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Liammcg-TAC’13 Team Romulans & Clan Lugus | ||
Tags: Gaelic (Scottish) | Welsh | Gaelic (Irish) | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | German | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4609 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 33 of 89 20 February 2013 at 8:09pm | IP Logged |
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Well, it's been a LONG time since my last update! I'm just very busy, and as I explained
elsewhere, I won't get any study done over the next 4-5 weeks do to an intensive college placement. So, this will be my last update for another bit. There isn't much to report, I've been relying heavily on listening to maintain my languages until I can study properly. I've noticed that my listening comprehension is improved greatly in Scottish Gaelic. I just listened to this documentary about Gaelic education and was able to understand 90% of it without too much effort. Foghlam tro mheadhan na Gàidhlig Edited by liammcg on 15 March 2013 at 9:28pm 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 5561 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 34 of 89 16 March 2013 at 3:38am | IP Logged |
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That's great news about your listening skills reaching 90% in Scottish Gaelic! I can only dream of that one fine day in the distant future for my favourite programmes on TG4.
I hope the college work eases up for you soon (I'm being pretty much in the same boat right now, so you have my sympathies there). How do you find maintaining your Irish whilst learning Scottish Gaelic at the same time by the way - any interference so far or are they easy to keep separate? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4609 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes Speaks: English* | Message 35 of 89 16 March 2013 at 6:26pm | IP Logged |
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Teango, a chara!
Yes, thanks for the commiserations about college work! There's only one more week left, so it should be smooth sailing from then on. I'm very far from having 90% listening skills across the board, the documentary above featured very clear narration/speakers and so it wasn't too hard. Anyone with good Irish would able to get the gist of it without having studied SG before. I've begun listening to BBC ALBA's 'Litir do Luchd-Ionnsachaidh na Gàidhlig', which is simply an incredible resource for all learners, with interesting content and an accompanying script. Hopefully after a few months of diving into the archives my listening should be more solid. I haven't really had any problems thus far in terms of interference. Scottish Gaelic has some particular sounds that aren't found in Irish, and when I produce them my brain goes into Scottish mode. Having said that, I haven't exactly been using SG actively as of yet, which would might change once I begin to use it more (I may take a trip to the Hebrides again during the summer). Irish is a language I use everyday, I speak to my mother on the phone in Irish, as well with many close friends, and I also teach the kids in school solely through Irish for an hour each day. Maintenance isn't really a problem. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4609 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes Speaks: English* | Message 36 of 89 26 March 2013 at 10:07pm | IP Logged |
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26/3/13- Back to work!
Well, I've finally finished a five week school placement which involved an incredible amount of hard work and dedication, but it was all worth it and I've emerged the better because of it! Only two more months of college and then I'll be a qualified teacher! Gaelic I got back into study today, spending two hours at Gaelic. I listened to "Litir do Luchd Ionnsachaidh", which I found interesting. It includes some nice phrases and vocabulary. After the first listening I had little problem following the whole thing and so listened twice more for good measure. Next, I went over to YouTube and listened to the great Norman MacLean telling a ghost story (from what I can make out). I was able to get the general gist of the plot, but there was a lot of guessing work involved. Once I can get my hands on the script I'll download it onto my Ipod and listen intensively. I find folk stories such as this very interesting, and the type of language used is exactly what I'm looking for, a native speaker speaking in a natural setting, to balance out the learner's letter which is read from a script. For those interested Y">here it is. I also flicked through my copy of Teach Yourself Gaelic, scanning for new vocabulary. I'm going to spend some time going over the tenses tomorrow, using the drills in the book to practice. I'm pleased to find that my Gaelic hasn't left me given that I haven't studied in five weeks. I suppose that my contact with its Irish sister has helped keep it alive. French I went through some videos on YouTube, listened to the news, and read some blog posts in French. Nothing too intensive today. I plan to dust off one of my books and read some. Also, I've to work out a plan for French, I need to spend more focused study time on it, with more of a balance between the four skills. I'll report back tomorrow, and of course suggestions are welcome as always. Here's to a fresh start! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4609 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes Speaks: English* | Message 37 of 89 28 March 2013 at 5:24pm | IP Logged |
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THURSDAY- 28/3/13
