Heading Full-swing Into TAC 2010 (Language Learning Log) Language Learning Forum

Heading Full-swing Into TAC 2010
Tags: Dutch \| Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) \| Russian \| Spanish
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Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log

14 messages over 2 pages: 1 2 Next >>

FVerschoor Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6353 days ago 44 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English, Dutch Studies: Spanish, Russian	Message 1 of 14 30 November 2009 at 11:55pm \| IP Logged
	I figured it wouldn't hurt to get an early start on this next year's TAC challenge. Current Knowledge: -Dutch: Native language, but since I now live in America I do not speak it very much anymore. If I'm around native speakers, I do alright with the speaking portion - my writing is definitely not that great anymore, having moved when I was in 3rd grade. -Russian: Currently the language I'm focusing most on, I have taken one quarter of Russian at university so far, and would like to continue taking it. I can great people, say goodbye, simple questions, discuss locations (where, here, at home), use pronouns to refer to people and things, make things plural, and describing things. -Spanish: I took this language for 3 years in high school, I do not remember that much of it anymore, and would like to get this back to at least the level it was when I stopped learning it (preferably higher). Goals: -Dutch: Improve my spelling and vocabulary skills. Watch Dutch news, listen to Dutch radio, read Dutch books, and write to my family in Holland. -Russian: Increase vocabulary and grammar knowledge. Finish Начало Book One, The Penguin Russian Course, and my Russian grammar book (which I regrettably left at home last time, so I won't get that back till the middle of December). -Spanish: Finish my Spanish Made Simple and Complete Spanish Grammar textbooks. Listen to Spanish music and watch videos. Improving vocabulary is my big goal. This is still somewhat vague because if I plan things out too much I tend to get bored very easily. This can easily change, so please check back often and give me any suggestions that you may have. :) 1 person has voted this message useful
Veqq Newbie United States Joined 5476 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Swedish, Indonesian, German	Message 2 of 14 01 December 2009 at 2:37am \| IP Logged
	I am the same way with planning things out, in allot of ways I think I like to plan out more than actually do that which I am planning. Since we are doing mostly the same languages, I think we can push each other to continuing on them pretty well. :) 1 person has voted this message useful
FVerschoor Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6353 days ago 44 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English, Dutch Studies: Spanish, Russian	Message 3 of 14 01 December 2009 at 8:35am \| IP Logged
	Monday, November 30, 2009 A bad start to this log. :P Finals week is coming up, so I've been spending most my time studying for classes. I had my hour long Russian class today, where we reviewed Lesson 1 from Начало, and I also put quite a bit of that vocabulary into Anki. I also listened to both Russian radio (for about 1 hour) and Dutch music (about 1 hour) while working on my homework. 1 person has voted this message useful
FVerschoor Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6353 days ago 44 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English, Dutch Studies: Spanish, Russian	Message 4 of 14 01 December 2009 at 11:53pm \| IP Logged
	Tuesday, December 1, 2009 Today, a little better. I spent a hour in class and a hour on my own, going over Lesson 2 in Начало. During this time, I also wrote a paragraph and a dialog with the limited amount of knowledge I already have. Any suggestions and comments would be appreciated. Paragraph: "Здравствуйте. Меня зовут Фиона. Я женщина, студентка, и Американка. У меня есть брат, мать, и отец. Мы живём в Америка. У нас большой, красибый дом. Мой брат талантливый и энергичный. Он очень высокий. Моя мать хорошая и романтичная. Мой отец циничный." Dialogue: "Наташа: Здравствуйте, Саша. Саша: Здравствуйте, Наташа. Познакомтесь, это мои сёстры, Лиса и Наталя. Наташа: Очень рада. Лиса и Наталя: Очень приятно. Наташа: Вы студентки? Наталя: Лиса студентка. Я аспирантка. А тебя? Наташа: Я тоже студентка. Пока! Саша, Лиса, и Наталя: До свидания!!" I understand it's a little rough, and some of it I tried to put into the paragraph before we actually learned