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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6901 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes  5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 57 of 140 08 December 2012 at 1:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Dagane, I'm glad you like my log and that it may be a source of motivation for you
:). Dutch is an interesting language, when I have some good basics in Swedish, I'm definitely going back to Dutch (hopefully in the second half of 2013). And here comes my update... 19.11.2012 - 7.12.2012 French First of all, I'm glad to report I've had quite a breakthrough in my French. Not that it has improved all that significantly (but I'm positive it's just a matter of time): most importantly, I've managed to leave my comfort zone and change my learning routine. Among other things: - I've watched TV series with French dubbing (ca. twenty 40-minute episodes so far). I'm yet to find out if it is going to improve my listening comprehension significantly. - I've done quite many exercises from TV5 Monde website ("7 jours..." and alike): they're quite easy but what I like about them is that they offer links to some follow- up reading/listening material, which encourages me to browse through French websites (and the linked articles are easier to read as I've already know the background and have my vocabulary all brushed up and ready to use). - I've read a book :) - not my first one in French, but the first one read from cover to cover after a pretty long break (and a bit more difficult that what I used to read). I think (or hope :)) it improved my reading speed and technique in French. I've also learnt some new vocabulary. All in all, I've managed to achieve my interim goal of getting 25% share of French in my 6WC log, and I'm really proud of it. http://6wc.learnlangs.com/stats/user/JulieLanguages I hope I won't quickly lose momentum and French will keep its increased share in my life :). Swedish Learning more, getting better, testing new learning material. I got quite a bit bored with my Swedish classes (not that they're bad or anything, I just need to have more variety, to discover the language for myself, as I'm a self-learner deep in my heart :)). So what I've been doing, apart from my usual class stuff and Anki revisions? (By the way, I'm having an Anki crisis at the moment: I have a great database with many words and phrases from my class mostly, and I should be adding new items, but I can't stand using Anki for more than 10-15 minutes in one go... I've started modifiying my most hated Anki cards so that I don't hate them any more :), I take often breaks and usually have my TV on in the background but I don't know what more I can do as I don't want to give up on Anki, and I don't want repetitions to accumulate (and I'm already lagging behind). Back to the interesting Swedish stuff, I'm using two Polish books published by Edgard: "Szwedzki: kurs podstawowy" (which is just some basic vocabulary + dialogues with nice audio and an accompanying booklet. Quite nice to get accustomed to the sound of Swedish and to fill up some gaps in basic vocabulary. The audio can be used without a booklet as well (e.g. while commuting). I like how the dialogues are recorded: first you hear a whole dialogue in Swedish, and then you get the dialogue again + translation. The other Polish book that I'm using is "Szwedzki nie gryzie!". It's quite modern and has a very clear layout but I'm not a big fan of audio. There are no pauses after words so I can't repeat after the original sound without pressing the pause button or editing the recordings. Dialogues tend to be recorded by one voice only, which is also a massive drawback. Well, the book was cheap anyway, and there is a lot of interesting stuff in there, so it wasn't a bad purchase after all. I'm also using Assimil (8 lessons done so far; Le suedois sans peine). The German-based version would probably be better as the grammar focus would be different but I use what I've got. The audio feels quite slow, I hope it will get faster soon. I've been reading about Swedish grammar quite a lot, recently using "Gramatyka dydaktyczna" (in Polish). The book is very much from the field of descriptive grammar, with all the linguistic specialist terms etc. but I sometimes like to get to see the 'big picture'. I'm also listening to Swedish music thanks to all great recommendation I've been given here on the forum. Right now, I'm enjoying Cornelis vs. Riedel and Lisa Ekdahl particularly. On my list of little, yet annoying interference problems which I hope will be gone soon (@tarvos, it is very true that one just needs to internalize things... it's just so annoying before you get there ;)): I can't get used to the fact that 'prata' is an infinitive and 'pratar' is the present form (I mean all verbs, not this particular one). I think it's because of French and, most importantly, Spanish. In Spanish, it's just the other way around: hablAR for infinitive, and hablA in the present (3rd person singular) form. Hence, everytime when I see something ending with -r, I feel like 'it's gotta be infinitive'. Well, I have to wait till my brain realizes it's not the way things work in Swedish... That's everything for this update. My English and German learning routines are not interesting enough to report about them :) Waiting for your comments and advice! Edited by Julie on 08 December 2012 at 1:09pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6901 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 58 of 140 15 December 2012 at 11:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Let me share my reflections after this 6WC:
