Michelle's 2021 Log (Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Italian)

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Michelle's 2021 Log (Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Italian)

Postby brokenrecord » Sun Jan 10, 2021 3:56 pm

Previous logs: 2018 | 2019 | 2020

New log for the new year, even if it's coming a bit late (how is it already January 10th?). I'm not one for setting specific goals since I tend to find them more stressful than motivating, but there are couple of things I'd like to accomplish in my various languages this year. My main focus is going to be similar to what it had become at the end of last year, which is improving my French and German so they're more comparable to my level in Spanish.

Spanish: This is still my strongest language, and probably will continue to be, unless I drop it entirely and focus solely on French and German for a couple years (which isn't going to happen). While I'd of course like to continue to improve my Spanish, I'm pretty happy with my current level. My comprehension of Spanish TV is pretty consistently high, and I'm able to read YA novels easily and go entire chapters without needing to look up anything. Eventually I'd like to get to that level with more advanced books as well and increase my reading speed (which I did in 2020, but it's still very slow compared to my English reading speed). I'd like my comprehension of Spanish films to improve (they're definitely still a greater challenge than TV for me), but I don't feel any urgency in achieving either of those things, so I'm happy to just continue with what I've been doing and slowly improving. I would like to finish Demystifying the Spanish Subjunctive this year, and I'd also like to complete the Super Challenge for Spanish (which I didn't officially sign up for but have been tracking as if I did — I should easily complete the film portion well in advance of the end of the challenge, and I'm only about 200 pages behind pace for the book portion, which isn't too bad).

French: I've definitely felt improvement in my French in the past year, mostly in reading. The number of words I had to look up while reading in French steadily decreased over the course of the year. I think my listening comprehension has improved as well, but it's not as strong as my reading, and I sometimes get frustrated that it's not stronger or closer to my Spanish comprehension level (of course, I've completed almost 500 more hours of listening without subtitles in Spanish than in French, so that's to be expected). I'd like to complete a half Super Challenge in French (again, I'm way ahead in films and just on track in books). It'd also be good to work intensively with a French TV show or movie, which I've been thinking about doing for awhile, but haven't found the motivation or time for, so again, not sure if I'll actually get to this. But I think it'd really help push me to the next level with French.

German: My German is at a pretty similar level to my French at the moment, but with the opposite strengths — I don't have as much difficulty with listening comprehension, but my vocab lags behind, so reading is more of a struggle, and when I do struggle with listening, it's because of unknown vocab. I've found with Spanish and French that the best way to improve my vocab is simply to read as much as possible, and my reading comprehension definitely improved in 2020, so I don't have any specific plans for improving my vocab and expect it will happen naturally. I'd also like to complete a half Super Challenge in German (again, way ahead in films, just on track for books).

Korean: I feel like this was my most neglected language in 2020. I struggled a lot with making time for grammar study last year, which meant less time on Korean. I feel more comfortable with Korean than I did at the start of 2020, so it's not like I made zero progress. I also added reading short stories in Korean for beginners near the end of the year, and I think that was a good decision. This year I plan on finishing Evita's Grammar Sentence Anki deck (it's a bit of a cheat to list this as a goal, since I'm on track to get through all the new sentences in the next two weeks, so if I don't manage this, then something has gone horribly wrong). I'd also like to finish KGIU Beginning. I don't plan on tracking kdramas this year if I'm watching them with English subs since I don't think I get enough out of them to really count as time spent learning Korean. Last year I did mention wanting to work intensively with a kdrama, which I didn't do, and it's still something I'd like to do eventually, but I'm not sure if I'll manage to get to it this year. Some day I'd like to be able to watch kdramas without subtitles, but Korean isn't my priority at the moment, so I'm happy to just continue progressing incredibly gradually for now.

