Zenmonkey’s ongoing log (Language Learning Log) Language Learning Forum

Zenmonkey’s ongoing log
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Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log

11 messages over 2 pages: 1 2 Next >>

zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6358 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 1 of 11 09 September 2014 at 11:07am \| IP Logged
	I'm back after a long hiatus from the forum. Still slowly learning. Focus: German - moving from B2/C1 to a more solid C1 territory Work on vocabulary, active grammar, reading/writing. Current activity: Anki - restarting German set and my Langenscheidt BGV Busuu - open unfinished modules Television, movies, etc... Listening - focusing on Der Anschlag by Stephen King (original title 11/22/63) which I have as a Book on CD and reading version (German) and as an eBook (English). German - Caught up on Anki - 30 minutes of Busuu Hebrew Restart of alphabet learning Some resources I saw and am noting here. Will look into them: Cartoon Hebrew - Learn to read Hebrew, Mnemonic based system for learning the alphabet using it as a study guide and pulling words to feed Anki to create a basic deck Learn the Hebrew Letters The Hebrew Alphabet Learn the Hebrew Alphabet I am mostly using Ivrit, a book. Some youtube videos Hebrew Alphabet Overview Hebrew Alphabet Part 1 Hebrew Alphabet Part 2 Hebrew Alphabet Part 3 glad to be back Edited by zenmonkey on 09 September 2014 at 5:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6358 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 2 of 11 10 September 2014 at 12:31pm \| IP Logged
	hebrew Still learning the alphabet. Reviewed the first videos and started watching a few others. YouTube delivers all sorts of quality - doesn't matter. Just need to spend face time and familiarize myself with the characters. Began to sound out a few words. Completed Anki but buried all the cards for the names of vowels. Secondary to reading the vowels at this time. Yesterday, I installed the language pack for windows 8 and saw how difficult it is to write without a proper keyboard. Should order one. Preferably that works both with my ipad and PC. Hmmm. german Completed cards. (These are a bit of a load right now as I'm attacking a new set of 1000). Whenever I find the card ambiguous, especially with verbs, I look up the definition and try to add a finer definition to the card for clarity. I'll likely add sentences for those cards that stick, like I've done in the past. I'm driving to France for 5 hrs or so today so I'll have plenty of time to listen to my book on CD. 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6358 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 3 of 11 10 September 2014 at 1:21pm \| IP Logged
	Whoever invented the Hebrew keyboard should be shot. final nun next to vav? Really? Thanks. Anyway - using this image when I get mixed up: http://opensiddur.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Pages-from- Biblical-Hebrew-Tiro-Manual_Page_1.jpg The typographic styles between my virtual keyboard and my learning material leave me full of doubt. I'm sure it will be evident down the road but the added complexity was one of the frustrations when I started this last time. 1 person has voted this message useful
tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4513 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish	Message 4 of 11 10 September 2014 at 1:56pm \| IP Logged
	Oh yeah, when I am typing Hebrew I hate the layout. It's impossible to see from a distance too. Urgh. 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6358 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 5 of 11 11 September 2014 at 1:02am \| IP Logged
	Thanks, tarvos, I guess we will need to get used to writing without vowels - of course, my ASSIMIL book takes that a step further and quickly moves to cursive writing. Which isn't quite the writing style of the Ivrit book - I'm sure all that will become clear in the future - its a bit of detective work - and I'd rather concentrate on learing now. Hebrew Completed ASSIMIL lessons 1 & 2 first pass. Having started with learning the characters elsewhere this was easier and faster. Redid a refresher on the Anki cards at a rest stop. German Listened to the first 7 parts of Joyland by S. King in German. I'll try to NOT buy the English version and only work off of the German translation. This was about an hour or more - consider it a first pass - I get the general story but miss enough words to need to go over the written text. French I won't be writing much about French study because as one of my core languages I use it daily. However, I'm always in need of working on the finesse - vocabulary and writing - so every once in a while I'll do an entry. Tonight, on this long drive, I decided to try to get the few words I keep missing on "La Ballade Des Gens Qui Sont Nés Quelque" Brassens/Tarmac - It's a great song! A few of the phrases that I missed (slangish): "diable vauvert" - far away "il s'en flattent mazette" - they think they are great gonfler leurs baudruches" - inflate a balloon "vous n'aviez tiré du néant tous ces jobards" - pulled from nowhere these simple spirits Edited by zenmonkey on 11 September 2014 at 1:15am 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6358 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 6 of 11 11 September 2014 at 11:43am \| IP Logged
