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Lapislazuli’s multilingual log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Lapislazuli Tetraglot Senior Member Austria Joined 7038 days ago 146 posts - 170 votes  Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, ItalianB1 Studies: French, Hungarian, Esperanto, Czech | Message 1 of 10 10 May 2012 at 11:28pm | IP Logged |
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Welcome to my new log. This is supposed to be an introductory post to explain, what I am doing here, why, what languages I have and what I am planning to do with them in the near future.
I decided to make this a multilingual one, where I can practice my different languages (even though this here is entirely in English, but I figured it would make some sense to keep the general introduction in a language that is understood by as many readers as possible ;-)] I have partly written my entries in my different languages also in my older logs and this will be a new try to be more consistent with that – those who have followed me in the past know that I never quite succeed in being consistent, but there is no reason for not trying it at least. This is also one of the things, that are important for language-learning: getting into the habit of doing something, and if you get out of it, because life throws some other priorities at you, just try it again. At the moment the language that I will be working on most, is going to be Italian. I am going to need it for my work so I decided this is the moment to eventually get it to a higher level. Being under a bit of pressure is sometimes what it takes to get me do something. Currently I’d say I am somewhere between B1 and B2 and as I am going to do some guided tours in Italian in the very near future, I would really like to get to a very solid C1 by the end of the year. Let’s see if this is doable, but certainly something to aim for. I recently also started Czech. A language that I have been planning to study for quite some time now, and having been unemployed, I had the time to start. Right now I am just listening to Assimil, making notes, reading aloud and so on. I decided to do it on a slow but regular pace and then I will see where this gets me. It is not a race I have to win, and this slower pace is easier for me to keep up with, as there are also quite some other things going on in my life right now. It is the first language, I am studying entirely on my own. One big motivation are some trips to Prague, Český Krumlov or some places near the Austrian border, that I am planning to do. Well, the sort of plans, where some friends and me were sitting together and said: “Oh, we absolutely have to go there!” But I am determined to not let this just remain those kinds of plans, but to actually do some of those things. As for Hungarian, I am sort of studying it on and off at the moment, and possibilities to use it pop out in front of me every now and then. For example an elderly Hungarian couple that I met here in Vienna at the ticket vending machine for the public transport and who didn’t know how to buy their ticket (and who clearly didn’t expect to having someone walk by who could explain to them in Hungarian what to do.) And then last weekend I took a spontaneous trip to Budapest, just for two days, but it was really good to be there again, use my Hungarian, even go to the theatre to watch a Hungarian rock opera. As usual there is not much Swedish happening, unfortunately. Except for being in a Scandinavian-focused choir, where we sing in lots of Scandinavian and also some non-Scandinavian languages. Many songs we have are actually in Swedish, but being in that choir also makes me seriously consider to at least flirt a little with Icelandic and Faroese. Well, at the moment I don’t have any time for that, I guess, but sooner or later …. Then there is French, my love-hate-language. Earlier this year I felt drawn to it again. I watched some movies (maybe I’ll write some reviews about them here in French, as there were really some very nice and recommendable ones among them) and then I also started reading “Le Comte de Monte Cristo” and to my surprise found it an enjoyable experience. I would have definitely expected it to be harder for me to understand. But then I had to start studying a lot for my guide-exams, and then the possibility to do tours in Italian came up, so Italian took the higher priority, and anyway French will definitely remain a “hobby-language” for me, not something I seriously consider using in my job. I enjoy reading and watching movies in this language and to improve my understanding, but not have any obligation to work on it as – see above: love-hate-language. I don’t want to get back to hating it. And then there is Spanish, which has always been the most neglected one of my languages. I have not completely given up on it. Right now I am planning on picking it up again, once I am at a high level in Italian, as I hope this will reduce the danger of mixing the two of them up as badly as I have done in the past. Right now, my Italian has improved to a degree, where I hardly use any Spanish words with it – so I think this will be the way to go to solve my problems with the two of them. Edited by Lapislazuli on 10 May 2012 at 11:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lapislazuli Tetraglot Senior Member Austria Joined 7038 days ago 146 posts - 170 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, ItalianB1 Studies: French, Hungarian, Esperanto, Czech | Message 2 of 10 14 May 2012 at 1:22pm | IP Logged |
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Un modo molto importante per migliorare le mie conoscenze di lingue è sempre stato la lettura. Secondo me per abituarmi alle strutture di una lingua ma anche per amplificare il mio vocabolario è molto utile da leggere. Non è importante che cosa sono leggendo se solo è interessante per me.
