Rowanexer's log (FR, JP, PT)

[rowanexer]

I've just been getting back into languages again (used to lurk on HTAL back in the day!) and I've been wanting to refresh my current abilities, and start some new languages too.

My main language is Japanese. It was my major at university and I worked and studied in Japan for a few years. But since leaving the country my skills have atrophied a bit, and I'd like to study it more actively. I never got the N1 JLPT certificate (tried it once and was four marks from a pass, which disappointed me so much I didn't want to try again). It's a bit pointless now since I have a degree in Japanese but I think aiming to pass it will help focus my efforts and also improve my professional/academic vocabulary.

Goals:
Pass the N1
Read a novel in Japanese (I've only read manga and short story collections so far)

Resources:
日本語総まとめN1漢字・単語・文法
未来いそっぷ by 星新一 (Aesop short stories with a twist)
NHKニュース

My other language is long dormant French. I studied it for 6 years in high school and studied abroad for 6 months and got to maybe B1 or B2 but in the 10 years since I have barely used it. I've just started getting back into it recently and I've been surprised by how much I remember. I'd like to get some of my level back.

Goals:
Be able to have a conversation in French comfortably
Read a novel in French

Resources:
Assimil Using French
Coursera Etudier en France MOOC
TV5 Apprendre exercises (love this!)
InnerFrench (possibly too easy. There's not much I don't understand in it but it's nice easy listening practice)
Leroc Les Adversaires (B1 graded reader, it's way too easy though. I think I need to move to B2 readers or native materials)

And the newest language is Portuguese, which I've been studying for maybe 5 months now. The reason is a little frivolous. I'll be staying in Portugal for 3 weeks in the summer with family. No-one else speaks any Portuguese so I jumped at the chance to learn some. I even booked a solo holiday in Portugal where I went to intensive language classes for one week. This was a fantastic idea! I got so much practice listening and speaking Portuguese and I had a really fun time.

Goals:
Be able to get by while travelling in Portugal
Maybe go for an A2 certificate?

Resources:
Assimil Le portugais sans peine
Pimsleur European Portuguese 1 & 2
Gramatica aplicada 1 & 2
Graded readers by Susana Morais

I also signed up for Storygraph recently, which is a website/app to track your reading/listening. I've found it really good for keeping motivated with language learning, because I can enter language resource books and watch the little line on the graph go up. There are also "challenges" you can sign up to, and I found one for reading/listening in foreign languages and now I'm really eager to add a French or Japanese book to my stats.

I haven't been studying super intensively. I more often than not don't manage to study an Assimil or Pimsleur lesson daily, but I do try to do at least something every day. I have a long-ish bus journey to work where I will listen to some podcasts, and I've even got a shower speaker so I can put on a podcast while showering! I see that a lot of the reddit advice is still "study 5000 highest frequency words on Anki before you even start learning a language!" but I'm quite burnt out on SRS after having to use it so much for uni. So I'm hoping to find other methods that work as well for learning vocabulary.

Anyway, glad to be a part of the community again and looking forward to learning from everyone!

[tastyonions]

Welcome! Best of luck with your goals.

[rowanexer]

Thanks! (sorry I can't see how to heart someone's post but I have done it mentally for yours)

[golyplot]

Thanks! (sorry I can't see how to heart someone's post but I have done it mentally for yours)

You should be able to just click on the heart icon.

[rowanexer]

Portuguese
I've done 2 Pimsleur lessons this week. I'm definitely losing enthusiasm for it. I think it's still useful but I can only stand doing it if I'm doing household chores at the same time, and I have not been doing that much lately. So household chores and Pimsleur are both not getting done.

I did 3 lessons of Assimil though, up to 53 now. I am really really enjoying it! It's the first time I've properly tried Assimil and I really should have tried it before! It's not doing much for my active skills but it's really helping my passive skills and I'm getting so much exposure to difficult language. I credit Assimil for why I was able to understanding Portuguese so well during my trip there. Anyway, the course has been going into LOTS of detail on different subjunctive tenses.

I have my Gramática ativa book but it doesn't cover the subjunctive at all, so I bit the bullet and bought the next level up. Imperfect subjunctive & other subjunctive tenses are listed as C1! I did the first lesson on the present subjunctive and found it was quite more difficult than the lower level book. I'm gonna continue working through Gramática Ativa 1 and will just use the 2nd book now and then when I want to revise certain things.

I also bought the A2 reader from Susana Morais: O Baú das Coisas Perdidas. I read the A1 reader and loved it and this one looks just as good. I've done 7 pages so far. What I love about these graded readers is how you can figure things out from context. For example, I don't know what o baú, but in one paragraph in the book it described the character opening o bau and how there were lots of things inside. So I'm guessing it's a box or a chest. In comparison I've rarely been able to figure out words from Parallel Readers, as they just don't repeat things often enough and native texts are too difficult.

French
My goal this week was to finish week two of the Coursera course and I sadly didn't make it. It's just too much to finish it all on Sunday evening. I got halfway through at least. It's a good course! But I will probably not finish it all before the deadline.

As well as that I also listened to two InnerFrench podcasts. I really love this podcast, the host always picks interesting topics. So far I haven't looked up the transcriptions at all. I'm just enjoying listening and I do pick up words from context.

Japanese
Er, nothing really. One lesson of my Kanji revision guide and a bit of messing about with flashcards. The problem is I'm really not enthusiastic to start up some intensive flashcard program. I can't do it again. It's soul destroying. So I think I need to experiment with different things to memorise vocabulary. I might try reading through a lesson in the morning, then the evening, and any words I find difficult to remember I will write up a sentence using that word.

