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Reading/listening B1/A2->C1/B2 in a year

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roni
Diglot
Newbie
Finland
Joined 3466 days ago

22 posts - 34 votes
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: Finnish

 
 Message 1 of 8
29 June 2015 at 9:28am | IP Logged 
So, where I stand now.

Reading

I can read news and informational articles pretty well already. Not may be fast but I
can dig through it and understand without using of a dictionary. Pretty much all the
words are familiar but I'm not always able to connect my memory of a word and
inflicted form I stumble upon while reading.

Also I'm reading Harry Potter series right now. I'm twenty pages from the end of the
second book. I see that I'm gaining speed but too often I stumble upon sentences I
don't understand because of not knowing a words. I need to use a dictionary. Reading
is not very comfortable but not painful and I enjoy it.

Listening

Shortly... I can understand pretty much all the learning materials of A levels. Which
means simple words, slow speed, ideal pronunciation. Following real live conversation
seems to much more difficult, people use spoken language which is quite different from
written language and speed usually is average or high. Also there are regional
dialects which are not uncommon on YLE Puhe (radio station).

Goal

Goal is reaching. C1 with reading and B2 with listening. Depending on how well I
proceed toward main goal additional goal is to start writing at lang-8. If, for
instance, by the end of autumn I see that my comprehension builds up and I'm half way
through to my target I can shift my focus more to grammar and production.

Action points
  • Continue reading and adding words to Anki.

  • Continue listening to the radio.

  • Incorporate grammar into my weekly study routine. At least 1.5-2 hours of reading
    grammar book and drills per week.

  • Take a glance at Kato Hei book on Helsinki dialect. I don't know when I should
    start with it and for how much to focus on it. May be I should start reading through
    it and adding colloquialisms to separate Anki deck. May be I should also try
    "Colloquial Finnish" is has CDs with dialogues.

4 persons have voted this message useful



roni
Diglot
Newbie
Finland
Joined 3466 days ago

22 posts - 34 votes
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: Finnish

 
 Message 2 of 8
30 June 2015 at 8:16am | IP Logged 
Just finished reading the second Harry Potter book.
Now I have two options what to do next. First one is to continue with reading HP.
Shortly about another one... Yesterday I was checking what kind of new ebooks are
available at Elisa Kirja and noticed that Hobbit audio book is on discount now. So,
without much thinking I purchased it and even started to listen to it while commuting
back home.
I can sort of understand event which a going on there but I miss a lot of stuff
especially in descriptions. Some dialogs are not fully clear also.
So, I think I need to buy paper book and use it together with audio in several passes:
listen without the book. listen with the book and translate unknown words, listen
without
the book again. I would estimate the total effort as 40-45 hours. Steps 1 and 3 I can
do while commuting, at least partly. So, let's see.

Edited by roni on 30 June 2015 at 8:29am

3 persons have voted this message useful



Serpent
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Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6389 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
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Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 3 of 8
30 June 2015 at 8:45am | IP Logged 
Sounds great! The Finnish translations of Tolkien are amazing ♥
You may find that it's enough to go through one part several times (if you can stay motivated as you go back). You'll have learned a lot of the vocabulary by the time you're 30-50% done.

As for Kato hei, just give it a try and you'll see. It can be used as a reference book as well - I think some browsing of it can boost your comprehension.
2 persons have voted this message useful



roni
Diglot
Newbie
Finland
Joined 3466 days ago

22 posts - 34 votes
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: Finnish

 
 Message 4 of 8
30 June 2015 at 9:06am | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
Sounds great! The Finnish translations of Tolkien are amazing ♥
You may find that it's enough to go through one part several times (if you can stay
motivated as you go back). You'll have learned a lot of the vocabulary by the time
you're 30-50% done.


Yes. Hopefully I can enjoy audio book more while I go forward. One thing I also woule
like to do is to build stronger connections between inflicted forms, basic forms and
sounds.

Serpent wrote:
As for Kato hei, just give it a try and you'll see. It can be used as
a reference book as well - I think some browsing of it can boost your comprehension.


