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| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6943 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 57 of 70 13 November 2007 at 10:27pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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I finished the novel I'd started on right before the last report. It proved richer in vocabulary than the ones before it, so I was looking up quite a few words until about page 275 and only let go to some degree for the last 75 pages.
Of the set of books I had lined up for the current vocabulary acquisition push, there remain 3 light-genre novels and one science fiction novella (about 120 pages long). The attempted switch to monolingual dictionaries ran into a technical problem. I have an electronic, but no paper monolingual dictionary, so if I am not sitting with the book in front of a computer, my only choices are to use no dictionary or to use a bilingual one. I chose the middle path, trying to look up fewer words when reading away from the computer. While at the computer, my lookups have probably been some 75% to 80% monolingual, maybe even more, but I haven't really tracked it with any care. I am still undecided if this is premature - one has to have faith in the eventual magic of comprehensible input not to get unnerved by the fuzziness of monolingual lookups at this early stage. Edited by frenkeld on 13 November 2007 at 10:50pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6943 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 58 of 70 27 December 2007 at 12:40am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Things got somewhat busy over the last month and a half, so I've only read the science fiction novella and two of the three chick lit novels since the last log entry. I finished the second novel today. I was hoping to read the third novel before the end of the year, but it's 450 pages long and the type is fairly small, so with all the things to do before January 1st, it doesn't look very realistic.
Excluding two novels by Theodor Fontane that I read only partially, the German books that I have so far read in their entirety are: (1) 5 short books for young children, which I will count together as one elementary reading unit. (2,3) "Das doppelte Lottchen" and "Emil und die Detektive" by Erich Kästner. (4,5) Two science fiction novellas (about 120 and 170 pages long). (6-11) Six chick lit novels, about 300 pages each. I read three of the chick lit novels using a dictionary and the rest of the books without, in "extensive" reading mode. My impression so far is that while "extensive" reading without a dictionary does slowly build up one's vocabulary, it tends to leave it in a rather fuzzy state for a long time. Still, it was fun, but it is time to move to the next phase. The next phase will mainly focus on rereading several of the above titles without a dictionary, and then taking a third pass through them with a dictionary. I will make an effort to use a monolingual dictionary, but I am leaving this flexible. To keep things under control without making them too rigid, I decided to create a closed list of 5 additional books that I am allowed to entertain myself with whenever reviewing the previously read books threatens to turn into boredom. The additional titles are: (12) The remaining chick lit novel. (13) "Quest" by Andreas Eschbach, a long sci fi novel. (14) "Die unerträgliche Leichtigkeit des Seins" by Milan Kundera - I generally stay away from translations, but I am making an exception for this one. It's supposed to be very good, I haven't read it in any language yet, and the original is in a language I will almost certainly never get to study. (15) "Clara Schumann" by Werner Quednau, seems like a biographical novel. (16) "Vollidiot" by Tommy Jaud - a man's answer to chick lit. So, basically, the plan is to use these 16 titles to solidify vocabulary (and have some fun) before moving on to other reading materials. Edited by frenkeld on 27 December 2007 at 9:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6943 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 59 of 70 16 December 2008 at 9:24pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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It's ten days short of a year from my last entry, about time for annual reckoning.
I have by now read 26 German novels, 15 in the last year. That's pretty much all I had time for. Despite my good intentions, I have not reread any of the previously read titles, and a lot of the reading was done without a dictionary, confirming my prior conclusion that one makes progress this way, but slowly. The selection has some redeeming titles, but most of it is mediocre pop lit. When I look at the 21 Spanish novels I have read in full, the comparison is downright embarrassing. The Spanish lineup has only one "trash lit" title, and even that one I suspect I could enjoy rereading. Since my (passive) German vocabulary is not acceptable yet, I just plan to keep reading, but be considerably choosier about what I read. For now I will continue to focus on the the 20th (and 21st) century novels, but maybe with a couple of Fontane's works thrown in. It would also be really nice to find a portable paperback-sized monolingual German dictionary for reading on the run - I just can't seem to find such a beast on Amazon.de, even though it surely must exist. Because of German, my Spanish reading has been on hold for two years, and it is time to bring it back. I actually started on a light novel by Mario Vargas Llosa a few days ago. Whether I want to start on another language right away is not yet clear. The possible choices are French, Italian, and Hindi. Hindi is an 1100-hour language, according to FSI, and to get grounded in it I would probably need to set everything else aside for quite a while. French and Italian I dabbled in before, so I could probably just intersperse reading in one of them with Spanish. But then, I have "Le Hindi sans Peine", and people say one can do something with Assimil courses in very small bites, so perhaps it could offer a way to hold on to German while starting on a new language. All in all, 2008 has not been spectacular, but it has been steady and progress has been made, so while I am hoping for more spectacular results in 2009, I am not dissatisfied with 2008. Edited by frenkeld on 16 December 2008 at 9:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6447 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German | Message 60 of 70 17 December 2008 at 7:06pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Well, you did more than I did, in any case you read an awful lot of books considering your schedule. Perhaps staying away from the forum helped a little? :)
I believe you need to continue your reading efforts in Spanish and German. Perhaps throw in a few movies. When you feel ready, go for Italian or French. Doesn't really matter because you'll do both anyway. No, wait, do French first. I'd do Hindi when I felt comfortable about neglecting the others for a while - like you did with Spanish. Wait, do Italian next! Finish the job! And perhaps we'll even be able to find some culturally relevant, recent stuff :) Edited by reineke on 17 December 2008 at 7:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6943 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 61 of 70 17 December 2008 at 9:03pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Reading is more easily quantifiable than listening, but that doesn't diminish the value of all the listening you've done over the last year.
It was instrumental.
The shorter "the others" list, the sooner one gets there. The quickest way would be to continue doing nothing but German, until it's ready to be mothballed for a year or two, along with Spanish. But that would mean no French and no Italian for another two to three years. On the other hand, acquiring decent reading skills in French and Italian would take at least one year each, which, with German, means no Hindi for some three years. Ugh!
Does that mean I could have cannoli and tiramisu for dessert every day? Edited by frenkeld on 17 December 2008 at 9:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6447 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German | Message 62 of 70 18 December 2008 at 6:29pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
The dessert comes after the main meal. You seem to be set on Indian curry. I would have suggested coq au vin if spaghetti n meatballs was too plain and unauthentic for you. It's good to have a plan though. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6943 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 63 of 70 18 December 2008 at 10:27pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Indeed, the decision that Hindi is my next language is now set in stone, so now I have to rename this study log and add Hindi to my list of studied languages. I already have quite a few materials and will order a few more, so there should be enough to choose from. Edited by frenkeld on 18 December 2008 at 10:33pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6943 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 64 of 70 01 April 2010 at 10:25pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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The last entry in this log was at the end of 2008, and 2009 turned out differently than anticipated and involved no language study.
I finally got back to language learning a couple of weeks ago, with German being the target. My December 16, 2008 entry states that I had read 26 German novels by then, mostly without using a dictionary. It's a relaxing, but inefficient method, so my vocabulary is still inadequate and must be expanded through more reading, and it is also time to learn to understand movies in German. The planned activities are: (1) Read novels. (2) Watch movies. Edited by frenkeld on 05 April 2010 at 6:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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