Re: Japanese, Swedish, and Korean Language Log
Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2016 6:29 am
I WAS going to post a reply next week, but I'm replying early because I think it's time to do a little bit of organizing.
I am already a little ahead on Japanese like I wanted, but in now way did I get VERY ahead, much less through all of the materials. I think that I feel okay with this, as I got a 3.0 in Japanese last quarter, and I know my instructor's teaching and testing style well now. I think that since Swedish was so unexpectedly easy (due to the teacher mostly), it's not worth it to stress about learning all of the Japanese words within the next week (to make more time for learning Swedish words during the year), but I should definitely take a look at them, as well as the grammar points and readings, before the school year starts up.
Japanese for the end of 2016:
Tobira
-Review words from chapters 4 and 6
-Make flash cards for chapter 5 if I have time
-Read through the grammar points
-Read through the readings
Journal
-6 entries before New Year's ^^
I didn't call my language partner yesterday because it was Christmas, but today we called for about an hour, and the time before was the day before Christmas. (we've had 3 sessions so far, each an hour long). Since I hardly understand the audio book we were reading/listening to before, we've decided to start using simple youtube videos instead. I listen, he transcribes and translates the words only, then I try to decipher the meaning, and he tells me if I'm right or not.
He also has me working on Korean pronunciation, as we have discovered several words that really trip me up since they are pronounced differently than they are spelled (just like a lot of words we have in English, actually). This discovery was really grand for me, because I was under the impression that Korean was sort of like Japanese; pronunciation was almost always the same as the word is spelled. Haha! No wonder I was having trouble with Korean! I didn't understand this fundamental information! In fact, I think that the way they pronounce the words in speaking is actually much easier to pronounce than trying to pronounce the words letter by letter, like I was doing before. (big mistake) haha
Korean for the end of 2016:
-Continue language exchange
-Practice speaking, reading, and writing after language exchange
-Refresh knowledge on the Korean number systems
I think I should start recording the hours spent talking (online or in person) with language partners. I haven't gotten a schedule set up with any Japanese people yet, but I think I will soon. Language courses don't count. I think I need real conversational/private teaching time with people to get better at these languages. I did find a Swedish language partner, but I am afraid that if we called we wouldn't be working towards language learning, so I'm on the lookout for a new one. It's really hard to make progress with conversations in Swedish because a lot of Swedish people already know English very well. ...
Time with Language Partners:
Korean: 3 hours
Japanese: 0 hours
Swedish: 0 hours
I wrote a while ago some resolutions for 2017. I have not yet decided what I want to do with Spanish other than Duolingo... which is kind of like Memrise in the way that it helps with review, but with actually learning? It doesn't really seem to work for me. Maybe I just need to spend more time on it. Anyway, I have about the same amount of knowledge in Korean that I do in Spanish, so maybe using the same tactic I use with my Korean language partner could help me learn more Spanish. I'm also planning to look for some helpful sites to learn Spanish from. Anyway, I'll be writing more later. Though it's still my break, all I can think about is language learning. Hahaha...
I think that's all for now! Thanks for reading!
I am already a little ahead on Japanese like I wanted, but in now way did I get VERY ahead, much less through all of the materials. I think that I feel okay with this, as I got a 3.0 in Japanese last quarter, and I know my instructor's teaching and testing style well now. I think that since Swedish was so unexpectedly easy (due to the teacher mostly), it's not worth it to stress about learning all of the Japanese words within the next week (to make more time for learning Swedish words during the year), but I should definitely take a look at them, as well as the grammar points and readings, before the school year starts up.
Japanese for the end of 2016:
Tobira
-Review words from chapters 4 and 6
-Make flash cards for chapter 5 if I have time
-Read through the grammar points
-Read through the readings
Journal
-6 entries before New Year's ^^
I didn't call my language partner yesterday because it was Christmas, but today we called for about an hour, and the time before was the day before Christmas. (we've had 3 sessions so far, each an hour long). Since I hardly understand the audio book we were reading/listening to before, we've decided to start using simple youtube videos instead. I listen, he transcribes and translates the words only, then I try to decipher the meaning, and he tells me if I'm right or not.
He also has me working on Korean pronunciation, as we have discovered several words that really trip me up since they are pronounced differently than they are spelled (just like a lot of words we have in English, actually). This discovery was really grand for me, because I was under the impression that Korean was sort of like Japanese; pronunciation was almost always the same as the word is spelled. Haha! No wonder I was having trouble with Korean! I didn't understand this fundamental information! In fact, I think that the way they pronounce the words in speaking is actually much easier to pronounce than trying to pronounce the words letter by letter, like I was doing before. (big mistake) haha
Korean for the end of 2016:
-Continue language exchange
-Practice speaking, reading, and writing after language exchange
-Refresh knowledge on the Korean number systems
I think I should start recording the hours spent talking (online or in person) with language partners. I haven't gotten a schedule set up with any Japanese people yet, but I think I will soon. Language courses don't count. I think I need real conversational/private teaching time with people to get better at these languages. I did find a Swedish language partner, but I am afraid that if we called we wouldn't be working towards language learning, so I'm on the lookout for a new one. It's really hard to make progress with conversations in Swedish because a lot of Swedish people already know English very well. ...
Time with Language Partners:
Korean: 3 hours
Japanese: 0 hours
Swedish: 0 hours
I wrote a while ago some resolutions for 2017. I have not yet decided what I want to do with Spanish other than Duolingo... which is kind of like Memrise in the way that it helps with review, but with actually learning? It doesn't really seem to work for me. Maybe I just need to spend more time on it. Anyway, I have about the same amount of knowledge in Korean that I do in Spanish, so maybe using the same tactic I use with my Korean language partner could help me learn more Spanish. I'm also planning to look for some helpful sites to learn Spanish from. Anyway, I'll be writing more later. Though it's still my break, all I can think about is language learning. Hahaha...
I think that's all for now! Thanks for reading!