Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Italian, and Ancient Greek

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philomath
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Ancient Greek, and Maybe German

Postby philomath » Fri Jul 02, 2021 5:47 pm

German
I decided not to use GermanPod101. I originally wanted to try it because I remembered enjoying ChinesePod101 when I studied Mandarin in 2015. I also saw that GermanPod101 has a series of videos on German pronunciation, which I thought looked helpful. However, after watching a couple of the videos, I don’t think they’re worth the subscription. So no more GermanPod101!

I’ve been feeling a little bit lost when it comes to German. Part of that is because I’m still focusing on the novel I’m writing, so German isn’t my priority. But it’s hard for me to remember what it’s like to start a language, even though I started French less than two years ago. (Has the pandemic warped my perception of time?) Thank goodness for the language logs I’ve been keeping on this forum! Yesterday I reread my entries from the autumn of 2019, when I started French, and it all started coming back to me. So I’ve updated the list of German resources I want to use for now:

  • Coffee Break German
  • FSI German: A Programmed Introduction
  • Pimsleur German

I finally downloaded the Pimsleur app the other day, and I was pleasantly surprised by how modern it looks—I’m used to the old CDs from the library. And I was even more pleased by the new subscription model: for $20/month, I can get access to all 150 German lessons! I’m not going to start the subscription until I get back from my trip, but I’m excited.

Also, I think I found two potential iTalki tutors! This is what they mentioned in their iTalki bios, which stood out to me:

  • Also enjoy studying languages
  • Accept complete beginners
  • Teach self-motivated adults
  • Lessons focus on conversation
  • Will write down vocab in a Google doc (which I can use to make flashcards)

And another perk is that both tutors charge about 1/4 the price that my French tutor charged. :D

I’m leaving for my trip tomorrow, but I’m very happy that my German plan is starting to come together!
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Ancient Greek, and Maybe German

Postby philomath » Sun Jul 04, 2021 11:16 pm

Yesterday I was traveling, but I was able to spend a lot of time on languages:

French
I read 57 pages of Chanson douce. I couldn’t look up any words because I didn’t have internet, so there were lots of parts I didn’t understand. I could tell what was happening and what the general mood of each scene was, but I definitely missed a lot. I’m tempted to read the book in English afterward and see what I didn’t pick up on.

German
I did Unit 1 of FSI German: A Programmed Introduction. This lesson was all about stress and intonation. I thought the stress section was easy and the intonation section was a little difficult. I'm not very musically inclined and have always had trouble identifying rising vs. falling pitch.

I also listened to Season 1, Episode 1 of Coffee Break German. It went over different ways to say hello, goodbye, and how you’re doing.

Next, I started Lesson 1 of Pimsleur German I. I only got a few minutes into it, but I really enjoyed it. It made me feel slightly less intimidated about German pronunciation!
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Ancient Greek, and Maybe German

Postby philomath » Sat Jul 10, 2021 1:19 am

Spanish
08Jul21 was my “Spanish day” for the week. I spent a little over 2 hours on Spanish: first I listened to a podcast episode by Martha Debayle, and then I read 33 pages of Harry Potter y el cáliz de fuego.

French
06Jul21: I read 14 pages of Chanson douce. Then I bought the English translation and caught up to where I’d left off.

07Jul21: I read 38 pages of Chanson douce. After a few chapters in French, I’d go back and read the same chapters in English to see what I missed. I also started looking up words in French as I read. Because I didn’t have internet, I only had access to the monolingual French dictionary in the Kindle app, not the French-to-English translation. But I got by pretty well with the French dictionary, which was nice.

09Jul21: I read the final 34 pages of Chanson douce, first in French and then in English. Overall, I liked the book, but I was a little bit dissatisfied with the ending. I’m excited to read another book in French now!

German
09Jul21: I began Unit 2 of FSI German. Here’s something odd: the first half of the lesson consisted of listening drills, where the listener had to differentiate between the correct pronunciation and an incorrect pronunciation. However, for each drill, a feminine voice gave the correct pronunciation, while a masculine voice gave the incorrect version. So you could get the questions correct without hearing the differences in pronunciation...

Anyway, the second half of the unit was pronunciation drills, so I’m leaving that for when I get home from my trip.

Next, I watched German YouTube videos for 30 minutes. I found a channel called Easy German: Learn German from the Streets! Their videos have English and German subtitles, which is really helpful. Reading both at once can be a little bit confusing since German word order is different though.

Other Language Thoughts
I really, really want to learn Modern Greek all of a sudden. It’s no secret that I love Ancient Greek, and lately I’ve been thinking about visiting Greece (post-pandemic, whenever that will be). Now I’m wondering whether I should learn Greek instead of German, since I’m more passionate about Greek. Yet I’ll probably visit Germany first, since my boyfriend wants to go.... Maybe I should give myself a deadline for German, but I need to decide what that deadline will be.
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MorkTheFiddle
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Ancient Greek, and Maybe German

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sat Jul 10, 2021 4:21 pm

philomath wrote: Yet I’ll probably visit Germany first, since my boyfriend wants to go.... Maybe I should give myself a deadline for German, but I need to decide what that deadline will be.
FWIW, people may tell you that all Germans speak English. When I visited Munich in 2015, I did not find that to be the case. In fact, in Southern Germany, some Germans did'nt even speak German. But my hotel maitre'd's did speak excellent English, and my own very halting German--plus gestures--sufficed for times when English was not spoken. Though I would not want to be in that situation again. :) At any rate, have a good time when you go.
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Ancient Greek, and Maybe German

Postby philomath » Sun Jul 11, 2021 3:36 pm

MorkTheFiddle wrote:FWIW, people may tell you that all Germans speak English. When I visited Munich in 2015, I did not find that to be the case. In fact, in Southern Germany, some Germans did'nt even speak German. But my hotel maitre'd's did speak excellent English, and my own very halting German--plus gestures--sufficed for times when English was not spoken. Though I would not want to be in that situation again. :) At any rate, have a good time when you go.

