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Languid language learning (Team Advanced)

  Tags: Swedish | German | French
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129 messages over 17 pages: 1 2 35 6 7 ... 4 ... 16 17 Next >>
Elenia
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
lilyonlife.blog
Joined 3854 days ago

239 posts - 327 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto

 
 Message 25 of 129
01 September 2014 at 11:59am | IP Logged 
I feel like it is time to admit to myself, here in the open, that I want to speak
Swedish. Of course, the problem is I want to speak Swedish well, which will not come
without practice. But I don't want to foist my awful pronunciation on any poor,
unsuspecting native speaker.

I'm thinking more in terms of output, these days. My Anki deck for Let the right one
in
was all passive, but now I'm looking more towards passive and active cards. Not
only will this help prepare me for output, but it also helps with remembering the word.

I have also been reading with an eye for the small details. I spent a half hour or so
writing out phrases with interesting constructions and grammar, paying attention to
things I'd like to be able to reproduce at some point when I get past my Catch-22 of
language shame. For example, I wrote down nyfikna på, because if I were just guessing,
I would have gone with nyfikna om or nyfikna av. Also, phrases like till och med. I
read it, but I tend to read it as separate words and so get confused and have to look
up the whole sentence. If I were producing, I would probably stick to Swenglish and say
även. If I were listening, I would not have time to puzzle through to realise that till
och med could actually be a set phrase.

It's quite interesting, and I'm looking forward to reading up on the grammar behind
these phrases and discussing them with my boyfriend (who gets as excited by these
things as I do, thankfully!)
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 26 of 129
03 September 2014 at 2:50pm | IP Logged 
Finally sat down and worked out how to input answers into anki last night. It took a
while, because I'm not even a little bit technologically minded, but I've got it now, and
I'll probably never forget that 'till och med' construction again, I've had to go through
it so many times. I quite like the answer cards, although I'll definitely have to
experiment with them some more - I'm sure they could be more effective if I tweak the
layout a bit.

My favourite phrase from the sentences I put in last night is han dröjde sig kvar,
probably because of the translation 'he lingered'. I like the verb 'to linger', and I
like reflexive verbs, so this one is doing very well indeed. I'll definitely be looking
for more phrases to put into anki.
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 27 of 129
11 September 2014 at 12:43pm | IP Logged 
My attention for the 6 week challenge has waned, and I've subsequently slipped down in
the ranks. This is okay, I guess, as where I am now is much closer to where I expected
I would be. My concentration has been broken by first my boyfriend and then my
(ex)roommate visiting me, and I don't see myself getting back into any kind of stride
before the challenge ends.

It turns out that I am fine with this. The challenge got my competitive side all fired
up, which is great because it meant that I would try to do something almost every day.
However, I was reluctant to spend time on other German and French, because it felt like
I would be taking valuable time from Swedish.

Now that I've given up my slightly less-than-valiant dream of placing 11th, I feel more
at ease to practice other languages. Which is just as well, really, because I should
have started reading Les Liaisons dangereuses ages ago!

--

In other news, my roommate taught me a new French phrase: trou perdu. I say taught -
she was teasing me about where I live, and called my area un trou perdu because it's so
far away from everywhere we wanted to be. I laughed at her, but I quite like the
expression. However, I don't know whether it is an expression that would be understood
everywhere, or if it's an expression specific to the island where she lived.
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 28 of 129
13 September 2014 at 3:37pm | IP Logged 
The 6 Week Challenge is over!

I ended up 22nd - a far cry from 11th, but I'm still satisfied. Studying every day was
great, and I'll try to carry on.

I have Les Liaisons dangereuses staring accusingly at me from my floor, waiting
for me to pick it back up. I have read the first five letters. Only 170 more to go! I
also realised I missed the avertissement de l'éditeur and the préface du rédacteur, and
read through those. I find the avertissement particularly entertaining:

Quote:
Nous croyons devoir prévenir le public, que, malgré le titre de cet ouvrage et
ce qu'en dit le rédacteur dans sa préface [...] nous avons [...] de fortes raisons de
penser que ce n'est qu'un roman.
[...]
dans ce siècle de philosophie, où les lumières, répandues de toutes parts, ont rendu,
comme chacun sait, tous les hommes si honnêtes et toutes les femmes si modestes et si
résrvées.


Very funny indeed.

