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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4472 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 177 of 196 02 July 2014 at 7:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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Nancy, I am just checking on you. I hope you are well.
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| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5679 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 178 of 196 03 July 2014 at 3:33am | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah, i hope you're still with us Nancy ;)
@napoleon, don't feel bad about the French course, the French course is much drier than the Spanish one. The format of the Spanish course in general is much better and varied than the French FSI, in my opinion. Not that that makes one any easier, i feel like the Spanish course is much more thorough than the French course. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| napoleon Tetraglot Senior Member India Joined 4830 days ago 543 posts - 874 votes Speaks: Bengali*, English, Hindi, Urdu Studies: French, Arabic (Written) | Message 179 of 196 04 July 2014 at 12:15am | IP Logged | ||
Hey there, Nancy!
Tell me about it. I've been doing the French course on and off for the last 4 years. :) In any case, it still is one of the most comprehensive courses available for French. I'll just have to bite the bullet and finish the course. :) Edited by napoleon on 04 July 2014 at 12:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nancydowns Senior Member United States Joined 3736 days ago 184 posts - 288 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written) | Message 180 of 196 09 May 2015 at 5:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hello Everyone! :)
It has been nearly a year since I posted here. I have not forgotton this site, for sure, or all of the help I have received! Last summer, my life changed, and I ended up with quite a bit of responsiblity at work that I wasn't prepared for! So I had to choose where to spend extra time, so that's why I stopped posting here. But I kept meaning to start posting again! SO toaday, I am finally just doing it. I have not progressed as far as I should have this year in my studies, but I am still moving forward. In Arabic, I finished "Mastering Arabic." I have changed my mind about that book. At first, I didn't like it, but now I realize it was very good. I will write up a post sometime on my suggestions on how to use it. I am still trying to memorize all of the vocab and to get all of the things it taught into my permanant memory, but I am finished with the exercises in the book. In Spanish, I have worked on lots of different things, but Lang-8 is my favorite right now. I am learning lots from my mistakes! :) I am listening to TED talks to try to get my listening comprehension up just a tad. So in all, this year has been one of small progress, but yet moving forward! Thanks to all here who have helped me in the past! I have not forgotton your help and suggestions! As my life levels out a bit (getting more used to the added responsibilites at work and living in a new place), I am having more time for languages, and so I realize I want to renew my posting here because it does help. Thanks so much to anyone who reads! :) Edited by nancydowns on 18 May 2015 at 1:38pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| nancydowns Senior Member United States Joined 3736 days ago 184 posts - 288 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written) | Message 181 of 196 18 May 2015 at 5:47am | IP Logged | ||
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So I have decided that keeping up to a particular schedule or reporting in a certain way here on my log is not my style! : ) I am an
INFP, if that means anything to anyone, and so I know that structure is what I lack, so I try to force structure upon myself, and then I fail! So instead of not posting here for almost a year, I am going to approach my log in a more freestyle sort of way so that I can enjoy it more. I love the interaction here with other language learners, and it's wonderful we are all so different. I am learning what is working for me. I do love grammar, so I tend to dive head first into it, and then I find I am sinking in the deep end. So I decided to enjoy the shallow end for a little longer now. So in Spanish, my main work recently has been writing on lang-8. That is my only form of output at the moment. So I have been just writing extemporaneously. It is neat to see how things just flow out now in full sentences. Getting the corrections is awesome because I see my most common errors. Right now, my most common errors in posts that I just write off the top of my head without taking time to think are the ser vs. estar confusion and using the masculine for myself. So for ser vs. estar. I am not sure why I am having such a hard time with these. When I take the time, I get them correct, but just off the top of my head, I choose ser too often. So this is something I am going to be working on. My opinion about why I use the masculine to refer to myself is because the verbs end in -o in the first person present indicative. So when I use that conjugation, the -o ending follows naturally for me. So that is another thing for me to work on. I started watching youtube videos about knitting and crocheting in Spanish. I would get so frustrated trying to understand videos, and so I decided to watch something that I already know a lot about, so it won't be so frustrating. Plus, being tutorials, the people tend to speak a little slower, and the vocab is repeated quite a lot. One thing I have realized in transcribing a video and posting it on lang-8, I have trouble hearing the verb "hacer" and it's variants. So it's nice to notice that and try to pay better attention to when they could be using that verb. I like taking a specific conjugation and writing out multiple sentences, kind of drilling it in. These things have helped me a lot in Spanish. I have also been reading some easy children's books. Arabic hasn't been so easy on Lang-8. I need to write more there, but I am putting it off... so I just need to buckle down. I know how to conjugate verbs for first person present and past, so I should be able to write about a number of things. So I am going to purpose to post a few things this week to get corrected in Arabic. There are hundreds of Arabic speakers trying to learn English on lang-8, so your entries get corrected right away and multiple times! So if anyone is thinking of writing there in Arabic, do it! You will have lots of people anxious to correct your Arabic. I have been listening to "Language Transfer" in both Spanish and Arabic. I am nearly finished with Spanish, but Arabic takes several passes. I do listen multiple times to the Spanish, just to be sure I am absorbing what he teaches. I like his method. The Arabic is Egyptian, which I don't want, but I am just going ahead with it because I think it is a good method, and it won't hurt me too much to learn a little of the Egyptian dialect. I would really like to learn the Levantine dialect eventually, but like Mihalis says, many Arabic speakers have a Pan-Arabic accent, so it's okay for me to have that also! : ) Hope your studies are going well, too! Edited by nancydowns on 18 May 2015 at 5:49am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BOLIO Senior Member United States Joined 4472 days ago 253 posts - 366 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 182 of 196 18 May 2015 at 4:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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As I live and breathe.... Lazarus or The Great Phoenix has returned!!!!
