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Kerrie’s TAC ’12 Team Žá / Romantics Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5184 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 97 of 236 27 April 2012 at 1:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
Wow, thank you! I always feel like I could squeeze in more. Language, work, life, everything. Since I was sick for so long and virtually incapable of progress (in anything, really), I've had this negative viewpoint on everything. Life in general, but even moreso in my ability to function properly and make progress with anything, even to get simple things finished. The last year has been about feeling better and re-inventing myself. After figuring out all the food that was making me sick and finally starting to feel better, I feel like I finally have the ability to get somewhere with my languages. (Actually, that can be said about work, family, and social life, too!) My entire life has been a whirlwind the past year, almost like being 20 and trying to find my place in this world - only at 36 as a single mom and already having the responsibilities. I feel like I've been given an opportunity, and I want to do everything I possibly can with it. I have been bright-eyed and bushy-tailed since February, I think. And I plan to keep going right through the end of next year, at the minimum. Let's see. 100 books in Spanish, 50 in French, Italian, German. Um. Realistically, I doubt I will get close to that for Italian and German, but if I get halfway there for them, and even come close for Spanish and French, it will be a huge miracle! I am still playing with Russian a little, but I have decided to focus on French for the 6WC, and Spanish for the Super Challenge over the next 5-6 weeks. I will be switching my main focus from French to German when school gets out at the beginning of June. My friend and her family are planning to move to Germany in 2013 or 2014, and even though she and her husband speak fluent German, their kids do not. So I have been charged with learning/teaching their eleven year old daughter German. Which should be interesting, at the very least! I'm still trying to do Assimil for German and Croatian every day as well, but I don't know if I'll be able to keep them both up once the 6WC starts. I'm tentatively looking at hitting Italian hard in July or August for a month or six weeks, then hitting Russian in September. I will probably peek at Russian frequently over the next few months, just practicing reading and writing the script. I have a hangup with the Cyrillic alphabet that I don't understand, but I am going to conquer it. EDIT: Greek is on my immediate hit list, too. After Russian later this year, I will probably add Portuguese early next year, then Greek. Now that I spent the money on the Assimil course, and bringing my French up to a functional level in the next few months, I won't have anything holding me back from it. =) Edited by Kerrie on 27 April 2012 at 1:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5184 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 98 of 236 27 April 2012 at 2:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
True! Although after searching high and low, I did find a few books online. Mostly sci-fi and fantasy, but I can deal with that. There's enough (between what I found, and Harry Potter, of course) to keep me busy for the time being. =) Edited by Kerrie on 30 April 2012 at 6:01am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5184 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 99 of 236 01 May 2012 at 10:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, it is officially May first. And the beginning of my first 6WC ever, and the beginning of Cristina's Super Challenge. I am doing French for the 6WC. There are two primary reasons for this. My French reading is pretty decent, but my listening comprehension and speaking skills are atrocious. And we won't even talk about my writing skills. My wonderful Assimil Croatian book came a week or two ago, and even though it is going really slow so far, all the explanations and everything are in French. I understand most of it, but I want to make sure I'm not missing anything, either. (Oh, yea. And all the other Assimil books I want to use are in French, too! LOL) Of all my languages, Spanish is by far the strongest. My French comes in a strong second, though, and I feel like I /should/ be able to say that I speak French. And so I am determined to take it from a fake sense of being able to "get" something to actually being able to understand it well. So, for the 6WC, I am planning to work my way through the Michel Thomas courses, finish Assimil (I'm around lesson 50, on the passive wave), read Le Petit Prince, work my way through the Practice Makes Perfect Complete French Grammar, and to listen to the first Harry Potter audiobook. In six weeks. I am a few days behind where I wanted to be today - I have about 15 lessons left of my Spanish Assimil book, which I am trying to finish in the next two or three days. The Super Challenge starts today as well, and my primary focus for that right now is Spanish. I will be doing as much as I can for it with French later, after I have finished the 6WC. Kerrie's Super Challenge After the 6WC is over, I will be focusing on German for the remainder of the summer. My friend wants her eleven year old daughter to learn German, and so we are going to learn together. Or I'm going to teach her. Or something like that. (Which is odd, since my friend speaks German. And I don't. But I guess I'm game. I think.) As of right now, I am looking at Italian intensively in September, then focusing on Russian for the 6WC in October. That's a ways out yet, though, and I may decide to focus solely on the Super Challenge for Spanish and French (and the half Super challenges for Italian and German) for a few months. Either way, I anticipate the end of the year and most of 2013 will be dedicated to Russian, and LOTS of reading, writing, and listening in my other languages. Now. Excuse me. I have to go finish my Assimil Spanish With Ease book. I think it will be the first language book I ever FINISHED on my own. :D Edited by Kerrie on 01 May 2012 at 10:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5184 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 100 of 236 02 May 2012 at 5:59am | IP Logged | |||||
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Okay, I am officially done with Assimil's Spanish With Ease. Woo hoo!
