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Re: Course Completion Challenge -- Open for business!

Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2016 10:03 pm
by snowflake
snowflake wrote:Language: Mandarin

Course Material: Dave and Helen in China

Comments: I’d like to work through some textbooks due to concerns regarding standard body of knowledge. Finishing Dave and Helen in China by the end of 2016 should be reasonable. For a number of reasons, I tend to lean toward Yale publication materials. Afterward, I will probably pick up the textbook “Taiwan Today” and hopefully finish that by fall 2017. I’m thinking of taking the ACTFL OPI at the end of 2017. I am heading to Taiwan in about 1 ½ weeks so will not post a link to my log at this time.... don’t expect to post again on the forum until probably Sept.


Am having some motivation issues and then realized that I'm being too idealistic.... I should just get through the material in a reasonable amount of time . I can go back later and revisit things which is how my Glossika material is being handled. So I'm changing the completion date to coincide with the Chinese Lantern Festival which is Feb 11, 2017. That holiday marks the end of the lunar new year celebration.

Re: Course Completion Challenge -- Open for business!

Posted: Sun Oct 09, 2016 10:46 pm
by Cavesa
Cavesa wrote:How is everyone doing in September?

This Challenge was very motivating for me in August, but I lost my rhytm for obvious reasons. So, I am now updating the goals, as they have slightly changed, and this time, they will be smaller and the deadline is the end of September.

De:
1.Themen Aktuell 1 (the last three units)
Fr the huge review:
2.Grammaire Progressive Avancé (partially completed and, and completely read ages ago)
3.Phonetique Progressive (I want to get quickly through the books and audios and stop at my trouble areas noone bothered to correct in past.)
De+Es:
4.Lernwortschetz Deutsch (Goldlist, I should manage to do the whole first round and part of the second by the end of the month)


Ok, a week and a bit later than planned. But as usual, my unrealistic goals lead me to not that bad results.

Completed number 2, an important part of my big grammar review. Useful, some parts were fast to sweep through, others took a bit time (I should definitely write more to use all that cool stuff). There are a few chapters to be relearnt fifty times, just in case. One does not simply stop to review grammar :-D

Completed number 3, which was easy, like an hour total. It was interesting to actually get some definitions of certain pronunciation features. I wish I had those years earlier. Like ten years earlier. Those books, btw, do point out some of the colloquial vs. standard things we usually struggle to find ressources for. I totally don't think you should buy Phonétique Progressive series (unless you're really a fan), but it is worth borrowing in a library. It was however of limited use to me now, so I took some nice explanations out of it (for example, one edition of this series includes tips for natives of various languages, including Czech and Farsi and many others). My "get rid of that joli petit accent as much as possible" project will follow a different path from now on. (Nope, just talking a lot during my stay in France doesn't lead to much of an improvement per se at my level. At least not to fast improvement.)

New resolutions for October+November, taking into account the nearly two weeks of a planned study break and the fact I need to study other things as well (and more than languages). As usual, this list is totally unrealistic. I'll be happy about completing half of it, sure. I just must focus on the big list in order to push myself hard enough. It is too easy to fall back to the easier activities during my language learning time:-)

1. Gramática de Uso del Espanol B (fear me, Brun Ugle! :-D) Finished only 13 units out of 116 so far.
2.Grammaire Progressive, Perfectionnement. Read it almost two years ago. Haven't done most of the exercises. That is the task now.
3.Themen Aktuell. Finish the blue level finally, and at least the first half of the orange one.
4.Gold list, finish the 4000 Wortschatz.
..........................
Mamapata, it is not too late at all. I am looking forward to your progress and reading your log (I have started already, if I remember correctly).
Snowflake, the Chinese Lantern Festival sounds like a great completion date. Basically, one 7th of the planet's population will be celebrating your success at the CCC, not a bad plan! :-D

Re: Course Completion Challenge -- Open for business!

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 1:02 am
by lingua
lingua wrote:Language: Thai

Course Material:
ThaiPod101 Lessons
LearnThaiPodcast Lessons


LearnThaiPodcast (LTP) is divided into five modules. I have finished the first module which consists of Phrase Lessons, Beginner Lesson Cycles and 300 Most Common Thai Words. I had originally said I would finish all beginner podcasts but in fact I have changed that to only completing the first module. ThaiPod101 (TP101) has Absolute Beginner followed by Beginner. I prefer to finish the TP101 Absolute Beginner lessons prior to starting LTP module 2 as I want the levels to be about the same.

Re: Course Completion Challenge -- Open for business!

Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 3:31 am
by PeterMollenburg
I'm abandonoing my huge course mission. Well so far in at least that i'm not going to do courses all day every day (exaggeration in part). My main activities were courses. I'm dividing my time up now in a more balanced way to include more reading and more varied activities.

