A language learners’ forum

Christi wrote:Well, I wrote something but it looks very unnatural... maybe I should collect my writings and then hire an Italki teacher for one hour to have her/him correct any mistakes. Do you guys think this would work? I haven't got any experience using Italki so I don't know if they would actually go over short pieces of writing and how much time this would take.

Yeah, they do. Especially if you are more advanced. I think it's an essential part of more advanced teacher-student classroom interaction. Pretty much half of the stuff I've learned has come from me writing somewhat larger texts and getting corrected. I went from terrible Czech writing to acceptable in a few months. I semi-regularly post those things on my blog. I will sometimes recommend advanced students to write texts so that I can easily discern the grammar points that give them trouble.

Some teachers don't like it. But most of it have been fine with me butchering their language, and I've also corrected tons of work myself.

LANGUAGE: Brazilian Portuguese

CHALLENGE: Full Challenge

CURRENT LANGUAGE LEVEL: According to very unofficial online tests B1, I think I am a B1 in writing, but my speaking is quite weak.

WILLING TO CORRECT LANGUAGE: No

COMMENTS: I already output a large amount of text talking on language exchange apps. However, I cannot be bothered to count this. Something I should keep in mind is I should not let any of my challenges get in the way of actually communicating with native speakers. For my goals communicating with native speakers should take the priority over doing a recording or crafting an essay!

One of the reasons I want to start making recorded audio is as a way to measure progress, so I can look back (less then one year) from now and compare my progress.

Language: German (B1-B2) and Swedish (false beginner)

Challenge: Full Challenge

Willing to correct: Yes, English, but you'll need to mention me or tell me where to find your work so I can fit it in to my schedule.

Comments:
German: Previously lived in Austria where I reached C1 in German, though over the last year I've lost a lot, primarily in the way of speaking. I live in an isolated area with no German speaking community, so trying to find ways around that.

Swedish: Spoke Swedish as a child but growing up in the US of course I got made fun of and stopped speaking it altogether around 11-12 yrs old. Thanks to that absence and speaking German so much in between, I'm back to the beginning.

Looking forward to reclaiming these languages so I can move on in my studies

I have another question...

Does typing the answer on my SRS count, ie Anki typed answer or the missing word on Clozemaster?

It seems to be in the spirit of improving grammar knowledge etc....but again I wasn't sure, so I thought I'd just ask

Bex wrote:I have another question...

Does typing the answer on my SRS count, ie Anki typed answer or the missing word on Clozemaster?

It seems to be in the spirit of improving grammar knowledge etc....but again I wasn't sure, so I thought I'd just ask

Normally I'm pretty relaxed about what type of output, however what we are really looking for here is original output. I'm going to say no simply because you can't share it. I've allowed for example transcription, which isn't original, but is shareable.

The reason is that we're only counting output that could be shared. You don't have to share, but the potential has to exist. So chatting with your neighbour over the fence doesn't count, unless you get permission and record it.

Sorry, but it doesn't count.

rdearman wrote:

Bex wrote:I have another question...

Does typing the answer on my SRS count, ie Anki typed answer or the missing word on Clozemaster?

It seems to be in the spirit of improving grammar knowledge etc....but again I wasn't sure, so I thought I'd just ask

Normally I'm pretty relaxed about what type of output, however what we are really looking for here is original output. I'm going to say no simply because you can't share it. I've allowed for example transcription, which isn't original, but is shareable.

The reason is that we're only counting output that could be shared. You don't have to share, but the potential has to exist. So chatting with your neighbour over the fence doesn't count, unless you get permission and record it.

Sorry, but it doesn't count.

I thought it might be pushing the boundaries a bit too much...thanks for the clarification.

Just wanted to share a brief update.

My goal was to measure and increase my written output. However, I keep forgetting to keep track of the amount of words I've written

But on the positive side: I think I will manage to reach the 50 hour mark of spoken output. Have logged about 11hrs so far so will definitely reach 50 hrs by the end of this year!

Christi wrote: However, I keep forgetting to keep track of the amount of words I've written

Same! I'd still be behind, even if I wasn't forgetting, but it would be slightly less embarassingly behind!

Language: English (C1)

Challenge: Full Challenge

Willing to correct: Yes, Italian.

Comments: I'm an advanced speaker, and if I want to improve I need to write, a lot. So, here I am.

I am actually going to back out of this, despite my bizarre love of challenges. I have been doing some Russian writing but I stopped counting it all because of exam focus and I am not sure that now is the time to start again. I want to do more writing with all my languages, but maybe not for a few months. Maybe next year will be the output challenge year for me!