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Fabrizio’s Spanish, French & Japanese Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5173 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes  Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 1 of 49 19 December 2010 at 10:23am | IP Logged |
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I’ve been flirting with a few languages for several years and I’m now extremely tired.
Not of the languages themselves (hell no!), but of me being so undisciplined when it comes to study hard. Stop. Time is flying by so fast and I don’t want anymore to give rise to all those stereotypes and half-myths which see Italians unable to speak properly a foreign language. Time has come to prove myself I can be better :) Spanish and Japanese are going to be the 2 languages I’ll be mainly focusing on. As English is not my first language, I’ll be working on that too, but with a more relaxed and “entertaining” approach. As for Spanish, since its Latin basis and my language background, I feel extremely confident: understanding more than the general meaning of everyday conversations with, basically, no prior knowledge of the idiom leads me to believe I can really become good at Spanish. Moreover, I really like the language and, beside all the university and work commitments I’ve to deal with, there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to master it one day. I’ll be start studying it by January 2011 and I’ll make sure that you guys can read about my “Spanish marathon” on a dedicated log. With regard to the material I want to use, “Theach Yourself Spanish” (complete course) and some other random resources represent my main tools. Tons of movies, music, books, etc. will obviously be an integral part of my language immersion environment. I’ve been studying Japanese at university with not bad results at all. Truth is that university – in my personal opinion – can’t teach you so much since the scanty amount of language exposure which it provides. Many of you can certainly agree on it: most of the study must be done at “home.” And, as I’ve already mentioned in my opening, I’ve been an undisciplined student and neglected vital aspects of the language. Stop. Let’s start over again. I’ll be using the “Assimil” course (“Japanese with ease”) and an SRS software like “Anki” plus, as for Spanish, tons of movies, music, books of any kind, etc. Afrikaans represents a 3rd possible language, but, as we say in Italy, “non mettiamo troppa carne al fuoco” :) So, to sum up: what my personal goals are going to be? - Spanish #1: Dele B2 (Nivel Intermedio) by May 2011; - Spanish #2: Dele C1 by November 2011; - Japanese: N2 (Intermediate Level) by December 2011. I’ve reasons to believe that “A2” represents my current level of knowledge for both languages. I’ll talk more in details about techniques and strategies I want to use, but that’s all for now. Fabrizio Ps. My apologies for all the language mistakes... Edited by Fabrizio on 09 June 2011 at 7:27am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5173 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 2 of 49 22 December 2010 at 4:21pm | IP Logged |
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Hi everyone,
I’m just done with an official DELE B2 mock test. I couldn’t obviously test myself on speaking and writing, but, since I’ve got the keys, I went through all the remaining sections. As many of you probably already know, in order to pass the certification candidates are required to score at least 70% on each section. Here the result of my simulation test: - Reading Comprehension: 83% - Listening Comprehension: 75% - Grammar and Vocabulary: 66% As I thought, I eventually failed the exam, but I did pretty good at both the reading and listening sections. The grammar and vocabulary part was certainly the hardest one – that’s the area of the language I’ve to focus more. I’m pretty confident I can reach a good level of fluency within next 4 months (just for the record, the DELE exam is scheduled in May), but there’s still a lot of work to do. I think I might sit a sample test once a month, I’d like to keep an accurate track of my improvements. Anyway, to put in a nutshell: no bad at all for being my first attempt, I don’t certainly start from scratch. I feel positive (and that's probably one of the most important aspects of the whole journey!) Edited by Fabrizio on 22 December 2010 at 4:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5173 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 3 of 49 29 December 2010 at 9:16pm | IP Logged |
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Hello everyone,
