If all goes according to plan (JP, FI, FR)
Posted: Thu Oct 04, 2018 6:28 pm
Hello! I'm Inês. For the moment my main target languages are (just) Japanese and Finnish.
There's no mysterious reason for learning those two, it was actually the typical: likes a band from that country a lot, starts reading about the country and gets more interested, suddenly feels the need to understand the language.
I also used to peek around the forum for a while before I decided to finally register.
Language's background:
English: I can't remember much about my English learning, or if at some point I struggled with it. I remember my first resource being the Magic English VHS tapes. I also attended extra classes with a native teacher who couldn't speak portuguese, therefore I had to talk in English.
French: Rusty, completely rusty! At the beginning I had no interest, it didn't help I had no choice than to have it for 3 years during high school. But then I started enjoying some movies and music.
Finnish: Was the first language I decided to self-study. Started before I went to Finland through the Erasmus Program (winter 2010). At the time I wasn't consistent so I decided to give up on it for good...until now. At the beginning of 2018 I decided to (re)start it. It's been slow but it's going better than the first attempt! Sometimes I feel like the fact I studied Japanese for a while before has helped with it.
Japanese: Started on August 2013. This one falls into the "really need to understand" and has been sort of my passion to learn and understand it. Never went to Japan. Thought that after 2~3 years I could pass the JLPT N2 but failed miserably. Last year I did the N3 level and passed.
Learning:
It usually takes me a while to find a resource/textbook I'm okay with it. During this time I just dive into any native material I come across and learn vocabulary from it.
This is sort of random about my learning but often I really like to change the languages order. For example with Japanese: the usual way would be to buy an english book (language I know better) for people learning Japanese. But I usually look for japanese books for people learning English and try to use it.
I'm very fond of: vocabulary & dictionaries.
I tried once to do my own exercises/tests but it didn't worked very well, that's one of the reasons why I also like workbooks a lot.
I might be a beginner in a language who can barely read a sentence, but that doesn't seem to stop me from using monoligual dictionaries from the beginning (with some help of google translate + other resources/dictionaries). That's usually because I get easily frustrated when the translations start being the same english word and it makes me even more confused.
The area that I tend to leave for last is, unfortunately, output (mostly writing my own thoughts or opinions in the TL). I always struggle with that and I've been trying to change it and do it more often.
Next: the plan (aka resources, mostly textbooks, I plan to use for now or I'm trying to finish)
There's no mysterious reason for learning those two, it was actually the typical: likes a band from that country a lot, starts reading about the country and gets more interested, suddenly feels the need to understand the language.
I also used to peek around the forum for a while before I decided to finally register.
Language's background:
English: I can't remember much about my English learning, or if at some point I struggled with it. I remember my first resource being the Magic English VHS tapes. I also attended extra classes with a native teacher who couldn't speak portuguese, therefore I had to talk in English.
French: Rusty, completely rusty! At the beginning I had no interest, it didn't help I had no choice than to have it for 3 years during high school. But then I started enjoying some movies and music.
Finnish: Was the first language I decided to self-study. Started before I went to Finland through the Erasmus Program (winter 2010). At the time I wasn't consistent so I decided to give up on it for good...until now. At the beginning of 2018 I decided to (re)start it. It's been slow but it's going better than the first attempt! Sometimes I feel like the fact I studied Japanese for a while before has helped with it.
Japanese: Started on August 2013. This one falls into the "really need to understand" and has been sort of my passion to learn and understand it. Never went to Japan. Thought that after 2~3 years I could pass the JLPT N2 but failed miserably. Last year I did the N3 level and passed.
Learning:
It usually takes me a while to find a resource/textbook I'm okay with it. During this time I just dive into any native material I come across and learn vocabulary from it.
This is sort of random about my learning but often I really like to change the languages order. For example with Japanese: the usual way would be to buy an english book (language I know better) for people learning Japanese. But I usually look for japanese books for people learning English and try to use it.
I'm very fond of: vocabulary & dictionaries.
I tried once to do my own exercises/tests but it didn't worked very well, that's one of the reasons why I also like workbooks a lot.
I might be a beginner in a language who can barely read a sentence, but that doesn't seem to stop me from using monoligual dictionaries from the beginning (with some help of google translate + other resources/dictionaries). That's usually because I get easily frustrated when the translations start being the same english word and it makes me even more confused.
The area that I tend to leave for last is, unfortunately, output (mostly writing my own thoughts or opinions in the TL). I always struggle with that and I've been trying to change it and do it more often.
Next: the plan (aka resources, mostly textbooks, I plan to use for now or I'm trying to finish)