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Languge Learning Quest-TAC 2011 Team Ñ p4 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Monte_Cristo Newbie United States Joined 5198 days ago 27 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 36 16 September 2010 at 5:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've been lurking here for about a month now, but I guess I better come out in the open
and start my language log. My plan is that at the end of 10 years I will have achieved advanced fluency in Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, and French. As much as I would like to learn all these languages simultaneously, I'm proceeding one at a time. I've had quite a bit of exposure to Spanish previously, as I had a year in high school, plus two semesters in college. Not much beyond pronunciation and a bit of vocabulary stuck, but it is a good starting point. I started working through FSI Basic (Spanish) September 3rd. I'm also working on learning the 1000 most common Spanish vocabulary words with Anki. I try to listen to a lot of Spanish music & audiobooks, and though I can't really understand it yet, I think it helps to get a feel of the language. I'm trying to work out a reasonable timeline for my project. I want it to realistic and obtainable, but it needs to be challenging as well. I plan to spend the next 10-12 months working exclusively on Spanish. Towards the end of that timeframe I'll start working on basic German vocabulary, to prepare for the switch to learning German. I expect German will take a bit longer, so about 2 years before I'm ready to switch over to Italian. With two languages under my belt, and one of them being Spanish, I imagine Italian will be a snap, so less than a year of exclusive study there. So 5 years end I fully expect to have advanced fluency in Spanish, German & Italian. As I will need to keep up my familiarity with those languages, it will probably be slower going with French and Russian, which I plan to work on simultaneously. But another 5 years should definitely cover it. I'm not sure if I'll actually take a fluency test for these languages. My personal test will be the ability to read my favorite novels in their original languages. Spanish - Don Quixote de la Mancha Italian - Scarmouche Russian - Anna Karenina & Crime and Punishment French - The Count of Monte Cristo & Les Misérables I'm not really familiar with any German novels...people ask me why I want to learn it, and I really don't have an explanation. I just love the way that it looks and sounds, plus the country is so beautiful and I definitely plan to visit again. But if anyone can recommend some good German literature I would appreciate it. Anyway, I've just finished the third unit of FSI Basic, and will be starting unit 4 tonight. Edited by Monte_Cristo on 21 December 2010 at 4:54pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5557 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 3 of 36 16 September 2010 at 9:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
I think "Most often tagged German literature" might be just what you're looking for. I'd definitely second starting with Siddartha (Hesse), and then moving on to something contemporary and gripping like Das Parfum (Patrick Süskind), before hitting the main names like Kafka, Mann and eventually Goethe further down the line. Best of luck, Count! :) Edited by Teango on 16 September 2010 at 9:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Monte_Cristo Newbie United States Joined 5198 days ago 27 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 36 16 September 2010 at 9:11pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks for the suggestions Teango. I couldn't think of anything German that I have read, but now that you mention it I did read Siddartha a while back, as well as All Quiet on the Western Front in high school. I'm familiar with all the names you mentioned, but for some strange reason I've never actually read any of their works...I'll have to look into that. paranday, thanks for the good wishes. I'll need all I can get! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 7104 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 5 of 36 17 September 2010 at 12:16am | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm afraid I can't provide much in the way of German novels but many of the German authors/playwrights we read at school had more of a lasting effect on me than anything I've read in other languages.
A few of the top of my head... Max Frisch's Andorra and Biedermann und die Brandstifter (especially the former) Friedrich Dürrenmatt's Der Besuch der alten Dame Bertolt Brecht's Der gute Mensch von Sezuan and Mutter Courage und ihre Kinder Heinrich Böll's Wanderer kommst du nach Spa... The fact that I can still remember these titles 30+ years on says something about the quality of these works. Edit: Heinrich Böll's work is a quality collection of short stories that was for some reason published under a different title in English - Children are Civilians too (Kinder sind auch Zivilisten), one of the other short stories in the collection. Edited by Andy E on 17 September 2010 at 12:23am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Monte_Cristo Newbie United States Joined 5198 days ago 27 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 6 of 36 17 September 2010 at 3:11am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks Andy, I'll keep those in mind.
I'm not sure if I want this to be a daily or weekly log. For now I'll see how daily goes, and maybe switch to weekly later. I went through FSI unit 4 for the first time this evening (I've been reviewing each lesson 4 times before moving on) This one seemed more complicated then the previous lessons, so it took me over an hour to work through it. But I think I'm starting to understand the exercises more. With my Anki deck I am learning 25 new vocabulary words per day, and today was fairly easy, as I was already familiar with 3/4 of the new words. I may not have the ability to produce an original sentence, but at least I'm getting the basics into my head! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Monte_Cristo Newbie United States Joined 5198 days ago 27 posts - 30 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 36 18 September 2010 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Only my second day, and I forgot to post an update. I am a bit of a mess...
I worked on my Anki decks for 35 minutes and then watched a Spanish movie (with subtitles). I was a little put off by the poor acting (Netflix instant watch doesn't always have the greatest movies), but I was able to recognize a lot of words. I wonder if it would be a good idea to watch the same movie over and over, or if that would just result in me memorizing the script? I never made it to FSI, so I will try to go through unit 4 twice today. I also listen to Spanish music the whole time I was working, so about 7 hours of passive listening. I'm afraid I am going to have problems with the grammar. Even my English grammar is fuzzy. I can tell if something is written correctly or incorrectly, but I don't really know the rules. Can anyone recommend a good English grammar book designed for students of foreign languages? For Spanish grammar I am planning on ordering Essential Spanish Grammar by Resnick. Edited by Monte_Cristo on 18 September 2010 at 5:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| justberta Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5586 days ago 140 posts - 170 votes Speaks: English, Norwegian* Studies: Indonesian, German, Spanish, Russian | Message 8 of 36 18 September 2010 at 6:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I guess the ultimate German book would be Nietzsche...
Wow, you are very ambitious. For someone who only speaks one language you should focus on one right now, and stop telling us of this extensive 10 year plan. As for Italian taking under one year to study I don't think this is correct. Lower your limits, just focus on one, Spanish, French or German are all good choices. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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