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TAC 2009 - DaraghM | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5937 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 105 of 177 04 June 2009 at 5:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Summary May '09
Spanish Spanish was very much the dominant language for May. I took a break from the various Spanish pods I was using, and concentrated on some of the other materials, as well as some new purchases, "Teach Yourself Improve Your Spanish". During the month, I continued with Spanish Assimil and completed all the passive wave of lessons to 109, before resuming the active wave at lesson 40 near the month end. When I returned to the active wave I noticed a couple of items that had slipped by the first time, such as verbs that were in the subjunctive and not the indicative. I'm not completely sold on the value of the active wave, as the English can be rendered a number of ways, and you've to remember which word they used in their translation. E.g. EN: I live in -> SP: Vivo en (obvious) or SP: estoy domiciliado en (Assimil) I managed to make most of my Spanish classes but missed one due to a hospital visit. The amount of work each class generates is significantly greater than the duration of a class. I'm not sure classroom learning is the most efficient method for me. When I decided to use the coursebook, Aula 3, by myself, it felt like I learnt more in the same number of hours. I think a lot of class time is taking up working in groups of two and three, and you're not hearing properly pronounced Spanish. The majority of my Spanish time was spent working through Platiquemos, and I almost completed Level V by the end of the month. This course is very good for teaching Spanish, but has a few niggles which have been mentioned before, such as the recording quality. My biggest gripe is that the excellent reading sections are not on the recordings. These are structured similar to the dialogues but contain a lot more Spanish vocabulary. Another small annoyance is the dialogues are partioned like Pimsleur with the sentences broken down in reverse. The original FSI course recordings followed the script exactly with no English on the audio. I used a lot of other material during the month including various grammar books, dictionaries, Puntoycoma and Teach Yourself Improve Your Spanish. I hadn't planned on purchasing this, but I saw a very cheap new copy and decided to give it a go. The course is ok. I've only just started into it, but it has one major fault. There is way too much English filler on the audio, including two different English narrators. It feels like the voice artist from the original recordings was padded out by a new voice artist. I wouldn't mind if the tips and guidance were at the start of the whole CD, but some stuff is repeated in each dialogue, such as, "Now listen again to the dialogue, but don't worry if you don't grasp everything, it will soon become clear. Now complete exercises x in your book and return to the recording." This makes repeated listening difficult as your brain tunes out at the repetitive English statements. The exercises and vocabulary are better, and the first unit assumes you know the subjunctive. There are additional Spanish dialogues not on the recording, which should be, instead of the English fluff. Spanish Summary Total Active Study: 20 hours Passive Study: 34 hours Spanish Total: 54 hours Edited by DaraghM on 05 June 2009 at 11:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5780 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 106 of 177 04 June 2009 at 5:31pm | IP Logged | ||
You have my most profound condolances Daragh. One can never take anything for granted, especially not family. And though we may devote ourselves to our passions, it's always important not to lose site of the more imprortant things in life. It is good to see that you do feel a bit more liberated towards your learning though. I've never seen the point in keeping such a detailed minutes of what you do. Let go and enjoy it. Yours, Thom. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5937 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 107 of 177 05 June 2009 at 11:02am | IP Logged | ||
Thanks, Daragh. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5937 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 108 of 177 05 June 2009 at 11:15am | IP Logged | ||
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Summary May '09
Hungarian At some point during the middle of May, I became concerned my Hungarian was falling by the wayside. While the Spanish sucked up nearly all my time, I tried to do a small bit of Hungarian. I reviewed all the FSI course from the start and repeated listening to Unit 5. This was very beneficial. I was suprised how much Hungarian I hadn't forgotten even though six weeks has passed since I last reviewed it. The only vocabulary that slipped by was words that never repeated in a given unit. All the rest had stuck. This implies that overlearning material can have long term benefits. It also leads me to question the assumption that languages should be studied a little bit each day, and not in chunks or blocks. I've still the last two tapes in Unit 5 to complete, which I may return to later this month. Hungarian Summary Total Active Study: 3 hours Passive Study: 4 hours Hungarian Total: 7 hours 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5937 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 109 of 177 05 June 2009 at 11:25am | IP Logged | ||
