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Dagane&Schnitzel: TAC 2013 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4623 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 57 of 60 18 March 2013 at 1:11am | IP Logged |
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Great to hear you are settling into your new home! You'll certainly find your routine and find a way to incorporate everything you want to do into your life. It will be interesting to hear about your Dutch course. One of my co-workers is from the Netherlands and he said German was super easy for him to learn, so as others have said, your previous experience with German should help.
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| Dagane Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4512 days ago 259 posts - 324 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishB2, Galician Studies: German Studies: Czech | Message 58 of 60 23 March 2013 at 1:12pm | IP Logged |
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ENGLISH
I don't speak English that well :( This is the first thing I've noticed since I am here. My English is good enough to communicate, but I still have problems to speak out. Part of them are because of my strong accent, and other part because I am continually switching between English (main language), Spanish (some friends here and in Spain, family) and Galician (some friends in Spain). It's so hard to switch without thinking in your mother tongue! Worst of all, I speak quite well while being in a relaxing situation. Conversely, my worst English comes to me while I am working. I don't really understand it because I'm not stressed at working and I am developing my tasks reasonably well. My colleages said to me that I don't speak worst English than any other previous Spanish trainee though. National drawback then. The second thing about English is that I didn't sign for CAE exam here. I passed two mock exams in Spain during the past 4 months, so I'm supossed to be ready. However, I am suddenly afraid of the exam. Now I haven't so much time to study and I don't know if the speaking text is harder here (in Spain, my speaking marks were REALLY high). So it's something I have to decide... All in all, English is now the main language in my life, and I'm happy to manage with it, since it's the first time in my entire life I have to be understood in a foreign language. GALICIAN Not too much to say about Galician. I resigned studying it. Nevertheless, I asked a friend for speaking (typing) me always in Galician, and she agreed. In every concersation she corrects my mistakes. Also, she is going to tell me some interesting Galician books/poems for me to read in my spare time. I won't study this language in the usual way, but I do want to improve by enjoying it, though I know that's a longer way. GERMAN I think I am forgetting my German and I hate it. Two days ago I had the opportunity to speak German and I didn't understand anything. The good new is that here it's easy to find German speakers, so I can resume my studies more efficiently. DUTCH The first class was horrible. It was so fast!!! We are 6 people and I think I am the only one whose knowledge of Dutch is zero. Consequently, I found it very difficult to follow, though the course is supposed to start from scratch. Now then, my little knowledge of German really helped me. I could follow the explanations and exercises and understand most of the common words and sentences because of my German. The second class was much better. The course runs for two months and we have two classes a week. We study grammar once a week, whereas the second weekly class is dedicated to speak. WHAT I DID WHEN I WASN'T POSTING Hardly anything! It's understandable, I guess! I did study something in February, since I was living in a hostel. There I could speak in all my languages (including German), and find books to read in German and English. So I read some pages every two or three days in German. WHAT I AM GOING TO DO FROM NOW ON First, I must decide if I want to study German during the two months the Dutch course lasts. As they are so similar, I am afraid of mixing them. If I decide that I shouldn't, I'll set time to read in German so I can develop my passive abilities, but nothing more. If I say yes I'll set a complete schedule. Then I'll define a schedule to study Dutch, English and German on a regular basis, while I won't study Galician though I will use it in conversations. This regular study will be ridiculous compared with my previous one, but as I said there're so much more things I am doing now. It will cover the week from Monday to Friday, and I hope to dedicate at least 30 minutes of daily intensive study to each language. On Friday not only will I study as the rest of the days, but I will dedicate more time to review my weekly progress. I know that it's not much time. I will try it starting next week and we'll see how I manage. I hope to share my progress weekly, so you can know whether this system works out and what are its results. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Dagane Triglot Senior Member SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4512 days ago 259 posts - 324 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishB2, Galician Studies: German Studies: Czech | Message 59 of 60 06 May 2013 at 11:55pm | IP Logged |
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I know I am totally out of here... However, it doesn't mean I am doing nothing. Far from it, I am starting to resume my studies' rythm eventually.
Of course the time I use to study has been drastically lessened since I am living abroad. Also, settling up has taken more time and effort than expected and I am seizing my stay here to travel a lot aside from working and meeting people. Now I am meeting people who are interested in language learning and some of them have offered me help by means of books to read and advices. In my dailylife I am always challenged to speak English and when I travel to the countryside I also speak a little Dutch even though I can hardly say anything. I even know two German people with whom I can speak a little German, but I decided not to study it (save for reading a bit) until my Dutch course is finished this May. Afterwards I shall take it up again hard if I want to take my exam in September, though my future beyond August is still a mistery. As for my languages, I am still not so comfortable while speaking English, but I note improvements in my fluency and pronunciation I can be proud of. I hope my writing and grammar have not suffer too much since the only pieces of writing I made, have been the new posts for my blog. German and Dutch are now a bit mixed up and I am struggling to keep them separate. I think I can by focusing on the very basis of Dutch by now, assuming I already hold that level in German. I feel really sorry not to have written anything during this time nor reading your threads. I guess I am passing by more often as the weeks are going by and hope you all are ok and improving! Edited by Dagane on 06 May 2013 at 11:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4623 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 60 of 60 14 May 2013 at 1:50am | IP Logged |
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Dagane, please no apologies needed. You are developing your languages! Please don't feel guilty about not posting here. The most important thing is to make progress, which you clearly are. Congratulations! It sounds like you are having a great experience.
It's nice to hear from you whenever you have time :) Edited by BAnna on 14 May 2013 at 1:50am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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