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Language learning in no time - TAC’14

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Othar
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 6210 days ago

185 posts - 205 votes 
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: Norwegian, Turkish

 
 Message 17 of 46
16 December 2013 at 1:48pm | IP Logged 
Listening to "The Archers" is like taking a table spoon of awful tasting medicine drop
by drop. I'm actually learning something while listening. I must lack every phrase that
is connected to small talk because I'm not very interested in the problems of people. I
wouldn't even be able to contribute to such discussions in German. After three episodes
I'm torn between fascination and horror. It's like seeing an animal slowly eating
another still living animal. Your stomach is revoling but you can't look away.

I'll follow the show until the rest of the year. Then I'll look for another British
podcast. Begining the next year without the Archers has the potential to be very
motivating.

It might not surprise anyone that I couldn't convice myself to actually work through
any of the episodes. I don't mind working hard while learning a language but I don't do
anything that I actually dislike. This would only discourage me from learning.

Edited by Othar on 16 December 2013 at 4:23pm

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Othar
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 6210 days ago

185 posts - 205 votes 
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: Norwegian, Turkish

 
 Message 18 of 46
17 December 2013 at 1:53pm | IP Logged 
I går hørte jeg på veien hjem en podcast om en skatt av forfalskete mynter som ble
funnet i nærheten av Bergen i begynnelsen av det siste århundret. Det var ikke vanskelig
å følge historien men jeg hørte noen nye fraser. Dessverre var det for mørkt for å skrive
dem i notisboken min. Hjemme så jeg en film om naturen i Norge. For et fint land. Jeg
skulle ønske å gå på tur der en gang.

Edited by Othar on 17 December 2013 at 8:36pm

1 person has voted this message useful



daegga
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Austria
lang-8.com/553301
Joined 4522 days ago

1076 posts - 1792 votes 
Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian
Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic

 
 Message 19 of 46
17 December 2013 at 7:47pm | IP Logged 
Othar wrote:

Desverre ...


Probably just a typo, but it tells me that you are not using a spell checker. I find
those quite helpful for getting instant feedback on the details of spelling and it's
quite easy to load additional language support in any modern browser.
And "hjem" is correct in your first sentence by the way.
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Othar
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 6210 days ago

185 posts - 205 votes 
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: Norwegian, Turkish

 
 Message 20 of 46
17 December 2013 at 8:43pm | IP Logged 
Thanks for the corrections. I disabled all spell checkers at a time when none really
worked. And I didn't change any of my settings for years. Maybe it's time to see what the
future brought :)
1 person has voted this message useful



Othar
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 6210 days ago

185 posts - 205 votes 
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: Norwegian, Turkish

 
 Message 21 of 46
20 December 2013 at 7:01pm | IP Logged 
In the last days I've listened to two Norwegian podcasts about Edvard Munch. They were
quite interesting because I didn't know anything about him and my knowledge about
Norwegian history is very limited too.

Norwegian and German have many words and phrases in common. There may be some shifts in
pronunciation, spelling and meaning but if you know the basics it is relatively easy to
understand most of what is being said. I've started listening to podcasts after 20
lessons of Assimil. I've never felt the need for subs.

The downside of this is that I often don't recognize that I've just heard a new word.
Which means that I don't know that I know the word and I don't look up the gender and
related prepositions or phrases. I'm not sure if I should worry about this. I hope my
brain is smart enough to file the word under "Norwegian Vocabulary" so that I can use
the word when I need it.
1 person has voted this message useful



Othar
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 6210 days ago

185 posts - 205 votes 
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: Norwegian, Turkish

 
 Message 22 of 46
26 December 2013 at 5:09pm | IP Logged 
Review of 2013

The year isn't over yet but since I'm on holiday I decided to start the TAC for 2014 a
bit earlier. So it's time for a review.

Time Management
When I started this thread I complained about not having time. That wasn't an
exaggeration. But when I actually tried to squeeze languages in my daily schedule I
found several activities that were time consuming and not really necessary.
I stopped working more than what was agreed on in my contract of labour. And I made
some arrangements with my family. Now I have at least one hour for languages free at
every weekday and two at every day of the weekend, I can listen to podcasts or audio
books while commuting and if I'm not too tired I can view an episode of some TV show in
the evening.
So in that regard the last months were very successful. I guess it's time to change the
title of the log.

Norwegian
In the first three months I was very productive. My understanding of Norwegian grammar
has clearly improved and I added a lot of words to my vocabulary. In December I lost a
bit of my pace but I still did something language related at every day. I'm not sure if
my listening comprehension improved while listening to podcasts and a very long audio
book. I was comfortable listening to this kind of material before I started the log so
I wouldn't know how I would measure an improvement anyway. I only wrote two or three
little texts in Norwegian. That's clearly not enough. But overall I'm content with my
progress.

English
I have a better understanding of the tenses now, learned some new words and I really
enjoy viewing Doctor Who. I'd love to say I did much more but I didn't. I have to do
better next year.
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Sunja
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 6086 days ago

2020 posts - 2295 votes 
1 sounds
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: French, Mandarin

 
 Message 23 of 46
26 December 2013 at 8:43pm | IP Logged 
Hi Othar, I'm also on holiday and came in to look at your log. I hope you don't mind if I add a small comment/correction?

Othar wrote:
I stopped working more than what was agreed on in my contract of labour


You could say "what was agreed upon in my contract" or more colloquially, "I stopped going beyond the call of duty at work". "labour contract" sounds a bit too technical :)

Othar wrote:
In December I lost a bit of my pace


English speakers get confused with this word "pace" since it's easy to mix up "my pace" (mein Tempo) and "my paces" (meine Schritte). It's best drop everything else and use the word by itself: "I lost pace (with something/someone)". The word "momentum" would fit and there'd be no confusion: I lost a bit of my momentum.

By the way, I hope you aren't considering changing the title of your log. I enjoy reading about others' attempts to squeeze time out of their busy schedules for language learning. It's encouraging.


1 person has voted this message useful



Othar
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 6210 days ago

185 posts - 205 votes 
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: Norwegian, Turkish

 
 Message 24 of 46
27 December 2013 at 12:18am | IP Logged 
Thanks for the corrections. I added them to my Anki deck.

Edit:
I just found that my current title is to long if I want to add the TAC teams to it.
Interesting problem...

Edited by Othar on 27 December 2013 at 12:34am



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