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Shadow The Polyglot Wannabe 2010 TAC Log! | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Shadow1984 Groupie United States Joined 5493 days ago 53 posts - 57 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 1 of 36 03 December 2009 at 11:20am | IP Logged |
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For as long as I can remember I have always been fascinated by languages. At one point in my life I had even wanted a career in linguistics, but that was a long time ago! Now I am 25 and still monolingual, but I still have this desire to learn languages. I hope to one day be a polyglot but I know that takes a lot of hard work but at least I can try! In the mean time I am just a polyglot wannabe!
I have finally started the language books that have been collecting dust for about 3 years on my bookshelf about three weeks ago, November 11th to be exact. For the past 22 days I have been hitting the books for an average of almost 6 hrs a day. 2 hrs for each of the target languages that I have been working on which are Spanish, German, and Italian. I also do plan on picking up a fourth language (Japanese) on January 1st. The reason why I don't stick to just one language is because I know that I will get bored studying 1 subject for long periods of time. As for my experience with these languages I have only studied Spanish and German in my late teens for one college semester a piece. When I began my studies 3 weeks ago I could only formulate basic sentences in Spanish and how to say my name in German. My goals for the for the 2010 TAC Challenge would be to get to an intermediate level with each of these languages. I know it will take some serious motivation, time,dedication, and hard work and I am willing to do just that to reach my goals. Also, I just want to say thank you for reading my blog journal if you have! Your friend, Shadow the polyglot wannabe! Edited by Shadow1984 on 03 December 2009 at 11:25am 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 2 of 36 03 December 2009 at 12:14pm | IP Logged |
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Way to go! Going from no study to an average of 6 hours a day is very impressive! I'll be watching your progress.
I would have recommended starting your polyglot journey with Esperanto, or at least not two languages that are as similar as Italian and Spanish, but that's a matter of opinion. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Shadow1984 Groupie United States Joined 5493 days ago 53 posts - 57 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 3 of 36 05 December 2009 at 11:45am | IP Logged |
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Today is the day to get the party started officially!
DAY 1 DECEMBER 4TH Today was my Nephew's Birthday and I had to prepare food and get ready for the party. I was unable to reach my target of 6 hrs for today because of all the things I needed to take care of today. I was pretty close to my goal though. I read a post by Doviende today on how he tracks his language learning that I have found very interesting. I will set up a spreadsheet to help track my language learning as well to be able to better break down the time I spend on different type of activities that I spend for language learning. By reviewing his log I realized that I am only really just studying straight from textbooks. I should probably incorporate some time with different activities as well like flashcards, reading, watching tv programs, and listening. I will also set up an Anki account for my flashcards because it seems like everyone likes that program. I am also excited because I just ordered Assimil for German from Abe Books a 1967 edition. It will be my first Assimil book that I will have. If I like it I will make sure I purchase more from the Assimil series. I also asked my sister to order me James Heisig's Book on Kanji for Christmas and she did. I can't wait to get it but I have decided that I will still start Japenese on January 1st. I will try to build my stamina from 6 hrs of study a day to 8 hours because I want to make sure that I spend at least 8 hrs a day on studying languages, two hours for each language that I am studying. Here is my progress for the 1st day of my log! GERMAN - 2 HRS 1 MIN = 121 MINS = German TEXTBOOK NEUE HORIZONTE. I Reviewed previous chapters that I have read. ITALIAN - 3 HRS 4 MINS = 184 MINS = Italian TEXTBOOK PREGO. I Just started to learn how to do the past tense. SPANISH - 0 HRS TOTAL TIME FOR 2010 TOTAL LEARNING TIME FOR TAC AS OF DAY 1 5 HRS 5 MINS = 305 MINS Edited by Shadow1984 on 05 December 2009 at 11:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| NichtGut Groupie United States the-daily-treasure.bRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6336 days ago 65 posts - 74 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 4 of 36 06 December 2009 at 7:55am | IP Logged |
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Good luck!
