An Opsimath's Log: DA, LA, NL, FR

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Elsa Maria
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Re: Elsa Maria's Log: Danish + (PT, LA, NL, NO)

Postby Elsa Maria » Sat May 01, 2021 10:46 pm

01 May
Saturday

I changed my 6WC focus language to Dutch. I have momentum going with Dutch right now, and I don't want to lose that. Shifting to Portuguese just isn't the right thing for me at this exact moment.

So my revised goal for the next six weeks is to improve my Dutch. Maybe I can move from A1 to A2. I'll take a good look at that tomorrow.
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Elsa Maria
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Re: Elsa Maria's Log: Danish +

Postby Elsa Maria » Sun May 09, 2021 6:26 pm

I'm rethinking / resetting my language plans.

Danish is my only always-and-forever language, so I changed the name of my log to reflect that.

I am still having fun with Dutch, and it is my 6WC language, so no change there. Latin just simmers in the background, so no change there either.

Portuguese is going on hold. I started learning PT because I had reason to believe that I would be spending a lot of time in Portugal in the future. Those plans have all changed, and I currently have zero desire to study PT. I fell in love with the language and the literature, and I might return to PT in the future after the attached emotions have settled down. But for right now I'm giving that slot to Spanish.

I watched some of Lindie Botes' videos this morning, and now I want to go play with my language notebooks. I love her notebooks :)
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Elsa Maria
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Re: Elsa Maria's Log: Danish +

Postby Elsa Maria » Sun May 16, 2021 4:31 pm

Weekly numbers:

NL 4h 50m
LA 3h 54m
DA 3h 05m
ES 2h 44m
NO 0h 09m

TOTAL:
14h 41min

Latin
My Latin class is finished for the year, so now I will mostly just read. I'm looking forward to that. There are a lot of novellas available now that provide comprehensible input, and I started reading my first one today: Kandake Amanirenas: Regina Nubiae by Emma Vanderpool.

Spanish
I really like the Language Transfer course. I love listening to it, and look forward to it every day. I think I like it so much because he uses etymology to explain and often connects back to Latin. One of the problems I was having with PT-PT was that I couldn't find anything to listen to after Pimsleur. I don't always have time to sit down and study or watch TV, but I almost always have ample listening time. I'm also watching Superbeginner Dreaming Spanish videos, and I have ordered a grammar book. And that's plenty for now.
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Elvira213
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Re: Elsa Maria's Log: Danish +

Postby Elvira213 » Tue May 18, 2021 1:07 am

I'm enjoying your log, and can identify with you because I'm an obsimath as well! (I'm just doing Spanish for the moment.)
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Elsa Maria
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Re: Elsa Maria: An Opsimath's Log

Postby Elsa Maria » Sat May 22, 2021 3:15 pm

Elvira213 wrote:I'm enjoying your log, and can identify with you because I'm an obsimath as well! (I'm just doing Spanish for the moment.)


Thanks for your comment, Elvira. I don't think that being older hinders my language learning. If nothing else, I have more free time now (mid-50s) than I did in my 30s or 40s.

There's another plus for native English speakers that I have not seen mentioned anywhere else. If you ask the question about English proficiency in ___ (pick a country*) the answer is often that the people under 30 are likely to speak English and the people over 50 are likely to not speak English. Well, I am more likely to make friends with people near my age group so I think that being over 50 can offer an advantage. And I certainly think that people over 50 are worth talking to :) *N.B. Of course this doesn't hold true for every country.

I think I'll change my log name back to An Opsimath's Log for now. I don't mind revealing my age!
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Elsa Maria
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Re: Elsa Maria: An Opsimath's Log

Postby Elsa Maria » Sun Jun 06, 2021 5:10 pm

My stats for May:

NL 29h25m
DA 14h42m
ES 9h20m
LA 6h30
NO 2h03
PT 1h14m
PL 0h21m

TOTAL: 63h35m

365 Day Challenge (Danish): 20/31 days. I'm not satisfied with that.

--
Spanish / Portuguese

At the beginning of May, I dropped Portuguese for Spanish. Since then, I have listened to 53 lessons of the Language Transfer Spanish course, and done some other miscellaneous activities. It might be generous to call me a false beginner in Spanish, but I wasn't starting from zero. I have really enjoyed listening to the lessons, but now they are getting hard to go through quickly. They tenses are beginning to blur, and I am not doing as well as the student in the recording. If I stick with Spanish, I will just keep going and finish it out. I've passed the half-way mark. At some later point, I could revisit the course and start around Lesson 40.


