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Four Little Birds, TAC 2015 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5353 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 49 of 54 17 May 2015 at 6:32pm | IP Logged |
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@tangleweeds
I'm looking forward to reading "Le Petit Prince" too (finally in the original!) I also just started doing Duolingo reviews on an ipod and it's quite a different experience on the app (compared to my old laptop)...now all I need to do is get that dish of candies. :P 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5273 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 50 of 54 19 June 2015 at 7:33am | IP Logged |
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Just dropping by to tag along for the ride...
Well done on the 6WC btw! I did the calculations and despite me being clearly in the lead for 'Target Score' (ie target language) when I dropped out and continuing with some pretty solid numbers since (not really dropping down much at all), well there was no chance I could have won with your final numbers, you would've overtaken me and disappeared into the distance. NIce work Teango, I'll do some background reading on your log here at some point. I hope your studies are going well. Fry on! PM 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5353 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 51 of 54 29 June 2015 at 3:02am | IP Logged |
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Weeks 19-25
We're almost halfway through 2015, so it's time to assess what progress I've made so far, and realign my goals with a view to making the second half more productive.  Major language: Hawaiian (358 hours in total this year)
I've been working very hard on Hawaiian this year and have made some good progress since my last update. This includes producing a short Hawaiian video with a couple of classmates that was chosen to represent the department, and taking on a further 6 week intensive summer course, which really helped push me to study each day to complete the main textbook we use for Hawaiian ("Ka Lei Haʻaheo"). I've also helped teach Hawaiian at an elementary school, and will be giving a short talk on pōhaku kuʻi ʻai (poi pounding) to the same children again next Thursday, who in return will treat us all to a hula presentation. :) My most surprising triumph however was in the 6 Week Challenge, where I invested approximately 190 hours into Hawaiian, ultimately leading to me winning the challenge in both "target score" and "total score" categories! Taking part in this challenge helped me keep motivated, and my proficiency rose from A2 level on the CEFR scale at the beginning of the challenge to B1 level by the end. Altogether in the first half of this year, I've spent almost 360 hours on Hawaiian both inside and outside the classroom, and my proficiency level has risen from A1 to B1, furnishing me with a solid foundation in grammar and vocabulary to go and enjoy native resources at the intermediate level. My goal in Hawaiian for the second half of the year remains much the same as the beginning of the year, which will be to reach a mid-intermediate level of fluency and proficiency (approximately B1+), to which end I will be studying Hawaiian 202 at university in the Fall.  Minor languages (88 hours in total this year)
I think I've long lost my way with the other minor languages I had on my list, which calls for some major rethinking and pruning in the second half of the year. However it's not as though I did nothing at all to keep them warm and fuzzy, still managing to invest the following total hours across various sideline activities: Russian: 44 hours French: 20 hours Irish: 11 hours German: 7 hours Toki Pona: 5 hours Ancient Egyptian: 1 hour (Arghh...ye mummyglot's curse be upon me!) So for the second half of 2015, I've decided to focus on Russian, French, and German as my minor languages, with a goal of reviewing the Assimil foundation level course book by the end of the year for each one of these languages. If there is any additional time left over, I will move on to the advanced Assimil course book for each language (yes, I have all 6 books waiting in the wings for the brave at heart). Although I can speak German quite comfortably, and my Russian is just about conversational on a good day, I've never actually completed a course book in any of these languages before. This means I still have gaps in my grammatical knowledge which seriously hold me back in terms of accuracy and overall proficiency (especially when using Russian). It's also been over quarter of a century since I studied French in high school (and that was for just 1 year anyway), so I'm curious how much will come back to me when I start studying for real again. It's hard to assess my overall level in French right now, as my reading proficiency far surpasses my listening and speaking ability (largely due its similarity to English), but perhaps in its long state of dilapidation, it currently falls around the A2+/B1 mark right now. Sadly I'll need to shelve Irish and Ancient Egyptian for the time being (hence "five birds +1" shrinks to "four" from here on out), but it will be worth it if I can bring my other straggling languages to the next plateau by the end of the year (let's say at least a more confident B2 or even C1 level, depending on the language and how much time I'm afforded after work and PhD). (Total time spent on learning languages during the first half of 2015: 448 hours) Edited by Teango on 29 June 2015 at 3:17am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| PeterMollenburg Senior Member AustraliaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5273 days ago 821 posts - 1273 votes Speaks: English* Studies: FrenchB1 | Message 52 of 54 29 June 2015 at 4:25am | IP Logged |
