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Sunja’s Newspaper/TV Challenge --TAC 09 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6089 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 97 of 232 09 March 2009 at 9:14pm | IP Logged |
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Lessons 10 and 11 are slowly getting easier. The shadowing is helping. I haven't done the scriptorium technique today...maybe in a few minutes. I didn't get much sleep last night so I'm not sure how well I can concentrate. Sometimes it's best not to push it.
IKnow! alias Smart.fm is down for maintenance and may have to start playing a smaller role in my studies -- at least until they get all the bugs out. It takes sooooo long for each page to download (when viewing sentences or items) that I have to be doing something else simutaneously so I can take up some of that "dead time". It reminds me of the radio station broadcast by the US military in Reinland-Pfalz and they often have a lot of "dead air", where you hear nothing between songs for about 60 seconds. IKnow! is getting to be like that. My time is like gold, so I'll have to take a break from IKnow!. I managed just fine without them today. I reviewed almost 300 words. Flashcards are making a comeback with me. Edited by Sunja on 09 March 2009 at 9:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6089 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 98 of 232 13 March 2009 at 10:31pm | IP Logged |
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I've started using the scriptorium technique on Lessons 13 and 14 of my French Assimil. I'm liking Assimil, but what I really like is this dictation that I've started doing (Training Französisch, Stark Verlag.) I'm still on the first chapter with the nasal vocals but I'm hoping to graduate to "nouns" soon :) I don't know why dication isn't more wide-spread. I think it works great. It takes quite a bit of concentration, though, and it's hard to get any uninterrupted time. Last night was good. I did Text 1-4... but after working on it for an hour I started to get too tired. I have to hear the same passage over and over in order to reproduce the word correctly -- which is the reason why I think it works so well. The vocab is simple and I keep doing repetions until I get it. It's great what I can discover through a carefully constructed beginner context. My French experience is limited to Assimil, Lesson 13, so I'm pretty happy when I can aquire a few words just from listening.
I've been making Japanese flashcards. I have a lot of catching up to do since I've decided to go over old index flashcards (paper) that I'd made when I'd just started smart.fm. Basically I'm going to be reviewing like crazy. I'm only doing 100 words per day, but maybe I can increase that as I run out of new words to add. I'm inputing 120 new words per day (Anki). I'm the first to admit that I don't like Anki and Co. But for languages like Japanese -- I'll admit it's faster than drawing the kanji. I'm going to let go of my prejudice. The goal is words so I'm using both methods. Time will tell.... Edited by Sunja on 13 March 2009 at 10:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6089 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 99 of 232 15 March 2009 at 8:12pm | IP Logged |
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I haven't done very much over the past two days. I've added 100 new Japanese flaschcards and reviewed 100 (Sat.) while listening to a Japanese film, but other than that I haven't done much language study.
As it turns out, we think we may have found a house for rent. Since the summer our landlord has been trying desperately to sell our current Wohnung/condo -- despite our being here. At the time he announced it I remember totally freaking out and completely abandoned my Spanish studies (summer). He desperately wants to sell. He's been badgering us for 6 months to find a new place. So we've been well, not "desperately" nor even "feverishly", but definitely "intentionally" looking for a new place to live. We may have finally found it. That's why my log has been so quiet this weekend. We'd like to move May 1. I'm almost sure our landlord will agree to waive the "three-month's notice rule" and let us move on that date. Nothing is fixed or signed, but it looks positive that it will work out for us. If not then we'll have to keep looking. We've been out, but I've also been browsing through kitchen catalogs all day. Our current arrangement won't fit the new, smaller spaced kitchen. Gotta have a kitchen when we move in.... I may try to at least listen to Assimil before bed. It's already 8:00.... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6089 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 100 of 232 24 March 2009 at 8:59pm | IP Logged |
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well. We cancelled our contract as of last night and thanks to a worthwhile connection we're getting out without having to do those costly Schönheitsreparaturen. We're moving June 1st. I've started to get organized. I've been so unorganized this past year. I've really let the place go since I found the forum :-) Now I've had to pull everything out and reorganize it so we can move. I'm not sure about the actual move yet. Gotta call the Spermüll people tomorrow and arrange for them to pick up old furniture that won't fit; including these horrible IKEA chairs that give us back trouble... Man. There's a million things to do.
