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Brun_Ugle flies again (TAC 2012 team い) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6621 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes  Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 169 of 276 25 August 2012 at 9:57am | IP Logged | |||||
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Every once in a while Steinkjer is invaded by foreigners. Actually, this happens amazingly often considering that it’s not a particularly huge town, though I suppose it is reasonably large by Norwegian standards.
Well, there are the usual foreigners who are “always” here. That is the refugees from Africa, Afghanistan, etc., the Poles who come to work, the Romanians who come to beg, and the random others like me, who end up here for our individual reasons. And then there are the tourists who stop briefly to look around. But that isn’t the kind of invasion I mean. It’s the various festivals and markets. Right now, there is a market set up in the town square. There are stands with people from Spain, Italy, England, Greece, France, and the Netherlands, and maybe some others I forgot, selling all sorts of delicious foods. I had no idea this market was to take place, but as soon as I saw the English stand selling jams and cheeses, I had to rush to buy some lemon curd. You can’t get it around here and I’ve had a hankering for years. My grandparents were English and we used to eat things like that, you see. I bought a few other things as well, but now I’m kind of hoping they’ll leave soon before I’m attacked by another baklava and forced to eat it in self-defense. It’s too bad I don’t study any of those languages. I imagine it would be a good chance to practice, though I’m probably too shy to practice anyway. The other invasion that we had only a few weeks ago was called “Nordlekene.” The week before it started, there were banners hung up everywhere with “Nordlekene” written on. When I saw these, I assumed it would be one of the frequent sports competitions they have around here. (It seemed logical. Lekene means “the games.” The Olympic Games are called “de olympiske lekene.” Therefore Nordisklekene should mean The Northern European Games.) However, it turned out not to be sports at all. Instead it seemed to involve a lot of fiddle playing and folk dancing. People from all over Northern Europe came wearing their various national costumes. It lasted several days and was quite the sight. I felt really sorry for them though at one point. We don’t usually have very heavy rain here, but that Saturday, the rain came down in drops the size of your fist. In only a minute or two, the water on the sidewalk was several centimeters deep. I felt very sorry for those people in their very beautiful and very expensive clothes ending up soaking wet. (On a side note, you probably think I’m a real junk-food maniac with all the recent entries about baklava attacks, chocolate tranquilizes, candy import, etc. Well, I suppose I am at times, but I generally have much better control than this. I was being very good about rationing my American candy. I only ate for example, 1 Reese’ cup or 10 skittles on any given day, and some days, no junk at all. It’s only the last few days that have been so greedy as this.) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6621 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 170 of 276 26 August 2012 at 8:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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Now that I’m getting used to my new sleeping schedule, or rather my old one from before it got all messed up, I’m also getting back on track with my studies. If you remember, at the beginning of the year, I had “calculated” how many hours of Japanese I thought it would take for me to reach B2 based on FSI’s calculations, JLPT’s calculations and my own estimate of my level. The number I came up with was 2488:30. I really would have liked to do that in one year, but that would require almost 7 hours of study a day. I accepted the fact that that would be quite impossible and decided to do it over 2 years, giving me a requirement of an average of 3:25 per day. Some weeks I’ve done very little, but other weeks I did a great job, so on average, I’ve more than met this goal. (Yay me!)
