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Advice on summer plan | ||
Tags: Activating a Language | Esperanto | Dutch | Learning Strategy | Italian | English | German | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Advice Center |  | |
| guiguixx1 Octoglot Senior Member Belgium guillaumelp.wordpres Joined 3880 days ago 163 posts - 207 votes  Speaks: French*, English, Dutch, Portuguese, Esperanto, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 1 of 31 25 May 2015 at 11:56pm | IP Logged |
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As I don't have anything planed during the summer holiday, I had thought of studying
languages during those ( maximal amount being of) 13 weeks. I have to organize my language learning in order to reach my goals and to learn efficiently enough, and use intelligent strategies according to my method. My method is actually that I have noticed that I learn much better when I immerse myself in the language : listening to it and reading as much as possible, speaking to myself all the time in the target language, using it as much as possible, all day long, to such a point that I dream in the language, and feel my brain powering up when going to bed. It has already happened that, when I do this, I feel a huge difference in my level (especially during the first days). But the effort that I have to put into it is quite huge as well. Unfortunately, I love praticing several language a day, and thus prefer focusing on 2 at a time (or more). So if I could do 2 instead of 1, I'd be more happy haha Let me now explain a bit what I can (and could) do with each of my languages, and what are my (hypothetic) goals : -English : now at C1-C2, I could want to improve it further to C2, though I don't really feel that need. Still, I have some books that are getting covered with dust on my shelf. Reading them could enhance my vocab, but it's not my main focus -Dutch : now at B2-C1, I would like to get it to a strong C1, and I'd love to get it to the same level as English. I need first and foremost more vocab. I have many books that I could read. Still, I don't have much motivation, since I have a better level than most of my fellow students at the university (Dutch is one of my major) -Spanish : now at a low B2 (I guess), I would like to raise it to a high B2. It's the language I focus most on now, and use it watching TV, reading books (though for teenagers), and speaking to myself. I think I especially need more vocab. I want to get to my goal before focusing on another language, but I wonder how long it will take me... -Esperanto : I studied it for a couple of weeks. I know the grammar, but still have problems with the affixes and the correlatives, though I can understand basic texts. I would like to reach (high) B1. -German : I reached A2ish a couple of months ago. Now I suppose it's back to A1. I suppose I could get back to A2 with a couple of days. My goal is to get it to B1 (handle a conversation, though I don't need to reach a high level). -Italian : I had it to a weak B1 about a month ago, I suppose it's at a weak A2 now. It's the last language I would work on, since I prefer to let my Spanish get stronger so that I don't mix them up again. My goal, in the end, is to reach B2, although I would be happy with B1 for now. So, What would you advise me ? Should I work on each one for 1 week, intensively ? Or work on a only 2, for example, during the entire holiday ? I would kill to be able to handle those 6 foreign language, and thus hangle 7 with French, because I regularly meet people who speak them (though less for Esperanto). I would wish to speak them all as soon as possible, although I know that « first in, first out », and thus I have to take my time to let them « sink in ». My goal, in the end, is to be able to use any one of them, at all time, at a conversational level (mininum B1), though I could need 30 min to get a language back. Since I have already reached (a couple of months ago) B1 in Italian, A2 in German, and the basics in Esperanto, and that I am native in French, have a good Spanish, and advanced Dutch, do you think it would be possible to get to this goal by the mid- Septembre ? Or am I too optimistic ? Do any of you learn the same way as I do ? (one, intensively) ? If yes, would you have any advice ? What method should I use with such languages being related to other stronger ones that I have ? (I suppose mainly by listening and reading, as I am doing now) Edited by guiguixx1 on 26 May 2015 at 12:08am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4495 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 2 of 31 26 May 2015 at 5:09am | IP Logged |
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I don't know how you could plan all this without allowing for buffer times; life gets in
the way. I would just focus on what I am interested in at the time and do it until I get bored. Then I will surely have made some progress and the others are always there to return to. 5 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 3 of 31 26 May 2015 at 10:22am | IP Logged |
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13 free weeks, I'm extremely jealous! :) In that position I'd definitely try to do some travelling to places where your target languages are spoken. As a student you perhaps have more time than money, which of course limits possibilities, but being in the centre of Europe might give you some cheap and easy travel opportunities.
