Soclydeza's German and French

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User avatar
Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
x 530

Soclydeza's German and French

Postby Soclydeza » Mon Jul 20, 2015 10:09 pm

I had a log over at the original HTLAL that I hadn't used in a while. Hopefully this will breathe new life into logging my progress. In my last log I went a little too overboard with logging my everyday activities, in this one I plan on just keeping up with general progress, breakthroughs and discussions.

GERMAN
My top priority language

(At the time of this post...)
Proposed Level: Somewhere in the B1+ range
Completed Courses: Pimsleur I-IV, Michel Thomas, Assimil WE, Assimil Nov 2014 Edition, Hugo in 3 Months
Current Courses: LL Ultimate Advanced, Passwort Deutsch (with tutor), native exposure
Future Courses: Maybe Perfectionnement Allemand at some point, otherwise full native materials after I complete LL
Tutoring: 2 tutors on iTalki, one for formal lessions, the other for informal speaking practice
Long Term Goal: Full proficiency with ability to use in professional situations
Short Term Goal: Take and pass B2 exam (either over the winter or next summer)

FRENCH
2nd priority - Taking things little by little

(At the time of this post...)
Proposed Level: Maybe around A1
Completed Courses: Paul Noble, Pimsleur I
Current Courses: Pimsleur II, Rosetta Stone
Future Courses: The rest of Pimsleur, Assimil WE, Assimil UF, Hugo in 3 Months
Tutoring: I plan on informal tutoring once I obtain basic conversational abilities
Long Term Goals: Full proficiency with ability to use in professional situations
Short Term Goals: Just to continue and build up stability in the language

I have also been dabbling with Norwegian on and off, though I probably won't go back to it until I'm really stable in both French and German; this is mainly a just-for-fun language. I also plan on reviving my Italian at some point (once I can do the alveolar trill, I'll be much more inspired to pick it back up). I have an unofficial goal of achieving a minimum of basic proficiency (B2) in German, French and Italian by the time I'm 35, though that doesn't mean that it ends at B2, just a minimum at that point.
3 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian

User avatar
Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
x 530

Re: Soclydeza's German and French

Postby Soclydeza » Sat Aug 01, 2015 2:40 am

German
I recently decided to get Netflix DVD so I would have a wider selection of German movies to watch (I have streaming as well, but have exhausted everything I can watch there; not much of a selection). I watched Sophie Scholl earlier this week and just finished North Face (Nordwand). Both very good movies. I'm still not at the level where I can understand most of what is said, but I do feel like I'm progressing; I can understand much more now than I could one year ago.

I also just finished Lektion 2 of LL Ultimate Advanced. I'm still trying to figure out a good method for this, but generally I treat the dialogue like I did with Assimil (read through, grab unknown vocab, put into Quizlet, study, listen to the dialogue, repeat phrases, etc.), plus it have a lot of grammar notes. It generally takes me a few days to go through a lesson, mainly because I want to master each one. This will be my last "course" (other than any textbook or exam prep materials I use with a tutor) before I go full native.

I've also been listening to Der Zaubercode, an audiobook in German that has the English translation for each chapter. It's a little advanced for me, but I can pick up on certain things and I think it's a good way to start getting used to more sophisticated language.

I'm also in the active wave of the new Assimil (just finished Lektion 52). I used to translate it by writing it down and wouldn't just say the translation because I thought it was a lazy cop-out. However, I tried it today and I've found that it almost activates a different area of my brain to just read the sentence as a whole and translate it in my head, without writing. I think this will definitely benefit me with spoken German, as I look at the whole sentence in English, and then translate it to a whole sentence in German, as opposed to doing the sentence piece by piece, which I would do while I was writing it.

As far as iTalki goes, I've arranged for a trial session with a new tutor next week. I still have the other two tutors and, though this is starting to become expensive and will have to spread things out when the semester starts and I'm working less, I feel this will give me a great deal of practice in many different aspects: one tutor for general textbook study, one for formal and professional use (which I hope to do eventually) and one for just everyday conversation. Everything is going well and the speaking practice is great.

