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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 41 of 158 02 February 2010 at 7:43pm | IP Logged |
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27 January 2010
FRENCH (active study) 45 minutes: finished TY lesson 19. 11 minutes: listened to/read through Assimil lessons 1-10. 17 minutes: did MT lessons 5-7. 5 minutes: listened to a LingQ text read at different speeds while following the text closely. FRENCH (passive study) 5 minutes: listened to Assimil lessons 6-10 again. 4 minutes: listened to a track of "French in Action" (French people talking about their childhoods). French total: 87 minutes (78 active/9 passive) GERMAN (active study) GERMAN (passive study) 5 minutes: listened to the podcast "Deutsche Welle Nachrichten." German total: 5 minutes (0 active/5 passive) ITALIAN: none. ESPERANTO (active study) 20 minutes: finished TY chapter 7. ESPERANTO (passive study) 10 minutes: listened to the podcast "Radio 3ZZZ." Esperanto total: 30 minutes (0 active/0 passive) TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 122 minutes (2h02) Edited by Jinx on 29 October 2010 at 2:29am 2 persons have 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 42 of 158 02 February 2010 at 7:44pm | IP Logged |
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Reflections at this juncture (27 Jan.)
As I write, I'm listening to "French with Michel Thomas." It's unbearably slow. His two students just took over a full minute to put together the sentence "Où voulez-vous aller?" I mean, I like him – he seems to be a pretty cool guy, but the students make the entire thing about ten times slower than it has to be. I want to get through the entire course, because I like his style of teaching and the way he forces you to make connections in your own mind and put together the words you've already learned in new ways. I just didn't realize it was going to be so excruciating. If only I had the time, patience, and technical skills to edit out all the students' struggling. On another negative note, reading aloud my Esperanto lesson and listening to Radio 3ZZZ has unfortunately reminded me how much I dislike the sound of Esperanto. It's so boring and accentless. I keep trying to get into it, and keep feeling far less enthusiasm than I do for any other language. I should be excited about it – I can't wait to be able to use it fluently, and spoken sound is only one tiny aspect of a language. Sigh. Maybe it's my musical ear, but something just keeps putting me off. Maybe I'll have to stick to writing and reading Esperanto, and not bother with the spoken part. Overall, today has been a frustrating day for language study, but I won't let it discourage me – I know we all have these days. After struggling with French and Esperanto I didn't have the energy to tackle German and Italian as well, but in the grand scheme of things, I'm still feeling pretty good about all four languages. I feel that, despite my lack of vocabulary in Italian and Esperanto (and to a lesser degree in French), I could now make myself understood in all four languages, which is a good feeling. Now, something I've been wanting to think/write about: my next language! Obviously, my current four will still demand quite a bit of work before I feel good enough to let them be for a while. Tangent: my self-imposed rule for learning a language is that I can't stop studying it (exceptional circumstances excluded) until I can read a simple book in that language and understand enough of it that I don't have to look up the words I don't know. This isn't a randomly invented rule; I carefully decided on this level of learning, because if I've reached that level in a language, I can keep it "alive" without actively studying it, just by reading books, listening to music and podcasts, etc. Anyway, right now German is at that level and French is approaching it, with Italian and Esperanto not far in the distance. Once they've all caught up, I'll have to decide which language I'm going to study next. With an eye on the resources I have, my official "languages-to-learn" list, and of course simply those which keep calling to me... here are some possibilities: - Spanish - Brazilian Portuguese - Norwegian - Persian - Latin - Slovio - Mandarin Chinese Right now, the ones I feel the strongest urge to go for are Spanish, Portuguese, and Slovio, funnily enough. Spanish because it's so widespread that I feel silly for NOT having learned it yet, Portuguese to be able to talk to my aunt and because I'm getting more and more fascinated by its sound, and Slovio because I really want a quick introduction to the Slavic family (Cyrillic script, shared vocab, etc.). I'm worried about the lack of resources for this last, though – I'm very material-dependent as a language-learner. Right now, I'm thinking I'll probably end up going with Spanish... but even as I say that, I'm second-guessing myself. I'm studying two romance languages right now, and all four of my languages are very European and quite similar to English (in some ways). To avoid mixing myself up, and also just to get myself out of a linguistic rut, maybe I ought to try something entirely new, like Slovio or Persian! I know Persian is an Indo-European language, but the the vocab I've seen is quite different from the Romance family's, and the script should keep me entertained. Then, of course, there's always Mandarin... I love its sound and script, and I have several Chinese friends (although actually two of them are from Shanghai, but I don't want to learn Shanghainese). Then again, the good thing about going for Slovio next is that it's still pretty easy (good for a beginner-polyglot like me), and yet has the exotic qualities of the Slavic language family and the Cyrillic script! Hmm... choices of this sort are so difficult. 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 43 of 158 02 February 2010 at 10:13pm | IP Logged |
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28 January 2010
FRENCH (active study) 45 minutes: started TY lesson 20. 40 minutes: typed up and read aloud TY lessons 3-5. FRENCH (passive study) 5 minutes: listened to 5 tracks from a recording of the Bible in French. French total: 90 minutes (85 active/5 passive) GERMAN (active study) 13 minutes: listened to Assimil GwT lessons 4-9 twice, transcribing as I listened. 40 minutes: read 12 pages of "Harry Potter" aloud. 27 minutes: listened to German pop music (Die Prinzen, the Wise Guys, Udo Lindenberg, Die Ärzte) while reading/transcribing the lyrics and singing along. GERMAN (passive study) 10 minutes: listened to Assimil lessons 1-9 again. 5 minutes: listened to the podcast "Deutsche Welle Nachrichten." German total: 95 minutes (80 active/15 passive) ITALIAN (active study) 45 minutes: reviewed TY lesson 6, re-did exercises. 40 minutes: read 23 pages of my Italian reader "Letture Varie." 10 minutes: wrote an entry in my Italian practice journal. ITALIAN (passive study) 10 minutes: listened to the podcast "Repubblica." 8 minutes: listened to the podcast "Radio Feltrinelli." Italian total: 113 minutes (95 active/18 passive) ESPERANTO (active study) 80 minutes: did TY chapter 8. ESPERANTO (passive study) 9 minutes: listened to the podcast "Radio 3ZZZ." Esperanto total: 89 minutes (80 active/9 passive) TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 387 minutes (6h27) 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 44 of 158 02 February 2010 at 10:21pm | IP Logged |
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Reflections at this juncture (28 Jan.)
