The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

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marie39
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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby marie39 » Mon Sep 23, 2019 3:02 pm

I started binge watching a Russian drama/show about Catherine the Great and of course it makes me want to learn Russian now. I actually have Ukrainian on my list because I want to visit there one day. That would be years from now though if it ever happens.

Week of September 15 - September 21

There's not much to say about this past week. I was considering skipping this update but I want to get into the habit of weekly updates.

So, what did I do? I really just continued to read in Spanish. I don't know why I've been so lazy/unfocused on my other languages this month. I'm really not happy with myself and my studies. So, I'm going to try to do a long study session today. I'll pick something other than Spanish to focus on.
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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby marie39 » Mon Sep 23, 2019 3:04 pm

Cèid Donn wrote:I like your furry study buddy there. :D


LOL Unfortunately, she wasn't a very helpful study buddy so I won't be inviting her to future study sessions.
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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby marie39 » Wed Oct 02, 2019 11:15 pm

Sept. 22- Sept. 30 / End of September

Spanish: I almost reached my monthly goal of 900 minutes per month. I credit this to the fact that I'm doing "fun" activities such as reading, watching dramas and journaling. I've decided that I want to write more and I want to find someone to correct my writing for me. So, I'm going to look into that. I will also need someone to chat with so I can improve my speaking but I'll hold off on that for now because I want to finish the Super Challenge first.

I finished reading two books in September. The goal I'm working towards is to read three books a month. I track my reading because I like to see the stats and I usually read between 6-8 books a month. I would like to make 3 of those books be in Spanish.

I also got to episode 8 of Always a Witch on Netflix. I hope to finish the series up this week and start Green Frontier and Bolivar, both are also on Netflix. I also did watch a bit of Rica, Famosa, Latina on Hulu. I watch all of these shows with subs in Spanish.

Italian, Chinese and Japanese: Let's just ignore these. I was in a Spanish mood last month lol. I got to chapter 8 in Japanese for Busy People Vol. 1. Chinese... ha. I did finish a book in Italian (finally). Now I have to make flash cards.

Speaking of flash cards, I'm going to try out a points/reward system for myself this month. Every 20 flashcards reviewed = 1 point. For 5 points I can watch one tv episode of an English show and for 10 points I can buy a book in English. Of course, if I'm relaxing with my boyfriend and we're watching tv together in English that does not count because couple time is important. My boyfriend won't watch 90 Day Fiance with me though so I better review my flashcards.

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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby marie39 » Sun Oct 06, 2019 10:49 am

Oct. 1 - Oct. 5

Spanish: According to Kindle and Goodreads, I'm 32% of the way through Lady Sarah by Jane Mackenna and I've highlighted 104 words. I will make flashcards of these highlights later. My reward system for reviewing flashcards is off to a good start as I've already reviewed my Spanish and Chinese decks this week.

Chinese: Finally, I'm back to Chinese! I have two textbooks that I'm working through. It's a little difficult to do the exercises in one of the books because there's no pinyin aside from the vocab list at the beginning of the chapter and at the back of the book for the dialogue(s). I usually skip the exercises because they feel overwhelming but I'm wondering if I should try to go back. This is the textbook series I used at university. I decided to pick up the intermediate book after my classes ended but I'm not sure if I'll pick but the next textbook.

I usually use this textbook by writing down the vocab and copying the dialogue with pinyin and the English translation to my "Chinese Dialogues" notebook. I copy the dialogues to practice writing and to farther familiarize myself with the new vocabulary words. Then I go through the grammar points and explanations, writing them in my binder. Then I try to read the extra passages/paragraphs/stories in each chapter and write down more vocab words.

Latin: I felt like starting Latin again.
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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby marie39 » Sun Oct 13, 2019 11:26 am

Oct. 6 - Oct. 12

Spanish: I took a look at edX after reading IronMike's log and now I'm auditing a couple of Spanish classes for studying purposes. More specifically I signed up for Introducción a las ondas gravitacionales and Pintura europea: Leonardo, Rembrandt, Goya.

