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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 5491 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes  Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 9 of 158 27 December 2009 at 5:59am | IP Logged |
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Here it is finally: the long-promised book post! In a complex and obsessively-organized list which will probably be of interest to no one but myself, I shall present all the language-learning books I currently own (that is, all those which pertain to my five chosen languages – a distinction which it is unfortunately necessary to make, although I imagine I am not alone in greedily hoarding textbooks on far more languages than the average person could ever hope to learn in one lifetime). This does not count books written IN my target languages – no, here only books aimed at language learners will be listed. Also, I've impulsively decided at the last minute to include my audio courses and e-books as well. So, without further ado, let my grand list begin.
ETA: I have put in bold text the textbooks I am currently using. GERMAN (textbooks) Hugo's German Simplified (1950?) Essential Grammar of German (Monika Reimann, 1999) German for Reading Knowledge (Hubert Jannach, 1980) Mittelpunkt: Deutsch als Fremdsprache für Fortgeschrittene (Lehrbuch & Arbeitsbuch, 2007) GERMAN (audio courses) Assimil: la pratique de l'allemand Pimsleur German: Instant Conversation Pimsleur German Plus FRENCH (textbooks) Teach Yourself: French (Sir John Adams, rev. Norman Scarlyn Wilson, 1969) Everyday French (Norman Scarlyn Wilson, 1973) Espaces 2: Méthode de français (1990) Grammaire Progressive: intermediate (e-book) FRENCH (audio courses) Pimsleur French I, II, & III Learn French Fast French with Michel Thomas Michel Thomas French Vocabulary Builder Assimil French Without Toil (1940) ITALIAN (textbooks) Linguaphone Conversational Course: Italian (1932) Teach Yourself: Italian (Kathleen Speight, 1962) Italian Slang (e-book) EL Italian Verbs (e-book) FSI Italian textbook (e-book) Italian 101 Workbook (e-book, Graziana Lazzarino, 1974) ITALIAN (audio courses) Linguaphone Italian allTalk Pimsleur Italian I, II, & III Michel Thomas Italian Parla subito: Italiano per stranieri LATIN (textbooks) Wheelock's Latin (5th edition) Latin Lessons (R.F. Leighton, 1873) Latina pro Populo (Alexander & Nicholas Humez) Latin for Beginners (e-book, Benjamin L. D'Ooge, 1911) ESPERANTO (textbooks) An Elementary Esperanto Primer (e-book, Daniel M. Albro, 1993) Gerda malaperis (e-book from lernu) Edited by Jinx on 02 January 2010 at 7:06am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5491 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 10 of 158 28 December 2009 at 6:45am | IP Logged |
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26 December 2009
FRENCH (active study) FRENCH (passive study) 10 minutes: listened to "Le journal en français facile" podcast. French total: 10 minutes (0 active/10 passive) GERMAN (active study) 12 minutes: reviewed idiomatic phrases written in Fraktur, from Hugo's. GERMAN (passive study) 5 minutes: listened to "Deutsche Welle Nachrichten" podcast. German total: 17 minutes (12 active/5 passive) ITALIAN (active study) ITALIAN (passive study) 2 minutes: listened to "Italiano Podcast" podcast. 4 minutes: listened to "Radio Feltrinelli" podcast. Italian total: 6 minutes (0 active/6 passive) ESPERANTO (active study) 15 minutes: read aloud a document in Esperanto that I downloaded by mistake. ESPERANTO (passive study) Esperanto total: 15 minutes (15 active/0 passive) LATIN: none. TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 48 minutes (0h48) Edited by Jinx on 29 October 2010 at 1:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5491 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 11 of 158 29 December 2009 at 7:45am | IP Logged |
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27 December 2009
FRENCH (active study) 20 minutes: read "Le Monde" (article about John Frusciante quitting RHCP). 74 minutes: reviewed TY lessons 5-8, practiced verb conjugations. FRENCH (passive study) French total: 94 minutes (94 active/0 passive) GERMAN (active study) 25 minutes: read "Der Spiegel" (article about Jean-Michel Jarre). GERMAN (passive study) German total: 25 minutes (25 active/0 passive) ITALIAN (active study) 20 minutes: read "personalità confusa" and looked up all unknown words. (http://personalitaconfusa.splinder.com/) 8 minutes: read LP CC lesson 3. 24 minutes: read aloud and copied (by hand) LP CC lesson 3. 17 minutes: re-read aloud and typed up LP CC lessons 1 & 2. ITALIAN (passive study) 30 minutes: listened to "Repubblica" podcast (a piece about eco-tourism). Italian total: 99 minutes (69 active/30 passive) ESPERANTO: none. LATIN (active study) 8 minutes: read/copied Sprachprofi's Latin lesson 1. LATIN (passive study) Latin total: 8 minutes (8 active/0 passive) TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 226 minutes (3h46) Edited by Jinx on 29 October 2010 at 1:56am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5491 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 12 of 158 02 January 2010 at 6:53am | IP Logged |