This morning I got my "Teach Yourself - Complete Spanish" course and I'm quite surprised of its content. My first impression was that it doesn't allow students to reach a B2 level as it claims to do - those less than 1200 words listed in the vocabulary section aren't enough at all and somehow they confirm my suspicious - and, I'm not sure, but maybe it's just because of this existing transparency between Spanish and Italian that everything seems me way too "easy." Anyway, this is the book I've decided to adopt and I'll be going through its 25 lessons within the next 4 months. I've got the Pimsleur "Spanish with ease" course too, but since I'm currently using this same series for learning Japanese (and, in all honesty, I'm not 100% satistified with it) I prefer try something different. The amount of available resources and material on the Internet is huge and for this same reason very confusing. Since the clear similarities with my native language and despite the insufficient score I got making the simulation test, I want to try a dynamic approach and avoid spending to much energies on books and grammars. I'll be mostly using websites like "youtube" to watch movies on streaming (without subs) and others like "Radio Nacional de España" to improve my listening comprehension abilities. I'm not planning to use any grammar reference book (I'll completely rely on the TY course for this aspect), and Anki will represent the only tool I'll use in order to build up a larger vocabulary. As for the speaking and writing skills, I've already found two friends who are more than happy to help me and correct my mistakes. My daily routine will also contemplate some scriptorim exercices. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5173 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 4 of 49 08 January 2011 at 10:45am | IP Logged |
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Hi there,
I’m happy to let you know guys my Spanish odyssey has officially began! :D As I’ve already mentioned in one of my previous post, I’m working through the “Teach Yourself” book and I’m just done with lesson number 2. It’s nothing really exciting at the moment as I’m already pretty comfortable with the the basic s of the language, but I’m confident everything will soon get more complicated! During this first week of study I mainly focused my attention on only two aspects of the language: listening and writing. I unfortunately had to neglect the remaining abilities, since there’s not so much time for reading books other than those of university or making practice with friends on Skype. Anyway, I just wanted to link you a few resources I’ve found useful: - http://www.ver-taal.com (for various typologies of grammar and building vocabulary exercises); - http://www.cinetube.es (for watching movies and listening practice); - http://www.rtve.es/podcast/radio-nacional/espacio-en-blanco/ (interesting podcasts for listening practice). Youtube offers tons of material too – of course – and I’m basically using it for watching documentaries (Discovery Channel, National Geographic, etc.). By the way, I’ve also got a visual bilingual Spanish-English dictionary, which is very useful to enlarge the vocabulary of both languages. On this purpose, I’ve also downloaded a deck of around 3000 common Spanish words and everyday I do my repetitions and some scriptorium exercises. Starting soon: Harry potter y la piedra filosofal (for reading practice). As for my Japanese, I’m on lesson 26 of the Assimil course. It’s getting more and more complicated, but not it’s not really difficult after all. Drills are tricky sometimes. As for the writing, I’m using the scriptorium method and I think it’s working. I remember all the kanji and readings with not effort. The level of the language is pretty low at the moment though… I’m also working on a famous deck called “Core 2000” (Anki), but sometimes it’s boring and I wonder if I should give up with it eheheh Anyway, what really “discourages” me is that my listening abilities seem are not improving at all. I’m watching – unfortunately with no subtitles – some Japanese drama and I can’t basically understand anything! What the heck is wrong with me… eheheh I won’t give up watching movies, etc., but I think I need some technique or method to make the most of this listening exposure. Any suggestions on this regard? Ah, by the way: I’ve also tried to listen to some Japanese podcasts for Japanese natives, but it’s honestly overwhelming. It sounds like a waste of time as I don’t understand anything at all of them. Any good piece of advice? I’m sure you guys have some great podcasts websites to link me :D Ah, I’m not using it yet, but I’ve got this very interesting book called 話せるスペイン語 which is basically a Spanish language course for native Japanese speakers. I think I might use it somehow for translation practice or I don’t know what else, I still have to figure it out. Edited by Fabrizio on 08 January 2011 at 10:46am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 budonoseito Pro Member United States budobeyondtechnRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5796 days ago 261 posts - 344 votes Studies: French, Japanese Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 49 08 January 2011 at 4:23pm | IP Logged |
