SalzSäule's Multilingual Mess

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SalzSäule
Orange Belt
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:17 pm
Languages: English (N), German (C2), French (?), Czech (Beginner)
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Re: SalzSäule's German Log

Postby SalzSäule » Mon Aug 15, 2022 11:09 am

:oops: :oops: I am getting too lazy.

Only did about 45 mins yesterday, but better than nothing.

Did some more Duolingo vocab, but this skill where it's trying to teach me every demonstrative pronoun in one go is really holding me back (as you can't proceed through the rest of the course without doing it). A cool thing is that the duome.eu site works out how far you are through a course. If I were to only get each skill to level 1 (but i don't do this) then I am 43% of the way through it.

Besides that, gave up on verb conjugation because nothing makes sense, and mostly spent time with some bitranslation reading.

I don't even have any Scriptorium sentences to give today, sorry! Today I've started listening to Assimil dialogues again, hopefully I don't get lazy.
3 x
Da seufzt der Tropf im Purpur unter der unabwälzbaren Last seiner armseligen Individualität; während der Hochbegabte die ödeste Umgebung mit seinen Gedanken bevölkert und belebt.

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Le Baron
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
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Languages: English (N), fr, nl, de, eo, Sranantongo,
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Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18796
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Re: SalzSäule's German Log

Postby Le Baron » Mon Aug 15, 2022 12:38 pm

I was confused until I read further back into the log. You seem to be learning Romanian, but it isn't listed in your bio. And since this is a 'German log' I wondered why you would be doing Duolingo whilst having C2 level in German!

I now know what's going on. 8-)
3 x

SalzSäule
Orange Belt
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:17 pm
Languages: English (N), German (C2), French (?), Czech (Beginner)
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Re: SalzSäule's German Log

Postby SalzSäule » Tue Aug 16, 2022 12:34 pm

Le Baron wrote:I was confused until I read further back into the log. You seem to be learning Romanian, but it isn't listed in your bio. And since this is a 'German log' I wondered why you would be doing Duolingo whilst having C2 level in German!

I now know what's going on. 8-)


Yeah I realised the other day how confusing this blog must be, but I don't believe it's possible to amend the title names of threads right?

Thanks, I forgot to add that to my bio. Will add now! :)
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Da seufzt der Tropf im Purpur unter der unabwälzbaren Last seiner armseligen Individualität; während der Hochbegabte die ödeste Umgebung mit seinen Gedanken bevölkert und belebt.

Nogon
Green Belt
Posts: 305
Joined: Sat May 13, 2017 6:21 pm
Languages: German (N), Swedish (C), English (?), French (A2), Esperanto (A2). Reading Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Afrikaans. Wanting to learn Polish, Yiddish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16039
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Re: SalzSäule's German Log

Postby Nogon » Tue Aug 16, 2022 3:26 pm

SalzSäule wrote:I don't believe it's possible to amend the title names of threads right?

It is possible. Go to the thread's first post, click "Edit post" and change the "subject". The old posts will still have the old name, but new posts and the thread itself will have the new title.
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Assimil French : 65 / 113
Active wave : 15 / 113

SalzSäule
Orange Belt
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:17 pm
Languages: English (N), German (C2), French (?), Czech (Beginner)
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Re: SalzSäule's German Log

Postby SalzSäule » Tue Aug 16, 2022 4:41 pm

Nogon wrote:
SalzSäule wrote:I don't believe it's possible to amend the title names of threads right?

It is possible. Go to the thread's first post, click "Edit post" and change the "subject". The old posts will still have the old name, but new posts and the thread itself will have the new title.


Ah incredible, thank you!
0 x
Da seufzt der Tropf im Purpur unter der unabwälzbaren Last seiner armseligen Individualität; während der Hochbegabte die ödeste Umgebung mit seinen Gedanken bevölkert und belebt.

SalzSäule
Orange Belt
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:17 pm
Languages: English (N), German (C2), French (?), Czech (Beginner)
x 352

Re: SalzSäule's German + Romanian Log

Postby SalzSäule » Thu Aug 18, 2022 11:02 am

Woosh, what a few days. Progress has really been all over the place, but I'm (potentially?) back on track now.

