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Estival Ambitions: A Linguistic Odyssey | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5940 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 25 of 242 15 June 2010 at 8:42am | IP Logged | ||
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DAY 8: Iberian, Japanese, Italian
Anki Reviews: 374 repetitions in 20.34 minutes Kanji Reviews: 580 due; 22 reviewed New Kanji: (1910) 衷, 面, 革, 靴, 覇, 声, 呉, 娯, 誤, 蒸, 承, 函, 極, 牙, 芽, 邪, 雅, 釈, 番, 審 Today was exciting because I have now finally caught up on all of those lost hours of language study! Starting tomorrow (with my third "week"--I can't believe it's been that long already!), I only have to do three and a half hours of study again, plus Anki and kanji and whatever else I might want to do. The first bit of studying I did was Iberian. I split it up into 45 minutes of Portuguese and 1.25 hours of Spanish, to balance out the times from earlier in the week. For Portuguese I used my time to study the vocabulary from my Colloquial Portuguese of Brazil 2 lesson, and then did a little work out of my frequency dictionary. Then for Spanish, I worked out my vocabulary book. All of this study mentioned here (besides perhaps the Colloquial Portuguese; that books looks pretty good) is painfully boring, but it is very useful I think. I hope. A bit later I started my Japanese. In fact, I got carried away with it and did not just an hour, but an extra 30 minutes (possibly even more!) too. In this time I typed up all of the vocabulary and read through the grammar section. For some reason in this book, I can never understand their grammar explanations at all anymore, so I'm just learning the patterns based on the example sentences. Thus, in an effort to focus on each one more, I typed them all up and submitted them onto RhinoSpike to be spoken aloud by a native speaker. I also read through and typed up the main dialogue, and submitted that onto RhinoSpike too. I was very tempted to just learn all the vocabulary since there wasn't too much of it, but this had taken enough time already, and I needed to move onto the looming task of three hours of Greek. Three hours of Greek... Well, it's done. During this time, I completed all of lesson 31 in my Νέα Ελληνικά book (typed up already-written-out vocabulary, read through the Τώρα στην Ελλάδα section, learned all 82 words of vocabulary) and then proceeded to complete all of lesson 32 besides studying the vocabulary. Lesson 32 was much shorter with much less vocabulary, so I will finish all of that off tomorrow during my 30 minutes of Greek. I realized today that there are only 34 lessons in this book, so I'm almost done! Then I did 30 minutes of boring work from my Italian Vocabulary book. I'm going to try to get through this book as quickly as possible so that I can move onto the more entertaining reader. I've looked through it a bit and it has short, easy texts (really really easy to start with) that gradually work themselves up into more complex texts on Italian history and works of original literature. Anyways, I have to finish this vocabulary book first, but at least the later units in it look a bit more interesting. The one I was working on today was all about transportation and cars and such--because I haven't had enough thought about that in the past week already! I passed the 1900 mark in my new kanji today. I'm so excited to be near to the end. The book finishes with 2042 kanji, so I'm just 132 away. Since I won't be having to spend so much time on catch-up language study now, I can actually dedicate some more time starting tomorrow to reviewing those bazillion kanji... Today I learned of (well, was reminded of, because I had already heard of it) the "Pomodoro Technique" for concentration. The name derives from the Italian word for tomato, because an Italian student was using a kitchen timer in the shape of a tomato for it. Anyways what it is is you set a timer for 25 minutes and then the ticking and presence of the timer keep you on task doing one specific thing for that whole time. Then you get a 5-minute break and then back to work. I'd tried it before, but it didn't really work because I was just using my stopwatch for it. Today I found this "Focus Booster" application which is designed for the Pomodoro Technique for your computer. It is a little window that shows up in the corner of your screen and...well, yeah. It seems pretty dumb, but it was working today so I guess I'll keep using it. Lastly, tomorrow a French friend of my mom's and her three children will be coming to stay with us for a while (I'm not sure how long). They all speak fluent English because they've just been living in California for a year, but I'd like to speak some French with them to practice my speaking skills, which, frankly, my class at school this year ruined. I think that's about it. Tomorrow is Day 1 again, so Swahili, Swedish, and Greek. Just the normal times of 2 hours, 1 hour, 30 minutes. Boa noite! ¡Buenas noches! お休みなさい！Buonanotte! EDIT: Quiz--who can tell me what "chryselephantine" means without looking it up? This was the English version of the Greek χρυσελεφάντινος, which I came across in a reading today. What an obscure word! Edited by ellasevia on 15 June 2010 at 8:49am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| darkwhispersdal Senior Member Wales Joined 5838 days ago 294 posts - 363 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Ancient Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 26 of 242 15 June 2010 at 7:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Does the elephantine refer to ivory? not sure about chrys though or would it be chrysos I wouldn't be suprised if its a technical term for some kind of art piece. I'll wait for the answer before I look it up though.
