Rdearman 2016-24 You Can't Have Your Kate and Edith Too.

[rdearman]

Hmm.. Sounds like you need to take my approach, stop reading fiction for 30 years and then start reading it in a foreign language. Easy and guaranteed to work!

You don't look that old, and I don't have that much time left!

So that is this months plan. I'll trial it next week before I go to Bratislava and implement it the week I return assuming all goes week in next weeks trial.

I won't bother to quote Robert Burns again, but suffice to say things didn't go to plan. Although, my revised schedule did work in fits and starts, I wasn't consistent throughout the week. Mornings on the train is going to have to be something where I can put my headsets on and stare out the window. I have no energy in the morning for study after I get on the train. I suppose I should give some view of what I actually managed to do.

When I leave my house I drive to the "park & ride" and get on the bus to the train station. So while awaiting the bus and on the bus I've had my phone out and reading out my presentation under my breathe until I get through the whole thing. This takes 35-45 minutes, which means I've made it to the station and stood on the platform for 10-15 minutes awaiting my train. So just as I stepped on the train, I completed my first review. After that I'm burned out and just put on some music (normally French) and close my eyes and doze off. I get off at the last stop, so when the train comes to a stop, I wake up and start the 25 minute walk from the station to the office. I should at this point do something useful, but I just continue to listen to music.

During the day I try to listen to the presentation someone recorded for me on repeat. Although this is sporadic because of the nature of my job. I only take about 15 minutes for lunch so I can leave a little early and catch an earlier train. I listen to music again on the walk back.

After I get on the train most days I did Clozemaster for Mandarin, or read my Italian book. I tried to do a second presentation review each night. Monday I watched some new episodes of Inspector Montalbano season 5 which is on the BBC at the moment. Did my French lesson on Tuesday, and Wednesday recorded another YouTube video with Dave. Tonight my French tutor is coming around and I'm going to do the entire presentation for her and I need to get the other presentation in English into Powerpoint!

I have done some preparation for the Gathering other than presenting. I've gathered up about a dozen books to share at the gathering. Course books I've collected but will probably never use. Modern Greek, Japanese, some Dutch, as well as D&D books in French (since we're going to play a game hopefully). I have a bunch of books in French which I've people have given me over the last few years, so I will probably take those too.

So in theory my revised schedule would work, but actually doing it isn't a habit, so I need to just make things a habit. So I just do it even when I don't "feel" like doing it.

[rdearman]

This is probably my last post before I bugger off to the gathering. Other than spending the entire day rehearsing this bloody presentation in French, I did the other one in English. I've uploaded them to the central storage thing for the gathering organisers. So I'm basically as prepared as I'm going to get, which isn't as good as it should be.

I'm looking forward to going, just not looking forward to doing my presentations, which if you're a regular reader you've heard me whine about for the last few months. So, yes it is my own damn fault. Yes, I shouldn't have volunteered. Yes, I should shut the hell up about it now.

In other news, while digging through my bookshelves looking for things to take to the bookswap area at the gathering I found a half dozen kids books which I'd bought in Chinese and a couple of graded readers. These will come in handy later when I get back. Last November I unloaded 8 boxes of books to various charity shops around me, with tons of Italian & French novels in them. Should have saved them up for the gathering, but they seem to have been snapped up, so someone is getting use out of them.

I have my dice and my D&D books all ready to go, and I'm going to print off some player sheets later today. Super geeky, but really looking forward to trying to play D&D in French! That should be a real laugh. In fact I might record it.

So just to recap, in the last week, I have shot my language learning, shot my diet, and shot most of my time away. So, no change really this week.

[Stelle]

Best of luck with your presentations!!!

[Ani]

I have my dice and my D&D books all ready to go, and I'm going to print off some player sheets later today. Super geeky, but really looking forward to trying to play D&D in French! That should be a real laugh. In fact I might record it.

Please do. I'm bummed I can't come play with you all.

[jeff_lindqvist]

I have my dice and my D&D books all ready to go, and I'm going to print off some player sheets later today. Super geeky, but really looking forward to trying to play D&D in French! That should be a real laugh. In fact I might record it.

