Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

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Brun Ugle
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Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby Brun Ugle » Sun Jan 01, 2017 8:17 am

After years of goals and plans which I always end up ignoring, I’ve decided to at least be honest about it this year. I can’t seem to stop myself from making goals and plans, but I also can’t seem to make myself follow through on any of them either. So, here are my goals and plans for 2017. I will begin ignoring them on New Year’s Day, or the day after at the latest.

Spanish
I’m told I’m a B2 in Spanish and I’m starting to feel like that might even be true. However, it doesn’t feel nearly good enough, so I want to keep moving forward. My main tools are likely to be FSI Basic, GLOSS and Gramática de uso del español level C. I’ve just about finished part 2 of 4 of FSI Basic and I think I’d like to finish part 3 or maybe even part 4 before moving on with level C of the grammar workbook series. I also intend to make use of GLOSS and spend a bit of time talking with Italki tutors and doing language exchanges on Skype. (More realistically, I will probably become hooked on a series of telenovelas, possibly read a few books and in occasional bursts of energy and conscience, work on FSI and grammar.) My goal for the year: I suppose C1 would be nice, but my real goal is just to be capable of effective and comfortable communication regardless of what my objective level is. That means what I really need to do most, is to practice my active skills and spend more time talking on Skype. Hopefully, I will have the energy for that.

German
I don’t know my present level. It’s probably around B1, but I don’t really have any experience with speaking. I’m feeling frustrated with FSI Basic, but I’m having trouble finding something I feel makes a good replacement, so I will probably continue on with FSI. I also have Übungsgrammatik Deutsch als Fremdsprache. I’m nearing the end of level A, but I’m taking it slow as I feel I need to get a lot more input as I’ve done with Spanish. These two resources plus GLOSS will probably be my main study tools this year, but I will be also focusing on input. I’m sure I will, at the very least, complete the Super Challenge movie requirement, but what I really need is an addictive telenovela or something so I can watch two or three SC’s worth of TV. I’ll also probably read a few more Star Trek novels and hopefully some non-Star Trek novels. My goal for the year: I would like to get my German up to the level my Spanish is currently at. I don’t think that is unrealistic, but it will depend on me finding large quantities of enjoyable input. At some point, I’ll need to start looking for someone to Skype with in German too.

Finnish
My Finnish is so bad my present level needs a minus sign --- A-. I will almost certainly make it through the Assimil course by the end of the year. I also have FSI and Supisuomea that I’d like to do. Finnish doesn’t have the transparency of German or Spanish, so I’m not sure how far this will take me. Goals: I hope I will be able to start enjoying some native materials by the end of the year, but I won’t be too disappointed if I haven’t made it that far by then. I’m mostly just going to enjoy the process of learning.

Esperanto
Esperanto frustrates me a little because while it is in one way very easy to learn, there doesn’t seem to be a lot to do with it. I probably won’t put a lot of effort into Esperanto this year. I will try to regild my Duolingo tree and when the new version is released, complete any new lessons. I’ll try to get back to the Teach Yourself book as well. Other than that, I will probably listen to occasional podcasts, maybe get through a few more astronomy lectures and hopefully read a book or two. Goals: Not to lose what I have and hopefully to find a fun way to use and maintain the language. Perhaps I could find a pen-pal or something to make this language more exciting.

Japanese
Japanese is my mortal enemy. We have met on the linguistic battlefield many times over the past twenty-some years and it has defeated me every time. A smart person would have learned Japanese by now. A wise person would have accepted defeat a long time ago, licked their wounds and moved on. I, however, am out for revenge! Spanish and German have taught me a few things about myself and about language-learning and I’m hoping to use that knowledge to finally conquer Japanese once and for all. I’m still working on a strategy, but it will probably involve reviewing my textbooks once again, GLOSS, and lots of input. Goal: Vengeance!! Or more realistically, to get my Japanese up to where my German is at present. This time I know I need a lot more audio input and also to find someone to Skype with eventually.

Norwegian
I never really learned Norwegian properly because I wasn’t very good at learning languages back when I learned it. I went through some textbooks, but felt very frustrated because the language in the textbooks was nothing like the dialect here. I ended up mostly absorbing the language from my surroundings. I got to a fairly high level when I was studying for a degree in economics and had to write papers all the time, but I feel like I’ve gone a bit downhill since then. I want to polish it back up. To do this, I intend to first go through an overview of the grammar in a book written for English speakers and possibly have a look at some old textbooks. Then I will go through some books on grammar and writing for native Norwegians. I will also try to read well-written, but not necessarily classic, novels and try to look for some books on the local dialects. I’ll also try to get in some listening practice in less familiar dialects, Swedish and Danish, but I probably won’t make any attempt to actually learn Swedish or Danish as separate languages. I just need to understand them better. Goal: more nuance in my Norwegian. I want to be able to speak more like a native rather than the half-dialect that I speak now, but I also want to be able to write both formally and more elegantly. I’m not sure how much progress I’m likely to see in a year. At this level, progress is almost imperceptible.

