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TAC 2010, Team K, Teango - GE SP SW RU | ||
Tags: Kanji | Turkish | Listening-Reading (L-R) | Swedish | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Russian | German | French | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5367 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 137 of 185 04 July 2010 at 8:43pm | IP Logged | ||
I'm definitely looking forward to the verb tenses part... ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5367 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 138 of 185 19 July 2010 at 4:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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PROGRESS IN Spanish, WEEKS 27-28/52 OF THE 2010 TAC CHALLENGE
SUMMARY A week in Spain and Catalan cuisine. :P WANDERLUST CONFESSION BOX Wandering...I wish! Just lots of sitting in front of a computer and proof-reading/editing right now... TEANGO’S WORD/PHRASE OF THE WEEK "zwo, fuffzig!" - whilst out shopping in Frankfurt last week, a burly middle-aged woman with short purple hair barked this at me from behind the counter. At first I thought she said "zwölf, fünfzig" in Hessisch and was asking for €12.50 (which would have been a little expensive for a pair of shoelaces), but was relieved to discover that she actually meant €2.50 in the end. A message downstairs on the general noticeboard led to another confusion in German last week. It read as follows: "Für Donnerstag, den 29.07.2010, habe ich die Spermüllabholung bestellt. Wer etwas dazu stellen möchte, kann dies am 28.07.2010 tun." You can imagine my shock when I read "Spermüllabholung" (which I think may be unfortunately misspelt with one "r" in this particular message), and how I was equally relieved, after looking up the word in my German dictionary later, that I didn't have to donate any sperm to satisfy some unusual local government requirement (and that it was just a notice for a "kerbside collection" instead). Phew - a scary moment there! And finally one more phrase...something you'll find on the menu in most cafés in Barcelona: "Pa amb tomàquet" (lit. "bread with tomato" in Catalan) - a large slice of toast, rubbed with a fresh tomato, some garlic, and drizzled with olive oil). Muy rico! :P NOTES I'm back from beautiful sunny Barcelona, and looking forward to a new challenge already. It was amazing to swim in the sea both night and day, escape to the palmy beaches of Sitges, and indulge in the finest seafood establishments around (although the menu proved to be a little too fresh and scary at times). I also managed to speak a fair bit of Spanish during my stay, crack some jokes with the locals, and learn a few words of Catalan too. Barcelona is a great place for culture and fashion, and a veritable shopper's paradise. Lots of colour and creativity all around. My girlfriend and I salsa'd in Cuban bars and Catalan restaurants, tangoed on the beach, and met some wonderful people along the way. I also played guitar and sang with a bona-fide mariachi whilst waiting together for a night-bus back to Barcelona. The coolest thing however was to be right at the centre of everything when Spain won the World Cup for the first time. You can just imagine the pandemonium and jubilation, being surrounded in the Plaza de España by thousands of people watching the big screen, waving or wearing Spanish flags, smoking joints and climbing monuments, and singing and dancing throughout the night. I imagine the celebrations are still playing on as I speak, and I'm grateful to have been there at a truly historic moment in Spain's history. As you may have already gathered from the absence of logs recently, these last few weeks have been really quite hectic, with mountains of work and a holiday abroad into the bargain too. But does the roller-coaster ride stop here...well...not exactly. I have however managed to reduce this workload to part-time hours for the next month. And this is good, because I'll need it for my next challenge... Edited by Teango on 19 July 2010 at 6:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5367 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 139 of 185 28 July 2010 at 4:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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PROGRESS IN RUSSIAN, WEEK 29/52 OF THE 2010 TAC CHALLENGE
SUMMARY Study-and-click: 20 hours (1155 words) Other active study: 10 hours Background music: 8 hours Total active study so far: 30 hours Total background media: 8 hours Total study + immersion: 38 hours This week's reading scores: 50% (initial score), 80%, 71%, 80%, 82%, 83%, 81%, 82% WANDERLUST CONFESSION BOX Keeping up with kanji reviews is enough for me right now, although I'm becoming more and more aware that I'll need to add several more soon to at least constitute 1 per day so far this year. The truth is I've only studied 180 so far...oh the shame! TEANGO’S WORD/PHRASE OF THE WEEK As Russian has so many super-long words, I thought I'd look up the longest Russian word according to the Guinness Book of Records, which turns out to be a chemical name and only a disappointing 40 letters at that: никотинамидадениндинуклеотидфо сфатгидрин (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate). This of course doesn't compare to German's infamous "Donaudampfschifffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauun terbeamtengesellschaft" (79 letters) that I learnt way back in school (a division of an Austrian shipping company that transported passengers and cargo along the Danube river). This was one of my German teacher's favourite little tidbits of knowledge. [ source for longest words (but not my teacher's tidbits): Wikipedia, Longest words ] NOTES After my glorious getaway to Spain, the last week or so has been inundated with a backlog of work and catching up with various people. All the same, I still managed to fit in 30 hours of active Russian study and jump from 50% in my initial reading score up to consistently hitting the low 80s recently. This is a positive sign. I'm a little frustrated I can't consistently fit in more time right now, despite my best efforts, but I'm sure plenty of members here know the score all too well. In this respect, 30 hours is probably not that bad after all and really quite a triumph. My goal for this week is to total up 4000 words by the end, which I've already been told is sky-high and far too unrealistic...but what the heck...might as well aim high anyhow and give it a go! ;) Edited by Teango on 28 July 2010 at 4:50pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| darkwhispersdal Senior Member Wales Joined 5851 days ago 294 posts - 363 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Ancient Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 140 of 185 28 July 2010 at 10:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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You're fitting in more time than me how you do it I don't know