I need to buy a copy, it seems. Quite expensive for such a small book. But I found it
beneficial to have a book at hand rather than borrowing it from library. I don't need
to think of deadline to return it and it is available whenever I need.
1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6389 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 5 of 8
30 June 2015 at 4:57pm | IP Logged 
As I said, it's available in Uzbekistan ;)))
1 person has voted this message useful



roni
Diglot
Newbie
Finland
Joined 3466 days ago

22 posts - 34 votes
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: Finnish

 
 Message 6 of 8
03 July 2015 at 9:04am | IP Logged 
Listening

Yesterday and today I have been intensively listening to YLE Puhe. I feel that my
comprehension grows very fast together with my ability to read. Although I still
struggle with spoken language, I can see that my understanding of formal speech has
very well improved.

Reading

Also yesterday I've finally bought the next book of Harry Potter series. So, I will
read it, it seems to be considerable thicker than two previous books. With my current
pace of 10-15 pages per hour it would take month or one and half months. I hope I will
improve my pace while reading this one.
Hobitti is not available in the nearest bookshops, so I need to order it from an
Internet shop.
So, I will start reading HP number 3 ;) and order Kato Hei and Hobitti.

Btw, has anyone here tried "Colloquial Finnish" book?
1 person has voted this message useful



roni
Diglot
Newbie
Finland
Joined 3466 days ago

22 posts - 34 votes
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: Finnish

 
 Message 7 of 8
05 August 2015 at 2:53pm | IP Logged 
It has been one month since last update.
I was on vacation visiting Czech and Germany. I had visited Czech Republic six years
ago. Back then I didn't even start seriously with English and wasn't much in language
learning at all. This time looking through the prism of my language learning
experience it was very interesting to see how close Czech language to my native
Russian. I could read quite many advertisements, menus etc.. Half of words were
familiar. For other smaller group of words I could guess their meaning. Although these
words weren't familiar it was much easier to remember them than Finnish words.
Now I see that people mean when somebody says that he has a good discount on some
language :)

During this month I have read roughly 600 pages not counting reading of a news on
Internet. I have finished third Harry Potter book and started with the fourth. It
seems that books get thicker to the end of the series.

There is one bad thing about my study process. I haven't done any grammar studies. It
is very hard to force myself to start with grammar when there is an interesting book
to read. Probably I need to try forcing myself to do grammar and after first few times
it will fall into routine.

Another kind of bad thing is that I've put my Anki deck on hold. I've grown tired of
it and besides I feel that I need to practice more with these words which I already
know. It means reading and listening, seeing them in context. Very often I end up in a
situation when I know that this word is familiar but I cannot remember the meaning
exactly. Does it mean A or B? I think it is what happens when one studies words
without context.

Also on a few occasions I noticed that I understand what natives say to each other
without making conscious effort like I do when I listen to the radio. It is very
motivating.

So, for the next month I will try to put emphasis on grammar. Two-three hours a week
for the beginning.
2 persons have voted this message useful



roni
Diglot
Newbie
Finland
Joined 3466 days ago

22 posts - 34 votes
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: Finnish

 
 Message 8 of 8
18 August 2015 at 12:47pm | IP Logged 
I've finally started with grammar using Essential Finnish Grammar as the source of
grammar and Harjoitus Tekee Mestarin as the source of exercises.
It actually works quite good for me. I tried the same approach half a year ago but it
didn't work that well at that time because I needed to translate too many words in
exercises. Of course it was too slow. Now I manage to pass 2-3 pages within 1-1.5
hours when before it was only one page.
Currently I'm working on declension in singular and plural.

I continue reading Harry Potter. I'm now almost through half of the book. Pace
improves a bit, comprehension is almost on the same level. Although it is hard to
judge.

I've started listening to Hobbit audio book. It consists of 17 parts which correspond
to chapters. Now I'm at chapter 4. I listen to every chapter for 3 times to get as
much details as possible. Also I've purchased paper version to read it along while I'm
listening. I don't use it yet because I don't want to read two books at once. I will
probably continue listening until I finish with HP IV and then I start again listening
and reading at the same time.


1 person has voted this message useful



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