|
 |
TAC ’10 - Slacker’s 9-lang. all Pimsleur | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 Slacker Diglot Pro Member United States Joined 5272 days ago 62 posts - 99 votes  Speaks: Spanish, English Studies: German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Arabic (classical) Personal Language Map | Message 17 of 38 10 January 2010 at 1:19am | IP Logged | |||||
I'll try to at least post something weekly, at the minimum, with which lessons I've done that week -- most likely on Sunday nights, because that's when I seem to have the most free time. So far I've been going on a one- lesson per day for each of two languages pace... so, not really much reason to update that daily. So, based on that projection, I should finish the third and final volume of Portuguese on or about 8 Feb 2010, and the fourth and final volume of German on or about 30 March. What I will try to do on a regular basis is respond to comments, posts, and questions, or otherwise ramble on and on about seemingly unrelated topics. It's kind of what I do. Not sure if it's possible to filter out, but I try to keep my musings in manageable Chik-fil-A breakfast mini-biscuit-sized chunks. One thing that I don't think I've mentioned before, and I've given a little more thought to lately since I've started this with the first official kick-off of "Week 1" is that I do intend to do this using Pimsleur and only Pimsleur. No dictionaries, no Teach-Yourself books, no online language forums, grammar books, blogs, flashcards, homing pigeons, Wookies, native speakers, magic potions/pills, spells, curses, courses, immersions, emulsions, etc. It wasn't a problem with the Portuguese, but I've been dying to know how all these crazy- sounding German words are spelled. Someday I might find out, after this whole thing is over, but until then, you'll probably notice that I don't even attempt to write anything in whatever language it is that I'm studying at the time. As for a forum pool, I'm all for it... however, I've gotta be honest, the smart money is on 0 to 2. You don't get the nickname "Slacker" by being known for doing things and finishing stuff. Well, unless it's one of those ironic nicknames like "Shorty" for a 6'10" dude or something like that. But, in point of fact, I'm a rather normal- heighted guy (6'2"), in case that weighs into your deliberations. -Slacker 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Slacker Diglot Pro Member United States Joined 5272 days ago 62 posts - 99 votes Speaks: Spanish, English Studies: German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Arabic (classical) Personal Language Map | Message 18 of 38 12 January 2010 at 3:40am | IP Logged | |||||
|
WEEK 1 (3rd and final "Week 1" post! It's game-on from now on!!!) - Pimsleur Portuguese, Level III, Lesson 2 and
Pimsleur German, Level I, Lesson 22 A'ight y'all! This is it for reals, as my official "Week 1" ended on Sunday. So far, I'm in the home-stretch for Portuguese, I finished up Level 2 this week, and have started on the 3rd and final (level 3). As for German, things just got a whole lot more interesting today, as Lesson 22 started presenting more and more of the questions in German. This week dealt with numbers, 1st person plural, asking about one's family, and other such pleasantries. So now that I'm t-28 days for finishing Portuguese, I'm beginning to consider the various tactical and strategic considerations that come into play with which language to take up next. The easy money is on something relatively "easy" like Italian or French... but then, on the other hand, it might be good to jump right in and get a taste for the "Annihilation" aspect of this challenge and start one of the "hard" languages". At that point, I'll be about half-way through German, which, I must admit, is not yet as difficult as I had imagined, since I apparently already know another Germanic language, but just hadn't ever connected those dots. Or as I'm sure they say in German, "das dotten". -Slacker 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5354 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 19 of 38 12 January 2010 at 9:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
I've had this happen a fair bit myself. I suspect it is at least partly due to the fact that both courses (Spanish and Korean) have the same English narrator. So my brain has already associated his voice saying that prompt with the answer in L2, then when he uses a similar prompt in L3, my brain happily produces the answer it already has stored for L2 instead. (This is especially true of the words they use often use to start phrases like "Excuse me..." or "But...") Edited by Warp3 on 12 January 2010 at 9:04pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Slacker Diglot Pro Member United States Joined 5272 days ago 62 posts - 99 votes Speaks: Spanish, English Studies: German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Arabic (classical) Personal Language Map | Message 20 of 38 13 January 2010 at 4:35am | IP Logged | |||||
