Hagestolz Hits 2019

[hagestolz]

Thanks for the supportive comment, Chupito! I'm very fortunate to be almost retired with work commitments of only 10 hours per week at the moment. However, if language learning ever felt like a job or a chore I'd stop immediately. As it is I don't 'need' any of them, I'm simply interested in my hobby and fascinated how the hours accumulate, now that I've started this log. Having said that it'll be chicken-feed compared to some of the hard-core learners out there!

[Cavesa]

Evidentně máš pevné nervy. Já už na české zprávy nekoukám. Čtu, to je snesitelnější

(nevadí, že ti tykám? Na internetu mi to připadá přirozenější a zvlášť v kontextu komunity jako je tahle. Ale klidně si můžeme vykat, jestli ti to přijde příjemnější, od toho to je. Upřímně řečeno, česká fóra moc neznám, tak si nejsem jistá, co je běžnější)

Chceš nějaká doporučení na seriály nebo knížky?
Jaké žánry máš nejradši? V některých je spousta skvělých původních věcí, v některých fakt ne.

Mmch jsi neskutečná vzácnost, ale to asi víš, tak tvůj úspěch velmi obdivuju. Znám dost lidí, co se naučili česky na skvělou úroveň, ale obvykle tu žijí a studují.

[hagestolz]

Ahoj Caveso a děkuju mockrát za milý komentář - hodně se mi líbilo, že ho napsala česky! A samozrejmě se můžeme týkat ( jsem určitě o hodně starší než ty, ale vůbec to nevadí) Byl bych velmi rád, jestli budeš mít nějaká doporučení na seriály nebo knížky. Pravě čtu Arénu Smrtí, tou první čast z Hladových Her a myslím si, že je to na mou úroveň vhodná. České zprávy však je uplně jiná věc a v poslechu mám obecně řečeno dost problémů. Už několik tydnů sleduju komedii ’Marta a Věra’, která mě baví, ale jednoduché prostě není. Je mi to avšak výzvu a kousek po kousku pokračuju dál.

Přeju hezký týden a měj se!

[hagestolz]

This week has been sabotaged by a nasty attack of gout, which left me in a lot of pain and impacted my motivation to study. The worst thing was being stuck indoors, as we have had some beautiful winter sunshine here in the north of England. Much better now, though, and I still managed to get quite a bit done in the second half of the week.

Czech

Completed a 3 month project to work through all Goldlists from the past 3 years ( about 4000 items) and test myself L1 to L2. Majority are longish phrases rather than single lexical items and I was ruthless as regards correct case endings, genders and verb forms. This was very useful. Now I have a backlog of new vocab to list as the next stage of this never ( but exciting) ending journey...
Otherwise lots of CI and an hour discussing the ins and outs of Brexit with my italki tutor, which went well. 13h10m

Greek

I followed the forum discussion on Language Transfer with interest, as this is my primary learning tool at present. I've now completed 39/120 files of the course and having already done MT, I'm finding the pace challenging but achievable. Contrary to all the advice, I'm writing down most of the material and using it for bi-directional translation practice to reinforce the structures. I'm a visual learner and like to envisage the Greek script as I translate out loud. 4h

French

Speaking and Reading ( Bonjour Tristesse - Françoise Sagan) this week. 4h25m

Spanish

Reading only. Unfortunately I had to cancel my conversation lesson. 1h10

No Dutch, unfortunately.

Total: 22h45

[hagestolz]

I watched a couple of Olly Richards' videos on Youtube and found them quite inspiring. In one he talks about 'learner envy', comparing himself to others and so feeling inadequate, which made me think about my own language goals and the need to 'cultiver mon jardin' as Voltaire wrote.

More importantly was the idea of letting go of a language temporarily, be it only for a week, a few months or years even. At the time Olly was working hard at Japanese after a break of 5-6 years. He also talks about having a conversation in a language he hadn't used for a few months and actually speaking better than before - because the pressure was off and he simply enjoyed the conversation for itself, rather than getting stressed about any mistakes he might make. I'm having quite negative feelings towards Spanish at the moment so I'm thinking it might be a positive move to take a break from it.