Otherwise, I think I need to get more native materials. I'm enjoying reading 未来いそっぷ but I'm skeptical if novels are going to be much use for the JLPT. I might need to substitute with documentaries or news reports.

[Le Baron]

I think it's still useful but I can only stand doing it if I'm doing household chores at the same time, and I have not been doing that much lately. So household chores and Pimsleur are both not getting done.

I'll have to remember not to associate Pimsleur (or anything) with things I don't like doing, or things I need to do, so that they're not negatively influenced by the course being bad/good!

[brilliantyears]

I also signed up for Storygraph recently, which is a website/app to track your reading/listening. I've found it really good for keeping motivated with language learning, because I can enter language resource books and watch the little line on the graph go up. There are also "challenges" you can sign up to, and I found one for reading/listening in foreign languages and now I'm really eager to add a French or Japanese book to my stats.

I'm on Storygraph and actively using challenges but this one never occurred to me. Sounds like good motivation. Which challenge did you end up joining?

[rowanexer]

I'm on Storygraph and actively using challenges but this one never occurred to me. Sounds like good motivation. Which challenge did you end up joining?

It's called "2023 Language Reading Challenge" hosted by wanderonwards.

[rowanexer]

Studying was disrupted this week by a trip to the Netherlands. I didn't bring that many books but I didn't have any Wifi on the ferry which meant I got a lot of reading and listening done.

French
The only thing I managed to do was almost finish week 2 of the Coursera course and listen to an InnerFrench podcast. Oops. The Coursera course is really challenging me. Even though it's hard I feel like it's very useful. I'm thinking I should maybe start doing some dictation exercises to help with my listening comprehension.

Portuguese
This was the majority of my studies. I am now up to lesson 57 in Assimil and have finished the Pretereito Perfeito Simples exercises in the Gramatica Ativa book. No Pimsleur but I did take along my A2 reader. I read through it twice, and listened to the audio twice. It was good, an achievable step-up from the A1 book but I didn't like the story as much. It didn't feel as complete and it was shorter. But it was a good exercise and I feel like a lot of the words are more cemented in my memory now.

I've also been looking at the other readers. Unfortunately there is no B1 reader by the same author but they have an A0 reader. I've been considering reading it out loud to my niece and nephew when we all visit Portugal this summer. They are 8 & 9 so not the ideal toddler age for absorbing a language, but maybe I can get them interested in the story and figuring out "the code" of the language if I present it like a challenge.

Japanese
I didn't bring along any Japanese material with me but I bought a book in Amsterdam: Read Real Japanese Essays. On the ferry I read through the first two essays twice. It has an audio CD included so at some point I'm gonna rip the audio and listen to that.

Dutch
This is not in my official plans but since I went to the Netherlands I did try to learn a few words using Memrise. I also had a peek in the bookshops at Dutch learning materials but I think I'll stick to my original plan of using Assimil.

[rowanexer]

Well, I didn't manage to get much studying done and got too disheartened to update. But that's life, so I'm back again!

French
I'm still struggling to finish module 2 of that Coursera course. Haven't listened to any podcasts or read anything. The only thing I've done is I changed the game language in The Witcher 3 to French. It has some really difficult vocabulary! But I'm managing to get by, and the phrase "You have won the round" is now imprinted in my brain from how much Gwent I've been playing in that.

Portuguese
I've done up to lesson 62 in Assimil. Still enjoying it. Really started to get annoyed with Pimsleur. Did several reading lessons but only 2 main lessons. Oh dear. I want to just get it finished and out of the way now. It's useful but it's hard work. There's only 11 left so I think I wlil just have to force myself.

I've done 6 lessons of Gramatica Aplicada (not Ativa as I wrote last time, oops). I like this book! I went through the verb tenses until B1, and then went back to do the A1 lessons for articles. I'm gonna follow along with the level recommendations rather than the sequential order. I'm 1/4 of the way through.

A cool thing happened today at choir. I tried talking to a Brazilian guy there who was really happy to speak Portuguese with me. He talked a little fast but I managed to express myself and talk about my trip to Portugal and why I'm studying Portuguese. He insisted we only speak Portuguese from now on xD Anyway, I'm very happy because speaking practise was lacking in my studies.

Japanese
I've been kind of flitting from one resource to the next and have been unsure what exactly I should be doing. One thing I missed was a TV5 Apprendre resource, but I've realised: That's what GLOSS is!
I've done one lesson there and I'm going to continue using it, because it uses a wide variety of native materials, and honestly the exercises are really well made and require a lot of thought.

I've been reading through 未来いそっぷ which is a lot of fun. I'm putting vocabulary I don't know into my dictionary flashcard app, revising it, and then rereading each story several times. I even tried reading it out loud to a family member and translating on the fly!

So one thing I can't get away from is how my vocabulary is lacking. But I hate Anki. Anyway, I've brought out this old app, Japanese Sensei, which has 10,000 of the most common words, with audio and sentences, and several exercises for practising the vocabulary. I have to modify it a little by covering the multiple choice answers to tax my brain a little more, but I think it should be useful. I'm aiming for a target of 30 new words a day, starting from the 5,000 word mark.

And in other news, I met another language enthusiast at choir! He saw me reading my Japanese book and then heard me speaking Portuguese and came up and started talking to me. Very fun to meet a fellow language fan, as I've been feeling more and more like the weird one for enjoying language learning. He does use Duolingo though, and can you be a true language enthusiast if you like Duolingo? I'm just joking xD