A language learners’ forum

Morgana wrote:I've also started listening to a podcast on RÚV called Ég segi ekki alltaf allt gott. It's kind of interesting. That's right, I said it's kind of interesting, because I can barely understand a very small amount of it! I am THRILLED ... I don't know if it's all the aspiration but listening to Icelandic always feels calming. Even (especially?) if I have no idea what's being said.

Yay frábært! Great to hear. I hadn't come across that podcast but having listened to a couple of minutes of it now I agree it's nice and clear, not too fast. I also agree that for all its crunchy edges Icelandic is quite a gentle language really.

And isn't it nice to learn some useful phrases for everyday life? Like að borða augun, for example.

Wrt Anki, I know what you mean about only learning one form of a word. When I was using Anki for Icelandic, I tried to discipline myself that whenever a verb came up I'd go through 'hann stendur, þau standa, hann stóð, þau stóðu, hann hefur staðið' (yes I had to look that up) - I managed to get into that habit and it did help, but it was more difficult with nouns as there are so many forms - not sure I have the answer to that one. Maybe cycle through - nominative for the first one that comes up, accusative for the second, etc.?

Good to hear Icelandic is giving you something back. Keep it up!

Morgana, you have me listening to Icelandic radio. I think. I don't even know?

Morgana wrote:what I wanted to know wasn't "what is optimal" but "what is the bare minimum."

Have you already asked Expugnator? Unless I'm mistaken, he's been learning a whole bunch of languages at 20-30 minutes per day for years and seems to be making consistent progress. Maybe he can give you the answers you're looking for?

We need more confusion here. Down with order! Down with experiments!

I thought you were going to boost your Swedish or maybe French.

Morgana wrote:¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Me, man. Me.

I'm with you on hate-learning. Or rather learning for the challenge, sometimes - in my case. I've been interested in Manx for a while, and I doubt even 1/4 of the world knows about the Isle of Man. But it's so tiny and cool, just like the Faroes, that I'm drawn to it. Same with Madagascar (which is only known as a deserted isle because of those movies), Iceland, Jeju, Jan Mayen, Svalbard... Oof.

I've yet to figure out my obsession with little hamlets like this. The desire to get away from people? The desire to discover?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I struggled with TV quite a lot! I stepped away from really watching anything and started to focus on my classes and reading. When I tried to watch a show like 2 months ago, suddenly I understood so much more. Like my brain was suddenly like hm ok shows and movies have become interesting enough for me to watch for extended periods of time.

I doubted everyone who said it’s just happens “out of nowhere” until I experienced it myself. But, I’ve studied Japanese formally for 7 years (half of it half assed) and lived in the target country for 14 or so months (non consecutively) and counting, and only just now did I get my break; at the advanced level.

Like I understood what I was watching, but it was too tedious or boring before. Am I making sense??? I feel like I sound crazy. Now that I’m here I wish I would have put of trying to watch extensively until now because I burnt myself out. I keep having to remind myself that it’s ok to go at my own pace.

With that being said, I’m in awe and slightly envious of those who can start extensively watching from the beginning. I do remain skeptical however of some timelines/perceived abilities.

Edit: a typo.

Also sorry for rambling on your log but if my guess is right I agree with your unspoken (typed??) opinion

In my case, I watched Italian TV intensively...which was a lot of work, but after while (I don't know how long, many months, many hundreds of hours) I got to a point where I could watch it with very good comprehension without subtitles. I can't imagine that I would have gotten such good results if I'd instead watched extensively. Even now, I see that when I'm listening to something in Italian, if I don't know a word or even a whole sentence, my brain ignores it as if it weren't even there. It doesn't affect my comprehension, but it does cause me to occasionally miss details or nuance.

It's only when I slow things down, focus on the individual words/sentences (which I can only seem to do if I am reading some kind of text) and realize something's off and I try to figure out what's missing that I improve. So the idea that extensive listening can bring about the same results feels like a pipe dream to me. But maybe it really is possible and I don't have enough faith in the magic?

Now, after 1200+ hours of intensive reading and listening in Polish, I'm starting to seriously think about extensive TV watching without subtitles, mostly out of necessity since I don't have access to much in Polish with subtitles. I'm not in the beginning of this language by any means, but it still feels like I'm far from anything resembling "fluency".

I watched 2 episodes of a Polish sitcom yesterday. I understood enough that I could follow the plot fairly easily, but I'm definitely missing more dialogue/words than feels comfortable. But I'm thinking that if I combine extensive TV watching with the other intensive activities that I do, maybe it can get me somewhere? I have a lot of doubt, but I simultaneously really want to give it a try to see what happens. I know that extensive listening is really useful and important, I just have trouble believing it's as useful in isolation (without simultaneously doing some reading/listening intensively) as some people make it seem.

I know that you've been watching TV in Swedish with ease lately. I don't remember - did you do extensive watching from the beginning, intensive, or some kind of mix? I think I remember that you've tried to do some extensive listening in Icelandic, but you could only pick out words here or there, which was really frustrating. Are you thinking about trying it again in some form?

Morgana wrote:My thing with tv is that even when something is riveting, I will eventually get tired of it and feel compelled to stop watching and go do something else. A lot of tv in my TLs is mentally draining. I get mentally tired watching.

The same thing happens to me even in my native language. With very few exceptions, I never last past the 3rd season of a TV show. The characters just start to bore me, I guess.
Modern Icelandic was something I tried about ten years ago, but I quit long before getting to the point that you have reached. I saw no future for me in it: not enough books, or TV or movies.
I went to Modern Icelandic after spending a few years with Old Norse. That was ten years ago, and since then I have not read anything in Old Norse. I did try just a few years ago to learn Norwegian, and to my surprise Old Norse provided a few cognates to help my understanding. But Norwegian just did not appeal to me, so I let it drop.
Anyway, good luck whichever way you decide to go.

Morgana wrote:Finally, I'm still working through Harry Potter och fången från Azkaban. Chapter 15 I think. This book feels like it's lasting forever. It's not boring me, it's just taking a long time. I'm up to chapter 27 of the Röta audiobook, but since I'm focusing a bit more on tv I might not get back to it for a bit.

Just wait until you get to book 4... and then book 5. The Harry Potter books are great, especially the first three books, but I find that they slow down considerably later on. I think it's because J. K. Rowling had to explain the magic system and include more world-building (what the fans wanted, essentially), but a lot of it feels unnecessary. The beginning of each book is always the worst, because everything has to be explained all over again and with each book the explanations get longer and slower. This is probably fine for Potterheads but not for the average person. I think it was rdearman who said that he'd rather stab his eyes out with a fork than read Harry Potter again, and I'm starting to understand why.

That’s something I’m really starting to consider carefully before starting a new language. Learning a new language is really hard work for me, so I want there to be some kind of reward for all that, and also without some use for the language, I’m either going to have to keep studying it forever or forget it. So, now if I’m planning to go beyond light dabbling, it’s got to be in a language where I can find plenty of enjoyable literature and TV series, or I know lots of people I can talk to. Otherwise, it’s a lot of work for nothing.