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

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

Postby brokenrecord » Sun Apr 04, 2021 12:32 pm

Spanish
-Donde los árboles cantan: chapters 3-6
-Spanish newspapers: nothing
-Demystifying the Spanish Subjunctive: nothing
-Monarca (season 2): episodes 4-5 (no subs)
Total: 2.6 hours

French
-Le Roi de fer: chapters 20-26
-French newspapers: nothing
-Practice Makes Perfect French Verbs: nothing
-Dix pour cent/Call My Agent (season 4): episode 1 (2x, w/ and w/o FR subs)
Total: 2.6 hours

German
-Der Tote im Strandkorb: chapters 18-21
-German newspapers: nothing
-Oktoberfest 1900: episode 5 (2x, w/ and w/o DE subs)
-Grammatik aktiv A1-B1: nothing
Total: 2.3 hours

Korean
-Talk to Me in Korean: level 5.24
-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: 223 -> 227 crowns (7/7 days)
-Practice Makes Perfect Italian Verbs: nothing
-Harry Potter e i doni della morte: nothing
Total: 1.1 hours

I didn't manage to do any more Korean than last week, but I still feel like I'm struggling to accomplish my bare minimum goals, so I don't think it's a good idea to push myself too hard there. I started the fourth season of Dix pour cent this week, and I feel like my comprehension was a little higher than it was for Lupin, maybe because I'm already familiar with all the characters and general plot. Otherwise, no major changes or updates this week. I'm hoping to finish Der Tote im Strandkorb today since I only have 23 pages left, and Oktoberfest this week, since I just have one episode left.
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Re: Michelle's 2021 Log (Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Italian)

Postby brokenrecord » Sun Apr 11, 2021 12:09 pm

Spanish
-Donde los árboles cantan: chapters 7-9
-Spanish newspapers: nothing
-Demystifying the Spanish Subjunctive: nothing
-Monarca (season 2): episodes 6-7 (no subs)
Total: 2.8 hours

French
-Le Roi de fer: chapters 27-30 (done!)
-French newspapers: nothing
-Practice Makes Perfect French Verbs: nothing
-Dix pour cent/Call My Agent (season 4): episode 2 (2x, w/ and w/o FR subs)
Total: 2.3 hours

German
-Der Tote im Strandkorb: chapters 22-24 (done!)
-Das Mädchen am Strand: chapter 1
-German newspapers: nothing
-Oktoberfest 1900: episode 6 (2x, w/ and w/o DE subs) (done!)
-Grammatik aktiv A1-B1: nothing
-Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage: 1h57 (no subs)
Total: 4.2 hours

Korean
-Talk to Me in Korean: level 5.25
-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: 0.3 hours

Italian
-Italian newspapers: nothing
-Duolingo: 227 -> 230 crowns (7/7 days)
-Practice Makes Perfect Italian Verbs: nothing
-Harry Potter e i doni della morte: nothing
Total: 0.9 hours


French:
I finished Le Roi de fer this week, which I wasn't expecting (I knew I was close to the end, but not that close!). Unfortunately I lost track of the plot/characters about midway through, so I can't really say how I felt about it. I mostly used it as a resource for random vocab the past few weeks. I do think I'll try to listen to the audio drama version after I've finished Dix pour cent, and then I'll decide if I want to continue with the series or not. For now, though, while I don't have my next French book selected yet, I plan on going for something a little less challenging just to give myself a break.

German:
Ended up being a bit of a German-heavy week! First, I finished Oktoberfest, which I didn't like particularly much, but it was only 6 episodes, and I couldn't find anything else I really wanted to watch, so I finished it. My comprehension wasn't that great, although I think that's largely because I wasn't that into the plot, so I kept letting my attention wander. I have no idea what I'm going to watch next but I'll figure out something. I also watched Sophie Scholl – Die letzten Tage this week. I had been trying to watch movies in French and German that I'd seen before to help my comprehension, but I've pretty much run out of movies I've watched previously in German. There are a couple remaining I could rewatch, but none of them were movies I really felt like seeing a second time, so I decided to try something new to me instead. Once again, my comprehension wasn't great, but not because the story wasn't interesting. A lot of the movie involves long scenes between Sophie Scholl and an official questioning her, so there aren't a ton of visual cues to help with context, which I think made it more challenging.