it in class... so hopefully it's all correct. Please let me know how I can smooth it out and make it seem more natural. Today I also finished inputting the vocabulary for Lessons 1 and 2 into Anki, so now I have something to review on that daily. I am also going to start putting in vocabulary for lesson 3, and phrases to help me figure out how grammar fits together. Sadly, I left my Penguin Russian and my Essential Russian Grammar books at home last time I visited and I won't get them back for another 2 weeks, so I am struggling to find good online resources to study with till then. So far I have the Princeton course as well as a bunch of websites. I will probably get started on those later tonight, after my residence hall meeting, and I will update you on my progress and what I like/don't like about the courses tomorrow. :) 1 person has voted this message useful
FVerschoor Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6353 days ago 44 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English, Dutch Studies: Spanish, Russian	Message 5 of 14 02 December 2009 at 8:56am \| IP Logged
	Tuesday, December 1, 2009 Another quick update.. just got access to Assimil's Russian Without Toil!! I am hoping to start on this tomorrow, as well as continuing with Teach Yourself Russian (which is the only Russian book that I currently have on campus). Haven't done any Spanish yet, sadly. I'm focusing majorly on Russian right now because my final for that is next friday - though I know I will do very well, it's easier to stay focused on Russian right now. I did listen to some Dutch music and talked to a Dutch speaker for a little while.. I am planning on getting a grammar book or at least some young adult fiction books to get a little more used to the language again. 1 person has voted this message useful
FVerschoor Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6353 days ago 44 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English, Dutch Studies: Spanish, Russian	Message 6 of 14 03 December 2009 at 7:34am \| IP Logged
	Среда второе декабра, 2009 / Wednesday, December 2, 2009 I did a lot of studying today, though to be honest I felt like I didn't learn that much. I think I need to learn better study techniques so that I can make better use of my time. Anyways, what I did today. I went to class, studied Lessons 1 and 2 of Начало because that's what our final is on next Friday. This was, obviously, slightly boring, as we had been doing the same things for the last 3 weeks, so I brought my computer and put phrases of the first 3 lessons of Assimil's Russian Without Toil 1951 into Anki. I also practiced 'declining' nouns (is that what you call it?) and made a bunch of sample sentences with vocabulary I already knew. ei. Мой дом дешёвый и плохой. Я не люблю мой дом. Это Джим. Он Американец и студент. Он любит чай. Она не любит чай. After I got out of class, I went back to my dorm room and studied basic Russian grammar. I studied verbs (past/present/future, imperfective, perfective), nouns (cases, gender), adjectives, and ordinal numbers. Though I can't use all of it in sentences yet, due to lack of vocab, I'm getting an idea how the different pieces of the puzzle fit together and that's really helping me. Picture of my notes... YAY PRETTY! During this whole time, I was listening to Radio Mayak online, and in between classes I was listening to Assimil lessons on my Zune. I think I need to work more on getting vocabulary. I can't do too much without vocab. I think what I'm going to do is find some easy texts and either translate them too or from Russian. If I translate them too Russian I'll have you guys tell me how close I am. :p So my goals for tomorrow: * Assimil * Anki * Find texts to translate * Audio input -radio and music Edited by FVerschoor on 03 December 2009 at 7:36am 1 person has voted this message useful
Anya Pentaglot Senior Member France Joined 5797 days ago 636 posts - 708 votes Speaks: Russian*, French^C1, English, Italian, Spanish Studies: German, Japanese, Hungarian, Sanskrit, Portuguese, Turkish, Mandarin Studies: Ancient Greek, Hindi	Message 7 of 14 03 December 2009 at 10:12am \| IP Logged
	Hello, FVershoor. Just a small correction of you dialog Наталя: Лиса студентка. Я аспирантка. А ты? Наташа: Я тоже студентка. Пока! " Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful
FVerschoor Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6353 days ago 44 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English, Dutch Studies: Spanish, Russian	Message 8 of 14 04 December 2009 at 2:23am \| IP Logged
