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Timmy’s Log - TAC 2015 (César & 東亜)

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36 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4
TimmyTurner93
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United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3463 days ago

45 posts - 58 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Portuguese, Japanese

 
 Message 33 of 36
20 March 2015 at 8:41pm | IP Logged 
My continuously postponed update is here finally. Didn't know how to update such a long absence so I decided I'll just focus it on progress made towards the goals listed earlier and quoted below.

TimmyTurner93 aka Orochimaru wrote:


Portuguese Goals (as of 05/01/15):
  • Complete DLI by October
  • Be able to to walk into the Brazilian coffee
    shop by my flat & have a general conversation by the end of the year
  • Be able
    to watch a film without subs and comprehend about 70% or above by the end of the
    year
  • Complete both Michel Thomas and Pimsleur
  • Complete duolingo by
    January 31st

Japanese Goals (as of 03/01/15):
  • Complete Genki 1 & 2 by June
  • Learn & be able to recognize 1/4 of the
    Jōyō kanji by October
  • Start using native materials in summer
  • Take & pass
    the JLPT N5 exam in December



PORTUGUESE:
  • DLI: currently on lesson/unit 11. I've been using the sprint technique to switch between this and the teach yourself grammar book and its been kinda fun. Slowly making progress but still a long way to go.
  • Brazilian
    shop conversation: I haven't sat down and had a conversation with people in the shop but I have exchanged pleasantries
  • Film: Haven't really watched a Brazilian film that wan't dubbed (which is kind of cheating as I already know
    the film). Probably need to actively look around the Brazilian film industry a bit more
  • MT/Pimsleur: Completed MT Foundation twice and I am about 3/4 of the way through Pimsleur 1
  • Duolingo: This got really boring and
    tedious for me so I stopped. I may go back in the future but I don't know right now.


JAPANESE:

As of Monday I will update more regularly. At least once a week but generally more.
  • Genki: Only on lesson 5 of Genki 1 primarily due to using different courses on memrsie. Definitely going to start putting more time into it.
  • Kanji: Haven't really tried to make progress in this except for learning a large amount of radicals which I must say has really helped.
  • Native Materials: I think of the past month or so I have spent way to much time
    watching J-Dramas. I've watched about 7 different series and I'm about to start another. I've been watching with subs but it's still a little satisfying to hear a word I've learnt from memrise pop-up in some rapid-fire dialogue



As of Monday I will update more regularly. At least once a week but generally more.
3 persons have voted this message useful



TimmyTurner93
Groupie
United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3463 days ago

45 posts - 58 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Portuguese, Japanese

 
 Message 34 of 36
02 June 2015 at 1:52pm | IP Logged 
Okay, first off I have to say I'm really rubbish at keeping this thing updated. I have now set an alarm on my phone to go off every Sunday evening as a reminder. I'll probably find a way to delay updating anyway.

I've been visiting the forums regularly but gone just over two months and have to say it has been rocky and at times looked like I was just going to give up entirely but me being me I persevered and have been slowly progressing.

Portuguese:

  1. I took a break from DLI and during that period worked through the Teach Yourself Complete and the Teach Yourself Grammar books. I think this helped as I kind of helped as I went through them at medium pace and once
    completed gave me a sense of accomplishment. I'm picking DLI back up as of today from unit 16.
  2. I stopped using Duolingo again as it got boring for me again lol. I preferred how much fun I used to have when it first came
    out even though I can't stand translating back & forth. I'll probably pick it up & finish by the end of the month seeing as I'm not to far from the end.
  3. I download the whole library of pod101 and I am currently working my
    way through the beginner series. Most of this stuff is really basic right now so I'm just jumping around filling any gaps in terms of vocab & trying to find a unit that is somewhat challenging. Probably somewhere in the upper
    beginner section.
  4. My audio of the little prince kept skipping out large sections in places so I binned it. I've replace it with the deutschwelle podcasts which I'll start using when I reach the intermediate stuff of
    pod101. Once I feel comfortable in hearing all the word whilst looking at the transcript I'll move it into a review a playlist.
  5. Lastly I started watching random cartoons that I enjoy(ed) in English (Futurama, American Dad
    & Phineas and Ferb so far). Just to make it a little easier on myself I read the episode summary in English and Portuguese prior to watching it but I can generally figure out what's going on from the visuals. I've been finding
    myself laughing at random moments after hearing something and not knowing exactly why (I'm so weird lol.)


