Aloyse's study log (ZH + some ARB, ARQ, KAB, EN, ES, JP)

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Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
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my languages

Postby Aloyse » Fri May 01, 2020 3:23 pm

Warning: this post will probably get edited as I think of more languages I've had an interest in.
These are in more or less chronological order.

Lifelong interests
Past interests
Ephemeral interests

English:
I chose English over German as my first mandatory language school subject (LV1 in the French school system) in the 6th grade. That year, our school made us buy tapes, but the teacher never assigned any listening homework, nor did she explain how to use the tapes for self-study. Needless to say, I never used them.
I kept English as LV1 through the rest of my school and university years. Total 12 years of classes ranging from 4 hours to 1hour a week. I also started reading novels in English when I was in university. Passed the CAE at some point (apparently my writing and reading are good enough to compensate for the fact that my pronunciation is terrible).

German:
My first contact with German was from lots of French movies in which the bad guys shouted orders at poor Occupied France civilians. I also had a summer vacation friend whose father was German.
As a child my conclusion was that German sounded harsh and I didn't want to take it as a school subject.
As an adult, I started learning it from a pocket book, but never persevered long enough to gain any kind of proficiency.

Spanish:
When it came time to choose an LV2 (8th grade), I had a choice of German, Spanish or Italian. I didn't like German and played classical guitar. I had Spanish classes at school for about 6 years (also ranging from 4 hours to 1 hour a week). Four of my five teachers were just awesome.

Latin:
Also started in 8th grade, found it interesting enough to take it for 5 years (2 hours/week).
Only one of our teachers was a man, who made us (16yo all female class) read Ovid's "Ars Amatoria".
The last year of high school I didn't review for the Bac and got a 0 (edit: meaning zero, not "outstanding").

Berber (Taqbaylit):
I first thought about studying Berber in middle school. My family has relatives who speak Taqbaylit and we went to visit them one summer, so I learnt a few words from some cousins.
Afterwards I found out that some of my classmates took Berber language and culture lessons in my hometown, but these were mixed with religious classes so I never attended.
However I got one of the kids to lend me their Taqbaylit textbook and photocopied it. This was the start of an on and off study of Taqbaylit and accumulation of textbooks that lasted until now.
I never gained any sort of proficiency beyond a few basic words and sentences.

Persian:
I learnt a few words from a classmate in high school. Just because I thought it sounded cool.

Italian
Found my grandpa's Italian textbook in the attic.

Portuguese:
A neighbour gave me a pocket book about learning Portuguese.

Various Occitan dialects:
As a child I learnt a single word of patois, which the farmers shouted to call their cows back to the stable in the evenings. Later on, I bought the Assimil "L' Occitan" book, which I did not study. Basically I was tempted to learn the local dialect of any place I lived in or visited often enough in South Eastern France.

Japanese:
At some point during my late teenage years, I started accumulating Assimil books about all kinds of languages. I didn't buy the expensive tapes, and at the time I never studied those books long enough to learn anything from them either. However years later (around 2001/2002 ?) the small "Japonais sans peine tome 1" book was my companion during long underground+train daily commutes, and to my surprise, I finished it.
I promptly gave up Japanese to study Arabic.
Restarted learning Japanese two years ago.

Modern Standard Arabic:
Around 2002/2003 I had an opportunity to take Arabic night classes at a renowned higher education oriental languages institute. I though this could be a good way to learn some Arabic sounds which could be useful for my on and off Berber study. Registration was easy, the fee was ridiculously low, the classes were ridiculously overcrowded, attrition during the first year was ridiculously high, all standard public university undergraduate conditions/practices in France at the time.
I mostly self-studied the textbook for the next two years and only occasionally attended class. I did use the tapes this time, as well as pronunciation training files found on the internet.
Passed my language exams without a hitch, flunked the geography, history and literature exams (they had no night classes and no textbooks for these subjects).
I gave up during the 3rd year as the level was much higher, there was no textbook anymore so I couldn't pre-study at my own pace during the summer, and my vocabulary and free time were clearly insufficient.

