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suzukaze TAC ’15 > EN/SPA/GER/FR/SWE/JP

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
43 messages over 6 pages: 1 2 3 46  Next >>
Ccaesar
Triglot
Groupie
Denmark
Joined 3554 days ago

84 posts - 94 votes 
Speaks: Danish*, English, German
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 33 of 43
18 January 2015 at 4:51pm | IP Logged 
Oh now I am a bit jealous, sounds like a perfect degree ;-) Especially when it makes one
completely aware about what works and what doesn't work (That's a major advantage), good
luck with it, I know that German can be tricky, but once you get the grasp of it it's a
piece of cake ;)

E grazie mille, sono grato per aiutare :D

Edited by Ccaesar on 24 January 2015 at 7:03pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Jeffers
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4668 days ago

2151 posts - 3960 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German

 
 Message 34 of 43
24 January 2015 at 8:28pm | IP Logged 
Hello Suzukze, and welcome to Team Français. Are you on other TAC teams as well?
1 person has voted this message useful



suzukaze
Triglot
Senior Member
Italy
bit.ly/1bGm459
Joined 4361 days ago

186 posts - 254 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, English, Spanish
Studies: German, French, Swedish, Japanese

 
 Message 35 of 43
24 January 2015 at 9:03pm | IP Logged 
Ccaesar wrote:
Oh now I am a bit jealous, sounds like a perfect degree ;-)

Not perfect to find a job, but yes it's useful for language learning XD

I think having some knowledge in linguistics, phonetics and the like saved me a lot of time…and money too. When I began to learn languages by myself I saw so many sites advertising and selling miraculous methods to become fluent in a very short amount of time or boasting special techniques which are actually very well known by those who study languages at academic/professional level.

Ccaesar wrote:
I know that German can be tricky, but once you get the grasp of it it's a piece of cake ;)

I hear that all the time! Apparently you get a sort of epiphany at a certain point…too bad I’m quite far from experiencing that :/

My biggest problem with German is vocabulary. At university we focused a lot on grammar and a small vocabulary base makes it hard for me to access native material. Spanish was taught pretty much in the same way, but due to the similarities between Italian and Spanish, I could progress more easily.
1 person has voted this message useful



suzukaze
Triglot
Senior Member
Italy
bit.ly/1bGm459
Joined 4361 days ago

186 posts - 254 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, English, Spanish
Studies: German, French, Swedish, Japanese

 
 Message 36 of 43
24 January 2015 at 9:15pm | IP Logged 
Jeffers wrote:
Hello Suzukze, and welcome to Team Français. Are you on other TAC teams as well?

Thanks Jeffers! It's suzukaze by the way :P Feel free to use my real name, though (Sofia). Unfortunately it had already been taken when I signed up so I had to pick a more elaborate nickname.

Yes, I'm on a bunch on different teams XD

I haven't updated my log yet because for the most part of January I didn't have a computer to use. Both my laptop and desktop computer broke within only a couple of days from each other and I was almost completely cut off from the Net. I got a new laptop now and my desktop computer was repaired so I'm slowly catching up.

Anyway the teams I'm in are: Advanced English (I'm co-mod), Advanced Study Group, East Asian, French, German, Romance, Scandinavian, Spanish. There's definitely a lot on my plate this year :)
1 person has voted this message useful



patrickwilken
Senior Member
Germany
radiant-flux.net
Joined 4292 days ago

1546 posts - 3200 votes 
Studies: German

 
 Message 37 of 43
25 January 2015 at 11:08am | IP Logged 
suzukaze wrote:

Ccaesar wrote:
I know that German can be tricky, but once you get the grasp of it it's a piece of cake ;)

I hear that all the time! Apparently you get a sort of epiphany at a certain point…too bad I’m quite far from experiencing that :/

My biggest problem with German is vocabulary. At university we focused a lot on grammar and a small vocabulary base makes it hard for me to access native material. Spanish was taught pretty much in the same way, but due to the similarities between Italian and Spanish, I could progress more easily.


I've been working on it for 2.5 years and have yet to have any sort of epiphany. :(

You are smart to work on vocabulary as that is the thing that will stop you accessing native materials. My grammar is still weak, but I can watch movies with good understanding now, and am getting better at novels. Reading helps a lot, but you have to do a fair amount of it.
1 person has voted this message useful



PeterMollenburg
Senior Member
AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5235 days ago

821 posts - 1273 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: FrenchB1

 
 Message 38 of 43
25 January 2015 at 5:16pm | IP Logged 
Salut Sofia,

C'est un beau nom italien. Bienvenue sur l'équipe de français pour 2015. Bonne chance
avec tes souhaits pour cette année. Depuis que j'ai lu des études de langues à
l'université comme les tiens, j'ai encore envie d'étudier les langues à l'université.
Cependant je trouve ça difficile de justifier si je peux apprendre les langues seules.
Mais pour un travail en langues c'est beaucoup mieux je crois. Tu as aimé l'expérience
Sofia d'étudier les langues à l'université? À ton avis il vaut mieux étudier les
langues seuls où avec l'aide d'un cours de langues à l'université aussi?

Welcome to the French team for 2015. Good luck with your wishes four this year. Since I
have read about language studying at university like yours, I again feel like studying
languages at university. However I find it difficult to justify if I am able to learn
languages alone. But for a job in languages it's a lot better I believe. Did you like
your experience Sofia studying languages at university? In your opinion is it better to
study languages alone or with the help of a university course as well?

