Tagalog + Swedish

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crush
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Tagalog + Swedish

Postby crush » Sat Dec 14, 2019 10:47 pm

Euskara / Basque
It's been a dream of mine to learn Basque and i've finally found myself in a situation where i can dedicate myself to learning it nearly full-time. I've been in Donostia for the past few months and will be here at least until the end of June. I'm currently studying in an euskaltegi (a school specifically for teaching adults Basque) at the B2 level. My speaking is still very rough, but my comprehension has improved considerably these past few months. Since i got here in September i've read about 10-15 books in Basque and listened to the radio on my way to and from class, about 50 minutes a day, alongside my daily classes (3 hours). I was under the perception that Basque was spoken and understood by the majority of the people here which unfortunately is not the case, however i generally try to speak Basque with someone first and have been able to get around pretty well speaking just Basque. I hear most parents around my age speaking to their children in Basque which always makes me happy. I'd love to be able to help make the language more accessible to other people, both in and outside of the Basque Country. I really love this place.

Egiten ari naizena / What i'm doing
[*]Lots of reading.
[*]3 hours of class at the euskaltegi Monday through Friday
[*]Around 50 minutes of listening to the radio on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 25 minutes MWF.
[*]An "irakurketa erraza" (easy reading) group once a week. [-completed-]
[*]"Mintzalaguna" (literally, speaking friend, i.e. meeting in a group with a native Basque speaker to chat in Basque for an hour) once a week.

Epe motzeko helburuak / Short-term goals
[*]Become much more comfortable reading.
[*]Improve my listening comprehension (at present, depending on the topic, radio comprehension is hovering between 70-90%).
[*]Catch my speaking ability up to my passive skills.

Epe luzeko helburuak / Long-term goals
[*]All around C2
[*]Create tools and resources for learning Basque

日本語 / Japanese
I started learning Japanese in August after reading about MIA (Mass Immersion Approach). It stresses passive skills at first and only activating them once you have a strong understanding/intuition for the language. As i don't see myself ever frequently going to Japan, i'm more interested in passive skills anyway. The idea sounded interesting so i decided to try it out and see where it can take me. I haven't been following it as intensively as i have other languages to maintain as well, but i've been doing my best. I generally get around 2 hours of passive listening and 1-2 hours of active listening (watching anime despite never really being a huge fan). I finished RRTK, a recognition-only variant of the Remembering the Kanji book which focuses only on the 1,000 most common characters of the book. Coming from Mandarin/Cantonese, the characters haven't been much of an issue. Tomorrow i'll also have finished the Tango N5 book, which contains sentences for the most common 1,000 or so words. From there, the main body of the method actually starts: namely sentence mining. As silly as it sounds, my main inspiration for learning Japanese is to be able to play my favorite Japanese RPGs and be able to consider it studying. Another interest point has been reading about Chinese anarchism and learning that the first Chinese anarchists first came across anarchism studying abroad in Japan (and later in France) and imported it back into China. I'm not sure how strong of an anarchist tradition still exists today in Japan, but that time period (early 1900s) is really interesting to me and i'd love to read more about it (in Japanese, of course!).

What i'm doing/have done
[*]RRTK (done)
[*]Tango N5 (one day left)
[*]Read through all of Tae Kim's grammar guide (done)
[*]Watching anime every day.
[*]Watching Japanese Ammo with Misa's beginner grammar video lessons.

Short-term goals
[*]Reach the point where i can understand enough to enjoy native Japanese content.
[*]Get comfortable with the Japanese writing system.

Long-term goals
[*]Be able to understand Japanese media in Japanese, including video games.
[*]Play through my favorite RPGs (Legend of Legaia, Final Fantasy VII, Chrono Trigger, etc.) in Japanese.
[*]Relive special childhood memories by watching the original Pokemon series in Japanese ;)



MIA progress

Audio Immersion
Series/Anime
1. デスノート (Death Note)
2. Working!! (first three seasons)
3. 花咲くいろは (Hanasaku Iroha)
4. ハンター×ハンター (Hunter x Hunter)
5. ボールルームへようこそ (Welcome to the Ballroom)
6. 四月は君の嘘 (Your Lie in April)
7. 氷菓 (Hyouka)
8. しろくまカフェ (Shirokuma Cafe)
9. ドクターX (Doctor X S01-04)
10. 政宗くんのリベンジ (Masamune-kun's Revenge)
12. うさぎドロップ (Bunny Drop)
13. 宇宙よりも遠い場所 (A Place Further than the Universe)
14. たまゆらひととせ (Tamayura Hitotose)
15. とらドラ! (Toradora!)
16. 恋は雨上がりのように (After the Rain)
17. となりの怪物くん (My Little Monster)
18. ブレンド・S (Blend S)
19. カードキャプターさくら (Cardcaptor Sakura ep1-19)
20. イタズラなキス (Mischievous Kiss)
21. 僕だけがいない街 (Erased)
22. 響け! ユーフォニアム (Sound! Euphonium)
23. 風が強く吹いている (Run with the Wind)
24. 灰羽連盟 (Haibane Renmei)
25. 進撃の巨人 (Attack on Titan S1)
26. 池袋ウエストゲートパーク (Ikebukuro West Gate Park)
27. 一週間フレンズ (One Week Friends)

