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Languid language learning (Team Advanced)

  Tags: Swedish | German | French
 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
129 messages over 17 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 1 ... 16 17 Next >>
Elenia
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
lilyonlife.blog
Joined 3615 days ago

239 posts - 327 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto

 
 Message 1 of 129
20 May 2014 at 5:58pm | IP Logged 
'Languid' is the perfect way to describe the way I do most things, in particular
language learning. Sometimes, I languish so much I stop completely, and so I'm setting
up this log in the hopes of avoiding that. The idea is that the log will make me
slightly more accountable than my personal blog.

I'm not very goal-oriented, but I do have certain aims which are different for each of
my languages: for French, I want to increase my reading fluency, and also my
conversational fluency - my main problems with French being that I don't particularly
enjoy reading in French, and I find it difficult to join and/or hold conversations. For
Swedish, I'm focusing on developing passive skills, in particular my reading
comprehension. It would be nice to be able to speak, but at this moment I'd rather
understand. For German, I hope to reach an all round B1 level over the next 12-14
months, but I'd quite happily settle for a solid A2 instead.

I don't have a set or preferred method, although maybe keeping a log of my efforts will
help me find what works best for me. As I have different goals for my three main
languages, I will use different methods. For French, I will simply read as much as I
can - currently I'll aim for about four books a month, but that is subject to change.
For Swedish, I'll use a variety of different online resources and anki. For German, I
would like to follow a Francais-Allemand course in the hopes that I'll reduce
interference between Swedish and German and learn more about both French and German
grammar.

I'm also learning Esperanto 'for fun'. I would like to reach a conversational level,
and am using lernu.net with French as my base language.

---

TAC 2015 starts on page 6 (gosh!)

---

Currently Reading
FRENCH: Carpe Jugulum, Kel: Noir et Blanc
SWEDISH: Låt den rätte komma in, Kallocain
GERMAN: Alles Sense, Tintenherz

Read
FRENCH: La Huitième fille, Point de lendemain

Edited by Elenia on 19 April 2015 at 2:44am

2 persons have voted this message useful



Penelope
Diglot
Senior Member
Greece
Joined 3628 days ago

110 posts - 155 votes 
Speaks: English, French
Studies: Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 2 of 129
21 May 2014 at 11:12pm | IP Logged 
Welcome. I hope you achieve your goals! :)
1 person has voted this message useful



Elenia
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
lilyonlife.blog
Joined 3615 days ago

239 posts - 327 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto

 
 Message 3 of 129
22 May 2014 at 11:28am | IP Logged 
@Penelope: Thank you!

-

French: I've been reading Manon Lescaut for a class (as a way of procrastinating the
essay I ought to be writing!) I'd started it maybe a year or two ago, but I didn't get
that far. However, I'm finding it pretty easy to read, and quite compelling, despite
the fact that I'm not a particular fan of the litres of larmes poured forth by the
characters on almost every single page.

Swedish: I've also been trying to learn the song Rött och guld by Loke Nyberg. I
thought that it'd be difficult to learn, as I'd barely picked anything up save the
refrain from previous listening, but it's proving even harder than I had expected. It's
partially to do with the individual words, but mostly to do with the rhythm of the song
: it's difficult for me to get a handle on. However, it's such a beautiful song that I
would like to be able to warble along, and I don't mind having it permanently stuck in
my head, so I'll keep on trying!

I'm also toying with the idea of dictation as a way to practice my ear and test my
listening skills (although I know they're not even really worth mentioning.) I have a
couple of texts that I would like to be able to understand by the end of June, and so I
can practice with those, as I also have recordings of them. It'd be nice to understand
the recordings as well, so it's a win-win situation.

Esperanto: I made my way through another Bildoj kaj demandoj lesson on lernu. I'm
wandering through it pretty slowly and not consolidating at all outside of the courses
tests and recaps, but it seems to be sticking, so all is well on that front.

-

Otherwise, I've been idly wondering if it'd be beneficial to me to write commentaries
on pieces of French texts outside of a university setting. The main benefit I can see
this exercise having, apart from it being good practice for actual commentaries I have
to write, would be for me to really focus on grammar. I don't tend to notice
grammatical structures when reading, and so perhaps really looking for them and
deconstructing them in an analytical way would be helpful. The main downfall, of
course, is the fact that this is such an academic exercise that it might be difficult
to apply in anyway that is meaningful to my learning. Who knows?
1 person has voted this message useful



Elenia
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
lilyonlife.blog
Joined 3615 days ago

239 posts - 327 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto

 
 Message 4 of 129
27 May 2014 at 10:19pm | IP Logged 
It hasn't been a very good time for language learning these past few days. My friend left
Tours (and France) this weekend, so I was spending a lot of time with him and our other
friends before his departure. I got in minimal amounts of language practice while his
S.O. was telling me off about the state of my room.

