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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6264 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes  Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 129 of 137 19 October 2013 at 8:21pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I'm studying Japanese! I received a bunch of Japanese books and they made me
realize that I shouldn't let my Japanese (studied one year ago) go to waste. First order of the day: relearn the Kana :-( Oh, and some more book updates: Book 27: "Achieve and Succeed" by Ian D. Major Book 28: "Motivation" by Dave Ball Book 29: "Mindful Meditation" by Mitchell Daly Now that I wrote some Kindle books myself, I also discovered the beauty of free Kindle book promotions... Alexandre, do give an update please :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5175 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 130 of 137 24 October 2013 at 1:51am | IP Logged | |||||
I've been too busy professionally to study new languages (or work on German, for instance, which is on my list of things to focus on), but since I work with languages, perhaps that might be of interest to some. I've mentioned before my interest for interpretation and in the course of the last few weeks, several things have happened on that front. For those who aren't familiar with interpretation, it's the branch of translation that deals with oral translation (as opposed to written translation). It's generally split into two main categories: simultaneous (or conference) interpretation, where the interpreter speaks as he or she is listening, and consecutive interpretation, where he or she listens to the speaker who then pauses to allow the interpreter to speak. First of all, a number of contracts for simultaneous interpretation lined up. In my city, there can be long periods without contracts and they tend to occur in clusters at certain times of the year so, eager as I am to improve, I take every opportunity to gain experience. This allowed me to work with (or meet) all of the other interpreters I'd heard of working in the city. I understand work conditions vary from country to country: in Western Canada, it's customary to work in pairs where we relay each other (usually for 15-20 minutes), translating both into French and English. Most local interpreters are French A/English B, with very few English A's. Having several contracts in a row allowed me to identify some aspects I needed to focus on, such as maintaining a clear and pleasant tone, getting out of rough spots where I lose focus, hit a blank or otherwise fail to understand what was said, etc. I try to keep a list of things I want to continue to focus on, such as ensuring a smoother transition from one phrase to the next -- I don't really have issues finishing all my sentences (sounds simple enough, but it's really easy to start something and jump to something else without ending the previous sentence properly; it's also hard to make it look like that didn't happen when that's exactly what the speaker did), but I noticed I sometimes complete an idea or a phrase, and pause before I start the next idea and it'd be nice to offer a smoother transition for the listeners. I'd also like to match the speaker's tone and mood more closely. Something else to look for in the future. On a more general note, I'm happy to say I've developed a good rapport with all the other interpreters, which is really important when you are doing stressful work in really small quarters with a colleague. The second big news is that my work duties as a translator for the government have been expanded to include interpretation, and I am sometimes called to take on interpretation assignments along with the interpretation department. This has allowed me to try other types of interpretation apart from simultaneous interpretation, such as court interpretation and, soon, consecutive interpretation and chuchotage (when you whisper into a person's ear). More to come... 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6264 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 131 of 137 03 November 2013 at 7:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I just came back from the 8th UNESCO Youth Forum in Paris, a conference with 500 young
people from 163 countries. I was there to represent TEJO and to promote language rights, language diversity and protection of minority languages. Even though the conference itself was mostly in English and French, I had opportunities to practice other foreign languages with the other participants as well. Sometimes I'd also listen to speeches in the Chinese or French interpretation when they got too boring ;-) All in all, a great opportunity to see UNESCO workings from the inside. While in Paris, I also finished two more books: Book 30: "Vado verso il Capo" by Sergio Ramazzotti A compelling story of traversing Africa from Algeria to the Cape, using only public transportation. Book 31: "Astérix chez les pictes" The new Asterix. Now I signed up for the 6 Week Challenge with Japanese, but I'm not going to be studying intensively; I'm working on my Chinese course website instead. Edited by Sprachprofi on 03 November 2013 at 8:06pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6697 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 132 of 137 03 November 2013 at 8:30pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Arekkusu, it is really interesting to hear about the work of interpreters in Western Canada! Where I work (Poland mostly), almost all interpreters are Polish As and work in two-way booths. My language combination is Polish A, German B, English B/C (graduated with English B but wouldn't work into English outside of the Polish market), French C (still working on this one).
I have also had several interpreting contracts in a row recently (which, along with translation assignments, has left little time for new languages), and I try to keep a list of things I want to continue to focus on in my interpretation :). Right now I want to work on a calmer and quieter delivery - my German-language boothmate tends to speak loud, which in turn makes me also speak louder under the pressure, which makes her speak louder etc. - you can only imagine the effects :). I also want to improve my range of vocabulary in the interpretation into German, especially verbs (my choice of verbs in the booth seems to be quite narrow, and even though this might not be a problem as such, I would like to have more flexibility in my lexical choices). Congratulations on your expanded government contract and good luck with consecutive and chuchotage! I really like consecutive interpretation but I am not a big fan of whispered interpretation. I am wondering what your preferences are. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5175 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 133 of 137 03 November 2013 at 9:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
Hi Julie!
