Brun Ugle explores the Final Frontier (DE, EO, ES) TAC 2016

[Elenia]

The Polyglot Fitness Group sounds like a great idea! I'm terrible about exercise, but I keep thinking maybe I should take it up to help avoid mood/energy/motivation slumps. I didn't sign up for the 6WC because I find I don't spend enough time on my secondary languages and it doesn't motivate me properly. I think if I could trust myself to be sensible about it, it would be fine, but I get competitive in strange ways.

I hope this month goes well with you, both in exercising when you have time and keeping junk food at bay and in making progress in all your languages

[Brun Ugle]

The first time I did the 6WC, I got too competitive and it was not a good thing. I ended up crashing completely and stopped studying altogether for a while. I didn't try another 6WC again for several years, but I did it now in November and it went well. For me, the clue is deciding at the outset that I'm not trying to win and that I'm going to keep a balance between my languages. If I feel I'm starting to get too competitive, I don't even look at the high scores for a while. I just leave the page open to my own score so I can check the balance between languages and check my tags to see how much time I'm using on various things. That way, I can use it to track and balance my own studies and ignore everyone else. I do look at the high scores sometimes, but only if I feel sure I can handle it.

[Brun Ugle]

I'm number one! By one minute. Not that I'm competitive or anything.

[Brun Ugle]

I just got all three levels of Übungsgrammatik Deutsch als Fremdsprache from Amazon.de. They came today. So I guess I am now seriously committed to learning German. I wonder if I can get through level A before I go to Berlin. That's about three months away.

[Brun Ugle]

Update for week 5-6

I didn’t write an update last week because I was feeling exhausted, but things seem to be getting much better on that front. I’m feeling much better at the moment than I have in a long time, and I’ve been gradually increasing my exercise.

German
FSI Basic: 3
Assimil passive: 85-95
Assimil active: 42-46
Language Transfer Complete German: 16-23
Extr@: 1-10

I’m getting close to the end of the Assimil passive wave. Studying with FSI and Assimil reminds me a little of when I was studying economics. Some classes like accounting, law and statistics, make sense right from the beginning. You start out knowing nothing and step-by-step learn more and more, but you always understand what’s going on. This is like the FSI method. Then there are classes like marketing and organizational theory, that don’t make any sense at all until the class is over. Then, with all papers handed in, all lectures done, it’s the week before exams and as you go over everything in preparation for the exam, suddenly it all comes together. This is more like the Assimil method. At least, I hope it’s all going to come together. I kind of feel moments of clarity now and then, so maybe it will.

Esperanto
Pasporto al la tuta mondo: 4-12

I’m getting close to the end of this show too. I’m not sure what I will do then. Go back to Teach Yourself, maybe. The main problem with Esperanto is that there isn’t really enough fun stuff to read and watch. At least not when you compare it to a language like Spanish or German where there’s something for almost every taste. Also, there are no Esperanto clubs near here. When I first started studying it, I was talking to someone at work about it and he was very interested and decided to do the Duolingo course too. I was hoping maybe we would be able to talk together, but I don’t think he ever made it past the first couple lessons.

Spanish
FSI Basic: 24
Gramática de uso del español B: 22-34
La fea más bella: 37-83

As you can see, I’ve traded my addiction to chocolate for an addiction to silly Mexican telenovelas. It’s doing wonders for my listening comprehension at least. I think I got really lucky in picking a show to watch, because I really had no idea what would be good. Anyway, this one is hysterical. Apparently they took the original Colombian Ugly Betty soap opera (Yo soy Betty, la fea), and kept the story almost the same but added a lot more comedy, so it’s filled with ridiculous happenings, jokes and slapstick. When I started watching, I could usually understand at least half, but I was relying a lot more on context. Now I understand most of it, even a lot of the jokes, in spite of the fact that the background music in this show tends to be a little too loud. I think I might need to try to control my addiction a little and get some more “real” studying in to keep things balanced, but all in all, I am learning a lot from it. I feel my vocabulary, or at least my passive vocabulary, is increasing. I also find it is helping me to get a feel for what sounds right and natural. For example, I’ve always known to use the “personal a,” the “a” that you put before the object of the sentence when it refers to a person, but I always had to remember it, rather than just feeling it belonged there. Now, I can feel myself assimilating that concept and it’s starting to feel natural to me.

[Rotasu]

Gratz on your 300 day streak in Duolingo!!
Posted on wrong log before xD

[Radioclare]

The main problem with Esperanto is that there isn’t really enough fun stuff to read and watch. At least not when you compare it to a language like Spanish or German where there’s something for almost every taste. Also, there are no Esperanto clubs near here. When I first started studying it, I was talking to someone at work about it and he was very interested and decided to do the Duolingo course too. I was hoping maybe we would be able to talk together, but I don’t think he ever made it past the first couple lessons.

