If all goes according to plan (JP, FI, FR)

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
User avatar
dicentra8
Orange Belt
Posts: 117
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 5:07 pm
Location: Portugal
Languages: Portuguese (N), Japanese (JLPT N3), Finnish (beginner), French (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9114
x 230

Re: If all goes according to plan (JP, FI)

Postby dicentra8 » Fri Feb 22, 2019 8:19 pm

Log restart I suppose *cleans the dust* :oops:

The only thing I've been doing on a daily basis is reading the news for both TL.
The headline that made me giggle today was (for finnish): ”lentävä bulldoggi” löytyi Indonesiasta! (flying bulldog!). Sometimes my brain decides to make straightforward visualizations of what I read. :lol: The article was about the biggest bee in the world.

Image

This big. :shock:
I also found the same news article but in japanese. Funny detail: in finnish they just say that the bee is 4cm long (noin neljä senttimetriä pitkän) while in japanese they refer to it as being the size of a thumb (人の親指大). And in that way I learned that you can use 大 as a suffix, that means "approximate size / as big as...". I was unaware of that usage.


Suomi:
Hyvin Menee 1 is on hold for the moment but I intend to return to it soon.
Suomea Suomeksi - finished the 1st chapter (lesson + workbook exercises). Will start lesson 2 soon.

日本語:
I probably should do more but it's been mostly just the news. I should do more often the ones from テレ朝news since it's one of the websites that has got videos + transcripts (below).
I haven't followed any recent tv-shows or movies... I was planning to watch again 繰繰れ! コックリさん since I've got the japanese subtitles for it. And in the process to be sad that, since I don't follow every anime, I got really attached to this one...which happened to be the one that didn't get a second season. :evil: Shame.
2 x
"I have to watch the time I spend playing Tetris very carefully."

User avatar
dicentra8
Orange Belt
Posts: 117
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 5:07 pm
Location: Portugal
Languages: Portuguese (N), Japanese (JLPT N3), Finnish (beginner), French (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9114
x 230

Re: If all goes according to plan (JP, FI)

Postby dicentra8 » Tue Mar 26, 2019 9:27 pm

- After the memrise/decks chaos I found a nice and comfortable place: I went back to quizlet. And that brought a good thing that never crossed my mind before, the joy of lack of SRS (instead of fear haha)! :o
Background context: I finished 耳から覚える・語彙N3 before I took the JLPT in 2017. I found a lot of the vocabulary there useful and wanted to review it (again) once in while, but I wasn't very fond of the idea of going through 880 words and then have those 880 words the next day to review. So for a while I was postponing doing that.
Recently I found a blog with the whole vocabulary list already in a table which made the import really easy. The same blog has also got the vocabulary list for the 耳から覚える・語彙N2 and I already started going over the first words.

- While I was looking around for the vocabulary list (耳から覚える・語彙N3) I came across this nice youtube channel list (I think it's vietnamese, they always have a lot of resources for japanese). I can't even think about the work of getting all those small clips from tv shows+anime, organize everything for each word, etc. :shock: But I'm glad I found it. I occasionally listen (and see) some of those videos, mostly for the native material clips.

For the first book in Finnish I picked Mikä Sika Sotku!
Will start lesson 2 soon.
I was planning to watch again 繰繰れ! コックリさん

None of that has been done (yet...). :cry:
I just have been doing things at a rather leisurely pace. It's nice but can't drag it for too long. I still try to find a balance between the 2 TL, and I still do a tiny bit of both every day. Mostly it's reading news (using the twitter's accounts I follow or have in my twitter lists).

