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Emme’s Small Steps - Team Sleipnir TAC’15 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5344 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes  Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 1 of 360 08 April 2010 at 11:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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EDIT
TAC 2013 starts on page 9 TAC 2014 starts on page 34 Super Challenge 2014-2015 starts on page 37 Useful links for learners of Swedish / Norwegian / Danish (originally from Team Asgard's thread) on page 43 TAC 2015 starts on page 44 ---- So, here we go. I’ve been lurking on this forum for ages and now it seems the right time to start participating. Like so many others here I find that even though I love languages and studying them, unfortunately I lack consistency and I often alternate between periods of high intensity study and periods when I do hardly anything. Over the years I’ve studied English and German in a formal setting (with mixed results: a great passion for English and a mild but totally irrational dislike of German—maybe I’ll write more about that in another post) and dabbled in several other languages. The only ones worth mentioning as far as headway made are Swedish, French, and Spanish, even though they are all still in the early stages. I’m aware that what has kept me from progressing further is my lack of self-discipline and a tendency to get easily bored and distracted. I hope this log will help me keep focussed. The beginning of this log marks the beginning of a personal experiment using Assimil to learn French. I’ve always been somewhat sceptic about most commercial products to learn languages on your own. I believe that working with a well thought-out textbook (in that it presents grammatical and communicative material in the proper progression) with plenty of audio material and the necessary exercises in the 4 main abilities (reading/listening/speaking/writing) is the best way to acquire the basics of a foreign language. But I’m also willing to be proven wrong and after reading so many positive opinions about Assimil on this forum I want to test it out on myself especially since I like the philosophy behind it: working on a short (and thus doable) lesson every single day—that sounds exactly what an unmethodical person like me needs. Last week I finally managed to put my hands on the only copy of Assimil French in my library and so I intend to use this log to chronicle my progress with this (for me) new method. In parallel with French I’d like to try and be more consistent in my Swedish studies as well. As all those who have tried learning a lesser-studied language know, just finding the material for Swedish is not as easy as for English or French: you can’t just walk into a bookshop or a library and be spoilt for choice. So this has been my justification for studying Swedish only sporadically: I don’t have a good enough textbook, I don’t have enough audio, I don’t have enough grammar exercises… The reality, though, is that over the years I’ve accumulated a fairly nice collection of learning materials and now I should simply use them thoroughly and not just dip in for a couple of chapters and then give up. The problem (if that is really a problem) is that, all things considered, with my stop-and-start ‘unmethod’ I’ve reached a surprisingly good level of Swedish: if I want to read an article online I can do so with little effort and generally I need to look up no more than a couple of words. Similarly I can watch and enjoy a TV programme on SVTplay (the Swedish equivalent to BBC iPlayer). So I guess the urge to study systematically has lost its edge, even though I’m aware that I have so many gaps to fill in my knowledge. Now I hope that if I can be consistent with French thanks to Assimil and the constant nudging of keeping this journal, I can try and work as consistently on my Swedish as well. I’m not overoptimistic, as I’ve abandoned many good purposes in the past, but trying certainly won’t hurt anyone. Edited by Emme on 20 January 2015 at 3:09pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5478 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese | Message 2 of 360 08 April 2010 at 11:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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You're native language gives you a massive leg-up in learning French.
Also, don't let classroom experiences mar your German experience. Classroom != learning. (!= means "does not equal" if you are unaware of that) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| global_gizzy Senior Member United States maxcollege.blogspot. Joined 5700 days ago 275 posts - 310 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 360 08 April 2010 at 11:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Emme, small steps is what it is all about, once you get your feet under you though, I expect you'll be able to run with the best of the lingo--athletes!
Most classrooms DO stink, in my experience. Well, wait, no not class rooms, and not even classes... "Classes that follow Grammar-driven textbooks layout religiously and resists any and nearly all student desire to know something not on currentPage or currentPage+1 or try a new approach to learning the material" stink. I've taken an Arabic class and enjoyed it tremendously, but it was less formal and the teacher invited us to participate, put together dialogues and to discuss in the language as we went, allowed us to make a mistake 7 or 8 times and then made us study only our mistake. She drove us to learn lots of vocab, so in the end I was kinda good in Arabic. I know that the same could be done in any other language. But many classes dont take this type of approach. They take whatever the Expert of the Day said and use it likes Gods latest update on the true nature of the universe and any student who'd dare do otherwise, be damned! Damned to the Aspiring-Polyglot-abyss where they will try and smother your raw passion, and zeal for all things Target language right out of you. I'm sorry your initial attempt at German didn't go well, hopefully you'll be able to resolve it or move on. Edited by global_gizzy on 08 April 2010 at 11:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5344 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 4 of 360 09 April 2010 at 12:20am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the encouragement, ManicGenius and global_gizzy!