Finally, I finished Der Tote im Strandkorb this week, which I liked pretty well. It's a fairly straight-forward mystery, and I wouldn't say the plot blew me away or anything, but I liked the main character, and it was an easy and engaging read, without feeling too simple for my reading level. It's the first in a series of mysteries featuring the same detective, and I don't think it was good enough that I want to finish the entire series, but I did feel like checking out at least one more installment in the series, so I started the sequel, Das Mädchen am Strand. After I finish it, I'll probably look for something different/more challenging.
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Re: Michelle's 2021 Log (Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Italian)

Postby brokenrecord » Sun Apr 18, 2021 4:26 pm

Spanish
-Donde los árboles cantan: chapters 10-12
-Spanish newspapers: 2 articles
-Demystifying the Spanish Subjunctive: 3 exercises
-Monarca (season 2): episode 8 (no subs) (done!)
-¿Quién mató a Sara?: episode 1 (no subs)
-El secreto de sus ojos: 2h10 (no subs)
Total: 5.1 hours

French
-Changer l'eau des fleurs: chapters 1-9
-French newspapers: 2 articles
-Practice Makes Perfect French Verbs: 12.21-12.23
-Dix pour cent/Call My Agent (season 4): episode 3 (2x, w/ and w/o FR subs)
Total: 2.8 hours

German
-Das Mädchen am Strand: chapters 2-5
-German newspapers: 1 article
-Biohackers: episode 1 (2x, w/ and w/o DE subs)
-Grammatik aktiv A1-B1: lesson 51
Total: 2.3 hours

Korean
-Talk to Me in Korean: levels 5.26-5.27
-Talk to Me in Korean Level 5 Memrise: 0/7 days (147/147 items)
-Korean Grammer In Use Beginning: units 3.16-3.17
-Anki: my sentence deck: 7/7 days
-Anki: Evita's sentence deck: 4/7 days
-Korean Stories for Language Learners: 2 stories
Total: 1.8 hours

Italian
-Italian newspapers: 1 article
-Duolingo: 230 -> 232 crowns (7/7 days)
-Practice Makes Perfect Italian Verbs: 2.12-2.13
-Harry Potter e i doni della morte: pages 61-64
Total: 1.4 hours

Finally a week where I managed to do more than 15 minutes of Korean! I even got back to reading newspaper articles and doing grammar work. Not sure if I'll be able to keep this up, but I was feeling kind of bored and unproductive this week, so I felt motivated to do more than the bare minimum.

Spanish:
I finished Monarca season 2 this week, which was fine. I think I remember liking the first season more, although I also can't really remember much of what happened in it. I definitely struggled with comprehension a bit more than usual, although I think that was largely due to not remembering what had happened in the first season and then not feeling as engaged in the plot. I started ¿Quién mató a Sara? afterwards, which I had seen a couple people mention liking around here, and my comprehension was much better since I was actually interested in the plot and not having to spend so much time trying to remember who all the characters were. I also watched El secreto de sus ojos, which I had not seen before. I was a little nervous about how well I'd understand it since I don't think I've watched any films or TV from Argentina before, and I did struggle at times with comprehension, but overall I was able to follow the plot and didn't feel completely lost.

French:
I started Changer l'eau des fleurs by Valérie Perrin this week. I had read another book by her previously which I had liked pretty well. It's definitely at an easier level than Le Roi de fer, although a lot of that is just due to it being focused on only one character and having a simpler plot. I'm liking it so far, and it seems like it's at a good level where it feels like a bit of a break after Le Roi de fer, but I still have to look up a fair amount of vocab.