Unfortunately, there are other goals I’ve come far short of, particularly my Super Challenge goals. So I’ve decided to make weekly goals for what I’d like to accomplish. I’m making an effort to make “SMARTER” goals. (I only knew the SMART part from before, but I saw the ER when I looked up the exact terms, so I included that too.) For those who don’t know, this means: S Specific M Measurable A Attainable R Relevant T Timely E Evaluate R Reevaluate Log for 2012.08.18 - 2012.08.25 inclusive Reading: Time = 22:04. And I’m still not done with Harry Potter! Listening/movies: Time = 3:34. This includes a half-hour of an audiobook and the rest is a drama. I only got to watch two episodes because my internet connection is now almost never good enough to load the drama on my PC. I watched each episode twice, first without subtitles and then with. I’d originally thought to watch all 12 episodes in a row without subtitles and then watch them with, but I decided the other way is better. For one thing, since it takes forever to load one episode, I might as well make the most of it while I’ve got it (I’m watching streamed video from mysoju.) For the other, understanding what happened in the previous episodes gives me a better chance of understanding later ones. iKnow: Time= 3:50. I didn’t make my goal of 7 hours a week, so iKnow is probably still mad at me :( Writing: Time= 0. I’m way behind on this. Considering how slowly I write, I should be working hard at this. I think I need a goal of at least on lang-8 entry a week if I’m to get anywhere. RTK: Time= 0:50. I have over 1000 reviews still. Around the middle of the week, I made a goal of doing 30 minutes a day, but I obviously didn’t make it even for the last half of the week. Total for period: 30 hr, 18 min Total since start of TAC 2012: 836 hr, 59 min Total since I started keeping track (2011.11.06): 1031 hr, 21 min Only 1457 hours, 8 minutes and 46 seconds to go ;-) Now for my goals: These are the goals I made for myself around the middle of the week and didn’t achieve even for just that half of the week, mostly due to laziness and disorganization: Weekly Goals RTK: 30 minutes per day, totaling 3:30 per week Reading: 3 hours per day, totaling 21 hours per week TV/Movies/audio: 45 minutes per day, totaling 5:15 per week (I don’t expect to achieve this until my internet is fixed though.) iKNow: 1 hours per day, totaling 7 hours per week Writing: 300 words per week HOWEVER This week my usual goals will be superseded by one big goal: Finish HP 6. I have just over 300 pages left. That gives me about 43 pages per day. At 5 minutes per page, it comes out to a little over 3.5 hours per day. That really shouldn’t affect my schedule too much, but even if it blows the rest of my schedule entirely, I’m going to do it. Now that I've got SMARTER goals, I just need to find out how to organize myself well enough to achieve them. Organization/time-management tips are welcome. Edited by Brun Ugle on 26 August 2012 at 9:46am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6621 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 171 of 276 28 August 2012 at 8:17am | IP Logged | |||||
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If the horse fits…….
I’ve come across some interesting idioms and expressions again. I’m really becoming quite the collector. Some people collect stamps, others collect idioms. This time I have a few animal related expressions and terms. 馬が合う：うまがあう: (lit.) the horse fits/matches: This means to get along with someone. It apparently was originally an equestrian term referring to the ideal of horse and rider breathing in the same rhythm. (Why that is important, I don’t know.) Now an anatomy lesson: Do you know where your pigeon tail is? Yes, you do have one and it’s probably not where you’d guess. 鳩尾：みずおち：(lit.) pigeon tail: This is the pit of the stomach (where you feel fear and excitement) or solar plexus. But what that has to do with pigeons or tails, I don’t know. Apparently a dog’s death isn’t worth much because: 犬死する：いぬじにする：(lit.) to die a dog’s death: Meaning to die a useless death. And finally, English has chickens, Japanese has weak bugs. 弱虫：よわむし：(lit.) a weak bug: This means coward or cry baby. A cry baby can also be called a 泣き虫：なきむし：(lit.) a crying bug. Edited by Brun Ugle on 28 August 2012 at 9:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5983 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 172 of 276 28 August 2012 at 9:26am | IP Logged | |||||
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Interesting, 弱虫 came up in my bedtime reading last night too!
