The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

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marie39
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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby marie39 » Tue Dec 31, 2019 5:54 pm

December 2019: I decided to take a break with keeping track of my activities this month. I did continue reading in Spanish and did of a bit of Italian and Japanese studying.

2020 Plans & Goals / Focus Languages 2020
I've decided to try something this year. My monthly goal for studying has been 30 minutes a day or roughly 900 minutes a month for my target languages. I feel like I can currently balance 3 languages this way and get close to/reach the goal without too much difficulty. It helps that studying in Spanish was mostly fun stuff like reading and television. :lol:

So, I'm going to break down the year a bit and choose three languages to focus on. This is all subject to change, of course.

January - March: Japanese, Italian, TBD (Malay or Mandarin)
April-June: Japanese, Irish (depending), Italian
July-September: TBD
October-December: TBD

Long Term Goals/Wishlist of Languages
C1 Languages: Spanish, Italian, French, Mandarin, Japanese
B1-B2 Languages: Korean, German, Irish, Catalan, Latin, Hindi, Vietnamese, Malay, Thai, Sicilian, Mongolian, Burmese, Arabic, Greek, Afrikaans, and probably more
A1-A2 or low B2 Languages: Middle Egyptian, Sumerian, Elamite

2020 Plans + Ambitious Goals

I obviously like setting ambitious goals for myself. Let's be realistic? That's boring. I'm also not worried if I don't reach my ambitious goals because learning a language takes time anyway and I'm just happy if I'm making progress.

I'm also considering not buying books in English any more, or limiting my English books in an effort to continue to push myself with Spanish and now Italian.

Spanish
3 Books a month
3 Journal entries a week/12 journal entries a month (personal journal, kpop journal, misc. writing prompts)
90 minutes of listening a week/360 minutes of listening a month (movies, television, audiobooks, podcasts, youtube, etc.)
Record myself speaking once a week/4 times a month
Look for someone to correct some of my writing
Look for someone to practice speaking with

Italian
Read 12 books by the end of the year
4500 minutes of audio by the end of the year (50 films, 1 film = 90 minutes -- half of a super challenge)
Sign up for the next round of the Super Challenge with Italian!
2 journal entries per month

Mandarin
Complete Chinese Link Level 2 Part 1 + Part 2
Complete Mandarin Chinese Learning Through Conversation Volume 2
30 minutes of audio a week/120 minutes of audio a month

Japanese
Complete Japanese for Busy People volumes I, II and III
30 minutes of audio a week/120 minutes of audio a month
2 journal entries per month

Malay
Read 5 books by the end of the year
30 minutes of audio a week/120 minutes of audio a month
4 journal entries per month

Latin
Complete Wheelock's Latin
Complete Oxford Latin Course I

I left out French, German and Catalan. I'm probably going to add French later in the year. Catalan I still dabble in and I'm trying to learn it through Spanish. German, I do plan to continue I just don't have a plan yet. I also want to add Korean later in the year but we'll see.
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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby marie39 » Sun Jan 12, 2020 7:52 pm

January 1st - January 11th 2020

Italian: I listened to an episode of the Radio Anch'io podcast by RadioRai. I'm trying to get into podcasts in both Italian and Spanish. I usually don't listen to podcasts but when I do, they're usually in English. I tend to like the true crime podcasts too. I'm also reading Un bacio per Natale with my Scribd subscription. It hasn't been too difficult to follow. It's a historical romance Shocking, I know.

Malay: I started a journal in Malay and wrote one entry so far. I'm trying to revive the Malay I already studied and then improve and learn more.

Mandarin: So far I've been focusing on Mandarin the most this month. I reviewed some flashcards, started watching an Chinese drama and did some more work from my textbook. I'm still working through Chinese Link level 2 part 1. This is the textbook series I was using while at university and it's not too bad. I also listened to the ChinesePod intermediate lesson Going to Emergency Department in China. I copied the dialogue into my dialogue notebook and made flashcards from the vocab words.

Spanish: I'm continuing to read a lot in Spanish. So far I've already finished reading Boda Secreta. It was a short romance novella and it honestly was kind of boring. I got through it thought because it was so short and I basically read it over 3 days. I'm also currently reading Corazón Esquimal which is something. I've also been writing in both my personal journal and my kpop journal. So far, I've written four journal entries between the two. I need to remember to get some speaking practice in each week though.

Elamite: I'm learning about ancient Elam this month as a personal project. So, I was reading about the language and it's grammar. It's wild. Also, I should have learned French before starting this project.
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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby marie39 » Sun Jan 19, 2020 6:54 am

January 12th - January 18th, 2020

There's not much to update this week. I've been dealing with some personal stuff. Happy new year :lol:

Spanish: I finished another book in Spanish. This one is Corazón esquimal by José Vicente Alfaro. I don't really have an opinion or feelings on this book. If it wasn't short and in Spanish I probably would have stopped reading it near the 25% mark because it just did not grab me. I wasn't engaged in reading the story. I listened to some more of the audiobook El bosque sabe tu nombre, but I probably won't finish it because it is long and I canceled my subscription to Scribd. I don't listen to enough audiobooks a month in my opinion.