Gaelic I've done a lot in Gaelic over the past 48 hours, probably a combined total of 5.5 hours. I reviewed all the audio mentioned in the previous post, as well as reading up to page 112 of Teach Yourself Gaelic. There was nothing "new" to be learned, but I found it very helpful read so many sentences in Gaelic. I feel that I'm really getting used to reading the language and matching up sounds with the orthography of the language. As for writing, it is the skill I am neglecting almost entirely, bar copying out phrases in order to cement them in my mind. I have no wish to write in Gaelic, I don't have a need to do so. For the moment, I'm happy to focus on speaking, reading and listening. In the event that I need to write something, I can rely on Irish if I come across a spelling I can't figure out. I've begun another Anki deck, this one consisting of random vocabulary I look up in the dictionary that I feel is essential for expressing oneself. It also consists of vocabulary found in TYG. French With French, I've almost found that there is too much of a range of resources to choose from. I find it very easy to get excited about Gaelic, it's a culture I understand, one that continues to hold my interest after all these years. I'm finding it more difficult to make this same connection with French. Sure, I love the sound of the language, the manners of self-expression etc but I need to go deeper. I'm going to spend the next few days trawling through LingQ and the net in general for content that interests me. In the meantime, I've continued on with YouTube clips and reading blogs. I've begun reading the short story "Le Navet" from my Penguin short stories book. Having my quota for Gaelic out of the way for the day, I expect to spend some quality time with French, going over some grammatical exercises over on About.French.com. I plan to use wordlists to acquire vocabulary as opposed to Anki, as I feel it will be more beneficial to write out the words, considering that I plan to actively write in French. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4609 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes Speaks: English* | Message 38 of 89 30 March 2013 at 7:17pm | IP Logged |
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SATURDAY-30/3/13
Gaelic As usual, I began my day by listening to BBC Radio nan Gaidheal while eating breakfast. I'm able to get the general gist of what's being said in most cases, though this could probably be improved if I focused properly besides slurping down the morning tea. Since Thursday I've continued through Teach Yourself Gaelic at a slower pace, currently on page 141. I've revised some useful vocabulary, as well as revising the past and future tenses all of which was worthwhile as I had forgotten some of the nitty gritty bits involving verbs beginning with an initial vowel or 'f'. I read through all the text of the covered chapters, though I find the exercises largely pointless. As long as I understand what is written I'm happy, and in that case I'm quite content considering I've been able to understand the vast majority having never covered the content in detail. Challenging vocabulary which I understood passively have been added to the Anki deck, and reviews are going fine so far. I've also being talking to myself (!) in Gaelic during the day and find that I can express myself quite OK on familiar topics. If I were to go to Scotland tomorrow, I feel that I could express myself fairly accurately in a Gaelic speaking environment. Feumaidh mi a radh gu bheil mi a' faireachdainn fìor chorfurtail leis a' Ghàidhlig. Ceart gu leòr, nì mi iomrallan nuair a tha mi a' bruidhinn, ach tha mi a' tuigsinn a' chuid as motha agus is urrainn dhomh mìneachadh a dhèanamh air mo smaoinean. I feel that I've reached an intermediate level in Gaelic. Sure, my speaking isn't lightening fast, nor can I decipher fast speech on topics I've never heard of. However, I'm certainly functional in the language. Anyone with Irish should definitely give this language a go for a few months, they'll be amazed with the results! French to follow... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4609 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes Speaks: English* | Message 39 of 89 04 April 2013 at 11:21pm | IP Logged |
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Time flies doesn't it? It's already April, meaning that we're a quarter of the way
through TAC 2013! I've been thinking about my goals over the last few days, as I've been debating what to do. As soon as I'm finished TY Gaelic, I shall simply maintain and hopefully fortify what I've learned through songs and listening to the radio. I love the language of course, but it doesn't have priority at the moment as I wish to press on with French. I'm very excited about starting German this Summer! I've been very interested in this language for quite a while now, my favorite feature being the clear dictation of syllables as well as the wealth of literature associated with the language. I'm going to wait until after I've sat my final exams to begin and hope to get a good foundation with the resources at my disposal. I've got Assimil German with Ease, as well as an old Linguaphone set and a vocabulary book. Later on in the year I may experiment with one of a number of languages that I've been interested in lately, possibly Welsh. I'd love to get a foundation in a Brythonic Celtic language to see how it compares to the Q Celtic branch. From what I've read, Welsh is considerably easier than any of the Goidelic languages and so I signed up to the site saysomethinginwelsh.com to get a flavor of the language. I must say that the first lesson seemed very easy and logical, with a clear structure to the language. I will no doubt regret having said this in the future. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4849 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 40 of 89 05 April 2013 at 11:58am | IP Logged |
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Good luck with your German experiment! When will you start?
If you need any help or advice, please let me know. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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