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Languid language learning (Team Advanced) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4995 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 49 of 129 05 January 2015 at 5:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Good luck for 2015, fellow Advanced teammate! Your French goals, methods and taste in TV shows seem similar to mine, so I'll be following with interest. London seems like a great place to learn languages, lots of people of every nationality, and in particular I hear it's full of French, Italian and Spanish. However, I'll agree that making friends with the French is easier said than done ;).
I'm up in Edinburgh which isn't quite as big but it's also very international and we have various language meetups which I attend fairly regularly. There's a French group, an "all languages" event (in practice mostly Spanish, French, English), and a tandem organisation at the University. I find them helpful and also good for socialising and meeting people, even if they have their limitations (not many native speakers). Of course, a lot of the contacts and friends I've made through them have been people who were only in town temporarily, but that's how life in an international city goes! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3644 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 50 of 129 05 January 2015 at 5:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thank you, and good luck to you, too! With regards to the international friends, they're always good to have! They provide more travel opportunities than the one's who live close by ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4995 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 51 of 129 05 January 2015 at 5:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
That's true :) I've had a couple of great trips to Italy where I met up with some friends who I originally met here, and this year I'm hoping to visit a few more places where I know people. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3644 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 52 of 129 07 January 2015 at 2:22am | IP Logged | |||||
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It's dawning on me, slowly, how incredibly busy I am going to be. University is, strangely enough, the least of my worries. Classes should take up no more
than ten hours each week: barely anything at all. But then there are the other things (almost all of which are to do with kids. I make terrible choices.) Firstly, there is my new job, which is only 7.5 hours a week on Thursdays and Saturdays. Then, there are extracurriculars: knitting, which is usually two hours on a Wednesday, and archery which is one or two hours on a Friday. Then there is the little boy who I teach French to on Saturday mornings (along with my niece) for 45 minutes. Then there is the little girl whose mother I met with before the holidays started, whose daughter I will be looking after for an as-yet unspecified amount of time each week. And then my sister called to ask if I would pick up my niece either on Monday's and Fridays. As I'm a sucker for anything to do with my niece (who is definitely my little princess), I said yes, as long as I'm able. Besides, she offered to pay me, which is very nice of her as I think we both know I'd do it for free. And since I live in a trou perdu, as I've definitely mentioned before, travel will be eating up a lot of my time. So where, in this suddenly-very-busy schedule of mine, will I find time for languages? I have decided that I should aim to do each of my activities at least once per week. So, for Swedish, that means I should spend a little time with FSI, a little time with Låt den rätta komma in and, wherever possible, a little time with SVT each week. In other news, my first Swedish purchase of the year will be the audiobook of Låt den rätta komma in. I think it will be good for me, and besides: I'm worth it. For German (which has been kicked up a notch), I will be dividing my time between my three books. I have decided that each week I will try to read a chapter for Tintenherz, which will see me finishing the book sometime next year, and at least five pages of Alles Sense - but hopefully that will increase naturally as the going gets smoother. I will also try really, very hard to get back to Studio D. When I feel I have more time, I will try to L/R Alles Sense. Again, it will be good for me. My first French purchase of the year will be Der Hobbit for the read-a-long. This is a book that I've wanted to read in German for a long while (well before I actually tried to start learning German), so this will be exciting. Finally, for French I will have my three hours of classes per week. Besides that, I will try to study grammar three times a week (this includes simply reading the Glanville Price* reference, and doing exercises in the workbook. I will also watch booktubers and youtubers in my downtime. I'll try to read a good amount of Carpe Jugulum each week. I'm reading it on ReadLang, so trying to divide it up will be difficult, but perhaps reading ten-fifteen percent each week will be a good place to start? The other activities, which I mentioned in my Goals & Methods post (n.48), will have to take a backseat, and I will try to do them where and when-ever I can. The modules I am taking this semester, apart from the compulsory French, are all Literature modules. However, I will be studying Brecht, Faust and a module on French and German literature and film. So even when I'm not actually studying the languages, I will still be in contact with the culture. Yay! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3644 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 53 of 129 08 January 2015 at 10:32am | IP Logged | |||||
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And the first seven days of the TAC are over. Coming late to the party and subsequently spending most of my time writing a pesky essay on Alice Walker and Virginia Woolf means that I have only managed a paltry 84 mins of study time.
