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TAC 2009: Spanish, French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5869 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 41 of 120 20 May 2009 at 2:04am | IP Logged |
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Today I just started unit 32 and later will be working through CD 2 of Michel Thomas' advanced lessons. I think I'm on lesson 11 of FiA. It's been really nice to see how much more I'm understanding after going through most of CD1 of Pimsleur and MT, a lot of the prompts where they ask you to repeat after someone I still have no clue what they are saying, but I can certainly make out more than previously, which is nice! I also started moving all my wordlists into Mnemosyne, so far I've got about a quarter of them (911) entered. In other news, my friend gave me a book for learning Esperanto, and as he's gone for two weeks, I was going to try to surprise him with what I've learned when he gets back. So currently I'm studying Spanish, French, and Esperanto, trying to dedicate at least two hours to each/day. Currently I'm looking for an Esperanto penpal but all the sites I've gone to seem inactive! Oh well, it took me a long time until I found someone I enjoyed writing to in Spanish, I guess I'll just have to wait to see how it goes.
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| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5869 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 42 of 120 23 May 2009 at 2:59am | IP Logged |
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20 May:
Spanish: Reviewed through unit 32, but I ended up deciding not to do one of the drills (a 12 minute drill about how dates are constructed) because it was just making me really frustrated and, well I don't remember why else now. I also added several of my wordlists to Mnemosyne. French: I watched several FiA episodes and tried to go through MT CD 3 but it was just way too much for me, so I went back to CD 2 and took grammar notes and pretty much everything MT says not to, and it really helped me out a lot. For some reason or another, French is not sticking for me as easily as Spanish. It could just be all the things I am cramming into my head at once (for three different languages, plus English). I am going to try to find a nice French grammar book (maybe Schaum's, I liked the one I had for Russian a lot) and see if that helps some. Esperanto: Read through another chapter and reviewed it several times, added the vocabulary to Mnemosyne. 21 May: Spanish: Today I finished Unit 32 of Unit 32 and started Unit 33. It's all pretty simple, most of it I've just figured out on my own (like nominalization), but the length of the dialogs in the Conversation Stimulus (the last (audio) part of each Unit) has been pretty hard. I really need to find a conversation partner! I also added several more sheets of the wordlists I made into Mnemosyne. French: I went through CD 3 and it was much easier this time through, but I still don't feel like things are sticking as well as they should. I was planning to go through the Advanced course several times to reinforce what I know, but I am having trouble remembering things within the same session (for me, the duration of one CD). I remember not remembering things as well as I had wanted in the Spanish Advanced course, but by that time I was able to feel confident enough to write little tidbits (like entries in a journal) and use them until I covered them later in more detail. I'm not sure what I should do to get more comfortable with things, hopefully following through FiA and finding a nice grammar book will help. Oh, I also watched many (like 6 or 7) episodes of FiA last night, and was glad to see them review some of the things I learned (or tried to) with MT. Esperanto: Today I read through two chapters of the book and reviewed/entered vocab into Mnemosyne. 22 May: Spanish: As I write this, I am almost finished with FSI Unit 33, I want to review it once more before the day's out and then I think I should be ready to move on to Unit 34. Unit 36 is the start of the subjunctive! Again, I've already got some basic ideas on when to use the subjunctive just from reading and talking with my penpal, but I'm looking forward to getting more in-depth with it! I also added another page to Mnemosyne (bringing the total to 1882). # Cards to review: In 0 day(s) : 0 In 1 day(s) : 311 In 2 day(s) : 371 In 3 day(s) : 370 In 4 day(s) : 324 In 5 day(s) : 265 In 6 day(s) : 151 In 7 day(s) : 90 Yikes! I am excited though, I think I've only got three more sheets to enter (each sheet has 108 words) and I'll be able to start working through new words. Though I imagine I'll have a lot of repetitions to go through for quite some time... French: Nothing yet. Hopefully I can finish CD 4 tonight and watch a few more FiA episodes. Esperanto: Nothing yet. I did download some elementary Esperanto books, one (Vera aux Fantazio) which I found the audio for the first five chapters for. I also downloaded some English-Esperanto dictionaries. ------ Also, I am curious if anyone has any advice as to how they enter French words into Mnemosyne. I know it seems like a strange question, but, I don't know. Yea. I don't really know. Well, I think that's all for now. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5998 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 43 of 120 23 May 2009 at 3:10am | IP Logged |
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Hey Crush,
Long time no see, well commment really. It's good to see you carrying on with your language studies, even if you have taken up esperanto...I'll forgive you though, it's not your fault. Keep up the good work, and swing by the IRC channel some time. Thom. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5869 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 44 of 120 27 May 2009 at 11:49pm | IP Logged |
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Well after about a week I decided to drop Esperanto for the time being to improve the likelihood of someday achieving fluency in Spanish, so...
