reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6467 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German
| Message 25 of 40 09 January 2011 at 9:13pm | IP Logged |
I have been thinking about the usefulness of keeping an accurate log of my learning
efforts (passive learning thankfully does not require much effort). If you look
at the top post on the previous page, you'll discover that it was written in 2007. So,
don't hold your breath. A language log may be motivating or depressing, depending on
circumstances. Or just plain boring. It goes against my chaotic nature. Isn't
motivation useful enough on its own? Ehhh...
Edited by reineke on 23 November 2012 at 12:26am
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reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6467 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German
| Message 26 of 40 10 January 2011 at 5:53am | IP Logged |
I managed to stick with German for two years. That's pretty awesome. During this time I
listened to dozens of audiobooks and I saw hundreds of hours of TV shows. I only read
maybe 20 - 30 books. At this rate I will need another two to three years before I am
comfortable with my language skills.
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reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6467 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German
| Message 27 of 40 12 November 2012 at 11:13pm | IP Logged |
I hope this site will be around for a long time. The unresponsiveness
and slow loading times don't bode well though.
Edited by reineke on 23 November 2012 at 12:27am
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reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6467 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German
| Message 28 of 40 20 November 2012 at 11:34pm | IP Logged |
Update.
The past two years were not conducive for language learning. I can say that with clear conscience.
Japanese - nothing
Spanish - nothing
French - nothing
Italian - occasional movie
German - some audiobooks, a few movies, TV shows, documentaries etc. No substantial reading of any sort.
Russian - one audiobook, listened to repeatedly. In the past I did something similar with one movie, watching it repeatedly ad nauseam. Still no nausea with this one.
I have not made any measureable progress with German. At least I don't think so. I did a lot more in the 2009-2011 period than the previous post suggests. At intermediate-advanced stage it is difficult to measure or feel progress, especially if one is only listening to the language.
I have made a bit of a breakthrough with Russian. I was able to read a short story by Chekhov yesterday on LingQ without much difficulty.
I have updated my first post to provide links to the posts where I explain how I learned Italian and later German while watching TV.
I am now doing the same with Russian, only I am using audiobooks.
Edited by reineke on 21 November 2012 at 1:04am
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reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6467 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German
| Message 29 of 40 01 December 2012 at 11:31pm | IP Logged |
11/19-11/22
Ryunosuke Akutagawa Racconti
La Fontaine Fables
Mann Buddenbrooks 20 tracks
C'era una volta il West
Per Un Pugno di dollari
Wrote this on pasteit. After this I didn't keep any track. Not happy with any method of keeping notes. Including actually making notes. Edited the title to reflect the fact I am not really studying anything. It's a working title. My mind is a total blank. Too much TV I guess. I remember watching that "ad nauseam" Russian movie. I was happy to notice that several scenes I was not able to understand two years ago are now crystal clear. Courtesy of listening to American pulp in Russian. Eventually I will have to look into cyrillic handwriting. Terence Hill - saw one movie in German. The shock of hearing German and not Italian was such that I was not able to follow for at least 3-4 seconds - an eternity.
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reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6467 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German
| Message 30 of 40 09 January 2016 at 1:01am | IP Logged |
Captain!, I cannae keep her flying, I haven't got the power!
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tpiz Diglot Groupie United States cvillepayne.blogspot Joined 6384 days ago 77 posts - 79 votes Studies: Portuguese, English*, French Studies: Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 31 of 40 09 January 2016 at 1:23am | IP Logged |
Yes you can!
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reineke Senior Member United States https://learnalangua Joined 6467 days ago 851 posts - 1008 votes Studies: German
| Message 32 of 40 18 February 2016 at 5:11pm | IP Logged |
1/15/16 I just completed the Cervantes online placement test. The results suggest I
could be placed at C1.3-C1.4 levels.
1/17/16 I believe it's time to learn some Spanish. As of today, 1/17/2017, there is
still no such thing as "my Spanish". I have never studied this language and the little
I know is from short bursts of casual listening. I don't know how to conjugate some
very basic Spanish verbs. I don't think my C1 placement rating was a fluke though
since the test is passive and for all practical purposes I can follow the gist of
fairly advanced stories, I can read newspapers and follow TV programs. I can recognize
moods and tenses, habitual action and many other grammatical forms and patterns.
However, this level of competence is that of an impostor, a spy and a thief. The
degree of transparency is almost random. I don't know a fair number of basic words
that don't have a readily recognizable equivalent in other languages.
2/15/16 I look words up only when I am especially curious. Currently that means less
than once per week. I picked up Italian watching TV as a kid. By the time I studied it
at the university I was reading books without a dictionary. I picked up German as a
teenager in a similar manner. I opened the dictionary in each case maybe a few dozen
times. I do own several vocabulary builders. "Mastering Spanish" has created a dent in
my ottoman.
I studied French in school. Through Italian, French and English I can understand
thousands of Spanish words. I probably understand north of 10,000 words. I understand
words, phrases and expressions that have very approximate equivalents in other
languages. I am currently mapping between these languages. Given that I have a wealth
of cognates at my disposal, I am mapping more than Magellan. While I'm internalizing
the cognates I am also learning new words. Stopping to look up one word would break
the magic and slow things down.
On the list of the most common words in Spanish ranked from 9,001-10,000 I understand
easily more than half. Of the other half, I partially understand many words. Sometimes
I can recognize that a word is a a verb, that it has something to do with a negative
emotion etc but I cannot provide the exact meaning. One noun I believe to be a body
part. I would not bet on it but I might have heard it before or maybe it sounds very
much like another word that actually denotes a body part. Eventually I'll find out.
Maybe I'll just end up knowing it. Some simple words may be learned in a single
eureka-type discovery. Most often, they're not. Half-learned words may end up
forgotten or half-forgotten, relearned...
I just finished watching an episode of a lengthy anime series. We learn that the main
character, a girl, is sick. Her grandfather calls her in sick at school, the teacher
mentions it to pupils, her schoolmates discuss her illness, they go to visit her, they
say hi, offer remedies... During approximately the first 3 minutes "resfriada" was
repeated 10 times. In the latter half of the episode the word occurs 3-4 times. In the
next episode the key developments from the past episode will get summed up. That's all
the spaced repetition I need.
2/18/2016 I just clocked in 100 hours of listening to Spanish. I am mostly watching
cartoons. Maybe I keep coming back here because I like bright colors.
Edited by reineke on 18 February 2016 at 5:26pm
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