Japanese:

  1. First up, I have a small question. Has anyone here completed RTk? & did they feel it helped them?
  2. I started slacking a bit due to me questioning how I actually learn best (still haven't figured it out) and
    being indecisive in what resources I wanted to move forward with. At first I didn't think the learning of pronunciation/sounds then basic/easy to picture words before grammar would work as effectively for me as it did in
    Portuguese. However, I didn't really feel confident in jumping into RTK and wasn't really retaining anything but the basics from Genki. After a few weeks off my motivation was brought back through anime binging (typical)and I decided to go with the aforementioned methodology. I deleted all my Japanese decks in anki and reset my progress on memrise. I've only just started the to dive into the basic words but I don't know why I thought it wouldn't work
    for me because its been going pretty good. Can't wait to get back into genki now. Hopefully I can catch up on lost time and still be able to take the N5 test at the end of the year
  3. Started up Pimselur only yesterday so I'm
    only at the beginning. For some reason, the voice actor sounds more enthusiastic than in the Portuguese version which helps with the fact that its mainly the same conversation over and over.


Edited by TimmyTurner93 on 02 June 2015 at 1:55pm

1 person has voted this message useful



dampingwire
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4461 days ago

1185 posts - 1513 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian*, French
Studies: Japanese

 
 Message 35 of 36
03 June 2015 at 8:13am | IP Logged 
TimmyTurner93 wrote:
Japanese:
  1. First up, I have a small question. Has anyone here completed RTk? & did they feel it helped them?



If you mean RTK1 (the first 2042 characters) then yes I did complete that and I do feel it was helpful. It's really
like learning the hiragana or the katakana, just more of it :-)

I found that knowing the kanji and being able to recognise them helped me learn basic vocabulary.

TimmyTurner93 wrote:
I started slacking a bit due to me questioning how I actually learn best (still haven't figured
it out)


I think the whole "best" thing is overrated. Just "learning" is all I aim for now, otherwise I spend more time on
methodology than I do on the language itself. You should certainly monitor your progress and tweak when you feel
something isn't working, but I wouldn't worry about finding some mythical "best" way. I've found that lots of this
stuff takes time to bed down.


TimmyTurner93 wrote:
I've only just started the to dive into the basic words but I don't know why I thought it
wouldn't work
for me because its been going pretty good.


Congratulations!

2 persons have voted this message useful



TimmyTurner93
Groupie
United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3463 days ago

45 posts - 58 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Portuguese, Japanese

 
 Message 36 of 36
01 July 2015 at 11:47am | IP Logged 
The steam summer sales have come & gone so all gamers know what that means, empty wallets & a lot of time spent with fingers on the WSAD keys.

Since half the year has gone by I decided last night to sit down and decide to see how much progress I've made and if there was any notable achievements. I've come to the conclusion that I've been to lax in my efforts and need to build up consistency.
The motivation is there but the fact that I'm not a huge fan of studying stuff that doesn't engage me + the area where I study is essentially where I game has resulted in the habit of studying one day and then taking one/two days off with random anki
reviews if bothered. I can't expect to make any progress if I continue like that. I recently re-downloaded the coach.me app to track other areas of my life & have decided to also track my language learning. For July I'm aiming for a full month of
study (maybe some Sundays off) all in relation to the goals i've set out for the month. I'll also be tracking the numbers in anki/number of pomodoros I do each day.

Portuguese:

Since the last update I've been dividing my time between DLI, Duolingo, PortuguesePod101 & anki reviews. I really need to dive back into native materials but the lack of accurate Portuguese subtitles has put me off watching films really & I've kind of
overplayed my music collection so that needs updating. I did however find a site for telenovelas. I've always wanted to watch one so I may dive in even without subtitles to save me from drowning. I've stopped drilling for the time being with DLI as
its become a chore and can really sap any motivation I have to study. I bought Lego - the hobbit which has a Portuguese UI & audio but I'm not going to start playing that until I've completed both duolingo and half of DLI.

On another note, mesmo is still the most confusing word I've come across. Need to figure out how I'm going to learn its meaning according to context.

Japanese:

I've managed to rope in a friend into learning Japanese with me. This could be really great as I now have someone who I can compete against. I take losing/failure very personally so this could be interesting. The JLPT registration for the December
test opens sometime next month (August) which has really given me some motivation to put in extra hours as I know I'm behind where I should be. I've learnt about 50 out of the approx. 625 word list & hope to really push forward on that frontier.

Goals for July:

Seeing as this month is technically the start of my summer but not necessarily where everyone's trying to get me involved with their holidays and day-trips; I'm going to test out "over-goaling" which is pretty much self-explanatory. I'll set goals
which seem a little crazy but still actually try to achieve them. I just want to see how much of a difference it could make.

Portuguese:

  • Get everything golden again in duolingo tree before finishing
  • Reach the lower intermediate podcasts in POD101
  • Get to lesson 20 of DLI then take a break
  • Daily anki reviews completed first thing
  • Once on a break
    from DLI start using more native materials

Japanese:

  • Complete my word list
  • Restart Genki from the beginning and get up to lesson 6
  • Complete Pimsleur 1 & MT Foundation
  • Daily anki reviews completed first thing
  • Find some resources related to N5 exam



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