zenmonkey's multilingual adventures of a traveller

[zenmonkey]

I almost said “the cat is under the chair”. But I’m glad I got to throw out my Setswana phrases. Not really communicating but it’s the first time I’ve “used” it in public.

Braggart. Still, good job! I found some people speaking Afrikaans but they didn't know any Setswana.

Well, we didn't actually speak Setswana - she asked about what languages I spoke and I mentioned I was studying it, and she was curious about it. She didn't actually speak it but recognised a word or two.

So I haven't spoken in Setswana - I've just thrown out a few phrases we memorised.

[zenmonkey]

Tired and overworked.

Other than Setswana for the 6WC, I haven't done much on my A1 languages. German continued (mostly passively) and a weekly session with Brun Ugle.

So.... Clearly I should cut back a bit and I think that is what I'm going to do for 4-6 weeks (through November 1st?). I'm going to focus on German, Setswana and Hebrew and let Tibetan (and other stuff) take a break. I want to finish the Memrise course, start doing some heavier lifting with German and structure my Hebrew learning (which has a lot of non-engaging material).

The 6WC was good in that it got me back into a daily routine of tracking. And along the way, my tracking app is almost functional enough that I can begin to use it personally. More on that later.

[zenmonkey]

Hearing so much about Clozemaster I decided to give it a whirl. I tried a few sets of Hebrew and about 150 sentences of German. Hmm, as far as the web interface goes, it's nicely done but not really a good fit for me. Hebrew sentences are too hard and the German isn't challenging enough. I can't imagine the app bringing a significant difference to the content.

So that's that.

Setswana
Today was mostly working on Setswana, I've been looking at drill sentences to see if creating a set of those makes sense for me, of course I already have enough cards right now and I think I'll leave that exercise alone for now. I don't have sound recordings and I think that is more important - listening and hearing more small productions. I worked on my [adjusted] homework - transcribing/translating the video in the group thread. I'll listen to that a few more times. And memrise, lots of memrise (based on The Intro to Spoken Setswana - Peace Corps document).

[MattNeilsen]

Hearing so much about Clozemaster I decided to give it a whirl. I tried a few sets of Hebrew and about 150 sentences of German. Hmm, as far as the web interface goes, it's nicely done but not really a good fit for me. Hebrew sentences are too hard and the German isn't challenging enough. I can't imagine the app bringing a significant difference to the content.

Just out of curiosity, which section did you do for Hebrew? When I first started, I tried the Fluency Fast Track because that seemed like the logical course. However, it was WAY too difficult. I found the 1-100 Most Common Words to be a stretch initially, but it quickly became very useful.

[zenmonkey]

Hearing so much about Clozemaster I decided to give it a whirl. I tried a few sets of Hebrew and about 150 sentences of German. Hmm, as far as the web interface goes, it's nicely done but not really a good fit for me. Hebrew sentences are too hard and the German isn't challenging enough. I can't imagine the app bringing a significant difference to the content.

Just out of curiosity, which section did you do for Hebrew? When I first started, I tried the Fluency Fast Track because that seemed like the logical course. However, it was WAY too difficult. I found the 1-100 Most Common Words to be a stretch initially, but it quickly became very useful.

I tried what was offered on the website, it must have been the FFT. I'll look on the app for those words. Thanks!!!

[Ani]

Hearing so much about Clozemaster I decided to give it a whirl. I tried a few sets of Hebrew and about 150 sentences of German. Hmm, as far as the web interface goes, it's nicely done but not really a good fit for me. Hebrew sentences are too hard and the German isn't challenging enough. I can't imagine the app bringing a significant difference to the content.

Just out of curiosity, which section did you do for Hebrew? When I first started, I tried the Fluency Fast Track because that seemed like the logical course. However, it was WAY too difficult. I found the 1-100 Most Common Words to be a stretch initially, but it quickly became very useful.

I tried what was offered on the website, it must have been the FFT. I'll look on the app for those words. Thanks!!!

You can do it on the website or the app but you need to look under the FFT. It's not as obvious that it's a different option because of the giant play button on the FFT.
I really like the grammar challenges for French. The one with mener/porter was super helpful. It both showed &fixed (hopefully haha) my weaknesses really fast. I'd imagine they'd be equally or more helpful for German as it sounds like some of the grammar is best acquired though exposure. I think they might be a paid feature though.

