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TAC 2012 - Team Ne Nur - Throwing pebbles | ||
Tags: 6 Weeks Challenge (6WC) | Dead Languages | Norwegian | Esperanto | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | English | German | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5123 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes  Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 9 of 29 22 January 2012 at 12:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Week 3: January 15 – January 21
Total this week: 10.92 hours Total 2012: 42.43 hours As I suspected, this was a lousy week. I only studied for 10 hours and that's even though I studied languages when I should really have been studying for my tests so if I had had any self-discipline, this week would have been even worse. It mainly revolved around French and German with a bit of Esperanto. Both Englishes (of course that's a word, you stupid spell check, use you imagination) have been shamelessly neglected. I did finally look up all the words I underlined in Passing but that doesn't count as study time. Apart from that, I've already had to ward off the first attacks of wanderlust. I have a new co-worker who is from Venezuela and who says my Spanish pronunciation is very good (I suspect he said this because it was the only nice thing he could think of) so I have been tempted to dust off some of my old Spanish books. Other languages that have been on my mind a lot are Norwegian and Greek but I managed to abstain by promising myself that they will be my target languages for two of the 6 week challenges so I will get to focus solely on them for six weeks (*excitement*). Français This week: 6.58 hours 2012: 26.35 hours Podcasts! I think I'm getting a little addicted to these podcasts so it's a good thing I have hundreds of them on standby. I listened to another seven this week so that brings the total so far up to sixteen. Pretty good when you consider that I originally set the goal of two per week. For the past two weeks or so, I've been corresponding with a French girl who is learning Dutch. She seems pretty determined to learn and we have a lot of things in common so I'm actually hopeful that this exchange will last longer than the previous five billion. I was a little upset to notice how much trouble I had forming sentences once we moved beyond the basics of introducing ourselves but then I realized it's actually a good thing because it means I'm getting the opportunity to learn something instead of endlessly rehashing all the subjects that I can already write about without difficulty. I also find that I am much less uptight when it comes to making mistakes and experimenting with new structures and words, since I know she'll correct them for me so I won't ingrain any bad habits. In terms of memory, it also seems more beneficial to have my mistakes pointed out to me rather than to rigidly keep myself from making them. Deutsch This week: 3.05 hours 2012: 5.82 Despite the fact that I spent more time on German than I did last week, I don't think any of it was particularly noteworthy, as evidenced by the fact that I can't remember very clearly what I did. German is currently the only target language that I am both allowed and able to watch Disney films in so I did some of that and I also made a whole bunch of new Anki decks for the indefinite article, possessive and personal pronouns and adjectives. I will beat those declensions if it's the last thing I do! Esperanto This week: 1.22 hours 2012: 4.58 hours It looks like I did quite a lot of Esperanto this week but I only spent half an hour looking over some grammar and the rest I spent memorizing words and affixes. So far, Esperanto is the language I am spending the most time on in Anki, which I wouldn't have expected beforehand. --------------------------------------------------------- @ Sprachprofi: Thanks for the reassurance. I looked at Arekkusu's exercise after someone mentioned it in their log a while back and it sounds exactly like the self-rambling I often do in French (and English), except for the last step of working on it with a language partner. Talking to myself happens kind of instinctively for French and so far it hasn't for German so I will have to put a conscious effort into it. I think the problem is that I don't have the necessary vocabulary or I can't think of it fast enough to use in a conversation so that should be a priority for now, especially because I can usually stumble my way through the grammar, courtesy of the resemblance to Dutch. Thanks for the link and the explanations. I haven't had a chance to look at your page yet but I will as soon as these stupid tests are over. After next week, I should have a week of blissful nothingness before the next semester starts so I will send you a PM as soon as I have my German talk memorized. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5123 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 10 of 29 29 January 2012 at 5:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Week 4: January 22 – January 28
