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Gary’s TAC 2011 - Team Œ | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5004 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 104 21 December 2010 at 1:09pm | IP Logged | ||
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Might as well start now! In this first post I'll sum up my goals and my progress so far in each language: French, Italian, and Russian. Warning: it'll be quite detailed!
Français French has been my main focus up until now. I studied French at school for a while which taught me the basic grammar, reading, writing etc. but absolutely nothing in the way of conversation. I took it up again seriously earlier this year (2010) and discovered this forum. I plan on spending a season (6 months) living in the French Alps at some point in the next few years; starting this in late 2011 is possible but unlikely. This season would consist of intensive snowboarding and advanced French study, along with work of some description. My original log, detailing previous French progress Overall: Intermediate level; I'd rate myself B1. I'm aiming to reach B2 by June (and do the test to prove it) and hopefully C1 by the end of the year unless I decide to focus on another language instead. Vocabulary: I've got a solid knowledge of basic vocab and expressions but am often caught out by more unusual words, figures of speech, and slang. I'd like to reach a point where I can understand almost all of the general, non-specialised words I hear, and know enough to express myself in a manner that isn't necessary elegant but gets my point across and is mostly correct. Reading: My best skill - I can read articles and books quite easily although the odd word or expression trips me up, particularly more "literary" words that have more common equivalents in everyday speech. I don't know the literary tense conjugations by heart but I can recognise and understand them just fine most of the time. I'd just like to improve and keep reading a lot as it's a great way to pick up words and see the language being used properly. Writing: I can write well in French (at least according to several French people), and don't need to consult a dictionary too often. Writing's not a big focus of mine really but it's good to practise as it teaches me to express myself. Listening: I can understand slow-to-normal speech just fine but fast conversational speech gives me some difficulty as it can be hard to follow and pick out the words, especially when there are multiple speakers. I want to be able to understand regular social conversations well; perhaps not every single word, but enough to understand what's going on and to be able to join in. Speaking: The big one: my weakest area and the one I want to improve the most. Now I can make myself understood and my pronunciation is far from perfect but it's "good enough", but my speaking's not very smooth and I often make very basic mistakes that I'd never make in writing or in thoughts. Basically I'm just not used to speaking, and the various efforts I've made to practise it more have been disappointing (see my rants about the Meetup group in my current log). My goal is to be able to have conversations with natives easily and be understood with good pronunciation. Plans: - Work with a tutor for one-to-one conversation. Start going to Meetups again once I'm a bit more competent, in order to practice group conversation. - Start on Assimil Using French; I should finish With Ease and FSI Phonetics by the end of the year; should've done so by now but a sore throat has been stopping me :(. - Lots of input from native materials - films, TV, books, podcasts, radio, etc.. At least one film or a couple of TV episodes per week if possible. - Perhaps look into FSI French to reinforce what I know and help me think in the language. - Practise as much as possible during my trips to France in March and June (only short trips unfortunately - 1 week and 4 days). - Probably do FSI Phonetics again - you can never practise pronunciation enough. Italiano I spent a couple of weeks focusing on Italian before a trip to Italy, and haven't looked at it much since although I've done the odd bit from time to time. My original plan was to restart serious study of Italian in 2011, but now I think the language will probably remain on the backburner for the first half of the year due to my Russian goals (see section). In all honesty I don't have many practical reasons for learning Italian, I just love the language and it'll give me a good headstart on Spanish when (not if) I learn it (TAC 2012 plan?!). Overall: Beginner; A1 or A2. I'd like to reach an intermediate (B1) level at least, similar to my current level in French. B2 would be nice but it's not a priority. Vocabulary: My small vocabulary's the main thing that stops me understanding and expressing myself; I know the basic grammar quite well. Reading: I can read something in Italian and understand the gist of it, thanks to my basic vocab and grammar knowledge and the similarities to French and English. I'd like to be able to understand at a more detailed level. Writing: I can write just fine but it takes a long time and a lot of dictionary lookups. Listening: I generally have no trouble picking out words, even in conversations between natives, but due to my lack of vocab I don't understand most of these words :) Speaking: I understand the pronunciation quite well (it's a massive relief after French!), but don't yet have much speaking experience. Plans: - Finish Pimsleur (I got about halfway through). - Work through Assimil (L'italien, or I'll get a copy of the English version if I find the French too hard to follow), and perhaps Perfectionnement (not available in English) if I have the time. - Conversation practice - I have some Italian friends so this shouldn't be hard. No current plans for travel to Italy but I'd like to go back, it's a great country (if too hot for a Scot like me!). - Native materials Русский I knew I wanted to learn Russian at some point, but that point came sooner than anticipated when I found out that I'm