	Time to log. Small comment on coming back to the site. I remember the days when coming back to find my log it would be buried on page three of the log list - today it was fourth or fifth. I guess the site is dying a slow prolonged death. Hope not. "News of my demise were exaggerated." But it is disappointing to see that the cost has gone up and issues haven't really been resolved or updates applied. enough on that for now looks around and thinks about choices Back to language stuff. A little bit of boasting here - I spoke with my 11-year old yesterday and asked her how her day at school had been. She was excited to report her first day of Latin. And, she said, it was disappointing! She thought she would be learning a different writing system like Greek or Etruscan (her words). I told her she could work on that on her own - she thought about it and said - maybe Greek, we don't have Etruscan material! Her other languages for the year are French (mother), German (fluent), English (advanced). She was disappointed with the level of English as she felt it was too basic and told the new teacher she needed a challenge. The German teacher knows her, so she was told that she will not be able to be the "helper" this year - but since they are getting an assistant, she will be able to get more material on her level. Anything else, like Spanish, we will need to work on our own. The other girls? My oldest is doing German in college and looking at ancient languages. She spent time on a dig in Spain, so improved her Spanish a bit. The second one has asked for Japanese lessons as a graduation present and will be off to architecture school in Paris. And the youngest is chugging along in French/German and learning a little English and want to do Italian to set herself off from the older sisters - I'm trying to hit a lesson or two a week. ANKI Completed all cards. Will add a few more in each live deck today. German Would like to work off of my copy of Der Anschlag today. Possibly finish off the B1 section of busuu and move over to the B2. Hebrew Continue with the alphabet (perhaps finish all the consonants today) and ASSIMIL lessons. (Completed Lesson 3 and reviewed videos again) I'm doing a Tough Mudder in the North West of England this weekend - so I need a short run today and preparing for my travel tomorrow. Busy day! Edited by zenmonkey on 11 September 2014 at 12:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6358 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 7 of 11 12 September 2014 at 8:35am \| IP Logged
	I'm off to run a Tough Mudder this weekend in the UK - bringing some work material for the train but likely won't post until it's over. Good luck everyone on your studies. 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6358 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 8 of 11 18 July 2015 at 10:44am \| IP Logged
	Wow, It's been a while. Didn't die at the Tough Mudder - did a 3rd earlier this year in Chicago. Still plugging along on the language learning. Focusing on studying German and Hebrew. I have developed apps for Aramaic, Syriac and Hebrew alphabets (Alapbeths? albegadas?) avaiable from alphabetsnow.zyntx.com. Hebrew - need to get my learning material in order. German - Assimil, radio, TV, duolingo .... 1 person has voted this message useful

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zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6358 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 1 of 11 09 September 2014 at 11:07am \| IP Logged
	I'm back after a long hiatus from the forum. Still slowly learning. Focus: German - moving from B2/C1 to a more solid C1 territory Work on vocabulary, active grammar, reading/writing. Current activity: Anki - restarting German set and my Langenscheidt BGV Busuu - open unfinished modules Television, movies, etc... Listening - focusing on Der Anschlag by Stephen King (original title 11/22/63) which I have as a Book on CD and reading version (German) and as an eBook (English). German - Caught up on Anki - 30 minutes of Busuu Hebrew Restart of alphabet learning Some resources I saw and am noting here. Will look into them: Cartoon Hebrew - Learn to read Hebrew, Mnemonic based system for learning the alphabet using it as a study guide and pulling words to feed Anki to create a basic deck Learn the Hebrew Letters The Hebrew Alphabet Learn the Hebrew Alphabet I am mostly using Ivrit, a book. Some youtube videos Hebrew Alphabet Overview Hebrew Alphabet Part 1 Hebrew Alphabet Part 2 Hebrew Alphabet Part 3 glad to be back Edited by zenmonkey on 09 September 2014 at 5:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6358 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 2 of 11 10 September 2014 at 12:31pm \| IP Logged
	hebrew Still learning the alphabet. Reviewed the first videos and started watching a few others. YouTube delivers all sorts of quality - doesn't matter. Just need to spend face time and familiarize myself with the characters. Began to sound out a few words. Completed Anki but buried all the cards for the names of vowels. Secondary to reading the vowels at this time. Yesterday, I installed the language pack for windows 8 and saw how difficult it is to write without a proper keyboard. Should order one. Preferably that works both with my ipad and PC. Hmmm. german Completed cards. (These are a bit of a load right now as I'm attacking a new set of 1000). Whenever I find the card ambiguous, especially with verbs, I look up the definition and try to add a finer definition to the card for clarity. I'll likely add sentences for those cards that stick, like I've done in the past. I'm driving to France for 5 hrs or so today so I'll have plenty of time to listen to my book on CD. 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6358 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 3 of 11 10 September 2014 at 1:21pm \| IP Logged
	Whoever invented the Hebrew keyboard should be shot. final nun next to vav? Really? Thanks. Anyway - using this image when I get mixed up: http://opensiddur.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Pages-from- Biblical-Hebrew-Tiro-Manual_Page_1.jpg The typographic styles between my virtual keyboard and my learning material leave me full of doubt. I'm sure it will be evident down the road but the added complexity was one of the frustrations when I started this last time. 1 person has voted this message useful
tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4513 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish	Message 4 of 11 10 September 2014 at 1:56pm \| IP Logged
	Oh yeah, when I am typing Hebrew I hate the layout. It's impossible to see from a distance too. Urgh. 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6358 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 5 of 11 11 September 2014 at 1:02am \| IP Logged
	Thanks, tarvos, I guess we will need to get used to writing without vowels - of course, my ASSIMIL book takes that a step further and quickly moves to cursive writing. Which isn't quite the writing style of the Ivrit book - I'm sure all that will become clear in the future - its a bit of detective work - and I'd rather concentrate on learing now. Hebrew Completed ASSIMIL lessons 1 & 2 first pass. Having started with learning the characters elsewhere this was easier and faster. Redid a refresher on the Anki cards at a rest stop. German Listened to the first 7 parts of Joyland by S. King in German. I'll try to NOT buy the English version and only work off of the German translation. This was about an hour or more - consider it a first pass - I get the general story but miss enough words to need to go over the written text. French I won't be writing much about French study because as one of my core languages I use it daily. However, I'm always in need of working on the finesse - vocabulary and writing - so every once in a while I'll do an entry. Tonight, on this long drive, I decided to try to get the few words I keep missing on "La Ballade Des Gens Qui Sont Nés Quelque" Brassens/Tarmac - It's a great song! A few of the phrases that I missed (slangish): "diable vauvert" - far away "il s'en flattent mazette" - they think they are great gonfler leurs baudruches" - inflate a balloon "vous n'aviez tiré du néant tous ces jobards" - pulled from nowhere these simple spirits Edited by zenmonkey on 11 September 2014 at 1:15am 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6358 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 6 of 11 11 September 2014 at 11:43am \| IP Logged
	Time to log. Small comment on coming back to the site. I remember the days when coming back to find my log it would be buried on page three of the log list - today it was fourth or fifth. I guess the site is dying a slow prolonged death. Hope not. "News of my demise were exaggerated." But it is disappointing to see that the cost has gone up and issues haven't really been resolved or updates applied. enough on that for now looks around and thinks about choices Back to language stuff. A little bit of boasting here - I spoke with my 11-year old yesterday and asked her how her day at school had been. She was excited to report her first day of Latin. And, she said, it was disappointing! She thought she would be learning a different writing system like Greek or Etruscan (her words). I told her she could work on that on her own - she thought about it and said - maybe Greek, we don't have Etruscan material! Her other languages for the year are French (mother), German (fluent), English (advanced). She was disappointed with the level of English as she felt it was too basic and told the new teacher she needed a challenge. The German teacher knows her, so she was told that she will not be able to be the "helper" this year - but since they are getting an assistant, she will be able to get more material on her level. Anything else, like Spanish, we will need to work on our own. The other girls? My oldest is doing German in college and looking at ancient languages. She spent time on a dig in Spain, so improved her Spanish a bit. The second one has asked for Japanese lessons as a graduation present and will be off to architecture school in Paris. And the youngest is chugging along in French/German and learning a little English and want to do Italian to set herself off from the older sisters - I'm trying to hit a lesson or two a week. ANKI Completed all cards. Will add a few more in each live deck today. German Would like to work off of my copy of Der Anschlag today. Possibly finish off the B1 section of busuu and move over to the B2. Hebrew Continue with the alphabet (perhaps finish all the consonants today) and ASSIMIL lessons. (Completed Lesson 3 and reviewed videos again) I'm doing a Tough Mudder in the North West of England this weekend - so I need a short run today and preparing for my travel tomorrow. Busy day! Edited by zenmonkey on 11 September 2014 at 12:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6358 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 7 of 11 12 September 2014 at 8:35am \| IP Logged
	I'm off to run a Tough Mudder this weekend in the UK - bringing some work material for the train but likely won't post until it's over. Good luck everyone on your studies. 1 person has voted this message useful
zenmonkey Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6358 days ago 803 posts - 1119 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English^C2, Spanish, French, German Studies: Italian, Modern Hebrew	Message 8 of 11 18 July 2015 at 10:44am \| IP Logged
	Wow, It's been a while. Didn't die at the Tough Mudder - did a 3rd earlier this year in Chicago. Still plugging along on the language learning. Focusing on studying German and Hebrew. I have developed apps for Aramaic, Syriac and Hebrew alphabets (Alapbeths? albegadas?) avaiable from alphabetsnow.zyntx.com. Hebrew - need to get my learning material in order. German - Assimil, radio, TV, duolingo .... 1 person has voted this message useful