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TAC 2010 Sirkka’s 5-Languages-Challenge | ||
Tags: Hebrew (biblical) | Sign Language | Thai | Dutch | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Sirkka Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 5650 days ago 35 posts - 39 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Sign Language, Russian, Dutch, Esperanto, Thai, Modern Hebrew | Message 1 of 16 12 December 2009 at 11:21pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I've thought long and hard about whether participating in the TAC will put too much pressure on me, but I think
I'll just go for it - it sounds like a lot of fun. My Goals: Three of these languages have been haunting me for years. I desperately need to see some progress in these: Thai: I have some basic knowledge, probably about A1, and I know how to read and write. My writing skills need some sharpening... I've purchased the Learn Thai Podcast Premium Course with about 130 conversation podcasts and about 300 vocabulary podcasts. My goal is to finish conversation podcast #60 and vocabulary podcast #50 by the end of 2010. Each vocabulary podcast teaches 10 new vocabulary words. This would be 10 new words per week in addition to the vocabulary taught in the conversation podcasts. Should be doable. I've used vokker.net as an online tool to study my vocab (Thai, German Sign Language, Hebrew) for quite some time now, and I really like it. Hebrew: Biblical Hebrew by Bonnie Pedrotti-Kittel was the first Hebrew language course I bought (that was many years ago). My goal for 2010 is to finish the book. It has 50 lessons, and I managed to get to lesson 20 in the past. I will start out with lesson 10 to reactivate some of the grammar I technically already know, and I think I need to do most of the vocabulary words again. Russian: I took a class in college and managed to get to A1 (no official certificate though, just a rough equivalent). I recently purchased Langenscheidt Praktischer Sprachlehrgang Russisch, which teaches Russian up to level B1 in 18 lessons. My goal for 2010 is to reach B1. Dutch: In de startblokken - Nederlands voor Duitstaligen is the name of the book I bought to teach myself Dutch. "Naar A2" is what it says on the cover, and this will be my goal for 2010 (18 lessons total). DGS (Deutsche Gebaerdensprache = German Sign Language): Sign Language is essential for my work. Having to rely on an interpreter is okay for now, but I've been doing the job for a couple of months now and although I'm on a steady learning curve I'm getting impatient. It will take me about another month to reach a comfortable A1 - my goal for 2010 is to finish level A2. Hopefully, I will be able to get started on the B levels, too, but it depends on the availability of B1 classes in my area. The Plan: Thai: I've already finished Conversation Podcasts 1-10. This leaves me with 50 conversation podcasts and 50 vocabulary podcasts -> about one podcast each per week. Hebrew: 40 chapters to cover. Roughly one chapter per week. Russian: 18 lessons to finish the course -> About one lesson in two weeks. Sounds okay. I have the title of a grammar book with loads of exercises somewhere in my email - maybe I will add some of those. But just maybe. Dutch: 18 lessons as well -> About one lesson in two weeks. My sister speaks fluent Dutch. I read my lesson texts to her over the phone and she corrects my pronunciation while trying not to laugh too hard ;o) But I laugh a lot, too. DGS: I have booked a class for the months of February and March (two weekends/intensive course). The class following this one will be the one I need to finish level A2. Depending on what is offered in the second half of 2010 I might even be able to finish B1, which would be desirable as well as really great, but A2 remains as my goal for 2010. It's always okay to do more, I guess. Beyond the classes I need to finish my workbook Grundkurs Deutsche Gebaerdensprache Teil 2 (Basic German Sign Language Part 2), lessons 4-6, and brush up on some vocabulary using vokker.net once or twice a week. I should also review some grammar every once in a while and practice with my sister, who knows German Sign Language as well. Weekly Plan Two Thai podcasts One chapter of Biblical Hebrew Half a lesson in both Russian and Dutch DGS vocab and practice with sis I will dedicate each weekday to a language and leave the weekends to catch up on whatever didn't get done during the week: Monday: Thai Tuesday: Hebrew Wednesday: Russian Thursday: Dutch Friday: DGS Well, I guess that's it for my first post. I'll just take it from here. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Sirkka Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 5650 days ago 35 posts - 39 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Sign Language, Russian, Dutch, Esperanto, Thai, Modern Hebrew | Message 2 of 16 13 December 2009 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Sunday, December 13, 2009
I managed to get some work done on my PhD thesis today (yay me!), so I treated myself to some DGS afterwards. I found a DGS grammar (Grammatik der Deutschen Gebaerdensprache) which I had bought a few months ago and apparently totally forgotten about. The first chapter talks about the phonology of DGS. In keeping with the linguistic tradition of spoken language, the phonology of Sign Language refers to a limited number of smallest units that, once combined, make up a sign. The basic components of a sign are handshape, palm orientation, location, movement, and nonmanual signals such as facial expressions. Each sign shows all five components, and some signs differ only in one component. To give an example, the signs for "responsible" and "mean" are the same except for the location. "Responsible" starts out at the chin, whereas "mean" begins at the nose. Otherwise the two signs look exactly the same. Interesting! And really hard to catch the differences as an inexperienced signer when taking part in a conversation. I entered the vocabulary given in the examples into vokker.net - identity, criticize, irony, interview, and a few more. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5851 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes  1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 16 13 December 2009 at 9:51pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Hi Sirkka,
That's a very interesting collection of languages, not those common ones, which the majority in this forum learns. I have never heard of or seen the Dutch textbook "In de startblokken", in my city the VHS now always uses "Taal vitaal" (also based on German). If you have a course DGS sign language offered where you live, then you are lucky. Our VHS only offers a LBG (= Lautsprachbegleitende Gebärden) course. Many years ago I tried this course, but I wasn't capable of memorizing the signs, so I had to break it off. I wish you good luck for your TAC 2010! Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 13 December 2009 at 9:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Sirkka Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 5650 days ago 35 posts - 39 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Sign Language, Russian, Dutch, Esperanto, Thai, Modern Hebrew | Message 4 of 16 15 December 2009 at 8:04pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Hi Fasulye,
Thanks! I just picked the languages I've been wanting to master the longest. I have Arabic, Hungarian, Swedish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Lao, and Mandarin language courses sitting on my shelf as well as school French and school Spanish to brush up on, but these are all just going to have to wait ;o) Hopefully there will be many TACs to come. And sometimes maybe just owning a language course is enough. Uh, not really ;o)
"In de startblokken" came out in February 2009. It was developed by the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen based on NT2 II prep courses for German students wanting to study in the Netherlands. I really enjoy using the book. The problem I've had with some of the other materials I looked at was that they start out too slow. "In de startblokken" makes great use of the advantages speakers of German have based on the many similarities between Dutch and German. There is a book for intermediate learners too, called "Naar de eindstreep" (A2 to B2).
