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TAC 2011 - Team ì | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| JPike1028 Triglot Senior Member United States piketransitions Joined 5397 days ago 297 posts - 337 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Italian Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Portuguese, Czech | Message 1 of 86 20 December 2010 at 6:46am | IP Logged | ||
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2011 is quickly approaching so I figure I should at least compile the beginnings of this log. To start
off here are my goals for this year: Arabic: No knowledge --> A2 Italian: B1/B2 --> C2 French: B1 --> C1/C2 German: A2 --> B2 I know that some of these goals may seem a little ambitious, however I belive in setting goals very high and then if you do fall short, at least you are in a very good place still. My methods vary for most of these languages based on what I have available to me. For my newer languages my intent is to strike out with Michel Thomas and some basic textbook type materials until I feel very well grounded. For the European languages, I am going to try and find the older copies of the Hugo series as I have been using this for Swedish and really find it helpful. For my two romance languages I plan to go through my student textbooks fully to pick up the rest of the grammar that I do not already know plus do a lot of listening and reading to native materials. In all four of these languages I am very lucky to have a friend who also speaks all of them at a very high level. So I am going to be conversing with him as much as possible in all languages as well as writing him e-mails and the like to activate my knowledge. Additionally, I am going to use Assimil as I acquire the programs. My ultimate goal and something I am going to try to do throughout various points of the year is to teach a lesson or give an informative speech about various topics. I feel that when I am able to do this comfortably I will have reached approximately the levels I am looking for in both French and Italian. I would love other suggestions for getting from the B levels up into the C's from anyone who has experience doing this. In both of the romance languages I am fairly comfortable in day to day situations, but I usually try to find ways to skirt around vocabulary I do not recall (hence the reading and listening). I nearly forgot, I am also using anki for vocab as well as byki for the same purposes. I really appreciate the byki system, although sometimes the repetition seems almost too much, I never forget those phrases. Here's to an interesting and fun-filled 2011 of languages. P.S. - I will also still maintain my other log/blog which I use to try and practice translating from English into my target languages. Edited by JPike1028 on 22 December 2010 at 4:22am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| JPike1028 Triglot Senior Member United States piketransitions Joined 5397 days ago 297 posts - 337 votes Speaks: English*, French, Italian Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Portuguese, Czech | Message 2 of 86 21 December 2010 at 3:42am | IP Logged | ||
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This post is more of a note to myself than anything. According to Deutsche Welle the approximate hours of study for corresponding levels are as follows:
A1 ~ 75 A2 ~ 150 - 225 B1 ~ 300 - 400 Clearly this statistic is for my Arabic and Germanic studies. My plan is to record how many hours I spend studying my languages this year and see how much I can log in. Edited by JPike1028 on 21 December 2010 at 3:43am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Oasis88 Senior Member Australia Joined 5705 days ago 160 posts - 187 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Italian | Message 3 of 86 21 December 2010 at 3:47pm | IP Logged | ||
I can testify to the accuracy of those estimates having tracked every hour I have spent learning Italian. After 250 I did a few A2 practice papers and think that I'd be able to pass them somewhat comfortably. I do think, however, that the jump between A2 and B2 might be a little larger -- but I can't be sure just yet. Best of luck with your goals. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JPike1028 Triglot Senior Member United States piketransitions Joined 5397 days ago 297 posts - 337 votes Speaks: English*, French, Italian Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Portuguese, Czech | Message 4 of 86 31 December 2010 at 12:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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2011 Learning Plan
Since it is the end of the year, I feel I should update my learning plan. Although Arabic is technically the end of my one-month cycle, I have decided that since January is the beginning of the year, that I would fix my cycle so that it corresponds more with the calendar year. Therefore, Arabic will begin my three-month cycle. After this will follow Italian, French and German. My goals for these four languages this year will be to get to an intermediate level in Arabic, a professional level in Italian and French, and an advanced intermediate level in German. In addition to the three months allotted to each of these languages, I will continue to work on my Anki decks in Swedish, plus the languages of the present year as they come up. Also, I plan to do my reading exercise/test in Swedish, plus the other four languages as they come up. I will continue to maintain these things even once their allotted time is up. I have determined that I should maintain as I go the languages which I have previously worked on at least once a month. I think that this will add to my abilities and enable me to continue to grow, at least at a passive level. Edited by JPike1028 on 31 December 2010 at 12:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JPike1028 Triglot Senior Member United States piketransitions Joined 5397 days ago 297 posts - 337 votes Speaks: English*, French, Italian Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Portuguese, Czech | Message 5 of 86 01 January 2011 at 10:33am | IP Logged | ||