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28 December 2009
FRENCH (active study) 60 minutes: did TY lesson 8. 21 minutes: read "L'Étranger" chapter 2. FRENCH (passive study) French total: 81 minutes (81 active/0 passive) GERMAN (active study) GERMAN (passive study) 10 minutes: listened to "Deutsche Welle Nachrichten" podcast. German total: 10 minutes (0 active/10 passive) ITALIAN (active study) 23 minutes: read aloud LP CC lesson 4, looked up all unknown words. 25 minutes: copied LP CC lesson 4 by hand. 6 minutes: read a short article online (about some RSS widget). ITALIAN (passive study) 8 minutes: listened to "Radio Feltrinelli" podcast. Italian total: 62 minutes (54 active/8 passive) ESPERANTO: none. LATIN (active study) LATIN (passive study) 5 minutes: listened to "Classic Texts: Cicero, Pro Caelio" podcast. Latin total: 5 minutes (0 active/5 passive) TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 158 minutes (2h38) Edited by Jinx on 29 October 2010 at 1:50am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5491 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 13 of 158 02 January 2010 at 6:56am | IP Logged |
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30 December 2009
FRENCH (active study) 52 minutes: did TY lesson 9. FRENCH (passive study) French total: 52 minutes (52 active/0 passive) GERMAN (active study) GERMAN (passive study) 10 minutes: listened to "Deutsche Welle Nachrichten" podcast. German total: 10 minutes (0 active/10 passive) ITALIAN (active study) ITALIAN (passive study) 7 minutes: listened to "Repubblica" podcast. Italian total: 7 minutes (0 active/7 passive) ESPERANTO: none. LATIN: none. TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 69 minutes (1h09) Today I also studied all the North Germanic languages by mistake. I'm sorry. It won't happen again, I promise. Edited by Jinx on 29 October 2010 at 1:56am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5491 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 14 of 158 02 January 2010 at 7:01am | IP Logged |
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Reflections at this juncture
I'm feeling really good about my progress in French and Italian, slightly moreso with French. I'm steadily working through Teach Yourself (which I love) for French and Linguaphone for Italian. I've been loving Linguaphone too, overall – my only gripe is that sometimes the pictures are the only way to figure out what a word is, and when the words you're trying to identify are "fire poker," "tongs," and "shovel," and each one of those items looks like a half-inch line-drawing squiggle in the small picture, it's rather difficult to figure them out. Rather difficult as in impossible – I've been doing quite a bit of dictionary-checking. I'm only on lesson five and it's already getting difficult – I definitely think this is far too advanced for a beginner in Italian. Luckily, it's the perfect level for me, since I've already completed Pimsleur and gone through most of the Teach Yourself Italian book. (Oh right, and I've also done the BBC course – but that was so small-time that I barely count it as part of my language-learning process.) I'm speeding through "L'Étranger," and enjoying it even more in French than I did in English. Having read it in English is definitely helping my comprehension now, though, I can tell. Every time I open the book I thank Camus for his clear and simple style – perfect for a beginner like me! I'd like to finish the book by the end of the month if possible. German feels good and steady, and I've noticed a marked improvement in my level of reading comfort. Before it felt like a chore to make myself read a news article or Wikipedia entry in German, and now it's much easier, to the point where (for example) I looked something up on the German Wikipedia today even though I wasn't consciously "studying." I've also been blasting through Harry Potter – that is, when I have a moment to actually sit down and read! I'm hoping to finish this