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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 713 of 1511 29 May 2013 at 4:33pm | IP Logged |
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On Role Models in Polyglottery
The past couple months I have intensively read the websites, logs, and ramblings of various famous (and less famous polyglots). What I have definitely found is that all of those people who have gone on to become great polyglots had success because they were a) tenacious (they didn't give up) and b) they had methods or ways of working that worked for them. However my role models in polyglottery are not Richard and Luca (who seem to speak the most impressively, but whose blogs or ramblings I enjoy less than that of some others). This is not to detract from their accomplishents, which are huge, just that in my personal style there are other polyglots whose ramblings and methods I have read (about) and that align more with my personal goals. The polylgots whom I resemble the most share interests with me, usually the pursuit of knowledge in general (not necessarily linguistic knowledge but also cultural and scientific), and because my interests outside of language include science, travel and sports (in particularly football/soccer) it is exactly those sources where I crossover with the people "I look up to" (which only means that I like the way they work, they are not holy men on a pedestal". But despite the fact I am a curious individual (like wee Alice), I do adapt and use techniques from other people. And this is good - you must experiment to find your groove, but I have found that even those polyglots I extensively borrow from in my techniques (Benny, Iversen, Arguelles, Luca, Rawlings) also produce methods that work less efficiently for me. And this is all right, because my mixing and matching is necessary to suit my needs. The two biggest influences are Benny and Iversen, and this is because I feel their ideas often cross over with mine, and thus I will borrow from them. I have adapted Iversen's use of wordlists for example (although for languages more removed from my base I have come to prefer Anki, or not using any methodology at all) to my own methodology. I have a grammatical chart of Romanian verbs "yellow sheet" on my whiteboard, pinned, so that I remember the conjugations of verbs (I am going to complete it with the future and the imperfective later today). These grammatical charts are useful because they show that you have yourself internalised the structure of (that part) of the language. For example, I should actually produce some more of these grammatical charts for Romanian and Hebrew in order to aid my learning, especially in Hebrew where I should chart the binyanim for verbs (the adjective declension is very regular). What I especially like is that it promotes structure, without forcing this structure from some external source that is supposed to be the truth proclaimed from some higher pedestal; in language learning, it is important that your grammar functions, not how it got to functioning. As long as your internal system leads to solid output then it is a good system (engineering mentality). Benny manifests himself in attitude, in a positive mentality, in not giving up when things get rough, in trying to talk, in finding value in little things that show you are making progress even when the world conspires against you. It isn't about speed or snake-oil promises, but the ability to remain courageous and upbeat when things go your way, and if you smell problems, to work on then and optimize your language learning through resources (that are everywhere). And finally I enjoy the advice of Arguelles and Luca who extensively use bilingual readers and translations, which are immensely helpful and useful in the beginning stage of a language. They can serve as the scaffolds for your learning, and I take immense pleasure in using my L2s as the scaffolds for learning; I have learned more about French through using French material, and English as an L2 is an only too common reference point for me. But that is what role models do. They serve as examples and guidelines for how you should be using your language, and the ones I try to steal from are the ones that have goals similar to mine, behaviour similar to mine, and ideas that correspond to mine. And I think you can tell from the writings in my log how I have adapted their ideas into useful materials to study with on my own. Compared to some polyglots on this forum, I play in a minor league. I don't speak 10 languages at levels of near-native fluency; I only claim that there are six which I could live through or get by in without needing extensive recourse to an aid from another language. Some of these are filled with lacunae; others are honed and sharpened battle weapons; and some weapons I've been having fun with are a little blunt but I take immense enjoyment in improving. And some are just specialist material that I enjoy getting acquainted with, even though they are not common or necessary. But I hope that the people who read this log also find some inspiration of their own here, even though I am not one of the "big guns" or "big names" in polyglottery. I'm just a Dutch guy who turned a hobby into an obsession and observed a few good results. 8 persons have 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 714 of 1511 30 May 2013 at 7:49pm | IP Logged |
