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TAC 2011 - Team Ì - canada38 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| canada38 Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5486 days ago 304 posts - 417 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 25 of 27 28 June 2011 at 5:07am | IP Logged |
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Well I finally got to try out my Italian language skills in Italy! I found that over
the two weeks while I was there, I was able to express myself successfully in almost all situations. When I could not, it was almost always only due to lack of vocabulary. Almost everyone with whom I spoke seemed to understand me, and gave me responses back in Italian, which I in turn understood. In short, I'm very pleased with my progress. However; I know I still have a lot of work ahead of me. Expanding my vocabulary and focusing on some more advanced grammar (yet to be determined) is probably my best bet right now. Flash cards are a good method for me for vocabulary. I've never used them for Italian, but before I went to Spain last summer, I gave myself a good base in Catalan using the method. Taking advantage of absolutely every opportunity I had to speak Italian was certainly a wise decision! As for my vacation, it was really fun! I was travelling with a friend and our girlfriends. We spent a week in Rome, then some more time in more northern parts of Italy, mostly in Cinque Terre but also stops in Siena and Como. We also spent some time in Lugano, Switzerland (mostly Italian speaking). Our last stop was a few days in London, England. It was a great trip, and most importantly (well from the perspective of someone like me and everyone else on this website) I got to practice my Italian in Italy! Now another update, not overly relevant to my language progress but still worth stating. My girlfriend was recently in hospital. It's not my business to state her condition online, but don't worry, everything is alright and she should soon be back to normal :) . However; when the nurse was collecting her information, weight, height, allergies, religion, etc. well you guessed it, one of the questions was which languages does she speak. Her response was English and French. I kinda laughed at that point, imagining the nurse's face if I were to say, "English, French, Italian, Spanish, basic German, Latin if I try hard enough to remember it, and I can understand Catalan and Portuguese no problem but not speak either myself." Then I imagined some of the lists one could get as a response from people around here! "Oh, I only speak 40 languages or so, at least last time I counted, do you want them all?" I'm sure this situation or something similar has happened to a few of our members! I do know I have to maintain my Spanish. While I haven't forgotten it, it's much harder to speak it right now than Italian. Watching a few movies in Spanish and reading some short stories will likely rectify this problem! I've also been speaking French whenever possible, including practicing it with some friends. My language wanderlust makes me want to study German or Icelandic. I don't really have a comment, since right now I don't think I have time to really study either (Icelandic from scratch nor improve my basic German). That's all I can think to say right now, and it's also time for bed. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| canada38 Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5486 days ago 304 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 26 of 27 22 July 2011 at 5:19am | IP Logged |
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Just a short update, since it's late and I need to go to bed. Although short, it's
sufficient to explain how I've been making extremely good progress with Italian. I've been speaking (and sometimes typing) in Italian on Skype for about 2 hours every day for the last month or so with a friend of mine. I've found that I need to use the dictionary less and less, usually only for words that I've not encountered before. I've even caught myself thinking in Italian throughout that day. Needless to say, I'm very impressed with myself. Hopefully I can return to Italy in the near future! I've also been speaking French whenever possible. My girlfriend also speaks French, so I've been trying to convince to her have "French night" once per week with me (So far I've been unsuccessful). Any suggestions? I've watched a few movies in Spanish recently, but I don't really have the time or motivation for it right now. Don't get me wrong though, I still love the language! Thankfully, I'll be forced to return to studying this beautiful language in the fall. And for German, well I haven't done any study of it, but I just want to mention that it's always on my mind. I don't know what my reasoning is for telling you all this emotion; perhaps only that I've been felling guilty for not studying the language! Anyway, I wish my team, and everyone else on the forum, the best of luck with their language studies and other pursuits! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| JPike1028 Triglot Senior Member United States piketransitions Joined 5388 days ago 297 posts - 337 votes Speaks: English*, French, Italian Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Portuguese, Czech | Message 27 of 27 22 July 2011 at 6:31am | IP Logged |
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Just talk to her in French all the time. One of two things will happen (this is based on experience with my fiancée):
1.) She'll talk back in French or 2.) she'll roll her eyes and respond in English. I'm lucky in that I have a friend who lives around the corner who is from Cameroon, so my fiancée often just puts up with it and hands me off to my friend whenever possible. Great to hear about your progress! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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