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NadyaEsme’s Diary of Languages | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| NadyaEsme Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4894 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Persian, Tamil, Russian | Message 1 of 2 24 June 2011 at 6:04pm | IP Logged |
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Welcome to my 2011 learning log! So, this will be my log for English, Russian, Dari (I'm starting to think that I'll need to change that to Persian), and Tamil. I'll give updates on Spanish and Portuguese, but they aren't my main foci. Russian Comments: Russian is, without a doubt, the superstar in this log, so the majority of my entries may be about Russian (and hopefully in it soon). Current Level: A1 Goal: A2 by the end of next summer Resources Russian for Beginners Princeton Russian Course A plethora of Russian podcasts BBC Persian Comments: I began using a free college course to learn the Perso-Arabic script, but what I did not know was that there were three main "dialects" of Persian- Farsi, Dari, and Tajik. I had already bought Living Language: Farsi, so I suppose I'm learning Farsi with that program and Dari using the other resources I have stumbled upon. I suppose the difference between them are comparative to American English and British English? Please correct me if I'm wrong, though. Current Level: A1 Goal: A2 by Christmas Resources: Living Language Farsi Websites for Dari BBC easypersian English Comments: I would like to work on my writing style, which I feel is a little too informal and convulated. Current Level: First degree murder of the English language Goal: Eloquence and brevity Resources This handy-dandy reference book intellectually stimulating literature *Tamil Current Level: A1 Goal: A2 Study time: Thirty minutes a day copying the alphabet- heh, I haven't really gotten to remembering it yet, just acclimating myself with each letter. Resources: A website on the Tamil alphabet (w/ audio) * I'm currently debating whether I will be able to get far in my Tamil study because the script is easy to recognize in certain media, but in others, it's quite hard to decipher and that really messes with my eyes. Does anyone else seem to have this problem? Observations: -> My learning method focuses on wordlists, Anki, and listening to and repeating what I hear in audio (is there a name for that method?). I also have something called the Sticky Method, which isn't really a method, but...whatever. So, with the sticky method (which probably already has a name and is used by people that are more creative and ambitious than myself), I use this program called Notas Adhesivas ( I think it's Stickie on the default Apple setting) to write down words that I'm not familiar with. Then, I minimize the sticky window until there's about three or four words with the definition of that word next to it (always in the same language as the word). I make it a point to put them all over my screen (the transparent ones) so I'll have to move them around and hopefully pay attention to what's actually on them. Obviously this is not a very ergonomic method (I pick up on 4 words a day with it), but I suppose that's better than nothing. I'm not too methodical, so I use whatever I come up with at the time. My Current Study Plan: Russian (5 hours), Persian (3 hours), Tamil (30 minutes), Spanish and Portuguese reading (1 hour) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| NadyaEsme Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4894 days ago 5 posts - 5 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Persian, Tamil, Russian | Message 2 of 2 25 June 2011 at 9:36pm | IP Logged |
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My original plan didn't go exactly how I wanted it, so I'll
have to make some much needed adjustments. SPANISH I said that I wouldn't study Spanish as much, but I somehow managed to watch a documentary on gypsies ("gitanos"). It was really interesting and I learned how to say quite a few nationalities. I think I should practice a little more though, since I'll be going to Florida next friday, and that'll be a good opportunity to practice speaking. The only problem I have is accents. I'm learning Castilian Spanish and I neglected to listen to other accents, so I have to get used to not hearing the " th" sound in certain words. Soló, tengo una pregunta: ¿Cual es la diferencia entre "qué" y "cuál"? Creo que "cuál" signifiqué "which" y "qué" signifiqué "what". RUSSIAN I finally finished lesson two of chapter one in the Princeton course, but I'm still stuck on cursive in RFB. I saw that later on you have to choose a Russian name, so I skipped over and picked one: Светлана. I printed out all of chapter one and wow, my parents are going to be shocked when they see those pages. TAMIL Alphabet...still... PERSIAN I'm using my pop up dictionary to learn words. At least I already know the alphabet for when I start the lessons. ENGLISH I watched a documentary on i-banking, which is what I want to do when I graduate college. That counts, right? THE WONDERS OF WANDERLUST Portuguese is in my imaginary basurero at the moment. I also recently found a ton of french podcasts, bookmarks, books, and exercises. This is bad for my current schedule, especially since I really don't want to learn a Romance language right now. My recent love of medieval-type music is getting me interested in Old English or Old French. Perhaps that'll help my English? My last obstacle is resisting the power of Arabic dance music. Maybe I can keep a consistent schedule when the TAC 2012 action begins. Edited by NadyaEsme on 25 June 2011 at 9:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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