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Ellasevia’s TAC 2011: Team Ohana | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5343 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 241 of 392 21 May 2011 at 10:54am | IP Logged | ||
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Please don't have a breakdown before your breakdown. You seriously need a little break instead (or at least a personal assistant). If only there were a button we could press that could write the bulk of it for us... ;) Edited by Teango on 21 May 2011 at 10:54am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5929 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 242 of 392 21 May 2011 at 7:39pm | IP Logged | ||
Quarter 2: Indonesian, Japanese, Dutch, Russian, Persian     
Week 20: May 14 – 20 Total Study Time This Week: 4.25 hours Total Study Time in 2011: 304.5 hours Average Study Time This Week: 0.61 hours/day Average Study Time in 2011: 2.18 hours/day 
I don’t even know what to say about this week. It just didn’t work at all as far as language studies go. Today was the last day of school classes (we still have finals next week, though) so I’m going to pretend that that is a good excuse. I had a lot going on this week and have literally not been able to think straight since Monday. Okay, that’s not true. I haven’t been able to think coherently for a really long time, at least since the middle of April, but especially since Monday. To be perfectly honest I did have the time to work on languages this week, I just didn’t have any interest in working on them at all in the past few days. I had a lot on my mind. I expect that next week will be even worse since among other things it’s finals week (I only have one final that I have to worry about though – math), I’m leaving for Greece a week from today and have to pack for a month, and have to say goodbye to some of my best friends who are a year older than me and hence graduating this year and moving away. :( Moving on…  日本語
Total Study Time This Month: 0.25 hours Total Study Time in 2011: 27. 5 hours - Vocabulary I apparently spent 15 minutes on Japanese vocabulary this week, according to my spreadsheet. I don’t remember if it was vocabulary for my class or from another resource, but it was Japanese vocabulary in any case.  NEDERLANDS
Total Study Time This Month: 1 hour Total Study Time in 2011: 52.5 hours - Assimil (La Pratique du Néerlandais) Lesson 9 I was excited at first to continue working with Assimil for Dutch this week until I remembered that in this book they seem to like throwing incredibly dry and boring things at me. After struggling through the excerpt of the Dutch driving code which they gave me I was determined not to touch that book for a while…so I didn’t. When do I get to the interesting lessons?  РУССКИЙ
Total Study Time This Week: 0.75 hours Total Study Time in 2011: 18.5 hours - Penguin Russian Lessons 10-11 I made a start back into Penguin Russian, which I hadn’t used since the early fall. I was away while I was studying so I didn’t get to study the vocabulary or enter it into Anki yet but I shall do that soon, hopefully.  Français
Total Study Time This Week: 2 hours Total Study Time in 2011: 28 hours - Harry Potter et la Coupe de Feu, Ch. 14-15 Strangely French was the language I spent the most time on again this week, but that was just because I felt like reading Harry Potter. I was originally going to try to finish this book before my AP exam and then that changed to before I leave for Greece, but with the sluggish pace and erratic study habits that I’ve had lately I doubt that even the modified goal will happen.  Deutsch
Total Study Time This Week: 0.25 hours Total Study Time in 2011: 26.5 hours - Vocabulary Apparently I did some work on German vocabulary as well this week. Like Japanese though, I don’t remember where this mysterious vocabulary came from. OTHER - Anki is now very behind again. And I was doing so well with that. 2746 reviews. Ouch. - I went to an awards assembly at my school on Thursday evening and I got something for the Japan Cup (discussed previously) and then for “Outstanding Linguist.” The latter is the highest award for the world languages department at my school and requires having reached a “high” level in at least two of the school’s languages. However, according to their standards I’ve already reached that level in four: Spanish, French, German, and Japanese. Hooray, I guess. - @ReneeMona: Dank je nogmaals voor de verbeteringen. Ik denk dat het toch beter is te bescheiden te zijn dan je prestaties te veel te overdrijven. - @Teango: That was clever. :) I agree that I need a break and luckily a week from now I’ll be relaxing in Greece and I predict that I won’t want to do anything at all for the first week that I’m there. I just need to lie on a beach in the sun and be lazy without the pressures of school and so forth. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| M. Medialis Diglot TAC 2010 Winner Senior Member Sweden Joined 6144 days ago 397 posts - 508 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Russian, Japanese, French | Message 243 of 392 21 May 2011 at 7:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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Instead of having a mental breakdown, may I suggest you have a Foggy Mountain Breakdown instead! :)
I can completely relate to getting those temporary language blocks when there's much to do in school. But I promise your language inspiration will soon return. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5929 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 244 of 392 22 May 2011 at 11:02am | IP Logged | ||
