Bolaobo Overextends With Too Many Languages in 2022

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bolaobo
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Posts: 237
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Location: Pennsylvania
Languages: English (N), Mandarin Chinese, German, French
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19845
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Re: Bolaobo Overextends With Too Many Languages in 2022

Postby bolaobo » Tue Mar 01, 2022 2:22 am

I finished Assimil Persian L25, Perfectionnement Allemand L6 and Assimil Arabic L12

The Persian lessons are still incredibly short even at L26, but looks like it will finally be picking up soon and I will start getting more than 5 lines a lesson! I'm looking forward to it, and despite the slow pace, I think the textbook helped me ease into the writing system, basic grammar, and phonetics. The voice actors are boring but clear.

The Arabic one is even slower and it's testing my patience a bit. I wish it had more engaging voice actors. I stopped putting in the vowel diacritics each lesson because it was taking too long to transcribe and I didn't use them anyway.

The German textbook is good, but I'm a little bored with German at the moment, and I'm overextended enough as is. I'll finish...eventually. German is still my 2nd best foreign language and not going anywhere.

The next Japanese lesson is literally nothing but keigo, and the grammar notes are all "refer to this one sentence 40 lessons ago to see what this means" which the Japanese Assimil throws at you a lot but I prefer to have the grammar note in front of me instead of flipping to a previous lesson. I'm putting this one off but still get quite a bit of exposure to Japanese daily.
7 x
Perfectionnement Arabe: 11 / 70 New Arabic Grammar: 30 / 51
Le Grec Ancien: 15 / 101
Hindi ohne Mühe: 44 / 54
Le Persan: 85 / 86
Le Turc: 19 / 71
Tobira: 3 / 15

bolaobo
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Posts: 237
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Location: Pennsylvania
Languages: English (N), Mandarin Chinese, German, French
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19845
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Re: Bolaobo Overextends With Too Many Languages in 2022

Postby bolaobo » Sat Mar 05, 2022 12:11 pm

I finished Latin L23, Arabic 13 and 14, French Without Toil 106, and Assimil Persian 26.

Out of sheer curiosity, I took a look at the old L'Arabe Sans Peine, which seems to be universally derided among the general public but I've seen polyglots praise it, including Professor Arguelles. It doesn't seem awful, but the learning curve seems really steep and I think the new course, even though it treats me like an idiot sometimes, is better for a true beginner. If I want more guided work, I can use this one after finishing the new Arabic course. I try to only work on one course at a time per language, otherwise I feel overwhelmed.

French Without Toil is still giving me more trouble than one would expect, but the vocabulary is becoming more niche and my listening skills are still bad. This is definitely harder than the new French With Ease. I can finish a lesson pretty quickly just reading it but listening requires an extra level of work. In other words, I think it's worth my time finishing up this second Assimil course for French. After all, French is the base for several of my other target languages.

I need to get more work in German done. It's technically my second best foreign language, but the more convoluted sentences you find in nonfiction, and high-brow stuff can still throw me off. Sometimes I actually find reading French easier because the structure is often closer to English but my vocabulary is still lacking compared to German.

I'm still reading The Loom of Language. It's a fascinating book, but there's so much information in it that I don't like speed reading it too quickly. I can definitely see myself referring back to or re-reading some of these sections.
8 x
Perfectionnement Arabe: 11 / 70 New Arabic Grammar: 30 / 51
Le Grec Ancien: 15 / 101
Hindi ohne Mühe: 44 / 54
Le Persan: 85 / 86
Le Turc: 19 / 71
Tobira: 3 / 15

Aloyse
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Posts: 244
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Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
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Re: Bolaobo Overextends With Too Many Languages in 2022

Postby Aloyse » Sat Mar 05, 2022 1:25 pm

bolaobo wrote:the old L'Arabe Sans Peine

I'm doing it right now (at the breakneck pace of one lesson per fortnight) and I agree that it is better used after a true beginner level book or two.
In the past I learnt the alphabet with the audio tracks from "Alif Baa" plus the writing explanation at the beginning of "L'arabe sans peine" then studied two university level books for beginners (Deheuvels Manuel d'arabe moderne). Now I regret not going back immediately to the actual lessons of "L'arabe sans peine" which teaches a lot of practical stuff. Instead I went on to 3rd year university evening classes and promptly fell behind and gave up due to a very insufficient vocabulary range. If I had studied the Assimil course over the summer... maybe I wouldn't have flunked out that badly...
2 x
Future me already did it.