German:
Started Biohackers this week. I'm definitely more interested in it so far than Oktoberfest, although it's only been one episode. My comprehension feels much higher already, though. As with ¿Quién mató a Sara?, it clearly helps to be watching something I find interesting and engaging! I also managed to get back on pace for a half Super Challenge in German for reading. Still behind for French and Spanish, but I'm making gradual progress.
5 x

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

Postby brokenrecord » Sun May 16, 2021 2:18 pm

Spanish
-Spanish newspapers: nothing
-Demystifying the Spanish Subjunctive: nothing
-¿Quién mató a Sara?: episodes 4-5 (no subs)
Total: 1.4 hours

French
-Changer l'eau des fleurs: nothing
-French newspapers: nothing
-Practice Makes Perfect French Verbs: nothing
-Dix pour cent/Call My Agent (season 4): episode 5 (1x, w/o FR subs)
-Le meilleur pâtissier (season 8): episodes 1-11 (1x, w/o FR subs)
Total: 22.6 hours

German
-Das Mädchen am Strand: nothing
-German newspapers: nothing
-Biohackers: episode 3 (1x, w/ DE subs)
-Grammatik aktiv A1-B1: nothing
Total: 0.6 hours

Korean
-Talk to Me in Korean: level 5.29
-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: 0.3 hours

Italian
-Italian newspapers: nothing
-Duolingo: 233 -> 235 crowns (4/7 days)
-Practice Makes Perfect Italian Verbs: nothing
-Harry Potter e i doni della morte: nothing
Total: 0.5 hours

So after my last above average productivity week in April, I had a below average productivity week, and then I ended up taking a total break for another couple weeks (the above is just this past week). Considering how many breaks I've taken this year already, maybe it'd be more accurate to describe weeks when I do work as breaks from my normal state of not doing work.

I've been thinking I need to stop trying to stay on pace for the full Super Challenge in Spanish and half challenges in French and German (in reading – I've already finished the half challenge in French listening, and I'm very close in Spanish and German). I didn't sign up for it officially in the first place because I was worried I'd end up feeling too much pressure, but I wanted to track what I was doing just to see what I accomplished naturally. Unfortunately tracking the Super Challenge as if I were doing it for real has ended up making me feel that pressure anyways. I may just need to stop tracking what I'm doing, but I like having the data.

Spanish:
During my break, I finished Donde los árboles cantan, which I enjoyed, but was definitely at a pretty easy level for me. I feel like I should probably go for something more challenging next, but I've been struggling so much this year with doing any kind of language work consistently, so I may just take it easy and choose another book around the same level for now. It's not like I get nothing out of books at this level — I still have to look up words every few pages, and I think the more I read, the more I internalize various grammar points.

French:
A couple weeks ago I watched the film Heartbreaker, which is a French romantic comedy, which I've actually seen a couple times in the past, so I had no problem following the plot, but I feel like my comprehension of the dialogue was pretty poor. It probably didn't help that I watched it after several weeks of zero language work, so I was pretty rusty.

This week, I started watching the French version of The Great British Bake-Off, Le meilleur pâtissier. I saw it mentioned on the French subreddit, and since I really enjoy the British version, I figured I'd probably enjoy the French one. It's on Youtube without subtitles, and I started with the eighth season just because it was the first complete season I came across. I like it more than the GBBO in some ways and less in others, but I think it's been good for working on my French for a variety of reasons. Since there are no subtitles, I can't rely on rewatching the episodes with subtitles for comprehension. The episodes are roughly two hours long and feature the same people, so there's time to get used to their accents. Normally two hour episodes would put me off, but since it's a baking show, I'm perfectly happy to only watch 30 minutes and then go do something else and return to the episode when I have time (which I suppose I could always do with the other French shows as well, but I usually prefer watching narrative episodes in one sitting). I've also been struggling with staying focused on what I'm watching and not letting my mind wander, but that's not a problem here since there's no complicated plot to follow, and if I tune out for 5-10 minutes, it's easy to figure out what's going on when my focus returns to it. After almost one full season, I think there's been a small but noticeable increase in my comprehension, although I haven't watched Dix pour cent or anything else in French since I started it, so it's hard to tell. I'm not sure how many more seasons I'll watch, but probably at least one more.

