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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6126 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes  5 sounds | Message 41 of 127 10 April 2009 at 4:02pm | IP Logged |
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My sentence-mining's going pretty well, and I have no problem whatsoever with my listening challenge. Moreover, the people around me seem to understand how important English is for me, so it helps. As I said, I have to sort of impose my decision on some of my relatives if I want to go all the way. I should listen to more news podcasts, but I figured I had better start out with random vocabulary, like "red worm" or "blackberry". It may seem silly, but most of the time I'll just have a wild guess and deduce the global meaning of a word thanks to the context, but that's it. Sentence-picking helps me make my English more natural. I mean, you can learn a lot from dictionaries, thesauruses and grammar books, but you have to copy native speakers if you want to express yourself like a native.
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| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6126 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 42 of 127 10 April 2009 at 6:15pm | IP Logged |
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My mom is dead convinced she'll be bilingual by the time I'm finished with my challenge, even if I haven't told her how much time I plan on doing all this. She told me she already felt more comfortable with English (she is a B1-B2 speaker of English) and that she thought she was "on her way to become bilingual". I answered "well, you'd be a scientific wonder, then!". Actually, she might end up fluent, as I translate part of what the people are talking about on the podcasts when I play some show on the loudspeakers, and she pays a lot of attention to the content of what I'm listening to - she is sort of nosy, but most of the time in a good way. However, she has it easy - it's not like overhearing a mp3 player is that difficult! That's also why I think that most people, including me, would do a lot better in many areas of their life if everything was ready-to-eat for their brain. Sometimes, the mere act of switching on something may be too much, so living the tube on or keeping those earphones make a big difference.
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| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6126 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 43 of 127 11 April 2009 at 12:13am | IP Logged |
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Doctor Who was fantastic, but that plus a bunch of other shows made me miss my daily target goal of American English by that much.
I'll have to go out for quite a long time on Sunday, and I won't be able to rake in the listening hours because I can't bring my mp3 player along. That worries me, as I'm afraid that taking a break that early would signify the end of the challenge. I only say around 10 words in English a day (if people request me to translate something, for example) and I sort of feel like the words roll off my tongue a tiny bit easier. However, it is insignificant, as I'm at the very beginning of my study plan. My flashcard-making plans have partly fallen through. I did make new ones, but not as many as I should have. Then again, as long as I keep on learning things, I'm on my way to native-like fluency. I had to take the bull by its horns and make flashcards with the most common units and measures. I'm sick and tired of not understanding weather forecasts or recipes! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6126 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 44 of 127 11 April 2009 at 12:47pm | IP Logged |
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My listening challenge is still going very well. I'm a little concerned about tomorrow afternoon because I'll have to sacrifice at least 2-3H of listening and work for various reasons. My mom wants me to try and repair the digital recorder because I'll miss so many shows, but I'm still queasy and there are many things I want to watch this afternoon. I guess I'll either repair the recorder and delete stuff so that there's enough space for 6 hours of TV or a vocabulary marathon. I'm caught in a dilemma again, there seems to be a pattern.
Moreover, these podcasts have to be taken care of, and I need to do more vocabulary and more reps in less time. Right now, it sort of seems impossible, especially because I said my daily word in English and still stumble upon the same sounds. I guess I'll have to stop trying out my English every 6 hours, because it doesn't do me any good. I could just stop the whole experiment right now, but I'm *that* far from celebrating my first 3-digit number, and I don't want to spoil that. I really need to cheer up and calm down - there will be many brickwalls on my way to native-like fluency. Still, it is flipping hard to go on when some people half expect you to stop. You can't feel guilty for standing up for yourself. Then again, I can't put a vast array of things in jeopardy just for the sake of English, can I? Every little helps, and I wish I were more regular. If I were a 100% sure I wouldn't abandon when I'm in the middle of a really important task, I'd allow myself to chill out more and take a day off. I can't resent people for things they aren't responsible for. Right now, I could be doing drills instead of writing here, so I *do* have time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6126 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 45 of 127 11 April 2009 at 3:06pm | IP Logged |
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Kyle XY was really entertaining, and Scrubs incredibly hard to understand. I think I got around 50% of the first episode, and 70% of the second one. I'm still pretty dependent on the English subtitles, and since they didn't provide any for Scrubs, I struggled big time. Yet, I was kind of enjoying it, so I guess I'll be watching it every week from now on, and it'll get easier and easier. I have more than 4 hours to run various English-related errands, so I'll see what I can do.
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| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6126 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 46 of 127 12 April 2009 at 12:59pm | IP Logged |
Two goals:
Progression:
I felt like I didn't give myself enough credit for my listening immersion, so that's why I now have two separate goals. I'm aware of the fact that I did at least 1,000 more hours of listening since I started learning English, but conjectures aren't my thing, so I wanted to make sure I had got my numbers right. I found another goldmine of podcasts, and can now try out around 3,000 podcasts, which is awesome. I already have one or two favorites I come back to every chance I get. I'll have to look for more podcasts and to keep downloading! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6126 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 47 of 127 13 April 2009 at 3:16pm | IP Logged |
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Yesterday was a bit complicated, but I still managed to get 6 hours of American English. I did sacrifice some sleep for this endeavor, but you know how it is. I decided I'd watch some shows that are available on streaming websites, but I'm addicted to one of the podcasts about babies. I didn't get to watch Friends this morning, even if I woke up quite early. I'm holding on to my earphones today, I just can't be bothered to find something to listen to on the computer.
For some reason, I watch part of some episode of Doctor who I had already seen twice - that was quite a stupid move, but I was bored as hell and stuck with the TV. I'll re-make most of the flashcards I have so that I can include phonetics on them, because I'm sick and tired of learning words with the wrong pronunciation. However, that means I'll have to find more time to do that. I planned on hitting that "100 hours of American English" milestone today, but I doubt I'll manage 9 hours, especially because Doctor Who's on all the time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6126 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 48 of 127 14 April 2009 at 2:03am | IP Logged |
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I'm making my own pronunciation courses, and it's much better. I have to make more flashcards, though, because I didn't do a lot today. One of my new goals is to watch the first season of Friends and understand 99% of it, thanks to subtitles I can find on websites to go with the streaming websites.
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