Vocabulary from the edX course Introducción a las ondas gravitacionales - Módulo 1

ondas gravitacionales - gravitational waves
midiendo - measuring
ondas - waves
aburrir - to bore (aburrirse - to become bored)
electrodinámica - electrodynamics
el ascensor - the elevator
más liviano - lighter (in weight)
rotar - to rotate
alrededor - around
las masas - masses
distorsión - distortion
la grilla - grid
medir - to measure
deformar - to bend, to distort
esférica - spherical, round
agujero negro - black hole
sincronizar - to synchronize


Todos estamos habituados a qué quiere decir el movimiento relativo
We all know what relative motion means

se mide la velocidad
measuring velocity

estoy quieta o parezco estar quieta
I am standing still or I seem to be standing still

como se darán cuenta
as we all know

pensemos un poco antes
let's go back in time

esa es la imagen que a mí me gusta pensar
that's the image that comes to my mind

I thought I was doing so well with my reading skills in Spanish and then I decided to pick up the group book Tres Cuentos by Gustave Flaubert. I'm writing down vocab words more often than usual but I think that in part has to do with the writing style and time period of this collection of short stories. Maybe. Or I just got too used to reading romance novels lol. But, it's good to read something that is a bit more challenging so that way I can improve. I'm also still reading Lady Sarah and I can follow that book without difficulties more or less.

I'm subscribed to TVPeru on youtube and they have a news program in the Aymara language called Jiwasanaka. I thought this was pretty cool.

I also finished watching Always a Witch on Netflix.

Malay: I started watching Lelakimu Yang Dulu on youtube. I need to set aside time to make flashcards. The vocab is what gets me but I think I'm going to try to focus on listening and reading. I might try to transcribe some drama episodes or youtube videos. I also found the Islandhoppers group on this forum and decided to write a little something in Malay. I also recorded myself and I sound so bad but I'll post it here anyway. Maybe one day I'll look back on this and notice some improvement.

marie39 wrote:I don't know how active this still is but I just saw it recently and I wanted to write something in Malay. I also recorded myself even though my spoken Malay is so bad. Corrections are welcomed. it's been a while since I studied Malay though.

Nature
Beginner:
Describe the nature in your area / tell us your favourite thing about nature

Saya dari negara Amerika dan saya hidup di New England. Musim luruh sangat popular di kawasan ini. Pokok-pokok sangat cantik kerana duan-duanan adalah banyak warna. Hari-hari berangin dan suhu sejuk.

Juga alam semula jadi di kawasan ini sangat cantik. Adalah banyak jejak yang orang-orang boleh berjalan dengan pemandangan alam cantik. Adalah gunung-gunung, tasik-tasik dan glasier-glasier (sungai ais). Taman botani di sebelah bandar saya juga. Saya suka melihat bunga-bunga.

Audio


Chinese: I started watching The Legend of Haolan on Amazon Prime. I watched up to episode 4. I am going to have to try not to binge watch this whole show and instead, open up my textbook again this month. I could easily just watch dramas and not do any actual studying or learning.
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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby marie39 » Sun Oct 20, 2019 12:19 pm

Oct. 13 - Oct. 19

Spanish: I finished reading Lady Sarah by Jane Mackenna! Goodreads says there's one more book in this series but the author has a fourth book out that looks like it follows another character from the series. I plan to read both books anyway. I'm also still reading Tres cuentos by Gustave Flaubert. This is proving to be goo practice because I do want to start reading classics in Spanish. I also brought a cute journal on sale that I'm going to use for Spanish writing practice.

Italian: I continued to work in my intermediate textbook. I'm half way through it. After this, I want to start some intense reading and passive listening in Italian kind of like what I'm doing with Spanish now.

Japanese: I did another chapter in Japanese for Busy People Vol 1. It's not my favorite textbook mainly because there's no kanji so I have to look up the kanji myself but it's not terrible either. Then I watched on episode of Terrace House: Opening New Doors and wrote down a few words and sentences as I was watching. So, I counted this as active listening because I had to replay scenes to try to hear what they were saying so I could get the correct kanji. The episodes on Netflix have Japanese (and English) subs. So, I put the Japanese subs on and had to listen to how they spoke in order to get the correct kanji.

性欲 Labido
モデルとバイトやってたんですけどバイト辞めてゆくゆくはいろいろショーとかパリコレとか目指したいんですけど I was modeling part time but now I do it full time. I hope to do runway shows in Paris
終わった Finished, over
水炊き Mizutaki (hot pot)
愛人 Lovers
パンダのみいぐるみなんだけど It's about stuffed pandas
それをちゃんとー枕 のこっちとこっちに置いてあって They're on each side of his pillows
枕 Pillow (まうら)
ヤベー! Crazy!
どう思う?What do you think?
正直に Honestly
気持ち悪い Creepy (きもちわりう)
うわー!正直 Wah! Too honest
バチるぞ
何で学校辞めたの? Why did you quit school?
アルバイとを3つやっててですれプラス学校行ってて I was working three jobs and going to school

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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby marie39 » Sat Oct 26, 2019 5:17 pm

Oct . 20 - Oct. 26

Spanish: I am so happy because I found a youtuber who talks about 90 Day Fiance in Spanish. She makes other videos too but that's how I found her. She's funny too!

