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TAC 2010: Russian, Esperanto, & Serbian! | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| gdoyle1990 Groupie United States Joined 5624 days ago 52 posts - 60 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Serbian, Estonian | Message 1 of 10 29 November 2009 at 6:36am | IP Logged |
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I've decided to finally start a log in the hopes of boosting my motivation. I've been in love with language learning for years now, but I have never been able to focus on studying.
I am going to dedicate this log to my attempts at Russian, Esperanto, Finnish, and Serbian. I have a deep appreciation for Eastern Europe, and if I don't die during the first 6 months to one year I will add Czech or Polish into the mix. =] I am hoping to do a semester abroad in Russia within the next two years, and hopefully that will boost my Russian to the levels it needs to be. Now, here is a brief overview of the languages I am learning and my experience with each one. Russian: My current love. I started studying this language because I loved the way the Cyrillic alphabet looks and because of the great literature by masters like Pushkin and Gogol. I didn't know what a case system was before I studied Russian and I *quite naively* assumed it would be just as easy as French or Spanish. My current level in Russian is very near intermediate and my only difficulty is with vocabulary. So for this aspect of my log I am going to focus mostly on reading novels, newspapers, and websites and listening to anything I can find. Esperanto: When I first heard of Esperanto I immediately felt a connection with the message it was trying to convey. I have been studying it on and off *almost exclusively off* for two years. I feel that I am advanced enough that reading novels will help me attain basic fluency. Finnish: I have known about Finnish for quite some time now but I never thought of it as beautiful until very recently. To help with my Russian I was watching a movie called "Кукушка" and Finnish played a very large part. The melody and the mysterious vocabulary captured me and hasn't let me go since. *Edit - I have decided that I will not start studying Finnish until June at the earliest. I just feel 4 languages at once is a little too much for me and Finnish has a reputation for being difficult, so I shall wait until I am a high beginner in Serbian before taking it on.* Serbian: Another language that I have known about for a long time and never payed attention to until now. I know very little about this language, except that it is enough like Russian that I can understand a few words here and there and that the rest of the words are very sexy. Edited by gdoyle1990 on 08 January 2010 at 7:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| gdoyle1990 Groupie United States Joined 5624 days ago 52 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Serbian, Estonian | Message 2 of 10 02 December 2009 at 1:21am | IP Logged |
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Ok, since this is going to be my TAC log, I should probably outline my current understanding of each language, my goals, and my materials.
Russian: As I said before high Beginner-lower Intermediate. My goal for Russian is to attain upper Intermediate or advanced level. I will be using my Russian course *currently in 204-Intermediate Russian*, Голоса text and workbooks, and the Princeton Russian program. Esperanto: I would say I'm intermediate in Esperanto, although I still have trouble producing. I will mainly focus on production and vocabulary. My goal is to achieve basic fluency or beyond, not too difficult for Esperanto I'm told. I will be using various forums and chat rooms, as well as several translated novels that I have acquired. Serbian: I am a complete beginner in Serbian. I have some passive knowledge of Serbian from the Russian that I know, but I hope to advance to at least a high beginner level. The only resource I have for Serbian at the moment is the "Teach Yourself Serbian" book, if anyone knows any other good sources, please don't hesitate to suggest them. I hope to begin officially December 11, as this will be the last day of classes for me until mid January. I hope I will be able to keep up with everyone else in the TAC. =/ Edited by gdoyle1990 on 21 December 2009 at 11:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| gdoyle1990 Groupie United States Joined 5624 days ago 52 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Serbian, Estonian | Message 3 of 10 21 December 2009 at 9:30pm | IP Logged |
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Final exams at university took a lot more energy than I expected, but this is the official start of my TAC log!
Russian: I've been listening to the radio, watching videos online, and reading like crazy. I understand about 30% of what I read, because of my dreadful vocabulary. I made flashcards of the words I read the most, and conjugated/declined them as needed. I'm hoping to keep this up and build up a respectable vocabulary. Esperanto: Started reading "La Aventuroj de Alico en Mirlando", and so far I understand what is going on quite well. It may be because I've read the book so many times in English, but I have started learning quite a bit of new vocabulary. If I keep this up, I will begin posting my Esperanto achievements solely in Esperanto! Serbian: I have done 5 lessons of "Teach Yourself Serbian" and a negligible amount of FSI Serbian. I have also read chapters 1 and 2 of "Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian: A Grammar" which would be interesting even if I weren't learning Serbian. It is very thorough, and I plan on buying the accompanying textbook after the holidays. I have found that Russian is interfering with learning Serbian, I keep backtracking and using words like Её and Его instead of the appropriate Serbian counterparts, but I hope that it is only because I am so new to Serbian. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| gdoyle1990 Groupie United States Joined 5624 days ago 52 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Serbian, Estonian | Message 4 of 10 02 January 2010 at 6:09am | IP Logged |
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Wow, I certainly intended to write an entry far before now, but I guess that is the pain of living with dial-up, all shall be better when I return to college and have access to high-speed internet again. Anyway, on to my accomplishments.
Russian: Over the past week or so I didn't really do as much as I had planned with Russian. I went over all of the case endings, even though most of them are already etched in my brain, and I read *Yes, read* А through Г of 501 Russian Verbs, and found I knew about half of the verbs I encountered. I've also listened to a lot of Russian pop, and had conversations with my Russian friend about our favorite Russian movies. Esperanto: I have read more of "La Aventuroj de Alico en Mirlando" and also began reading "Gerda Malaperis" in order to learn more vocabulary. The first chapters are quite easy, as I expected, but we shall see about later on. Serbian: I haven't anything new with Serbian, but I did review the lessons I have done in TY. Well, it seems I haven't been off to a good start, but I am really going to try to post here every day. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| gdoyle1990 Groupie United States Joined 5624 days ago 52 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Serbian, Estonian | Message 5 of 10 08 January 2010 at 1:38am | IP Logged |
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I really don't think I have the discipline to post here every day, so instead of a TAC log, I'm just going to make this a regular learning log. However, I still plan to work towards my goals, and learn as much as I can this year. Next year if all goes well and there is another TAC, I will join that one. So on to the log.
Russian: I like to think I have done quite a bit. I have read a few short stories from "Russian Stories: A Dual Language Book" and made flashcards of words I didn't understand, especially important ones. I've been browsing the internet in Russian as well, not really understanding much but browsing none-the-less. Next monday I go back to university, and I shall resume my Russian courses. They should definitely help to solidify some of what I learn on my own. Esperanto: I've been reading and re-reading chapters from both "Alico en Mirlando" and "Gerda Malaperis". I can now understand everything in the first 5 chapters of "Gerda" and much of chapters 1 and 2 in "Alico". Serbian: I've gone over the previous lessons of TY, as well as lessons 6 and 7. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6474 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 6 of 10 08 January 2010 at 11:07am | IP Logged |
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The TAC doesn't require you to post daily, just regularly. For example, I will update my progress weekly and otherwise just post if I have questions or noticed interesting things.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| gdoyle1990 Groupie United States Joined 5624 days ago 52 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Serbian, Estonian | Message 7 of 10 08 January 2010 at 7:05pm | IP Logged |
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Well then, that changes things significantly. Weekly postings seems much more realistic to me, and if I forget then it won't be truly terrible. Well then, I suppose it has been decided, I shall re-enter the TAC!
Thank you Sprachprofi! =] 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6474 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 8 of 10 14 February 2010 at 6:46pm | IP Logged |
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Well? How are things coming along?
1 person has voted this message useful |
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