Dialectal Arabic (Darja) :
Bought several books, considered attending classes at the same institute as above, but they had no night classes and no official textbook. I self-studied for a few weeks.

Finnish:
Considered learning it as my company at the time was working with a well-known Finnish company. Went through a few pages of the FSI course.

Dutch:
It looked easy. Bought a book. Didn't study.

Chinese (Mandarin):
In 2009 I went to China and came back with an obsession about learning Chinese. Started with my old Assimil books, but this time I got the tapes and didn't stop after the first few lessons.
Passed HSK4 at some point. Studying Chinese occupied 100% of my free time for several years, but I never got beyond B1 at the highest.
Most of it was self study, with a few group classes thrown in.
Recently I have been barely maintaining my Chinese by listening to podcasts and other low-effort activities. But Chinese has been part of my daily life for the past 11 years with a few off months here and there.


I think I must have been tempted by Greek, Hindi, Punjabi, Russian, Cantonese, Hebrew, Korean, Esperanto and a few other languages at some point...
Last edited by Aloyse on Sun May 24, 2020 6:07 pm, edited 6 times in total.
4 x
Future me already did it.

Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
x 603

déconfinement

Postby Aloyse » Fri May 08, 2020 2:17 pm

I've been busy with work lately, but Manuel d'Arabe Moderne lesson 6 has still been playing twice a day from my trusty USB key. I'm quite pleased with this. It seems to be an effective way of keeping track of where I was before life interrupted, all the while dripping a tiny bit of review into my brain everyday.

So, the first version of my new hardware arrived (several weeks late). I obtained my essential worker certificate from my boss in order to go to the office, and spent two harrowing days setting it up and trying it out.
All the preparation (and overtime) I did beforehand payed off, since I was able to sort out the problems that arose in a timely fashion. If the hardware had been on time, it would certainly have taken more than a week to get the same results.
Now I've decided to slow down a little. There are still some things I need to prepare for the next round, but since the project lead told me that the current priority is elsewhere (!) and he feels that my workload is light (!) so I should help my colleagues, and my boss's boss seemed bummed to learn that the final version of the hardware still hasn't arrived (!), and there is still a critical compatibility issue with another piece of hardware that isn't working as it should (and not in my purview), I feel I would only be setting myself up for disappointment if I keep thinking about it 24/7.
Anyway, all the energy I spent has served its purpose, which was to lower my anxiety ahead of the first trial.

So today (holiday) I've been sewing another facemask while listening to 北京故事广播. It was something about nuclear weapons, I grew bored of it rather quickly, so I switched to an episode of 新闻天天谈 about spending patterns for 五一.
I've also read a few more pages of my novel in Spanish.
And I've found a few Youtube exercise videos in Spanish that seem appropriate for my fitness level. Mostly 15' to 30' low impact cardio. I haven't tried any of them yet, but I probably will soon. I'm reaching the end of my previous series of videos (daily 15' exercise for sedentary people, 1st level, in French) and I previewed the 2nd level but didn't like the new exercises in it.
Anyway, with déconfinement starting next Monday, I'll probably be going to the office 2-3 days a week, so there will be less need (and less time) for exercising at home.
Sadly, I haven't lost any weight. My initial weight loss was probably merely muscle atrophy. I've put that weight back on since (hopefully by regrowing muscle? my clothes don't fit any differently).
5 x
Future me already did it.

Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
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New normal

Postby Aloyse » Sat May 16, 2020 10:17 am

I'm getting used to this new normal of spending some days or half days at the office and some at home.
Morning routines are in crumbles, so no Japanese class review/transcribing and no at-home exercising this past week.
Last weekend I followed along 2 youtube videos: 高齡者健康操 and cardio bajo impacto 15 minutos. Left knee and left shoulder not happy about this. However climbing the stairs at work went fine.
I did 15' of Arabic written work. That's it.
Updating my USB key with a new imandarinpod episode.

Edit: while I was at it, I edited an Assimil "Kabyle de poche" audio track to shorten it to about 1 minute and put it on the USB key as well.
2 x
Future me already did it.

Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
x 603

أفّ

Postby Aloyse » Sun May 24, 2020 1:10 pm

2nd round of (somewhat disappointing) hardware trials ==> mostly 11h workdays this week. My toys will be unavailable starting this Monday so I made the most of the time I had.

Still on Arabic lesson 6, which I can now recite (كان درس اليوم صعباً)

Reviewed counting in Taqbaylit, intending to review counting in Darja next.
I listed my Taqbaylit resources (the books I'd like to review/study are in bold):
    2 colonial era dialectology studies,
    1 colonial era textbook.
    1 seventies/eighties textbook (Tizi Wwuccen) with plenty of tapes.
    1 binder with handwritten notes and some photocopies of another (unnamed) textbook.
    1 assimil "de poche" booklet with CD.
    4 grammar/linguistics textbooks.
    1 conjugation textbook.
    10 literature books (poems, fables, riddles, children's books, a novel) in Taqbaylit or French translation
    1 (ber/fr and fr/ber) dictionary
    2 colonial era cultural/ethnological books.
    1 recent book about culture.
    1 recent cookbook with cultural notes.


Current imandarinpod episode: 有鼻子有眼 (said of a particularly lifelike and/or truthful sounding description or story).

Procrastinating filling out my Déclaration d'impôt sur le revenu.
2 x
Future me already did it.

Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
x 603

Meh

Postby Aloyse » Sun Jun 07, 2020 4:55 pm

These past two weeks have been quite mediocre. I was tired and going to bed too late and procrastinating by reading fanfiction in English (so, not learning anything). Work was alternately stressful and boring. There were some annoyances like neighbours smoking pot and silverfish clinging to the tiny interstice where the ceiling meets the wall (how did it get up there? Paranoia level 100: lights are staying on 24/7).
I'm considering buying an air purifier (see: pot-smoking neighbours). Also, a bamboo mattress topper, which I'd need to order right away to get in time for the summer heat.

Japanese class is restarting tomorrow but I'm not really excited about it.

While procrastinating I found out that some Chinese universities offer their summer classes online due to the current situation.
Paris time:
    BLCU: 02:30-06:30 or 12:00-15:50 (4 classes per day, 4 weeks)
    also 14:00-15:50 (2 classes per day during 8 weeks)
    also 13:00-14:50 (special topics, 3 days a week during 4 weeks)

    SJTU: 10:00-12:30 (3 classes per day)

    PKU: something like 02:30--11:00

    SHNU: 08-11:15 and? 13:00-14:30
Since I will be working, and I need 8-9 hours of sleep, attending any of these is highly unlikely, which didn't prevent me from considering:
Waking up at 2am to attend class from 2:30 to 6:30.
Then 30' meal, 30' showering + getting dressed, 30' commute, I'd be at work around 8.
So possibly back home between 17:00 and 17:30.
I'd need to go to bed by 18:00 at the latest.
Right...

Somewhat more likely projects for the boring summer months:
1) Hiring a local Chinese teacher at least once a week.
2) Attending a local 1-week semi-intensive class like I did last year (which requires a week of vacation time).
3) Working around my job (possibly taking some half days off) and attending BLCU's special 中国概况 class 3x/week.
4) I'm working in industry X but my training is in Y, and although I had some basic courses on X, it didn't stick. Which is at times a hindrance to my job and could also land me in trouble when applying for future jobs.
I've been "reading" a few wikipedia pages on X in Spanish (while procrastinating at work). Not easy both language and content wise.
I could make it a goal to review the basics of X in Spanish and Chinese (possibly a tiny bit of Arabic and Japanese as well).

Edit: but who needs sleep, right? Also if I can take 2 half-days off a week to attend the 中国概况 class, I could instead take 2 half-days off a week to catch up on my sleep...

Edit: I need to stop obsessing about this "unique opportunity to study at 北语" and go to bed earlier.
4 x
Future me already did it.

Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
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No waking up at 2am

Postby Aloyse » Sun Jun 21, 2020 6:55 pm

Multi-Lingual Technical Reading : 3x this past week.

