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TAC 2010 - Team A - zenmonkey DE PT IT... | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6363 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes  1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 49 of 125 27 May 2009 at 2:20pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Day 146 - Objectives
Too tired yesterday to give it a full go in the evening Try, try to focus on output today. Actual German Max und Moritz En/De Listening and Reading first pages reading Goethe - The Young Werther - first entry, English and German (love the reader) Italian reviewed first lessons Chinese reviewed L8 ___ L.BGV - Sections reviewed to date 1.1-2.2;5.4-6.5 Edited by zenmonkey on 01 June 2009 at 12:25am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6363 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 50 of 125 01 June 2009 at 12:34am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Day 150
Wow, the days went by and while some learning went on, nothing got recorded. Part of that was travel, I flew back to Germany and lost a day from the jet-lag. I have finished Max and Moritz and done Lesson 60 of Assimil, but for the rest it's been maintenance. The flight hostesses did speak mostly to me in German (*small yea*) but as I watched Matrix tonight in German and saw a lot of words where I know I'm iffy. So this post is mostly to mark the time and close the month. Back to regularly scheduled TAC in the morning. Actually, I did hear a some Hindi and spoke Spanish for an evening during this last week. The Spanish is just regular discussion with a friend, a bit rusty at times. But the Hindi was interesting in that it made it to the list of languages I'd like to add. But lets stay focused now. ___ L.BGV - Sections reviewed to date 1.1-2.2;5.4-6.5 Edited by zenmonkey on 01 June 2009 at 12:36am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6363 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 51 of 125 01 June 2009 at 12:08pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Day 151
Uhm. I need to catch up on my cards, somehow I'm two hundred cards 'behind'. Not discouraged though, just going to run through them and the one I know I really know -- these will get set forward to a much future date and I can focus on the others - almost an argument to skip out on the cards every once in a while ;) if you come back to them! Objectives Catch up on cards and resettle into the learning groove while focusing on the family. No other general objective today. Plan summer trip to Mexico and Italy with the girls and discuss language objectives. Also, an important but often overlooked objective, keeping the material organized and in its place so it is easily accessible - if you need to hunt it down, lost time and a barrier to getting to it. I'll spend some time today, general cleaning, but also getting papers and lessons in place. Actual German Cards, got those back down to 100 owed. The next days look reasonable so I'll add more later today. Went to cinema and watched a movie in German. Italian Esercizio 1-4 in the grammar book. I'm going to take these sentences and put them into cards for grammar not vocab. Usually I use cards for vocab building but here, in Italian, where my weakness is proper grammar, I'll focus the cards on properly translating sample sentences like "Who is calling you?" "Chi ti chiama?" etc... Cards, caught up to all, added 24 - holding 80+. Chinese mea culpa ___ L.BGV - Sections reviewed to date 1.1-2.2;5.4-6.5 Edited by zenmonkey on 02 June 2009 at 9:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6363 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 52 of 125 02 June 2009 at 9:55am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Day 152
Class today, so need to review that before. Still refocusing after too many other distractions on the web, etc. but should be a good week. Objectives Catch up on cards (part 2). Re-enter BGV cards and cover lessons. Actual German Cards, finished all adding a few. Holding 436. Reviewed Assimil 60. Added Assimil 8 to cards, second pass - lesson closed. Class focused on instransitive / transitive changes and tenses on verbs with added "be", DW readings (two) and word meaning for these "be" prefixed - need to add those to cards. Homework given out and completed. Können Sie mir raten? oder Können Sie mich beraten? Italian Entered exercise 1.3 into cards. Holding 106. Chinese Listened to a chinesepod lesson - great attitude for these people. Bravo! Reviewed Pimsleur Lesson 3 Reviewed Assimil 8 & 9 Read 10 Spanish Mundo listening - shouldn't really report that. ___ L.BGV - Sections reviewed to date 1.1-2.2;5.4-6.5 Edited by zenmonkey on 03 June 2009 at 12:57am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6363 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 53 of 125 03 June 2009 at 9:38am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Day 153
Excellent day yesterday, I think I truly learned something useful with a better understanding of 'be'-suffixes. Today starts slower and will be quite busy - I lost focus this morning reading about Montesquieu, Republics and Virtue. Objectives Oral output in German - I got a comment yesterday that suggests I need to focus on that. Shadowing it is, and I'd like to get to the epiphany level I had before the business trip. Actual German Cards, adding few. Holding 475. Still have over 200 to class. Lesson 10 - writing and integration into cards. Closed. Added 12 cards. Italian Cards. Holding 106. Chinese mea culpa ___ L.BGV - Sections reviewed to date 1.1-2.3;5.4-6.5 Edited by zenmonkey on 04 June 2009 at 1:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6363 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 54 of 125 05 June 2009 at 2:10am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Long post!!