In general, I think what with my language learning consistency issues this year, I might just try to focus on French listening for the moment. That doesn't mean I won't do anything with any of my other languages or anything in French besides listening, but it's the area I feel most motivated to improve at the moment, and watching a bunch of French TV doesn't feel like too much of a chore in contrast to other language learning tasks I could be doing. My brain has been so all over the place that it's very possible I'll come back in a week and have done a ton in every language (or I'll end up doing nothing in any language and disappear for another month), but at the moment, this seems most appealing and achievable for me, so it's my tentative plan to focus on French listening, and anything else I can get in is just bonus.
9 x

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

Postby brokenrecord » Sun May 23, 2021 12:56 pm

Spanish
-La casa de los espíritus: chapter 1
-Spanish newspapers: nothing
-Demystifying the Spanish Subjunctive: 4 exercises (done!!!)
-Practice Makes Perfect Intermediate Spanish: 1.01-1.03
-¿Quién mató a Sara?: episodes 6-7 (no subs)
Total: 3.1 hours

French
-Changer l'eau des fleurs: chapters 19-28
-French newspapers: nothing
-Practice Makes Perfect French Verbs: exercises 12.24-12.27, 13.01-13.06
-Dix pour cent/Call My Agent (season 4): nothing
-Le meilleur pâtissier (season 8): episode 12 (1x, w/o FR subs)
-Le meilleur pâtissier (season 9): episodes 1-13 (1x, w/o FR subs)
-Le meilleur pâtissier: Les professionnels (season 4): episodes 1-3 (1x, w/o FR subs)
-Le bureau des légendes (season 1): episode 1 (2x, w/ and w/o EN subs)
Total: 36.8 hours

German
-Das Mädchen am Strand: chapters 8-9
-German newspapers: nothing
-Biohackers: episode 4 (2x, w/ and w/o DE subs)
-Grammatik aktiv A1-B1: lesson 52
Total: 1.8 hours

Korean
-Talk to Me in Korean: level 5.30
-Talk to Me in Korean Level 5 Memrise: 0/7 days (147/147 items)
-Korean Grammer In Use Beginning: units 3.18-3.20
-Anki: my sentence deck: 0/7 days
-Anki: Evita's sentence deck: 0/7 days
-Korean Stories for Language Learners: 1 story
Total: 0.6 hours

Italian
-Italian newspapers: nothing
-Duolingo: 235 -> 238 crowns (7/7 days)
-Practice Makes Perfect Italian Verbs: exercises 3.01-3.02
-Harry Potter e i doni della morte: pages 65-66
Total: 1.4 hours

So this did end up being a very productive week. I was finally feeling motivated about languages again and decided to take advantage of that. It is very unlikely this coming week will be at all productive – I have some time off work, but I'll have family visiting for the first time since before the pandemic, so that's obviously going to take priority over languages. I'll probably end up skipping updating next weekend for that reason, but hopefully I won't get too off-track.

Spanish:
I finally finished Demystifying the Spanish Subjunctive this week! I do think it's a good workbook for teaching the various cases where the subjunctive is used, but the authors do this thing (this was also the case in their Preterite vs. Imperfect book) where they have you repeat all the exercises 2-3x, which gets tedious. The idea is to see how much you've learned/retained, but I feel like the same thing could be done with new sample sentences that are testing the same concepts. Repeating the same sentences just gets really boring after awhile (especially the last section, which was what I was stuck on for the longest time, where you've finished all the chapters that introduce the various uses of the subjunctive and repeat all the sentences for the third time), and I feel like it's more of a test of me remembering those specific random sentences than actually understanding the concepts. I did consider abandoning the book at that point, but I'm a stubborn completist, so here we are. At least I'm finally through it!

I did find it interesting that the only language I've been doing any kind of production in regularly is Italian (via Duolingo), so when I was completing the last few exercises in Demystifying the Spanish Subjunctive, I had many instances of not being able to remember words in Spanish but the Italian word coming to mind. My Italian definitely isn't stronger than my Spanish, but my Spanish production is certainly very rusty. I don't really have a great need for speaking/writing in Spanish at the moment so I don't know how bothered I am by that. That being said, I did look at Duolingo's Spanish tree and found that they've added a ton of new lessons since I completed the tree, and while I know I said I wasn't going to keep doing Duolingo for languages I've completed even if they add stuff… I'm a little tempted. Right now I'm thinking it can't hurt to add it for a little while, and if I get sick of it, I can drop it again. The French tree has also apparently added a ton, but I'll probably hold off on that for now and consider going back to it if I feel like getting some additional translation practice.

