Persistence is Key (EN/DE)

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hedgehog.chess
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Re: Persistence is Key (EN/DE)

Postby hedgehog.chess » Thu Sep 13, 2018 1:04 am

Book read:

Der Junge muss an die frische Luft: Meine Kindheit und ich by Hape Kerkeling

The book is written in humorous style but there is also quite a lot of touching and sad moments. And yet it all seems to work together quite nicely. The book can be recommended also to someone who would like to check his knowledge of idioms or expand his arsenal with new ones. There's plenty for everyone :)

Audiobook listened:
By this one I don’t want to give the title or the author. The reason: It was about a quick “career” of a drug dealer and his even faster fall. I certainly don’t want to promote such lifestyle so I will leave it that way.

Anyway with those two items we come to this:

German 1st January-31st October 2018
: 2500 / 2500 2500 pages Completed 11th September 2018
: 250 / 250 250 hours audio Completed 6th September 2018

I finally reached my “goals” so now I can get rid of those progress bars from my signature. I will leave them here to remind me not to do this again… Maybe it’s lame to quote yourself but I will do it anyway :) Me from 10th March:
hedgehog.chess wrote:I also came to the conclusion that I’m too obsessed with numbers. Number of pages, number of hours listened/watched, number of cards reviewed etc. You can see two examples of that in my signature. I will leave those two because I really hate to leave things unfinished. But it really doesn’t and won’t matter if I will reach those artificial goals by 31st October or not. I don’t even know where did I got that 250 hours of audio from?! And what should happen after those 250 hours and 2500 pages?

It also sums also how I feel now. One example: reading. I started reading in late April. And with the speed of 10 pages/hours I was certain I will not reach the goal anyway so I just read at my own pace and kept track of the number of pages only after I finished a book. And it was ok. But in the last month, when I was getting closer to the 2500 mark I became anxious. From then I checked how far from the goal I am after every reading session, and it kind of ruined the whole experience.

There was certainly no epiphany à la Bart Simpson after the goals were reached. If anything I’m more lost than ever.
This leads to the conclusion that I should proceed with the philosophy of achieving without goals and see how it goes.

Oh, and here ends the “Biography/Autobiography” month (which in fact lasted almost 2) and starts the “Sci-fi” one.
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hedgehog.chess
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Re: Persistence is Key (EN/DE)

Postby hedgehog.chess » Sat Sep 22, 2018 7:23 pm

Textbook finished:

Niemiecki w tłumaczeniach. Gramatyka 4 (B2)
Image
In 2-3 weeks I will do a Dialang test to see where I stand. For now I’m glad that the DW Top-Thema audio seems painfully slow for me.

With that I’m also taking a break from formal desk study of German(altough the two Sag’s besser books are on their way to me). I’m totally NOT abandoning German, I still want to read and listen to it daily, but I think that for now I have to address my English skills. So my limited desk time will be dedicated to my lacking grammar. It’s also connected with the tense situation at my work. I feel that things can get ugly so I want to check out how the job market looks today, since it has been years since I last looked at it. It would be nice if both my TL were up to the task when it comes to a job interview. Two ~B2 languages are not much of an asset but still…( Especially in a world where everyone seems to be at least C1 in English if not a native speaker).

Podcast suggestion:
Krieg der Träume. Europa zwischen 1918 und 1939

4-part podcast from SWR2 Wissen(Thank you Denzagathist for recommending the SWR2 Wissen podcasts in your log.)
Nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg prallen Weltanschauungen und Ideologien aufeinander. Linke, Faschisten, Reaktionäre und Liberale kämpfen um die Herrschaft. Neue Demokratien entstehen und drohen wieder unterzugehen. In Briefen und Selbstzeugnissen erzählen Zeitzeugen von ihren Hoffnungen, Befürchtungen und ihrem Alltag in der Zeit zwischen den beiden Weltkriegen.

