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My Goals (Nov 2008 - June 2009) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| customic Tetraglot Groupie PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5872 days ago 44 posts - 66 votes  1 sounds Speaks: Polish*, English, German, Turkish Studies: Arabic (Written), Persian | Message 1 of 8 28 October 2008 at 1:34pm | IP Logged |
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Hi, I'm a student of English philology and these are my goals for the next 8 months:
- ENGLISH: study it every day, read a lot, speak a lot, try to listen to EuroNews every single day, study grammar and vocabulary, prepare for the Practical English Exam in June 2009 (level: C1) -- at least 30 minutes a day - German: revise grammar from the very beginning, start reading in German - at first articles (3-4 a week), then short novels, make wordlists, practice scriptorium as often as possible, listen to EuroNews in German (and other TV/Radio channels etc.), take an exam in May 2009 (level: B2) -- at least 1 hour a day, ideally would be 2 hours - LATIN: study its grammar and vocabulary, preferably for 30 minutes every other day - SPANISH: study it from the beginning for a sheer pleasure, learn basic vocabulary and grammatical structures, try the method of "shadowing", use scriptorium I made for myself a Study Chart in Excel, as to record every single hour of my intensive learning, to see if I fulfil my goals. I will write here regularly to inform of my progress. Wish me good luck and a lot of strong will :) Edited by customic on 28 October 2008 at 1:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Aquedita Triglot Senior Member Poland myspace.com/aqueda_v Joined 6006 days ago 154 posts - 164 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 2 of 8 28 October 2008 at 1:55pm | IP Logged |
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Hej! :)
Witamy na forum odpowiednim dla ciebie, możesz czuć się jak u siebie w domu. Plany ambitne, nie powiem. Jak rozumiem łacina przydaje się na anglicystyce? Mogę spytać w jakim mieście studiujesz? Będę trzymała kciuki szczególnie za ten hiszpański, bo kocham melodię tego języka. Your English is so good, you don't need to worry about anything ;) Cheers, Agi Edited by Aquedita on 28 October 2008 at 1:56pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| J-Learner Senior Member Australia Joined 6022 days ago 556 posts - 636 votes Studies: Yiddish, English* Studies: Dutch | Message 3 of 8 28 October 2008 at 3:40pm | IP Logged |
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Yes it is good.
One thing I suggest is that you listen different accents of English. If you listen to British, go listen to some Australian or some American for a while. I can recommend SBS news for Australian news but there are many others. Also there are many podcasts by Aussies. Good luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| customic Tetraglot Groupie PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5872 days ago 44 posts - 66 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Polish*, English, German, Turkish Studies: Arabic (Written), Persian | Message 4 of 8 29 October 2008 at 5:07pm | IP Logged |
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I've got a friend in my group at the University, who comes from Australia, so I have
pretty much of the Australian accent during the courses ;) But when it comes to the American accent, I'd rather not to listen to it too much. I try to follow the British pronunciation and I sometimes make mistakes with pronuncing words in a non-British manner (especially words like "direction", "diversity" and other "di-" words) and my professor of phonology strictly forbids us to mix pronunciation patterns :) I've chosen the British one, so I must follow it consequently :P OK, I'm going back to studying, because there is still a lot to do, and I want to have something to be proud of, when I will tell you how much time did I spend on languages ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| customic Tetraglot Groupie PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5872 days ago 44 posts - 66 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Polish*, English, German, Turkish Studies: Arabic (Written), Persian | Message 5 of 8 01 November 2008 at 3:55pm | IP Logged |
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I'm not very proud of myself... I think I waste my time. 8 days have already passed
since I decided to study languages more intensively (25.10-1.11) and... I didn't have much time or energy for learning. Partly because of not having enough time on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (it's when I attend courses at the University), partly because of the recent death of my grandfather (the burial took place yesterday) and partly because I didn't have enough strong will to pursue my goals. It takes a lot of time and will to change old habits, and I must learn to use my time more effectively. Do I really want to become a polyglot? Have I considered it seriously enough? It would require from me to have more energy and strong will in order to be able to study languages 3-5 hours a day. In this 8-day period (or 8-days?) I managed to study them for 1,5 hour a day. Theoretically, because there was a day when I just read in English for 15 minutes (it was the day I learnt about my grandpa's death, by the way...). Is it too hard for me? Am I not ... (insert any word you like) enough to study for 3-5 hours a day? If so, it would mean that being a polyglot is not for me. If I can't find enough time to improve my English and German and to fulfil my duties at the University, I should reconsider my life aim once again. Should it be learning languages? I'm sorry for the pessimism today, but I have enough of everything for now. Too much to do, too many things to think of and... Am I stupid, or too ambitious? Let me have a rest for a bit... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| TheElvenLord Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6072 days ago 915 posts - 927 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Cornish, English* Studies: Spanish, French, German Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 6 of 8 01 November 2008 at 4:24pm | IP Logged |
