Three's Company [deu + pol + gle]

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księżycowy
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Re: księżycowy's Log

Postby księżycowy » Tue Oct 15, 2019 3:15 pm

From what I've seen so far, Polish in 4 Weeks is a pretty solid course. They do state it can be used to learn Polish in 4 weeks during an intensive course in Poland, but they also state it can be used at any other pace one finds desirable. I for one am not in Poland, nor am I taking any formal classes in it, so I'm only going as intensively as I can manage. :lol:

I surely will keep you guys updated!
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Re: księżycowy's Log

Postby księżycowy » Wed Oct 23, 2019 4:17 pm

Ok, it's been a little while. I suppose I should update this thing.

So far I've made it to lesson 4 in Polish in 4 Weeks. It's been pretty smooth sailing thus far, as it's mostly just review from what I've picked up from First-Year Polish. Some of the vocabulary is new, but that's to be expected.

The only thing I've noticed so far that worries me a bit about this course is the explanation of noun declension with nouns that end in <k> or <g>. It isn't clearly stated that those nouns tend to change the stem to <-ki-> or <-gi-> when adding the instrumental case ending of <-em>, for example. But luckily I have prior knowledge of this fact. Plus I'm not expecting perfection from any textbook.

I hope to start picking up steam, and incorporating the audio more this following month. I'm going to try my best to see how well this does work in a short amount of time.

In other news, I've decided to use Cześć, jak się masz? I by Miodunka, which I've had laying around for a while. The main reason I haven't thought to use it alone/first is because of the lack of an answer key.

I hope to be to lesson 7 of Polish in 4 Weeks by the end of the week.
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Re: księżycowy's Log

Postby księżycowy » Mon Oct 28, 2019 4:16 pm

Well, I didn't quite make it to my goal or lesson 7, as I only finished lesson 4 and started lesson 5. But I had things going on this weekend that inhibited my progress. It was still a good, and productive weekend in other areas though!

I recently started applying to ESL jobs in various countries (well, really Japan, Taiwan and Korea), so my language plans may change if/when I get accepted. I plan to start applying to jobs in Poland and Germany closer to spring, provided I don't hear anything back from these applications.

Anywho, moving forward with Polish: I'll try (once again) to make it to lesson 7 by the end of the week, and hopefully a bit further.

Not to much to report this time. :)
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Re: księżycowy's Log

Postby księżycowy » Wed Nov 20, 2019 12:57 pm

I seem to have found my way to page 5. I'd say it's time for any update! :lol:

So, for a few weeks, as job offers started coming in, I was unsure of what to do linguistically (in preparation of going). Taiwan seems interested in me, and just this morning I got an email from a Polish program! I also finished and sent in my applications from JET and EPIK. So largely I'm going to wait to see if either of those two government programs gets back to me before actually accepting any other offers. So, I'm back to the status quo for my language studies. Polish full-steam ahead!

Since, in my mind at least, it would be better to go at a less than hectic pace for Polish, I've switched back to First-Year Polish by Swan. I also love how Swan (by way of the less than official workbooks) trains all of the major language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. Polish in 4 Weeks is still a solid textbook in my opinion, but style wise, it isn't right for me.

So, I am almost done with Unit 5 Lesson 6 in Swan. (I'm using the designations in the workbook rather than the textbook.) I just need to finish the dictation and listening exercises. Oh, and the extra reading and comprehension questions.

More to follow shortly.
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Re: księżycowy's Log

Postby księżycowy » Mon Nov 25, 2019 2:09 pm

I'm made my way through Unit 5 Lesson 6. One of the exercises confused me rather thoroughly. It was a listening comprehension exercise that asked you to listen to sentences and select the picture that matches the statement. It gives as potential answers a, b, c, and x. But none of the pictures had any of these letters! Only numbers! But that aside, I was pleased with my dictation and composition skills after not having done any for a few months.

I am currently working on the review packet, and progress is good so far.