bolaobo
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Posts: 237
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Location: Pennsylvania
Languages: English (N), Mandarin Chinese, German, French
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Re: Bolaobo Overextends With Too Many Languages in 2022

Postby bolaobo » Sat Mar 05, 2022 2:07 pm

Aloyse wrote:
bolaobo wrote:the old L'Arabe Sans Peine

I'm doing it right now (at the breakneck pace of one lesson per fortnight) and I agree that it is better used after a true beginner level book or two.
In the past I learnt the alphabet with the audio tracks from "Alif Baa" plus the writing explanation at the beginning of "L'arabe sans peine" then studied two university level books for beginners (Deheuvels Manuel d'arabe moderne). Now I regret not going back immediately to the actual lessons of "L'arabe sans peine" which teaches a lot of practical stuff. Instead I went on to 3rd year university evening classes and promptly fell behind and gave up due to a very insufficient vocabulary range. If I had studied the Assimil course over the summer... maybe I wouldn't have flunked out that badly...


Cool, good luck! It doesn't seem like a bad course and it should suit someone with background in the language. My head was spinning just reading the first two lessons. :lol:
2 x
Perfectionnement Arabe: 11 / 70 New Arabic Grammar: 30 / 51
Le Grec Ancien: 15 / 101
Hindi ohne Mühe: 44 / 54
Le Persan: 85 / 86
Le Turc: 19 / 71
Tobira: 3 / 15

bolaobo
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Posts: 237
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Location: Pennsylvania
Languages: English (N), Mandarin Chinese, German, French
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19845
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Re: Bolaobo Overextends With Too Many Languages in 2022

Postby bolaobo » Tue Mar 08, 2022 2:48 pm

Finished Arabic 14, Persian 27, Perfectionnement Allemand 7, and Latin 24.

My pace will inevitably slow down as Arabic, Persian, and Latin get more difficult. I aim to nearly fully absorb every lesson and it's not always going to be this easy. Hindi lessons already take forever and Japanese takes a while because of all the readings to memorize even with my background in Chinese.

The next Persian lesson is a review lesson then it seems to pick up quite a bit. Relatively speaking, Persian isn't that hard, but so far it has moved at about the same pace as the Arabic course and slower than the Latin, Hindi, and even Japanese ones.

I like to listen to podcasts while doing tedious work around the house/cooking, and German, French, and Japanese are at the level where I can put on a random podcast (sometimes for learners, sometimes not) and passively listen which really helps me keep on track and ensure I'm getting contact with the language. Hindi is close to being there but not yet and there is a severe lack of material meant for learners so I end up listening to Assimil or Peppa Pig or something. Even when my Hindi improves, I think engaging material I'm interested in will be harder to come by than German, French, or Japanese.

Arabic and Persian are obviously not even close to being at the level where I can do anything but textbook work but I just started them this year and Arabic is a multi-year project.

Listening to Professor Arguelles' latest video gave me motivation to work on my Latin a bit. I'm more interested in medieval works than classical, actually and I would also love to eventually work into older versions of German/French.
6 x
Perfectionnement Arabe: 11 / 70 New Arabic Grammar: 30 / 51
Le Grec Ancien: 15 / 101
Hindi ohne Mühe: 44 / 54
Le Persan: 85 / 86
Le Turc: 19 / 71
Tobira: 3 / 15

bolaobo
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Posts: 237
Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2021 5:48 pm
Location: Pennsylvania
Languages: English (N), Mandarin Chinese, German, French
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19845
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Re: Bolaobo Overextends With Too Many Languages in 2022

Postby bolaobo » Sat Mar 12, 2022 2:20 pm

I finished Persian L28, French Without Toil L107, Teach Yourself Urdu Chapter 2 and Perfectionnement Allemand L8.

Watching Professor Arguelles' videos on the Western canon / great books gave me motivation to tackle some of my Western languages. On that topic, I've been shunning English these past few years but I really should read some of the classics. I'm not well-read even in my native language, unfortunately, and the modern age has done a number on my attention span. I drastically need to improve my reading skills and concentration, and it might be best to start with my native language before tackling foreign ones. I just need to find time! I read quite a bit of modern nonfiction (history, linguistics, etc) but staying attentive while reading high-brow or older fiction is harder for me.