Total this week: 21.25 hours Total 2012: 63.93 hours This week's success came as a total surprise. As I predicted, I was very busy with my tests and on top of that I got sick for a couple of days so by all rights, it should have been a terrible week and instead it's the best of the year so far. I suspect part of the reason is that I got very caught up in my new English book and because I was sick, reading was pretty much the only thing I had energy for. Anyway, the past semester is almost officially over and the February 6 Week Challenge starts on Wednesday so I am getting ready for what will hopefully be a tour de force (but probably a tour de faiblesse) of language learning. Français This week: 7.47 hours 2012: 33.82 hours According to my pen pal's corrections, I apparently make very few mistakes in my writing (a few verb endings and gender agreements here and there) so the only problem now is that I don't write fast enough and rely too much on my dictionary, both of which are problems to which the only solution is to practice relentlessly, which is what I plan to do. I saw the third episode of Les Misérables this week and to be honest, I am quite eager to be done with this series. I often feel like a total moron watching native films because I'm missing so much, which is okay as long as the film is enjoyable. Unfortunately, I find the flow of this particular series very disjointed and flat, as everything happens in quick succession without giving the characters or the audience much time to reflect on it. I also don't think it's a good sign that I am disliking the vast majority of the characters because of the hammy acting of the people portraying them and all of the dialogue sounds strangely out-of-sync and distant, as if it was all added in ADR. Fortunately, I can always count on my 2 mille ans d'histoire podcasts to cheer me up. I am currently boycotting my usual supermarket which means I have to walk to the second nearest and this gives me a perfect half-hour window to listen to a podcast about every other day. I also like to listen to one as I lie in bed at night because it's so relaxing but that has proven to not be very effective because I tend to drift off and wake up the next morning without any recollection of the discussion. English This week: 6.68 hour 2012: 11.32 hours It's been a surprisingly great week for English. As mentioned above, I started on a new book, The Help, this week and I really enjoyed it so I read for nearly an hour each day. The book has a lot more depth and gravity to it than the film did and I love the three main characters, especially Aibileen. I also like how her and the other character Minny's dialect is represented because it's easy to read (I usually don't like reading vernacular because it's so hard to read when I'm not familiar with it) and it's so recognizable that I can hear their voices in my head when I read, much more so than with any of the other characters. I am currently just a few chapters away from finishing it so I'll probably start on a new book in a matter of days. Deutsch This week: 4.38 hours 2012: 10.2 German study for this week has mainly consisted of drilling cases and declensions. Now that I know the patterns in them, they're a lot easier to remember so I really feel like I'm stating to get the hang of them. Apart from memorization, my main focus is bridging the huge gap between my passive and active vocabulary by acquiring as many words as fast as possible. Listening is by far the skill in the least need of improvement but reading is also a surprisingly weak point so I've started reading stories from Kinder-und Hausmärchen by the brothers Grimm and taking words from that. Esperanto This week: 2.72 hours 2012: 7.3 hours So far I am pretty satisfied with my progress in Esperanto. Learning vocab is easy and fun so I am adding heaps of words to my Anki deck every day to speed up my learning and I am getting better at the pronunciation as well. I have found the picture dictionary over at Lernu to be a very useful tool in vocab-building because it covers all the basic subjects that sometimes slip my mind and the pictures provide a helpful context to remember the words by. I also worked through two lessons of the Kurso de Esperanto this week which is a decent pace but I would like to speed things up a little because I don't want to spend forever on the basics. Since the start of the 6WC is approaching, I'd ideally like to finish the remaining nine lessons before then so I can begin the challenge by starting on something new. Each lesson only takes me about half an hour to complete so with a little extra effort, I think it should be doable. Edited by ReneeMona on 29 January 2012 at 5:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4495 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 11 of 29 29 January 2012 at 5:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Je suis tres fièr de tes réalisations, si tu peux écrire comme tu parles/écoutes/lis en français! Bonne chance! Ça me donne, j'espère, un peu de confiance d'améliorer mon français moi-même.
