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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 49 of 127 16 April 2009 at 12:08pm | IP Logged |
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Took a short break because all my earphones were broken. Bought new ones. Noticed improvement in my spoken English yesterday, I hadn't spoken English for more than a week. Method works!
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| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6126 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 50 of 127 17 April 2009 at 2:26pm | IP Logged |
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My computer's playing up, and my listening challenge is not going that well, but my pronunciation has improved dramatically since I started my 10K-hour plan. The letter R seems a bit easier to pronounce now, and I'm still applying the "shut up before you hurt yourself" policy. It's quite difficult because I love speaking English, and I'm like "the odd word shouldn't do any harm", but that's not true. I have to keep working, even if the vocabulary project is on hiatus.
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| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6126 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 51 of 127 18 April 2009 at 8:58pm | IP Logged |
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I don't really keep track of my listening hours any more - which is really bad - but I resumed my pronunciation challenge. I said a word with an R in it and pronounced it perfectly, so I'm quite satisfied with myself. That said, I am still in "shut up" mode. I currently have 500 words in my pronunciation database, and I intend on adding more words tomorrow. I should have a big collection in a month or two. My listening comprehension is better. Sadly enough, I'm battling with the vocabulary goal. I'm looking forward to the 250-hour milestone. I'll need two more weeks, but it's well worth it. Moreover, I don't need to be that hard on myself when it comes to counting the listening hours, because I watched an American show almost two times, and that amounts to 200ish hours already, that I haven't counted for various reasons (gives me a bit of leeway).
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| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6126 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 52 of 127 19 April 2009 at 12:53am | IP Logged |
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The "don't talk" is becoming really frustrating, because I *love* speaking English, but it does help. Besides, I'll have to talk next week anyway, so I'll take advantage of the "healing time" that's left. I've been listening to music lately - not rap, though - and it doesn't do me any good language-wise, quite the contrary. That's why I should cut it out, but it's hard. I mean, not enjoying some good rap is difficult enough, but most people need music. I heard some footage of a Russian guy who's married to an American and who sounds near-native, and native at times. This is only the result of a lot of exposure to the language. Weirdly enough, there's one single show about babies that really took my spoken English to the next level, but that's about it. I just can't find another decent podcast, so I'm trying to find the eps I haven't listened to yet - luckily enough, every other week there's a new show. I'm counting the challenge in days: when I hit 1460 days (= 10,000 hours) I'm done. Of course, it doesn't stop there - the more you work, the better you get. There will always be gaps to fill, sort of. Moreover, I doubt 10K hours will be enough. I've watched loads of British television - I was mainly reading the English subtitles, though - and even if my listening comprehension is very good, I'm still struggling. Now, I didn't keep track of all my hours - and that's very sad, because I always think I'm doing a lot when I'm really not. However, I'm pretty sure I got around 2K hours of listening, especially because I also had my lectures and seminars plus all the music (half British, half American). Oh and I've only been learning English for 6 years, and didn't care at all for around 3 years, so these figures aren't that impressive. That said, my American English is better than my British English - and I've had more exposure to English material, go figure. However, my British English is getting better, and it's a steady process. I hope I can sort of switch nicely enough one day.
I'm a little sad for various reasons, but I'm washing my feelings off with some interesting podcasts, and it seems to be working. I'll keep my eyes on the prize and hopefully win (not the lottery, but something money can't buy, so it's much sweeter!) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6126 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 53 of 127 19 April 2009 at 1:36pm | IP Logged |
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I lost the message I was writing but it's okay.
Listening challenge (American) : 141/10k Global listening challenge: 160ish/10k 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6126 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 54 of 127 19 April 2009 at 2:03pm | IP Logged |
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I'm super happy, I just found a treasure trove of podcasts about animals, especially dogs - and I love shows about dog training. Everything's American, which sweetens the deal :)
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| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6126 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 55 of 127 19 April 2009 at 3:51pm | IP Logged |
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I'm downloading the podcasts - I just watched Friends and I understood almost everything without subtitles, which feels really good. I need to make some space on my mp3 player, but everything seems worth listening to, so I guess I'll have to gather the necessary mental strength for such a task. I hate tidying up, but I found that the capacity of the device I buy isn't the problem (4GB or 8GB, same difference!). I have to define my priorities and decide whether a show is worth listening to or not *quick*. Half of the time, I'm just playing something as a background noise more than anything - that's why I have trouble deleting things. That said, I beat my consistency record. I had an epiphany a couple of days ago when I wrote the number "2" in the listening hours column: recording and organizing my success and failures forces me to do *something* during the day, even if it's 1 am. Oftentimes, I'll stay up really late - like yesterday - so as to rake in one more hour. I broke my "do not listen to that more than once" rule quite a few times, but I discovered that playing the same video around three times helps comprehension a lot when subs aren't available. I mainly struggle either when someone has a strong accent or when there's a cultural reference (names, places, etc).
Without subtitles, most British and American shows now seem quite easy to understand (80%-99% of what I hear is crystal clear). However, I want to raise these numbers - I'd like to buy several DVD boxsets, so I'll wait a few weeks because right now I haven't got enough money. I'm really looking forward to the summer vacation. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fairyfountain Senior Member Zimbabwe Joined 6126 days ago 254 posts - 248 votes 5 sounds | Message 56 of 127 20 April 2009 at 12:19pm | IP Logged |
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I finally decided on a good 4-year plan for vocabulary and pronunciation training. It isn't ambitious at all, so I'll probably change it along the way if it works, but since I'm already 18 days late with that, I'll try to catch up first.
Update:
Edited by fairyfountain on 20 April 2009 at 1:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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