My great discovery of today was this reader "Letture Varie." I started it the other day but didn't realize at the time how great it was, seeing as it starts off kind of Dick-and-Jane-ish. However, it's really got a sense of humor, and I actually found it hard to put down – quite an honor for a beginning-level reader! I even found myself laughing out loud at a few points. Who'd have thought I'd have more fun reading an introductory Italian reader than reading Harry Potter in German, or The Stranger in French? This is just another demonstration to me that picking the right reading material really makes a big difference. Not to say that I have a problem with Harry Potter or L'Étranger, but I've read them both before in English, and although I thought that would make it easier to read them in another language (it does), that doesn't make them any more enjoyable! A simple fact, I guess, but one I hadn't really grasped until now. All things considered, today was a much more successful day for language study than yesterday. Unhappily for my studies but happily for me, I will be returning home tomorrow and therefore will have much less time to get stuff done than I have had while living alone this week, with nothing to do but take care of my friend's dog and study my languages. But there are a few things that will keep me going even at home (I hope): my pleasingly rapid progress through TY French; my newfound love for my Italian reader; my successful if not overwhelmingly enjoyable voyage through TY Esperanto*; and of course my unending adoration for German, which is more than enough of a reason to keep me devoted to that language no matter what, even as I juggle multiple others at the same time. (And, of course, it helps that in a month I'll be leaving to spend five months in Berlin, taking courses taught in German). Holy smokes, I just totalled up my language study for today, and it came to six and a half hours! And not a bit of that felt like drudgery! If only I had good days like this more often, I could get unbelievable amounts done. ;) *I must note, however, that today I felt much better about Esperanto than yesterday. None of my problems magically disappeared – they're legit, and certain pronunciation things still drive me wild, as does the lack of accent – but I almost enjoyed my eighty-minute lesson, even though I didn't start it until 11 pm and therefore was rather tired by the end of it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6268 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 45 of 158 02 February 2010 at 10:34pm | IP Logged |
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For me, how I like the sound of Esperanto largely depends on who is speaking it. I couldn't find an online sample of the 3ZZZ show, but if you prefer, listen to Radio Verda, Radio Polonia, Ĉina Radio Internacia, Radio Havano Kubo, or any other radio program. There's a decent list of radio stations who put their Esperanto content online at this Japanese guy's site.
Also, you may like to watch some of the videos here, which are in Esperanto with Esperanto subtitles. This could help your comprehension. Youtube and Farbskatol' obviously have more Esperanto videos, but without subtitles or the chance to look up what was said at a point when you didn't understand. 2 persons have 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 46 of 158 02 February 2010 at 10:38pm | IP Logged |
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31 January 2010
FRENCH (active study) 120 minutes: finished TY lesson 20, did lesson 21. FRENCH (passive study) French total: 120 minutes (120 active/0 passive) GERMAN: none. ITALIAN (active study) 60 minutes: did Linguaphone lesson 10. ITALIAN (passive study) Italian total: 60 minutes (60 active/0 passive) ESPERANTO (active study) 60 minutes: started TY chapter 9. ESPERANTO (passive study) Esperanto total: 60 minutes (60 active/0 passive) TOTAL STUDY TODAY: 240 minutes (4h0) Edited by Jinx on 29 October 2010 at 2:40am 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 47 of 158 03 February 2010 at 5:46am | IP Logged |
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Reflections at this juncture (2 Feb.)
tenpo pimeja pini la mi kama sona e toki pona! toki pona li pona mute tawa mi. toki pona li ante e pilin jan. sama la e Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. ;) tenpo kama la mi wile pali e toki pona mi tawa pali pona e sona toki pona mi. Yes, I admit it: I learned Toki Pona last night. It was midnight, I was about to go to bed, but then I discovered a website with free lessons and was trapped. By three a.m. I'd completed the lessons (18 of 'em) and could officially claim to have learned a new language. ;) I'm quite charmed by it. I know I'm not close to "fluent," but it's so much fun to have reached this level in a language after three hours of study. And as I mention in my tokiponized paragraph above, this language really does something to the way you think, at least while you're using it. It's fascinating. 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 48 of 158 03 February 2010 at 7:02am | IP Logged |
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Sprachprofi, thank you so much for the Esperanto links! I'm going to check them out right now. I agree, individual
accent really makes or breaks one's enjoyment of a language, and I guess the podcasts I've been listening to just don't feature people with very charming voices. :/ 1 person has voted this message useful |
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