General language log

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
User avatar
sporedandroid
Blue Belt
Posts: 650
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:54 am
Languages: English (N), Spanish (heritage/intermediate), Hebrew (A2-B1)
x 1345

General language log

Postby sporedandroid » Sat Jan 12, 2019 8:02 am

Today I did some chorusing with English for the first time. My mother tongue is Spanish, but I’m more comfortable with English. I still kind of find my prosody in English awkward and unexpressive. I had some issues syncing up with it like I do with a lot of chorusing at first. It was also difficult compared to some foreign language stuff because I was chorusing with a talk show instead of a language class.

Later on I decided to try something new with Hebrew. I tried “silent chorusing” as a warmup for regular chorusing. I chose to do a tv show because I wasn’t planning on attempting to speak. I just wanted to listen to some more natural speech repetitively before doing regular chorusing. Eventually I got to a section that seemed fairly easy to pronounce. I actually did fairly well at it. So I reached a new milestone in Hebrew. Now I can do some chorusing with natural speech.
Last edited by sporedandroid on Mon Feb 18, 2019 3:23 am, edited 2 times in total.
5 x

DaveAgain
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1961
Joined: Mon Aug 27, 2018 11:26 am
Languages: English (native), French & German (learning).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... &start=200
x 4030

Re: General language log

Postby DaveAgain » Sat Jan 12, 2019 8:17 am

sporedandroid wrote:Today I did some chorusing with English for the first time. My mother tongue is Spanish, but I’m more comfortable with English. I still kind of find my prosody in English awkward and unexpressive. I had some issues syncing up with it like I do with a lot of chorusing at first. It was also difficult compared to some foreign language stuff because I was chorusing with a talk show instead of a language class.
Is there a local drama club you could join? That might be an enjoyable way to work on your spoken english.
1 x

User avatar
sporedandroid
Blue Belt
Posts: 650
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:54 am
Languages: English (N), Spanish (heritage/intermediate), Hebrew (A2-B1)
x 1345

Re: General language log

Postby sporedandroid » Sat Jan 12, 2019 5:18 pm

DaveAgain wrote:
sporedandroid wrote:Today I did some chorusing with English for the first time. My mother tongue is Spanish, but I’m more comfortable with English. I still kind of find my prosody in English awkward and unexpressive. I had some issues syncing up with it like I do with a lot of chorusing at first. It was also difficult compared to some foreign language stuff because I was chorusing with a talk show instead of a language class.
Is there a local drama club you could join? That might be an enjoyable way to work on your spoken english.

Yeah. There’s improv. I don’t really enjoy most theater. I think also practicing the prosody I practiced in everyday life would help. I should also stop being wordy to make up for not liking my prosody. I often do that hoping it will “drown out my voice”, but I know it doesn’t work that way.
0 x

User avatar
sporedandroid
Blue Belt
Posts: 650
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:54 am
Languages: English (N), Spanish (heritage/intermediate), Hebrew (A2-B1)
x 1345

Re: General language log (Hebrew/Turkish/English pronunciation)

Postby sporedandroid » Sun Jan 13, 2019 9:44 pm

I did a bit of English chorusing today. I could match up with it fairly well, but it makes me physically tired and out of breath. I have issues with being out of breath and I don’t really know why. I think that contributes to the weirdness of my voice. Any idea on what to do about that?
0 x

User avatar
sporedandroid
Blue Belt
Posts: 650
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:54 am
Languages: English (N), Spanish (heritage/intermediate), Hebrew (A2-B1)
x 1345

Re: General language log (Hebrew/Turkish/English pronunciation)

Postby sporedandroid » Mon Jan 14, 2019 2:11 am

How I sound speaking English. https://vocaroo.com/i/s0eAXEo7gor5
0 x

User avatar
sporedandroid
Blue Belt
Posts: 650
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:54 am
Languages: English (N), Spanish (heritage/intermediate), Hebrew (A2-B1)
x 1345

Re: General language log (Hebrew/Turkish/English pronunciation)

