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Sg1’s TAC2013 Pax Log

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
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sillygoose1
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4429 days ago

566 posts - 814 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French
Studies: German, Latin

 
 Message 25 of 57
10 February 2013 at 2:06am | IP Logged 
French:

I'm pretty comfortable at this point to "officially" call it my second language.

My writing is fluent with an occasional minor mistake, and sometimes there are phrases I have trouble remembering, but other than that it's good. I still don't get many opportunities to speak. I'm still taking it easy with French in order to get one of my other languages to at least a solid B2 and get a better grasp of Quebecois.

Italian:

My writing is hesitant. I can express myself fairly well and I can understand about 50-60% of a Family Guy episode dubbed. Conjugations are getting easier to deal with. I hate how there aren't many Italian movies anymore. I really want Italian to be my 3rd language, but I just don't see that happening. There are so many various pronunciations and variations and a scarce amount of movies available. The only movies that are really in abundance with subs are the older ones. Oh well. We'll see.

Spanish:

My writing is non existent a part from the basics. I always feel stuck trying to express myself, but I can somewhat comfortably watch a telenovela at least. Movies are getting somewhat easier to watch with subs.I have an abundance of Spanish movies with subs which works out great because the accent is awesome. I've already noticed that in some countries where something is a bad word, it means something totally different in another. I'll have to be careful with that....
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sillygoose1
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4429 days ago

566 posts - 814 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French
Studies: German, Latin

 
 Message 26 of 57
13 February 2013 at 11:56pm | IP Logged 
French:

I've been writing a lot. I've had a lot of little mistakes that I've made before get corrected slowly but surely. One episode of Family Guy from Quebec tripped me up a little. But then I realized that wasn't such a big problem when I was watching a British show and missed some stuff too.


Italian:

I've been put off of Italian for awhile. For some reason, Italians on sharedtalk/italki/interpals like to tell me how bad America is and how we are all stupid and ignorant, then berate how I communicate in Italian. That kind of made me want to reevaluate learning the language for a bit. While I still have love for the language and will continue to learn it to the best of my ability, that may not be for a little bit because now I have a little bad taste in my mouth.

My comprehension of Family Guy goes up a little bit each episode. Whether it's a word, a conjugation, or a phrase.

Spanish:

The people from South America have been pretty cool and have spoken to me solely in Spanish just for the pleasure of teaching their language to someone else. They correct me when needed also, and I do the same. Sometimes they can be a bit boring though. I'll ask if they watch movies which usually leads into a movie discussion, but all they say is "yes". hehe. I've not yet spoken to a Spainard though.


General:

I'd like to build up a better vocab/grammar in Italian & Spanish before I try communicating again. I'm tired of having to look up conjugations & vocab every sentence. I'm going to have to re-read my old French log because I feel sort of lost. :o
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sillygoose1
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4429 days ago

566 posts - 814 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French
Studies: German, Latin

 
 Message 27 of 57
18 February 2013 at 9:28pm | IP Logged 
French:

Watched another episode of Family Guy. I tried to watch an interview with Serge Gainsbourg but could barely understand him because he mumbled a lot. That's definitely a native level skill that I'm not so discouraged about not being able to do. Not too mention, I think I'm slipping into another slump where everything is hard to understand. Not only with French, but my other languages too. It's like I'm thinking way too hard to try to understand. It's weird how one day I can go from understanding a TV show and following the plot, then the next I can't even understand an interview!


Italian:

Working with Perfectionnement off and on. I learned some more solid grammar points. I watched a few episodes of Family Guy that I can understand by now about 60-70% of. I wouldn't be able to use most of the words I hear actively though.

Spanish:

Went through some Perfectionnement lessons. I watched an episode of The Simpsons in Spain Spanish. my comprehension was maybe 30%.



With this pattern of having trouble with listening, that means it's time for a break again. Everytime this happens, I feel like after I come back from the break, my brain "clicks" then suddenly I can understand more. We'll see!
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sillygoose1
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4429 days ago

566 posts - 814 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French
Studies: German, Latin

 
 Message 28 of 57
22 February 2013 at 2:57am | IP Logged 
Well what do you know. After my break, my French is back to normal and my Italian definitely got better. A few days can really work wonders.

French:

Well, not a total break. Just from listening at least. I have been writing/reading/learning with French the whole 3 days. I watched some Norman videos and I had a solid understanding. Give or take a few slang expressions I've never heard. I did learn some new ones that I could understand, however. They are sort of vulgar. :P

My writing I would say is now fluent in that I can read & respond quickly, give or take some errors.

Italian:

Family Guy is getting easier. Still around the 60/70 range of comprehension. I download the Italian version of Un gars, une fille. I downloaded some more movies with Italian subs, etc. I can use Italian decently in conversation, but I can't express myself too well with informal speech or idioms yet.

