Rem Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3755 days ago 66 posts - 96 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Czech, French
| Message 25 of 73 01 January 2015 at 11:30pm | IP Logged |
patrickwilken wrote:
Rem wrote:
5. Read a book in German.
This will be done, no doubt very slowly over the course of the year (and with
the help of a dictionary), but it will be done.
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I bet you could do this more quickly than a year if you read in ebook format and use a
pop-up dictionary. My first book (about 200 pages) took about a month. It gets a lot
quicker after that.
I find the one-eyed doll keeps me in check as I start to slack off. Quite an effective
technique! |
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I can certainly see how it might be motivating to know that ‘someone’ is watching
your progress. :)
I’ve actually never read a book in ebook form. I’m not exactly tech savvy and I
don’t even own a tablet at the moment. Maybe I should look into it though.
Edited by Rem on 01 January 2015 at 11:31pm
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Rem Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3755 days ago 66 posts - 96 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Czech, French
| Message 26 of 73 01 January 2015 at 11:32pm | IP Logged |
Jeffers wrote:
I enjoyed reading these 3 pages of your log. You seem to be doing
well. Is your course in linguistics? |
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Glad you enjoyed it Jeffers. :)
My course is Applied Languages. It’s pretty generic stuff in the first year, but there
are some interesting options in the 2nd year that I’m looking forward to finding out
more about. :)
Jeffers wrote:
If you're looking for suggestions for French: try linguist.io for
reviewing the basics. And for a great podcast for beginners, search for L'avis death
Marie, aimed at A2/B1, with transcripts for every episode. |
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Thanks for the suggestions Jeffers. :) I doubt my ability is quite up to podcasts in
French yet but, given that there are transcripts, I might give it a try anyway. :)
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patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4531 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German
| Message 27 of 73 01 January 2015 at 11:55pm | IP Logged |
Rem wrote:
I’ve actually never read a book in ebook form. I’m not exactly tech savvy and I
don’t even own a tablet at the moment. Maybe I should look into it though.
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Ebook plus pop-up dictionary is way easier than paperbook and dictionary.
I'd recommend getting one of the older Kindles with a cursor, as the cursor is quicker at skipping through the text then using a finger on a touchpad, if you don't know many words. Amazon doesn't sell them anymore, but you can buy them relatively cheap on Ebay.
I'm also enjoying reading books on my laptop using Readlang.
Edited by patrickwilken on 01 January 2015 at 11:55pm
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Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4907 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German
| Message 28 of 73 03 January 2015 at 1:52pm | IP Logged |
Here's an official, Bienvenue à Team Français 2015!
I agree with patrickwilken that using a Kindle is great. It allows me to read well above my level because the 5-10 lookups per page just take a couple seconds each.
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Rem Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3755 days ago 66 posts - 96 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Czech, French
| Message 29 of 73 06 January 2015 at 3:37pm | IP Logged |
Six days into the new year and so far I’ve done almost nothing with any of my
languages. I suppose that’s not unusual given the time of year. I think I’m still
recovering from the holidays. :(
Uni is just starting up again so, hopefully, that will give me a good motivational
kick.
Getting started seems to be the main hurdle at the moment. As soon as I get going and
start studying I lose track of time and ‘5 minutes’ quickly becomes 10 minutes...20
minutes etc. It’s just that initial ‘sitting down and starting’ part that seems to
need work.
Side Note:
Later on in my course I have to spend some time studying abroad in countries where my
target languages are spoken. I’m not sure yet whether I find this an exciting prospect
or a terrifying one. To be honest the truth is probably somewhere in between the two.
I just hope that my language ability improves drastically before then or...erm...I
could be in trouble. *worried*
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patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4531 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German
| Message 30 of 73 06 January 2015 at 3:43pm | IP Logged |
Rem wrote:
Later on in my course I have to spend some time studying abroad in countries where my
target languages are spoken. I’m not sure yet whether I find this an exciting prospect
or a terrifying one. To be honest the truth is probably somewhere in between the two.
I just hope that my language ability improves drastically before then or...erm...I
could be in trouble. *worried*
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Would you consider studying here in Germany? Universities are free here. I think you need to be about B2+ to manage classes - though you can write a Masters (at least in some cases) in English.
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druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4866 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian
| Message 31 of 73 06 January 2015 at 9:04pm | IP Logged |
Good luck with all your languages! Looking forward to being on a team with you and reading about your progress!
Rem wrote:
Mini Rant
A definite downside to Uni courses is exams...lots and lots of exams. Tests,
assessments, portfolios etc. and, when there aren’t 'real' tests, there are mocks.
Honestly, sometimes you spend more time in class being tested or preparing for being
tested than you do on learning the information that you are going to be tested on.
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I remember that feeling very well from my Korean summer course. All the vocab tests and presentations were just stressful and took away from the learning experience. It's strange that at the same time my key motivation for doing any study activities in Korean that I dislike, but need, are exams. But it's such a different experience when you study for one big exam and then are free to set goals and decide when to take it by yourself.
Rem wrote:
Later on in my course I have to spend some time studying abroad in countries where my target languages are spoken. I’m not sure yet whether I find this an exciting prospect or a terrifying one. To be honest the truth is probably somewhere in between the two. I just hope that my language ability improves drastically before then or...erm...I could be in trouble. *worried*
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I'm sure it will be exciting. Probably also challenging, but maybe that's part of the excitement. One thing I think you don't need to worry about is language ability. If you do something like Erasmus, you could very well get by with just English. Most people who spent time abroad during university didn't find it that difficult - it seems that usually you're not expected to have great language skills. But of course I think you get a lot more out of it if you use the opportunity to see what it's like to live entirely in a second language. It's quite gratifying when it finally works well :)
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Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3854 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto
| Message 32 of 73 07 January 2015 at 1:46am | IP Logged |
Rem wrote:
5. Read a book in German.
This will be done, no doubt very slowly over the course of the year (and with
the help of a dictionary), but it will be done.
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Good luck with all of your goals, and with finishing first year. Make sure you cherish
every moment: it may drag at times but you'll find yourself in your final year a lot
quicker than you want!*
As for the German book... Forum member eyðimörk is hosting a multilingual read-a-long
of The Hobbit. I've jumped on with German (despite the fact that I speak no
German and am surprised whenever I can understand a full sentence), so if that sounds
like your cup of tea, you should send her a message and join in.
*Sorry for all the final year sentimentality. This whole 'fourth year GRADUATION' thing
really snuck up on me. I'm definitely not ready.
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