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Going back to Europe TAC 2014 DE|FR|日本語 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5773 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 73 of 142 16 April 2014 at 9:28pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I feel like I need to make another log update, even if only the most hardcore language nerds (who know where their hosts file is) are around right now.
It looks like the Super Challenge Bot is taking registrations for 2014 and after a lot of thinking (trying to figure out an appropriate English word for 迷っている now, which is worrying, but that's what I was doing) I decided I should go ahead and register for both Japanese and French. And since I have a French book and a Japanese book on the go right now, plus I'm over halfway through watching Moto Kare, it would be good to finish off everything ready for a fresh start on 1st May. So much for going with the flow. But I figure if I register for both, although I have less chance of completing both of them, it gives me a little flexibility to vacillate between mainly Japanese and mainly French, which is generally how I work anyway. (Would vacillate be an appropriate translation for 迷っている?) I've also realised that I can probably get to the 5000 page mark just by reading through my remaining children's books and furigana-glossed manga, so I don't even have to bother learning kanji yet... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4456 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 74 of 142 16 April 2014 at 11:34pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
A froody dude always knows where his hosts file is ...
Dunno ... I'm lost :-)
I'm scared that you even have 5,000 pages of non-text book Japanese lying around and I'm worrying about having enough books to reach my goal of 12 books for the year. The shipping services must love you :-) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5773 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 75 of 142 17 April 2014 at 7:49pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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My Japanese library, excluding textbooks, dictionaries and the like, occupies three shelves on a standard Ikea Billy bookcase. I would post a picture, but I fear it may be interpreted either as showing off, or a cry for help!
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| kraemder Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4975 days ago 1497 posts - 1648 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 76 of 142 20 April 2014 at 9:59pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I'm gonna sign up for that reading challenge when I get home. Btw, thanks for the web address to get my
language log fix ;). Was getting very distressed. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5773 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 77 of 142 27 April 2014 at 2:54pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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In the last few weeks I’ve been pretty busy. I’ve taken a trip to London, visited my family, rekindled my love of music, caught up with friends and been busy working on some exciting things at work. Life is full, fun and stimulating without even thinking about language learning, which adds some realism when thinking about what I want to do with languages.
I still want to improve my reading in Japanese and smash through that kanji barrier for good, but beyond that I don’t have any further aspirations. I think a period of immersion would really help to boost my communicative ability, however when I think about what I would have to give up here to make that happen (whether it be a long term in country experience or several months in an AJATT style bubble in my own country) it loses its appeal. One day I will go to Japan just for a holiday, but I already know more than enough Japanese for that. I am quite happy maintaining my French through small amounts of exposure. I’m not going to win any prizes for the quality of my French, but it’s functional enough for me to have some fun with it which means it’s also quite good fun keeping it functional. I still want to improve my German and I feel like I’m ready to make some time to hit the textbooks again, but not intensively. It was over 1.5 years ago that I first started looking at this language, so making quick progress is no longer relevant! As for my recent foray with Spanish, I have to admit that I made the point of leaving all my study material at home when I went away over Easter, and I haven’t felt the urge to pick it back up since coming back. I’d rather study German than Spanish right now (and I think my next trip abroad after Spain should be a return to Germany). I’ve had an introduction to the pronunciation system and some grammar basics, which will be more than enough for me to make good use of a phrasebook if I need to. But I have realised it’s pointless to pick up another beginner language while I still have unfinished business with German and Japanese. So my approach now is to: - Keep up reading and watching TV in Japanese, supported by some kanji study - Keep up reading and watching TV in French - Study German but not too intensively, with the aim of one day being able to read and watch TV in it To that end, despite being rather busy at the moment, I have somehow signed myself up to do Super Challenges in Japanese, French and German. I am probably setting myself up for failure here, but at least it gives me a tool to measure how well I actually do keep up reading and watching TV in French and Japanese, and some encouragement to keep going with German. I’m also aiming to do a 6WC for German in May, to make the most of the fact that my German is still poor enough for it to be allowed. But I’ll be aiming for consistency rather than high scores. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5773 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 78 of 142 02 May 2014 at 10:15pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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April update
