The Language Journal of Jinx

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Jinx
Yellow Belt
Posts: 96
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:56 pm
Location: Germany
Languages: English (N), German (adv), varying levels of French, Esperanto, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Croatian, Catalan, Mandarin, Japanese
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16835
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The Language Journal of Jinx

Postby Jinx » Wed May 05, 2021 8:42 pm

Hi all. The old-timers among you may remember me – I have been with the forum since 2009, back when it was still HTLAL. I’ve been gone for a few years now, though. A combination of issues (various things, but mostly severe depression and related health issues) kept me away.

I still have too much going on in my life to return to being an active contributor here, but I hope to drop in now and then. And to encourage myself to do so, I thought I’d start a new log to track my studies, such as they are.

I have no language-learning goals. I have re-evaluated all my priorities in life. I do this just for fun now. I refuse to stress my brain and risk damaging it any further after everything it’s already been through in the past few years. And in any case, I enjoy the process of learning a language just as much as the end result of knowing it.

But I love and miss this community. This has been one of my “homes” on the internet for most of my adult life at this point, and I can’t stand the thought of giving it up. So, here I am.

As always, anyone reading my log is more than welcome to leave a reply – whether you're offering some tips or feedback, suggesting materials or resources, or just saying hi :)



EDIT: I am editing this post to add all my progress bars, because I have rather too many to cram into my signature.

Courses
PT: Assimil - Le nouveau portugais sans peine, passive wave : 10 / 100

Reading
IT: Sette Robinson su un’isola matta : 15 / 15
FR: Un cœur simple : 100 / 100
DE: Offline : 100 / 100
DE: Schöner leben mit dem kleinen Arschloch : 100 / 100
DE: Identitti : 100 / 100
IT: L'amica geniale : 87 / 327
EO: Vere aŭ fantazie : 74 / 100
FR: Le deuxième sexe, tome 1 : 6 / 100
FR: Et si c'était vrai : 18 / 100
DE: Miteinander reden : 7 / 100
Last edited by Jinx on Fri Mar 04, 2022 11:36 pm, edited 8 times in total.
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Pronouns: she/her.
Corrections welcome!

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jeff_lindqvist
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3135
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2015 9:52 pm
Languages: sv, en
de, es
ga, eo
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fi, yue, ro, tp, cy, kw, pt, sk
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2773
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Re: The Language Journal of Jinx

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Wed May 05, 2021 9:28 pm

Welcome back!
1 x
Leabhair/Greannáin léite as Gaeilge: 9 / 18
Ar an seastán oíche: Oileán an Órchiste
Duolingo - finished trees: sp/ga/de/fr/pt/it
Finnish with extra pain : 100 / 100

Llorg Blog - Wiki - Discord

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MorkTheFiddle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2114
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 8:59 pm
Location: North Texas USA
Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 11#p133911
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Re: The Language Journal of Jinx

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Wed May 05, 2021 10:05 pm

Welcome back to the Forum. Your LLORG name always reminds me of the comic strip and thereby giving me good vibes. :)
1 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

Cavesa
Black Belt - 4th Dan
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Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
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Re: The Language Journal of Jinx

Postby Cavesa » Thu May 06, 2021 9:14 am

Welcome back, it's great to see you again!
1 x

User avatar
Jinx
Yellow Belt
Posts: 96
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:56 pm
Location: Germany
Languages: English (N), German (adv), varying levels of French, Esperanto, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Croatian, Catalan, Mandarin, Japanese
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16835
x 378

Re: The Language Journal of Jinx

Postby Jinx » Thu May 06, 2021 5:18 pm

Thanks for the welcome back, you lovely people! I felt like quite a "prodigal daughter" returning to this forum after so long. It helps to see friendly faces (well, friendly posts, at least).

I'm not going to do a big review of all my languages and my current levels in each. Languages in which I've read at least one entire book are English (duh), German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Esperanto. Languages in which I've read an entire shorter story or part of a book are Dutch (a few short stories), Croatian (about half of the first Harry Potter), Catalan (a short story), and Italian (parts of a few books, including my current read – more about that below). Languages I want to spend some time enjoying before I die are… too many to list.

LIFE IN GERMANY

I have no need to learn any specific language. I live in Berlin, Germany and speak German well enough to live my life in the language, although – typical for serious language-learners, I suppose – I only ever notice my mistakes in the language, not the things I do well. I still have a strong drive to keep improving towards native level for the rest of my life. Unfortunately, Berlin is becoming an increasingly English-speaking city these days, to the point where sometimes I enter a café and the barista greets me in English before I've said anything. I've noticed with horror that my active German skills are even worse now than they were five years ago, when I was living in the US. Absurd.

