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Re: Your Language-related New Year's Resolutions 2017

Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2017 6:06 am
by Hundetier
Hundetier wrote:Next year I want to get my Spanish to a solid intermediate level, which means I want to be able to communicate effectively and without too much problems with Spanish speaking people. In October I should have opportunities to test this :mrgreen: .

Only three more month until the holidays :oops:

Hundetier wrote:My plans are:
- using texts and workbooks intensively to improve and grow my vocabulary
- listening to podcasts and audiocourses to improve my listening comprehension
- reading more books (both Spanish and English), this year I neglected my books, my sub is enormous
- working on grammar topics with my collection of exercise books (Paso a paso, Practise makes Perfect)
- going on with Skype lessons (but then with solid preparation and reviewing)

I stopped learning Spanish some time ago. Mainly because I got frustrated with reading books. I should continue and struggle my way through, but at the moment I don't have the necessary energy for that.
On the other hand I read more because the time spent for learning is now reading time. I am on my fifth English book now. And I watch my films and series mainly in English.

Re: Your Language-related New Year's Resolutions 2017

Posted: Sun Jul 02, 2017 7:19 am
by Ani
Ani wrote:The broad outline is:
24 books and 12 audio books in French
Specific tasks to improve writing
+ 1 course

Get back on track and finish Assimil Finnish or find another suitable course ('cause I decided I Hate Assimil)
Read a first book in Finnish this year

Dabble in Russian enough claim A1 by the end of the year :)


This is what I wrote in January. By the April 1st update I had changed my plan for French to a double super challenge instead of a book and audio book count. +a course. I am waffling a little on the course but I think I am on track now after trying and quitting on a few. For the extensive material, I finished one super challenge and fully expect to complete my goal of two before the end of the year.

For the Russian goal, I said A1 by the end of the year. By April I had specified doing that by competing Le Russe à votre rythme. I'm not quite halfway through the book by page count but I do think I'll make it. I have also added in Glossika FR -> RU on the intensive 5 month 90k rep program. I think between the two I will be ok.

Finnish has been sadly abandoned ::sniffsniff:: Maybe some day... I do love the sound of the language.

Re: Your Language-related New Year's Resolutions 2017

Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2017 3:14 am
by Finny
Finny wrote:In Spanish, I'd personally like to smooth out some lingering grammatical errors. Watching some movies or reading some books would be nice too, but we'll see; all my evening language time goes to French since that's by far the weaker language. Besides that, continuing to increase my vocabulary and knowledge of idiomatic expressions would be nice.

In French, I'd like to get to C1 in speaking and listening. I'd estimate I'm at B1 speaking, B2/C1 listening, and C1 reading, but getting to a level where I can say pretty much anything I want in French (the way I can in Spanish) will be what really determines how well I teach the kids French, so that's the goal. To get there, I'll keep reading, listening to the radio, and watching series (currently Les Enquêtes de Vera, Tout Compte Fait, and Les Carnets de Julie...planning on starting Commissaire Magellan, Mongeville, and maybe Fait Pas Ci, Fait Pas Ca after Vera).

With the kids, I'd like to keep strengthening both languages by continuing to do everything we're already doing: speaking, reading, listening to the radio, watching cooking shows, etc. Right now the rotation is Spanish Mondays through Thursdays and French Fridays through Sundays. I might modify that if I feel they need more of one or the other. I'd also like to find more opportunities to place the kids in environments where the languages are used. There's a Spanish storytime that takes place a few times a month, but we haven't gone since last summer, so maybe revisiting that this summer. Similarly, there are French movie nights in Chicago in the summer and similar events, and I'd like us to go to at least one of those so the kids can see and hear people besides themselves and folks on TV / radio using French. But we'll see. My daughter learned Spanish with minimal exposure to Spanish-speaking people in daily life, so I know the same is easily doable in French; the determining factor, as I noted above, is my proficiency in the language, so that's what I need to work on.


Update time!

Spanish - It's gotten better, although it's hard to tell right now because, being summer, the only people I tend to speak Spanish with are my kids. The school year went fine though, and when school starts again in a month, Spanish will get turbocharged again. We've been listening to a lot of salsa this summer (from http://tunein.com/radio/181FM-Salsa-s90501/), which has been fun. Didn't watch any movies, and have only read kid books. I think the language is stable. During the school year, I speak Spanish 5x a week with several adults and up to 40 kids and 4x a week at home with 2 kids (mine). During the summer, it's 4x a week at home with 2 kids, so it's naturally downshifted a bit. "Study" is nonexistent; I just use the language either professionally or personally, and now and then go on reggaeton binges (typically during the school year).

