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Tarvos - TAC 2015 Pushkin/Scan

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
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tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4667 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 713 of 1511
29 May 2013 at 4:33pm | IP Logged 
On Role Models in Polyglottery

The past couple months I have intensively read the websites, logs, and ramblings of
various famous (and less famous polyglots). What I have definitely found is that all of
those people who have gone on to become great polyglots had success because they were
a) tenacious (they didn't give up) and b) they had methods or ways of working that
worked for them. However my role models in polyglottery are not Richard and Luca (who
seem to speak the most impressively, but whose blogs or ramblings I enjoy less than
that of some others). This is not to detract from their accomplishents, which are huge,
just that in my personal style there are other polyglots whose ramblings and methods I
have read (about) and that align more with my personal goals.

The polylgots whom I resemble the most share interests with me, usually the pursuit of
knowledge in general (not necessarily linguistic knowledge but also cultural and
scientific), and because my interests outside of language include science, travel and
sports (in particularly football/soccer) it is exactly those sources where I crossover
with the people "I look up to" (which only means that I like the way they work, they
are not holy men on a pedestal". But despite the fact I am a curious individual (like
wee Alice), I do adapt and use techniques from other people. And this is good - you
must experiment to find your groove, but I have found that even those polyglots I
extensively borrow from in my techniques (Benny, Iversen, Arguelles, Luca, Rawlings)
also produce methods that work less efficiently for me. And this is all right, because
my mixing and matching is necessary to suit my needs.

The two biggest influences are Benny and Iversen, and this is because I feel their
ideas often cross over with mine, and thus I will borrow from them. I have adapted
Iversen's use of wordlists for example (although for languages more removed from my
base I have come to prefer Anki, or not using any methodology at all) to my own
methodology. I have a grammatical chart of Romanian verbs "yellow sheet" on my
whiteboard, pinned, so that I remember the conjugations of verbs (I am going to
complete it with the future and the imperfective later today). These grammatical charts
are useful because they show that you have yourself internalised the structure of (that
part) of the language. For example, I should actually produce some more of these
grammatical charts for Romanian and Hebrew in order to aid my learning, especially in
Hebrew where I should chart the binyanim for verbs (the adjective declension is very
regular). What I especially like is that it promotes structure, without forcing this
structure from some external source that is supposed to be the truth proclaimed from
some higher pedestal; in language learning, it is important that your grammar
functions, not how it got to functioning. As long as your internal system leads to
solid output then it is a good system (engineering mentality).

Benny manifests himself in attitude, in a positive mentality, in not giving up when
things get rough, in trying to talk, in finding value in little things that show you
are making progress even when the world conspires against you. It isn't about speed or
snake-oil promises, but the ability to remain courageous and upbeat when things go your
way, and if you smell problems, to work on then and optimize your language learning
through resources (that are everywhere).

And finally I enjoy the advice of Arguelles and Luca who extensively use bilingual
readers and translations, which are immensely helpful and useful in the beginning stage
of a language. They can serve as the scaffolds for your learning, and I take immense
pleasure in using my L2s as the scaffolds for learning; I have learned more about
French through using French material, and English as an L2 is an only too common
reference point for me.

But that is what role models do. They serve as examples and guidelines for how you
should be using your language, and the ones I try to steal from are the ones that have
goals similar to mine, behaviour similar to mine, and ideas that correspond to mine.
And I think you can tell from the writings in my log how I have adapted their ideas
into useful materials to study with on my own.

Compared to some polyglots on this forum, I play in a minor league. I don't speak 10
languages at levels of near-native fluency; I only claim that there are six which I
could live through or get by in without needing extensive recourse to an aid from
another language. Some of these are filled with lacunae; others are honed and sharpened
battle weapons; and some weapons I've been having fun with are a little blunt but I
take immense enjoyment in improving. And some are just specialist material that I enjoy
getting acquainted with, even though they are not common or necessary.