True, I'll probably end up speaking English a lot while in Germany. But I feel like I need to try speaking German at least a little bit--that's one of my main reasons for traveling! I don't think I'll be going until November or sometime next year, so I still have a lot of time to learn.
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Ancient Greek, and Maybe German

Postby philomath » Mon Jul 12, 2021 12:43 am

Spanish
10Jul21: I took this Spanish vocabulary quiz and got a score of 18,000 words (top 5.5%). I think that’s a bit of an over-estimation, but it was nice to see!

11Jul21: I reviewed my Anki flashcards for the first time in almost four months. I don't have many Spanish flashcards anymore, so there were only 10 to review.

French
10Jul21: As with Spanish, I took this French vocabulary quiz. My score was 5,000 words (which is apparently similar to an 8-year-old in France). Not too bad! I think it's an over-estimation, but maybe not if you consider all of the cognates with English and Spanish?

11Jul21: I reviewed my Anki flashcards for the first time in almost four months. There were 200 flashcards to review. After such a long break, I expected to have forgotten a lot, but I only needed to repeat 32 cards. Afterward, I watched an episode of Dix pour cent using the Language Learning with Netflix extension.

German
10Jul21: I listened to Episodes 2 and 3 of Coffee Break German Season 1. These episodes went over how to ask someone’s name and where they’re from. They also explained the informal and formal “you”.

11Jul21: I bought a one-month subscription to Pimsleur German and did Lesson 1. Before the lesson, I didn't feel comfortable at all with the voiceless palatal fricative in "ich". By the end of the lesson, I felt a lot more comfortable saying "ich" but was having trouble with the word "bisschen". I was also a little unsure about the "r" sound in the word "Amerikaner". According to Wiktionary it's a voiced uvular fricative, which I should know how to say thanks to French. Maybe I'm worrying too much!

After doing Pimsleur my throat hurt a little bit, but I powered through it and did Unit 2 of FSI German. Part of the lesson involved listening to words pronounced with tensed lips vs. relaxed lips. I had to repeat this part because at first I couldn't quite tell which was which. I think this lesson helped me get better at pronouncing the voiceless velar fricative in "auch"!

Next, I made some Anki flashcards with some of the phrases from Coffee Break German. I only included the phrases that would be useful for me, and I downloaded audio from Sound of Text. (The audio isn't great, but hopefully it's better than nothing.)

Finally, I read a little bit about German grammar: the pronouns and their declensions, as well as how to conjugate verbs in the present tense indicative.

I'm starting to feel more excited about German now. Getting better at pronunciation makes the language feel more manageable! And I'm excited to learn a spoken language with noun cases. I think I'll be ready to book an iTalki lesson in a month or even sooner.
7 x

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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Ancient Greek, and Maybe German

Postby philomath » Tue Jul 13, 2021 12:08 am

Today was my first day commuting to work on the subway since the pandemic started. My new commute is 50 minutes, which is a good chunk of time for studying languages!

French
I had 200 more flashcards to review, and I managed to get through 100 of them during my commute. Then I reviewed the rest during my lunch break.

On my commute home, I listened to the InnerFrench podcast for 30 minutes. However, I don’t think it’s very good for listening practice because it’s so easy to understand. So I found a random political podcast and listened to that for another 15 minutes. I need to find some more interesting podcasts though! I did a quick search and found these ones to try:

  • Change ma vie
  • Kiffe ta race
  • La page blanche
  • Manger
  • Transfert

When I got home from work, I decided to take the Dialang listening assessment. My score was B1, which was a pleasant surprise! I don't know if I believe it or not.

German
I listened to Episode 4 of Coffee Break German Season 1 during my commute. I can now say things like “Ich komme aus New York, aber jetzt wohne ich in Boston.”

Update: I also did Lesson 2 of Pimsleur German I.
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Ancient Greek, and Maybe German

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Tue Jul 13, 2021 4:49 pm

philomath wrote: I need to find some more interesting podcasts though! I did a quick search and found these ones to try:

  • Change ma vie
  • Kiffe ta race
  • La page blanche
  • Manger
  • Transfert


Agreed about "more interesting." Thanks for the tips. I want to give them a try.
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

jackb
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Ancient Greek, and Maybe German

Postby jackb » Wed Jul 14, 2021 4:35 pm

I love kiffe ta race and it may be my favorite. Just a word of warning about the speed. Rokhaya Diallo talks about a mile a minute and even faster when the conversation gets lively. Grace Ly is no slouch either. Fortunately they are both very clear speakers and also publish the podcast on youtube where I can take advantage of the subtitles.
Have fun!
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Ancient Greek, and Maybe German

Postby philomath » Fri Jul 16, 2021 2:30 am

French
13Jul21: Reviewed 170 more Anki flashcards.

14Jul21: Listened to a 40-minute episode of the podcast Kiffe ta race during my commute. As jackb warned me, the hosts speak really fast. I understood some parts, but I definitely missed a lot.

15Jul21: Listened to four(!) 20-minute episodes of the podcast Transfert from Slate France. I really enjoyed this podcast! The speakers didn't talk as fast as in Kiffe ta race, but there were a lot of words I didn't know. Next time I want to pause the audio occasionally to look them up. I also reviewed 200 more Anki flashcards.

German
13Jul21: Listened to Episode 5 and part of Episode 6 of Coffee Break German Season 1.

15Jul21: I did Lesson 3 of Pimsleur German I and Unit 3 of FSI German. I'm still pretty frustrated with my pronunciation. :(
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