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Aineko’s TAC 2010 Log - RSMA | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Aineko Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 5452 days ago 238 posts - 442 votes  Speaks: Serbian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 1 of 9 29 December 2009 at 12:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Captain's Personal Log, Stardate 2389.8... (I just had to do this! :D )
This is probably a good opportunity to introduce myself. My name is Milena ('i' pronounced as in 'bin' and 'e' pronounced as in 'ten' :) ), I am originally from Serbia, but moved to New Zealand three years ago, to do a PhD (which I am still doing...). I was learning English in school, but real improvement came with the internet and moving to an English speaking country. Languages I am currently studying: I've learnt Russian for 4 years in high school (from the age of 15 to the age of 19), however 8 years of no use have made me forget just too much. I am still good in pronunciation and grammar - once I figure out which word to use (meaning - my vocabulary is horribly narrow, at least when it comes to speaking. I understand much more). I've started taking online classes about two weeks ago. I have never actually been learning Spanish, but through years I've been picking up a lot of words from songs and bilingual poetry books, so I got my self to the point where I could understand, for example, what the news or songs are about and pick up few details. Till two weeks ago (when I started online classes) I wasn't really able to speak, but now I can tell few things about myself, my day, my plans etc. At the beginning of Dec I started learning Arabic (MSA) and Mandarin (with online 1on1 classes). I've started them as a complete beginner and so far I am happy with the progress (although not too happy with the pronunciation...). My TAC goals for the 2010: Mandarin and Arabic - to get a basic grasp of the language (I won't say basic fluency as I am not sure what is meant by that, but lets say that I want to be able to hold simple conversations and read beginner's texts). Russian and Spanish: I want to be able to hold more complex conversations, to read some light novels and understand (most of) the movies without subs. Main obstacles: well, my PhD. I had a very lazy Dec but I have to see how am I going to organize my time when I get back to the lab, in mid Jan. Also, this is the year when I am going to finish (finish with lab work and write thesis), so this is the biggest threat to my RSMA plans. We'll see... :) My next 'official' log will be in Jan, when I come back from summer holiday and see how am I going to organize my time. (unofficially: I want to try to stick Esperanto somewhere in this busy schedule, because I just love how that language sounds, but will not state any goals about that :) ). And at the end, just want to say something about where my love for languages is coming from. I am a great poetry lover, I was 'writing' (and publishing in local kids magazines :) ) poems before I was actually able to write them as quickly as they were coming from my brain - dictated them to my mom when I was 4 or 5. I've picked up my first words in Russian and Spanish from some bilingual books of Yesenin's and Lorca's poetry. For me, poetry shows the most sophisticated beauty of the language and reading it in the original language is just...well I don't know the word to describe it (in any language:) ). I am now able to write in my second language (interestingly, I am not able to write in my first any more) and I am hoping one day to be able to write in my third (and so on :) ). However, even with the poetry aside, more I know about languages - more they fascinate me. Edited by Aineko on 30 December 2009 at 6:23am 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 2 of 9 29 December 2009 at 1:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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Kia ora aineko! :) Welcome to the site!
Yay for poetry! It's one thing I just adore in languages too :) Not that I've ever been able to write it, hehe, that's a talent I envy you for :) Good luck with your goals, I hope that pesky PhD won't get in the way! XD Seems like it will all keep you very busy. Hopefully you're enjoying NZ too :) 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 9 29 December 2009 at 9:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Aineko, is this a TAC log? What does RSMA mean?
Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 29 December 2009 at 9:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Aineko Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 5452 days ago 238 posts - 442 votes Speaks: Serbian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 4 of 9 29 December 2009 at 10:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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RSMA - Russian, Spanish, Mandarin and Arabic :).
am, no...I don't think this is a TAC log (honestly, I didn't really get what the TAC is exactly about:). Is it just me setting some goals for myself and trying hard to achieve them in 2010 - in which case this could be the TAC log :) - or something else? Thanks!) 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 5 of 9 30 December 2009 at 12:56am | IP Logged | ||
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TAC = Total Annihilation Challenge, this is an informal competition which starts in January 2010 and lasts for one year. TAC people should support each other to avoid that people give up studying or logging. This year for the first time there is the TAC team challenge. So you could join a team or do the TAC as an individual person (that's what I do), in such a case "TAC 2010" should appear in the name of your log.
PS: Now I know what "RSMA" means, so I have tagged your log with these languages. Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 30 December 2009 at 12:59am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Aineko Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 5452 days ago 238 posts - 442 votes Speaks: Serbian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 6 of 9 30 December 2009 at 1:53am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks a lot, Fasulye! Yes then this could definitely be my TAC 2010 Log. I'll change the topic title.
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 7 of 9 30 December 2009 at 1:58am | IP Logged | ||
Good idea! By editing your first post you can change the title. You should start the TAC by explaining seperately what your goals and resources for your 4 target languages are. And then good luck for your TAC 2010!!! Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 30 December 2009 at 2:02am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Aineko Triglot Senior Member New Zealand Joined 5452 days ago 238 posts - 442 votes Speaks: Serbian*, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin | Message 8 of 9 26 January 2010 at 1:07am | IP Logged | ||
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Update:
So far, I'm most satisfied with the progress in Spanish. The reason for this is that I have accidentally discovered Michel Thomas Spanish course and after doing a foundation and a bid part of the advanced course my ability to understand written Spanish is literally catapulted :). I feel like a mess in my head, made of all Spanish tenses and pronouns, have just suddenly cleared up...I can now understand what people in the Spanish lounge are talking about :). I can even easily express myself in few tenses (and need more practice or more thinking for other). I'm now using Spanish online classes with native teacher to further practice grammar and expand vocabulary (which is still on a very low level - I get depressed every time I try to read Spanish newspaper). There was a period a bout a week ago when I got very dissatisfied and very negative about Mandarin and Arabic, having a feeling that they are progressing to slow and that they are just to complicated to ever learn them to a high level (what a silly thought :) ) . However, I just decided to relay on my classes for now and to try to eagerly to unlock these two languages on y own (for now). In last couple of classes I have started to make (and understand the making of) a simple sentences (like "do you have apples", "yes we do " :)), so I feel a bit better about them now. Russian is the one that is causing me most of the pain. The thing is that at one point my brain just got 'unlocked' for understanding, I guess things that I have learnt long ago just kicked in and I can, for example, read Pride and Prejudice in Russian with checking maybe 15-20 words per page and understanding grammar structure without problem, but when I try to speak everything just falls apart...I become horribly insecure about the grammar ("did I use the right noun case!?","am I going to conjugate it correctly?!") and then vocabulary just get blocked and so on...I guess that the biggest problem is psychological - the gap between how long I've been studying Russian for and how bad I am at it now (I guess I expect of my self to be much better after four years of studies, no matter that I haven't use it for 8 years...). I am still pretty disorganized in terms that I am studying all over the show. I will try to implement a schedule where I will be doing two languages per day, one in the morning one in the evening. Will se how it's gonna go. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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