I've been on a roll when it comes to reading. While I read I either highlight new vocab or write down words in my little notebook. Well, I realized I should probably make flashcards of all of these words. So, I've been working on that. I would post the lists here but they're too log.

While I'm on the subject of reading, I started reading Quo Vadis? by Henryk Sienkiewicz (Published in 1894). This is this forum's secondary group read for October & November. I might not finish it until December though. Is it strange that I find this easier to read than Tres Cuentos by Gustave Flaubert (Published in 1877)? I don't know if it has to do with the translation or the writing style but the more intimidating book feels easier. Either way, I'm happy to start reading classics in Spanish now.

Italian: I've been reading Dopo di te by Diana Scott. For some reason this feels a little easier than the last romance book I read. I can't wait to finish my intermediate textbook so I can move on to focusing on reading, passive listening and probable a grammar book occasionally. I'm currently on chapter 9 of my intermediate textbook.

Japanese: I've been trying to push myself with Japanese for the rest of the month in order to hopefully give myself a good basics foundation in the language. I'm on lesson 13 of Japanese for Busy People Vol. 1 now. Some things are changing come November job-wise. I also plan to start German then. Is there a 6 Week Challenge happening next month?
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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby marie39 » Sat Nov 02, 2019 4:04 pm

Oct 27. - Oct. 31 / October Wrap-up

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I'm not sure if I mentioned this before but I record my time spent on various activities in minutes on my spreadsheet. My monthly goal each month is 900 minutes which is 30 minutes a day for 30 days. I really only care about hitting this goal (or getting close to it) with Spanish, Italian and Mandarin right now.

Spanish: Spanish just gets all of the attention from me. I finished two books last month. They were Lady Sarah and Tres Cuentos. Lady Sarah was the second book in the series and Tres Cuentos was October's group read for this forum's book club. I wrote down a lot of vocab words from Tres Cuentos and I need to make flashcards out of them. Although I finished the book, I felt like my reading comprehension was terrible. I don't know if I just didn't like the book or if the writing style was just too much for me. But, I was reading Lady Sarah at the same time and did not have a hard time following that story. I enjoyed reading that book too. Then I started the October-November group read Quo Vandis? and I haven't had any major problems so far. I'm thinking I may reread Tres Cuentos sometime next year.

I also finally finished Siempre Bruja season one on Netflix. I watched it with Spanish subtitles. It wasn't bad. I would watch a second season. I also got to episode three of Green Frontier which I am also watching with Spanish subtitles. This show is kind of weird/strange. I don't really feel lost in the sense that I don't understand the Spanish but I feel like the show is hiding things that should make sense later. It goes back an forth between this group of ingenious people in and the Amazon and this woman detective investigating some murders and uncovering a secret. I plan to continue to watch this in November.

The General Study was a course I started on edX but I got locked out of auditing the course now so I probably won't continue with it. I do want to make myself a science/space/astronomy course in Spanish though.

Italian: I am currently on chapter 9 of my intermediate textbook. I feel like the grammar sections in the textbook are things I've already taken notes on from my beginner textbook. What I'm finding useful is the new vocabulary and dialogue/reading passages. I try to answer the reading comprehension questions and do some of the exercises.

I'm also 48% of the way through the book Dopo di Te. It's a billionaire romance book but I'm not too into it. I'll probably finish it because I'm half way through it and it doesn't feel overwhelming to read but the characters are not that exciting to me. I think both the Spanish and Italian versions are this book are free. I know I grabbed this when it was free for the kindle.

Mandarin Chinese: This number is really only high because I found a Chinese drama and binge watched some episodes one week. I did work some more in my textbook and reviewed some flashcards. I know that I need to sit down and review both flashcards and grammar. It's not the funnest activity though so I think this is why I've been procrastinating.

Japanese: I'm about half way through Japanese for Busy People Volume 1 now. This isn't my favorite textbook but it will do since I brought all three textbooks years ago. There's not point in buying new books when these get the job done for now. For next month I hope to just continue to steadily study Japanese.