I’ve no intentions to abandon German completely, it’s just that I need some time to get rid of the disagreeable feeling I now associate with studying German. I don’t need the language in the foreseeable future, and I’ve learnt it to a pretty good level (CEFR C1 at University), so right now I simply intend to let it rest until I can pick it up again with a happier attitude. By the way, global_gizzy, it’s not that at university they followed a grammar-driven textbook. Dire as that might sound, it would probably have been a better experience for me. When I started university I had just a smattering of German and I was plunged in at the deep end with no proper textbook, no reliable teacher and above all not enough time to work up one’s level gradually through the language. In the end I succeeded in learning the language, but the experience has been rather nightmarish. @ManicGenius And yes, I know that having Italian as my mother tongue should make learning French (at least the basics) fairly easy compared to other more exotic languages, even compared to German. Anyway one needs to apply oneself if one wants to go beyond ‘speaking by ear’. That’s why I hope my good intentions will last this time. The first week with Assimil has been quite good and if only I can keep the stamina up I should be able to see some results soon. After all I start from a very messy background as far as French acquisition is concerned—bits and pieces learnt here and there with little organization—so just by sticking to one method for some months I should manage to give some order and structure to the linguistic chaos in my mind. Edited by Emme on 09 April 2010 at 12:23am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5344 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 5 of 360 09 April 2010 at 1:21am | IP Logged | ||
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French:
Assimil Lesson 1-7 Today I’ve finished my first week of Assimil French and for the moment the experience has been pleasant enough. This is how I’ve tackled my day-to-day studying:
I guess I spend about 30-45 minutes every day on Assimil, which is probably more than is required at this early stage, but I don’t mind as I get to use much time I would otherwise waste (commuting, waiting in line, going for a walk…) Swedish: I didn’t work much on my Swedish, unless one counts watching TV programmes and listening to the news as studying. Anyway on the spur of the moment I did the placement test from Folkuniversitetet the other day. I am aware that placement tests are very imperfect ways to gauge one’s proficiency in a language as they generally take into consideration only grammar and, to a lesser degree, vocabulary (even though one must admit that for a such a rough instrument, the combination of those two categories proves to be a rather good predictor of overall linguistic competences). However I find placement tests useful to have a benchmark against which one can compare future progress. So here it goes: were I to enrol in one of their courses I would have to attend a B1+ class (score in test level A = 38; score in test level B = 24). Not too bad! I honestly didn’t expected such a high score. Just for fun earlier today I also did the Spanish placement test and the French one: Spanish A2+ (25 points) French A2 (17 points): I really need to study some French! Edited by Emme on 10 April 2010 at 12:14am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5478 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese | Message 6 of 360 10 April 2010 at 6:13am | IP Logged | ||
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New French with Ease starts cranking up the difficulty around lesson 10-11. (At least for
me it did). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5344 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 7 of 360 10 April 2010 at 11:31pm | IP Logged | ||
So that means that I’ve still only a couple of days before hitting the first brick wall. :( Any advice on how to tackle it? Should I simply trust Assimil and its method and be confident that by the time I reach lesson 50 I will have assimilated all the language that I need to fruitfully start the second wave? As I said, it’s the first time I've used this method, and even though I’ve read quite a lot about it on this forum I’m still unsure of what to expect in the short run and what to expect in the long run. ManicGenius, when you reached those lessons what did you do? By the way, have you finished New French with Ease or which lesson are you currently doing? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5478 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese | Message 8 of 360 11 April 2010 at 7:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, I just put my trust in the method. Personally I hate repeated review so I put the sentences from each lesson into Anki so I don't have to constantly think of reviewing lessons.
Otherwise I just do the Assimil method as is and stick to it. As long as you're giving each lesson the time it deserves (ie: till you understand it above 90%), you'll do fine by the time you hit 50. I haven't finished New French with Ease, but I've gotten to lesson 30. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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