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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Tamise Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom jllrr.wordpress.com/ Joined 5245 days ago 115 posts - 161 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Dutch Studies: French, Japanese, Spanish | Message 1 of 1 17 February 2013 at 1:24pm | IP Logged |
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I've been learning languages on and off from a very young age and have always enjoyed both the process and the results. I'm very prone to wanderlust though, and don't always make huge process in the languages I study. I plan to use this log to bring some order to my current study and hope to define which languages I will study and in what way. I'm not sure how well this will work, but think it's worth a go!
The current plan is to study/maintain the following languages: English German Dutch French Japanese Spanish Slovene I also plan to allow for the wanderlust and allocate some time to additional languages as the fancy takes me. I don't have a huge amount of time for active language study as I work full-time and also study part-time, so a large amount of my language "study" will involve things that can be done in short snatches and I'll try to emphasise regular study in small doses over large chunks. English As this is my native language, I don't want to actively study it, but I do want to read more as I really haven't read much in English over the last few years. My current plan is to try to read at least a chapter of whatever book I'm reading per week. This is not a large goal, so should be achievable. German I started studying German at about the age of 8, though you could argue I started at 2 as my family lived in a German-speaking area of Switzerland at the time. I studied German as part of my degree and spent a year in Saxony as part of the degree. Since then, I really haven't done much German at all other than during a brief period when I worked with a Aussiedlerin who moved to Germany from Kazakhstan at 18 and was about to go back to Germany - she wasn't at all confident in her German and wanted to practice, which was fine by me. As with English, I don't currently want to do any active study in German, but I do want to make sure I read in German and watch some German-language television. I aim to read at least a chapter of a book and watched at least one tv show per week. Dutch I started Dutch in 2010 in a fairly haphazard way. This was my first attempt at learning a language via reading and listening only, but as there was a reasonable chance of me going to Amsterdam for a few years in 2011, I decided to pick up some study books. In the end, I didn't go to Amsterdam long-term, though I did visit and have been back to Dutch-speaking areas a few times since and plan to go to Gent this year. In terms of understanding, my Dutch is pretty good, though production isn't as good. I list Dutch as one of the languages I speak in my language profile here - I feel this is the case as it's a language I'm very comfortable in, but it may be an over estimate. My main focus in Dutch will be the Super Challenge - I'm doing an Advanced Challenge, so aim to read 200 books and watched 200 films by the end of the year. I'm on track with the films, but behind with the books. In order to finish, I need to read 300 pages a week and watched 2 films a week. I also want to do some book learning and will try to write in Dutch in this log each week. French I started French a little after German and studied it at both primary and secondary school, but stopped then. I've come back to it on and off, but it's more been a language I want to know rather than one I want to learn. I'm doing a Half Challenge in French, so 50 of each, and this will be the main focus for French. I'm on track with films, and only a little behind with books. I need to read 300 pages a month and watch 2 films a month to finish. I don't plan to do any serious book learning in French, though will work through a reader that has exercises. Japanese I've been studying Japanese on and off since 2007, but have never done a huge amount of textbook learning. I did go to a few classes at the start, but found it annoying that there was no study of written Japanese until further up the programme. I'm very uncertain of my current level, and think I probably need to pick up a textbook to go through and find the gaps in my current knowledge. I'm hoping to go to Japan at the beginning of next year - currently the plan is to spend at least some of the time in a language school. I'm doing the regular Super Challenge in Japanese, so 100 films and books. As with the other languages, I'm up to date with the films, but not reading. I have a bit of a mental block about reading books in Japanese (as opposed to manga, which I've read from the beginning of my study), but am starting to get over this. I need to read between 100 and 200 pages a week and watched about a film a week to finish. I also plan to work through a grammar workbook and continue going through the Core 6000 at iKnow - I aim to do a short session every day. Spanish I did a short Spanish course a few years ago, but am very much a beginner. I started a half challenge in Spanish at the beginning of the year, so will have to go at a faster pace with Spanish than French. So far this is going well. I might start on a grammar workbook for Spanish later in the year, but for the moment, I'll just be watching and reading. Slovene I first dabbled in Slovene in 2011, and found it fascinating, but the resources lacking. This is still the case, but the new Colloquial Slovene is a lot better than the old one and I hope to make some headway with it. I'm aiming for a unit every two weeks as well as some additional vocab study. It's a while since I've done such textbook focused study, so I'm not sure how I'll get on with this. Wanderlust I plan to allow myself to spend some time on other languages once I've finished with the focus ones. My university study week starts on a Saturday, and this is what I've used for languages in the past, but I think I'll switch to starting the languages week on a Monday and that allows wanderlust time on a Sunday. I hope to update this log on Sundays with an update on what I've done in each language. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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