What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

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gsbod
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Re: gsbod's language log (mostly German) | TAC 2016

Postby gsbod » Tue Sep 20, 2016 8:31 pm

Brun Ugle wrote:Next time wanderlust gets the better of me, I'm going to use that excuse. --- I was just browsing and my finger slipped.


That's exactly how it happened.
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gsbod
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Re: gsbod's language log (mostly German) | TAC 2016

Postby gsbod » Wed Nov 30, 2016 10:41 pm

I try to work to according to the principle that if you have the time to complain about your lack of progress, you have the time to practice. Therefore the lack of activity on my log this autumn can be explained by the fact that I have had no time to complain, and precious little time to practice.

Work has been very intense. I've been working on some really cool projects but the trade off has been a significant dent in the time/energy left over to do stuff in my free time. As a short term thing it's fine but I think I need to redress the balance before it becomes a permanent lifestyle change.

As far as German goes, I've been turning up to class and doing my homework, which helps keep it ticking over, but at the cost of only 3 hours a week I can hardly expect to progress much from this. I haven't even been doing much SC stuff, since I've had to produce a lot of English language text to earn my wage over the last few weeks I've switched to doing most of my leisure reading in English too, a technique which has helped up my game in my native language in the same way that reading a lot of German (or whatever) helps to up my game in the languages I am learning.

I am planning to make one more visit to Germany this year, since despite several years of interest in the country, I have yet to visit a real Weihnachtsmarkt. I am sure the Glühwein will aid my German in a way nothing else can!
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gsbod
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Re: gsbod's language log (mostly German) | TAC 2016

Postby gsbod » Wed Dec 07, 2016 10:05 pm

This week I learned a new German word - ausmisten. It's derived from the word Mist, meaning dung, and a literal translation would be "mucking out", but I learned it in the context of having a good clear out. Having read a few ausmisten themed articles online, I have been inspired - I think there is something far more compelling about a German writer telling you to sort your life out than any other language I can understand.

I am an impulsive collector of stuff. I love the idea of films, TV and especially books, but I have a habit of buying far more stuff than I have the time to consume. Combined with several years of suffering language-related gear acquisition syndrome (something I think I now have mostly under control) and I have collected a lot of stuff. Stuff I don't need, don't want, and yet in some cases struggle to let go of.

Some stuff was easy. Like the DVD boxsets which were covered in a thick layer of dust on top of the sellophane wrapper which hasn't been removed since I bought them some 7 or 8 years ago (i.e. when Virgin Megastores was still a thing). I also realised it was time to let go of a few anime series which I have quite simply grown out of, although all of my Japanese movies are staying put for now.

Books are, of course, another matter. Again some bits were easy - like Teach Yourself Dutch. When I finally get around to learning Dutch, I'm going to want something more thorough. And preferably with a German base. Also there are a couple of basic vocab books for German which I have simply grown out of. It was my Japanese collection which took the biggest and most painful hit. I really bought into the idea of Tadoku a few years ago. By "bought into" I mean I spent a small fortune collecting children's books. I had this idea that I would just read them, grade level by grade level, levelling up my kanji as I went and improving my level by having fun. Except it turns out that despite the beautiful printing and artwork, with a very few notable exceptions, I find children's books exceptionally boring. Still, I'd invested a lot into the concept psychologically, and those books do look so nice, so I wavered a lot. But I'm being weighed down by the feeling that I ought to be reading them, despite my heart sinking every time I actually open them. Hopefully they will find a happy new home, preferably one with Japanese-speaking children in it! Also, I'm still keep hold of my よつばと! and ドラえもん. I've read them twice through already and would be glad to read them again once I'm back in the mood for some Japanese reading.

My trimmed down language collection now fills up 5.5 shelves of a 6 shelf bookcase. It's pretty and colourful, and still represents the multilingual I would like to be rather than where I am at right now, but it's much more manageable. And I'll have to be more choosy about what fills up the remaining 0.5 of a shelf, because once that's full it'll be one in, one out.
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gsbod
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Re: gsbod's language log (mostly German) | TAC 2016

Postby gsbod » Wed Dec 07, 2016 10:08 pm

In other news, I am starting to make plans for some holidays next year. I would like to visit Italy, for the first time. You know what this means...
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gsbod
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Re: gsbod's language log (mostly German) | TAC 2016

Postby gsbod » Fri Dec 23, 2016 12:42 pm

I'm back from my trip to Cologne. The Christmas markets were really magical and the magic wasn't spoiled by the events in Berlin earlier this week.

Cologne has a number of markets in different locations. We visited six altogether. Each had it's own different kind of atmosphere. I think the Heimat der Heinzel was my favourite overall, I spent most of my money at the Markt der Engel, and the stocking shaped Glühwein mugs at Nikolausdorf were also a winner. I now have a stash of sweet treats to see me through the festive season. I am also experiencing some kind of Glühwein/gebrannte Mandeln withdrawal already.

