Finolias Language Learning Journey

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
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Finolia
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Finolias Language Learning Journey

Postby Finolia » Sun Jan 21, 2018 3:59 pm

Hello there :)
I am going to start my log with my language learning background. Goals and resources will follow later - I just didn't want this post to be overwhelmingly long ^^”

My native language is German, and my first foreign language was English. I was 9 when our mandatory English classes started, and I always had fun learning and using it. I am not (yet) perfect, probably around C1, but I hardly ever feel the necessity to change that. It is also part of my degree, but I have already completed all the needed classes. I am therefore not actively studying it, but using it all day anyway (during my free time). This log is hopefully helping a bit with my active skills – feel free to correct me :)

At the age of 12, I started learning Latin at school but forcefully changed to French about three years later. I never touched Latin again.

The forceful change took place because of a change of schools. I never had a good relationship with French. During my French classes, I always felt stupid because everyone had already been studying for a while and I knew nothing. Instead of feeling encouraged I felt down. My teacher was great though. She tried to help me catch up and right before my graduation I managed to get enough into my head to pass the French class. Still, I was sick of seeing it and dropped it until I decided to study it as a part of my university degree – no idea where that came from. Since the start of my studies, I have a lot of fun with French (most of the time), although I am kind of stuck for a while now. The last time I really felt a change was in Winter 2016 when I spent a semester in France.

Since January 2017 I am learning Vietnamese. I started it because of my boyfriend whose family is from Vietnam and I am really enjoying it – although my progress is slow. If I had to drop all languages, I would drop everything but Vietnamese. I am surprised myself how I managed to keep at it for a year, without any classes. It’s so not me that I am happy even though my writing and reading are probably no better than A1, my listening I don’t know, and let’s not talk about speaking… xD

Even though I had probably enough work with uni, French and Vietnamese I spontaneously signed up for a 3-week-intensive Spanish course last October. It ended with an A1-exam and now I am taking “weekly” Spanish classes. My teacher wasn’t there in December and I decided to just keep self-studying until the exam in January, so that’s why “weekly”. ^^
The exam, ~A2, is on February 5 and I hope I will pass it. I am constantly switching between “of course, you can do it!” and “impossible”. Though I am quite confident as I write this. ;D

I also dabbled in Russian, Esperanto and Japanese. I didn’t have the time to get serious yet, though they are all still on my list, as well as Welsh.
I constantly add and drop languages from that list, but those four do not change. Also, I already have some resources for them. ;)

All in all, I know that I could learn more (timewise). I also know that I could achieve more if I would just concentrate on one or two languages. Even so, I do not want to drop any of them and maybe a language log can help me be more productive and consistent.

For my log… I hope I won’t be too inconsistent with my posts (at least once a week would be great) and I really hope that it won’t just be me talking to myself. ;) I don’t have any experience in this but I hope to be able to get a few of you to “participate” :)
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Elementary Vietnamese: 8 / 14

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Re: Finolias Language Learning Journey

Postby Elenia » Sun Jan 21, 2018 5:23 pm

Hey Finolia! I'll be following your log :) Wishing you lots of progress in, and joy from, your languages!
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Re: Finolias Language Learning Journey

Postby Finolia » Mon Jan 22, 2018 7:23 pm

Now onto my goals and my way of learning (although this "way" is often changing ^^")! Quite long, I’m sorry, I just wanted to include everything ^^” It won’t be this long every time I write something, don’t worry :)

French:

My passive skills are satisfying for now, but I still have moments where I do not understand a conversation (e.g. two people fighting, it’s just so fast) or a passage in a book.
For this, I plan to read more this year and I also want to keep watching at least one French episode of whatever per week.
At the moment I am watching Wynonna Earp (S1E7) and my current book is Eragon, Tome 1 : L’Héritage. I kind of prefer Fantasy material in my French studies. :D

As for my active skills… My writing is quite good, I still have troubles with prepositions and with tenses. Not so much with conjugation but with usage – I tend to confuse passé compose and imparfait or don’t notice that I have to use the subjonctif.
I am taking part in the output challenge this year (again) and this time I will finish it! ;)
My speaking skills are really lacking. I managed to pass a spoken B2 exam in December 2016, but after I came back from France I didn’t speak any more than necessary (which means short 1-sentence-answers in class x)). If I have to talk longer I stumble over every word and I feel like I know nothing. Part of the reason is definitely that my active vocabulary isn’t that big.
I hope that the writing challenge will help me with acquiring more vocabulary and I am also thinking about getting a tandem to practice speaking.