- Unexpected change: if someone asked me a few years back about reading news I would just shrug. The first time I tried it, it didn't work well. I thought the only way that it would work was if I searched for news with the same topic/theme. But recently it became my favourite task! Probably at some point I was driving my mother crazy because I always making reports to her, mostly news I read from finnish newspapers. :lol:
I'm not sure what changed. I try to focus and get vocabulary that I think it's common and/or useful. And a lot of it repeats itself which is great. Also, if the article is too long or feels too much, I tell myself that I don't need to read the whole thing. This works perfectly with news articles since they follow the inverted pyramid structure. If the article feels too much to handle, I just focus on the headline + the 1st paragraph (maybe skim through the 2nd paragraph). Tiny steps.
1 x
"I have to watch the time I spend playing Tetris very carefully."

dampingwire
Blue Belt
Posts: 559
Joined: Tue Aug 04, 2015 8:11 pm
Location: Abingdon, UK
Languages: Italian (N), English (N), French (poor, not studying), Japanese (studying, JLPT N3)
x 609

Re: If all goes according to plan (JP, FI)

Postby dampingwire » Wed Mar 27, 2019 7:36 pm

dicentra8 wrote:Recently I found a blog with the whole vocabulary list already in a table which made the import really easy. The same blog has also got the vocabulary list for the 耳から覚える・語彙N2 and I already started going over the first words.


Any chance of a link? The obvious google search just brings up "library" websites offering the book(s)! I'm finding that vocabulary is one of my weaker points when working through 読解. Thanks.
0 x
新完全マスター N2聴解 : 94 / 103新完全マスター N2読解 : 99 / 177
新完全マスター N2文法 : 197 / 197TY Comp. German : 0 / 389

User avatar
dicentra8
Orange Belt
Posts: 117
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 5:07 pm
Location: Portugal
Languages: Portuguese (N), Japanese (JLPT N3), Finnish (beginner), French (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9114
x 230

Re: If all goes according to plan (JP, FI)

Postby dicentra8 » Fri Mar 29, 2019 6:21 pm

All this time avoiding to do the "match mode" (quizlet) because I preferred tapping the tiles (which is available in their app) instead of dragging the term to the correct definition (website) and they had an easy solution available for that. You only need to replace the end of the url /match with /micromatch. When you click it'll look like it's just refreshing the page, but when you start the game you get the tiles! :)

Image

Needless to say that after this I've been doing match games with every set I've got like there was no tomorrow. It's so addicting I can't stop doing it! :lol:

日本語
Read some parts of this news article about a study that links procrastination with lack of sleep (the links there are for articles written in english). Finally learned how to say "vicious circle/cycle", 悪循環 (あくじゅんかん).
I also noticed (and recalled) a couple of expressions related with sleep, some of them seem really close... I'll put here a list
- 眠る(ねむる)to sleep
- 就寝(しゅうしん)go to bed; (while) sleeping - 就寝中 ; bedtime - 就寝時間
- 睡眠を取る(すいみんをとる)to get sleep
- 眠りに就く(ねむりにつく)to fall asleep; to go to sleep ; 再び眠りに就く - to go back to sleep

Other:
先延ばし(さきのばし)procrastination (put off) - things that someone should do / have to do / are planned (?)
先送り(さきおくり)postpone (put off) - to delay a decision or dealing with something (?)
0 x
"I have to watch the time I spend playing Tetris very carefully."

User avatar
dicentra8
Orange Belt
Posts: 117
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 5:07 pm
Location: Portugal
Languages: Portuguese (N), Japanese (JLPT N3), Finnish (beginner), French (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9114
x 230

Re: If all goes according to plan (JP, FI)

Postby dicentra8 » Wed Nov 20, 2019 10:42 pm

Attempt to keep this log going #93829382032 because I (sometimes) am that stubborn. :oops:

I recently decided to follow this sort of resolution: to actually use things that I purchased and/or gathered! :x
A couple of reasons are:
a) the fact that I spent money on them (and I didn't spend the money for them to just sit there and get dust)
b) contrary to popular belief, things on the internet do not remain there forever and ever. They get lost, deleted, etc. I'd like to think I've learned my lesson because there's been a lot of times I went to check resources and all I got was a 404 page...
c) I should use them and write down things! Instead of thinking that those resources will be there until I finally decide to check them later on.