quite possibly going to be spending a month or so in the Ukraine next year for work (the time isn't confirmed yet; could be February or April). I'd like to make the most of this immersion experience so I've decided to start Russian and at least learn some basics before going. So Russian's going to be a big focus for the first part of the year and will get as much attention as French. I have pretty much no knowledge of the language, but I've learned to read and type the script. I'm still not reading it quickly but that'll come easily with more practice. Plans: - Start with FSI Russian FAST which should give me basic knowledge for getting around. - Pimsleur to build a more solid speaking foundation. - Penguin Russian course which I just ordered from Amazon (my Christmas present to myself!) for learning grammar and the written language. - I'll also investigate the Princeton course and perhaps Assimil Le Russe (again not available in English). - Look for conversation practice if I manage to learn the basics before my trip, and obviously during my trip - investigate language exchanges etc. and socialise with locals in the evenings and weekends. Let's see how this goes! The biggest problem I anticipate will be finding the time to study enough, since I work full time, practise guitar a lot, go to the gym, have quite an active social life, and barely sleep enough as it is! My time management skills will need some work. Edited by garyb on 28 December 2010 at 7:16pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5006 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 104 21 December 2010 at 3:13pm | IP Logged | ||
Hi Garyb, I had a quick look at that link; Amongst all the gratitude in the Comments columns, there's a note which cautions that the file is huge, and not very well organized Princeton Language course, comment 51 The adapted version to which the poster links, purports to have a more user-friendly layout (also cleaned-up typos, etc.): My Russian Teacher.org I haven't used either site - Russian is not one of my target languages - but clicked on the links out of curiousity. (I work in a library, and find that most information of this sort come in useful at some stage.) But perhaps someone else on the forums may be able to give you an objective assessment/comparison of the two..? Hope this helps. - And best wishes with your TAC! Edited by songlines on 21 December 2010 at 3:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Oasis88 Senior Member Australia Joined 5502 days ago 160 posts - 187 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Italian | Message 3 of 104 21 December 2010 at 3:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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Best of luck Gary. I look forward to your Italian updates.
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| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5004 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 4 of 104 21 December 2010 at 6:26pm | IP Logged | ||
Thanks a lot, I didn't spot that comment myself, you've potentially saved me from wasting some time :) I'll take a look at it soon. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5131 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 104 21 December 2010 at 6:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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Great start! I am happy to be on your team, and I'll start a similar log when I get home. I see we share the
same languages so I am wondering whether I should brush up my French and Italian as well. Go team Ж! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| handfulofkeys Diglot Newbie CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5112 days ago 20 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Italian, Russian | Message 6 of 104 22 December 2010 at 3:48am | IP Logged | ||
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Sounds pretty exciting! We share a couple of languages actually! My main one for TAC is Russian, but I live in Montreal so I've had to learn French to a decent level as well, and I learned Italian at school, although I'm desperately out of practise and I'm hoping to improve that this year. Should be fun being on the same team :)
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5004 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 104 22 December 2010 at 4:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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Aye it looks like a good team! (EDIT: I've now been moved to team Œ)
Latest I've heard is that I'll be going to the Ukraine sooner than I thought - probably around the end of January! So needless to say Russian's going to be my main focus for the next month as I want to learn as much as possible before I go, although I'll certainly keep up the French as well. I probably won't have time to look at Italian for a few months, sorry Oasis ;) I'm getting some passive exposure to Italian because of a few Italian blogs in my Google Reader and from hearing my Italian friends speaking, which is helping maintain what I've already learned, but I'm not doing any active studying yet. Russian wise I'm still trying to get used to the alphabet and pronunciation, and reading some basic phrases. Lesson 1 of the myrussianteacher.org lessons looks good, it's got some nice informal conversational material that balances out the more formal language of FSI etc. and might come in useful in the bars and clubs of Запорожье and Киев :) Edited by garyb on 23 December 2010 at 11:45am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Metaflower Newbie Australia Joined 5263 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 8 of 104 27 December 2010 at 3:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hey Gary!
Good luck with your linguistic endeavours - I'm on your team, and I'll be starting up my own log probably tomorrow (its 1am here and I can't think straight!) Sounds like we'll have a good team :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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