troglodyte Diglot Groupie BrazilRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5272 days ago 53 posts - 69 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2 Studies: Italian
| Message 1 of 6 02 February 2012 at 3:47am | IP Logged |
After having a disappointing performance on last year's TAC, when I interrupted my
studies twice due to excessive work at my job, I decided that this year I'd take my
studies lightly, not to take part on TAC 2012, and just try to have fun learning
languages, without worrying too much about CERT levels and things like that.
So last December I decided to pick up again German from where I had stopped in August,
just in the beginning of the active wave of Assimil.
But then things didn't go as nicely as I wished. I was doing fine in German last year,
using two different versions off Assimil daily, but the time I spent without studying
obviously did a lot of damage, and I wasn't doing as well this time.
Besides that, watching the YouTube video where the Italian polyglot Luka explained his
methods got me thinking about why Assimil was so effective for me in French and not as
much in German (besides my obvious long break, off course).
I remembered that when I was doing French I did the second wave also in writing, but
decided against it in German because now I was studying two languages instead of only
one. And I think, as Luka believes, that writing made a difference.
So after pondering for a while, I decided to restart the active wave of Assimil "O novo
alemão sem esforço" (Portuguese based German course), this time doing the translation
to German in writing as well.
To get in the spirit of the 6WC, I will do also the active wave of Assimil "German
without Toil" (English based and older version) and Assimil L'Allemand (French based
and Assimil's latest German course).
And finally, I'll use try also to do FSI German BASIC and Michel Thomas German when I
have the time.
My goal is to get at least to lower intermediate until May, when I'll be going to
Munich with my brother to spend a week and hopefully watch the UEFA Champions League
Final.
That's it. Welcome to my new log, and please wish me luck. :)
Edit: To those who follow the 6WC highscore, my twitter account is @ricardo_a_costa
Edit2: Fixed log's name, where I wrote my own nickname wrong.
Edited by troglodyte on 02 February 2012 at 3:57am
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troglodyte Diglot Groupie BrazilRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5272 days ago 53 posts - 69 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2 Studies: Italian
| Message 2 of 6 07 February 2012 at 1:50am | IP Logged |
After a good start, (I've finished my first day of 6WC in the 10th position, and 2nd
among the full-time workers), I've been a few days without studying my target
languages.
At least now I had a good excuse, as I was hosting a friend from England and his
girlfriend from Romenia for the weekend, so I got a lot of English speaking practice,
and even heard a tiny bit of Romenian.
I'm not studying English at the moment, so I won't log these hours. Besides I don't
even know how many hours should I log, if I had decided to do it.
Today I'm returning to my German studies. I did a little of Assimil L'Allemand, a
little of Michel Tomas, and watched the first two Fokus Deutsch episodes.
Now I'm going to do the tape 1.2 of FSI German BASIC before going to bed.
Tchuss.
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Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5775 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German
| Message 3 of 6 19 July 2012 at 2:33am | IP Logged |
What happened with this?
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troglodyte Diglot Groupie BrazilRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5272 days ago 53 posts - 69 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2 Studies: Italian
| Message 4 of 6 19 July 2012 at 3:35am | IP Logged |
Well, that's a long story, but thanks for asking!
Reading those first posts now reminds me of how ambitious I was then. Very quickly I
realised I couldn't keep up doing three different Assimil versions at the same time,
and ended up doing just the most recent version, Assimil L'Allemand. I didn't go very
far with FSI German and Michael Thomas as well.
The good news is that I went to Munich in May, and had a great time. I did manage to
speak some German there, and tried my best to practise whenever I could. The staff from
the Hotel was very nice, and they kept speaking German with me, after I told them I was
learning the language. I've even got some compliments, even though my German is still
"sehr schlecht", and my brother was completely amazed and came back telling everyone
that I spoke German very well, which is very far from the truth.
I've finished the 6WC in 40th, with 26 minutes of study, and since then I've put 56
more minutes of German with Assimil L'Allemand. I've just finished doing lesson 90 from
the passive wave, and now I'm going to do lesson 41 from active wave. I'm also watching
the French in Action videos to maintain my French, and I'm also doing Assimil
L'Espagnol, as I'm going to Dominican Republic in October, on my "Hochzeitsurlaub".
I'll keep studying these languages, and I'm considering joining the TAC 2013, as I'm
achieving to keep a regular study schedule. I just have to improve my "log-writing-
commitment", so I don't leave my next log orphan like this one.
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Random review Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5775 days ago 781 posts - 1310 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Yiddish, German
| Message 5 of 6 19 July 2012 at 11:22pm | IP Logged |
That's nice that it is all going so well with Assimil! Do you use Assimil only as they
recommend or do you do anything else (shadowing, scriptorium, "Luca style" translation
etc) in addition?
Personally I think those first few FSI lessons where they really drill
the cases and genders are very useful, how far did you get with FSI?
Edited by Random review on 20 July 2012 at 12:40am
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troglodyte Diglot Groupie BrazilRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5272 days ago 53 posts - 69 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2 Studies: Italian
| Message 6 of 6 20 July 2012 at 12:29am | IP Logged |
In the beggining I was doing the "Luca style" translation, but around Lesson 57 it began
to get harder to translate it, so I decided to return to the traditional Assimil method. I'll resume the translations when I get to the 58th lesson of the active wave.
As for FSI, I didn't get far at all, I did only the first lesson. But I'm planning to do
it as soon as I finish the active wave of Assimil L'Allemand.
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