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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6722 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes  Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German | Message 17 of 47 23 June 2009 at 1:17pm | IP Logged |
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Hi Vincent!
I have very close friends who are Hungarians. They moved to Australia about 5 years ago. Initially, it was a great opportunity to learn a language properly by having native speakers close to me (I had tried to learn many other languages but never got there - I believe mostly because I could not USE the language I was learning). But the more I learnt about the language and the more I heard it, I don't know... I just fell in love with it. The way it sounds, the structure... everything. It's beautiful. The culture is amazing... it has all just grown on me, I guess! :) If you're asking how exactly I started to physically learn the language, well, my first 'flirtings' with it were my friends teaching me a few words and phrases here and there. I shortly after purchased Teach Yourself Hungarian and thus began my formal studies. Of course, since then I have added MANY programs including Colloquial, Assimil, FSI and a Hungarian teacher to the picture! I purchased childrens books from Hungary, downloaded podcasts (few & far between, believe me), and all the while have kept my close contact with my friends. My association with Hungarians has really grown and I quite often attend Hungarian social events with my friends. Thanks for the encouragement! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6722 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German | Message 18 of 47 27 June 2009 at 3:30am | IP Logged |
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I'm still here and still going! Just a busy week, so haven't been able to keep a daily write-up.
HUNGARIAN By some amazing feat (completely unexpected), I came across a copy of Pimsleur Hungarian at a library on the south side of the city. YAY! So I've started Pimsleur as of yesterday. The first lessons are incredibly easy, and I'm up to lesson 7, but I'm sure it'll pick up. The main thing I wanted to get from the program was practice listening and speaking as well as some more 'confidence' in sentence construction. So far, I actually think it has been of help! So fingers crossed, the assistance continues! :) I also managed to find some audiobooks online, so I'll be listening to some more of those now too. Whilst I will definitely be continuing my formal studies with my teacher, I really feel that the big hurdle for me now is speaking and listening. I need to be become more skilled and comfortable with the normal speed of the language and also with sentence structure and speaking in a more natural, unlaboured way. Any tips on the most efficient way to improve this? My goal is to be speaking freely within 3-4months. I can dedicate an average of 1-2 hours per day to Hungarian specifically. Some days more (up to 4 or 5), but I would say that 1-2 hours is the consistent average. My current studies: LISTENING: At the moment, I would average watching 1 or 2 Hungarian movies per week (usually cartoons or comedies). I also would be around my Hungarian friends speaking only Hungarian, an average of 1-2 hours a day. I have just started Pimsleur and I will also start to listen to audiobooks from today onwards - probably at night before bed) READING: I've been a little slack with my reading. I would only average around 15-45 minutes a day of reading, depending on the day. Mostly I have been reading short stories, the FSI Reader and little poems/songs. On & off I make an attempt to read Harry Potter however, I think it'll be easier now that I have access to the audio. WRITING: Except on 'off' weeks, I normally have anywhere between 20 and 60 minutes of MSN chat time in Hungarian only, per day. I am also writing my Hungarian friend an email on average every 2nd day. I started to write a journal, but I'm not currently consistent in writing in that on a daily basis. SPEAKING: This is my REALLY bad one. I speak while doing audio programs, I speak aloud while reading. I try to speak when with my friends but mostly I say very little in those times - I just 'clam up'. I would average no more than 1-2 hours of actually speaking in Hungarian in total. BAD BAD BAD!! I now have Anki up & running and am adding words from either FSI or general day to day that I come across. Assimil has yet again fallen by the way-side. I don't know why, but the program just doesn't 'do it' for me. I've had more success at sticking to FSI, but I think that is mostly because I really feel like I'm making progress with FSI whereas with Assimil it just feels like I'm playing. FRENCH Ha ha - that was short-lived. I'm at a bit of a standstill with French. Only because I have run out of my introductory Michel Thomas audio that I bought on iTunes and I'm waiting for the full program to become available to borrow from the library (won't be until 14th July). So, I'm not doing anything in French at the moment. I still have a couple of podcasts that I could listen to, but I really want to 'test' the Michel Thomas program out - and I'm not in any major hurry to learn French right now, so I'm happy to wait. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Clintaroo Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6875 days ago 189 posts - 201 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Tagalog, Indonesian | Message 19 of 47 27 June 2009 at 7:41am | IP Logged |
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Hi Katie
I'm really impressed reading your blog about Hungarian. It spans quite a few years and I don't know if you remember me, but I used to post here a lot more often and we did interact a little. I think it's just wonderful that you've fallen in love with Hungarian and are attending Hungarian social events. Everyday I take the tram to the CBD here in Melbourne and go past a 'Hungarian Centre' near North Fitzroy. A Hungarian friend in Japan attempted to teach me a few simple phrases. Needless to say I have forgotten them! Since coming back from Japan in March, my language learning has stalled. I really think I need to try something different, perhaps documenting my progress here can help. In fact, I think you have motivated me to commence a blog! Good luck with your French and of course your continuing Hungarian endeavours. Best wishes, Clint 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6722 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German | Message 20 of 47 27 June 2009 at 1:53pm | IP Logged |
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Clintaroo! Hello! Yep, I surely remember you! :)
I can relate to the stalling with studying! I got to the point where I just felt like I wasn't getting anywhere. I was studying and studying, but it didn't seem anything was happening. My vocabulary seemed to be growing, I definitely saw progress in my writing, but I still couldn't speak well. So, that's why I decided to completely change tactics and push myself to talk and listen and to try new things like the audiobooks and social events. My current goal is to try to immerse myself as much as possible and make Hungarian more of a natural part of my day, that I'm always learning without knowing it! And wow! I never though I'd be the one to motivate or inspire anyone else with my language learning! I'm just your average, pushing along learner! But thanks! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6722 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German | Message 21 of 47 27 June 2009 at 2:03pm | IP Logged |
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Quick update on Hungarian for today!