French
My French has been moving along pretty well, despite the fact that I've kind of taken it easy the past couple of days.

I'm on lesson 24 of Pimsleur II now. Pimsleur French makes my head hurt; I don't think it's the program itself, it's just that I've found things harder to stick when only dealing with spoken French. However, I have been making progress and it did wonders for me when I used it for German so I will continue. When I did it with German, I only did one lesson per day, I'd occasionally repeat a lesson if I had a hard time with it but I generally was able to get through each one without many problems. However, when I do it for French, I'm repeating the lessons 3-4 times; I think mainly because my mentality with Pims French is more of mastery, whereas it was more about completion of the program when I did it for German.

I also finished the 2nd unit of Rosetta Stone Lvl 1. Despite the general negative sentiment that RS has with the HTLAL community, I really like it. It won't take you all the way and there are a lot of things missing from it, but it's a great way to familiarize myself with a language like French where the written language seems to be some odd version of the spoken language. It works best when supplementing it with another program.

I also have the Easy French Reader, which I was using as an Assimil prep course (I did about 10 lessons of Assimil French a few months ago and found it to be a bit daunting, so I'm waiting until I'm a bit more familiar with the language to continue). Unfortunately, the said audio files that are supposed to accompany the book don't exist past the first few readings, which discourages me from continuing since I'm not about to attempt to learn French only from reading.
4 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian

User avatar
Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
x 530

Re: Soclydeza's German and French

Postby Soclydeza » Thu Sep 24, 2015 12:13 am

I started a new semester at college so I can't devote as much time to learning as before, but I still have plenty of time. Inspired by Cavesa, I've decided to start logging my progress, now that I have a concrete goal in sight, which is preparation for the B2 exam.

My goal for the B2 is to prepare and take it sometime in December or January, however it is very possible that I may push it back to May (when I'm between classes) if I feel I need more work.

German Routine
-LL Ultimate Advanced German - Nothing new here, just work through the course
-Deutsche Aktuell Articles - Treat these almost like Assimil lessons, practice listening and reading while extracting important vocab (with the added benefit of learning about some of the current events in Germany).
-Tutoring (iTalki) - I'm in a bit of a financial predicament at the moment that should resolve itself shortly, so I'm holding off paying for lessons until then
-Media Consumption - Typical movies, shows, random videos and such.

I've also come across the Deutsch Perfekt Audio podcasts, which seem like a great tool, but I'll wait until I finish LL to start with these.

French
My French has been at a bit of a standstill since classes started, but once I feel settled-in I'll start again. I figure if I can do something for 20-30mins 3-4 days a week that should keep me going without allowing me to get discouraged and overwhelmed with everything.
1 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian

User avatar
Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
x 530

Re: Soclydeza's German and French

Postby Soclydeza » Sat Oct 03, 2015 9:43 am

Been going steady with both German and French lately and I hope to keep it up.

German
I've been continuing with my Deutsch Aktuell article routine and it has been going very well. I'm getting a lot of good vocab out of it, I guess more topical/news type vocab but general vocab as well. The articles are interesting too, I'm learning quite a bit about some of the affairs over in Deutschland.

The only problem with doing only the DA articles is that it isn't very conversational. For that reason, I think I will do one week DA articles while I review LL vocab, followed by a week of LL Ultimate (which I have put off lately) while reviewing DA vocab, and so on. I also need to get my tutoring going again so I can continue speaking.

Also, I guess issue with the Kindle app was fixed (the Deutsch-English dictionary wasn't working) and now I can look up vocab as I read again, which is great. I also got a new smartphone, which I've somewhat turned into a language learning workstation, that I can also access Kindle and read comfortably with as well, so I can practice reading wherever I am. I plan on reading Der Zaubercode (I listened to the audiobook previously), and then re-listening to the audiobook once I'm familiar with the new vocab.

