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20 in 20 - learning log of the deranged | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6251 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes  Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 17 of 138 14 October 2008 at 2:41am | IP Logged |
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Go you! It's hard to study a language on your own, particularly if you haven't successfully studied a language yet and you're not sure what works for you or how success feels. That's why I recommend Esperanto as a first foreign language to many adult learners - it can be learned in 6 months, gives a good base of vocabulary and grammar understanding and takes away people's fear of not "having the talent" to study a language.
For your studies, also check out FrenchPod101 and GermanPod101 - these are short sessions kind of like radio shows, more entertaining than regular language-learning programs, and you can use them to keep studying a bit when you're not in the mood for a dry textbook. I can also recommend this whodunnit game to improve your French grammar. And if you're ever looking for an affordable private teacher to help you along, check out this promotion. Hope this helps! Good luck in your studies! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5775 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 18 of 138 14 October 2008 at 3:55am | IP Logged |
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Nice to see that you're still rocking on Spanky. Keep it up, and stay faithful to the French, the others can wait.
Thom. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5737 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 19 of 138 14 October 2008 at 10:00am | IP Logged |
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Thanks ExtraLean and Sprachprofi,
I am much too easily distracted to stay only with one language, although that was my original intent. French will definitely stay my main focus this year, but I am using the Japanese and German sort of as bribes right now for staying on track with the French studies. Many thanks Sprachprofi for the suggestions - I had noted frenchpod101 but was not aware that there was an equivalent for German - I will note that for the future. I had noticed the polarfle.com site from another of your recent posts, and ExtraLean, I am still working through your long list of French sites in another separate helpful post to another French learner. Thanks for all the information and well wishes! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5775 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 20 of 138 14 October 2008 at 10:40am | IP Logged |
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Don't forget to let other readers know which links helped you or not. I know I just dumped them all there, so it could help.
Thom. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5737 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 21 of 138 27 October 2008 at 2:03am | IP Logged |
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I am still poking around at lists and collections of French language internet learning resources (it is an extremely well-supported language in terms of internet learning sites). The ones I tend toward at present, for what it may be worth, include the following:
http://www.fsi-language-courses.com/French.aspx - link to FSI Phonology course (completed) and Basic (working through) courses. http://www.logoslibrary.eu/pls/wordtc/new_wordtheque.main_bi mbi?lang=fr - collection of stories in a wide variety of languages, a number of which are accompanied by audio, which is really what I am looking for. http://wordreference.com/ - French to English and English to French look-up feature, provides more than just a simple translate function by providing a detailed analysis, variant suggestions, idioms and there is a conjugaison de verbes function which is occasionally helpful. http://french.about.com/ - there are some nice sections including audo material, though it is a bit tricky navigating around to find it all. http://frenchpod.com/lessons and http://www.frenchpod101.com/index.php?cat=11&paged=5 - took me until just recently to realize that although similar in nature these are different sites, though have not been able to get frenchpod.com to work the last couple of days. I am working from the beginning through the free stuff from both simultaneously. Any Canadian federal government site - as both French and English are official languages here, pretty much everything official at the federal level is available in both French and English and I understand care is taken to ensure that the text in one language corresponds very closely to the text in the other (perceived advantage in one over the other and we have the threat of an unholy civil war) - look for the English/Francais toggle button generally at the top left corner of the menus across the top of the sites. See for example http://canada.gc.ca/home.html - once you toggle the Francais button the entire site transforms into French: http://canada.gc.ca/accueil.html An endless (trust me, endless) source of bilingual text material, official governmentalese sprache - the subject matter tends to be way dryer than dirt but I occasionally will take a paragraph, try to translate it (either F to E or E to F), and then flip the site to see how badly I have mangled things. The BBC languages site generally (lots of interesting stuff concerning a number of languages at http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/) and the French section of the site: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/ - I will be returning to the beginners' French Steps course in the near future and hopefully move onto some of their other stuff (Talk French and then Ma France) afterward. For Japanese (just dabbling at this point with the kana and soon kanji): kanjistep.com and http://www.iknow.co.jp/ - both have audio samples, so I can ensure that my pronunciation is correct, expect for the freakin "r" sounds which I have given up on entirely already. Edited by Spanky on 27 October 2008 at 2:08am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5737 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 22 of 138 27 October 2008 at 2:32am | IP Logged |
