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Luna’s Log: TAC 2012: Team 德

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Luna Moonsilver
Diglot
Groupie
Germany
lunaslanglog.wordpreRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4837 days ago

77 posts - 99 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Korean

 
 Message 1 of 29
27 December 2011 at 11:43pm | IP Logged 
Hi, all :]. This is my first ever TAC and I'm all excited to be a part of Team 德. My
main focus languages for this year are German and Mandarin (hence the team), but I'm
going to be studying Swahili too - and I'll probably (definitely) suffer from some
wanderlust as well. So there'll be more than a few languages sprinkled throughout this
log, I think.

Now, for some info:

Deutsch
Background: I started learning German at school eight years ago, and I'm afraid
to say that my skills at the moment do not reflect that amount of learning time. Not
even close. I'm moving to Germany in September (/October) until February 2013, so I
have that time to pull myself up and prepare.
Current Level: B1
Goal: I'd like to be at a secure B2 level by August-ish, so that I can spend my
time in Germany improving and hopefully be up to a tentative C1 by the time I leave.
Specific Goals: I want to read a million words (approximately) this year, plus
I've set myself specific targets for writing and media consumption. They're provisional
at the moment because I'm going to use January as a benchmark to see how much I
actually get done.
Resources: I'll mainly be using native materials at this point. German is one of
the two languages I study for my degree, so I have language classes, a speaking class
and a thematic module - all taught primarily in German. My coursework will count
towards my particular goals because it's all practice. I'm going to read books - I want
to get through the entire Harry Potter series this year - and watch films, as well as
playing games on my DS in German.

中文
Background: I began Mandarin properly when I began University in October 2010;
it's the other language I'm studying for my degree. Over the summer, I had the chance
to visit Beijing (BLCU) for a month and studied Mandarin intensively there. I'm going
back in February 2013 - about June 2013, so, like with German, I need to increase my
level - though I should also be taking Chinese classes when I move to Germany.
Current Level: High A1/Low A2
Goal: B2
Specific Goals: I want to be able to read. Unlike with German, where I'm
terrified of speaking (failed my speaking exam coming out of school, yay!), I'm not so
bad with Mandarin and in fact scored higher on speaking with the exam I took in August
than I did with reading/grammar. That being said, I have to work on my tones, because
they're pretty bad. Apart from that, I'm focusing mainly on characters and going to
move onto reading books at some point.
Resources:
- FSI Mandarin course (for tones)
- New Practical Chinese Reader (we use this textbook at Uni, but we get through one
lesson every two weeks. I want to get ahead)
- TV series
- Memrise.com
- I'm going to buy 哈利•波特与火焰杯 and try and work my way through it at some point

Kiswahili
Background: I started learning Swahili for May's Six Week Challenge, but only
clocked eight hours of study time and, after the challenge was over, promptly forgot
everything I learned. I started again a few weeks ago, though I've only done three
Assimil lessons since then. 2012 will be my year to make some progress in this
language. I don't have any current plans to go to any East African countries, but who
knows what the future holds! ;]
Current Level: Non-existent
Goal: A2
Specific Goals: I want to finish the Assimil course and then see if there's
anything else I can learn from the Living Language textbook I have. I'll probably end
up using these resources concurrently because the Assimil course is in French and
though I can read bits and pieces of it, it's still very difficult for me. After that,
I'll move onto any literature I can find (if I get that far this year). This is very
much taking a back-seat to Mandarin and German because they need to be focussed on this
year.
Resources:
- Assimil Le Swahili Sans Peine
- Living Language Swahili
- BBC Swahili

Hm, that's most of my introductory points covered. Like I said, I've got a wanderlust
list a mile long and some of those languages will probably be used for any six week
challenges I take part in during 2012. If I start learning one, I'll add it to the list
up there (even if I only learn it for six weeks!).

Viel Grüß! 祝你好运!

Good luck, everyone!

- Luna

ETA:

My Teammates:

2012 TAC Team 德: B_Hutt's Log


Hidden's TAC 2012 Team 德 : German Log


Jae's Log - TAC 2012 - Team 德


NickJS - Team 德 - TAC 2012


Serpent's cyclic log - Team Žá and 德


Silver's Log: 2012 TAC Team 德


WingSuet TAC 2012 Team 德


Edited by Luna Moonsilver on 02 January 2012 at 1:51am

2 persons have voted this message useful



NickJS
Senior Member
United Kingdom
flickr.com/photos/sg
Joined 4718 days ago

264 posts - 334 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 2 of 29
28 December 2011 at 3:04am | IP Logged 
I wish I had studied some languages whilst I was at university too...I was rather lazy
though - but it paid off with good grades :D!