[Brun Ugle]

Hearing so much about Clozemaster I decided to give it a whirl. I tried a few sets of Hebrew and about 150 sentences of German. Hmm, as far as the web interface goes, it's nicely done but not really a good fit for me. Hebrew sentences are too hard and the German isn't challenging enough. I can't imagine the app bringing a significant difference to the content.

Just out of curiosity, which section did you do for Hebrew? When I first started, I tried the Fluency Fast Track because that seemed like the logical course. However, it was WAY too difficult. I found the 1-100 Most Common Words to be a stretch initially, but it quickly became very useful.

I tried what was offered on the website, it must have been the FFT. I'll look on the app for those words. Thanks!!!

You can do it on the website or the app but you need to look under the FFT. It's not as obvious that it's a different option because of the giant play button on the FFT.
I really like the grammar challenges for French. The one with mener/porter was super helpful. It both showed &fixed (hopefully haha) my weaknesses really fast. I'd imagine they'd be equally or more helpful for German as it sounds like some of the grammar is best acquired though exposure. I think they might be a paid feature though.

Do give it another try! Clozemaster is great! I'm not sure how it is on the website because I haven't been on there in ages. I always use it on my phone now. When you open the language, there is the Fluency Fast Track with a big green button, but under that is a white button with an arrow pointing down that will open all the sub-groups. I would suggest for Hebrew, you start with the first 100 most frequent words (if the option exists for Hebrew). That's what I'm doing in Japanese. It might be a bit hard at first, but since there are only 100 words, you quickly get used to them. For German, you could do the Fluency Fast Track, which starts easy, but gets harder and harder. That's what I'm doing for Spanish and after several weeks, I'm starting to find it much more challenging. Alternatively, you could try the 10001-20000 most frequent words or whichever level you find suits you best. The thing with Clozemaster, is that it isn't just about the vocabulary. It's really good for making you notice the tiny details of the grammar. Some languages even have a grammar section. It's under the section where the words are grouped according to frequency, with another white button with an arrow to open it up. Only the first one is free though. For German, that's the definite article one, which is very useful for drilling the genders and cases.

[zenmonkey]

clozemaster

Thanks!! Okay, definitely needs to be on the app as the Hebrew frequency part isn't available on the site as far as I can see.

So, I'll give it a solid shot and see how I find it. I need the German to be way harder - so I'll may start with vocabulary words down the list too.

Which brings us to German, sometime yesterday my gf's steering wheel got stolen (in our parking garage 'tiefgarage') and we had to deal with the police, rental agency, leasing company, tow truck, repair company. All possible and all in German but with too many hesitations and vocabulary holes. It's time to actively take German to C1 and stop this dabbling about.

From the description of what is C1 it's pretty easy for me to identify a series of objectives.

C1 objectives: "Can express him fluently in almost every situation and present a wide range of topics with relevant supporting detail. Vocabulary is extensive and allows finer shades of meaning. Understands fine points like emotional, allusive and diplomatic usage although non-standard or foreign pronunciation may present problems. Can understand long and complex documents including implications. Can write clear, well-structured documents, citing examples and supporting arguments from other sources and drawing appropriate conclusions."

The evaluation goal that I'm setting is to schedule the C1 in February, latest. That gives me 5-6 months, which is short enough for me that I'll actually focus energy on this. And this post is me socialising that goal because that works for me.

I'm not switching my entire environment to German from today, because I know what that costs emotionally and mental-health wise but I'm going to start moving input and output to achieve that. So my log is also going to reflect more of objectives / planned / achieved kind of layout.

This week, planned -
listening : daily news in German with notes on words not understood.
reading : 1 chapter intensive "Fremdsprachlernen mit System"
front-loading vokab : clarify situation with Anki, Memrise, Clozemaster and Lingvist as to which tool(s) I'm going to use, what I'm going to dump.
writing : start with short notes to myself, get into the practice, possibly by transcribing something on the regular.

[tags: #tagLangHE]
[tags: #tagLangDE]
[tags: #tagLangSet]

[Brun Ugle]

Not all languages have the frequency section. Languages that don’t have a lot of sentences might not have it. I haven’t studied Hebrew, so I don’t know about that one.

[zenmonkey]

Not all languages have the frequency section. Languages that don’t have a lot of sentences might not have it. I haven’t studied Hebrew, so I don’t know about that one.

It's on the app, not the web site.