Post-6WC reflections & 8.12 - 14.12.2012 First of all, I'm really glad I managed to pass the 300-hour mark that I was so close to the last time :). It was actually harder then the previous 6WC, when I spent almost two weeks in Germany, talking all the time in German and logging many conversation/immersion/interpreting hours. http://6wc.learnlangs.com/stats/user/JulieLanguages Swedish In the beginning of 6WC, I just focused on going to my language course, doing homework, reviewing material regularly and using Anki a lot, i.e. doing what I had been doing since October. This was fun in the beginning (and Swedish is, in the first place, a 'fun project' for me) but at some point I realized I needed to shake things up a bit. I ended up using various supplementary resources, such as Assimil, listening to Swedish music, trying reading original texts on the Internet, and reading a lot about Swedish grammar. In the course, we would learn grammar quite slowly, with lots of exercises on every single issue - very much not my learning style. Firstly, I am not a big fun of grammar exercises at all (I'm really good at doing such exercises, especially at the beginner's level, but I do everything almost automatically and all this work rarely translates into real progress). Secondly, I need a good overview of grammar before I go into details or start learning irregular forms. Now that I've read e.g. about Swedish past tenses (that we haven't had in the course yet, apart from some fixed phrases), and that I have just a smattering of the history of Swedish language, I can continue my learning (and I can sleep peacefully, as we say in Polish :)). What about my progress in Swedish? Well, I'm very much a beginner and I have yet to learn many basic words. Still, it surprising how many words and constructions seem to be the most obvious thing in the world, even though I had no idea about them just a couple of weeks ago! Extensive use of Anki and the course I attend have helped a lot here (otherwise I would probably rush through the basics, like I did with grammar). When I try to read original texts (yesterday: 1 page of "Masterdetektiven Blomkvist" by Astrid Lindgren, which I loved when I was a little girl) it either involves a lot of guessing or a lot of dictionary use, but all in all I feel like I'm not lost in the structure of Swedish sentences, if you know what I mean. Even if I don't understand a thing, it doesn't feel like deciphering a strange code that much anymore. What I'm particularly happy about though is the fact that step by step I start to use the language independently: with very basic vocabulary and all mistakes a beginner is prone to make, but building my own phrases and saying things I haven't learnt how to say. What I mean is that just a while ago I was only able to say what I'd read somewhere or what we'd practiced in the course (like holding a simple conversation on a very topic about which we'd read a couple of dialogues), and now I'm slowly starting to use the language in a creative way, both in speech and in writing. And I'm really enjoying it :) And one thing about interferences (I know I will soon be known as an interference whiner ;)): funnily enough, the one language that comes to my mind then I try to say or write something in Swedish is French. Maybe because it was another language I focused on during the last 6WC... French I have to say I'm quite proud of myself. First of all, I managed to study it every single day of 6WC (but two days when I was out at a conference, doing hardly any language learning), and to get to 25% on my 6WC chart :). Second of all, I managed to break out of my comfort zone and change my learning routine. I have yet to see the results (I think I have improved a bit but it's really hard to say) and I may not be out of the woods yet, but all in all, I believe it was an important step. The biggest achievement: having read a book in French for the first time after a pretty long break: reading a couple of hours in a row and simply enjoying the story. Now I just have to go on... it won't always be easy (for some reason, French is the one language I always struggled with) but I can do that! I hope :) German Focusing on Swedish and French I have to admit I got a bit lazy and didn't do as much as I wanted as far as German is concerned. Some of the time that I spent in the front of TV can hardly be called learning. On the positive side, I went back to reading "Die Zeit" and tried to focus on all the vocabulary I know passively but I wouldn't used while speaking or interpreting. I also looked up a lot of familiar vocabulary so that I know precise Polish equivalents. I think I will continue doing all of that. English Simple language maintaining, nothing special. On the positive side, I wrote and spoke English regularly, even if it wasn't a lot. Looking forward to the next 6WC! And to TAC, obviously (I'm in two teams: Viking and Slavic/Romance). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5332 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 59 of 140 16 December 2012 at 12:02am | IP Logged | ||
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And I really look forward to following your log and your progress!