Movies
1. 秒速5センチメートル (5 Centimeters per Second)
2. 泣きたい私は猫をかぶる (A Whisker Away)
3. カメラを止めるな! (One Cut of the Dead)
4. 初恋 (First Love)
5. 君の膵臓をたべたい (I want to eat your Pancreas)
6. ベイマックス (Big Hero 6)
7. シュガー・ラッシュ / 2 (Wreck-It Ralph / 2)
8. アトム (Astro Boy)
9. 長ぐつをはいたネコ (Puss in Boots)
10. ザ・シンプソンズ MOVIE (The Simpsons Movie)
11. ティーンエイジ・ミュータント・ニンジャ・タートルズ (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
12. アトランティス 失われた帝国 (Atlantis: The Lost Empire)
13. アラジン (Aladdin)
14. ズートピア (Zootopia)
15. ルイスと未来泥棒 (Meet the Robinsons)
16. 曇り時々ミートボール / 2 (Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs / 2)
17. モンスター・ホテル / 2 / 3 (Hotel Transylvania / 2 / 3)
18. マダガスカル / 2 / 3 (Madagascar / 2 / 3)
19. スパイダーマン: スパイダーバース (Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse)
20. ヒックとドラゴン / 2 (How to Train your Dragon / 2)
21. ガーディアンズ 伝説の勇者たち (Rise of the Guardians)
22. クルードさんちのはじめての冒険 (The Croods)
23. ボス・ベイビー (The Boss Baby)
24. 心が叫びたがってるんだ (Anthem of the Heart)
25. マウス・タウン ロディとリタの大冒険 (Flushed Away)
26. 森のリトル・ギャング (Over the Hedge)
27. 空の青さを知る人よ (Her Blue Sky)
28. シュレック / 2 / 3 (Shrek / 2 / 3)

Text Immersion
Games
1. Pokemon Blue
2. Fire Emblem: Awakening
3. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
4. Fire Emblem: Conquest

Books/Manga
1. 四月は君の嘘 (Your Lie in April, vols 1-4)
2. ハリー・ポッターと賢者の石 (Harry Potter 1) - 08/06/2020
3. ハリー・ポッターと秘密の部屋 (Harry Potter 2) - 10/11/2020
4. ハリー・ポッターとアズカバンの囚人 (Harry Potter 3)

Stage 1 (audio cards) - completed 5/8/2020
Recognition RTK - 1000 Kanji: 1000 / 1000
Basic Grammar/Vocab - Tango N5 + Tae Kim: 1400 / 1400
Sentence Mining - 2000 Sentences: 2000 / 2000

Stage 2 (reading cards)
Monolingual Transition: ☐
Monolingual Transition - Phase 1: 100 / 100
Monolingual Transition - Phase 2 ☐
Monolingual Transition - Phase 3 ☐
Monolingual Transition - Phase 4 ☐
Sentence Mining - 3000 Sentences: 1221 / 3000
Last edited by crush on Mon Nov 13, 2023 8:59 pm, edited 45 times in total.
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nooj
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Re: ABATT (All Basque All The Time) + MIA (Japanese)

Postby nooj » Mon Dec 16, 2019 11:46 am

Antzekotasunak aurkeztu dituzu japoniera eta euskararen artean, hots, uste al dezu hizkuntza baten ezagutzak dizula laguntzen bestearen ikastearekin?

I was under the perception that Basque was spoken and understood by the majority of the people here which unfortunately is not the case,


Tamalez hori da baina nire ustean, gazte gehienekin gai izan naiz hitz egiteko. Hobeto esana, behin esan didanez euskaldun batek, Donostin gazteak badaki euskara baina ez du ohiturarik/nahirik. Gutxienez ulertzen dute. Helduekin baina...
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kennyaa
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Re: ABATT (All Basque All The Time) + MIA (Japanese)

Postby kennyaa » Mon Dec 16, 2019 2:04 pm

Best of luck! I've been doing MIA seriously since September/October and feel that my comprehension has increased greatly, about a week ago I had an hour on Skype with a tutor and he reckoned that my ability to speak had greatly improved as well, despite me not really speaking much at all for the last few months. I feel that it works for me and I enjoy learning a lot more now as well.