But anyway, I don't remember the timeline for anything so a brief summary of: 23-26 May: Esperanto: A few chapters in that book then I made the semi-unconscious decision to let it go for the time being. Spanish: Reviewed Unit 33 twice more, went through Unit 34 and 35. Added the last sheet (or two, however many it was) to Mnemosyne, and lots of reviews (400+/day) but gradually knocking that figure down. In 0 day(s) : 0 In 1 day(s) : 296 In 2 day(s) : 314 In 3 day(s) : 320 In 4 day(s) : 271 In 5 day(s) : 192 In 6 day(s) : 109 In 7 day(s) : 62 Getting there! French: Started working through El Nuevo Francés Sin Esfuerzo and cruised through the first fifteen units or so easily. I've decided to do what the Professor recommended (kind of) in his Shadowing video and each day go through ten lessons, advancing one lesson. But I've also been going off ahead, meaning: Day one: reviewing lessons 1-10, adding lesson 11, then doing lessons 13,14,15 and however many I feel like doing. Day two: reviewing lessons 2-11, adding lesson 12, and working through lessons 16 and 17. Yea. Oh, and I guess I finished MT Advanced, I haven't gone through the CD a second time yet (I don't know if I will) because I feel my time has been better spent on Assimil and FiA. I've almost finished the first really quick run-through of FiA, I might do one more quick run-through to see what difference Assimil is making in my comprehension (I've already noticed some). Oh yea, I also got a "Barron's Complete French Review" workbook I think it's called and have been spending a little bit of time working through it each day. 27 May: Spanish: Started Unit 36 and the subjunctive. It's nothing new and actually the lesson has been really easy so far, but I don't think I've ever really used the subjunctive when speaking or thinking to myself, only in writing, so it's nice practice. I've also considered doing one of a couple things: 1. Start reviewing old FSI Units (starting maybe around 20) to try to solidify what I know, cause I'm wondering if I passed through them too quickly. 2. Start spending an extra day on a Unit (or an extra 2-3 hours) Hopefully I'll finally have this monster under my belt within a couple months, as I think I originally predicted that I'd have it completed mid-late April (whoops). I still need to find a conversation partner around here, which shouldn't be too difficult, I just don't know where to look. I also downloaded Assimil's Español Perfeccionamiento (the audio portion) and listened to it today walking to the library. And that's all I've done so far, my friends should be returning within the next day or two, so these 8-9 hour days of study are probably going to drop substantially, hopefully I'll be able to keep on track with FSI and the Assimil lessons, at least. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5869 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 45 of 120 30 May 2009 at 2:53am | IP Logged |
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28 May:
Spanish: Reviewed Unit 36 twice and Mnemosyne reviews. French: Reviewed lessons 3-15 and added lesson 16 in Assimil. Watched two (or three?) lessons in FiA, I've only got two more episodes before my first run through is complete :) 29 May: Spanish: Finished Unit 36, maybe I'll start Unit 37 later. Also did my Mnemosyne reviews. French: Reviewed lessons 4-16 and added 17. I plan to finish FiA tonight, I'm not sure what I will do from there. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5869 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 46 of 120 02 June 2009 at 12:43am | IP Logged |
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30 May:
Spanish: I started Unit 37 and did Mnemosyne reviews. French: Reviewed old Assimil lessons and added lesson 18. If I didn't finish FiA last night, I finished it tonight. 31 May: Spanish: Reviewed Unit 37 a few times and did Mnemosyne reviews. Also thought about how I wanted to go about adding vocabulary, I think I have about 800-1000 words written down still that I haven't learned. I want to try to work through the rest of these this month so that I can start adding in vocabulary from other places (pulling it from books or movies or articles or whatever). I've kind of stopped reading the book I was reading (Dos Damas muy Serias) for the second time because I've been spending so much time on other things (2-3 hours or more a day on FSI and at least an hour or so on vocabulary, plus French). French: Old Assimil lessons and added lesson 19. Also went on ahead a few lessons up to, I think, lesson 26. Watched the first few episodes of FiA again, and for some reason the know-it-all kid in the beginning lessons isn't so annoying anymore :) Oh, and worked through another chapter in my grammar workbook. 1 June: Finished Unit 37 and did my Mnemosyne reviews. EDIT: I also took the online tests for fun at http://www.esl-languages.com/en/study-abroad/adults/online-t ests/index.htm (thanks ExtraLean!) 20 out of 40 questions answered correctly! Ihr Niveau ist ungefähr Mittelstufe (level A2-B1*) 37 out of 40 questions answered correctly! Su nivel es C1- Advanced 32 out of 40 questions answered correctly! Votre niveau est approximativement intermédiaire supérieur - B1 If only these levels were accurate! Edited by Crush on 02 June 2009 at 2:42am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5869 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 47 of 120 10 June 2009 at 12:17am | IP Logged |
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Things have been going a bit slower lately, but a quick update:
Spanish: I'm finishing up Unit 39, could be done today but more likely tomorrow. I've been struggling a bit with the vocabulary, maybe the formula or just the format altogether doesn't suit me well with the SRS programs. They seem to prolong the time I can remember a word, but each time I review a word it gets harder and harder until I just straight up forget it. I haven't really added (m)any new words. French: Last night I added lesson 29 of Assimil. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| keith1569 Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5658 days ago 61 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Sign Language, Spanish | Message 48 of 120 10 June 2009 at 1:11am | IP Logged |
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Crush, I enjoyed reading through your log. I to plan to learn French after studying Spanish for a while. How long did you study Spanish for before you added in French? I was curious, in your opinion, do you think I should do Pimsleur and MT at the same time? Currently I am on lesson 10 on Spanish 1 with Pimsleur and I was wondering if I shuould add in MT now or after I do Pimsleur.
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