I've stocked up on various bits of reading material and I am contemplating how to manage my studies for the next few weeks/months/whatever. I am keen to try and push myself to level up again, because I think my German has plateaued somewhat in the second half of this year, mainly because of other pressures on my time and energy. I am also aware that my current level in German is at least as good as my Japanese was when it was at its best, if not slightly better, so any further advancement of my German will be into unknown territory for me as far as language learning goes. I am thinking perhaps I could organise myself around doing the following:

1. Turning up to class and doing my homework
2. Extensive reading and listening, including logging appropriate stuff for the SC
3. Attending meetup groups for speaking practice
4. More intensive study of extracts of native materials (e.g. magazine/newspaper articles) for vocabulary and expressions
5. Grammar drills from a practice book at an appropriate level

I am doing 1 anyway. I am also doing 2 & 3 but should be doing more of it, and 4 & 5 would add a different dimension to the studying side of things.

I have also started learning Italian, because I would like to understand at least some of what is going on around me if I am to visit on holiday next year. I'm working with a coursebook I picked up from Foyles a few weeks ago called In Italiano Il Corso 1. I'm still only halfway through the first chapter, so will study a bit more before I write about impressions so far.
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gsbod
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2016 in review

Postby gsbod » Mon Dec 26, 2016 6:13 pm

Since I said I was doing an individual TAC for 2016, I feel I ought to try and give some kind of summary here for how the year went.

German has definitely been a winner - it's still my favourite language! Also there has been a bit of an evening out of my skills, which at the start of the year were much stronger for listening, then speaking, and much weaker for reading and wrting. However, things have gone a little slower than I would have liked, particularly in the second half of the year. Over the coming few months I am going to try and get a bit more life back into my work life balance. At least for now I am enjoying a nice relaxing Christmas break... although I actually find I get my most productive studying done on a normal working weekday, as long as I am not too tired.

I managed to travel to Germany no less than 5 times this year and found a new favourite place in the Southern Black Forest. I love going to Germany on holiday, but next year I think I ought to visit a country I haven't been to before - at the moment it looks likely to be Italy, which is why I have been studying a bit of Italian since the end of November. I do plan to go to Germany at least once next year too!

There has been quite a noticeable decline in my French and Japanese, which have been mostly neglected this year. I am not too worried by this. I think if I need them I can still get them back - and since I don't really need them right now it's nothing to worry about anyway.

Language plans for 2017 are pretty simple for now: finish the SC for German, improve my German as much as I can, see where Italian takes me, and dabble with whatever as and when I feel like it!
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gsbod
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Re: gsbod's language log (mostly German) | TAC 2016

Postby gsbod » Fri Dec 30, 2016 2:34 pm

Having started my recent round of Italian studies on 28th November, I have been studying for just over a month and last night I finished the first chapter of my text book In Italiano. Il Corso Volume 1 - which I think makes this an appropriate point to give some kind of review.

Since I was lucky enough that my decision to go to Italy next year coincided with a trip through London, I was able to stop off at Foyles and browse through a good range of beginner Italian books before I settled on this one, mainly because it provided the following:

Lot of drills and exercises
All audio included on attached MP3 CD
A promise on the back that you could download the answer key online

I decided that the fact that the course is in Italian only wouldn't be a problem for me, partly because of positive experiences using German only resources, and partly because I could already understand the bit on the back about the answer key. When I got the book home, it turned out that my practically non existent level of Italian presented a bit more of a challenge in actually obtaining said answer key, but after some dictionary lookups and tentative form filling I managed it. The textbook also allows you access to an ebook version of the same course, although this hasn't been much use to me, presumably because I don't use a tablet.

In terms of the drills and exercises, the book doesn't disappoint. There are plenty, including both written drills and spoken drills using the CD. The overall amount of audio provided is really impressive, at about 6 hours 45 minutes. Each of the 7 chapters is split up into a number of sections with a dialogue, audio drills and grammar/sentence patterns (the number of sections per chapter varies), a section of practice exercises which are mainly written, although some include the answers recorded on the CD which provides a different way of checking your work, a section focusing on reading and writing which, at this level, mainly seems to concern form filling and simple, personal letters, a very short section focusing on some aspect of pronunciation and a section on "culture" which provides a short text about some aspect of Italian life/culture, which is also recorded on the CD.

Altogether, this course is quite a cost effective package and suits the way that I like to study, at least as a beginner. I don't think it would suit someone studying their first language on their own though, for three main reasons:

1. There is no up front information about pronunciation. The Italian Language and Culture course on EdX gives a good overview of the main pronunciation features at the beginning, so I was covered from my dabble earlier this year, otherwise it could have been a problem.

2. The explanations accompanying the grammar section are brief to non-existant, which is a bit disappointing. I have invested in a cheap grammar guide with an English base (Collins Easy Learning Italian Grammar) which I am using to look stuff up if needed (turns out it's also quite fun to browse...)

3. The textbook is 100% in Italian. I actually find this works well for me, since I can find the answers to most things I need to look up using a combination of Word Reference and Linguee and the act of looking things up helps me to engage with and remember the material a bit better anyway. I am also fascinated by how much my experience with German, French and even my very limited knowledge of Spanish can help me not only figure things out, but also remember words better.