I also have quite a few textbooks and workbooks, but I am not using them atm. From time to time I am doing exercises in Le nouveau Entraînez-vous – grammaire niveau avancé which we had to buy for a class in France.

My plan this week:
- watch Wynonna Earp S1E7
- write about 1000 words
- read 1 chapter of Eragon
- find a tandem partner?

My goals this year:
- pass my translation class (DE -> FR)
- pass my text-production class
both will be done by February 15 if I pass…
- be able to hold a proper conversation about books, films, fantasy themes, studies, languages or computer games… just get rid of this “mind-blankening”!

Spanish:

Thanks to my French my passive skills are quite good already, especially reading. What I lack is a whole lot of (active) vocabulary and of course a big part of the grammar.
As I plan to take an ~A2 exam I will focus on what I need to know for that for now. I plan to write small texts about the subjects I have to know and incorporate different tenses, as there will be a big focus on conjugation in the exam. I will also do some of the exercises in the Gramática de Uso del Español and in Spanish Grammar Drills from Practice Makes Perfect.
I will also watch some series, as there will be a listening part on the exam, but I don’t know yet what to watch. I tried Destinos and Extra but also some “real” films on Netflix (with subtitles of course ^^”). Both have advantages and disadvantages…
As for speaking practice, I have quite a few friends who speak good Spanish and could help me practice a bit, although they aren’t native speakers.
I also have graded readers which are quite enjoyable. But as the exam is fast approaching I should probably focus on acquiring the vocab and the grammar that is absolutely necessary for that before I go on to other stuff, shouldn’t I? Hmm…

My plan this week:
- look through the course book and figure out my gaps
- write small texts containing approximately half of the subjects in my course-book (already started)
- learn irregular verb(group)s
- what else would be good in my current situation?

My goals this year:
- pass the A2 exam in February
- pass the B2 exam in July :o (we will see how realistic this is, but I would have classes at uni to prepare for the exam)

Vietnamese:

As I mentioned in my last post, my Vietnamese skills aren’t that great. I’d say it’s reading > writing > listening > speaking, whereas speaking is practically non-existent.
I got Vietnamese Stories for Language Learners for Christmas and it finally arrived on Saturday – I am so excited! It contains parallel texts (EN – VI) and I already had a look. It is quite challenging but I managed to understand a couple of sentences – yay ;D Even though it’s still hard I want to try reading it bit by bit. Intensively, of course. ^^”
I also have some textbooks, two German-based and then the Elementary Vietnamese book. I am using the last one for the exercises as it contains a whole lot. Doing them especially helps me with remembering Vocabulary, which is the hardest part for me. The book states “ideal for self-study or classroom use” on its cover but doesn’t include any solutions -.- Many of them are obvious or can be corrected through reading the examples and the grammar section, but some can’t. I am just glad that I have my boyfriend and if he can’t help then I ask on iTalki.
This year I want to be able to read more comfortably. I am not expecting to be able to read scientific papers at the end of the year, of course! I would be satisfied with stuff like the Vietnamese Stories I mentioned.
I would also love to be able to hold a small conversation in Vietnamese… Maybe I will get myself a teacher to practice (I can’t practice with my boyfriend, I am always too childish because of the nervosity -.-*). If that doesn’t work out then I would be satisfied with being able to follow at least parts of the conversation of my boyfriend and his parents (no, not creepy at all). I mean, my goal is to be able to use it with them, at least theoretically.
Oh, and I should probably also start to write some smaller texts from time to time. Last year I managed to write four in the second half of the year. At least one per month would be nice ^^ I started this week with the Nature theme of the Islandhoppers group. As I have not yet learned any nature words it was quite hard xD

My plan this week:
- half of the next chapter in Elementary Vietnamese
- practice listening with the Lehrbuch der vietnamesischen Sprache
If anyone knows any resources for easier listening practice, please let me know! :)

My goal this year:
- overcome my shyness and get into speaking ! just how to do this x)
- finish the Elementary Vietnamese textbook
- be able to read Vietnamese Stories or something similar

I also joined the East Asian Study Group because I think it is a good way to stay on the ball and it is also more fun with more people. I hope I won’t hide all the time and get into interacting ^^”
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Elementary Vietnamese: 8 / 14

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Re: Finolias Language Learning Journey

Postby Axon » Wed Jan 24, 2018 2:18 pm

Glad to see someone else with an interest in Vietnamese! I absolutely love Elementary Vietnamese (it's the one by Binh, right?). The pronunciation exercises are top-notch for getting a good accent.

