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TAC 2010 - Team F - DaraghM | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 49 of 74 18 August 2010 at 11:34am | IP Logged |
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My Hungarian study was a mixed bag of the Colloquial course and my Hungarian grammar book. Both books were written by Carol Rounds,in conjuction with other authors. The Colloquial course is compact and a great way to cover the language quickly. I've also started LR-ing Harry Potter in Hungarian. This is very tricky as the order of sentences and clauses varies between the translations. I compared the French version, and like the Spanish, it follows the English structure more closely. However, the Hungarian version is broken down nicely into short segments, while the French and Spanish are one track per chapter.
My plan is to vary my languages a bit more, so I'm switching to Russian for a week or so. To cover the language quickly, I'm using the Living Language course. Modern Russian 1 is probably the best course, but I'm taking a break from FSI style courses. My brain seemed to waver in concentration slightly on the drills, so I know I'd to vary my learning style. Time to Hungarian and French Target: 29 hours (From 100 hours goal) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 50 of 74 23 August 2010 at 1:44pm | IP Logged |
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Just a quick update to mention my study is primarily Russian for the week. Apart from the Living Language course, I read through a short but very academic treatise on Russian literature. (Introduction to Russian Literature by Catriona Kelly).
It had a number of parallel translations, some transliteration, and a lot of discussion on Formalist, Symbolist and other movements. It also discussed the Russian literary concept of сказ (Skaz) in great detail, especially as it related to the works of Gogol. There was a brief discussion on Мастер и Маргарита (The Master and Margarita) by Bulgakov, which makes me really want to read it. Time to Russian Target: 117 hours (From 200 hours goal) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 51 of 74 30 August 2010 at 12:30pm | IP Logged |
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Over the past week it's been a very mixed bag of languages. After Russian, I returned to Hungarian and the Assimil course. I'd abandoned this course after the later lessons became very difficult to follow from a situational point of view . E.g. dream sequences, surreal stories. Returning to the earlier lessons proved useful and a nice revision of the material.
While I was in town, perusing the language section of various book shops, I came across a couple of bargains. I picked up a Japanese grammar, Drive Time Japanese, Drive Time Italian, Collins Speak Polish, and a Collins Polish conversation course. None of the courses cost more than €15. While Japanese is a language I plan on learning at some point, I didn't spend long with the material, listening to about an hour of the drive time course. Japanese strikes me as a hard language between the vocabulary, word order and different counting systems. I can't imagine how much harder it would be if I tried learning the Kanji. The Collins Polish courses are surprisingly good value, and very well constructed. Many years ago I worked through, "Teach Yourself Polish Conversation", and thought it was ok. The Collins all audio equivalent is leagues ahead. The TY course didn't spend time on the pronunciation, but the Collins course does. The TY course presents a set of vocabulary and then a dialogue. The Collins course features dialogues, but breaks the language down like a Michel Thomas course. The advantage of this course over MT, is the use of all native speakers. The other Collins course, "Speak Polish", is book based and also put together well. I'll comment on it in a future post. I've also decided to alter some of my language goals. As I'd used up the others target with French and Hungarian, I've decided to leave them as a stand alone goal. I've a new Others target to cover all other languages. Time to Russian Target: 112 hours (From 200 hours goal) Time to Hungarian and French Target: 22 hours (From 100 hours goal) Time to Polish and Others Target: 97 hours (From 100 hours goal) Edited by DaraghM on 30 August 2010 at 3:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 52 of 74 30 August 2010 at 3:42pm | IP Logged |
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Update:
Due to the actions of others, the ability to edit posts over 10 days has ceased. I can't edit the first page of my log to reflect the changed goals, but I might do a repost near the end. [UPDATE: The problem has now been fixed. :-)] Edited by DaraghM on 08 September 2010 at 10:23am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 53 of 74 08 September 2010 at 10:15am | IP Logged |
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As always, the time I've available to post is limited. After the Collins Polish conversation course, I used "Speak Polish". This book takes an interesting approach to teaching the language. The book consists of two parts, a dialogue section and a grammar section. There are two accompanying CD's which correspond to each section.
