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Amerykanka’s TAC 2013, Teams Żubr & Nebun | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4960 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 137 of 176 29 June 2013 at 4:32pm | IP Logged |
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I am officially back from my trip. It was fantastic! I now feel much more informed about my own country - I had
never really been out west before, but now I have most of the western states covered. :) Anyway, the following is my report on the last month. LATIN: 4 hours 15 minutes With the exception of a 50-minute translation I completed yesterday, I spent all the rest of this time on flashcards as planned. Yes, I did finally catch up with my Anki reviews. There were some painful days in there, but I managed it! SPANISH: 28 hours 20 minutes I had already mentioned that I finished La Llamada de los Muertos, and now I am thrilled to be able to relate that I have finished Harry Potter y el Prisionero de Azkaban as well! That makes 9 books in Spanish. As soon as I got home I started reading HP4; now I am on page 52. Other Spanish study included flashcard review, vocabulary acquisition, and listening comprehension. POLISH: 29 hours 3 minutes As I mentioned, I finished Harry Potter i Komnata Tajemnic a few weeks ago. Since then I haven't really done much reading - 10 or so pages of Nowe przygody Mikołajka and a few pages of Kamienie na szaniec. I have been writing a lot, however - the little essay I posted here, several emails, a postcard - and I have spent quite a bit of time reviewing and adding flashcards. In my opinion, my Polish has improved greatly over the last month. It is a part of my life again, and so I am going to try to keep doing a little Polish every day, and get in at least a few serious study hours per week, just so I won't lose more ground. (And hopefully I'll advance a bit, too!) See the next post for my study plans over the following weeks. EDIT: I forgot to mention the 500-word essay I had to write in Spanish on immigration (for a school placement test). It was pretty awesome. :) Edited by Amerykanka on 29 June 2013 at 5:06pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4960 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 138 of 176 29 June 2013 at 4:59pm | IP Logged |
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Guess what? We have made it through the first half of the year! July is approaching fast (especially in some
other time zones). I am very excited about TAC Part 2. I have already made some cool charts! I will be keeping a master spreadsheet with all of my study time neatly logged, and I've printed some nifty sheets to note my study time from day to day. In addition to my organizational plans, I do have some study plans to share. First, some general information. I leave for Nicaragua in two weeks, so I am devoting the next two weeks to cramming more Spanish into my head. I will be focusing mostly on listening comprehension, since I am fully satisfied with my reading and writing skills (for the purposes of this trip). I don't have a conversation partner, but if I did I would be talking to him/her a lot. As it is, I suppose I'll have to content myself with an increased number of soliloquies. SPANISH PLANS FOR NEXT TWO WEEKS 1. Listen to at least an hour of Spanish per day. Preferably more, if I can manage it. 2. Talk to myself. A lot. I might check out the third level of Pimsleur from the public library in my area - it's way too easy for me, but at least it will get me speaking. I really need to find a conversation partner. . . . 3. Finish Harry Potter y el cáliz de fuego. Inundating myself with words in Spanish will help, even if they are written rather than spoken. Plus I am having fun with rereading Harry Potter, so I don't want to stop now. 4. Keep up with my flashcards. Although I'll get behind while I'm in Nicaragua anyway - I'm dreading the moment when I have to turn my iPad back on after a week (gasp!) without flashcard reviews. 5. Get through all those vocabulary lists floating around after my trip. I'm hoping to spend 20 minutes per day on this. That's about it for Spanish. I might read some of Cien años de soledad as well. I really need to finish that book before September. POLISH PLANS FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS Well, like I said, Spanish is my priority right now. But I still hope to get some Polish time in. 1. Keep up with my flashcards. 2. Get through all those vocabulary lists floating around after my trip. If I do an hour a day, I hope to have all the new words entered into my flashcards by the end of next week. 3. Skype with my Polish teacher. I'm hoping to set this up for next week. . . . 4. Read something. I'm not sure what yet. I was planning on Kamienie na szaniec, but I don't really feel like it. I might continue with Stara baśń - that seems the most likely option at the moment. 5. Order some awesome new books from Poland! I have picked out five and I am looking for a few more. Shipping is pricey ($22 for a package weighing up to 3 kg), but the books are so much cheaper in Poland that ordering at least four or five at once makes it worth it. I allowed myself up to $100 to stock up on reading material, but it looks like I won't need to spend even that much. LATIN PLANS FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS My Latin plan is very simple. Don't get behind on flashcards! When I get back from Nicaragua I will spend more time on Latin. ITALIAN PLANS FOR THE NEXT TWO WEEKS Nonexistent. I haven't given up on Italian - I'm simply waiting until I get back from Nicaragua. (I don't have enough flashcards for the prospect of missing another 3 weeks to scare me.) Edited by Amerykanka on 29 June 2013 at 5:08pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 5894 days ago 707 posts - 1219 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 139 of 176 29 June 2013 at 5:33pm | IP Logged |
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Nice work Amerykanka!
