Decidida Learns Haitian Creole

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Decidida
Green Belt
Posts: 269
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2018 12:58 pm
Location: Couch-hopping Covid Refugee
Languages: English (N), Spanish (sidelined), Haitian Creole (beginner), Latin (forgotten), Ancient Greek (sidelined)
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Decidida Learns Haitian Creole

Postby Decidida » Mon Oct 14, 2019 9:22 pm

I don't remember starting a log before. Maybe committing to log will help me stay more committed. It has always been good excuses that distracted me from my Creole studies, but I am hoping the universe will cooperate this time and let me have good excuses to continue my Creole studies.

I have access to a lot of resources, but there are 5 that I hope to COMPLETE as soon as possible.

1. VOCABULARY. The Dinolingo videos, games, and quizzes. My subscription is up in January. I want to have all that vocabulary nailed before that. It might be worth another year for the kids story books, but I want the core vocabulary mastered in case I cannot afford to resubscribe, even at the drastically reduced price I pay. This really is the most efficent way for ME to learn core vocabulary and I am not too proud to admit that and to use what works. COMPLETION GOAL DATE: January 1, 2020

2. LISTENING AND SPEAKING. Pimsleur lessons 1-30. That is all that is available for Creole. I am not able to learn with just all-audio, never seeing the words, but I do need to scaffold to all-audio resources to reinforce what I have seen earlier and elsewhere. Pimsleur is hard for me, but that just means that I need it all the more. Once I review the early lessons, I will only be able to progress about one lesson a week, needing to review and review and review the same lessons over and over. I figure this is going to take almost a year to finish. COMPLETION GOAL DATE: September 1, 2020.

3. GRAMMAR. Haiti Hub. The tiny vocabulary lists allow me to focus on the grammar lessons. The suggested pace is too quick for me. At one lesson a week, I should be able to finish the 16 main modules by spring. MAIN MODULE COMPLETION GOAL DATE: March 1, 2020.

4. GRAMMAR. Learn Haitian-Creole with Gloria. Level 1, lessons 1-20, pages 1-80. I want to at least watch all the videos by summer 2020. I have them downloaded and saved to a thumb drive and want to make sure none are corrupted before my access to streaming ends. I am not planning to try and finish all the written exercises, yet. VIDEO COMPLETION DATE GOAL: August 1, 2020.

5. SCHEDULING and REVIEW. The Quick and Dirty Guide to Learning Languages Fast by A.G. Hawke. I have a used copy of the 2000 edition and I am going to fill in the book itself and follow the daily study schedule. WORKSHEET COMPLETION GOAL DATE: January 1, 2020.

I have other things, but want to strictly use them only to reinforce the above as needed.
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Decidida
Green Belt
Posts: 269
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2018 12:58 pm
Location: Couch-hopping Covid Refugee
Languages: English (N), Spanish (sidelined), Haitian Creole (beginner), Latin (forgotten), Ancient Greek (sidelined)
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Re: Decidida Learns Haitian Creole

Postby Decidida » Mon Oct 14, 2019 9:44 pm

Leaving this blank for future needs.
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User avatar
Decidida
Green Belt
Posts: 269
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2018 12:58 pm
Location: Couch-hopping Covid Refugee
Languages: English (N), Spanish (sidelined), Haitian Creole (beginner), Latin (forgotten), Ancient Greek (sidelined)
x 399

Re: Decidida Learns Haitian Creole

Postby Decidida » Wed Oct 16, 2019 12:53 am

I folded a piece of paper into 4 coumns and listed the lessons of each of my main curricucula into the appropriate columns.

Review is much faster than learning new material. I was able to check something off in each column.

My fifth activity is to fill out the Quick and Dirty book as I cover the material in one of the curricula. The Quick and Dirty book is helping to consolidate my studies and force me to decide which words and phrases are most important to ME. If the book doesn't have a place to fill in the material, I have to add it to one of the limited supplementary worksheets, or squeeze it into one of the grids. There are grids for all the basic colors, but no grid for brown. I squeezed it in under black. And pink under red.

I can fold my curricula checklist and store it in the Quick and Dirty book.

My life is eventful. If learning a language happened mostly around a certain group of people and over a short period of time, when I walk away from the language and environment at the same time, the language gets buried with the memories. Today, the emotional floodgates opened and a lot came back quickly. I have to pound away at a language for days and days before that happens. I have learned to trust that it will, but it is frustrating the first few days to work that hard and feel like i might be starting from scratch.

Language learning has its up and down. Today was a good day.
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User avatar
Decidida
Green Belt
Posts: 269
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2018 12:58 pm
Location: Couch-hopping Covid Refugee
Languages: English (N), Spanish (sidelined), Haitian Creole (beginner), Latin (forgotten), Ancient Greek (sidelined)
x 399

Re: Decidida Learns Haitian Creole

Postby Decidida » Wed Oct 16, 2019 3:42 pm

I am adding Pronunciator to my core lesson checklist. I talked about why in the Haitian Study Group thread. https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... b3#p151628
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User avatar
Decidida
Green Belt
Posts: 269
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2018 12:58 pm
Location: Couch-hopping Covid Refugee
Languages: English (N), Spanish (sidelined), Haitian Creole (beginner), Latin (forgotten), Ancient Greek (sidelined)
x 399

Re: Decidida Learns Haitian Creole

Postby Decidida » Sat Oct 26, 2019 12:30 am

I dropped the ball with my Creole. I have an "excuse" but I get tired of my excuses, and then I get so tired of my excuses that I get tired of me. That thinking is unproductive. Both with the other issue in my life and this one, the only way forward is forward. Pick up the pieces and move FORWARD. Until time machines are created, we are bound by time, and forward is our only option.

Forward:

It took so long for a book that I ordered to come in that I forgot I ordered it. Ann Pale Kreyol is not a minor update to Basic Course in Haitian Creole. Owning both is not much of an overlap at all.

BCHC is an older spelling, but ... knowing THE spelling is not all that helpful when texting Haitians, because many of them do not know or use ANY spelling system at all, or use one that they and their peers created, or one of the older systems. One guy I know refuses to use THE spelling for political reasons. I have seen university professors that can write fluent French not be able to write down a simple phrase they were trying to teach me. They freeze and laugh and shrug and try to distract me. People with less education just admit that they cannot or are willing to share what they do with their peers and are way less wiggly.

Trying to pin down the guy that taught Creole literature was funny, until it was not and I understood more what the issue was, and I stopped doing that. Outsiders looking in can be so stupid with their assumptions and prejudices. I was ignorant, not cruel, but I was a jerk anyway.

So, anyway, I am pleased with the book and simply listening and skimming the new book is a good way to get back on track.

Forward. Moving forward. It is the weekend. Many of the things that I "should" do even more than catch up with Creole cannot be done over the weekend. So, I do not have to choose. Creole is the best choice for this weekend. Monday is monday. One day at a time.
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