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6901 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 60 of 140 16 December 2012 at 2:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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As the year slowly comes to the end, and TAC 2013 will soon begin, I think it is a good
idea to post about my learning goals, which should help me to clear my thoughts. For the first half of 2013, my focus languages are: - Swedish - I'm aiming at a strong A2 level, I think, or weak B1. In other words, I want to be an intermediate learner and not a beginner anymore :). I would like to expand my vocabulary and to be able to read quite simple original texts (e.g. newspapers articles, children books) with help of a dictionary but without having to look up most of the words :). I'm planning to do more self-learning and to attend the course at my university till mid-June (and I want to pass the exams in the end :)). - French - I want to significantly improve my listening and reading comprehension and passive vocabulary, and hopefully pass an interpreting exam (FR>PL). I will use French more (reading, watching movies and TV, listening), keep adding vocabulary to Anki from time to time, and probably do some language activities, such as continuing with "7jours" and "GLOSS". Most importantly, I want to keep my motivation up. Right now, I'm also thinking about going back to some basic materials to fill in gaps in my French knowledge. I've never finished Assimil, French in Action, and FrenchPod, and all of them were quite entertaining. - German - I want to improve my active vocabulary, especially in the official register. Most importantly, I need more verbs! I'm going to read quality press systematically (especially "Die Zeit"), to note down vocabulary (or add it to Anki), to practice interpreting into German (that's my main goal: improve the quality of interpreting), maybe I'm also going to use a textbook for the specialist language (I'm quite sceptical about it, though). And I'm going to watch German TV and browse through German websites, as usually. - ??? - all of that should keep me busy for the next 6 months but I'm starting to feel this urge to add another language to the mix, and I'm afraid I won't be able to say no. Dutch or Spanish would be the obvious choice, but I want to significantly improve in Swedish and French first, to avoid all possible interferences (have you noticed I am an interference whiner? ;)). Russian is a possibility, especially with me being on the Slavic/Romance team now, but somehow I long for something new and/or more distant. I have to think about it. Plans for the second half of the year: Well, you never 'complete' a language but I do hope I'll be happy enough with my German and French to change my focus. Most probably, I will go back to Spanish then (I was thinking about re-learning some vocabulary with SRS, and using great amounts of original media, but some other learning resources are not out of question). I'm also thinking about Russian (no learning plan here yet but the language has been bugging me for a long time). And, most importantly, I want to go back to Dutch when I only have some solid basics in Swedish. It seems that it should be an interesting (and busy) year. As always, all advice and comments will be appreciated :). Edited by Julie on 16 December 2012 at 2:32pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5393 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 61 of 140 16 December 2012 at 4:27pm | IP Logged | ||
Do you use Anki on your computer? I feel that way about using it on my computer, too. I just can't sit still for it. Once I put it on my phone though, it is much easier. You can pull it out and do 2-3 minutes here and there throughout the day, and you'd be surprised how much less painful it is. I do it while we're waiting for the bus in the morning, or when I'm waiting for the kids to get home from school. Grocery store line. Any time you have a few minutes, you can pull it out. Edited by Kerrie on 16 December 2012 at 4:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6901 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 62 of 140 30 December 2012 at 6:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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@Kerrie: I use Anki mostly on my computer. However, I've recently bought an Android smartphone, and it is less painful to use the "empty" time for Anki repetitions indeed. The only problem is I tend to forget to sync Anki while using it on my phone - nothing more frustrating then doing the same repetitions twice!
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5169 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 63 of 140 31 December 2012 at 3:58am | IP Logged | ||
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Cześć! W zamian za Twoje wspaniałe wskazówki dotyczące moich tekstów w języku polskim, trochę
poprawiłam kilka Twoich zdań. :) Your English is really good and very idiomatic too - I only noticed a few mistakes in your last few posts. to be able to read quite simple original texts (e.g. newspapers articles, children books) with help of a dictionary This may have been a simple typo, but it should be"with THE help of a dictionary". I'm going to read quality press systematically I would say "quality press articles" or "news articles". I don't know if what you wrote is actually wrong, but it doesn't sound right to my ears. as usually You should say "as usual" instead - I don't think there is any logical reason for this, but we definitely say "as usual" rather than "as usually". It is just the way the English language developed. I want to go back to Dutch when I only have some solid basics in Swedish. There are two issues with this sentence. First, the "when I only" part. I think you meant "as soon as", and translated "jak tylko" literally from Polish. Second, "solid basics" does not sound right. I would write "as soon as I have the basics down in Swedish" or else "as soon as I have a basic knowledge of Swedish". Coming back to the "when I only" bit, if you write "when I only have the basics down", it means that you want to learn Dutch when you possess ONLY a basic knowledge of Swedish (i.e., when you are not advanced in Swedish). I don't think that is what you meant to say! However, I've recently bought an Android smartphone, and it is less painful to use the "empty" time for Anki repetitions indeed. I would put the verb in the past simple rather than the present perfect: "I recently bought an Android smartphone." "Recently" refers to some time in the past that is gone now. You would not say, "I have bought this recently," just like you wouldn't say, "I have bought this yesterday," because the action is finished. Of course, you could say, "I have done this three times recently," because inserting "three times" implies ongoing action. I hope that made sense - I am not used to explaining the subtleties of English grammar! ;) There is just one more correction I would make. It sounds a lot better to say "it is indeed less painful" rather than to leave the "indeed" at the end of the sentence. I hope my corrections were as useful to you as yours were to me! Good luck with your studies! :) Edited by Amerykanka on 31 December 2012 at 4:17am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6595 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 64 of 140 31 December 2012 at 11:33am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, L2 learners are actually told to use the present perfect with "recently" :D
But yeah I guess this only applies when you have some present perfect meaning in there too. It's like with 'always' or 'never' - by default these need present perfect, but it depends on the context. Edited by Serpent on 31 December 2012 at 11:38am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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