Italian: I definitely spent the least time on Italian of all my languages in 2020, but since I was starting off as nearly a complete beginner and do have a background with Spanish and French, I actually feel like I managed to make a decent amount of progress in Italian. Kind of like with Korean, I feel much more comfortable with it now than I did a year ago, and I'm perfectly happy to continue at a slow pace. I'd rather spend the spare time I do have focusing on improving French and German. Before Covid, I had been thinking of maybe taking a trip to Italy in the summer of 2021, but Covid disrupted a bunch of travel plans I had for 2020, so even if it's safe to travel internationally at some point this year (which I'm not convinced it will be), I would probably take the trips planned for 2020 in 2021. Basically, I think it's unlikely I'd go to Italy any sooner than 2022, and probably not until 2023, so I'm not feeling any rush with Italian for the time being.

So that's kind of where things are to start the year in each of my languages, and where I'm intending on going with each of them. After 2020, it feels foolish to have any expectations of how this year will go, but here's to hoping for the best!
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Re: Michelle's 2021 Log (Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Italian)

Postby brokenrecord » Sun Jan 10, 2021 4:50 pm

Spanish
-Jaulas de seda: chapters 62-72
-Spanish newspapers: nothing
-Demystifying the Spanish Subjunctive: 2 exercises
-El desorden que dejas: episodes 2-3 (no subs)
Total: 2.8 hours

French
-Les Oubliés du dimanche: chapters 71-78 (done!)
-French newspapers: nothing
-Practice Makes Perfect French Verbs: 12.14-12.16
-La Révolution: episode 7 (2x, w/ and w/o FR subs)
Total: 1.8 hours

German
-German newspapers: nothing
-Charité at War: episode 5 (2x, w/ and w/o DE subs)
-Grammatik aktiv A1-B1: lesson 48
-A-Grammatik: nothing
-Glennkill: Ein Schafskrimi: chapters 21-24 (done!)
-Good Bye, Lenin!: 2h01 (no subs)
Total: 4.5 hours

Korean
-Talk to Me in Korean: level 5.14
-Talk to Me in Korean Level 5 Memrise: 7/7 days (122/147 items)
-Korean Grammer In Use Beginning: unit 3.13
-Anki: my sentence deck: 7/7 days
-Anki: Evita's sentence deck: 7/7 days
-Today's Korean by Naver: 0/7 days
-Korean Stories for Language Learners: 1 story
Total: 1.3 hours

Italian
-Italian newspapers: nothing
-Duolingo: 198 -> 202 crowns (7/7 days)
-Practice Makes Perfect Italian Verbs: nothing
-Nuova Grammatica Pratica Della Lingua Italiana: nothing
-Harry Potter e i doni della morte: nothing
Total: 1.2 hours

The above is just what I completed in the last week, but there were a few things I completed during the break I took from posting in December that I'll discuss as well.

Spanish:
During my break, I finished Los favoritos de Midas, which I thought was okay but didn't get super into, and I think my comprehension suffered as a result. I then started El desorden que dejas, which I'm enjoying more. My comprehension is still a bit shaky, but I'm following the plot pretty well. I also watched Volver during my break, which I hadn't seen before. I really enjoyed it (it's the third Pedro Almodóvar film I've seen, and I've enjoyed all of them, so it's motivating me to make my way through the rest), although again, my comprehension was a bit shaky.

I've been making my way through Jaulas de seda and have made good progress — my goal is to complete it this week. It's a YA fantasy book and is the fourth in the series (and I've previously read the first three), so not surprisingly, my reading comprehension is very high. I have occasionally gone entire chapters without looking up a word, and usually when I do need to look up a word, it's one I know I've looked up before and have some familiarity with but hasn't fully sunk in yet. As a result, I've been more focused on using it to improve my reading speed rather than acquire new vocab. After I finish it, I think I'll jump to something more challenging, since this is my second Spanish YA fantasy in a row, and I like to alternate between easier and more challenging reading material.

French:
I finished Les Oubliés du dimanche this week. I liked it well enough, and I felt like I needed to look up fewer words than the last couple French books I read. I'm also close to being done with La Révolution, which is just okay. I only have one episode left, though, so I might as well finish it. My comprehension is pretty poor, but I've also been letting my attention wander while I've been watching it, so I think part of my lack of comprehension is due to that.