Romanian:

Done a bit of Assimil, and will do another dialogue after this post. I let the Anki flashcards get into a bit of a backlog so I've had to get on top of them again. Lately, to combat my strategy of laziness, I've decided to start learning shorter phrases so that I'm still acquiring new knowledge, but not overwhelming myself. Phrases like "it's worth it", for example.

I have been thoroughly enjoying the only two Romanian songs I know of and like (Let it Go in RO and Trenuletul). I've picked up some words from subtitling on Netflix, but not many - it's mainly there to test reading comprehension and give me a slightly better idea of sentence structure.

With Duolingo I blazed through the first level of the horrid demonstrative pronoun skill and will be ignoring it until the future when I decide that expressions like 'that other child' are conducive to learning. Now I've actually reached some useful skills on objects and, finally, Dative Pronouns -party emoji-. Upon this, I will have covered pronouns in all cases. The only major, common grammar point left is dative/gen case endings (although I am acquainted with most of them already).

I try to practice writing/speaking some sentences here and there with a Romanian friend, and I think soon I will contemplate getting a tutor (but I really want to have a very strong foundation before doing this or it will be too complicated). I'm still keeping up with the 6wchallenge but nowhere near where I wanted to be by now. But as they say, it's not over till the fat lady sings. Scriptorium:

* Spune-mi Alex, ta rog. Fără dumnevoastră. - Please call me Alex, no need to be formal.
* Stau (întins) în pat/Mă întind în pat. - I'm laying in bed.
* Fă-o - Do it.
* Fac baie - I'm having a bath.
* Îmi lipsești - I miss you.
* Grabește-te - Hurry up.
* Iar plouă! - It's raining again.
* Destul! Renunț! - Enough! I give up. (Renuntă - stop)
* Avansați - Proceed.
* Prostule - Idiot etc.
* Greșit - Wrong.
* Merită - It's worth it.
* Parola? - Password?
* următor - next
* Fata pe care o văd. - the girl whom I see. (thegirl-on-whom-her-see)
* Tu îi scrii ei o scrisoare lungă - You write her a long letter. (you-toher-write-toher-a-letter-long)
5 x
Da seufzt der Tropf im Purpur unter der unabwälzbaren Last seiner armseligen Individualität; während der Hochbegabte die ödeste Umgebung mit seinen Gedanken bevölkert und belebt.

SalzSäule
Orange Belt
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:17 pm
Languages: English (N), German (C2), French (?), Czech (Beginner)
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Re: SalzSäule's Multilingual Mess

Postby SalzSäule » Tue Feb 07, 2023 7:57 pm

-Crawls back in full of shame-

I'm back again, perfectly demonstrating my ability to stick to long-term goals. Just got back from a trip to Germany so my German is pretty solid right now, my French is the same it's been for a year, and Romanian is close to dead in the water.

After having said I'd go for the past 3.5 years, I'm finally going to visit Czechia :D thus marking my fourth and very final attempt to learn Czech. If I can't commit this time and at least make it to a B1 before I lose total interest, I will not be attempting it ever again :lol:

I probably won't be updating this log as much as before, because I found it just made me more stressed about ''needing'' to post something and give updates. It's the same reason I abandoned my language tumblr years ago, just felt like too much pressure. But, naturally, I'll pop in with occasional happenings.

Started Czech again like a week ago, and it's going fine. All those words and phrases I once knew have slowly trickled back in. I don't think there's such a peculiar feeling as re-discovering elements of a language you haven't practiced in a long time — a peculiar, but satisfying feeling.

For Czech I'm sticking mostly to Duolingo (honestly the update is so s*** why do I have to spend four units doing something that was originally one lesson), a vocab. app. called Tobo Czech which teaches 3500 most common words, Assimil Le Tchèque, some old Teach Yourself book for Czech from 1972, and the more up-to-date Česky krok za krokem book.

---

As I don't communicate orally so much when I'm a tourist (besides the same fixed sentences: how much is that, could I have, where is etc.) the focus is going to be on acquiring a large passive vocabulary in Czech, so that I struggle less in reading signs on monuments/in museums/menus/notices etc. Thus reading, and to a lesser extent listening, are going to be my main priorities. Grammar is going to be a much smaller part of it than normal, particularly higher level stuff.
6 x
Da seufzt der Tropf im Purpur unter der unabwälzbaren Last seiner armseligen Individualität; während der Hochbegabte die ödeste Umgebung mit seinen Gedanken bevölkert und belebt.

