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Ellasevia’s TAC 2011: Team Ohana | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5936 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 201 of 392 17 April 2011 at 5:28am | IP Logged |
 I figured I should probably report back immediately about this Japanese competition I kept talking about instead of waiting until next Friday to include it in my next update.
The Japan Cup took place today for approximately nine hours with about 40 teams of two or three people coming from all over the state to compete. The teams were divided into four levels, according to what year of Japanese you're in at school (there were also university students who were counted as level four). I was in level three (ie, third year of Japanese). First there was a preliminary round in little rooms where you're tested on all sorts of things relating to the Japanese language and culture. My partner and I did very well in that round and got the highest score out of all the level three teams, so naturally we moved on to the final round. A few hours later we reported back to the main auditorium which was now full of people to begin the final rounds of the competition. We watched levels one and two go before us so we got a feel of how it would be conducted. Finally it was our turn and we were both shaking, and to say that we were extremely nervous (or even terrified) would be a grave understatement. We went onto the stage and took our places and got to look right into the big crowd of people, which of course did not help us calm down. My teacher also had decided that I would be the "team captain," which meant that I was to be the one to give our final answer aloud. On stage there were also two other teams, but both of them had three members as opposed to our duo. The questions were divided into several categories: - Team Round: We were asked various questions directed specifically at our team and had 30 seconds to discuss them with each other, and then I would have to give our response. The questions were things like "What verb could you use with the onomatopoeia すいすい?" (泳ぎます）or "お金が沢山あったら、何をしたいですか。" (日本へ旅行したいです。) There were also ones where we would hear a description of something or a short dialogue and then had to answer a question about it. - Visual Round: Two words using kanji were projected onto a screen and we had to give their reading and meaning in English (森林 = shinrin, forest; 習う = narau, to learn). The same thing would then happen for two katakana words (プラスチック = purasuchikku, plastic; ドイツ = doitsu, Germany). We had time to consult with one another for 30 seconds before I had to give the answer. - Whiteboard Round: Each team had a whiteboard and markers and had to write certain things on it and then hold it up for the judges. Examples were "「教室」の二つ漢字を書いてください" (室), "How many strokes are there in this kanji: 屋" (9), and "Write a sentence describing this picture [a table with three apples on it]." (テーブルの上にりんごが三つあります。) Again, we had 30 seconds to consult with our teammate(s), but this time all the teams were being given the same questions at the same time. - Bell Round: This round was like Jeopardy in that everyone is given the same question and you have to ring a bell as quickly as possible to give the answer. Teammates were not allowed to talk with each other but thankfully anyone could give the answer, not just the team captain. Also, certain questions had follow-up questions which only the team which had answered correctly were allowed to answer and we were given 30 seconds to discuss our answer. Examples were "What is the okurigana for 楽しい?" (しい) with a follow-up of "What is the on-yomi for 楽?" (ラク/ガク) or "What does the idiom 手を抜く mean in English?" (to cut corners, slack off) with the follow-up of "Use 手を抜く in a sentence." (my answer of 宿題をする時、手を抜く was unintentionally funny and made everyone laugh) So that was how the competition went. Is there anything else I forgot to mention? Oh right, we won FIRST PLACE!! Actually our school did really well in general; four of our teams made it to the final round, two of which got first place in their respective levels, and the other two of which came in second. :D So yeah, it was extremely tiring and frightening but the end result was very good! However, I'm now a bit sick of Japanese for the moment and suffice it to say that I don't have any desire to so much as look at a Japanese book for at least a week. I counted the competition as five hours of study time for Japanese. :) Edited by ellasevia on 17 April 2011 at 5:47am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5258 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 202 of 392 17 April 2011 at 7:57am | IP Logged |
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おめでとうございます！さすがエラセヴィア さんですね。
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 5350 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 203 of 392 17 April 2011 at 1:51pm | IP Logged |
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お見事, あなたは一番です! (Well done, you're number one!)
