Expug's TAC 2016 - Writing the lines of fluency
Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 2:40 pm
So, here is my 2016 log! I have been mentally rehearsing a lot what I should write here and whatnot. I tried my best not to make a usually long post even longer than usual, but there is so much reasoning I have to do if I want to set some reasonable path for my language learning this year.
2015 was a year of direction correction. I acknowledge most of what I had done wrong in 2014: too much extensive+careless learning, too little output. I didn't fix it in 2015 but there was a start, thanks to apps such as HelloTalk and Speaky.
Two guidelines for 2016:
1. Write more often. No excuses. Resist the temptation for more input. No waiting for the ideal moment, for the clearest mind. Just write one line after another. Not to worry if I'm writing the same as the previous time, this may even work as a sort of 'graded writing' for keeping building on the main islands. Stop seeing writing opportunities as an interruption to the normal study flow. On the contrary, take them to their most even if means skipping a couple of film watching or bilingual reading at the end of the day.
2. Be present. Gegenwärtig sein, as I've read "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle in German. Be attentive. Concentrate. Focus. Pay attention. Even when I'm watching native material without subs and I'm not following properly. There is a minor issue that the sound volume in the computer I usually study from is quite low. I even thought of fixing this with bringing speakers from home, but that would be too much of a stretch. Anyway, I noticed much of my lack of progress in listening in 2015 resides in the lack of an active effort to understand the scene. It got better towards the end of the year, but I still have to improve a lot or else those 10 minutes at each language will keep simply being a waste of time.
I also wish 2016 to be a year of community learning. The crash in 2015 led to some dispersion of the community, especially the TAC teams. Some of my languages have no other active learner at the forum, and I have to learn from it, but I want to discuss with people more often. I want to participate more, and I've already been trying since the end of last year.
Another issue: I need to get rid of crutches. Or at least perform part of the tasks with them and another one without them. I'm still watching French films without subtitles and reading German with accompanying translation, and I think I'd be making much more progress without them. Also, 2016 will be mostly a year of intensive reading. That's what worked for me in my early studies and I think that's what's been missing from my learning equation and which prevented me from making real progress in my languages all those years.
Now by language. I'll refuse to set CEFR goals as they don't mean much for someone studying alone and not doing any exams anyway, but I want to apply those guidelines consistently and I'm going to aim for basic fluency in all of my existing languages: Norwegian, German, Russian, Mandarin and Estonian.
Plus, I'll be starting Greek when I'm done with studying Russian from textbooks. I noticed I can't do without it anymore. I want to reach B1 by the end of the year. I set this goal just randomly but I have a strong sense of intuition that Greek is going to be much less difficult than Russian.
Estonian
My favorite language in 2015. I like the sound, the spelling, the logical grammar and the culture on top of it. Unfortunately I have little access to native speakers and to native materials. I have a good set of books, but more the 'classical' type. All I have in terms of native media with subtitles/transcription is in a thread here I have to search for again, but I think if I start now I won't make a good use of those videos and will end up wasting a resource. So I want to improve reading first. I'm almost running out of textbooks but I want to review the main ones for polishing grammar, the way I did with Georgian this year, but in order to internalize grammar I also have to write a lot.
French
It was neglected in 2015. My listening skills worsened and I wrote even less than in 2014, with only occasional chatting. I want to use the language more consistenly and attentively. I'm not even talking about time here: I already spend a good 30 minutes a day on the language and with some 15 minutes more for writing that will be ideal to keep progressing.
German
2015 was 'almost there' for German. I saw an improvement in my vocabulary thanks to listening-reading, but I haven't been paying much attention to form & language, only to content. So, I didn't retain much of what I read. Therefore, I'm going to read intensively this year, and even when I read bilingually I will try to pay more attention to the German sentence before just flipping to translation.
Georgian
I'm glad I could put Georgian back on track in 2015. I have some ambitious goals for 2016, including developping learning resources. I need to write more often and I'm excited with the fact that the combined strategy of non-subtitled native series and subtitled dubbed movies is boosting my reading comprehension. There is still a long way to go, though, and most of the vocabulary learning should happen through concentrated reading. So far I'm just flipping my eyes from Georgian to translation, not making an active effort of understanding the phrase.
Italian
Italian is my take-it-easy language. I went through Assimil beginner and intermediate, Duolingo and a few other textbooks, then went to Italy and talked there, then came back and started native materials, mostly reading. I'll keep just using the language. I do write a bit at Speaky but it's not my main focus, I will do so when I'm on the mood to. What I want is enjoy good books, series and films.
