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Evilado TAC14 - Fr 2ème(+ Es & Zh) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| evilado Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3788 days ago 64 posts - 82 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 49 of 60 13 August 2014 at 12:24am | IP Logged |
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Spanish About 70% done with La invencion de Morel, not my cup of tea really(not
that impressed with what I´ve read from Borges either, it may just be that style), but entertaining from time to time. I think I will start el otoño del patriarco next, should be closer to what I usually like. Mandarin Had my first conversation in a couple weeks this morning, definitely need to keep practicing, but did not have any "Must use English to express this idea" moments, just vocabulary stuff. Duolingo is a pain sometimes, I wish it didn't have so many bottlenecks, where I absolutely have to pass this one annoying lesson to progress. I end up avoiding, then memorizing the lesson without ever learning it. Otherwise, staying on top of memrise is always a lot of work, FSI 5.2, cc101 ES2L20. And Green Phoenix, the 500-word level book I started is quite difficult. Lots of phrasing and grammar points that make me re-read passages, whereas at the 300 level I had to look up some words but could burn through a book pretty quickly. Plus the story is weird and creepy, the second CB title where a key component of the plot is man sees woman, goes nutso obsessive over woman without having spoken to her. I look forward to finishing this one and moving on to other titles in the series. French Steaming towards the end of my first Jules Verne novel like an American train crossing a shaky bridge! Chapter 29. Harry Potter is mostly on hold until I finish this and a some pleasure reading in English. Watched a few movies, and most notably, played Heavy Rain in French. I´m not much of a gamer, but this is a really good resource. I have to listen to dialogue and use that information to advance in the game. Edited by evilado on 13 August 2014 at 12:24am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4691 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 50 of 60 13 August 2014 at 8:23pm | IP Logged |
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I have also found that gaming in French is an excellent way to practice and even build some vocabulary. The game I played (Lego City Undercover) also has optional subtitles, but only in the spoken language. Sometimes the long passages just flowed over me, but other times it was great to hear a lot of spoken French and really get what was going on. Solving puzzles was interesting since I had to understand every word in most cases. About 6 months later, I'm playing the game again, and it's interesting to see how much more I understand.
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| evilado Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3788 days ago 64 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 51 of 60 20 August 2014 at 6:10pm | IP Logged |
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Spanish Finished Morel. It got better towards the end, but still not that
amazing. Seems better as an idea than the execution. Not much else, watched a couple documentaries. Mandarin Conversations felt nice and fluid, I feel like my process for getting new vocab to active vocab is working well. And I did an exercise using directional complements that sort of blew my mind. I was seeing things like 出来,下来,上来 all throughout Green Phoenix and the literal meaning just didn't make any sense. Now that I know the extended meanings, I feel like re-reading just to see how much I was missing. French Started listening to some Quebecois podcasts, and wow, that's a different accent. I can't believe I haven't heard more of it, because I definitely would have noticed all the extra r sounds. Finished my first Jules Verne, that was a blast. Highly recommended. I'm thinking about 20k leagues under the sea next, though I think it is a good deal longer. Other than a mountain of new boat vocabulary(most of which I don't know in English either), it was rather easy to read. Watched some Buffy, some documentaries, etc. Most of my favorite podcasts have been on summer vacation since July 4th, so my regular podcasts are not updating. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| evilado Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3788 days ago 64 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 52 of 60 03 September 2014 at 10:38pm | IP Logged |
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Did some travelling, came back with ~1500 memrise words to do, been fighting that ever
since. Starting to plant again, looking to get back into a rhythm with Chinese, probably leave Spanish as is until after Montreal. Spanish Nothing much to speak of, reading, some documentaries. Still a lot of Diane Uribe, this time the history of Persia. Mandarin Said mountain was almost all mandarin. Conversation was much better, my tutor even mentioned the stark improvement in my flow, but I need to get back into making some forward progress with new material instead of barely keeping up. French Mostly podcasts, I have about a month before I am supposed to go to Montreal, thinking about switching over to some FSI + quebecois podcasts for the next month. The new semester started back up, so I probably have a much busier schedule coming up this fall. Which usually means more procrastinating about schoolwork and more language study. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| evilado Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3788 days ago 64 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 53 of 60 19 September 2014 at 5:02pm | IP Logged |
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Spanish Finally finished 1491, quite interesting, but rather disjointed. I kept
