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Kanewai 2015: Team Caesar | ||
Tags: Super Challenge | Catalan | Ancient Greek | Turkish | Polyglot | Arabic | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | Japanese | French | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4678 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 89 of 331 07 June 2012 at 10:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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French
My reading skills are starting to advance much faster than my speaking and listening skills. I was doing a good job of keeping them in synch, but looking ahead I see lots of time to read, and not much time to practice speaking. I'm fine with that for now. It's now taking me two to three days to finish each lesson in Using French. They've introduced Balzac, and he was a mess. I never knew. His writing also seems easier to read then Flaubert's, so I might read something of his next. The Super Challenge I'm now over 50% of the way through Madame Bovary, and it has gotten good! The first half was well written, and their were some beautiful passages. There was only one chapter in the first book that really jumped out (when the Bovary's are invited to a rich-man's ball). I admired the book more than loved it - I couldn't lose myself in the story. I'm on Chapter 13 of Book 2, and the last four or five chapters have each been riveting. It's finally become a 'real' novel for me, where I rush home to read it to find out what happens next, as opposed to just reading it as a learning exercise. I also started a French manga, Rohan au Louvre. It's really fun; I might look into finding more of La nouvelle manga. I already ordered Les Aventures de Tintin: Le Lotus bleu and Astérix le Gaulouis - I'll have plenty to balance out the more serious literature. I'm also done with my online shopping for the month! Japanese I'm half-way through both Pimsleur 1 and Michel Thomas Foundation. These methods are great for commuting, and they balance each other out nicely. I was doing these with my co-worker, but I think he's dropped out. I haven't asked, but I got a blank look when I asked him if he wanted coffee this morning. This isn't one of my main target languages ... yet ... but I'm already wondering if it would be possible to read manga by next summer ... Edited by kanewai on 07 June 2012 at 10:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4678 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 90 of 331 13 June 2012 at 1:25am | IP Logged | ||
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Brain Freeze. It went like this:
Pimsleur: Tell your friend you want to go shopping. Brain: zzzzzz Me: Hey! Wake up! Pimsleur: Kyo wa kaimono ga shitai n desu ga? Brain: Kyo wa ... something. Me: Oh come one, try a bit harder. Pimsleur: Ask her if she has any money. Brain: Why are we doing this again? Me: Just focus. Pimsleur: okane o motte imasu ka? Brain: I knew that. Pimsleur: Ask her if she has fifty one dollars. Brain: No. Me: What? Stomach: I'm hungry. Let's eat. Brain: I don't care. Me: Fine. (hits pause, and ends the pain) I think I'm going to follow the expert's advice, and focus on one language at a time. I was just flirting with Japanese, but I'm not going to realistically get anywhere with 20" a day, and I don't want to cut into my French study time. So I'm regrouping, and moving back to Plan A, and my first log: Learn French by any and all means. I'm still going to follow a lot of the Romantics logs, I'm not sure I'm getting the whole point of the TAC Challenge. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Kerrie Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Kerrie2 Joined 5184 days ago 1232 posts - 1740 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 91 of 331 13 June 2012 at 2:44am | IP Logged | ||
What do you mean? I think the point of the TAC is total annihilation. Of whatever you choose to annihilate. For you, that's French. I have a lot of respect for you guys who focus on only one language at a time. Sometimes I think it would be cool for a single language to hold my focus until I'm happy with my level in it. =) But alas, I have five I can't put down. Which is both annoying and rewarding at the same time. But I'm still doing my best to annihilate them. :D 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4678 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 92 of 331 13 June 2012 at 4:37am | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think a single language can hold my focus either - I've toyed with half a dozen
this year alone! It's nice to put French somewhat aside sometimes, and just maintain while I play with others. Then I'm more energized to come back and immerse myself when I think I'm at the point where I can level up. I've been doing an exercise where I write down every word I'm unsure of in a text ... and I had 70 alone for the last chapter in my book. It's been a good wake up call as to just how much vocabulary we would need to function at an advanced level, and how far I still have to go. This is partially what's made me decide to focus again, at least for now! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5874 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 93 of 331 13 June 2012 at 11:47am | IP Logged | ||