Malay: I started focusing on reviving my Malay last month with a focus on listening and writing. I do have a couple of books in Malay to start but I want to review my vocabulary flashcards first. I also want to do more active listening transcribing exercises. The drama I started watching is called Lelakimu Yang Dulu by the way.

Catalan: My textbook didn't come with the audio so I got sad and lost my motivation for Catalan. I'll get back to this later.

Latin: So, Latin is on here but it's not really a language I'm super focused on right now. It's a language I eventually want to learn (mostly for religious reasons to be honest) but I'm not in a hurry to learn it.

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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [IT, DE, JP and More!]

Postby marie39 » Mon Dec 02, 2019 7:37 pm

I had some changes at work and in my personal life so I didn't get around to updating every week like I planned to in November, but I still studied. I’ve found that balancing three languages isn’t too difficult.

I’m also debating if I want to record my time for Spanish next year. Just reading, listening to audiobooks and watching tv gets me close to the 900 minutes (30 minutes a day) goal in Spanish and it feels effortless. So, I’m considering not recording my time so that I don’t worry about it. Or I can just not set a monthly goal for Spanish and see how that goes but still record my time. The problem is, I’ll probably still focus on that number regardless.

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Spanish: I’m still focusing on reading and passive listening (television and audiobooks) for the rest of this year. I’m still enjoying reading too. I finished reading La Señorita Amelia Pesca a un Duque and I started some other books but did not finish them by the end of the month. My listening, of course, needs more work. I'm listening to El bosque sabe tu nombre as an audiobook right now. I can pick up some but miss more probably because I don't have subtitles to rely on. But, the only way my listening will improve is to listen! Next year I plan to focus more on writing, speaking and probably more listening.

Italian: I’m on track to finish my intermediate textbook by the end of December so I’m really trying to push myself with that. After that I’m focusing on reading and passive listening. Italian will be my language for the next Super Challenge round. I’ve also tried to make an effort to do the 30 Record Yourself Challenge on instagram in Italian but I did not complete all of the prompts.

Mandarin: I don’t know why I’m having a hard time getting back into a study habit with Mandarin. I need to evaluate why this is for me.

Malay: I started watching the drama Lelakimu Yang Dulu on youtube and reviewed some anki cards to try and refresh my knowledge of Malay. I do want to work on this some more but probably without a monthly time goal.

Japanese: I spent some time at the beginning of the month working through Japanese for Busy People Volume 1 but did little else aside from that.

German: This was my pick for the 6 Week Challenge. I stopped bothering with the twitter bot to be honest. I’ve mostly just been working through Deutsch Interaktiv and watching German period dramas on youtube. I also made a few wordlists from some song lyrics.

---

So, I decided to try something different in December. I will record my time for all the languages I study but I will only set goals (at least 30 minutes a day) for three languages. Those languages are Italian, German (6 Week Challenge), and Japanese (Lingua Franca Challenge).
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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby marie39 » Sat Dec 14, 2019 4:47 pm

December 1 - December 14

Spanish: I watched The Prince of Egypt in Spanish without subtitles. I know the story already so I could follow along without knowing anything. I think I'm going to try watching more Disney movies that I'm familiar with in Spanish without subtitles. I'm also still listening to the audiobook El bosque sabe tu nombre. It's a 20 hour audiobook so I'm not sure I'll be able to finish it by the end of the month unless I push myself.

I'm also reading Bruja by Lisa Lister in Spanish. Oh man. This book. I can understand it without difficulty (it's also a subject I'm familiar with) and I am not liking it. I'm going to finish it though since it's easy to read and that way I can give it a proper review.

Italian: I finished my intermediate textbook! I have been working through Insieme the 2nd Edition. I had a used copy of the book. I do have to go back and do the writing prompts that I skipped over but I made it through the core of the book. So, now I am going to focus on intensive passive listening and reading in Italian. I need to figure out what book to read. I've been watching Suburra on Netflix. Then I'm going to watch the Juventus docu-series on Netflix. Netflix has less options for Italian compared to Spanish so I'm probably going to have to look around for Italian shows. I'll see if I can find some podcasts too. I also have my Scribd subscription which does have audio books in Italian.

German: The 6 Week Challenge is over. I got lazy when it came to updating the twitter bot. I did not do as much as I would have liked but oh well. I plan to continue with German into the new year. I just need to put together a plan.

Japanese: Not much to say here. I've just been working in my textbook.
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