German:
I mentioned in my wrap-up of my 2020 log that I finished the German Duolingo tree for the second time during my break, and I'm now officially done with it, even if they add more to it in the future. It definitely felt less challenging to test out of entire levels this most recent time than when I was working through it earlier in the year.

I finished Glennkill: Ein Schafskrimi this week. It's a murder mystery from the perspective of a bunch of sheep, which is a cute premise, but I didn't find the story that engaging overall, so I found it difficult to follow the plot at certain points. I'm glad to be done with it so I can move to something else now, anyways. I'm also almost done with Charité at War, which I've been enjoying much more than Charité, although I continue to struggle with some of the vocab, particularly the medical vocab. I might go back sometime in the near future and work more intensively with some of the episodes (particularly since I feel like I'm running out of German TV shows that seem interesting to me and are available without subtitles). Finally, I watched Good Bye, Lenin! this week. When I took German in college, we watched a couple scenes from the film in one of my classes, but I had never actually seen the entire film and had always meant to. I know I missed a ton of the dialogue, but in general I was able to follow the plot. I'm rapidly running out of German films I've seen before that I enjoyed enough the first time to rewatch, which means I may need to turn to new-to-me German films pretty soon.

Korean:
Since I've been prioritizing listening/reading in general, Korean has gone pretty neglected. Not a lot of progress since my last update of 2020. I'm excited at least to finish Evita's Grammar Sentence Anki Deck in the next couple weeks. I'll probably continue with it at least until all the sentences are mature, and maybe even after that for a little. I'm debating whether to return to Evita's Vocab Deck after I finish the grammar deck. I do need to work on my vocab, but I find it easier to acquire vocab through the TTMIK Memrise decks or in the context of sentences from the Korean Stories for Language Learners book I'm working through. There's also another sentence deck from Evita focused on vocab that it may make more sense for me to work through first.

Italian:
Italian has also been very neglected. Nearly all of my time has been spent on Duolingo, which has been working pretty well for me, but I should probably make more of an effort to consistently get a couple pages of reading in each week. At this rate it'll be years before I finish HP7! It's definitely been easier to read HP than when I first started it mid-2020, so it's really just a question of me making the time for it.
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Re: Michelle's 2021 Log (Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Italian)

Postby brokenrecord » Sun Jan 17, 2021 2:39 pm

Spanish
-Jaulas de seda: chapters 73-85 (done!)
-Spanish newspapers: nothing
-Demystifying the Spanish Subjunctive: 3 exercises
-El desorden que dejas: episodes 4-5 (no subs)
Total: 3.1 hours

French
-Le Roi de fer: chapters 1-2
-French newspapers: nothing
-Practice Makes Perfect French Verbs: 12.17-12.19
-La Révolution: episode 8 (2x, w/ and w/o FR subs) (done!)
-Ensemble, c'est tout/Hunting and Gathering: 1h37 (no subs)
Total: 4.5 hours

German
-Der Tote im Strandkorb: chapters 1-3
-German newspapers: nothing
-Charité at War: episode 6 (2x, w/ and w/o DE subs) (done!)
-Grammatik aktiv A1-B1: lesson 49
Total: 2.8 hours

Korean
-Talk to Me in Korean: levels 5.15-5.16
-Talk to Me in Korean Level 5 Memrise: 7/7 days (137/147 items)
-Korean Grammer In Use Beginning: unit 3.14
-Anki: my sentence deck: 7/7 days
-Anki: Evita's sentence deck: 7/7 days
-Korean Stories for Language Learners: 1 story
Total: 2.0 hours

Italian
-Italian newspapers: nothing
-Duolingo: 202 -> 206 crowns (7/7 days)
-Practice Makes Perfect Italian Verbs: 2.07-2.09
-Harry Potter e i doni della morte: pages 48-51
Total: 1.4 hours

Pretty productive week! Spent a bit more time on languages overall than last week, and I made more of an effort to include grammar work. Just by chance, in the past 2 weeks I've finished both the French and German shows I was watching and the Spanish, French, and German books I was reading, so I have a bunch of new TV shows and books I've started recently or am about to start, which makes me more excited about working on those languages at the moment, although eventually that'll wear off.