I wish I could write a french letter without a dictionary and being laughed at :( 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5123 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 12 of 29 01 February 2012 at 2:49am | IP Logged | |||||
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February 6 Week Challenge Introduction
Happy start of a brand new 6 week challenge to you all! The challenge started almost three hours ago here in West Europe and I am abnormally awake for the time of day, undoubtedly due to six-weekian excitement, so I decided to write a special 6-week introduction. I probably won't write a weekly recap the way I did last year because the double writing load got a bit too demanding after a while, not to mention I hate having to write something when I am feeling utterly devoid of inspiration. However, I think an official introduction is justified, since Esperanto will be taking the centre stage for the next six weeks and I have cooked up some plans and goals that warrant exposition. Esperanto is said to be a relatively easy language (and based on my preliminary findings, I am inclined to agree), so one of my reasons for choosing it as a target language is the curiosity to see what kind of level I can reach in six weeks. I have around 15 hours of study under my belt so far and though I feel I am making rapid progress, I am still only getting the feeling of this language and am not really able to communicate yet. My main goals for now are to finish the Kurso de Esperanto (currently on lesson six out of twelve and enjoying it) while continuing to amass vocab at the rate I've been going at these past few weeks. After that I plan to explore the wealth of materials at Lernu.net and start writing on their message boards to hopefully develop some active skills as fast as possible. That's it for my plans for now. I fully expect to happily ignore them for the next five weeks and do whatever pops into my head instead, but since my overreaching plans often have a way of inspiring shame-propelled last-ditch efforts to complete them anyway, that combined with some initial enthusiasm will hopefully be enough to make this challenge an apathy-fest bookended by some meaningful exertion (congratulations on reaching the end of that sentence!). Bonŝancon al ĉiuj partprenantoj de la defio! --------------------------------------------------------- @ tarvos: Je ne crois pas que ce soit une très bonne idée de me prendre pour exemple en ce qui concerne le français. Je te rapelle que j'ai encore besoin d'un dictionnaire (ou même deux) pour me faire comprendre et je n'ai jamais vu ma correspondante face à face donc il est bien possible qu'elle se moque de moi en secret. :) Néonmoins, je suis contente de t'avoir donné un peu de confiance. Zet hem op! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5123 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 13 of 29 08 February 2012 at 2:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Week 5: January 29 – February 4
Total this week: 36.32 hours Total 2012: 100 hours Eeeeek! This week is a sad reflection on the state of my social life. It's that 6 week challenge, I tell you. It messes with my head! I made the colossal mistake of working a lot on the first day and then I got so used to seeing my name in the top three that my competitive side kicked in and suddenly I couldn't stop studying. And that stupid bot doesn't help either because it's constantly telling me things like "Good job" and "Keep going!" Unfortunately, I will in all likelihood have to resign myself to falling out of the top three because the new semester started on Monday and neglecting my studies to maintain my current position would be an extremely bad start to a new semester. That said, I am enjoying the challenge immensely, but more about that later. Also, note to self: I need to do something about Old English again! I've been scandalously neglecting it for weeks now and none of the excuses I made up make any sense so I will get to it this week! Français This week: 10.57 hours 2012: 44.38 hours By a stroke of luck (or exceptionally good googling), I have found the audio book of Le fantôme de l'opéra, narrated by a man whose voice brings back pleasant memories of listening to the Harry Potter audio books. Interestingly, this man speaks a lot slower than I am accustomed to. I have a feeling this may get on my nerves in the long run but for now, it suits me just fine. I am still collecting words from this book and when I have VLC player, the PDF and an empty word document opened in split-screen, the narrator's pace gives me just enough time to copy unknown words into Word without having to pause the audio. I am now on chapter six but I only listened to half of it because while most chapters are only twenty minutes long, this one is almost an hour long so I split it in two. English This week: 3.13 hour 2012: 14.2 hours Early in the week, I finished The Help, which turned unexpectedly heart-rending and depressing towards the end, and have been stalling on choosing a new book for several days now. I also watched a lot of television (on Youtube), because I