I have only really done a significant amount for French. I finished off writing that
essay I was supposed to do, and also (re)watched episode one of Les Revenants.

Other than that, I finished another half a lesson of Bildoj kaj demandoj, and read maybe
a page or so Låt den rätta komma in. Still nothing done for German - I'm sorry, German,
it is so easy for me to neglect you!
1 person has voted this message useful



Elenia
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
lilyonlife.blog
Joined 3615 days ago

239 posts - 327 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto

 
 Message 5 of 129
03 June 2014 at 1:31pm | IP Logged 
I have been using Anki only sporadically, and haven't made much progress with Låt
den rätta komma in
, because I am a bad student. I've done even less in my target
languages than reported in my last post.

However, I managed to get my hands on an epub version of La Huitième Fille (Equal
Rites)
by Terry Pratchett, which is extremely pleasant, and I'm making fairly swift
progress through it. Although I've already read the book in English, and although the
French isn't particularly challenging, I'm actually enjoying the read which is the most
important thing for me right now.

-

Otherwise, I have downloaded the entire FSI Swedish course. It's proving quite hard for
me to find French-German learning resources, but Deutsche Welle offer a few options.
Hopefully I find something more as well. Then I'll start making ruthless use of my
German friends :)

EDIT: Typo

Edited by Elenia on 05 June 2014 at 12:46pm

1 person has voted this message useful



AlexTG
Diglot
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 4397 days ago

178 posts - 354 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Latin, German, Spanish, Japanese

 
 Message 6 of 129
03 June 2014 at 2:30pm | IP Logged 
If you're looking for a German course in French I just finished using a good one called "Allemand Débutant".
Get it without audio and it's 8 euros free shipping from Deastore.

It contains 50 short lessons, intended to be done one per day. Good if you want a shortish term, easyish to
reach goal.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Elenia
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
lilyonlife.blog
Joined 3615 days ago

239 posts - 327 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto

 
 Message 7 of 129
05 June 2014 at 12:48am | IP Logged 
@AlexTG - thanks, I'll check it out as soon as I can!

-

I am now a little over half-way through La Huitième fille. I'm currently reading
on my phone, which is handy for looking up words, but I'll definitely have to do a lot
more reading for most of them to stick. I'm benefiting from reading Pratchett in
translation - although it's been a long time since I last read Equal Rites, I
find I remember quite a lot of it (in the original words). Because I'm quite used to
his style, I'm seeing where and how set phrases and idioms are translated into French,
which is quite interesting.

I've also started working my way through the FSI Swedish course. I've done about an
hour an a half of work on the guide to pronunciation, and I will probably double that
at least, just to make sure. Although my goals place relatively low importance on
speaking, I find that at least being able to pronounce words helps me to understand and
remember them better. I have a tendency to say words during Anki repetitions, and
wondering whether or not I am pronouncing them correctly really throws me off. Not to
mention that being able to produce the sounds (or at least, a vague approximation of
them!) will help me to recognise them when I hear them.

Finally, German has gotten a little love from me. I've started with DW Mission Berlin,
in French. I don't have that high an opinion of it so far, but it's very early days,
and I wasn't working on it in earnest. Hopefully it'll prove useful.
1 person has voted this message useful



Elenia
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
lilyonlife.blog
Joined 3615 days ago

239 posts - 327 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: German, Swedish, Esperanto

 
 Message 8 of 129
08 June 2014 at 1:22am | IP Logged 
Outside of two more sections of Bildoj kaj demandoj, a little Swedish and Esperanto
listening, and reading La Huitième fille, I haven't done much for any of my
languages.

However, today I was invited to go on a tour of Chateau de Chenonceaux with a German
friend and her Aunt and Uncle. I couldn't understand most of what was being said,
although I sometimes surprised myself when I wasn't paying attention. But it was still
very exciting for me to spend an entire day with German, and increased my desire to
learn the language - a desire that had by no means abated, but which was being held
back by my fear of all things grammar and a deficiency in easy-to-access resources.

I also found myself speaking a lot more French than is usual today, so I guess that
must count for something.


1 person has voted this message useful



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