hopping around the Americas for each section. Took me over 2 months to read it, which is usually too long. Been putting off starting a new work of fiction, might do another from the Breve Historia series. I still do my podcasts, but haven't had a conversation in a while, planning on starting that back up regularly after Montreal. Mandarin Done with cc101 lower intermediate, on to full on intermediate. Haven't done any FSI, duolingo, or Chinese Breeze in a few weeks, but have been doing homework assignments from my tutor and having a great time in my lessons. French Back on the FSI train, 13.3. Plus the weather is a bit cooler, and I can start walking to lunch again. Watched several movies, lots of Futurama, listened to dozens of podcasts of varying quality(recent favorite is Point de vues on rzoweb, a movies balado). Had two hour-long sessions with two different quebecois tutors, feeling a bit rusty but no major issues. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| evilado Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3788 days ago 64 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 54 of 60 13 October 2014 at 11:47pm | IP Logged |
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Wow, been almost a month since my last update, and while I've been studying, it's been
less disciplined and more free study-type activities. Spanish Finished the series on Persia by Diana Uribe, really top notch stuff, currently deciding between Japan and The Middle East. Read a story by Roberto Bolaño in the New Yorker and reminded me that I want to read 2666 at some point, so I think I ´ll start on my copy of Nocturno de Chile and see how that goes. Mandarin Memrise has been a killer lately, just a ton of new vocab from cc101, italki, and old HSK lists coming up at the same time, but it´s amazing how much it helps. I´ve been working through Intermediate Season 1 in a less disciplined fashion, should probably make a schedule of when I want to be done with it. Other than that, I ´ve watched 15 episodes of the drama Palace, which isn´t great but is decent listening practice and I had a dinner in Chinatown in Montreal where I was the only person at the table who could speak to everyone else at the table, with everyone knowing some combination of English, French, and Mandarin, but not all three. That was genuinely difficult, and I made tons of mistakes, but had fun. French Just got back from 5 days in Montreal, and French was much more useful than I expected. Not that most of the conversations couldn´t have happened in English, but they started and stayed in French most of the time. As usual, transactions and shop situations were a bit confusing for me, but overall it was an amazing trip enhanced greatly by me speaking French. I even got my fiance interested in reactivating her long-dormant French. Also listened to tons of podcasts and read a couple hundred pages of Harry Potter throughout my travel, so it was a fun, productive, rewarding trip. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| evilado Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3788 days ago 64 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 55 of 60 22 October 2014 at 9:54pm | IP Logged |
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SpanishListening to the series on the Middle East, and it's quite
disappointing. Persia was fantastic, so maybe the individual series on Syria or Egypt would be a little better. She's great at picking a story and expanding on it to explain a time period or idea, but the scope here is so big that sometimes it's just one story for 400 years of Ottoman rule. Read 100 pages of Nocturno de Chile, and wow, it's way better than I remember. I suspect it has a lot to do with having read more Bolaño and taking my time with a relatively short book, but without a doubt, all the crazy-on sentences flow a lot better in the original. I might try another shorter work before launching into 2666, but I don't want to lose this enthusiasm for his style. Mandarin Vocab, vocab, and more vocab. FSI 5.5. I'd like to finish FSI Units 5 and 6 by the end of this year and finish Season 1 of Upper Intermediate, then focus more on grammar and reading for 2015. French Nothing much these days, got 170 pages left in Harry Potter 4, not sure if I want switch it up and read something different before starting the next in the series, but it is a lot of fun and I am enjoying this entry a lot more than previous books. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| evilado Diglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3788 days ago 64 posts - 82 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 56 of 60 06 November 2014 at 3:58pm | IP Logged |
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Spanish Finished Nocturno de Chile, flat out amazing to read. Wish I had more
Bolaño on hand, but I already have a stack of other books and decided to pick up La tía Julia y el escribidor by Mario Vargas Llosa. So far a bit slow, but it´s also from 1977, and I´m used to his newer works, so we´ll see. The Middle East was boring me, so I switched to Japan and have been sprinkling more science podcasts into the mix for variety. Mandarin There are highs and lows in interest level, and I´m in a low at the moment. For French and Spanish, I can just focus on fun stuff, but for Mandarin, there really isn´t much fun stuff at my level. Just trying to stay on top of reviews and listen to some cc101, plus weekly tutoring, but I don´t see a big resurgence of effort in Mandarin until December when school wraps up. French Finished Harry Potter et la coupe de feu, which I quite enjoyed. It´s the first in the series that I didn´t groan at throughout, and had a better sense of the overall universe. Still not something I´d be reading in English, but fun and exciting nevertheless. Cracked open Harry Potter et l'ordre du Phenix, but haven't read too much. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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