Quabazaa Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5612 days ago 414 posts - 543 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, German, French Studies: Japanese, Korean, Maori, Scottish Gaelic, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Written)
| Message 65 of 72 30 March 2010 at 12:10am | IP Logged |
Hey Icaria, good luck with your Hungarian! I am in a similar situation because I am about to go to Italy and France (only for a couple of weeks though, eg one in each) and I don't want to stop my Arabic studies during that time... but it seems kind of silly to be in a country where you want to experience the language and then to spend energy on studying another language.. when I should just enjoy the immersion!
Anyway I'm glad you will still be posting to TAC! Afterall I think a change of language priorities shouldn't mean you're not still aiming for Total Annihilation! :)
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Icaria909 Senior Member United States Joined 5594 days ago 201 posts - 346 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 66 of 72 01 April 2010 at 10:15pm | IP Logged |
Thanks Quabazaa and joanthemaid for your support, it's nice to know that I'm not he only one changing my
language priorities. I dong this on my iPhone, so I am going to try and keep this short. This log is to set a
new plan for April, especially considering that I am adding Hungarian to my list.
Hungarian
Goal: memorize 250-300 words, and learn at least introductions and the more basic grammar of Hungarian.
How: I found this great ap on my iPhone called my words: Hungarian. It gives me ten words a day to
memorize, along with audio of a native speaker so I know how the words sound, and the ability to record
my attempts at pronounciation. The words aren't necesarilly the most frequently used words, but most of
hem are pretty good. I hope to use this to give me a good vocabulary in three months time. I also have
found a Hungarian grammar online, which I also plan to use. Finally, I'm ordering Teach Yourself Hungarian
to learn the basics. I'm going to stick with vocabulary and the Teach Yourself series for this first month. I
hpoe to accomplish this by studying for thirty minutes a day.
Spanish
Goal: to learn an aditional 100-150 words. I want to learn about 5 words a day using an old website. I also
am going to try and read at least one Spanish newspaper article a day from either Qué, 20 minutos, or El
País. I'm also going to complete one grammar lesson every other day.
How: I'm using much of the same material I have been using buti want to formalize what I am goin to do to
accomplish these goals. I hope to study for half an hour a day.
Schedule
I am going to study Spanish in the korning at 7-7:30am. And I am going to study Hungarian at 3-3:30pm.
That way, I'll be able to cleary split up the work into periods where I'll be the most productive.
On a side note, I am going to stop posting my Russian and Catalan hours until after I finsh my three
months of study of Hungarian.
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Icaria909 Senior Member United States Joined 5594 days ago 201 posts - 346 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 67 of 72 04 April 2010 at 3:29pm | IP Logged |
I've tried my new schedule and my goals are too high for the moment. I don't like the resource I've been
using for Hungarian. It uses random words that I will rarely use ( like to knit). I checked Wiktionary and
found a list of the most frequent words ( in several languages) in Hungarian. I'm going to try to memorize
five words a day for both languages from this list. Instead I hope to learn the 100 most common hungarian
words by the end of the month. I also am going to switch off reading one Spanish article and practicing
grammar. Don't worry I have studied and I'll post later.
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joanthemaid Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5473 days ago 483 posts - 559 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, German
| Message 68 of 72 04 April 2010 at 10:35pm | IP Logged |
This iphone thing sound a bit like those 'My_____teacher' games on the DS. I actually tried the Spanish one, and it's mostly useless because:
1) You don't produce much language or full sentences at all as the exercises are mostly vocab
2) Once you're past the "lessons" they make you learn random unrelated vocab and you don't get any grammar exercises at all any more. It may get you to a fragile A1 level but beyond that...
It seems to be a tradition on this site to berate school learning and teachers but I do hope no Spanish teacher was ever that bad. The feature that lets you record yourself is nice, but you can do that with for instance Audacity (free software) if you have a microphone, and follow your progress, which can be nice.
Hope you'll enjoy Hungarian and have a great April month!
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Icaria909 Senior Member United States Joined 5594 days ago 201 posts - 346 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 69 of 72 06 April 2010 at 2:07pm | IP Logged |
Ya I agree with you on the Iphone thing. the more I use some of those language apps, the more I realize that they're just not well made and strictly made for commericial purposes. The Hungarian app has taught me some very rare words, and because Hungarian uses cases the app could never make me do well with it alone. I haven't studied hungarian for a few days because I am waiting for my Teach Yourself Hungarian book and CD to arrive. At least with that, I will know basic phrases and basic grammar; enough of a headstart to study more on my own.
Spanish has been going great. I've been reading several articles, ranging from corrupted judges to political inquiries. But, I've started to write down short summaries of what I've read in Spanish after finished reading, and I've found that I have a hard time producing Spanish words because I've neglected that part of my studies for some time. I'll just need more practice to make up for it.
Espanol- 31.5 horas
Hungarian- 1 hour
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Icaria909 Senior Member United States Joined 5594 days ago 201 posts - 346 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 70 of 72 15 April 2010 at 12:58am | IP Logged |
I haven't studied all week. I've been sick with the flu. However, I did get my Teach Yourself Hungarian book
in the mail. I've been reading the book and it looks great. The book is actually over a hundred pages mote
than my other Teach Yourself books I have (in Catalan and Dutch). I hope that's a good thing. Since my
strategy of just trying to memorize wordlists has failed miserably, I will be content finishing one lesson a
week. Just checking in to say I haven't died because I haven't posted in a week.
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joanthemaid Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5473 days ago 483 posts - 559 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, German
| Message 71 of 72 18 April 2010 at 2:19pm | IP Logged |
Glad to hear you're still alive! Good luck with Hungarian with your new book.
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Icaria909 Senior Member United States Joined 5594 days ago 201 posts - 346 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 72 of 72 30 April 2010 at 2:14am | IP Logged |
Well, my studying for this month has been a bust. Oh well, I just got to get back in it. I got a berlitz book for
Spanish and I just started using it. I hope to finish 1 lesson a week, but the first few chapters are so easy
I'm doing a lesson a day. My pace will slow down soon. I'm also sticking with my one lesson a week in
Hungarian. I'm even renting a book on Budapest to read before I start studying every day to get in the right
mindset. I'm stumbling over some pronouciations, but the lesson are well done.
Espanol- 33 horas
Hungarian- 2 hours
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