After finishing Demystifying the Spanish Subjunctive, I started Practice Makes Perfect Intermediate Spanish, which I'm hoping will also help refresh my memory of grammar beyond the subjunctive and give me some extra practice with production. I also started La casa de los espíritus this week, which is more challenging than the last Spanish book I read but not so much to be frustrating. I've read one other book by Isabel Allende before which I enjoyed a lot and was at a good level for me, so I'm hoping the same will be true here.

French:
I clearly continued with my binge of Le meilleur pâtissier this week. After finishing season 8, I moved on to season 9, which was the most recent season. After finishing that, I planned to go back to earlier seasons, only to discover that seasons 8 and 9 are the only ones on Youtube, unfortunately. It looks like the 10th season is in pre-production (or maybe it's gone into production now?), so I'll just have to be patient and wait for more (assuming it also shows up on Youtube). In my search for more seasons of the show, I did discover that the fourth season of Le meilleur pâtissier: Les professionnels is currently airing and available, and since I wasn't ready to be done with the show completely yet, I decided to watch that. It's like Le meilleur pâtissier but features pairs of professional pastry chefs rather than solo amateurs, and it'll only be 5 episodes total. I don't like it as much as the amateur version, but it's a decent enough substitute.

I also started Le bureau des légendes this week. I had been thinking about checking out the show a few weeks ago, and I don't have access to it streaming, but saw that my library has the DVDs of all the seasons, so I got on the waitlist for the first season. There weren't that many people ahead of me, but I ended up getting the DVD sooner than expected and now have two weeks to watch the first season, which may prove challenging due to other obligations the next couple weeks. But I'll give it a shot, and I can always get back on the waitlist if I don't finish it. The DVDs don't have French subtitles, only English ones, unfortunately, and the show is about international spies, so in the first episode there was some brief dialogue in Arabic. It was too hard to toggle subtitles on and off when I was trying to watch it on my DVD player, so I ended up downloading the English subtitles and scrolling through them as I was watching so I wouldn't miss anything that wasn't in French. Unfortunately this resulted in me just reading the whole episode in English as I was watching it. Afterwards I realized it would be easier to just watch episodes on my laptop and pause when dialogue not in French occurs and turn the subtitles momentarily, so I rewatched the episode doing that, and it worked much better. So that's what I plan on doing going forward, instead of watching each episode with and without English subtitles. My comprehension wasn't great without subtitles (definitely worse than Le meilleur pâtissier), so I'm a little worried going forward, but hopefully it'll improve. If I really struggle to follow the plot then I guess I'll go back to rewatching scenes with English subtitles as needed, but I'd like to ease away from doing that too frequently.
7 x

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

Postby brokenrecord » Sun Jun 06, 2021 1:00 pm

Spanish
-La casa de los espíritus: chapters 2-3
-La flor y la muerte: chapter 1
-Spanish newspapers: nothing
-Practice Makes Perfect Intermediate Spanish: 1.04-1.08
-¿Quién mató a Sara?: episodes 8-11 (no subs)
-Duolingo: 815 -> 830 crowns (9/14 days)
Total: 5.3 hours

French
-Changer l'eau des fleurs: chapters 29-35
-French newspapers: nothing
-Practice Makes Perfect French Verbs: exercises 13.07-13.10
-Dix pour cent/Call My Agent (season 4): episode 5 (1x, w/ FR subs)
-Le meilleur pâtissier: Les professionnels (season 4): episode 4 (1x, w/o FR subs)
-Le meilleur pâtissier: Qui peut battre les professionnels?: episodes 1-4 (1x, w/o FR subs)
-Le bureau des légendes (season 1): episodes 2-10 (2x, w/ and w/o EN subs)
Total: 16.3 hours

German
-Das Mädchen am Strand: chapters 10-14
-German newspapers: nothing
-Biohackers: episodes 5-6 (2x, w/ and w/o DE subs) (done!)
-Grammatik aktiv A1-B1: lesson 53
Total: 3.6 hours

