Jeff's language log

[jeff_lindqvist]

2018 - Summary of week 6

Time for an update.

CS: I spoke the language! (Several times!) One of the workers at a café knows some Czech, so I had a go at it while ordering. Phrases from CzechClass101 saved me.

DE: Ich habe Sakriversum weitergelesen. Diese Woche habe ich mich entschieden vorzulesen. Das ist meine eigene "Output Challenge".

EO: Mi aŭskultis la lingvon! Antaŭ multaj jaroj Chuck Smith rekomendis unu radiostacion - Mosaiko. Mi trovis kelkajn podkastojn, kiujn mi komprenis facile. Mi devas diri, ke mi ne precipe ŝatas la germanan akcenton en Esperanto. Aliflanke, la finna esperantisto Jonne (kiu parolis pri la edukada sistemo) havis tre agrablan akcenton.

ES: ¡Tiempo para gramática! En mi colección hay un par de libros de ejercicios. Abrí uno de ellos e hice algunas secciones. Por el momento, no sé dónde está el libro de gramática que lo acompaña. A veces hay ejercicios sobre un tema que ese libro explica...

FR: Cette semaine - le même approche que l'espagnol. J'ai trouvé le livre (!), mais pas le cahier d'exercices (?!). Je ne sais pas pourquoi. Je lis les phrases à haute voix et j'analyse les mots surlignés/importants.

RU: Another go a Gulliver's travels in BliuBliu. ~2600 words in the bank. One of the days, it seemed that the site faced some network problems, so I had a look at Ilya Frank's Russian through Real Stories instead. So far, I've read twelve short stories. I like the format.

YUE: I've had no luck finding Cantonese speakers at work (haha!).

ZH: I continued reading in Elementary Chinese II. A lesson typically has a page of sentences based on certain structures, then maybe two pages of of real "text". Then a vocabulary list with (some of?) the new words, and a couple of exercises. I read everything aloud (with atrocioius pronunciation, no doubt).

[jeff_lindqvist]

2018 - Summary of week 7

Time for an update.

CS: The lessons of my current study path have a short dialogue, then dozens of new words and phrases. Most days, I add more than 40 cards to Anki.

DE: Ich habe diese Woche relatiev viel geschrieben. Nicht so unbequem als zuvor. Ich schreibe selten, außer kurze Mitteilungen an Kollegen (und die gelegentliche Postkarte ein- oder zweimal pro Jahr).

EO: Mi finlegis la kvaran libron de Moseo (Nombroj), kaj eklegis la kvinan (Readmono).

ES: Continué de leer Pippa Mediaslargas. No sé todas las palabras, pero comprendo casi todo, gracias al contexto. Veintimundos es un sitio que Iguanamon recomendó.

FR: J'ai continué à lire sur Maigret. Iguanamon a mentionné la section Learning by ear de DW. Je l'ai regardé et je pense que c'est une bonne ressource.

RU: Another week of Echo Moskvy. If anyone who reads this knows anything similar to the DW stuff above, don't hesitate to let me know. It doesn't have to be super easy, but a little closer to i+1 than the interviews I've listened to (where I occasionally understand a full sentence - and sometimes nothing).

YUE: Shorter lessons than CzechClass101, but more Anki work.

ZH: This was a week of Voice of America - Chinese. One hour of news each day. I can't say that I understand much. More like a word (or a couple of words) here and there. Still, better than nothing, and definitely more "fun" compared to slow lessons.

I finished the Dracula audiobook and started a new one - Berättelse om Herr Roos (written and narrated by Håkan Nesser). So far, I like it a lot.

[jeff_lindqvist]

2018 - Summary of week 8

Apologies for a very late update. I had some busy days at the end of last week. Then I woke up with a fever on Sunday morning.

CS: The podcast adventures continue. The sentences in the dialogues get longer and longer - and less useful for Anki, I must say. The recent FLC talk makes me want to take a step towards a good old audiobook. But which one?

DE: Ich habe mit Praktisk tyska angefangen (das ist eine kleine Grammatik mit Übungen). Ich muss mehr damit arbeiten!

EO: Mi aŭskultis kelkajn intervjuojn de Muzaiko, unu el ili estis intervjuo kun Chuck Smith, kiu parolis pri la kreado de la vikipedio. En alia, ili renkontis Sylvain Lelarge ĉe unu el la Polyglot Gatherings en Berlino.

ES: Dos horas de escribir/copiar textos de New Spanish with Ease.

FR: Scriptorium avec New French with Ease.

RU: I've come to like the Ilya Frank material/method a lot. I read a couple of stories every day.

YUE: I'm not too fond of the current bunch of lessons. They're short alright, teach five words which may come in handy, and then five example sentences which I'm sure I'll never use. Too irrelevant, too long.