In other news, I have heard back from EPIK, and they said that unfortunately they could not accept me for this round of hirings. So at least for now I don't have to worry about learning Korean. That just leaves JET. (For the government angle anyway.) I'm thinking that if JET doesn't take me, I'm going to weigh the offers between Taiwan and Poland. As I see this as being a real possibility (I see JET telling me something similar to what EPIK said), I may start picking up some Chinese, just in case.
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Re: księżycowy's Log

Postby księżycowy » Sun Dec 01, 2019 1:48 pm

Ok, this week I must admit I did not finish the review packet for Polish. I kinda pecked at a few exercises from it. That being said, I'm hoping to be done with the review packet this week. I'm also going to start using my Anki deck I created for Lessons 1-6 of FYP. I think that's part of my problem at this point, vocabulary. :P

In other news, I've gone and bought some further Japanese and Chinese resources which deal specifically with the spoken language. Namely Defrancis' Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced Chinese (+ audio off iTunes) and Jorden and Noda's Japanese: The Spoken Language (Parts 1-3). Where as my plan with learning both of these is to learn the whole language (written and spoken), there are certain features of both texts which I like. Namely, the natural speed of the dialogues in Defrancis, and pitch accent in Jorden and Noda. I plan to use these texts to supplement my other Chinese and Japanese resources, primarily using them as an audio only course, similar to Pimsleur or Michel Thomas (obviously, I will have to use textbooks in addition to the audio, so it's not a perfect match. In some ways, it's even better then those two. Both texts use the same teaching style as FYP. :D ) Oh, and I still haven't ascertained which one I will start with. But I have applied to a few more ESL jobs. This time in Japan. (It is also conceivable that once I get my newly acquired materials in the mail that I might just start off with both, focusing on just the spoken language, but I still haven't decided to do that either.)

Also, I've also decided to take up a "on-again-off-again" language. Just something to have fun with on the side, that isn't a big deal how much I do or how far I get. For that language, I've decided to teach myself how to read Malayalam. The reason for this choice is one of my friends (who I met through another forum, UniLang) speaks the language and has offered to help me with learning it. So, I figure why not?

For this week, I'm going to learn the vowels of Malayalam. I had a site that went through all the Malayalam script, but I'll have to dig it up. I also have An Intensive Course in Malayalam by Kumari (published by CIIL), for when/if I get far enough to read stuff.
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Re: księżycowy's Log

Postby księżycowy » Tue Dec 10, 2019 10:43 pm

After a few weeks of indecision, I've finally made a choice as to what to do with Japanese and Chinese! I am starting to ramp up my search for a job in Japan and Taiwan and am looking into schools on the chance that I am not asked to interview for JET. As I have effectively narrowed my choices down to these two countries (and have wanted to learn these two languages for ever anyway), I want to at the very least get through my beginning textbooks for both by Spring. I do not really want to drop Polish, but it will be on the side and may not be worked on as consistently as I would like. But the situation being what it is, sacrifices must be made. I have no problem dropping Malayalam.

So, from here on out, here is my plan:

Japanese
The Resources
Minna no Nihongo Shokyu by 3A (both volumes), along with all of the workbooks (well, except the listening workbooks)
Japanese: A Comprehensive Grammar by Yamamoto, et al.
Japanese Graded Readers - Level 0 Volume 1 by Ask Publishing (further volumes to be bought upon completion of previous volume)
Pimsleur Japanese

The Plan
I had gotten up to lesson 10 in MnN a year or so ago. I'm hoping to make quick work of getting back up to lesson 10. I think it's reasonable to do 2 lessons a week. I might go a bit faster through these first few lessons, because of familiarity, but otherwise, it's counter productive to rush. I also want to do one lesson of Pimsleur a day on my car ride to work. On the weekends I'll go through a story from the graded reader series I have, as a way to relax, but also do something language wise.