I think this will always be an issue with Esperanto. Well, I think there is a fair amount of reading material available, although the prices of new books can sometimes be prohibitively expensive. But I don't think there will ever be a time when there are proper Esperanto films or TV programmes, just simply because no one has that sort of money to invest in Esperanto

It sounds like you're making great progress with everything anyway - your 6WC stats are amazing!!!

[Brun Ugle]

Thanks Rotasu and Radioclare. My Duolingo streak is fairly easily maintained as I have it set on the lowest level. So really, it's only a matter of remembering to do it. And as for my 6WC stats, that's all down to a telenovela addiction that I'm powerless to stop. I almost have to force myself to eat and sleep. My other languages are suffering and even Spanish would benefit from me doing something besides watching TV.

[Brun Ugle]

Update for week 7

German
Assimil passive: 96-100
Assimil active: 47-51
Language Transfer Complete German: 24-27
Extr@: 11-13

This has been a week for finishing stuff. First, the big one: I finished the passive wave of Assimil. The last part was pretty tough. But now comes the even harder part – finishing the last half of the active wave.

I also finished watching Extr@ which is only 13 episodes. It’s a lot of fun though. This time I watched it with German subtitles, but I might try watching it again later without subtitles. It’s the exact same show as the Spanish version. They even have the same actor in the role of Sam, the American pen-pal. There’s also a French version, again with the same Sam, for when I get around to learning French. I wonder how it was to play the exact same part three times in three different languages. There is an English version too, which apparently has 30 episodes instead of only 13, and the pen-pal is from Spain.

I haven’t technically finished the Language Transfer course, but I’ve listened to all the tracks that are available so far. I will continue with it as more tracks become available, whenever that is.

I’ve also been working a little in my grammar book, but so slowly. Now that I’ve finished the passive wave of Assimil, I’ll be doing more grammar exercises and more FSI. I’ve also been keeping up with the book club reading Tintenherz, and will continue with that. I haven’t gotten much Star Trek reading done though, mostly due to my little telenovela addiction.


Esperanto
Pasporto al la tuta mondo: 13-14

Still not much happening with Esperanto. I think I should probably go back to writing my diary in Esperanto. I’ve been neglecting both my diary and my Esperanto lately. I started using Memrise again, but that only lasted a couple of days. Again, I blame my addiction.


Spanish
Gramática de uso del español B: 35-37
La fea más bella: 84-112, 114-131

I’ve completely ignored FSI lately, and I’m also way behind on my grammar exercises. Cavesa is probably passing me already, unless maybe she’s too busy skiing. I haven’t even been reading Star Trek. I’m actually rather disappointed with the book. I got it because it was the only one I could find in Spanish, but most of it so far takes place on a Klingon ship. I read Star Trek to catch up with my friends from the Enterprise, not to read about a bunch of Klingons I don’t know and whose names I can never keep straight. Anyway, I will continue with it, but I’m already looking forward to being done and reading something else.

Then there is my telenovela addiction. I’ve developed a great respect for the art form. I had never watched any kind of soap opera before and always assumed it to be just trash for bored housewives, but now I can see it as an art and deserving of respect. It actually reminds me more of theatre than movies in style. I can see that the performance requires tremendous dedication and talent, as does the writing. This particular telenovela manages to combine tragedy, comedy and romance almost perfectly. I won’t say that every episode is brilliant; there have been times I’ve been almost a little irritated at it. However, as a whole, it is amazing. I just hope I will be able to see the whole thing. Every once in a while there is an episode that is blocked. I’ve missed episodes 29 and 113, but so far I’ve always been able to track down the others. I could’ve watched 113 dubbed in Portuguese, but it didn’t seem important enough to go to those lengths as it didn’t seem like one of the more important episodes, though 29 would have been good to see. Sometimes time is stretched out so much that a day in the story seems to take almost an entire day’s worth of episodes, and other times several days in the story might pass in only one or two episodes.

This week, I really ought to work on FSI and my grammar book as well as do some writing practice, but in all honesty, we all know I’m going to spend most of it glued to the screen, watching my telenovela. I was talking to my friend in Spain early this week and he told me there is only one cure for a telenovela addiction – to finish it! I think he’s probably right. I just have to keep going until I get to the end. I’m nearly half-way there already.

[Cavesa]

Congratulations!!! I admire your steady progress!

And I am far behind you in GUE (hmm, we should definitely find a good looking short nickname for our favourite grammarbook, gue looks ugly). I was busy skiing last week and now I need to focus on Italian (and dermatovenerology) first. But on the 3/3 in the evening, I plan to dive back into Spanish again! G(L)UE (:-D) and Aguila Roja are waiting!