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Русский
Сегодня занялся русским языком на уроке. Мы с преподавательницей обсуждили мою работу (т.е., я работаю репетитором голландского и английского языка). Появились ошибки со связи со смысловом ударением. Т.е., часто, на фразе, ударение падает на другом слоге, чем я ожидал. Мы поработали над обжими выражениами, которые обычно пользуются на разговорном языке. Кроме того, обсуждили сериа из сериала Светофор (очень смешной сериал) и несколько переводов с английского на русском языке. На следующем уроке, мы сконцентрируем на соционику (я - габен). Я уже сделал тест, и это было заметно, что прогресс был на последнем году - было легче мне принять тесть, чем раньше (у меня подруга предложил заниматься тестом, и я без понятия был.) На этой неделе дошла книга, написана Шолоховом. В книге есть маленький список слов с голландскими переводами русских слов. Т.е., если я не пойму, о том книге, просто нужно проверить слова в конце книги. Книга называется Судьба Человека. עברית גם למדתי עברית. סיימתי חמשה שיעורים בספר אסימיל. Română Am studiat doi lecții din Assimil, și recapitulare, și note. Íslensku En ég er nu að læra íslensku. Það er mjög gaman! Edited by tarvos on 30 May 2013 at 7:53pm 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 715 of 1511 03 June 2013 at 8:40am | IP Logged |
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I was planning to do much more the past days, but I haven't managed to because I went
away for the weekend and came back yesterday afternoon in such a state of fatigue and chagrin that it led to me being able to do much useful. But in the past couple days I have managed to study some languages after all. And since it is now June, and I have completed all of my May goals and even one or two of my June goals already, here's what I've done and what I am going to do: since Thursday, I have completed - one unit of the Routledge course (up to lesson 65 now) - two units of Assimil l'Hébreu sans peine (up to lesson 41 now) - two units of Assimil le Roumain sans peine (up to lesson 65/16 now) - completed Spieltrieb - read Métaphysique des tubes - applied for my Russian visa - completed unit 3 of Colloquial Icelandic - read chapter 1 of "Harry Potter ha Maen ar Furien". - Romanian and Icelandic Anki reviews. So what I have upcoming for the following months is this: Deutsch/Français Nothing. I can speak these two without problems still, read them, nothing going on. I just needed some maintenance in the case of German and I've now had it. I might produce one or two grammatical sheets for German though. Svenska It is time to do something with my Swedish again soon, so either this month or after Russia I will. Probably I will use SVTPlay and focus on the spoken language here, not the written one. Russian Preparation for Russia trip. Continue my weekly iTalki lessons, and when in Russia, read "The fate of man". Breton My main reading for the coming weeks or months will be Harry Potter ha Maen ar Furien. I am reading it extensively actually, which is only possible because I have read the book before. I probably should study some of the sentences in-depth for new vocabulary. Hebrew I have got another tutoring lesson coming up this Sunday. I have been spending a bit of time on the future tense, so now I know all the prefixes/suffixes for it; I just don't really know the vowel structures... but before I leave for Russia, I hope to finish the Routledge Course. I have three more units to go, more or less, so I could achieve it. If I don't, I should be at unit 8 somewhere. And since I am almost halfway with the Assimil's passive wave that is good news too. I think getting able to lesson 60 or so before I leave for Russia is possible. Maybe a bit more. Romanian My 6WC focus, officially, but that turned into a fiasco because Hebrew ended up consuming more time. I want to get to somewhere close to a finished passive wave before I leave for Russia (so that I can focus on doing the active wave when I get back). Today I'll hopefully spend some