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French and Korean in the New Year | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| anamsc Triglot Senior Member Andorra Joined 6207 days ago 296 posts - 382 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Catalan Studies: Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Written), French | Message 1 of 8 16 December 2009 at 5:28am | IP Logged | ||
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I always change my mind, and will probably do so again, but I'm making this log to catalog my language-learning endeavors for (hopefully) the first half of 2010. As of right now, I have the following plans:
French I want to begin learning the language. As of right now, I know almost nothing, although I have found that I can understand quite a bit (due to my knowledge of English, Spanish, and Catalan). I have been listening to the podcast Journal en français facile for quite a while now (I pick one episode and listen to it over and over), and I feel like I've been understanding it more and more (it helps that it's news, so I already know the main stories, and it's all names and countries and the like). I haven't made my definitive plans yet, but I do have the first like 18 lessons of Pimsleur, plus the recordings from Living Language Ultimate French (I will have to get the book from the library again). Korean I would like to gain a basic understanding and conversational knowledge of Korean, as well as learn Hangul, since I might be spending next summer in Korea. So far, I don't have much--just some websites and the recordings for Teach Yourself Korean (my boyfriend has the book). I also don't know any Korean or have any plans as of yet! Thai I'm going to spend three weeks in Thailand over winter break, so I just want to get a very basic knowledge of Thai. I have the first Pimsleur course and a phrasebook, which is really all I think I'll need given my goals. After I come back, I don't think I'll try to learn Thai, unless it really captures my interests. Spanish Spanish is quite possibly the love of my life, and I really would like to achieve native fluency. I don't have a concrete plan yet, but I have been watching TV and listening to podcasts and reading websites alot. Anyways, that's the basic outline of what I'm planning on doing. I hope to come up with plans soon, after I finish my finals. And as always, I know that this will probably change drastically in a short amount of time! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| anamsc Triglot Senior Member Andorra Joined 6207 days ago 296 posts - 382 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Catalan Studies: Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Written), French | Message 2 of 8 28 December 2009 at 2:49am | IP Logged | ||
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Spanish
Current Level I like to think I speak Spanish quite well, maybe even fluently. I spent a year in Barcelona and a semester in Costa Rica, besides taking classes and studying it on my own. I also speak Spanglish with my boyfriend. Therefore I am very comfortable using Spanish in all forms. However, I am at that level with it where I can actually see that I'm nowhere near native fluency. Goals Native fluency! In particular, I normally divide language skills into five areas --pronunciation, oral understanding, grammatical competence, vocabulary (including idioms and such), and cultural knowledge-- and I seek improvement in all these areas. First I want to perfect my oral understanding, then pronunciation, then grammar, then vocabulary, the cultural understanding (although I will work on each one continuously). Resources 1. audio/visual: -Mexico's Next Top Model (available on Youtube from user MexicoNextTopModel, among others) -La tira (many episodes available on Youtube from user LaTira6 and on misexta.tv) -- Spanish from Spain -Lo que no sabias podcast (on iTunes) --this is Mexican Spanish -Salvados (available on misexta.tv) --Spanish from Spain By the way, for anybody who is looking for good Spanish TV shows, I highly recommend misexta.tv. There are full episodes of a number of Spanish shows (mostly humor) and many are updated frequently. Aside from La tira and Salvados, I also recommend El intermedio and Que vida mas triste (sorry, accents not working on this computer), although there are lots more shows on there, so browse around! 2. audio -BBC Mundo podcast (available on iTunes) --various varieties of Spanish -eventually I hope to find a book that I enjoy that also has an audiobook available, but that just hasn't happened yet. 3. text -BBC Mundo website (bbcmundo.com) and other news websites once BBC Mundo starts bugging me (as it sometimes does) -Wikipedia homepage in Spanish (The good thing about that is that the articulo destacado features lots of random things and so it's a good way to fill holes in vocab) -es.xkcd.com (Spanish translation of xkcd comics --I'd recommend the V.O. as well, as it's much better than the translation) --Spanish from Spain -Vanidades, which I got a subscription to for Christmas --US Spanish -eventually a novel 4. vocabulary -forum.wordreference.com, to look up words that come up or words in English that I realize I don't know in Spanish -wordchamp.com, just to keep track of words I've looked up (I don't normally do the actual flashcard exercises) Plan I want to do a passive phase and an active phase. Even though I have been using Spanish actively for years now, I feel at this point that I would benefit from backing off a bit on production in order to improve my accent, my grammar, and my usage. Right now, as you can see from my resources, I am just concentrating on the passive phase, which I want to do until I feel like I can understand Spanish fluently with no effort (i.e. native-level understanding). However, this won't preclude me from using the language, as I speak Spanish at work and am planning on taking a class in Spanish (on language contact) next semester. For now, though, during my passive phase, I just want to keep using the resources I have like a native speaker would, just for information and entertainment (and also look up and keep track of vocabulary). Edited by anamsc on 28 December 2009 at 2:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| anamsc Triglot Senior Member Andorra Joined 6207 days ago 296 posts - 382 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Catalan Studies: Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Written), French | Message 3 of 8 28 December 2009 at 3:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Since I really would like to try and make this log somewhat useful to whomever should