Since you're looking at using different materials check out lingq.com it is a great language learning tool. It received a lot of attention a few years back on the boards because the guy who started it Steve Kaufmann used to post here regularly. If you are not familiar with it already, they site gives you audio and text that you can download in your target language and provides definition to the words. Its one of my personal favorites, anyways good luck with the TAC and ill catch you later on in the Team challenge :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Shadow1984 Groupie United States Joined 5493 days ago 53 posts - 57 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 5 of 36 06 December 2009 at 1:04pm | IP Logged |
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Sprachprofi,
Thanks for the encouragement. I will have definitely look into what esperanto is all about. Nichtgut, I have heard about LingQ. I have created an account but I have not used it though. I guess I'll check it out again. How often do you use the program? I will surely see you at the team challenge forums. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Shadow1984 Groupie United States Joined 5493 days ago 53 posts - 57 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 6 of 36 06 December 2009 at 1:35pm | IP Logged |
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DAY 2
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5TH I think I caught strep throat. I guess that means no speaking practice for the next couple of days! I was actually able to create an anki account today. I spent quite some time adding words for each of my target languages and I still need to add more. I am glad that I type at a decent speed or I might have just given up on that program. LOL. I just started watching a German soap opera today. It is actually pretty interesting. I do not know the name of it but it has subtitles and I am putting new phrases I am learning into the anki system as well. I believe that typing the materials on the anki program is really reinforcing the materials that I have learned. It is also a good review for words that I have not seen in a while. Here is my update for today..... GERMAN - 2 HRS 22 MINS = 142 MINS = 105 MINS of GERMAN TELEVISION + 37 MINS of ANKI TOTAL TIME SPENT ON German AS OF 12/5/09 - 4 HRS 23 MINS = 263 MINS GERMAN DAILY AVERAGE 2 DAYS - 2 HRS 11 MINS = 131 MINS SPANISH - 2 HRS 6 MINS = 126 MINS = 50 MINS of PUNTOS TEXTBOOK REVIEW + 76 MINS of ANKI TOTAL TIME SPENT ON Spanish AS OF 12/5/09 - 2 HRS 6 MINS = 126 MINS SPANISH DAILY AVERAGE 2 DAYS - 63 MINS ITALIAN- 2 HRS 12 MINS = 132 MINS = 62 MINS of PREGO TEXTBOOK + 70 MINS of ANKI TOTAL TIME SPENT ON Italian AS OF 12/5/09 - 5 HRS 16 MINS = 316 MINS Italian DAILY AVERAGE 2 DAYS - 158 MINS *ALL GOALS OF 2 HRS PER LANGUAGE MET TODAY. :) Edited by Shadow1984 on 07 December 2009 at 1:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| -Kupo- Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6071 days ago 84 posts - 84 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Russian | Message 7 of 36 06 December 2009 at 3:21pm | IP Logged |
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No study to six hours a day? I will definitely follow your blog.
You seem to be achieving it at the moment, well done! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Shadow1984 Groupie United States Joined 5493 days ago 53 posts - 57 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 8 of 36 07 December 2009 at 1:39pm | IP Logged |
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DAY 3
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 6TH Today was great day! I was able to achieve my goals and I also received my James Heisig book for the Kanji today :) ! I just read the introduction, but I will not start studying till the 1st of next month. That being said, I need to make sure that I get more Japanese resources before the 1st. It was actually an easy study day for me. It did not feel like I studied for 6 hours at all. I could study more but I need to get to bed because I have a lot of errands to run for tomorrow. Today, I started on my first Spanish reader with English on one side and Spanish on the other. I was surprised to see that I actually could understand much of what was going on without looking at the English side. I also put the words that I didn't know into anki afterwards to make sure I can build on that vocabulary. I will make sure to see if the have dual texts in the other languages I am studying because I find it very convenient. As for my studies for today............... GERMAN - 2 HRS 6 MINS = 126 MINS = 90 MINS of TEXTBOOK NEUE HORIZONTE + 36 MINS of ANKI TOTAL TIME SPENT ON German AS OF 12/6/09 - 6 HRS 29 MINS = 389 MINS GERMAN DAILY AVERAGE 3 DAYS - 2 HRS 9 MINS = 129 MINS SPANISH - 2 HRS 11 MINS = 131 MINS = 86 MINS of NEW PENGUIN Spanish READER + 45 MINS of ANKI TOTAL TIME SPENT ON Spanish AS OF 12/6/09 - 4 HRS 17 MINS = 257 MINS SPANISH DAILY AVERAGE 3 DAYS - 1 HR 25 MINS = 85 MINS ITALIAN - 1 HR 57 MINS = 117 MINS = 75 MINS of PREGO TEXTBOOK + 42 MINS of ITALIAN VERB WORKBOOK TOTAL TIME SPENT ON Italian AS OF 12/6/09 - 7 HRS 13 MINS = 433 MINS Italian DAILY AVERAGE 3 DAYS - 2 HRS 24 MINS 144 MINS Edited by Shadow1984 on 08 December 2009 at 9:01pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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