Despite there being a million things to do I've made it up to Lesson 19 with the scriptorium technique and I've listened up to Lesson 20. I'm not sure...either I'm talented or Assimil is a good buy, because I can listen and understand what I haven't read yet. I'm sure it's the later and that Assimil's lessons are structured so, that they repeat learned material while introducing a few new concepts. I'm really liking it. It really is "without effort". Well. Time will tell whether I'll truly profit from it. Japanese is sort of a jumble. My time has become more scarce and my computer slower. It's funny,... The computer is even slower now that my husband says we're getting a new one. 80 GB once seemed like a lot. Our new computer will have 20 or so. Anyway. I'm trying to get back into the groove with Japanese. I have my book that I'm working with but I never get as far as I want. Assimil is soooo much easier that I end up doing French and then I wonder where I am with Japanese. no matter. It will all work out. I'll try to immerse myself. That's easy enough. If I just put the earplugs in -- at least my ear will pick up the sounds. Edited by Sunja on 24 March 2009 at 9:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6089 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 101 of 232 31 March 2009 at 9:50pm | IP Logged |
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My husband has been working on our new computer and the only reason why it isn't up is because I haven't saved all my vocabulary yet. I've been so preoccupied lately....
Tonight I made a conscious effort to "unblock" myself with Japanese. I know, I know....it's only been three days (or so) but I seem to be having a bit of a block. French is actually going well. I haven't been doing much grammar work, but the phonetics and the scriptorium technique have been very successful. I'm up to lesson 26 (listening comprehension). I'm still at lesson 23 (or so) in terms of being able to spit it back out; i.e., to activate it. My French is punchy and hardly accurate. I'm not one of these people who are satisfied with a poor accent. I'm still working at it. And Japanese. Why this block? (he-he, I just miss-typed "bock" --- also appropriate.) I picked a lesson at random and listened with the text -- although, I'm aware, some of the kanji are missing, but I think I can start up again with this. I'll try to approach the dialogues in the same way my more successful Assimil French dialogues are going. It's hard to get into Japanese when I have this feeling of dread, this feeling of "I'm so behind" and "how do I keep up". What I have to realize is this: it's the same as it was back in art school when I learned that not every day can be inspired, but consistency --- as long as I can do something every day -- is key. The only thing is, it has to be something more than just passive listening... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6089 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 102 of 232 07 April 2009 at 12:05pm | IP Logged |
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I haven't done much since my last log entry. I've been very preoccupied with the pending move. My kids are keeping me busy. In terms of my part-time job, I now have 5 students that I'm tutoring on Thursdays and Fridays. It's all making language learning very sporadic and I'm barely progressing at all. I just have to keep trying.
I'm really happy with my Assimil purchase. I listen to the French dialogues during the day while I'm running around. I'm going to have to make a smaller recording. I'm getting sick of hearing the first 10 lessons. I need to focus on lessons 15 to 25. I still have yet to do the scriptorium technique for lessons 25, 26. I finally have a plan to help my Japanese. I wasn't smart enough to use Assimil with Japanese. The books I have are from the Japanese For Busy People series. I've gone back to the 2nd book and some of the dialogues from the first. I've made a recording of just the dialogues -- not the exercises. I've typed all of the dialogues on the computer and printed them out. The dialogues are in kana only from the book so my computer Japanese language option has provided me with the missing kanji. I have now "simulated" my Assimil program for Japanese. I'm going back to my first lessons to try and activate my Japanese. Going over them again will be a review. The dialogues from JFBP2 are super native speed, faster than Assimil. I'll have to read and shadow from the pages that I've printed. I hope I can activate my Japanese. I plan to be working on some really basic stuff: coming up with my own dialogues for "ほうが、より"、"ことができます" (Verb + にいきます). I tried already with the comparisons but my vocabulary is a bit lacking. I was thinking how to compare playgrounds "Spielplätze", but I only know "公園" I guess that will have to do. I suppose I could add a possessive...Anyway. I'd better get to it. I also wanted to shadow and do the scriptorium technique with Soseki's the Third Night. I have to juggle a naptime for one of my kids, a birthday party with another, and I still have to run an important errand this afternoon. Hopefully I can get what I want done. It has to happen before 9:00 tonight. I spent the entire day with the kids yesterday, and when I finally had some time to myself it was 9:00. I read one paragraph of French and fell straight to sleep. So I really have to study during the day, and not when I'm most likely to crash.... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6089 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 103 of 232 11 April 2009 at 10:17am | IP Logged |
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Well it's Easter weekend.
