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TAC 2010: Jinx Succumbs to Glossophilia | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5490 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes  Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 1 of 158 22 December 2009 at 1:54am | IP Logged |
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It's the end of the semester, and I'm looking forward to two months at home, during which I plan to do as much language study as possible. To that end, I intend to track my progress and motivate myself by keeping a log here. I tagged it TAC because I hope to continue my log throughout the year (my spring studying abroad, summer at home, and fall at university), but my updates may be rather sporadic!
There, I've got the statement-of-intent part out of the way. Now, down to the nuts and bolts... TARGET LANGUAGES (primary 3 plus extra 2) German (self-assessed level: low intermediate/maybe B1?) This is my primary, first, and favorite foreign language. I'm a college junior majoring in German Studies with an emphasis in translation, so I want to get my level of German knowledge as high as possible by the time I graduate. PAST: I took an intensive (fifteen hours a week) immersion course in my freshman year, followed by a month of language study (five hours a day) in Heidelberg, accompanied by a home stay which offered yet more opportunities for practice. Since then I've taken two courses back here in the US that were taught entirely in German, done a private writing-intensive one-semester tutorial, done another private tutorial focused on translation (working on translating a novel called "Die Wand" by Marlen Haushofer – I think this is going to become my senior project), and attended a weekly group tutorial to practice speaking. GOALS: At the beginning of March I'll be heading to Berlin (if all goes as planned) for three and a half months of study at Humboldt University, prefaced by a one-month language course to brush up my skills in preparation for taking university courses in German. By the end of this calendar year, I'll have those four and a half months of study in Berlin behind me, as well as another German course back here in the fall (I hope). Taking all this into consideration, I hope to be at a high intermediate or low advanced level, able to have spontaneous conversations on most topics, read a variety of literature, and write in my practice journal about anything that doesn't involve too-specialized vocabulary. MATERIALS: At this point I'm basically just absorbing German from every possible direction. I hope to do more translation work on "Die Wand" while I'm at home in January and February, and also translate some song lyrics – I love the challenge of trying to make singable translations. I have a bunch of books in German, of which I will enumerate the details in a later post, as well as some intermediate- and advanced-level textbooks. I also regularly listen to lots and lots of cheesy pop music in German (my number one method for learning – I swear by it!), write shamefully infrequently in my practice journal, and listen to quite a few podcasts on a daily basis (well, at least Deutsche-Welle's Nachrichten on a daily basis, the others rather less often). I also acquired Pimsleur's "German Plus" and "German Instant Conversation." I have no idea if they're the right level for me, but they're worth trying. I'm considering supplementing my studies with some of FSI's substitution drills as well, which I briefly tried in the past and found useful, but a bit daunting. Finally, I somehow also have Assimil's "La pratique de l'allemand." If my French is up to it, that might be fun. French (self-assessed level: intermediate beginner) I haven't done much actual study of French, but I find it quite easy in comparison to German, and know it's a requisite for any would-be polyglot (even if only so one can take advantage of all the Assimil courses!). My roommate speaks fluent French, and hearing it all the time has rekindled my interest in learning it. The most difficult part of it for me is the pronunciation. PAST: I took three years of French in high school, but we all know what high school language classes are like. I remember hardly anything from it. Just this past summer I bought the classic yellow-cover Teach Yourself (from now on referred to as TY) French and began going through it, but I only got a few lessons into it before college started up again it and I had to put the majority of my language study on hold for the semester. GOALS: My family wants to travel to Brittany in the summer of 2011, so I'd really like to be at least conversational in French by then (ideally by the end of this year, because I assume my last semester of college will be a bit mad). I know the French aren't the most welcoming when it comes to foreigners attempting to speak their language, and this is good motivation for me. MATERIALS: During the past semester I bought "L'Étranger" by Albert Camus, which I've read before in English, and started working my way through it. I need to look up several words on each page, but my progress hasn't been too slow, and I'm really enjoying it. I practice reading aloud passages to myself to work on my pronunciation. I also still have the TY book, as well as several other French textbooks and books in French, which I'll list along with my German books in a separate post. For about a year now I've been subscribed to the "RFI Journal en français facile" podcast, as well as a couple of other French podcasts. I also somehow have Pimsleur French I, II, and III; French With Michel Thomas; Just Listen 'n' Learn French; and something called "Learn French Fast" (anyone know what this is like? I haven't heard of it). Oh, and I downloaded a French grammar called "Grammaire Progressive – intermediate." Haven't looked at it yet. Italian (self-assessed level: low beginner) I don't really have a good reason to learn Italian. Well, I lie: I'd love to visit the country and even live there for a while someday, and my uncle