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| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5940 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 27 of 242 15 June 2010 at 7:57pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes, that's correct. It's a term that means "made of gold and ivory." The gold is from the Greek χρυσός (chrysós) and the ivory is from the Greek ελεφαντόδοντο/ελεφαντοστό (elefandódhonto/elefandostó). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| darkwhispersdal Senior Member Wales Joined 5838 days ago 294 posts - 363 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Ancient Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 28 of 242 15 June 2010 at 9:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks you learn something new everday
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| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5354 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 29 of 242 15 June 2010 at 10:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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What a fantastic line-up of languages, and so colourfully illustrated too! :) I'm glad you've also decided to add Russian to this adventurous journey in July (I'll be starting that tough little cookie about the same time and will be around the same level too).
I agree with Kerrie that you're a little hard on yourself sometimes. Trust me, it takes one to know one. I'm always thinking about how many hours I'm "in debt" by each week, but nowadays I try my best to let go of language study "overdrafts" and look at what I've achieved instead. You're making excellent progress in your pantheon of study languages, and I hope you sail home to success and fluency in all these languages in a fraction of the time that it took poor old Odysseus. PS El Internado rocks! :) Edited by Teango on 15 June 2010 at 10:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5940 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 30 of 242 15 June 2010 at 10:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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DAY 1: Swahili, Swedish, Greek
Anki Reviews: 241 repetitions in 13.65 minutes Kanji Reviews: 632 due; 0 reviewed New Kanji: (1930) 翻, 藩, 毛, 耗, 尾, 宅, 託, 為, 偽, 長, 張, 帳, 脹, 髪, 展, 喪, 巣, 単, 戦, 禅 I'm not sure I'll have an opportunity to post later tonight so I'm just going to get this over with now just to make sure it gets done. This morning I had no time to do any language study until past 11:00, at which time I did my 20 new kanji and my Anki reviews. I will try to do some more kanji reviews later if possible. I have so far done my languages backwards today, starting off with Greek. I spent my 30 minutes studying the vocabulary from the lesson that I completely yesterday. Not much to say here. I am almost done with my Swedish at the moment. I just have two more levels to get the vocabulary through in BYKI and then I'm done. For Swedish I did an entire lesson from the Beginner's Swedish book. This lesson was about a business meeting and had more vocabulary than usual for this book, but not nearly as much as SEGR. I should also go back and do some more listening practice with the dialogues today. I haven't really done any Swahili yet, but I'll get around to it later. Teango, thank you for your kind words. :) Yes, I'm very excited about starting my Russian, so it will be interesting to watch each other's progress in the language at the same time. And finally, El Internado is just superb, isn't it? I'm glad you like and are able to enjoy it already after so little time studying Spanish! That's about it for now. Have a nice day! Kwaheri! Hejdå! Γεια! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5940 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 31 of 242 17 June 2010 at 5:17am | IP Logged | ||
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DAY 2: German, Iberian, Japanese
