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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3854 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 89 of 129 29 May 2015 at 2:02am | IP Logged | ||
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So, I had my LAST EVER EXAM* on Tuesday, followed by a mad dash to complete and hand in an essay before my teacher went away on Wednesday... so I was a bit stressed, as I'm sure can be imagined. We have also had family over every day this week - today is the first day where I am going to bed and the only people in my house are the people who live here. It has been very nice, but all of this 'socialising' business wreaks havoc with my language study time.
This morning, however, I managed to relisten to chapter one of Tintenherz (reading along in German) and then listen for the first time to chapter two (reading along in English). I'm still trying to work out the best way to LR, but I'm sure it will fall into place. Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to dedicate more time to the task... I sung För fallna änglar to my boyfriend last night, although I haven't recorded it so it still can't be classed as part of the Output Challenge. Apparently my pronunciation of soft sj, sk, etc has gotten better. But that song is really difficult to sing! I have a very narrow vocal range and singing in certain registers is very difficult, not to mention painful. This happened on the bus journey back from a singing trip in Italy, where the air con was kept on throughout the entire 24 hour journey (Including the night's driving through the alps). What this has to do with För fallna änglar is this: The chorus is a lot higher than the verses, meaning that I can't sing it, meaning that I have to do a complete gear shift six times throughout the song, meaning that there will probably never be a recording of it that I'm comfortable sharing... On the bus journey to and from work, I read through the first few pages of TY Complete Dutch. It's okay, but not having audio, and also not having the verb table are two things that are really frustrating me. I have heard Dutch spoken before, but never really registered it and so now I'm having trouble reproducing the sounds in my head as I read. Finally: Wanderlust, my old friend. I found out about Alemannisch last night. It has now joined Platdüütsch on the languages-my-German-friend-will-probably-kill-me-for-studyin g-until-I-am-at-least-conversational-in-German list. Although, if we are completely reasonable and rational about this, it is entirely her fault that I am not conversation or anything like it in German as she is so reluctant to use her language to actually speak to me. Okay, okay, I should also study more. This has been an update, of sorts. Bis bald! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5128 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 90 of 129 29 May 2015 at 3:30am | IP Logged | ||
Alemannisch :) What kind of Alemannisch do you have in mind? Schwyzerdütsch, Schwäbisch, Badisch? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3854 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 91 of 129 29 May 2015 at 8:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Bakunin - I haven't looked deeper into it, just flicked through a few wikipedia pages about and in Alemannisch, so I have no preferences. I think if I were to take up any of these languages, it would be to the detriment of Swedish, German and Dutch (which I will be starting semi-seriously next week). The more I read about it, the more I want to learn a dialect, but I would have to search much deeper before I decide.
--- Today I LRed a chapter of Der Kleine Hobbit. It took about an hour, and was a little exhausting, but I pushed through. I read along in German, but I think in future my time might be better spent reading first in English, before reading the German with thin hörbuch. I am particularly pleased with how easy it is for me to find hörbücher, much easier than it was to find the ljudbok for Låt den rätta komma in! And I understand much more Swedish, so you'd think it wouldn't be such a chore. Otherwise I have done very little, other than be tempted back into the study of Esperanto. Not serious study, but the Duolingo course was released in Beta, so I thought I'd go through it a skill a day. This is faster than I am doing with German, but I am more concerned with actually absorbing the German than the Esperanto. In fact, I am quite despairing over my German absorbtion. Reading along with a hörbuch is fine - I can get the gist of what I am reading while I am reading it, which is more than I'd expect. But nothing really seems to stick. I have realised that I don't particularly like duolingo German. When I first started it, around a year and a half ago, I was quite enthused, and even managed to learn a lot from it. I much preferred it to Duo French and Italian. But going back to it now, I don't really feel the same. This has a lot to do with that fact that I like the Duolingo Swedish course so much more. It seems so well thought out, with hardly any of those ridiculous duo sentences like 'I don't know that bird'. I just don't feel like I am learning in an effective way, so perhaps this is why my brain pushes everything out. Perhaps it is time to take a second look at Deutsche Welle. I have tried Deutsch -Warum Nicht, Deutsch Interaktiv and Mission Berlin, but I wasn't a huge fan of any of them. Warum Nicht was my favourite, but it moved altogether too slowly for my liking. Until I find a way to actually learn the language (preferably, a way that costs little to no money), I will carry on listening and reading in the hopes that something filters through the wall my brain has set up. This has been a rant, so my apologies! But I feel (perhaps?) a little better now that it is off my chest. Phew! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3854 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 92 of 129 31 May 2015 at 4:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am pleased to report that I am feeling a lot more positive about German. After Friday's 'German Doesn't Stick' post, I looked through a very old TY German phrasebook (of which I don't have a very good opinion), watched a lot of Deutsch für euch videos and read and listened a lot. And it all helped, somewhat, although I can't really quantify how.