Mandarin
I enjoyed studying it in 2015. I'm chatting through HelloTalk and making progress, it's only that I don't commit to talking to the same people over and over again in order to establish long-term relationships. People are usually very friendly and it's only up to me to start writing longer sentences after the initial presentations. That'd be important both language-wise and socially-wise. As for listening, I have to try some audio with no subtitles to force my comprehension. Same goes for some extensive reading without crutches.
Norwegian
The most neglected language in 2015 which makes me feel sorry. I was the captain of Team Sleipnir when the ship collapsed and the community never really got back, though we have people visiting tricours' Monthly Challenge. To tell the truth, most Scandinavian learners are fairly independent now and there weren't many newbies, especially for Norwegian, to keep the ball rolling. That said, I'm really looking forward to getting in touch with my fellow Scandinavian learners and discuss learning strategies. I have a long road to advanced fluency: I have to keep doing intensive reading to fill some important vocabulary gaps that will raise my reading comprehension from about 85% to 98%. As for listening, I have to reinvent myself. Probablya alternating subtitled with subtitleless videos.
Russian
The past year was good for Russian, so I just have to keep doing what I'm doing. I have to write more often in order to lose the fear of cases. Severla native speakers have contacted me this year and I need to make those interactions more often.
New language: Modern Greek
I'm really looking forward to starting Greek this year. I dabbled a bit in the past with the kypros.net course, but that was before my HTLAL time. I have loads of good resources and I'm motivated. It's not just about culture, I want to visit Greece next time I go to Europe and I want to converse in the language.
===================================================
Side languages
These are not dabbling languages, they are just languages I have contact with somehow. I believe just this occasional contact allows for some progress. One day I will have to tackle specific issues I have with those languages. They are English, which I write full of mistakes here at the forum; I'd benefit from writing language material and have it corrected by a native speaker. Esperanto, which I studied up to a shaky A2 and I consider a Romance language for learning priority purposes: I will start it when my Italian and Spanish finally reach a B2 or C1 levels; meanwhile, I will be following the Esperanto team thread. Spanish: I don't claim to speak Spanish because what I speak is mostly Portuñol. I have zero training in watching native materials, but I'm comfortable with using Spanish as a source language: i'm reading a book in Estonian followed by the Spanish translation and I want to read Como agua para chocolate in German+Spanish. When I'm comfortable with Italian, I will follow the Assimils+Duolingo path.
That's it for the time being. I've taken a break since my old log ended and I start over tomorrow. Looking forward to writing an interesting and useful log and to receiving support from the great community here. Speaking of writing: my focus on it is reflected on the title of this log. I want to stop postponing it and start doing it consistenly, as a habit. I have succeeded at creating habits in the past and I hope I will this year, too.
2015 was a year of direction correction. I acknowledge most of what I had done wrong in 2014: too much extensive+careless learning, too little output. I didn't fix it in 2015 but there was a start, thanks to apps such as HelloTalk and Speaky.
Two guidelines for 2016:
1. Write more often. No excuses. Resist the temptation for more input. No waiting for the ideal moment, for the clearest mind. Just write one line after another. Not to worry if I'm writing the same as the previous time, this may even work as a sort of 'graded writing' for keeping building on the main islands. Stop seeing writing opportunities as an interruption to the normal study flow. On the contrary, take them to their most even if means skipping a couple of film watching or bilingual reading at the end of the day.
2. Be present. Gegenwärtig sein, as I've read "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle in German. Be attentive. Concentrate. Focus. Pay attention. Even when I'm watching native material without subs and I'm not following properly. There is a minor issue that the sound volume in the computer I usually study from is quite low. I even thought of fixing this with bringing speakers from home, but that would be too much of a stretch. Anyway, I noticed much of my lack of progress in listening in 2015 resides in the lack of an active effort to understand the scene. It got better towards the end of the year, but I still have to improve a lot or else those 10 minutes at each language will keep simply being a waste of time.
I also wish 2016 to be a year of community learning. The crash in 2015 led to some dispersion of the community, especially the TAC teams. Some of my languages have no other active learner at the forum, and I have to learn from it, but I want to discuss with people more often. I want to participate more, and I've already been trying since the end of last year.
Another issue: I need to get rid of crutches. Or at least perform part of the tasks with them and another one without them. I'm still watching French films without subtitles and reading German with accompanying translation, and I think I'd be making much more progress without them. Also, 2016 will be mostly a year of intensive reading. That's what worked for me in my early studies and I think that's what's been missing from my learning equation and which prevented me from making real progress in my languages all those years.
Now by language. I'll refuse to set CEFR goals as they don't mean much for someone studying alone and not doing any exams anyway, but I want to apply those guidelines consistently and I'm going to aim for basic fluency in all of my existing languages: Norwegian, German, Russian, Mandarin and Estonian.