Chinese
The Resources
Practical Audio-Visual Chinese (3rd Edition) Volume 1 by NTNU (with the workbooks)
3000 Chinese Character Dictionary by Teng, ed.
Chinese: A Comprehensive Grammar by Yip and Rimmington
Pimsleur Chinese

The Plan
This will be my first serious attempt at Mandarin. I plan to go one lesson a week. This week I will be drilling the pronunciation drills in PAVC. I will also be doing Pimsleur Chinese on my ride back from work (or I guess it doesn't matter much which I do when, as long as I do them as consistently as possible). I would love to find a graded reader, like I have for Japanese to do while I'm working my way through PAVC, but so far I don't have any. I prefer traditional characters, if anyone has any suggestions.

And now for the two runners-up!

Taiwanese
The Resource
Taiwanese Book 1 by Maryknoll

The Plan
I started some Taiwanese over the summer, but only got about 2 lessons in before other things interfered. As Taiwan is very much of interest as far as my job hunt goes, I think it would be a good idea to pick up some Taiwanese before potentially going. I will move through the lessons as I am able. For this week, I'm going to start through the pronunciation section at the beginning of the book, and see how far I get.

Polish
I believe I've already listed out the resources I'm using for this one, so there's no sense in posting it again. I don't really want to give up on Polish, as it means a lot to me. I will do what I can to keep it alive while most of my focus goes to Japanese and Chinese. I'm not sure what that will exactly look like at this point, but if I can do at least one assignment out of FYP, I'll feel like I'm at least making some progress.

More updates to follow.
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cjareck
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Re: księżycowy's Log

Postby cjareck » Wed Dec 11, 2019 10:37 am

I myself struggle to push more than one language forward. The truth is, however, that only with Hebrew I managed to get beyond a beginner level. My Arabic and Mandarin are still around A0-A1, despite they had some periods of being a priority language for me. Unless you can be very consistent and plan your time for each language, you will achieve something similar. Especially that the languages you choose are not simple ones.
Nevertheless, if you need any help in Polish, just write it here, and I will try to solve your problem. Since Mandarin is also on my list, I will watch your progress and seek for advice ;)
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księżycowy
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Re: księżycowy's Log

Postby księżycowy » Wed Dec 11, 2019 12:50 pm

Yeah, I myself have had variable success with doing more than two languages at once. I am hoping to at the very least not lose what I've learned for Polish! We'll see how it goes. :)
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księżycowy
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Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17499
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Re: księżycowy's Log

Postby księżycowy » Tue Dec 24, 2019 1:35 pm

Ok, let's update this thing:

Japanese
So, I've reviewed Lesson 1 of MnN. It was painfully easy, but still a good way to get back into the language.

As for language structures:

N1 は N2 です
N1 は N2 じゃありません
N1 は N2 ですか
Nも
N1 の N2

I have yet to start Pimsleur, but I intend to do that this week. For some weird reason it skips when I play it in the car. I'll have to make sure that it doesn't do it on my PC.

I also want to start working on tackling the mountain that is pitch accent. My main resource will be OJAD, but I also have the paper version of the NHK accent dictionary. I might also start working with the book The Sounds of Japanese by Vance as well.

Chinese
I did the pronunciation drills in the beginning of the textbook and the dialogues in Unit 1. I also did the first lesson of Pimsleur Mandarin Chinese (more on that later).

For the most part I feel that Chinese isn't that hard pronunciation wise. Then again, I don't have sometime to tell me I'm getting the tones right. :P However, after listening to the first lesson of Pimsleur Chinese, I cannot say the same about my ability to hear tones (at least without written prompts). But it is a skill I hope to continue to develop and eventually it will come in time.

For reading material I have picked up a copy of Tales and Traditions (Vol. 1) [2nd Ed.] by Xiao, Xiao & Wang. I will hold off a little bit before going through it, though. Otherwise it would be too much of a pain in the ass looking up every character.

Taiwanese
I did start going over the audio for Lesson 1, but decided at the time that it might not be a half bad idea to go over the pronunciation section again. I' m not so sure I still feel that way, having started with Mandarin, but we'll see how the week progresses. I'll start with the dialogue in Lesson 1 and take it from there.
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