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 and French

Postby philomath » Wed Oct 13, 2021 11:34 am

French
08Oct21: I did Pimsleur French II Lesson 1. This lesson was a little bit boring: "What did you do today?" "I bought a French adaptor and a power cord. "Ah yes, that's practical." I also listened to more of the podcast Détenues.

11Oct21: I read two chapters of Les fiancés de l’hiver while listening to the audiobook.

I haven't been feeling very motivated to learn French lately. I think it's because I've gotten tired of listening to the podcast Transfert. I need to find more podcasts and YouTube channels that interest me.

12Oct21: I watched some YouTube videos, but I couldn't find any channels that particularly interested me. I also wrote in French for 30 minutes and posted my writing on iTalki.

German
11Oct21: I watched a few videos from the YouTube channel Easy German, even though I'm not "supposed to" be learning German anymore.

Ancient Greek
Over the weekend, I started doing a little bit of Ancient Greek for fun. So far I've finished Lessons 1-3 of Clyde Pharr's Homeric Greek. Lessons 1 and 2 just introduced Greek grammar, so I skimmed through them. For Lesson 3 I made Anki flashcards for the noun declensions and vocabulary words. I also did the translation exercises, but I didn't spend much time on the English -> Greek ones. I only care about reading Ancient Greek, not writing in it.
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish and French

Postby philomath » Mon Oct 18, 2021 2:05 am

French
In the past few days, I've mostly done the following:
  • Listened to more episodes of Transfert. Last week I was sick of the podcast, but I found some episodes that are more interesting.
  • Reviewed sentences on Clozemaster. I hadn't used it in a while, so when I started at the beginning of the week there were over 1,200 sentences for me to review! I've managed to review 300 so far.
  • Continued reading Les fiancés de l'hiver. I've been listening to the audiobook at the same time, and I've stopped looking up as many words as I read. These changes have allowed me to read much faster, which is nice.

Today I also had a 45-minute lesson with my iTalki teacher. It was all right... I felt embarrassed by how much my speaking skills had declined. I had trouble remembering words, so I had to speak very slowly. I've booked another lesson for next weekend.
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish and French

Postby philomath » Thu Oct 21, 2021 3:12 am

Spanish
18Oct21: A small win: I overheard a conversation in Spanish at work, and I realized I could understand a lot more of the slang they were using! Listening to Niñas Bien has paid off.

French
18Oct21, 19Oct21, 20Oct21: Listened to Transfert while walking to and from the train station. I listened to the same 45-minute episode, which I kept rewinding in order to understand better. In the end, I was able to understand the first half of the episode very well, but I got tired of replaying the audio so I only got the gist of the ending.

Thoughts and Upcoming Plans
I'm not sure if alternating between Spanish and French every 3+ weeks is working for me. Lately I've been wanting to improve my active skills, and I think that'll be hard to do if I keep stopping and re-starting each language. So I think I'll try alternating days: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday will be for Spanish, and Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday will be for French. Sunday will be a free day where I can study whichever language I want.

I'll really only be trying out this new schedule for a week and a half though, because on November 1st I'm starting the Six Week Challenge with Italian! I still hope to maintain Spanish and French during the challenge, but I want to spend most of my language-learning time on Italian. I think I'll begin with Assimil and Pimsleur, use those for a few weeks, and then start taking iTalki lessons as well. I've already found some teachers who look promising.

The Six Week Challenge ends around December 12, and I happen to have the rest of the month off from work. Having so much time off seems like the perfect opportunity to try some kind of language experiment... perhaps some kind of intensive speaking challenge, with lots of iTalki lessons? I'll have to think about it.
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish and French

Postby philomath » Mon Oct 25, 2021 2:44 am

For the past few days I’ve been busy studying for my first grad school exam, so I haven’t had much time for languages:

Spanish
22Oct21: My first day studying Spanish in two weeks! I listened to a little but of Nómadas and Radio Ambulante.