Spanish:

Nothing! Despite having more movies and shows than in Italian, I just haven't bothered with it much.
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sillygoose1
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4429 days ago

566 posts - 814 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French
Studies: German, Latin

 
 Message 29 of 57
03 March 2013 at 3:06am | IP Logged 
French:

Still having trouble with casual quebecois speech. It's hard to understand without subtitles to aid me. I cannot find any dubs with their subtitles. I have no idea how to understand their speech/expressions/informal speech without books or movies with subs entirely in Quebecois. Am I over thinking this? I've been trying to reach a constant comprehension of at least 70%, but even in dubs that's hard to do depending on the dialogue. I'm not sure if it's an offensive term, but I think it's called "joual" if I'm not mistaken. I can understand most of the movies fairly well because I guess they try to cater to an international audience. But after watching a bunch of episodes of various shows, nothing is latching on.

Forget that. I'm going to have some fun with Kaamelott & other French comedies for awhile while searching for more movies with subs.


Italian:

I watched Benvenuti al Sud with not so accurate subs. I'm finishing the rest of Italian with Ease that I didn't finish before. After IWE, I'm going to focus a lot more on my Spanish. Italian will have to go on the back burner for a bit. I can already understand at a satisfactory level, and communicate as needed. I'm happy with that for now.


Spanish:

Finishing the rest of L'espagnol. This book is so incredibly light. There is no way it will get anyone to a solid B1 like NFWE/IWE. I'd say A2. I've watched quite a few episodes of Amores Verdaderos with Spanish subs. It's starting to feel a lot more natural already. I can watch the news comfortably enough, but not at the level I want to. This will change soon enough.
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sillygoose1
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4429 days ago

566 posts - 814 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French
Studies: German, Latin

 
 Message 30 of 57
08 March 2013 at 3:46pm | IP Logged 
French:

Things are going great. I'm not having too much trouble searching for expressions, I'm back at a solid listening comprehension for now, and I'm enjoying some TV shows. I'm just having trouble with the very formal grammar and relative pronouns. Apparently there's a good book out there that teaches that stuff.

Italian:

I discovered how bad I truly am at active skills. I'm starting earlier than I did with French and I'd definitely say that my basic, quick and stop conversation skills are solid enough. I can understand more than I can speak, so once again no problems here. I'll be satisfied with my level once I get my conjugations down and get my active skills a little more fluent.

Spanish:

Lesson 92, 8 more left for L'espagnol. I've been watching a lot of Mexican telenovelas but the problem with this is that I've been picking up Mexican vocab and colloquialisms without knowing it where my goal is to sound more Spanish. I haven't been able to find many Spanish shows with subs which sucks.


I'm debating whether to try one more language or not. After seeing how much hard work it is to get to a comfortable level, even in a similar language, I'm thinking maybe I should just get my current languages to a high level. I'd like to get to at least a German B1 but the grammar is so daunting!
1 person has voted this message useful



sillygoose1
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4429 days ago

566 posts - 814 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French
Studies: German, Latin

 
 Message 31 of 57
14 March 2013 at 4:45pm | IP Logged 
French:

Watched more Kaamelott and Norman fait des videos. Nothing much really. Still on the backburner as far as studying and movies/tv goes.

Italian:

More Family Guy. Idiomatic expressions are causing some problems, but nothing some more movies won't fix with time. I won't stress over it much, Italian is sort of on my second backburner anyway. Conjugations continue to pose a problem. There are just so many irregular verbs, more than French & English I'd wager. Pair that up with the use of two tenses that I'm not used to, and you can see I got myself a little challenge here.

Spanish:

Watched Volver. Not a bad movie, but having to look up a word every 3 minutes gets tedious. I must have learned about 80 new words from this movie, though. I typed them in a txt file and I'm going to go over them a bit. I still have a lot of Almodovar to go through and some more movies. Telenovelas have easy language for the most part, but it's just the comprehension.

German:

Finished lesson 25 in German without Toil

Edited by sillygoose1 on 18 March 2013 at 7:35pm

1 person has voted this message useful



sillygoose1
Tetraglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4429 days ago

566 posts - 814 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French
Studies: German, Latin

 
 Message 32 of 57
20 March 2013 at 7:00pm | IP Logged 
French:

More 30 Vies, Cache (Hidden), & Polytechnique because I was getting a little bored with looking for other movies.

Italian:

I watched the Italian version with Italian subs of Pulp Fiction. The subs were way off however. Later on, I'm going to watch Maschi contro femmine or La peggior settimana della mia vita.

Spanish:

I watched Celda 211. It had perfect subs, but there was too much slang/odd expressions for me to keep up with so I finished it in English. This awoke me and made me realize that I can't jump into hard movies like that. (Being a movie based in prison, there would be a lot of slang). I'm going to go through dubs of movies/series I've seen. The Big Bang Theory & the Simpsons. Big Bang has Castellano speech/subs, and the Simpsons has Latino/Argentine speech/subs. Speaking of which, there's one more conjugation I need to learn on top of the 3823572357 that Spanish has. Vos.

German:

I'm beginning to really enjoy learning this language I think. Ending in B1/low-mid B2 by the end of the year would be awesome. The strictness of the language is pretty cool.
Finished lesson 36 in without toil.


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