Per esempio quando sono stata in Svezia era necessario per il mio corso di università di leggere molte opere di teatro svedese, ho anche letto molti altri libri in svedese, per esempio degli gialli oppure romanzi storici, in queste sei mesi, e questo mi ha aiutato molto. Solo in questo tempo non avevo nient’altro a fare che leggere. E un po’ diverso adesso. Devo lavorare, devo studiare cose che non hanno molto da fare con le lingue. Cerco di trovare modi di combinare queste cose con le lingue, a volte questo non è molto difficile, ma altre volte non è così tanto sensato. Ho sempre cercato di leggere il più che possibile nelle mie lingue. Ma devo anche dire che generalmente non leggo in un tempo molto veloce, anche nella mia madrelingua. Un grande progetto degli ultimi anni e stato di leggere tutti gli volumi degli libri Harry Potter in ungherese, questo voleva un poco più di tempo, perché in ungherese leggo molto più lentamente che in p.e. svedese. Ma è andata più veloce con ogni volume. Ci voleva sei mesi per il primo libro di 300 pagine, ma il ultimo con circa 700 ho letto in una settimana. Adesso vorrei leggere di più in Italiano. Ho già cominciato con un libro molto lungo. Si chiama “Il trono delle spade” dura un po’ più di 800 pagine, e questo è solo l’inizio, perchè è il primo di una serie di romanzi molto lunghi. Sono cinque adesso e la serie non e ancora finita. Si chiama “Cronache del ghiaccio e del fuoco”, è una serie di fantasy epica scritta di Geroge R. R. Martin. Fu anche filmata in una serie televisiva di cui le mie amiche parlano tutto il tempo. Nel passato questi sono stati i momenti nei nostri incontri, quando sono andata al WC o qualcosa del genere, perchè sono stata digiuno di quello che parlavano. All’inizio non volevo leggerlo, perchè mi dicevo che non ho il tempo per questo, devo studiare Italiano e tante altre cose. Poi sono diventata curiosa e ho pensato: perchè non leggerlo in Italiano. Non sarebbe un’idea così brutta di leggere un libro così lungo in Italiano. Ho la versione ebook, perchè è più facile di prendere il reader con me nella mia borsetta oppure leggerlo nel letto, che con un libro che è grande e pesante come un mattone. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lapislazuli Tetraglot Senior Member Austria Joined 7038 days ago 146 posts - 170 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, ItalianB1 Studies: French, Hungarian, Esperanto, Czech | Message 3 of 10 07 August 2012 at 1:06pm | IP Logged |
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ITALIANO:
Non ho fatto molto di ceco nelle ultime settimane, perché in questo momento il Italiano è un po’ di più importante per me. Provo di fare qualcosa in Italiano ogni giorno. Sia leggere oppure guardare und film, ascoltare il radio … Non ho già finito leggere “Il trono di spade” ma ci mancano solo circa cento pagine, è un libro di più di 800 è anche in tedesco non leggo molto rapido. Sono anche leggendo altre cose. In novembre avrò il mio esame di guida turistica è penso che sia meglio di prepararsi in tempo. In una libreria qui in città ho trovato un libro che si chiama “Vienna 1900 – Pittura e Architettura”. Mi piace molto l’idea di leggere delle cose che devo sapere per il esame in Italiano, perchè sono due cose utile allo stesso tempo. Comunque vorrei anche fare delle visite guidate in Italiano dopo di aver superato quest’esame. ENGLISH: One or two months ago I had the idea of writing a novel in English. Writing it in English proves to be a challenge in itself, but it is also a historical novel which means quite some research too – which I kind of underestimated in the beginning. I had this idea that I wanted to follow along with and so I happily continued uploading chapter by chapter on fictionpress.com (a platform where you can publish your own stories, also in different languages – I really like this idea). The problem is the further I progress in the story the more I find myself needing to research more and more, work on developing the characters as also they are growing more in number – but still I find it a fun thing to do. I have a beta-reader who corrects my writing and I am finding that I will never fully figure out how to use punctuation, especially commas, in English. FRANÇAIS Le français n’est pas une langue que je voulais étudier ou améliorer dans les ans dernièrs, mais je me trouve avec une fascination pour des choses françaises, particulièrement des films et des chansons. Je sais, qu’en écrivant cela je fais beaucoups d’erreurs, mais je m’en fous un peu d’eux dans ce moment là. Le français pour moi c’est une langue dans laquelle je veux faire des choses plaisantes, mais je ne veux pas en travailler beaucoup maintenant. Maintenant ça suffit pour moi de ne l’oublier pas. Le procès de l’apprendre était assez dûre et fatiguant pour moi, et pour ça c’est simplement une belle chose pour moi de ne le perdre pas, et attaindre une attitude positive en faisant des choses que je trouve interessantes. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7158 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 4 of 10 08 August 2012 at 2:50am | IP Logged |
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Ich habe in der letzen Zeit einen Tschechischkurs für Anfänger auf Norwegisch gefunden.