French - I'd say I'm at B1/B2 speaking, C1 listening / reading. My speaking has definitely gotten more fluid, and it's still almost 100% with my kids; I had one conversation with a French-speaking adult at work and have spoken to other kids a couple of times, but it's still pretty much completely with my kids. I've slowly been reading Hunger Games (that's the French title) and am in book 3; I've just been going slowly due to a number of other commitments. Study is composed 99% of radio (99% of which is from http://tunein.com/radio/RMC-1031-s14896/), talking to kids, reading to the kids, and reading to myself. Very rarely, I'll put on Les Carnets de Julie; I've really not been in the mood for TV since January. I stopped watching Vera as part of that TV dropout and never moved on to other shows. I have no current plans to do anything besides what I'm already doing. Oh, and I've been learning to sing and play some comptines lately on the guitar--so far, Il etait un petit navire, Meunier tu dors, and Fait dodo colas mon petit frere (all from here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vT-tk9c8GVM). I decided it was time to learn some songs besides those from the Dora book. Kids have been thrilled...more on that below.

Kids - The rotation remains unchanged. They continue to be trilingual. On French days, DD speaks nearly exclusively French to me aside from when asking how to say this or that. On Spanish days, it's the same but in Spanish. DS started trying to use a lot of English with me all of a sudden; cracked down on that and he's back to using the daily language for the most part. His sentences have gotten a lot longer, as has his ability to repeat things either DD is saying or that I'm telling him to say. I'd just like to get them more opportunities to use and hear the languages from people besides each other, me, and media. We went to some bilingual Es/En storytimes spring and summer, but they were very English heavy, which always annoyed me. We ran into a Spanish-speaking neighbor at the park one day, and DD spent a good while playing with her daughter, which was great.

We're going to the Chicago Bastille Day celebration this Friday, which will be the first time the kids hear in-person French from someone besides themselves or me, so I'm really looking forward to that. The kids have pretty much stopped reading this summer, which bothers me a bit, but there've been a lot of changes--most significantly, we got a dog, which, while great, has changed our dynamics a lot and has put ever-larger demands on my mental space (and theirs, I'm sure). We still read bedtime stories and that means the kids generally read at least one book in Es and Fr 4x a week no matter what. I figure (and my wife says) it's cyclical, and they'll get back into wanting to read more over time. As noted above, we've started watching some musical videos, and they've been enthralled by them. I've also enjoyed them, as music is one of my hobbies, and I've learned several songs from the set with plans to learn many more.

Summary - So to sum it up, Spanish is stable, although I always feel a bit rusty whenever I run into a phrase I can't remember--rallador and caracol have been two from this week. French continues to grow--although I still feel tongue-tied at times, the truth is I'm far more confident in the grammar than I was before, which means I'm transitioning into the point where vocab is all that's limiting me, which probably means I'm transitioning into B2/C1 speaking. And the kids are learning very, very well. Their comprehension continues to be top notch, and I find myself correcting grammar less than I did some months ago (although many would suggest not correcting at all, since some research suggests kids don't learn from it). I plan to just keep on keeping on. The key for French is for me to spend more time reading, so I need to do that more and stop everything else I'm interested in--astronomy, bird-watching, plane-spotting, musical instruments, blogging, etc etc. These things, by the way, are a big part of why I've been here much less. Oh, and the dog. :D

Keep going everyone. The time's going to pass no matter what we do with it, so we might as well learn a language (or a dozen) along the way.

Re: Your Language-related New Year's Resolutions 2017

Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 7:56 pm
by Xmmm
Xmmm wrote:
Russian:
    known words: 8736 -> 15000
    words read: 1.2 million -> 2.0 million
Italian:
    known words: 149 -> 3000
    words read: 4702 -> 250000


Well, I have to say in retrospect that these goals were pretty dumb. Dumb in the sense of unchallenging, and dumb also in the sense of not taking me where I want to go in terms of well-rounded skills. I've exceeded three of these goals already and will probably hit 2 million Russian words by the end of the year even if I veer off from doing so much L/R.

So I'm going to add some new goals for 2017:

Russian:

    Finish Modern Russian Part 1
    Finish Glossika Russian GSR 1
    "Play" 30% of the sentences in the Clozemaster Fast Track to Fluency

Italian:
    Finish Part 1 of Italian FAST
    "Play" 50% of the sentences in the Clozemaster Fast Track to Fluency

Esperanto:
    Finish Duolingo
    Finish the course at Lernu.net
    "Play" 100% of the sentences in the Clozemaster Fast Track to Fluency (only 12,000 sentences here).

Re: Your Language-related New Year's Resolutions 2017

Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 8:49 pm
by tarvos
I've overcome most of my mental health issues (I don't need therapy for panic attacks anymore! yay!)

In terms of languages, I had no particular goals for 2017, but all in all I'm doing okay.

Re: Your Language-related New Year's Resolutions 2017

Posted: Sun Aug 13, 2017 12:19 pm
by smallwhite
Xmmm wrote:Well, I have to say in retrospect that these goals were pretty dumb. Dumb in the sense of unchallenging, and dumb also in the sense of not taking me where I want to go in terms of well-rounded skills. I've exceeded three of these goals already and will probably hit 2 million Russian words by the end of the year even if I veer off from doing so much L/R.

Goal-setting takes experience and practice. Many of us set inappropriate goals and/or fail to achieve goals, and decide to give up goal-setting altogether. It's great to see you review your goals, your study efforts and your goal-setting.