You must be stoked with the win...big congrats. :D Edited by Teango on 17 April 2011 at 1:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5936 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 204 of 392 17 April 2011 at 8:30pm | IP Logged |
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ティヒードンさんとテアンゴさん、 ありがとうございます。 日本語の闘技はかなり難しかったのに、 今私はとっても幸せだよ。 先生も幸せだった。 でも、一番じゃないよ。 まだ日本語がよく話せないね。 直ぐハリー・ポッターをギリシャ語で読みに 行く。じゃまた。
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| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5936 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 206 of 392 17 April 2011 at 9:36pm | IP Logged |
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I just remembered that a while back I promised to upload my spreadsheet for how I track my hours. Here it is:
Ellasevia's 2011 Study Spreadsheet It's directly based on the one which Sprachprofi uploaded in December and I just made changes to her original spreadsheet. It's been working really well for me and I thought someone else might benefit from it. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| darkwhispersdal Senior Member Wales Joined 5834 days ago 294 posts - 363 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Ancient Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 207 of 392 19 April 2011 at 9:00pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the upload I started designing one for myself but I'll adapt yours instead
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| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5936 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 208 of 392 23 April 2011 at 8:10pm | IP Logged |
Quarter 2: Greek, Romanian  
Week 16: April 16 – April 22 Total Study Time This Week: 11.5 hours Total Study Time in 2011: 255.75 hours Average Study Time This Week: 1.64 hours/day Average Study Time in 2011: 2.28 hours/day 
Yay, April is almost over. It’s my least favorite month when it comes to schoolwork because all the teachers go crazy in anticipation of the end of the year and the AP exams. Anyways, after finishing with the Japan Cup on Saturday I felt too tired and unmotivated to do anything, a sentiment which carried over into the rest of the week. After finishing reading Harry Potter on Monday, my motivation plummeted even more and for no apparent reason I ended up feeling really depressed and just horrible in general for most of the week. I also had a huge amount of schoolwork which did not help my mood, which in turn lowered my motivation for doing anything school or language related (and the cycle continued). I think I consciously gave up on doing anything productive this week by Tuesday or Wednesday, and the only study time I clocked after that was just working on German homework. I considered giving up doing anything for the entire rest of the month, but that seems like too much of an easy way out. So, we have two main problems here: state of mind and school workload. The latter isn’t going to change for a while (although I recently found out that we don’t have school next Friday, and Thursday doesn’t really count either, so that’s a relief), so I need to get out of this motivation slump if I intend to make anything out of this month. I need to get over these sudden realizations and move on with everything. Seriously… [Later addition: I’ve just written an essay of over 3500 words so far describing this situation. It’s far from complete, but it seems to have helped somewhat. As much as I complain about having to analyze things at school, I find that whenever I apply the analysis to myself it seems to be a good coping method.]  ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ
Total Study Time This Week: 1.75 hours Total Study Time in 2011: 21.75 hours Days Until Greece: 35 days - Ο Χάρι Πότερ και η Κάμαρα με τα Μυστικά: Ch. 16-18 (L-R) I finished Harry Potter this week. :) So now I have nothing else to do for Greek… Actually that’s not true. As I was reading Harry Potter I noticed how extensively the passive voice was used, and that’s one aspect of Greek grammar which I still need to work on. I understand how to use it and how to form it in the present tense, but the formation of the past/future/subjunctive (aside from a few common verbs like κάθομαι --> κάθισα, κοιμάμαι --> κοιμήθηκα, χαίρομαι --> χάρηκα) is still a mystery to me. I can understand it when I read or hear it, but ask me to form it on my own and I’ll probably just stare at you blankly. So I think I’m going to work on figuring out that nightmare and then I also have some Greek podcasts which I can use for listening comprehension practice. I’ll figure it out.  Français
Total Study Time This Week: 0.5 hours Total Study Time in 2011: 10.5 hours - Harry Potter movie with subtitles I hate deceptive products. The movie case said that it had dubbed versions in French and Spanish, but it didn’t, so I had to watch it in English with French subtitles. Nonetheless, I made a point of reading them, so I’m going to apply my definition of study loosely and count that as half an hour of French study. I should get going with French because the AP exam is two weeks from Tuesday.  Deutsch
Total Study Time This Week: 3.5 hours Total Study Time in 2011: 18.75 hours - German Project (for class) - Talking to myself in German and narrating my surroundings I ended up working a LONG time on this stupid German project this week, and since I was writing all of the explanations of the Georgian letters in German I counted part of the time as study. My grandmother is extremely religious and required that we go to church for Good Friday (today). Church honestly bores me to death, so I decided to just talk to myself quietly in German and describe everything that I saw to keep from falling asleep. I eventually ran out of things to describe and instead started telling myself stories. Then, once the people started singing loudly and blocked out all conscious thoughts from my head, I just followed along in the booklet and attempted to translate the lines into German simultaneously. That didn’t really work out well, so I gave up at that point. Again, I should do some more stuff with German, because the AP exam is coming up soon, two weeks from today [Friday].  Nederlands
Total Study Time This Week: 0.75 hours Total Study Time in 2011: 47.25 hours - Reading/writing in Dutch Just corresponding casually in Dutch this week and doing some reading on Dutch websites. Not much to mention in the way of actual study here. [same as last week]  日本語
Total Study Time This Week: 5 hours Total Study Time in 2011: 23.75 hours - Japan Cup The Japan Cup was explained previously. Today in my class we were learning a new sentence pattern, the たり…たり pattern meaning “[do] things like…and…”. To make the concept relate better to the majority of people in my class, this is the sentence he gave us: 学校にいる時、 クラスで寝たりアイポッドを聞いたりします 。(When I’m at school I do thinks like sleeping in class and listening to my iPod.)  漢字
Total Kanji Reviews This Week: 17 reviews Total Restudied Kanji This Week: 0 characters Total Restudied Kanji in 2011: 700 characters Fail. That’s all I have to say. OTHER @Kuikentje – ありがとう! @darkwhispersdal – I’m glad you liked it. I’m actually surprised at how popular it is; if I’m to believe the counter on the download page it’s been downloaded more than 30 times. Edited by ellasevia on 24 April 2011 at 6:25pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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