Anki Reviews: 566 repetitions in 29.54 minutes Kanji Reviews: 681 due; 118 reviewed New Kanji: (1950) 弾, 桜, 獣, 脳, 悩, 厳, 鎖, 挙, 誉, 猟, 鳥, 鳴, 鶴, 烏, 蔦, 鳩, 鶏, 島, 暖, 媛 Well, our French guests arrived yesterday shortly after I wrote that last post, and the house has been pretty chaotic since then. There has been a lot of French going on, and my house has now turned into a bit of an immersion environment for that language. I have spoken a bunch of French with them too, especially with the children, and have watched a movie and some cartoons in French with the youngest. I got several compliments on my French. I never really got around to doing my Swahili yesterday because it was all chaotic here, so I waited until everyone went to bed and then I did my studying then. During those two hours I was very productive and I got two lessons finished from my Spoken World book. I was very pleased. Today when I got up I started off with my Anki and then did some Japanese study. For my 30 minutes I studied the vocabulary from my most recent lesson, which posed no problems at all. Then I did one hour of Spanish vocabulary from my book, in addition to having watched perhaps half of an episode of El Internado. I haven’t yet had the opportunity to do any German tonight so I think that I shall do that the same way as my Swahili last night. That seemed to work well. I suppose that since I will not have the luxury of using the computer this evening I’ll just do some work out of my grammar book or something… As you can see I have done some kanji reviews today too, and that was exciting. I still have many more to do and I was hoping to do a bunch more, but since I don’t have much time left this evening I’m afraid that little more of that will get done. Everyone here seems to be going to bed insanely early so I’m being forced to stop my work (or at least anything that requires the computer) earlier than I thought. It’s quite inconvenient. Tomorrow I have French, Swahili, and Swedish… I hope that I’ll have time because it’s hard to have peace and quiet in this environment. I believe that is all for now. Gute Nacht! ¡Buenas noches! お休みなさい！ Edited by ellasevia on 18 June 2010 at 5:20am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5940 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 32 of 242 18 June 2010 at 5:42am | IP Logged | ||
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DAY 3: French, Swahili, Swedish
Anki Reviews: 442 repetitions in 22.87 minutes Kanji Reviews: 606 due; 46 reviewed New Kanji: (1970) 援, 緩, 属, 嘱, 偶, 遇, 愚, 隅, 逆, 塑, 岡, 鋼, 綱, 剛, 缶, 陶, 揺, 謡, 就, 懇 Quelle horreur ! J’ai presque rien fait aujourd’hui. Je ne sais pas où le temps est allé, mais… Alors, j’écrirai un petit résumé de mes études que j’ai fait aujourd’hui jusqu’ici et puis, je les continuerai. (How horrible! I have done almost nothing today. I don’t know where the time went, but… So, I’ll just write a short summary of the studying that I did so far today and then I’ll continue to study.) I don’t like this business of my brother sleeping in my room while guests are here. It means that I can’t set my alarm to wake up early because he likes to sleep in and will get mad at me if the alarm goes off. I don’t think he’ll be sleeping there tonight though, so I’ll be able to set it and work. :) Anyways, where I was going with that is that I woke up late and then there were some delays in getting started studying. I had to finish the German from last night first because I was too tired and the stuff I was doing was fairly boring. I did four and a half chapters from my German Grammar Drills book, and this morning I spent an hour and 15 minutes going back through and adding the vocabulary from those into Anki. There was quite a bit of it. As such, I actually did more like two hours and 35 minutes of German total, which can only be considered a positive thing. The negative aspect of this though is that it ate up my time for studying today’s languages. I started later with Swahili, and typed up all of the rest of the vocabulary from the lessons I did on Tuesday. Then I typed up the vocabulary from the next lesson. I have just barely started on actually studying some French, but I have been speaking and listening to a lot lately, and that counts for something, doesn’t it? One of the French children staying here (her name is Alice) told me that my French is very, very good and she was very surprised about my accent. She said that if she had to say where I was from based on my accent (she is from Paris), she would say Québec, but that my accent is almost exactly a native French accent. Yay! No Swedish yet, and very few kanji reviews. If possible I will do all of this tonight. All of this activity in the house is really detrimental to my studying. I keep being swept away by one thing or another, one child wanting me to watch a movie with him/her, the other wanting me to jump on the trampoline with him or swordfight with him. It’s rather tiring… I think that will be all for tonight. Bonne nuit! Usiku mwema! God natt! Edited by ellasevia on 18 June 2010 at 6:35am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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