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Bakunin TAC 2013 Asian 鶴 / Żubr | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4663 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes  Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 49 of 94 03 April 2013 at 9:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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I wonder whether reading speed partly depends on the language and writing system... I'd say reading as fast as a third-grader in Thai is already quite an achievement. Do you know most words in your current book or is it full of unknowns?
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| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 4925 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 50 of 94 04 April 2013 at 6:49am | IP Logged | ||
Not yet a third-grader, druckfehler, but reading voraciously towards that level :) I know most words in my current book, there are maybe two or three unknown words per page. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 4925 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 51 of 94 04 April 2013 at 7:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Time for another update.
Listening: 124 (+5.1) Reading: 177 (+9.6) Speaking: 34 (+1.2) Writing: 16 (+0.7) Other: 48 (+3.5) Total: 400 Listening: I've listened to VoA, NHK, SBS and in the morning to the radio. Today, one station presented a lot of ideas on how to save energy, apparently Myanmar is temporarily shutting down some power plant. There was more talk on the problems in the Deep South. Unfortunately, the discussions I tune in to are always quite limited in scope, I never hear about the underlying social, economic and historical issues. Reading: I've continued with my novel. I've also read a few articles on the internet and a very short summary of the second Tosachat story (the one that took me ages to complete). Speaking: On the phone, as usual. Writing: Chatting on whatsapp, as usual. However, I was thinking of doing some focused writing practice on lang-8 soon. My idea is to select a few useful daily tasks like preparing a cup of tea, doing the laundry, buying a train ticket on my phone, or vacuuming the flat, and then describe those activities in some detail in Thai. The overarching idea is to work towards 'being functional', and being able to describe everyday activities is part of that. Another important part of 'being functional' is the ability to handle things like making an appointment, lodging a complaint, calling for a taxi, explaining symptoms at the pharmacy etc., but those involve dialogue and don't really lend itself to be practiced in writing. Other: Typing… I'm now a second grade student! I've finished the chapter on plants and started the one on animals. The chapter on plants gave much more details on the life cycle of plants as well as their needs. The chapter on animals is not as detailed as the one on plants but adds a lot of new stuff when compared to grade 1. I really enjoy my typing sessions, it's usually the first thing I do in the morning. On average, there are two or three new words per day, all of which seem to be useful to know. It also helps a lot with spelling. Schoolbooks are quite repetitive in that new concepts are repeated in explanations, summaries, student activities, exercises etc. That really helps to get the spelling down. After typing, I run the text through FLTR which doubles as a spell checker. This helps to fix those pesky misreadings. The science book is one of the thickest books in grade 2, I'll be on it at least another ten days. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 4925 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 52 of 94 08 April 2013 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Time for another update.
Listening: 131 (+7.6) Reading: 184 (+6.4) Speaking: 36 (+1.4) Writing: 19 (+2.1) Other: 51 (+2.5) Total: 420 Listening: The usual stuff: news podcasts, random radio talk shows and a one or two VRZO episodes on youtube. VRZO is still entertaining, but also a bit silly. Full of teenager slang, though, which I rarely get exposure to. I also did some shadowing, an exercise I find quite useful but rarely do. Ah, and I also listened to a few of my own thairecordings.com recordings. Reading: I finished the third of the Adventure series and was quite disappointed. The plot and some important details were really ridiculous. I hope the next volume is better, I still like the characters. Speaking: On the phone, but I've set up an session with my tutor for the April challenge. Writing: Apart from chatting on whatsapp, I wrote three small essays on lang-8: how I prepare tea, how I usually book hotel rooms on the internet, and about the new coffee machine at the office. Certainly boring to read, but part of getting functional. I was quite happy about the corrections I got, it seems that my writing has improved a bit. Other: Typing… there were chapters on the human body, material properties and how to use them safely, and magnetism. I was quite excited to see a chapter on magnetism so early, and it's convenient to learn a few basic words now and then deepen that knowledge later. The next few chapters are on electricity, batteries, electric power and saving energy. Cool stuff, and probably full of words I haven't seen yet but need to know. Wanderlust: I have this idée fixe to go biking along the Polish-Belarusian or Polish-Ukrainian border, or in the Tatra between Slovakia and Poland, and for that it would be convenient to brush up my Polish. I've started listening to a few podcasts and ordered a few books. It's quite interesting how different the topics on Polish radio are compared to French or Swiss stations; there's obviously much more focus on central and Eastern Europe. I can mostly follow those discussions (news, business) and think I'll be able to read simple books. I'll see how it goes. I also listen to a lot of French podcasts these days, but mostly at the expense of English ones. Ah, and I've just read five great SF bandes dessinées… I wish I could read such stuff in Thai. Maybe I need to give it a try and look for mangas next time I'm in Bangkok; I'm sure that's popular with Thais, but I'm less sure whether I like it. Edited by Bakunin on 08 April 2013 at 7:56pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 4925 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 53 of 94 13 April 2013 at 10:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Time for another update.
