Reading Garden [ZH,KR,FR]

[SGP]

Did German already become a bit more familiar to you than it used to be at any time before?
For me (reverse situation, native of German who learned English a very long time ago), the beginning really was difficult, but then after some years, it started feeling more familiar. [Explanatory only] today there are only a few reasons that prevent me from calling German and English two variants of one "It is Not All the Same But it Also is Far From Being Entirely Different Single Language".

Not really because I only worked on it for a week before switching to Spanish xD

Now that one explains a lot to me
But Spanish also is a nice activity

But now that I'm working on pronunciation and actually getting used to how German words look, I'm starting to get more comfortable with it. Since I'm used to studying Asian languages, I'm used to words being somewhat easy to pronounce because the words are made with blocks of consonant+one or two vowels.

One consonant and or two vowels in a row
That one can be like a northern light's glow
It also can be found very often somewhere else, that would be Swahili
A tongue that sometimes really made me as busy as a bee hive's bee

With German, where you stop to pronounce the next part of the word is so random. A lot of blending of several consonants and one vowel. I don't know if I explained it well but I do think I'm getting more familiar with German while reading and listening to it.

The picture you have drawn I already get
And there is one more thing not to forget

Those creative juices, they aren't flowing all the time the same way
So this is something that I, on this occasion, really would like to say

It came to my mind when I was writing these lines of mine, yes, just right now
So there is something particular which can help with more than one tongue somehow

In a rather major way even, but before explaining it in this very thread by a post
I'm waiting to know if mentioning it here could also be of interest to this log's host

[SGP]

When I wrote these rhymes yesterday, I didn't already open the new log.
If there would have been a response (and I do know very well that none of us lives inside the Internet , it is fully understandable not to respond too quickly even if that poetry's content would be of interest to you), then I would have been inclined to explain my current idea in your very thread.
But today I already did so in that very log which is about it.
Just wanted to tell you that you are among those who have been invited.
This is for asking questions about German (my native tongue), Spanish and many others.

SGP's Creative Juices Language Question and Answer Research Log

[AndyMeg]

Started 재외동포를 위한 한국어 again but this time using English translation. Using a parallel text in the beginning feels like it helping more than just seeing Korean online. I think I stopped using the TB last time because it started introducing a lot of new words and it was a pain to look them up and then trying to read the sentences again only to have forgotten half the words you looked up. With the English translation already there, all I have to do is color code it and when I review the chapter again, all the work is already done so no pain

Parallel texts are great! They are like a bridge that lets you learn and understand new things in an easier and more enjoyable way. I really, really like parallel texts for lenguage learning!

[SGP]

Using a parallel text in the beginning feels like it helping more than just seeing Korean online. [...] With the English translation already there, all I have to do is color code it and when I review the chapter again, all the work is already done so no pain

How do you handle the Not a Literal Translation Parts when color-coding?

Parallel texts are great! They are like a bridge that lets you learn and understand new things in an easier and more enjoyable way. I really, really like parallel texts for lenguage learning!

Did you sense any Grammar Pattern Detection Ability Boost when reading them?

[AndyMeg]

Parallel texts are great! They are like a bridge that lets you learn and understand new things in an easier and more enjoyable way. I really, really like parallel texts for lenguage learning!

Did you sense any Grammar Pattern Detection Ability Boost when reading them?

Yes. The parallel texts free "mental space", so it is easier to detect patterns and associate them with their usual meanings. It can also help differentiate similar patterns because if you see that the translation is the same but the words used in the target language are different, then there may be a nuance that is not reflected in the translation.

[SGP]

Yes. The parallel texts free "mental space", so it is easier to detect patterns and associate them with their usual meanings.

So you deepen focus. Pattern detection? Loving it. Approx. two decades ago, when I started learning foreign languages at school, we were mainly taught to repeat some sentences..... Without any major grammar breakdown. So some (or all?) were moving at tortoise speed at first.

It can also help differentiate similar patterns because if you see that the translation is the same but the words used in the target language are different, then there may be a nuance that is not reflected in the translation.

Interesting insight. So there is another benefit of parallel texts, even when they do not include a literal translation. Because a few do. They either are Literal Translations only, or both.

[The Real CZ]

I saw one of your older posts about Japanese and I have a suggestion for the future. Check out Japanese dramas and movies. They are a lot different than the anime/manga culture that you have problems wiyh. Of course avoid the manga adaption into live action. I went through something similar where I barely watched any anime for ten years but ended up finding some series that I enjoy, but I have shifted my focus more to live action and reading light novels.

For Chinese, check out Taiwanese dramas. They mainly do modern day dramas while mainland China seems to mainly do historic dramas.

[Axon]

如果我是你，我不会想去知道Tom现在正在做什么。
If I were you, I'd want to know what Tom is doing right now.

How does this make the 'I'd want'?

林子大了什么鸟都有。
There's all kinds of people in the world.

Also could someone explain this sentence?

The first one is a mistake. It means "I wouldn't want."

The second one is more idiomatic/metaphorical, and when spoken it there would be a pause after the 了: "The forest is big. There are all kinds of birds."

什么[X]都有 means that there are all kinds of X.

什么吃的都有 - there are all kinds of food/things to eat.

[suko]

I think it would be better to focus on 1 textbook at a time so that you can finish it and move on to the next one instead of doing a bunch of them at once, also if something really bores you I think you should take a break from it instead of forcing yourself to do it, that’s what I do because if i don’t enjoy it there’s no point in doing it

If I were you I’d try to finish one of the textbooks first and then I’d do kgiu and I’d also do repetitive listening

[Inst]

Interesting that you're trying to do traditional and simplified at the same time. But approximately speaking, every level of the HSK takes twice as much time as the previous level. You took 1 year to get past HSK2, so it'll take another year to get past HSK3, and maybe another year to get past HSK4. Reading native material comfortably doesn't come until you're past HSK6. At the pace you're working at, you'll only be around HSK5 in 4 years. Put another way, the C1 (HSK6 equivalent) course of DLI is supposed to involve a total of 4400 combined of study and class hours, or one year of 12 hour days, two years of 6 hour days, four years of 3 hour days, or six years of 2 hour days.

Simplify, simplify, simplify; don't do traditional and simplified at the same time, pre-study the Hanzi/Sinograms before you get into the actual words. Or, you could skip handwriting (some people do this) and rely on IME only.