I haven't tried speaking to myself yet, but it seems like a good plan. Maybe you could interview yourself: - Ask questions in Spanish - Reply in Polish Or maybe that would be too confusing? Anyway, you're sure getting out and about. Enjoy your next trip (and try to forget about that lovely Anki welcome when you return). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4960 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 140 of 176 29 June 2013 at 5:46pm | IP Logged |
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Interviewing myself in two languages is a fascinating idea - but I think I probably would get too confused. I'm
already mildly concerned that I'll start speaking Polish by accident when I'm in Nicaragua. But I definitely recommend talking to yourself as a good study method . . . although you might not want to do it in public. ;) I will try to forget about my welcoming committee. I've faced worst ones in the past (there was that time when I was away for three weeks without access to Anki), so I suppose I'll survive. My Spanish deck has over 5,000 flashcards, though - a potential disaster. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4960 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 141 of 176 02 July 2013 at 3:16am | IP Logged |
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I don't have much to report - except that I drove my family crazy by watching "Caso Cerrado", which is what
happened to be on one of our Spanish channels. :) I only submitted them to 35 minutes of torture. I'll admit it wasn't classic TV, but at least it was good listening comprehension practice when all the people started shouting at once. The main point of this post is to announce that it is July 1 and the second half of the TAC has begun!!! I am happy with my performance in the first half of 2013, but I am excited about getting down to work for real now. Edit: I'm planning on buying two Polish grammar books in addition to some reading material. The books are Iść czy jechać by Józef Pyzik and Czas na czasownik by Piotr Garncarek. I think they will help me to address some of my weakest grammar points. Edit 2: Typo Edited by Amerykanka on 02 July 2013 at 6:50pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6386 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 142 of 176 02 July 2013 at 4:23am | IP Logged |
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Hi and welcome back!
For free shipping, try http://www.bookdepository.co.uk :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4960 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 143 of 176 02 July 2013 at 6:48pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the link! I'm sure this site will come in handy. :)
Unfortunately, they don't have Iść czy jechać in stock, so I won't be able to use it for this order. I'm planning on buying Iść czy jechać from www.abebooks.com, since they also offer free shipping from England on certain orders. The price is $35, which is pretty good, but if you have any other suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them! This book must not be in very high demand, because I've been having trouble finding it. As for Czas na czasownik, I bought an electronic copy from the publisher for $5/17 zł. Although I haven't had any luck downloading it yet . . . 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4960 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 144 of 176 07 July 2013 at 2:24am | IP Logged |
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I finally managed to download my new e-book - customer service was very helpful, although I felt a bit odd
being addressed as "Szanowna Pani" - and it looks great so far. Just what I need to get a handle on Polish verbs! I think I'm going to wait to buy Iść czy jechać until I've finished Czas na czasownik. I don't have a particular date in mind for that - I just want to be done by the end of 2013. I also ordered four lighter books from Nasza Księgarnia. - Szatan z siódmej klasy by Kornel Makuszyński - Inna? by Irena Jurgielewiczowa - Dziura w sercu by Romuald Pawlak - Sobowtór by Ewa Karwan-Jastrzębska I hope these books will help me to learn some more colloquial vocabulary. I plan to alternate reading them with reading classics. Of course, I expect it will take at least a month for them to arrive. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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