Monsieur le premier ministre Peter (ou Péteur si tu préfères) Mollenburg (ou
Mollenbourg si tu préfères)
1 person has voted this message useful



Ccaesar
Triglot
Groupie
Denmark
Joined 3554 days ago

84 posts - 94 votes 
Speaks: Danish*, English, German
Studies: Italian

 
 Message 39 of 43
26 January 2015 at 11:28am | IP Logged 
suzukaze wrote:
Ccaesar wrote:
Oh now I am a bit jealous, sounds like a perfect
degree ;-)

Not perfect to find a job, but yes it's useful for language learning XD

I think having some knowledge in linguistics, phonetics and the like saved me a lot of
time…and money too. When I began to learn languages by myself I saw so many sites
advertising and selling miraculous methods to become fluent in a very short amount of
time or boasting special techniques which are actually very well known by those who
study languages at academic/professional level.

Ccaesar wrote:
I know that German can be tricky, but once you get the grasp of it it's
a piece of cake ;)

I hear that all the time! Apparently you get a sort of epiphany at a certain point…too
bad I’m quite far from experiencing that :/

My biggest problem with German is vocabulary. At university we focused a lot on
grammar and a small vocabulary base makes it hard for me to access native material.
Spanish was taught pretty much in the same way, but due to the similarities between
Italian and Spanish, I could progress more easily.




Still sounds like a fantastic degree :P
Regarding the trouble with vocabulary; If you happen to speak a Scandinavian language
it is an advantage as well, but the main thing about German is that it uses the
function of an item as the name of it I.e. ein Hefter(Weil es heftet)

In connection to that remember that verbs can be used as substantives (and adjekives
too) which boosts your vocabulary up to three times ;)

Something I can recommend that worked for me, is if you have an interest such as
playing
a game, you could try looking for a German speaking community/Clan and so, because the
y will certainly expose you to a lot of new words whilst being able to explain them,
it worked wonders for me :)

Edited by Ccaesar on 02 February 2015 at 2:24pm

1 person has voted this message useful



suzukaze
Triglot
Senior Member
Italy
bit.ly/1bGm459
Joined 4361 days ago

186 posts - 254 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, English, Spanish
Studies: German, French, Swedish, Japanese

 
 Message 40 of 43
09 April 2015 at 10:05pm | IP Logged 
@PeterMollenburg @Ccaesar Excuse so much for the belated replies! Had some health troubles to deal with (more about that soon…).

PeterMollenburg wrote:
Since I have read about language studying at university like yours, I again feel like studying languages at university. However I find it difficult to justify if I am able to learn languages alone. But for a job in languages it's a lot better I believe. Did you like your experience Sofia studying languages at university? In your opinion is it better to study languages alone or with the help of a university course as well?


Hey Peter!
You raised some interesting points, let’s see:
1) Do you need to have a language-related degree in order to have a language-related job? The short answer is no, not necessarily. It depends on what your potential employer wants; to some having a degree is a must, to others a proven language knowledge will suffice.

It also depends on the type of job you are interested in. Translators, for example, are required to have a high proficiency in one foreign language and know one or more fields. If you have a degree in, say, computer engineering and understand very well a foreign language you could start doing translations in that field.

If instead you want to work as an interpreter, you should attend a university. There are a series of techniques to be used when interpreting and you cannot really learn them on your own.

Jobs in commercial export offices do require language knowledge, but at the same time you need to be familiar with some economic/marketing and/or accounting principles. You could take a degree in those fields and add the language knowledge later. In Italy we have university courses where you take classes in both those areas. It wasn’t the kind of course I attended, but it’s probably the most popular here.

2) Did your like your experience?
I absolutely loved it! I hated both middle and high school, but university was a completely different thing. I liked my professors, got along well with other students, attended several interesting classes….it was a wonderful learning environment. I like to exchange opinions with other learners, but so far I haven’t been able to re-create on-line that bond I had with some of my professors. This is probably what I miss the most about my university days.

3) Go solo or go to university?
I know that some universities teach language classes in a very “old fashioned” way, i.e. grammar and learning by heart long lists of words/verbs/you name it. Luckily that wasn’t my case, otherwise it would have been terribly boring :P

We did obviously study grammar, but we did several other activities as well: dictation, translation, vocabulary work, literature, group presentations, summaries and so on. I discovered new ways to practice a language, as well as the effective learning methods. I think this is the reason why I was able to create good self-study plans.

On the one hand studying alone means you can go at your own pace and choose what to do, it certainly gives you more freedom compared to university study where you have to respect exam deadlines and exercise regularly (I don’t know about universities abroad, but I did have home works. Every. single. day). On the other hand you must have a strong motivation in order to keep you going and be able to tackle diversify your activities if you want to reach a high proficiency in all the different areas (speaking, reading, writing…). I noticed that for self-learners it may be harder to have a realistic grasp on their knowledge. I saw videos of certain so-called polyglots whose knowledge would fall in the intermediate level at best.

There are a lot of different factors to consider so it’s hard to go for a yes/no answer. As far as I’m concerned, if I had the chance to attend university again, I would take it. I hope what I said makes sense XD

Ccaesar wrote:
Regarding the trouble with vocabulary; If you happen to speak a Scandinavian language it is an advantage as well

Unfortunately my level of Swedish is not high enough to be useful for German. But I think that improving my German will help when I will start to study Swedish intensively.

Ccaesar wrote:
Something I can recommend that worked for me, is if you have an interest such as playing a game, you could try looking for a German speaking community/Clan

I love video games! I did try to read German forums in the past, but it wasn’t really easy due to the colloquial language used. I’ve recently started to follow a German blog about design, though. The author writes short articles, very clear structures and vocabulary. I also started to read children books. It’s not much, but dabbling with some native material is better than nothing ;)


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