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Dutch and French and maybe Latin! | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| plumbem Newbie United States Joined 4020 days ago 9 posts - 10 votes Studies: French | Message 1 of 15 28 November 2013 at 12:37am | IP Logged |
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After a few days of browsing, I feel comfortable posting even if mostly to say that I
am overwhelmed and refreshed by the community here; its sharing of resources,encouragement and ambition. I have rarely felt particularly understood, comfortable, challenged, or excited in my traditional education so far (self-advocacy and making the best of imperfect situations are skills I have only begun to pursue recently.) This seems like an incredible, cost-effective and most importantly empowering alternative. So before I continue to characterize a forum I don't know much about.... My name is Edward. I grew up speaking Ohio English and some Dutch (mother's 1st language) but lost the Dutch somewhere around age five or six. I returned to learning Dutch at 22 using RS, my mother, family abroad (Groningen and Eindhoven,) and a year in Amsterdam. I would self rate my Dutch at a B1-B2 (I spent much of my time abroad reading American literature and continental philosophy.) Still it is incredible; learning to speak my mother's tongue allowed me to understand someone I hadn't; she become her 28 year old self (the age she immigrated;) deeper, smarter, and more playful. Afterwards I took two months to walk the Camino from Le Puy to Santiago De Compestela and met many polyglots who's abilities astounded and inspired me. I've taken Latin, from 6-9th grade, French from K-8, and then as a junior in College. It feels like I don't remember any Latin, except for some of the more prevalent word roots. My French has always lacked confidence and interest (decent pronunciation though :) Completing my second Americorps year in May 2014, I seek entry into the Peace Corps and am studying to pass the CLEP (French) exam to bolster my application and to take advantage of much (inefficient) language learning in my earlier life. (Opportunity Cost!) In my lifetime I would like to attain conversational German and Spanish, near fluent French and Dutch, high reading ability in Latin and a moderate ability in Classical Greek. My two year priorities are as follows 1. Pass CLEP French exam for Peace Corps application (minimum score of 50) 2. Learn French (or something else!) during my Peace Corps service 3. Elevate my Dutch to a solid B2 4. Get Latin to a comfortable reading level while abroad Currently I speak with my mother once a week in Dutch. Beyond this, nothing. For French I am using two Anki decks (suggestions appreciated,) listening to Michel Thomas Foundational (and soon advanced,) and will work through level 3-5 of Rosetta Stone (I feel its appropriate to skip 1+2). I am working through decoding a CLEP practice examination, refreshing grammar and building a third Anki deck for vocabulary and idiomatic expressions. I also have acquired the complete Asterix and Obelix and Tintin in French, Dutch and English. I love the idea of using these to learn German and Spanish eventually. Its strange how infinitely readable they seem to me (part of this is nostalgiac.) Have not begun reading them though... I would love suggestions for French learning suggestions (especially for someone who has had to sit through a lot of French classes but doesn't feel like they can use the language in real life) and tips about the CLEP exam. I really do feel blessed to have found this wonderful resource! Edited by plumbem on 28 November 2013 at 1:07am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| plumbem Newbie United States Joined 4020 days ago 9 posts - 10 votes Studies: French | Message 2 of 15 28 November 2013 at 12:41am | IP Logged |
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Two things I just thought of...
1. Is labeling objects in my house a worthwhile way of learning vocabulary? 2. I am also a yoga teacher and if anyone has Sanskrit resources they would recommend, I would love at least, to share them with other yoga teachers. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4704 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes  Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian | Message 3 of 15 28 November 2013 at 5:48am | IP Logged |
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Hi Plumbem, since we're both refreshing our French right now - just wanted to share a few
relevant threads I found buried in the Advice Forum. French advice for not so new beginner How to get back and further forward French - next step after Assimil Hopefully we'll both make a lot of good progress! I look forward to following your log. :-) Edited by Hekje on 28 November 2013 at 5:49am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| plumbem Newbie United States Joined 4020 days ago 9 posts - 10 votes Studies: French | Message 4 of 15 09 January 2014 at 4:01pm | IP Logged |
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My first update!
Working in a school this year, I had coveted my winter break and planned to make great progress in my French. What actually happened? Mom and I drove eastward, babbling in Dutch, through most of Pennsylvania. Hours of good practice; the only intensive opportunity I've been afforded for some time. Just the Sunday before I'd spoken to my uncle from Eindhoven on the phone, and perhaps due to all the French I'd been reviewing, I reverted mostly to listening. I felt incompetent. We made it to Brooklyn and I made gift of my old RS CDs (Dutch) to my sister, hoping to plant the seed of a future practice partner. She generally has always had a better ear for languages but doesn't seem that interested. Flu struck both mother and I unmistakably, like a shift in colors, sometime shortly after passing through the Holland Tunnel. It is still with me, lingering along into its third week. I've tried to be somewhat productive despite it! 1. Using Ankhi Decks for vocab daily (animals, household objects, 500 most common nouns, also Michel Thomas foundational phrases). 2. Onto Disc 7 of Michel Thomas foundational 3. Onto Rosetta Stone 3.2 4. Have watched The first two seasons of "Spirals" (Engrenages) Probably the only thing I've gotten out of that is learning the word for spiral. 5. I also am building a large netflix instant queue for all of the French movies I can find. Eventually I'll get something out of wathcing them, right? From my experience with Dutch the most productive thing that I'm currently avoiding is raw L2 texts. I have little stamina for reading French at this point. I am not sure if that is because its too difficult or because of personal defect. I must admit I really like the ease of study with Rosetta Stone and Anki. You can consume it kind of passivel y and routinely. This tendency to passive learning may be a roadblock I have to deal with. Edited by plumbem on 09 January 2014 at 4:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4704 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian | Message 5 of 15 09 January 2014 at 4:26pm | IP Logged |
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Ah, hope you'll feel better soon plumbem!