French
21Oct21: I practiced speaking and wrote down the phrases I didn't know. Later, I listened to a little bit of Kiffe ta race and watched a few YouTube videos. Lately I've been watching YouTubers from Montreal so I can get used to the Quebecois accent. It still sounds strange to me, but I can understand it a lot better after watching a few videos.

24Oct21: In the morning I had a lesson with my French tutor. Compared to last week's lesson, I think I did a better job at speaking. I didn't struggle as much to recall words, but I still had trouble conjugating verbs on the fly. It's disappointing how much my speaking skills have regressed. I think I'll continue taking French lessons during November, even though my main focus will be learning Italian for the Six Week Challenge.

Later, I made some Anki flashcards and watched two videos from the YouTube channel La Vie Douce. I really like their videos because the actors speak very informally. I had to rewind a lot and wrote down lots of phrases that seemed useful.

Ancient Greek
24Oct21: I finished Lesson 4 of Homeric Greek: A Book for Beginners. I did the Greek-to-English translation exercises but skipped the English-to-Greek ones. Then I made flashcards for the Lesson 5 vocabulary.
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Italian, and Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Sun Oct 31, 2021 11:40 pm

This week I continued alternating between Spanish and French every other day. I really like the new routine so far! I practiced speaking by myself a few times, and I didn't confuse the two languages as much as I thought I would.

October Summary







Next month I plan to continue doing Spanish on M/W/F and French on Tu/Th/Sa. I'd like to do more speaking practice in each language, but I'm not sure if that'll happen since I'll be busy with Italian.

So, Italian. These are the resources I plan to use:
  • Assimil Italian with Ease
  • Mango Languages Italian
  • Pimsleur Italian I

I've also made a list of things to listen to in Italian:
  • Easy Italian (YouTube channel)
  • Italiano Automatico (podcast)
  • Italy Made Easy (podcast)
  • Learn Italian with Lucrezia

It looks like there are a lot of interesting podcasts in Italian, which I'm excited about! But for now many of them will be way above my level. I'm going to start with the ones listed above, and hopefully I learn quickly.
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Italian, and Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Wed Nov 03, 2021 3:18 am

Spanish
01Nov21: I watched a 20-minute YouTube video.

French
02Nov21: I practiced speaking for 10 minutes. I wasn't very satisfied with my pronunciation. :( Next, I watched a 20-minute YouTube video which gave a review of the Phobos books by Victor Dixen. I think I'll try reading the series sometime. I also read another chapter of les fiancés de l'hiver while listening to the audiobook.

Italian
01Nov21: The first day of the Six Week Challenge! On my way to work, I listened to the Italiano Automatico Podcast for 10 minutes. This episode was about the importance of gratitude, and I was able to understand it pretty well thanks to cognates, though there were still lots of words I didn't know. I also did the first half of Mango Languages Chapter 1. These lessons went over greetings and how to discuss the weather.

After dinner, I did Assimil Lesson 1. I know there's a 10-step process or something for using Assimil, but I don't want to drive myself crazy. Instead, I did the following: 1) Listened to the audio by itself. 2) Listened to the audio line by line. Repeated each line out loud and read the English translation. 3) Listened to the audio again. 4) Answered the exercises out loud.

Finally, I did Pimsleur Italian I, Lesson 1. So far I love the way Italian sounds, and I'm finding the pronunciation pretty easy.

02Nov21: During my commute, I listened to two episodes of the Italiano Automatico Podcast. I didn't think I remembered any Italian, but I actually recognized a lot of words: insieme, la paura, etc. I also finished Mango Languages Chapter 1.

After work, I did Assimil Lesson 2, but I was too busy to do Pimsleur as well.
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Italian, and Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Sun Nov 07, 2021 4:17 am

03Nov21-06Nov21

Spanish
I listened to Niñas Bien and Radio Ambulante. I also watched a few episodes of Netflix's Made in Mexico. I've already seen the show, but what can I say? I love reality TV.

French
I didn't do any French until 06Nov21, when I practiced speaking for 20 minutes. At first I didn't feel happy with my speaking skills, but by the end I felt more confident. I wrote down a lot of phrases that I didn't know, and I'll make flashcards for them later.