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Progress Report #11 - October 27, 2008
(Progress report #10 was written in invisible ink and is accordingly difficult to access without the special decoder ring.) French I am most of the way through Pimsleur French I, and am enjoying it. There was nothing particularly new for me there, but I need all the oral/aural practice I can get. Also, I appear to be learning a certain amount about how to pick up chicks from the dialogues, which appear to centre around how to get the attention of a mademoiselle in a park even if she appears to be ignoring you, and even dialogues which start fairly neutral (“quand est-ce que vous allez dîner?) quickly tend to go along the lines of “A huit heures. Chez vous. Je voudrais dîner chez vous. Et je voudrais aussi boire quelque chose. Avec vous." I figure at this rate they are totally hooking up by French II. I have also finished FSI Phonology and am now working through FSI Basic. Given that I have finished Michel Thomas (Beginner level), my core study materials will be Pimsleur through to the end of Pimsleur III and FSI Basic (FIA being saved for once I am finished Pimsleur and FSI), but I am also trying to get in 45 – 60 minutes of miscellaneous other internet-based study each day as well as continuing with Le petit prince, going slow, looking up each new word (have “ un serpent boa” down pretty solid by now) and trying to figure out each grammatical point which seems to be raised by the material, and working on getting my pronunciation as solid as possible. German My daughter and I have started studying German together intermittently, based on Michel Thomas Speak German for Beginners. It is still in its shiny new state for me, when all is excitement and discovery, and the reported drudgery of learning genders still lies mostly down the road. I work ahead on a unit, practice it a few times and then introduce it to her. She is a learning sponge with an awesome memory, so the ratio I have arrived at (me listening several times in advance v. her listening once and getting it down cold first time) seems to work pretty well. Then, much to the consternation of my wife, we walk around trying to use whatever we have learned. No longer “what would you like to eat?” or even, for my benefit more recently, “Qu’est-ce que tu voudrais manger?” but now “Wass wollen Sie essen?” - we have only studied up to the Sie nominative pronoun and have not yet gotten to “du”, so she gets the benefit of the bump-up to “Sie”. Not sure if Michel Thomas will get to the informal second person pronoun, as in Speak French for Beginners he stuck with “vous” the entire time. Japanese Have been ignoring the Japanese, except for flash card and Anki review of the hirgana and katakana characters I previously learned. I would like to learn some kanji prior to studying the language in earnest, which will probably occur in year 2 but I am enjoying German so much I may have German as a Y2 language and put Japanese off to Year 3 – which would give me more time to learn some kanji in advance – perhaps up to the 1006 kanji learned in Japan by the end of Grade 6 elementary school. Edited by Spanky on 27 October 2008 at 9:56am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jaseur Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5860 days ago 50 posts - 51 votes Speaks: English* | Message 23 of 138 27 October 2008 at 8:52am | IP Logged |
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Enjoyed reading this log.
One tip for memorising kana is to write them with your finger. You can use your other palm, your leg or just wave your finger in the air like you're casting a spell. Obviously, this can be done almost anywhere. As I'm sure you know, you absolutely must get the stroke order correct when learning the kana otherwise they will look awful and Japanese people will despise you. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| fsinglehurst Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5694 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 24 of 138 29 October 2008 at 10:56am | IP Logged |
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Wow, this is certainly one of the most ambitious logs i've ever read, I thought my aim of 10 in a lifetime was "grande."
I know this is a long way off, but have you actually thought about what TWENTY (amazed every time I read it) languages you want to learn? Any specific places or cities that you want to visit. You may want to think about languages spoken in many countries, such as Spanish or Russian. Are you counting English as one of the Twenty >.< Keep going, Japanese is such an interesting language, you'll be so glad when you get to study it. Edited by fsinglehurst on 29 October 2008 at 10:56am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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