	Thank you, Anya. I appreciate your correction. It helps me see just what I need to work on. :P 1 person has voted this message useful

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FVerschoor Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6353 days ago 44 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English, Dutch Studies: Spanish, Russian	Message 1 of 14 30 November 2009 at 11:55pm \| IP Logged
	I figured it wouldn't hurt to get an early start on this next year's TAC challenge. Current Knowledge: -Dutch: Native language, but since I now live in America I do not speak it very much anymore. If I'm around native speakers, I do alright with the speaking portion - my writing is definitely not that great anymore, having moved when I was in 3rd grade. -Russian: Currently the language I'm focusing most on, I have taken one quarter of Russian at university so far, and would like to continue taking it. I can great people, say goodbye, simple questions, discuss locations (where, here, at home), use pronouns to refer to people and things, make things plural, and describing things. -Spanish: I took this language for 3 years in high school, I do not remember that much of it anymore, and would like to get this back to at least the level it was when I stopped learning it (preferably higher). Goals: -Dutch: Improve my spelling and vocabulary skills. Watch Dutch news, listen to Dutch radio, read Dutch books, and write to my family in Holland. -Russian: Increase vocabulary and grammar knowledge. Finish Начало Book One, The Penguin Russian Course, and my Russian grammar book (which I regrettably left at home last time, so I won't get that back till the middle of December). -Spanish: Finish my Spanish Made Simple and Complete Spanish Grammar textbooks. Listen to Spanish music and watch videos. Improving vocabulary is my big goal. This is still somewhat vague because if I plan things out too much I tend to get bored very easily. This can easily change, so please check back often and give me any suggestions that you may have. :) 1 person has voted this message useful
Veqq Newbie United States Joined 5476 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Swedish, Indonesian, German	Message 2 of 14 01 December 2009 at 2:37am \| IP Logged
	I am the same way with planning things out, in allot of ways I think I like to plan out more than actually do that which I am planning. Since we are doing mostly the same languages, I think we can push each other to continuing on them pretty well. :) 1 person has voted this message useful
FVerschoor Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6353 days ago 44 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English, Dutch Studies: Spanish, Russian	Message 3 of 14 01 December 2009 at 8:35am \| IP Logged
	Monday, November 30, 2009 A bad start to this log. :P Finals week is coming up, so I've been spending most my time studying for classes. I had my hour long Russian class today, where we reviewed Lesson 1 from Начало, and I also put quite a bit of that vocabulary into Anki. I also listened to both Russian radio (for about 1 hour) and Dutch music (about 1 hour) while working on my homework. 1 person has voted this message useful
FVerschoor Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6353 days ago 44 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English, Dutch Studies: Spanish, Russian	Message 4 of 14 01 December 2009 at 11:53pm \| IP Logged
	Tuesday, December 1, 2009 Today, a little better. I spent a hour in class and a hour on my own, going over Lesson 2 in Начало. During this time, I also wrote a paragraph and a dialog with the limited amount of knowledge I already have. Any suggestions and comments would be appreciated. Paragraph: "Здравствуйте. Меня зовут Фиона. Я женщина, студентка, и Американка. У меня есть брат, мать, и отец. Мы живём в Америка. У нас большой, красибый дом. Мой брат талантливый и энергичный. Он очень высокий. Моя мать хорошая и романтичная. Мой отец циничный." Dialogue: "Наташа: Здравствуйте, Саша. Саша: Здравствуйте, Наташа. Познакомтесь, это мои сёстры, Лиса и Наталя. Наташа: Очень рада. Лиса и Наталя: Очень приятно. Наташа: Вы студентки? Наталя: Лиса студентка. Я аспирантка. А тебя? Наташа: Я тоже студентка. Пока! Саша, Лиса, и Наталя: До свидания!!" I understand it's a little rough, and some of it I tried to put into the paragraph before we actually learned it in class... so hopefully it's all correct. Please let me know how I can smooth it out and make it seem more natural. Today I also finished inputting the