Steyyan's log (DE | ES | nl | fr | ja)

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steyyan
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Re: Steyyan's (aka. Stifa's) TAC log [ES | JA | de | nl]

Postby steyyan » Thu Nov 26, 2015 7:10 pm

Week 47 16 Nov - 22 Nov

This week's goals
- ES Reading: 140 pages 310 pages (221%)
- ES Listening: 7:00' minutes 14:51' minutes (212%)
- NL Reading: 25 pages 65 pages (260%)
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes 2:16' minutes (227%)

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-: 100 / 100 Memorias de Idhún II: Revelación
-: 92 / 100 El fin del mundo y un despiadado paí­s de las maravillas
-: 90 / 100 Ik reis alleen
-: 52 / 100 El tiempo entre costuras

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I was hoping that I would be able to finish El fin del mundo as well, but due to all the exam revision and the procrastination, I didn't get around to that.

I also joined a Dutch skype chat, and although they use a bit of English in there, it's a nice opportunity to practice my Dutch. My reading is also rapidly improving, or at least it feels like it is, my listening skills still seem to leave a lot to be desired.

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Next week's goals
- JA Reading: 105 pages
- JA Listening: 7:00' minutes
- NL Reading: 25 pages
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes
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steyyan
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Posts: 160
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Re: Steyyan's (aka. Stifa's) TAC log [ES | JA | de | nl]

Postby steyyan » Mon Nov 30, 2015 10:30 pm

Week 48 23 Nov - 29 Nov

This week's goals
- JA Reading: 105 pages 177 pages (169%)
- JA Listening: 7:00' minutes 11:07' minutes (159%)
- NL Reading: 25 pages 55 pages (220%)
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes 2:20' minutes (233%)

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-: 100 / 100 Ik reis alleen
-: 88 / 100 ハリーポッターと不死鳥の騎士団
-: 4 / 100 De Voorspelling

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I've done a lot of revising and project work this week so I didn't get much time for language learning, but I still got to read some. I finished Ik reis alleen and moved on to De voorspelling (Pawn of Prophecy) by David Eddings, a book that was recommended to me by someone else in the Dutch learners' skype group that I'm in.

Next week, I will only be focusing on Dutch, since I've got three exams and a project deadline...

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Next week's goals
- NL Reading: 50 pages
- NL Listening: 2:00' minutes
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steyyan
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Posts: 160
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Languages: NO, en, de, es, nl, fr, ja
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Re: Steyyan's (aka. Stifa's) TAC log [ES | JA | de | nl]

Postby steyyan » Tue Dec 08, 2015 12:02 am

Week 49 30 Nov - 06 Dec

This week's goals
- NL Reading: 50 pages 81 pages (162%)
- NL Listening: 2:00' minutes 4:26' minutes (222%)

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-: 33 / 100 De voorspelling

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The exam rush went better than expected and I am quite happy with what we handed in on friday. Except for the tiny 1-hour online exam next Friday (11th), my Christmas break has started, and this year I don't have to feel too bad about not revising, because my previous uni thought that January was a good time for exams.

As for language learning, I read and listened to a lot more Dutch than usual, and I finished the audiobook version of the first Harry Potter book. I'm considering buying the next book as well, since they make up a lot of listening material (ranging form ~10 (Philosopher's Stone) hours to ~30 (Order of the Phoenix)).

The last four weeks of this year (50-53) will be alternating between Spanish+Dutch and Japanese+Dutch again.

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Next week's goals
- ES Reading: 140 pages
- ES Listening: 7:00' minutes
- NL Reading: 25 pages
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes
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steyyan
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Posts: 160
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Re: Steyyan's (aka. Stifa's) TAC log [ES | JA | de | nl]

Postby steyyan » Tue Dec 15, 2015 12:39 am

I]Week 50 07 Dec - 13 Dec[/I]

This week's goals
- ES Reading: 140 pages 342 pages (244%)
- ES Listening: 7:00' minutes 14:36' minutes (209%)
- NL Reading: 25 pages 61 pages (244%)
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes 2:20' minutes (233%)

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-: 100 / 100 El fin del mundo y un despiadado paí­s de las maravillas
-: 100 / 100 El tiempo entre costuras
-: 54 / 100 De voorspelling

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I finally decided to force myself through El tiempo entre costuras (~300 pages) this week. This book has been looming around in my e-Reader library for more than a quarter of a year. The same could be said about El fin del mundo y un despiadado paí­s de las maravillas (~45 pages) that's been around for just as long, which was one of the last ebooks I bought when I was in Bath this summer.