Since you're a German native, I can also recommend Kauderwelsch Vietnamesisch. My copy is Southern Vietnamese - I'm not sure if they make a Northern or Central version. It's a phrasebook but it very clearly breaks down each sentence for learning purposes.

Best of luck to you!
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Re: Finolias Language Learning Journey

Postby Finolia » Wed Jan 24, 2018 5:39 pm

Thank you! :) If you have other recommendations...let me know :P I am focusing on the northern accent though.

Axon wrote:I absolutely love Elementary Vietnamese (it's the one by Binh, right?). The pronunciation exercises are top-notch for getting a good accent.


Yes, that's it! I must admit that I haven't tried the pronunciation exercises yet. I practised with those of one of my German books - I still can't speak though xD I should probably try those. :)

Axon wrote:Since you're a German native, I can also recommend Kauderwelsch Vietnamesisch. My copy is Southern Vietnamese - I'm not sure if they make a Northern or Central version. It's a phrasebook but it very clearly breaks down each sentence for learning purposes.


Thank you for your recommendation. A while ago, I had a look and didn't think it's that helpful for me. I have a whole lot of sentences already (bought Glossika when it was on sale x: ), although they are not clearly broken down ^^" Oh, and I just love just doing exercises a lot more :P Although I know that they alone are not enough.
:roll:
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Elementary Vietnamese: 8 / 14

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Re: Finolias Language Learning Journey

Postby Finolia » Sun Jan 28, 2018 7:32 pm

My week was really busy because exams are coming up. I managed to learn a bit of Spanish every day but neglected French and Vietnamese, which I've only studied on Monday/ Tuesday and today.

French

Alright, so, I read a chapter of Eragon - a couple of pages on Monday and a couple of pages on Sunday. Even though I don't really read regularly I feel my understanding and my feeling for the language getting better and better.
I've also watched the next episode of Wynonna Earp today and I wrote about 200 words on Monday. I wanted to write about 1000 per week, split between the days. The first three weeks this year went pretty well and I plan to get back into it after the exams. The only exam after the 7th is French Translation so it will be a good time to catch up on the words I "missed". It will be nice practice ^^
No speaking as well this week, I even ditched my translation classes to catch up on a project which didn't go as planned.

- watch Wynonna Earp S1E7 --> done
- read 1 chapter of Eragon --> done
- write about 1000 words --> 200/1000 (I estimate them here because they are part of a larger text I started earlier. I will count them to my Output Challenge as soon as I'm done writing.)
- find a tandem partner? --> I haven't looked for one yet and I don't think I will anytime soon.

Goals/ Plans next week:
- watch Wynonna Earp S1E8
- read one chapter of Eragon
- write about 1000 words (although I won't be mad if I don't manage to write this much, as I mentioned earlier)

Spanish

Spanish went quite well this week. I unconsciously (and consciously I guess) chose Spanish over the other languages as my Spanish exam is coming up.
I started the week with a small text, 99 words, about nature for the Islandhoppers. No masterpiece but practice nonetheless.
My main focus this week was the tenses. I tried to memorise the patterns for a couple of them which went quite well but I sometimes confuse the usage. It's easy to answer how to use the tenses but it's harder to actually use them. ^^" I have no idea how my teacher is going to ask for them in the exam, I hope it's not a cloze where I have to choose the right verb forms. I absolutely can't stand them x) Thinking too hard only confuses me and then I get everything wrong. I also did a couple of exercises in my Practice Makes Perfect book concerning these problems. It's going slow but steady and I hope it's fast enough for my exam.
I also have problems with the objects, where I don't get this “doubling”. For example:
Las reservaciones las hacéis mañana.
Is this compulsory or not? Are there cases where it is? How do I know?
While going through my course book I also identified a couple of gaps in my vocabulary but that was to be expected. I will practice them through writing the upcoming week but also wrote a couple of them on lists grouped by subject.

