13th May 2020 / Day 134
Not much to say about today. Got a fair bit done, watched some more Spanish (language) TV and got stuck into the third Living Language Korean lesson. Doing Anki as well is making words a bit more recognisable; it's been a while since I've had to learn to read in a new alphabet (and have realised, looking at the languages I'm learning/have learnt to any kind of decent level, that I've never done so to a point where I've felt 'proficient', i.e. I can probably muddle my way through some Cyrillic or Hiragana but I never learnt all that much Russian or Japanese so it never became a smooth-sailing kind of process), so it's good that it's all starting to come together.
Oh! And a friend sent me the trailer for the new Ju-on series that's coming to Netflix in June (?). It looks SO good but I do fear it's going to make me want to learn Japanese so I've gotta watch out for that!
German
4 mins Memrise
Spanish
5 mins Duolingo
42 mins TV (Community S01E06-07)
Korean
8 mins Anki
57 mins Living Language (L3)
Cornish
12 mins Memrise
22 mins KDL lessons
Total: 150 mins (2,047 mins / 13,464 mins)
2020: Learn Hard With a Vengeance [DE, ZH, ES, KO, GD]
- LunaMoonsilver
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Re: 2020: Learn Hard With a Vengeance [DE, ZH, ES, KO, GD]
14th May 2020 / Day 135
Today's been a work work work work work work kind of day lots of calls and testing and meetings and blahhh so didn't get any language learning done throughout the day. BUT I did a little bit this evening, some Korean and Cornish and Scottish Gaelic and since tomorrow's Friday (FriYAY) I'm hopeful I'll get more done then.
Also, the notebook that got all waterlogged back in January? I'm nearly done with it, which is testament to how much more actual studying I've done so far this year. Last year I'm not sure I even got through one notebook the whole year so that's some nice progress! Gonna set that up ready this weekend too.
Korean
18 mins Anki
Scottish Gaelic
14 mins Duolingo
Cornish
12 mins Memrise
22 mins KDL lessons (L2)
Total: 66 mins (2,113 mins / 13,530 mins)
Today's been a work work work work work work kind of day lots of calls and testing and meetings and blahhh so didn't get any language learning done throughout the day. BUT I did a little bit this evening, some Korean and Cornish and Scottish Gaelic and since tomorrow's Friday (FriYAY) I'm hopeful I'll get more done then.
Also, the notebook that got all waterlogged back in January? I'm nearly done with it, which is testament to how much more actual studying I've done so far this year. Last year I'm not sure I even got through one notebook the whole year so that's some nice progress! Gonna set that up ready this weekend too.
Korean
18 mins Anki
Scottish Gaelic
14 mins Duolingo
Cornish
12 mins Memrise
22 mins KDL lessons (L2)
Total: 66 mins (2,113 mins / 13,530 mins)
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- LunaMoonsilver
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- Location: Nottinghamshire, UK
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Re: 2020: Learn Hard With a Vengeance [DE, ZH, ES, KO, GD]
15th May 2020 / Day 136
Did get a bit more done today! Watched another episode of Community on my lunch break and, after seeing there was some discussion on the book club thread, realised I need to read further than the 10% (now 11%) I was at with Der Kastanienmann. Going to try and get a move on with that this weekend (at least a little). Finished lesson 2 of the KDL Cornish course and am steadily making my way through Living Language lesson 3 (Korean). Have to work on the vocab for that though; I started entering the new words from lessons 2 and 3 into Anki but I'll work on that more tomorrow.
Also side not-really-language thing but I made it through all the SQL basics today. Gonna be helpful for my job and turns out it is (so far, in my very limited experience) much, much easier than trying to learn a language!
German
11 mins reading (Der Kastanienmann)
10 mins Memrise
Spanish
21 mins TV (Community S01E08)
Korean
41 mins Living Language (L3)
11 mins Anki
Cornish
30 mins KDL lessons (L2/3)
Total: 124 mins (2,237 mins / 13,654 mins)
Did get a bit more done today! Watched another episode of Community on my lunch break and, after seeing there was some discussion on the book club thread, realised I need to read further than the 10% (now 11%) I was at with Der Kastanienmann. Going to try and get a move on with that this weekend (at least a little). Finished lesson 2 of the KDL Cornish course and am steadily making my way through Living Language lesson 3 (Korean). Have to work on the vocab for that though; I started entering the new words from lessons 2 and 3 into Anki but I'll work on that more tomorrow.
