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Languid language learning (Team Advanced) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3644 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 65 of 129 07 May 2015 at 4:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, the next week or so has come and gone, and I did not study French at all. I have
done a lot more Swedish through Duolingo and Anki, and I am working my way through this article on teenagers' sleep cycles in German. It is pretty hard (having to look up every word >.> ), but thanks to Readlang it is doable, and it is getting easier. Other than that, however, nothing doing. I very much want to pick Tintenherz back up, but I have another essay due on Sunday, and feel guilty for not working towards it. 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 66 of 129 11 May 2015 at 10:34am | IP Logged | ||
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The essay has been handed in! Hooray!
Now I only have one more to go... In my breaks from the essay, I have managed to get quite a lot of duolingo Swedish done, partially because I've been able to test out of a fair few skills. I also returned to my much neglected German tree doing only ONE practice lesson a day. Weird useless Duo phrases aside, I quite liked the German course, but returning to it has made me see how much I have really lost. Oops... But, lost German or no, I finished reading the Schlaf-wach-rhythmus article, and have imported it to ReadLang to read again at a later date. And I really will read it! This week will be a very busy one for more. I have three/four social outings, two nights at work, an exam and a funeral to attend. In addition to this, I want to make it to the Swedish Language meetup on Wednesday (I didn't go last time). However, there are other things I want to achieve this week, I guess I'll list them here in the vague hope that it'll make me feel accountable or something. I REALLY WANT TO:
Listen to at least ONE full hour of Alles Sense! while reading along BUY and LISTEN TO Låt den rätte komma in while reading along Do thirty pages of French reading Do at least ONE hour of French listening/watching Continue with duolingo for Swedish and German Do at least ONE FSI Swedish lesson Build a French Anki deck Decide which language I go for next Wow. I feel slightly overwhelmed already. To be honest, the Swedish meetup might not be viable, as it happens the night before my French exam, a time slot which might better be used studying French. I'll have to check whether this is the translation or commentaire exam, and decide accordingly. All of the things I have down for French can be included as exam revision, which is good. I got really good results last time from reading just a page or two of French while making a note of the genders of words when they came up, so I'll be doing that again as I read. I will also try to share the things I am learning with my boyfriend (whose level of French is fast surpassing mine, no matter what he wants to think about this). I started watching Hero Corp after reading Expugnator's log, but it is hard. I can't find the French subtitles anywhere, not to mention that the events are whacky even for me, which doesn't help alleviate my confusion. I read that there is also a comic, I might look for that. Finally, that thing about a new language. Yeah, so I am feeling that Wanderlust burn. I am wise enough, at least, to avoid another Germanic language for the moment, and I'm thinking of taking up either Portuguese, Catalan or Spanish. To be honest, Spanish has never really been on my list of languages to learn, and that is saying something. There is something about Spanish that has never really appealed to me. BUT, my mother dearest has expressed a desire to learn Spanish, and I think that I would like to learn a language with her (not least to make sure she keeps on the straight and narrow with it!) The instant my mother wants to do something, it becomes 100% more attractive to me, and so Spanish has become a viable option. However, she has also expressed a desire for Portuguese (although she thinks it would be easier to learn Spanish first and then perhaps go from there). I am way more for Portuguese, for no apparent reason. Finally Catalan. I had never really thought of or wanted to learn Catalan until encountering a Catalonian(?) on the train from the airport last year. This is a shame, as my school has a Catalan department, and I would have been able to take beginners lessons in my first year. N'importe. My father has also mentioned going to Barcelona, which I have been advocating for for an age, so Catalan would even come in useful. Oh, decisions, decisions. 3 persons have 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 67 of 129 11 May 2015 at 12:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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Good luck with the exams and dealing with the wanderlust! I simply can't handle more than two foreign languages at once, which keeps any wanderlust at bay for me, but everyone's different and some manage to juggle several.
I had the opportunity to study Italian at high school, but at the time I wasn't interested; how things change! I'm not too sad about it, especially considering that I didn't exactly learn loads in my years of French. And at University I could have taken free language classes as a supplement to my studies, but again I wasn't interested... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4954 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 68 of 129 11 May 2015 at 11:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Awesome plans, Elenia! It all seems a lot of fun. Don't worry about not understanding much from Hero Corp, the plot is really meant to be somewhat nonsensical. It doesn't get any better in terms of plot. As for language skills, it did help me a lot. There is a lot to progress from the time you start to understand enunciated language to the time you have several native speakers talk at once and you can still figure out what is going on, and the key to that, at least in my case, was being exposed to different genres of text in different ways (with or without subtitles).
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4797 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 69 of 129 12 May 2015 at 12:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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Good luck with the exam!