My Assimil progress is already slowing down, due to Anki reviews being over an hour and increasingly long lessons, but as we all know, it's a marathon, not a sprint. I'm happy with my Anki retention rate though. Today my overall was 93% correct with 87% for mature cards.
4 x
Perfectionnement Arabe: 11 / 70 New Arabic Grammar: 30 / 51
Le Grec Ancien: 15 / 101
Hindi ohne Mühe: 44 / 54
Le Persan: 85 / 86
Le Turc: 19 / 71
Tobira: 3 / 15

bolaobo
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Location: Pennsylvania
Languages: English (N), Mandarin Chinese, German, French
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19845
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Re: Bolaobo Overextends With Too Many Languages in 2022

Postby bolaobo » Tue Mar 15, 2022 4:22 pm

I finished Assimil Japanese Passive L86, Japanese Active L37, and Latin L25.

I only had a few exercises remaining to put into Anki for Japanese so I got it over with, but I've been spent most of my time on French/German/Latin. But each lesson of Perfectionement Allemand is so long with so many notes and I try to master both the French and the German, so it's going to take me some time. I don't put everything into Anki because a lot of the French and German I already know, but it's still a lot.

I'm starting to get a better feel for Latin declensions and sentence structure and have been enjoying it, but it's still a long slog to get through this Assimil book. After Assimil, I'll likely try Roma Aeterna or another low-level course if I feel my level if lacking. But I'm honestly not as big on the "natural method" as I used to be. I've been using parallel texts and it seems to be working and completely eschewing instruction in native/source language seems like an unnecessary handicap sometimes.

After Japanese Assimil, I was planning on using Tobira but I'll see. I'm already able to make sense of a lot of native material, and a lot of sentences are already n+1. My existing Chinese knowledge helps a lot, obviously. I might just go on to advanced readers instead of going through another huge textbook and getting burned out.

For German and French, I want to get those to as high of a level as possible and read classic literature (starting with prose) without much trouble. Same with Latin, but that's a more distant goal. When I get Latin to a high level, I'll consider another dead language, possibly Ancient Greek or Egyptian.

Quite honestly, I'm enjoying learning everything. I can't see myself abandoning any of these languages, and I just need to stay persistent. I occasionally feel impatient and frustrated because my goals will take so long to achieve, but I just need to persist and keep studying.

With Anki, I can put a language on maintenance mode pretty easily and not worry about losing it, which I did for Hindi for almost a year before deciding to boot it up again.
7 x
Perfectionnement Arabe: 11 / 70 New Arabic Grammar: 30 / 51
Le Grec Ancien: 15 / 101
Hindi ohne Mühe: 44 / 54
Le Persan: 85 / 86
Le Turc: 19 / 71
Tobira: 3 / 15

bolaobo
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Posts: 237
Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2021 5:48 pm
Location: Pennsylvania
Languages: English (N), Mandarin Chinese, German, French
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19845
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Re: Bolaobo Overextends With Too Many Languages in 2022

Postby bolaobo » Tue Mar 22, 2022 1:32 am

I finished Arabic L15 and L16, French Without Toil L108, and Persian L29.

I don't have many completed Assimil chapters to report, but I'm still working hard and doing reviews each day. It's just getting more time-consuming to complete each lesson and I don't want to half-ass it. Latin especially is getting much heavier in terms of grammar and dreaded declension tables and I need to absorb over multiple days to ease the burden.

The next Hindi lesson is a review lesson, which I honestly always dread. For the newer Assimil courses, the review lessons are drawn-out and boring with boring grammar instruction. I prefer the older Assimils and their concise, pithy reviews. I still go through it though because there are some nuggets of information contained in them. I've essentially skipped the past Hindi review lessons due to having experience in the language but I'm at the point where I'll probably go through it since it's getting more complicated.