Also side not-really-language thing but I made it through all the SQL basics today. Gonna be helpful for my job and turns out it is (so far, in my very limited experience) much, much easier than trying to learn a language!
German
11 mins reading (Der Kastanienmann)
10 mins Memrise
Spanish
21 mins TV (Community S01E08)
Korean
41 mins Living Language (L3)
11 mins Anki
Cornish
30 mins KDL lessons (L2/3)
Total: 124 mins (2,237 mins / 13,654 mins)
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- LunaMoonsilver
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Re: 2020: Learn Hard With a Vengeance [DE, ZH, ES, KO, GD]
Super Challenge 2020-2021
Meant to do a 'start-of-the-SC' post two weeks ago but I didn't so here it is now!
I've signed up for five Super Challenges; three full, two halves. That's a grand total of 20,000 pages and 36,000 minutes to be read and watched over the next twenty months, which is... achievable, right? Tbh, I know I won't get there with all of them—but it's the trying that matters!
German - Full
Target pages: 5,000
Target minutes: 9,000
This should be the easiest language with regards to reading but I know I have to put an effort in to watch things just because I don't find Netflix's selection as good as it is for Spanish. There are plenty of other places to watch German-language shows/TV though and I do like listening to podcasts (of which I have a nice list I put together already). If I finish this with plenty of time to spare, I might push it up to a double challenge.
Mandarin - Full
Target pages: 5,000
Target minutes: 9,000
Okay, so watching is going to be easy—there's a lot of Chinese-language dramas out there and I really enjoy them, to the point where I almost managed this part of the Super Challenge last time around! Reading is going to be so, so difficult but it's frustrating that I feel like I can't read anything and, guess what, practice is the only thing that's going to improve that at this point! I'll start with graded readers and work my way up but this is also going to involve a lot of vocabulary practice (on the side).
Spanish - Full
Target pages: 5,000
Target minutes: 9,000
So, obviously the Super Challenge has started already and so I've managed to get a bit done—and I think Spanish has kind of been the easiest so far. I mean, it's not easier for me to read Spanish than German (and so I am farther ahead with the latter) but I think I have more enthusiasm for it somehow? I'm hoping that combined with regular, if low-key, study, this will help push my Spanish up into the B-levels. There's so much out there for Spanish, too, that I'm excited to get through as much as possible!
Korean - Half
Target pages: 2,500
Target minutes: 4,500
Starting off with a half on this but I think that, with regards to watching at least, I can definitely hit a full challenge. I'm not sure about reading. I don't think it's going to be as difficult as, say, Mandarin, because once I've got some vocabulary/grammar under my belt, it should be a bit like reading other languages that have alphabets—but I'm also well aware that I'm very much a beginner and that lots of people say Korean is a very difficult language to learn. For watching, though, I have a whole bunch of things lined up which should push me through!
Scottish Gaelic - Half
Target pages: 2,500
Target minutes: 4,500
This is gonna be a tricky one. There are plenty of materials, but not an abundance, and I'm really not at a stage where I can do a lot yet. TV-wise, I do at least have access to BBC Alba, which seems to have a bunch of kid's TV that's been dubbed (yay!) but I'm not sure if they have subtitles (boo!). Not sure I'll manage this but hopefully it'll give me the incentive to keep plodding on.
Going to keep these progress bars here to track how I'm doing overall (not even sure I can fit much else in my signature at this point!) and I plan to do a formal update every month or two, which will track how I'm doing at that point.
DE reading:
ZH reading:
ES reading:
KO reading:
GD reading:
DE listening:
ZH listening:
ES listening:
KO listening:
GD listening:
Meant to do a 'start-of-the-SC' post two weeks ago but I didn't so here it is now!
I've signed up for five Super Challenges; three full, two halves. That's a grand total of 20,000 pages and 36,000 minutes to be read and watched over the next twenty months, which is... achievable, right? Tbh, I know I won't get there with all of them—but it's the trying that matters!
German - Full
Target pages: 5,000
Target minutes: 9,000
This should be the easiest language with regards to reading but I know I have to put an effort in to watch things just because I don't find Netflix's selection as good as it is for Spanish. There are plenty of other places to watch German-language shows/TV though and I do like listening to podcasts (of which I have a nice list I put together already). If I finish this with plenty of time to spare, I might push it up to a double challenge.
Mandarin - Full
Target pages: 5,000
Target minutes: 9,000
Okay, so watching is going to be easy—there's a lot of Chinese-language dramas out there and I really enjoy them, to the point where I almost managed this part of the Super Challenge last time around! Reading is going to be so, so difficult but it's frustrating that I feel like I can't read anything and, guess what, practice is the only thing that's going to improve that at this point! I'll start with graded readers and work my way up but this is also going to involve a lot of vocabulary practice (on the side).
