French, Japanese and Who Knows What Else

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Sarafina
Green Belt
Posts: 373
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2017 6:02 pm
Languages: English (N)
French (Intermediate )
Japanese (Beginner)
Yoruba (Advanced Comprehension)
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Re: Language Log: French, Japanese and more

Postby Sarafina » Thu Oct 26, 2017 10:43 am

I am about to sign up to be a tutor at Cambly. And later apply to be a tutor on Italki. I'm a little nervous about the video introduction and I'll need to prepare what I would like to say- to avoid my brain from going blank. I really need a part-time job as I'm saving up to pay for Italki lessons and hopefully be able to go to Japan at some point next year.
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Sarafina
Green Belt
Posts: 373
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2017 6:02 pm
Languages: English (N)
French (Intermediate )
Japanese (Beginner)
Yoruba (Advanced Comprehension)
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Re: Language Log: French, Japanese and more

Postby Sarafina » Sat Oct 28, 2017 2:46 pm

I underestimated how busy I would be in the holidays. So I have been disappointingly unproductive. I'll try not to dwell on what I should have done and instead focus on trying to accomplish as much of those goals for the next two days.
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Sarafina
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Posts: 373
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2017 6:02 pm
Languages: English (N)
French (Intermediate )
Japanese (Beginner)
Yoruba (Advanced Comprehension)
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Re: Language Log: French, Japanese and more

Postby Sarafina » Sun Nov 05, 2017 6:35 pm

I got my results for a French exam. My teacher stopped me halfway through and said that was enough for my speaking exam. I had to will myself not to cry after I finished my speaking. After I received my overall results. It was only because I was in school that I didn't burst into tears. I didn't have any money to even buy Ben & Jerry and indulge in self-pity :lol:
My writing grade was so low even though my grammar was okay- I need "expand and explore my ideas" . I think I did really well in my reading though. After getting past my disappointment, I have constructed an action plan.

I've now scheduled a two lessons from the 17th and another on the 18th. I wish I could afford to do 5 one hour lessons. But I want to have at least 2-3 lessons a week. This has motivated me to search harder for a past time job which I can use for pay for more lessons.
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Sarafina
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Posts: 373
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2017 6:02 pm
Languages: English (N)
French (Intermediate )
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Yoruba (Advanced Comprehension)
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Re: Language Log: French, Japanese and more

Postby Sarafina » Sun Nov 05, 2017 9:15 pm

Language Timeline/Long Term Goals for Other Languages Updated
French- To be around C1 by the 18th May 2018/To have watched 18 films 'French submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film' film/21 films from 'Watch Later French' list/To have read 50 French books/To have listened to 700 hours worth of French

Japanese- By the 22nd July 2018- to around B1/to have able to watch Mamoru Hosada's film without subtitles/To be able to understand an episode of Haikyuu without subtitles/To be able to read a novel by Yasunari Kawabata without too many reliance on a dictionary

Spanish- starting from the late July 2018 - go through Hacking Chinese by Benny Lewis/I really enjoyed studying Chronicle of a Death Foretold and it would be wonderful to go through the audio book in Spanish. All of August will be dedicated intensive Spanish work. To use Baselang for at least a month. It would be an interesting experiment to say how far I can progress. Hopefully I can get A2 by September 2018. Netflix has been producing some really good tv series in Spanish. To be B2 by the end of August 2019.

Chinese- from September- Get through Yoyo Chinese 'Beginner Conversational' course/Use Chinesepod and Du Chinese (for reading practice. There's some really cool Chinese cartoons and interesting Chinese shows available that I can use to improve my listening. I really enjoyed watching A Bright World but the person that used to post the episodes with YouTube subtitles suddenly stopped. It was a shame because I loved the format of the show. My friend who is fluent in Chinese was enjoying Season 3 while I was forever stuck at episode 15 of Season 1. It would be interesting to explore university evening Chinese classes. To be conversationally in Chinese around B1/maybe sit and pass the HSK 4/to be able to watch the rest of A Bright World. I'd like to do an internship in China in two years time (2019) although knowledge of Chinese isn't required. It's definitely a plus.

Other languages that I don't have a plan but I may learn starting from July 2019
Korean
Brazilian Portugeuse
German
Arabic
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Sarafina
Green Belt
Posts: 373
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2017 6:02 pm
Languages: English (N)
French (Intermediate )
Japanese (Beginner)
Yoruba (Advanced Comprehension)
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Re: Language Log: French, Japanese and more

Postby Sarafina » Tue Nov 14, 2017 8:04 pm

I did it. I am writing this with a massive grin. I finally was able to a conversation in French where I could actually understand what the other person was saying and the person understanding what I was saying. It felt amazing to able to have an enjoyable conversation in French. She even complimented my French. I always used to think that I was A2 in terms of speaking. I'm apparently a confident B1 which is really encouraging. It is less daunting trying to get my speaking from B1 to C1. In comparison to trying to go from A1 to C1.

I've booked two Italki lessons. And I'm having another 1 hour French exchange on Sunday. And possible another one on Thursday/Friday with another French exchange online.