speaks it, so I could practice with him. But he lives in California and I'm in Massachusetts, so that's not the most practical excuse. Regardless, I love it and want to be a polyglot, so it's on the list! PAST: Italian is my most recently started language. Last February I suddenly got the urge to learn it, acquired the Pimsleur course and proceeded to work my way through levels I, II, and III. After that I began the TY book, and got up to about lesson 20 of 30 before school started, at which point all my language studies (besides German, of course) stopped. GOALS: I don't have a particular level of knowledge I want to reach by a certain point. Maybe I'd like to be able to read a simple book in Italian – that seems like a reasonable goal. I'd also love to be able to write, but I don't like to start output until I've had a LOT of input. For this year, I'd like to finish my first work-through of the TY book (with an eventual goal of going through it again) and also repeat the Pimsleur levels I through III, perhaps edited down to include only the Italian and not the English talking. I'd also like to start work on a new Italian program from among my... MATERIALS: I still have the Pimsleur levels I/II/II as well as the Michel Thomas Italian (I hear his accent isn't the best, but I've heard a lot of good Italian accents at this point so I don't think I'll be swayed). I've also got something called "Parla subito – Italiano per stranieri" – I don't know if it's combination audio/reading or just one or the other. For the past year I've been regularly listening to podcasts (Radio Feltrinelli and the Repubblica) as well. Again, I've got a couple of books in Italian, but... you know the drill about books by now. Esperanto (self-assessed level: high beginner) I've been studying Esperanto for far too long to have any excuse for still being such a "komencanto"! It's terrible! I just can't get up enough excitement about it to put in long hours of dedicated study, which is what I really need at this point, to learn new word roots. Vocabulary is my only dramatically weak spot, although I'm still kind of sketchy on a few grammatical usages as well. PAST: I started studying Esperanto concurrently with Italian, so almost a year ago now. I've only been studying it on and off, though, neglecting it almost entirely during the summer, and studying only very lightly during the academic semesters. I've completed several of the online courses offered by http://lernu.net and also done the independently-hosted correspondence course from http://www.pacujo.net . GOALS: Esperanto is not one of my primary three languages for this coming year, but despite that I hope to reach a solid intermediate level in it by next January. My primary usage of it will be writing and reading on the internet. MATERIALS: At the moment my Esperanto resources are exclusively online, and the majority of those are from lernu.net . I've heard that the old TY Esperanto book is quite good, so I may look around for a copy of that if possible. Latin (self-assessed level: complete newbie!) I randomly did a few weeks of intense Latin study this past May, and pretty much completely abandoned it after that. However, I really enjoyed it and have a zeal for etymology which makes me appreciate the study of Latin in an entirely different way than with other languages. That's why I'd like to take it up again, although I don't have any concrete goals I'd like to reach with it (at the moment). PAST: Those two weeks were it. I worked steadily through a beginner's Latin textbook, but once I got to the end of it nothing else happened. GOALS: Again, Latin isn't one of my primary languages for this year, but I'd like to work through as much of Wheelock's as I feel able to tackle. MATERIALS: Wheelock's Latin is my primary text right now. As with the previous languages, I'll list my books in a later post devoted entirely to that purpose. Edited by Jinx on 29 October 2010 at 1:44am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5490 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 2 of 158 23 December 2009 at 7:55am | IP Logged |
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I'm exhausted, and it's late, so all I'm doing tonight is posting my obsessively-tracked studies from today. More general info tomorrow (I hope).
22 Dec. 2009 FRENCH (active study) 9 minutes: read 3 pp. of "L'Étranger" aloud. FRENCH (passive study) 10 minutes: listened to "Le journal en français facile" podcast. French total: 19 minutes (9 active/10 passive) GERMAN (active study) 11 minutes: read 6 pp. of "Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen" silently. 7 minutes: studied vocab in "Genius," my SRS program. GERMAN (passive study) 5 minutes: listened to "Deutsche Welle Nachrichten" podcast. German total: 23 minutes (18 active/5 passive) ITALIAN (active study) 12 minutes: read aloud LinguaPhone (LP) Conversational Course (CC), lesson 1. 20 minutes: copied LP CC lesson 1 by hand (reading aloud again as I went). 10 minutes: reviewed/read aloud TY lessons 1-4 (which I did this past summer). ITALIAN (passive study) 10 minutes: listened to "Repubblica TV audio" podcast. 4 minutes: listened to "Radio Feltrinelli" podcast. 4 minutes: listened to 4 tracks from "LP Italian allTalk." Italian total: 60 minutes (42 active/18 passive) ESPERANTO (active study) 16 minutes: read an article in Esperanto, putting all unknown words into SRS. 10 minutes: reviewed list of Esperanto roots, putting all unknowns into SRS. ESPERANTO (passive study) 13 minutes: listened to "Esperanto Radio Arkivo" podcast. Esperanto total: 39 minutes (26 active/13 passive) LATIN: none. TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 141 minutes (2h21) Edited by Jinx on 29 October 2010 at 1:51am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6267 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 3 of 158 23 December 2009 at 10:55am | IP Logged |
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Good luck in your studies! Maybe we'll meet at an Esperanto club night in Berlin.
