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Team Žá - Romance + Slavic

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
114 messages over 15 pages: 13 4 5 6 7 ... 2 ... 14 15 Next >>
JoaoCorreia
Triglot
Newbie
Portugal
Joined 4572 days ago

26 posts - 32 votes
Speaks: Portuguese*, English, FrenchC2

 
 Message 9 of 114
07 December 2011 at 3:47am | IP Logged 
http://multilingualbooks.com/ebooks-italian.html

Tens aqui um link com bastantes livros em Italiano. São todos grátis e não são pirataria! Leres numa outra língua e resumires em Italiano não é má ideia, apenas tiras menos proveito da aquisição de vocabulário e gramática através da leitura (em contrapartida, aumentas o nível na língua que estiveres a ler, caso não seja Russo).

As for Brazilian Portuguese, even I have trouble understanding them, now and then. But keep on practising that you'll get the gist of it.

I guess it wouldn't hurt to write in our L2 from time to time, after all this is a language learning log, plus Romance and Slavic languages! I'd assume no one would mind to read a few "foreign" lines, maybe they'll even get eager to go about and learn some themselves! Isn't that the whole point of this challenge?

Edit: Link broken, new member issue, sigh. Wish I had my account back.

Edited by JoaoCorreia on 07 December 2011 at 3:48am

2 persons have voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6409 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 10 of 114
07 December 2011 at 4:19am | IP Logged 
JoaoCorreia wrote:

Edit: Link broken, new member issue, sigh. Wish I had my account back.
the link works for me, thank you:)
Well, I do have La Divina Commedia that I bought ages ago... these are all too difficult and less interesting than what I have in other languages...

(Agora vi o teu perfil antigo, também gostas do futebol? (que surpresa) Eu sou Benfiquista<33333)

also, started compiling a list of resources in the first post. i've realized a couple of days ago that while I don't enjoy most traditional courses anymore, video courses are quite okay:)

Edited by Serpent on 07 December 2011 at 4:27am

1 person has voted this message useful



zecchino1991
Senior Member
United States
facebook.com/amyybur
Joined 5070 days ago

778 posts - 885 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew, Russian, Arabic (Written), Romanian, Icelandic, Georgian

 
 Message 11 of 114
07 December 2011 at 5:31am | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
I'm almost jealous hehe... I don't know why I even have this need to try
to get some active skills... to tweet in Italian? XD
I'm trying to see how to learn to write without this proper studying thing:)

I tweet in Italian sometimes haha. :)
1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6409 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 12 of 114
08 December 2011 at 12:58am | IP Logged 
Thought I'd list my goals too... I need to learn about machine translation but i keep on putting it off :/

I've realized just very recently that I don't have to think in the terms of CEFR or this forum. If I'm fine with that, it's not a tragedy if it takes me long to move a language into the "Speaks" category. That's not worth doing for the sake of it, otherwise I could've already reached it in Esperanto ages ago.

So, for Portuguese and Italian I'm aiming for writing fluency. Basic fluency minus speaking. Mum wants to go to Italy though, so perhaps I'll actually reach basic fluency. But this doesn't matter now that we don't have any specific plans yet.

Spanish - I'd like to minimize the gaps in my basic Spanish, but that's not such a high priority. High intermediate would be good though.

Romanian - would be nice to be able to write at least a little, but only Listening-Reading is also fine.

Catalan - this depends on how football stuff goes, hehe. I currently have mixed feelings about Barça so learning enough for me to develop a Catalan personality would be weird:D (nevermind... I'm a gemini :P)

Croatian - would be nice to be able to read fiction.

Polish - 6 week challenge in May for some pre-Euro 2012 joy ;)

other languages:

German - what a shame not to be using the opportunity. Basic fluency and aiming for advanced by the time I graduate (2014)

Indonesian - intermediate level would be good

Karelian - being able to write a simple text

Specific things to do/read:

Italian: do all units in Italiano per medici. read the book of stories with multilingual notes. read more AC Milan jokes and then something proper, I've seen Cuore di cane but if Ancelotti becomes Tottenham's coach I'll read his biography first :D

Portuguese: omg just realized I can ask a friend's girlfriend (who's an exchange student there) to get me something! namely Fernando Ribeiro's books, after all that's why I even started learning Portuguese! also something about Benfica [s]and a David Luiz shirt[/s]

Spanish: hoping to finish Forlán's book even before January, then cien años de soledad... also have some Gogol...

Finnish: Antti Halme (currently reading, might also finish before the New Year - he's easy to read), vampire stories, Tolkien, something in the original... ummmmmmmm....

German: jokes (Ilya Frank's method, hopefully also Das Parfum though I don't believe this much myself :D

*looks sadly at a lovely children's book in Belarusian*

Listening-Reading: Harry Potter in Romanian and Italian.