Listening: 137 (+5.5) Reading: 192 (+8.2) Speaking: 37 (+1.3) Writing: 20 (+1.3) Other: 55 (+3.7) Total: 440 Listening: Mostly podcasts and random radio talk shows. Reading: Continued with my book, but mostly read articles on the internet and news on my phone. We're already two weeks into April and I'm only half-way through สี่สหายผจญภัย กลางทะเลลึก; I often read in the evenings, but this week I was quite tired and didn't manage to read much. Speaking: I completed the team challenge, see message 324 of the team thread. Apart from that, I also made a few phone calls to friends. Writing: Chatting on whatsapp. Other: Typing: I finished Science and will start Buddhism tomorrow. The last few chapters of the Science book were on electricity, batteries and the like, quite interesting. I'm not sure what Buddhism holds for me this time, but I hope I won't encounter as many new words as last time. Polish: I've succumbed to wanderlust and have decided to join team Żubr (Polish) with two modest goals: to read three books by the end of the year, and to listen to podcasts or other media about 2 hours per week. I'll see how that goes. This morning, I listened to two podcasts from TOK FM. One was a conversation between three or four people on recent events which I couldn't follow at all, and the other one was on space exploration and much easier to understand. I'm certainly not ready for conversational podcasts, need to stick to 'interviews' on well defined topics. The books I've ordered still haven't arrived yet. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 4925 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 54 of 94 19 April 2013 at 4:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Time for another update.
Listening: 142 (+4.9) Reading: 200 (+8.5) Speaking: 39 (+1.8) Writing: 21 (+0.6) Other: 59 (+4.3) Total: 460 Listening: Podcasts, a few thairecordings.com files, and some random radio talk shows. I had the questionable pleasure to listen to a rant about the current border dispute with Cambodia (Preah Vihear temple). Thai nationalism is appalling. Reading: I finished another book of the Adventure series. Took me quite a long time even though I really enjoyed the story. I wish I could read faster. Speaking: Phone calls to friends and one hour tutoring. I hadn't spoken to my tutor since she went back to Thailand in January, but now with summer time in Europe there is some overlap in our schedules. We spent most of the time 'catching up' but also discussed two news items, a minor accident involving an aircraft and a new regulation prohibiting the sale of alcohol in factories. Writing: Chatting on whatsapp. Other: Continued to work on the grade 2 schoolbook on Buddhism. It's a pain: lots of new words and Indian names, lots of hocus-pocus and lots of rules how to behave (all of them being some variation of being well behaved and obedient). The one chapter I was impressed with so far was on being aware in daily life and being in the present moment. Polish: My listening experience varies quite a bit, sometimes I understand almost everything, sometimes I can't follow at all. The books I'd ordered through polstore.de finally arrived earlier this week. I started reading Tomek w tarapatach by Alfred Szklarski, an adventure story for boys. Since I only want to read one book this quarter and the book has only about 120 pages, I take it easy and read exactly two new pages per day (twice, plus the two pages from yesterday, resulting in six pages per day in total). I'm amazed that I can actually read Polish and enjoy the story, I expected it to be much tougher. I seem to be at a point where I understand enough so that I can infer many new words from context. On the first day, I looked up two words - only to learn that my guesses had been correct. Since then I haven't bothered anymore. If my experience with Thai is anything to go by, then any given word will become clear over time just by itself, some sooner and others later. Edited by Bakunin on 19 April 2013 at 4:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 4925 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 55 of 94 24 April 2013 at 7:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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I forgot another 20 hour update yesterday... Here it comes.
