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FabricioCarraro - TAC’15 Pushkin, Rätsel | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4713 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 1 of 439 02 January 2012 at 1:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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INTRODUCTION:
I think my passion for languages started quite naturally. I've had English and Spanish at school when I was a kid, but you know, at least here in Brazil they don't really focus that much on that subjects, so I've found myself one day with 12 years old and all the school had taught me was the verb "to be", all the rest I was learning by myself, everyday, playing Final Fantasy 7 on my Playstation 1. Later on, I've managed to make my parents put me on a good language school. Though my English is not perfect (specially on the speaking/pronounciation department), I'm almost comfortable with my level. Moving some years forward, I became really interested in Italian, since my mother side of the family came from Italy many years ago. I managed to find all my ancestors data, and in a few years from now I'm going to Italy to fulfill my citizenship process and get my Italian passport (yay!). Along with the search, I was studying Italian by myself, and then got into an Italian course for almost two years, therefore, though my level with the language is going down every year, I still try to practice and study it with some friends online. I'm quite excited with it, because Italian is my real language passion! =) And then, marriage! (*sound of birds singing*) The main reason for this log and the TAC, is that I met my wife while she was studying Portuguese. I always wanted to learn Russian, and she was a really good reason to start with it! I've studied Russian for 6 months by myself, being able to skip "Russian 1" when I got into a Russian course. Then I quit it, got married in Moscow (not understanding a single word of what the judge was saying), studied alone for 6 more months, and now I'll be back with it by march, when my classes begin. RUSSIAN: (from Low Intermediate to Basic Fluency) I'll be attending "Russian 4" now when the course will be back. I've already learned all the cases, declinations, verbal aspect, active and passive participles, etc, etc, so I think that there won't be much grammar left to be taught. I'll also try to study it at home, watching movies, reading my "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" that I bought last time in Moscow, and hopefully practicing it more with my Team Sputnik's fellows on Skype! =) DUTCH: (from Low Intermediate to Upper Intermediate) I've been studying Dutch for 5/6 months now, and I'm very happy with my development. I did "all" the grammar with the website DutchGrammar.com, and now I'm using Assimil's Dutch With Ease, which I really like! I'm thrilled that I can already maintain a conversation on Livemocha's chat for more than 30 minutes, and barely using Google Translator. At this point, I've done the first 29 lessons from Assimil's Dutch With Ease. Dutch is my main focus now, so maybe I'll be posting more about it than Russian, but let's see. ITALIAN: (regain Basic Fluency) I'm not really studying Italian right now, but I'm trying to practice it everyday with friends on MSN, Skype and Livemocha. I'm a bit rusty, but I want to practice also my speaking skills. ENGLISH: (reach Advanced Fluency, improve speaking skills and accent) Yes, English! I quit my English course 6 years ago, and though I use it on a daily basis to read and maybe write, I almost NEVER speak in English, so I feel a little bit insecure when I must use it, specially about my accent. My English course should teach me British English, but all I've got was this lame American Brazilian accent, so I want to practice and improve it the most! I'll be using shadowing techniques with video lectures on Youtube, and I'll start watching movies with English subtitles rather than Portuguese. Sorry for the loooooooong post, but I'm really excited to start. The TAC and this log will be both great motivations for me! Also, I may start taking French from the scratch along with my wife this year, so let's hope for the best! =) Edited by fabriciocarraro on 02 January 2015 at 10:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5180 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 2 of 439 02 January 2012 at 1:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'm glad to see you eventually decided to start a log! I'll be following you
fabriciocarraro, I wish you all the best with your language study :) Forza e coraggio! Fabrizio 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4713 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 3 of 439 02 January 2012 at 2:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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So I'll post my first update, and it's going to be about Russian!
