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TAC2010 Italian, Spanish, Catalan, German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| canada38 Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5306 days ago 304 posts - 417 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 1 of 30 27 December 2009 at 7:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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Note: This log contains two merged threads, the reason explained further down the
page. Please excuse any confusion. I feel if I keep an open log where others can read my progress, I will be less likely to become lazy and stop studying. I have been studying Italian on and off for about a year now, but now I am going to make it a regularly scheduled part of my day. Right now I am on Christmas break from university, so I can use this time to get some serious foundation studying done. Once school resumes, I'll choose the best time throughout the day for an hour of daily review. I learnt French in junior high and high school through the immersion programme. I also have done two semesters of Latin last year. I don't plan to continue studying Latin any time soon, but I think what I have learnt will indeed help with studying Italian. I am taking Spanish in university right now, possibly doing the certificate programme (similar to a minor). I know it is sometimes unwise to study two languages at one time. However the class room pace of Spanish is slow, and I can differentiate between the two where one is my "school language" and the other is my "hobby language". Materials: Barron's Self-Study Language Course: Italian I've already started this and I am on lesson 3. I think it will be good to learn some basics, but I know it won't be sufficient. I will likely buy the Pimsleur series this summer. Let's Talk: Introduction to Italian A cheap set of 3 CDs that I received for my birthday. Not my main method, but great for the hour long bus ride into the city each morning for school when I'm half asleep! Collins Italian-English, English-Italian Dictionary Not very big but I doubt that anytime soon I'll need to look up the names of airplane engine parts or Italian spellings of Chinese provinces! I have also completed this online course offered by the BBC. It was good for learning words but not the language. Not bad for free though. http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/ I intended to have regular updates in this log, and I welcome any comments! Edited by canada38 on 31 January 2010 at 7:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| numerodix Trilingual Hexaglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 6594 days ago 856 posts - 1226 votes Speaks: EnglishC2*, Norwegian*, Polish*, Italian, Dutch, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 2 of 30 27 December 2009 at 9:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Good luck with Italian! You already have me beat, I'm only into my fifth month. But I've used Pimsleur and some other resources, see my log if you want my take on those.
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| Jinx Triglot Senior Member Germany reverbnation.co Joined 5504 days ago 1085 posts - 1879 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Catalan, Dutch, Esperanto, Croatian, Serbian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Italian, Spanish, Yiddish | Message 3 of 30 27 December 2009 at 11:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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Best of luck with Italian! I did the BBC course too, and I completely agree with you, besides the vocab it was pretty much useless. Pimsleur was a big help to me, though – I did all three levels and would recommend it. I've done a good part of the old yellow-cover "Teach Yourself Italian" by Kathleen Speight, and it was my favorite resource so far, if you're interested in a more reading/writing-based approach.
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| canada38 Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5306 days ago 304 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 4 of 30 28 December 2009 at 7:21am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the good luck wishes!
After reading what both of you have said, and from lots of other threads in the forum, it seems that Pimsleur is the way to go. I think I will try it once I finish the course that I am doing now. I forgot to mention that I have a friend from Italy sending me a novel. I'm not sure of the title though, but it should arrive soon. Once I get a solid base so that I don't have to look up every other word, I will try to get through this book without too much use of a dictionary. I think this novel along with perhaps a grammar book will make up for where Pimsleur is lacking. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6281 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 5 of 30 14 January 2010 at 9:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hey Canada, what's up?
I'd love to see a status update. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| canada38 Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5306 days ago 304 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 6 of 30 15 January 2010 at 1:48am | IP Logged | ||
Sprachprofi, I renamed this thread a while ago to include TAC 2010 but then it wouldn't appear on the forum, so I started another thread instead. I see this one works now, and since the other hasn't received any replies, I think I should move everything to this one to avoid any confusion! Everything in the following three posts will be dated to when they were originally posted. Please excuse any repetitions or confusion. Edited by canada38 on 15 January 2010 at 1:56am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| canada38 Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5306 days ago 304 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 7 of 30 15 January 2010 at 1:50am | IP Logged | ||
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----- 03 January 2010 at 2:17am -----
After reading lots of posts about the Total Annihilation Challenge, I decided I would rather "take part" than just simply post a log about my progress in Italian. Note: Some of this will be a repeat of my brief Italian Log, which seems to have been deleted when I renamed it with TAC 2010 in the subject. I can only access it by going to my profile and looking at all my posts. Regardless, I will post here from now on. So here it goes! Italian - Hobby Language I've wanted to learn Italian ever since I visited Italy in 2006. I've made a few haphazard efforts to study the language, but I usually got distracted. Sometimes these distractions came from pure laziness, but some of them were because of school. I also moved to another province for a short while, which was a bit of an interruption. Now I think I am ready for some serious study. I have completed this free course offered by the BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/ I recommend it for anyone wishing to flirt with the language without making a monetary investment. Materials Pimsleur Comprehensive Italian I, II & III (Yup, I got all three) Barron's Beginner's Self-Study Language Course: Italian (Study and work book, audio scripts and grammar review book, 3 instructional CD's and 1 take along CD for the car) Let's Talk Introduction to Italian (3 Audio CD's) Collins Italian-English English Italian Dictionary (70 000 translations) Method I plan to use the Pimsleur series as my main method. I am very busy with school and other commitments, so I think this method will work well for me. I am not implying that Dr. Pimsleur will do the work for me. However, there are a little over 100 days in the semester (I think); I plan to get levels I and II (60 lessons) completed during this time. This will give me some extra time to make sure I really understand the content, repeat lessons, miss a day if necessary and maintain a social life (and some sanity). I will finish the rest during summer vacation (starting in May). The Barron's course seems good to me, but I have lost interest in it twice before. I still plan to complete this course (I have already made some progress again), but it will be my secondary approach. One benefit is that it will teach me some written Italian. The Let's Talk Introduction is a $10 set I got for my birthday. I have done some lessons and it isn't bad. You get what you pay for though, so you can't learn a language just from this. I plan to listen to these CD's on the way to school each morning. So far, it is great. Spanish - School Language At first I decided to study this language because I figured it would be an easy elective course in university because I speak French and I have done two semesters of Latin. I was right, it is really easy (at the beginning at least). By mid October, I started to like the language (semester started early September). Now I intend to complete the certificate programme in Spanish in addition to a B.Sc. in Chemistry. I just completed the first semester of Spanish and got an A-. Materials ¡Hola Amigos! 1st Canadian Edition I like this text book so far. I think it is a great introduction to the language. It contains all the important facts without being boring, and it is "fun" without making the student do pointless game exercises. Method University course, likely some independent study in the summer to maintain what I am learning right now. This is about all I can handle for now, but in summer vacation (May - August) I can try something new. I will likely study either Catalan or German. I am more interested in Catalan than German, but it might be counter productive to study this language until I have reached at least basic fluency in both Spanish and Italian. I got a Pimsleur Basic German course for $2 at a book sale, so maybe I'll give that a try. This part isn't set in stone though (unless someone is trying to create a Neolithic style Internet archive somewhere!), so it all could change. During this time I will choose my language plan for next September. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| canada38 Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5306 days ago 304 posts - 417 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Japanese | Message 8 of 30 15 January 2010 at 1:51am | IP Logged | ||
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-----04 January 2010 at 1:25am-----
Escribo en el castellano porque yo voy a la clase de universidad esto miércoles. Yo no hablo por un mes, pero leí un periódico. Traduzco las palabras del castellano al inglés. Necesito un café, hasta luego. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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