Uni: probably Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone for individual reading. Next term maybe Dracula...

other:

-do some basic lessons in my Italian textbook (for Croatians)
-BBC and maybe other video courses
-internalizing the stuff from this book in order to have a more systematic knowledge/understanding of the Romance group as a whole (minus French, is it silly to dislike a language that much???)
-watch football in Ukrainian, Danish and occasionally Dutch
-maybe learn by heart some gorgeous texts in Belarusian?
-do some stuff from my Karelian textbook, add many sentences to SRS


I'm intimidated by my own goals lololol

Edited by Serpent on 10 December 2011 at 5:52am

1 person has voted this message useful



Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4983 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 13 of 114
08 December 2011 at 2:56am | IP Logged 
Hi! I have decided to participate in the TAC, and I would like to be part of this team. My target languages are Polish, Spanish, and Latin. So here's a short description of my skills and goals for each:

POLISH - I wouldn't say I have advanced fluency, but I am on the high end of basic fluency. My vocabulary is pretty good (7,000+ words), so I can read very well (right now I am enjoying Pan Tadeusz, a Polish epic). My listening comprehension has improved a good deal lately, although it leaves something to be desired. I can write well, although I still make many stylistic errors (and a few grammatical ones), and I have problems with misusing more difficult words. I have been writing a lot of essays lately, though, so my writing is getting much better (or so I hope). Speaking is my weakest point - my accent is good, since I started learning when I was young, but I can't converse as fluidly as I would like.

So anyway, I hope to reach advanced fluency by the end of 2012.

SPANISH - I have basic fluency, but barely. I am travelling to Nicaragua this July, so I am hoping to achieve high basic (or maybe advanced) fluency by then. Right now I can read pretty well (although books are still a struggle - to be honest I haven't finished one yet) and I can write without too many mistakes. My speaking is pretty good, since I have a Mexican friend with whom I can converse on a regular basis. My listening comprehension skills have deteriorated over the last couple of months, but they were decent not long ago so I am hoping to regain that competency.

LATIN - I have been learning Latin forever, and it is a very important language to me due to my religion, but I have only reached an intermediate level. My knowledge of grammar is (or was) good, but I know about 500 words total. (This is mostly a result of the inferior quality of the textbooks I was using, but I must confess that my slow progress is partly my fault, as well.) Right now I am making Latin more of a priority, however. I am working through Wheelock's Latin and I hope to be done with it by August.


Okay, that is a summary of my abilities and goals in my current target languages. I am really excited about being part of this team!

Edited by Amerykanka on 08 December 2011 at 2:56am

2 persons have voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6409 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 14 of 114
08 December 2011 at 3:23am | IP Logged 
the thing about advanced fluency is that it's harder to measure. i don't know when exactly i reached advanced fluency in Finnish (or English, for that matter). of course even with basic fluency you just suddenly tell yourself that yeah, i guess i'm fluent by now. it's even more true for advanced.
good luck with your goals!!! you make me wanna flirt with Polish too :P it's one of the languages of my heritage, less important than Belarusian but still.
1 person has voted this message useful



JoaoCorreia
Triglot
Newbie
Portugal
Joined 4572 days ago

26 posts - 32 votes
Speaks: Portuguese*, English, FrenchC2

 
 Message 15 of 114
08 December 2011 at 4:22am | IP Logged 
You always have your goals defined; I wish I was like that. I don't really know where I'm going with my languages to be honest.

For Russian I will be trying to achieve a level where I can read an easy reader by the end of the year. Then again, I'm not even sure that's a realistic goal, I've never studied any Slavic language at all.

At the moment my French is being worked on, as I'm studying it full time at university. It does need some serious improvements though, as I'm kind of a perfectionist.

Reading - Nothing much to be done here, just improve my vocabulary. This is probably my strongest point.

Listening - Idem. I understand French (standard dialect) as well as I understand English. I can make out every sentence. Have some trouble with regional dialects, but I'm not going to work on that just yet.

Speaking - Here we have a bit of a problem. As I said I'm a perfectionist, so I refuse to speak slowly, and hurts my discursive fluency. I feel the need to speak like a native and if I don't know what I'm going to say beforehand, I tend to make some mistakes, both in pronunciation and vocabulary. Also, I'm used to talk French with friends so I need to work on my formal speech.
This language is growing inside me and I often find myself thinking in French rather than in my native language. Things will get in place now that I'm studying it full-time at the university. I don't really like to say I'm fluent in French because I don't feel that way. Sure I can follow anything, talk about anything, but I'm not there yet. I'd place myself around C1.

I'm not sure if I'm picking another language or not but I've got three options so far: Norwegian, Dutch and Japanese.
Won't go into details but Norwegian and Japanese would be purely for self-enjoyment. Dutch on the other hand, could be used to work in the future, but this is all too uncertain.

The last language I'll be doing some work on will be English. I feel my English has been deteriorating as I tend to use it less and less lately. Again, I don't have an elaborated plan on this, (although I will be attending English classes next semester) I just need to write, speak and read more often. Again, I do not consider myself fluent in English. If I had to choose a level, I'd say I'm around C1, a little better than my French.

   
1 person has voted this message useful



JoaoCorreia
Triglot
Newbie
Portugal
Joined 4572 days ago

26 posts - 32 votes
Speaks: Portuguese*, English, FrenchC2

 
 Message 16 of 114
08 December 2011 at 4:36am | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
(Agora vi o teu perfil antigo, também gostas do futebol? (que surpresa) Eu sou Benfiquista<33333)


Yes! I follow Benfica closely! I used to attend all the games at the stadium but I kinda lost the spirit, so I just watch it at home nowadays.

You made a spelling mistake, we say gostas de futebol and not do futebol but we do say gostas do futebol do Ronaldo.
I don't remember the rule, but I can take a look tomorrow and post it here, it's 3.35 am already.
PS: Espero que não leves a mal a correção, eu adoro ser corrigido, por isso estou a fazê-lo contigo. Se não gostares avisa-me que não corrijo erros.


2 persons have voted this message useful



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