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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5209 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 121 of 129 01 July 2015 at 2:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've not been to Portugal but it seems to have a reputation as a cheap destination, more so than Italy. But personally I've not found Italy too expensive, the flights there are pretty cheap outside of peak seasons (I've usually paid 20-40 euros each way) and accommodation and food costs are reasonable.
I've not visited most of these places, as much as I'd love to, so I'm just going by what I've heard. There are famous lakes in the North like Como, Garda, and Iseo. For seaside places, Cinque Terre looks beautiful and I hear the beaches on the islands and in the South are great: places like Sardinia, Sicily, Puglia. My only Italian seaside experience was at Riccione, but it's considered more of a party spot and is looked down on compared to "nicer", less polluted beach locations. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3858 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 122 of 129 03 July 2015 at 10:15am | IP Logged | |||||
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@garyb - Yes, this is what my friend said. She was there for four days and only spent 70€, despite going out every night. Another friend also mentioned Sardinia, which I hadn't really considered before, I'll definitely check it out. I went to Italy on a school trip about eight years ago, and we went to Lake Garda. It was absolutely gorgeous. It's the largest lake, and it sometime felt like being by the sea. We visited a few different places, some of them very touristy. There were a lot of Germans there, and I think I heard about as much German as I did Italian! But I would definitely recommend it to you for whenever you're able to go.
--- So, in an announcement à la Cavesa, I have my provision progression outcome, and my provisional results. I will be graduating with a 2i (unless they decide to change my grades drastically in the next five days). I'm feeling more relieved than happy: I could and should have gotten a first, but I failed modules in first and second year and didn't retake them. Oh well! This is a good result, and it means I can think deeply about which universities I want to do my masters in without panicking so much about whether or not I'll be accepted. That aside, there's no big news. I didn't really do any of the things on my list, apart from adding a new grammar concept to my list. This one's pronouns. I'm okay with pronouns, but I do still have some points of confusion, particuarly regarding direct and indirect objects. I have learnt and forgotten this several times before, so everything is feeling half familiar to me. Hopefully this time will be the time that it really sinks into my head. I also finished another chapter of Tintenherz. I hadn't read this chapter at all in English, so it was quite nice being able to follow the main action, although quite a lot was lost on me. In my last post, I said I often feel like German A0, and it is very easy for me to feel this way. But this is the problem with my chosen learning method (of absolutely no method at all). It is very hard in the beginning, with no course to hold your hand or give you a rough idea of where you stand and what you know. But then you take a few steps back and you realise that you have made progress and can actually do a lot more than you thought you could. So, even though while I was reading I felt very lost in places, looking back on it now I realise that my progress is quite amazing considering I have never gotten more than two/three lessons through a course and don't study vocabulary very diligently. The lions share of my time 'studying' German is spent battling my way through texts way above my level (sometimes even in English - I'm thinking about the biochar article, here!). So even though it is sometimes kinda painful, and definitely slower than using a course, I guess I'll continue on this road for a little while longer. Other than that, I have been playing around a lot with games and podcasts. Big Fish Games have offerings in Danish, German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese, Russian and Swedish, as far as I can tell. They give a 60 minute trial for every game, and so I've played two Swedish trials already. I'll probably buy one, at some point, although maybe not this month. I'm going to experiment with German and French too. My brother is playing one of their games in English, and he said he would even play it in French, which is a result! So I'm hoping to give him some French practice that way. Otherwise, I have a cute German game called Bibi in der Drachenwelt. There isn't really much text to follow throughout the game, so I'm not sure if I'll ever buy the full version. But it is cute! Finally, podcasts! I've been trying to find and listen to Swedish podcasts this past week or so, with varying degrees of success. I've found a few which seem like I'd really enjoy listening to them, although sadly only one seems to still be going on. Some are more easy to understand than others, although none of them are actually easy for me. I can't make out a lot of words still, just enough to follow the gist of some of them. I might try that Listen-Write thing that was mention a while a go, just focusing on one aspect of the language to see how I go and to see if it will help improve comprehension. I also listened to a children's story, 'De Förälskade Bergen', and I understood all but a few words in that - a similar comprehension level as I get with Mumin. Children's shows are usually more clearly narrated and enunciated, I find. The simpler vocabulary also helps! I've downloaded Sveriges Radio app, but also acast which is in English, but which ha at least some Swedish podcasts as well. You have to search for them, though. I also found Swedish podcasts on Podcasts.nu and a list of podcasts on brapodcast.se. It's a nice way for me to get in some casual practice when I don't want to do anything else. If I find interesting podcasts, it helps even more. The ultimate goal is to find something like 'Invisibilia' but in Swedish, but that might be a bit optimistic... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3858 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 123 of 129 11 July 2015 at 5:09am | IP Logged | |||||
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Back! I spent a good hour or so reading the forum, despite being exhausted and having a headache. I have very little to report, which is why I'm posting now.