I just saw that I missed this comment the first time. Sorry! Uh, I can do some more recordings, sure. I'm leaving for Greece very soon though so they might have to wait until I come back. But... "ellasevian"!? My history teacher told us this year that when a person's name starts to be used as an adjective it shows that they are extremely important. I never imagined that anyone would ever use my name that way, though. :P What do you like about my accent in Dutch? I think what ReneeMona told me when I sent her an audio sample was that the audio for "With Ease" used Dutch accents but the accents in "La Pratique du Néerlandais" are most definitely Flemish. I agree that several of the last lessons of Assimil weren't very interesting but at that point I was so excited about almost finishing the book that I sped through them quickly. Now, if only I could remember to go back and do the active wave lessons once in a while. Oh, and from what I've seen so far the lesson topics in "La Pratique du Néerlandais" are even more boring. I wasn't kidding when I said that I had to read an excerpt from a (probably outdated) Dutch driving code as part of one of the lessons. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5121 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 245 of 392 22 May 2011 at 7:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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I always find it interesting that the ones who work hard and accomplish a lot, are usually not satisfied with their efforts, while the lazy bones are completely happy and content.
Ellasevia. You are not one that I will usually break things down to simple little sentences for, because you are probably far brighter than I am , but just this once I will make an exception. . You are one of the most impressive people on this forum. . In fact you are probably one of the most impressive people I know. . You accomplish more than most of us, and you still push yourself on. . You have an uncanny ability to turn what you learn into active vocabulary, and actually write in the languages you know - even when you are still just studying them. . You always have time, and a nice word for others when they are struggling. . You have a magnificent pronunciation in Swedish, which leads me to believe you probably do in most of your other languages too. (I was so impressed by your recording that I played it to a young girl your age. She expected to have a good laugh at the American who mispronounced Swedish, but was in aw of how good you were. When I filled her in of how many other languages you knew, her next question was: "Is he hot?", which for obvious reasons I have no way of telling.;) But the mere sound of your voice made a very favourable impression.) . Your list of languages alone is awsome - but your level in them is even more awsome. . In short, I am proud of you, and proud of knowing you, even if it is just through the internet, and think you should be really proud of yourself as well. Now to your present fatigue - I am all with Teango. You need to just relax and have a good time. I have probably told you this story before, but I'll repeat it. At the age of 18 I hit the wall. I had studied so much and worked so hard for a long time that I started walking into lamps, tripped over my own feet and found my winter boots in the refrigerator. I have no idea why I obviously at some point thought it was a good idea to put them there. So my doctor told me to go out partying. Now, not being much of a drinker, I wasn't much of a party girl either, but for one week straight I partied like there was no tomorrow, coming home after 3 in the morning every night. The first night I stayed home after that I was so tired that I slept through my sister's door bell call (we were sharing the flat) and even though she actually called in the fire department, and the entire block of flats were woken up by their vigorous efforts of getting into the flat, I slept through it like a baby. My sister finally had to spend the night at the flat of our 60 year old male neigbour, a very stiff and correct lawyer. She still hasn't completely forgiven me for that one... The point however was that after that week of partying I was fine again. I think the mind needs a break now and then. I know you are younger and still living with your parents, so you might have to modify the partying a bit, but I really believe that giving yourself a one week ban on language studying, and instead going out with your friends, and just chill out will do the trick. Oh, and have a nice trip to Greece! We will actually be there at the same time, as I am travelling to Crete on Friday. I am so excited to go to Greece for the first time in my life, and I will cross my fingers for you, and hope that you have a super relaxing time. In Greece you do not need to do any active studying, you can just be there and talk and relax, and you'll still learn a lot. I know, having learned most of my Spanish in discos and kitchens:-) Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 25 May 2011 at 12:02am 11 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| schoenewaelder Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5347 days ago 759 posts - 1197 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 246 of 392 23 May 2011 at 4:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Don't worry, take it easy :) I just thought it might be a it more fun.
Congratulaions on the prizes.