It is the first course I have done completely on my own and finished. Tomorrow, I start attacking French! 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4678 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 101 of 236 03 May 2012 at 12:31am | IP Logged | |||||
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Congratulations on Assimil! That was the first complete language book I ever completed
too - I think that even in college we skipped the last chapters of our textbooks. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5184 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 102 of 236 03 May 2012 at 12:55am | IP Logged | |||||
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@kanewai - Thanks! I didn't realize I would feel so accomplished about it, but I really am proud of myself. As much for setting the study habits as for finishing the book, I think!
I have been debating starting the Advanced Assimil Using Spanish, but I don't know if it would be worth the time commitment. I have the audio (for the Spanish, not for the French, though), but I am still thinking I might get more from diving into my 100 books and 100 movies. I have to catch up on my French, first. I decided what I wanted to accomplish with the 6WC in French (and over the same time in German and Croatian) and have made a list of work that needs to be done every day to accomplish it. And since I spent five hours finishing up the Spanish Assimil book yesterday, I'm a couple hours behind on my French to-do list. So I have another day or two to decide which route I want to take with Spanish. I might take an hour or two off work tomorrow morning and go to the big library downtown. I can grab a bunch of Spanish books, maybe a few kids French books, and see what they have in the way of German, Italian, and Croatian. We have a large Bosnian population around here, so there might be a decent selection of books there. I'm not doing Croatian for the Super Challenge, but at some point, I would like to be able to read it fluently, too. :D Edited by Kerrie on 03 May 2012 at 12:56am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5184 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 103 of 236 03 May 2012 at 5:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Okay, I really need to get back to work. But I just went to the big library downtown, and was happy to find that they have a lot of books, not only in Spanish, but also in French, German, and BCS. The Italian section was sadly lacking. (Although the internet is full of Spanish and Italian ebooks. I haven't found any nice collections of German, Italian, or BCS, though.)
I found Peter Pan in Croatian, and an Agatha Christie book. I will probably look at Peter Pan, but I doubt I will try to actually read it yet. I got two books in French that look older than my grandparents, and a whole bunch of books in Spanish. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Stuart Little, and the first five books of the Lemony Snicket series, to start with., then a few others I might check out if I have time before I have to return them. I feel kind of torn between focusing solely on the 6WC for French and adding in some reading and films for the Super Challenge. I'm not normally a very competitive person, but the 6WC has kind of lit a fire in me. I think part of me is afraid my French is going to catch up to my Spanish, as weird as that might sound. Irrational, too. As much as I downplay my Spanish abilities most of the time, I would be thrilled to death if any of my languages (especially non-Romance languages) ever get close to my abilities in Spanish. I wish I didn't have to work today. :D 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5184 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 104 of 236 09 May 2012 at 1:03am | IP Logged | |||||
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Wow. Well, thanks to those pesky little people on the 6WC Twitterbot who have ignited a competitive fire in me (that I didn't know I had)... I have just finished reading my first French book. Sort of. It was Harry Potter à L'École des Sorciers. And, to be fair, I know the story. I read it in English eons ago. And I read it in Spanish a few years ago, even though I could only keep up with the storyline because I already knew it. There were so many new words, I stopped looking stuff up back then, and just went with it. Heck, I knew the storyline anyways. And it was the first book I read in Spanish, even though I didn't really know all the words. Now most people I know would laugh at me if they heard me say that. (Well, you might to. That's okay. You won't hurt my feelings.) But to be fair, you have to dive into new stuff sometime, right? And it's probably a better option than jumping into a seventeenth century Don Quixote epic, right? I have a confession to make. I didn't really read this book in French. I listened to it, and read along. Which might seem like an easy feat. And it would have been, if it had been in English, or even Spanish. But have you ever heard how fast French people talk? And how many vowels they swallow? (Not to mention consonants..) If I paid 150% attention to the audio, I could follow along. Most of the time. I still got lost a few times. And if I thought about something else for even a second, I'd be lost for at least half a page. I kid you not. The really strange thing is that I could actually follow along with the story most of the time and tell you what was going on. By the end of the book, I was actually starting to pay attention to words. And groups of words, all full of apostrophes, dashes, and five different kinds of accent marks. And I kind of felt like I was maybe making a little progress. Only a little, though. I still have a really, really long way to go. But I would certainly call it a success. Of sorts. Edited by Kerrie on 09 May 2012 at 1:03am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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