing after you've done the things you've decided are important to be done each day. I have adopted this above plan and I do apply it most of the time. Sometimes I still fail and distract myself, but I can tell you now that when I apply this consistently I get more study done, feel better about myself and seem to have more free time because i'm not delaying completing the day's must do activities before moving on to whatever else I would like to spend my time doing. PM edited to attach following to current post:
Impressive... That sounds seriously massive. For realio. The kind of thing I could see myself doing, but knowing me it would take me 20yrs to make my way through something like that. Thus I best steer clear of it when I decide to study Spanish. Or lay down some kind of rule like yours - read it... or use it as a reference only. Edited by PeterMollenburg on 09 July 2015 at 3:43am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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