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TAC 2010: Sharp Knives | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Sprachjunge Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 7168 days ago 368 posts - 548 votes  Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 17 of 146 29 December 2009 at 12:51pm | IP Logged |
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Yesterday, 28.12.09, was a German day.
German: -Section D in chapter 2 of the Oberstufenbuch (8 chapters total, 4 sections, A-D, per chapter), consisting of various writing prompts. I chose one and posted it as my writing sample on Lang-8 -section 3A of the Oberstufenbuch -read another children's story that was surprisingly not messed up, ,,Ein Flug über den Wolken''. A little (A LOT) below your level, but you're counting it :) Spanish: -read Ana María Matute's "El arrepentido" -one writing sample on Lang-8 -one audio clip on LingQ: "Comprender un poco mejor el castellano" Edited by Sprachjunge on 29 December 2009 at 12:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachjunge Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 7168 days ago 368 posts - 548 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 18 of 146 30 December 2009 at 12:54pm | IP Logged |
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Yesterday, 29.12.09, was a Spanish day.
Spanish: -chapter 4 in "Advanced Spanish Grammar" with exercises -writing sample on Lang-8 about excerpts from "Platero y yo" by Juan Ramón Jiménez -one audio clip on LingQ: "Generalidades sobre el estado español" -since my computer is down, I had to actually make flash cards by hand! I know, I was just as shocked as you are. I also remembered that I like making them by hand, because it is easier for me to learn the words as I go, but I was forced to switch over to an SRS because it became impractical to lug around all of those cards. 3/5 sections of chapter 2 in "Must-Know Spanish" (12 chapters total) German: -one writing sample on Lang-8 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| joanthemaid Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5473 days ago 483 posts - 559 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, German | Message 19 of 146 30 December 2009 at 11:31pm | IP Logged |
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So how many words can you learn per day, in each language? I can do 10-20 new ones plus reviewing others, but I think I'm going to have to slow down because with the reviews my Anki time is starting to take up an hour per day! And a lot of it doesn't stick. I think I'm too impatient and don't learn the words well enough before putting them on the cards. Having lists actually helps me at first, to learn, but Anki is great to review. Doing both seems like an awful waste of time though.
Anyway, keep up the good work, team mate! Edited by joanthemaid on 31 December 2009 at 5:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachjunge Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 7168 days ago 368 posts - 548 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 20 of 146 31 December 2009 at 4:08pm | IP Logged |
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30.12.09 was a Russian day.
Russian: -listened to "Russian audio" clips for 3-4 hours while reading, doing other stuff -not a lot, eh? I agree. My computer was down, so the Princeton course and Russian course in Spanish were both gone. But...guess what came in today! The charger cord! Just in time for the official start of the TAC. I'll still keep the 31.12 as a German day though. German: -one writing sample on Lang-8 Spanish: -one audio clip: Entrevistas cubanas #10 -I'll have to double up on a writing sample tomorrow 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachjunge Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 7168 days ago 368 posts - 548 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 21 of 146 03 January 2010 at 8:22am | IP Logged |
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02.01.10 was a catch-up day.
Somehow I knew that starting my log right around the New Year would be a tricky move, since there are invariably a bunch of festivities. But I spent today making up for lost time. German: -two writing samples on Lang-8 -sections 3B and 3C from Oberstufenbuch (yeah!) -around 50 words on Personality in my SRS Spanish: -two writing samples on Lang-8 -Miguel de Unamuno's "La Venda" -finished chapter 2 of "Must-Know" Spanish, input and reviewed four sections -instead of an audio clip, I watched two episodes of "Pit y Kantrop," a children's program on RTVE.ES (thanks Joanthemaid!). Russian: -finally got my computer cable, so I was able to access the Princeton course. Reviewed lesson 1, went through lesson 2. I am debating whether I should start using Anki in order to incorporate audio clips, which is not possible with Mnemosyne. -did a section of "Pronouncing Russian Correctly." That is, I listened attentively. I'm still not talking. :) -Pimsleur, lesson 3 It was a little weird doing all three in one day. It's interesting how people are different, I guess, because I like "being" in one language all day. (Actually, I like "being" in one foreign language all the time, a la AJATT--when I make inertia work for me, I can be pleasingly consistent--but obviously I can't do this if I want to learn more than one language! :) Plus, I love having my German friend here because he is NOT EVEN trying to speak English! It's so funny: He speaks the minimum necessary to communicate with my mom and sister, but it's almost always German between us. I told him that I would fully respect if he wanted to speak in English, but he doesn't. Which is fine with me, although it throws my accent off, because I am not the best at switching languages mid-conversation. So every day is kind of a German day. Also, some commentary on the "--insert language--, all the time" method: I have been doing it. For German, I have a lot of podcasts and audio books. And on my laptop, I just listen to episodes of "Stromberg" in the background (I'm doing it right now, actually. :) For Spanish, I listen to Atlas Shrugged. And for Russian, there are the conversations from Russian audio, Pimsleur, and the Princeton course. Obviously, for Spanish it's too soon to tell, but I am optimistic that I should be able to significantly improve my listening comprehension this year! (Because right now, it sucks. :) Edit: "pleasingly consistent" = I am so freaking lazy that if I just set the iPod playlist to all German stuff, I will listen to it all the way through. If I keep a German DVD in my laptop, I will watch it over and over again instead of going to the TV because I'm a lazy sod. :) Edited by Sprachjunge on 03 January 2010 at 9:28am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachjunge Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 7168 days ago 368 posts - 548 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 22 of 146 04 January 2010 at 3:10pm | IP Logged |
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03.01.10 was a Russian day.
