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So I kind of like languages... | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| goosefrabbas Triglot Pro Member United States Joined 6366 days ago 393 posts - 475 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German, Italian Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 48 20 September 2008 at 10:21pm | IP Logged |
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So I've finally decided to make a log. It seems like it would help me stay more focused and motivated and it would allow me to get suggestions and advice more easily. I'm currently studying Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Catalan. I'm not doing much independent study for Spanish and French right now because I'm taking a Spanish literature class, a French literature class, and an advanced French grammar and composition class at my college. Both of my French classes are immersion-style, so I'm learning a lot just from being there. My Spanish class is unfortunately about half in Spanish and half in English, but I have friends with whom I speak Spanish outside of class and there's a Spanish tv channel that I can get at school, so it's not too bad. As for German and Italian, I had studied them for a while and took a long break, and I'm getting back into them. As of the day of starting this log, I'm on lesson 17 and lesson 20 of Assimil's German With Ease and Italian With Ease, respectively. I decided to take up Catalan because I found out that a Spanish professor at my school speaks Catalan, so it seems like a great opportunity to learn this relatively easy language (since I've already learned Spanish to a decent level). I'm on lesson 3 of Assimil's El Catalan Sin Esfuerzo.
With all that being said, I don't have A LOT of time to devote to language learning. I'm taking a heavy courseload at my college, but fortunately half of my classes are language classes. I plan on completing one lesson in each of the Assimil courses each day, and hopefully I can fit in some other learning somehow. Any advice, helpful resources, encouragement, or anything at all would be GREATLY appreciated! Edited by goosefrabbas on 08 July 2009 at 6:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Talabí Diglot Newbie Venezuela Joined 5910 days ago 25 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Italian | Message 2 of 48 20 September 2008 at 10:40pm | IP Logged |
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Congrats my friend! I think it's very difficult to learn that amount of languages at the same time, and you seem to deal with them very well. Keep on the good work!
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| goosefrabbas Triglot Pro Member United States Joined 6366 days ago 393 posts - 475 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German, Italian Personal Language Map | Message 3 of 48 21 September 2008 at 9:14pm | IP Logged |
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Since creating this thread, I've gone through lessons 20 and 21 of Italian With Ease, lessons 17 and 18 of German With Ease, and lessons 3 and 4 of El Catalán Sin Esfuerzo. So far everything in Catalan seems pretty easy, but I'm not understanding this. "vaig venir" in Catalan = "vine" in Spanish. "Vaig" means "voy", but when used before an infinitive, the two verbs form a preterit tense? Can anyone clear this up for me?
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| Talabí Diglot Newbie Venezuela Joined 5910 days ago 25 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Italian | Message 4 of 48 22 September 2008 at 2:00am | IP Logged |
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No sería algo como "Vas a venir"? I don't know anything about catalan, but since I'm a Spanish speaker, it seems quite close to that expression in Spanish...
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| goosefrabbas Triglot Pro Member United States Joined 6366 days ago 393 posts - 475 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German, Italian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 48 22 September 2008 at 11:06am | IP Logged |
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That's what I thought, but apparently it anar (to go) + infinitive = past tense. I looked online for info, but I can't find much about Catalan anywhere.
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| goosefrabbas Triglot Pro Member United States Joined 6366 days ago 393 posts - 475 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German, Italian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 48 22 September 2008 at 9:38pm | IP Logged |
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I went to my university's library today and found a lot of books on Catalan, but most of them were IN Catalan. But I did find a few grammars, and I found that anar + infinitive is about the same as the Spanish preterit or the French passé simple. I couldn't find anything about a construction similar to Spanish's "ir a + infinitive" for the future tense, but maybe I'll find that later on. I'm also trying to find out if there are rules to pronunciation for a certain sound. Sometimes 'a' and 'e' sound like uh, but I haven't been able to find a pattern to it yet. And other than the 'x' sound, which isn't all that hard (it's like the German 'ch'), Catalan pronunciation seems to be really simple. I completed lesson 5 of Assimil Catalan.
I completed lesson 22 of Assimil Italian, and lesson 19 of Assimil German. The lessons are getting progressively longer and more difficult, but still it's nothing too hard. I also got a hold of Michel Thomas' German course, so I can start that pretty soon. I've been finding that it's a lot easier for me to concentrate on numerous languages than just on one or two. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| goosefrabbas Triglot Pro Member United States Joined 6366 days ago 393 posts - 475 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German, Italian Personal Language Map | Message 7 of 48 24 September 2008 at 11:42pm | IP Logged |
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In the past two days I’ve done:
German – Lessons 20 and 21 in Assimil, and the first CD of Michel Thomas. Italian – Lessons 23 and 24 in Assimil Catalan – Lessons 6 and 7 in Assimil 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| goosefrabbas Triglot Pro Member United States Joined 6366 days ago 393 posts - 475 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German, Italian Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 48 28 September 2008 at 7:47pm | IP Logged |
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So my roommate accidentally took my books home for the weekend, so I was unable to go through any more Assimil. However, "Teach Yourself Catalan" came in Friday, and I received it today. I also bought "Teach Yourself Hindi". I suppose starting Hindi would be overdoing it, but I won't dedicate much time to it. There are 18 lessons, so one a week should be a good pace... or more if they're easy. I've never used the TY series before, so I'll see. I don't expect that the TY series will be too difficult. Anyway, I plan on going through TY Catalan however I can. I haven't looked at it yet, but I'll probably start later tonight or tomorrow. Tonight I just plan on reviewing the past week's lessons in Assimil German, Italian, and Catalan, since I didn't do any studying this weekend.
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