Italian: I'm almost done reading Un bacio per Natale. I also watched more of the Juventus docuseries on Netflix. I need to finish it.

Chinese: I've been watching Legend of Hao Lan on youtube and working through my textbooks still. I love historical dramas but I should probably watch something a little more modern.

I need to stop watching Korean dramas and tv show clips on youtube or I need to start learning Korean. I'm just wasting time if I'm not also studying Korean.
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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby marie39 » Sun Jan 26, 2020 3:23 am

January 19th - January 25th

Spanish: I started watching El Clon on Hulu. I've watched some of this before years ago but did not finish the telenovela. I'm starting from the beginning and trying to get through all 183 episodes. :D

The third book I want to read this month is El sueño de ámerica by Esmeralda Santiago. This is a fictional story about a young woman working in a hotel in Puerto Rico with dreams of going to America.

Italian: I finished a book! I finished the romance novel Un bacio per Natale, created a word list of selected vocabulary and added that word list to anki. I have a goal to read 1 book in Italian per month (or 12 by the end of the year). It's not even the end of the month and I already finished a book. So, I started my next book. I decided to start Un Trono per due Sorelle which is a young adult fantasy book. So, something different.

I'm also doing something different with how I read this book. Usually I read and highlight words or sentences as I go along. I often use a pop-up dictionary on my tablet to get the definition of the word during that time too. Then, after I finish the book, I make a word list and anki cards of new vocabulary or new sentences I want to review. Instead of waiting until I finish this book, I am going to look up words and make anki cards after each chapter. By doing this I hope to grasp the story faster/easier but my concern is that it might ruin the flow of the story. We'll see.

I also finally finished the Juventus docuseries on Netflix. I watched it in Italian with Italian subtitles. I also subscribed to a bunch of Italian youtube channels recently. So, hopefully youtube will recommend me more Italian videos now.

Japanese: I did some work in my textbook. I also watched someone's Japanese study livestream and took notes. It was interesting. He was using Lingq to learn at one point. I'm considering trying Lingq out for a month for Japanese and Chinese but I'm not sure. I might wait until I finish my textbooks. I like the reading with audio approach to learning. I don't know if I would use it for my other languages though.
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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby devilyoudont » Sun Jan 26, 2020 6:50 pm

There are a few free versions of LingQ floating around (LWT - Learning With Texts, FLTR - Foreign Language Text Reader) which you could try if you want to test it out in something that is not as restrictive as a free trial. A downside is that you will need to provide your own text for these programs (you could copy paste articles from things like NHK easy news for this). Something that could be positive or negative depending on your perspective is that LingQ attempts to parse sentences from languages like Japanese into words, and the free apps I mention leave that to the reader.
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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby DaveAgain » Mon Jan 27, 2020 7:29 am

Re: lingq.com, one of Mr Kaufmann's recent videos (16 Jan 2020) has a discount code in the description below the video.
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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby marie39 » Sat Feb 01, 2020 3:04 pm

January 26th - January 31st and End of January 2020 Wrap-up

Image

Spanish: Despite not being a focus this month, Spanish got a lot of attention from me. What can I say? I was in a good reading mood all month long, I have three journals that I can write in Spanish in which is fun and relaxing and I (re-)started a telenovela that I'm interested in. I started a third journal. It's a sports journal and I can use any language except for English when I write in it. I also finished two books and almost finished the third book. I'll hopefully finish it over the weekend.

I need to find some good podcasts to listen to while I exercise. I started listening to Radio Novelas by TAR. They currently have a show up called "Las siluetas de la muerte."

I started reading El dragón y la perla (Tang Dynasty #2) by Jeannie Lin. I hope to finish this by the end of February. These are the three Spanish books I hope to finish in February:

ImageImageImage

Italian: I felt like I did a lot for Italian this past month but maybe not as much as I thought. Well, I finished a book so I'm happy with that. It was a short romance book but I got through it! I'm going to have to find something interesting to watch in Italian with Italian subs. My plan for Italian this year is just massive passive input (listening and reading) with some active writing here and there. So, I could increase my time spent on writing to be honest.

Everything else was a disappointment so let's just forget about that and move on to February. I have to get back into a daily habit.
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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby marie39 » Sat Feb 01, 2020 3:11 pm

devilyoudont wrote:There are a few free versions of LingQ floating around (LWT - Learning With Texts, FLTR - Foreign Language Text Reader) which you could try if you want to test it out in something that is not as restrictive as a free trial. A downside is that you will need to provide your own text for these programs (you could copy paste articles from things like NHK easy news for this). Something that could be positive or negative depending on your perspective is that LingQ attempts to parse sentences from languages like Japanese into words, and the free apps I mention leave that to the reader.