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All right, I started Arabic today. I am currently using the 2nd Edition of Mastering Arabic by Jane
Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar as my introduction to the language. I discovered two things today in doing the first chapter of this book. 1.) My handwriting in Arabic is god-awful. 2.) Reading this alphabet is going to be among the more challenging things I have had to learn since beginning to work on languages. I am confident that I will be able to get past the reading issues/fears I have currently, it will just take time. Once I get past the learning of the alphabet, which I anticipate to take about a week, then I will start to get into the language more. Once I get to that point, I am luck that I have a friend who also studies Arabic, as well as a coworker who is from Egypt. I am hoping to get some tutoring or at least practice in with both of them over the next three months. After Mastering Arabic I am going to proceed to Living Language's Ultimate Arabic. I am sure that this is going to repeat a lot of information, but I'm okay with the reinforcement as my goal is only to get to A2 in the next three months in this language, although B1 may not be out of the question. Day 1 % of Alphabet Learned: 17.86% Hours Studied Today: 0.75 Total Hours: 0.75 Edited by JPike1028 on 09 January 2011 at 11:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JPike1028 Triglot Senior Member United States piketransitions Joined 5397 days ago 297 posts - 337 votes Speaks: English*, French, Italian Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Portuguese, Czech | Message 6 of 86 02 January 2011 at 10:45am | IP Logged | ||
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Today I began the Michel Thomas Speak Arabic for Beginners. There seems to be a common theme in
Arabic materials that the collaborators on many products are Jane Wightwick and Mahmoud Gaafar. They are the teachers on the MT and also the authors of Mastering Arabic. Anyways, I also completed Chapter 2 in Mastering Arabic. This chapter took me about an hour to complete, and made my brain hurt a little bit. I trust that this will be a consistent feeling working through this language until I get a decent grasp of it. Yesterday's chapter covered 5 letters, today covered 6, bringing my total to 11 letters. I have also learned about 6 vowel sounds in the process. Deciphering the alphabet is getting a bit easier, although I foresee myself having a difficult time remembering what vowels go where when I take away the diacritical markings. This book apparently gradually takes away diacritics. Hopefully as my Anki deck grows I will be able to have the various words in head well enough to remember all the possibilities of words. Day 2 % of Alphabet Learned: 39.29% Hours Studied Today: 1.50 Total Hours: 2.25 Edited by JPike1028 on 09 January 2011 at 11:26am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| canada38 Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5495 days ago 304 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 7 of 86 03 January 2011 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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Good luck with your studies JPike! I like your idea of breaking your languages up into
different cycles. I look forward to reading about your progress with Italian and German. If you don't mind, would you be able to explain in short what anki and byki mean, or provide a link to somewhere that does? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| JPike1028 Triglot Senior Member United States piketransitions Joined 5397 days ago 297 posts - 337 votes Speaks: English*, French, Italian Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Portuguese, Czech | Message 8 of 86 04 January 2011 at 12:55am | IP Logged | ||
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I have worked through another chapter of Mastering Arabic today as well listened to about 15 minutes of
the Michel Thomas. I am pleased with the Michel Thomas and also with the lessons, however the vocabulary provided by Mastering Arabic is very random, in my current chapter for instance, my vocabulary included father, bottle and donkey (among other things). It is my understanding that this is due to the limited amount of letters known, and trying to make words using the letters that have been taught thus far. Speaking of which, today covered five more letters, bringing me to 16 total. My Anki list has also grown by 20 words today, giving me a total of 33 total words/phrases. Day 3 % of Alphabet Learned: 57.14% Hours Studied Today: 2.0 Total Hours: 4.25 Edited by JPike1028 on 09 January 2011 at 11:26am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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