Nancy, it is so good to have you back. I really enjoy your posts and your ability to attack two languages at the same time. I have considered learning Arabic as my next language. The different dialects do cause me some hesitation. ALthough the seven centuries of overlap with Spanish due to the Moors conquering Spain is neat to me on a language front. However, I have a Russian community here where I live and can find many people to speak with in the future. And like Arabic, Russian sounds beautiful to me. We shall see. Anyway, it is a better place with you here. I am glad you are back. BOLIO 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| nancydowns Senior Member United States Joined 3736 days ago 184 posts - 288 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written) | Message 183 of 196 19 May 2015 at 12:55am | IP Logged | ||
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Wow!!! Thanks for your kind words, BOLIO! I am definitely neither of those! But I am glad to be back posting. I have missed it, and as you know, I have
done some reading here from time to time this year. My new responsibilities with work, and moving to a new place with all new people and weather to get used to has made me kind of crazy this year! So posting here seemed like too much of a commitment. However, I now realize that was stupid. I don't have to commit to a certain way of posting and at a certain interval, and I also don't have to feel bad about posting here if I haven't progressed as far on my languages as I would have liked to. We are all just people, and we are all different. But I missed the connection I had with others here when I wasn't posting. By the way, I read about your trip to Greece! That is sooo exciting! I would love to go there! Arabic is a challenge, but it is so fascinating. It is like uncovering new treasure as I learn the language. I have not progressed so very far in it, but what I have learned has been great, and it makes me want to keep going. One of these days when I get myself more together, I am going to make a post on suggestions for beginner Arabic learners, just some of my experience and what has helped me. One thing I need to do is buckle down and do some memorizing. The plurals and verbs are not regular and require memorizing, and I haven't done that yet. Memorizing is my least favorite part of language learning, so I put it off and off and off and off and off! : ) Good to have a chat with you! ¡Buena suerte y adelante! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| nancydowns Senior Member United States Joined 3736 days ago 184 posts - 288 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written) | Message 184 of 196 23 June 2015 at 2:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's been over a month since my last update, so I guess it is time.
SPANISH I have not been doing anything terribly structured in Spanish for awhile now, just kind of winging it! : ) However, I just started back with FSI. I went waaaay back because now that I understand some of the concepts better from "real world" experience, I would like to drill them again. I am just doing the audio for now, so I can take it with me when I walk. My favorite thing to do is post on Lang-8. I am getting now where I can write 100 words much more quickly than before. I used to look up every single verb to get the right conjugation, but now most verbs that I know, I am able to just write without looking up. I wonder if this is like EMK's idea of cheating and consolidating. It seems to be working because verbs that I checked a couple of weeks ago, I can just write off the top of my head. I have found a few people to interact with there, and I love getting the extra practice in the comment sections and learning about different countries. I tried translating some texts from online articles, but I think I drove some of my friends there crazy because the English texts were difficult, so it was hard for them to correct my entries. One problem that I have noticed is that adding in the subjunctive has messed up my present indicative. I was used to either the a or e sound being prevalent for a certain word, so now that I am adding in the other sound, sometimes I put the subjunctive ending in for the indicative. Hopefully more practice will help me remember. I am also reading. Small books to begin with, and now working slowly on a big book. I want to write some in Spanish about the books I am reading, so I hope to do that soon. I have no idea how to judge my level, but I am still in the beginner phase. I think some extensive reading and some vocabulary work could push me into the intermediate, but not in speaking. I still haven't bitten the bullet to start any kind of language exchange/tutoring. I know I need to, but since I don't HAVE to speak Spanish, I keep putting it off because I want to up my level a bit. So that means I'm still at zero with speaking abilities, and I have zero confidence with speaking, even in English, especially in informal situations. I have to speak in front of people all of the time, but informally, I never know what to say. As an INFP, the T-shirt I need is "Small talk is the bane of my existence." I hate sitting there wondering what to say, but let me get started on some far off topic that I enjoy, you can't get me to shut-up! : ) ARABIC I just realized something the other day. Even though I love Arabic, I am afraid of it. : ) I posted something on Lang-8 quite awhile ago, and I got a BUNCH of corrections, but everyone wrote the comments in Arabic, and I had no idea what they were saying or why they changed what I had written... so I haven't posted a single thing since. And even in my studies, I pick up Spanish and put off the Arabic. Spanish is like a friend now, and Arabic and I are like two women in a social situation who don't know each other, and so we keep sizing each other up. Well, I am completely intimidated by Arabic, and she just sits there enjoying the fact that I am intimidated by her. Every so often, she flashes me a smile and makes me think that I could approach her again, but then she just walks off, leaving me standing there. HA! So I am going to try, starting July, to do a 4 week challenge. For the month of July I will study only Arabic. I will allow myself 1 post per day on lang-8, just to keep the Spanish juices flowing. But the rest of the time, it's only Arabic. I just want to get past this point of being afraid of it because I will never advance if I don't get over that. Question: If I do start writing some posts in Spanish, should I keep these two languages in the same log, or should I start separate logs for the two? Edited by nancydowns on 23 June 2015 at 3:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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