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Arabic, French & (Brazilian) Portuguese | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Emiliana Diglot Groupie Germany Joined 5105 days ago 81 posts - 98 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Arabic (classical) | Message 1 of 4 01 December 2010 at 6:30pm | IP Logged |
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Hi everybody in this wide wide world!
I now finally decided to start a language log here. I am not 100% sure in what kind of "style" I want to write it, but let's see. First of all I want to write something about my languages: Arabic: I startet studying Arabic just because I was bored in semester holidays. But then I got really hooked. I can't explain exactly why, but somehow the characters still fascinate me a lot, the writing by itself is like an oriental mystery. And the ability to read (and maybe even to understand) something that for most people is just some kind of squiggle is really amazing! On the other hand for me arabic is really really difficult. I am doing my third 6 credits course now at university and will hopefully soon reach level A2. This is somehow ridicoulous, I know, but only to learn the writing took me one of these courses. Also vocabulary learning is a very slow process (but since I'm using Anki it is getting a lot better!!). I would like to know if anybody of you reached at least a level of basic fluency in arabic, without ever living in an arabic country or having related languages like Persian as mother tongue? For me this seems to be like an unreachable goal (though, I am not very much talented in language learning). French: I learned French at school for three years but on the other hand I felt that I did not learn anything. It was not really inspiring for me and the way of teaching was maybe not the right one for me. Since then I made several attempts in order to "really" learn French because else the time I spent in school for it would feel like a total waste. I also like French literature, movies and music. Btw., I strongly recommend the French music group "La rue Ketanou"!! Now I have quite a good passive comprehension of written and - less - spoken French. But my active skills are fairly bad. I think I have to build up my French grammar and vocab right from the beginning again because although I learned (almost) the whole grammer once I already forgot some basic things. I also have problems with pronouncation. So my idea was to borrow Assimil Französisch ohne Mühe from the library and go through that. I never ussed Assimil before but what I read here sounds like fun. Anyway, it is conferred at the moment so I have to wait for a while till I can start :(. Portuguese: Well, Portuguese... In German there is a saying: "Get something like the virgin gets a child" (zu etwas kommen wie die Jungfrau zum Kind) - I hope that is self-explaining. The point is, that I will have to go to Brazil next year for a few months because of my Master Thesis. I think I don't have to learn necessarily Portuguese but hello- when I will ever get this chance again?? Since I read "Nachtzug nach Lissabon" by Pascal Mercier (English translation: Night train to Lisboa, I also can recommend this, especially for language interested people) I wanted to learn Portuguese one day anywhere. But as I am already quite busy with Arabic, French and other things I want to start slowly. Actually, I am only doing some FSI on one day or another and see where it gets me. After exams I will have more time to study intensely. Anyway, I study all of my languages just as a hobby and that is what I want it to stay. Nothing that stresses me. So I will not make any timetables like I will study language x for y hours everyday or something like that. I just want to keep going in all of them and write about my experiences here in this (b)log. And please, don't hesitate to comment, because this keeps motivation up :). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| nuriayasmin Senior Member Germany Joined 5234 days ago 155 posts - 210 votes | Message 2 of 4 02 December 2010 at 12:49am | IP Logged |
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Hi Emiliana
I can't say anything about Arabic, so I just wish you good luck and patience :-) Somehow I have the impression that French teachers at German schools discourage their pupils. I learnt French for 7 years and didn't like it at all but there was no other second foreign language offered. Now my daughter is fed up with French after studying for almost three years, too. I suggest that you try to work with Brazilian material only when you try to learn Portuguese. There are quite a few differences between Brazilian and European Portuguese. In my opinion Brazilian Portuguese is easier to learn and especially easier to pronounce. Good luck or: Boa sorte. Daniela 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Emiliana Diglot Groupie Germany Joined 5105 days ago 81 posts - 98 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Arabic (classical) | Message 3 of 4 05 December 2010 at 10:40pm | IP Logged |
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Hi Daniela!
Thanks for your answer! What I did in my languages the past days: Arabic: I practiced speaking with my Syrian friend. It is really helpfull to know a native speaker of your targent language. And I made some progress! اللعة العربية صعبة جدا ولكني الآن أفضل I also did a lot of Anki and although I spend only like 10 or 15min a day for the vocab it really starts to get stuck in my head! French: Daniela, what you said about French lessons in German schools is really very true! Nevertheless, I stay confident. I also started to use Anki for French now, put a lot of basic vobulary into it because as I mentioned I really need to build up my knowledge from the very basic again. Furthermore I want to buy a French tear-off calendar for 2011. In Germany there are several calenders with small exercises each day for the most common languages. Portuguese: If I didn't mention that before: yes, I want to concentrate on Brazilian Portuguese. It is not that easy to get material specifying only on the Brazilian dialect. But as recommended in another threat in this forum I checked http://www.brazilianpodclass.com and guess what- the material provided there is quite nice! I like especially the Brazilian kind of music in the audio. Anyway, I'm not sure if i'm going to purchase the written material because i'm not sure if it is really THAT effective! Also the lady's monotonous voice annoys me after a while. Also, I don't have enough brain capability at the moment to seriously go through Portuguese grammar or vocabs, I just spend some time to listen to audio material for beginners to get used to this truly difficult pronouncation! Even if BP might be a lot easier than EP - I'm sure I can never do this! I'll stay on... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Shantaram Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5241 days ago 19 posts - 23 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Hindi, German | Message 4 of 4 10 May 2011 at 8:01am | IP Logged |
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emiliana, you said your arabic vocabulary is coming along better now with Anki. i am studying hindi and was wondering if you used transliterations or if you had found how to change the input language?
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