Korean
-Talk to Me in Korean: level 5.31
-Talk to Me in Korean Level 5 Memrise: 0/14 days (147/147 items)
-Korean Grammer In Use Beginning: nothing
-Anki: my sentence deck: 0/14 days
-Anki: Evita's sentence deck: 0/14 days
-Korean Stories for Language Learners: nothing
Total: 0.04 hours

Italian
-Italian newspapers: nothing
-Duolingo: 238 -> 244 crowns (14/14 days)
-Practice Makes Perfect Italian Verbs: nothing
-Harry Potter e i doni della morte: nothing
Total: 2.2 hours

I got a decent amount done the past two weeks considering I had a couple days of vacation primarily spent with family with little time for language learning. Most of what I got done was before the mini-vacation, but I've been trying to get back to a regular routine the past couple days.

Spanish:
So I did end up deciding to get back to the Spanish Duolingo tree, although I haven't been consistent with doing it daily. I also decided to start reading La flor y la muerte. My primary reading material in Spanish is still La casa de los espíritus, but the chapters are long and dense, and usually reading 1 chapter is my limit per day. However, the chapter lengths are generally less than my Spanish reading goal (which is ~35-40 pages, two days per week; the chapters are often more like 30-35 pages, sometimes less), and it's not a book that's well-suited to pausing mid-chapter. So I figured I could boost my reading a bit by adding in an easier YA book which has short chapters and is much less challenging. We'll see how it goes!

French:
I finished the first season of Le bureau des légendes. I really enjoyed the show a lot. I ended up rewatching almost all of each episode with English subtitles since the DVD didn't have French subtitles, but I found it less necessary for comprehension with each episode. I do think my listening comprehension benefits more when I binge a bunch of episodes in a short time span instead of spreading a show out over many weeks, although maybe the progress is equivalent but it's easier to see the difference in the shorter time frame. I'm eager to continue with the show, and I'm on the waitlist for season 2 at my library, but unfortunately there's only 1 copy, and I'm 9th on the waitlist, and it also looks like it was due back like 2 weeks ago and hasn't been returned yet, so who knows when I'll actually get the chance to watch it. I still have an episode of Le meilleur pâtissier: Les professionnels and one of Dix pour cent to watch, and more episodes of Lupin are coming to Netflix this week, so I have other French TV shows to occupy me in the meantime (plus the audio drama of Le Roi de fer), but if it looks like it's going to be many months before I can get season 2 from the library, I may just end up buying it.

In my obsession with the Le meilleur pâtissier universe, I found another related competition show called Le meilleur pâtissier: Qui peut battre les professionnels? which pits the professional contestants against former amateur contestants from Le meilleur pâtissier. It's definitely my least favorite of all the versions of the show I've watched at this point, but the episodes are only 40 minutes, and I was trying to get as much French listening in as possible. I have one more episode of it to watch as well, which I'll get to at some point.

Anyways, I did a ridiculous amount of French listening in May, and I do think there's been a noticeable improvement in my listening comprehension, but I'll probably back off from that a bit this month. I was doing essentially nothing but watching French TV for a couple of weeks there, and that's not sustainable long-term.

German:
I finished Biohackers, and my comprehension was okay overall, although I do think I rely on rewatching episodes with subtitles a bit too much. The show wasn't perfect but I enjoyed it well enough, and I'll continue with it once the second season comes to Netflix in July, I believe. I did manage to complete a half challenge in German listening this past week (and, with all the French listening I've been doing, a full challenge in French listening, although I only set out to do a half challenge). I would like to spend some time focused on German listening at some point to boost my comprehension like I've been doing with French listening, but that might be a goal for next year – French is still my focus for the foreseeable future.
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Re: Michelle's 2021 Log (Spanish, French, German, Korean, and Italian)

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sun Jun 06, 2021 4:20 pm

I just want to congratulate you on the extraordinary amount of study you do! Well done!
3 x
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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Orange Belt
Posts: 195
Joined: Thu May 05, 2016 11:09 pm
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 Jun 13, 2021 1:20 pm

MorkTheFiddle wrote:I just want to congratulate you on the extraordinary amount of study you do! Well done!