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Adrean TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member France adrean83.wordpress.c Joined 5979 days ago 348 posts - 411 votes Speaks: FrenchC1 | Message 141 of 185 03 August 2010 at 12:16am | IP Logged | ||
This may be just a little late to mention but I was also in the Plaza de espana to see them win too. What timing to have passed through Barcelona to see them win and the following celebrations. My personal experience of the day was utter fatigue, I arrived 1 hour before the match in the heat without a seat. I was praying that it wouldn't go to extra time and it did. Got some amazing photos though. Learning Russian now eh? How about reading War and Peace as an L-R exercise? You would surely be fluent afterwards, no? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5367 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 142 of 185 09 August 2010 at 11:21am | IP Logged | ||
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@Adrean
Lol...small world, and I know exactly what you mean here! I also arrived 1 hour before the match, and naively just got a taxi straight over there after checking in, without even thinking about how I'd get back to the hotel later or whether to bring any food or drink with me. It took me at least 45 minutes and my best attempts at Spanish to wade through the crowd and get something from the beer tent at one point. I was also praying that it wouldn't go to extra time too (my legs were just collapsing around me and I was so knackered by the end of the night). I have to be honest, what with being surrounded with megaphones shouting out "..puta.." every time the Dutch got the ball and the big screen being myopically far away, I didn't really get to see or hear that much of the game. However, the atmosphere was quite electric, and it was good to have been right in the middle of it all. Where were you by the way? I was about one third of the length of the square from the main big screen at the front, under an enormous ganja cloud, slap bang in the middle and near enough to join in with the inflatable football antics. Sorry to have missed you (although to be honest, if the Pope had been a couple of meters away all dressed in white, I wouldn't have noticed him in the crowd either - it was just that tight). It'd be great to see some photos of the event, as I only had a disposable camera with me and it didn't take much more than shadows after it became dark. I did see myself on Spanish tv the next day though, as they were reliving the moment in all the major cities around Spain and had several film crews up on the roof of a big building on the left. Here's my rear view about half an hour before the match started, when it was still light enough, and I'd reached about half-way down the square:  Edited by Teango on 09 August 2010 at 11:23am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5367 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 144 of 185 10 August 2010 at 1:27am | IP Logged | ||
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@Buttons
We must have been Spain's lucky charms this year..hehe! ;) With regards to Russia, my partner is still going over to meet up with family and attend her best friend's wedding, as planned, but sadly I won't be able to accompany her now. However, the doctor said I'll be fit at least to travel in a couple of weeks. So in anticipation, I've already booked tickets for us to visit Ireland to meet my folks and attend a cousin's wedding party instead (what is it with all the weddings this time of year?!). I've been a couple of weeks without studying due to recent setbacks, so it'll feel strange to hit the notebooks and L&R materials once again. It's going to be really difficult for me too, as I've got this crazy tinnitus in my ears that makes it incredibly difficult to concentrate now and have been put on meds that make me very woozy too. It's like having an old tv or distant jet engine screaming constantly in your ear. So I'm not sure just how easy it's going to be to put in the hours over the next couple of weeks, but like always, I'll give it my best shot. As for burnout, it's never really happened to me as yet, despite the longer hours some weeks. I guess this is mainly down to some of the aspects of my approach, which I can share here: 1. I break sessions down into 1 hour units, and include a small break at the end of each session, studying for no more than 2 hours without having a longer substantial break (e.g. lunch, stolen siesta, etc). 2. I use a methodology now that I like to call "study-and-click", which provides me with a simple and clearer log of progress for each session and can be used in later active study sessions too. 3. The study-and-click method includes an intensive part (core study-and-click) and an extensive part (listening and reading/listening-reading). I balance these in the approximate ratio 2:1 (e.g. 40 minutes of intensive, 15 minutes of extensive, and 5 minutes break). 4. The intensive part of each session is divided up into lots of different bite-size activities (I'll explain more about this later at the end of the "Rushing Russian" log); whilst the extensive part is reserved as a time to relax but still keep active with the language and consolidate what I've learned. 5. I avoid grammar and Anki until I reach basic fluency in reading, and rely instead on noting down little phrases and interesting aspects of the language (i.e. pronunciation, grammar, plot) taken from native materials whilst I listen and read. 6. I reward myself for each session with a fun motivational activity (e.g. adding another Lego piece to the "study-and-brick" car I'm making at the moment). 7. My first step in any language learning programme is to specify realistic goals, and then I track any progress towards these on my whiteboard using fun drawings (e.g. completing little wizards, new karate kyus, army ranks, etc). Completion of goals are rewarded with "big teddy bear" prizes involving the language (e.g. my recent trip to Barcelona). Edited by Teango on 11 August 2010 at 7:23pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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