The TY phrasebook is a six week mini course structured around a couple going on holiday. For each week, there is a dialogue, a list of new vocab, a very light 'grammar', a listening exercise and some writing/speaking exercises. The phrasebook is a remnant from a time gone by when the Independent gave away mini language courses with their newspaper every now and again. Sadly, I do not have the audio, and if I did I would still have no way to play it. The great thing about going through this phrasebook was being able to see how much I understood. Of course, it is all beginner German, and the course doesn't introduce more than 500 words, but it was heartening to see that I have some passive knowledge locked away somewhere. The crap thing about this course was the 'grammar'. The only thing said about der/die/das was that they all meant 'the' and that, for the purpose of the course it wasn't really important to know which to use when. WHAT? What kind of half-assed, irresponsible teaching is that? The course was targeted at holiday makers wanting to be able to just survive, but that doesn't mean such an important aspect of the language can simply be skated over like it's not even there! Perhaps the course went into more detail later, but I didn't stick around to find out. Then Deutsch für euch. I found out about this youtube channel last year, and really liked it, but didn't stick with it because of my insistance on learning German via French. I have since abandoned this in favour of learning German by any means possible. The lessons are very basic, with each video being usually around five-ten minutes long. But they are interesting, and Katja (who makes them) has clearly put a lot of effort into planning and producing the videos. They are probably most useful for the grammar overview and an introduction to German. I couldn't really learn anything substantial from them, I don't think, even if I took notes, but they would make a nice supplement to other things. I spent most of Saturday day hauling around boxes and beds and things with my mum, with the result that I have a nice clean room and a completely new layout. While doing this, I relistened to the first two chapters of Tintenherz. The recording was rather quiet, but my comprehension was decent for the bits that I could hear. While on the bus to and from work, I read chapter two in German, which I hadn't done previously, and found that having LRed the chapter earlier with German audio and English text helped a lot. Something about having three different reference points, probably. I will listen again to chapter two while reading in German, and then listen to chapter three with English at some point this week. I also hope to get in a few hours worth of solid listening at some point over the next two-three weeks. Reading and rereading has thus far proved effective in pushing along global comprehension (and I found that if I take more time over each individual word, I can understand even more), but I have a large problem with the rhythm of the language. Although my friend has tried to teach me where the stress has goes, and although I can produce passable German with a lot of coaching and concentration, I really need to develop an ear for it. I like reading aloud, but I am conscious of stressing things wrongly, and having to pause for breath in unnatural places. A lot of listening should help sort that out, I think. Accent is less of an issue - my German accent is fairly good, despite having never really used any German audio resources. In fact, I wonder how it got to be that way? --- The Dutch course starts tomorrow! It is only three weeks long, and three hours per week- so a total of nine teaching hours. If I study two hours for every hour of 'lessons', that still only makes a total of 27 hours - not much. But I am still excited. I'm hoping I can get a feel for the sound of the language, which will help make my TY Dutch much more usable. Other than that, I have requested a trial lesson with a tutor on italki. The lesson will be in Swedish, with a community teacher. I have asked for help with speaking, pronunciation and writing. I hardly ever write in Swedish, and I never write long texts. I also never really speak aloud - same fears for Swedish as with German. So I hope the trial goes well, and that I can have more lessons with this teacher. I am also looking into Swedish language partners, and have narrowed the offering down to six choices. I'm not sure whether to schedule meetings with all of them over the next few weeks, or to go more slowly. I have also signed up for Tadoku with German and Swedish. I wonder if it's too late to sign up with French, too... Finally, I'm going to France on Friday. It kind of crept up on me, so I'm feeling unprepared. But I'll have fun, whether I speak much French or not. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5474 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 93 of 129 01 June 2015 at 1:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Just dropping by to come along for the ride with your log (I'm jealous of your French trip btw)..