finally discovered the fantastic English quiz show QI and spent a lot of time watching it while wondering how on earth it was possible I had not discovered this show before, since it seems to have been designed with me in mind. I haven't counted watching it as study time of course (or my study total would easily have reached 40 hours) but I needed the elaborate introduction to share the link to this episode about France, which has made me love Stephen Fry even more than I already did. Deutsch This week: 1.08 hours 2012: 11.28 I'm afraid German got a little bit lost in the wash this week. On Saturday, I suddenly realized that I had done nothing of consequence all week so I reviewed some grammar and watched a film that I got bored with after half an hour but that's it. I'm brewing up some ideas for this one, though, so stay tuned. Esperanto This week: 21.53 hours 2012: 30.9 hours Like I mentioned in the introduction, I am really enjoying the 6WC so far. It's wonderful to see how active everybody is on Twitter and as always, the bot is bringing out the positive hard-working side of my competitive nature. I finished the Kurso de Esperanto after a couple of days because I was doing three or four lessons a day, which I managed to keep up because it's a very good course. I sometimes felt there was too much grammar introduced in one lesson so it would sometimes take me over an hour to complete one but that's the only complaint I can think of. By the time I finished the twelfth lesson, I felt like I had a solid understanding of all the basic grammar and the most common word stems and affixes. I've also been collecting vocabulary at a frightening speed. In fact, I went a little Anki-nutty after a while and I've neglected my decks for the last several days because I got so sick of it. This is partly because most of the words are so close to French (and sometimes English or Dutch) that learning words is easy but also really boring. Luckily, there are other aspects of the language that are fascinating enough to keep me interested, the best example being the word-building. Words like manĝonte, maljunulino or ekami can make me squeal with linguistic delight. Now that I've finished the course, I'm a little bit lost on what to do next. Reading is still a struggle and I'm also finding it hard to find interesting reading material for beginners so I'm basically still dallying around with the courses and exercises on Lernu. I also think I overworked myself a little bit so that combined with school starting back up means that I haven't done much in the last few days. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6258 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 14 of 29 08 February 2012 at 7:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
Awesome! Way to go!
The German "Kostenloser Esperanto Kurs" could help you improve your vocabulary. http://www.esperanto.de/sprache/kurse/kek/utf8/lec_01.html Alternatively, try the "Intense Esperanto" app for iPhone or Android. For some easier reading, have you had a look at Lernu's "Library" section? You can click on any word there in order to see its translation, which makes things a bit easier. Also, there are some easy texts with audio at http://facila.org and at http://peranto.posterous.com/. "The Little Prince" is fairly easy reading and you can find it (along with an audiobook) at http://www.elerno.cn/audio/auskultado.htm . To get into original Esperanto literature, try one of Claude Piron's detective novels that were specifically written with a limited vocabulary with beginners in mind. Mail- order them from UEA (based in Rotterdam, you could even visit their bookstore) or the Flandra Esperanto Ligo. The first book I read in Esperanto was "Fajron sentas mi interne", which is less easy than Piron's works, but only in that it contains more affixed words. Find it online at http://esperanto.net/literaturo/roman/libr/fajronsentas.pdf or mail-order it as well. For "Fajron sentas mi interne", be sure to skip the Antaŭparolo because it gives away too much of the story. Also have a look at my list of the most important online resources for Esperanto speakers: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=29046&PN=1 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5122 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 15 of 29 08 February 2012 at 8:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Social life - what social life? I am invited to a party tomorrow, and I am planning on faking a headache so I can stay home and do some Russian, and watch more episodes of Bones with the kids. We are serious about the 6WC right :-)
2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5930 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 16 of 29 09 February 2012 at 2:32am | IP Logged | |||||
Or you could just enter into an intense study regimen whereby you do an hour or two before dinner, and then begin again around midnight and study until you realize that you have to get up for school in four hours. That's my strategy lately. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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