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Luna’s Log: TAC 2012: Team 德 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Luna Moonsilver Diglot Groupie Germany lunaslanglog.wordpreRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5083 days ago 77 posts - 99 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Korean | Message 17 of 29 01 February 2012 at 6:46pm | IP Logged |
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January 2012: Review
Total time studied in January: 32hrs 19mins By language; German: 15hrs 41mins Mandarin: 15hrs 51mins Swahili: 0hrs 47mins I learnt a lot about myself this month. Some of it, like the fact that I procrastinate far too much, I already knew. I'm trying to find ways to work on this still; the main thing I need to do is sit down and start something - then I get hooked on it and work more than I thought I would at first. I ended up ditching my spreadsheet and goals about halfway through the month, too and am pretty much using Ellasevia's, which I downloaded from the link on his TAC 2011 log (I think?). It's much better - it doesn't have the rigid rules I was imposing on myself; plus I love all the graphs at the top because they give me a much better handle on which languages I'm devoting more time to, so that I can focus on the others. So, after a shaky start, I've got my February goals to think about and they are, more or less, as follows:
I don't want to specify my goals any further than that, because I'm afraid I won't achieve them ;]. An absolute bonus would be if I logged time for each language (or even just Swahili) every day this month; but if I don't, I'm not going to beat myself up over it! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Luna Moonsilver Diglot Groupie Germany lunaslanglog.wordpreRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5083 days ago 77 posts - 99 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Korean | Message 18 of 29 01 February 2012 at 6:58pm | IP Logged |
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Kiswahili (01.02.2012 - 14.03.2012) Introduction & Background I was considering starting another log for the 6WC, but I thought I might as well use this one more often than once a week! :D So until the 14th March (I think? If I'm wrong, just let me know!), I'll be taking part in the six week challenge to try and learn some more Swahili. Though I began studying the language in May 2011, my attempts have been sporadic at best, so I'm hoping that with a target of 44 hours (approximately an hour and a half a day), I'll make more progress than I have been doing. I have already... I've already done seven lessons of Assimil's Le Swahili sans Peine, but I was accompanying it with anki to learn vocab because I understand very little French and was finding it hard to remember words. I will... I'm going to carry on using Assimil - beginning with a review of the seven lessons I've already done and then going from there. Again, I'll use anki as an accompaniment to this. Also, I've started using the FSI Swahili Basic Course and have already completed the first seven units. This is partly because I wanted a resource in a language I could understand and partly because I want to see how good the FSI courses are - although I've looked at many of them, I've never used any. I think that's everything. :] To everyone else doing the 6WC, bahati njema! I hope you do well! :D 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Luna Moonsilver Diglot Groupie Germany lunaslanglog.wordpreRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5083 days ago 77 posts - 99 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Korean | Message 19 of 29 16 March 2012 at 9:46pm | IP Logged |
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Soooo... I have not been especially good at keeping up with updates now, have I?
Still: a few things have changed in the last six weeks. The 6WC has, naturally, come and gone - and through it all, I only logged just under seven hours of Swahili study, which was not what I was expecting at all. I found that though my enthusiasm for Mandarin is still very high, I can't always drum up enough excitement for Swahili and I think there are two main reasons for this: 1. Swahili is the first language I have tried to entirely teach myself. That is, I've not had a chance to study it in any classroom or under any instructor. Though I add to my studies myself in my two other languages, studying something entirely on my own is daunting, and it's easy to skip studying in favour of doing other things. Plus, Swahili is totally unlike the other languages I study, which does add more complications right now. 2. I'm going to Germany in October and China next February, but I see no chance of going to East Africa/coming across Swahili speakers in the near future. Of course, I know a lot of people have the same problem and overcome it, but I like the idea that I can try out my language skills in a natural setting at some point and for Swahili, this seems less likely. What I've decided from this is that, for now, I'm going to put Swahili on the back burner. I have every intention of coming back to it in time, but it'll probably be a few years yet. So, that's that. However, I am planning on picking up another language, partly as a replacement, partly because of a careers day that took place at my university a couple of weeks ago. The language I'm thinking of is Portuguese, in particular the Portuguese spoken in Portugal, since I only live in England. I'm going to try it out over the next few weeks or so and see how it goes; hopefully it'll be fun :D I am wondering as well, what the main differences are between Brazilian Portuguese and the Portuguese spoken in Portugal? :/ 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Luna Moonsilver Diglot Groupie Germany lunaslanglog.wordpreRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5083 days ago 77 posts - 99 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Korean | Message 20 of 29 11 April 2012 at 7:25pm | IP Logged |