So far things have been going quite well. I finally read the fiction books that I purchased 3~4 years ago (??). Yieks. For anyone interested, the list of the books done (I suppose this would count for English because I read them in English...)
- My Summer of Love (Helen Cross)
- The Infinities (John Banville) - this one might have become a new favourite, I really enjoyed
- Demian (Hermann Hesse)
Methods that I'm thinking to apply more often (finally use them)

- The Information Funnel Method
Step 1: Skim through the chapter - General idea
Step 2: Summarize main concepts (chapter summary will replace the textbook for review purposes)
Step 3: Create a keyword list
Step 4: Review process: read the keyword list; recall information; refer to the chapter summary for review (or if I forgot, can't recall)

- For articles (plus vocabulary)
I wrote this down from someone's advice here but I can't recall who, or if it was in their log... :(
Step 1: choose a topic
Step 2: find/read articles about the topic
Step 3: write down: words + grammar points used
Currently reading: Making Sense of Japanese Grammar: A clear guide through common problems (Zeljko Cipris and Shoko Hamano)
There was a question (kind of amusing when you can see the difference and understand it) about how, sometimes, a tiny particle being there or not can change the meaning a lot.

Which assignment would you like it better? :twisted:
明日までに100ページを読んでください。
明日までに100ページ読んでください。
4 x
"I have to watch the time I spend playing Tetris very carefully."

User avatar
dicentra8
Orange Belt
Posts: 117
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 5:07 pm
Location: Portugal
Languages: Portuguese (N), Japanese (JLPT N3), Finnish (beginner), French (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9114
x 230

Re: If all goes according to plan (JP, FI)

Postby dicentra8 » Wed Nov 27, 2019 11:01 pm

Making Sense of Japanese Grammar: A clear guide through common problems (Zeljko Cipris and Shoko Hamano)

I'll go straight to the point: not my cup of tea because...grammar. :evil: When I started reading it (the first time) I found this great advice to change my focus to the end of the sentence which was really helpful for me. It was also a great timing because I was about to start Mimi kara Oboeru N3 (Vocab), which has a ridiculous amount of sentences, and I could apply it while reading the sentences. I've always wanted to go through the rest to see if there was some more "treasures" in there.
The only small pet peeve was that some example sentences would get in the way, instead of helping a person to understand. I think they could have added simpler, more straightforward ones that would help the person grasp the grammar (concept) they were talking about.

Additional "treasures":
- there was an interesting unit about the use of ~が and ~は, and the typical organization of a narrative in japanese.
~が introduces a thing or a person into a story. ~は reintroduces this item as a familiar participant already anchored in the context.
- the whole section about complex noun phrases and noun phrases in general.

Following the whole "not my cup of tea" theme: folktales. But I've had the Hikoichi (Japanese Reader Collection Vol. 1) for a while now. It contains 4 short stories (I read the first 3). It also comes with audio (slow & normal version).

I was looking at the the method for articles (and vocabulary) and I'm not sure if it's going to work. I'll end up with a long list of words...and I've been trying to avoid that lately. One thing that I've been doing for a while, when I'm reading the finnish news on twitter, is to grab only main words for the article that I also think are common. Surprisingly I've noticed that this has been working really well and I've been really happy about it! It's great that I come across those words being repeated so often. And it's a great feeling when I manage to guess correctly and read 2~3 sentences without any bumps! :lol: :D My ears also have been spotting some of those words, here and there.

Finnish and listening
Ideally I would prefer finnish audio with (accurate with what I'm hearing) finnish subtitles but that reduces the amount of videos, a lot. Yesterday I learned the word pikkujoulut (pre-christmas party sort of thing) which then lead me to this channel



I really enjoyed watching the video. The daughter was all happy with the christmas decorations. And on top of that, she kept cheering her mother when one of the decorations didn't work out. Daughter: "it looks nice (...) you don't need to do that if you don't want to". :lol:
Anyway, I'll try to make use of english subtitles if that's the only option available. I still have trouble guessing right words just from listening.
0 x
"I have to watch the time I spend playing Tetris very carefully."

