tajosto Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4646 days ago 54 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Czech
| Message 49 of 60 12 December 2013 at 5:01pm | IP Logged |
I had another language-exchange session with the same woman. Very good; we both enjoy movies so there is plenty
to talk about, at least so far. Of course, the English part of the exchange is much easier, but she is very patient with
my glacially slow and mistake-ridden Czech, so it seems like we are a good match.
I recorded the Czech portion of the Skype call, and am listening to it multiple times in order to more fully
understand everything she said. I don't always understand everything she says, and so am often using context and
inferring what she is saying in my responses. So listening to our conversation multiple times helps me catch the
details, and also helps me get used to her voice and style of speech, which will hopefully help me in future
conversations. I'm also using the recording to note all the various things that I had trouble saying, so that I can now
look them up and learn how to say them correctly.
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tajosto Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4646 days ago 54 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Czech
| Message 50 of 60 16 December 2013 at 5:20pm | IP Logged |
Recently, I've paused working through the Lida Hola textbook in order to work in a grammar exercise book I just
got: Cvičebnice češtiny – Czech practice book A1–A2/
I really need lots of practice with conjugations, word endings, etc, and there just are not enough in the Step By Step
textbook, even with the accompanying workbook. Because of that, I was really excited to find this grammar exercise
book, which is very clear and easy to use.
In addition to the written exercise, it also has audio exercise to accompany some of the written material, which is
fantastic! These are audio grammar exercise with no English, with a pause for you to say the answer yourself, and
then the answer. Since the full Czech FSI course audio seems to be lost to the ages, this is the best source of audio
drills I've found so far. :-)
Anyway, I've started from the beginning of the book and it's been very helpful to see what areas I'm weak in and
need to focus on. Then I can just add the sentences I'm getting wrong to Anki, and know that I'll see the material
over and over until it sinks in. And the audio is helpful to reinforce everything.
The only way this grammar book could be better is if it had audio for ALL the exercises! ;-)
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tajosto Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4646 days ago 54 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Czech
| Message 51 of 60 19 December 2013 at 5:13pm | IP Logged |
I'm really excited because I just got three new Czech books, as an early Christmas present for myself. The books
are:
Lev, čarodějnice a skříň
Karlík a továrna na čokoládu
Medvídek Pú
Truthfully, these books are all above my reading level. But since these are all books I read in English multiple times
as a child, I suspect that the familiarity and fondness can help mitigate the difficulties I'll encounter. Also, I already
have, or can easily get, the English versions for parallel text style reading.
I found an audio book to accompany Karlík a továrna na čokoládu, which will be helpful. I haven't seen audio books
for the other two, but maybe they'll appear somehow.
I am hoping that my love of these stories will compel me to spend much more time reading in Czech than I currently
do. So far, I've found books at my reading level to be too simplistic to hold my attention for very long. And the "pre-
chewed" graded readers tend to bore me silly. We'll see how it goes. :-)
I also just discovered a fun, interactive Advent calendar on the Czech television website, which should provide some
language-learning entertainment this week:
http://decko.ceskatelevize.cz/advent#
Edited by tajosto on 19 December 2013 at 5:16pm
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tajosto Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4646 days ago 54 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Czech
| Message 52 of 60 04 January 2014 at 3:05pm | IP Logged |
I just joined the #Add1Challenge for the next 90 days, as an extra motivator for consistent effort. The Challenge
intro video is here:
Add1Challenge Intro
My video is here:
90 Days of Czech
I'm not keen about the video aspect, but I love the rest of the challenge. :-)
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Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5119 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer
| Message 53 of 60 04 January 2014 at 5:09pm | IP Logged |
tajosto wrote:
I'm really excited because I just got three new Czech books, as an early Christmas present for myself. The books are: ... Medvídek Pú |
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:)) I've recently bought a copy of Kubuś Puchatek (which is Medvídek Pú in Polish) as well. It's cute to read, but definitively not easy. It might be easier for you since you're familiar with the stories from childhood days. When you get around to reading it, please let us know how it goes.
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hribecek Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5338 days ago 1243 posts - 1458 votes Speaks: English*, Czech, Spanish Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian
| Message 54 of 60 04 January 2014 at 6:26pm | IP Logged |
Hi Tajosto
It seems our Czechoslovak team has ceased to exist due to lack of numbers, but I'll still be interested and of course following your log and wish you good luck for the 90 day challenge (I also considered doing it but was put off by the video part) and the year ahead.
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tajosto Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4646 days ago 54 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Czech
| Message 55 of 60 05 January 2014 at 12:37pm | IP Logged |
@Bakunin
I haven't started Medvídek Pú yet, precisely because it's a little difficult. But I do think that when I get to it, knowing
the original version will help. Also, I purposely bought the Czech version with the original illustrations because it
gives me a sense of familiarity and fondness for the material, even if it is in a different language. Visual familiarity
makes it seems easier, somehow.
@hribecek
Yes, it's too bad about the team. I was hoping to find another team for TAC 2014, but haven't found the stamina to
figure out what's happening in the TAC 2014 sign-up thread. ;-)
So I guess I'll just focus on other challenges for now, like the Add1Challenge, and when it starts again, I'd like to join
the SuperChallenge.
I'm glad to hear that you'll still be following my log, and I plan to follow yours as well. I appreciate the support. Good
luck for your language learning, and possible move this year!
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tajosto Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4646 days ago 54 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Czech
| Message 56 of 60 07 January 2014 at 3:31pm | IP Logged |
The last couple of days, most of my Czech time has been devoted to adding sentences to Anki. I'm trying MCDs, as
described on AJATT, and taking the material mostly from my current reading, Karlík a továrna na čokoládu. This
book has turned out to be a very good choice, for a few reasons. The biggest reason is that I've already read it a
number of times in English, and I have the English version to use as a parallel text for the tricky parts. Another
reason is that I found the audio book to accompany it, and I listen to the audio book chapters repeatedly while I'm
doing other things, which really gets the pronunciation and phrasing engraved into my mind for when I'm reading
the text. And, finally, the chapters are short and interspersed with cute pictures. :-)
I also rediscovered the BliuBliu website, which has improved considerably since I last tried it. It's a great place to go
when I want to spend time with Czech, but I'm feeling too lazy to find or choose the content myself.
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