Or possibly an evil dictator. But I'm sure you're not like that at all. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| LazyLinguist Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5390 days ago 105 posts - 125 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 247 of 392 23 May 2011 at 9:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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I'd like to concur with Solfrid Cristin here, I would still be in awe of you if you spent
one quarter of the time you do on languages, and you really are a massive achiever, don't get yourself down and stressed because you did 4 hours a week. 4 hours I'm sure most of us would agree is an OK week, and some of your other totals like 18 or 20 hours are truly exceptional and at the top of commitment, effort and studiousness, in short, you are amazing and eclipse me and 99.99% (probably) of the rest of the population of the earth when it comes to languages, even when you do 4 or 5 hours a week. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5929 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 248 of 392 25 May 2011 at 7:52am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm currently procrastinating on a history project that's due tomorrow morning and decided to respond to all of the wonderful encouraging comments people have left here for me. Thank you so much to M. Medialis, Solfrid Cristin, schoenewaelder, LazyLinguist, and everyone. If you'd like to save yourself time and skip what will probably turn out being a whole lot of off-topic drama, just stop reading now.
@Solfrid Cristin: Your comment made me... I don't even know how to describe this. Your comment made me really happy and want to give you a big hug, laugh, cry, and other miscellaneous emotions all at the same time. Thank you, thank you, thank you. First of all, thank you so much for all of your kind words, even though I know I don't deserve even half that much praise. You're just too sweet. :) I've told you this before and I'll tell you again, you're one of my favorite people on the forum. Oh, and the thing with the girl (was that your daughter?) made me laugh out loud. Unfortunately, through an odd mix of complicated circumstances, I would not be able to reciprocate that question in a meaningful way. Please tell her thank you though. :) You have in fact told me that story before, but this time it had more of an impact. Maybe it was the boots that did it. In any case, I had somewhat intended to do things with friends this week, especially since my best friend is moving to a different state right after I leave for Greece so I won't see her for many months at least. So yesterday after my math final we spent something like ten hours together just relaxing and enjoying being together. And similarly today, she and another friend and I spent a while together being dramatic and going crazy. And Thursday is my friend's graduation party when I'll get to see her for the last time, at which point I will probably lose it completely and start crying for over an hour. I'm so not looking forward to that moment. I've already been seeing benefits from my increased social interaction. In the short term it means that I haven't studied any languages at all in over a week and that I have almost 5000 Anki reviews piled up, but in the long term it means (I hope) a better mental state to move forward from and something of a fresh start for my studies. And of course, I saw my friends quite a bit. However, I feel the need to explain a bit that what has been holding me back from studying recently, I think, was not my disappointment in any lack of achievement but rather because I just have so much madness in my life right now and I can't concentrate on anything serious at all. To be perfectly honest, I've felt fairly miserable and have been in a terrible mental/emotional state since at least the middle of March and it has steadily gotten worse. You can see this reflected directly in the figures for hours of study which I've logged since then compared with earlier in the year. I know that I'll be rid of some of this stress once school is completely over (only six more hours!) and I can just clear my mind of everything in Greece, but sadly I know that some of these issues will still be here waiting for me when I come back and I can't do anything about that. Enough of that. I'm so excited for you going to Greece for the first time! This will actually be my eleventh time going there but I'm going to be on the island of Evia, not Crete. My mother's side of the family is from Crete, however, and I went there once when I was a baby. My only memory is getting stung by a bee. Are you going anywhere besides Crete? Καλό ταξίδι στην Ελλάδα! @LazyLinguist: I think I've already said most of what there is to say to Solfrid Cristin, but I'd just like to thank you individually for your nice comment nonetheless. Your note was a nice reality check and a reminder of how I tend to set the bar unreasonably high for myself. Thank you so much. :) @schoenewaelder: Again, thank you. :) Oh? How did you come to the conclusion that I'm not an aspiring future dictator? Nah, I'm far too freaked out by other people for that, not to mention lazy. Just think of the work that would be involved! Okay, back to history. Wait, no. One last thing. You can probably see that I've removed Indonesian from my studies profile. It was just too much, at least for right now. Maybe if my Assimil book had arrived sooner I would have had more motivation to start off with, but this challenge was simply bad timing for me. I'm not going to pretend to be studying that anymore, because I'll admit it, I'm just not. Alright, now that I've written a short novel here I'll return to my history project. If only the words would come as easily for that subject... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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