I have to say I'm quite jealous of your practice hours with your mother. After you've been talking in Dutch for more than 30 minutes, it feels like it suddenly just clicks in your mind (at least for me) and it's much easier to think and carry on in the language without effort. Are you still in Brooklyn now? That's where I live! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| plumbem Newbie United States Joined 4020 days ago 9 posts - 10 votes Studies: French | Message 6 of 15 06 February 2014 at 1:25pm | IP Logged |
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Hey Hekje! Thanks for checking in. I was sadly only in Brooklyn for a couple days,
mostly around Bed-Stuy. I agree about the 1/2 hour mark. Its funny, I feel like I'll soon be at the point where I feel more comfortable reading French than Dutch. Speaking, though? I still can't really understand French speakers and I can't imagine producing complex sentences fluidly. Dutch is my speaking language and French, is for now my reading language. Anyways, here's what I've accomplished in French -Continued daily Anki study (about 200 cards a day) -Moved on to 3.3 in Rosetta Stone (studying about 30 minutes a day) -Translated the script for and watched the first two episodes of Buffy -Read the first two chapters of the first Harry Potter Three cool things I figured out 1. With the website Meetup.com I found a French speaking group that meets twice a month. The day I found out, there happened to be a meeting. I was too intimidated and stayed home. That won't happen again! 2. Oh god...My kindle now has a French dictionary. I investigated this a couple years ago and I wasn't able to change the dictionary from English. Harry Potter has been incredibly easy to get through. (Mostly ignoring verb tense for now). This is really reason I need to take my CLEP soon so I can split my time between Dutch and French and smash through some romans. 3. My immediate family has agreed to find themselves in the Netherlands come August. What a great reason to put some good work in. I am looking at possibly booking passage on a cargo-ship. Maybe a French one, eh? I am getting kind of addicted. A couple new board games stole a week of January somewhere but, otherwise I'm being really consistent and having a great time. Having great resources makes such a difference. I combed those threads you gave me, to find the Buffy with script. Can't say I'm that hooked on the show yet but I know some people really enjoy it, so I'm giving it till the end of the first season. -Edward 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| plumbem Newbie United States Joined 4020 days ago 9 posts - 10 votes Studies: French | Message 7 of 15 23 February 2014 at 10:12pm | IP Logged |
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Have lost some steam since my last post but things remain relatively productive.
-I am into chapter 8 of Harry Potter, that's something good. -I had to miss this month's French meet-up due to work obligations. -My search for a Dutch kindle dictionary is paused for now -Haven't watched any Buffy -Almost done with French RS 3.3 (should be farther) -Starting Michel Thomas' Vocabulary builder (less and less convinced this should be a priotiy)) -Anki review has been stifled. Need a new deck to motivate me. I feel strong about %90 of the words in my current decks. -Sent some e-mails about securing a ticket aboard a French vessel in August The most important thing is that I scheduled my CLEP exam, March 13th I believe. This gives me three weeks to start working on test-related material, which basically means I need to worry about what a French 202 textbook covers. I am not freaking out but I would like to do well. (I need at least a 50 for the peace corps) Also have done 5 level 1 activities on the GLOSS website. This is probably the best use of my time preparing for the test. (listening to audio, multiple choice, useful footnotes on grammar) To do before 3/13 -> translate 2-3 past CLEP exams, identify needs ->Complete 15 more GLOSS activities ->Go through a grammar review of 202 material (will not enjoy this) ->Write a post in this log :) PS, I've also allowed myself to be almost completely without obligations for June and July of this year. (just keeping up with a few vegetable gardens) I hope to get a lot of language learning achieved then. Edited by plumbem on 23 February 2014 at 10:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Vos Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5567 days ago 766 posts - 1020 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Polish | Message 8 of 15 24 February 2014 at 2:08am | IP Logged |
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Hey Plumbem, great to see another person learning Dutch and in a similar situation as me. My parents are also
from The Netherlands and apparently before I started preschool (age 3/4), I was speaking more Dutch than English and even had the Twents (Enschede) accent. It's great to read that your mother is really supportive of you trying to recapture and improve your Dutch and will happily speak to you in it. In terms of a Dutch dictionary for the kindle, I've been reading up and looking for one also and it seems that at the moment there simply isn't one in existence. Would be so amazingly handy as I've got a bunch of Dutch books on my kindle but at least at the moment my vocabulary isn't big enough to be able to read them with sufficient ease, hence how helpful and amazing a Dutch dictionary for Kindle would be. If you do ever happen to come across one though, please do give me a yell! Also as you're in to your Yoga, if you ever feel like listening to some related conversation about Buddhism, mindfulness, spiritual practices etc, check out BOScast van de Boeddhistische Omroep on iTunes. Een geweldige podcast zelfs als je bij zulke dingen niet te veel belang hebt. Anyway, welcome to the forum, good lukc with your French, the exam and you Dutch, and hope you make lots of progress this year! Edited by Vos on 24 February 2014 at 2:09am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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