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Rob’s Log ’13 (TAC 鶴 and Pax)

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
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LittleBoy
Diglot
Groupie
United Kingdom
Joined 5113 days ago

84 posts - 100 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto

 
 Message 1 of 10
29 December 2012 at 1:33am | IP Logged 
So, as it's almost the new year, it seems about time to set up this new log. I'm starting afresh, though my old log is here.

The following is my current plan for the year, although it is very likely to change... I've dropped German for the minute as I really don't have enough time to keep up all 5 languages.

French - Team Pax
Goal of 25 hours
This will be almost exclusively working with native materials with vocabulary mining and flashcards to reinforce it. I have a few novels to read, there's lots of tv freely (and legally) available online and I have an idea on how to practise speaking...

Spanish - Team Pax
Goal of 25 hours
Now, I don't mind a traditional course with lots of sentences to translate either way, and it gives me a greater deal of confidence that I'm learning and internalising the material. As such my initial plan is to work through an old out-of-copyright course I found online to reinforce what I already know then learn the more advanced grammar (my tenses are weak, and I've never touched the subjunctive, for example). I'll accompany this with watching through Destinos on Youtube and then see where I am.

Mandarin - Team 鶴
Goal of 75 hours
I'm not happy with my progress on Mandarin this year. It's a difficult language, and needs a serious time commitment. I've been inefficient and ineffective. I've got Assimil and a lot of ChineseClass101.com lessons to work through, and would like to finally complete Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi, book 1. I'll supplement with relevant Growing Up With Chinese episodes (a CCTV series to teach Mandarin with Ai Hua) and the occasional Happy Chinese episode because it's a very fun show, and quite rewarding when you can pick up the occasional bits and pieces.

Esperanto
Goal of 12 hours
Unlike Mandarin, I'm very happy with my progress in Esperanto. As for Spanish, I have an old, out-of-copyright course to work through to reinforce everything and practise those bits that take a bit more time to learn well (word-building, correlatives and participles mainly). Then it's trying to find ways to use the language...

I'm afraid I'm going to be away for the next week, and I've been very busy for the last few, but I'll try and catch up then, with any posts here as well as all my team mates' logs!

And now for something completely different. Does anyone have suggestions for what a lone 19 year old can do to pass a day in Zurich this Sunday?
1 person has voted this message useful



druckfehler
Triglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4671 days ago

1181 posts - 1912 votes 
Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean
Studies: Persian

 
 Message 2 of 10
29 December 2012 at 4:56pm | IP Logged 
Looks like a very sensible, achievable schedule! Good luck!
1 person has voted this message useful



maurelio1234
Triglot
Groupie
BrazilRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5883 days ago

61 posts - 92 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2, French
Studies: German, Mandarin

 
 Message 3 of 10
02 January 2013 at 11:18pm | IP Logged 
Hi, what do you mean by "Goal of X hours"? Is "X hours" all the time you're going to
spend studing during the whole year?
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Kerrie
Senior Member
United States
justpaste.it/Kerrie2
Joined 5198 days ago

1232 posts - 1740 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 4 of 10
03 January 2013 at 4:33am | IP Logged 

Spanish, French, and Esperanto will all work well together, at least unless you get them mixed up. It sounds like your French is pretty solid, so I doubt it will be much of a problem!

I wish you the best with all your language goals this year!
1 person has voted this message useful



Rout
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5515 days ago

326 posts - 417 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Spanish
Studies: Hindi

 
 Message 5 of 10
03 January 2013 at 4:47am | IP Logged 
LittleBoy wrote:

Spanish - Team Pax
Goal of 25 hours
Now, I don't mind a traditional course with lots of sentences to translate either way, and it gives me a greater deal of confidence that I'm learning and internalising the material. As such my initial plan is to work through an old out-of-copyright course I found online to reinforce what I already know then learn the more advanced grammar (my tenses are weak, and I've never touched the subjunctive, for example). I'll accompany this with watching through Destinos on Youtube and then see where I am.


Can't recommend this book more highly for learning the Spanish subjunctive. Good luck in all of your studies this year and welcome to team Pax!
1 person has voted this message useful



LittleBoy
Diglot
Groupie
United Kingdom
Joined 5113 days ago

84 posts - 100 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto

 
 Message 6 of 10
07 January 2013 at 1:29am | IP Logged 
Well, that was a week! I'm back from Switzerland and finally with internet again. I'm very glad I've had practise at "communicating" before. With barely an A1 in German it took every trick of extrapolating from known words and cognates, body language reading, guessing from situations, etc. to make it through. However, I did, very rarely resorting to English and only properly misunderstanding one sentence that I know of. I even learned the basics of skiing in German (although the demonstrations very much helped, as did the translations into Spanish for someone else and having an English speaker when I was stuck).

I didn't only manage to practise German, however. Even before getting to my hotel room from the airport (maybe 45 minutes), I'd already had a 5 minute chat with a Spanish circus juggler and discovered just how fast Mandarin speakers go when you say one half decent sentence in Chinese! Then there was the international TV in my room, most of the information boards in the Swiss National Museum only being in French and German, new friends being very curious about Esperanto...

In all, plenty of motivation to get back to piles of Anki and Memrise reviews and back to stepping slowly but steadily along the learning road. Now to keep it up once back at uni from tomorrow.

druckfehler - Thanks, the same to you!

Maurelio - Hi. Yes, unfortunately, I really don't have much time at all. I should hope to easily beat these targets but can't be certain. If only I could find it in me to leave more of the languages alone I might make some better progress!

Kerrie - Cheers, good luck with your goals! They do work well together, and I haven't had many problems with confusion so far. That said, the problem of confusion is getting slightly worse and I definitely noticed it at dinner one day last week when I'd just been speaking Spanish to someone when someone else asked me to translate a sentence into Esperanto. I think the solution is, hopefully, as simple as more space/time between the two.

Rout - Thanks, good luck to you too, I'm looking forward to being part of the team! And thanks for that recommendation, I will definitely look into it when I get there.
1 person has voted this message useful



maurelio1234
Triglot
Groupie
BrazilRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5883 days ago

61 posts - 92 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishC2, French
Studies: German, Mandarin

 
 Message 7 of 10
19 January 2013 at 12:46pm | IP Logged 

I think this way: the problem dedicating just a little time to lots of things at the same
time is that you're never going to master any of them...
3 persons have voted this message useful



druckfehler
Triglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4671 days ago

1181 posts - 1912 votes 
Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean
Studies: Persian

 
 Message 8 of 10
19 January 2013 at 8:20pm | IP Logged 
maurelio1234 wrote:

I think this way: the problem dedicating just a little time to lots of things at the same time is that you're never going to master any of them...


Personally I feel like this is definitely a problem for me. I'm something of an all-or-nothing language learner. Or rather all-or-just-dabbling. But from what I see on this forum there are people who can really make learning many languages at once work. I'm thinking of ellasevia, Serpent, Sprachprofi and others. I guess it's a question of dedication and good organisation. Of course learning many languages at once may slow one's progress in every single language, but if that's not a concern I can see it working fine and it may even be a better method for "becoming a polyglot".


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