900 days! Two and a half years! I think it is time to step back and review a couple of points;where am I in this learning voyage, where do I want to go, what do I feel am I doing right or wrong. I need to check my objectives, but I'll first review where I am with languages since I signed up on here. When I signed on I had fluency level in three languages (EN/SP/FR) and needed to learn a fourth German since I had moved to this new country. I knew truly nothing about the language and had not previously been motivated to approach it, in fact, I was quite adverse to learning it. I was a dilettante learner - I'd take a language, learn a few phrases for a trip and drop it. So on languages, where am I? Status Spanish - rather than allowing it to lay dormant I've been more conscious of a need to practice it and while I do not actively review grammar or specific learning activity I do use it more with the thought to maintain it. Weaknesses: I think I should write and read more often, but that is a common theme - except in English.
I've mostly kept up with the tasks and feel more comfortable. Grade B- French - learning German has been a surprise for my French, I still speak French rather well (I have the slightest of accents but it really cannot be identified, I've often played "guess where I am from" and I use it every day with my children who are, in fact, French) but there are days where the German seems to interfere and strangely in German I have a French accent I cannot rid myself. My weakness in French remains written French - full of faults, unfluid and clunky. I was writing emails in French a couple of years ago, but I am not really doing the effort in this area. So that is my French weakness: I need to write in French.
Rarely completed the tasks, Grade D. German - From nothing to some sort of B2 level, this has been both a good success and yet a frustration - these last weeks I am impressed constantly by the level of understanding I have, and my ear is now in place, I parse it rather well but often I am missing the vocabulary to really get some subjects. And speaking remains awkward. Writing weak. A language full of weaknesses but as it should be at this stage - also full of admiration, fun and curiosity. This will take me somewhere and as my daughters have learned the language in this period of time - we now have it as as an organic, growing part of the family repertoire, more so than other "second languages" like English or Spanish (neither which the youngest really follow).
Reading: C, Vocab: C, Writing B-, Listening A+, Speaking A Clear where I need to focus? Arabic - I dabble with this for a little while and have dropped it. This was one of those travel languages that I have put aside, perhaps permanently although looking at the script was interesting, I have to admit I am not currently motivated enough to move this to the active list. I should update my profile, but I hate closing doors. Chinese - Looking back this is slow, on again, off again learning. I really cannot say I have given the time needed to assure this language. Sometimes I have thought about dropping it and focusing on the others, but I'm pig-headed - more on that below.
Moved task to Assimil, found Pimsleur ughh. Grade: C. Environment is there and I am enjoying this part, even if on some weeks I don't reach at least 3 times a week. Italian - I'm reasonably good at understanding Italian and the last months have strengthened that but it really is no wonder with French and Spanish in the background. Speaking and writing are of course a challenge as is vocabulary. I've learned the basics in grammar and that will certainly help a lot more, as I move forward with this. I've learned to learn a language that isn't hard enough to require me to slow down enough to learn it - if that makes sense.
