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JoshT’s Log - French, German, Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6225 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 89 of 161 01 December 2008 at 6:56am | IP Logged | ||
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11/30/08
I didn't get in a whole lot of study today, perhaps an hour and a half total. Russian NPRC - I finished reading through chapter 10, which introduced me to some bizarre usage patterns of genitive plural / nominative plural adjectives. I still need to memorize the vocabulary for the chapter, and I also am going to do a refresher of all of the previous chapter vocabularies. I also looked at the regular declension pattern tables provided in my Russian-English dictionary (the Kenneth Katzner one), and found that I quite like it. He avoids showing the stress shifts, which I actually prefer; my other texts show the stress shifts as part of the declension, which seems a little strange to me, seeing as stress shifts aren't wholly regular. Why provide them in a table of "regular" declension patterns? German I did a very short word list session before bed, using one of my dictionaries. I wanted some randomness, so I skipped using one of Using German Vocabulary's thematic lists as a source. I also listened to some German internet radio, but this was largely unsuccessful. I was trying to do some house chores at the time, and typically, I'd put a station on, go about my work, and 2-3 minutes later, the station would switch over to music, usually Christmas selections. French I reviewed the word list that I did yesterday. That's about it. I need to get back to Assimil. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 magister Pro Member United States Joined 6382 days ago 346 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Turkish, Irish Personal Language Map | Message 90 of 161 01 December 2008 at 9:21am | IP Logged | ||
Hi josht, I may or may not condone it, but you might find some value in reading Latin by the Dowling Method. It's a strategy proposed by William Dowling, a professor at Rutgers University; it simply involves brute-force memorization of paradigms prior to engaging in the Direct Method. Although the page was written with Latin in mind, it can in part be adapted to Russian. His recommended process for inculcating these paradigms will be found near the end of the article, and the idea will cause many to recoil in horror. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6225 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 91 of 161 02 December 2008 at 6:10am | IP Logged | ||
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Hey magister,
Thanks for the link. I can see where that might cause many to recoil in horror, but I actually thought it a fair idea. Admittedly, I doubt I'll do that, as I'd be bored out of my mind, and I don't know how well it would fall into my current language learning practices. That being said, I certainly see the fellow's reasoning. I still make silly blunders in adjective declension in my German, due to *not* doing something like that. Like many, I studied the tables, did exercises, and expected that through lots of reading, I'd get the adjective declensions down by heart. At least for me, it hasn't worked out that way; doing something like the Direct Method is probably what my German adjective declensions need. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6225 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 92 of 161 02 December 2008 at 6:15am | IP Logged | ||
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12/1/08
A busy day, and I didn't have time to write this when my activities were fresh in my mind. So, from memory: French Assimil French with Ease - A pitiful amount of listening done, from Lessons 71 - 75 or 76. I'm not sure exactly which one I ended on, as I was tired to begin with, and was exercising at the time of listening. I've stalled on this Assimil course after despairing over the active wave. I don't feel like I'm finished with the course by any means, but I'm also not sure what to do with it. I'm still going to continue adding the lesson sentences to Anki, but that doesn't seem like particularly active work. I may try transcribing lessons by hand or something. Suggestions certainly welcome. Reviewed the word list from the other day again. Russian Did a short word list before one of my classes, using a pocket dictionary I had stuffed in my backpack. I'm going to start doing more of these for Russian, as I've been largely neglecting my vocabulary while trying to grapple with the grammar. It does not good to have perfect grammar if you know 50 words. I think I may have reviewed some in my NPRC book, but I honestly can't remember. German Did a word list; reviewed some old word lists. I was pleasantly surprised to find that one list I did a few weeks ago, and which I had never reviewed properly, was still mostly in my mind. Listened to some German radio for perhaps 20 minutes. Edited by josht on 02 December 2008 at 6:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6225 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 93 of 161 02 December 2008 at 8:22am | IP Logged | ||
