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A Cinephile’s Multi-Lingual Attempt | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| YnEoS Senior Member United States Joined 4260 days ago 472 posts - 893 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 17 of 29 23 June 2013 at 7:27am | IP Logged | ||
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So this week is another interesting one, I've just added Turkish to my languages, which means I'm currently studying all my core languages I want to learn, and won't be adding any more for a while. I of course also want to study, Punjabi, Pashto, Telegu, and Czech, but I figure those will be better when I'm proficient with Hindi and Russian and have more time to study, since a lot of them have few materials available.
Though because Pimsleur fits so well into my routine, I might start doing Pimsleur courses for languages just for fun and not follow up with further study right away. This is partially because I watch films in so many different languages all the time, I want to try and comprehend the basics for as many languages as possible. And if my studies go successfully, maybe a long time down the road I can start studying these languages more seriously. I'm pretty sure I'll remain with this core, though I've already made a pretty big change of plans, I decided to drop German temporarily. This may seem a odd considering I just added Turkish to my studies, but I think it's a good decision for now. I think I have time for German, but I noticed it was taking more effort to make sure I study each language for a bit each day, and I'd rather have that part be easier and then if I have extra time, just add additional study to my current languages. Although German is one of my strongest languages, I haven't been self-learning for that long, and I don't think my high school skills will decay much beyond what they already have. I started Assimil German shortly after I began Assimil French, because I had lots more time then and I wanted to add on more Assimil courses. Now I realize German isn't a very high priority for me, and it will be a nice easy language to improve later on in my studies, and there's no need to rush through it now. I was spending 30+ minutes ever day on it, so pausing my studies certainly gives me quite a bit of extra time. I may finish Pimsleur German like I originally planned once I finish with Pimsleur Turkish. The other change this week, is I decided to start using the french Assimil courses sooner rather than later. Although I think courses like Teach Yourself and Linguaphone are useful, I find them difficult to use for very short term studying, and I think Assimil will be more productive. Even though my French isn't good enough to learn as efficiently, I can always just look up the words and improve my French while I'm at it. Plus I really want to master these Assimil courses, so maybe I'll do a rough pass and get familiar with everything, then do another pass when my French is better. Cantonese ------------ Completed: Pimsleur I Current Tools: DLI Vol 1 Lessons 20, FSI Lesson 9, Cantonese101 Absolute Beginner S2 L14, Sidney Lau Vol 1 Lesson 10, Yourself/Linguaphone Reviewing 7-20, Colloquial Cantonese Lesson 5, subs2srs + Anki, Naked Cantonese Lesson 30, Popup Cantonese Thoughts: Initially I didn't find just doing quick daily shadowing of the DLI lessons too effective, but the lessons are beginning to set in and become more natural, so I'm going to stick with it and see how it goes. I've really been enjoying the FSI course now that the pauses are gone. I think the FSI build ups are wonderful for languages with very different grammars. Sometimes with Cantonese it's harder for me to grasp the full specific meaning of longer sentences, and I usually just recognize words here and there. The build up exercises help understand the meaning of individual parts before moving onto the whole, which I think is extremely helpful for figuring out how the grammar functions. The Cantonese101 lessons have also been very helpful, but they waste so much time with the intro and advertising the premium features every single lesson. I'll push through though, because I need all the help I can get with Cantonese, and sometimes it's nice to focus on small concepts in detail. Haven't been doing any Sidney Lau, but I hope to be doing more lessons for that soon. French ------------ Completed: Pimsleur I,II,III,Plus, Advanced Michel Thomas & Foundations Current Tools: Assimil Passive Lesson 30 (Without Toil & New with Ease), Madrigal's Magic Key Lesson 20, L-R Three Musketeers Chapter 23, Duolingo Thoughts: Still going strong with French. Madrigal's Magic Key is still a bit behind where I am, but it's nice to get more reading and "active" practice. Russian ------------ Completed: Pimsleur Reading I Current Tools: Pimsleur I Lesson 24, Assimil Passive Lesson 15 (With Ease), Madrigal's An Invitation to Russian Lesson 10 Thoughts: I absolutely love Russian so far. It's quite challenging, but not challenging enough to be frustrating. Doing the accellerated Pimsleur course seems to be working really well, and I also really like the extra study help from the Madrigal course and Assimil. The New Assimil course is a really great beginner course. It goes pretty slowly, and they seem to re-use the same words a lot more than in other Assimil courses. I suppose this would be frustrating for higher level learners, but I know there are other Assimil courses out there with steeper learning curves, so right now this course is just a really nice compliment for Pimsleur, and I feel it will be good prep for the more difficult Assimil courses. Hindi ------------ Completed: Pimsleur I, Pimsleur Reading I, Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Script Current Tools: Assimil Lesson 4 (Passive), Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Lesson 7, Living Languages Lesson 3, Anki Thoughts: Not much new here, Enjoying Assimil Hindi so far, but I'm just getting started. Indonesian ------------ Completed: Pimsleur I Current Tools: Assimil Lesson 4 (Passive), Learning Indonesian Lesson 15, Teach Yourself Lesson 2, Linguagphone Lesson 2 Thoughts: Assimil Indonesian is a bit more difficult, not sure if it's the course or the fact I've been studying Indonesian for less time. Anyways I'll keep at it and see what the results are like. Turkish ------------ Current Tools: Pimsleur Lesson 10, FSI Lesson 4 Thought: Turkish is a really fun language. Though so far I think it's the most difficult I've tried at the most basic beginner's level. I'm doing Pimsleur without pauses, but doing only 1 new lesson a day, and using the extra time for extra review. Still taking a while for grammar to sink in, so I might try some other methods and see if they help. I started doing some FSI Turkish as well, because the first few lessons are short. I think I'll try and keep doing more from time to time, as FSI and Assimil seem to be pretty great combo for language learning. German ------------ Completed: 5 years of public school German Current Tools:Pimsleur Lesson 18, Madrigal's Magic Key Lesson 12, Duolingo Thoughts: On hold again, for the time being. Overall Thoughts ------------ Hopefully I've found a routine that I can be somewhat comfortable with for now. But I guess that depends how well using the French Assimil courses works out. Edited by YnEoS on 23 June 2013 at 7:28am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| YnEoS Senior Member United States Joined 4260 days ago 472 posts - 893 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 18 of 29 28 June 2013 at 2:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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So this week, I realized that my usual methods for doing Assimil won't work for doing the courses L2-->L3. Normally I don't study a lesson for that long, I prefer to shadow lots of lessons and let them sink overtime than spend a lot of time focusing on any small piece of content. My french though just isn't good enough for shadowing, my reading comprehension is still pretty terrible, and usually I have to read things aloud before I fully grasp what the sentence means.
But not to get deterred, I decided to modify my routine, and I plan on doing the L2(French)--->L3 courses in a different way. I'm going to split my study into 3 waves which I'll call Passive Study, Passive Shadowing, Passive Active. For the Passive Study way, I basically do just 1 lesson a day, but I read and study the french dialogue closely, looking up anything I don't understand before moving on to the target language. Then when I get far enough into the courses, I'll start doing a "Passive Shadowing" wave from the beginning, where I'll try my usual method again. I realize this is how some people normally use Assimil, studying a single lesson each day. Anyways, basically I figure this would be more productive than waiting for my french to get to a high enough level on it's own. It will be good reading comprehension practice, plus it will familiarize me with the courses and I'll start acquiring the vocab I need more directly, rather than waiting to randomly come across it through other studies. Anyways, we'll see how it goes. Cantonese ------------ Completed: Pimsleur I Current Tools: DLI Vol 1 Lessons 25, FSI Lesson 9, Cantonese101 Absolute Beginner S2 L14, Sidney Lau Vol 1 Lesson 10, Yourself/Linguaphone Reviewing 7-20, Colloquial Cantonese Lesson 5, subs2srs + Anki, Naked Cantonese Lesson 30, Popup Cantonese Thoughts: I seem to get less out of shadowing with Cantonese than I do with Indo-European languages. I think because the language is so different, it's hard to absorb new material unless I already understand the majority of the sentence. This week however, I found that if I put a longer delay between when I listen and when I speak I have a much easier time hearing and absorbing the content. So far this modification seems very promising, but I've only just started so I can't really say how effective it's going to stay over the rest of the course. I also started reviewing more lessons for Cantonese than I tend to do with assimil in other languages. Mainly because of the difficulty I have with the Cantonese DLI lessons, I figure it would be better to have more time to let each lesson really soak in. French ------------ Completed: Pimsleur I,II,III,Plus, Advanced Michel Thomas & Foundations Current Tools: Assimil Passive Lesson 35 (Without Toil & New with Ease), Madrigal's Magic Key Lesson 25, L-R Three Musketeers Chapter 26, Duolingo Thoughts: French is still lots of fun. Russian ------------ Completed: Pimsleur Reading I, Pimsleur I Current Tools: Pimsleur II Lesson 4, Assimil Passive Lesson 20 (With Ease), Madrigal's An Invitation to Russian Lesson 15 Thoughts: Russian is still lots of fun. I'm sure there's lots of terrifying grammar waiting around the corner for me. But so far I'm really glad I added this to my routine. To speak on the very distant future, I can't wait til my Russian is strong enough that I can start learning Czech! Hindi ------------ Completed: Pimsleur I, Pimsleur Reading I, Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Script Current Tools: Assimil Lesson 5 (Passive Study), Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi Lesson 7, Living Languages Lesson 3, Anki Thoughts: Basically covered my routine changes in the intro Indonesian ------------ Completed: Pimsleur I Current Tools: Assimil Lesson 5 (Passive Study), Learning Indonesian Lesson 15, Teach Yourself Lesson 2, Linguagphone Lesson 2 Thoughts: Basically covered my routine changes in the intro Turkish ------------ Current Tools: Pimsleur Lesson 10, Assimil Lesson 5 (Passive Study), FSI Lesson 4 Thought: I got really lost in my Pimsleur lessons early this week, so I went back and did a lot of review. Now everything is really starting to sink in. Though I'm not sure my understanding of the grammar is completely intuitive yet. It feels like I have a bunch of sentences that I know by heart, and I understand how the grammar works when I think about it. But I think if I was given new vocabulary I wouldn't intuitively know how to build a new sentence. I'm still pretty early in the Pimsleur Course though, so maybe it will be less of an issue later. But regardless I'm endlessly greatful that there's a Turkish FSI course, and expect it will be one of my most essential tools down the road. So far Turkish has been my most challenging language, but an incredibly gratifying one. German ------------ Completed: 5 years of public school German Current Tools:Pimsleur Lesson 18, Madrigal's Magic Key Lesson 12, Duolingo Thoughts: No Studying This Week Overall Thoughts ------------ I think I've found a pretty healthy workload. Some days I do get overwhelmed by the idea of the number of lessons I have to study each day, but when I force myself to jump in they go by a lot quicker and painlessly than I always think they will. Putting German on hold definitely took a lot of pressure off though, and I'm very happy with the choice. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| YnEoS Senior Member United States Joined 4260 days ago 472 posts - 893 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 19 of 29 16 July 2013 at 5:11am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm thinking of switching to monthly updates instead of weekly. I feel like I spend too much time in my log trying to justify all my little decisions, and it might be better just to focus on long term progress.
At the moment my routine is in a bit of disarray. I've started thinking about grad school and realizing that my current language program while fun, doesn't make a whole lot of point from a career standpoint. So I've decided to temporarily put Hindi and Turkish to the side and pick up Mandarin, so I can focus on my study of Chinese cinema. Technically I should drop Russian as well, but I'm having so much fun with it right now, it just doesn't make sense to me to abandon that kind of motivation, especially when juggling a bunch of languages. I've kept practicing every day, but my routine has varied a little bit, as I got a bit bored doing so much Assimil. Still not sure if I'm gonna go back or try to develop a new or looser routine. At the beginning of August, I'll try to re-organize my journal a bit when I have a better idea of my new routine. For now I just keep on studying. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mike245 Triglot Senior Member Hong Kong Joined 6978 days ago 303 posts - 408 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Cantonese Studies: French, German, Mandarin, Khmer | Message 20 of 29 16 July 2013 at 3:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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So you're planning to learn Cantonese and Mandarin at the same time? That sounds like
quite the challenge. Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| I'm With Stupid Senior Member Vietnam Joined 4179 days ago 165 posts - 349 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Vietnamese | Message 21 of 29 16 July 2013 at 4:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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If I was learning a language to watch foreign films, then I'd have to have Swedish and Danish on my list. I think thanks to Zentropa, the Danish film industry has been one of the best for a while now. Sweden also has a great recent film history, but it also has Bergman.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| YnEoS Senior Member United States Joined 4260 days ago 472 posts - 893 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 22 of 29 16 July 2013 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | ||
Thanks! I plan on taking Mandarin really slow at first. I have a lot of time in my routine for audio only courses, so I plan on learning the Mandarin Pimsleur and Michel Thomas courses inside and out before I move on to more serious Mandarin study. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| YnEoS Senior Member United States Joined 4260 days ago 472 posts - 893 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Hungarian, Czech, Swedish, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish | Message 23 of 29 16 July 2013 at 7:55pm | IP Logged | ||
They're certainly on my long term list, and I'll probably try to get at least to A1-A2ish with them one day. Just have a ton of other languages I'd like to study first. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dezma Bilingual Tetraglot Newbie Indonesia Joined 4840 days ago 7 posts - 7 votes Speaks: Indonesian*, Javanese*, FrenchB2, EnglishB1 Studies: Italian, Czech | Message 24 of 29 20 July 2013 at 8:00am | IP Logged | ||
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Oh my, a cinephile learning Indonesian
Formal Indonesian is quite simple, but you may face a problem when you speak with natives, since we tend to use informal bahasa Indonesia and abandon formal bahasa Indonesia completely. Anyway, goodluck :D 1 person has voted this message useful |
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