ZH: I kept reading in this Elementary Chinese II.

Another hour of the Swedish audiobook, a film in Estonian (1944) where I recognized some vocabulary shared with Finnish. Not much reading. The FLC thread has spawned some new logs which I find very inspiring. Almost so inspiring that I'll start a new language under the same conditions...

[jeff_lindqvist]

2018 - Summary of week 9

Another late update. I had some busy days at the end of last week. Then I woke up with a fever on Sunday morning.

CS: No audiobook yet, but more podcasts. The current study path is listening comprehension - these video lessons consist of short dialogues with vocabulary I've never heard, and pictures (which give some hints). Then you get the written sentences on the screen (I copy everything into Anki - this takes longer than the actual podcast!). Finally this Gabriella says "Hope you learned something!". Yeah right. Some other member had commented that the content/language is way too advanced for the level (still Beginner).

DE: Ich habe einige Stunden Podcasts bei der Deutschen Welle zugehört und gleichzeitig die PDF-Transkripte gelesen. Möglicherweise zu einfach, aber ich mag eine gute Mischung aus einfachem und fortgeschrittenem Material.

ES: Finalmente, tuve tiempo para utilizar Veintemundos. Me gusta mucho el formato. Artículos breves con transcripciones. También aprecio la mezcla de voces y acentos. Escuché artículos intermedios y avanzados.

FR: Il y a quelques semaines, Iguanamon a mentionné la section Learning By Ear de DW. Beaucoup de sujets intéressants! J'ai choisi d'écouter une série sur l'histoire de l'Afrique. Mon français n'est pas aussi bon que mes autres langues romanes, mais je comprends beaucoup. Les transcriptions sont très utiles. Merci beaucoup!

PT: Como a minha seção francesa acima, visitei a DW para trabalhar no meu português. Depois de um tempo, encontrei a mesma série sobre a história africana e também percebi que a narrativa era a mesma. Perfeito! Eu já "sabia" o conteúdo! Muito obrigado!

RU: More Ilya Frank! Why haven't I used this resource before? Two or three short stories per day.

YUE: More cultural podcasts. A lot of English. I'm almost running out of podcasts for beginners, but I still don't feel that I know much. I must change appoaches soon.

ZH: More reading in Elementary Chinese II.

Four sessions with the Swedish audiobook (a little over one hour each). I've had a look at Catalan resources. I want to do the pure FLC for two languages - is Polish the other one? Or Slovak? Or something else? I don't know. No Esperanto this week, but as you can see, I returned to Portuguese. It feels great!

[jeff_lindqvist]

2018 - Summary of week 10

My updates are getting more and more delayed.

CS: I'm almost finished with the listening comprehension podcasts. They aren't long (just over a minute), and I use the audio for dictation first, and then compare it with what's on the screen at the end. I'm looking forward to finishing the series.

DE: Ich habe mit Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten angefangen. Es gibt Transkripte sowie Audio bei langsamer und normaler Geschwindigkeit (ich wähle immer die normale Geschwindigkeit).

ES: Otra semana de Veintemundos! Estudio dos artículos (intermedios) por día. No grandes problemas hasta el momento.

FR: J'ai terminé la série sur l'Afrique et j'ai continué avec Ordinateurs et Internet en Afrique - neuf podcasts de ~10 minutes avec transcriptions.

PT: Também terminei a versão portuguesa da história africana. Se eu estudo francês e português depois de um e outro, mantenho um monte de vocabulário e história geral. Às vezes estudo outro idioma no meio, para não "enganar" tanto. A próxima série de podcasts é a Computadores e Internet.

RU: I don't think I've seen a recommendation for A Taste of Russian here - I saw it on Fluentu while looking for podcasts in easy Russian. So far, each article has ~15 minutes of audio + transcript.

YUE: More cultural podcasts. I'm close to finishing this series. Between 5 and 10 new Anki cards per day.

ZH: This was a week of VOA Chinese. I still don't understand a lot, but it's getting better. I just needed a break from reading.

All these "bursts" are starting to give results. My reading comprehension (and to some extent my listening comprehension) is a lot better than just a week ago. It's a combination of the regularity and intensity. Not that 15 minutes is that intense, but some days I'm skipping a session in a certain language - and then I make up for it the day after. And even 15 is more than 0. Especially if there were many 0s during last year...

I still havent decided on the language(s) for the FLC.

Summary of week 11 in a day or two!

[Oscard587]

RU: I don't think I've seen a recommendation for A Taste of Russian here - I saw it on Fluentu while looking for podcasts in easy Russian. So far, each article has ~15 minutes of audio + transcript.