What I really liked about El tiempo entre costuras was that the story felt so real, because it intertwined well with the actual stories of the real characters who made an appearance in the book, such as Beigberder and Fox. I would never have picked this book up haven't it been for the Book club in the Español subforum. And to be frank I don't regret doing so at all. I did not expect there to be weapon smuggeling and espionage in a book about a young seamstress who let herself be beguiled by a seller.

I also discovered Lingvist.io on the Sunday thanks to another user in this forum bringing it up in a thread in the Practical questions and advice subforum. I really enjoy the way this website works: you just review and review until you can't be bothered anymore; there are no "due cards" and no limits on how many cards you can push through, although you do have to study regularly to learn new words. I'm using it to study French, which is a language that doesn't enjoy much priority at the moment.

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Next week's goals
- JA Reading: 105 pages
- JA Listening: 7:00' minutes
- NL Reading: 25 pages
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes
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steyyan
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Posts: 160
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Languages: NO, en, de, es, nl, fr, ja
x 134

Re: Steyyan's (aka. Stifa's) TAC log [ES | JA | de | nl]

Postby steyyan » Mon Dec 21, 2015 11:39 pm

Week 51 14 Dec - 20 Dec

This week's goals
- JA Reading: 105 pages 166 pages (158%)
- JA Listening: 7:00' minutes 11:15' minutes (161%)
- NL Reading: 25 pages 57 pages (228%)
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes 2:10' minutes (217%)

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-: 100 / 100 ハリーポッターと不死鳥の騎士団
-: 74 / 100 De voorspelling

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I finished reading the Japanese translation of the fifth Harry Potter book this week, and it's been the best Japanese edition so far, althout it's my least favourite book in the series (a bit too long, Harry going through his angsty, misunderstood teenager phase, etc.). The quality of the translation is higher and they don't rely on using katakana when it gets too punny.

I also power through De voorspelling, an ebook that I got from another member of the learndutch skype chat. It's a bit poorly formatted, possibly being a rough digitalisation of a paper edition, like most pirated ebooks, it seems.

After a week of Lingvist I feel like I've already progressing, although I think I can thank my Spanish (and don't forget English) skills for that. Since it starts with the most common words, which often form the fluff between the big words in most sentences, it's not too difficult to get the gist of what the sentences mean, especially since a lot of the less common - and more important words - do resembles their English or Spanish counterparts at times. However, this doesn't help much with spoken French, which seems like a whole another language at this stage.

I think I'll still continue with Lingvist and Duolingo for another few weeks, and possibly picking up Assimil, before I get started on native materials in French.

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Next week's goals
- ES Reading: 140 pages
- ES Listening: 7:00' minutes
- NL Reading: 25 pages
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes
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steyyan
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Posts: 160
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 4:46 pm
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x 134

Re: Steyyan's (aka. Stifa's) TAC log [ES | JA | de | nl]

Postby steyyan » Mon Dec 28, 2015 11:31 pm

Week 52 21 Dec - 27 Dec

This week's goals
- ES Reading: 140 pages 287 pages (205%)
- ES Listening: 7:00' minutes 14:35' minutes (208%)
- NL Reading: 25 pages 72 pages (288%)
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes 2:25' minutes (242%)

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-: 100 / 100 De voorspelling
-: 67 / 100 El prinsipio del fin

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Spanish: Most of my listening is from gaming related Youtube videos and the rest (~35 min) is from an audiobook. I decided to read the "zombie book" discussed in the Español subforum. It's certainly a step up after El tiempo entre costuras in terms of action, and while it isn't a great work of literature, it's certainly a page turner!

Dutch: I finished De voorspelling, and look forward to a Dutch ebook with some better formatting. As for the next book: after browsing Amazon NL (and looking up the same titles on the UK site), I settled with Een licht in de duisternis (De Waal & Baantjer), since it looked like an interesting crime thriller (or whatever the English word for the German word "Krimi" is).

French: I've been keeping up with Lingvist, but I decided to drop Duolingo because it corrected just as much English as Dutch/French (typos aren't accepted so long as they're recognised as different words). I also played some more Ocarina of Time.

Next week, I'll be picking up Kitchen by Yoshimoto Banana, a book that I bought and started reading a long ago but due to lack of motivation, I never finished it. Since it'll be week 53, it will count as 2015 in my log.

