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What to do when you can’t choose? | ||
Tags: Wanderlust | Choosing a Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| Slayertplsko Heptaglot Newbie Slovakia Joined 4832 days ago 24 posts - 29 votes Speaks: Slovak*, Czech, FrenchB2, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish | Message 9 of 23 28 November 2014 at 7:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I believe our forum member Cavesa is Czech, so he can maybe help you out with that. I
could too, but my knowledge of orthography and grammar is not excellent even though I understand everything I read or hear. Have you heard of the listening-reading method? Maybe you could get some audiobooks and some novels to read? Here are some audiobooks for free: http://www.rozhlas.cz/ctenarskydenik/portal/ It's the official website of the Czech Radio (Český rozhlas), so the reading is of very high quality. There are mostly Czech literary classics, beautifully read, so if you're into these things, you'll love it. You could perhaps try this collection of short stories, I remember reading them at school and liking them: http://www.rozhlas.cz/ctenarskydenik/dila/_zprava/povidky-ma lostranske-jan-neruda- -485979 Here is the English translation (I think that's it as Malá Strana is a city quarter in Prague): http://www.abebooks.fr/servlet/BookDetailsPL? bi=13509231238&searchurl=an%3Djan+neruda%26amp%3Bsts%3Dt Here's the original version: http://www.abebooks.fr/servlet/BookDetailsPL? bi=10162806581&searchurl=an%3Djan+neruda%26amp%3Bsts%3Dt Listening-reading makes it much much easier to read even quite difficult texts and I really like this way of learning. It allows me tackle classics right from the beginning. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 10 of 23 28 November 2014 at 9:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Cavesa is a she ;)
As for the conflicting forces, I'm more inclined to see them as "learn a lot of languages" vs "devote enough time to each language". You feel bad about your prioritizing, but you also know it's inevitable. So the easiest thing to change here is your definitions. Keep yourself happy but remember that even bigger happiness awaits when you reach fluency. Do the 3-4 hours you mentioned include German and Mandarin? Be realistic about gaming. It's addictive; try Criminal Case or something else in L2 instead of trying to quit games completely ;) Use resources like lyricstraining, memrise and duolingo. Edited by Serpent on 28 November 2014 at 9:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Slayertplsko Heptaglot Newbie Slovakia Joined 4832 days ago 24 posts - 29 votes Speaks: Slovak*, Czech, FrenchB2, EnglishC2, German, Italian, Spanish | Message 11 of 23 28 November 2014 at 9:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
Oops, sorry, I didn't know. Since you've mentioned video games, perhaps he could get the German or Mandarin versions of them? For instance, when I was younger I used to love the German RPG series Gothic. Lots of language in those games and you can work on it while playing. And there is a fully German version out there. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 12 of 23 29 November 2014 at 12:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm afraid for now most games can be more of a goal than a learning tool, especially in Mandarin. Criminal Case is worth a try though.
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| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4908 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 13 of 23 29 November 2014 at 5:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'm not sure what you mean, but if you are going to play games anyway, play them in a target language. Games with a lot of speaking, cut scenes, etc, are actually just as good as watching films. Even better since you have to concentrate on the language in order to solve specific puzzles and such. Another option while doing games and other things online is to listen to target language music. Since German is one of your main languages, you should look for resources for your other languages written in German. I haven't specifically looked for them, but I keep noticing Langenscheidt resources for language learning. Edited by Jeffers on 29 November 2014 at 5:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6596 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 14 of 23 29 November 2014 at 9:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, the OP was going to cut down on gaming. While eventually the OP can play in German too, for now gamified language learning sites are the best bet.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Rem Groupie United Kingdom Joined 3756 days ago 66 posts - 96 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Mandarin, Czech, French | Message 15 of 23 30 November 2014 at 3:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
The 3-4 hours don’t include my main German/Mandarin time (class hours). I tend to consider them separately, as they are part of my studies. However, I am obviously expected to put in time outside of classes as well. Yes, gaming is certainly addictive. ;) I don’t think I could ever cut it out completely, but I definitely intend to cut back. I think I joined memrise at one point, but never really used it. Perhaps I should give it another try.