User avatar
dicentra8
Orange Belt
Posts: 117
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 5:07 pm
Location: Portugal
Languages: Portuguese (N), Japanese (JLPT N3), Finnish (beginner), French (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9114
x 230

Re: If all goes according to plan (JP, FI)

Postby dicentra8 » Wed Dec 11, 2019 12:06 am

Unexpected French immersion ( :shock: )

I really wanted to check out the War of the Worlds (Canal+ and Fox production). I was somehow convinced that Fox Portugal was going to repeat the episodes but by the time I realized they weren't doing it, I had missed the first 2/3 episodes. Maybe it was for the best because I have no idea, concerning how the original production goes, the balance between how much French and English is used throughout each episode. I ended up using another source and after episode 3 (this one included) everything was in French! :lol: I still watched episode 3 without any subtitles...the visual part kind of helped me but at the same time I wanted to follow the story details, so I ended up searching and using subtitles to help with that for the rest of the episodes.

I'm still not sure if I should brush up and learn French properly. Sometimes I feel like yes, and then I feel like hmm... :? But I know I want to re-watch the first season again (it's only 8 episodes total), so I suppose I'll have a second round of listening to French again, soon.

Finnish Vlog

When I added that finnish vlog channel, I wasn't sure I was going to follow it but guess what... I've been binge-watching it, from newest to oldest (because I always forget that I can switch that in Youtube). Everything was going well: I've been listening to finnish every day; I've got english subtitles to kind of help me follow along; I've been enjoying the content; I've picked words here and there; I've been noticing the usage of some interjections...
And then it went cold turkey! :cry: There's only english subtitles until the video where they make the announcement that they bought a farm. So far that hasn't stopped me from keep watching the videos. I feel a little more lost but I've also noticed a pleasant outcome about vlogs. It's similar to the advantages that people talk about tv shows/series, but shorter and therefore more manageable to work with. You're hearing the same people talking and things get repeated.

Textbooks and other structured resources

I really should go back to that again. I kind of did a pause on that and I need to put an end to it. Specially for Finnish, I really need to go back to using Hyvin Menee and Suomea Suomeksi.
I haven't done that much with Japanese. I still have contact with the language daily but I should increase the listening. I also never got around to check properly the guidebook from Chiba Prefecture: 「ハローちば」生活ガイドブック. I think I'll do that soon.
2 x
"I have to watch the time I spend playing Tetris very carefully."

User avatar
dicentra8
Orange Belt
Posts: 117
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 5:07 pm
Location: Portugal
Languages: Portuguese (N), Japanese (JLPT N3), Finnish (beginner), French (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9114
x 230

2020 goals + update

Postby dicentra8 » Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:13 am

Happy New Year! I've been postponing doing an update, still gathering my thoughts.

1. "I recently decided to follow this sort of resolution: to actually use things that I purchased and/or gathered!"
Still plan to keep doing this.

2. Review
Started going through the vocabulary list of Minna no Nihongo 1. At the moment I'm somewhere in Lesson 16.
The same with Hyvin Menee 1, almost done with chapter 1. Only need to get to chapter 4, which is where I was before I got sidetracked by other stuff. :roll:

3. Put Listening again as the main focus
Even for a language like finnish where I'm still a beginner, I'm glad that I made the habit of watching this finnish vlog (Anniina Jalkanen). And that I kept doing even if a lot of the older videos had no subtitles at all. It's a comforting feeling to pick words here and there, to notice that the words I started learning were actually used. :) But I did a break of 2 weeks which was a bad idea! When I got back to it, the first 5 min of the video I was watching were like :shock: and I immediately regretted spending those 2 weeks without watching/hearing.

For japanese, I'll try to mainly focus on the resources that I've got for listening comprehension.
Also a lot of members here have been discussing listening, and I started missing when I had my own "audio deck" (front : audio / back: japanese transcript) to help my listening skills while I was going through the listening exercises. But of course I had to be more tempted with this mad idea (which is already striked through for a reason!)

Sarafina wrote:Some part of me wants to replicate Judith Meyer's subs2srs experiment but over a period of 6 months. But I know that it's a path that will ultimately lead to frustration due to my lack of vocabulary and knowledge of Japanese grammar.