Xmmm wrote:Russian:

    Finish Modern Russian Part 1
    Finish Glossika Russian GSR 1
    "Play" 30% of the sentences in the Clozemaster Fast Track to Fluency

Italian:
    Finish Part 1 of Italian FAST
    "Play" 50% of the sentences in the Clozemaster Fast Track to Fluency

Esperanto:
    Finish Duolingo
    Finish the course at Lernu.net
    "Play" 100% of the sentences in the Clozemaster Fast Track to Fluency (only 12,000 sentences here).

Of course it's up to you, but given the date and the micro-ness, those items do not look like New Year's Resolutions anymore. You may find these Challenges more relevant and more motivating:

* the Course Completion Challenge
* The Problem Solving Challenge

Re: Your Language-related New Year's Resolutions 2017

Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2017 12:02 am
by smallwhite
Three quarters of the year has passed and we're in Quarter 4 already. Don't forget your New Year's Resolutions!

Re: Your Language-related New Year's Resolutions 2017

Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2017 9:59 pm
by Cavesa
Well, just the memory of my resolutions makes me laugh :-D

Re: Your Language-related New Year's Resolutions 2017

Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2017 4:31 pm
by leosmith
leosmith wrote:
smallwhite wrote:What are your New Year's resolutions for 2017?
What new languages do you want to start? Which old languages do you want to finish?
What new goals will you set? Which old goals from last year will you carry forward?
What level do you want to achieve? How will you measure it?

By September 15, I want to have reached a level roughly equivalent to B2 in Korean, as being documented in my log "Korean - from scratch to B2 in one year". In addition to the metrics I'm tracking, I will offer some proof of my level by making videos.
As for my other languages, I just want to maintain them.

Even though I was about a month late, it still happened in 2017, so I'm calling it a success, haha.

Re: Your Language-related New Year's Resolutions 2017

Posted: Sun Dec 24, 2017 8:06 am
by IronMike
IronMike wrote:My plans continue with Russian. For 2017, I want to do more LR in Russian. I will study Russian till the end of April, then again starting after August.

Starting in May, I'm going to resurrect my BCS. We are planning a vacation to Montenegro and Croatia in August. At one point I was a C1 (3) in listening and strong B2 (2+) in reading and speaking. I'd like to get it back. I've got Glossika as well as Magner's text and some old DLI stuff that I'll use to get the language back.

All along I will continue to improve my Esperanto. Every other month I'll take part in the Esperanto-Sumoo, reading Esperanto for 15 straight days. I'll continue with La Dangxera Lingvo (great book and out in English soon), but as I did 100 pages last Sumoo, I'll be done with that book soon, so I'll have to choose from my others. I also listen to Esperanto radio on the weekends while walking the dog, and I aim to continue that during 2017.

Being the fickle language lover that I am, I'll also add in some others. I mostly dabble in other languages linguistically, meaning I learn how the language is structured and learn some basic, Berlitiz-level stuff in them. Currently, Tok Pisin is leading in the voting in the Oceania Lingua Franca group on FB, and I've always had a love of pidgins and creoles, so if it wins, I'll do some reading and studying on that language. Lakota is the LF in the Native American LF FB group now, and I'm reading up on it. That'll continue into the new year.

Other than that, who knows? I've got neighbors who are native speakers of Japanese, Dutch, Swedish and Norwegian, and probably others, so who the heck knows?

So let's see how I did:

Russian: I did do more LR in Russian than last year (having just learned about it), but still not as much as I could have. I studied it up to and a little past April, and didn't start back seriously until October. No Esperanto from then forward as I wanted to be ready for my Russian DLPT and OPI. OPI done and DLPT coming up next week, so we'll see how I did.

BCS: I did a bit of Glossika, didn't really pick up Magner but once or twice, and not much else. Still, within a few days of being in Kotor, I got a lot of my conversational (limited to shopping, restaurants, talking with the AirBNB owner) skills back. I'm sure it sounded ugly, but one thing about the Balkans: they are so tickled that anyone would want to learn their language, they're very forgiving about an improper case ending!

Esperanto: Big success this year with my reading. Read a lot of the E-o books I've been traveling with all these years. Read every single issue of Beletra Almanako that came in the mail (except the most recent, see Russian above). And of course my PASS in the C1 exam really made all that work worthwhile. Missing reading the language and listening to news, so the minute my Russian tests are over next week, I'm back to reading. But which book to bring with me to the states? Dek Tagoj de Kapitano Postnikov to continue my theme for Soviet discrimination against Esperantists? Mondo de travivaĵoj for some interesting stories from a world-traveling Esperantist? Or Promenante tra la lingvoj for some linguistics fun?

Others: I dumped the various Lingua Franca FB groups. It just became too distracting. I did read through the grammar of Tok Pisin in the Grammar And Dictionary Of Neo-Melanesian: Pidgin English book (highly recommended). Didn't do much of anything with Lakota. As for my neighbors, beyond saying hello or good evening to the Japanese lady across the street, nothing.