And from what I’ve seen you can download a matching text to every podcast, and as we all know this is gold for a language learner :)
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StringerBell
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Re: Persistence is Key (EN/DE)

Postby StringerBell » Sat Sep 22, 2018 7:48 pm

I wanted to recommend something in case you were looking for an American podcast series (that is one of my personal favorites) with transcripts, since you mentioned that German one you found. It's called "This American Life". The host's name is Ira Glass (he is quite famous here in the US) and I think he is a great storyteller. Here is a link to the site: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/653/crime-scene

There are a ton of different stories, which you can look through if you click on "Archive". And of course, if you click on "transcript" it will bring you to the transcript.
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Season 4 Lucifer Italian transcripts I created: https://learnanylanguage.fandom.com/wik ... ranscripts

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Elenia
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Re: Persistence is Key (EN/DE)

Postby Elenia » Sun Sep 23, 2018 7:57 pm

I second that recommendation. Another good one (although I don't know if there are transcripts) is Invisibilia. I've only listened to a few episodes, but it's great. If you want sci-fi/fantasy fiction, Escape Artists have Podcastle (which I can personally recommend) and Escape Pod as well as a few others.
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hedgehog.chess
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Dialang after ~10 months and so on...

Postby hedgehog.chess » Sun Oct 07, 2018 7:17 pm

I completed the Dialang tests for German to check my progress after more or less 10 months of study.
summary.jpg

I think they confirm what I already felt , but I prefer to have a proof of that, so I just had to do the tests:) If nothing else I can say that I’ve made progress no matter if the tests are accurate or nor as was discussed in HERE. Within those 10 months I didn’t do anything earth-shattering and the results reflect that. Just slow, everyday work.

I also did the volabulary tests from arealme.com(beats me why I should create English words after completing the Geman test…)
arealme.jpg

and itt-leipzig.de
leipzig rezeptiv.jpg

leipzig produktiv.jpg

Now I can tackle English with a clear conscious. After reading some recent posts I’ve also came to conclusion that trying to push myself to C1 would make no sense. I don’t have any real need for it, I don’t live in the country and have practically no contact with native speakers. I’m at the point where I can enjoy native media and be more or less satisfied with that. And the things that I do(SRS, reading books, blogs, short news stories-more on that below, and listening to audiobooks) should suffice for a steady if very slow progress. I think tarvos summed it up the best:
tarvos wrote:Honestly, I barely choose which languages should be C-level beforehand. They end up being that because they end up being used due to other circumstances, not due to meticulous prior planning.

If the opportunity arises I will be ready :) I will soon be studying German textbooks again, because I like exploring the language, not because of some outside factors.

One of the better decisions I’ve made recently was starting reading short very unserious news from Der Postillion (recommended to me by Kat). The site offers loads of short satirical articles (some verging on the boarder of good taste). The great thing is that it uses a lot of informal language. If I encounter some sentence containing an expression I find worth-knowing or just interesting I paste it to a spreadsheet and mark the given expression bold. On the next day I just read the bolded parts and if I understand what they mean I just leave it, if not I read the whole sentence trying to figure out the meaning.
I limit myself to reading just 2-3 articles a day not to overwhelm myself. And with the whole spreadsheet procedure it takes only about 20 minutes/day.

I’m currently reading Das Sakriversum, but this week I didn’t really have much time for it. Hope next week will be better. I’m 200 pages in and can’t decide if I like it or not. It’s a weird mix of sci-fi, historical and philosophical book. There are still 300 pages more to make up my mind.

Audiobook listened:

Limit: Roman by Frank Schätzing (Gekürzte Ausgabe so mere ~28 hours)
A worldwide intrigue concerning the discovery of new energy sources(helium-3) on the Moon and the consequences it has for the entire oil-industry. The action is quite quick, in places unfortunately a little bit too quick for my ears. But I always had problems with understanding descriptions of action-packed moments even in my native language. I just can’t image all the things that happen simultaneously. The same goes for lengthy description of things I’ve never seen and there’s no shortage of that as you would expect in a sci-fi book. But when the action slowed down I was able to mentally catch up. Overall a nicely written piece, but still above my head.