All in all, I managed only a pitiful half-morning's worth of Swedish speaking, if even that. There are two reasons for this: I am often not able to say what I want to/what I would usually say in English AND I... can't really understand my boyfriend when he speaks Swedish. He is Scanian born and bred, and although his accent is probably more svenska than skånska, I still have a lot of difficulty understanding him and often have to get him to repeat himself two or three times before I can understand enough to guess. How awful. The solution to this, I think, may be to get him to prepare some recordings for me where he is just talking like he would every day. I do also have recordings of him reading aloud in Swedish, but this is definitely different. As regards output, well, I will try to make it to more Swedish meetups, and I will also make it a point to Skype more with him in Swedish. Simply saying 'let's Skype in Swedish' isn't good enough, as we tend to switch languages after a while. I will have to ask to speak for a set time (maybe just ten or fifteen minutes to start). I am still torn about whether I should look deeper into italki language partners. They would be useful for casual conversation, but I feel like my time would otherwise be better spent with a tutor. But then, money is a problem. I managed to catch up with myself in Inkheart and so fill in the gaps of my understanding, but I have been avoiding reading further as I am filled with dread over what might happen next. I'm only a few chapters in, the usual dread shouldn't be quite so debilitating yet! Other than that! Despite the disappointing Swedish speaking experience, I have some good news to report on the comprehension front! The Swedish podcasts have become easier to understand, although sound quality and volume is very patchy. I followed an entire, 53 minute long podcast about 'systerskapet' while on the plane, and I got most of the main points despite the sometimes poor quality of the recording, the constant poor quality of my headphones and the even more constant background noise of the engines. Also, while in Sweden, we visited with a friend and his three year old son. Being three years old, he addressed me almost entirely in Swedish (although he is prone to saying 'thank you' and 'nunow' instead of 'tack' and 'nu'). And I UNDERSTOOD IT ALL. Never quick enough to respond, unfortunately, but I'm taking baby steps - quite literally. Well, that's me out. I have done so little for French as for it to not count, and no Dutch at all, apart from showing off my extremely limited phrasebook vocabulary. EDIT: Fixing some very silly mistakes. Hopefully I've caught them all, but I probably haven't... Edited by Elenia on 13 July 2015 at 5:55pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3858 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 124 of 129 13 July 2015 at 2:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I've been feeling a bit stagnant these past few days. I want to know all of my languages to an extremely high level now, I want to start a new language, but I don't want to do any of the thing I usually do. Don't want to read any of my books. Don't want to play any of the games (that much). Don't want to watch any of the videos - no, not even Mumin. So I stagnate.
I've been continuing to ingest Swedish extensively. The podcasts are still mostly comprehensible and interesting. I've also consecrated a few hours to looking up a site like fictionpress.net with a lot of Swedish content. (The only one with any promise so far is novell.nu. I have yet to check it out, but it looks to be more of a Jukepop than a fictionpress, and all I want is to be able to read ridiculous quantities of silly teen romance). I have messaged a little with my boyfriend (in Swedish), thought about writing and recording a response to a podcast on loneliness (in Swedish) and neglected everything else. What does this mean? It means this: mini goals time. So, without further ado, this week I will:
So, this is a long list. I am not yet exactly certain how I'll fit everything in, seeing as I need to devote a large portion of my days to doing absolutely nothing at all. Tomorrow, I will be dress shopping for my graduation, and helping a German friend with her dissertation. Then on Wednesday, I'll be graduating (scary!). I will hopefully have time for language study on either Thursday or Friday, but I have also promised to visit my nan. Due to tomorrow and wednesday being taken up (and my feeling sluggish and awful today), I will give myself until next week Wednesday to complete these tasks. Also, a note about the wanderlust: I have been pretty good at avoiding dabbling too much in other languages recently, especially as I never seemed to settle down when I was younger. But I think I need a break from thinking 'I should study this, instead', or from worrying how this will negatively impact my other studies. Better me mucking about with Romanian than not doing anything at all. And if I want to learn more Dutch, then I might as well learn more Dutch. No use forbidding myself from studying it because it'll mess up my German and my Swedish if all I'll do when I should be studying German and Swedish is pine away for Dutch... I don't know. I'm feeling poorly and I'm sleep deprived. Here's to hoping this all pans out. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6705 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 125 of 129 13 July 2015 at 3:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
I suspect (and hope) the kid spoke Swedish to you, not English? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3858 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 126 of 129 13 July 2015 at 5:48pm | IP Logged | |||||
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@Iversen: Yes! My goodness, what a silly mistake, thank you for alerting me to it. Although understanding the English of an English three year old can be quite an achievement, too!