Thank you! It honestly doesn't feel like I do a ton most of the time, so I appreciate you saying that.
1 x

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brokenrecord
Orange Belt
Posts: 195
Joined: Thu May 05, 2016 11:09 pm
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 Jun 13, 2021 1:21 pm

Spanish
-La casa de los espíritus: chapter 4
-La flor y la muerte: chapters 2-10
-Spanish newspapers: nothing
-Practice Makes Perfect Intermediate Spanish: nothing
-¿Quién mató a Sara?: episodes 12-13 (no subs)
-Duolingo: 830 -> 840 crowns (5/7 days)
Total: 3.4 hours

French
-Changer l'eau des fleurs: chapters 36-43
-French newspapers: nothing
-Practice Makes Perfect French Verbs: nothing
-Dix pour cent/Call My Agent (season 4): episode 6 21x, w/ & w/o FR subs) (done!)
-Le meilleur pâtissier: Les professionnels (season 4): episode 5 (1x, w/o FR subs) (done!)
-Le meilleur pâtissier: Qui peut battre les professionnels?: nothing
Total: 4.5 hours

German
-Das Mädchen am Strand: chapters 15-17
-German newspapers: nothing
-Tribes of Europa: episode 1 (2x, w/ and w/o DE subs)
-Grammatik aktiv A1-B1: nothing
Total: 2.1 hours

Korean
-Talk to Me in Korean: nothing
-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: 0.0 hours

Italian
-Italian newspapers: nothing
-Duolingo: 244 -> 247 crowns (7/7 days)
-Practice Makes Perfect Italian Verbs: nothing
-Harry Potter e i doni della morte: nothing
Total: 1.1 hours

Not a lot to discuss week. It was a bit of a lighter week because my cat had a medical procedure which took some of my time and focus dealing with (it was planned and she's fine, but it was still a bit stressful). I didn't realize I completely ignored Korean this week until I put this post together. I'm hoping to get a little more work in this week. It should be a fairly light week, so that should be doable.
6 x

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brokenrecord
Orange Belt
Posts: 195
Joined: Thu May 05, 2016 11:09 pm
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 Aug 29, 2021 2:08 pm

Spanish
-La casa de los espíritus: nothing
-La flor y la muerte: chapters 13-16
-Spanish newspapers: nothing
-Practice Makes Perfect Intermediate Spanish: 1.09-1.11
-¿Quién mató a Sara?: episodes 16-17 (no subs)
-Duolingo: 846 -> 864 crowns (6/7 days)
Total: 3.1 hours

French
-Changer l'eau des fleurs: chapters 54-61
-French newspapers: nothing
-Practice Makes Perfect French Verbs: 14.01-14.02
-Lupin: episode 8 (1x, w/o FR subs)
Total: 1.8 hours

German
-Das Mädchen am Strand: chapters 20-21
-German newspapers: nothing
-Biohackers (season 2): episode 2 (1x, w/o DE subs)
-Grammatik aktiv A1-B1: lesson 54
Total: 1.3 hours

Korean
-Talk to Me in Korean: level 6.01
-Talk to Me in Korean Level 6 Memrise: 3/7 days (2/190 items)
-Korean Grammer In Use Beginning: units 4.01-4.04
-Anki: my sentence deck: 6/7 days
-Korean Stories for Language Learners: 1 story
-You Are My Spring: episodes 1-16 (1x, simultaneous EN & KO subs)
Total: 19.3 hours including kdrama, 1.2 hours without

Italian
-Italian newspapers: nothing
-Duolingo: 248 -> 251 crowns (6/7 days)
-Practice Makes Perfect Italian Verbs: 3.03-3.06
-Harry Potter e i doni della morte: ages 67-70
Total: 1.2 hours

I'm back again after a bit of an extended break. I started feeling overwhelmed with non-language things in my life and didn't really have the time or energy available to do any language stuff. I did try to do some things here and there during my break but not a ton. I had started missing working with languages, though, and just got back from a mini-vacation, so I finally felt ready to get back into things this past week.

