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My summer of language learning | ||
Tags: Foreign Languages | Time to learn | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Daniel J Newbie United Kingdom Joined 4183 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 1 of 12 21 June 2013 at 3:16pm | IP Logged |
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Hi everyone - I have just finished my final school exams and have around 3 months free now. What better way to spend such time than studying a plethora of languages, I keep excitedly telling myself! I have managed to get my hands on bucketloads of materials, and so the list of languages to be studied is quite long, although some will be given more attention than others.
This log will typically take the form of a daily update, along with me perhaps writing a short passage in the target language to practise what I have learned. Any feedback on these efforts would be gratefully appreciated. Languages to be studied and how I am going to do it French Current level - B1 - I have studied French for several eyars at school, and have just finished my final 'A level' exam in the subject. I hope to study it at university from September. My language plan concerning French will consist mainly of learning new vocab and practicing grammar. Study plan: Work through 3 topics a week in the 'French visual dictionary'. Work through 3 topics a week in 'Barrons Mastering French vocabulary'. Learn three new verbs a day from 'Barrons 501 French verbs'. Work through 2 chapters in 'Mot à mot' vocab book Work through 1 topic a day in the 'Élan grammar book' Wrok through 1 chapter of 'Teach Yourself Perfect your French' a week. Greek - I have a passion for Greek and Cypriot culture and history, and am also a semi regular visitor to Cyprus. I am going there this summer for two weeks and would love to finally be able to say something in Greek to the friendly locals. My current knowledge of Greek is virtually nothing. Study plan: Work through 'Earworms Greek 1 and 2'. Comple te 'Teach yourself Greek conversation' Work through the online Greek course by CYBC Comple te 'Teach yourself Greek' Dutch - I am hopefully studying Dutch at university come September, and am also visiting Amsterdam in July. Again, I would love to be able to utter a few things in Dutch, a language that I also love the look and sound of Study plan: Work through 'Earworms Dutch 1 and 2' Comple te 'Teach yourself Dutch conversation'. Comple te 'Teach yourself Dutch' German - Another language I hope to study at university, although only as a minor. I hae studied German history as part of my A level history course, and have become quite fascinated in the country itself as a result. I also think the language sounds and looks brilliant, and it certainly seems to be very 'fun' to speak. Study plan: Work through linguaphone German short course Comple te 'Teach yourself German conversation' Comple te 'Teach yourself German' Work through 'Collins German vocabulary' Italian - I first visited Italy last summer, and found Rome to be quite amazing. I am also a Catholic, and so heading to the 'capital' of Catholicism was quite an experience for me. I would love to return to 'The Eternal City' and use some newly acquired Italian skills at some point in the future. Study plan - Complete 'Teach yourself Italian' Comple te '15 minute Italian' Work through 'Collins Italian vocabulary' Work through the 'Italian visual dictionary' Work through 'Parola per parola' vocabulary book Spanish - I have been to Spain several times, but never got the chance to study the language at school, something I have long regretted. Hopefully I can pick up a bit of Spanish over the summer, a language that will be very useful in any future career of mine I am sure. Study plan - Work through 'La vida loca' BBC Spanish course Work through 'Linguaphone Spanish 16 hour audio course' Comple te 'Teach yourself Spanish' Work through 'Collins Spanish vocabulary' Work through the 'Spanish visual dictionary' Work through Barrons 'Mastering Spanish vocabulary' Work through 'Palabra por palabra' vocab book Russian - I am in love with Russia and the Russian speaking world, and this is going to be one of my majors at university (hopefully!). I hope to gain a basic working knowledge of the language to help make the transition to university level study a bit easier. Study plan:Complete 'Michel Thomas Russian courses' (Foundation, Advanced, vocabulary) Complete 'Teach yourself Russian conversation' Complete 'Teach yourself Russian' Complete 'The Penguin Russian course' Work through 'Using Russian vocabulary' Work through ' A comprehensive Russian grammar' Work through 'Russian grammar workbook' Japanese - I am also very interested in Japanese culture, history and society. I would certianly love to visit Japan at some point in the future and take in all the sights. Study plan - Complete 'Teach yourself Japanese conversation'. Work through 'Remembering the Kanji 1' Comple te 'Japanese from zero! 1' Comple te 'Japanese from zero! 2' Comple te 'Japanese from zero! 3' Work through 'Remembering the Kanji 2' Work through 'Remembering the Kanji 3' Latin - As a Catholic, learning the Latin language is very important to me, in regards to taking part in Latin Masses and perhaps better understanding the Vatican if I were ever to go there again. Study plan - Work through the 'Cambridge Latin course' volumes 1-5 Romanian Study plan - Complete Pimsleur's 'Conversational