I went to my friends' house. Before arriving, I sent them a message and told them that I can only speak Hungarian to them today and that I really wanted them to be harsh and FORCE me to use Hungarian. Something worked! I spoke more than what I would normally (I'd say perhaps close to TWICE as much!) And they said that, whilst I made some errors here and there, I was perfectly understandable! :) I'm wondering if it was the fact that they spoke to me in English that helped. Now, I know that sounds wrong and it's not helping my listening skills - but hear me out. Firstly, they are my friends, not my teacher - so I can't and won't expect them to repeat everything 3 times, speak more slowly and constantly correct me. But perhaps the fact that I didn't have to stress about understanding them AND getting my point across was of huge benefit? Also, because they were speaking English, they were happy to correct my speaking when I said something wrong! I see it as a win-win situation :) SO - here's my plan. I'm going to keep trying this out over the next few days - them speaking English and me speaking Hungarian. If it works like I felt it did today, then I'm going to continue on that note until I feel confident enough in speaking that I can add 'listening' into the equation. I WILL still hear them speaking - but if they're talking directly to me about something more than the average "would you like something to drink" or " what would you like to eat " kind of stuff, they will use English. Also, I will continue listening to the audiobooks and audio programs, so I won't miss out on developing my listening. In my language class my teacher still speaks Hungarian too, just much slower so I have time to get a grasp of what she's saying. Any thoughts on this idea? Anyone tried it out before? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6722 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German | Message 22 of 47 28 June 2009 at 11:07am | IP Logged |
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HUNGARIAN
Will complete Unit 11 and possibly Unit 12 tonight of Pimsleur. And also listen/read some more Harry Potter (I did about 20 minutes last night and will do roughly the same tonight). It has been a busy weekend with competitions etc, which continue tomorrow, so I am guessing I'll be doing most of my study via audio over the next couple of days. Went to the Hungarian church meet-up again today. I spoke a lot more Hungarian than normal and parts of the conversation were flowing quite well, I think! I actually had a lot of fun and wasn't near as nervous about speaking as normal! Perhaps Pimsleur is really paying off already! Even only a third of the way through! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6722 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German | Message 23 of 47 29 June 2009 at 10:58pm | IP Logged |
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Yesterday's Report...
HUNGARIAN Completed lessons 13, 14 & 15 of Pimsleur (travel is a Godsend at times!) Unfortunately though, that was it as I worked essentially from 7.30am to 7.30pm and was too exhausted to do anything more in the evening. I'm really enjoying the Pimsleur course at the moment. I'm not entirely sure why. It's not introducing any new words, but it's really helping those sentence structures! I think I'm also enjoying the fact that I have a program that can just 'follow' me around. I can go and make a coffee, sit outside, inside, go for a walk, driving in the car... all of these and just have it blaring in my ears. It's nice. I've otherwise always had to walk around with a book - and you can't exactly use a book when walking or driving! It has allowed me to use up those little time slots that were previously unusable. Since I'm enjoying the audio only programs, I'm a little scared about how carried away I'll get with Michel Thomas French when I get my hands on it! I'll probably use it as obsessively as I am with Pimsleur! Will have to limit myself to one lesson a day! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Katie Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6722 days ago 495 posts - 599 votes Speaks: English*, Hungarian Studies: French, German | Message 24 of 47 30 June 2009 at 6:43am | IP Logged |
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Happy am I, for fate is on my side!!!!!!!!!!! :) (In other words, whoever borrowed the French stuff from the library returned it early!)
HUNGARIAN Pimsleur - I have now completed Lesson 16 of Pimsleur. Still really enjoying the audio lessons. I MAY do Lesson 17 a little later - but only if I get through FSI first! FSI - I'm sitting at Unit 7. I haven't looked at FSI for a few days - I've been busy, so today I'm back at it. I'm currently completing the transformation & variation drills. I hope to finish them today so that I can move on to Unit 8 from tomorrow. Anki - due to only doing pimsleur over the last few days, I haven't really added many words into Anki. Currently it sits at 115 words. I'll add more when I start Unit 8 FSI (hopefully tomorrow, but perhaps the following day). Class - No class this week as I had to attend a competition. Will be back as of next week though! :) Daily Checklist: READING - will be doing my evening reading of Harry Potter again tonight. WRITING - I chatted with my Hungarian friend on MSN this morning for around 45 minutes LISTENING - Pimsleur & the audio book tonight. I may also watch a DVD if I have time. SPEAKING - Nothing by way of speaking today, except to myself! ;) I won't be working tonight, so if my Hungarian friend isn't working either, I will go there and get some practice in! FRENCH Oh happy days!! :) As I mentioned earlier, I plan only to use audio methods to learn French at this point in time. I'm relying on the Michel Thomas method - I'll give it a good testing! ;) The only other program I may use is a 15 minute daily podcast called "Coffee Break French", but I'm not 100% committed to that yet because I don't want to spend too much time on French. Michel Thomas - I listened to the first 5 tracks of CD1 of Michel Thomas today. All up (not including the introduction & stuff), it amounted to around 23 minutes of active learning. I enjoy the method so far. Michel makes you feel very confident in your abilities by giving you more than the standard 1, 2, 3 phrases, etc. You don't feel quite so much like a kindergartener! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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