I think Japanese learners are really lucky thanks to how well organised the AJATT commnity is, if you haven't already got some you should have a google for the premade subs2SRS decks that are floating around online and see if there's any already set up for shows that you've watched/are interested in watching. Seems to me a priceless resource and wish there was a folder of them stashed online for other languages.
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BOLIO
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Re: ABATT (All Basque All The Time) + MIA (Japanese)

Postby BOLIO » Tue Dec 17, 2019 10:53 pm

Crush,

I hope you are well. I see you keep picking the easy languages. :D By the time you are my age you will have a dozen languages under your belt.

I will be following your journey with great interest. Are you still in China? I just came back from Spain and I did not get to spend enough time in Basque Country. But I will next time.

Take care and I’ll be watching.

BOLIO
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Reminder to myself: Perfection is useless and harmful. Just keep moving forward.

crush
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Re: ABATT (All Basque All The Time) + MIA (Japanese)

Postby crush » Thu Dec 19, 2019 6:58 pm

nooj wrote:Antzekotasunak aurkeztu dituzu japoniera eta euskararen artean, hots, uste al dezu hizkuntza baten ezagutzak dizula laguntzen bestearen ikastearekin?

Ba bai, hizkuntza guztien artean egongo dira antzekoak diren gauzak. Oraindik hasten ari naiz japoniera ikasten, baina interesgarria iruditzen zait askotan japoniera entzutean euskarazko hitzak entzuten ditudala kar kar. Eta aldi berean txinera ikasteak lagundu zidan euskara ikasi hasi nintzenean.

nooj wrote:Tamalez hori da baina nire ustean, gazte gehienekin gai izan naiz hitz egiteko. Hobeto esana, behin esan didanez euskaldun batek, Donostin gazteak badaki euskara baina ez du ohiturarik/nahirik. Gutxienez ulertzen dute. Helduekin baina...

Nik ikusi dudana guraso gazte askok umeekin euskaraz egiten dutela da eta horrek asko pozten nau, oso polita da umeek euskaraz hitz egiten ikustea. Baina egia da hemengo bizitza normala gehienetan erdaraz egiten dela. Ziur aski egoera gero eta hobea egingo dela!

kennyaa wrote:I think Japanese learners are really lucky thanks to how well organised the AJATT commnity is, if you haven't already got some you should have a google for the premade subs2SRS decks that are floating around online and see if there's any already set up for shows that you've watched/are interested in watching. Seems to me a priceless resource and wish there was a folder of them stashed online for other languages.

You're very right about this, the amount and quality of resources for Japanese is mind-blowing. And not just that, the (online) Japanese language learning community is largely focused around self-study, which is something i haven't seen for other languages. I've created a ton of subs2srs decks for Mandarin, it would be great to be able to share them with other learners similar to the Japanese collection, i'm not sure how to best organize that though.

BOLIO wrote:I see you keep picking the easy languages.

I do my best to slack off ;) Anymore, there are only two kinds of languages that really get me interested: small regional languages and languages completely different from anything i've studied before. Basque fits both of these categories! With all of these half-studied languages floating around my head, i made a promise to myself that i'd limit wanderlust until i bring some of them to more functional levels. There are other things i'd like to be doing as well apart from language learning, so i've been trying to balance things a bit better.

BOLIO wrote:Are you still in China? I just came back from Spain and I did not get to spend enough time in Basque Country. But I will next time.

Nope, i'm currently living in the Basque Country trying to finally activate my Basque. I may be heading back next year and get a chance to work on my Cantonese.
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crush
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Re: ABATT (All Basque All The Time) + MIA (Japanese)

Postby crush » Sat Jan 11, 2020 4:48 pm

Just got back to the Basque Country, i was in the States over the holidays but managed to at least keep up with Anki reviews. I've now completed the Tango N5 and Tae Kim (which only covers probably 2/3rds of the course, not the full thing) decks. I've been going through Japanese Ammo with Misa's absolute beginner lessons, it's all mostly a review of what i've seen in Tae Kim and Tango, but she gives lots of examples which seems to really help. I also bought a lifetime subscription to the Bunpo (not Bunpro) app, which is a nice overview of Japanese grammar. I don't need the SRS stuff really, i want to spend more time reinforcing what i've learned through immersion which, for my other languages, is something i waited until much later to do but which seems to really be where the language started to click for me. I'm still not to sure what the right balance between grammar/vocabulary study and immersion is, MIA leans much more towards immersion the entire journey, whereas i've always focused super intensively on grammar first, then vocab, then gradually shifting towards 100% immersion as i get more and more comfortable in the language.

