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Rob’s language log 2008 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| polikaru Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6140 days ago 206 posts - 215 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, Italian, Dutch | Message 25 of 30 09 August 2008 at 12:14pm | IP Logged |
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Actually, I think that was a really good idea which you did, thanks for sharing.
polikaru 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| rob Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6157 days ago 287 posts - 288 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Norwegian, Mandarin | Message 26 of 30 11 August 2008 at 1:33am | IP Logged |
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Thanks :~)
After more studying, planning and thinking, I have decided not to continue with Farsi, Norwegian or Icelandic for now. This was a difficult decision, but I think I would like to become more proficient in Dutch before re-starting Norwegian. Icelandic will come after Norwegian. Farsi deserves more intensive study time, which I can't give it right now. But again, trying to do a bit of everything has shown me what is more important to me, so I'm happy with the results of the experiment. Japanese - I have started listening to Japanese on Lingq, I'm still studying for the JLPT 2 which I will take this December, but I'm not really worried about it as I have done some practice tests and gotten around 80% each time, so I'm feeling confident. I'm also studying for the Kanken level 5, which is quite a challenge. Reading kanji is fine, but converting katakana into kanji is a real nightmare! I'm not confident I will pass that test! 422.75 hours French - I've been reading and listening to a lot on Lingq, which says I now know 7500 words, and increasing every day, which I'm really amazed about. I'm now studying from a book which is geared towards the DELF A2 exam, which is perhaps aiming a little bit low but I'm not confident about my speaking abilities, so I decided to try something easy first, so I'm not overwhelmed by the exam. 192.75 hours German - I'm listening to a lot on Lingq, and I have to say that German sentence structure completely escapes me. I'm determined not to give up but it is really frustrating that many compound words aren't in the dictionary, and even if I understand every word in a sentence, I might not understand the overall meaning. I hope with time I will begin to understand more and more. 88.25 hours Russian - I'm now on lesson 16 of the Princeton course, which is going well. I'm also trying to listen to simple stuff on Lingq, which is also going pretty well, depending on the content. For me, I honestly believe Russian is easier than German. Maybe this is something to do with my learning style? I have no idea. 47 hours. Spanish - I'm exclusively listening to Lingq now and I can figure out a good deal of a real conversation, and I'm enjoying learning about the various countries of South America too. I'm getting really interested in Argentina. 24 hours. Dutch - Considering I only started this language this week, I have to say that I really love it. I don't know why, but the sound, the structure and the vocabulary really appeal to me. I hope there are no nasty surprising lurking around the corner with this one! 4 hours. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| rob Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6157 days ago 287 posts - 288 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Norwegian, Mandarin | Message 27 of 30 16 August 2008 at 9:06am | IP Logged |
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I've managed to cram in a lot of studying in my week off, which is great news. Worse news is that I'm struggling to decide whether or not to keep one language...
