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JoshT’s Log - French, German, Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5788 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 137 of 161 28 January 2009 at 2:50pm | IP Logged | ||
In this you are not alone. The advanced male student isn't so bad though. So there is some hope for you. ;) Keep up the good work. Thom. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6240 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 138 of 161 28 January 2009 at 5:54pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm happy to hear that there's a different male student in the advanced lessons. I was honestly worried that the same guy would appear on them, in which case I'd perhaps go mad. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6240 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 139 of 161 29 January 2009 at 7:58am | IP Logged | ||
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1/29/09
Classes at the university are cancelled again this morning, due to the nasty weather, so I've already done a bit today. German I went over the corrections that I received from my tutor yesterday, and added most of them, along with notes, to Anki. I also responded to him, writing roughly a page in German. I read this article at Deutsche Welle. In it I learned about a new device I hadn't heard of, a Nacktscanner or body scanner. Apparently airports are using them now, and they produce strange looking images of people, as if they have no clothes on. Good for security, yes, as guns or other nasty things will show up, but still a bit weird. Spanish Started and finished CD5 of Michel Thomas's Spanish Foundation course. I may repeat this one, as I'm not sure I got all of it as well as previous CDs. The "go go" verbs in particular are already a bit hazy. Russian NPRC - Continued working on chapter 10. I learned the words from this chapter previously using IWLM, but I'm going to hit them again, as during my negligence of NPRC, I've forgotten some of them. I think I've got the genitive adjective endings now, and the basic genitive endings down. The exceptions will take a lifetime or two, I'm sure. Edited by josht on 29 January 2009 at 2:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6240 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 140 of 161 30 January 2009 at 4:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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1/30/09
German I listened to two of the Alltagsdeutsch podcasts, Auf zum fröhlichen Jagd and Märchensprache. I need to work through both with the transcripts, as they're full of words I didn't know. Incidentally, I've knocked my German back to "studies" rather than "speaks." I stumble over far too many words when listening, and my active usage of German is nowhere near where I'd like it to be. I'm not going to kid myself in saying that I "speak" it just yet. Related to this, I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with my lack of active skills, in *all* of my languages. I seem to make steady progress in understanding, but I still struggle to spit anything out. Being in an area where more or less everyone speaks English, I don't get many (realistically: any) chances to use the languages, but I don't want to use that as an excuse. I filled about half a sheet with words, using IWLM. The words were from Unit 17 of Using German Vocabulary, which deals with office related things. I read a few pages of Der Rettende Weg. Russian Assimil Russisch ohne Mühe - Relistened to Lessons 10 - 12, three times each, for review. I mostly wanted to just touch base with the language today, so this is all I did. French Assimil French with Ease - Listened to a few lessons in the 80s, but I don't recall which; I was driving at the time. They were lessons that I've copied out, and I was able to understand them in full. Edited by josht on 30 January 2009 at 10:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6240 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 141 of 161 31 January 2009 at 11:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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2/1/09
German Finished catching up on my Anki reviews, doing about 170 cards today. Some very short word list work, perhaps 15 minutes, using the same unit from Using German Vocabulary as mentioned in the previous post. Spanish The bulk of my language learning time was given to Michel Thomas today, as I started and finished CDs 6 and 7 of the Basic course. I was quite impressed with how easy his method made it to learn the basics of the conditional, as well as the future tense. I must admit that I formerly had many reservations about Michel Thomas and his programs, but now that I'm nearing the end of the Basic Spanish course, I can see why so much has been said about him. I'm doubtful as to whether I would have been able to learn this much in the same amount of time using a different approach. French A minor thing, merely a brief touch for today, as I'd spent so much time on Spanish; I typed up Lesson 8 from Assimil French with Ease, and added the sentences to Anki. I also added a few cards by pulling a number of things from the Lesson 7 notes. Russian Alas, in the same boat as French, as I only had time to give a quick "hello!" to Russian today. I listened to a few lessons of Russisch ohne Mühe, in the teen range. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6240 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 142 of 161 01 February 2009 at 7:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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2/2/09
Spanish I finished up Michel Thomas's Spanish Foundation course today, doing CD8. I came very close to screaming in frustration at the caveman student; even in the last few minutes of the course, he was stuttering over "lo." Òne would think that after hours using the word in perhaps half of the sentences he uttered, he would have remembered that one word. I'm glad he isn't on the Advanced course... Overall, I was impressed with the course, as I mentioned before. I thought the last CD was a bit dense in comparison to the others, with Michel throwing in number of various structures, but other than that, I quite enjoyed using it (minus caveman). I'll probably be using transcripts of the course to review, as I don't know if I can suffer through any more "l.. l.. loooooo.... tenGO." Michel: "Yes, but only one push, you're in the PREsent tense, lo TENgo." I'm going to do the Advanced course and then move on to Assimil. French Assimil Using French - I worked through Lesson 1 for the first time, focusing a lot on pausing and repeating. In hindsight, I think one reason I've struggled so with production in French is that during the passive wave of French with Ease, I was perhaps *too* passive. I think I was going too quickly over the lessons, and not really playing enough with the new words and structures introduced. So I've found myself in the position of recognizing and understanding a lot, but not being able to produce enough to please myself. I'm trying to rectify this in my usage of Using French, along with Spanish with Ease (starting soon), and Russisch ohne Mühe. Russian Assimil Russisch ohne Mühe - Listened to Lessons 12 - 17, pausing frequently to repeat and make sure I knew what every word meant. There were a few here and there I was unsure of, so I'm going to be checking on them (probably this evening). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5945 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 143 of 161 06 February 2009 at 5:33am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi josht,
How's the study going ? Though its only four days, I'm already missing your log. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6240 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 144 of 161 09 February 2009 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hey Daragh,
Sorry about the lapse in my posting. The unthinkable happened: I started to burn out! I'm sure it's largely due to my heavy load of courses at the university right now. I was finishing up university work, and then turning to language learning - from books to books! I started to suffer from brain overload, I'm afraid. So, I put my language stuff aside for a few days, and am now slowly getting back into it. What I've done over the past couple of days with my language learning, I've enjoyed more than I was enjoying previously, for I think the short break helped. Has anyone else ran into burn out? I feel a bit like a quitter after shoving my stuff aside for a few days, but I suppose I'd rather take a break when I hit burn out, rather than *not* take a break and make myself give up all of it for good. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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