Which university are you studying at if you don't mind me asking?

It should be quite interesting to see your German progress as your using games to
supplement it, if only reading Characters was easier, I'd do the same!

I think my tones are quite ok...As I spent a lot of time focusing on them (far too much),
I even had a native speaker from Shanghai spend about 3 weeks going over them with me.
Alternatively I'd recommend ChinesePod (which Ari on here told me about)and use their
free beginning podcasts to brush up on the tones.
1 person has voted this message useful



Luna Moonsilver
Diglot
Groupie
Germany
lunaslanglog.wordpreRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4837 days ago

77 posts - 99 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Korean

 
 Message 3 of 29
28 December 2011 at 3:20am | IP Logged 
NickJS wrote:
I wish I had studied some languages whilst I was at university too...I
was rather lazy though - but it paid off with good grades :D!

Which university are you studying at if you don't mind me asking?

It should be quite interesting to see your German progress as your using games to
supplement it, if only reading Characters was easier, I'd do the same!

I think my tones are quite ok...As I spent a lot of time focusing on them (far too
much), I even had a native speaker from Shanghai spend about 3 weeks going over them
with me. Alternatively I'd recommend ChinesePod (which Ari on here told me about)and
use their free beginning podcasts to brush up on the tones.


Haha, well studying languages was I could think of to do as a degree, so I guess I get
to spend most of my time on my hobby, though the exams are certainly less fun. I'm
studying at Nottingham Trent - which most people have not heard of, to be honest. We're
not really that high on the league tables ;].

I'm enjoying the games at the moment. I'm playing Dragonquest IX, which is great
because it's an RPG, but I'm having to make sure I pay attention when the characters
ask me things. I tried Professor Layton, but that was hard.

And ooh, thank you for that heads-up! :] I do fine reading the tones on their own, but
as soon as they're put together, I get lost. Well, except for second to fourth. Lots of
不是 lol.
2 persons have voted this message useful



NickJS
Senior Member
United Kingdom
flickr.com/photos/sg
Joined 4718 days ago

264 posts - 334 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 4 of 29
28 December 2011 at 3:38am | IP Logged 
Luna Moonsilver wrote:
NickJS wrote:
I wish I had studied some languages whilst I
was at university too...I
was rather lazy though - but it paid off with good grades :D!

Which university are you studying at if you don't mind me asking?

It should be quite interesting to see your German progress as your using games to
supplement it, if only reading Characters was easier, I'd do the same!

I think my tones are quite ok...As I spent a lot of time focusing on them (far too
much), I even had a native speaker from Shanghai spend about 3 weeks going over them
with me. Alternatively I'd recommend ChinesePod (which Ari on here told me about)and
use their free beginning podcasts to brush up on the tones.


Haha, well studying languages was I could think of to do as a degree, so I guess I get
to spend most of my time on my hobby, though the exams are certainly less fun. I'm
studying at Nottingham Trent - which most people have not heard of, to be honest. We're
not really that high on the league tables ;].

I'm enjoying the games at the moment. I'm playing Dragonquest IX, which is great
because it's an RPG, but I'm having to make sure I pay attention when the characters
ask me things. I tried Professor Layton, but that was hard.

And ooh, thank you for that heads-up! :] I do fine reading the tones on their own, but
as soon as they're put together, I get lost. Well, except for second to fourth. Lots of
不是 lol.


Hmm your right - I've not heard of that one, are the language teachers good there? I
went to Salford university just outside Manchester city centre, but I just went because
it was easy to drive there :D.

Nice, I've just recently put some Final Fantasy games on my phone - just in plain old
English though - which does make me wish I was learning Japanese sometimes! Do you find
it helps your learning? As there are so many people I know that have learnt to speak
English from games, but I don't know about the opposite way around.

Thy definitely catch you out sometimes the tones that's for sure, the one that often
tricks me is the first tone...I agree, you've gotta love the word 是 lol!

   
1 person has voted this message useful



Luna Moonsilver
Diglot
Groupie
Germany
lunaslanglog.wordpreRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4837 days ago

77 posts - 99 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Korean

 
 Message 5 of 29
29 December 2011 at 9:36pm | IP Logged 
NickJS wrote:
Luna Moonsilver wrote:
NickJS wrote:
I wish I had studied some
languages whilst I
was at university too...I
was rather lazy though - but it paid off with good grades :D!

Which university are you studying at if you don't mind me asking?