The Germanic Branch

Dutch is still getting most of my time, but I am going to shift that focus to Danish in July. At some point in the near future, I will get serious about reading Norwegian and Swedish.

I am currently reading a play in Danish: Anna Sophie Hedvig (1938) by Kjeld Abell. This is one of the plays in the Kultur Kanon, and I find it very easy to read. The unknown words are minimal. There is a dramatized version on DRTV's Bonanza that I will watch after I finish reading.

https://kulturkanon.kum.dk/english/perf ... edvig/?L=0

https://www.dr.dk/bonanza
Last edited by Elsa Maria on Tue Jul 20, 2021 7:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Elsa Maria
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Re: Elsa Maria: An Opsimath's Log

Postby Elsa Maria » Sat Jul 10, 2021 6:54 pm

Dutch
I am all finished with my group classes, but am continuing with my weekly conversation exchange. I am still reading Dutch children's books, and am not at all ready to move up the ladder. But that's fine.

Danish
My current book is Tabita by Iben Mondrup, the story of two children from Greenland who are adopted by Danes in the mid-1960s. I really like the book and I am reading it with ease. I dare say that reading it is nearly effortless, which makes me really happy. I might follow it up with the recently published nonfiction book Imperiets børn by Anne Kirstine Hermanns.

Latin
For the summer, I am leisurely working on LLPSI

Dabbling: French enters the stage
I finished Language Transfer's Spanish course, and I loved it. I've dabbled in Spanish several times, and I felt like this course really unlocked the language for me in a new way. But Spanish is on hold. As is Portuguese. And I am now going to give this slot to a language that I have never studied before: French. Why French? Because I have a digital nomad loved one in my life, and a French-speaking country might be their next destination. So we are going to work on French together.
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Elsa Maria
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Re: Elsa Maria: DA, LA, NL, FR

Postby Elsa Maria » Tue Aug 31, 2021 1:32 am

I promised myself that I would get my language learning back on track by September 1. And here I am, two days early :)

Lots of things have been distracting me from language learning. For example, I have had adult offspring moving in and out, I've been dealing with a flare up of a chronic health condition, and I have been reading a lot of books in my native English.

I did sign up for the 6WC that started on August 1, and that at least has kept me from completely dropping language study. I have been doing just enough to not forget everything! But now I really feel ready to plunge back in, and I should have more time now that summer is over. I am going to try to post in my log every day until the end of the 6WC.
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Elsa Maria
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Re: Elsa Maria: DA, LA, NL, FR

Postby Elsa Maria » Wed Sep 01, 2021 12:51 am

I worked on Danish for almost two hours today: 30 min reading a novel, 60 min on italki, and 20 minutes writing

But I want to talk about French:

I am getting acquainted with French. I only have about 20 hours in and that was for a combo of July and August. I probably have another 20 hours of goofing around on Youtube that I didn't track. I've sampled lots of YouTubers, researched resources, tried a sample lesson here and there, and tried to read some native content for kids.

Here is what I have actually done:

All of the Language Transfer course (40 short lessons). I finished that in July and now I am going to start going through it again. I think it will sink in more the 2nd time through.

Two lessons from the Great Courses video course. I already had their streaming app, so I didn't have to buy anything. I plan to complete this course.

Five Pimsleur lessons. I will come back to Pimsleur eventually. Maybe after my 2nd round of Language Transfer.

Two hours of cartoons. I chose Le Petit Ours Brun. Each segment is only about 3 minutes long, and I watch three at a time. Two with no subtitles and one with the auto-generated subtitles turned on.

Courses that appeal to me: FSI and FSI phonology, French in Action, and that Natural Method one. I just brought Barron's French Now! worktext home from the library. I like the looks of it. Eventually I will get the Grammaire Progressive du Francais for grammar, but I don't think I am ready for that yet.

I think I'm going to watch Heidi (anime - 52 episodes) next. I already know the story, and the wikipedia page summary tells me that the anime storyline stays close to the book. And I would like to start reading Martine books.

So that's my plan for French!
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Elsa Maria
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Re: Elsa Maria: DA, LA, NL, FR

Postby Elsa Maria » Wed Sep 01, 2021 7:44 pm

I jumped back into italki this week. I think that my last session was in April?

Anyway...
I had a Danish lesson yesterday and a Dutch lesson today. Both were with new-to-me tutors. The Danish conversation flowed with such ease! I was so proud of myself! And then today I stumbled and struggled to make even a simple conversation in Dutch. This in spite of the fact that I have not spoken Danish with anyone in months, and I speak Dutch weekly with a friend.

--
Things I should do, but don't do often enough:

Re-read and re-watch and re-listen.
Properly prepare for an italki session or language exchange.
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