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Re: East Asian x Swedish & Spanish Language Log

Posted: Fri Mar 17, 2017 11:34 pm
by jeff_lindqvist
Xelian wrote:Long time no see,

I completed my quarter.

Progress report:
Japanese 312:
-3/3 Tobira chapters completed
-17/17 lecture homework pages completed
-7/7 vocabulary quizzes taken
-3/3 kanji quizzes taken
-2/2 chapter exams taken
-1/1 project paper completed
-1/1 project speech completed
-1/1 oral interview taken
-1/1 final exam taken

Progress report:
Swedish 102:
-6/6 Rivstart chapters completed
-6/6 chapter quizzes taken
-6/6 vocabulary quizzes taken
-2/2 verbal exams taken
-2/2 written exams taken
-10/10 Swedish outside the classroom[...]


Wow! Impressive and inspiring!

Re: East Asian x Swedish & Spanish Language Log

Posted: Tue Mar 21, 2017 1:09 am
by Xelian
jeff_lindqvist wrote:Wow! Impressive and inspiring!


Thank you!!! I'm trying hard. Sometimes I need a break however x-x

Re: East Asian x Swedish & Spanish Language Log

Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2017 7:18 pm
by Xelian
I am back,

I wasn't active for quite some time. I wasn't doing so well this quarter as far as assignments went, I found no purpose in most of them, and thus, my grades dropped a little bit (obviously). Particularly Japanese class. I don't know if I mentioned before, but I was really getting annoyed at the grammar assignments as they made no sense. I like how Tobira is structured, but if you buy it, I do not recommend the grammar book that goes with it. I find myself looking at the answers because I have no idea what kind of story I need to make up in order to complete each problem. I say problem because it is an almost mathematical approach, but you need more creativity to come up with the answers than anything else. My only surprise is that homework wasn't worth much of the overall grade, but it was worth just enough to make it so I didn't get a desirable grade, on top of the other things that I did "okay" on.

Anyway, to eradicate the homework issue, I'm going to try and do the work in advance. This time I am serious. It is pointless work, but there is too much at stake now, since I have to get a minimum of 2.5 in this particular class to pass to 4th year Japanese, I am going to be putting most of my energy into the it. I never thought I would have academic struggles, but this university is no joke, like I've said before. One slip up and you'll lose a letter grade!!

I'm re-thinking a lot about my life, and I think that's probably why I'm not doing so well. I honestly don't know where I am going with languages; there is SO MUCH DISCOURAGEMENT coming from everyone. My family, my friends, my teachers, my fellow students... So I guess I need to just carry on, or think about other options. I really wanted to be a translator. But... The stakes suddenly look so high. Can I do it? I am watching my brain think about other opportunities for my future, none of which are any more valuable than being a translator, so I wonder if this is an issue of happiness? Is it an issue of humility? Do I need to see a therapist? Do I even have time?

Well. At any rate, I'm taking the last quarter of 3rd year Japanese, and the last quarter of 1st year Swedish, along with a Japanese film class (finally, something not so challenging). One year and three months left at this university. Can I do it? I am going to try so hard it could kill me.

Re: East Asian x Swedish & Spanish Language Log

Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2017 7:37 pm
by Xelian
Starting tomorrow, these are my plans for the quarter:

We're covering 3 chapters again in Japanese. It looks like we have 8 vocabulary quizzes, verses 7 (last quarter), 3 kanji quizzes, and 18 lecture homeworks. We have another report/presentation thing, as well as an oral exam.
Progress report:
Japanese 313:
-0/3 Tobira chapters completed
-0/18 lecture homework pages completed
-0/8 vocabulary quizzes taken
-0/3 kanji quizzes taken
-0/2 chapter exams taken
-0/1 project paper completed
-0/1 project speech completed
-0/1 oral interview taken
-0/1 final exam taken