It should be quite interesting to see your German progress as your using games to
supplement it, if only reading Characters was easier, I'd do the same!

I think my tones are quite ok...As I spent a lot of time focusing on them (far too
much), I even had a native speaker from Shanghai spend about 3 weeks going over them
with me. Alternatively I'd recommend ChinesePod (which Ari on here told me about)and
use their free beginning podcasts to brush up on the tones.


Haha, well studying languages was I could think of to do as a degree, so I guess I get
to spend most of my time on my hobby, though the exams are certainly less fun. I'm
studying at Nottingham Trent - which most people have not heard of, to be honest. We're
not really that high on the league tables ;].

I'm enjoying the games at the moment. I'm playing Dragonquest IX, which is great
because it's an RPG, but I'm having to make sure I pay attention when the characters
ask me things. I tried Professor Layton, but that was hard.

And ooh, thank you for that heads-up! :] I do fine reading the tones on their own, but
as soon as they're put together, I get lost. Well, except for second to fourth. Lots of
不是 lol.


Hmm your right - I've not heard of that one, are the language teachers good there? I
went to Salford university just outside Manchester city centre, but I just went because
it was easy to drive there :D.

Nice, I've just recently put some Final Fantasy games on my phone - just in plain old
English though - which does make me wish I was learning Japanese sometimes! Do you find
it helps your learning? As there are so many people I know that have learnt to speak
English from games, but I don't know about the opposite way around.

Thy definitely catch you out sometimes the tones that's for sure, the one that often
tricks me is the first tone...I agree, you've gotta love the word 是 lol!

   


Ha, I've heard of Salford but not the University, so I guess we're even. And yeah, the
teachers are great - all native speakers except for one of my German teachers, who is
English. I think that's helpful this year though, because we're preparing for our year
abroad and, though native speakers are always helpful teachers, she's going to know
exactly what we need to prepare. I have native German speakers for my thematic modules
and speaking classes though.

Haha, it's kind of helping. I learnt 'wieher' and 'wauwau' the other day -- which are
'neigh' and 'woof woof' respectively ;]. I think it'll teach me some basic essentials
I'm missing, like 'Die Tür ist verschlossen' -- 'the door is locked'. It makes me pay
attention to individual words because, unlike with reading a book, sometimes for tasks
I need the nitty-gritty meanings. So yeah, I'd say so. If I was learning Japanese I
would definitely have Pokemon by now ;].

Oh God, 是,在... the fourth tone is the one we always have to do over in class when we
read anything out haha!
1 person has voted this message useful



silverpolyglot
Diglot
Groupie
Canada
silverchallanges.wor
Joined 4673 days ago

42 posts - 72 votes 
Speaks: English*, Somali
Studies: French, Swedish, Mandarin

 
 Message 6 of 29
31 December 2011 at 6:35am | IP Logged 
Luna I wish you luck in your studies and on the challenge! For another potential resource
for mandarin, there is this new app for the iPod touch/iPhone called Mindsnacks Mandarin
that I really recommend. There are a lot of fun games that help you develop your ability
to rapidly recall and identify certain characters, as well as be able to identify how the
correct characters should look, develop your ability to hear the tones and know exactly
which tone it is under a certain time limit. There is also a German version, called
Mindsnacks German but without the tones and characters. All the best!

-Silver
3 persons have voted this message useful



WingSuet
Triglot
Senior Member
Sweden
Joined 5110 days ago

169 posts - 211 votes 
Speaks: Swedish*, English, German
Studies: Cantonese

 
 Message 7 of 29
31 December 2011 at 11:04am | IP Logged 
Too bad they don't have that for Cantonese, it would have been fun! At least I can use it
for Mandarin later on :) Good tip silverpolyglot!
1 person has voted this message useful



NickJS
Senior Member
United Kingdom
flickr.com/photos/sg
Joined 4718 days ago

264 posts - 334 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Russian, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 8 of 29
31 December 2011 at 6:19pm | IP Logged 
silverpolyglot wrote:
Luna I wish you luck in your studies and on the challenge! For
another potential resource
for mandarin, there is this new app for the iPod touch/iPhone called Mindsnacks
Mandarin
that I really recommend. There are a lot of fun games that help you develop your
ability
to rapidly recall and identify certain characters, as well as be able to identify how
the
correct characters should look, develop your ability to hear the tones and know exactly
which tone it is under a certain time limit. There is also a German version, called
Mindsnacks German but without the tones and characters. All the best!

-Silver


That sounds like a good app - I recently just changed over from Apple to Android myself
though, I'd had enough of iTunes lol.


1 person has voted this message useful



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