Russian: -one section of "Pronouncing Russian Correctly" -listened to Russian Audio clips -reviewed the second dialogue from the Princeton Course Spanish: -read "El árbol de oro" by Ana María Matute (good story! Probably your favorite so far) -watched an episode of Pit y Kantrop: "Las Perlas de Sabiduría" End of the week reflections (who knows if this will become a recurring structure): German: Cordelia posted a thread titled "What's the point of being intermediate?" a while ago, and I can only agree. Again, in all honesty, the more I learn, the more I hesitate to say that my German is anything BUT intermediate (in the real scheme of language usage, my written production is probably on par with a precocious 7th or 8th grader). However, I can do a lot of things with the language that I can't, not really, with Spanish, such as: pick up a book and infer the meaning of unknown words from context, watch a show like "Stromberg" (the German version of "The Office") and get 90% of his jokes, talk to my German friend about anything, etc. And it makes German fun! If I didn't have this one that I could fall back on, I think I would get very discouraged studying say 4 languages at once, but not really being able to use any of them. In that sense, the people who counsel you to concentrate on one language until it is at a very good level instead of starting with 4 at a beginner level make a lot sense to me. Spanish: Ah, I love you, but you are a little frustrating. First, I am in the morass of the intermediate, meaning that I can get the gist of things, but the details are still being lost unless I look them up (only possible with written things). And boo, getting the gist of things is not half as fun as understanding things 95%. Plus, Spanish (at this point) is easy-hard. There are still a ton of verbs that I need to learn, and they are interesting (desasosegar--to disturb, torment). However, since Spanish is a Romance language, a lot of the "upper-level" nouns can be fairly easily mapped from their English counterparts (proletarian--proletario). Nonetheless, they still have to be learned. So, it's not that challenging intellectually, but you still have to put in the same amount of time. To any native Spanish speakers out there, take heart the next time anyone says "Oh, Spanish, it's so easy!": It may be easy to get to an intermediate level coming from another Romance language, but speaking the language really well takes just as much effort as any other language, with the added pinprick that you don't get any credit (at least in the U.S.) because it is not exotic. Nonetheless, unless they are heritage speakers, in the U.S. I've met many people who speak passable Spanish, but very few who speak it well. Well, if it's so easy, why don't more people speak it well? Russian: It's very liberating that it's not this language that has to be annihilated, per se, this year. Like, for German, the pressure is on because I so often think: "Sure, you understand the verb in this context, but can you use it yourself? Do you own it actively?" (Ahem, especially the versatile separable verbs, where I finally need to sit down and learn all of the different meanings.) So, I want to take things slowly--really internalize each Princeton dialogue, just listen to hours of dialogue without understanding more than a word. Haha, ask me again in 6 months and we'll see if I'm still so patient. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| joanthemaid Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5473 days ago 483 posts - 559 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, German | Message 23 of 146 04 January 2010 at 9:04pm | IP Logged |
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Sprachjunge, you're a perfectionist, and that's great, but you're way too hard on yourself! From what I understand (and your official C2 level), you're not intermediate at German, or even Basic Fluency, you've AT LEAST got advanced fluency (if you're a low C2) and from what I gather, near-native fluency. Keep in mind that a precocious 8th or 9th grader probably writes as well as the average adult. I admire you for wanting to speak German better than Germans and you should aim for it but please don't say you're intermediate! What does that make my intermediate Spanish look like? Low beginner?
Personally, I've only really got native fluency after being in an English-speaking country for a week or so, but I'm not going to switch back and forth between Native and Advanced just because I haven't been abroad lately. Just like I'm not going to change my level of French when I'm just back from another country and keep mangling every other sentence, putting English link-words in the middle of French nouns and such. If you can fool a native, even for a few minutes (more than ten), you've got Native fluency. If German people enjoy speaking to you as much as they would to a native speaker, you're Advanced. Period. Give yourself some credit, really. Edited by joanthemaid on 04 January 2010 at 10:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachjunge Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 7168 days ago 368 posts - 548 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 24 of 146 05 January 2010 at 4:00pm | IP Logged |
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04.01.10 was a German day.
German: -one audio clip: ,,Ein zweifelhafter Freispruch" -30 minutes of accent work with my German friend Spanish: -one writing sample on Lang-8 -one audio clip/article: "Los vejigantes" 1 person has voted this message useful |
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