--

I'm slowly working my way through Solsidan. I have a premium account with TV4 play, so
I can watch the episodes with Swedish subtitles, but I may have to give that up soon as
I am poor. In preparation, I have been watching the episodes without subtitles. My
comprehension level has dropped dramatically as a result, but I can still follow the
storyline well enough to not be confused. I spent a few hours watching subbed English
programs, and I'll continue doing this, in the hopes that it'll have a similar effect
as doing L-R. It requires me to read a lot more quickly than I am capable of, but I
think it will help pull my level up even just a little bit.

--

Finally, German. Oh, German, forgive me, for I have forsaken you!
I know that getting back into the swing of German should be easy. It's just a simple
matter of doing an exercise or two with Studio D, of reading a little bit of Alles
Sense!
every day, but I can't bring myself to do it. It's particularly easy to
ignore German now that I have deleted my German anki deck.

I don't regret getting rid of it. I didn't use it often, and felt guilty about this, so
I would avoid anki altogether. It was neither fun, nor effective. I will probably start
building a new one soon, when I pick back up my book. Although the words won't be
nearly as useful, I think I'll enjoy using it more, and it will help me to read more.

I also hope that my German friend - who has finally moved to London! - won't object to
me reading from it to her. She is not a particular fan of Pratchett, as she doesn't
understand his style well, but I really enjoyed reading aloud to her, and I also
benefitted from the activity. I would read aloud for her, and she would translate
certain passages or sentences back to me. I would then explain the passage to her. It
took a lot of puzzling out to make sense of the text for both of us, but it's something
I'd like to do again.
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 29 of 129
16 September 2014 at 1:19am | IP Logged 
Since last post, I've watched nine subbed episodes of Buffy. I'm sure it will surprise
no one to hear that I don't think I've learnt any new vocabulary*, but it provides some
welcome consolidation of the vocabulary I do know, as well as interesting sentence
structures. The translation often differs from the English, which gives me the
opportunity to see (what I hope are) more natural constructions. I think the most
effective way to use subbed programmes would be to then watch a dubbed version, but I
think that finding a Swedish-dubbed English program is fairy unlikely, and there are
very few things that I can stand to watch again.

So, I'll keep on using it for consolidation. I've marked down a couple of interesting
words and sentences from the subs, but I don't care to learn from it. I'm hoping that
the more I watch, the more passive consolidation I'll get. I think I can get a good
result just using subbed series teamed up with Swedish series and some intensive
reading.

*really, it's just an excuse not to do anything more productive with my time.
1 person has voted this message useful



garyb
Triglot
Senior Member
ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5205 days ago

1468 posts - 2413 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian, French
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 30 of 129
16 September 2014 at 10:45am | IP Logged 
Elenia wrote:

In other news, my roommate taught me a new French phrase: trou perdu. I say taught -
she was teasing me about where I live, and called my area un trou perdu because it's so
far away from everywhere we wanted to be.


A great similar expression with the same meaning that someone in France taught me a while ago is "trou du cul du monde". I love the way it sounds.
1 person has voted this message useful



Chris13
Groupie
FinlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4049 days ago

53 posts - 64 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Swedish, Finnish

 
 Message 31 of 129
16 September 2014 at 4:17pm | IP Logged 
Hey Elenia, I'm not sure a dubbed version exists unfortunately. I had a look about on a few Swedish sites and kept getting the following result "Språk: Engelska
Text: Svenska, Norska, Danska, Finska". I'm curious, does your collection of Buffy have Swedish subs for all seasons? I can only watch seasons 4,5 and 6 with Swedish subs.
I don't know how interested, if at all, you are in a series called "Charmed" but they all have Swedish subs and if you can get past the rather low budget special effects early on, maybe first two seasons, it's quite a good watch.
I also usually watch Angel from series 2 onward, TBBT and Ghost Whisperer with Swedish subs. They are all very cheap on dvd these days as well, so if you like any of them that'd be a lot of extra hours worth of subbed Swedish.
Glad to hear Buffy is helping you consolidate the vocabulary you've learned. Lycka till!
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 32 of 129
17 September 2014 at 12:19am | IP Logged 
@garyb - that is an amazing expression. One of the things I love about French are these
kinds of expressions. It always shocks me when people speak of French as soft and poetic,
because I imagine a French person swearing in my head and really it is anything but!

@Chris13 - I watch my subbed series online on a Swedish site that is probably a little
less than legal, so I'll say no more about that here. However, they do seem to have
Swedish subs for all seasons.
I did start watching Charmed with Swedish subs. The special effects turned me off quite a
bit, but I will probably push through. I can't imagine it got so popular without having
any redeeming features! Thank you for the tip about the other series, I'll definitely
have a look into them! I also use SVT Play and TV4 Play. I find that SVT in particular
can sometimes be a little creative with their subtitling.


1 person has voted this message useful



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