Somehow in reverse, I guess I set out some ideas for May in my last post, before getting to the end of April and giving an update. So I'll do that here. Japanese I still continued with my Skype language exchange and Skype lessons, although I missed a couple of sessions through being on holiday or being ill. After deciding I wanted to start the Super Challenge with a clean slate I managed to finish off the following native materials: Moto Kare: I can't say I was really grabbed by this drama. In fact I found it all a bit depressing. 霧のむこうのふしぎな町: a children's fantasy book which I picked because it apparently provided some inspiration for the film Spirited Away. A fairly light and relatively easy read. I finished it in about 3 days, although this was somewhat aided by the fact that on one of these days I spent 7 hours on a train... I've started back on my kanji studies, and cleared another 2 chapters of Kanji in Context. Yay. Only another 113 to go... And I even managed to write something! French As with Japanese, to give myself a clean slate for the start of the Super Challenge I finished reading: L'élégance du hérisson: I didn't like this book to start with. I found the two main characters to be somewhat irritating with their know-it-all ways. But as the story developed I figured out I was supposed to be annoyed by them to start with, and I started to enjoy it as their viewpoints started to change. However, no spoilers here but I hated the ending. All I can say is I wish I'd stopped reading it two chapters before the end. I've also started warming up my listening for the SC by watching whatever happens to be on on TV5 Monde. German I didn't really do anything with German, apart from sign up for the SC (although I'm aiming for a half challenge at most) and the May 6WC, so maybe I'll have more to report next month. Spanish My flirtation with Spanish lasted just over two weeks. I covered 16 Assimil lessons, a chapter and a half of Living Spanish and 3 episodes of Destinos. I had a lot of fun, but after taking a break because I spent a few days away from home I came to the honest decision that I just don't have time for a fourth language right now. I think my two weeks of Spanish was still worth it for the introduction to the pronunciation system and because it got me to rewatch the film Volver. Edited by g-bod on 02 May 2014 at 10:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5773 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 79 of 142 15 May 2014 at 7:54pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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So I started the month of May with a 6WC in German and an SC in French, German and Japanese.
Somehow over the Bank Holiday weekend I managed to spend some quality time with all three languages, despite having a cold. However, the following weekend I took an unplanned trip to my hometown to visit a close relative in hospital (they're doing fine now) and really didn't think about languages the whole weekend. Since getting back the only language I've been spending time with is Japanese, mainly through reading and watching TV for the SC. It didn't feel right logging this time for the 6WC when I'm not even attempting to open a German textbook right now. In fact I'm really struggling to motivate myself to open any textbook at the moment. I think the sudden trip back to my hometown left me wondering to myself about what is really important to me. And the brutal truth is that practicing basic sentence patterns or cramming basic vocabulary doesn't really feature. Oh well, as long as I keep reading and watching TV... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| g-bod Diglot Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5773 days ago 1485 posts - 2002 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, German | Message 80 of 142 26 May 2014 at 6:31pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I think this month has proved to be something of a reality check for me. No matter how cool I think learning languages is, there are some real limits on the time and energy I have for it right now. Real life is well and truly getting in the way. Work is stressful, in positive as well as negative ways. I'm dealing with this by getting out and about in my free time, exercising gently outside (think lots of walking and cycling), seeing friends and drinking beer with them. It really helps deal with the stress, but doesn't leave me much time for my language hobby (and I've learned that kanji study + hangover does not work).
I am still making steady progress on the Japanese Super Challenge, having covered 6 "films" and 5 "books" already means I'm on course for achieving the 100/100 by the end of the 20 months. I'm trying to ignore the rankings pages as much as possible, but I still find it kind of disheartening to see the amount of effort a lot of participants have already managed to put into the challenge. I mean, I have complete respect for what other people have achieved, I just feel disappointed in myself for not being able to keep up with that. I know it's all about the long game, and making it through the whole 20 months and all that. And in a "good" month, I'm sure I could have done a lot more already. So I'll just remind myself here that the challenge is personal and the real benefit of following the efforts of other people should be in finding some more cool stuff to read/watch. To carry on the doom and gloom a little further, I somehow flipped out a little bit when I tried reading Japanese this morning. I'm already some 80 odd pages into a children's novel (and have already read another novel by the same author aimed at a similar age group) but somehow I picked it up today and really struggled through 2 pages. I had one of those "why do I still suck so much at Japanese? It's impossible. I'll never get through it. I might as well give up already" moments. I read a few hundred pages of French over the last 9 months or so and felt like I'd totally levelled up. A few hundred pages of Japanese and it feels like I'm still going nowhere. Well, I already knew that Japanese is harder than French. Plus I took 7 years of French at school. And my French still sucks. In fact, in terms of stuff I actually know, I probably know a lot more Japanese than French, it's just that my native level knowledge of the English language allows me to cheat in French in ways that just won't work with Japanese. So I'm probably going to need a few thousand pages of Japanese to have the same kind of effect as a few hundred pages did in French. As a quick count of what I've already read in Japanese, I reckon I covered around 4000 pages before starting this Super Challenge. I will try to make that up to 10000 pages before I complain here about my reading again. Hopefully by then I will have nothing to complain about! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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