We're covering 6 chapters again in Swedish. Everything stayed basically the same, but the vocabulary quizzes are now at the end of each chapter instead of randomly each week. That's a relief, I don't have to rush to learn them anymore. On another note, one thing that stopped me from going to Swedish for many days was some harassment I was experiencing in the classroom by another student. It wasn't anything drastic, but I felt uncomfortable by the last few weeks of the quarter. I plan to try and avoid the individual if I can. This might mean sitting in the back row. I just don't feel comfortable at all and he always tries to distract me when I'm trying to listen to the instructor. Feels like high school or something, I wish people would grow up.
Progress report:
Swedish 103:
-0/6 Rivstart chapters completed
-0/6 chapter quizzes taken
-0/6 vocabulary quizzes taken
-0/2 verbal exams taken
-0/2 written exams taken
-0/10 Swedish outside the classroom

Everything looks about the same, but I'll update the progress chart if anything else changes.

Re: East Asian x Swedish & Spanish Language Log

Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2017 9:18 pm
by DCDC
Xelian wrote:I'm re-thinking a lot about my life, and I think that's probably why I'm not doing so well. I honestly don't know where I am going with languages; there is SO MUCH DISCOURAGEMENT coming from everyone. My family, my friends, my teachers, my fellow students... So I guess I need to just carry on, or think about other options. I really wanted to be a translator. But... The stakes suddenly look so high. Can I do it? I am watching my brain think about other opportunities for my future, none of which are any more valuable than being a translator, so I wonder if this is an issue of happiness? Is it an issue of humility? Do I need to see a therapist? Do I even have time?

Man, I can definitely relate.
But I also feel it's the same with pretty much everything a person might want to do. No worthwhile career is easy to get into. Thinking about other options is always a good idea, though.

My boyfriend is a programmer and while he and his friends have absolutely no problems finding jobs, they all suffer from burnout, have to participate in the rat race more than I do and are often unhappy, because while they earn a lot it's not a job they want to be doing, usually (most of them want to make video games or similar things, or do something that's not IT related at all). They all have grand plans to move on to do something else in the future, and it won't be easy for them either.
I'm not trying to say that translation is a better career than IT, of course, just that every profession has its issues.

Re: East Asian x Swedish & Spanish Language Log

Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 4:30 pm
by Xelian
DCDC wrote:Man, I can definitely relate.
But I also feel it's the same with pretty much everything a person might want to do. No worthwhile career is easy to get into. Thinking about other options is always a good idea, though.

My boyfriend is a programmer and while he and his friends have absolutely no problems finding jobs, they all suffer from burnout, have to participate in the rat race more than I do and are often unhappy, because while they earn a lot it's not a job they want to be doing, usually (most of them want to make video games or similar things, or do something that's not IT related at all). They all have grand plans to move on to do something else in the future, and it won't be easy for them either.
I'm not trying to say that translation is a better career than IT, of course, just that every profession has its issues.


Thank you for your reply. I do feel like it's a struggle many people face. I think my university is a rat race honestly, and that gets to me sometimes. In the end, it all balances out I guess!

Re: East Asian x Swedish & Spanish Language Log

Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2017 4:50 pm
by Xelian
I survived my first week of the quarter!!! Here's what I got done:

For Japanese, I found out we're doing a full out research paper this quarter. I picked the topic "okashi, wagashi, and dagashi" which is like Japanese sweets and snacks/junk food. We'll see if my teacher approves it. We also took a vocabulary quiz and had 2 lectures (plus 3 quiz section classes). We have two more vocabulary quizzes next week, one Monday and the other Friday. I was ahead all of this week because I did all of my homework on like Monday and Tuesday. I'll try to keep this up for the entirety of the quarter so that I don't have to deal with the pointless grammar exercises everyday, but rather just do it all at once...
Progress report:
Japanese 313:
-0/3 Tobira chapters completed
-2/18 lecture homework pages completed
-1/8 vocabulary quizzes taken
-0/3 kanji quizzes taken
-0/2 chapter exams taken
-0/1 project: research paper completed
-0/1 project: speech completed
-0/1 oral interview taken
-0/1 final exam taken