I do consider myself lucky. Cologne is within comfortable travel distance. Going back and forth in one day is possible if need be, and the school offers a great variety of Sign Language classes.
Thanks! I will need it. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Sirkka Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 5650 days ago 35 posts - 39 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Sign Language, Russian, Dutch, Esperanto, Thai, Modern Hebrew | Message 5 of 16 15 December 2009 at 9:39pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Monday, December 14, 2009
Monday -> Thai I listened to conversation podcast #9 as a warm-up: the conversation is built around adjectives used to describe people (Is he the tall person? No, the short fat one.). I'm familiar with the grammar as well as the vocabulary, so I used the conversation to practice my writing skills. Tuesday, December 15, 2009 Tuesday -> Biblical Hebrew I did a thorough review of Lessons 1-5: Vav conversive, Pi'el and Affix as verb forms indicating past tense and how to identify them. Chapter 5 introduces construct chains (as in "the word of the Lord"), which I like because the concept is easy to transfer (the exercises makes me translate from English into Biblical Hebrew, too =) ). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Quabazaa Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5613 days ago 414 posts - 543 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Japanese, Korean, Maori, Scottish Gaelic, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written) | Message 6 of 16 16 December 2009 at 1:43am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Hello!! Looks like you are learning some great languages! :D
I did a course of NZ Sign Language and really loved it, when I get back to the country I plan on continuing... I was so curious before I started if I would find it any different from learning a written language! But it really didn't seem that different in terms of remembering vocab. Also I have to say, that's really cool your sister can help you with both Dutch and DGS! Also I have had a great experience with Langenscheidt Praktischer Sprachlehrgang for Arabic, though I'm jealous that Russian goes to B1! The Arabic only gets to A2. :) I'm curious about Biblical Hebrew as well, once you learn it, in what ways do you plan on using it? Are there many documents besides the Bible which are written in Biblical Hebrew? For example, you say you are doing exercises to translate into Biblical Hebrew, so I was just wondering if it's something you plan on writing in much? Sorry for the questions, I'm just interested in your thoughts on the language, which is one I know nothing about :) Viel Erfolg!! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Sirkka Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 5650 days ago 35 posts - 39 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Sign Language, Russian, Dutch, Esperanto, Thai, Modern Hebrew | Message 7 of 16 21 December 2009 at 11:16pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Hi! Thanks for your questions! I'm glad to see someone is interested in what I'm doing ;-) By the way, I'm really jealous you get to speak Spanish every day! I got to practice my Spanish a lot when I spent some time in the United States but haven't been able to use it much since. I'm thinking of picking it up again one day - maybe for the TAC 2011, who knows? I don't plan on actively using Biblical Hebrew. I translate into Hebrew because this way around it's easier for me to see what I know and, especially, what I don't know or don't understand about Hebrew grammar yet. I study it to build a strong foundation grammarwise. Coming from a Biblical Hebrew background makes studying Modern Hebrew easier, I think. Biblical Hebrew focuses very much on grammar. Modern Hebrew is written without vowels for the most part, which makes it hard to read for a beginner like me. If you know how the vowels change depending on how a particular verb is used, much like in Arabic, it's much easier to figure out how the word is pronounced even when it's written with just the root consonants and little else. Studying Biblical Hebrew will teach you exactly that. I'm seeing it as an investment in my Modern Hebrew future, so to speak.
That's good to know. I was thinking of picking up Arabic again one day. I will need a good MSA language course to get off the ground, and then I would like to focus on Levantine Arabic, which I really like. All the best, and I will follow your log - interesting languages in there, too! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Sirkka Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 5650 days ago 35 posts - 39 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Sign Language, Russian, Dutch, Esperanto, Thai, Modern Hebrew | Message 8 of 16 21 December 2009 at 11:24pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Monday, December 21, 2009
Oops, somehow I thought Monday was Hebrew day. Did some Hebrew vocab. Okay, so I guess tomorrow it'll be Thai. My daughter took part in the Christmas pageant at her day care - she was one of the sheep, and a cute one too! With all of this Christmas activity going on right now I didn't get to put too much time into language learning, but even ten minutes is better than doing nothing at all. Really trying to quiet the perfectionist in me, but that's one of the reasons why I participate in the TAC - trying to teach myself it's not about trying to be perfect in everything I do (whatever that may be) and never get anywhere in the end, but to actually do a little bit at a time and actually get somewhere. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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