How hard is Tintenherz, please? I've got a copy on my bookshelf, I am looking forward to it but unsure when approximately could I be ready to enjoy it. Héro Corp is probably one of the toughest shows you can choose. Sure, it will teach you a lot but the format of short (or even very short) episodes isn't too learner friendly, in my opinion. Should you find a transcript online, could you please share a link? I'd like to review the language used. Perhaps I'll have watched the last series by then. It is less catchy than the first one for sure. Should you wish to study Spanish with your mother, it is a great language to learn. So much stuff available, lots of free stuff available (from beginner podcasts to tv series on official sites), lots of culture and travel destinations. Portuguese and Catalan are fine choices as well though. Barcelona is fortunately a trully bilingual place, even those natives whose hearts are closer to Catalan can speak Spanish and are very friendly and helpful towards a Spanish learner. But as a Catalan learner, you might be a total star there. Hard choice. Garyb, are you sure those university classes would have helped? Perhaps they could have just extinguished your interest in learning languages at all. Many people get disappointed there. 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 70 of 129 12 May 2015 at 1:30pm | IP Logged | ||
Now I want to check out Hero Corp! I watched the first episode a while ago but didn't follow it up. I'm also finding H a good challenge despite being a silly show. I can see why longer episodes are more learner-friendly, but personally I prefer shorter ones just because I rarely have time to sit and watch a full 50-minute episode. 25 minutes is a lot easier to fit in. They say the best language learning plan is the one you can manage...
Maybe, who knows, they might have increased my interest or might have just discouraged me. Same with the Italian I could have done at school. I still can't decide whether my high school French did more good or more harm. I could have learnt the equivalent of those five years in a few months of self-study, and I'm sure it gave me bad pronunciation habits that I've had a hard time fixing. On the other hand however, part of what motivated me to start self-study in the first place was already having this background rather than beginning from scratch. If I had never studied it before, it would have seemed a much more daunting prospect. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4797 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 71 of 129 12 May 2015 at 2:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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25 minutes are good, 8 (or 5 or even 2:30) are not, in my opinion. Really, the logic
of the person planning Héro Corp's structure (which switches between all those options mentioned) surpasses even my wildest imagination. 50 minutes are great for an immersion session but I see how you can just not have enough time. 70 (or even 80!) minutes, which appears to be the Spanish standard, that is a hell. I don't have that much time, I am getting tired, I don't feel like spliting the episode in two or three sessions usually though. It is too much. And, somehow, I believe the 50 minute long chunks are a better frame for story pacing when it comes to tv series. Not everything needs to be a series of three four hour long movies like the LoTR (full version). Yeah, who knows. There is a czech saying "Po bitvě je každý generál", which could be translated as "Everybody is a general after the battle". Just in case it isn't clear (I never know when it comes to translating proverbs and sayings), it reminds us that it's too easy to judge the past and the decisions made. 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 72 of 129 12 May 2015 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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@garyb - Thank you! I'm hoping making it a Romance language will make it easier on me. I'm not sure how serious my study will be. I'll just dip my toes in first with something a little gentle, to see if I can
manage to go the whole way. I completely understand what you mean about those first five years of French. Even while going through them, I knew that I wasn't learning much of use at all. I also had an awful teacher for the first three years of my secondary school career, who put us behind even when compared to other secondary school students. @Expugnator - My main problem seems to be when people are mumbling. I am fine with quick speech, but naturally the less words are enunciated, the less I understand. I'll rewatch the episodes I have already watched, and see if I catch more the second time around. @Cavesa - I just had a quick look through a random chapter. I managed to get the gist, just about. But I'm not really in any position to judge, as my German is almost non-existent and the vocabulary I do have is very patchy indeed. I have an English copy, so I'll be counting on parallel reading to make it through. The only equivalent to the Czech saying that I can think of is 'hindsight is 20/20'. I don't know how widespread it is, as I haven't heard it often, but I quite like it. --- Hero Corp is harder than anything else I've watched although, admittedly I haven't watched much. It's even harder than the French two cop films I've seen (Mea Cupla and B13), and those very French clip shows like Caméra Café and Bref. I'm wondering if I should take a step back and work my way up to it, or if I should plough on. I really agree with all the discussion about time - longer is usually better for me, but I am always unwilling to commit a whole hour to just one activity. So, instead of watching an hour of Les Revenants, I'll watch two or three episodes of Hero Corp. It takes more time in the long run, but I guess I feel like I have a little bit more control this way. Since yesterday's post I have watched another short episode of the Swedish series on Parkour. Each episode is in the region of 11/12 minutes, and I tend to watch them two or three times. Ideally, I watch through with subtitles, taking note of the words I don't understand (this can take a while, as there are many). Then I will watch again with subtitles, not pausing. Then I will try without subtitles. Often a phase will get skipped, so I didn't look up the words when I watched it through yesterday. I will do so today, however. I have also listened to about forty minutes of Låt den rätta komma in. I haven't managed to buy it, but I currently have a free trial with Storytel, a site with both audio- and e-books. This could be a great resource in the future, if I ever get a tablet, but I think I will have to wait until that moment before taking on a monthly subscription. For German, I have listened to about half an hour of Alles Sense but I can't find my German copy of the book! I have been reading along with my French copy instead, but it feels less useful than it otherwise could be, which is a shame. I have done nothing specifically for French, although reading along to a German recording was quite a good mental workout. Unfortunately, taking note of the genders of words while trying not to lose my place in the recording was too hard for me to do. My exam is commentaire, so I think the best thing for me to do is go over some grammar rules and the dreaded genders, as they always bring me down. Thankfully, if I do a practice commentaire, that will be the kind of thing I have to pay attention to. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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