I've mentioned before that while I didn't sign up for the Super Challenge officially, I've been tracking how much I've been reading and watching and had a goal of doing half challenges in French and German and a full challenge in Spanish. At first I found having those goals motivating, but the past 6 months or so I started struggling more with the reading aspect, particularly for Spanish. With all the breaks I've been taking, while it'd probably be possible to get in enough Spanish reading, it would be a huge hassle. So I decided to make my goal a half challenge for Spanish instead of trying for a full, which I've already managed to complete for both reading and listening (for listening I should actually manage a full challenge in the next few weeks). To complete half challenges in French and German reading, I need to aim for roughly 50 pages per week, which is definitely doable. So I figure while I'll still do some Spanish reading in the coming months, I can prioritize French and German, which are the languages that really need more focus than Spanish anyways. Of course I'm not actually signed up for the Super Challenge, so I realize it's pretty silly to be focusing this much on whether I finish a full challenge or a half challenge or nothing, but I didn't like the idea of giving up entirely, and this seemed like a good compromise.

Spanish:
I've realized I'm not really enjoying ¿Quién mató a Sara? very much — I found the first season fairly entertaining, but things started feeling more soap opera-ish than I tend to enjoy, and I stopped caring about the plot. I only have one episode left, though, so I figure I might as well finish it. I'll be glad to move on to something else soon, though. I don't feel like either my Spanish listening or reading comprehension has diminished at all during my break. My production is incredibly rusty, although it was pretty rusty before my break as well, which is why I had started using Duolingo again as a refresher. I'm getting a fair amount of interference with Italian at the moment, probably since I've been using Duolingo for Italian pretty consistently, so jumping from that to Spanish takes some adjustment. The mistakes I've been making have been incredibly basic — stuff like forgetting "todo" and only being able to come up with "tutto." When I first started Italian, it took me a long time to not automatically use "no" instead of "non" for negative sentences, but now I'm having the opposite problem. I'm not too worried about the interference, though — I think it's just rust, and with a little more practice, I'll have things straightened out again.

French:
Not a ton going on with French right now. I haven't noticed much difference in my reading comprehension since my break, but my listening comprehension has probably diminished a bit. I've started watching the second half of the first season of Lupin, and when I finish that, maybe I'll try to work intensively with a couple episodes of a French show to boost my listening.

German:
I had been watching Tribes of Europa, but after 2 episodes I wasn't enjoying it much, and then Netflix added the second season of Biohackers, so I figured I'd take a break from Tribes from Europa for a bit. I don't have a strong urge to get back to it when I finish Biohackers, but I also don't know that I have a ton of other options for German shows on Netflix. Otherwise, my German is pretty much where I left off with it.

Korean:
I've done so little Korean this year and was starting to feel like either I should try to devote more time to it and actually make some serious progress in the language or take a real break from it and dabble in some other languages for awhile, and I had been leaning towards taking a break. I'm not really sure what changed, but I think I've switched to feeling like I should spend more effort on Korean. It had been like 9 months since I watched a kdrama, and I started feeling an itch to watch one again, so I started watching You Are My Spring on Netflix, which I finished this week and enjoyed a lot. I think that was probably part of what pushed me to want to devote more effort to Korean, although I was feeling like that before I started the show as well. I'm thinking I might rewatch Crash Landing on You and for each episode, choose a couple scenes to go through line by line with the Language Learning with Netflix extension and break down the grammar and pick up new vocab. I think doing that for entire episodes would get too tedious, but a couple scenes per episode wouldn't be too bad, and I have been in the mood to rewatch it recently.

I had finished Evita's sentence Anki deck earlier this year and was planning on continuing with reviews until all the cards were mature, but at this point, I have way too many reviews to get through, and 98% of the deck is mature anyways, so I don't really think it's worth it. Instead, I think I might start this other deck of hers. If it gets to be too much Anki for me, I'll just focus on my own deck.

Italian:
I'm still planning on spending the least amount of time on Italian, but I do think I need to start trying to do a little more reading than I had been. At the rate I've been going, it'll take many years before I finish Harry Potter. I'll probably also finish the Duolingo tree near the end of the year and want to feel ready to move on to more challenging material at that point.


So that's where I am at the moment! I'm hoping to be able to do some consistent work for at least a month or two before I take another break. However, I may be returning to working in an office in the next week or two for the first time since early 2020, so if that happens, it could impact the amount of time I have for language stuff.
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