Postby sporedandroid » Mon Jan 14, 2019 12:26 pm

Something interesting I noticed is that when I try to just “think Hebrew words” my inner dialogue has an accent. When I try to think some inner dialogue instead my accent disappears. I’ll start learning some more inner dialogue-like phrases and vocabulary. After that I’ll start a simple journal like I had in French immersion. I could express myself in a journal with a fairly limited vocabulary and it was often only one or two phrases with a drawing. I can even learn to write shit about my boss!
1 x

User avatar
sporedandroid
Blue Belt
Posts: 650
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:54 am
Languages: English (N), Spanish (heritage/intermediate), Hebrew (A2-B1)
x 1345

Re: General language log (Hebrew/Turkish/English pronunciation)

Postby sporedandroid » Thu Feb 07, 2019 6:40 am

I made some interesting progress on Hebrew. I’m watching Shtisel with English subtitles and I can occasionally spot non-literal translations. I still need the English subtitles, but I’m not sure I can find anything at my level. My vocabulary is apparently around 500 words.
0 x

User avatar
sporedandroid
Blue Belt
Posts: 650
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:54 am
Languages: English (N), Spanish (heritage/intermediate), Hebrew (A2-B1)
x 1345

Re: General language log (Hebrew/Turkish/English pronunciation)

Postby sporedandroid » Sun Feb 17, 2019 6:48 am

Some more progress I’ve noticed while watching Shtisel is that I now understand the Hebrew better than the Yiddish. About few weeks ago I understood the Yiddish better because it’s a Germanic language, but now it almost feels like my ability to understand Germanic languages has dropped while my ability to understand Hebrew has improved. Maybe it’s just relative. At one point I felt like my ability to understand Germanic languages was way better than my ability to understand Hebrew. I think I improved a lot because I’ve been studying the verbs pretty hard. I think resetting my 500 basic Hebrew words deck helped. This time I study by having English on the front of the card and only marking a card as good when I can instantly understand it with no effort. It may be tedious to some people, but it’s kind of fun for me.
0 x

User avatar
sporedandroid
Blue Belt
Posts: 650
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:54 am
Languages: English (N), Spanish (heritage/intermediate), Hebrew (A2-B1)
x 1345

Re: General language log

Postby sporedandroid » Mon Feb 18, 2019 3:44 am

So I noticed my parents were watching Shtisel. I asked them how they liked the show. They said they talked too fast for them to keep up with subtitles. That’s exactly how I feel watching stuff in Korean. I never thought of Hebrew as a fast language. Especially that particular show which is supposed to be easy to understand. I can often hear them use vocabulary I’m learning, so it’s a good fun way to see vocabulary I’m learning in context. A lot of people discourage using subtitles in your native language while watching something in a foreign language, but I find it very helpful. I sometimes even tune out the subtitles a bit.
0 x

User avatar
sporedandroid
Blue Belt
Posts: 650
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 6:54 am
Languages: English (N), Spanish (heritage/intermediate), Hebrew (A2-B1)
x 1345

Re: General language log

Postby sporedandroid » Fri Mar 01, 2019 9:06 am

I’ve really been drilling the vocabulary in. Since I use anniweb I can repeat the audio a lot of times. It’s great for getting the words stuck in my head. I also like to think up scenarios and concepts related to the sentence while I replay it a few times. I find I’m also able to understand a few words and phrases without mental translation sometimes and I’m able to just understand words I encounter without too much thinking. Probably
I’m also doing more work with sentences. It needs more concentration than words, so I try to do it when I can concentrate. When I can’t concentrate as much and need to kill time I’ll do numbers or verbs. Numbers are boring, but I know they'd be an odd vocabulary gap. I don’t know if this is the most efficient method, but it’s the most convenient method. So I can study when I’d otherwise be wasting time on my phone. I hate putting together a plan, so it’s handy having anki do most of that work. I’ve been taking a break from pronunciation. All this listening practice makes me want to start practicing pronunciation. I can’t find anyone to practice Hebrew with and I’m not sure how much I want to. I have bad anxiety that I’m seeking out help for. It goes way beyond the usual anxiety about speaking a foreign language. I’m mainly interested in Hebrew for input reasons anyways.
0 x


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests