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Kerrie TAC 2015 Team Caesar SP BrPT ASL | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5345 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes  Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 145 of 246 28 December 2013 at 7:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi Kerrie!
I'm just reading through a few of my TAC teammates' logs to start to familiarize with old and new friends and their plans for next year. And while I am at it, I'm also dropping by here to wish you the very best for 2014. Let's hope it's a glorious year not just for learning languages but in all aspects of our lives. Auguroni per il nuovo anno, Emme 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tastyonions Triglot Senior Member United States goo.gl/UIdChYRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4663 days ago 1044 posts - 1823 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 146 of 246 28 December 2013 at 8:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
http://www.larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais-anglais 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4142 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 147 of 246 29 December 2013 at 1:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
Wow, those are some impressive goals! We have similar goals for Spanish (although I'd also like to write 100 short texts), and I'm also starting Tagalog to the tune of 5 words a day on memrise. I'm surprised at how fun and addictive memrise is! Of course, it might also be the "beginner's high" that I'm experiencing. Anyway, thanks again for getting us organized for team Lobo, and I look forward to following your log! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5393 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 148 of 246 01 January 2014 at 9:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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@kraemder I think I'm going to start out with four Korean words per day for the first two months, then bump it up to six in March or April. I'm going to practice writing out the words multiple times, as well. Hopefully this will get me more comfortable with the alphabet. I can stumble through it, but I want to be more fluid. @Emme Thanks. I hope it turns out to be a great year for all of us! @tastyonions That is exactly what I was looking for, thanks! I have to go look at the French thread resources again when I have time. At the moment, I'm going to focus on reading. I think Harry Potter is going to be my best friend again, only this year it will be en français. :) @Stelle I'm looking forward to watching your progress, too. 2014 is going to be a good year. :) As far as my Spanish goals, it's very doable. I watch some TV in Spanish already. (Oh, why does Águila Roja have to be on hiatus? hehe I will be transferring my leisure reading to Spanish translations. Too many books I want to read, not enough time. I want to get back to Robert Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series (I think it's 15-16 books long now, and they are all ~1000 pages each. I want to read "La Mano de Fatima." I really should read the Hunger Games that my daughter is in love with, and I should read the last three Harry Potter books. And there's about a dozen more on my "now" list, so ... I will use my Spanish as an excuse to find time to read for fun. :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5393 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 149 of 246 01 January 2014 at 10:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
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So, 2014 has arrived. And I finally finished my Super Challenge for Spanish. By the skin of my teeth. :) One of the things I found fascinating about this whole (reading for the Super Challenge) process was how fast I progressed, once I started focusing on vocabulary. Specifically, the vocab I came across in my books. I will be doing this with French this year, and I'm looking forward to making faster progress than I did with Spanish. (Which I started 20+ years ago. LOL) I have been reading the Spanish translation of Diana Gabaldon's "Outlander" (Forastera, in Spanish). It's one of my favorite series. I've read the first four books at least a half dozen times. I just finished the fifth book (La Cruz Ardiente), which was a whopping 1400+ pages. There is a LOT of vocab in these books, and a lot of it is very esoteric. Most of the time, I had little problem understanding everything, but sometimes I felt like I was reading in a brand new language. The battle scenes were the most difficult - I could understand what they said, I could picture what was going on, but some of it I would never be able to translate. And all the different types of trees, and herbs. Most of which I don't know the difference in English, much less in Spanish! So, now I have to decide if I'm going to read book six (another 1000+ pages), or if I am going to switch gears and try something new. I like long, epic books. I'm thinking of La Mano de Fatima or La Catedral del Mar (Ildefonso Falcones), Los Pilares de la Tierra (Ken Follett), the Prague Cemetary (Umberto Eco) ... Historical fiction, epic, adventure, anything with a good plot. Any suggestions? Well, I'm off to get a new notebook ready for writing out my Korean words, find my first dissection experiment (um, book) for French, and maybe peek a little at Assimil Norwegian. To all my Spanish, French, and Korean teammates - and to those of you I'm watching on the Italian, Scandinavian, Russian, and Japanese teams (and everyone else!) - I wish you all tremendous success, in life and in language learning, for 2014. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4142 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 150 of 246 01 January 2014 at 10:16pm | IP Logged | |||||
I'm intrigued! How did you focus on vocabulary? My reading has been almost exclusively extensive for the past few months. Sometimes I think that I should do more intensive reading to improve my vocabulary. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5393 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 151 of 246 01 January 2014 at 10:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
At the beginning, I read with a notebook. I just wrote down any words I didn't know. I generally made three columns, in a regular spiral notebook, so about 75 words per page. Then when I had a few pages, I would type them all into Google Translate (all at once, one word per line), and then just copy/paste it into a spreadsheet and upload it to Anki. I'm sure it's not the most accurate way to do it, but it was fast and easy. Generally, if I had trouble remembering a word after a lot of exposure, I would just delete the card. Keep in mind that I'm doing this while I'm reading, so I continue to come across the words, plus review them in Anki. Now I have a Kindle PaperWhite (so I just touch the screen and the definition pops up), but that isn't as effective to actually remember things. For me, Anki was really important, though. At some point, you get to where you understand most of what you're reading, then there's a lot less new vocab, and you can learn it more in context. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5393 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 152 of 246 05 January 2014 at 9:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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So, it is time again for Brian's +1 Challenge, and I want to sign up. I was really surprised how much support everyone gave each other, and even though I only got about halfway through it last time with Japanese, I actually DID reach the goals I had set. So, I am going to do it again this time. I have three focus languages this year. Spanish, French, and Korean. Well, Korean is not a focus language. It's just for fun. :) Reasons why I should do Spanish: Because I really need to stop trying to be perfect and actually go out and have a conversation with someone in Spanish! I am very comfortable reading now, even though I still need to look up some words. But I've never tried to have a conversation. I'm shy with people I don't know. I don't talk to people in English, either. So my goal is to keep improving with Spanish, and to talk, talk, talk. Why not? Well, I work ungodly hours Monday through Thursday. It would only be *possible* for me to have conversations with anyone three days a week. Why should I pick French? Because I should. I know, that is not a good reason. I want to learn to READ French. My plan for French this year is to attack the Super Challenge reading, probably starting with Harry Potter. Drill Anki. Read, read, read. If I do French for the +1 Challenge, set my goal at 25 words per day, I will make a LOT of progress over the next three months. Granted, that reading wont count towards the Super Challenge (which isn't going to start til May), but it will give me a serious leg up on my goals for the year, and put me in a better starting position for when the Super Challenge actually starts. Plus, I almost feel like - if I decide to try a tutor and talking, I will have an easier time with French than with Spanish. I don't have the hangups with French (or Italian or German) that I do with Spanish. How backward is that? So, I was going to go with Spanish, but now I am logically thinking about it, French seems like a better choice. I know I will continue reading in Spanish. (I found a new book I am enjoying very much, and it will keep me busy for awhile!) And if I don't have something to push me for French, then it will probably get left by the wayside. So, any thoughts? Which one do you think I should do? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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