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LanguageSponge gets back in the saddle | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5763 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes  Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 1 of 16 02 January 2014 at 2:32pm | IP Logged |
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This is my Language Log for 2014. I'll be taking a completely different approach from previous years, in an effort to gather the stamina to carry on with it all year, as my family life and medical history took up most of my time last year. I won't have any long-term goals at all, in fact the only rule for me this year is that I follow whatever path my wanderlust wants me to take.
Motivations for Japanese The writing system: I've always wanted to give Japanese a go, for numerous reasons both cliché and not. Firstly its writing system has intrigued me ever since I heard about hiragana, katakana and kanji. I am already more than half familiar with hiragana, but have not yet started on katakana. I am also familiar with the written forms of at least several hundred kanji as I lived in China for a time, however I won't know their Japanese readings at all, so I'll effectively have to start this from scratch. Computer games: Many of my favourite computer games are produced by Japanese companies, and I have always had a desire to play at least some of them in the original Japanese. I am of course a massively long way off being able to do this but I've got to start somewhere. Japanese mythology: When I was about eight, I got a book on Ancient Greek mythology which I've read cover to cover more times than I care to count, and thus my fascination with mythology was born. While I know quite a lot about Ancient Greek and Roman mythology, I know next to nothing about the mythologies of any other cultures, and I'd like to delve into Japanese mythology because it'll be very different from anything else I've heard of before. Japanese history: I've loved history in general for longer than I can remember, and yet I know nothing at all about Japanese history before the 20th century, and I'd like to find out more. Visiting Japan: I have several friends who have lived and taught in Japan, and one in particular who has now lived there for about three years and has no intention of coming home. I also had a Japanese classmate who moved back to Kawasaki when we were still in Year 10 who I've recently become reacquainted with, so it'll be fun trying to speak to him in his own language once I've learnt some more Japanese. The other language I'll be focusing on for now, because my wanderlust wills it, will be Italian. This is a language I've always had a little bit of a problem with. Up until relatively recently I found it difficult to focus on Italian because of bad experiences I had as a kid speaking it with my family when I was younger. Due to those bad experiences I no longer do so, and I'd like to build up my confidence writing and speaking with my Italian co-workers before I try to speak Italian with my family again. For this one so far my only motivations are the ability to communicate in Italian with my friends and family again, and desire to visit Italy. I realise that compared to my list of motivations to learn Japanese, these motivations are relatively sparse, but as I did with French I'll look into culture and see what else I can find that will help me keep the fire going. With French it was Astérix et Obélix, and I am sure I'll find something similarly interesting to me in Italian. I've got a list of Italian authors I am going to look into in the near future, for example there's a book by Alberto Angela called Una giornata nell'antica Roma (A Day in Ancient Rome) that I would love to read all the way through in Italian. So that's it for my first post in this log. As I think of more information to add I'll edit this first post. I will write something short in Italian and in Japanese later on, both to show any readers and to show myself what level I was at towards the beginning of this year. Thanks for reading, Jack Edited by LanguageSponge on 02 January 2014 at 3:08pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5331 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 2 of 16 02 January 2014 at 2:45pm | IP Logged |
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Great to see you, Jack! I have missed you!
Having no goals sounds like an excellent goal :-) I think 2013 was rough on many of us, but 2014 is a bright and shiny new year, filled with promises and possibilities. I'll be following your log! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4355 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 3 of 16 02 January 2014 at 2:51pm | IP Logged |
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Welcome back! Wanderlust is something I can understand so go for it. Nice to hear from you again! :)
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4704 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 4 of 16 02 January 2014 at 2:52pm | IP Logged |
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Welcome back, Jack!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4841 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 5 of 16 02 January 2014 at 3:41pm | IP Logged |
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Welcome back, Jack! We surely missed you on Team MIR.
Good luck with your Japanese studies! 幸あれ！ 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| embici Triglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4607 days ago 263 posts - 370 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek | Message 6 of 16 02 January 2014 at 9:18pm | IP Logged |
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Hello LanguageSponge! I'm glad to see you are continuing your language studies and I wish you lots of luck with Japanese.
As someone whose plans went off the rails for a while this year I can relate to your un-goal of learning Japanese. I think I will view my Greek studies in a similar fashion. What gets done, gets done, and I'll be happy for it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5763 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 7 of 16 03 January 2014 at 12:46am | IP Logged |
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Jegi wassoyo~
Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6139 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 8 of 16 03 January 2014 at 9:35pm | IP Logged |
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日本語を頑張ってよ！
It's good to see you back on the forum! I'll be watching your new log with interest, though it may tempt me into going back to work on Japanese again (I can't decide whether that's a good or bad thing). I wish you lots of luck with your studies! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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