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| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6621 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 173 of 276 02 September 2012 at 7:50am | IP Logged | |||||
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Log for 2012.08.26 - 2012.09.02 inclusive
Reading: Time = 25:43. I finish HP6 which was my main goal for the week. Now I’m getting to work on reading something else. But as soon as I finished HP6, I felt a tremendous urge to begin #7. I can’t just leave with my friends in danger and Voldemort poised to take over the world. So, I’ll try to read something else for now, but I think I’ll end up going back to HP before very long. Listening/movies: Time = 5:39. This consists mostly of audiobooks which I listened to at the gym or while walking in the woods. I did manage to watch one episode of a drama on mysoju now that I’ve figured out that I can leave my computer by the door for 15 minutes while it loads and then I can watch it. What I really want to do is to watch with Japanese subtitles, but I can’t figure out how to do that. I know I can download them from d-addicts and add the subtitles, but I couldn’t manage to do it. I tried it with FinalTorrent, but it went all crazy. If there’s anyone who can explain how to do it, please tell me. I need simple step-by-step instructions for dummies. Like “first you turn on the computer, then you…” Well, maybe not that simple, but simple. iKnow: Time= 3:23. Writing: Time= 2:24. This is both writing one 173-word original essay (1:35), and going through corrections (0:50). I’ve started trying to make a better overview of the corrections I get from lang-8. First I paste my original essay into word and divide it up so that each sentence has its own line. Then I turn it into a numbered list. Then I put corrections as sub-points to each number, and explanations as sub-points under those. Here’s what I mean: 1. My first sentence. a. Correction to first sentence. i. Explanation to correction. b. Another correction to first sentence. 2. My second sentence. a. Correction to second sentence. I suppose it’s a bit of work, but I find it very useful. I have two more old essays to go through like this and then the one I wrote this week. Then I’ll be caught up. Lang-8 is amazing. Within an hour of posting my journal entry, I had four corrections and a friend request. RTK: Time= 2:19. Not being able to do any reviews while I was in the US for 3.5 weeks, has really caused the reviews to pile up again. However, I figure that if I do a little each day, I will eventually get to the bottom of the pile and be able to start adding a few new ones each day. Total for period: 39 hr, 28 min (Not bad. Almost a full work week.) Total since start of TAC 2012: 876 hr, 27 min Total since I started keeping track (2011.11.06): 1070 hr, 49 min Only 1417 hours, 49 minutes and 4 seconds to go ;-) Weekly Goals I did manage to complete this week’s primary goal of finishing HP. So I can cross that one of as “goal achieved.” But I realized that what I called my regular “weekly goals” where far too ambitious, so I’ve cut them down a bit. They are still perhaps too ambitious, so I’ll probably need to reevaluate them again and again until I find the right level for me. But that’s the R part of SMARTER – reevaluate. RTK: 15 minutes per day, totaling 1:45 per week Reading: 2 hours per day, totaling 14 hours per week (I'll never reach the 100 book goal of the old super-challenge rules, but I won’t have any trouble of reaching the 10 000 pages goal of the new rules. I’m already at 4 000.) TV/Movies/audio: 4:45 per week (If I remember to take audiobooks with me to work out, I shouldn’t have any trouble with this. My real goal is to get that many hours of dramas every week.) iKNow: 5 hours per week Writing: 300 words per week plus go through corrections Textbook: 15 minutes per day, totaling 1:45 per week. I’ve decided that although my passive skills are increasing tremendously through reading, listening and iKnow, my ability to use the grammar and vocabulary (especially the grammar) has deteriorated. I’ve noticed this in my writing. I frequently have to look up how to use things. So, I thought I should go back to using a proper textbook. I’m going to order some stuff online today, but it will take a few weeks to arrive, so I’ll go through some of my weaker areas using my old textbook in the meantime. I’d been very tired of textbooks for a while, but now I’m eager to get back to it. It’s probably because it’s autumn. That’s when school starts up, so it always makes me eager to start studying something. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6621 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 174 of 276 03 September 2012 at 8:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Where did they get the idea that 9:00 in the evening is an appropriate time to begin roadwork outside my apartment?!?!?
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| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5454 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 175 of 276 03 September 2012 at 9:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
When they read their tariffavtale and found out that they get extra paid in the evening..? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6621 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 176 of 276 04 September 2012 at 7:45am | IP Logged | |||||
Probably. Just like with the snow. It doesn't matter how deep it is, they wait until evening to scrape it if at all possible. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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