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Interesting hours there Teango,
As it stands of right now I have done 447 hours and 53 minutes of study. It seems we are certainly putting in around the same amount of effort/learning time. Although mine is all in one language (French). I think you've made the right decision on cutting back with your fringe languages that weren't really getting much attention at all. Since I've cut back to only one language and consistently fended off attacks from my own wanderlusting language learning mind (bar one which was fought for a few months then disapeared into the night as well)... well I find it's just as enjoyable learning less languages more thoroughly. Doing great work there Teango, keep up the progress. I know exactly what it feels like to have done the hours you've done this year ;) Edited by PeterMollenburg on 29 June 2015 at 4:27am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5353 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 53 of 54 13 August 2015 at 3:19am | IP Logged |
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Weeks 26-32
Six weeks further down the road, and it's time to leave yet another little missive on my prodigal blog. Having successfully completed an intensive summer course in Hawaiian, I've shifted the large part of my focus, albeit less intensively, over to mother Russian. I've also dabbled in Assimil over the last week in preparation for a serious attempt at completing as many of my Assimil books as I can over the next four and a bit months left of 2015. Hawaiian (385 hours in total this year)
With Hawaiian 201 under my belt, I'm now poised and ready to begin Hawaiian 202 at university in the Fall (which starts in just under a fortnight). As we're "pau" (done) with the main course book now, I anticipate the next course, after some initial revision of "that which has gone before", will bring us up to speed with real speaking and listening *gulp*. Many of my previous classmates learned Hawaiian for years throughout High School, and some even have native Hawaiian speaking family, whilst "Ol' Man Haole" here only started the language under a year ago. This means everyone else's listening skills in class will be leagues beyond mine no doubt, but hey, I'm up for the challenge and looking forward to finally practicing what I've learned this summer! Russian (106 hours in total this year)
I've also opted to audit a course in Russian phonetics this Fall, and find the prospect of chatting with other students of Russian equally exciting and daunting. It will be interesting to work on my own Russian pronunciation, which I'm sure needs plenty of work, and at the same time, get to practice my Russian with other students. French (29 hours in total this year)
My wife's almost completed half of her French Assimil course already, so it's time to get my skates on and start rolling en français! I aim to do twice as many lessons of French as any of my other languages over the next few months, mainly in order to get my French up to the level that will help me out with my advanced Assimil books for Russian and German which are written in French (i.e., Perfectionnement Russe; Perfectionnement Allemand). German (21 hours in total this year)
I recently completed an online proficiency test for German and scored 49/50, which apparently puts me in the advanced C1 category! I'm a little dubious of the result, but it was a nice surprise to see my grammar and vocabulary haven't sunk too far into the mires of forgetfulness. All the same, I'd still like to complete my basic and advanced books in Assimil for German, if only to review and formalize grammar, and fill in the gaps which come from never completing a textbook in the first place (from which I'm sure there are still a great many things I need to learn).  Toki Pona (11 hours in total this year)
Side Project: "Tiki Toki" Well it finally happened...I went to sleep after reading a bunch of posts in Toki Pona followed by a fair share of "jan lawa lili" (The Little Prince), and spent the next morning dreaming in Toki Pona! Needless-to-say, it was a very strange series of dreams, and conversation was more than a bit strained. Well, at least I didn't wake up from night terrors, screaming out in Klingon or Dothraki (not yet, anyway)... @.@ (Total time spent on learning languages over the last 7 weeks: 118 hours) (Total time spent on learning languages during 2015 altogether: 566 hours) Edited by Teango on 13 August 2015 at 3:22am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5353 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 54 of 54 24 September 2015 at 3:56am | IP Logged |
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Notice: blog closed.
Rather than replicate weekly language logs on several different websites (which takes time), I've decided to simply post updates on my personal blog and then copy these over to our new Language Learners forum from now on. I hope to see you on the new forum, but if not, I'll still drop in from time to time here on this forum if I can (i.e., if the forum's working that day), and I wish you all every success with your language goals this year - go n-éirí an bóthar leat! :) Edited by Teango on 24 September 2015 at 4:00am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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