I've mentioned in previous logs how I fit five different languages into my schedule, but I figured I'd describe it in this log as well, especially since I'm making some minor changes to start the year:

Daily: Italian: Duolingo tree (3 lessons per day until I've completed 4/5 of a unit's levels, and then I take as many attempts as needed to test out of the last level as an extra challenge); Korean: two Anki sentence decks and TTMIK level 5 Memrise; newspaper articles (alternating days between Spanish/Italian and German/French with Sundays off for a total of 3 per language per week)
Monday: Spanish (~35 pages of reading, 1 TV episode, ~3 grammar exercises)
Tuesday: French (~15-20 pages of reading, 1 TV episode without subs, ~3 grammar exercises)
Wednesday: Korean (1 TTMIK lesson, ~1-3 grammar units, 1 short story)
Thursday: German (~15-20 pages of reading, rewatch 1 TV episode with German subs, 1 grammar lesson)
Friday: Italian (2 pages of reading, ~1-3 grammar exercises)
Saturday: Spanish (~35 pages of reading, 1 TV episode); French (~15-20 pages of reading, rewatch 1 TV episode with French subs); 1 movie without subs (alternating weekly between Spanish, French, and German)
Sunday: German (~15-20 pages of reading, 1 TV episode without subs); Korean (1 TTMIK lesson, 1 short story); Italian (2 pages of reading)

The major changes are dropping grammar on weekends (unless I'm feeling extra motivated on Sundays) just because I always end up running out of time and feeling like my weekends have passed me by, and then language learning starts feeling more like a chore or obligation than a fun hobby. This way, I'm focusing on reading/TV for Spanish, French, and German, which I've said are my priorities, and then trying to fit in a little bit of Korean and Italian on Sundays, but nothing too overwhelming. I've also dropped Naver Daily Conversation from my daily tasks. This will probably be temporary, but I had been finding fitting it into my day more frustrating than it was useful, so I figured a break was warranted. I've also decided to focus solely on one grammar workbook for German and Italian rather than alternating between two. I will get back to the others eventually and may even bring them back early if I get bored of the current ones I'm working on.

Spanish:
I finished the book I was reading this week. I liked it well enough, but it definitely wasn't my favorite in the series or something I would recommend. It's nice how easy reading YA in Spanish has gotten. With the completion of this book, I also surpassed 10,000 pages of Spanish reading which is a fun benchmark to reach, and I'm now only ~130 pages behind pace on the Super Challenge.

French:
I finished La Révolution this week, which I think I mentioned last week I didn't care for very much. It was fine, but I was mostly half-watching it, so my comprehension wasn't great, which didn't help get me any more interested in the story. I also watched Ensemble, c'est tout this week. I hadn't watched the film before, but I did read the book last year and liked it well enough, and I figured being already familiar with the plot would help with my comprehension of the movie, which did turn out to be the case. I definitely felt like I both followed the plot and was able to understand the lines of dialogue better than when watching La Révolution.

This week I also started Le Roi de fer. It seems a step up in difficulty from the kind of stuff I read in French last year, so I thought it would be a good challenge. So far I've had to look up more words in the first couple chapters than the last couple French books I've read, and it's taking me longer to read an equivalent number of pages. I'm not sure if I'll end up reading the entire series, but I'm liking the first book so far.

German:
I started Der Tote im Strandkorb this week. I'm finding it less difficult than the last German book I read, but I'm still having to look up a fair amount. It's a murder mystery, and so far it's pretty interesting. I also finished Charité at War this week, which I enjoyed a lot. I think a third season is airing in Germany now, so I'll probably check that out if it comes to Netflix in the future.
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Re: Michelle's 2021 Log (Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Italian)

Postby DaveAgain » Sun Jan 17, 2021 3:26 pm

brokenrecord wrote:
This week I also started Le Roi de fer. It seems a step up in difficulty from the kind of stuff I read in French last year, so I thought it would be a good challenge. So far I've had to look up more words in the first couple chapters than the last couple French books I've read, and it's taking me longer to read an equivalent number of pages. I'm not sure if I'll end up reading the entire series, but I'm liking the first book so far.
France Culture have a radio adaptation of that.