I'm still torn between keeping this thread or starting a new one for 2016. I think I'll see what the others do and hop on the bandwagon. :)

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Next week's goals
- JA Reading: 105 pages
- JA Listening: 7:00' minutes
- NL Reading: 25 pages
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes
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steyyan
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Posts: 160
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 4:46 pm
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Re: Steyyan's (aka. Stifa's) TAC log [ES | JA | de | nl]

Postby steyyan » Thu Dec 31, 2015 4:57 pm

Week 53 28 Dec - 03 Jan

This week's goals
- JA Reading: 105 pages 269 pages (256%)
- JA Listening: 7:00' minutes 14:06' minutes (201%)
- NL Reading: 25 pages 51 pages (204%)
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes 2:08' minutes (213%)

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-: 100 / 100 キッチン
-: 30 / 100 Een licht in de duisternis
-: 11 / 100 愛おしい骨

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I admit that the pages of Kitchen were a bit smaller than I'm used to, hence the high page count this week. I also started reading 愛おしい骨 (translation of Bone by Bone by Carol O'Connell), a book that I picked up about 4-5 months into my Japanese study but never got around to read.

It was nice to read a decently formatted e-book in Dutch again. Also, since it is a crime thriller as well as being originally written in Dutch, there would be fewer uncommon words in this one than in De voorspelling.

That's it for 2015. In my next log entry (week 1), I will try to write this part of it in German.

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Next week's goals
- DE Writing: 700 words
- ES Reading: 140 pages
- ES Listening: 7:00' minutes
- FR Reading: 15 pages
- FR Listening: 1:00' minutes
Last edited by steyyan on Thu Jan 07, 2016 12:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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steyyan
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Posts: 160
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 4:46 pm
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x 134

Re: Steyyan's (aka. Stifa's) TAC log [ES | JA | de | nl]

Postby steyyan » Thu Dec 31, 2015 4:58 pm

Summary of 2015

So, 2015 is coming to a close, and it's time for a summary. The reason for the placeholder above is that I count week 53 as the last week of 2015, despite it ending on the 3rd of January.

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In general:
"Forcing" myself to write a log entry every week has made my language study a lot more focused than it has been the last few years. I've had weekly goals for most of the year, and I've generally exceeded these - with one exception: when I was reading 天冥の標Iメニー・メニー・シープ , which was way above my level (with the second half of the ttitle being "many many sheep" in katakana English, you'd think otherwise, but then again, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover - or its title).

The weekly goals that I believe made the biggest difference were the listening goals: it forced my to spend some time listening to my target languages almost everyday. I'm very susceptible to "gamification" or "meta gaming".

If there's one thing I've learned this year, it's that a lot of listening - coupled with reading and other forms of vocabulary learning - actually works, even though you may not focus on what you're listening to 100% all the time.

As for my plans for 2016, I'll be posting about those later this week.

German: Goal: B2->C1
To begin with, I'd simply say that I didn't reach this goal. My active German has indeed improved, and my passive comprhension skills could be counted as C1 in my opinion, but my overall level still has lot to go before I reach a solid C1 level in German. I didn't mention German too much in my log, but I did keep in touch with the language through the Skype groups, Youtube and other websites. And as you can see below, I did listen to a few audiobooks as well.

As for speaking, I've only spoken on a few occasions: in my German classes (which are conducted almost completely in German) I had a lot of chances to speak, since we were only a few students in the daytime classes: at the end there were just the three of us. My writing hasn't improved much either, because most of it has been one-liners on Skype.

I will be continuing with the same goal next year, and aim for more speaking and writing practice. With the Output Challange, I think I'll be covering the latter.

Spanish Goal: A2 -> B1
My Spanish, on the other hand, has improved a lot, and I have definitely achieved a strong B1 level, at least in my passive skills and in writing. I have never spoken Spanish with anybody yet, something I hope to do next year.

I can read comfortably in Spanish and my listening skills have improved a lot. It's very hit and miss with TV Series though, although I haven't watched any of those recently, something that I have to do more next year (I'm really looking forward to the 2nd seasson of El ministerio del tiempo).

Japanese Goal: ~B1 -> B2
This is another one of my "failures". My passive skills have been improving a lot, but they are far from B2. I can actually follow "easier" media such as Let's play (実況プレイ) videos pretty well, but anime, variety shows and so on is still above my level.