As far as my B2 exam goals, I hope I am on the right track and feel as though I am. Once I start the tutoring again I will have all bases covered.

French
I got my French moving again and have a nice little routine going that I should be able to maintain. My 3 sources are

Pimsleur II - I've been comfortably doing this again, about to start level III.
Duolingo - I've been making a good habit of spending at least 10mins/day with this, anywhere I have downtime.
Babbel - I've been curious about this app and broke down and finally bought a month. I messed with it a bit and am really enjoying it. I especially like that it has grammar explanations. I will try to do this daily.

My pace may be a bit slow for French, but I am able to maintain what I'm doing and enjoying it as well. Once I finish Duolingo and/or Babbel, I feel I will be at a comfortable level to really take advantage of Assimil again without being overwhelmed with every lesson like I was before. I hope to get to this point sometime toward the end of the semester so I can sink into Assimil during my break.

==========================================
Since discovering that Babbel has Norwegian, I've really been itching to give it a go. Duolingo has it as well, though I'm not sure of the quality since it isn't a very popular language, but it's a resource nonetheless. I figure doing a routine similar to what I'm doing with French now (Pims+Babbel+Duo) will put me in good shape to continue with the Learn Norwegian textbook that I have, plus Hugo, and perhaps by that time my German will be good enough that I can do Assimil Norwegisch ohne Mühe without too many problems. BUT.... this is only a dream for now. I definitely don't have the time to try to juggle 3 languages at the moment, but it's nice to know that I have a prospective routine to turn to.

===========================================
Some reflection on my language learning ventures
Kind of random, but I was thinking about how I started German maybe 2.5-3 years ago and my desire to learn it as a hobby hasn't waned one bit, not to mention that I've partially turned it into a professional goal at this point. Then there are the other languages as well. I haven't been able to really find anything that I could latch onto this much, in terms of progressing through shear dedication without any outside forces requiring me to do so, since I started learning guitar as a kid, and it isn't going anywhere anytime soon. That's pretty cool.
2 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian

User avatar
Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
x 530

Re: Soclydeza's German and French

Postby Soclydeza » Sat Oct 10, 2015 12:40 am

Still been steadily moving along, which I'm happy about.

German
I'm about to finish LL Lektion 6, then it's back to Deutsch Aktuell next week. I've also been working my way through one of the Andres Klein readers (one of the intermediate ones). Once I finish that, I'll start reading Der Zaubercode.

I watched Soundless last night and was very happy to be able to understand a good deal of it (no subtitles). It's an action-ish movie with very straight forward dialogues, so I think it made it easier that it didn't have too much "real world" speaking in it; but it was still nice to be able to understand as much as I did.

French
My French has been going very well lately. I'm really enjoying Babbel and have been making sure to do at least one lesson per day. I've also been keeping up with Duolingo (currently on a 12 day streak). I just finished Pims level 2 (did lesson 1 of level 3 twice today). My French has definitely progressed in the past couple of weeks as I've been able to keep a good momentum going. I feel like I'm no longer on the fringes and I'm starting to get to the core of the language. I'm excited to see where I'll be in a few months, especially once I get into the post-Assimil phase.
2 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian

User avatar
Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
x 530

Re: Soclydeza's German and French

Postby Soclydeza » Sun Oct 18, 2015 8:13 am

Been going strong

GERMAN
I just completed Lektion 7 in LL. I've also been working on a goal, which I'll declare here:

Goal: 1000 new vocab words by New Years.

So far I'm up to 50. This will be a tough goal and I might have been a bit ambitious when I decided it. It would mean doing an average of 12-13 words per day. Normally, I would say that I could probably pull this off (and I've been keeping up with it so far), but I'm sure at some point I will A) get busy with classes here and there and have to cut down on my languages (even if it's only for a few days, that would throw me off quite a bit) and B) feel overloaded with all of the new vocab, plus the old stuff that I still study but don't consider "new". Either way, even if I miss my mark and get 800 words - or hell, even 500 - that would excellent.