Romanian' Hungarian - I became slightly interested in Hungarian after making friends with someone from the country. His tales have given me a real insight into Hungarian culture and customs, something that I found very enjoyable. Whilst not high up the list of my priorities, I would like to learn a little Hungarian to use on him Study plan - Complete Pimsleur's 'Conversational Hungarian' Practise with my Hungarian friend Finnish Study plan - Complete 'Teach yourself Finnish' Croatian Study plan - Complete Pimsleur's 'Croatian short course' Comple te ''Teach yourself Croatian conversation' Swedish Study plan - Complete 'Teach yourself Swedish' Irish - My parents are Irish, but sadly I never got the chance to learn our native tongue. Hopefully I can learn a little over the break Study plan - Complete 'Teach yourself Irish conversation' Work through the 'Cultúr le Comhrá’ podcasts Indonesian Study plan - Work through 'The Indonesian Way' course Esperanto Study plan - Complete the 'Lernu' courses Icelandic Study plan - Complete the online Icelandic course by the Univeristy of Iceland. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Evita Tetraglot Senior Member Latvia learnlatvian.info Joined 6558 days ago 734 posts - 1036 votes  Speaks: Latvian*, English, German, Russian Studies: Korean, Finnish | Message 2 of 12 21 June 2013 at 3:36pm | IP Logged |
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This sounds like a plan for three years, not three months. Well, good luck to you anyway! It's going to be very difficult to study many languages where you are a beginner at the same time so I would suggest to start with just a couple of languages and then add more if you see there's still room for them.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4713 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 3 of 12 21 June 2013 at 3:40pm | IP Logged |
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There are plenty of cool languages on here, but not even Arguelles could manage this. Are
you going to be in a monastic order? :) By the way, if you need help with Dutch, I'm here. Edited by tarvos on 21 June 2013 at 3:41pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5988 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 4 of 12 21 June 2013 at 3:44pm | IP Logged |
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Good luck with your plan, it sounds very ambitious!
In terms of your plan for French, I would advise you not to underestimate the importance of just reading books and watching TV. Coming fresh from your A level class you should already have a strong enough foundation to get stuck in to reading and listening to native materials, which will really help to consolidate your grammar and expand your vocabulary. Structured study is still helpful, but I wouldn't spend more than half your French time on textbooks. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5177 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 5 of 12 21 June 2013 at 4:06pm | IP Logged |
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I will definitely be reading your log! I am learning Latin and Italian for roughly the same reasons you are, and
so I far I am enjoying both languages. And you have some very neat languages there on your list! I have to agree with Evita and tarvos, though - I would not recommend starting 10+ new languages at once! I have enough trouble keeping up with my four languages, and they are all at different levels, so I can't imagine adding over 10 new ones and being a beginner in all of them. Edit: I forgot. As far as your Latin resources . . . I have never used Cambridge Latin myself, but I know people who have and they weren't particularly complimentary (although part of that might have been that teenagers aren't generally thrilled to be learning Latin ;) - I have always been an anomaly in that regard). I have used Henle, Wheelock's, and Collins over the years, and my favorite is definitely Wheelock's. Collins is good for Ecclesiastical Latin, but I wouldn't recommend it for a beginner. Have you considered using Wheelock's? Edited by Amerykanka on 21 June 2013 at 4:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5268 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 6 of 12 21 June 2013 at 4:39pm | IP Logged |
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Ahhh to be that young again and believe anything is possible, even if.... well, have fun anyway! Edited by iguanamon on 21 June 2013 at 5:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4865 days ago 890 posts - 1190 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish | Message 7 of 12 21 June 2013 at 5:05pm | IP Logged |
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Maybe Daniel has as many friends as Emanuele Marini? ;)
2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5015 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 8 of 12 22 June 2013 at 9:49am | IP Logged |
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I love to read logs of the crazy optimists! The most fun part is when they manage to do much more than anyone had expected :-)
Even though this is a huuuuge workload. And truth be told, I wouldn't try to start ten at once, the more using nearly the same methods for most of them. Lets see how it goes. Good luck and have fun. That's probably the only way to survive such an experiment. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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