Leisurely Maghrebi Studies : updated my USB key with the Berber "greetings" track. Thinking about recording the grammar part of Manuel d'Arabe Moderne lesson 6 so that I can put it on my USB key and hopefully finish reviewing this lesson some day.

Japanese Distraction : merely going to class and updating my USB key. I don't really open the books at home. Since they have been outside, I'm reluctant to touch them once I have changed into my inside clothes (a process that involves washing my hands several times as I am a little paranoid).

Chinese Obsession : flared up once again but I'm working on tamping it down. Anyway, on to the next imandarinpod episode I suppose.

(Microwaved ready meal) Ravioles au Saint-Marcellin : total waste of stomach space. The gooey cheese obliterates the delicate flavor of the ravioles. Didn't finish it. Polished off a box of chocolate wafers out of frustration.

At work tomorrow: let's try not to break the 80K€ equipment.

Edit: The pot-smoking neighbours are at it again. Considering calling the police.
3 x
Future me already did it.

User avatar
cjareck
Brown Belt
Posts: 1047
Joined: Tue Apr 25, 2017 6:11 pm
Location: Poland
Languages: Polish (N) English, German, Russian(B1?) French (B1?), Hebrew(B1?), Arabic(A2?), Mandarin (HSK 2)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=8589
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Contact:

Re: No waking up at 2am

Postby cjareck » Sun Jun 21, 2020 7:43 pm

Aloyse wrote:Edit: The pot-smoking neighbours are at it again. Considering calling the police.

Maybe it would be better to talk to them first? If it doesn't help, you can call the Police next time. If the Police first, then it is too late for talking.
0 x
Please feel free to correct me in any language


Listening: 1+ (83% content, 90% linguistic)
Reading: 1 (83% content, 90% linguistic)


MSA DLI : 30 / 141ESKK : 18 / 40


Mandarin Assimil : 62 / 105

Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
x 603

Re: No waking up at 2am

Postby Aloyse » Sun Jun 21, 2020 8:03 pm

cjareck wrote:Maybe it would be better to talk to them first?

I did that last year when the culprits were visible from my balcony. This time I can't see them so I don't know which flat they live in...
0 x
Future me already did it.

Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
x 603

Obsitet inolita consuetudo

Postby Aloyse » Sun Jun 28, 2020 5:53 pm

Aloyse wrote:Thinking about recording the grammar part of Manuel d'Arabe Moderne lesson 6

Did this. Twice. Terrible sound quality with my PC and my old wired headset. I've bought a bluetooth headset for my phone recently, might try that next.

Japanese : missed class due to work.

I've been getting up half an hour earlier, but failing to use this time productively so far.
I'd like to start with 5' of physical exercise and follow with 20-25 minutes of study.
But habit has me rushing to the kitchen to prepare breakfast, then wasting time reading fanfiction in English.
(I did try the 5' of physical exercise this Saturday, although not first thing in the morning. It did make me feel more awake despite being tired from my work week and the heat.)

Edit: forgot to mention that I've started using my new bluetooth headset in the tramway, listening to 新闻天天谈.
2 x
Future me already did it.

Aloyse
Orange Belt
Posts: 244
Joined: Sat Jan 19, 2019 9:00 am
Languages: Fr (N), EN (C1),
ES (B1?), ZH (B1),
JP (A1), ARB (A1?),
ARQ (A0), KAB (A0)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... php?t=9983
x 603

Out with the old

Postby Aloyse » Sun Jul 05, 2020 6:14 am

终于把我收集的中文明信片都扔掉了。
收到的时候每一张都让我很开心。看来自中国大陆、香港、台湾、马来西亚、新加坡等的手写中文消息也很有意思。
不过我发现对五~十年以前收到的明信片不感兴趣了。最好重新开始交换明信片。
我的旧中文杂志也同样扔掉了。我还是网上看现在的杂志文章,因为新的信息更有意思。

European events in Chinese (papers that were available in Paris when I lived there) :
欧洲时报
华人街
法国侨网

Also : finally recorded the grammar examples of Manuel d'Arabe Moderne lesson 6 (=> USB key)
Darja: "useful sentences" => USB key
2 x
Future me already did it.


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