I watched an episode of Dr. Klein on ZDF earlier. I was able to understand a good portion, not all the way though. I should really work on watching more stuff, perhaps I will also make that into a goal.

I'm also going to start arranging for skype lessons again. Ideally, I would like to do two lessons per week, but I'm not sure I'll be able to afford it.

If I can make watching shows regular, continue with the vocab, continue with my readers and usual DA articles and LL lessons, plus the skype lessons (which also involve writing with my one tutor), that would cover reading, writing, listening and speaking, plus new vocab/grammar practice. That should put me in good shape around the New Year and I'll assess whether or not I feel ready for the B2 exam (I also have a workbook for the exam, but I'm going to hold off on that until maybe when I finish LL).

FRENCH
My French has been going extremely well. I've been keeping up with Babbel and Duolingo (20 day streak), plus Pimsleur. I also purchased the physical book for LL French (I have the ebook version, but I prefer physical books when it comes to lessons), so I will probably start that up again soon. So far, what I've been doing is working and I've been highly enjoying it as well.

I'm also starting to see signs of internalization, such as translating things people say to me in my head while they're talking to me, and being able to automatically think in French in some short, random cases. Nothing groundbreaking, but definitely a good sign.
4 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian

User avatar
Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
x 530

Re: Soclydeza's German and French

Postby Soclydeza » Fri Oct 23, 2015 6:14 am

Still going strong

GERMAN
I finished Lektion 8 in LL earlier, so tomorrow I'm onto a DA Artikel.

----------------
1000 Word Challenge
This has been going well so far; I'm up to 150 words so far (I started this last week). I just got done doing a full review (the 150 new words, plus a bunch of older words as well) which involves me writing the words, so I feel like my hand is about to fall off. If (when) I get arthritis, it will probably be because of this. I thought I was ahead of schedule, but I'm exactly on track. Angesichts, I'm upping my daily word amount to 20-25 words (average of 13 are needed at this point); this should help me out in case I get hung up on something and cant study for a few days.

Some cool things I've noticed since I started this whole venture with German:
-My ability to memorize new words has greatly improved
-I notice common roots in words and how they impact their meaning. Examples of this would be the "wechs" in words like Abwechslung, "stütz" in words like Unterstützung, "tat" in words like Tatsache, etc.
-Gender recognition has become almost automatic when memorizing. I used to have to use crazy mnemonics, now it's like seeing a noun once and I immediately attach the gender to it as if I were to able to remember the gender of a person I met only once. Plus I can recognize some patterns with endings and such, so that makes things a lot easier.

I also practice visualizing vocab words, which has become a lot more automatic, so this helps me to internalize them.
-----------------
I've found these recordings by a company called Hueber on Audible. They're pretty much stories/listening practice for A1-B1 levels, and they're pretty cheap too. I bought one of the A2 levels to try it out for 5 bucks and really liked it. I understood probably 80-90% of it, which I would expect, since it's A2, but it was really cool to listen to something for 30 mins that was more than just "Hello. How are you?" kind of stuff and to take in the story like it was in my own language. I plan on using these a lot to hone my listening skills. Unfortunately they don't have B2 stuff, but at least I can solidify the lower level stuff before I really go full force on the B2 only material in preparation for the exam.
------------------
I finally arranged for an iTalki lesson, which will take place tomorrow. I should be able to swing one half-hour session per week, but ideally I'd like to do two: one half-hour of informal/conversational tutoring, one half-hour of formal tutoring. Perhaps I'll bump them up to one hour each, I'll see what I can do.
-----------------
I watched "My Fuhrer" last night, which is a German comedy that makes light of the Nazi party at the end of the war. It was kind of like a German version of Monty Python movies, kinda interesting. I was comfortable with my listening, though I had to keep my eyes from not looking at the subtitles (they were embedded in the movie so there was no way for me to take them out).

