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Kupo’s TAC 2009 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| -Kupo- Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6071 days ago 84 posts - 84 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Russian | Message 1 of 27 25 November 2008 at 4:55am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I am doing a total overhaul! My spending time reading on the internet, especially this forum has totally gone off scale! So some languages have been dropped until 2010 TAC and I am ready for these last 2 months to let my motivation overflow!
Sorry for the weird phrasing, you will find them constantly throughout my blog. My picks: Japanese : At a higher intermediate level .. approximately. I can express myself pretty well, understand anywhere from 50-70% of Japanese TV programmes and can only read about 1000 out of the Jouyou Kanji. German: Did it for 4 years in high school where as you might have guessed, I didn't learn much. I am now taking German at university, and it is very bland. I plan to try to get a good level immediately. Spanish: The second language for my Modern Languages degree. Still bland textbooks, however I am new to this language, total beginner. Russian: My neglected Russian. I love the language to pieces, it fascinates me and truly is a language I have passion for. Am still a beginner level but I hope this improves. Korean: Last but not least my 2009 pick was Korean. Still no movement from beginner level.. I think. My Goals: Japanese: Learn the rest of the Jouyou Kanji and keep up with the daily audio listening, reading on websites. January 2010. German: High intermediate by February 2010. Spanish: Intermediate by February 2010. Russian: Intermediate by March 2010. Korean: High beginner - Intermediate by March 2010. Yes! I am ambitious, however I have the confidence that I can meet these goals. Edited by -Kupo- on 23 November 2009 at 11:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6443 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 2 of 27 25 November 2008 at 5:32am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Professor Arguelles' ideas on an 'ideal systematic approach' to Korean contain recommendations of material. If you read further on in that thread, Gon-no-suke's reply may be quite interesting to you, given your knowledge of Japanese - it may well make more sense for you to study Korean through Japanese than through English.
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| farrioth Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6094 days ago 171 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Esperanto, Sanskrit, Japanese | Message 3 of 27 25 November 2008 at 5:44am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Hi Kupo,
Great to see that someone else is doing two of the same languages as me for the TAC! I'm also doing Japanese and Russian. I'm a bit behind you with Japanese (I'm still a beginner), but I've been studying Russian for about a year. Perhaps we could share some insights and resources with each other. Check out the free Princeton Russian Course if you haven't already. I haven't used it myself, but it's quite popular. I can probably point you to some other resources too, if there's something in particular you're looking for. Best of luck with your languages, Farrioth 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 4 of 27 26 November 2008 at 2:17pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Volte: Thank you for directing me to those posts. Not only the posts but the thread in general was of great interest to me and very informative.
Farrioth: That would be a great idea! Thank you for directing me to the Princeton Russian , I had been previously looking for it but to no avail. I mainly work from printed material, but slowly am becoming more glued to my computer for my language learning. Still nothing like a good book though. Good luck. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| farrioth Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6094 days ago 171 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Esperanto, Sanskrit, Japanese | Message 5 of 27 26 November 2008 at 6:41pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Great! You're welcome. Let me know if there are any other resources you'd be interested in. Send me a PM if you like. I'm the same as you about the computer, despite my over-sized collection of books. I've actually considered printing out e-books on occasion just to get away from my screen. Out of interest, what method(s) have you been using for learning Japanese? I've been going to classes this year, but I'll be learning on my own next year and focusing on kanji. Have you tried Rosetta Stone or Michel Thomas at all? I've been thinking about using these, but I'm not sure if my time is better spent with them or just doing more kanji. I guess variety is good, though. If you're interested, my TAC log is here. Feel free to comment! Once again, good luck with everything! 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 6 of 27 30 November 2008 at 10:23am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
I apologise for such a late reply. As it is the winter season I seemed to have become ill, and so therefore have not been able to access the forum (nor be able to make any language progress whatsoever). As for Rosetta Stone, I tried a trial once and personally wouldn't recommend it to anyone, and I have never tried MT. I was very fortunate in my japanese in the fact about 50% of my friends also spoke it. So I had very much the advantage from the start. There are quite a few resources online which are quite helpful in certain aspects though. I regularly read online in Japanese, however due to my bad kanji comprehension at the moment I do need to sometimes look up words from time to time. I would reccomend a addon for Firefox, if you use that, called 'rikaichan' It is a scroll over dictionary and it has proved quite useful on the comprehension side of things. As for concentrating on Kanji, I wouldn't dedicate all my time to it (however this year I am going more kanji intensive) but it is definitely needed in the long run. Sorry I couldn't really suggest many materials, my self-study plan for Japanese has been very mixed. Edited by -Kupo- on 30 November 2008 at 10:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| farrioth Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6094 days ago 171 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Esperanto, Sanskrit, Japanese | Message 7 of 27 07 December 2008 at 2:47am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
No worries about the late reply, I've been away for the last few days. I hope you're well again now and progressing with your studies again.
Why wouldn't you recommend Rosetta Stone? I've tried out the Russian version and it seems quite reasonable to me. Which version did you use? Well, I've been using MT for Russian for a bit now, and I recently tried out their Japanese course. The Russian course was well worth it for me, and I'm impressed with it, all up, but I have to say I was rather disappointed with their Japanese course. I suppose, like in a real classroom situation, it all depends on the teacher. I might listen to some more of the Japanese though, and see if things improve.
Would you be able to recommend some simple reading online in Japanese? I'm still not at the level where I can read a typical Japanese text, even with the Kanji dictionary (I use Perapera-kun, an updated version of Rikai-chan).
No problem, I think I'm adequately equipped for the time being. PS. If you've started yet, how's the Russian going? Edited by farrioth on 07 December 2008 at 3:02am 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 8 of 27 27 December 2008 at 5:56pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Christmas really kept me away from my computer, so I am late starting TAC, but I shall continue on anyway.
Farrioth: I don't remember the version of Rosetta Stone I tried however I didn't think it provided as much depth as I would like even as a beginning tool. Maybe my style of learning is a bit different to what Rosetta Stone wants which is why I didn't get on too well with it. I honestly cannot think of any simple reading online I have done. I pursued mainly through books and read the news online, possibly this may be of some use as it is a fairly non-complex stories. http://www.genpaku.org/alice01/alice01j.html#ch1 http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000148/files/773_14560.html I have yet to start my Russian yet, however have downloaded the Princeton you reccommended, so will start it shortly. December 27th So my first day of TAC and only two languages studied, will do better once I have got over Christmas. Japanese: Read the news on Biglobe and then went to watch any other articles of news I could find on Yahoo Japan. Read through a couple of short stories from Japanese Literature, very interesting reads. German: Listened to a few on Pimsleur to get me back into learning this language. Hopefully will breeze through Pimsleur to get back into the swing of things. Korean, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish: Nothing, tomorrow I will get stuck in. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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