Next year, I'll still focus primarily on my passive skills (especially listening), leaving the active focus for later (possibly 2017).

Dutch
I didn't really start learning this one seriously before mid-Summer, so I didn't have any goals when stating out. Just like with German back in the end of 2012, I feel like my listening skills are developing very fast and I can already understand most of news broadcasts and other "easy" media, like gameplay videos.

As for next year, Dutch will stay as one of my "secondary" languages for the first half and as one of my primary languages on the second half.

French
Apart from some Lingvist practice and about two months of Duolingo, I haven't really done much French study yet. As for next year, see the previous section.

---

The books listed below are the books that I finished in 2015, listed chronologically by when I finished them.

(Colour coding: see above)

Books:
El último lapón Olivier Truc
Herbstmilch Anna Wimschneider
La ciudad de las bestias Isabel Allende
Milchgeld. Kommissar Kluftingers erster Fall Völker Klüpfer & Michael Kobr
Harry Potter y el prisionero de Azkaban Joanne K. Rowling
Ojos de agua Domingo Villar
ハリーポッターと賢者の石 Joanne K. Rowling
Harry Potter y el cáliz de fuego Joanne K. Rowling
Harry Potter y la Orden del Fénix Joanne K. Rowling
ゼロの使い魔2 風のアルビオン ヤマグチ ノボル
El asesino de la Vía Láctea Gabriel Martínez
El país de las lagrimas Mario Escobar
Cien años de soledad Gabriel García Márquez
隠蔽捜査 今野敏
Harry Potter y el misterio del príncipe Joanne K. Rowling
ハリーポッターとアズカバンの囚人 Joanne K. Rowling
Harry Potter en de Steen der Wijzen Joanne K. Rowling
Harry Potter y las Reliquias de la Muerte Joanne K. Rowling
Memorias de Idhún I: Búsqueda Laura Gallego García
Memorias de Idhún II: Revelación Laura Gallego García
Ik reis alleen Samuel Bjørk
El fin del mundo y un despiadado país de las maravillas Haruki Murakami
El tiempo entre costuras María Dueñas
ハリーポッターと不死鳥の騎士団 Joanne K. Rowling
De voorspelling David Eddings
キッチン 吉本ばなな
Total: 26 (2 | 15 | 6 | 3)

Audiobooks:
Harry Potter und die Kammer des Schreckens Joanne K. Rowling
Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen Joanne K. Rowling
Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban Joanne K. Rowling
Harry Potter und der Feuerkelch Joanne K. Rowling
Harry Potter und der Orden des Phönix Joanne K. Rowling
El último cliente Jacinto Rey
Das Erbe der Elfen Andrzej Sapkowski
Ve y pon un centinela Harper Lee
Harry Potter und der Halbblutsprinz Joanne K. Rowling
Matar a un ruiseñor Harper Lee
Tintenherz Cornelia Funke
Harry Potter und die Heiligtümer des Todes Joanne K. Rowling
Tintenblut Cornelia Funke
Harry Potter en de Steen der Wijzen Joanne K. Rowling
Total: 14 (10 | 3 | 1)
Last edited by steyyan on Mon Feb 01, 2016 8:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
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steyyan
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Posts: 160
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Languages: NO, en, de, es, nl, fr, ja
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Re: Ein Voyageur beim Sprachlernen, TAC16 (DE | FR | ja | es | nl)

Postby steyyan » Sat Jan 02, 2016 12:45 am

2016

Happy new year to all of you! A new year, a new TAC, and a new log well, a recycling of the old one..., but anyway:

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I will try to keep a weekly log going this year as well, although I'll try to write my log entries in German due to the output challenge.

German Goal: shaky B2 -> strong B2, maybe C1?
I've been learning German since 2012, and my listening and reading comprehension are excellent (sorry for bragging), but my writing and listening skills are still quite lacking. My main goal this year would be to change that.

The first step towards reaching this goal has been done by signing up for the Output Challenge, but only for writing since I don't like recording myself. We'll see how that goes...

French Goal: A0 -> B1
My aim with French is to bring my passive skills up to a solid B1 level. I have barely started learning French, so I'm mostly starting from scratch.

Japanese Goal: B1 -> B2
As I stated in my last post, I'll be continueing with reading and listening in this language, aiming for a passive B2 level.

Spanish Goal: B1 -> B2
My Spanish is much better than my Japanese, but since I'll be focusing on German this year, I'll stick to improving my passive skills.