Side note(not language related, feel free to skip it):
Looking for a new job now seems to be just as hard and bizarre as I remember from a few years back. Everyone seeks someone who is already a specialist in the given field, no matter how narrow it is. There’s no will to teach someone or give one a chance to refresh the rusty knowledge . Accepting a job outside of the field of your expertise to support your family seems to be a one way ticket… And of course employers are only looking for proficient English-speakers, other languages are not even mentioned(I mean job opportunities outside the translation/call center zone). I find strange because Germany has the strongest economy in the region and there are many German factories located in Poland. In other words, I’m still looking for something interesting to emerge:)
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hedgehog.chess
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Re: Persistence is Key (EN/DE)

Postby hedgehog.chess » Mon Oct 15, 2018 6:01 am

English
First week of getting back to studying English. I’ve decided to review my knowledge of English tenses. I had always problems deciding which tense should in use and my decisions were mostly based on my felling what’s right than anything else. Not that such an approach is wrong in itself but I feel that I missed the mark way too often. I hope that working with the book Angielski w tłumaczeniach. Czasy will bring an improvement, so far I’m very pleased with it. I have no illusions, I will still be making mistakes (I’m sure this post contains a few) but maybe there will be fewer of them. And in the process it turned out that I have to review some basic words(I spend about 30 seconds trying to recall the word “dog” before giving up :oops: ). And I really enjoy translation exercises.

Last week I also listened to some really interesting podcasts recommended by StringerBell and Elenia. Thank you both!
This American Life
Invisibilia
Radiolab

And now that I officially admit studying English again, could I also count watching Lucifer, How to get away with murder and The Good Doctor as my study time?!
Last edited by hedgehog.chess on Mon Oct 15, 2018 7:59 am, edited 3 times in total.
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renaissancemedici
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Re: A chessplayer learns languages

Postby renaissancemedici » Mon Oct 15, 2018 6:11 am

hedgehog.chess wrote:2)Der satanarchäolügenialkohöllische Wunschpunsch or shorter Der Wunschpunsch by Michael Ende(3 hours and 11 minutes)


:D :o :D :D
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renaissancemedici
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Re: Persistence is Key (EN/DE)

Postby renaissancemedici » Mon Oct 15, 2018 6:14 am

I also enjoy translation exercises a lot. That's why I always end up using some ancient book I found on internet archive, because they have the weirdest and most wonderful translation exercises! :lol: (Don't do that though!)
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I use Assimil right now as a starting point, but at the same time I am building the foundation for further studies of German.

Assimil German with ease: 8 / 100

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Elenia
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Re: Persistence is Key (EN/DE)

Postby Elenia » Fri Oct 19, 2018 12:40 pm

hedgehog.chess wrote:And now that I officially admit studying English again, could I also count watching Lucifer, How to get away with murder and The Good Doctor as my study time?!


You certainly can!
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hedgehog.chess
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Re: Persistence is Key (EN/DE)

Postby hedgehog.chess » Fri Oct 26, 2018 12:56 am

German

Audiobook listened:

Das Schiff by Andreas Brandhorst
Earth, 6000 years after the war between men and machines. There are only 4 million people left and every year only about 100 kids are born. Although people are seemingly free, in reality the power lays in the hands of humanoid robots and The Cluster. According to the signed treaty the machines look after humans and when they reach the age of 30 they are given immortality. The problem is that the procedure is not effective in 100% of the cases. The people by which the “omega factor” made the procedure impossible are called “Mindtalkers”. Only they can travel (their consciousness to be more precise) to distant galaxies and look for the tracks left by the ancient civilization of Muriah. And one of those tracks is a gigantic spaceship. Enough said, If you want to know more, you should check it by yourself. To be honest I was always somewhat skeptical towards sci-fi books, but I really enjoyed this one.

Book read:
Das Sakriversum by Thomas R. P. Mielke
After the nuclear war in the year 2018 there seems to be just one survivor-Götz von Coburg. But under the lead dome of the huge cathedral constructed 700 years ago by his ancestor lives a folk of small people, that was cut off from the outside world for those seven centuries. And the cathedral’s walls seemed to save them from the effects of radiation. The idea I think is really great, but the execution in my opinion leaves much to be desired.

With that I’ve came to an end of the “Sci-fi month” and will go on with something from the other end of the genre pool, namely historical novels.

English

I’m slowly going through the book on English tenses. I haven’t even dealt with all the present ones yet. From what I’ve seen so far, there are really big holes in my knowledge. So from now on I’m going to be more conscious, so to speak, and try to think about the presented rules instead of trusting my gut feeling.

Last week I started listening to Pet Sematary by Stephen King. The reader is Michael C. Hall (better known as Dexter) and from what I’ve heard until now he’s doing a great job.
Last edited by hedgehog.chess on Sun Oct 28, 2018 12:44 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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