I'm reducing my current goal to completing one course for the moment. I'm likely to still target my 'Big 5' courses that I had intended on completing, but I will focus on one to two courses at a time and be sure to do other activities as well.

My current course I'm aiming to complete is Assimil Using French. I'm up to the 58th lesson (out of 70) on the first wave. I shall soldier on ;)

Re: Course Completion Challenge -- Open for business!

Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2016 11:39 pm
by snowflake
I am looking for ideas on how to make working my textbook reinforcing. It has these aspects which are demotivating so that it's last to get worked and worked the least.....
1. Sequence of exercises related to exercise key doesn’t necessarily match (includes numbering in the book compared to the exercise key)
2. Once in a while the exercises don’t have a corresponding answer key
3. Do not have a way to drill the sentence patterns unless say I split the audio and add more sentences myself (more work)

So how do I make working the textbook reinforcing?

Update; I cannot think of anything to use for PreMack. I use Starbucks to motivate myself to attend a Mandarin speaking group where I have to read aloud but buying Starbucks say 4x a week is unfeasible to say nothing of all the extra sugar.

Re: Course Completion Challenge -- Open for business!

Posted: Wed Oct 19, 2016 3:48 am
by rlnv
I'm made some progress, although less than I had anticipated. For a long while I was not working on any of these course commitments, but have recently started again. I'm doing a few pages every day which is small enough to not overwhelm my other activities, and enough to make progress.

Finished:
CLE Vocabulaire progressif du Francais - débutant
CLE Grammaire progressive du Français - débutant

In progress:
CLE Grammaire progressive du Français - intermédiaire
McGraw Hill Practice Makes Perfect - French Pronouns and Prepositions

Dropping: I don't think these are needed given my extensive reading and Anki usage.
CLE Vocabulaire progressif du Francais - intermédiaire, et avancé

Queued for the future:
CLE Grammaire progressive du Français - avancé
CLE Les expressions idiomatiques
McGraw Hill Practice Makes Perfect - Sentence Builder
Barron's Mastering French Vocabulary - A Thematic Approach
CLE Compréhension orale - levels 2 and 3

Re: Course Completion Challenge -- Open for business!

Posted: Thu Nov 03, 2016 12:57 am
by Fortheo
Fortheo wrote:I'm late to the party, but sign me up for

Image


and


Image


I'm aiming to have them both finished by November.



Update: I finished the exercices audio de grammaire course, but I didn't start the grammaire en dialogues niveau intermédiaire course because I've found that I work better while focusing on one course at a time; my other time Is spent immersed in books and podcasts and shows,so I treat these courses as an ancillary form of studying. I put grammaire en dialogues on hold, yet again, in favor of the Exercises audio de grammaire course because I can do the audio course on my walks, which is far more enjoyable than sitting at my desk and straining my bad eyes at a book (I need new glasses).

So, I finished half my challenge! I'll focus on the positive and be happy with that.


Next challenge? well, it's getting cold, so my walking time will be decreased and my "desk time" will be increased, so I'll try to finish the grammaire en dialogues series (finally), both the intermédiaire and avançé levels. I don't think I'll put a time limit on it because it just adds unneeded stress to my life.


Hopefully everyone else is chugging along with their courses!

Re: Course Completion Challenge -- Open for business!

Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2016 11:06 pm
by snowflake
My study routine has morphed into primarily using Glossika and iTalki lessons with the “David and Helen in China” textbook as a supplement. Interestingly these three complement each other very well. Since I plan to take the ACTFL OPI next year the iTalki instructor is focusing on preparing me for that. The upshot is that I'm officially withdrawing from this challenge.

Thanks everyone.

Re: Course Completion Challenge -- Open for business!

Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2016 11:48 pm
by PeterMollenburg
I might as well update my changes as well.

I renonced my big course mission a little while ago of "PM's Big 5". My study routine finally felt too course heavy, enough for me to be ready to diversify my routine.

To focus on the present in terms of courses, my current course I am aiming to complete is Assimil Using French, of which I'm making progress slowly but surely and am 3/4 of the way through the first wave. Finishing the first wave by the end of the year seems like a nice target, but if it doesn't happen, I'll surely complete it in January.

Re: Course Completion Challenge -- Open for business!

Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2016 11:51 pm
by Cavesa
snowflake wrote:My study routine has morphed into primarily using Glossika and iTalki lessons with the “David and Helen in China” textbook as a supplement. Interestingly these three complement each other very well. Since I plan to take the ACTFL OPI next year the iTalki instructor is focusing on preparing me for that. The upshot is that I'm officially withdrawing from this challenge.

Thanks everyone.


Thank you for setting it in motion!