I have one colleague who tends to lower his voice after longer periods of work, and this is part of how I noticed that I used to do the same and my voice would just sound tired after a while, so I've been careful to avoid this and maintain a steady voice -- strong, clear, but not overpowering. I think I'm doing much better with this now. On the other hand, I have another colleague who speaks really loudly (to the point of sometimes hurting my ears when sitting next to her in the booth). I don't know how the listeners manage to adjust...
At this point, most of experience has been simultaneous and it's what I'm most comfortable with at this point. It's hard to evaluate other types of interpretation. Some of the consecutive work I've done would appear to be simpler after a few times, and I think these would be less stressful. Large conferences can be as stressful as they are exciting, but a less stressful assignment now and then can be a nice change :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5175 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 134 of 137 05 November 2013 at 4:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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A tip today!
If you have an iDevice, you can get the device to read texts for you, in several languages. This is great is you want to listen to texts being read to you while walking, driving, biking or commuting. Or any other time. In Settings - Accessibility, activate "Speak selection". Whenever you select any portion of text (in most apps, from what I can see, but I like to use Pocket to store texts), the option "Speak" will appear. When selected, a series of languages will be listed and you can choose the appropriate one. I believe you need to activate the corresponding keyboard for the language to pop up as an option. You can also regulate the speed at which the text is read and it's possible to download a higher quality version of the voices you use. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6264 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 135 of 137 02 December 2013 at 6:14pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I traveled a lot in the past weeks and it hasn't been good for my language studies. Also,
I have somehow lost a lot of my motivation. I decided to make www.learnyu.com my main priority for the rest of the year. That being said, I just discovered an interesting way to practise Chinese: watching Coursera lectures. Specifically, I have signed up for "People and Networks", which is offered by Peking University, and I'm amazed that I'm understanding most of the content and I even managed to answer quizzes correctly. :-) Coursera has added some content from various international universities now and I can recommend these as a way to practise languages while also learning about a new subject. https://www.coursera.org/ 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6264 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 136 of 137 01 January 2014 at 10:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, that was a disappointment. My original goal was to do 700+ hours of language
study this year and read 50 books (30 in languages other than German/English). Instead, I only managed 643 hours of language study and 32 books (22 in languages other than German/English). The only book I was able to finish reading in December is an Italian comedy book called "Amici Ahrarara". I'm still actively reading a Chinese-German parallel book on Chinese history, "The Now Habit", "Quiet: The power of introverts" and "La Infiel" (a novel about a Spanish woman who is drawn into a Muslim terrorist cell). I shall make an effort not to start so much at once next year. Anyway, final list of books: Book 1: "B.A.f.H. - Das Neueste vom Bastard Assistant" by Florian Schiel Book 2: "Το ταξίδι στη χώρα που δε βλέπουν τα μάτια..." by Αντώνης Καλογήρου Book 3: "Io Alessandro" by Steven Pressfield Book 4: "L'Irak du silence" by Marie de Varney Book 5: "Ramsès - le temple des millions d'années" by Christian Jacq Book 6: "Oni ne pafas en Jamburg" by Mikaelo Bronŝtejn Book 7: "搭车去柏林" by 刘畅 Book 8: "Babel-17" by Samuel R. Delaney Book 9: "Without Reserve" by Abigail Reynolds Book 10: "Eine Billion Dollar" by Andreas Eschbach Book 11: "La ABC de tempoplanado" by Lothar J. Seiwert. Book 12: "Spanisch für Büffelmuffel" Book 13: "Le porte di fuoco" by Steven Pressfield Book 14: La Cultura Aymara Book 15: La oralidad fingida: descripción y traducción Book 16: "How to Improve Your Foreign Language IMMEDIATELY" by Boris Shekhtman Book 17: "Overhearing Film Dialogue" by Sarah Kozloff Book 18: "Aventuroj de pioniro" by Edmond Privat Book 19: "Vieni via con me" by Roberto Saviano Book 20: "Io sono nessuno" by Wainer Molteni Book 21: "Notti africane" by Kuki Gallmann Book 22: "Κανάλι 35" by Λίλυ Εξαρχοπούλου Book 23: "自杀" by Edouard Levé. Book 24: "Les voisins" by Claude Meunier and Louis Saia. Book 25: "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" by Robert A. Heinlein Book 26: "Il profeta" by Khalil Gibran Book 27: "Achieve and Succeed" by Ian D. Major Book 28: "Motivation" by Dave Ball Book 29: "Mindful Meditation" by Mitchell Daly Book 30: "Vado verso il Capo" by Sergio Ramazzotti Book 31: "Astérix chez les pictes" Book 32: "Amici Ahrarara" by Fichi d'India Final language hours: French: 172h Chinese: 128h Greek: 38h Swahili: 4h (shameful...) Italian: 67h Dutch: 22h Japanese: 35h Spanish: 58h Portuguese: 22h Indonesian: 74h Others: 23h I still haven't completely recovered my motivation yet, but I am participating in the January Tadoku challenge for a start and I have set a general goal of wanting to work a lot on my conversational ability until the Polyglot Gathering in June. Still figuring out the best way to translate this goal into something actionable that I will actually adhere to. Also, aiming for 700+ hours and 50 books again seems reasonable. 2014 My log for the next year is at http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=37745 Edited by Sprachprofi on 03 January 2014 at 3:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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