On the bright side, the next Assimil Japanese lesson is looking rather easy, and I shouldn't have to put every sentence into Anki because I know a lot of it already. I picked up a manga I struggled with a few months ago and I'm able to understand it much better now, but I'm not quite there yet. I'm sure I'll enjoy this language more when I'm doing real material and not Assimil dialogues but I have to pay my dues and learn the Kanji readings / grammar.
3 x
Perfectionnement Arabe: 11 / 70 New Arabic Grammar: 30 / 51
Le Grec Ancien: 15 / 101
Hindi ohne Mühe: 44 / 54
Le Persan: 85 / 86
Le Turc: 19 / 71
Tobira: 3 / 15

bolaobo
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Posts: 237
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Languages: English (N), Mandarin Chinese, German, French
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19845
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Re: Bolaobo Overextends With Too Many Languages in 2022

Postby bolaobo » Mon Mar 28, 2022 12:52 pm

I finished Arabic L17, Arabic L18, Persian L30, French L109, L110, L111, and Latin L26.

I've been tackling Arabic and French pretty heavily. Arabic because the reviews haven't been piling up yet and I'm trying to establish a base in the language, and French so I can finally get this book over with and move on (but I really am enjoying it!).

I've wanted to focus more on Persian but reviews have taken longer for it lately and I try to keep daily reviews under 15 minutes for a language. Same case with Japanese (those damn multiple readings!). It's inevitable that Anki reviews will snowball as I advance so I just have to be patient and steadily progress through each book.

As for Latin, it's getting harder and I have to take my time and make sure I've absorbed it well enough. I'm enjoying it, especially from an etymological perspective. I also sneak about 5-10 minutes of Spanish study a day. :lol: With my French/Latin knowledge I notice progress even with tiny amounts of time.

I'm still interested in Hindi/Urdu but making Urdu versions of all the sentences really adds to the review time and I'm still not a master of the Urdu script so it takes time to review. I'm in no rush and I've been studying it for years so it's not going to "go away" as fast as my newer languages will.

I finished reading The Loom of Language, skimming through some sections that weren't relevant. The book covers a lot, but I would have liked him to go into more detail on some things and he spends way too much time talking about constructed languages. The Language Museum appendix is interesting but I'm not sure of the utility of measuring vocab tables but I'll keep it in mind for the future, especially the Greek roots. I'm thinking about reading another book on a linguistic topic but I don't want it to come at the cost of "real" study time.

For this coming week I'll play it by ear what I focus on. Most likely French, Arabic, and Persian, with exposure to my other languages via casual reading / listening.
6 x
Perfectionnement Arabe: 11 / 70 New Arabic Grammar: 30 / 51
Le Grec Ancien: 15 / 101
Hindi ohne Mühe: 44 / 54
Le Persan: 85 / 86
Le Turc: 19 / 71
Tobira: 3 / 15

bolaobo
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Posts: 237
Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2021 5:48 pm
Location: Pennsylvania
Languages: English (N), Mandarin Chinese, German, French
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19845
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Re: Bolaobo Overextends With Too Many Languages in 2022

Postby bolaobo » Sat Apr 02, 2022 12:49 am

I finished French Without Toil L112, Arabic L19, Hindi L34 (finally!), and Persian L31.

It was a pretty productive week despite a lot of reviews. I didn't get as much French done as I'd like but I got exposure via other textbooks.

I studied Japanese a little but quickly got bored. My weeaboo phase sure ended quickly. :lol: I'm still reviewing it daily and listening to podcasts but not much motivation compared to Arabic/Persian.

I'm finally getting a little better reading Urdu script, although I still come across words all the time I should know from Hindi but I don't recognize. Practice, practice, practice....Urdu isn't a primary focus right now so I'll just be chugging along for a while I guess.

Hindi L34 took so long because I'm making Urdu sentences for everything, but it's beginning to pay off. It might be a little overkill, but it really drills the sentences.

I'm definitely enjoying Arabic/Persian the most right now, although reviews have forced my new cards to a minimum. I really enjoy spotting cognates, such as the word नफ़ीस that Assimil Hindi taught me showing up in Assimil Arabic (I thought that word was useless!).

Finally, I made an Anki deck for English words, and it has 35 cards so far. I've neglected my native language for years now, and I'm putting sentences in there that I come across. Usually my knowledge of etymology makes them pretty easy to remember, and they're often interesting sentences I don't mind seeing multiple times.
6 x
Perfectionnement Arabe: 11 / 70 New Arabic Grammar: 30 / 51
Le Grec Ancien: 15 / 101
Hindi ohne Mühe: 44 / 54
Le Persan: 85 / 86
Le Turc: 19 / 71
Tobira: 3 / 15


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