I'll probably watch a show auf ZDF after I finish this post.

=====================================================================
FRENCH
My French has been moving along. I finished Pims III lesson 7 yesterday, but I want to redo it again tomorrow since I had some trouble with some parts. I'm on a 25 day streak with Duolingo and have been working at Babbel as well.

I got LL Ultimate Beginner-Intermediate in and resumed working on it earlier (I finished Leçon Trois). I'll probably aim to do 1-2 lessons per week, since I'm really pushing the limit on the amount of time I can spend on languages.
4 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian

User avatar
Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
x 530

Re: Soclydeza's German and French

Postby Soclydeza » Fri Oct 30, 2015 6:47 am

So I'm not enjoying the extra time I had before during the post-exams period where things were quiet for a week or two, but things are still moving.

GERMAN
1000 Word Challenge
I'm up to 298 words so far. The average I calculated when I first started was about 13 words per day, but I've been doing 20-25 words per day in the event that I run into some trouble along the way and can't study for a few days, so the average is probably down to around 11 at this point. I did an almost-full review earlier today (about 250 words) and got probably 90-95% of them. I was questioning whether or not I should continue this yesterday, since the majority of the words I'm learning are isolated and out of context, but I didn't want to give up now that I've set it as a goal. I look at it as I'm kind of creating a mental dictionary of 1000 words and if I can master all of them then I'll start a massive input-output phase in the new year, which should bring a lot of them to the surface. However, I have been noticing a lot of them while reading and listening, so it is making an impact.

LL and DA has been pretty slow for the past week or two, mainly because I don't have a lot of time and the time that I do have is devoted to memorizing the new vocabulary.

I've been working on my listening a lot more. I buy these short stories from Hueber that I listen to during my downtime at school. I also found a good German radio station (podcast-ish) that I listen to while I work.

I just finished watching Lila, Lila without the subtitles and was happy to have actually understood a great deal of it.

I finally started iTalki lessons again (informal, conversational tutoring). I had my first lesson back this past Tuesday and I was really rusty (though I think it might have had to do with the fact that I've been mentally drained lately) so it was a bit demotivating, but also a bit motivating in the sense that I need to get a move on things. I scheduled another lesson with the same tutor (30min) this coming Tuesday and another one (60min) this Sunday. They're also both from Switzerland, so it'll be nice to get a little bit more knowledge on Schweizerdeutsch. If I can keep it up I hope to see my conversational skills improve dramatically.
===========================================================
FRENCH
My momentum with French has drastically slowed down to a crawl this past week. Thanks to the Duolingo streaks (I'm on 31 now), I've at least been forcing myself to do that for about 5-10 mins a day, plus Pims while driving. I haven't touched LL or Babbel in almost a week and I should probably change that before I make a habit out of not doing it.
3 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian

User avatar
Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
x 530

Re: Soclydeza's German and French

Postby Soclydeza » Wed Nov 04, 2015 5:50 am

Still moving along. Today was a good day for languages.

GERMAN
1000 Word Challenge
I'm in a bit of a dilemma with this challenge, but I may have found a solution. My dilemma is that I am only a little over 1/3rd of the way through and I have so many words that are useful, but I don't have any context to back them up; in other words, I think I'm turning myself into more of a dictionary than an actual speaker at this point and I'm worried that it might be somewhat of a waste of time (language learning problems...). I think one way to combat this is to gather my words only from context (DA articles, LL dialogues, etc), this way I at least have something to compare them with. The only problem with this is this would require me doing a good amount of studying/preparation everyday, in which I just don't have the time. I'm thinking of maybe stopping at 500, then doing a routine with my tutors which would involve actually using these words or giving them the list and having them give me example sentences (maybe 10 per lesson or so). Either way, I'm pretty far ahead of schedule and I got the average down to 11/day.

