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Re: Languid Language Learning

Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2017 6:25 pm
by Elenia
Today has been mostly focused on the letter of doom (when I've been focused on anything at all...)

My sister is working on a Future Learn course, which inspired me somewhat, so I've signed up for one course on translation and one course (this is super exciting) on academic writing from Lund University! It's given in Swedish ::mrgreen:: This will be good for me, good for my output challenge and (hopefully!) good for my studies.

The only Finnish I have done today has been anki. I might do a bit later, but I doubt I'll have time for it. My biggest priority is finishing the letter and then hopefully getting a bit of Swedish reading done, considering I haven't done any at all this year.

Re: Languid Language Learning

Posted: Thu Feb 02, 2017 11:50 pm
by Elenia
I watched the introductory video in the Coursera Swedish Writing course. Both the course leaders speak with delightfully skånska accents! I also read a teeny bit from Tid, the book I bought by Alex och Sigge (yes, that Alex and Sigge)!

Finnish anki and also relistening to old assimil done today - no progression otherwise.

(Also, yesterday I received my copy of La Justice de l'Ancillaire and accidentally started reading it and guess what? I love it in French, too!)

Re: Languid Language Learning

Posted: Fri Feb 03, 2017 9:28 pm
by Elenia
More Finnish, whoop! I properly read through some of the introductory chapter and exercises for From Start to Finnish. It goes quite a bit further than the eight minute long audio file which accompanies it. So much information - before the first lesson!

I'm enjoying FStF. It is designed for those who live in Finland, so doesn't take things quite as slowly as Assimil and also (at least, so far) seems to be teaching some more everyday vocabulary.

Otherwise, I reread the first two sentences of my Finnish book. The first, at least, is quite an easy sentence with lots of numbers, so it was quite rewarding to see it again :) I know now a lot of the words it contains and can look more closely at the suffixes used and get to know the harder words a little better.

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An interesting aside: I was thinking about the kind of vocabulary contained in La Justice de l'Ancillaire this morning, and found myself recalling the passage I read on Wednesday night in Swedish. Obviously strange that I didn't recall it in French, as I read it most recently in French and was thinking particularly in terms of French language learning. Also strange that I didn't recall it in English, as I've read it two to three times in English. Clearly, my brain's default 'not English' is Swedish, now.

EDIT: I was just having another look at Lalli's Spell from Stand Still Stay Silent and realised that one of the words is now almost recognisable! 'Kaukaa' which means 'far'. One of the 100 core words in Finnish is apparently 'kaukana' - far. I wonder if this has anything to do with how 'hyvä huomenta' becomes 'hyvää huomenta'? Or, rather, how 'hauska ilta' becomes 'hauskaa iltaa'? Probably not. Doesn't much matter to me, anyway.
PS: Remember those books I said I was going to buy? I bought them!

Re: Languid Language Learning

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 5:47 am
by MamaPata
I'm always kind of bemused by the way my brain picks the 'not English' language. It seems to be Russian at the moment, which does make sense but my French is much stronger so I figured it would be that.

Impressive haul. :)

Re: Languid Language Learning

Posted: Sat Feb 04, 2017 6:57 am
by Brun Ugle
Remember that Argentinian telenovela I watched? I used to often replay scenes in my head while going to sleep and sometimes they would be in German for no good reason. I noticed that I had more trouble trying to replay scenes in Spanish than to make up my own scenes in Spanish. I think because my brain couldn't remember the exact words and didn't want to get them wrong, it would translate them instead. But my brain is crazy; we all know that.

I also accidentally answered the phone in Spanish yesterday. :oops: I got a little flustered at that.

Re: Languid Language Learning

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 12:10 pm
by Elenia
I always find it weird how our brains categorise 'not-English' or, rather 'still-too-foreign'. I'm sure, in your case Brun, that Norwegian is too everyday for your brain to mix up with other languages, so it picks a different L2 instead. Maybe the default was German because it is closer to your strong languages? And in Mama Pata's case, it would probably be because you are surrounded by Russian more than French.

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For Finnish, I listened to about half the first episode of Pokémon on YouTube. I am picking out certain words that I know, but I'm basically understanding nothing. It doesn't help that I haven't ever actually watched the Pokémon series before (I only watched a film when I was younger). Still, I think it's good to hear Finnish being spoken, and we all know I have a ridiculously high tolerance for ambiguity.

I have started properly the Swedish course on Academic writing. The first exercise was simply to write uninterrupted and unhindered for two minutes. I thought I would try to do the task orally first, and ended up speaking for five minutes. (The subject was food... feels familiar :oops: :cry: ). I just now tried the stream of conscious writing but only got 59 words written! Kind of embarrassing :lol: at any rate, those are my current stats for the output challenge. I better buck up!

Re: Languid Language Learning

Posted: Sun Feb 05, 2017 12:56 pm
by Brun Ugle
I think in my case it also has to do with what the last language I used before bed was. I was watching a German telenovela for a while there and then anything I tried to think in Spanish would come out in German. I wonder if the reverse would happen if I watched a Spanish language telenovela and tried to think in German.

Re: Languid Language Learning

Posted: Sun Feb 12, 2017 9:47 pm
by Elenia
Things have slowed down a bit since my last post. I have been very tired each day after work (and actually, very tired often before and during work, too :? ). I have done something with Finnish most days, but apart from a little bit of chatting with my boyfriend and watching an episode of På Spåret, I haven't really done any Swedish. My commute read has been Ice by Ulla-Lena Lundberg. I'd wanted to read it in Swedish, but it came through the bookshop in English translation so I went for it. I'm really enjoying it so far and would recommend it.

I'll be going to Germany the weekend after next, and should probably try to do something about my German, but I doubt I'll have the time and/or the energy :/ ah, well.

Re: Languid Language Learning

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 12:53 am
by Elenia
It's been a while since I last posted here, without me even realising it. I haven't been doing much, although I had a pretty good daily Finnish habit going. I've been using Clozemaster and Anki recently, no courses at all.

My Clozemaster streak was broken by my trip to Germany over the weekend. I spoke basically no German, although I read a good 90-something pages of a fantasy novel I accidentally picked up in a bookshop. It was probably the most difficult book I picked up, so naturally it's the one I started reading first :roll: I also read some of it aloud to my friend - we were reading it together and at one point decided that the best way to proceed would be reading aloud. It was hard! I'm not so comfortable with my German pronunciation as I used to be. Finally, I heard a German song that I liked! I've never really found a German song that I'm fond of, so I hope I like other songs by the band, too.

Otherwise, very little doing. I have been working a lot recently, and have been exhausted much of the time. I feel refreshed after my holiday so hopefully I'll have a little more mental energy.

Re: Languid Language Learning

Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2017 1:22 am
by Systematiker
Glad you're back. I had begun to wonder, but figured life just got busy.

What song was it?