My hay fever woke me up at 4:00am and since I didn't get much done yesterday (despite it being a holiday) I promptly started studying. How's that for devotion. Swallowed a couple of allergy tablets and made a pot of coffee... I've managed to get through typing half of the dialogues in my JFBP book 2. I've decided to go back and make flashcards for some words that need some extra attention. Words like 農薬、貿易港、商社、研修する、授業料、入 学金、現金書留 Now I should be able to go back and shadow the dialogues with a little bit more comprehension. I've heard them a dozen times already, but I never really did more than just read and breeze over the vocab. I'm hoping to delve a little deeper this time. I'm up to lesson 30 with French Assimil and I need to go slower with these dialogues. They're getting faster and I'm still not confident just rolling through those masculine and feminine definite and indef articles. I have to make sure I pick them up. I'm not too worried about the grammar. I just make a note of it and move on. I try to recognize what's being used and for that I have to pay extra close attention. I've already started taking down the wallpaper in the kids' rooms. It's horrible work, which is why I'm starting early. I have no idea what next month will look like. I have to get in there with this Tapete-Ablöser and really scrub to get the leftover bits of paper off the walls. Why the landlord chose to put in wallpaper is beyond me. It's totally impractical to my way of thinking. It's the "only" thing I have to have done before we leave. If I get the kids to help me it should go quicker. I won't do any more packing until next month. Most of the stuff is already out of the attic. Right now they're off at an Oster-Aktion, where they get to count eggs and receive some sort of prize in the end. When they get back they're going to want to do something "fun". It's Ferien. So I have to take advantage of this precious time to myself. Gotta get back to studying... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6089 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 104 of 232 16 April 2009 at 10:46am | IP Logged |
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I've stopped going over my beginner books JFBP2. I suppose it could be useful, and it was, but I'm getting rather bored with it. I've been using my costly printer ink for yet another purpose: I'm printing out lists of vocabulary. There's quite a few words, and I can't find a list for JLPT level 2 that excludes all the words from JLPT 3 -- oh, that expensive printer ink...there goes another 20 cents..
I can't rely on Anki. We're moving. I don't want to add any more words until the upgrade is finished. We're probably going to wait until we're settled in the new place. Our modem is "veralted" -- five years old -- how ancient! So, I'm making flashcards and every once and a while a google for a sentence or two, when it's a word I really can't memorize. It's fun to see what pops up. I read a japanese magazine article over the holiday and copied it onto a separate piece of paper using the scriptorium technique. It was full of unknown vocab so I took a drafter's tool and carefully removed all of the words I don't know. My paper was so full of holes I had to use tape to hold it together. I then read the story and tried to put the words back in. Very good exercise for reading comprehension. Unfortunately very labor intensive. I've got another book that I've forgotten, a workbook from JFBP3 and it's got some good grammar stuff in it. I think it's worth going over those excercises today, it would help me to read more magazine articles. Those magazine articles are the best for vocabulary. Now my French is behind. There's a represetative for a moving company coming over at noon. I want to see if I have time to do my grammar before then. Then I'll move on to French after 1:00. Hopefully I can get a lot done before I have to go to work.... Edited by Sunja on 16 April 2009 at 10:55am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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