My goal, once I'm vaccinated, is to start meeting other immigrants in the city – immigrants who do not speak much English and who are intermediate/advanced speakers of German. I want to make more friends in German, where it is simply the language of our friendship, not the focus of our encounters. I am uninterested in traditional tandems because in that scenario each person has to "waste" half the time speaking their own native language. I find it's more beneficial to practice with other non-native speakers around my own level, so we are genuinely communicating in the only way we can. That’s much more exciting to me.

MY JOB

I work as a translation editor. On an average day I skim-read texts in three to six languages. Most of my time is spent focusing on the English translations, but I have been able to make use of my more-or-less limited knowledge to actively improve translations from nine or ten languages over the years. I enjoy this job because it focuses more on breadth than depth, which coincidentally also happens to be my preferred approach to learning languages (with the exception of German, of course).

MY APPROACH AND MY MIND

I don’t learn languages to impress anybody, or to reach a certain goal. There is no urgency. I enjoy the process itself – the act of studying is soothing for me. Especially over this past year-and-a-bit during which I’ve been struggling with “pandemic fatigue”, it has helped me greatly to do activities such as baking and knitting and language-learning – you see a little progress every time you engage in the activity, and it reminds you that you’re a real human, you exist in the world, you’re not unmoored and negligible in this strange reality.

Recently I learned that I am most likely on the autism spectrum, specifically the type of autism that used to be called Asperger’s. This has been a wonderful and comforting discovery, because it explains so many things about myself and the way I’ve always been. I think my particular approach to language-learning reflects a lot of the aspects of my ASC (autism spectrum condition). This is quite interesting and fruitful to think about, and I’ll probably be mentioning it in future log entries as well.

CURRENT FAD

Japanese. I started it exactly one week ago, on April 30. I don’t even know why. I’m not particularly interested in the culture and have no plans to travel there. But I find the language interesting and charming. I like the complex interplay of the writing systems and the smooth rhythm of the syllables. Using separate particles to indicate the grammatical role of words in a sentence, or the emotional implication of the sentence, is also a fascinating concept that’s new to me.

I’m also doing Italian right now, less intensely – working my way through my beloved vintage TY Italian (I’m obsessed with the TY books from the 1950s-60s-70s-80s and have amassed quite a collection at this point) and reading a children’s book called Sette Robinson su un’isola matta by Bianca Pitzorno. She’s an author who was recommended by my favorite Italian podcaster, Irene Regini from “Italiano Bello”. I stumbled upon Italiano Bello several months ago and was delighted to discover that Irene speaks so slowly and clearly that I could understand every word effortlessly, just as if I were listening to someone speaking English. I highly recommend her podcast to any Italian students at high-beginner/low-intermediate level who need some enjoyable and clear audio input. You can hear a sample of her speaking style here.
Last edited by Jinx on Thu May 06, 2021 5:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Feel free to add me on Goodreads.
Pronouns: she/her.
Corrections welcome!

User avatar
Jinx
Yellow Belt
Posts: 96
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:56 pm
Location: Germany
Languages: English (N), German (adv), varying levels of French, Esperanto, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Croatian, Catalan, Mandarin, Japanese
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16835
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Re: The Language Journal of Jinx

Postby Jinx » Thu May 06, 2021 5:32 pm

1 May 2021

French:
- read aloud 11.5 pages (the introduction and lesson 1 of Assimil “Le japonais sans peine”)

Japanese:
- used japanese-lesson.com to learn ten more hiragana ( か、け、き、こ、く、が、げ、ぎ、ご、ぐ ) – I already did Lesson 1 the previous day and learned the first five ( あ、え、い、お、う ).
- did lesson 1 of Assimil

Italian:
- read chapter 3 of “Sette Robinson” on OPLingo (total words known: 1392)


2 May 2021

French:
- read a few lines on OPLingo (total words known: 27).

Japanese:
- did Lessons 3–6 on japanese-lesson.com and learned 40 more hiragana ( さ、し、す、せ、そ、ざ、じ、ず、ぜ、ぞ、た、ち、つ、て、と、だ、ぢ、づ、で、ど、な、に、ぬ、ね、の、は、ひ、ふ、へ、ほ、ば、び、ぶ、べ、ぼ、ぱ、ぴ、ぷ、ぺ、ぽ ) plus sokuon.


3 May 2021

Japanese:
- did Lessons 7 and 8 on japanese-lesson.com and learned 8 more hiragana ( ま、み、む、め、も、や、ゆ、よ ), plus は and へ as particles, and the yōon combinations.


4 May 2021

Japanese:
- finished japanese-lesson hiragana course, Lessons 9 and 10, and learned 8 more hiragana ( ら、り、る、れ、ろ、わ、を、ん ).
- did Lesson 1 of TY Japanese, wrote out all exercises in hiragana as practice.


5 May 2021

Japanese:
- reviewed Assimil lesson 1, did lesson 2.