The book also seems to dump a lot of vocabulary early on. There are no vocab lists as such (again, this fits in with how I like to work) but the first chapter alone has generated enough vocabulary and expressions for me to make 372 notes/744 cards in Anki, although the grammar covered so far is basic (present tense of essere plus agreement of adjectives and nouns ending in o/a and their plural forms).

I have to admit that Anki has been a huge help keeping Italian on track this last month. In addition to helping me to manage the sheer volume of new vocabulary, it has also allowed me to keep in touch with what I have studied during a couple of periods where I simply couldn't sit down with a textbook on a daily basis due to other life commitments. As a complete beginner, I think that keeping in touch with the language is much more important to maintain momentum, something I wasn't able to do with my other dabbles this year.
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gsbod
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Re: gsbod's language log (mostly German, some Italian)

Postby gsbod » Tue Jan 03, 2017 9:53 pm

I use the German keyboard layout on my home computer and am starting to prefer it, or at least get used to it. I was definitely struggling to get out hyphens and brackets at work this morning. Anyway, the holiday is over and it is back to the usual routine, in which I trade off higher levels of sleep deprivation against having really boring evenings at home where I have nothing better to do than feed my language hobby.

I feel a little stuck with Italian as I am still working through all the new material I added to Anki from the first chapter. Today I started with some listening and repeating of the dialogue from the second chapter and a quick scan through the grammar section where it appears I get to learn the second most important verb, avere. I guess it's just a case of keeping my ears entertained and taking it slowly until I'm ready for another vocabulary bomb.

In German I've settled on two sources for some close study. The first being Video Thema, which is admittedly still learner material but the dialogues in the videos are authentic and the announcer speech pretty much the same level as you get in a regular German TV documentary, with the bonus of having transcript, notes and a few grammar exercises which prompt me to at least try to tidy up prepositions and declensions. The other is a history textbook for German high school students, which first in with a recently rediscovered interest in history, is far more motivating to work with than a B2 textbook, and yet I find I'm using/developing the same skills, at least as far as reading and writing is concerned (excluding boring letter writing practice etc). It's a great source for fairly common vocabulary (and not just for written texts - some of the new words I'd learned popped up on TV yesterday) but has the added bonus that you get to pick up a few neat words that make people go "how the hell do you know that?" (Krimis are also brilliant for this).

I've been looking at my scores to date on the SC for German. I need to get through just over 71 pages and 114 minutes a week if I am to make it, thanks to my overall lack of reading/watching in the autumn. So I'd better get to it, then.
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gsbod
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Re: gsbod's language log (mostly German, some Italian)

Postby gsbod » Sun Jan 15, 2017 6:26 pm

I've decided to set myself a few more well defined goals for my languages. I think enough time has elapsed since 1st January for me to actually take it seriously...

My one real new year's resolution was to spend less time reading rubbish on the internet and more time reading interesting things in books. My ausmisten exercise in December revealed a whole pile of books that I haven't got round to reading yet, but really want to find the time to do so. So far I haven't made great progress on either count, but with 50 weeks of the year left to go I've signed up on Goodreads to the reading challenge for 2017 with 30 books. This is considerably more than I normally read, but when I see them lined up on the shelf, it doesn't look like that many. The relevant bit to my language learning is that I plan for 12 of these books to be in German, which should allow me to comfortably complete the SC.

Also for German I'm going to do the following in 2017:

Finish Grammatik Aktiv (have just reached the B1 section!)
Complete Deutsch für Besserwisser B1 (and not just because it has the best name for a workbook ever)
Make a start on B Grammatik

This is basically to make sure I keep working on tidying up my grammar. I intend to dip in and out of other materials as and when I feel like it to build on vocabulary etc and I don't feel it is appropriate to set goals because I should be following shorter term interests and needs for this.

Also for Italian I intend to:

Complete In Italiano. Il Corso 1

The pace of the course is such that I should be able to comfortably fit it into a year. I'm currently in that awkward early beginner stage where I am intermittently making progress and feeling enthusiastic and intermittently doubting why I'm even bothering. It's basically the point between having a dabble and taking it seriously. Hopefully having a clear, simple and achievable goal should get me through the awkward phase.
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gsbod
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Re: gsbod's language log (mostly German, some Italian)

Postby gsbod » Sun Jan 29, 2017 6:57 pm

Today I reached my goal of logging 10,000 minutes of TV or film in German. The number itself is pretty arbitrary and I don't think it coincides with a significant level jump in itself. That being said, my listening comprehension has still improved, so overall I'm pretty happy about it. Over the last 3 months of 2016 the amount of listening practice I did dropped off consiberably, and with it there was, unsurprisingly, a dip in my overall ability by the start of 2017. I think I have made up for it throughout January, however, and my listening comprehension is now as strong as it has ever been, if not better. I still have another 60 odd "films" to do to complete the Super Challenge so hopefully I won't slack off again now!
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