This was one of the activities I was looking forward to the most. I'll be with you in spirit. Just two days ago, much to my surprise, I found the Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide (5th edition) at the library - who would have thought?!

Preparing the spell Read Languages...

[Carmody]

Bon Courage!

[rdearman]

Ok stuck at the airport in Vienna. My flight is delayed and I have two hours to kill. So thought I would update the log. I plan to do a proper update, but have only the smart phone. So forgive typos!

The gathering was great and I gave both presentations. The one in English got some laughs and people told me after that they enjoyed it. The one in French was completed with no irate French people carrying torches and pitchforks stringing me up from the nearest tree. So that went better than expected too.

Once again they had the no English zone. This presented some problems when sitting with forum members who only shared English with me. So we decided to learn a common language.

There was a ton of new faces this year and it was nice to see people are attracted to something a little geeky. Ok, very geeky.

Overall it is a great experience, but after three years it can get a little repetitive. The talks were a mixed bag, and personally I thought many speakers didn't think about the audience and there were too many talks directed at beginners when I didn't actually see anyone with a badge without at least 4 languages on it. I was speaking to one new person who got what I like to call the gathering slap. All her friends told her how amazing she was because she knew a couple of languages, then she met Richard Simcott and others. So she was feeling like a fake. I have become used to this myself so don't feel the slap as hard anymore.

I don't know if I will attend next year simply because I have heard all the advice before. After all I am the administrator of the largest language forum on the Internet, you'd struggle to find a topic we haven't seen here. Still there was one talk on mind mapping which I didn't attend, and wasn't very comprehensive, but did get me thinking about using it.

The majority of the non English talks were in French and most of the rest in German. Italian was very under represented. Even Russian and Spanish seemed thin on the ground.

Speaking in French was fun, outside the presentation when I was just talking to Zenmonkey and his daughter. They assessed my level at around B2 (so screw you Diaglang tests!) and that gave me a boost of confidence. Of course my written output is still shite, but I don't write in French so I am happy. Especially since I am confident I am better in Italian.

Afterwards in Vienna we where trying to play a game where you get a point by initiating a conversation and another point if you can get it in your TL. The idea was to overcome introversion and practice in your TL. I did ok, averaging about 4 or 5 points. Which doesn't sound much, but in a country whos majority language isn't your TL then I thought I was doing well. German in Vienna was a cake walk for some.

On a personal note, I waa impressed by the quality of the kebab shops in Bratislava and the books which came into the book crossing during the conference. I picked up a shed load of French books to read even though I swore blind I was stopping French.

Don't know if anyone watched Garth Popkins videos during the gathering but they were great, even with us constantly tormenting the poor guy.

It is amazing how 4 days of a conference will exhaust you. So if you go next time, be prepared to be knackered and need a rest after. Charging off to Vienna to explore the city probably will not be the best idea.

Ok. My gate is open now. Time to move catch a plane!

[brilliantyears]

It was nice meeting you! Although now I'm a bit disappointed we were a language mismatch and I didn't get to talk to you in anything but English

[Xenops]

Overall it is a great experience, but after three years it can get a little repetitive. The talks were a mixed bag, and personally I thought many speakers didn't think about the audience and there were too many talks directed at beginners when I didn't actually see anyone with a badge without at least 4 languages on it. I was speaking to one new person who got what I like to call the gathering slap. All her friends told her how amazing she was because she knew a couple of languages, then she met Richard Simcott and others. So she was feeling like a fake. I have become used to this myself so don't feel the slap as hard anymore.

Having a bunch of beginner talks at this event seems like preaching to the choir, doesn't it? I agree with your sentiment. If I was to go in the future, I would go mostly to meet people in real life, as I imagine I've heard all of the advice before.

I don't know if I will attend next year simply because I have heard all the advice before. After all I am the administrator of the largest language forum on the Internet, you'd struggle to find a topic we haven't seen here. Still there was one talk on mind mapping which I didn't attend, and wasn't very comprehensive, but did get me thinking about using it.

Wow, I didn't know this is considered the biggest one. I suppose all of the others I've seen were not very active or are language specific (there's lots of Japanese learning forums, for example).

[rdearman]

There is a possibility I made that biggest thing up.

But it is the best.