decide to read it, I thought I would make a little summary of free Spanish resources I'm using. Podcasts: -Lo que no sabias --a Mexican podcasts that takes different topics each week, from Michoacan to pornography to serial killers to children's games, and tries to give a behind-the-scened look at them. It is pretty corny and sometimes I feel like why are they interviewing that person as if they're an expert, but it is entertaining and free and the varied topics mean that you can learn lots of different vocabulary. -BBC Mundo --fifteen minute news podcast in Spanish from BBC world news. The reporters are from all different countries, so you can hear different accents. Also, it's good for keeping up-to-date on news (it's world news, with a slightly stronger focus on Latin America). Obvious websites: -Youtube --as I said before, user MexicoNextTopModel uploads full episodes of Mexico's Next Top Model, which is (as the name suggests) a Mexican modeling contests. It's just as addicting as the American version, and somewhat less ridiculous. Also user LaTira6 has quite a few episodes of La tira (although they haven't updated in a while), which is a Spanish sitcom that is very entertaining and includes many Peninsular accents. -Wikipedia --the main page has news, things that happened today (I don't know if there's a word for that in English!), did you know, and a featured article, all great for picking up new vocabulary and sometimes cultural information. It's also a great resource when you can't find something in the dictionary. -WordReference forums --for looking up vocabulary and asking questions. There's really nothing better. Less obvious websites: -wordchamp.com --lets you create vocabulary lists and practice your flashcards. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, as I think there's better stuff out there. -BBCMundo.com --self-explanatory. News articles and some videos. It's pretty good. -es.xkcd.com --translation of xkcd comic. It's kind of nerdy (lots of math, physics, and computer science jokes), and sometimes the translation is not the best, but I love the original and so I might as well read it in Spanish too, no? -misexta.tv --I can't recommend this highly enough. La Sexta is a TV network in Spain, and it produces some pretty high-quality shows. This website has alot of varied programs (many of them humor) and they are updated quite often. Apart from scripted shows, there are interviews and the like, which are good for approximating real speech. 2 persons have 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 4 of 8 28 December 2009 at 1:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Awesome! :) Cheers for all the suggestions of Spanish material.
One of my favourite tv shows from Spain which is available online is Los Hombres de Paco, a very hilarious cop show where the police are just... incompetent XD I love how they don't take themselves seriously! Well and there's plenty of drama and relationship stuff too, which I guess if you like Next Top Model you will enjoy as well! Ooh and didn't know xkcd was translated into Spanish, that looks like fun! Good luck with your goals for 2010 :) Edited by Quabazaa on 28 December 2009 at 1:32pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| anamsc Triglot Senior Member Andorra Joined 6207 days ago 296 posts - 382 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Catalan Studies: Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Written), French | Message 5 of 8 03 January 2010 at 5:30am | IP Logged | ||
Hi Quabazaa, Thanks for the suggestion :). I will definitely check it out once I have better internet connection. Best of luck with your studies too, and kudos for having such a good log (I'll admit I've been lurking there!). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachjunge Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 7169 days ago 368 posts - 548 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 6 of 8 03 January 2010 at 8:47am | IP Logged | ||
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Hello Anamsc!
Best of luck with your TAC! I especially echo your thoughts about recognizing how far you have to go. For me, it was precisely when I started getting comfortable with German that I started realizing just what "near-native fluency" meant that I would have to be capable of producing. Also, your sources are great! Thanks for posting them! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| anamsc Triglot Senior Member Andorra Joined 6207 days ago 296 posts - 382 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Catalan Studies: Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Written), French | Message 7 of 8 04 January 2010 at 2:03pm | IP Logged | ||
Hi Sprachjunge, Thanks for the well-wishes! Hopefully we'll be able to get that near-native fluency eventually :D but I still have a long way to go at least. Are you planning on living in Germany or anything? Good luck with your TAC too! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| anamsc Triglot Senior Member Andorra Joined 6207 days ago 296 posts - 382 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Catalan Studies: Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Written), French | Message 8 of 8 07 January 2010 at 4:21am | IP Logged | ||
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I've been thinking about how I am going to do all this once my vacation is over, and I
think that the solution for me is to concentrate on Korean. First of all, I know I'm going to keep up with Spanish, both because I have to use it in my normal life and because I am at a point where studying equals watching TV and reading magazines. Also, I feel like French is going to be much easier than Korean, so I could get just as far with less effort. And I am going to probably spend the summer in Seoul, so Korean is going to be much more useful. My goals for Korean are: 1. to be able to live my basic public life in Korean; i.e. to not have to use English with strangers in Seoul (asking for directions, shopping, at restaurants, etc.) 2. to have good enough Korean that I could actually benefit from a conversational exchange with a Korean speaker (and not have it just be reverting to English all the time) --both before I go to Korea in mid-June. I know these are pretty lofty goals, which is why I have to get started!! I'm figuring out my methods, which I will post later. As for French, as long as I'm concentrating on Korean, I'm just going to listen to the Journal en francais facile podcast and order all French movies from Netflix, to keep my listening skills up. Maybe I'll do the occasional Pimsleur or Ultimate French lesson too. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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