In terms of speaking, I'm aiming for at least two Italki lessons and 2-3 language exchanges in a week. After I get a part-time job I can increase the Italki lessons to 3-4 a week.
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rtickner
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Joined: Tue Nov 14, 2017 12:56 am
Location: Australia
Languages: English (N), German (B2), French (0)
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Re: Language Log: French, Japanese and more

Postby rtickner » Tue Nov 14, 2017 10:27 pm

Well done on the conversational breakthrough, what a feeling it is after all that hard work.

Loving the enthusiasm and ambition in your log, don't be too hard on yourself though when you don't meet those very lofty goals! B1 to C1 is quite a journey - it took me around 12 - 18 months to move from B1 to B2 and the road to C1 has been even longer.

Bon courage! I will be watching your progress with interest.
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Sarafina
Green Belt
Posts: 373
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2017 6:02 pm
Languages: English (N)
French (Intermediate )
Japanese (Beginner)
Yoruba (Advanced Comprehension)
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Re: Language Log: French, Japanese and more

Postby Sarafina » Sat Nov 18, 2017 3:55 pm

rtickner wrote:Well done on the conversational breakthrough, what a feeling it is after all that hard work.

Loving the enthusiasm and ambition in your log, don't be too hard on yourself though when you don't meet those very lofty goals! B1 to C1 is quite a journey - it took me around 12 - 18 months to move from B1 to B2 and the road to C1 has been even longer.

Bon courage! I will be watching your progress with interest.


Thank you for your words of encouragement.
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Sarafina
Green Belt
Posts: 373
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2017 6:02 pm
Languages: English (N)
French (Intermediate )
Japanese (Beginner)
Yoruba (Advanced Comprehension)
x 912

Re: Language Log: French, Japanese and more

Postby Sarafina » Sat Nov 18, 2017 4:32 pm

French
I've just had two Italki lessons. They were great and I wish that my French lessons in school were nearly half as useful. I've booked 7 lessons that span from the 22nd the 9th December. But book about at least 3 more lessons from the 9th to 24th. It's amazing how much I've progressed. Now it's rare that I need to switch to English although my French is still riddled with many mistakes but those mistakes are not as frequent as before.

I need to get an exercise book where I can write down common mistakes I make when speaking and to note down my teacher's corrections.

Japanese
I had my first conversation in Japanese. By in Japanese, I mean I spent like 99% of the time speaking English but she was so nice and I was happy to help her. She was really helpful. She gave useful and more colloquial conversation starters/phrases and she was really good at helping thing. For each greeting/question she taught me, she would tell the polite version and the more informal version and when it would be appropriate to use it.

Additionally she sent me a voice recording on Skype of the words that I was struggled to remember/didn't pronounce right for me to look back and review. She came up with the ideas of such role-playing different scenarios that I may/could encounter in preparation of my trip to Japan and my goal of being at least a B1 in terms of speaking. For each episode of x season of Japanesepod101 that I listen to, we can practice the phrases together and expand from them.
She was really patient when I was trying to speak Japanese. I feel so lucky to have her as my language exchange partner. We spoke for more than 90 minutes. Next week we're going to speak mainly in Japanese. I offered to transcribe any English videos that she is struggling to understand and sent her a word document of with the transcription I created with explanations of certain words (i.e. slang) if needed. She seemed really touched by the offer.
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Xenops
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Languages: English (N), Danish (A2), Japanese (rusty), Nansha (constructing)
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Re: Language Log: French, Japanese and more

Postby Xenops » Sat Nov 18, 2017 5:29 pm

Wow, you are ambitious! :o It inspires me to try harder myself. Like others have said, don’t be hard on yourself, but also don’t loose that fire. Perhaps I missed it in the first post, but what is your motivation for learning languages? :D
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Sarafina
Green Belt
Posts: 373
Joined: Tue Sep 26, 2017 6:02 pm
Languages: English (N)
French (Intermediate )
Japanese (Beginner)
Yoruba (Advanced Comprehension)
x 912

Re: Language Log: French, Japanese and more

Postby Sarafina » Mon Nov 20, 2017 5:56 pm

Xenops wrote:Wow, you are ambitious! :o It inspires me to try harder myself. Like others have said, don’t be hard on yourself, but also don’t loose that fire. Perhaps I missed it in the first post, but what is your motivation for learning languages? :D



Thanks. My biggest challenge is getting my work ethic to match up with my ambitions. Sometimes I think my love of languages and desire to learn languages is a form of trying to over-compensate for not being able to speak properly my parents' native languages. For me that's something enchanting about listening to someone speak something that expresses much meaning/ideas/thoughts yet is completely incomprehensible to me. As a child I used to love eavesdropping on different conversations (that were not meant for me to hear) so the more languages I know the more nosy I can be. :lol:
I love stories. I love hearing and reading people's stories or stories that they choose to tell. The more languages I know, the great number of stories that can now accessible for.
For me to want to commit to learning a language I've some form of interest in the culture, literature and cinema as well as have some intention of going to a country where that language is spoken for x period of time in my lifetime.
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