Chove's Log

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chove
Green Belt
Posts: 374
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 10:42 pm
Location: Scotland
Languages: English (N), Spanish (intermediate), German (intermediate), Polish (some).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9355
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Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby chove » Tue Jun 29, 2021 1:23 pm

I finished reading 'La habitación de los reptiles' which is the Spanish translation of the second 'A Series of Unfortunate Events' books, it was quite enjoyable. Not sure what to read next in Spanish, but I was thinking I might try a history book on my Kindle, there's a few on Amazon. Something that isn't a million pages long. (RIP my attempts to read 'Breve historia de España' because it's difficult *and* too heavy to hold comfortably. Some day, hopefully.) I know a vague outline of Spanish history by now, and this way I can combine learning Spanish with learning history, plus it's interesting to approach the history of Spain through Spanish-speakers, to get their perspective on it.
4 x

User avatar
chove
Green Belt
Posts: 374
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 10:42 pm
Location: Scotland
Languages: English (N), Spanish (intermediate), German (intermediate), Polish (some).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9355
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Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby chove » Wed Jun 30, 2021 3:58 pm

A visit to YouTube has me wondering if many people don't know how they learned their non-native language(s), by which I mean there's a lot of "I learned English without ever studying, I just played [game]" and then it turns out they got to a lower intermediate level in school and then consumed native media until they got really good at it. Somehow this seems to turn into "everything I learned in school was a waste of time, I only learned through immersion" and not "I needed a mixture of these two approaches to get to this point." So then I wonder how many people start watching something like 'Dark' without subtitles and get discouraged because it doesn't seem to work for them. (The classic example being all those kids who watch hundreds of hours of anime and never pick up more than a word or two of Japanese.)

Anyway, this morning I watched some for-learners Spanish content on YouTube that used to go right over my head and I could follow it pretty well even without the subtitles. Embolded by this I clicked on a documentary dubbed into Spanish and did a lot better than I used to do with such things. So I am definitely improving! Hooray! Being at some sort of intermediate level with Spanish it can be hard to tell if I'm making any real progress, especially when I still have to use the Kindle dictionary more than I'd like, so it's nice to know that I'm getting better even if it's very slowly.
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User avatar
chove
Green Belt
Posts: 374
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 10:42 pm
Location: Scotland
Languages: English (N), Spanish (intermediate), German (intermediate), Polish (some).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9355
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Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby chove » Fri Jul 02, 2021 3:51 am

I have to look up a lot of words when I read German, but I suppose the only way to fix that is to keep reading. I think it's because "big words" in Spanish are often have obvious English cognates, whereas in German that's less likely. I blame the Normans. I think I mentioned before that each time I start reading in another language it's hard for a while then seems to get easier, maybe just because I'm having to switch languages from English. It's also easier translate it into English as I read, which makes me think I should be avoiding doing that. One thing that I like and dislike about German is the way a sentence can change completely based on the last few words. It's a bit like when I was in school and someone would say something and then add "NOT!" to show that they were just lying. (As seen in the film Wayne's World.)

https://www.duolingo.com/skill/pl/Prepo ... -and-notes -- here's a DuoLingo lesson tips section that attempts to introduce more than a dozen prepositions all at once, along with which cases you need to use with them. I have decided it might be best to learn them as I go, or a few at a time in groups like "these ones need the accusative." I find the DL Polish tree harder than other ones because it tends to introduce a lot of information at a time. It's quite a short tree compared to something like the French one, but that just means it's denser information-wise. I have no idea how people can do it without looking at the tips section, or even if they do.
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Caromarlyse
Green Belt
Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2019 2:31 pm
Languages: English (N), French (C1-ish), German (B2/C1-ish), Russian (B1-ish), Portuguese (B1-ish), Welsh (complete beginner), Spanish (in hibernation)
(All levels estimates and given as a guide only)
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Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby Caromarlyse » Fri Jul 02, 2021 10:08 am

chove wrote:I have to look up a lot of words when I read German, but I suppose the only way to fix that is to keep reading. I think it's because "big words" in Spanish are often have obvious English cognates, whereas in German that's less likely.


I did a class at a German university once, where the lecturer had a strong fondness for Latin words rather than the German equivalent, when giving a lecture in German. I suspect he thought it was more learned. I was happy I could follow along pretty well; my German fellow students were far less pleased.
3 x

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chove
Green Belt
Posts: 374
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 10:42 pm
Location: Scotland
Languages: English (N), Spanish (intermediate), German (intermediate), Polish (some).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9355
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Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby chove » Fri Jul 02, 2021 2:47 pm

Caromarlyse wrote:
chove wrote:I have to look up a lot of words when I read German, but I suppose the only way to fix that is to keep reading. I think it's because "big words" in Spanish are often have obvious English cognates, whereas in German that's less likely.


I did a class at a German university once, where the lecturer had a strong fondness for Latin words rather than the German equivalent, when giving a lecture in German. I suspect he thought it was more learned. I was happy I could follow along pretty well; my German fellow students were far less pleased.


I know in English if you use more Latin-derived words it's seen as a higher/posher register, I've always wondered if that's just a hangover from when educated/rich people could be assumed to have learned Latin at school and the common people didn't.
4 x

Caromarlyse
Green Belt
Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2019 2:31 pm
Languages: English (N), French (C1-ish), German (B2/C1-ish), Russian (B1-ish), Portuguese (B1-ish), Welsh (complete beginner), Spanish (in hibernation)
(All levels estimates and given as a guide only)
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Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby Caromarlyse » Fri Jul 02, 2021 3:43 pm

chove wrote:I know in English if you use more Latin-derived words it's seen as a higher/posher register, I've always wondered if that's just a hangover from when educated/rich people could be assumed to have learned Latin at school and the common people didn't.


