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TAC 2011 - Team Ohana – Le Cinéma Rex | ||
Tags: Dabbling | France | 6 Weeks Challenge (6WC) | Immersion | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | English | German | French | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5113 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 1 of 198 26 December 2010 at 11:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Introduction
Today I finally thought of a title for this log so I figured it would be a good time to actually start writing it. First, a (not so) little overview of what I’ll (try to) be doing this year: French I’ve been studying French, in some way or another, for almost eight years but it’s only been a serious pursuit for the last three months. I’ve noticed significant progress in this period which is why I’ve decided to aim for basic passive fluency by October 2011, just in time for my 21st birthday. For the past three months (almost four, now that I think about it) I’ve been using my own method. I have huge self-discipline issues so I was afraid that forcing myself to study regularly would result in severe slacking and abandonment but, to my surprise, I’ve stuck to it diligently and it’s given me enough courage to load another language onto my plate. Arabic I really want to learn at least one non Indo-European language and I’ve decided on Arabic. I have no clear-cut goals for this language. Keeping up some kind of studying regime for an entire year will be enough of an achievement, regardless of the result. I originally meant to work with Pimsleur because I found it online for a good price, however, it turns out it only contained the first ten lessons. It was a Sinterklaas present so technically it shouldn’t have mattered but I felt guilty for getting the poor old man swindled so I subtly suggested to my mother that maybe we should exchange it for a more fairly-priced article. She returned one of my presents because she’d seen it cheaper somewhere else so I figured the two faux pas would cancel each other out. So, long story short, I’ve ordered a book that’s used by Arabic students at my university which I assume means it must be good. I plan to work through it at a steady and slow pace (key word here being slow) and to practise by having the occasional chat with the Egyptian pizza guy from around the corner. German German has been my linguistic adversary since high school. My first teacher for some reason took a big dislike to me so I took a big dislike to her subject in return. On top of that she was also a lousy teacher. The only thing I remember learning from her is “Finger hoch, Leute!”. My second teacher was nicer but he made no secret of his complete and utter lack of faith in his students’ intelligence and little recalcitrant me couldn’t help but do everything I could to prove him wrong, with not much success, I must say. So, learning German has become a matter of pride. I will not rest till I march back into my high school and have a lengthy discussion about politics with my old teachers. I want to start with some serious study in June when school is out and I have all the time in the world. English My profile says I study English full time at university but any real studying stopped after the first semester of my first year. One part of me is disappointed about this. My uni claims to aim to bring all of us up to a near-native level but I don’t see how they plan to do this when we don’t even practise basic speaking and writing skills. Another part of me is glad to finally be rid of the grammar exercises and translating boring texts. Anyway, I’ve decided to take matters into my own hands. I’m not quite sure what I’ll be doing but I plan to find a way to improve my speaking skills. For now I’m reading a lot and looking up the words I don’t know to improve my vocabulary. Apart from these four, I can’t completely rule out that I’ll be dabbling in Greek, Italian, Swedish, Russian, Hebrew, Spanish, Papiamentu and whatever else takes my fancy before the year is out. Edited by ReneeMona on 27 July 2011 at 7:05am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Vos Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 5344 days ago 766 posts - 1020 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Polish | Message 2 of 198 27 December 2010 at 1:30am | IP Logged | |||||
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Looking very much forward to following your log this year Renee, as your posts are always a pleasure to
read. And as for English, if you can speak anywhere near as well as you write, trust me, you're practically at native fluency. But as one can always improve on their languages, even one's mother tongue, if you want to see true fluency in action and learn from someone who I consider to be one of the most articulate and unbound speakers of the English language today, just watch anything and everything by Stephen Fry. The man has such a wonderful mind and spirit. Thanks for all your help and encouragment this year Renee, and good luck with your studies! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5113 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 4 of 198 27 December 2010 at 12:43pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thank you for your encouragement, Vos and Kuikentje.
Thank you. The good thing about writing is that I have all the time I need to think of what I want to say and how best to phrase it. I think my speaking skills are okay but I still draw a blank on a word too often for my taste. And then there's the matter of accent...
I love Stephen Fry, he's so articulate and funny! Thank you for reminding me of him. Have you seen Stephen Fry in America? I found out he also wrote a book about his journey, which I've just impulsively ordered online. ;-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| staf250 Pentaglot Senior Member Belgium emmerick.be Joined 5475 days ago 352 posts - 414 votes Speaks: French, Dutch*, Italian, English, German Studies: Arabic (Written) | Message 5 of 198 27 December 2010 at 1:20pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Dag Renee,
Voor 2011 wens ik je succes met je talenstudie. Hopelijk moet je niet "door de woestijn" om Arabisch te leren. Het valt me niet mee, mijn studie, maar ik houd vol en ga het meer ontspannen studeren dit jaar. Staf Translation: Hi Renee, success wished in 2011 studying languages. I hope you don't have to "cross the desert" to be able to learn Arabic. My study is hard, but I'll continue and shall study more relaxing this year. Staf Edited by staf250 on 27 December 2010 at 1:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5113 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 6 of 198 29 December 2010 at 1:28am | IP Logged | |||||
Dat lijkt me een goed idee, Staf. Ik doe Arabisch er eigenlijk ook maar voor de lol bij. Het is een moeilijke taal dus ik ga gewoon zonder enige druk eraan werken en ik zie wel waar het schip strand. ------------------------------------------------------------ I’m extremely vexed with the people at bol.com at the moment. They promised me my Arabic book would arrive the day before Christmas, which it didn’t, or the day immediately after, which it didn’t, or the day after that, which it didn’t. So now it will probably arrive tomorrow, around the time when I’ll be on my way back to Amsterdam and I won’t be at my parents’ for at least a few weeks. Splendid. My English studies aren’t running very smoothly either. I went to the university library yesterday, only to discover that it was closed. On a non-holiday weekday. I suppose the idea behind this is that it’s the holidays and nobody needs the library, which I would normally agree with if not for the fact that my Chaucer professor thought it would be convenient to have his students hand in their 1000-1500-word essays on the Canterbury Tales in the week between Christmas and New Year’s. On the brighter side of life, tomorrow my new bookcase will finally be transported to Amsterdam, which means I will at last have the room I need to proudly display my language learning materials to the world. You know you’re a language nerd when you asked a new bookcase for Sinterklaas because your language materials outgrew your old one. Edited by ReneeMona on 30 May 2011 at 2:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Gerwin Diglot Newbie Netherlands Joined 4885 days ago 15 posts - 17 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: German, Japanese, French | Message 7 of 198 30 December 2010 at 5:17pm | IP Logged | |||||
*looks at his bookcases and then to the mess of books now lying around on his desk* Speaking of bookcases, I need a new one too! I just put most of the books I'll be needing for TAC on my desk for now, but my bookcases are still filled to the brim, I even had to put my Linguaphone cases next to my bookcases. oh well .. Good luck with your challenge this year, fingers crossed! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5625 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 8 of 198 30 December 2010 at 5:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Ook veel succes van mijn kant voor je TAC 2011!
Fasulye 1 person has voted this message useful |
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