Japanese - I felt a bit discouraged when I took a practice test for the JLPT 2 from last year and only scored 56% I also thought perhaps I shouldn't bother taking the kanken, but since I've already paid for it... I've got to re-double my efforts with more reading and listening. 433 hours. French - Lingq now says I know over 9000 words, which is great to hear. I tried to read "Around the world in 80 days", but frankly it was just too difficult, so I'm back to listening to content where I understand around 90% of it. I also started listening to BBC radio Africa and reading BBC in French, and I find that I understand a good deal, which is very encouraging. Now I just need to improve my speaking... 203 hours German - This is the one I'm struggling with. I would really love to learn this language, and do it well, but I'm starting to doubt my motivations. Recently I've been telling myself to stick with it because it's such an important language in Japan, Europe and even the USA, which actually isn't a good reason to learn a language. A better reason would be "because I just really want to". I don't know, I might put this on temporary hold whilst I improve my other languages. But it seems like it'd be a shame to have wasted all that time. Lingq now says I'm around 1500 words. 94 hours. That's a lot of time to have wasted. I might just carry on with only 15 minutes a day... Russian - I'm now on Princeton unit 25. I now firmly recognise the conjugations of the present tense, the past, and forming the future with "going to + infinitive" type constructions. It's fun, but I still read slowly. I'm also really getting into Russian rock music. I'm also watching some short broadcasts on BBC Russian, but to be honest I'm not understanding a whole lot. But I think it's still good for exposure, if done in small doses. Lingq says I only know 323 words, but I'm limiting my content until I get used to it... 54 hours Spanish - I'm taking more of a natural approach with Spanish, using the conjugate function on the WordReference.com dictionary to figure out what form the verb is in. It's actually working out quite well, and I'm finding reading and listening to Spanish really fun. I find BBC Spanish radio more difficult to listen to than French, but I guess this should be an obvious point. Lingq says over 1600 words. 30.5 hours. Dutch - I'm going through Assimil really quickly. I'm now on unit 47. I also found a great site, 2BDutch or something, where you can watch various movies subtitled in Dutch and English. I've been watching Sesame Street, and it's amazing how educational Bert and Ernie can be! Their other kids programs are also very easy to understand and contain lots of very useful vocabulary. I'm also finding it very easy to understand generally - kind of like learning thickly accented Scottish English! 12.5 hours. My only problem lies in what to do with German... any ideas anyone? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| rob Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6157 days ago 287 posts - 288 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Norwegian, Mandarin | Message 28 of 30 24 August 2008 at 9:02am | IP Logged |
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This week I briefly considered taking up Farsi again, but I have strongly resolved to not do that for at least a few years, as I want to become good in the languages that are most important to me. Despite how interesting Farsi is, I wish to become proficient in these 6 languages. If I am to pick up any more languages, I shall wait until after I am proficient in Spanish, and then I shall choose Portuguese, then Italian. As I said, I am firmly resolved to come at this with an intelligent plan.
I have also settled in to my schedule of spending 1 hour per day on each language, plus some extra exposure time for Japanese as I am surrounded by it at work and whenever I turn on the TV. But I don't count that as study time, as if I don't understand something, I can't look it up, so I don't learn anything new. Japanese - I'm spending more time listening on Lingq, and I'm trying to listen to the harder content, which is great for vocabulary. I think vocabulary is my main weak point now, so I'm mainly working on that. Lingq = 6715 words (but the counting system isn't so good for Japanese). 448.75 hours French - My French teacher is giving me a chapter per week of a book written by a Belgian woman who taught French in Japan, so it's really interesting to read. Actually, a major weak point of mine is passe simple so it's especially good for working on that. My other weak point is speaking ability, so I hope to gradually improve that. I'm enjoying listening to and reading a lot though. I've been listening to more BBC Africa, and I'm happy to say that I understand a fair amount of it. Lingq = 9658 words. 211.25 hours. German - I'm glad I have resolved to stick with German. To re-motivate myself, I have been listening to lots of music, then I've been attentively reading the lyrics to learn vocabulary that way. I'm actually surprised that if I read something that's not too difficult, I understand a reasonable amount. If it's more simple content that I'm reading, then I can say that I'm getting used to the sentence structure. Maybe it's because I started learning Dutch that this is less difficult now... anyway, I started to enjoy German again, so that's great news. Lingq = 1824 words. 