Unfortunately I’m not at the point where I can realistically play any of the games that I like in any language other than English. :( Maybe one day. :) PS: I’m also a she ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5008 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 16 of 23 30 November 2014 at 6:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Games are awesome. I learnt 95% of my English in a text based multiplayer online rpg
;-) But even "normal" games can be very helpful and more "active" practice than just movies or books. I recommend rpgs, adventures and other story and speech heavy genres. Recently, I played the Broken Sword in Spanish and it was great and helpful. Well, Lady Cavesa comes and saves the day (just one sight of this goddess ends all those "HE" faux pas forever... ok, just kidding, no goddess but still not that ugly to be mistaken for not a woman). :-D I think most newbies on htlal suffer from wanderlust. It is just awesome to see this world of possibilities open up before you. What saved me from this infection was surrendering for two months. I googled a lot about all the languages tempting me, I listened to exemples, read about common difficulties, found out some resources and so on. And after those two months, my priorities were set quite firmly and without any struggle. Perhaps you could do with a few wanderlust weeks as well. Your priority languages are set, German and Mandarin. And they are already tough ones to get to high level. Sure you can add to them but with your time options, I wouldn't study more than three languages intensively. Perhaps you could try Ge+Ma+one more for a few months and than switch the third one for another and maintain it until you feel it's time to switch back. I'd recommend starting with only one romance language. If you get it to at least intermediate level before tackling another, it will be more of a help than hinderance. I started Spanish with already good level of French (and some half forgotten basics of Latin) and it was a good decision. I am now waiting for time to get my Spanish to a decent level before adding Italian to the mix. I wouldn't recommend to start them all at once from zero. But you don't need to wait for absolute fluency in one before starting another. And as you have already begun with French, it might be good to stick with it for now. Czech is a curious choice ;-) I am always surprised (or even shocked...and pleased) to see someone interested in this small language that happens to be my native one. There is actually a lot to choose from for your studies. I recommend getting a nice torrent with most resources availble and choose based on what you like ;-). You can surely buy most things in paper and cd on amazon or other eshops. Or choose based on reviews and logs. There is Assimil (but probably only French based), there is Teach Yourself, Colloquial, Pimsleur and other big brands that do everything but Klingon (or is there TY Klingon? :-D ). But there are as well good looking resources by Czech publishers (a little peak on the internet shows "Chcete mluvit česky", "Czech step by step" and others). Czech language learning publishers are actually not bad at all so I'd trust their Czech courses. We've got, in general, lots of rubbish just like anyone else these days, but the authors here often create real jewels combining the easy to use systematic approach of the traditional courses with communicative and interactive shines of the modern ones. I recommend checking logs of the few Czech learners on this forum with help of the g- search function. As I've seen in a bookshop, you can surely find structured resources to help you from zero to B2 and there is a lot of input for natives you can get to during your studies. Slayertplsko shows great exemples but there is more. Among other things, there are bilingual readers for czechs learning English, there is an awesome translation exercise based grammar exercise book meant for czechs learning English as well, so your maneuvering space widens. Truth be told, if I were you, I'd choose this combination: Main ones from now till great levels: German and Mandarin. As you said, easy choice. Third one from now for a few months: French, and try to get out of the beginner zone before the first switch. After the first switch (in half a year, or later or sooner, as you wish): Still the main ones Ge+Ma but Czech as number three, while maintaining French with BDs, podcasts and so on. Than Switch Fr/Cz (always study one and maintain the other) until you are satisfied with your results and ready to start Spanish or Italian. P.S. Why on earth do we always automatically assume the other person behind a computer is a man? It is statistically improbable everyone is a man. And it reminds me of a joke: Men online are men irl. Women online are men irl. Ten year old girls online are irl FBI agents." P.S.2: How on earth does someone just fall in love with Czech? :-) 6 persons have voted this message useful |
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