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TAC 2009 - New Adventures (closed) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log | ( Topic Closed) |  |
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5789 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 81 of 200 01 June 2009 at 5:09am | IP Logged | |||||
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Readers mine,
It has now been just over six months since I started down the long and lonesome road of the 2009 TAC challenge and I feel as though this is as good a time as any to do an update which reflects upon the last few months. Taking a step back in time for a minute, I copy pasted my TAC goals: ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Spanish (Castellan): Current Level : Beginner 1. Broad Goal - To attain a B2 level by the end of 2009 *Getting there, roughly A2 at the moment* 2. Lesser Goals - To attain functional tourist, basic Spanish by the end of 2008 *Success! - Attain atleast an A2 level by June 2009 *Success! - To be able to read a simple book without need of dictionary by end 2009 * Well I am reading, dictionary is kind of mandatory. But less and less than before. 3. TACtics - Finish Assimil l'espagnol sans peine * I am roughly half way through it. 53rd lesson of 109. - Work through the Pimsleur Spanish series, I,II,III, Plus * slow going, but getting there. - Finish all the units on busuu.com and use it for corrections and conversation. * not so much, fell out of love with it. - Start posting in the multi-lingual lounge * I did a few in french... - Start posting on lang-8 * Have now done a few. Will aim to do many more, and try to match Zammy's Italian Lang 8 posts with atleast one of my languages. This should give us both a bit of motivation. ------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ German: Current Level: For all intents and purposes Complete Beginner 1. Broad Goal - Conversational (not technical) by the end 2009 on my way, but focus has shifted a little towards the written language as I don't really have anyone to speak to. Could change at the end of the year when a friend of mine comes back to Paris, as she speaks German. 2. Lesser Goals - Have a solid foundation in German grammar/vocab so as to build on it in 2010 * on progress 3. TACtics - Assimil Allemand Sans Piene *30 odd lessons down - Pimsleur * some - Assorted Text Books - Assorted Websites (busuu.com, lang-8, deutsche weller etc.) - German friends for correspondence. - Start posting in the multi-lingual lounge *All of these are being used, with various degrees of zeal. French: Current Level: Your average B2 1. Broad Goal - C1 level by june, hopefully C2 later on. I feel that I am much more confident with both the written and spoken word. I hope/feel/would like to say that I am probably there. But I am not sure. - Sit the DALF C1 before I have to go back to Australia. This didn't happen, got a job, was busy. Now in Australia, without C1. 2. Lesser goals - Increase my written and spoken fluency by the weeding out errors. * Making good progress - Attain an educated level of expression. * Making good progress - While I think about it, improve my handwriting in all it's languages. * Making good progress ------------------------------------------------------------ ----------------------------- Alright well looking back, I am suddenly feeling reasonably good about myself. I can see that I am on progress for all of the goals that I had set for myself at the start of the TAC. They may have shifted and changed over that six months, but rereading them makes me think that the ones at the beginning were as good, more realistic and as impressive as my flights of fantasy have become. So I will stick with these, anything else is just a bonus. One reflexion that I have made in the past week, is that I cannot even begin to imagine a purely monolingual life: well I can, but the thought of it is absolutely horrid. A good portion of the credit for my bilingual, and hopefully soon to by tri/quadralingual lifestyle goes to the contributing members of this site. They know who they are. The hints, tips, and warnings that abound on this site have certainly helped, and the way in which I am learning Spanish and German is remarkably more effective than how I learnt French. So thank you. Many thanks go to the members of #learnanylanguage : especially dmg, tricoteuse/tricours, overscore for keeping me on track with my my French, Markun for German, and Zenmonkey for everything. And an honourable mention to everyone else who have helped keep my interest in languages alive, even if we do venture off-topic regularly. For those of you reading this with no-one to talk to in or about your target languages come on over to #learnanylanguage on freenode of IRC, you can go through mibbit.com if you've no knowledge of IRC as I did at the beginning of all this. You know you want to, and it has measurable benefits...even if it does steal some of your time. Spanky and Crush get a special reference because they are regular whip crackers for my log, which I appreciate. And a tip of the hat to all other TAC participants, who update their logs regularly. It's always nice to read, even if I don't post in the thread (sometimes I can restrain myself). This is probably long enough now, I was rambling a bit. I do hope to see a few posts similar to this in the coming days. tl;dr : TAC = good, progress being made, thanks given, desire to read similar posts by other members expressed. Yours, Thom. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Thenn88 Triglot Newbie United States Joined 5464 days ago 20 posts - 22 votes Speaks: English*, French, Arabic (Written) Studies: Spanish | Message 82 of 200 01 June 2009 at 5:52am | IP Logged | |||||
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That's awesome, congrats man. It's really motivating reading about people's progress here. Keep it up!
2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5789 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 83 of 200 01 June 2009 at 6:13am | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for reading Thenn88, and welcome to the darkside of #learnanylanguage. bwhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha hahahahahahahahah.
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| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6347 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 84 of 200 01 June 2009 at 11:23am | IP Logged | |||||
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Awesome report Thom. - I really believe that going back and looking at goals is extremely effective in marking the moment, creating further motivation, and adjusting methods... I'll do mine in 3 days (at 900 days here)
So what would you change? What have you learned to make more fun or more useful? I enjoy reading your log and comments, and although I don't post in other peoples logs often, I'm a fan of yours and a couple of others. Edited by zenmonkey on 01 June 2009 at 11:24am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5789 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 85 of 200 01 June 2009 at 5:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
Second go at this, because I'm retarded and close the tabs with my posts in them. I sat down and had to think about this. Which is odd for me. Given my motivations and targets for my languages, I don't think that I would change much. I think that my methods are sound, and proving themselves as time goes on. For the sake of learning the language, I would have liked to have more native speaker involvement. In both German and Spanish my comprehension out paces my expression by a fair margin. So when I get back to Paris, I hope to find a Spanish buddy/ hot girl to share some coffee with and practice using it a bit. German can probably wait, but if the occasion arises I will grasp it with both hands. I believe you owe me a beer, so perhaps it can be you one day ;) I would have liked to have put a steadier and more rigorous effort into what I did, but that's just not me. I've no real pressures to perform, other than those I place on myself. And I believe that I am making visible progress, whether it is acheiving the my potential capabilities is another question entirely. So I suppose the only thing that I would change if I could go back and do it all again, is the amount of effort that I make, I am capable of more.
The things that I have learnt to make it more enjoyable, if not fun are:
The most useful things that I have found are:
Thom. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6347 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 86 of 200 01 June 2009 at 5:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Again, good post.
Yes, the speaking practice is what I am often missing also - and I am no fan of Skype or artificial meetings - the little lags make my thinking jittery and really hurt the fluidity for me. I do owe you a beer, so when are you back in Europe? Y platicar en Español sera un placer, nada mas necesitamos un poco de tiempo en la misma ciudad. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5751 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 87 of 200 02 June 2009 at 8:55am | IP Logged | |||||
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ExtraLean, looks like you're somehow managing to scrape through (that's Canadian for "I'm green with envy and wish I could do even half as well"). But remember, no slagging it down the second half of the stretch. Edited by Spanky on 02 June 2009 at 8:56am 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5789 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 88 of 200 02 June 2009 at 1:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Quick update for today:
I did a bit of assimil. Now up to lesson 57 of Espagnol sans Peine. Thanks to both Spanky and Zenmonkey, for their support. Zenmonkey I'll be back as soon as I can manage it. Have to work tonight, so I won't do too big a post tonight. Check out my nifty lang 8 buttons.  
Have fun. Thom. Edited by ExtraLean on 02 June 2009 at 1:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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