98.5 hours. Russian - Ok, I take back what I said about Russian being easier than German. Of course this was a major exaggeration. I'm now on Princeton unit 39, but actually I haven't been looking at that so closely lately. I've been spending more time just reading and listening to Russian to get used to the words that I already know. This means a lot of repetitive listening to simple content in order to (very) slowly build my vocabulary. Luckily, the basic grammar is making sense a lot quicker than before, so I can definitely feel some improvement, even if my vocabulary hasn't increased much. I've also been listening to Russian music, which is great! I also watched some Sesame Street in Russian, which was fantastic. I forgot how much of a good learning tool Sesame Street actually is! Lingq = 391 words. 59.75 hours. Spanish - I've started to listen to longer conversations, and I find that I can understand a large amount of it when reading, but it's necessary that I read when listening otherwise I wouldn't have a clue. Also, I can understand the content that I am reading, but I feel I should perhaps study some of the grammar out of context, as conjugation isn't something I can do independently. Still, it's fun. Lingq = 2178 words. 37 hours. Dutch - I'm now on Assimil lesson 68. I was doing the second wave, but I stopped after lesson 5, with the justification that I want to finish Assimil faster, then I shall move on to Colloquial and Teach Yourself... maybe Linguaphone, and then I will focus on writing. But first, I want to get used to listening and reading. I can't believe I've only been learning Dutch for such a short time. I'm very happy with my progress, and I can see myself participating in Dutch forums in a year's time. 19.5 hours. Edited by rob on 01 September 2008 at 4:18am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| rob Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6157 days ago 287 posts - 288 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Norwegian, Mandarin | Message 29 of 30 01 September 2008 at 4:17am | IP Logged |
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Japanese - Recently, my Japanese lessons have consisted of going over vocabulary, which seems to be my main weak point. I'm studying for the JLPT 2, and kanji, grammar and listening are all no problem, but vocabulary seems to refuse to stick. I'm just going to hope that it does with a lot more reading and listening. Lingq = 8346 words, 463.25 hours
French - I told my French teacher that I would like to read two chapters of the book about the Belgian woman in Japan from now on, so today I accordingly got the next two chapters. Today, I had a 20 minute discussion which went reasonably well, so I'm happy with that. I'm enjoying continuing listening to BBC Afrique and various French music. My teacher also promised to lend me a movie next week, so I will attempt to successfully watch that. Does anyone have any suggestions for French TV shows? Lingq = 10373 words, 220.25 hours. German - I have started typing out my Assimil lessons and putting them in Lingq, which has been working well so far. I went through German with Ease once before, and I have Perfectionnement Allemand, which I haven't looked at yet, but I think I'm more motivated if it's imported on the computer. So, having started again, I'm on lesson 22 (not bad since I only started doing this 2 days ago). Lingq = 2279 words, 104.75 hours. Russian - I'm also importing Assimil into Lingq, which is good because I gave up doing Assimil a lot of times before, maybe because constantly translating from French, rather than concentrating on the Russian was a bit of a headache. So I think it's a lot more effective this way. I've stopped the Princeton course for now, because it was getting too grammar heavy. I know the grammar is very important, but I feel it's better to get a good grounding in a number of words before analysing the grammar, and I think Princeton was introducing too few new words for my liking. Lingq = 621 words, 65.75 hours. Spanish - The sound of Spanish has really gotten into my head now. Before, I was convinced the Spanish isn't as easy as people make it out to be, and that French was way easier. However, even though I know more French, I can now understand the idea that Spanish is easier. Again, I'm importing Assimil into Lingq, which is working very well, as again before I was concentrating too much on the French translation than the Spanish, so hopefully my level will go up much faster just concentrating on the Spanish. Lingq = 2576 words, 43.75 hours. Dutch - I have now finished Assimil, and I've started Teach Yourself for a different point of view, and already it has taught me things that Assimil didn't, so I see Professor Arguelles point about using different study materials. I'm on Teach yourself unit 4 now, and I also plan to move on to Colloquial after I finish this, for yet another view and to strengthen what I've already learned. I really need to find some good real resources, but the newspaper is too hard, and I haven't found many places which offer Sesame Street with Dutch subtitles! Again, does anyone have any suggestions for some good resources for the low-intermediate level? 26.25 hours. Others - For 15 minutes I decided to explore a little Finnish, as I thought I might want to study this at some point in the future. With this 15 minutes, I have decided for definite that I do want to study it at some point in the future. I also spent 15 minutes exploring Afrikaans, which I think it might actually be possible to not study at all, and just pick up something I am interested in and just start reading, after learning Dutch to a good level, obviously, but it seems like it doesn't need much studying. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| rob Diglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6157 days ago 287 posts - 288 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, Norwegian, Mandarin | Message 30 of 30 14 September 2008 at 7:20am | IP Logged |
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I shall be continuing my language blogging at this site: http://robg992.vox.com/
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