I let a week go by but I'm still thinking about it. So there's a possibility that I'll attempt to do a 3-day trial for one episode. I know that, from past attempts, during the first day I'll panic and be more inclined to just give up. Three days seems a good and short amount of days to at least try it.
3 x
"I have to watch the time I spend playing Tetris very carefully."

User avatar
dicentra8
Orange Belt
Posts: 117
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 5:07 pm
Location: Portugal
Languages: Portuguese (N), Japanese (JLPT N3), Finnish (beginner), French (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9114
x 230

Re: If all goes according to plan (JP, FI)

Postby dicentra8 » Sun Feb 02, 2020 2:36 pm

I'll start with what I haven't done yet: subs2srs experiment. I pretty much chickened out (for the time being). Somehow I convinced myself that the subtitles file would be 30~40 pages...then I checked and usually for 1 episode is 70~80 pages. :shock: I started watching Terrace House with the intention of checking the japanese subtitles (preferably before watching the episode) but I got lazy about that. But I've been watching it and trying to recognize + pick up things as much as I can.

Talking about Terrace House, yesterday I watched one episode (from Opening New Doors - 2017) and they were doing that tradition where they throw beans to expel the evil spirits in order to bring luck (豆撒き - まめまき). I couldn't remember the name for it and I had no idea how to search about it. Somehow (in a awkward way) I just happened to stumble today on a news article about it, because it's celebrated on February 3rd (it's called 節分 - せつぶん)... the timing!! I even learned about what was the thing they're doing in the episode, it's called 恵方巻 - えほうまき.
Wikipedia wrote:It is customary in Kansai area to eat uncut makizushi called ehō-maki (恵方巻, lit "lucky direction roll"), a type of futomaki (太巻, "thick, large or fat rolls"), in silence on Setsubun while facing the year's lucky compass direction, determined by the zodiac symbol of that year.

Watching finnish vlog
It's been a hit and miss with the episodes. Sometimes I have almost no clue but I still recognize words here and there. Other times I can actually follow and understand quite a bit. Yesterday I watched 2 more episodes. The first was mostly ??? while the second felt really great, I actually was able to understand a decent amount of what I was listening. :D

6WC
I had to reinstall the app FLIP Focus Timer to help me track things. I might actually make a habit of using it.
Day 1
Finnish vlog (2 videos) - 00:25:46
Hyvin Menee chapter - 00:00:00 :(
Hyvin Menee (vocabulary list) - 00:30:28
Finnish news (reading) - 00:13:28
Anki (review+learning) - 15min

Total: ≈ 1hour 24min
0 x
"I have to watch the time I spend playing Tetris very carefully."

User avatar
dicentra8
Orange Belt
Posts: 117
Joined: Fri Sep 28, 2018 5:07 pm
Location: Portugal
Languages: Portuguese (N), Japanese (JLPT N3), Finnish (beginner), French (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9114
x 230

6WC

Postby dicentra8 » Mon Feb 03, 2020 11:59 pm

Day 2
Numerot (video - puhekielissä) - 01:02:08
Finnish vlog - 00:29:49
Hyvin Menee Chapter - 00:00:00 :x
Hyvin Menee vocab - 00:20:37
Finnish news - 00:21:09
More spoken language (online course / video / vocab) - 00:44:00
Anki - 00:19:00

Total: ≈ 3h17

First youtube video (numerot) besides the pronunciation of the numbers, has also got 3 exercises. I had some trouble on the last one (a person telling their age, address and phone number). It's all in finnish.
Second one is a part of a (short) online course. It goes over words that end with -ari, -äri and -is. The person talks both in finnish and english.

Day 3
Finnish vlog - 00:27:02
Hyvin Menee Chapter - 01:15:46
Hyvin Menee vocab - 00:48:29
Finnish news - 00:23:46
Anki - 00:25:00

Total: 3h20

Finally started chapter 4 of Hyvin Menee! :D Read and listened to a short text (5 short paragraphs) about household.
1 x
"I have to watch the time I spend playing Tetris very carefully."


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: guyome and 3 guests