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Summary May '09
Russian To say I didn't do much Russian study in May is an understatement. All I did was listen to the first tape of Modern Russian 1. When I ordered the book, they sent me a series of 28 cassette tapes but no book. I didn't order any cassette tapes. They said the order would take a couple of weeks to sort out, but that's almost a month ago now. Once my Spanish classes finish, I'll need to chase this up. I know the book is hard to get and a bit out of date, but it seems to be the only FSI style Russian course available. Russian Summary Total Active Study: 0 hours Passive Study: 1 hour Russian Total: 1 hours 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5937 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 110 of 177 09 June 2009 at 11:09am | IP Logged | ||
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Spanish
Freed from the burden of accurate time tracking, I feel I should post to my log when I can gather a few minutes in the day. I enjoyed tracking my time, but found the process was becoming unwieldy in certain circumctances. My Spanish classes are approaching the end of term soon, which means we've a 2 hour test next week. Aagh. The test isn't a DELE certificate, but will feature a number of similar exercises, which must all be passed before progressing to the next stage. I'm a bit concerned about my listening skills. A lot of the material I use is spoken at a slow speed such as Assimil, Platiquemos and Improve your Spanish. The brilliant Spanish magazine PuntoyComa is spoken at a normal speed, so I'll increase my use of this resource. The articles tend to be pitched at the B2-C1 level, but are mostly understandable. The last Spanish class I attended felt the most useful, as we covered the differences between the imperfecto, indefinido (preterito), perfecto and the pluscuamperfecto. While I've covered all the tenses in isolation, it was good to practice those exercises where you've to pick the correct one. We also covered relating anecdotes, and the use of various connectors such as 'resulta que' and 'total que'. 'Resulta que' can be deceptive, and is often used to start an anecdote not finish it. We couldn't decide on an English translation, but 'apparently' came close in some contexts. I'll do a quick search, and perhaps this as a question. Edited by DaraghM on 17 June 2009 at 12:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5937 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 111 of 177 17 June 2009 at 12:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Spanish
I spent most of last week cramming as much Spanish as possible before the exam. I'm still awaiting the results, but not too confident they'll be good. The Spanish test was a bit different than expected, and some of the grammar tested wasn't covered during our course. The listening test was reasonable, but the audio seems slurry and too quick at the key phrase. This is one thing that I find odd during listening tests. They'll happily speak in slow clear Spanish for the majority of the audio, but mumble quickly the one part that is key to the answer. The reading compression was also a tricky beast. The article itself was easy to follow with hardly any vocabulary I didn't understand. However, the questions were very hard because you had to choose between true, false or not mentioned. A number of the statements were implied but not mentioned specifically, so I wasn't sure how to answer. The article itself was interesting and detailed the sad story of the "desaparecidos" in Argentina. I've decided to put my Spanish on temporary hold, as it has dominated my language studies this past while. I may dip into over the summer, but will concentrate on my other languages till September. Edited by DaraghM on 17 June 2009 at 12:49pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5937 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 112 of 177 17 June 2009 at 1:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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Russian
My planned Russian study hit a slight setback. I'd ordered the book Modern Russian 1, but received the associated tapes by mistake. They bookseller told me I could drop in the tapes, and collect the book once it arrived. The told me it would arrive around the end of May. I heard nothing from them, so I called into the shop over this past weekend. They said the book was no longer available pending a proposed reprint, and said my money would be refunded. I was really looking forward to using this resource, as it really suits my learning style. The book may get a reprint, but it would be next year at the earliest. This has led me to contemplate something very dangerous. Should I consider switching to another Slavic language for the summer ? I was tempted by the FSI Bulgarian course, or the new Spoken World Polish course. I don't know any Russian speakers, but I do know a few Bulgarians and lots of Polish people. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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