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TAC 09 - Farrioth gets Annihilated #lal | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| farrioth Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6094 days ago 171 posts - 173 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Esperanto, Sanskrit, Japanese | Message 1 of 34 24 November 2008 at 6:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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So, time for another round of annihilation. Hopefully I manage to last longer than last time.
I will officially start on the 24th of December. Until then, I want to work out my study plan and finalise what languages I'm doing. In the past, I think I could have benefited from a more rigid study plan, so I don't end up just stuffing around with methods and instead do some serious learning. I will defiantly be studying Russian, Japanese and Esperanto and possibly one of both of Indonesian or Sanskrit. I intend to update my logs every second day, but this may change. Last time, I spent too much time updating my logs; time which I could have used for actual learning. Here, I'll outline my current progress with my languages and soon make another post with my study plans. Russian I've been studying Russian at university for a year, and I intend to continue next year. The classes are in a small group (around 10 people) and I'm generally pleased with the teaching. The workload is rather large, though. I'm fairly confident with Russian and I'm probably at the level between beginner and intermediate, or at least high beginner. I can understand a reasonable amount of simple written Russian, but this involves some guesswork and more dictionary-work. In terms of production (both speaking and writing), Russian is probably my best foreign language, although my vocabulary is still too small to carry out a real conversation. Japanese I've been studying Japanese about a year and a half, and at university for a year of it. However, I haven't been so happy with the classes, so I'm studying on my own next year. I speak fairly good 'classroom Japanese', but I'm lost when it comes to real situations (especially reading and writing, not surprisingly). I currently know 206 kanji, and this will be my main focus from now. Esperanto Esperanto is by far my best foreign language in terms of comprehension, and probably writing, but my speaking falls behind my Russian. I began studying Esperanto about a year ago, and intended an intensive course at the beginning of this year, but after that, I haven't been paying as much attention to the language as I should have. I'm attending another intensive course for two weeks in January, so I'll see where I am after that. Indonesian and Sanskrit I know virtually nothing of these languages so far, aside from a little linguistic background, but they both interest me greatly at the moment. If I start studying one or both of them seriously, they may be included in my TAC. Edit: I've decided to include Sanskrit in my TAC (thanks, J‐Learner), but I won't be starting on Indonesian yet. Edit again: Can someone please punch the forum software in the face? Thanks. My first goal: Spend more time studying today than I did writing this post. Edited by farrioth on 25 November 2008 at 11:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| farrioth Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6094 days ago 171 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Esperanto, Sanskrit, Japanese | Message 2 of 34 25 November 2008 at 11:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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I managed to get a couple of hours of listening practice for Japanese and Sanskrit in both yesterday and today, and I got through all my flashcard repetitions both days. I've also done 5 new kanji today. Let's see if I can keep it up.
I've now joined Team #lal. Talk to someone on IRC if you're interested. Well, time for some goals. Japanese I want to finish Kanji by the end of the year. I'll aim for 5 a day, which gives me a little leeway. My other goal is to do at least half an hour of listening every day. This will probably mostly be Anime. Russian My classwork will occupy most of my Russian time. Apart from that, I want to increase my reading comprehension and therefore vocabulary. I want to get a good number of sentences in my SRS (Mnenosyne) by the end of the year, although I'm not exactly sure what a 'good number' is yet. I'll also try to do half an hour of listening each day, probably Radio Svoboda, but I'll see if I can get some good movies, too. Esperanto I'm attending an intensive Esperanto course in Janurary. Before then I intend to watch Mazi en Gondolando (I know this is for children, but I've enjoyed it so far), and then probably work through Gerda Malaperis. I also want to get at least 500 words in my SRS before then, which shouldn't be too hard, since my passive vocabulary is quite reasonable. I'll re-assess my goals after the course. Sanskrit I'm literally just starting Sanskrit, so I'm not really sure how I'll progress. My first goal is to learn to read and write Devanagari and familiarise myself with the Phonology. I'll also listen to All India Radio's Sanskrit news, even if I can't understand anything yet. After that, I'll probably work through Teach Yourself Sanskrit (which is incidentally twice as thick as any of the other TYs I've seen). Alas, I only have this from the library and don't own a copy myself. I also have MT for Japanese and Russian, so I'll probably work through both of these, and I might think about Rosetta Stone, too. I'm not sure how this will fit in with my other learning, though. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TheElvenLord Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6084 days ago 915 posts - 927 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Cornish, English* Studies: Spanish, French, German Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 3 of 34 26 November 2008 at 2:37am | IP Logged | ||
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Best of luck!
Is Sanskrit still a spoken language? TEL 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| J-Learner Senior Member Australia Joined 6034 days ago 556 posts - 636 votes Studies: Yiddish, English* Studies: Dutch | Message 4 of 34 26 November 2008 at 4:00am | IP Logged | ||
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Of course it is! 50,000 in India. Including native speakers, not just second language learners.
But it has a massive literature. Also it helps with learning Pali aswell as other ancient and modern Indian languages. If you can master Sanskrit then I doubt there's many others you can't! :D 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| farrioth Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6094 days ago 171 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Esperanto, Sanskrit, Japanese | Message 5 of 34 26 November 2008 at 4:12am | IP Logged | ||
Thank you. Surprisingly, it is, to a reasonable degree. There have been various revival attempts with some success. It is apparently spoken natively in the village of Mattur (source), and in India there is a daily newspaper (Wikipedia, with a link to the online edition) and a daily radio news broadcast (available online). Also being a liturgical language of various religions, including Hinduism and Buddhism, it probably sees some use (or at least understanding) by devotees. Edited by farrioth on 26 November 2008 at 4:35am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5998 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 6 of 34 26 November 2008 at 4:20am | IP Logged | ||
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Well Farrioth, I wish you luck with sanskrit, it is well beyond my abilities.
Thom. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| farrioth Senior Member New Zealand Joined 6094 days ago 171 posts - 173 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Esperanto, Sanskrit, Japanese | Message 7 of 34 26 November 2008 at 4:38am | IP Logged | ||
Thank you. Have you actually tried learning any? Being an Indo-European language, it often seems surprisingly familiar. I think it's 'exotic' air, along with it's status as classical, gives it a (hopefully) false sense of difficulty. This is of course coming from someone who's been studying it for two days. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| -Kupo- Groupie United Kingdom Joined 6071 days ago 84 posts - 84 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, Russian | Message 8 of 34 30 November 2008 at 10:32am | IP Logged | ||
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I wish you much luck with Sanskrit Farrioth, it has always seemed to have a sense of complexity about it to me.
As for using Anime for your listening comprehension in Japanese, anime really does come out with some odd terms once in a while. I would reccomend Japanese Dramas, or other TV shows much more for the more 'standard' japanese. Not saying not to use anime at all, I watch anime pretty regularly, but I think more natural japanese is found elsewhere. If you understand where I am coming from. Good Luck. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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