alaart's log (Chinese, Korean)

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alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
B1: NL, JP, PT (BR), ZH
A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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Probably going for a longer learning break

Postby alaart » Sat Jul 24, 2021 5:27 pm

Not much happening in languages, I am not studying. The only thing I did was socializing with Japanese people, maybe that counts. One time I went to the cinema and watched the movie "Character" (I think there is no English title yet), and I could watch it without major problems. There were details I didn't understand, but I guess that's ok.
I also continued speaking Korean via online language exchanges, about once a week. Not much else, I'm still doing Anki, but because I don't add new words the review amount has dropped to like 10 minutes per day.

What I'm doing now mostly: I'm recording guitar compositions and uploading videos (if anybody is interested). This is surprisingly difficult, and I have to practice a lot to be able to make a recording without any major mistakes. So instead of language practice everyday it is guitar practice.

What else, oh yeah, I got the scholarship for my student exchange in China. But because of Covid the border will remain closed throughout the year. So I can't go to China and I declined the opportunity to study online. Since I declined I can than re-register for the scholarship again, maybe in 2022, or 2023 - but who knows where life will take me, for now I will return to Germany.

Maybe that's one of the reasons I stopped studying, the other is my awful social life in Japan. So I'm in kind of a language low.. what happened to all those dreams, I don't know, it seems pointless. If you can speak language X you are going to have so many opportunities and can do so much, is what I was thinking.. - or not, because at the end of the day you still have to deal with all your problems, only now - in a different language.

Already while learning Korean, my enthusiasm dropped significantly and I was learning at a much slower rate than usual (although the time I put in was not that much less). I have to figure some stuff out, and maybe I will bounce back, or I will do something else for a while.
I have some acquaintances in all of the languages, so I'll at least speak them from time to time.
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alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
B1: NL, JP, PT (BR), ZH
A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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Re: alaart's log (Korean - back in Germany, page 16+)

Postby alaart » Tue Dec 14, 2021 2:45 am

I'm back and will continue writing the log again.

--- Life

So, I'm back in Germany for a while. I wanted to go to China next. But even if I get a scholarship again, due to current border policies, it is unlikely that I can go - even next year. So I'm currently reorganizing my plans. I will probably stay in Germany longer, and then try going abroad again in 2 years or so.

I'm still in university but I applied for sick leave and got granted a couple months of support money. I'm getting surgery and other treatment for various health issues I have since years, but didn't address fully until now. I'm also doing psychotherapy, I'm suspected to have Asperger. Doesn't really surprise me, but I have to see another specialist to be sure, and this might take some time.

--- Korean

I registered for TOPIK half a year ago, but in the end when the exam came I got cold feet and didn't go. It had quite some grammar left I was still unfamiliar with.

I have a lot of time now while on sick leave, and while my focus is on health and life change, I also started to learn again. It actually feels really good to learn, so I will keep going. I'm learning Korean mostly, and it's making progress. I'm translating the Easy Korean videos from Easy languages on youtube, and a drama from netflix called "One more time".
I still struggle with Korean, and it has been the most difficult language for me by far. I'm doing language exchange once per week, online. I tried meeting Koreans here in my local city, but that didn't work.

I'm starting to be a bit more comfortable at speaking and sending chat messages in Korean, and currently I'm searching for 2 more language exchange partners. I expect myself to become somewhat conversational during the next half year if I keep going with translating and speaking like this.


--- Language Goals

Then afterwards, maybe around March, April, when I feel comfortable that I won't forget Korean, I will start learning Spanish again. The reason is that I'm invited to go to Mexico for a friends wedding next September, and then I have another friend, a Mexican, who also will marry soon. So I think it would be a good chance to work on my Spanish if I go to 2 Spanish weddings.

In general I don't want to learn any new languages after that and will try to consolidate my knowledge and work on crossing the intermediate plateau in each of them.

--- Japanese & and other language maintenance

In Japanese I passed JLPT3 that I did half a year ago quite comfortably. The result came during my study break.

Last week I took the JLPT2 exam, but I didn't prepare and while I thought it is doable, I had to guess quite some answers in the exam. My main problem is reading speed, and I just can't bring myself to read much in Japanese.

I read a Children's book and a Manga of a classmate (just one volume), that was about all of my reading the last 6 months. I suspect to really break through in Japanese I'd have to read like at least 20 books or something. I probably won't do that for quite some time, until then I'm not expecting much progress. There is also no real goal where to go and what to do.

I used Portuguese and Dutch a bit here and there, maybe once per month or twice. I haven't used much Chinese. Recently I met some Chinese students who were very nice and invited me a couple times. When I'm with them it is very visible that my Chinese is very rusty and not in a good state. Often I don't have a clue what they say, but that's ok for now.
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alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
B1: NL, JP, PT (BR), ZH
A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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Re: alaart's log (Korean - back in Germany, page 16+)

Postby alaart » Fri Dec 24, 2021 3:23 pm

Merry Christmas!

Inspired by the recent discussion about learning two languages at once, I had a look at my Anki data and compared Japanese, Chinese and Korean reviews. The data is just Anki, but Anki is about reviews, so it should reflect the total learning amount to some extent, not perfectly because I had periods with less Anki where I tried other things, but it has been my main review tool.

The data pretty much suggests that I always focus on just one language at the expense of others. That's no surprise really :lol: , but I could confirm what I had expected. Portuguese is not in the data, because I deleted the deck, but I did Portuguese for the first year or so too and stopped when starting Chinese.

The review time on the left is total review hours per 10 days of study.
Anki_comparison.png
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alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
B1: NL, JP, PT (BR), ZH
A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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Re: alaart's log (Korean - back in Germany, page 16+)

Postby alaart » Sun Jan 02, 2022 2:11 am

Happy new year!