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| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3858 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 127 of 129 17 July 2015 at 9:52am | IP Logged | |||||
It's now Friday (probably). Let's take stock. Which of my glorious goals have I completed/worked towards?
So, I listened to a podcast on books in translation, which was very interesting! Unlike many people on this forum, I am* a literature student, and appreciate translations not simply for what (if anything) they can bring to my learning. Otherwise, I have read about four/five/six/seven/more? chapters of teenaged romance. It's hard to tell how much I have read, it tends to blur together. I don't mind, I'm reading for quantity, here. I also read a bit of one aloud to my boyfriend, but had to stop when they started talking about a girl who was so completely attractive to the narrator that even her scream sounded like the song of a nightingale. I still haven't written that podcast response, but I'll do so, I promise! Since Monday, I have also finished playing a game in Swedish. Yay! And I am signed up to go to the Swedish Language Meetup on Wednesday. I have done nothing for French, because I am a bad girl! But my grammar books are still right here beside me, in bed, disturbing my sleep by beeing hard and pointy. So, that's got to count for something, right? And I guess I did start looking for a podcast (and even thought I found one!) but decided a quarter way through that I didn't like it and didn't want to listen to it any more... back to thre drawing board for that one, then. I have not read any more of Die Legende der Drachenritter. But I HAVE watched the first episode of Bibi Blocksberg, a cartoon about a little witch. I watched in German with English subtitles. I would probably not have been able to understand the episode without the subtitles, but I could tie the words I heard to their individual definitions most of the time. The language was fairly clear and simple. I believe the version I watched was a fansub, so the timing was off, with a slight delay between speech and text which gave me a little time to try to understand a bit on my own. I'll watch more, but I will also try to find something else because Bibi is an annoying witch! I haven't really done anymore Dutch, although I just read and, for the most part, understood a Dutch friends Facebook status about getting her grade for her masters thesis and going on holiday to France (probably). There is so much Dutch floating around on these forums, I should probably make more of an effort to read what I come across. Dutch aside, I have flicked a little through my TY Catalan course (if anyone could help me out finding audio for that, it would be much appreciated. I am eternally grateful and much obliged to M. le PM for helping me with the Dutch audio!), and opened the portuguese and Italian courses on Duolingo. I will dabble still further, if I have time, extending my wings into Romanian and Polish, if at all possible. I have also thought about a possible trajectory for possible future romance languages. I would start first with Italian or Catalan (probably depending on travel plans) and then ease myself into Portuguese. Romanian comes on the side of all this. I think it is probably distant enough to not really pose a problem to any other romance study I am doing. I DON'T think I could take more than one A-level Romance language at a time. I'm not sure why I feel so confident in my abilities to keep this glut of Germanic languages all separated and playing nicely with each other. As soon as I find out the reason behind this (probably foolhardy) way of thinking, I will try to transfer it over. Well, that's about all, except for the fact that I officially graduated on Wednesday! How terrifying! *was! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Elenia Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom lilyonlife.blog Joined 3858 days ago 239 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto | Message 128 of 129 23 July 2015 at 2:13am | IP Logged | |||||
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A repost of my post on the .org site. I will not be weighing in on the debate of whether to post here or there, partly because I am hoping for the best possible resolution to the situation, which would be an amicable agreement with the administrator, the terms of which are enough to keep all parties happy, and partly because I have enough time on my hands to keep up with both.
So, without much further ado, this is how well I did with last Monday's goals:
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