The first section consists of 16 units. Each unit starts with a dialogue, a vocabulary list from the dialogue, and then a discussion about the grammar and language. The language discussion and grammar sections are suprisingly comprehensive. The book avoids grammar tables and introduces verb and case endings in a slightly ad hoc manner. This has some benefits, but also a few drawbacks. What I found interesting is the pace, which is very fast. By unit 7, you have covered nearly all cases and their adjectival endings. The other interesting feature is the complete lack of exercises in the book. I actually like this as you can cover a number of units in a session. The second section, "Nuts and Bolts", is all about the grammar. It covers most features of Polish grammar and fully conjugates the most common verbs. The section could be improved by a stand alone section on the Polish cases. The cases are treated in the nouns, adjectives and demonstratives section. The CD's which accompany the course are very good. The first CD with the dialogues has the dialogue in Polish, and than the vocabulary used in English and Polish. This means you can listen to the CD in sections, or the entire first CD in one session. The first CD also contains some exercises which get very complex quickly. For example, one of the early unit exercises reminds you to change the adjectives in the accusative to their genitive forms. The second CD can also be used stand alone, and consists entirely of Polish grammar. The coverage is quite comprehensive especially the verbs. The most common verbs are conjugated in nearly all tenses. I learnt more tenses in this section, than I still know in Russian. After my week long excursion in Polish, it whet my appetite to return to Russian. I've returned to the Modern Russian 1 course, also Routledge's grammar, and Using Russian. Time to Polish and Others Target: 83 hours (From 100 hours goal) Time to Russian Target: 106 hours (From 200 hours goal) Edited by DaraghM on 08 September 2010 at 10:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 54 of 74 16 September 2010 at 12:21pm | IP Logged |
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Since my last post, Russian has still been by main language for study. Using the previously mentioned Modern Russian 1, Routledge's grammar, and Using Russian, I'm slowly starting to crack this language.
I realised this while watching the Russian film Cargo 200 (Груз 200) last night. The film is set during Soviet times, and captures a society disintegrating both morally and socially. I wouldn't recommend this for anyone faint-hearted. It's both graphic and grim. It's a bit of a cliche about Russian cinema, but they really do harrowing and depressing a level above everyone else. Maybe it's because the glossy, and light hearted, Russian films rarely get a western release. Watching the film, I was amazed how much of the Russian I understood. Previously with Russian cinema, I'd barely catch the occassional word, let alone sentence. This time I could follow whole exchanges without referring to the subtitles, and learnt a lot more from those I couldn't. I think Russian word order had been my main stumbling block, and the Modern Russian 1 course is slowly unravelling the cases for me. Time to Russian Target: 91 hours (From 200 hours goal) Edited by DaraghM on 16 September 2010 at 12:23pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 55 of 74 21 September 2010 at 10:04am | IP Logged |
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As tends to happen with my language study, my travel plans can dictate what language I'll attempt to learn. As I'm heading to Thailand in about three weeks, I've decided to learn Thai. I've been to Thailand once before, and on my previous trip, I tried learning a bit of Thai. This wasn't very successful, but I did learn some basic expressions and more importantly the numbers. My primary, and only, resource that time was Teach Yourself Thai.
This time around, I've started using the FSI Thai course. This has made the learning experience a lot easier, and I really feel I getting to grips with some simple structures. While this FSI course isn't the best of the series, it still leagues ahead of the more standard study materials. I may also introduce another course with clearer audio into my studies. Time to Thai\Polish and Others Target: 77 hours (From 100 hours goal) Edited by DaraghM on 21 September 2010 at 10:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5962 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 56 of 74 29 September 2010 at 10:31am | IP Logged |
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Occassionally something happens which can seriously disrupt your language study. During the week, my apartment was burgled and they took cameras, mobiles and most importantly, my laptop. The laptop contained all the language materials I accrued over the past couple of years, as well as all the extracts from CD's. I'm not sure how long it will take to rebuild my collection. To make matters worse, my MP3 player, which contained a large amount of material , crashed and can't be recovered. I've had it for years, and I feel really unlucky to lose it the same time as the laptop.
Since the double disaster, I purchased a new MP3 player, and managed to get the Thai FSI downloaded again. I also picked up a copy of TY's Speak Thai with Confidence. I gave an initial listen to Speak Thai with Confidence last night. The audio quality seemed slightly poor for such a recent recording. I'll listen again tonight to see if it was just a first impression. Time to Thai\Polish and Others Target: 67 hours (From 100 hours goal) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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