Dutch Goal: A2 -> B1
Same as with Japanese and Spanish, I will aim to improve my passive skills in Dutch.

---

To begin with, I will stick to the same switching between Spanish and Japanese as "primary" languages input-wise, with French and Dutch as "secondary" languages:

Odd: ES Reading (7h), ES Listening (7h), FR Reading (1h), FR Listening (1h)
Even: JA Reading (7h), JA Listening (7h), NL Reading (1h), NL Listening (1h)

About halfway into the year, I'm planning to switch it up a bit:

Odd: NL Reading (7h), NL Listening (4h), ES Listening (4h)
Even: FR Reading (7h), FR Listening (4h), JA Listening (4h)

This sort of balances the load and make it easier to balance my focus instead of trying to study all my TLs every day. I also intend to aim to write at least 700 words (7x100) of German each week.
2 x

steyyan
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Re: Ein Voyageur beim Sprachlernen (DE | FR | ja | es | nl)

Postby steyyan » Mon Jan 11, 2016 3:05 pm

Week 1 28 Dec - 03 Jan

This week's goals
- DE Writing: 700 words 1904 words (272%)
- ES Reading: 140 pages 296 pages (211%)
- ES Listening: 7:00' minutes 15:15' minutes (218%)
- FR Reading: 15 pages 34 pages (227%)
- FR Listening: 1:00' minutes 2:30' minutes (250%)

---

-: 100 / 100 El prinsipio del fin
-: 27 / 100 Allmen und der rosa Diamant
-: 22 / 100 Kafka en la orilla
-: 13 / 100 Harry Potter à l'école des sorciers

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Output challenge: 1904 / 50000

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Deutsch
Dieser Woche habe ich es geschafft, ein Tagebuch zu führen, und dazu habe ich etwas auf Lang-8 hochgeladen, was ich auf Deutsch seit fast zweieinhalb Jahren nicht mehr getan habe.

Nur ein Tagebuch zu führen genügte um meinem wöchentlichen Ziel zu erreichen; laut Words Wörterzähler habe ich dort 1109 Wörter reingeschrieben. Dazu kommt eine Sammlung von Skype-Nachrichten und übrige Äuserungen im Internet (353 Wörter), der Lang-8-Eintrag (197 Wörter) und eine kleine Übesetzungsübung (245 Wörter).

Spanisch
Diese Woche habe ich nicht nur Let's-Plays angeschaut und Hörbücher angehört, sondern auch drei Folgen von Águila Roja. Ich konnte das meiste davon, das gesagt wurde, verstehen. Ich habe mich allerdings nicht getraut, mich auf Audible einen von meinen Hörbüchern anzuhören, weil ich gerade eine 4G-Verbindung mit einem Datentarif habe (Ich bin diese Woche umgezogen, und der Internetdienstanbieter trödelt herum mit dem Installieren von Glasfaserkabeln), und ich weiß nicht, wie viel gebuffert wird wenn man sie online anhört.

Am donnerstag habe ich dem Apocalipsis Z-Buch fertiggelesen, und ich habe mit der spanische Übersetzung von Murakamis Kafka am Strand begonnen. Ich habe das spanische Zombie-Buch sehr spannend gefunden, obwohl das letzte Kapittel etwas langweilig war - dort gab es keine hässlichen Zusammentreffen mit den "lebenden Toten". Ich habe vor, das nächste Buch in der Reihe zu lesen, weil ich es gern wissen will, um der Protagonist, und die drei Anderen es nach den Kanaren geschafft haben.

Französisch
Ich habe mich dafür entschieden, bereits mit dem Hörvestehenübung anzufangen. Deshalb habe ich mir ein paar Youtube-Videos angeschaut. Bis jetzt verstand ich nicht gerade viel, aber ich könnte manchmal ganze Sätz ausmachen, und das finde ich ermutigend!

Sonst habe ich 34 Seiten vom ersten Harry Potter-Buch gelesen, und dort bin ich auf den einfachen Vergangeheitsform, dem ich nicht vorher gesehen habe, gestoßen. Das erinnerte mich daran, dass ich zusätzlich zu Lingvist auch etwas Grammatik lernen soll.

Und jetzt sieht ihr, wie viel ich das (oder die?) Output-Challenge nötig habe...

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Next week's goals
- DE Writing: 700 words
- JA Reading: 105 pages
- JA Listening: 7:00' minutes
- NL Reading: 20 pages
- NL Listening: 1:00' minutes
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