- look through the course book and figure out my gaps --> done
- write small texts containing approximately half of the subjects in my course-book (already started) --> no, prioritised the tenses, guess this was a bit to ambitious for one week ;)
- learn irregular verb(group)s --> did it but it's not done :P

Goals/ Plans next week:
- write a bit (very precise, I know) to practice the vocabulary I lack
- continue learning the verb forms
- figure out how this "doubling" works
- find out about the exercises that will be on the exam

Vietnamese

My Vietnamese week was kind of sad. I managed to get through half of the next chapter in Elementary Vietnamese which was what I wanted, though it was a really short chapter. In this chapter, they introduced the forms of "how many": bao nhiêu (10+) and mấy (<10), numbers (11-99) and personal pronouns, which are quite complex in Vietnamese. Nothing new to me but nice practice anyway. I also learned a couple of new words and handy expressions, e.g.
Dạo này thế nào? - How are you these days? and
Mình chuẩn bị thi. - I have a final exam to prepare.
which applies to me at the moment :P

- half of the next chapter in Elementary Vietnamese --> done
- practice listening with the Lehrbuch der vietnamesischen Sprache --> nope, only listened to some music

Goals/ Plans next week:
- next half of the chapter in Elementary Vietnamese
- start reading in Vietnamese Stories, I can't get any more precise because I don't know how it will go yet
Last edited by Finolia on Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Elementary Vietnamese: 8 / 14

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Re: Finolias Language Learning Journey

Postby Finolia » Mon Feb 05, 2018 1:29 pm

I wanted to update yesterday evening but I forgot everything while studying. Sadly I didn't study languages but for my exams today and on Wednesday x(
I noticed that I kind of lied when I said the posts won’t always be that long. It somehow always turns out like this :D I often find myself not reading everything if the post is too long, which is why i wanted to avoid that. But writing everything down is more important to me now, so I guess it’s fine :P I try to structure everything to make it easier to read.

Vietnamese
More Vietnamese this week! Yay. At least half of the time I sat down to study for my information science exam ended with me grabbing one of my Vietnamese study tools xD

- Elementary Vietnamese: finish chapter 4 ~ done, also started with chapter 5
The two dialogues in lesson 5 are really reaaally short. Luckily I have other books with more text (but less exercises so they go pretty well together).
Lesson 5 introduces the number system from 100 and all the words used for days, weeks, months, years and the corresponding questions. I already learned most of these in a different book but what I found very interesting is, that you can switch the tense of the question by placing the question word elsewhere. For example:
Bao giờ anh về? - When did you come back?
Anh về bao giờ? - When will you come back?


I started to reread all of the texts of the first lessons in Vietnamesisch für Anfänger (managed 3/9) and identified all the words I should know by now but don’t. I gathered them in a list and hopefully I will be able to remember them soon.
While reading through the texts I found an expression which I don’t get, maybe someone around here knows the answer ;) In lesson 2 is written:
Em gọi anh là ‘anh’ và chị là ‘chị’.
The speaker is stating how she is going to call her friends, as the address system is quite complex in Vietnamese. gọi is a verb meaning something like to call and means to be. If I had written this sentence I would have chosen either of them, preferably gọi, but never both of them and I don’t get why they are used together..hmm...

I also try to speak more. For this, I solved the exercises of lesson 5 orally (in written form will be done next week). The problem is that nobody was listening so yeah...without any direct feedback speaking isn't that helpful. Maybe I will ask my boyfriend to practice with me. We could start slowly with the numbers or something...