I had an hour long iTalki lesson on Sunday and another 30min lesson today. I was still a bit rusty on Sunday, but today went pretty well. I think my problem is that I haven't actually spoken to anyone in a while and I got a false sense of confidence that I can speak better than I actually can and the past week has been kind of a reality check. Either way, this is all part of the process; I have to practice speaking slower and more clearly.

I've been doing my DA routine the past couple of days and today I noticed that it wasn't so much about the German than it was about the actual content of the article, which was kind of cool since I felt like more of a "user" of the language than a learner.

=================================================
FRENCH
My French has been moving a little bit better than last week. I just finished PimsIII lesson 10 for the second time (I do each lesson twice), my Duolingo streak is now at 37 days and I've been doing some work with Babbel as well. I also just finished the LL review test (lessons 1-5). I can feel some of my more recent weak points starting to shore up, which is good.

=================================================
Possible New Venture

I've been thinking about it a lot lately and I'm thinking that it'd do me some real good to learn Spanish. Obviously this is something that I don't have time for at the moment, plus with my French still in its infant stages I'd probably start mixing the two, but once I can get my French to a good intermediate level I can start using Pimsleur (my dad has all 5 levels).

I've tried Spanish before and couldn't get into it, but I'm starting to think it was more because it's a romance language (I had a hard time adjusting to French coming from German, but I eventually got it to take off). I'll also have opportunities all around me to practice, so that makes me kind of excited to start. I'm thinking once I finish all of the Pims French levels, I'll start the usual MT/Paul Noble ---> Pimsleur route to get my feet wet, and then really go at it once I get to a comfortable intermediate+ stage with French.
1 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian

User avatar
Soclydeza
Orange Belt
Posts: 249
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:36 pm
Location: United States
Languages: English (N)

Actively Studying:
German (B2)
Italian (False beginner)
Norwegian (Beginner)

Dormant:
French (Lower intermediate)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9066
x 530

Re: Soclydeza's German and French

Postby Soclydeza » Sat Nov 07, 2015 7:09 am

GERMAN
So I decided to pull the plug on the 1000 word challenge. I know I could've completed it and probably a month early, put I started to find it useless to cram all these words in my head without any real experience with using them. It was a good experience though, in that I know I can power-learn vocab and I also learned somewhere around 350-400 words in about a month. I think my new tactic will be to do this every one in a while; learn 300 or so words, then focus on internalizing them through various methods, then repeat. With my one tutor I'm going to propose the idea of taking a certain amount of those words each lesson and focus on using them. As for now, I'm going to focus on the words that I have and really work on internalizing the ones that I consider to be important words, which would be almost all of them.

I just completed Lektion 9 of LL Advanced. One structure that I learned which stood out to me was the beim/von dem/zum/etc. + <verb turned into noun. I could always recognize it when I heard/read it but now I feel comfortable with actually using it. Before I would say something like:
Wenn ich fahre, kann ich Französisch lernen - which always seemed kind of clunky and amateur and maybe even wrong, but
Beim Fahren kann ich Französisch lernen - seems more streamlined and natural

I also learned the structure on turning an adjective into a noun:
Die kleine Katze frisst etwas ---> Die Kleine frisst etwas (Maybe I used it wrong here, but hey, I'm still learning)

Again, these seem like basic things that I should have learned a while ago, but now I feel like they're a bit more internalized.

I also learned some idioms and sayings that I'm still working on memorizing. This was probably the most productive LL lesson I've had thus far.

I also finished one of my readers (I forget the name) and started working on reading Der Zaubercode, which I also plan on listening to again as I read each chapter. There's another audiobook out by the same author, so I should be busy with those for a while.

======================================
FRENCH
I finished PimsIII lesson 11 yesterday and am on a 39 or 40 day streak with Duolingo. I also finished lesson 6 in LL
2 x
END OF YEAR
: 108 / 108 Babbel Italian (Beginner)
: 47 / 47 Babbel Italian (Intermediate)

CONTINUOUS
: 27 / 100 Assimil Italian


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