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Hmm, my Easter break is over and I'm now moving into the final stages of my second year
at University. My exams are the beginning of May, so I'm beginning revision sessions tomorrow with some friends for Mandarin; for German I'm just trying to read as much as I possibly can (Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen, I WILL FINISH YOU!). I started the Michel Thomas course for Portuguese today, as well. I only spent about half an hour on it, but I got through the first five tracks of the first CD and I'm enjoying it. It's not high-effort and it's very logical - two things I like, especially right now. My problem is with pronunciation (those nasal sounds are difficult!) and the fact that I am a very visual person; I keep having to refer to the booklet or I forget what they've said because I've not heard it properly. (An example would be: a senhora - I didn't know that was an a until I read the booklet and just kept making a vague vowel sound before that ^//^.) The next four to five weeks are going to be a flurry of exams and due assignments, but I'm going to also spend the time looking into ways to keep up and seriously improve my languages over the summer, before I go away. How's everyone else doing? :] 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Luna Moonsilver Diglot Groupie Germany lunaslanglog.wordpreRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5083 days ago 77 posts - 99 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Korean | Message 21 of 29 01 May 2012 at 12:14am | IP Logged |
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Argh, quick fly-by update just before May begins.
First of all: I joined the Super Challenge. I've set up a new blog for it (see the link under my username), mainly because I'm rubbish at updating here; but also, that challenge is going to run for 20 months but I think I'll start another TAC log next year. So, there's that. I'm doing a full challenge (100 books and 100 movies) for Mandarin and a half challenge (50 books and 50 movies) for German. Should be fun! Secondly: The 6WC. I registered for that a couple of weeks ago and I'm going to be studying Portuguese! Yayy! I've got the Michel Thomas Foundation Course and I'm going to attempt to work through the Teach Yourself Instant Portuguese book as it tells me to, because it's supposed to take exactly six weeks. I'm kind of worried about the first two weeks of the challenge, but I finish University on the 16th, so then I've got four weeks with nothing to do but learn! ;D It's going to be great and I'm all excited! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| silverpolyglot Diglot Groupie Canada silverchallanges.wor Joined 4919 days ago 42 posts - 72 votes Speaks: English*, Somali Studies: French, Swedish, Mandarin | Message 22 of 29 02 May 2012 at 12:09am | IP Logged |
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Hey Luna!
Good luck on both the Super challenge and the 6WC! It's awesome that you're doing the super challenge for both Mandarin and German and pushing your self to read 100 books in Mandarin! Also, Good Luck on your final exams, I hope you ace them all! ~Silver 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Luna Moonsilver Diglot Groupie Germany lunaslanglog.wordpreRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5083 days ago 77 posts - 99 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Korean | Message 23 of 29 03 May 2012 at 12:08am | IP Logged |
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Thanks, Silver :D I've started the challenge with films right now because books look hard
;_; but there's a Mandarin translation of Alice in Wonderland on nciku.com that has pinyin and definitions and whatnot, so I'll probably start reading that after my exams. And thank you again! Speaking exam tomorrow, I hope I don't embarrass myself too much! ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| silverpolyglot Diglot Groupie Canada silverchallanges.wor Joined 4919 days ago 42 posts - 72 votes Speaks: English*, Somali Studies: French, Swedish, Mandarin | Message 24 of 29 03 May 2012 at 5:20am | IP Logged |
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There are these really good graded readers called Chinese Breeze, and from what I have
heard they are fantastic! http://www.cheng-tsui.com/store/products/chinese_breeze. Perhaps even check your local library for children's books in simplified chinese. Some of them have pinyin written above each character! I'm positive you will ace your speaking exam! Sending you good vibes!! Good Luck! ~Silver 1 person has voted this message useful |
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