NeonQwerty’s Italian and German thread (Language Learning Log) Language Learning Forum

NeonQwerty’s Italian and German thread
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Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log

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neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5973 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes Speaks: French, English Studies: Spanish	Message 121 of 206 29 June 2009 at 6:41am \| IP Logged
	What a difference a week makes... Today I got back into my studies with renewed vigor. I reviewed last week's vocabulary for about 85 minutes and watched TV for the remaining 35. As far as the vocabulary is concerned, I ended up going over all the words twice, and it was very, very helpful in increasing both my competence and my confidence. The TV was interesting in one sense.. Content-wise, I was pretty bored, but I did seem to find it easier. What was really interesting was how it felt when I realized that it was getting to be easier. In order to explain, here's an analogy. When I was younger, I played a bit of basketball with other neighborhood teens. I'd occasionally go to the park where the "serious" games would take place (the kind that either bruise or pump up your ego), but I'd mostly just play with friends in one of our driveways. One summer, for some reason, I just started practicing in a very disciplined manner. I'm not really sure what brought it on, but the motivations are beside the point. The point is that I eventually went back to the park, mostly out of boredom. I played a game, and for a little while I honestly could not understand why these people, these same people who were much better than me at the beginning of the summer, were moving so slowly. I eventually realized that they just seemed slower because I got much better at the game. It was sort of like that today... I don't feel appreciably better in Italian than I did a few weeks ago, or even a few months ago. It just feels as though newscasters are using progressively simpler and simpler words. "I'm not improving, but the rest of the world is getting simpler". This is obviously absurd from an intellectual standpoint, but emotionally, it's important. Why write all this? For three reasons. First, it's an account of how I felt today, and dammit, this is my blog. Second, I think it's interesting for its own sake. Third, the practical implication of all this is that we really shouldn't let our confidence level get in the way of actually using our language. I felt about as confident today as I did a few weeks and a few months ago. In other words, my skill level increased pretty dramatically, but my confidence level remained more or less stable. My confidence level is basically no longer an accurate indicator of my skill level, so funnily enough, I probably should deliberately have less confidence in my confidence! :-D Finally, I decided to go over my profile and update some things, and in doing so, the website has decided that I'm trilingual. How about that! :-) 1 person has voted this message useful
neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5973 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes Speaks: French, English Studies: Spanish	Message 122 of 206 30 June 2009 at 12:11am \| IP Logged
	Today was quite good! I did vocabulary for about an hour, and while it was a bit exhausting, I got well over 100 words down. Note to self: do not do vocabulary immediately after working out. That time should be nap time. The other hour was a mix of three things: some TV watching (which I stopped out of boredom), some book reading on the bus (which I really enjoyed), and some article reading at http://temi.repubblica.it/limes/ (which was okay, but surprisingly not that interesting) I may just default to reading my book when I'm not studying vocabulary. It keeps my interest and is relatively simple 1 person has voted this message useful
neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5973 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes Speaks: French, English Studies: Spanish	Message 123 of 206 01 July 2009 at 4:28am \| IP Logged
	Ho fatto forse cento minuti di vocabulario oggi. Ho anche riguardato venti minuti di TV Italiano. Perché scrivo in Italiano oggi? Non so la ragione. Sono un po annoio. :-) ... N,B,: Spero che ho scritto che "I am bored" e non "I am boring". :-P 1 person has voted this message useful
ChiaBrain Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5618 days ago 402 posts - 512 votes Speaks: English, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Italian, French Studies: German	Message 124 of 206 01 July 2009 at 5:38am \| IP Logged
	Qwerty! Glad to see you're back! I love reading this journal of yours. You do a great job of describing what your going through not just what you did. I need to get regular with my exercise and Italian studies myself and its inspiring to read your posts. Welcome back! Benvenuto! 1 person has voted this message useful
neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5973 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes Speaks: French, English Studies: Spanish	Message 125 of 206 02 July 2009 at 5:19am \| IP Logged