Italian
I did Assimil Lesson 3, Mango Languages Chapters 2-3, and Pimsleur Lesson 2. So far, Mango Languages and Pimsleur are a little bit too repetitive for me. I also listened to the Italy Made Easy podcast.

On 06Nov21, I started making Anki flashcards. I started with phrases about myself and why I'm learning Italian. I used DeepL to translate the phrases to Italian and Sound of Text to get audio clips for each flashcard. The voice isn't the most natural, but I think that's okay since it's not my only source of audio.

Juggling Spanish and French isn't as easy now that I've started Italian. I feel like I ought to do something other than listening practice, but at the same time, shouldn't I be focusing on Italian? Studying three languages at once is also giving me less time to work on my other hobbies, especially writing. But I love Spanish and French so much that I don't want to put either of them on pause again.
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Italian, and Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Mon Nov 08, 2021 4:59 am

07Nov21

Spanish
I watched another episode of Made in Mexico.

French
I watched a couple of videos from the YouTube channel La Vie Douce, and then I had a 45-minute lesson with my iTalki teacher. I think yesterday's speaking practice was beneficial, because I felt very pleased with my speaking skills during the lesson. We discussed having different sleep schedules and studying multiple languages at the same time.

Italian
I did Pimsleur Lesson 3 and started Mango Languages Chapter 4 (Personal Info and Preferences).
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Italian, and Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Thu Nov 11, 2021 4:59 am

Spanish
08Nov21: Nothing

09Nov21: I was supposed to be focusing on French, but I watched another episode of Made in Mexico instead.

10Nov21: I read an article from El País which discussed Ancient Rome and a recent discovery at Pompeii.

French
09Nov21: I listened to the French Expat podcast for 10 minutes.

Italian
08Nov21: During my commute, I listened to the Italy Made Easy Podcast for 10 minutes and did Mango Languages.

09Nov21: More Italy Made Easy and Mango Languages.

10Nov21: Even more Italy Made Easy and Mango Languages. I also did Assimil Lesson 4 and Pimsleur Lesson 4.

Thoughts
I don't think I'm making enough progress in Spanish and French, and I think I know why: I've been doing too much listening practice and not enough of the other skills. It's easy to do listening practice because I can do it while walking to and from the train every day, but I need to incorporate other activities into my routine. Reading the article from El País today made me feel more productive, and I want to start reading more articles in French too.

As for Italian: I've been slacking on Assimil and Pimsleur lately, but I think I've regained my motivation. I decided that finishing Assimil will be my priority instead of Pimsleur, which has been pretty boring so far.
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Re: Amanda's 2021 Log: Spanish, French, Italian, and Ancient Greek

Postby philomath » Fri Nov 12, 2021 4:56 am

11Nov21

French
I read an article from Slate France about how Gen Z is bringing back the flip phone ("le téléphone à clapet"). According to the website it was a 3-minute read, but it took me around 10-15 minutes. :lol: I made flashcards for the new phrases I learned. Then I made flashcards for all of the phrases I'd been collecting in my phone over the past week or so. I total I made 31 cards (62 if you count both front and back).

Italian
Before work I did Assimil Lesson 5. During my commute I listened to a 20-minute episode of Italy Made Easy, which was about Italian coffee culture. I also continued doing Mango Languages Chapter 4. This chapter is very long because it introduces how to count from 0 to 100.

At the end of my train ride, two women sat next to me and started speaking Italian! I don't hear Italian very often in Boston unless I'm in the North End. I tried to eavesdrop on their conversation, but the train was very loud.

Later, I made more flashcards for phrases I want to be able to say. For example: "Ho studiato in Italia per un mese." And then I finally finished Mango Languages Chapter 4! That means I'm done with all of Unit 1: Introductions.

More exciting news: I’ve booked my first iTalki lesson! It will be on November 21. I picked this teacher because:
  • He believes in conversational practice rather than grammar drills.
  • He has experience teaching beginners.
  • He’s available on weekends.

I'm looking forward to it. :)
Last edited by philomath on Fri Nov 12, 2021 12:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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