Then, the vocab challenge of the East Asian Study Group ended. I managed to learn 103 new words, which I can now at least use passively. That is more than what I would have learned without the challenge and passive knowledge is more than nothing. That said, I’m satisfied although it might be nothing much for some of the other learners here ;)

- read ~ When I tried to read Vietnamese Stories though it wasn’t only hard but very hard. Even the words I know are hard to recognise in that context. I know it was to be expected that it will be hard, I haven't even finished one textbook for beginners. But (time to complain) I am studying for a year already and I know nearly nothing... after my exams are over I will focus more on Vietnamese :/ It's the language I want to learn the most and the language I learn the least or better which I know the least and where the progress is the slowest... how can this be!? :cry: Well, I guess it's because I decided to take Spanish classes -.- It's my own fault...but I don't want to drop Spanish after two courses and exams because I know that I will forget everything before I get to learn it again. Aaaah >.>
Edit: I just noticed that this is definitely PART of the reason but I started Spanish in October, how could this have influenced my Vietnamese progress over the whole year :roll:

French
Not much this week either. I am thinking about changing my output challenge language...
I will probably switch my French learning to be mostly passive this year (reading, watching series) and focus on Vietnamese (and Spanish) during my active learning time. French is at a level where I am able to enjoy to read and to watch TV and where it still helps improve my French noticeably.

- Wynonna Earp: 1 episode ~ done, watched 2
- Eragon: 1 chapter ~ only half a chapter, I should really count in pages and not in chapters.
- Written: no, nothing

My translation exam is on the 15th and last Thursday our teacher told us the content of the text o.O I didn’t think she would tell us but oh well, even easier then :P It will be a text about school in Germany (something from the news, e.g. new school with new concept planned in Hamburg or something like that), which we will have to translate in such a way that the French will understand the text although our school systems are different.

Spanish
- write ~ done, wrote two small texts about my childhood to practice the imperfecto:

De pequeño era introvertida. Era una niña muy tímida y calma, pero sólo con los forasteros. Tengo una hermana gemela con quien hacía todo. En el tiempo libre a menudo jugábamos afuera. Me gustaba mucho trepar a los árboles y correr a través de los bosques. No solo cuando hacía sol sino también cuando hacía frío. Delante de nuestra casa estaba un castaño. En el otoño colectaba las castañas y construía unos hombrecitos. Me gustaba mucho hacer trabajos manuales o dibujar – era una niña más o menos creativa. Además, también me gustaba leer. He leído mucho desde estaba muy joven, como toda mi familia. Creo que es una de las razones por la cual estaba bien en la escuela. Además, era una escolar muy diligente y por eso tenía unas buenas notas.

It was read by a friend who knows Spanish better than me but she is still neither a native speaker nor a teacher or tutor so... feel free to tell me any mistakes :)

- continue learning the verb forms ~ yep, I now know the rules and I can conjugate the verbs (though I still have problems with irregular verbs, especially ser - I tend to confuse the stems). As I studied with a friend on Friday though, I couldn’t identify them in a given text x) normally it is the other way round so I focused on producing them...
The friend and I practised vocabulary and wrote small texts about ourselves as a child in imperfecto, as somebody told us that this could be asked in the exam.
- find out about the exercises that will be on the exam ~ done, it’s not fix yet but it will presumably focus on indefinido, perfecto and imperfecto. We will have to write a text in imperfecto, possibly about our childhood. There won’t be any audio, but a bit of reading comprehension and a lot of grammar exercises. In the PROBEKLAUSUR we had a couple of sentences and should figure out if the speaker is still in Barcelona or not. Also, there could be an exercise where we have to conjugate a verb in a given tense. It is less “intense” than what I expected it to be but I still have to know my grammar.
- figure out how this "doubling" works ~ no, I tried to use it in the text I wrote but it was wrong because I don’t know x(

In addition to the plans I set last week, I also watched episodes 5 to 7 of Extra in Spanish, which was fun, although I don’t really like Lola ^^", and the first episode of Grand Hotel. I just thought I’d try watching some ‘real’ Spanish after Extra so I was looking through Netflix and found this one. I watched it with Spanish audio and Spanish subtitles ([CC], so almost exactly what they said). Sooo...I thought let’s do this, maybe you can understand something and then BOOM - I understood almost everything! I knew that my passive knowledge is growing fast because of my French in particular but didn’t imagine it to be like this... I didn’t understand all of the words but I always knew at least what was going on. The hardest part was the little argument between Alicia and her mother because audio and subtitles were really fast.