	Thanks, Chia. It's great to hear from you again, and I really appreciate the encouragement. I hope your own studies are going well. :) Today I watched 10 minutes of news before getting really bored. I read the rest of the time. Maybe 20 minutes of Limes (see my previous post), and 30 minutes of a much more interesting website: http://www.anarca-bolo.ch/a-rivista/ It's the online edition of an anarchist magazine, and since I'm a political theory student who happens to be especially interested in anarchism, this is very lovely! I did vocabulary for 70 minutes; I went a bit "over" because I wanted to finish off the chapter I was working on. That's it! But I should mention that my interest in anarchism does not necessarily constitute an endorsement. I should also mention that the previous sentence does not necessarily constitute a repudiation. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful
ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5804 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German	Message 126 of 206 02 July 2009 at 9:05am \| IP Logged
	Keep up the good work Neonqwerty, I enjoy your log. Nice to see you making progress, and nice to see someone who is enthused about their language learning adventure. Thom. 1 person has voted this message useful
neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5973 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes Speaks: French, English Studies: Spanish	Message 127 of 206 03 July 2009 at 6:25am \| IP Logged
	Thanks, Thom; I really enjoy your log too, and the encouragement is really nice. Today: 60 minutes vocab 30 minutes audio 25 minutes reading 5 minutes TV Discoveries: studying is harder when you're low-carbing 1 person has voted this message useful
neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5973 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes Speaks: French, English Studies: Spanish	Message 128 of 206 04 July 2009 at 6:03am \| IP Logged
	Today: -My vocabulary hour went well; I got over 100 words down, although a higher than average percentage of them were very similar to English or French words that I already knew -Today was a busy day for me, so I listened to two half hour new podcasts as I ran errands. The first, on the the new EU legislation pertaining to the size of fruits and vegetables that can be sold in European markets, was surprisingly interesting. The second didn't really command my attention; it was an overview on how Obama differs from Bush in foreign policy. In fairness to myself, it would have been hard for me to focus intensely even had the podcast been in English. So in a sense, it's the best of all possible worlds: I got a chance to experience listening quite carefully, as well as listening passively (which I'm sure has some benefits if done as a relatively modest percentage of total study time). Tomorrow is my mandatory day off. So see you Sunday, when I review this week's vocabulary! 1 person has voted this message useful

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neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5973 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes Speaks: French, English Studies: Spanish	Message 121 of 206 29 June 2009 at 6:41am \| IP Logged
	What a difference a week makes... Today I got back into my studies with renewed vigor. I reviewed last week's vocabulary for about 85 minutes and watched TV for the remaining 35. As far as the vocabulary is concerned, I ended up going over all the words twice, and it was very, very helpful in increasing both my competence and my confidence. The TV was interesting in one sense.. Content-wise, I was pretty bored, but I did seem to find it easier. What was really interesting was how it felt when I realized that it was getting to be easier. In order to explain, here's an analogy. When I was younger, I played a bit of basketball with other neighborhood teens. I'd occasionally go to the park where the "serious" games would take place (the kind that either bruise or pump up your ego), but I'd mostly just play with friends in one of our driveways. One summer, for some reason, I just started practicing in a very disciplined manner. I'm not really sure what brought it on, but the motivations are beside the point. The point is that I eventually went back to the park, mostly out of boredom. I played a game, and for a little while I honestly could not understand why these people, these same people who were much better than me at the beginning of the summer, were moving so slowly. I eventually realized that they just seemed slower because I got much better at the game. It was sort of like that today... I don't feel appreciably better in Italian than I did a few weeks ago, or even a few months ago. It just feels as though newscasters are using progressively simpler and simpler words. "I'm not improving, but the rest of the world is getting simpler". This is obviously absurd from an intellectual standpoint, but emotionally, it's important. Why write all this? For three reasons. First, it's an account of how I felt today, and dammit, this is my blog. Second, I think it's interesting for its own sake. Third, the practical implication of all this is that we really shouldn't let our confidence level get in the way of actually using our language. I felt about as confident today as I did a few weeks and a few months ago. In other words, my skill level increased pretty dramatically, but my confidence level remained more or less stable. My confidence level is basically no longer an accurate indicator of my skill level, so funnily enough, I probably should deliberately have less confidence in my confidence! :-D Finally, I decided to go over my profile and update some things, and in doing so, the website has decided that I'm trilingual. How about that! :-) 1 person has voted this message useful
neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5973 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes Speaks: French, English Studies: Spanish	Message 122 of 206 30 June 2009 at 12:11am \| IP Logged
	Today was quite good! I did vocabulary for about an hour, and while it was a bit exhausting, I got well over 100 words down. Note to self: do not do vocabulary immediately after working out. That time should be nap time. The other hour was a mix of three things: some TV watching (which I stopped out of boredom), some book reading on the bus (which I really enjoyed), and some article reading at http://temi.repubblica.it/limes/ (which was okay, but surprisingly not that interesting) I may just default to reading my book when I'm not studying vocabulary. It keeps my interest and is relatively simple 1 person has voted this message useful
neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5973 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes Speaks: French, English Studies: Spanish	Message 123 of 206 01 July 2009 at 4:28am \| IP Logged
	Ho fatto forse cento minuti di vocabulario oggi. Ho anche riguardato venti minuti di TV Italiano. Perché scrivo in Italiano oggi? Non so la ragione. Sono un po annoio. :-) ... N,B,: Spero che ho scritto che "I am bored" e non "I am boring". :-P 1 person has voted this message useful
ChiaBrain Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5618 days ago 402 posts - 512 votes Speaks: English, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Italian, French Studies: German	Message 124 of 206 01 July 2009 at 5:38am \| IP Logged
	Qwerty! Glad to see you're back! I love reading this journal of yours. You do a great job of describing what your going through not just what you did. I need to get regular with my exercise and Italian studies myself and its inspiring to read your posts. Welcome back! Benvenuto! 1 person has voted this message useful
neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5973 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes Speaks: French, English Studies: Spanish	Message 125 of 206 02 July 2009 at 5:19am \| IP Logged
	Thanks, Chia. It's great to hear from you again, and I really appreciate the encouragement. I hope your own studies are going well. :) Today I watched 10 minutes of news before getting really bored. I read the rest of the time. Maybe 20 minutes of Limes (see my previous post), and 30 minutes of a much more interesting website: http://www.anarca-bolo.ch/a-rivista/ It's the online edition of an anarchist magazine, and since I'm a political theory student who happens to be especially interested in anarchism, this is very lovely! I did vocabulary for 70 minutes; I went a bit "over" because I wanted to finish off the chapter I was working on. That's it! But I should mention that my interest in anarchism does not necessarily constitute an endorsement. I should also mention that the previous sentence does not necessarily constitute a repudiation. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful
ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5804 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German	Message 126 of 206 02 July 2009 at 9:05am \| IP Logged
	Keep up the good work Neonqwerty, I enjoy your log. Nice to see you making progress, and nice to see someone who is enthused about their language learning adventure. Thom. 1 person has voted this message useful
neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5973 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes Speaks: French, English Studies: Spanish	Message 127 of 206 03 July 2009 at 6:25am \| IP Logged
	Thanks, Thom; I really enjoy your log too, and the encouragement is really nice. Today: 60 minutes vocab 30 minutes audio 25 minutes reading 5 minutes TV Discoveries: studying is harder when you're low-carbing 1 person has voted this message useful
neonqwerty Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5973 days ago 229 posts - 239 votes Speaks: French, English Studies: Spanish	Message 128 of 206 04 July 2009 at 6:03am \| IP Logged
	Today: -My vocabulary hour went well; I got over 100 words down, although a higher than average percentage of them were very similar to English or French words that I already knew -Today was a busy day for me, so I listened to two half hour new podcasts as I ran errands. The first, on the the new EU legislation pertaining to the size of fruits and vegetables that can be sold in European markets, was surprisingly interesting. The second didn't really command my attention; it was an overview on how Obama differs from Bush in foreign policy. In fairness to myself, it would have been hard for me to focus intensely even had the podcast been in English. So in a sense, it's the best of all possible worlds: I got a chance to experience listening quite carefully, as well as listening passively (which I'm sure has some benefits if done as a relatively modest percentage of total study time). Tomorrow is my mandatory day off. So see you Sunday, when I review this week's vocabulary! 1 person has voted this message useful