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Hey
No one can blame you for taking some time out for things like a funeral, so don't worry about it. There are some things we must miss language studying for. Such things like that. If you want to be a polyglot, don't beat yourself up over not doing 3-5 hours of studying, just try to add it on. And to be honest, I don't think anyone except the most disciplined linguists will be able to do 3-5 hours a day language study like that. If you listen to podcasts on your way to university, use flashcards while sitting around, run a dialogue through your head (or a news podcast script (Yes, I have been sad enough to memorize these)) while you are in the lift, or waiting in a queue. Basically, any time you can study language, USE them. It will all add up. Doing 3 hours of solid studying (as in, with Assimil, or something else) even in chunks would be impossible for me. But, listening to a 10 minute Chinese pod or listening (in my head) to an Assimil dialogue or something like that adds up to about an extra 1 hour per day. So in summary: a) try to do smaller things utilising "hidden moments" b) Don't worry about taking a day off for something like that - just make sure you get back on track ASAP c) Try and up your hours little by little, so instead of jumping from, lets say, 1 hour to 3 hours, do 1 hour one day, then 1 hour 15 mins the next, then 1 and 1/2 hours, then 1 and 3/4 hours etc. until you read 3 hours - and if you feel that you need to get used to, say, doing 2 and 1/4 hours a day, just stay on that until you are comfortable, and then start going up again. Hope this helps Good luck! TEL 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6431 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 7 of 8 01 November 2008 at 5:17pm | IP Logged |
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I'll pass on the advice Professor Arguelles gave me: if you're not used to systematic study, set aside half an hour at the same time each day and study then, and gradually increase it.
My personal two cents: it's not easy to jump into doing 3 hours a day, every day, directly from nothing/irregular study. It's also quite useful to integrate your languages into your life (read websites in them, listen to music in them, watch movies in them - whatever you do with your native language); this is most effective (I find) when mixed with something more study-oriented than by itself, but it's better significantly better than doing nothing, and things like listening to music on an mp3 player in a language you're learning can easily slip into time you'd otherwise not be doing anything in your target languages in. What you have described is not a personal failing, any more than not being able to go into the gym and lift weights as heavy as the most experienced lifters there is - you simply have to start where you are, and continue working until you get where you want to be. You're probably nowhere near your limit right now, as you sound like you're just getting started. Your English is coming along well; reading your most recent post, I was surprised that you counted reading in English as language study, because I'd forgotten you weren't a native English speaker (although some of your other posts do reveal that in minor points). Also, experiment and see what works for you. Personally, I find doing things like charting with spreadsheets to be unpleasant enough that it keeps me from studying (at most, I keep notes on paper) - people differ on this. And finally, with regard to your goals: you haven't started too late. Professor Arguelles was older than you when he started seriously studying languages, as was Kato Lomb. Powodzenia i sukceśow. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| customic Tetraglot Groupie PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5872 days ago 44 posts - 66 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Polish*, English, German, Turkish Studies: Arabic (Written), Persian | Message 8 of 8 09 November 2008 at 7:04am | IP Logged |
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TheElvenLord, Volte - thanks for your support! You are absolutely right in your pieces
of advice - it was too difficult for me to start with 6 hours a day of learning languages. Since I wrote my last post, I've started to listen to news in German every day (thanks to Deutsche Welle, I am able to download their slowly-spoken news reports and listen to them on my mp3-player - that really adds up to one extra hour a day of learning German!). And I understand more and more with every day - that's amazing! I also began using Pimsleur course in Spanish and I plan to begin the same course in German (although I don't feel very well about it that I will have to practice things like "Guten Morgen" for at least 5 first lessons... Should I skip them?) And, on Thursday, I learnt languages for over 4 hours! Of course it was divided into smaller chunks of 30 minutes, but it is still something extraordinary for me. One thing is certain - since I visited this page and this forum, I began to learn languages in a very different way and now I know, that it's up to you if you learn language well or not. Now I feel more confident about it and I know that I don't need a teacher to teach me a language - I can do it better. And quicker. And more effectively. Edited by customic on 09 November 2008 at 7:04am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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