I'm trying to do language exchanges with 4 people now, and I have to see how it works. One problem is that Koreans work so crazy much and it seems hardly possible to find someone with free time during the week. So right now it seems I have to do 2 times per weekend day, which is sub-optimal.

I translated the complete first episode of "One more time" (헤어진 다음날) and I watched a bit of another drama called Start Up (this time with English subtitles), and translated one of the songs there called "Future" apparently by a famous girl group.

For audio and music I clip the audio of sentences into Anki (along with the unknown words). I had to look up a lot of grammar while watching. I watched the "One more time" episode now already 3 times in Korean, it serves as a grammar recap kind of. I don't even know how much time watching it once did cost, I worked on getting through it over 2 weeks probably. :roll:

So I'm making careful steps into the pop culture, and it is at least somewhat enjoyable, although I hope I can stick with it a bit, because usually I get bored of drama quite quickly.

I also translated a bit of the "Easy Korean" interview series from Easy languages on youtube, but that is also quite difficult. What's interesting to see is that drama-Korean an interview-Korean seem to be quite different. Well that had to be expected I guess.
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kraemder
Green Belt
Posts: 322
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:10 am
Location: Tucson, Arizona
Languages: English (N)
Japanese (JLPT N2)
German (read several books)
Spanish (read a couple books)
Korean (studying for about a year semi seriously)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=21&t=1204
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Re: alaart's log (Korean - back in Germany, page 16+)

Postby kraemder » Sun Jan 02, 2022 5:47 am

How good is your Korean? I'm wondering when I should try doing language exchanged with Koreans. I'm at about an A2 right now would be very strained I think.
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alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
B1: NL, JP, PT (BR), ZH
A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
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Re: alaart's log (Korean - back in Germany, page 16+)

Postby alaart » Sun Jan 02, 2022 10:19 am

My Korean is probably around A2 too, but it's hard to evaluate it.

I can say some things better than expected because sometimes the grammar is like in Japanese, so I just swap out the grammar parts and it seems to work. On the other hand I often don't manage to get together basic phrases or sentences. I prepared a bit for the TOPIK I, but there is still grammar and vocabulary I don't know, so I don't think I would even pass it, but I think it is within reach.

In Anki my Korean deck has 3000-4000 cards, but a lot of them are sample sentences. Maybe I know 1500 words or so.
When I speak my pronunciation is often off and I have to write what I mean. Often I have to look up words in the dictionary while I form my sentence, so my learning partners need to be very patient.

In the end it is a matter of learning style. I did language exchanges within the first couple months with every language I learned, and with Korean even from day 1. It is awkward, but I still enjoy the human communication more than learning from a text book. Especially now during the pandemic where we have to sit at home a lot.
4 x

alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
B1: NL, JP, PT (BR), ZH
A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
x 1026

Re: alaart's log (Korean - back in Germany, page 16+)

Postby alaart » Mon Jan 10, 2022 10:38 am

So, not much work was done this week. I'm doing 3 language exchanges now per week, the forth one, and the only one that was not from the internet sadly didn't want to after all. But just by chance I met 2 new Koreans through international friends.

There are almost no Koreans in my city, so that was quite lucky. I'm going to keep trying to speak, until conversation is possible.
3 x

alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
B1: NL, JP, PT (BR), ZH
A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
x 1026

Re: alaart's log (Korean - back in Germany, page 16+)

Postby alaart » Sun Jan 16, 2022 10:09 pm

I did 2 language exchanges this week. I worked through the video of Easy Korean about baseball, and I translated a bit of the new Netflix series Single's Inferno (just the couple first minutes into the first episode).

So nothing too crazy, but I feel I'm making progress. I will continue to translate videos and doing language exchanges.
5 x

alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
B1: NL, JP, PT (BR), ZH
A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
x 1026

JLPT2 Results

Postby alaart » Mon Jan 24, 2022 10:24 am

I got my booster vaccination and got badly sick from it, wasn't able to study or do anything useful this week.

I did 2 online language exchanges, where I had trouble speaking.

Today came the Japanese Proficiency Test Results (JLPT2). I didn't pass, as expected, but that's ok.

JLPT2 Result.png
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alaart
Green Belt
Posts: 338
Joined: Sat Aug 03, 2019 6:58 am
Location: Kaoshiung
Languages: DE (N), EN
B1: NL, JP, PT (BR), ZH
A2: KR
A1: ES
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... hp?t=10867
x 1026

Cooking

Postby alaart » Wed Feb 02, 2022 11:23 am

Happy lunar new year!

Had a small party with Chinese and Japanese friends, and a guy from Sichuan taught me a bit about Chinese cooking. (I can make jiaozi now and I closely watched him making Mapo Tofu)

In general, I think cooking is a rewarding thing to do while on B-Level in a language, as it is not that complicated and very rewarding. There are a lot of instructional videos on youtube to translate. I forgot to mention it but I also made Coxinha with a Brazilian friend last month, and then tried it again with a German friend (used this video in Portuguese), I also attached the picture too, yay cooking! :shock:

The Chinese cooking on Monday took 7 hours, and the Chinese friends were constantly speaking, so it was a lot of exposure. Also we went shopping for 3 hours a couple days earlier. I was pretty quiet with them, but I could understand enough I guess, but it is very tiring, and I'm not able to react quickly, so I think I definitely should work on strengthening my Chinese again next after I have reached my goals in Korean.

On the new year party I spoke Korean with one of the Japanese students who could speak it. Just a few minutes, but hey - I think a couple months ago I couldn't have done that.

I had two language exchanges in Korean last week, not much else done as I was still a bit sick last week, but I'm better now.
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