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3854 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 94 of 129 01 June 2015 at 5:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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PM - Good to see you here! Half of me is looking forward to it, half of me is kind of worried, although I have no reason to be. Finger crossed I actually squeeze in some French speaking!
--- I have been busy busy busy this morning... all from the comfort and safety of my own bed. Yay! The Dutch course has started, so I did some work on that and, thanks to my advance reading, managed to answer a couple of questions from other learners. [Insert preening here]. So far I can only say: Hallo, mijn naam is Lilian. Ik woon in London - and I'm not even sure if that is right? No matter, however, I'm having fun. It was dawning on me, while trying to make sense of all that Dutch, just how difficult it will be to actively learn anything. Comprehension is much less of an issue here, but I'm worried that when it comes to production I'll start talking some weird Deutsch-Svensk-Nederlands hybrid, and that this will affect both my German and my Swedish. Of course, right now this is early days, and I am simply dipping my toes in. But already whenever a word doesn't immediately come to my mind in any of my languages, I substitute another from a different language - usually French if trying to produce Swedish, and Swedish when trying to produce English or German. But I guess that these are problems which will just have to iron themselves out, and I am sure that they will with time. Other than that, I have read and listened to another chapter of Der kleine Hobbit (reading along in English), got round to listening to the second chapter of Tintenherz while reading from the German, and also managed to read some more of the Pflanzenköhle article. I have Anki'd and Duo'd as usual, and searched for something new to watch for Swedish (other than Mumin, which is continuing on happily and smoothly). I'll will read the German for the chapter of Der kleine Hobbit while on the train to meeting my friends. I will also take along some Swedish reading with me, for good measure... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3854 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 95 of 129 02 June 2015 at 4:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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So... had my trial lesson today! I didn't record it, so I can't count it as part of the output challenge, but I spoke a lot. Yay! The tutor was a community tutor from italki, and we just had a normal conversation while she corrected my speech. She said that it was quite good, but I am aware of the fact that I stumbled around for words, and that my brain was adamant that it wanted to speak in French. If only it would do that when I am actually trying to speak French, everything would be great.
As preparation for the lesson, I read another 'day' in Låt den rätta komma in and watched half an episode of I Mumindalen. I wanted to also do a little anki and duolingo, but the lesson started half an hour before I thought it would, so I didn't have time. After the lesson, I skyped with my boyfriend, and read quite a lot of Tintenherz to him. Kind of silly, when I think about it, that I pay someone to speak Swedish with me so that I can speak German with my Swedish boyfriend. I have been very aware of the contradiction inherent in this situation, but I guess I want to be comfortable speaking Swedish before I do so with him, not sure why... He would be perfect to practice on! I also read a teeny, tiny bit more of the article on biochar. I have done no Dutch yet today, but I shall hopefully get some done before I go out. I also hope to read more Tintenherz with audio. I am currently alternating between Tintenherz and Der kleine Hobbit, within then alternating between reading a chapter in German and in English. All this reading with audio is definitely helping: I feel more comfrtable with German, and also I am finding it easier to read aloud. Of course the gold standard will be when I try to speak to my friend in German for a second time - that will be sometime next week, hopefully. Perhaps I should prepare something. For Swedish, I want to finish watching the episode of I Mumindalen that I started, and do something for the written part of the output challenge. I also recorded myself speaking, but I'm not happy enough with that recording to put it anywhere. At least I can hear some of the mistakes I made, which is the first step to fixing them. Också ska jag försöka skriver en mening i svenska varje dag, på den här sidan. So that was today's sentence. I feel like I have made about two mistakes, maybe more. (It should be harder to mess up writing a single sentence. Hopefully I am just being too harsh on myself.) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5007 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 96 of 129 03 June 2015 at 11:53am | IP Logged | ||
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Congrats on the last ever exam!!! That is something totally awesome I cannot even imagine. Non credo in vitam post examinis.
Swedish boyfriend, German book... interesting choice, I've got the same one on my bookshelf, waiting for me to become ready. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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