Spanish - Full
Target pages: 5,000
Target minutes: 9,000
So, obviously the Super Challenge has started already and so I've managed to get a bit done—and I think Spanish has kind of been the easiest so far. I mean, it's not easier for me to read Spanish than German (and so I am farther ahead with the latter) but I think I have more enthusiasm for it somehow? I'm hoping that combined with regular, if low-key, study, this will help push my Spanish up into the B-levels. There's so much out there for Spanish, too, that I'm excited to get through as much as possible!
Korean - Half
Target pages: 2,500
Target minutes: 4,500
Starting off with a half on this but I think that, with regards to watching at least, I can definitely hit a full challenge. I'm not sure about reading. I don't think it's going to be as difficult as, say, Mandarin, because once I've got some vocabulary/grammar under my belt, it should be a bit like reading other languages that have alphabets—but I'm also well aware that I'm very much a beginner and that lots of people say Korean is a very difficult language to learn. For watching, though, I have a whole bunch of things lined up which should push me through!
Scottish Gaelic - Half
Target pages: 2,500
Target minutes: 4,500
This is gonna be a tricky one. There are plenty of materials, but not an abundance, and I'm really not at a stage where I can do a lot yet. TV-wise, I do at least have access to BBC Alba, which seems to have a bunch of kid's TV that's been dubbed (yay!) but I'm not sure if they have subtitles (boo!). Not sure I'll manage this but hopefully it'll give me the incentive to keep plodding on.
Going to keep these progress bars here to track how I'm doing overall (not even sure I can fit much else in my signature at this point!) and I plan to do a formal update every month or two, which will track how I'm doing at that point.
DE reading:
ZH reading:
ES reading:
KO reading:
GD reading:
DE listening:
ZH listening:
ES listening:
KO listening:
GD listening:
Last edited by LunaMoonsilver on Sun May 31, 2020 11:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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- Deinonysus
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Re: 2020: Learn Hard With a Vengeance [DE, ZH, ES, KO, GD]
I see that you're interested in Tuvan. FYI, Mango Languages is free through the end of June and it is the only Tuvan resource in English I'm aware of.
Also, if you haven't already, you should check out Genghis Blues, one of my favorite movies. It's a documentary about the blind American blues singer Paul Pena who taught himself Tuvan throat singing and some of the language. The great throat singer Kongar Ol-Ondar invited him to compete in the annual throat singing competition and showed him around Tuva. It's free to watch on Tubi:
https://tubitv.com/movies/312560/genghis_blues
Also, if you haven't already, you should check out Genghis Blues, one of my favorite movies. It's a documentary about the blind American blues singer Paul Pena who taught himself Tuvan throat singing and some of the language. The great throat singer Kongar Ol-Ondar invited him to compete in the annual throat singing competition and showed him around Tuva. It's free to watch on Tubi:
https://tubitv.com/movies/312560/genghis_blues
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- LunaMoonsilver
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Re: 2020: Learn Hard With a Vengeance [DE, ZH, ES, KO, GD]
Deinonysus wrote:I see that you're interested in Tuvan. FYI, Mango Languages is free through the end of June and it is the only Tuvan resource in English I'm aware of.
Also, if you haven't already, you should check out Genghis Blues, one of my favorite movies. It's a documentary about the blind American blues singer Paul Pena who taught himself Tuvan throat singing and some of the language. The great throat singer Kongar Ol-Ondar invited him to compete in the annual throat singing competition and showed him around Tuva. It's free to watch on Tubi:
https://tubitv.com/movies/312560/genghis_blues
Ah, thanks for the heads up! I have a handful of things saved but I think none of them are complete resources (Memrise, some reddit queries, etc.) so Mango's definitely already looking more comprehensive.
And thank you for the film rec too that sounds so interesting, will def check it out!
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Re: 2020: Learn Hard With a Vengeance [DE, ZH, ES, KO, GD]
16th May 2020 / Day 137
Watched a bit more TV today (gotta get those SC numbers up) and then my bad horror film for the week. Well, less horror, more werewolf-romance-book-come-to-life (it was terrible but also great). Three episodes of Community in Spanish and the first episode of Killing Eve in German. I've actually missed a lot of the stuff around Killing Eve, beyond the fact that there's an assassin and stuff, so it's nice to go into it kind of blind. And I enjoyed the first episode! Will probably watch another tomorrow.