Others
Of course there are other languages that are calling to me with their sweet, siren songs, but I’m going to try to resist at least until I manage to get into a well-functioning routine that includes all the above languages. I often wish I were more like Systematiker and Expugnator and could learn dozens of languages at once in ten-minute study sessions, and be all organized and efficient, but I don’t seem to function that way. I need longer study sessions and I need time free from studying too. I can’t use up all those small spare moments without getting stressed and anxious. I seem to have a psychological need to waste some time every day.
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Brun Ugle
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Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby Brun Ugle » Sun Jan 01, 2017 8:18 am

Overview of what I’ve done so far this year


Spanish
courses/textbooks/etc
FSI Basic: lessons 31-41
GLOSS: 5 lessons
books/comic books/etc
Rozando el cielo –Cristina González (romance novel, free on Kindle -- pretty bad, don’t bother)
El amor huele a café --Nieves García Bautista (free on Kindle and iBooks – OK, sort of similar to Love Actually)


Esperanto

German
courses/textbooks/etc
GLOSS: 4 lessons
TV/film/video
Sophie – Braut wider Willen: episodes 18-65 (fun, easy telenovela – historical romance – On YouTube)
documentaries: 1
Kommisar Rex:

Japanese

Finnish
courses/textbooks/etc
Assimil passive: 57-96
Assimil active: 8-47
FSI: lessons 1-2

Norwegian

Danish
TV/film/video
Denne Annen Verden: episodes 1-24 (Excellent advent calender based on Grimms’ fairytales)

Swedish
TV/film/video
På Spåret: 1 episode (quiz show – a little too boring for me)
Last edited by Brun Ugle on Sun Feb 26, 2017 1:04 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Brun Ugle
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Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby Brun Ugle » Sun Jan 01, 2017 8:19 am

reserved for future use
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Brun Ugle
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Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby Brun Ugle » Sun Jan 01, 2017 8:20 am

just in case
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Fortheo
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Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby Fortheo » Sun Jan 01, 2017 9:32 am

I feel like your title describes a large majority of us on this site :lol:

Good luck with all your languages! Especially Japanese! Japanese is the first second language I really invested time in back when I was like 17, and I spent a solid year on it, but quit right as I was about to break into actual Japanese material. Japanese beat me, so I'm hoping you'll be able to conquer it and then I'll just live vicariously through you.

Have fun this year!
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Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby Cavesa » Sun Jan 01, 2017 12:31 pm

I wish you an awesome year 2017! And I'm looking forward to more slow and distracted races we are both gonna participate in :-)
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Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby rdearman » Sun Jan 01, 2017 2:50 pm

You didn't mention Polish or Slovakian? Did you just forget to include those? :lol: :lol: :lol: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
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Brun Ugle
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Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby Brun Ugle » Sun Jan 01, 2017 2:55 pm

rdearman wrote:You didn't mention Polish or Slovakian? Did you just forget to include those? :lol: :lol: :lol: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:


Nice try!
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Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Sun Jan 01, 2017 3:44 pm

From your 2016 log:
Brun Ugle wrote:So, let's see if I've got this straight. My future:
[...]Jan. 2017: Whatever language Jeff is thinking of making a challenge for.


And my suggestion is Slovak. 8-)
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Brun Ugle
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Re: Brun Ugle makes plans and then ignores them – diary of an easily distracted tortoise 2017 (ES, DE, FI, EO, JA, NO)

Postby Brun Ugle » Sun Jan 01, 2017 4:38 pm

jeff_lindqvist wrote:From your 2016 log:
Brun Ugle wrote:So, let's see if I've got this straight. My future:
[...]Jan. 2017: Whatever language Jeff is thinking of making a challenge for.


And my suggestion is Slovak. 8-)


And my past comes back to haunt me again. I'm going to decide this week about the Gathering. I just need to crunch some numbers and see how big a dent it's likely to leave in my bank account. I'm pretty sure I'm going to sign up though, in which case, I guess I could try a little Slovak. In a way, it's pointless to learn it since I don't intend to continue and since I'm the sort that doesn't speak a language before I'm pushing B2. So, even if I learn a little, I'm not likely to use it. It might come in handy for reading signs though, I guess.
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