https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/ ... rice-druon
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Re: Michelle's 2021 Log (Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Italian)

Postby brokenrecord » Sun Jan 17, 2021 7:31 pm

DaveAgain wrote:
brokenrecord wrote:
This week I also started Le Roi de fer. It seems a step up in difficulty from the kind of stuff I read in French last year, so I thought it would be a good challenge. So far I've had to look up more words in the first couple chapters than the last couple French books I've read, and it's taking me longer to read an equivalent number of pages. I'm not sure if I'll end up reading the entire series, but I'm liking the first book so far.
France Culture have a radio adaptation of that.

https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/ ... rice-druon

Oh cool, I wasn't aware that existed. I think I'll plan on making use of that once I've finished the book. Thanks for the link!
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Re: Michelle's 2021 Log (Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Italian)

Postby brokenrecord » Sun Jan 24, 2021 2:28 pm

Spanish
-Patria: chapters 1-17
-Spanish newspapers: 1 article
-Demystifying the Spanish Subjunctive: 2 exercises
-El desorden que dejas: episodes 6-7 (no subs)
-Como auga para chocolate: 1h45
Total: 4.9 hours

French
-Le Roi de fer: chapters 3-6
-French newspapers: 1 article
-Practice Makes Perfect French Verbs: 12.20
-Lupin: episode 1 (2x, w/ and w/o FR subs)
Total: 2.5 hours

German
-Der Tote im Strandkorb: chapters 4-7
-German newspapers: 1 article
-Oktoberfest 1900: episode 1 (2x, w/ and w/o DE subs)
-Grammatik aktiv A1-B1: lesson 50
Total: 2.8 hours

Korean
-Talk to Me in Korean: levels 5.17-5.18
-Talk to Me in Korean Level 5 Memrise: 7/7 days (143/147 items)
-Korean Grammer In Use Beginning: unit 3.15
-Anki: my sentence deck: 7/7 days
-Anki: Evita's sentence deck: 7/7 days
-Korean Stories for Language Learners: 2 stories
Total: 1.5 hours

Italian
-Italian newspapers: 1 article
-Duolingo: 206 -> 211 crowns (7/7 days)
-Practice Makes Perfect Italian Verbs: 2.10-2.11
-Harry Potter e i doni della morte: pages 52-56
Total: 1.2 hours

This week was a bit busier and more stressful with work, so I ended up spending a little less time on languages overall than last week, but not by much, so I'm pretty happy with all that I accomplished. My schedule is working pretty well this year so far, although I'm still feeling somewhat rushed getting to everything on Saturdays, so I might try adjusting it a bit more.

Spanish:
I started reading Patria this week, which is definitely more challenging than the past couple books I've read in Spanish. It's set in Basque Country and is about ETA, which I know essentially nothing about, so I'm finding it interesting, but there are some Basque words thrown in occasionally, which adds to the difficulty (although most seem to be defined in the back of the book). I struggled a bit at first figuring out who the different characters were, so I ended up reading the brief character descriptions on Wikipedia to help me get a handle on what's going on. There was an HBO adaptation of the book this past year, so I'm planning on watching that after I've finished it. I also watched Como agua para chocolate this week. My comprehension was pretty good, probably better than most Spanish movies I've watched, although having read the book a couple years ago probably helped with that, since I was already familiar with the characters and plot.

French:
I started Lupin this week, which is a new series on Netflix, and while I've only watched one episode so far, I'm enjoying it a lot. My comprehension was better than La Révolution, probably because I was more engaged with the plot, although I did find upon rewatch with French subs that I had missed a few key details that cleared up some plot points. Assuming I like the rest of the show as much as the first episode, I might use it more intensively later on. My plan at the moment after Lupin is to watch the new season of Dix pour cent, which was just added to Netflix this past week, and then listen to the Le Roi de fer radio adaptation, assuming I've finished the book by then (it's not too long and it'll take a couple months to get through Lupin and Dix pour cent anyways, so that should be doable), and at that point I may want to return to Lupin and work intensively with it. Unless by that point my French comprehension is perfect and I no longer feel it's necessary, but I'm guessing that's not very likely!