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Have you gotten to watch Le Diner De Cons yet? I saw in the "Super..Registration" thread that you were looking to watch it. Kind of a coincidence since I'd never heard of it before, but read a favorable online review and decided to pop it in my Amazon shopping cart yesterday. I'm looking forward to seeing an original French comedy.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4678 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 94 of 331 05 December 2012 at 3:40am | IP Logged | ||
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2012 Year in Review
I kept separate French and Spanish logs for most of the year, and lost track of all but four or five of the rest of the TAC Romantics. What I said at the beginning of the year: For 2012, I want to bump up my French and Spanish from an intermediate level to a solid B-1 or B-2. I want to reach a level where I can read novels comfortably, understand movies, and maintain the languages without strain. I'm also planning some detours into Italian and maybe Catalan along the way ... It would be beyond fantastic if I were able to read modern Spanish literature at the end of the year. Silly me. Silly little one-year younger with such high hopes and ambitions me. But last January was a simpler, more innocent time. In reality, after lots and lots of study, I’d give myself a tenuous B-1 for French, and a weak A-2 for Spanish. I can read easy French novels but need help with literature, I can’t understand most movies, and I can handle simple one-on-one conversations. It doesn’t feel like much. Then I remind myself of this chart I did for Romance languages on how long the professionals estimate that it takes to reach each level: A-2 FSI: 180 hours of class time, plus 150 hours homework ILA France: 160 hours of class time, plus 100 hours homework B-1 FSI: 350 hours of class time, plus 300 hours homework ILA France: 310 hours of class time, plus 150 hours homework B-2 FSI: 500 hours of class time, plus 375 hours homework ILA France: 690 hours of class time, plus 200 hours homework My very rough estimate is that I have spent 150 hours on Assimil French, 50 hours on Using French, 50 hours on Pimsleur, 150 hours on FSI, 50 hours on Michel Thomas, and 20 hours with a French grammar book … for a total of 470 hours. Add in a trip to Tunisia and Paris, and tons of reading with the Super Challenge, and suddenly “almost B-1” sounds just about right. I didn’t kick my Spanish into gear until July, but since then I’ve finished Pimsleur II and III, three levels of Michel Thomas, the passive wave and half the active wave of Assimil, 26 lessons of FSI, and a trip to Guatemala. I didn’t notice any interference at all between French and Spanish! However, I found that I can only do one language actively or intensely at a time. I did a lot of flirting this year, too – more than ever before. Italian: 12 weeks, Pimsleur 1 & 2, Michel Thomas Total, FSI FAST 1-6, 7 days in Rome Catalan: Four weeks; Chapters 1-5 of Teach Yourself Catalan Japanese: Four weeks, Michel Thomas and half of Pimsleur 1. Maghrébin Arabic: 7 weeks; Chapters 1-24 of Méthode d'arabe maghrébin moderne Ancient Greek: 3 weeks so far, as part of the Assimil Experiment. [/hr] I think a realistic goal for me is to try and “level up” in my target languages each year. I used to think I wanted to be ‘fluent’ in seven languages by the age of fifty. Then I lowered it down to five. Now I’m thinking that French, Spanish, and English might be enough! I’ll still flirt with a lot of languages, of course! If the Assimil Experiment is a success I can see trying one new language a year, just for the experience. But as I don’t retain much of the languages I flirt with (my Italian disappeared within days of leaving Rome) I don’t think I’ll worry so much about reaching a high level of fluency in them. Goals for 2013 Finish French Grammar in Context Finish FSI French Finish the Super Challenge! Finish Spanish with Ease Start Perfectionnement Espagnol Continue with FSI Spanish Volume 3 Finish Le Grec Ancien And who knows what will come after ... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5123 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 95 of 331 05 December 2012 at 10:19am | IP Logged | ||
You almost got me arrested today. I was reading this on my iPhone in the train, and I started laughing so hard that I cought the attention of everyone around me. Now middle aged female buraucrats are not supposed to be laughing out loud on the train in Norway. Only drunks and lunatics do that. I had to move into another wagon to save face. But I so recognized thouse thoughts. I am also always overambitious and think I can do much more than I can do. On the good side you have acheived quite a lot! Edited by Solfrid Cristin on 05 December 2012 at 12:45pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4996 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 96 of 331 05 December 2012 at 12:31pm | IP Logged | ||
I very much feel your pain! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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