My (Russian) wife lives with me here in São Paulo for 1,5 years already, and she met a lot of Russian girls who live here and are married/dating Brazilian guys. They meet pretty much every week at some random bar and they've built a really nice friendship. Why am I telling that? Well, because they arranged to make a "New Year's Eve Russian Party" here in some of the girl's apartment! There were 16 people there, 5 couples (3 Russian girls, 1 Ukrainian and 1 Latvian and their Brazilian loved ones (including myself)), the hostess parents (both Russians), another Russian couple, and 2 singles (1 Russian girl and 1 Brazilian guy). Yes, I'm still (barely) alive after it! Ahahha! We celebrated Moscow's New Year, then Ukraine's and Latvia's, and theeeen the Brazilian one. I was REALLY REALLY happy to see that I was the only Brazilian who could speak with the Russians in Russian! After some vodkas (ahaha!) my courage turned ON, and I spoke with the hostess' father and the Russian guy for more than 20 minutes! =) I think after that much beer, vodka and champagne, I would speak even Chinese fluently =P The next day we went back to the house, and I spoke a little more Russian with the hostess' parents. I was not as good as the day before and I felt a little shy and afraid of making mistakes, but it was good either way! Anyway, those were great opportunities for me, because I never speak Russian with my wife (she says she has no patience =( ) and I could see for the first time since July (when I went to Moscow) that my Russian skills have really improved, and that I can maintain a simple conversation without much trouble. First update of the year, and it's a happy one! =) Let's hope for it the whole year! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4713 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 4 of 439 02 January 2012 at 2:23pm | IP Logged | ||
Grazie mille, Fabrizio! =) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4713 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 5 of 439 05 January 2012 at 4:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've been a little off this week, but today I got back on track!
I've completed now the 30th lesson from my Assimil's Dutch With Ease, and I think I'm doing pretty well with it! In the whole lesson there was only 1 word I didn't know (dadelijk = immediately), but I could imply its meaning based on the context. The other "new vocabulary words" I already knew, either from the DutchGrammar.com course, or from the articles I try to read often. They were: (het) vertrek - departure vertrekken - depart (de) trein - train graag - to like (with verbs), gladly praten - talk vroeg - early (het) kwartier - a quarter of an hour (het) kaartje - ticket My listening comprehension is getting really better, I can feel it. Even if I don't get everything when I listen to the lesson the first time, but after reading the transcriptions I often get 90-100% of what's said! I'm also using Livemocha to record myself speaking in Dutch, and get corrected by natives. They say my accent is really good =) I'm sure the shadowing with Assimil helps it a lot. Just out of curiosity, the most famous song currently here in Brazil is "Ai Se Eu Te Pego" by Michel Teló. You guys might have heard it, because I know it's playing a lot in Europe. Anyway, I found out on Youtube that a Dutch singer called Tom Haver created a Dutch version of it and it's quite a success. You can't imagine how funny that is! Ahaha I'll let both links for you guys to compare: Michel Teló - Ai Se Eu Te Pego (something like "Oh, if I catch you") www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcm55lU9knw Tom Haver - Samen Vanavond (something like "Together Tonight") www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOv29h3-9dE Well, that's it for today! =) Edited by fabriciocarraro on 05 January 2012 at 4:21pm 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 6 of 439 05 January 2012 at 9:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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A great start to the year! Here's to us both reaching basic fluency in Russian by the end of 2012 and impressing our Slavic better halves. :)
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5332 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 7 of 439 06 January 2012 at 3:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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That sounds like a really lovely party, and it must have been an enormous confidence booster to be able to speak with Russians without difficulty. Well done!! The only thing I can say in Russian with confidence is " Где туалет". Practical, but somewhat of a conversation stopper :-).
I am happy to have you on our team, and look forward to seeing what you learn in your Russian studies. Studying it formally and having a Russian wife to ask sounds like better methods than my occasional 20 minutes with Pimsleur :-) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4713 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 8 of 439 06 January 2012 at 4:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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@Teango Cheers to that! =) Is your wife also Russian?
@Solfrid Cristin It actually was a confidence booster, but I think I would have been much more shy if I hadn't drink that much vodka =P It is indeed liquid courage. I'm sure our Skype group is going to work, and in 1 year we're going to be speaking Russian as natives =) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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