SalzSäule
Orange Belt
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:17 pm
Languages: English (N), German (C2), French (?), Czech (Beginner)
x 352

Re: SalzSäule's Multilingual Mess

Postby SalzSäule » Fri Dec 01, 2023 4:01 pm

How excellent, I've managed to return to this blog and the languages I was learning in the last post are the same languages I'm still learning now :lol:

I will post a fuller update soon.
1 x
Da seufzt der Tropf im Purpur unter der unabwälzbaren Last seiner armseligen Individualität; während der Hochbegabte die ödeste Umgebung mit seinen Gedanken bevölkert und belebt.

SalzSäule
Orange Belt
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:17 pm
Languages: English (N), German (C2), French (?), Czech (Beginner)
x 352

Re: SalzSäule's Multilingual Mess

Postby SalzSäule » Fri Dec 01, 2023 5:25 pm

A fuller update.

I'm back (for now)! So much and so little has happened since my erstwhile appearances on this blog.

To keep it brief, my languages are all at a very similar level from my last update barring French. My French has improved slightly in terms of vocabulary and reading skills, but my active skills are just +bleugh+-

What I've got better at over the past few months is consistency. I have managed to consistently try to learn French, even if in small quantities, and now Czech again.

My German has been maintained by the fact that I use it at my job occasionally, so this requires less attention. Beyond that, however, I do now try and improve where I can in terms of vocabulary growth. Obviously this is more difficult at the higher levels, so the words I learn are not ones I can employ tremendously often.

My confidence is certainly better, because I just tell myself to chill the ---- out and talk slower to force myself to calm down. It's amazing that, even after all of these years, I still get nervous when speaking German even though I know my own competencies quite well and am, by and large, proud of where I am.

In terms of recent successes, I met with a friend the other day whose friend and sister (both from Germany) had come over for a couple of days. They said that I genuinely did not have any English accent when speaking German and were quite surprised to find out that I was from the UK so I am still riding this high. I also knew the German word for "cloves" which shocked both them and myself.

Learning materials - I don't really use any consistently, but I'm trying to use Clozemaster consistently now esp. on the Application as they have the "Radio" feature (where it will read you the sentence aloud, then the translation or vice versa - depends upon on you choose) and it's just better for context instead of me creating a bunch of different flashcards.

As I used to do before, I can end this post with some words I've recently learnt. Alas, all of the Czech ones will be rather boring, but there's a few """fun""" German and French ones.

Nachhauseweg - the way home/walk home (genuinely did not know this was a well-established noun), ansabbeln (kinda like to slobber on/in sth. - you would say it if sb. offered you a drink and you refused because they've "angesabbelt" it), Bodenschwelle, Bremsschwelle, Temposchwelle, Aufpflasterung etc. (speed-bump), Fügung (providence).

gui (mistletoe), tourbillon de poussière (dust-devil, listen idk why I know this either), espadron (swordfish, again, idk why).
2 x
Da seufzt der Tropf im Purpur unter der unabwälzbaren Last seiner armseligen Individualität; während der Hochbegabte die ödeste Umgebung mit seinen Gedanken bevölkert und belebt.

SalzSäule
Orange Belt
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:17 pm
Languages: English (N), German (C2), French (?), Czech (Beginner)
x 352

Re: SalzSäule's Multilingual Mess

Postby SalzSäule » Fri Dec 01, 2023 5:39 pm

Forgive the in-a-pinch picture quality because the text won't be legible, but I also procured this visual dictionary from a charity shop a few months back. I try to take a look through it every so often and have it placed open on top of my bookshelf, so that I sometimes walk by and just read a few words off the open page.

I've found it's helped a little bit for learning words which I wouldn't encounter often, but of which I'm certainly aware in English (e.g. porch/awning, herbaceous border, pen e.g. pig-pen etc.). I actually remember I learned "Schraubenziehereinsätze" (drill bits) in this book a few days before I had to use that exact word in a conversation with a German and was so grateful for its existence.

Image Image
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Da seufzt der Tropf im Purpur unter der unabwälzbaren Last seiner armseligen Individualität; während der Hochbegabte die ödeste Umgebung mit seinen Gedanken bevölkert und belebt.


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