Aside from that, some general app stuff/Cornish learning and read a few more pages of Der Kastanienmann. Going to do my best to finish that book this month but it's so long! Still, I'm intrigued by the mystery so I should get through it eventually...
German
44 mins TV (Killing Eve)
16 mins reading (Der Kastanienmann)
Mandarin
6 mins Memrise
Spanish
63 mins TV (Community)
Scottish Gaelic
16 mins Duolingo
Cornish
32 mins KDL (L3)
Total: 177 mins (2,426 mins / 13,843 mins)*
*forgot to track my Duolingo (GD) session on here yesterday so these figures don't match up day-to-day here but do on my spreadsheet
Watched a bit more TV today (gotta get those SC numbers up) and then my bad horror film for the week. Well, less horror, more werewolf-romance-book-come-to-life (it was terrible but also great). Three episodes of Community in Spanish and the first episode of Killing Eve in German. I've actually missed a lot of the stuff around Killing Eve, beyond the fact that there's an assassin and stuff, so it's nice to go into it kind of blind. And I enjoyed the first episode! Will probably watch another tomorrow.
Aside from that, some general app stuff/Cornish learning and read a few more pages of Der Kastanienmann. Going to do my best to finish that book this month but it's so long! Still, I'm intrigued by the mystery so I should get through it eventually...
German
44 mins TV (Killing Eve)
16 mins reading (Der Kastanienmann)
Mandarin
6 mins Memrise
Spanish
63 mins TV (Community)
Scottish Gaelic
16 mins Duolingo
Cornish
32 mins KDL (L3)
Total: 177 mins (2,426 mins / 13,843 mins)*
*forgot to track my Duolingo (GD) session on here yesterday so these figures don't match up day-to-day here but do on my spreadsheet
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pronouns: she/her
- LunaMoonsilver
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Re: 2020: Learn Hard With a Vengeance [DE, ZH, ES, KO, GD]
17th May 2020 / Day 138
Watched a bunch of episodes of Avatar - Der Herr der Elemente today so I'm now on track for my German SC across the board and for Spanish listening! Am having an issue with Netflix where it keeps flicking to English subs though, which is a little annoying (generally I have subs on all the time but even switching to the German ones doesn't fix it when it goes to the next episode ).
Aside from that, the usual Cornish and Scottish Gaelic Duolingo. For Duolingo, I'm writing down each sentence/word that comes up and then translating them to English at the end of the lesson, just to check if I've remembered any of it. So far, I think it's working okay but I do have to make sure I get back on with the Teach Yourself book at some point!
German
111 mins TV (Avatar - Der Herr der Elemente S01E09-13)
Scottish Gaelic
12 mins Duolingo
Cornish
7 mins Memrise
25 mins KDL
Total: 155 mins (2,581 mins / 13,998 mins)
Watched a bunch of episodes of Avatar - Der Herr der Elemente today so I'm now on track for my German SC across the board and for Spanish listening! Am having an issue with Netflix where it keeps flicking to English subs though, which is a little annoying (generally I have subs on all the time but even switching to the German ones doesn't fix it when it goes to the next episode ).
Aside from that, the usual Cornish and Scottish Gaelic Duolingo. For Duolingo, I'm writing down each sentence/word that comes up and then translating them to English at the end of the lesson, just to check if I've remembered any of it. So far, I think it's working okay but I do have to make sure I get back on with the Teach Yourself book at some point!
German
111 mins TV (Avatar - Der Herr der Elemente S01E09-13)
Scottish Gaelic
12 mins Duolingo
Cornish
7 mins Memrise
25 mins KDL
Total: 155 mins (2,581 mins / 13,998 mins)
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Re: 2020: Learn Hard With a Vengeance [DE, ZH, ES, KO, GD]
LunaMoonsilver wrote:Am having an issue with Netflix where it keeps flicking to English subs though, which is a little annoying (generally I have subs on all the time but even switching to the German ones doesn't fix it when it goes to the next episode ).
Changing your profile language to German should take care of that.
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I have the patience of an ox. (Gustave Doré)
I have the patience of an ox. (Gustave Doré)
- LunaMoonsilver
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Re: 2020: Learn Hard With a Vengeance [DE, ZH, ES, KO, GD]
zatris wrote:Changing your profile language to German should take care of that.
Ah thanks but no, it is in German already; I have a Spanish and a German profile because otherwise Netflix is real picky about which languages it'll show me to use (a lot of French ). Could be the browser/laptop/a bug, just a bit of a pain is all.
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