Another week. Another log. In short, Japanese good, Spanish ok, English bad.
JapaneseJapanese is not so foreign to me anymore and I am starting to get the hand of hiragana and katakana. I even know a couple of Kanji characters. Like チェコ人 and 私. I also found a great textbook, surprisingly with Czech as the teaching language, and I am getting through it. I guess the first initial 1,5 month was spent in complete and utter shock by the complexity of Japanese and how it is so different from any language I know but the shock is over thankfully and now I can focus on improving my Japanese skillz.
SpanishI also found a good textbook (as recommended by Cavesa) and I am getting through it. I have taken several different proficiency tests because I wanted to know what my level is, since it doesn't seem to be A1. I got several different results. I even got B2 (low) on glossika. From all of those tests I figured that my passive skills are perhaps around B1 (?), but what I really have to work on, is grammar. That certainly could be on the A1 level. Verb conjugations, articles, prepositions... I am kind of lost. I am at that lower intermediate plateau I guess, hopefully, it won't last for very long.
EnglishOh, my beloved English. I am frustrated with it atm. I'd say I am on a rather advanced level, I can use some advanced words, I know quite a bit of grammar and I understand almost everything I hear (radio, TV shows, youtube videos) BUT everything (pronunciation, expressing myself orally and verbally...) is just a little bit (or sometimes more) off. What I mean by it is that it is not that C2 level. I think I am on my way to it but it is for sure gonna be a long ride because there is still sooo much to learn. I am a little bit overwhelmed, to be honest.
I have been focusing on
pronunciation lately. I want to have an RP accent so I am practicing with an app called Get rid of your English every day for about 30 minutes by reading a book at loud. While I am progressing, it is gonna also take a long time to get just right. I still haven't figured out how to make that ghastly TH sound
I have read exactly what I should be doing with my breath, mouth, and teeth while doing this sound, I have seen it illustrated in a picture and I have seen a video of someone demonstrating how to pronounce the sound. I still can't get it right. Upsetting. Some of the readers of this log might argue that it is highly unlikely that I can learn to speak with a native-like accent but I know it CAN be done because my aunt has done it. She speaks with an RP and nobody can tell she isn't from England. She also started learning English when she was about 16 years old. So no excuses.
I would like to mention that I am documenting my language learning journey on Instagram. If you want to read about my noncomplishments 7 times a week, you can follow me @elkalanguagenerd