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Emme’s Small Steps - Team Sleipnir TAC’15 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5137 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes  Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 57 of 360 20 May 2012 at 10:46pm | IP Logged | ||
Kein Problem! Die Korrekturen sind das Wichtigste und für sie danke ich dir! I hope you don’t mind if I continue in English, but I would like to answer and I write much, much faster in English. I know that Assimil tells you not to sweat it, and that if you just dedicate half an hour each day to your daily lesson you will ‘assimilate’ the language without even trying, but I’m probably too OCD for such a laid-back approach. I usually end up doing about 1 hour a day minimum, and I try to really learn as much of the material as possible. With French I had the huge advantage of its being a Romance language just like my mother tongue, and right now I’m trying to brush up my German with L’Allemand. Of course, I’m not a beginner and yet there are still a few new words I have to learn every day. Most of them I already know, but only passively, and my main purpose at this stage is to give a boost to my active vocabulary and to become more fluent (here I really mean more fluent, not more proficient) in German. I find that Assimil works for me, and I actually think it may be a better method for false beginners than for absolute beginners because there are only so many words you can consistently learn day after day, and the whole point of Assimil – for me – is to keep doing a lesson a day for the 5 or 6 months it takes to finish it. It’s in its richness in vocabulary that my problem with Le suédois sans peine lies (an embarrassment of richness – I know it’s mean of me to complain!). It seems that it offers about twice as many words as most other Assimil courses, which implies that in every lesson you should learn about 40 new words rather than the usual 20 (I know that with Assimil you are supposed to simply learn to recognize these words in the first wave of the course, which is obviously a much more reasonable proposition, but it’s not how I like to use the book, and I believe it’s important for each learner to find out how to adapt a method to one’s own tastes: that’s usually the only way one will continue to use it to completion and so achieve some results). So what I’m planning now is to work with other books to improve my overall proficiency and get myself a decent vocabulary in Swedish so that when I finally start using Le suédois sans peine I’ll only have a manageable 5-10 completely new words to study per lesson. If, because of that, I must delay using Assimil for a year or two, so be it! Right now I’m doing Assimil German anyway, and I really don’t think I could do two Assimil courses at the same time. Sorry I ended up writing much more than I planned, and thank you if you kept reading so far. Corrections are always welcome (also for English)! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5137 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 58 of 360 20 May 2012 at 10:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Mini-Super Challenge update.
Here’s what I did this week: Films / Radio dramas: 5/100: Lotta und die großen Erwartungen (88’) 6/100: WDR-Hörspiel Schämt euch! Zum toten Juden von Lorenz Schröter (46’) 7/100: WDR-Hörspiel Schämt euch! Tod eines Fußballers von Eva Lia Reinegger (54’) Books: 0/25 Minutes studied this week (and cumulative minutes since May 1, 2012): German: 400’ (1100’) Swedish: 150’ (350’) French: 0’ (50’) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Mareike Senior Member Germany Joined 6014 days ago 267 posts - 323 votes Speaks: German* Studies: English, Swedish | Message 59 of 360 23 May 2012 at 11:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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Mir ist es egal ob du in Deutsch oder Englisch schreibst, ich hoffe, es stört dich nicht wenn ich auf Deutsch schreibe.
Ich hatte im Schwedischen mit der Anzahl der Vokabeln bis jetzt keine Probleme, aber vielleicht liegt es auch daran, dass Deutsch meine Muttersprache ist. Dann habe ich wohl den gleichen Synergieeffekt, wie du mit dem Französischen. Wobei man ja auch alle Sätze in Anki o.ä. aufnehmen kann und sie regelmäßig wiederholen könnte bei der Anzahl der neuen Wörter, dann schafft man aber wohl nicht auf die eine Lektion am Tag. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5137 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 60 of 360 27 May 2012 at 10:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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At last I’ve finished my first novel for the mini-Super Challenge. I made the mistake of starting two books at the same time, which is never a good idea for me: when I do I tend to finish neither.
Mini-Super Challenge update. Here’s what I did this week: Films / Radio dramas: 8/100: Mia und ihre Schwestern (88’) 9/100: WDR-Hörspiel Happy End von Ragnhild Sørensen und Julia Wolf (53’) 10/100: WDR-Hörspiel B(L)ANK: STIPPED – Ein Leben in Kontoauszügen von Stefan Weigl (47’) Books: 1/25: Donna Leon, Acqua Alta (Acqua Alta, 1996), Zürich 1997 (pp.370). Minutes studied this week (and cumulative minutes since May 1, 2012): German: 425’ (1525’) Swedish: 150’ (500’) French: 0’ (50’) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5137 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 61 of 360 03 June 2012 at 11:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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This has been a rather productive week: I may have watched less TV for my mini-Super Challenge than during the previous ones, but I’ve studied both German and Swedish for longer hours. And I’ve even managed to squeeze in some quality time with French. Overall not a bad week, though I don’t expect to be able to replicate it easily in the future.
