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TAC 2013 Team Żubr German and Polish Log | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4367 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 1 of 74 09 December 2012 at 5:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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After being an observer for awhile, I've finally decided to create an account. This will be my first entry on this forum as well as in this log. My goal is to work on two languages throughout 2013.
German Currently if I were to assess myself, I would say I'm around a B2. I can read a newspaper or a forum post without any real problems (looking up words more to just expand vocabulary, not because I need it to understand what I just read). I can understand interviews,conversations, and arias, and I can respond pretty well. My weaknesses are definitely active production, particularly in speaking, because I know very few German speakers here. My goals for 2013 are a work in progress. Currently, I am hoping to listen to 200 hours of audio, and find one opportunity per month to speak. My particular speaking goals are to be able to speak confidently and with the correct vocabulary in my specific fields (law and music). Ideally, I would like to speak in great detail (not sure how that will work for law yet considering that is a language in and of itself sometimes!). Polish I am a VERY new beginner in this language. I definitely underestimated how useful cognates are, and how frustrating it could be when learning a language without many. I am working my way through Dr. Oscar Swan's "First Year Polish" and am finding that it works pretty well with my learning style. I'm a fairly analytical person, so just listening I've found doesn't help me feel like I'm remembering and progressing (but it CERTAINLY helps with the pronunciation). At the moment, I am having a difficult time because I understand cases and endings, but I need words. Because I haven't actively needed to study and memorize vocabulary for awhile, I didn't want to write vocab lists, but I think I might have to for the time being. For 2013, I would like to finish my beginner book, and be able to have basic conversations on a variety of subjects. I would really like to be around a B1 level. In future entries, I hope to write in German and Polish as well. Edited by Fuenf_Katzen on 02 January 2013 at 6:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6901 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 2 of 74 09 December 2012 at 5:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Welcome to the forum!
I understand perfectly well your problem with the lack of cognates. I think it's the main reason that's holding me back, not allowing to go beyond Romance/Germanic/Slavic languages, apart from dabbling with a couple of languages. I hope to overcome it. From my little experience with languages that don't have many cognates, I find two methods helpful: simply memorizing vocabulary (SRS software is very useful here) and coming up with all kinds of crazy associations, based on the spelling or pronunciation of the words you want to remember. For Arabic, I even made a list of words and wrote all my crazy associations there: it did help a lot. Viel Erfolg i powodzenia! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 6103 days ago 707 posts - 1220 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 3 of 74 13 December 2012 at 6:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Very glad to meet another Polish learner!
As Julie pointed out, SRS (e.g Anki) is good, and I use it a lot. Not just for words, but for expressions, idioms and grammar. Polish is the first language that I've seriously attempted to learn - a daunting introduction! It sounds like you've made a good start already. I'm looking forward to seeing your journey unfold. Pozdrawiam! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4367 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 4 of 74 16 December 2012 at 9:19pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm going to try and make my update a regular Sunday occurrence. It's easiest for me to keep track if I go on a set schedule. Now, for my progress this week:
Polish: Finished Lesson 10 and am just about to finish Lesson 11 of Dr. Swan's "First Year Polish." After some searching, I found Chung's excellent Polish Profile with a link to the audio recordings for this text. The recordings are EXTREMELY helpful to me. The exercises are read slowly at first, then repeated at a more normal speed. This is why you start listening first...I realized I was pronouncing several vowels incorrectly, but hopefully I'm not far along enough where it will be a real problem. Maybe my hiatus was a good thing! I also figured out there really is a difference between cz/ci, sz/si, etc. I certainly have trouble doing it myself, but at least I can hear the difference. As far as grammar, I'm up to three cases (nominative, instrumental, accusative) which so far aren't giving me any real problems as far as adjective endings. Accusative noun endings are a little harder. Not used as a study method, but I listened to Gorecki's "Sorrowful Songs" again. It's a beautiful piece of music, and I'm somewhat using it as motivation to learn this expressive language. German: I had 8 hours of listening, which is more than my goal of 6 hours per week. Although it was pretty easy, I think I want to keep it at 6 hours for now just because I don't think I "need" 8 hours each week. I'm finding that this is quite helpful in distinguishing the different reductions in speech. I started reading Grimm's Fairy Tales. Quite an experience, because there are slightly uncommon language forms used (from what I'm used to seeing). I think it will help my vocabulary though. I also think by reading an older style, it will open up possibilities for my reading. Believe it or not, this actually is the first time I've read the stories; I grew up with the Disney versions! I wasn't sure if I wanted to do the TAC for 2013, so I didn't put that in my title, but if I'm able to change it to reflect my participation, I'll do so. I'm quite computer challenged sometimes! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5169 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 5 of 74 16 December 2012 at 11:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
Hi, Fuenf_Katzen! I'm looking forward to reading your log this year - I'm glad you decided to join Team Żubr!
This was the hardest part of Polish pronunciation for me, especially ż/zi. I still get it wrong some of the time when I'm talking quickly; although I can make the isolated sounds, it's harder when I'm putting them in a sentence. But being able to identify the different sounds is a great start! If you practice I'm sure you will be able to pronounce them soon.
I am computer-challenged most of the time, but I figured out how to change the titles of logs after a few years on the forum. You do it by editing the first post. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4367 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 6 of 74 17 December 2012 at 9:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
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THANK YOU, Amerykanka for showing me how to edit the title!
Last night, I watched "Faustina" in Polish with English subtitles. It's about St. Faustina Kowalska, who was canonized in the early nineties. Very beautifully done! It was 75 minutes in length, so not too long. The good part was that with reading the subtitles, I could hear the vocabulary that I already knew. I don't know that I would have caught it without subtitles though, as full speed Polish is pretty fast-paced. Of course, a good percentage of the vocabulary was very upper-level. I don't think I will need to know words like "enthroned" or "entreat" anytime soon! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4367 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 7 of 74 23 December 2012 at 8:46pm | IP Logged | |||||
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This was a pretty productive week, considering I've been in and out of rehearsals for Christmas.
German: 8 hours of listening. I also did a lot of reading comprehension by moving away from my standard Deutsche Welle and Spiegel sources. Instead, I tried to do really focus on making my Internet searches all in German this week. I looked up information on bedrest during pregnancy, non-immigrant Visas, and illnesses in cats. I was surprised how much I actually understood. This also provided great vocab! Polish: I didn't finish Lesson 12. But I did learn numbers, and how to tell time. I think this is always the hardest part of a language; learning how to tell time correctly. I'm not entirely sure why it was placed 12 chapters in--that seems a little late. But maybe it would go faster if I were actually using it in a class, like it was intended. On the days when I didn't do the Lessons, I read short stories online. They were really basic, and obviously meant for beginners, but it is a good way to review case endings and get some new vocabulary. I'm feeling a little discouraged just because it seems as though it's taking a long time just to hit a point where I can be independent and not have to really think about what to say. I know that it will come, but it sure feels like it takes a long time when you're at the beginning! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4367 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 8 of 74 30 December 2012 at 6:18pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Considering the Christmas festivities and a lot of rehearsals and performances taking place, I actually had a fairly productive week.
German I managed to get 7 1/2 hours of listening this week. I also did a lot of detailed reading. I continued going back over sentences to make sure I really understand the prepositions and cases used. That is something that's very easy to skip over when reading, because you don't really "need" it when just reading, but you definitely need it when speaking. I think once a week I should spend time where I very slowly and carefully read. Polish I finished Lesson 12 and have started with Lesson 13. I think I've been moving through the lessons a little faster than I should, because I will forget vocabulary from one to the next. What I did when I started Lesson 13 is listen to the recording first, and try to write it out as a dictation. I think this will be very helpful with listening comprehension, because right now I will miss words depending on which of the soft or hard sounds are used. I also decided to start writing out sentences using the verbs I've learned, in addition to the exercises in the book. I think sometimes when I go through the exercises I just "go through the motions" and I don't take time to think about what I'm writing. I want to see if by writing out my own examples, if I remember more easily. I am going to try and write my first public writing in Polish. This is VERY hard on my ego! I tend to be a perfectionist, and like I said last week, I've been a little discouraged that I've come so far in German and see how far I have to go in Polish. I was hesitant to put this here because in general I think for me it's better to refrain from a lot of active use until I've learned enough of the language. But because there are so many rules and exceptions to Polish, I think I need to use it somewhat so that I can keep up my motivation. I also know that I need feedback. Because I'm at such a beginner level, it's very simple and not necessarily eloquent, but here it goes! Krystyna jest męzatką Paweł. Oni mają cztery dzieci. Mają dwie córki i dwa synowie. Ich córki mają na imię Magda i Maria. Ich synowie mają na imię Stefan i Piotr. Krystyna i Paweł pracują. Krystyna jest dziennikarką i Paweł jest adwokatem. Ich dzieci są jeszcze studentami. Rodzina mają też cztery koty. Edited by Fuenf_Katzen on 30 December 2012 at 8:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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