Tasks changes to Assimil and workbooks. Need to complement audio. Grade B. Methods and learning about learning Here I feel I've learned enormously - from SRS, scriptorium, drilling etc to having fun and doing something, even a little, every day. I think I have a good set of tools but I really don't apply them that consistently, mostly due to the number of other activities that pull on my life. There are a few things I'd like to try to change, in no specific order: *more writing *more grammar *better manage my cards, I keep forgetting to move them from one computer to another, so I fall behind *more literature in target language *less distractions - from forums to blogs to English podcasts there are many time eaters out there. I'd like to reduce them or select amongst them but I need my NPR and The Moth fixes every week and I like the eclectic nature of my continued learning. New objectives for the next 900 days I'll review these over the next days and edit and update Spanish Global - Strengthen fluidity and vocabulary, more culture and literature, and share the joy of that with my daughter, also learning this 'father' tongue. Specific - Read a couple of books (at least two per year), write and speak regularly (at least once a week or so) Tactical 1) write to penpal and parent 2) acquire two books to read 3) review with daughter weekly her Spanish classes 4) travel to Mexico ;) German Global - Move to an advance level that allows me to speak, read newspaper and novels, write comfortably. Specific Understand modern novels with minimal effort Improve listening to a point where I can reliably transcribe sentences Improve speaking ability to a natural level on various topical conversations or phone conversations Improve writing to comfortably write emails, short subjects Tactical 1) Complete pass 1 of Assimil over the next two months, pass 2 over the next 3-4 months 2) Enter all of the vocab book (1-2000) over the next 2 months and 2000-4000 over the following 2 months 3) scriptorium, shadowing exercises at least once a week from a variety of sources, podcasts 4) Communicate with penpal on at least a weekly basis Italian Global - Move from basic but easy understanding to an advance level that allows me to speak, read newspaper, write comfortably. Specific Understand modern novels with some effort and a dictionary Improve listening to a point where I can reliably transcribe sentences Improve speaking ability to a natural level on basic topical conversations (weather, sports, food, etc.) Improve to basic writing skills Tactical 1) Complete pass 1 of Assimil over the next 5 months, pass 2 over the following 3 months 2) Complete exercise book 3) scriptorium, shadowing exercises at least once a week from a variety of sources, podcasts 4) Communicate with penpal on at least a weekly basis Chinese Global - Move from very basic to advanced beginner [A2/B1] or stop (see Tactical 1) - I need to resolve my pigheadedness, do it or drop it. Specific Learn to read and recognize at least 1000 characters Learn to write at least 1000 characters Improve speaking ability to a natural level on basic topical conversations (weather, sports, food, etc.) Improve to basic writing skills Tactical 1) Demonstrate 4 days of adhesion to program over the next 3 months or stop. If I'm dragging my feet I have better focus on something else 2) Complete new exercise book 3) scriptorium, shadowing exercises at least once a week from a variety of sources, podcasts 4) Investigate chinesepod and use both podcasts and site 5) Communicate with penpal on at least a weekly basis ... AND ALWAYS REMEMBER TO HAVE FUN Edited by zenmonkey on 07 June 2009 at 4:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5805 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 55 of 125 05 June 2009 at 10:33am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Looks good to me. I am pleased to see another reflective piece, instead of just another monotonous update.
The only problem that I have is that you're only planning on reading 2 books!!!! MY GOD MAN WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? You need to do more than that. Still. Keep on going; Thom 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6363 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: EnglishC2*, Spanish*, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew | Message 56 of 125 05 June 2009 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Lol, thanks! I read a lot (what is a lot?) but only had 2 planned in Spanish. But you are right, I should update that in the other languages too. And I'll try to make my posts less monotonous.... -- Day 155 Today, I read several Article in the Italian newspaper on my flight, 70-80% understanding. For German, not only spoke for 20 minutes with a friend, but also did Assimil Lessons 61-62. Edited by zenmonkey on 07 June 2009 at 4:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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