Plans this week:
Vietnamese:
- finish lesson 5
- write a small text about myself, as I did in Spanish
- continue the word list [Edit]
French:
- figure out if I want to continue the output challenge or if I want to put French on the passive side for now
- watch another episode of Wynonna Earp
- read 14 pages of Eragon
- start learning the vocabulary list for the translation exam
Spanish:
- keep practising the tenses until Wednesday
- write (and pass ;) ) the exam
- make a plan for the next couple of month, as I have to plan my uni courses
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Elementary Vietnamese: 8 / 14

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Re: Finolias Language Learning Journey

Postby Finolia » Wed Feb 07, 2018 6:48 pm

Just a quick update in between as I had my Spanish exam today.

Right before the exam I was soo nervous! But when I saw the exercises and realised that I had learned all of that, I calmed down :) I already know that I made a mistake here and there but all in all I think it went pretty well. As she already started to correct the exams as soon as we handed them in it won’t take too long until I have my results.

During the exam we had to...
1. ...conjugate a couple of verbs in presente, indefinido, perfecto (each in 1.ps.sg.) and imperativo (in 2.ps.sg.)
2. ...fill in the blanks with either indefinido or perfecto.
3. ...fill in the blanks with either indefinido or imperfecto.
4. ...fill in the blanks with a suitable preposition.
5. ...decide which of the given sentences concerning the direct and indirect objects was correct.
6. ...replace the objects with their corresponding pronouns.
7. ...explain a couple of words and find the right word for a couple of explanations.
8. ...decide which of the given situations corresponds to the given perífrasis.
9. ...read a text and answer a couple of questions.
10. ...write an email (100-120 words) about our childhood or an email to a friend who moved to Spain, each of the possibilities had some things we had to include in the text. I chose the childhood text as I had practised that at home ;P

I had problems conjugating decir and traducir, as well as with one of the sentences in the preposition-exercise - it just didn’t make any sense, no matter which preposition I chose - and with the questions of the reading comprehension exercise. I understood the text, but the questions were confusing. I also didn’t know the word la nevera (= fridge, which I only knew as refrigerador), so I couldn’t explain that one.

I am looking forward to seeing the results and if my feelings regarding each of the exercises were correct. :P

And I think I have to look into English comma rules :oops: I reread this text so often just because of them. I hope I didn’t ‘overcorrect’ everything else by checking the commas x)
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Elementary Vietnamese: 8 / 14

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Re: Finolias Language Learning Journey

Postby Finolia » Sun Feb 11, 2018 9:21 pm

Hey there :)
I will start this weeks post with a couple of sentences about this weeks "French text-production" class on Monday.
We were talking about our future and our French teacher told us about her career and about her work. The most interesting part was about her being an interpreter, she had to see so many different situations which would normally be impossible. E.g. being in a prison, at the police station, at a psychologist, in a hospital... This is really intriguing but as I already freeze if I have to speak to some stranger in German, interpreting may not be the best choice for me ^^"
I am considering becoming a translator, that is part of my studies after all, but I don‘t think that I only want to translate... Hmhm I don‘t know yet ^^" I also like the idea about being responsible for intercultural communication in a company... but “being responsible” and “communication” are again things that don’t really fit me ~.~
Why I tell you this is - during this talk with my French teacher I realised (again) that I don’t want to drop French, that I would really love to integrate French into my professional life, however that may be.
I am therefore NOT changing my output challenge language! Yes, I want to improve my Spanish by leaps and bounds and YES, I SO want to be able to use Vietnamese better sooner than later - but I also want to keep improving my French. At the point I am at now I think that writing is the best way, so as I regularly consume some native material I am also going to keep writing. But I won‘t sweat it! I won‘t force myself to write every day, I will just write MORE when I feel like it. I like writing, it is just hard to get started. I will do it, I will keep at it and I will keep at it with all the languages. Even if my progress could be faster with just one language I don‘t want to give any of them up.
Aaand yes, I know that these are some mood switches I present here, but I can’t say that this won’t happen again - it’s kind of always happening ;P The most important thing is that, at the moment, I am (again) totally convinced that this is the best choice for me ;D

Now on to my plans of last week and their realisation:

Vietnamese:
- finish lesson 5 --> finished only half of the exercises, but I also wrote down the solutions of the oral exercises and I think numbers won't be a problem anymore - at least not if I do not stop using them xD
- write a small text about myself, as I did in Spanish --> oh, I completely forgot about this goal x)
- continue the word list --> nearly 100 words that I don't know actively, the list is now placed on the wall above my computer so that I can constantly see it ^^ I still have to learn them actively though :D

