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Tarvos - TAC 2015 Pushkin/Scan | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4696 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 233 of 1511 30 July 2012 at 12:29am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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My Russian has been bad lately. I know that is due to lack of practice, so I will have to
get either get into the groove of doing and using it again, or I'll have to put it on hold a bit, finish Assimil, and see where Swedish takes me. I'm okay with the plateau it is at now. That just means I have satisfied my primary goal for it at this point in time and I'm not improving much, really. It's a lack of opportunity to go out and speak it that is doing it for me, and I haven't been actively seeking out opportunities to use it. That's all right. I'll get back to this love every once in a while and I'll improve, but I want to get Swedish to a similar level first. Then Russian can get proper attention later! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4692 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian | Message 234 of 1511 06 August 2012 at 7:54pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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@tarvos: Thanks for the explanation! Shorter books or no, it's been very interesting watching you progress in this log from "I woke up today and decided I wanted to revive my French" to "I'm pretty much done".
I Wikipedia'd Amelie Nothomb and it looks like she's had a pretty fascinating life herself, so that's cool too. Aaand I'll be checking the bushes outside my house now. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4696 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 235 of 1511 06 August 2012 at 10:56pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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There hasn't been too much going on since my last updates about France, but I spoke a
whole host of my languages today (everything besides Russian) and I had my first encounter in Swedish after a month with a Norwegian, which went surprisingly well. I am understood at least! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4696 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 236 of 1511 06 August 2012 at 10:56pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4696 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 237 of 1511 06 August 2012 at 10:57pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I'll say this for my Swedish - I speak about 200-300 words of it, but I can use them
with accuracy. I know how to make a lot out of my small corner of the Swedish language (everyone else at the language exchange meetup was stunned that I was going into this, because this is the first time I've spoken Swedish in public). So I'm pretty happy. The Norwegian guy I spoke to also spoke French, German, English, Dutch and Italian/Spanish (I think) but of course I don't speak the latter two. My French is a lot better than my Swedish he said, I said I know because that's a language I have experience in. My German is apparently even better than my French (probably only in speech though, in writing I'm unsure). I still need to work on my French so that it's not just sufficient but also workable for a job environment. That's where my French needs to go --> I'm aiming for C1 (though I always aim for C1 in any language I want to use fluently - German requires C1 as well for me). Oh, I also finished Assimil Russian last Saturday. So I only have my TY and Colloquial to go, if I can be bothered with them. The focus is directly on Swedish now for a while, though. I might do some Russian irregularly, interspersed with the French and German upkeep that I'm doing. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4696 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 238 of 1511 06 August 2012 at 11:17pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Done with what? I'm nowhere near done with French. What I have done is got to the point where comprehension isn't a problem anymore, I now have very good passive skills and don't have problems understanding anyone for 90%. I can also understand things like muffled train announcements that the train has broken down and they're going to stop for an indeterminate amount of time, things like that - for all practical purposes, yeah, I've revived French to that point. But it doesn't stop there. I may be able to hold conversations and do my part, but it's nowhere near good enough for my goal which is to use this language professionally. And that's a long long road. I am happy with my progress, but I cannot be lazy about this. This is a language that means something to me and I really need to get from the "ça suffit, on se comprend, c'est pas mal" stage to the "c'est vraiment bien" stage. We're at a high B1/low B2 here, and eventually C1 is a goal that we're going for. I am happy that I can get around in French no trouble, but we're not yet at the stage where we want to be. Goal 1 has been achieved though, yes, my French is much better passively and also better actively. But now we have to get to the next stage and that is delve into the grammar, and iron out the kinks in my language use. The hard work has only just begun.
She has. Her normal novels are interesting, by all means, but Stupeur et tremblements and Ni d'Ève, ni d'Adam (and also some other biographical books that she's written that I haven't got round to dealing with yet - the one that describes her anorexia for example) give a real insight into the mind of Amélie herself, and how weirdly she grew up (and also a look into the contrasting culture of Japan when compared to Belgium - a country I am quite familiar with).
What shall you be finding out there? You had me in stitches with this when I first read it. I don't have long-term goals for some of my languages. German and French I know that I want to hit C1 in because they're big useful European languages and I have a background and history with both of them. They're on the list to improve now because I also want them as career languages. My Russian is something that I don't know what I will be doing with it yet. I like having it sitting at its beginner/intermediate stage, useful enough for simple things but not good enough for the real stuff - I would describe my Russian as being at the level my French was when I moved to Belgium, maybe slightly better. It suffices for simple things, but complex vocab in Russian is something I need to work with - and this is a language that doesn't have priority at the moment. Swedish is a fun language I can mess around with a lot because it's similar to my three best languages and it's just really fun to speak. I think this is a language close to my heart in terms of how much joy it exudes when I speak it. I love the sing-song intonation. But there's nothing too serious about this language yet. The other languages I've dabbled in are Hebrew and Romanian (I learned some of these, particularly Romanian, when I was still together with an ex of mine), Icelandic (because Iceland is my favourite country) and Breton (because I love the Celtic languages and want to learn an obscure language to add to my repertoire). The other languages on my bucket list include most of the other Romance languages (but I doubt I will attempt any of them soon - except maybe Portuguese), Mandarin (my favourite Asian language), Finnish, Farsi, and Turkish. I've also recently found Swahili and Czech to be tempting. But these are all for later - I decide pretty much on the spot what I'm gonna do when I'm ready. I have materials for Hebrew and Breton (and in a lesser amount, Icelandic) so these are probably the next projects, after my "Swedish in 3 months" timer runs out and I've finished FSI. I think I can get to intermediate level by the time I'm done with that because FSI is comprehensive and I work well with it. I am tempted to learn Finnish and Swahili through FSI too. Overall FSI and Assimil are my favourite methods. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4692 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian | Message 239 of 1511 07 August 2012 at 4:13pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Haha, I'm sure you're aware of how much you've accomplished! Nevertheless. I know a certain mental balance* is required for optimally speedy learning, so sorry if I messed that up with some praise. ;-)
On a serious note, though, I get what you're saying. The longer I learn Dutch, the less I'm convinced I know and the more the goal of more native-like fluency begins to itch at me. It's gotten to a point where I don't want to start any other languages because I want to scratch my way to C1 as soon as possible. So yes, I do understand more or less exactly how you feel, and I wish us both luck in getting our respective languages up to professional standard. By the way, is the goal to work in France? And, well, obviously I was checking the bushes for someone who wants to kill me now that their speed-reading secrets have been revealed. * Namely, a stance rapidly oscillating between "This is great, I know so much!", so you don't quit, and "The real work has only started, I know nooothiinggg" so you work as hard as possible. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4696 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 240 of 1511 07 August 2012 at 4:41pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Mental balance isn't a word I associate with myself. More like mental imbalance. Or even
misbalance. I'm aware I've improved, definitely on the passive front because I'm not listening to a blur anymore when I hear French. But we have to improve this language step by step. The goal is to work anywhere, anytime ;) Any Francophone country is fine, but Germanophone is fine too. Just not Wallonia because there are no jobs there ;) Edited by tarvos on 07 August 2012 at 10:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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