I do feel like i would've made much more progress in this time if i'd spent all the "immersion hours" as "study hours", but from what i gather, MIA believes that immersion sets a lot of stuff up for you in the background which doesn't really show up until further on as you get to more intermediate/advanced stages. Another thing to note is that it would be a lot more overwhelming to keep up with those reviews and spend so much time doing drills compared to just watching a movie or TV show (even if it's not interesting or even fun for me at this stage with such low comprehension).

Currently, i'm getting ready to figure out some more specific language-learning goals and a loose schedule to try to follow for this year. Perhaps in another post!

EDIT: Not sure if i mentioned this in the first post or not, but i've also been playing through Pokemon Blue in Japanese on my DS. It doesn't use any kanji (fitting a full set of kanji in a Gameboy's memory would have definitely been tough ;) ). I'm going slowly and making sure to actually read everything. My comprehension is still very low, but i can figure a lot of things out from having played through the game as a kid in English and if anything it's practice reading hiragana/katakana.
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crush
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Re: ABATT (All Basque All The Time) + MIA (Japanese)

Postby crush » Wed Jan 15, 2020 4:44 pm

Basque:
As i (slowly) adjust to the different time zone again, i've been trying to get my studies back in line. With Basque, i've just been going to class and trying to get used to using Basque again. Basque is currently in that limbo land where i know enough for it to be useful (i can understand probably 70-80% of most radio shows and about 80% of young adult fiction) but it takes effort and speaking is still tough. I can generally hear and make out the grammar mistakes my classmates make (like forgetting to use -(e)la) but tend to make the same mistakes myself when speaking :(

Overall, i know i've made a ton of improvement these past few months (the first few weeks of class, 100% in Basque, were brutal). My comprehension of the radio has gone up immensely from the ~5% or so it was when i first got here.

Japanese:
I've finally started sentence mining! I've only been doing it for a few days but i've enjoyed it, even if it can take some time to prepare the new cards. I've actually just been using Morphman to go through an anime series i'm currently watching (Hunter x Hunter) which has helped pick sentences which are mostly i+1. I feel like the past few days doing this has been much more helpful than all the sentences from Tango. The end goal for "Stage 1" of MIA is 2000 cards, i plan to do these 2000 as audio cards and then switch to sentence mining from texts once i get into "Stage 2". That's probably about 5-6 months away, hopefully i'll have made some progress and watching shows won't be so tough... I've watched bits of other more "slice of life" shows and those seem to be much better for my listening comprehension, i'm thinking Hunter x Hunter was maybe a bad choice. I wanted something that was long so i could get used to the speaking style, but i've been thinking it might be best to switch to something else now. It could be because of my super low comprehension rate, but the story hasn't pulled me in the way other shows with similarly low comprehension like Hanasaku Iroha and Death Note have.
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crush
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Re: ABATT (All Basque All The Time) + MIA (Japanese)

Postby crush » Wed Jan 22, 2020 6:46 pm

Not a whole lot to report, other than that i've been consistent with my studies.

Euskara
I've mostly been going to classes, reading, and practicing Basque online/answering questions. Tomorrow i'll start backup with mintzalaguna ("speaking friend", a service that pairs you with a local Basque speaker to practice speaking once a week).

Japanese
I've been continuing sentence mining, though it's tough to understand a lot of sentences still especially when so much depends on context. So far i've got 208 cards and i suppose it'll slowly go up. I'm hoping my comprehension and that click where Japanese starts to feel like a language and not a jumble of sounds with random words tossed in will come at some point during this "stage".
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chove
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Re: ABATT (All Basque All The Time) + MIA (Japanese)

Postby chove » Thu Jan 23, 2020 3:44 am

I've been reading *about* Basque in my Spanish course, about how it survived despite Franco's ban on minority languages. How safe would you say the language is these days?
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Re: ABATT (All Basque All The Time) + MIA (Japanese)

Postby golyplot » Thu Jan 23, 2020 4:50 am

I'm curious what things you felt worked well and didn't work well with Japanese.

I've been studying Japanese for three weeks, and am hoping to use a pseudo-immersion focused approach as well, but I haven't started that yet because I feel like I'm still not at the point where listening to even the most basic stuff would be useful. So for now, I'm just trying various study methods and hoping that I'll get there soon. So far, the only one I've really liked was Wanikani, though it seems like it would be largely superfluous for you, since you've already done RRTK.
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