Plus, I'll be starting Greek when I'm done with studying Russian from textbooks. I noticed I can't do without it anymore. I want to reach B1 by the end of the year. I set this goal just randomly but I have a strong sense of intuition that Greek is going to be much less difficult than Russian.
Estonian
My favorite language in 2015. I like the sound, the spelling, the logical grammar and the culture on top of it. Unfortunately I have little access to native speakers and to native materials. I have a good set of books, but more the 'classical' type. All I have in terms of native media with subtitles/transcription is in a thread here I have to search for again, but I think if I start now I won't make a good use of those videos and will end up wasting a resource. So I want to improve reading first. I'm almost running out of textbooks but I want to review the main ones for polishing grammar, the way I did with Georgian this year, but in order to internalize grammar I also have to write a lot.
French
It was neglected in 2015. My listening skills worsened and I wrote even less than in 2014, with only occasional chatting. I want to use the language more consistenly and attentively. I'm not even talking about time here: I already spend a good 30 minutes a day on the language and with some 15 minutes more for writing that will be ideal to keep progressing.
German
2015 was 'almost there' for German. I saw an improvement in my vocabulary thanks to listening-reading, but I haven't been paying much attention to form & language, only to content. So, I didn't retain much of what I read. Therefore, I'm going to read intensively this year, and even when I read bilingually I will try to pay more attention to the German sentence before just flipping to translation.
Georgian
I'm glad I could put Georgian back on track in 2015. I have some ambitious goals for 2016, including developping learning resources. I need to write more often and I'm excited with the fact that the combined strategy of non-subtitled native series and subtitled dubbed movies is boosting my reading comprehension. There is still a long way to go, though, and most of the vocabulary learning should happen through concentrated reading. So far I'm just flipping my eyes from Georgian to translation, not making an active effort of understanding the phrase.
Italian
Italian is my take-it-easy language. I went through Assimil beginner and intermediate, Duolingo and a few other textbooks, then went to Italy and talked there, then came back and started native materials, mostly reading. I'll keep just using the language. I do write a bit at Speaky but it's not my main focus, I will do so when I'm on the mood to. What I want is enjoy good books, series and films.
Mandarin
I enjoyed studying it in 2015. I'm chatting through HelloTalk and making progress, it's only that I don't commit to talking to the same people over and over again in order to establish long-term relationships. People are usually very friendly and it's only up to me to start writing longer sentences after the initial presentations. That'd be important both language-wise and socially-wise. As for listening, I have to try some audio with no subtitles to force my comprehension. Same goes for some extensive reading without crutches.
Norwegian
The most neglected language in 2015 which makes me feel sorry. I was the captain of Team Sleipnir when the ship collapsed and the community never really got back, though we have people visiting tricours' Monthly Challenge. To tell the truth, most Scandinavian learners are fairly independent now and there weren't many newbies, especially for Norwegian, to keep the ball rolling. That said, I'm really looking forward to getting in touch with my fellow Scandinavian learners and discuss learning strategies. I have a long road to advanced fluency: I have to keep doing intensive reading to fill some important vocabulary gaps that will raise my reading comprehension from about 85% to 98%. As for listening, I have to reinvent myself. Probablya alternating subtitled with subtitleless videos.
Russian
The past year was good for Russian, so I just have to keep doing what I'm doing. I have to write more often in order to lose the fear of cases. Severla native speakers have contacted me this year and I need to make those interactions more often.
New language: Modern Greek
I'm really looking forward to starting Greek this year. I dabbled a bit in the past with the kypros.net course, but that was before my HTLAL time. I have loads of good resources and I'm motivated. It's not just about culture, I want to visit Greece next time I go to Europe and I want to converse in the language.
===================================================
Side languages
These are not dabbling languages, they are just languages I have contact with somehow. I believe just this occasional contact allows for some progress. One day I will have to tackle specific issues I have with those languages. They are English, which I write full of mistakes here at the forum; I'd benefit from writing language material and have it corrected by a native speaker. Esperanto, which I studied up to a shaky A2 and I consider a Romance language for learning priority purposes: I will start it when my Italian and Spanish finally reach a B2 or C1 levels; meanwhile, I will be following the Esperanto team thread. Spanish: I don't claim to speak Spanish because what I speak is mostly Portuñol. I have zero training in watching native materials, but I'm comfortable with using Spanish as a source language: i'm reading a book in Estonian followed by the Spanish translation and I want to read Como agua para chocolate in German+Spanish. When I'm comfortable with Italian, I will follow the Assimils+Duolingo path.
That's it for the time being. I've taken a break since my old log ended and I start over tomorrow. Looking forward to writing an interesting and useful log and to receiving support from the great community here. Speaking of writing: my focus on it is reflected on the title of this log. I want to stop postponing it and start doing it consistenly, as a habit. I have succeeded at creating habits in the past and I hope I will this year, too.