But I hope that the people who read this log also find some inspiration of their own
here, even though I am not one of the "big guns" or "big names" in polyglottery. I'm
just a Dutch guy who turned a hobby into an obsession and observed a few good results.
8 persons have voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4667 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 714 of 1511
30 May 2013 at 7:49pm | IP Logged 
Русский

Сегодня занялся русским языком на уроке. Мы с преподавательницей обсуждили мою работу
(т.е., я работаю репетитором голландского и английского языка). Появились ошибки со
связи со смысловом ударением. Т.е., часто, на фразе, ударение падает на другом слоге,
чем я ожидал. Мы поработали над обжими выражениами, которые обычно пользуются на
разговорном языке.

Кроме того, обсуждили сериа из сериала Светофор (очень смешной сериал) и несколько
переводов с английского на русском языке. На следующем уроке, мы сконцентрируем на
соционику (я - габен). Я уже сделал тест, и это было заметно, что прогресс был на
последнем году - было легче мне принять тесть, чем раньше (у меня подруга предложил
заниматься тестом, и я без понятия был.)

На этой неделе дошла книга, написана Шолоховом. В книге есть маленький список слов с
голландскими переводами русских слов. Т.е., если я не пойму, о том книге, просто нужно
проверить слова в конце книги.

Книга называется Судьба Человека.

עברית
גם למדתי עברית. סיימתי חמשה שיעורים בספר אסימיל.

Română

Am studiat doi lecții din Assimil, și recapitulare, și note.

Íslensku

En ég er nu að læra íslensku. Það er mjög gaman!

Edited by tarvos on 30 May 2013 at 7:53pm

1 person has voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4667 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 715 of 1511
03 June 2013 at 8:40am | IP Logged 
I was planning to do much more the past days, but I haven't managed to because I went
away for the weekend and came back yesterday afternoon in such a state of fatigue and
chagrin that it led to me being able to do much useful. But in the past couple days I
have managed to study some languages after all. And since it is now June, and I have
completed all of my May goals and even one or two of my June goals already, here's what
I've done and what I am going to do:

since Thursday, I have completed

- one unit of the Routledge course (up to lesson 65 now)
- two units of Assimil l'Hébreu sans peine (up to lesson 41 now)
- two units of Assimil le Roumain sans peine (up to lesson 65/16 now)
- completed Spieltrieb
- read Métaphysique des tubes
- applied for my Russian visa
- completed unit 3 of Colloquial Icelandic
- read chapter 1 of "Harry Potter ha Maen ar Furien".
- Romanian and Icelandic Anki reviews.

So what I have upcoming for the following months is this:

Deutsch/Français

Nothing. I can speak these two without problems still, read them, nothing going on. I
just needed some maintenance in the case of German and I've now had it. I might produce
one or two grammatical sheets for German though.

Svenska

It is time to do something with my Swedish again soon, so either this month or after
Russia I will. Probably I will use SVTPlay and focus on the spoken language here, not
the written one.

Russian

Preparation for Russia trip. Continue my weekly iTalki lessons, and when in Russia,
read "The fate of man".

Breton

My main reading for the coming weeks or months will be Harry Potter ha Maen ar Furien.
I am reading it extensively actually, which is only possible because I have read the
book before. I probably should study some of the sentences in-depth for new vocabulary.

Hebrew

I have got another tutoring lesson coming up this Sunday. I have been spending a bit of
time on the future tense, so now I know all the prefixes/suffixes for it; I just don't
really know the vowel structures... but before I leave for Russia, I hope to finish the
Routledge Course. I have three more units to go, more or less, so I could achieve it.
If I don't, I should be at unit 8 somewhere. And since I am almost halfway with the
Assimil's passive wave that is good news too. I think getting able to lesson 60 or so
before I leave for Russia is possible. Maybe a bit more.

Romanian

My 6WC focus, officially, but that turned into a fiasco because Hebrew ended up
consuming more time. I want to get to somewhere close to a finished passive wave before
I leave for Russia (so that I can focus on doing the active wave when I get back).
Today I'll hopefully spend some time on Romanian.

Icelandic

I booked a trial tutoring session for Icelandic just to see how I do with it. I also
intend to complete a few more units before I go, but here I am in no rush. You see,
after I have completed a lot of the textbooks, I will turn to Icelandic intensively
after Russia. Once Romanian has been reduced to a passive wave and there is no
Routledge course to cover, it means my focus can be squarely on polishing up through
L'Hébreu sans peine, and studying Icelandic for the most part.