one by the end of the month as well (*crossing fingers*). My relationship with Esperanto is still rocky. I so desperately want to be so much better in it than I am. It irritates me to no end that I'm not "fluent" (whatever that slippery word means) after a year of study, even if that year's been terribly slack when it comes to actual studying. I guess what I really need to do at this point is just memorize roots and practice writing. And, I guess, practice reading... but memorize roots first, because there's so damn many of them! With Latin, I've hit a plateau in the past few days, somehow not feeling the urge to pick up my textbook and keep going. I guess it's all those cases... they're so confusing. It's interesting to compare my experience with Latin and French: my French text is moving slowly enough that I feel completely confident (well, except with regards to that damned past historic...), and as a result I'm absolutely rarin' to go when it comes to French! With Latin, however, I feel that it's moving too quickly and I'm not being given enough chances to practice what I've learned and cement it in my mind, therefore I'm reluctant to even approach the book. I confess, I also listened to some podcasts in Norwegian and Mandarin Chinese the other day, and then took a sneak peek at the first few pages of my Persian grammar. I can't wait to get started on all three of those languages! But first Portuguese and Spanish. Portuguese before Spanish, I suppose. I'm having so much trouble making that decision; I keep waffling back and forth. Spanish is definitely far more useful in the US, in general, in life... but my aunt is Brazilian. And I see her several times a year. And she's having a hell of a time learning English (many Brazilians I've met seem to, I wonder why?). So I really have more of a personal reason to learn Portuguese. Plus, I'm becoming more and more fascinated with the sound of it. A friend of mine who can speak Continental Portuguese fluently and can also approximate a Brazilian accent recently demonstrated the differences and similarities to me, and I was simply enthralled. Oh, languages... how I love you. But really, this tendency to stray is too bad! I must stick to my guns. Isn't five enough to satisfy me, honestly?! ...It would appear not. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5491 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 15 of 158 06 January 2010 at 6:59am | IP Logged |
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1 January 2010
FRENCH (active study) 50 minutes: did TY lesson 10. FRENCH (passive study) 10 minutes: listened to "Le journal en français facile" podcast. French total: 60 minutes (50 active/10 passive) GERMAN (active study) GERMAN (passive study) 10 minutes: listened to "Deutsche Welle Nachrichten" podcast. German total: 10 minutes (0 active/10 passive) ITALIAN (active study) 26 minutes: read LP CC lesson 5. 31 minutes: copied LP CC lesson 5 by hand. ITALIAN (passive study) 3 minutes: listened to "Radio Feltrinelli" podcast. Italian total: 60 minutes (57 active/3 passive) ESPERANTO: none. LATIN: none. TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 130 minutes (2h10) Edited by Jinx on 29 October 2010 at 1:57am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5491 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 16 of 158 06 January 2010 at 7:00am | IP Logged |
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3 January 2010
FRENCH: none. GERMAN (active study) 10 minutes: did a close reading of the lyrics to Herbert Grönemeyer's song "Der Weg," translating all words I didn't know. GERMAN (passive study) 3 minutes: watched Falco's "Der Kommissar." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GmkjnL4EYw) 4 minutes: watched excerpts of Falco interviews. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_F3puNflVU0) 5 minutes: watched Andre Heller's "A Zigeina mecht i sein." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzXsewb2jeA) 4 minutes: watched Herbert Grönemeyer's "Der Weg." (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MH-R3UYtpig) German total: 26 minutes (10 active/16 passive) ITALIAN: none. ESPERANTO (active study) ESPERANTO (passive study) 8 minutes: watched a video called "Esperanto estas..." (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-883743893899145267 0#) Esperanto total: 8 minutes (0 active/8 passive) LATIN: none. TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 34 minutes (0h34) Edited by Jinx on 29 October 2010 at 1:58am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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