For Swedish we have our first chapter test on Tuesday next week, along with a vocabulary quiz. I'll have to study this weekend!!
Progress report:
Swedish 103:
-0/6 Rivstart chapters completed
-0/6 chapter quizzes taken
-0/6 vocabulary quizzes taken
-0/2 verbal exams taken
-0/2 written exams taken
-1/10 Swedish outside the classroom

I've been getting more strategic with my flash cards. I gave up paper kanji and vocabulary flashcards long ago, but I find that they're great for learning verb forms. This is because you can put more than one term on both sides, and it's much easier to write it out than try and program online flash cards to work that way, without remembering useless details like "Oh yeah, I have to add a comma to my response or my online flashcard will tell me I'm incorrect." Plus I found these really nice lined cards that I want to use. I'm planning to use them for learning transitive/intransitive pairs in Japanese, and maybe for other verb forms that give me hell. My Swedish instructor actually introduced me to this, we put two kind of "standard" verb forms, dictionary and "plain" form (don't know the grammatical term for it) on the front, and then on the back we have past tense and present perfect. I knew all of the words on the cards within maybe 5 rounds of going through them. So anyway, can't wait to make those for Japanese, but I know it will be a bit time consuming and not really "for class", but it's for my own learning so I want to do it. I'll update next week!!

P.S: I have a new progress bar in my signature, and that's because I'm reading 1,000 articles in Japanese!!! I don't have any particular rate that I'm going at, but I hope work my way to reading at least 1 or 2 articles a day. We'll see how it goes!

Re: East Asian x Swedish & Spanish Language Log

Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 2:39 am
by tuckamore
Xelian wrote:For Japanese, I found out we're doing a full out research paper this quarter. I picked the topic "okashi, wagashi, and dagashi" which is like Japanese sweets and snacks/junk food. We'll see if my teacher approves it.

What a fun topic! I hope it gets approved by your teacher. :)

Xelian wrote:Plus I found these really nice lined cards that I want to use. I'm planning to use them for learning transitive/intransitive pairs in Japanese, and maybe for other verb forms that give me hell.

Transitive/intransitive pairs torment me, too. I have no trouble understanding them in context (or at least I don't think I do), but when it comes to production, all bets are off. I still confuse basic pairs like 閉める/閉まる and 始める/始まる, which I've studied and memorized ad nauseum with no lasting results. Recently, though, I read a hint that has helped me a lot: verbs ending in す are transitive. In the link below, see the first sentence after the fourth table. And, based on the next sentence and the following tables, I think that verbs ending in -aru (-かる、-さる、etc.) are intransitive. At a minimum, these two statements are true based on the all the verbs presented in the link, which is some hundreds. http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/ts/japanese/ ... MPq0e.html
(And so, if -aru = intransitive, then my problem above with 閉める/閉まる and 始める/始まる has been solved. ;) )

Re: East Asian x Swedish & Spanish Language Log

Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2017 7:19 pm
by Xelian
tuckamore wrote:
Xelian wrote:Plus I found these really nice lined cards that I want to use. I'm planning to use them for learning transitive/intransitive pairs in Japanese, and maybe for other verb forms that give me hell.

Transitive/intransitive pairs torment me, too. I have no trouble understanding them in context (or at least I don't think I do), but when it comes to production, all bets are off. I still confuse basic pairs like 閉める/閉まる and 始める/始まる, which I've studied and memorized ad nauseum with no lasting results. Recently, though, I read a hint that has helped me a lot: verbs ending in す are transitive. In the link below, see the first sentence after the fourth table. And, based on the next sentence and the following tables, I think that verbs ending in -aru (-かる、-さる、etc.) are intransitive. At a minimum, these two statements are true based on the all the verbs presented in the link, which is some hundreds. http://www.sf.airnet.ne.jp/ts/japanese/ ... MPq0e.html
(And so, if -aru = intransitive, then my problem above with 閉める/閉まる and 始める/始まる has been solved. ;) )


Thanks for the advice!!! I have heard this statement before too, that most transitive/intransitive pairs have a pattern like that. I find that as I review flashcards, that rule really gets solidified, even if I don't need to review so many of them before I've got the pattern down. This is really the only way that I see working for me to learn verb forms. Eventually, I go by what "sounds right" rather than thinking through every grammatical rule. It helps so much!!! But, I am yet to make the cards... Maybe this weekend!!!