Anyway I agree with tarvos. Even for much shorter breaks of 1-3 weeks I've tried to make plans for efficient study but never managed to stick to them. Interests and priorities change, and indeed life gets in the way. I like to have vague plans and goals like "study a bit of Italian grammar every day" or "a few conversations a week" or "one Assimil lesson a day", as simply doing what I feel like at the time can just cause me to procrastinate, but anything more specific doesn't work for me. This is just me though. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| guiguixx1 Octoglot Senior Member Belgium guillaumelp.wordpres Joined 3880 days ago 163 posts - 207 votes Speaks: French*, English, Dutch, Portuguese, Esperanto, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 4 of 31 26 May 2015 at 10:40am | IP Logged |
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I have tried to find a way to take part to some activities abroad, but all I could
find way expensive travels. Furthermore, I seem to learn better at home with my materials than in the target country, which is why going staying at home isn't such a bad thing for my learning. It's true that life gets in the way, but I thought that if I found a strict plan which would permet me to make more significant progress and allow me to reach levels would seem out of reach for the time being, that would motivate me to stick to it... Another thing that I didn't mention in my initial topic: has anyone tried learning several languages (and not being a complete beginner in those), and changing the language focus every week-2weeks or so? Could it work with, let's say, 3 weeks Esperanto, then 3 weeks German, then 3 weeks Italian and then 3 weeks Dutch? Has anyone noticed improvements? I seem to get bored when I study a language intensively for too long, and need change. That's why I thought of studying several languages over the long period, and maybe changing language focus every other week or so. I have also noticed that, when I study intensively, and then stop completely, my language seems to get powerful when I get back to it. Nevertheless, I think I need to have studied it for some time (possibly longer than 3 weeks), and stopped it for a long time as well. But I haven't tried this "methods" with enough variables yet to find out how it seems to really work... 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| robarb Nonaglot Senior Member United States languagenpluson Joined 4847 days ago 361 posts - 921 votes Speaks: Portuguese, English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, French Studies: Mandarin, Danish, Russian, Norwegian, Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Greek, Latin, Nepali, Modern Hebrew | Message 5 of 31 27 May 2015 at 7:25am | IP Logged |
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I think you can change focus every 1-3 weeks, but if you really don't have much of anything else going on during
the summer months, I would suggest simultaneous study. You have 6 target languages, so you could study 30 minutes of each one every day in just 3 hours. That should be enough to keep all of them active. The remaining 13 waking hours could be spent on whatever language you feel like reading or watching movies in that day, or whatever you want. Or, you could break the languages into groups of 3, and study each group for 1 hour per day in each language for half of the summer. Concentrating on only one language at a time when you've essentially cleared out your day for language study can be really draining. Can you really work at A2 German for more than 4 hours in one day for days on end without getting mentally exhausted and preferring to study a language that you can read with ease? In my opinion, concentrating on a single language is better only when you are either working hard to meet a specific goal in that language, or when you are limited by time, so the time it takes to keep even one language fully active and in flow is all the time you have available for language study. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| guiguixx1 Octoglot Senior Member Belgium guillaumelp.wordpres Joined 3880 days ago 163 posts - 207 votes Speaks: French*, English, Dutch, Portuguese, Esperanto, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 6 of 31 27 May 2015 at 11:34am | IP Logged |
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It's true that when I would focus on one weak language for, let's say, 7-10 hours a
day, I might just get mad. I have made 2 plannings, using simultaneous study, but not using all languages everyday, because I want to have more than just 1-2 hours a day per language. I want to have enough practice everyday to really focus long enough and not have to change activities every half hour. For my plans, I divided my time in 4: 1) from now on until June 22nd (although I have exams, I have more time than usually to study language, for reasons too long to explain here, and it's not the focus of this topic) 2) from June 22nd until July 20th 3) from July 20th until August 17th 4) from August 17th until September 17th, when next year's courses begin PLAN 1: 1) Spanish + esperanto (I'm waiting for the duolingo course to be avaliable) 2) dutch + German (although this might not be the best choice, I thought that, with my high level of dutch, this would not be dangerous. I have never mixed them up) 3) English + Italian 4) all, to get them fresh PLAN 2: 1) Spanish + esperanto 2) dutch + Italian + esperanto 3) English + Spanish + German 4) all What do you think? Which plan should I follow? Or can you think of a better one? Edited by guiguixx1 on 27 May 2015 at 11:35am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5024 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 7 of 31 27 May 2015 at 12:42pm | IP Logged |
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I don't want to offend, but I am curious about your rating of English as a C1. Have you taken a test somewhere which has given you a score of C1?
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| guiguixx1 Octoglot Senior Member Belgium guillaumelp.wordpres Joined 3880 days ago 163 posts - 207 votes Speaks: French*, English, Dutch, Portuguese, Esperanto, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Polish, Mandarin | Message 8 of 31 27 May 2015 at 2:16pm | IP Logged |
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I haven't taken any test (too expensive for a student). It's just a rating. Is my
level really so weak?? Gosh, I just don't know how to get to C1 and C2 then. I am studying Germanic languages and literatures, in my 3rd year, and use it more than anyone in my class, and have read about 20 books in that language (and not the shortest ones (although I read less than I used to)) Thanks for your feeback. Could you (or somebody else) tell me what seems to be my weakness? How do you see that I'm lower than the C-range? How could I improve my level any further? (Honestly, I almost haven't improved for the past 3 years... I just don't see what else I could do than what I already do...) And if my English is indeed weaker than what I rated it, then all my languages are weaker than I thought... Edited by guiguixx1 on 27 May 2015 at 2:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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