Chove's Log

[chove]

Off to Germany next week and I feel like I know almost nothing. Probably know a bit more than I think, though. I'll let you know how it goes.

[MorkTheFiddle]

Have a good trip. I had a great time in Germany and I am sure you will too.

[chove]

Got back from Germany today, I had a nice trip and spoke more German than I had expected to. Mostly just ordering things in restaurants, buying stuff in shops, etc. Spazi is really nice!

[chove]

The holiday confirmed what I've thought for a while now -- that most people are happy if you make the effort with their language even if you know very little. I only know a few words of Dutch but the staff at Schipol and on KLM flights kind of lit up when I made the effort to say "dank u wel" and "goeden morgen" to them My German goes further than that but while a few people did switch to English when it became obvious that my German is very limited, they seemed to appreciate that I had at least tried with the language. This is what I like about learning languages, the slight bond you can get with someone just because you know a few words in their native tongue when they don't expect it.

With German my comprehension turns out to be a lot better than I realised, I could follow the gist of some conversations that I couldn't join in. My stepmother and stepsister handled the more complicated interactions but I usually had some idea of what they were saying.

I bought a couple of German magazines on topics that interest me in the hope that some day I will be able to read them.

[chove]

My final year of Open University Spanish starts next month, I've started a bit early in case I fall behind later on. I'm trying to do at least an hour a day and so far it's going okay. I hope to keep doing fortnightly iTalki Polish lessons because I feel like I'm making progress on that and I don't want to lose it. The German I'll just try and maintain at the level it's at, with Anki reps and occasionally using an old textbook.

'Breve historia de Espana' turned out to be a bit beyond my level so I'm reading a kids book called 'Pequena historia de Espana' and I can understand most of it and get the gist of the harder bits. Unlike with my stalled Harry Potter reading I'm actually enjoying the content, I did history at (a brick and mortar) university back in the early 2000s and I'm still very interested in the subject.

I try not to worry about what grades I get in this course because I'm doing it mostly to give some structure to my days, but it'd be nice to get better marks than in previous years. Generally speaking my assignment marks are very good and then the final exam drags me down because I'm not that good at Spanish when I don't have time to prepare it.

[chove]

My Spanish course officially starts on the 5th, but like I said before I started early so that I'm a bit ahead. I have been assigned a tutor and there are about 10 tutorials over the academic year, most of which are online but there are two at a university in Glasgow that I hope to be able to get along to. I find it's always worth doing the tutorials, stressful though they can be. If nothing else it's good listening practice.

I haven't restarted my Spanish iTalki lessons/conversations but I'm planning to get that sorted out in the next week or so, because I will need the practice. Half of the exam is spoken and half is a longer essay on the same topic.

Meanwhile I decided to keep trying to grind German vocabulary so I can maintain what I have and hopefully prepare myself for the German years of the course, and I plan to keep doing a fortnightly Polish iTalki lesson. Nothing too time-consuming, because I need to focus on Spanish for the time being.

[chove]

I had an iTalki Polish lesson this week, we seem to be starting to get into grammar a bit more, which is good because my lack of cases is (I think) the main thing holding me back. You'd think I'd have learned them by now but I always seem to get stuck. On the plus side the Polish case system made the German one seem really easy by comparison, so I no longer find that especially intimidating.

Got a bit stalled on my Spanish course due to ill health, but I'll be seeing my doctor next week and hopefully getting some help on that front. I'm still a bit ahead though because I started as soon as the textbooks arrived, this week I've been learning about immigration to Spain and the problems faced by people in immigrant communities. I'm enjoying this more than the flamenco topic which was interesting at first but then seemed to go on forever and I just wasn't that into it.

Also did an iTalki Spanish session the other week, which went quite well and made me a bit more confident about my abilities. I'm definitely getting better at the tenses, and still need to work on the subjunctive in all its forms.

[chove]

This Spanish course is quite a challenge, it feels like it's slightly beyond my level. To be honest I don't think I'm at the level we're supposed to be at (B2, I think) and based on the last online tutorial I think I'm not alone in that. The only really intimidating people on the course are either native speakers or ex-pats who live in Spain. (We have a fair few native speakers because the degree requires two languages and a lot of people pick one they already speak fluently to keep the work down.) I should be getting the marks back from my first assignment this week, I don't think I did very well, I didn't "show off" much and I'm still shaky on the subjunctive.

I am reading a German reader but I had to stop because it seems to be using the dative for movement and the accusative for no movement and I checked my grammar book and that's wrong? It's consistent about it, and it was written by a non-native (I think) who I assume is fluent so I am deeply confused. Otherwise it's very basic but readable. I've also started reading a magazine I picked up in the German equivalent of Superdrug/Boots, using an online dictionary for the (many) words I don't know. I only do a page at a time, but it's practice.

Haven't done any Polish for a while, been a bit low on funds for iTalki but hopefully I can get that done again next month. I also want to continue my corrected conversations with a Spanish teacher I like, because I really do need the practice. My course has a lot of reading and a bit of listening, but not much speaking (or chances to get writing corrected) and the final exam is 50% oral so I'll need to improve by then.

[alaart]

I am reading a German reader but I had to stop because it seems to be using the dative for movement and the accusative for no movement and I checked my grammar book and that's wrong? It's consistent about it, and it was written by a non-native (I think) who I assume is fluent so I am deeply confused.

Can you give an example sentence? - Ich kann ja mal reinschauen

[chove]

Can you give an example sentence? - Ich kann ja mal reinschauen

The book's in the other room at the moment but I'll try and remember it!

Anyway I am slightly behind on my Spanish coursework, but I could catch up fairly easily as long as I can get studying it properly. Just it's very intimidating and a bit tiring.

I made a Plan of what I should do every day in terms of languages, but it's the first day so I have no idea if I'll manage to stick to it. 30 Minutes (minimum) of coursework, a page of German vocab, Anki, learn 10 Polish words, 50XP each language on DuoLingo. I can do more or other things as well, but maybe having a Plan will help me keep going.