Apart from some German TV, I’ve also finished watching Svenska Dialekt Mysterier a brilliant series about Swedish and its dialects. It’s a pity that my Swedish is not really up to par for such a programme. Even though I enjoyed it quite a lot and I understood most of what was said, I can’t help but think how much more I might have learnt from it if only I were more proficient. On the mini-Super Challenge front, it seems that if I can keep up this month's pace for the next 19 months I might actually make it. Earlier this week I finished my second book for the month of May: Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre. Like most people my generation (at least here in Italy), I grew up with the anime series, but I actually never read the book. This was a good occasion to change all that, as its being a children’s novel meant that it was quite an easy read, perfect for my challenge. Mini-Super Challenge update. Here’s what I did this week: Films / Radio dramas: 11/100: WDR-Hörspiel Hund wohin gehen wir von Anne Lepper (53’) 12/100: Scheidung für Fortgeschrittene (88’) Books: 2/25: Johanna Spyri, Heidis Lehr- und Wanderjahre, 1880. (pp.160). Minutes studied this week (and cumulative minutes since May 1, 2012): German: 450’ (1975’) Swedish: 350’ (850’) French: 250’ (300’) EDIT: typos. Edited by Emme on 04 June 2012 at 12:09am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5137 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 62 of 360 10 June 2012 at 11:54am | IP Logged | ||
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Hectic week—so I didn’t manage to study quite as much as during the previous week. But in the spirit of the ‘small steps’ of this log, everything counts.
… And this week I begin the second wave of Assimil German. Wish me luck with the increased workload! Mini-Super Challenge update. Here’s what I did this week: Films / Radio dramas: 13/100: Notruf Hafenkante Episodes 4x15: Wunderkind (43’) - 4x16: Bärendienst (43’) Books: 3/25: Christine Nöstlinger, Schulgeschichten vom Franz, 1987. (pp. 61 = 12*) * as per Super Challenge rules, pages in children’s books with low-density text (images, large print etc.) are counted as 1/5 of normal text pages. Minutes studied this week (and cumulative minutes since May 1, 2012): German: 425’ (2400’) Swedish: 150’ (1000’) French: 0’ (300’) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5137 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 63 of 360 31 October 2012 at 10:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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Placeholder: when I find the time and energy, I'd like to update what I've done (language-related) over the past several months.
Not much actually. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5137 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 64 of 360 31 October 2012 at 10:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've decided to try the Assimil Experiment (see here, here, and here), as I need something to motivate me back into studying languages after months of neglect.
So Russian, here I come! Course: Dronov et al., Il nuovo russo senza sforzo, Italian edition of Le Nouveau Russe sans peine Estimated Start Date: November 1st Prior experience with this language: None Any outside resources you might use: Probably none. But perhaps in the first couple of weeks I might use online resources to familiarize myself with the cyrillic alphabet and Russian pronunciation if I find that Assimil isn't very helpful. Why you chose this language: I think kanewai's original idea was to use the experiment to try out one of our side or wish-list languages, not one of our main target languages, and Russian fits the bill perfectly for me. Personal Predictions: I'm aware that I am at high risk of dropping out without finishing the experiment, but I think the drop out rate of the participants could be one of the interesting data we can derive from this experiment. I've already used Assimil for other languages, but I tend to overlearn and this often leads to burnout. For this experiment I want to approach Russian in a more relaxed way, and follow Assimil advice to take it easy and simply work for about half an hour every day and find out where this takes me. I'm budgeting about 30 minutes a day during the passive wave and 45 minutes for the active wave and given that the book only contains 70 lessons, I intend to spread each lesson over a couple of days on average. Anyway, if all goes according to plans, I would be more than satisfied if I reach the A2 level over 140 hours of active study over the next six or seven months, as Russian is more difficult than any of the languages I've studied so far. Finally, I want to enjoy the experiment and feel free to change as I go about using Assimil any time I feel like it. Above all I want to approach language learning with a better attitude: I hope to get rid of the usual self-imposed pressure to master the entire content of the course and replace it with the awareness that this first attempt at Russian is just a way to lay the foundation for future learning. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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