Latin

You didn't seriously think I had any goals for this one, did you?

Everything Else is Being Studied, so Why can't I?

Okay. I have promised myself not to study anything else before Russia and I won't. But
once I free up some time thanks to some huge pressure of time from Routledge and
Assimil getting out of the way (leaving two textbooks behind), I can start thinking
about something new to insert.

There are several options here. The ones for which I have gathered basic textbooks and
audio are:

Serbo-Croatian,
Swahili,
Malagasy,

and there is one other language for which I intend to buy materials and that is
Mandarin Chinese.

However even though I have Swahili materials that one isn't envisioned as a study
object for a good while. I might obtain materials for Portuguese, but if I do, this
would be a sideproject far into the future, given that I find Romance languages
relatively uninteresting. I have already studied the ones I want to (French, Romanian
and Latin) and the only other one that I really want to pay some attention to is
Portuguese (for now) so this might occur in the future.

Chinese is a language I want to focus on 100% when I get there, no other textbooks or
anything bothering me. My guess is thus that I will not directly dive into Mandarin
upon my return.

This leaves me with Serbo-Croatian and Malagasy. My preference at this point is for
Serbo-Croatian, so my guess is that once I have completed Romanian AND Hebrew (and I
will have advanced somewhat in Icelandic) that my next textbook will be FSI Serbo-
Croatian.

Edited by tarvos on 03 June 2013 at 8:42am

2 persons have voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4667 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 716 of 1511
04 June 2013 at 3:36pm | IP Logged 
I did give into temptation and downloaded ChinesePod 101 for Android. But I haven't used
it yet - it's just something I want to keep for later. And it's of course gra-tis.

Further than that I have read lots of Breton and studied some Romanian today. And been
busy with other things. Which I will be for the coming days, except for that Wednesday
train ride. In which I hope to spend lots of time on Hebrew.
1 person has voted this message useful



Josquin
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4804 days ago

2266 posts - 3992 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish
Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian

 
 Message 717 of 1511
05 June 2013 at 4:46pm | IP Logged 
You seem to be making great progress with your languages. Congrats! My learning load is reduced at the moment due to stress at work, but I'll be back soon.

Btw, if you'd like me to give you corrections for your German writing, please let me know.
1 person has voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4667 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 718 of 1511
05 June 2013 at 8:00pm | IP Logged 
Passt schon, ich habe nichts dagegen :)



Edited by tarvos on 05 June 2013 at 8:01pm

1 person has voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4667 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 719 of 1511
05 June 2013 at 9:41pm | IP Logged 
הבדיחות של אסימיל

בסופר אסימיל יש הבדיחה הזאת:

רב ונהג אוטונוס מתו באותו יום.
שתי נשמות הגיעו לדלת גן עדו.
נשמת הנהג נכנסה לגן עדן.
נשמת הרב אמרה:
"אני לא מוינה. הנהג הזה לא היה דתי. אני לימדתי תלמוד כל יום."
המלאך אמר:
"נכון מאוד. גם את תכנסי לגן עדן, אבל מחר."
.למה?", שאלה נשמת הרב     
כאשר הרב לימד תלמוד, כל התלמידים ישנו."
כאשר הנהג נהג באוטובוס, כל הנעסים התפללו".

This is literally a joke in my Assimil. They are daring!

I covered 5 lessons of Assimil l'Hébreu today, and have listend to a piano version of
Aviv Geffen's Sof Ha'olam on repeat. It's beautiful.

Edited by tarvos on 06 June 2013 at 8:24am

1 person has voted this message useful



zecchino1991
Senior Member
United States
facebook.com/amyybur
Joined 5218 days ago

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

 
 Message 720 of 1511
06 June 2013 at 2:32am | IP Logged 
חחח מצחיק!

תיקון קטן:
*יש את הבדיחה הזאת

:)

Edit: Wait, why is he talking in the feminine?

Edited by zecchino1991 on 06 June 2013 at 2:36am



1 person has voted this message useful



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