vocabulary for Lessons 1 and 2 into Anki, so now I have something to review on that daily. I am also going to start putting in vocabulary for lesson 3, and phrases to help me figure out how grammar fits together. Sadly, I left my Penguin Russian and my Essential Russian Grammar books at home last time I visited and I won't get them back for another 2 weeks, so I am struggling to find good online resources to study with till then. So far I have the Princeton course as well as a bunch of websites. I will probably get started on those later tonight, after my residence hall meeting, and I will update you on my progress and what I like/don't like about the courses tomorrow. :) 1 person has voted this message useful
FVerschoor Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6353 days ago 44 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English, Dutch Studies: Spanish, Russian	Message 5 of 14 02 December 2009 at 8:56am \| IP Logged
	Tuesday, December 1, 2009 Another quick update.. just got access to Assimil's Russian Without Toil!! I am hoping to start on this tomorrow, as well as continuing with Teach Yourself Russian (which is the only Russian book that I currently have on campus). Haven't done any Spanish yet, sadly. I'm focusing majorly on Russian right now because my final for that is next friday - though I know I will do very well, it's easier to stay focused on Russian right now. I did listen to some Dutch music and talked to a Dutch speaker for a little while.. I am planning on getting a grammar book or at least some young adult fiction books to get a little more used to the language again. 1 person has voted this message useful
FVerschoor Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6353 days ago 44 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English, Dutch Studies: Spanish, Russian	Message 6 of 14 03 December 2009 at 7:34am \| IP Logged
	Среда второе декабра, 2009 / Wednesday, December 2, 2009 I did a lot of studying today, though to be honest I felt like I didn't learn that much. I think I need to learn better study techniques so that I can make better use of my time. Anyways, what I did today. I went to class, studied Lessons 1 and 2 of Начало because that's what our final is on next Friday. This was, obviously, slightly boring, as we had been doing the same things for the last 3 weeks, so I brought my computer and put phrases of the first 3 lessons of Assimil's Russian Without Toil 1951 into Anki. I also practiced 'declining' nouns (is that what you call it?) and made a bunch of sample sentences with vocabulary I already knew. ei. Мой дом дешёвый и плохой. Я не люблю мой дом. Это Джим. Он Американец и студент. Он любит чай. Она не любит чай. After I got out of class, I went back to my dorm room and studied basic Russian grammar. I studied verbs (past/present/future, imperfective, perfective), nouns (cases, gender), adjectives, and ordinal numbers. Though I can't use all of it in sentences yet, due to lack of vocab, I'm getting an idea how the different pieces of the puzzle fit together and that's really helping me. Picture of my notes... YAY PRETTY! During this whole time, I was listening to Radio Mayak online, and in between classes I was listening to Assimil lessons on my Zune. I think I need to work more on getting vocabulary. I can't do too much without vocab. I think what I'm going to do is find some easy texts and either translate them too or from Russian. If I translate them too Russian I'll have you guys tell me how close I am. :p So my goals for tomorrow: * Assimil * Anki * Find texts to translate * Audio input -radio and music Edited by FVerschoor on 03 December 2009 at 7:36am 1 person has voted this message useful
Anya Pentaglot Senior Member France Joined 5797 days ago 636 posts - 708 votes Speaks: Russian*, French^C1, English, Italian, Spanish Studies: German, Japanese, Hungarian, Sanskrit, Portuguese, Turkish, Mandarin Studies: Ancient Greek, Hindi	Message 7 of 14 03 December 2009 at 10:12am \| IP Logged
	Hello, FVershoor. Just a small correction of you dialog Наталя: Лиса студентка. Я аспирантка. А ты? Наташа: Я тоже студентка. Пока! " Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful
FVerschoor Bilingual Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6353 days ago 44 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English, Dutch Studies: Spanish, Russian	Message 8 of 14 04 December 2009 at 2:23am \| IP Logged
	Thank you, Anya. I appreciate your correction. It helps me see just what I need to work on. :P 1 person has voted this message useful