time on Romanian. Icelandic I booked a trial tutoring session for Icelandic just to see how I do with it. I also intend to complete a few more units before I go, but here I am in no rush. You see, after I have completed a lot of the textbooks, I will turn to Icelandic intensively after Russia. Once Romanian has been reduced to a passive wave and there is no Routledge course to cover, it means my focus can be squarely on polishing up through L'Hébreu sans peine, and studying Icelandic for the most part. Latin You didn't seriously think I had any goals for this one, did you? Everything Else is Being Studied, so Why can't I? Okay. I have promised myself not to study anything else before Russia and I won't. But once I free up some time thanks to some huge pressure of time from Routledge and Assimil getting out of the way (leaving two textbooks behind), I can start thinking about something new to insert. There are several options here. The ones for which I have gathered basic textbooks and audio are: Serbo-Croatian, Swahili, Malagasy, and there is one other language for which I intend to buy materials and that is Mandarin Chinese. However even though I have Swahili materials that one isn't envisioned as a study object for a good while. I might obtain materials for Portuguese, but if I do, this would be a sideproject far into the future, given that I find Romance languages relatively uninteresting. I have already studied the ones I want to (French, Romanian and Latin) and the only other one that I really want to pay some attention to is Portuguese (for now) so this might occur in the future. Chinese is a language I want to focus on 100% when I get there, no other textbooks or anything bothering me. My guess is thus that I will not directly dive into Mandarin upon my return. This leaves me with Serbo-Croatian and Malagasy. My preference at this point is for Serbo-Croatian, so my guess is that once I have completed Romanian AND Hebrew (and I will have advanced somewhat in Icelandic) that my next textbook will be FSI Serbo- Croatian. Edited by tarvos on 03 June 2013 at 8:42am 2 persons have 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 716 of 1511 04 June 2013 at 3:36pm | IP Logged |
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I did give into temptation and downloaded ChinesePod 101 for Android. But I haven't used
it yet - it's just something I want to keep for later. And it's of course gra-tis. Further than that I have read lots of Breton and studied some Romanian today. And been busy with other things. Which I will be for the coming days, except for that Wednesday train ride. In which I hope to spend lots of time on Hebrew. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4833 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 717 of 1511 05 June 2013 at 4:46pm | IP Logged |
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You seem to be making great progress with your languages. Congrats! My learning load is reduced at the moment due to stress at work, but I'll be back soon.
Btw, if you'd like me to give you corrections for your German writing, please let me know. 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 718 of 1511 05 June 2013 at 8:00pm | IP Logged |
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Passt schon, ich habe nichts dagegen :)
Edited by tarvos on 05 June 2013 at 8:01pm 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 719 of 1511 05 June 2013 at 9:41pm | IP Logged |
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הבדיחות של אסימיל
בסופר אסימיל יש הבדיחה הזאת: רב ונהג אוטונוס מתו באותו יום. שתי נשמות הגיעו לדלת גן עדו. נשמת הנהג נכנסה לגן עדן. נשמת הרב אמרה: "אני לא מוינה. הנהג הזה לא היה דתי. אני לימדתי תלמוד כל יום." המלאך אמר: "נכון מאוד. גם את תכנסי לגן עדן, אבל מחר." .למה?", שאלה נשמת הרב כאשר הרב לימד תלמוד, כל התלמידים ישנו." כאשר הנהג נהג באוטובוס, כל הנעסים התפללו". This is literally a joke in my Assimil. They are daring! I covered 5 lessons of Assimil l'Hébreu today, and have listend to a piano version of Aviv Geffen's Sof Ha'olam on repeat. It's beautiful. Edited by tarvos on 06 June 2013 at 8:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| zecchino1991 Senior Member United States facebook.com/amyybur Joined 5247 days ago 778 posts - 885 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew, Russian, Arabic (Written), Romanian, Icelandic, Georgian | Message 720 of 1511 06 June 2013 at 2:32am | IP Logged |
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חחח מצחיק!
תיקון קטן: *יש את הבדיחה הזאת :) Edit: Wait, why is he talking in the feminine? Edited by zecchino1991 on 06 June 2013 at 2:36am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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