Listening: 147 (+5.4) Reading: 209 (+8.7) Speaking: 41 (+1.7) Writing: 21 (+1.0) Other: 62 (+3.4) Total: 480 Listening: The usual stuff: VoA, SBS, random talk shows. Reading: Apart from continuing with my book, I read quite a lot of news in Thai on my iPhone. Speaking: Phone calls. Writing: Chatting on whatsapp. Other: Typing: I finished Buddhism. It was painful… I'm glad I won't see it again until I'm in grade 3. There was more hocus-pocus at the end, of the sort that the students have to learn that there were earthquakes when Buddha was born, enlightened, etc. I just can't take such stuff serious. There was also a quick introduction to Islam, Christianity and Hinduism, the other religions practiced in Thailand. The next subject is society, religion and culture. It starts out with chapter after chapter full of rules of behavior… how to pay respect, how to greet, how to walk, to sit, to stand, to eat, what-have-you. The best is that kids have to crawl when passing an adult who sits on the floor: 
I'm tired of all those rules of behavior. Fortunately, the remaining (many) chapters of the book are on other topics like economics and geography. Polish: Getting back into Polish is fun. I scrapped my rigid reading regime pretty quickly… now I just read. I don't understand many details, but I get the overall story and that's enough to keep me engaged (and makes me want to read on). I also listen to various podcasts when I have time. Sometimes I don't understand much, sometimes I get a lot. It's different each time and depends a lot on the topic and whether I can focus or not. Edited by Bakunin on 24 April 2013 at 7:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 4925 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer | Message 56 of 94 28 April 2013 at 10:32am | IP Logged | ||
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Time for another update. I've just passed the 500 hour mark, half of my target of 1'000 hours for this year. It's likely that I will exceed my target by quite a few hundred hours. I'm also thinking of taking a few weeks off learning Thai later this year so a nice buffer may come in handy. Since I spent on average a bit more than 30 minutes per day on speaking and writing, I feel I still keep a balance between active and passive skills.
Listening: 152 (+5.5) Reading: 218 (+9.1) Speaking: 41 (+0.6) Writing: 22 (+0.7) Other: 66 (+4.2) Total: 500 Listening: Podcasts and some radio talk shows. Usually I just listen to some random station on my iPhone app 'TuneIn Radio' which has enough stations to keep me happy. I also really like Voice of America's daily half hour program consisting of world news, health, science and entertainment. Ah, and this week SBS published some interesting podcasts as well. One was an interview with a Thai working in Kalgoorlie, a mining town in Western Australia. He was very excited about his job as a mechanic, not surprising given his paycheck of AUD 170'000 p.a. Reading: I finished another book of the Adventure series. The series started out well but seems to finish poorly. There is enough suspense to keep me engaged, but the plot sometimes is really ridiculous. Speaking: As usual on the phone. Writing: As usual chatting on whatsapp. Other: Typing: Still working on 'Society, Religion and Culture' (and will continue to do so for about ten more days); the subject title is strange because there's nothing about religion, and geography takes up the second half of the book. The last few chapters were on money, salaries, expenses and saving. Tomorrow I'll start with geography, a subject I enjoy very much. Polish: Time for a monthly round-up. Since March I spent about 25 hours on Polish, 60% listening, 40% reading; half of that was before I joined Team Żubr. Listening is a hit and miss; some topics I understand well, others not so. Reading seems a bit more difficult; sometimes I understand a few sentences in a row, but most of the time I only get the gist and miss the details. It occurred to me that one book per quarter won't get me anywhere, I should rather read one or two per month, in particular since I'm too lazy to do any intensive reading or other vocabulary study. I know how well extensive reading works from my experience with Thai, but it requires a lot of time. Alfred Szklarski's Tomek w tarapatach is fun to read, but certainly not politically correct anymore. The main character sneaks on a ship he thinks is headed for Europe but ends up in Africa on a trip to hunt big game for a museum in New York. Edited by Bakunin on 28 April 2013 at 10:33am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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