German:
I started Oktoberfest 1900 (or, Oktoberfest: Beer and Blood, as it's called on US Netflix) this week. It's decent enough to continue with, but I don't think it'll turn out to be my new favorite show or anything. My comprehension felt improved from Charité at War, probably because there's no medical dialogue, but I still missed a fair amount of dialogue the first time through.

Korean:
This week I finally got through all the new cards in Evita's Grammar Deck! I'm going to continue using the deck until all the cards are mature, and maybe a little longer than that, depending on how I feel. Not having any new cards will reduce the number of reviews per day, though, so it should get faster to go through the reviews each day.
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Re: Michelle's 2021 Log (Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Italian)

Postby brokenrecord » Sun Jan 31, 2021 2:30 pm

Spanish
-Patria: chapters 18-20
-Spanish newspapers: nothing
-Demystifying the Spanish Subjunctive: nothing
-El desorden que dejas: nothing
Total: 0.3 hours

French
-Le Roi de fer: chapters 7-8
-French newspapers: 1 article
-Practice Makes Perfect French Verbs: nothing
-Lupin: episode 2 (2x, w/ and w/o FR subs)
-Portrait de la jeune fille en feu/Portait of a Lady on Fire: 2h00 (no subs)
Total: 4.1 hours

German
-Der Tote im Strandkorb: chapters 8-10
-German newspapers: 1 article
-Oktoberfest 1900: episode 2 (2x, w/ and w/o DE subs)
-Grammatik aktiv A1-B1: nothing
Total: 2.4 hours

Korean
-Talk to Me in Korean: levels 5.19-5.20
-Talk to Me in Korean Level 5 Memrise: 6/7 days (147/147 items)
-Korean Grammer In Use Beginning: nothing
-Anki: my sentence deck: 7/7 days
-Anki: Evita's sentence deck: 7/7 days
-Korean Stories for Language Learners: 2 stories
Total: 1.5 hours

Italian
-Italian newspapers: nothing
-Duolingo: 211 -> 215 crowns (7/7 days)
-Practice Makes Perfect Italian Verbs: nothing
-Harry Potter e i doni della morte: pages 57-58
Total: 1.1 hours


This week was a bit rough for no particular reason. Nothing terrible happened or anything, but it was another stressful/busy week with work (although entirely self-imposed stress, and my own poor time management led to it being busier than normal, so I only have myself to blame for either of those things). I also slept really poorly all week – struggling to fall asleep no matter how late it was, waking up multiple times almost every night, and not sleeping in to make up for it. As a result, I spent basically the entire week sleep deprived, and I ended up taking a couple days off from languages and doing less than usual the other days because it was all I had the energy for. I'm determined that this week will be better and to get back on track, though. I finally got a decent night's sleep last night and feel so much more human this morning, which is a good start.

Anyways, given everything I just said, I don't have much to discuss this week; I mostly just continued with what I've been doing. The only thing really of note is that I watched Portrait de la jeune fille en feu this week. I had watched it last year when it came to streaming (with English subtitles) so I was very familiar with the plot. My comprehension was very good, and it was probably helped by the fact that there's not a ton of dialogue, and the plot is pretty simple anyways, so it was easy to follow. Really beautiful film, in any case.
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Re: Michelle's 2021 Log (Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Italian)

Postby brokenrecord » Sun Feb 07, 2021 1:05 pm

Spanish
-Patria: chapters 21-35
-Spanish newspapers: nothing
-Demystifying the Spanish Subjunctive: nothing
-El desorden que dejas: episode 8 (no subs) (done!)
-Monarca (season 2): episode 1 (no subs)
Total: 3.0 hours

French
-Le Roi de fer: chapters 9-12
-French newspapers: nothing
-Practice Makes Perfect French Verbs: nothing
-Lupin: episode 3 (2x, w/ and w/o FR subs)
Total: 2.0 hours