Oh, thanks! I was curious about russian podcasts for listening since Echo Moscow was too difficult for me. so now I'm trying some free podcast from them. Have you subscribed? If then, Is it available to access all episodes of them if I subscribe? or only for upcoming episodes?

[jeff_lindqvist]

I haven't subscribed (no plans to do that either). Unless I'm reading books (or studying grammar) I spend most of my language time in front of the computer. For this Russian site, this means audio and PDF in separate tabs. So far, it seems that there are free podcasts (audio+PDF) from the beginning (June 2007) to April 2013. But even in modern times, there's the occasional free podcast (one per month, I think).

Some words and expressions are explained along the way, all in Russian.

[jeff_lindqvist]

2018 - Summary of week 11

Summary of week 11 in a day or two!

Yeah, right. Anyway, here's a short one.

CS: At last I finished the listening comprehension podcasts. The end of the week was mostly sentence mining and Anki.

DE: Ich habe Deutschland.FM (wieder-)gefunden und Nachrichten zugehört.

ES: La tercera semana de Veintemundos! Todavía dos artículos (intermedios) por día.

FR: J'ai terminé la série sur Ordinateurs et Internet en Afrique et j'ai continué avec des podcasts de Journal en français facile.

PT: Terminei os podcasts Computadores e Internet e depois encontrei Todo Mundo Pod.

RU: This was a week of radio interviews from Echo Moskvy.

YUE: Just a few podcasts left of the cultural series. Regular additions to Anki.

ZH: Another week of VOA Chinese (while mining resources).

It feels like ages since I read anything decent in Swedish or English (other than, say, this forum).

[jeff_lindqvist]

2018 - Summary of week 12

Again, a very late summary.

CS: Nothing but vocabulary (CzechClass101 has a section of theme-based vocabulary lists, including Star Wars!), sentence mining and Anki.

DE: Noch eine Woche mit Nachrichten von Deutschland.FM.

ES: La cuarta semana de Veintemundos! Dos o tres artículos (intermedios) por día. A pesar de algunas palabras desconocidas, no hay problemas entender los artículos.

FR: J'ai continué avec des podcasts de Journal en français facile, chaque jour. Parfois, je ne remarque même pas quelle langue j'écoute (ou je lis).

PT: Continuei com a série que Iguanamon recomendou - Queres que te conte mais? Fábulas africanas para uma cultura de paz. A minha compreensão tinha realmente melhorado depois de quatro semanas com este material.

RU: Time for some grammar! I opened my Russian in Exercises again. The horror!

YUE: I found a series called Absolute beginner Cantonese for every day. Each podcast is a few minutes long (up to maybe five-six) and features Olivia who goes through a bunch of words or sentences. Usually there are two examples for each point.

ZH: I needed something new and had a look at Da Shan's Travel in Chinese. Each video lesson is just under 15 minutes, shows a family in different situations (on the airplane, lost luggage at the airport, taking a taxi, losing a bag in the taxi and so on). I copy everything into Anki. Some grammar points with additional examples. Not too bad. The sentences are quite long, though (it's an Intermediate series). By the way, I really like the voice of the fellow playing 黄人豪 (it reminds me of the Chinese dramas I watched many years ago). If the dialogues were available as mp3 files, I'd have some great shadowing material.

[jeff_lindqvist]

2018 - Summary of week 13

Again, a very late summary.

CS: Vocabulary, sentence mining and Anki like last week. This will probably be my main activity until I'm finished with the lists.

DE: Ich habe ein paar Seiten auf Deutsch geschrieben.

ES: Escribí unas páginas en español. Es más facil que antes. No me duele la muñeca.

FR: Deux heures de Scriptorium. Je ne me souviens pas que les mots français utilisaient autant d'accents...

IT: What is this, a new language? Since I could never decide on anything for the FLC, I took an easier path and (re-)started Italian. My previous experience is based on some Linguaphone lessons many years ago, Duolingo for almost two years, and finally some FSI one year ago. While looking for resources with text + audio, I found The Italian experiment, which (among other things) had three children's stories with audio, text, and translation (English). ~30 minutes of bilingual material was a good warm-up. (There are also similar websites for French, German and Spanish.) I also had a look at News in Slow Italian (I think its French counterpart was recommended recently). The intermediate section has a number of podcasts - one per week, I think. The free content is a short dialogue (~2 minutes) with text (some phrases have mouse-over translation). That's good enough for me!

RU: Some more short stories from the Ilya Frank material. I'm halfway through now.

YUE: More podcasts from Absolute beginner Cantonese for every day.

ZH: I spent some time with Elementary Chinese II. I read everything aloud. I'm improving little by little.

The Scriptorium is a semi-automatic process. Regardless of the language, I'm familiar with the content and don't think too much about the sentence structures anymore. The most difficult thing is to actually write long hand, and pay attention to spelling/orthography.