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20 in 20 - learning log of the deranged | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5737 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes  Studies: French | Message 97 of 138 18 March 2010 at 4:51am | IP Logged |
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Ich möchte etwas essen…
(I would like something to eat…) German - my main meal Still working on Michel Thomas, Beginners (Foundation) course, finished Disc 5 and am partway through Disc 6. I listen to each lesson, and then collectively each disc, an absurd number of times before moving on, with the result that while the information gets sunk in very very firmly, I am in no danger of setting any land speed records in terms of how fast I complete this. I will no longer be continuing with Pimsleur, given that Netlibrary no longer carries it: I have already run through my stock of Pimsleur I materials at hand and the local libraries here have just the very basic introductory Pimsleur materials. I have decided to just stick with one set of materials until completion before moving on, instead of working concurrently through different language materials as I was doing. While only some of the following will get completed by August 11th and the rest will need to be eaten subsequently during the following year for maintenance / improvement purposes, my settled intention is to work at least one hour per day through the following, in the following order: Michel Thomas, Beginners (Foundation) course Warum Nicht, Series 1 and 2 FSI, Programmed Introduction Warum Nicht, Series 3 and 4 BBC, German Steps FSI, Basic Michel Thomas, Advanced German BBC, Talk German German.about.com (the lesson series) Germanpod101.com Fokus Deutsche A novel in German, with audio (possibly Verne's 20.000 Meilen unter dem Meer courtesy of Librivox.com) French - à la recherche des repas perdus I have been trying to spend at least thirty minutes per day, five or six days per week on French for improvement purposes. Recently this has mostly just involved listening to the radio, which is less than what is needed. Much of what was planned for my French year did not get accomplished, so I am scheduling for completion by July 2011 the following, in the following order: Le petit prince - this time I really mean it Michel Thomas - quick run through Beginners (Foundation) course, just to clear any cobwebs FSI, Basic French Michel Thomas, Advanced (previously mostly worked through, but not all of it remains internalized) French.about.com - finish working through the 20 week course En attendant Godot (a translation project) French in Action (the videos) A novel in French, with audio Japanese - presently just a morsel. soon an exotic meal I have just finished reviewing the first 120 kanji that I had looked at previously from Heisig's Remembering the Kanji, Volume 1. I plan on keeping a very close eye on these ponies - I am determined not to let any escape the memory corral. I am disappointed that I will not get through Heisig's entire collection of kanji before starting Japanese in August, but if I continue with ten kanji a day, five or six days a week as presently planned, I should get through more than half of the 2042 kanji by then. Also, I have been briefly practising kana (recognition and production) at least every second day. I still have no solid plan as to what materials I will be studying to actually learn the language beginning in August. Miscellaneous languages - a pleasantly distracting amuse-bouche I hope, time permitting, to move forward with the Quickfix language plan previously discussed. I am refreshing Albanian this week and practising the Cyrillic alphabet just to keep it ready to go. Basque is still lined up in the hopper. Edited by Spanky on 18 March 2010 at 5:40am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5474 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 98 of 138 18 March 2010 at 3:45pm | IP Logged |
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Spanky, I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. It's impressive that you're taking the opportunity to dedicate yourself
with new determination to your language studies, though! The basic-words-in-36-languages project sounds awfully tempting... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5737 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 99 of 138 15 April 2010 at 5:38am | IP Logged |
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Thanks Jinx, much appreciated. I have been feeling dispirited by a combination of circumstances and accordingly am taking some time away from language study.
The quick fix 36 languages thing is fun - partly just a memory dump but it is great fodder for the occasional wanderlust - a very quick glimpse at a series of different (mostly European) languages: BBC Quick Fix Languages Edited by Spanky on 15 April 2010 at 7:13am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5737 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 100 of 138 04 August 2010 at 1:05am | IP Logged |
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I have dreaded coming back to the shores of this log, battered as they are with the broken shards of failed learning efforts of the past. I have decided, however, that it is time to quit goofing off and get back to it. I have re-organized my priorities, and shortly will be returning to study French, and will hopefully soon be writing a bit more directly in French for the practice (corrections gratefully received, by the way).
I hope to improve my poor French to the point where I will be competent to get by with all necessary tourist-related functions by next summer for our long-threatened holidays to France, which had to be postponed from this summer. At present, I continue to speak French comme une vache espagnole ("like a Spanish cow" - which apparently is something the French say). Edited by Spanky on 04 August 2010 at 1:39am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5737 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 101 of 138 04 August 2010 at 7:47am | IP Logged |
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Yikes! I am a complete idiot - I have deleted my previous post - turns out "Putin" en français is "Poutine", which struck me as wrong but is not. Edited by Spanky on 04 August 2010 at 4:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5737 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 102 of 138 05 August 2010 at 10:37pm | IP Logged |
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Enfin, comme j’ai promis : dans cette note, il n’y a pas d’anglais; elle est ecrite seulement et totalement en français. Or at least as close to actual French as I am able to achieve. Hopefully my writing ability will improve over time. I am hoping to go from “mostly confusing with a healthy dose of embarrassing thrown in for good measure” at present to “superbe” by next summer. In aid of this goal, I would be most grateful for any corrections, suggested improvements, et cetera: tous les deux les grosses fautes et on peut chercher la petite bête aussi.
A la prochaine Edited by Spanky on 05 August 2010 at 10:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5737 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 103 of 138 30 August 2010 at 6:46pm | IP Logged |
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Okay, the summer continued to be a bit awkward for various reasons, but I am determined to restart this clunky project. Remarkably little was accomplished during the first two years but my hopelessly naïve optimism remains undaunted.
Current medium-range planning (beginning now, coinciding with the school year): Year 3 - French (encore une fois, but this time I really mean it) Year 4 - German (hopefully some of the previous studying left some lasting impressions) Year 5 - Japanese Year 6 - Spanish Year 7 - Russian During years 3 and 4, I will be tinkering with Japanese - keeping the kana fresh by learning perhaps 25 words per week via hiragana and katakana and learning the kanji by studying perhaps 25 kanji per week from Heisig's Remembering the Kanji. Hopefully this will result in my being able to start studying Japanese in Year 5 with some measure of comfort with the writing systems and approximatley 2500 words of vocabulary in hand. During years 5 and 6, I will be pre-learning some Russian vocabulary in Cyrillic, perhaps 25 words per week, with the goal of being able to start studying Russian in year 7 with a working vocabulary of 2500 words and complete comfort in reading/writing in Cyrillic. Edited by Spanky on 30 August 2010 at 6:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5737 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 104 of 138 05 September 2010 at 6:06pm | IP Logged |
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I am using this spot to dump internet links to learning sites, just for my ready use (I
will add to it as I go along): PID=259967&PN=0&TPN=13">HTLAL - language exchange suggestions LingQ LingQ - have not tried yet, may look into it: http://www.lingq.com/ proficiency tests - various languages Kana sites with audio: languageguide.org Smart.fm HTLAL - text to audio Edited by Spanky on 30 December 2010 at 6:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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