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Kadin’s Language Log (TAC 2013) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Kadin.Goldberg Newbie United States Joined 4431 days ago 30 posts - 34 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Swedish | Message 1 of 5 03 January 2013 at 7:38am | IP Logged |
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Hey everyone!
I am starting a log to document my progress and hopefully get advice/support from everyone that has learned a 2nd language before or is learning one now. A little about myself and what I am planning to do: I am a 27 year old guy from the U.S. and I am moving to Italy in 3 months. I have studied Spanish in highschool, college, and some private lessons when I was traveling in South America for 6 months (2 years ago). I used to be able to have basic conversations in Spanish but have lost a lot because I have not used it. I was never "fluent". I have also studied some Swedish in the past. I had a Swedish girlfriend who taught me a little and I lived in Sweden with her for 3 months. Because most Swedish people speak English and at the time I didn't have much motivation for learning language, I did not learn very much. I recently have become extremely fascinated with learning new languages. I have always had an interest but lately it is something that I have been taking much more serious than I ever had in the past. Anyways, enough about the past... here comes the present and future! I just received my Assimil Italian With Ease book in the mail today and am going to start on lesson 1 tomorrow (it is late and I am too tired right now). I plan on studying at least an hour of Italian per day. I will do the 30 minute lesson of Assimil and then supplement by watching movies, anki flashcards (just ordered a smartphone for that!), listening to podcasts and eventually (maybe in a month?) start skyping with native speakers. I also plan on studying Swedish again. I think it is a beautiful language and I will be in Sweden for a few weeks in 2 months. I am going to go through the FSI course online for Swedish... probably a half hour to an hour per day. I am going to make Italian my priority though. Well, enough blathering! I will try and update somewhat frequently to let people know how my progress is going and I am sure to ask a random question here and there. Thank you so much for having such a great forum! You all have been incredibly helpful so far! Edited by Kadin.Goldberg on 07 January 2013 at 7:22pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Kadin.Goldberg Newbie United States Joined 4431 days ago 30 posts - 34 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Swedish | Message 2 of 5 05 January 2013 at 12:19am | IP Logged |
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Well, I have been doing Assimil for just two days now. I am trying to take it slow but
am having a really hard time not going faster. I really like the method so far and it seems almost too easy. I feel I have learned new words already without even trying (I know they are probably still just in my short term memory). I figured I could go through the first part of the book a little faster because I have already been studying Italian for about a month now. I went through a bunch of the Pimsleur tapes and all of the Michel Thomas intro tapes as well as the Advanced. While those were great for accent and getting an overview of the grammar I think that Assimil will actually get me speaking.... I hope. Anyways, I just finished lesson 6 today. I hope I didn't go through the first lessons too fast but I did listen to each lesson about 12 times each... probably even more. And because I am really trying not to keep going farther in the book I keep listening to them over and over again. I won't bore you all with updating every day but I do want to keep a log and maybe update once a week. The one thing I am a little unsure of is whether I am "supposed" to be shadowing or repeating the sentences out loud in the passive phase. I have been doing it but not sure if I was supposed to hold off on that until the active phase... EDIT: Oh yeah, forgot... FSI Swedish. I am just on Unit two and going over and over the Swedish audio and text until I can understand the Swedish without reading. They seem to speak a lot faster on FSI than Assimil which I guess is good but taking me a little longer to understand without text. Edited by Kadin.Goldberg on 05 January 2013 at 12:23am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Kadin.Goldberg Newbie United States Joined 4431 days ago 30 posts - 34 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Swedish | Message 3 of 5 07 January 2013 at 7:27pm | IP Logged |
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Just decided to join the TAC 2013... Because I just started (pretty much) the
beginning of this month I figured "why not?". I don't know what it means to be on a team but if someone does and thinks it would be good for me to be on a team... please let me know! Update: I am doing my best to squeeze in 2 assimil lessons per day. I don't want to rush though so if I feel 2 is too much then I am only going to do 1 per day. So far 2 assimil + FSI swedish + Italian movies and podcasts seems to be about right. I imagine there will be days I can't do this much but for now it is just fine. I am starting to understand a lot more and there are parts of movies where I go about a minute while understand EVERYTHING that is said.... it is always when their conversation is about something that I have already studied. I really would like to finish the passive phase of Assimil by the middle of next month... I hope that isn't too rushed. I just want to work on the active part and start skyping in Italian as soon as I can so that I will be able to at least have basic conversation when I go to Italy. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Kadin.Goldberg Newbie United States Joined 4431 days ago 30 posts - 34 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Swedish | Message 4 of 5 08 January 2013 at 5:42am | IP Logged |
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I am going to change the way I post in this log to make posting easier and faster.
Only will I add additional text if I feel it is necessary. Assimil: Lessons 11 & 12 : Listened repeatedly until I could understand audio easily. Lessons 8 - 12 : Reviewed multiple times. Lessons 2 - 6 : Reviewed once. FSI: Finished Swedish FSI tape A after listening to it a few times the last few days. I just subscribed to Yabla Italian... what a great resource!! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Kadin.Goldberg Newbie United States Joined 4431 days ago 30 posts - 34 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Swedish | Message 5 of 5 24 February 2013 at 9:03pm | IP Logged |
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Quick update because it has been awhile. I stopped studying Swedish... it was too much
to do both Swedish and Italian at the same time and because I am moving to Italian I had to prioritize. Italian is going well. I have complete 74 lessons of the passive wave of Assimil and 24 of the active wave. I have decided to stop doing the passive wave and just focus on the active wave. I decided to go over the 24 active wave lessons again to make sure I know them and then just really go after each lesson and learn each one as perfect as possible. I think I will review a previous lesson every 4 or 5 days so that I don't forget anything. I have 1 month before I will be in Italy. I hope to learn as much as I can before I arrive. I will update a few times before I get to Italy and then update again to let you all know how it turns out when I am actually there. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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