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Welcome and good luck. It sounds like you are off to a good start.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5173 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 6 of 49 11 January 2011 at 10:07am | IP Logged |
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Hi there, here a quick update:
Assimil - Japanese with ease: lesson 32 (completed) I’m really excited about starting with the active half of the course! I wonder how it’s going to work… I’m almost done with the passive first part, I’ll soon find it out :D Lessons are getting more and more complicated, but everything is still fine. Grammar and kanji are quite elementary, but I’m amazed by how many things you can say with them, just by using simple words and structures. The old JLPT3 certification I own doesn’t certify an high level of language competence, but I’d be already more than happy if I only could effectively use what it says candidates who achieve it are able to do. Anyway… I keep reviewing my cards on ANKI and my scriptorium exercises are going great. Yesterday I finished watching my first Japanese drama series (日本人の知らない日本語) and, as I expected to be, I was an almost complete failure. Damnit, my listening comprehension level is really low… As for my Spanish, I’m at lesson 4. Everything is going pretty well with the TY course, I like it after all. I’ve also started reading the Harry Potter book and despite the relevant amount of unknown words I find, the reading is still pleasant. I’m simultaneously using ANKI and exercising with random grammar drills and scriptorium. Discovery Channel and National Geographic documentaries are addictive, by the way. My Ipod is full of any kind of RTVE's podcasts eheheh. :) @ budonoseito: thank you for your support! Edited by Fabrizio on 11 January 2011 at 2:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5173 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 7 of 49 16 January 2011 at 1:02pm | IP Logged |
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Hello everyone,
My linguistic marathon keeps going on, and I’m currently at lesson number 6 of the TY Complete Spanish course. Lessons are fine, but grammatical explanations are way to concise for me; I actually feel I need to know more on this aspect as, if I’m not mistaken, the DELE B2 certification includes 40 questions about grammar. I also believe I should soon start writing short articles and essays since this is likely to be my weakest point, my less developed ability. Despite this, I’ve to admit my listening comprehension and reading abilities are getting better and better! I’m slowly building a decent vocabulary too with the combined use of Anki and my bilingual Spanish – English vocabulary/Harry potter book/ other random articles I find on the Internet. I urgently need to start practicing the language with someone, but time seems to be never enough for Skyping… My Japanese is going really bad. My study is getting a bit too inconsistent, shame on me… What I’m doing is just going through my daily Assimil course lesson and that’s it (I’m currently at lesson 37 by the way). No dramas, no podcasts. Almost nothing else basically. There MUST be something wrong if everything I do seems to be not really appealing to me. How can I enjoy watching a movie or listening to a podcast if I don’t understand anything? Kanji seems to be the only thing I really love of the language. Mmm… am I maybe losing my motivation? No, I don’t think so. I probably just need to be more methodical. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fabrizio Pentaglot Senior Member BelgiumRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5173 days ago 103 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Italian*, EnglishC2, French, SpanishB2, Portuguese | Message 8 of 49 20 January 2011 at 2:29pm | IP Logged |
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¡Hola todos!
Este es mi primero mensaje completamente en español, lo siento por los muchisimo errores... Tengo que utilizar un diccionario en línea para escribir este texto ya que más o menos me faltan todas las palabras jejeje :) Mi estudio del español sigue adelante sin demasiadas dificultades: ¡este idioma es simplemente magnifico y el curso que estoy haciendo no es tan malo como pensé! Estudio sólo desde hace tres semanas y ya puedo decir y entender muchas cosas en español (mi lengua materna, por supuesto, me ayuda muchisimo con el aprendimiento del idioma). Vale, ¡hay muchisimo de hacer todavía! A proposito, mi japonés es tan terrible que ahora no tengo gana de escribir nada en ese idioma... quizá, la próxima vez… ¡Hasta pronto! Edited by Fabrizio on 20 January 2011 at 2:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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