French:
- read one page (lesson 2 of Le japonais).

EDIT TO ADD:
I forgot to mention I subscribed to a couple of Japanese podcasts this week, Nihongo con Teppei and Learn Japanese with Noriko, and listened to a bunch of episodes (probably around ten or fifteen each – they're very short). It's very motivating to notice how many words and phrases I can recognize already, after only a week of study. It's a small thing, but I had to stop what I was doing and gape in amazement when the first episode of the latter came on and she said "Hello everybody, I'm Noriko, a Japanese teacher!" – in Japanese. And I understood it. Right off the bat, without having to think. The only other language I've studied that was this easy to understand when spoken was Croatian. With something like French, on the other hand, a good 70% of the spoken language can escape me when I'm listening, but the moment it's written down I can understand it just fine.
Last edited by Jinx on Thu May 06, 2021 8:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Feel free to add me on Goodreads.
Pronouns: she/her.
Corrections welcome!

User avatar
Jinx
Yellow Belt
Posts: 96
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:56 pm
Location: Germany
Languages: English (N), German (adv), varying levels of French, Esperanto, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Croatian, Catalan, Mandarin, Japanese
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16835
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Re: The Language Journal of Jinx

Postby Jinx » Thu May 06, 2021 5:37 pm

In my last post I mentioned OPLingo. I have to give this site a plug. I just discovered it a few days ago and I was instantly thrilled. Did anyone here ever use BliuBliu when it was still extant? OPLingo offers many more features than that, but its "Reading Tool" is my favorite; it's like a vastly improved version of BliuBliu. You can upload texts you want to read, click on any word or phrase for a translation and audio pronunciation, and the tool keeps track of your total number of words known. For some reason I find this incredibly motivating.

And by the way... OPLingo was created by our very own forum member leosmith, for those who don't already know! Thanks Leo for this wonderful tool – I'm a fan.
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Feel free to add me on Goodreads.
Pronouns: she/her.
Corrections welcome!

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iguanamon
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2354
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 11:14 am
Location: Virgin Islands
Languages: Speaks: English (Native); Spanish (C2); Portuguese (C2); Haitian Creole (C1); Ladino/Djudeo-espanyol (C1); Lesser Antilles French Creole (B2)
Studies: Catalan
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=797
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Re: The Language Journal of Jinx

Postby iguanamon » Thu May 06, 2021 8:42 pm

Welcome back, Jinx! As a fellow refugee from HTLAL, I remember your posts and look forward to following your further adventures here.
1 x

golyplot
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1726
Joined: Mon Jan 16, 2017 9:41 pm
Languages: Am. English (N), German, French, ASL (abandoned), Spanish, Dutch, Italian, Japanese (N2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=12230
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Re: The Language Journal of Jinx

Postby golyplot » Thu May 06, 2021 9:16 pm

Jinx wrote:I forgot to mention I subscribed to a couple of Japanese podcasts this week, Nihongo con Teppei and Learn Japanese with Noriko, and listened to a bunch of episodes (probably around ten or fifteen each – they're very short).


Noriko is my favorite Japanese podcast. I used to listen to Teppei, but I got annoyed by the loud music he plays over his episodes, especially the more recent ones, as well as his obnoxious singing at the beginning of many episodes.

However, I'd also recommend checking out Momoko's podcast. I think she's similar but a bit more beginner friendly than Noriko because she uses more English explanations.
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User avatar
Jinx
Yellow Belt
Posts: 96
Joined: Sat Jan 02, 2016 6:56 pm
Location: Germany
Languages: English (N), German (adv), varying levels of French, Esperanto, Dutch, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Croatian, Catalan, Mandarin, Japanese
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16835
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Re: The Language Journal of Jinx

Postby Jinx » Thu May 06, 2021 9:34 pm

golyplot wrote:
Jinx wrote:I forgot to mention I subscribed to a couple of Japanese podcasts this week, Nihongo con Teppei and Learn Japanese with Noriko, and listened to a bunch of episodes (probably around ten or fifteen each – they're very short).


Noriko is my favorite Japanese podcast. I used to listen to Teppei, but I got annoyed by the loud music he plays over his episodes, especially the more recent ones, as well as his obnoxious singing at the beginning of many episodes.

However, I'd also recommend checking out Momoko's podcast. I think she's similar but a bit more beginner friendly than Noriko because she uses more English explanations.

Thanks for the recommendation, golyplot! I must admit I was a bit skeptical when I read your description, because I actually don't like my language-learning audio to contain any English at all – or at least, as little as possible. But I just looked up the first episode of Momoko's podcast and it doesn't seem to have as much English as I feared, so I subscribed.
1 x
Feel free to add me on Goodreads.
Pronouns: she/her.
Corrections welcome!


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