Thank you for the suggestions. I'll take a look at those two options and see if they fit what I'm looking for.

DaveAgain wrote:Re: lingq.com, one of Mr Kaufmann's recent videos (16 Jan 2020) has a discount code in the description below the video.


Thank you. I'll check it out!
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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby marie39 » Sun Feb 09, 2020 4:30 am

February 1, 2020 - February 8, 2020

Spanish + Catalan: In Spanish I finished the book El sueño de ámerica. I signed up for the 6 Week Challenge with Catalan earlier this month. I’m learning Catalan through Spanish too. It’s fun so far. Catalan is a language that I dabbled in last year. I would like to reach an intermediate level in it but it’s more of a fun side language.

Now, because I'm using Spanish resources to learn Catalan, do I count this study time under Spanish as well?

Italian: I decided to refresh myself on some grammar and started working in Complete Italian Grammar again. Aside from that I've been alternating between reading Sarai mio: An Italian story of mystery for A2-B1 level learners and Un Trono per due Sorelle. With both of these books I am going chapter by chapter, highlighting or writing down words and sentences, then making word lists and flash cards before moving on to the next chapter. While this is slower, I feel like it helps with my comprehension of the overall stories which makes the stories more enjoyable.

Japanese: I’m on chapter 20 in Japanese for Busy People Volume 1 now. This has been my sole focus with Japanese but I’m on track with my personal goals regarding time spent studying so I can’t complain.

Mandarin: I am going to focus on Mandarin this upcoming week because aside from watching an episode of 皓镧传 (Legend of Hao Lan), I have done nothing.

Español y Catalán -- El 1 de febrero de 2020 - el 6 de febrero de 2020

Participo en el 6 Week Challenge este mes. Quiero aprender un poco catalán durante estas semanas siguientes. Quiero escribir en este log sobre mi progreso con español, catalán y quizás más idiomas también. Estudio catalán a través de español. Los materiales lo que uso son para hablantes de español. Tengo El Catalán sin esfuerzo de Assimil, Aprender Catalán sobre la marcha de David Spencer Luton y videos varios de youtube.

El 6 de febrero de 2020

Catalán: Hoy terminé lección 1 del curso de Assimil. Revisé las reglas de la pronunciación catalana y los sonidos diferentes entre catalán y castellano. Leí un poco del libro Aprender Catalán sobre la marcha también. Este libro no es un curso. Es como una lista de palabras con unos conjugaciones de verbos. No se si este es útil o no a este momento. Supongo que la gramática castellana es muy similar a la gramática catalana. Bueno, son lenguas romances jaja.

Finalmente, escuché a una canción en catalán. Se llama “Vol Volar” y es la versión catalana de la canción “Let It Go” de Frozen. Este video tiene las letras en catalán, español y inglés. Es muy útil.



El 1 de febrero de 2020 - el 6 de febrero de 2020

Español: Me encanta aprender español. Es un idioma muy bonito y maravilloso. Hay muchas cosas divertidas lo que puedo hacer en español. Ya escribí tres entradas en mis diarios. Estoy escribiendo en este log en español ahora jaja.

Esta semana pasada vi un poco episodios de la telenovela El Clon.

Terminé un libro más también. Leí El sueño de ámerica de Esmeralda Santiago. Escribo pronto una reseña del libro. El domingo pasado vi el Super Bowl en inglés pero usé twitter en español durante el partido. Escribí un poco tweets en español. Lamentablemente mi equipo, los 49ers, no ganaron. Lo decepcionó ver. Pero encontré más cuentas de desportes en español en twitter seguir.
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Re: The Ambitious Goals of a Wallflower [ES, IT, ZH, and More!]

Postby marie39 » Tue Feb 18, 2020 7:14 pm

February 9, 2020 - February 15, 2020

Japanese: I focused so much on Japanese this week. I{m almost done with Japanese for Busy People Volume 1. I was hoping to get to it by the end of the week but some personal matters came up so that did not happen. I should hopefully be done with this book by the end of this week. Then, I will take some time to review before moving on to the next textbook in the series.

I also started watching some anime online. I started watching "Overlord" and "Utakoi."

I also found raw manga scans of Citrus. Not all of the kanji have furigana over them but I was able to recognize some of the characters anyway. I'll post my word list once I finish some more of it. I'm obviously very slow when it comes to reading in Japanese even if it's manga.

El 9 de febrero de 2020 - el 15 de febrero de 2020

Español: Leí un poco más del libro El dragón y la perla pero empecé a leer un otro libro esta semana también. El Thrillerathon Readathon comenzó a este viernes pasado. Así que, empecé a leer el libro Siberia de Jesús María Sáez.
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