You make a good point, as as slight aside, that narrator is none other than Ray Brown, of WGBH (Boston). If you have some sort of reaction to his voice, you might want to try listening to his "Ray Brown's Talkin' Birds" Podcast. If his voice itself isn't like aural Ambien(tm) to you, the fact that he talks about birds for half-an-hour might just do the trick. I've always wondered if he actually listened to all of the language courses that he's done? Or is he just reading from a script, completely removed from whichever L2 speaker might be doing that portion of the audio. Anyone out there able to drop some knowledge on this one? So, today I did Portuguese Volume 3, Lesoon 3, and one of the prompts kind of caught me off guard, it was something to the effect of "Ask: 'Is that a good bottle of wine?'" Now, I know that Pimsleur is supposed to be repetitive and hit on things that have been done previously, but, come on! If someone couldn't ask if a bottle of wine is good or not they really shouldn't be on Volume 3 of any language. I'm hoping that the remaining 27 lessons get a little more challenging. If not, I 'll just enjoy them with a good bottle of wine. And, on a completely unrelated note, a few weeks ago I mentioned that I was also training for my first ever marathon. In addition to being a great opportunity to re-listen to the days Portuguese/German lessons, I was also able to apparently run 10 miles. Just brutal. I think I'm going to sleep now. -Slacker 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Slacker Diglot Pro Member United States Joined 5272 days ago 62 posts - 99 votes Speaks: Spanish, English Studies: German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Arabic (classical) Personal Language Map | Message 21 of 38 19 January 2010 at 2:46am | IP Logged | |||||
|
WEEK 2 - Pimsleur Portuguese, Level III, Lesson 8 and Pimsleur German, Level I, Lesson 28
Depression! -- Well, not on my side, but on the side of the most recent Pimsleur German lesson. In Level I, Lesson 28 I learned such phrases as "I'm not good, I don't know why, but I'm not," and "I agree, I work too much," and "I would like to go away... just away." Q: "Where do you want to go?" A: "Just... away." and "I have nothing." Pretty dark stuff for Level I, I wouldn't think that they'd address all this until Level 3, but whatever. After doing this lesson, for some reason I had the impulse to go to Hot Topic and buy a bunch of 90's-era Goth clothes (or in German "Goethe" clothes) and sit around my cold Ikea apartment room listening to Radiohead and cutting myself... which, I totally would have done had it not been for: >drum roll< Portuguese Level 3, Lesson 8!... Janet and Alberto (a.k.a. me) are going to a conference in Miami!... Ahhh... Although she hadn't bought the tickets yet, it seems like this is going to be an AWESOME trip to get over the whole German melancholy of only having 90 German Marks (which, I don't think are really worth anything these days). Me and Janet talk about our trip and how we're going to get there early to "experience" Miami together. Ahhh yeaaah! What's that Janet? These scars on my arm? Hmmm... I don't really want to talk about that, it was a dark period in my life when I was really into drinking a lot of German beer, listening to Rammstein, and generally being self-destructive. I'm over that now. Which reminds me, when the hell are you going to make those hotel reservations? -Slacker 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sprachjunge Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6984 days ago 368 posts - 548 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Spanish, Russian | Message 22 of 38 19 January 2010 at 11:53am | IP Logged | |||||
|
Just to confirm: I know I'm not the only one here cracking up while reading this log...ah, so many gems! For some reason, "emulsions" and "Goethe clothes" got to me, LOL, so funny.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| unzum Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom soyouwanttolearnalan Joined 6733 days ago 371 posts - 478 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 23 of 38 19 January 2010 at 2:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
This is a pretty funny thread. If I had the time I think I'd follow in your footsteps and try 'All FSI', in Cantonese, Mandarin, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese & Cambodian, though I think that might actually kill me.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Woodpecker Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5630 days ago 351 posts - 590 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written), Arabic (Egyptian) Studies: Arabic (classical) | Message 24 of 38 19 January 2010 at 3:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Pimsleur Pick-'Em: An HTLAL Sweepstakes
Let the games begin. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