I had to look up the word seriatim the other day when reading something (in English). At least it seems like a useful word I might have cause to use again, with the added benefit of making me sound posh!
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User avatar
chove
Green Belt
Posts: 374
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 10:42 pm
Location: Scotland
Languages: English (N), Spanish (intermediate), German (intermediate), Polish (some).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9355
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Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby chove » Mon Jul 05, 2021 7:43 am

I've been going back over earlier Duolingo Polish lessons because a lot of it just didn't stick at all. It's a really difficult course, it introduces a lot of grammar at a time and it feels like there are exceptions in every lesson. I did an online test that claimed my Polish is very low intermediate (by one mark!) but a) online test and b) I was able to work out a lot of answers when I didn't know the words by just choosing what looked like the right verb ending. So at least I know something, right? :lol: Duolingo doesn't give me XP for every time I go over an earlier lesson, which probably puts people off though I assume it's to stop people doing the easiest lessons over and over again for points. I don't mind though, the gameification is just a cute way to see if I'm progressing at all.

I think my German grammar is okay and what I need most there is more words. I get a lot of similar-looking verbs confused, which doesn't help. At least compound nouns are guessable sometimes if you know the component parts. In German I'm currently reading a children's history of Ancient Rome, which I'm not massively enjoying at the moment but I'm about halfway through and I've learned a few words, some of which aren't even about military campaigns!
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User avatar
chove
Green Belt
Posts: 374
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 10:42 pm
Location: Scotland
Languages: English (N), Spanish (intermediate), German (intermediate), Polish (some).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9355
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Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby chove » Fri Jul 09, 2021 3:27 pm

Duolingo Polish continues to be hell, not sure if it's the course itself or just the language though. :lol: Had to go and look up the locative case for the lesson on days and months, It involves soft and hard and hardened consonants, which are a thing I've never managed to get straight in my head. Time to go over it again, I suppose. At least that gives me a task for the day.

I have done about 90 minutes of Spanish today which is largely from watching YouTube videos from El Jardín de Martín, a Spaniard who lives in Germany and mainly talks about language learning. Had the subtitles on, understood most of it. Then I tried to revise what all the tenses are and what I'm supposed to do with them, but only the indicative ones because the subjunctive is scary and confusing. I need to try that soon, maybe tomorrow?

I got a German reader "for intermediate students" called Deustchland: Ein neuer Anfang. It was published in 1992 so the bits I have done so far are establishing what Germany is like immediately after the Wall fell and the country(ies) reunified. I did a bit of that on my OU German course so a lot of the vocabulary is familar. I'm doing it intensively in that I read the section noting words I don't know, then read it again having looked them up (with the definitions on a bit of paper if needed), and then I go over it again the next day before moving on.

Trying to get more reading done after reading the thread about reading a million sentences to master a language. It'd take me ages to have read that many, but as the supermarket advert says "every little helps." I'm using an Android app called Goal Tracker to remind me to do various language tasks as well as normal everyday things that I sometimes neglect due to poor mental health. It's helping with both those things, and my flat is a lot tidier now as well because the cleaning tasks are mostly easy to do when there's someone or something to prompt me to get started. I'm surprised by how much it's helped, actually, I downloaded it in a moment of optimism where I still wasn't that convinced I'd actually do things just because my phone told me to.
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User avatar
chove
Green Belt
Posts: 374
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 10:42 pm
Location: Scotland
Languages: English (N), Spanish (intermediate), German (intermediate), Polish (some).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9355
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Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby chove » Sat Jul 10, 2021 8:10 pm

A bit madly I've decided to see if I can read a bit of Dutch for maybe 10 - 15 minutes a day so that I can remember what I've learned in case I get good enough at time management to be able to pick it up properly again. This seems unlikely but I've been doing a bit better at that recently with the aid of apps on my phone. I've got a lot of spare time because I can't work in the real world, and I tend to feel better when I have something to fill that time. That was why I had started the Open University courses, but it turns out having deadlines and exams just makes it all too stressful. So I need a happy mediium, it seems. Anyway as I've said I really like Dutch, so I have ordered a couple of short-stories-for-beginners books from Amazon to see how I get on with those. Also I had somehow got to a point where Dutch was helping my German rather than hindering it, and that was quite useful.

I started tracking time spent on tasks last weekend, apparently I spent about 15 hours last week doing various language things, plus probably around an hour of untracked time reading in bed or listening to podcasts while trying to fall asleep. I'm using "Clockify" (I'm on Android), which I like so far. It wasn't a steady two hours a day, some days were only one hour and one day was almost five hours because I watched a lot of Spanish YouTube videos that day. So far my attempt to spend more time actually doing things during the day is working :D

It's a bit early to know if reading more is helping me learn, but I've noticed a few words cropping up enough times that I start to remember what they mean when I see them in the wild.
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User avatar
chove
Green Belt
Posts: 374
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 10:42 pm
Location: Scotland
Languages: English (N), Spanish (intermediate), German (intermediate), Polish (some).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9355
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Re: Chove's Log (Spanish, German, Polish, French)

Postby chove » Tue Jul 27, 2021 2:45 am

Anyone got any tips for getting back into studying? I took an accidental break and now I'm somewhat paralysed by the fear that I'll have forgotten everything and it'll all be too difficult now. Somehow. Anxiety does a real number on my brain sometimes. I've kept up with Anki reviews and done maybe 10 minutes a day of DuoLingo or similar, but I feel like I've really fallen out of the habit. :(
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