Zgriptsuroica tries not to get distracted by the new shiny
Posted: Thu Oct 28, 2021 8:36 am
I feel pretty happy with my abilities in Spanish and Portuguese, my French speaking/writing could use some work, and my Japanese kind of petered off to where I can read manga painstakingly slowing and not much else. Of course, the best thing to assist in fixing the last two and maintaining the first is getting distracted by yet another language to devote time to learning and improving and eventually maintaining as well. I've been taken with Icelandic for a bit over two months now, and enjoying it as much as one can enjoy melting their brain. I figure I can give myself a bit of accountability posting here once a week or so to keep doing the Icelandic lessons, as well as not deciding "Hey, I'm barely A1 in Icelandic, now is the time to pick up Basque." in a few weeks.
As of tonight, I'm up to Icelandic Online Course 2, Bálkur 5, Þráður 2, Siða 2, which is to say I'll have completed the second course once I finish the three units remaining in this section and complete the review section that rounds out the chapter! I feel like I've learned quite a bit in terms of passive recognition and vocabulary, but there's been a lack of much in the way of pure production exercises (understandable enough, given what the course is) that has left me pretty lost when it comes to remembering how nouns decline. I tend to get it right more often than not if there's a word bank for me to pick the right answer from, but struggle to come up with the same answer myself without looking it up in BÍN every time for the real "fill in the blank" exercises. I've also been keeping up with a self-made Anki deck based on words I encounter in the courses or reading since essentially day one, and I've got a 50 day streak going over on Clozemaster. I ordered a bunch of books from Forlagið to have stuff ready for when I feel like I can handle it, but the only one that isn't painfully slow at the moment is Spæjarahundurinn. Sjálfstætt fólk might have to wait a little bit.
I'm looking to complete IOL3 and 4 as soon as I can and then will reassess my plans, but I'm currently planning to do another textbook that will really get me writing and thinking about declensions and such as a means of driving them home. I already have a copy of Complete Icelandic: Teach Yourself, but I've also heard good things about Íslenksa fyrir alla, which has the perk of being available from the publisher free, so long as you don't mind working from PDFs. Aside from drills, I'm in an Icelandic learners Discord that seems decently active, though I'm currently nowhere near the level needed to participate in the Icelandic chats. I'm just happy when I can respond appropriately in English without having to look up anything at the moment.
I think for the coming week, I'd be pretty happy to finish IOL Course 2 and keep up my streaks for Anki and Clozemaster. I'd also like to read another 5 pages of Spæjarahundurinn. On the non-Icelandic front, I'm backed up on reading Le maréchal absolu by about 125 pages for the Untranslated blog book club, which I'd like to get caught up on. Will see how it goes, though, as I just saw the Dune movie tonight and now I want to re-read the book. Anything else language-wise will probably be gravy, and I need to fit in watching the USGP at some point in the schedule. Maybe I'll take a night off if I finish IOL2 early.
As of tonight, I'm up to Icelandic Online Course 2, Bálkur 5, Þráður 2, Siða 2, which is to say I'll have completed the second course once I finish the three units remaining in this section and complete the review section that rounds out the chapter! I feel like I've learned quite a bit in terms of passive recognition and vocabulary, but there's been a lack of much in the way of pure production exercises (understandable enough, given what the course is) that has left me pretty lost when it comes to remembering how nouns decline. I tend to get it right more often than not if there's a word bank for me to pick the right answer from, but struggle to come up with the same answer myself without looking it up in BÍN every time for the real "fill in the blank" exercises. I've also been keeping up with a self-made Anki deck based on words I encounter in the courses or reading since essentially day one, and I've got a 50 day streak going over on Clozemaster. I ordered a bunch of books from Forlagið to have stuff ready for when I feel like I can handle it, but the only one that isn't painfully slow at the moment is Spæjarahundurinn. Sjálfstætt fólk might have to wait a little bit.
I'm looking to complete IOL3 and 4 as soon as I can and then will reassess my plans, but I'm currently planning to do another textbook that will really get me writing and thinking about declensions and such as a means of driving them home. I already have a copy of Complete Icelandic: Teach Yourself, but I've also heard good things about Íslenksa fyrir alla, which has the perk of being available from the publisher free, so long as you don't mind working from PDFs. Aside from drills, I'm in an Icelandic learners Discord that seems decently active, though I'm currently nowhere near the level needed to participate in the Icelandic chats. I'm just happy when I can respond appropriately in English without having to look up anything at the moment.
I think for the coming week, I'd be pretty happy to finish IOL Course 2 and keep up my streaks for Anki and Clozemaster. I'd also like to read another 5 pages of Spæjarahundurinn. On the non-Icelandic front, I'm backed up on reading Le maréchal absolu by about 125 pages for the Untranslated blog book club, which I'd like to get caught up on. Will see how it goes, though, as I just saw the Dune movie tonight and now I want to re-read the book. Anything else language-wise will probably be gravy, and I need to fit in watching the USGP at some point in the schedule. Maybe I'll take a night off if I finish IOL2 early.