Also, while I am disappointed in Wheelock's Latin, I'll stick around to answer questions. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5490 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 4 of 158 24 December 2009 at 4:32am | IP Logged |
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Thanks, Sprachprofi! That would be awesome. :) As for Wheelock's, I'm only starting chapter 3 right now so I don't yet have an extensive idea of it, but so far it seems pretty dense (which in my opinion is usually a good thing, if at times rather intimidating!).
ETA: Do you have any recommendations for good Latin textbooks in addition to/instead of Wheelock's? From the Amazon reviews I've read, people seem to get pretty passionate about attacking/defending various Latin texts... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5490 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 5 of 158 25 December 2009 at 4:13am | IP Logged |
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[NOTE: the reason I just edited all these old posts was simply to streamline my log by changing everything which looked like this:
LANGUAGE (active study) LANGUAGE (passive study) Language total: 0 minutes (0 active/0 passive) to this (much neater, clearer and taking up less space): LANGUAGE: nothing.] Edited by Jinx on 29 October 2010 at 1:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5490 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 6 of 158 25 December 2009 at 4:18am | IP Logged |
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23 December 2009
FRENCH: none. GERMAN: none. ITALIAN (active study) 16 minutes: copied (typing) Italian article mentioned below. 7 minutes: looked up unknown words from article below. ITALIAN (passive study) 7 minutes: read a simple (97% comprehension rate) article in Italian about Esperanto. (http://www.kurso.com.br/kioestas.php?it) Italian total: 30 minutes (23 active/7 passive) ESPERANTO (active study) 15 minutes: wrote an entry in my Esperanto practice journal. ESPERANTO (passive study) 10 minutes: looked at a quick "introduction to Esperanto" site as review. (http://www.esperanto.ca/kurso/esperanto.htm) 9 minutes: watched video of Humphrey Tonkin talking in Esperanto about how to give a lecture. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tl5rUcrerd4) Esperanto total: 34 minutes (15 active/19 passive) LATIN 100 minutes: reviewed Wheelock's Latin (WL) chapters 1 & 2, did supplementary exercises for chapter 2. Latin total: 100 minutes (100 active/0 passive) TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 164 minutes (2h44) Edited by Jinx on 29 October 2010 at 1:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5490 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 7 of 158 26 December 2009 at 6:31am | IP Logged |
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24 December 2009
FRENCH (active study) 27 minutes: read 8 pp. of "L'Étranger." FRENCH (passive study) French total: 27 minutes (27 active/0 passive) GERMAN (active study) 36 minutes: read 13 pp. of "Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen." GERMAN (passive study) 5 minutes: listened to "Deutsche Welle Nachrichten" podcast. 2 minutes: watched "Conversations in German" video podcast. German total: 43 minutes (36 active/7 passive) ITALIAN (active study) 16 minutes: read aloud LP CC lesson 2. 38 minutes: copied (by hand) LP CC lesson 2. ITALIAN (passive study) 6 minutes: listened to "Radio Feltrinelli" podcast. Italian total: 60 minutes (54 active/6 passive) ESPERANTO: none. LATIN (active study) 36 minutes: worked on WL chapter 3. Damn, these cases are getting confusing! LATIN (passive study) Latin total: 36 minutes (36 active/0 passive) TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 166 minutes (2h46) Edited by Jinx on 29 October 2010 at 1:54am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5490 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 8 of 158 27 December 2009 at 5:54am | IP Logged |
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25 December 2009
FRENCH (active study) 60 minutes: reviewed/read aloud lessons 1-4 of TY (which I also did this summer). FRENCH (passive study) 6 minutes: listened to "Daily French Pod" podcast. French total: 66 minutes (60 active/6 passive) GERMAN (active study) GERMAN (passive study) 5 minutes: listened to "Deutsche Welle Nachrichten" podcast. German total: 5 minutes (0 active/5 passive) ITALIAN: none. ESPERANTO: none. LATIN: none. TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 71 minutes (1h11) Edited by Jinx on 29 October 2010 at 1:55am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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