German
-Der Tote im Strandkorb: chapters 11-12
-German newspapers: nothing
-Oktoberfest 1900: episode 3 (2x, w/ and w/o DE subs)
-Grammatik aktiv A1-B1: nothing
Total: 2.2 hours

Korean
-Talk to Me in Korean: levels 5.21-5.22
-Talk to Me in Korean Level 5 Memrise: 5/7 days (147/147 items)
-Korean Grammer In Use Beginning: nothing
-Anki: my sentence deck: 7/7 days
-Anki: Evita's sentence deck: 7/7 days
-Korean Stories for Language Learners: 1 story
Total: 1.0 hours

Italian
-Italian newspapers: nothing
-Duolingo: 215 -> 217 crowns (7/7 days)
-Practice Makes Perfect Italian Verbs: nothing
-Harry Potter e i doni della morte: pages 59-60
Total: 1.1 hours

This week definitely went better than last week, but it was still busy and tiring overall, and I had some car issues yesterday that disrupted my schedule a bit. I feel content with what I managed to accomplish. I didn't manage to get a movie in (partially due to the car troubles), but I have Toni Erdmann on DVD due back at the library by Saturday, so I will definitely be watching it at some point this week. Otherwise, not much else to discuss, just continuing with what I've been doing. I finished El desorden que dejas, which I liked just fine — I wouldn't recommend it strongly, but I found it entertaining enough, and my comprehension was pretty strong overall. I then started the second season of Monarca. I watched the first season a little over a year ago and remember almost nothing about what happened or who the characters are and how they're related, so I spent most of the first episode trying to refresh my memory, but I think followed most of it okay. Anyways, hoping this week will be a little calmer and allow me to focus a better.
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brokenrecord
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Location: Michigan, USA
Languages: English (N), Spanish (intermediate), French (low intermediate), German (low intermediate), Korean (beginner), Italian (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 68#p202925
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Re: Michelle's 2021 Log (Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Italian)

Postby brokenrecord » Sun Mar 21, 2021 1:20 pm

So, I ended up taking a complete break from languages for about 4-6 weeks. I even stopped my daily Duolingo/Anki, which I'm normally good at keeping up with, even when I take a break from everything else. There were just a couple of real life things that came up in the middle of February, none of which was serious (and all have now been resolved) but were stressing me out and draining my ability to focus on anything else. In my spare time, I just wanted to relax and not do anything that felt even remotely like work. I think it was good for me to take a break (even though I just took one at the end of last year), but I've been starting to feel the urge to get back to my normal routine. I still don't think I'm in the right mindset to get back 100%, so I'm going to try to ease into things slowly. I might try to keep my weekends free and just do one day per week for each language. I had been thinking I should stop trying to catch up to SuperChallenge pace for books since I keep getting behind, but the second I looked at my SuperChallenge tracking spreadsheet, I felt like I should at least make an attempt since I'm not that far behind pace: 200 pages for French, 50 for German, and just under 500 for Spanish. German won't be a problem. Spanish would be the biggest challenge, but I read faster in Spanish than French or German and have finished books in Spanish in a couple days before when I've been feeling motivated and when they're at a fairly easy level (such as YA books), so certainly not impossible. Then again, part of the reason I didn't officially sign up for the SuperChallenge and have just been tracking as if I did was that I didn't want to feel too much pressure to read if I wasn't in the mood, which has basically ended up happening anyways.

I also think I'm going to slow down my movie-watching a bit. Before I was aiming for one per week, alternating between Spanish, French, and German, but most of the movies I watch I borrow from the library, and since there are still Covid restrictions (I can't browse the stacks but instead have to request what I want online and then can schedule to pick it up), figuring out the timing of when to request things and how long things will take to become available can be challenging. I think it's easier for me to just request something, watch it, return it, and then choose my next film, even if that means movies are spread out a couple weeks.

Spanish:
I've decided I need to put Patria on hold. I'm just struggling way too much trying to follow the plot and remember who each character is. I'm about a third of the way through, but I couldn't tell you really anything about what's going on, and the book is pretty long, so the thought of having to force myself through the next several hundred pages is incredibly demotivating. I like trying to challenge myself with Spanish reading material, but there's a point where it goes from a good amount of challenge to being so challenging it's frustrating, and I think I've reached that point. I'm thinking of watching the HBO series adaptation which will hopefully give me a better sense of the plot and characters, and if I enjoy the story in that form, then going back and starting Patria over.