French:
- figure out if I want to continue the output challenge or if I want to put French on the passive side for now --> done, as you can read above ^^
- watch another episode of Wynonna Earp --> done
- read 14 pages of Eragon --> read 27 :)
- start learning the vocabulary list for the translation exam --> yes, started, but was a bit lazy here

On Friday, I met with a friend who has an exam next week and studied some grammar with her. We focused primarily on pronouns but I also filled some tables about tenses - usage, signal words and regular conjugation patterns.
I also corrected two texts which my teacher had sent back to me - so many stupid mistakes... These mistakes are part of the reason why I decided not to stop actively learning French. I thought I was better than the text I wrote and I know that I was at one point. At the end of (and during) my semester in France, my texts were so much better! I always had just a few grammar mistakes. I want it to be like that again and what I did differently during that time was regular writing. The problem is, that I had to submit at least one every week. Now, without that pressure, I neglect writing.
I still continued to write my argumentative essay this week. It's the last of four texts we had to submit this semester.
During my translation class on Thursday, we learned about a few important things to pay attention to when translating into French.
Oh! And I passed my interpreting class :) It was only an introductory course so it wasn't really hard to pass, but I am still happy about it :P Next semester will be English interpreting class ~

Spanish:
- keep practising the tenses until Wednesday --> done
- write (and pass) the exam --> wrote it and I think I also passed it, but no confirmation yet ^^
- make a plan for the next couple of month, as I have to plan my uni courses --> not in detail, but I have next semesters timetable (since 1 hour ago ^^") - I will have 2x90min of class per week and classes will start on April 9th. Although it could be that I won't get a place as it is mandatory for some students and they have of course a priority. I think until then I will work through my grammar books and I will read a lot! As I also have to train listening I will also watch a film or a series from time to time.

As you can see, my week wasn't very productive languagewise. I studied a lot of Spanish on Monday and Tuesday and a lot of French on Thursday and Friday. Today was my Vietnamese day. Although I had priority languages on each day I learned Vietnamese vocab every day and read a few pages of Spanish every day. The only daily French was music. I am still in the middle of exams and I have to write three seminar papers and this week I also had normal classes, so I think it is ok not to have studied that much.
From tomorrow onwards I won't have any classes anymore and I plan to write my papers in the morning and study languages in the afternoon. My only exam left is French translation so that will be part of my afternoon studies.

Which leads me to next weeks plans (I feel like I could have better plans :roll: :P ):

French:
- read at least 20 pages
- watch 1 episode of Wynonna Earp (or something else if I don't feel like it)
- learn the vocabulary list
- finish the argumentative essay

Spanish:
nothing really until Friday, as it still kind of confuses me sometimes and I don't want to end up translating into Spensh :roll: I still want to
- do some Duolingo - this is always my go to if I don't have much time or if I didn't study the whole day and feel bad in the evening ;P

Vietnamese:
- finish chapter 5, start chapter 6
- write a small text as I did in Spanish! I still think this is a good idea :D just forgot about it ^^"
- maybe start speaking practice (slowly x: ) as I am going to visit my boyfriend next weekend ^-^
1 x
Please feel free to correct whatever I write :P

Elementary Vietnamese: 8 / 14

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Elenia
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1888
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 1:22 am
Location: London
Languages: English (N), Swedish (C1), French (Massively Atrophied) German (lowly beginner, somehow learnt to read)


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Re: Finolias Language Learning Journey

Postby Elenia » Sat Feb 17, 2018 6:22 pm

Finolia wrote:I am considering becoming a translator, that is part of my studies after all, but I don‘t think that I only want to translate... Hmhm I don‘t know yet ^^" I also like the idea about being responsible for intercultural communication in a company... but “being responsible” and “communication” are again things that don’t really fit me ~.~


I always felt the same. I talk a lot, but I am actually really shy, and don't really like having to manage people or things. And yet my past two roles have been managerial, managing 60-80 volunteers in shops. Most of these people are older than me - lots of retired volunteers - and know more than me about certain subjects, so it's easy to feel intimidated - but yet I can do it! In both cases I have been chosen to do these things, even though I wasn't at all sure I could manage it. So if intercultural communication is something you're interested in, you should definitely give it a try. You might surprise yourself! :mrgreen:
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