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TAC 2013 Polish - Team Żubr

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Fuenf_Katzen
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
notjustajd.wordpress
Joined 4180 days ago

337 posts - 476 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans

 
 Message 145 of 177
17 October 2013 at 6:42pm | IP Logged 
Still alive, just too lazy to look back through several pages to update my log/team log (I know, bad bison!) There definitely was a noticeable period where I had a big increase in my comprehension/output. That has more or less backed off and I'm mostly staying at the same level. I doubt I'll meet my B1 goal for 2013, but I'm starting to think that was an incredibly ambitious goal in the first place! I've had to do a lot of work to reach this level, and even then, there are still noticeable gaps--it feels like I've worked twice as hard as I needed to with German (and if the FSI numbers are accurate, that's really not an exaggeration).
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Bakunin
Diglot
Senior Member
Switzerland
outerkhmer.blogspot.
Joined 4941 days ago

531 posts - 1126 votes 
Speaks: German*, Thai
Studies: Khmer

 
 Message 146 of 177
18 October 2013 at 11:26am | IP Logged 
Hi fellow bisons, I'm still alive but wrapping up my TAC 2013 participation... cross-posting from my log:

I've just hit the 1000 hour mark (for Thai) this morning! I've also achieved the other goals I set for Thai as well as Polish, so TAC 2013 is a success. I've been thinking of taking a break from HTLAL and journaling my language activities for some time now, and that's what I'll be doing. This post will wrap up TAC 2013 as far as I'm concerned. I enjoyed the challenge a lot, and it certainly helped to push me to a very regular study regimen… but life has a lot more to offer than structured language learning. I'm not going to give up on language learning, not at all, but I'll take a break from measuring time and progress and just pursue whatever language-related activity I fancy instead of sticking to a regimen.

Here's my wrap-up for Thai:
Listening:
Listening has been one of my main activities this past year, a total of 317 hours, 300 of which were spent on listening to the radio and podcasts, the rest on watching TV. It's hard for me to assess whether and how I've improved over the year.

Reading:
I've read a total of 369 hours during this year so far, 2/3 of which was spent on novels and 1/3 on intensive reading using FLTR. I've read something like 28 novels of various genres, mostly books for young readers but a few adult crime novels as well, and worked through another 14 school books; a total of 6500 pages. I'm much more comfortable reading any kind of text now than I was at the beginning of the year, and the unknown words per page ratio has been steadily going down. My reading speed has slightly improved but is still way below of what I achieve in languages using latin characters (English, French, even Polish).

Speaking:
Speaking totals 123 hours, split about half-half between phone calls including tutoring, and live conversations either here or in Thailand. My speaking performance is very random, sometimes I'm excited about how well I can hold a conversation, and at other times I'm exasperated about not being able to express the simplest thing. But I've come a long way since the beginning of the year.

Writing:
42 hours, 37 of which I spent on chatting and emails, and 5 on lang-8. My spelling has improved massively over the year, mainly due to focused spelling drills using Anki.

Other:
I've spent 149 hours on 'other activities', 121 of which were typing (copying) school books. That's one activity I really enjoy and certainly will continue to do. I have written regularly about how useful I find it to work with school books, so I don't have to repeat it now. It's certainly the most effective way for me to acquire vocabulary and cultural knowledge in a systematic fashion. The remaining time was spent on Anki and some Scriptorum-ing.

I had two side goals, one relating to the royal register and the other to basic Buddhist terminology. I've read many stories and a few news items involving royalty and think I know the most important terms by now. Since Buddhism is a school subject, I've had ample exposure to Buddhist terminology. I recognize many words, but recall, let alone spelling, is a bit harder. Overall, I'd say I passed those two goals as well.

Here's my wrap-up for Polish:
My goals were modest: 120 hours of listening and reading combined, and 3 books. I'm currently at 135 hours, split about half-half between those two activities. I've finished 7 novels with about 1250 pages. All goals passed. My listening comprehension has improved a lot, but I mainly consume news and discussions about current events. I suck at everything else, in particular tourist-related stuff. Reading has become easier as well and is usually good fun (if I can make the time…). I've bought heaps of books I'm keen to read, and I've got plans for a few more bicycle trips to Poland over the next years as well.

I wish my fellow TAC-ies all the best for the remainder of the challenge, and thanks to everybody who followed my log!
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Mooby
Senior Member
Scotland
Joined 5916 days ago

707 posts - 1219 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Polish

 
 Message 147 of 177
18 October 2013 at 12:11pm | IP Logged 
Hi Bakunin, I'll be sad to see you go, please drop by occasionally and tell us what's happening.
Well done on all the work you've put in, I've enjoyed following your progress. Thanks also for your responses, comments and support.
And finally.....congratulations on hitting the 1000 hour mark - you beat me to it by 59 minutes :)

Powodzenia.
1 person has voted this message useful



Chung
Diglot
Senior Member
Joined 6967 days ago

4228 posts - 8259 votes 
20 sounds
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 148 of 177
23 October 2013 at 4:56am | IP Logged 
Update for Polish
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Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4982 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 149 of 177
01 November 2013 at 1:55am | IP Logged 
Hi guys! I'm glad to see that everything is going well.

I am still alive - just extremely busy. But I still hope to finish the year strongly!


1 person has voted this message useful



Chung
Diglot
Senior Member
Joined 6967 days ago

4228 posts - 8259 votes 
20 sounds
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 150 of 177
10 November 2013 at 9:16pm | IP Logged 
Update for Polish
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Mooby
Senior Member
Scotland
Joined 5916 days ago

707 posts - 1219 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Polish

 
 Message 151 of 177
28 November 2013 at 10:39am | IP Logged 
Well, we're drawing to the end of TAC 2013, and next year's TAC is already being tentatively discussed here.
If it's not too early to draw conclusions I'd say that our team has struggled especially since Autumn. But for those that have persisted, I'd like to give a massive thank-you for your company on the way, namely:

Amerykanka - always enthusiastic and leaving supportive comments on other members' logs - much appreciated.
Bakunin - a later arrival, but encouraged me personally with his experience in studying and reading.
Chung - added the gravitas, insight and the 'tech support' to our team. Plus some great posts (and cartoons)!
Feunf_katzen - another breath of fresh air, supportive and brave (enough to record her speech).

That leaves 10 bison unaccounted for. That's too many lost bison to call it a great team success. However, without the creation of the team, perhaps some of the active members might never have made contact with eachother. I might never have met Bakunin for example. So for this I'm glad that Team Żubr rumbled on. What 2014 holds is up in the air, but I'll still be hacking my way through Polish grammar and watching Samo Życie no doubt. Whether I do this individually or as part of a team I'm not sure yet.

As we come to the end of this year, I'll think about my study plans and either post them here or in my log. It would be nice to hear from everyone over the next month. Your feedback on the team, your own log(s). What are you planning? How did this year go?




Edited by Mooby on 28 November 2013 at 10:41am

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Mooby
Senior Member
Scotland
Joined 5916 days ago

707 posts - 1219 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Polish

 
 Message 152 of 177
28 November 2013 at 10:56am | IP Logged 
Lest it be ommitted, I have to say learning Polish has been great!
Exasperating, mind-bending, tongue-twisting undoubtedly, but worth it.
If we bison share in this experience, albeit to different degrees and from different angles, then we have a commonality. From which I draw a lot of comfort and encouragement. My thanks again :)


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