[hagestolz]

I'm experimenting with not counting the hours and actually feel quite liberated from the pressure I'd been putting myself under. Aiming to continue the laissez-faire approach for a while and dabble a bit more!

Greek is progressing steadily through LT - 57/120 units completed so far. Lots of speaking in French, Spanish and Czech and I've found a brilliant Italian partner who has reignited my interest. Next week I'm scheduling Spanish and Italian on the same day and am aiming to speak both in two consecutive hours sometime soon.

Reading a translation of Henning Mankell in Spanish, Baudelaire's poetry in French and listening to Spanish news, Cdans l'air in French and News in Slow Italian to help build vocabulary.

Czech reading Hunger Games still and I've found dubbed versions of Black Mirror but without subtitles, which is tough but rewarding.

I don't do any writing apart from the odd e-mail here and there, but bi-directional translations in Cz and It keep my hand in. Maybe I'll incorporate a little imaginative writing in the coming weeks.

[DaveAgain]

I don't do any writing apart from the odd e-mail here and there, but bi-directional translations in Cz and It keep my hand in. Maybe I'll incorporate a little imaginative writing in the coming weeks.

Could you please explain a little about exactly how you use bi-directional translation?

I keep thinking it would be a good idea, and then I don't do it.

[hagestolz]

There are two ways I try to use this. Mainly I use it with Goldlists, which for me consist of sentences rather than individual words. I review the sentences from L1-L2, but every few months I'll revisit and translate from L2-L1. I've also recorded sentences to retranslate in the same way while on the move.

For a language which I don't speak well I might translate a dialogue or a short paragraph of text from L2-L1 and then try to translate it back into the L2 the next day or a few days later. At the moment this is helping me to get to grips with Greek script, for example.

Both methods I write out by hand rather than electronically.

[hagestolz]

Having adopted Nietzsche's advice of 'The best system is to have none', it's time for an update.

Italian:
I've been having two italki sessions per week for the last couple of months now and am making real progress. I decided to drop Spanish altogether just to concentrate on finally getting my Italian moving along the long road to C1. I've read two novels in this time, the vocab from which I'm transferring to Goldlists, having reviewed my 2500 sentences from a couple of years ago. Next a more serious novel in the form of Primo Levi.

Czech

As we were, but my wife and I are going to Prague for a mini-break at the end of April, so I hope to get to use the language. Our first break for nearly 2 years, so looking forward to it

Greek
Tried lessons with two italki teachers, but not very successful. I've completed 85/120 of Language Transfer and have just started the 50 languages course to build some basic vocabulary.

Spanish

Spoke for an hour this morning for the first time in weeks but the expected interference from Italian didn't happen ( apart from mixing up cómo/come). This has made my week and I just had to mention it in a 'language nerd' kind of way. I'll start to use the two together regularly now and at some point use Sp/It together within the same conversation. There are several italki bilingual teachers out there.

French

Passive reading and listening only at the moment, although a lot of it!

[hagestolz]

After several months of blood, sweat and tears I've managed to complete the LT course and wanted to share my thoughts. First off, I feel pleased to have persevered and made it through, despite a couple of longish breaks and repeating sections. This was due mainly to the fact that I am actively maintaining other languages alongside learning Greek.

I enjoyed most of the course and feel that I have successfully acquired a solid base from which to really start LEARNING the language now. Previously I completed the Michel Thomas courses. Today I had my first ever full-length italki lesson and it was very hard work! What is lacking of course is a decent vocabulary and despite being able to understand the Genitive and the Subjunctive, I can't actually count to 10 in Greek!

So...I've signed up to Linq for a month and will listen and read intensively. On top of that I'll aim to build a basic vocabulary core over the coming months and have formal lessons on italki. The teacher is going to send me some reading texts/vocabulary in advance of the lesson about pre-determined topics, so that structure/support will be really helpful initially.

If anyone has any suggestions or advice I'd love to hear from you!