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What have you achieved since join. HTLAL? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Brun Ugle Diglot Senior Member Norway brunugle.wordpress.c Joined 6620 days ago 1292 posts - 1766 votes  Speaks: English*, NorwegianC1 Studies: Japanese, Esperanto, Spanish, Finnish | Message 25 of 29 29 June 2012 at 6:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I’ve discovered that one doesn’t have to have some kind of magical power to learn a foreign language. I’ve realized that there is no such thing as “knowing” a language and that no matter how good you are, there will always be days when you feel like a gibbering idiot.
I’ve started to feel that I too am capable of learning a foreign language. (Norwegian doesn’t count. It’s just like English.) Now, I can actually READ JAPANESE!! I still can’t believe it, but I can sit down and read and enjoy the story and sometimes even forget that it’s in Japanese. I’ve started and stopped learning Japanese many times, but this time, the support and encouragement of my fellow TAC team members has kept me going and I’ve made astounding (for me) progress this year. I’ve discovered techniques and resources I probably never would have known about otherwise. I’ve previously given up other hobbies after they were ruined by people making fun of me or by my father, who never really understands my hobbies, but trying to be nice, buries me in unwanted and useless materials while at the same time treating me condescendingly. Over the years, I’ve learned to keep my hobbies to myself, telling only a few trusted friends. But here, I have a whole community of like-minded people. Nobody treats me like a silly five-year-old, and I can go on about my hobby as much as I want. Whenever I feel lonely or sad, I know I can come here and find lots of people that feel like friends even though I’ve never met any of them. I can always find the support and encouragement I need here at HTLAL. EDIT: I was feeling lonely and sad when I logged on, but after writing this post, I realized I feel much better now. Edited by Brun Ugle on 29 June 2012 at 6:46pm 8 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| maydayayday Pentaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5219 days ago 564 posts - 839 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese Studies: Urdu | Message 26 of 29 29 June 2012 at 7:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
We are never alone.
No, you don't, but knowing another language gives you a sort of power From Teango quoting Charlmagne
Edited by maydayayday on 29 June 2012 at 7:24pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4665 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 27 of 29 30 June 2012 at 8:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
I think those three points sum up the reasons I keep coming back here. I've been studying Japanese for about six months now and I'm sure I'm *much* further along than I would have been without HTLAL. Thank you all. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6903 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 28 of 29 09 July 2012 at 2:43am | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, my story is pretty much a story of learning and forgetting :) but I do believe
that lost language skills can be regained very quickly if need be. I joined the forum 6,5 years ago (before the acronym "HTLAL" was widely used ;)) so a lot has changed since that time, and it is difficult to tell which of that was because of the forum. Anyway, since the New Year's Eve 2005 (which is a nice date I guess ;)): - my English has improved a lot (weak B2 => C2), especially my speaking, pronunciation, listening comprehension and vocabulary. - I got to advanced fluency in German (from A2/B1 level), peaked in my language skills about two or three years ago and still haven't got very rusty. And let me quote from my language profile here on the forum (my weak points, as for 2006): "Grammar, grammar, grammar. I know it really well theoretically but when I speak I just don't use proper constructions". Well, now I do use proper constructions for most of the time and I don't even have to think about it, it just sounds right ;) - I got from A2 Spanish to B2+ and took DELE Intermedio with results that made me proud :) after two intensive months of self-preparation... unfortunately, over five years ago I took a break in studying Spanish actively (or using it, for that matter, apart from some rare occassions), as a result of which my comprehension is impeded and my active skills gone to a large extent. I'm going to get back to Spanish soon :). - I got to basic fluency in French (from A1/A2 level). My speaking and writing is horrible (my writing always was, my speaking was better some time ago), my reading and listening comprehension is very good in some language registers and decent in the others. - I also dabbled in Russian (that I learned in primary school years ago), Czech, Slovak (just a little bit) and Dutch (which I was very unhappy to give up because of going abroad and having to focus something else). I developed some listening comprehension of Swiss German. Most importantly, I learned that I'm not alone :) and it is perfectly normal to learn and speak many languages. I learned about an unbelievable number of learning techniques and sources. I decided to focus on languages in my professional career, too. Plus, I learned conference interpreting, where I can use at least some of my language skills. /All corrections of my English are always appreciated, just send me a PM, please./ 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 29 of 29 09 July 2012 at 4:13am | IP Logged | |||||
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- got 4 trophies for "useful" posts
- got even thicker skin over the 7+ years (and counting) that I've been here as various characters have come and gone - found a receptive non-specialist audience for what I've been learning about Balto-Slavonic and Uralic languages (I'm especially glad to have given some exposure on the Saamic languages - particularly Inari Saami - through my log) - uncovered all sorts of legally-available resources either while compiling collaborative profiles or acting on discoveries made by others - did not learn any language to fluency but did start studying Finnish, Latvian, Northern Saami, Meadow Mari and Ukrainian (but this would have happened regardless of whether I had joined the forum) and studied some BCMS/SC, Estonian, Lithuanian, Romanian and Slovenian (but again these would have been studied regardless of whether I had joined the forum) 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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