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TAC 2013 Team PAX | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5332 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes  Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 185 of 204 07 December 2013 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Even though I'm just vaguely affiliated with Team PAX, and not an actual member, here's my answer. :-)
Reading: I saw two big jumps in reading speed, one this February (~1,100 pages in 17 days) and one this fall (5 books in a month). Since then, I've been turning my ereader highlights into Anki cards, and it's been paying off far better than I would have expected—my vocabulary has gotten noticeably better in the past month, even though I started from something like 99.5% comprehension of adult books. Listening: Big improvements in February also (when I watched 50 or 60 hours of TV in a month), and continued smaller improvements since. Every once in a while, in a familiar series, I'll have better than 98% listening comprehension. But if it's unfamiliar material or I'm not really warmed up, I may miss a lot more. Movies aimed at French adults are still very much hit or miss. Kid's movies are generally doable. Writing: This is the easiest skill for me to build up when needed, so I've been neglecting it except for practical purposes. Speaking: This is the most disappointing skill for me this year. It continues to be far too variable, depending on fatigue, the topic and the activation of my French. The upper end of my range has definitely gotten better—I was especially pleased with my latest trip to Montreal—but I want a lot more consistency. My long-run goal here is to do consulting work for French-speaking clients, which will require the ability to speak fast and convincingly. Overall, it's been a great year. I got to read and watch tons of cool stuff in French, and it hardly ever seemed like work. Edited by emk on 07 December 2013 at 9:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5009 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 186 of 204 07 December 2013 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thaks for the reminder, Kanewai; I've just posted an update on my log. Year-end summary to come
later - perhaps around Christmas? (I'm going away for a fotnight's holiday before then.) I'd also be interested in joining any TAC 2014 team which is focussing on French. Haven't yet decided on other languages - it depends on my travel plans - but if I do add any others, I'll either just study them as an an individual, or join the other-language teams separately. Edited by songlines on 07 December 2013 at 9:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4465 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 187 of 204 08 December 2013 at 1:41am | IP Logged | ||
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I would be glad to head up a French team for TAC 2014, if no one else is jumping at the chance.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5195 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 188 of 204 08 December 2013 at 2:29am | IP Logged | ||
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I would love to join a French team. And a Spanish team. :)
I suggested that over in the 2014 TAC thread (one team for French, and another for Spanish), but apparently Serpent is the boss, and she doesn't like my idea. LOL I would rather have teams divided by language, then be on two or three different teams, than be on a mixed team again. Just my two cents of course, but I think when we are spread over 5-6 languages (when you count Catalan and Latin), people just start to pick and choose which part of the team they will follow, and then the whole "team" idea is a bit lost. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6397 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 189 of 204 08 December 2013 at 3:17am | IP Logged | ||
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LOL. I like your idea, it's just that we shouldn't overestimate the amount of Spanish learners. And team STARt will save you from too many beginners, heh. In theory Team Iberia is Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, Galician and Papiamento, but realistically it will be mostly Spanish, and maybe one of the rest in addition to Spanish for some members. And Expugnator with only Papiamento (officially), although he probably understands Spanish better than many people who are actually learning it :D
It would also have helped to voice your idea much earlier. I just really don't think it's possible for these two teams to co-exist. There may or may not be one more option for Spanish learners, in addition to Team STARt and Team Iberia, but if it's Spanish only it would need to accept all learners. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6397 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 190 of 204 08 December 2013 at 3:20am | IP Logged | ||
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I never said anything about French, btw. This wouldn't kill any existing team as far as I can tell :)
also, from the signup thread:
Edited by Serpent on 08 December 2013 at 3:29am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5007 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 191 of 204 09 December 2013 at 12:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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My progress this year... I'll write a proper update in my log nearer the end of the year, but quick summary version:
French: ups and downs as usual, but some significant improvement overall. My accent's improving and my speech is fluent in a good day. I decided to pretty much give up on the language because of a lack of decent speaking opportunities and too many bad experiences with the French, then some of these opportunities magically appeared straight afterwards, so I'm back into it for the moment. But importantly, I've come to just accept the fact that the level I'd ideally like to reach (C1ish) probably just isn't realistic given my situation. Which perhaps sounds a bit negative, but it's a good thing to know where you stand and not waste your energy. Italian: I've made great progress, which is especially due to making friends with some Italian people and hanging out with them a lot in Spring and Summer. And I had a fun two week trip in Italy that gave me a good idea of where my level is and what I need to work on. I think I'm slowly starting to reach being-taken-seriously-by-natives level, and am probably on the low end of B2 now. EDIT: And yes, I'd be interested in an Italian team. It looks like joining multiple teams is going to be the way next year. Edited by garyb on 09 December 2013 at 12:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5191 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 192 of 204 09 December 2013 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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*Checks first page to see if I am actually part of this team and sees that I am!*
So I had some ups and downs which have mostly come with the difficulty in juggling all my language projects. I'm no longer in France :( so that obviously makes continuing my progress in French harder. I also had to put language learning on the back burner for a little while to work on other things (and so I wasn't active on the forum for a few months). For a while when I had a lot of free time at work I was making a lot of use of my Kindle to catch up on French literature and acquire more vocabulary. With the help of emk's app that process ought to become much more streamlined and I can actually work on the stuff I've highlighted. I've done some work with Spanish which has had ups and downs. I obviously have a big head start but it's easy to take that for granted. I did little spurts where I concentrated on Spanish and started to surprise myself with how well I could write (insanely easier than in French) and, with practice, how well I can manage to speak. But I haven't given Spanish enough continuous time to really get solidified so I feel like I end up losing a lot of the gains I make. Once I'm done with my special Irish period (which I decided to go ahead and extend from 3 to 6 months - this language needs it!) I'll spend a good 3 months at least focusing on Spanish. My continued study of French lacks a lot of focus. I really ought to be eliminating all or most of my English from my day if I want to make further strides while also studying other languages. And I should be looking at little areas to focus on and to refine to add more active study to get me "over the hump" at the advanced level. I'd like to work on accent reduction as well, but not sure if it's worth the time it takes. I'm shooting for the DALF sometime this year. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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