Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5146 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian
| Message 73 of 145 18 January 2014 at 1:44pm | IP Logged |
In my experience, it does become easier after the first foreign language, but you need to
get used to each language on its own. I became used to listening to French but not to
Norwegian yet, even though I can already read Norwegian and get the gist of it. My
vocabulary in French is much larger, though, I've read nearly 20 books in French and I'm
at my 5th in Norwegian. French is a romance language, just like my native one, which did
help in the beginning, but I really had to get used to its sound, it wasn't just like I
took it for granted. There was also the issue of a lesser correspondence between spelling
and sound, which isn't the case for Cebuano.
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Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 4124 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog
| Message 74 of 145 18 January 2014 at 2:53pm | IP Logged |
Your log almost makes me wish I were learning Cebuano instead of Tagalog! Ha!
Very interesting log. I've been reading it for several months now - it's so nice to see your progress.
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ElComadreja Senior Member Philippines bibletranslatio Joined 7218 days ago 683 posts - 757 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano, French, Tagalog
| Message 75 of 145 18 January 2014 at 6:30pm | IP Logged |
I've got Tagalog on the back burner still. I started a more thorough vocab study. Wow I
thought it would go a little faster. There's so much vocab that's different. A Cebuano
speaker said they used a word from Cebuano when speaking Tagalog and somehow it turned
into an insult :p
Edited by ElComadreja on 18 January 2014 at 6:31pm
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ElComadreja Senior Member Philippines bibletranslatio Joined 7218 days ago 683 posts - 757 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano, French, Tagalog
| Message 76 of 145 20 January 2014 at 6:23am | IP Logged |
Well, the first few days, listening with no video was a great sleep aid :p
I remember falling asleep like that all the time when I was trying to listen to a
Spanish Stephen King audiobook.
The third day is not so bad, and I'm starting to get words, but it's still kind of hard
to follow. I guess I've relied on visual cues allot. This really feels different just
listening.
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ElComadreja Senior Member Philippines bibletranslatio Joined 7218 days ago 683 posts - 757 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano, French, Tagalog
| Message 77 of 145 22 January 2014 at 10:27am | IP Logged |
This is the 5th day I've listened to the news with no visuals. This morning I listened
to the new one, and as is normal, I can't understand so I concentrate on the sound and
picked out many words, but didn't have time to sort out the meanings.
Now it's evening and I understand 90% of the same broadcast.
Level up!
I wonder if it will continue this way or if I'll have to keep giving the news a 1-2
punch.
Edit: Comparing this to my Hungarian venture, the 5th day seems to be a break point.
edit (end of day): Listening to people just talk to each other is easier tonight. I
still don't get every word though. I've moved somewhere from 10% understanding to 90%.
Something that got me again was that prefix that cuts of the first letter of a word.
All this listening takes brain power, and I can feel the struggle. Is the the point
were things will start fixing themselves "unintentionally" if I just keep going?
Edited by ElComadreja on 22 January 2014 at 5:45pm
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ElComadreja Senior Member Philippines bibletranslatio Joined 7218 days ago 683 posts - 757 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano, French, Tagalog
| Message 78 of 145 23 January 2014 at 2:36pm | IP Logged |
Wow I think I overwhelmed myself today studying all the stuff I am right now. I think my
brain quit after it managed to read the first 2 verses of Jonah in Hebrew. Maybe I
should rethink my schedule.
The news wasn't quite as good today. And I noticed that to understand it I really have
to PAY ATTENTION and so I can't do that for long periods of time.
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ElComadreja Senior Member Philippines bibletranslatio Joined 7218 days ago 683 posts - 757 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano, French, Tagalog
| Message 79 of 145 26 January 2014 at 5:43am | IP Logged |
Well, I took a long trip to a wedding on the other side of the island. I thought I would
be able to use some Cebuano skills. Unfortunately missing 4 hours of sleep and being in
a church with allot of echo doesn't really help in this regard. My Cebuano was pretty
much useless.
Fortunately everything ELSE went great :) I witnessed many traditions, the strangest of
which (and some locals didn't know this one), they got a glass of water, wet a comb with
it and made a stroke through the new wife's hair, dipped it again and made a stroke
through the husband's. Dipped it again, and then the couple drank the water.
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ElComadreja Senior Member Philippines bibletranslatio Joined 7218 days ago 683 posts - 757 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano, French, Tagalog
| Message 80 of 145 26 January 2014 at 6:48pm | IP Logged |
I thought it might be worthwhile to re-post my 2104 goals here because I'm feeling some
serious wanderlust.
Quote:
Cebuano
I'm ok with this language except for listening skills. My #1 goal is to understand it
when spoken (by a native). I feel I'm very close. There's really nothing left that I
can study... I just have to do it somehow. at least 30 minutes listening every weekday.
If I can break this barrier then I finally know how to learn a language all the way to
"fluency", and I can apply those same skills to Spanish.
Biblical Greek
Reading through at least one chapter of NT a day. It's going well so far. At this easy
pace I should be done by early september. Then I will consider this one "done".
Biblical Hebrew
Read Jonah. Then who knows?
Tagalog
I might approach this completely differently. I worked through the vocab, grammar, and
written dialogues of TY, I'm wondering if I could just LR the Bible and get better that
way.
Not so important...
Portuguese
In about a month and a half I'll start working my way through the FSI programmatic
course, having already reviewed all the vocab.
Hungarian
It's calling my name. I don't understand. Let's say 1/2 of FSI level 1
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Edited by ElComadreja on 26 January 2014 at 6:49pm
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