Korean:
I'm debating what to do about Anki right now. I'll continue with my own sentence deck, but the grammar deck I had completed in January and had been planning to continue with it until at least all cards were mature, but I'm not sure if it's worth catching up on the backlog of reviews just to get all cards to mature. That being said, I could always do with more Korean practice. I did try to start getting caught up last week but only got through 20 reviews of my own sentence deck before I had to take a break, and I haven't gone back to it. I may just leave it on hold for another week or so.


Otherwise my plans are roughly the same as they've been, just at a slower and hopefully more manageable pace.
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brokenrecord
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Languages: English (N), Spanish (intermediate), French (low intermediate), German (low intermediate), Korean (beginner), Italian (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 68#p202925
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Re: Michelle's 2021 Log (Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Italian)

Postby brokenrecord » Sun Mar 28, 2021 1:28 pm

Spanish
-Donde los árboles cantan: chapters 1-2
-Spanish newspapers: nothing
-Demystifying the Spanish Subjunctive: nothing
-Monarca (season 2): episode 3 (no subs)
Total: 2.11 hours

French
-Le Roi de fer: chapters 14-19
-French newspapers: nothing
-Practice Makes Perfect French Verbs: nothing
-Lupin: episode 5 (2x, w/ and w/o FR subs)
-L'avenir/Things to Come: 1h42 (no subs)
Total: 3.9 hours

German
-Der Tote im Strandkorb: chapters 15-17
-German newspapers: nothing
-Oktoberfest 1900: episode 4 (1x, w/ DE subs)
-Grammatik aktiv A1-B1: nothing
Total: 1.4 hours

Korean
-Talk to Me in Korean: level 5.23
-Talk to Me in Korean Level 5 Memrise: 0/7 days (147/147 items)
-Korean Grammer In Use Beginning: nothing
-Anki: my sentence deck: 0/7 days
-Anki: Evita's sentence deck: 0/7 days
-Korean Stories for Language Learners: nothing
Total: 0.2 hours

Italian
-Italian newspapers: nothing
-Duolingo: 221 -> 223 crowns (7/7 days)
-Practice Makes Perfect Italian Verbs: nothing
-Harry Potter e i doni della morte: nothing
Total: 1.2 hours

I can definitely tell I'm not ready to be fully back to language learning yet. I managed to get a fair amount done (except for with Korean – Korean really suffers when I can't bring myself to do Anki reviews), but a lot of it did feel like a struggle. My biggest issue isn't really motivating myself to do work but just remembering to find the time for it, and it's harder when I've gone weeks without doing anything, and I don't have a regular routine to keep me on track. I'm hoping this week will be easier, though. It'd be good to at least do more than 12 minutes of Korean all week.

Spanish:
As I mentioned last week, I put Patria on hold and started a new book, Donde los árboles cantan, by Laura Gallego García. It's a YA fantasy novel, but by an author I haven't read before (who I've been meaning to check out for awhile), so it's still a bit of a challenge to get used to her writing style. I'm enjoying the story so far, and while I do have to look up words, it's definitely a much easier reading level, so it feels like less of a struggle to get through.

French:
I finished Lupin this week, which I liked a lot, although I think I found the first couple episodes more interesting than the last couple. Still looking forward to part 2 coming to Netflix sometime in the near future. I also watched L'avenir/Things to Come this week. I had watched it before, probably roughly 4 years ago now. I definitely struggled to follow it. There's not a lot of plot, it's mostly just various conversations, and I remembered vaguely what some of them were about, but couldn't pick up more than isolated sentences or words. I definitely feel rusty with my French listening right now. I really feel like I need to do some intensive work with a TV show or something in French to push my listening to the next level, but I also really don't feel enough drive to do that right now. So I guess I'm just going to continue with what I've been doing and hope that part of it is the 6 week break I had and things will improve with a little more time back.
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