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12/2/08
Morning French Assimil French with Ease - I tried something else entirely today, a mixture of Prof. Arguelles' scriptorium and Iversen's transcription + look-up exercise. I copied out Lesson 52 by hand, reading each sentence, then writing it out, reading again after I'd written it. When finished copying, I looked up any words that I wanted clarification on, particularly in the realm of gender; while I love the Assimil course, one thing I wish they had done was incorporate gender markers into the lessons, where it's not obvious. All in all, the exercise took around 40 minutes. I do feel that I learned a fair bit, but I also wonder if I'd be up for doing this with the whole book. I'm forming a love-hate relationship with this course, as I do enjoy it, but I feel like I'm not getting all out of it that I could. German Caught up on my Anki reviews. I suppose the bulk of my cards are still German, so I'm filing this under this language for now. All in all, about 250 cards covered. Afternoon French Assimil French with Ease - Reread Lessons 62 and 63. After discussing it with DaraghM, I've abandoned the "active wave", and am going to just continue focusing mostly on the French, looking to the English for clarification if needed. I'm also going to go ahead and continue adding the sentences to Anki, with annotations on the answer side of the card. Evening German Transcribed about 2/3 of an article from Deutsche Welle about the remnants of the Freie Deutsche Jugend, the official youth group of former East Germany; looked up 20 or so words in the process. Pretty fascinating article, too. I stumbled over the construction "Anfang bis Mitte", and I'm still not entirely sure how I'd go about translating it. Threw on Assimil German, just to have something quick to listen to while I exercised. Listened to Lessons 24 - 30; my playlist was screwed up, and a few of these (29 and 30, if I recall correctly) actually played twice. Russian Assimil Russisch ohne Mühe - Shadowed (while reading the text) Lessons 16 - 19 twice each; listened to Lesson 20 once while reading it, and then shadowed it twice (while still reading). I was okay on the shadowing up until Lesson 20, and then (pardon the language) all hell broke loose. There are some words in there that make my English-speaking tongue cower in fear. Reviewed my word list from the other day; did about 30 new words via IWLM, finishing up the chapter 5 vocabulary list in NPRC. 30 minutes or so total. Overall, quite pleased with how today went. Edited by josht on 02 December 2008 at 8:14pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6482 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 94 of 161 02 December 2008 at 8:59am | IP Logged | ||
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I think that main reason for doing the copying by hand is to force you to slow down and really concentrate on the text, and if you lose your concentration because you get bored then it is time to stop. 40 minutes sounds like a reasonable time for this kind of thing, but after that it is time do do something different.
Let me add that the Greek books I have copied were thin glossy tourist guides to sights in that country, and in Russian I have used print-outs from GLOSS plus the first part of a Russian history printed with accents and everything. In some cases I have also used text books, but the content in those is normally quite boring. Bilingual texts are ideal, but you may still have to look up some words because things aren't formulated in the same way in different languages. Nobody expects you to copy all of Proust's Recherche du Temps Perdu. Edited by Iversen on 02 December 2008 at 9:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| josht Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6225 days ago 635 posts - 857 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Spanish, Russian, Dutch | Message 95 of 161 02 December 2008 at 9:16am | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah, slowing down and concentrating on the text helped me notice a few things that I had previously missed entirely. Also, yes, 40 minutes seemed like a good time; anything beyond that, and I would've been inching into boredom territory. I wasn't saying that I wondered if I could spend hours transcribing the Assimil text, but instead, I was wondering if I'd be up for doing the whole book in blocks of 40 minutes or so. :)
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| magister Pro Member United States Joined 6382 days ago 346 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Turkish, Irish Personal Language Map | Message 96 of 161 02 December 2008 at 9:49am | IP Logged | ||
A nitpick: Dowling advocates the major assault on the paradigms prior to engaging in the "Direct Method," which is something else entirely. Incidentally, I regularly keep an eye on your log. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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