This includes: 36 mins of watching booktubers on YouTube 23 minutes of Grammar study (Grammar is hard!) 10 minutes of reading (Carpe Jugulum on ReadLang) 8 mins of ReadLang flashcards & 7 mins of Anki* Next week will definitely be better. Although I have little chance to really get stuck in with French before this Sunday (I have work and two essay deadlines), I will restart at Uni next week, so commencing at least two hours of French in French per week. (My English French lecturers don't insist on French in class as much as the French ones do). I will also have more free, non-essay time in which to delight myself in the gardens of French Grammar, and so forth. *I have written before in this log that I don't like to have too many reviews on Anki, as I don't have an app version of anki. Being tied to my computer, not able to do much else, for more than ten minutes doesn't appeal to me. In the interests of the TAC and my goals this year, however, I will look at upping the anki ante. -- EDIT:Oh! And those other languages I study, what about them? Well, I haven't done much for Swedish, just read a few pages more from Låt den rätta komma in and some Anki. In both Swedish and German, I am engaged in constant rereading. So, I have probably read the first 20-25 pages of this book at least ten times, but I know that I have not read past page 101 in Swedish. I only count two rereads: the first which is extensive, and the second which is intensive. The extensive first read goes quite quickly, but only when I can be bothered. The second, intensive read, is a lot more slow and painstaking, and I usually can not manage more than half a page to a page at a time, depending on how many look-ups I need to do. There are also two more sweeps, which do not figure on my excel spreadsheet: the third sweep, where I read everything from the beginning, using my intensive notes to enrich my understanding, and going beyond them a little to test it 'in the wild', and the fourth sweep where I add new vocabulary and interesting sentence constructions to my dedicated Låt den rätta komma in anki deck. German got a little more work put in. I did a few repetitions on anki. I also read the first chunk (pp. 5-11) of Alles Sense!extensively, and a teeny, tiny bit more intensively. I also read more Tintenherz. As I have the book in both English and German, I don't do the painstaking intensive annotations that I enjoy so much. Instead, I read a section, first in English, then in German. This is really helpful in boosting my understanding, as it gives me a rough idea of what a word should mean, and so I'm figuring out the meanings of more words. However, I don't think this will be much help in terms of retaining and actually learning new words as it's far more passive then annotating. Therefore, while this is definitely a far swifter reading process, I doubt it will really help up my reading speed in the long run. Edited by Elenia on 08 January 2015 at 10:58am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3644 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 54 of 129 10 January 2015 at 12:28am | IP Logged | |||||
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Today was much more productive than yesterday. I moved on to my essay on Surrealist cinema, for which I had to reread half of André Breton's Manifeste du Surréalisme to find
a quote. To make the best of the exercise, I read aloud, trying to keep my accent as French as possible. I can produce a fairly plausible* French accent if I really try but I tend to steer clear of doing so because it feels as though I am taking the mick.** I figure if I practice reading aloud to myself, it will feel and sound more natural***, and my English accent may even begin to fade away! Other than that, I did the usual anki, and watched some YouTube videos by BookTuber Bulledop, whose taste in books is not quite my cup of tea, but who makes up for this by being interesting, fun and pretty. I also read grammar, in between writing my essay, procrastinating on writing my essay, and waiting for my elderly laptop to load things up. I don't think I've done anything today for Swedish or German. Also, I feel like I need to kick Esperanto off my 'studies' list. I don't know who I think I'm fooling. *Well. I've been told on the few occasions when I've broken it out that it's 'perfect' - in particular by a French girl, who also could not stop laughing at my impression of her people. **This is because I usually am taking the mick. Sorry, France. You're just so easy to poke fun at. ***By which I mean, I will be able to do it for more than five seconds before I feel ridiculous and start laughing. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3644 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 55 of 129 11 January 2015 at 11:48pm | IP Logged | |||||
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So, I noticed yesterday that the link to my blog in my profile information is not actually the link to my blog. Silly me. Oh well.
In other, better news, BOTH ESSAYS ARE FINISHED. That is something in the region of 4,500 words written in six days, so I'm feeling pretty good about everything. (Usually, I would try to cram that amount into two days. This new system is much better). The most disappointing thing is that, for one of these essays, I had to read about four or five articles/essays originally written in French, but which I could only find in English, for some reason. Oh, the pain. I also, amazingly, read another 40 pages from my English book, which means I am 134 pages down, 704 pages to go. Excuse me while I sob. Now that I have written the essays like the fabulous human I am, I am not sure how to celebrate: French translation, or a Swedish documentary I've had my eye on for a while. Choices, choices. Why can't I do both? On the language front: I read a little bit more from my Swedish and German books last night (not Alles Sense!, though), but that is it. I haven't even done any anki for them. Now that I have time though, that may change. I have done a minimal amount of French reading today, and some grammar practice, I think (I am a good girl.) Also, some anki, but only a few minutes worth. Although I say I have time, I don't really. My new manager wants me to do some overtime so I can learn the ropes, and a peek at one of my modules for this semester (the one on Faust) shows an almighty amount of materials, many of which I'm assuming I'll have to read (the horror!) Although I have many misgivings about this course, the list does also include Master & Margerita so I'm going to push foolishly forward with it. Oh, the things I do for Bulgakov.. Speaking of Bulgakov, I once bought Master and Margarita in Russian, like the fool I am. It sits on my shelf, taunting me with the fact that I can't read it. One day, Bulgakov. One day. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3644 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 56 of 129 14 January 2015 at 12:56am | IP Logged | |||||
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Je me souviens de quelqu'une qu'à dit qu'elle essaiera de lire 10 ou 15 pour cent de
son livre chaque semaine - alors, c'était moi! Ben, j'en ai lu davantage... un tout petit peu plus... okay, je suis maintenant à 50 pour cent. Oui, oui, c'est clairement une bonne chose, sauf que j'ai consacré vraiment trop de temps a le lire, et maintenant je suis tellement crevé que j'ai presque me mettre à pleurer dans mon cours de traduction aujourd'hui, sans aucune provocation. D'ailleurs, j'ai raté mon cours orale hier! C'est dommage :/ Otherwise, I have done little in French today, my classes being the obvious exception. I had translation and commentaire, and they passed without me bursting into tears, which is always a plus. Otherwise, I bought Der Kleine Hobbit yesterday for the read-a-long, and read a tiny amount. I also read a tiny bit more of Tintenherz. And finally, I dusted off Swedish FSI for a good little while! And I read the original Faust legend. Well, most of it. (In English, but still). So I'm not doing too badly. That's enough from my poor, exhausted brain. The weather and Pratchett have exhausted me, I'll post the weeks time breakdown tomorrow. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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