Re: East Asian x Swedish & Spanish Language Log

Posted: Sat Apr 08, 2017 7:55 pm
by Xelian
And I am done with my second week of the quarter!!! This one wasn't as smooth/easy as the last, but that's okay.

We had two Japanese vocabulary quizzes this week, so I learned twice as many words than usual. We also had two more lectures, along with our three "quiz section" classes this week. Our first kanji quiz is on Thursday next week. I put in my research paper ideas and website links, I believe that the idea is approved as-is, as long as no one else in the class is covering the same topic. (in which case, we would just be paired up to present together).
Progress report:
Japanese 313:
-0/3 Tobira chapters completed
-4/18 lecture homework pages completed
-3/8 vocabulary quizzes taken
-0/3 kanji quizzes taken
-0/2 chapter exams taken
-0/1 project: research paper completed
-0/1 project: speech completed
-0/1 oral interview taken
-0/1 final exam taken

I got a good score on my first chapter quiz, and full score on the vocabulary quiz this week. I've been starting to translate everything I hear into Swedish in my head, at first it was annoying, and still kind of is because it's basically automatic, but now it is more just really interesting. I decided that the reason I do this with Swedish more often than with Japanese is because a lot of Swedish can closely translate, while Japanese is completely different!!! But since I caught myself translating into Swedish, I ask myself... "How WOULD I say that in Japanese??" and then I get 'practice' in both languages, so it's really fun and interesting ^^. This all started when I watched this Swedish kid's show called "Stopp!" last week for my "Swedish outside the classroom" assignment. It's about a bratty child who says "stop!" when she doesn't get her way, and everyone freezes except for her, who then causes mischief to get her way while everyone is frozen. But it really had me thinking in Swedish, as there were no English subtitles, only Swedish subtitles, and basic language because it is a kid's show.
Progress report:
Swedish 103:
-1/6 Rivstart chapters completed
-1/6 chapter quizzes taken
-1/6 vocabulary quizzes taken
-0/2 verbal exams taken
-0/2 written exams taken
-2/10 Swedish outside the classroom

My 1,000 articles has been kind of coming along. :lol: I've read 6 "NHK News Web EASY" articles since I started the challenge for myself. I usually read two or more articles in one day, as they are very easy to read, but the NHK regular news is still a bit of a challenge for me to read, so I'm sticking with the easy ones. I find them valuable still as I don't know all of the vocabulary. I've been keeping track, and am kind of trying to see trends in what vocabulary I don't know.

Here's what I've seen so far:

Articles that have challenging or specialized topics:
Average of 9 unknown words per article, of which there are an average of 2 unknown but "seen before" words.

Articles that have less challenging or specialized topics:
Average of 5 unknown words per article, of which there are an average of 2 unknown but "seen before" words.

I'm hoping that as I read more, and get to reading daily, the unknown word averages will slowly go down, and the "seen before" section of words will go up, and eventually both go down as I learn more vocabulary. I'm kind of taking up a Steve Kaufmann approach in this way, and I think it is valuable. When I start to see a lot of words I've already seen before, I might jump up to harder articles and set the stakes higher for myself. But since it is effortless to read a couple of these articles a day, I think it is the best way to go for the amount of time and energy I have after classes. It's like coming home and reading a book to relax, while simply taking note of the words you don't know.

I suppose that's all for now!!!