Es gibt leider keine MP3-Aufnahmen, aber es gibt einige Übungen und Anmerkungen über die Grammatik. Ich hoffe, daß er als schwedischsprechende Anfängerin nützlich wird. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lapislazuli Tetraglot Senior Member Austria Joined 7038 days ago 146 posts - 170 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, ItalianB1 Studies: French, Hungarian, Esperanto, Czech | Message 5 of 10 08 August 2012 at 9:48am | IP Logged |
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Danke für den Hinweis! Ich habe kurz hineingeschaut und dieser Kurs sieht für mich wirklich sehr brauchbar aus :-)
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4830 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 6 of 10 08 August 2012 at 5:20pm | IP Logged |
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@Lapislazuli: Do you write your novel directly into English, or do you write it in
German and then translate it? It's a pretty interesting idea anyway, and I hope it proves fruitful and enjoyable. I think of myself as a writer manqué, but I continue not to do anything about it... :-) Edit: (But I comfort myself with the thought that Fontane didn't start writing novels until he was (even) older than I am now)). Edited by montmorency on 08 August 2012 at 5:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Lapislazuli Tetraglot Senior Member Austria Joined 7038 days ago 146 posts - 170 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, ItalianB1 Studies: French, Hungarian, Esperanto, Czech | Message 7 of 10 08 August 2012 at 7:40pm | IP Logged |
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@montmorency: I think it's never too late to start writing again. Maybe you're just waiting for the idea that really wants to be written down ;-)
I am writing it directly in English - though I am somehow playing a little with the idea of also translating it to Italian, just for the sake of exercise and to see if I can do it. But then I don't think my Italian is up to it by now and there are certainly less cumbersome and more effective ways of practicing my Italian. Though I am still kind of tempted by the idea ... Writing fiction in my native language has always been a big hobby of mine, one that I take quite seriously, as I really hope I might get something published at some point. The funny thing is that this has always been in alternation with my language-learning. I have always had times of actively writing something, then I neglected language-learning quite a bit, or I was more into languages, then I usually did not write much. Right now with that big guide-exam coming up in november I don't really have the peace of mind of dedicating myself to writing something that I'd want to get published later - but still I wanted to write something so I decided with this little fun-project. It is a story I have started years ago (in English) and I still liked the idea, so I am just trying to follow along with it and see where it will go. Writing in English I am not as critical with myself as I would be in German. That sounds a bit strange, but it is just, that I know it can't be perfect. I will never have the same command over English that I have over German and I am not aiming for that. I am just trying to have some fun with this little challenge right now. BTW - in case anyone should be interested in what I am talking about, here is the link to my story: http://www.fictionpress.com/s/3031161/1/Lysettes_Visions Edited by Lapislazuli on 08 August 2012 at 7:42pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Lapislazuli Tetraglot Senior Member Austria Joined 7038 days ago 146 posts - 170 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, ItalianB1 Studies: French, Hungarian, Esperanto, Czech | Message 8 of 10 28 November 2012 at 12:03am | IP Logged |
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Again it's a while since I last posted here. This were a few quite busy months, but it was worth it. Yesterday I passed the last part of my guide-exam, which is indeed a little milestone in my life and is not completely unrelated to languages. This enables me to work as a tourist-guide here in Austria and doing my guided tours in my different languages is one part of my plan in all of this. I will start out with English and Swedish, as those are my strongest languages (well, and German of course ...) and I hope to add Italian as I get more secure in doing that job and see how things are going. My idea is adding more languages over the years as soon as I have the feeling I know them well enough.
This also means I have time again to continue with Czech. I also want to brush up my Swedish during the next weeks, I don't think there will be that much of a demand for guided tours in Swedish, but who knows ... Yesterday, directly after the exam I went to the library and borrowed "Män som hatar kvinnor" by Stieg Larsson. Something to get started with. Those guide exams have been my main priority for more then a year now, now that this is done I can move on to other plans, but still have to figure out a bit what those are going to be. I'll just go and see how things will turn out. Knowing myself, I won't promise to post more regularily here from now on, but things are looking good. I also owe a few replies, so those will be done within the next few days I think :-) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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