TAC 2017-2018 dEhiN

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby Car » 2017-04-20, 15:50

dEhiN wrote:Japanese for Busy People I, Revised 3rd Edition: Kana Version

I used the German version of that one when I learnt Japanese more than ten years ago and the learning curve was very steep. Granted, I did read somewhere that it had been adapted, so I don't know if that also applies to the English version, but I'd keep that in mind. I think I needed about an hour per lesson and that's just going through the stuff, knowing all of it takes even longer. Some of the stuff they teach early on was incredible, most courses I've used for European languages had a slower pace. It's a good book, but keep that in mind.
Please correct my mistakes!

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby dEhiN » 2017-04-20, 18:07

Hey all, thanks for the input and thoughts. I think I'm going to stay with the courses I chose - French, Spanish, and ASL. I'm really not the type who can only stick to one or two languages for an extended period of time. Part of that is my personality: I have varied interests. Even as a musician, I play several instruments including some at a basic level. Plus, I miss doing Spanish.

Car wrote:
dEhiN wrote:Japanese for Busy People I, Revised 3rd Edition: Kana Version

I used the German version of that one when I learnt Japanese more than ten years ago and the learning curve was very steep. Granted, I did read somewhere that it had been adapted, so I don't know if that also applies to the English version, but I'd keep that in mind. I think I needed about an hour per lesson and that's just going through the stuff, knowing all of it takes even longer. Some of the stuff they teach early on was incredible, most courses I've used for European languages had a slower pace. It's a good book, but keep that in mind.

Danke Car! That's good to know, and I'll keep that in mind for next semester if I decide to do Japanese.

reineke wrote:If you're soul-searching language wise don't do it to the tune of $100 per textbook. If you're determined to do a course, that's another matter.

$100 CAD per textbook is pretty standard. Sure there are texts that are less - my Korean texts were less - but that kind of also depends on the course. If I were taking the core courses I need for my actual degree, they would be around the same price plus the courses would be almost double these language ones. My taking language courses has more to do with I'm finally able to take them at a school, and I want to see whether taking a structured course is more helpful for me than self-study. Pretty much since 2011 when I started studying languages as a serious hobby, I've been self-taught, and while I can learn fairly quickly, I find my depression tends to create a lot inconsistency.

Antea wrote:¡Hola Dehin! Estoy bien gracias. No te preocupes mucho por los tiempos verbales; pienso que es una cosa que viene sola, con la práctica. Francamente, yo tampoco recuerdo muy bien los nombres de los tiempos verbales. Si tienes cualquier pregunta, no dudes en plantearla e intentaré explicarlo lo mejor que pueda.

Gracias por las correcciones. No entiendo todo que tu escribiste pero creo que entiendo el punto esencial.

Aurinĭa wrote:But if you're taking Spanish later this year, you'd have to buy the book anyway then, no? So you'd save some money right now, but in total you'd still lose more money, because of the transfer fee. So I don't think your pro 1 is actually a pro.

Good point.

Aurinĭa wrote:Personal experience: I once took Icelandic 1 and 2 at the same time, and there was another student taking 2 and 3 at the same time. I also took all the Bachelor courses for German in one year (for a degree combining German and English, I had another English degree already at that time, so I could skip all the courses that didn't involve German, in total about a full year's worth of courses). I had had some German at secondary school four years earlier, but forgotten a lot in the meantime. It wasn't easy at the start of the year, but it was manageable.

Wow, they let you take Icelandic 1 and 2 at the same time? Did you find it difficult because you were learning concepts in 2 that built on what you were learning in 1? Did the same happen with German?

księżycowy wrote:As much as I would love to have a Japanese study buddy and all.

Well I still plan to do language study for my TAC separate to school. Or at least start doing some in the weeks before school. I have been reading through the Tuttle Japanese book I have. When school starts I might change my TAC to just the 3 school courses, or try and do both a TAC and 3 courses at school independent of each other.
Native: (en-ca)
Active: (fr)(es)(pt-br)(ta-lk)(mi)(sq)(tl)
Inactive: (de)(ja)(yue)(oj)(id)(hu)(pl)(tr)(hi)(zh)(sv)(ko)(no)(it)(haw)(fy)(nl)(nah)(gl)(ro)(cy)(oc)(an)(sr)(en_old)(got)(sux)(grc)(la)(sgn-us)

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby Aurinĭa » 2017-04-20, 19:08

dEhiN wrote:Wow, they let you take Icelandic 1 and 2 at the same time? Did you find it difficult because you were learning concepts in 2 that built on what you were learning in 1? Did the same happen with German?

To be fair, I was an exchange student, and so was the girl doing 2 and 3, which gave us more freedom to choose our courses than regular students. But no, I didn't find it difficult. Of course, it helped that I had already studied multiple North-Germanic languages. Actually, I found Icelandic 1 easy and wished I'd opted to do 3 too.

German was harder, especially giving presentations and the like for the 3rd year courses. And an oral exam about German politics and history at the end of the first semester that I failed because I didn't know how to say what I wanted to say in German. Fortunately I didn't have to retake the exam or the course because my other grades made up for it.

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby dEhiN » 2017-04-28, 17:12

So it's been a few days. I put Duolingo and Mango Languages back on my phone. Today I did 2 training exercises of Duolingo Portuguese. I've also been thinking through how I want to tackle my language studies going forward.
Native: (en-ca)
Active: (fr)(es)(pt-br)(ta-lk)(mi)(sq)(tl)
Inactive: (de)(ja)(yue)(oj)(id)(hu)(pl)(tr)(hi)(zh)(sv)(ko)(no)(it)(haw)(fy)(nl)(nah)(gl)(ro)(cy)(oc)(an)(sr)(en_old)(got)(sux)(grc)(la)(sgn-us)

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby księżycowy » 2017-04-28, 17:42

That reminds me, dEhiN, what Tuttle book do you have for Japanese?

And be lucky I couldn't write that in Irish. :twisted: :silly:

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby dEhiN » 2017-04-28, 17:54

księżycowy wrote:That reminds me, dEhiN, what Tuttle book do you have for Japanese?

Mastering Conversational Japanese

And be lucky I couldn't write that in Irish. :twisted: :silly:

You know Google Translate has Irish, right?
Native: (en-ca)
Active: (fr)(es)(pt-br)(ta-lk)(mi)(sq)(tl)
Inactive: (de)(ja)(yue)(oj)(id)(hu)(pl)(tr)(hi)(zh)(sv)(ko)(no)(it)(haw)(fy)(nl)(nah)(gl)(ro)(cy)(oc)(an)(sr)(en_old)(got)(sux)(grc)(la)(sgn-us)

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby linguoboy » 2017-04-28, 17:57

dEhiN wrote:You know Google Translate has Irish, right?

It's garbage though, as I just recently demonstrated.
"Richmond is a real scholar; Owen just learns languages because he can't bear not to know what other people are saying."--Margaret Lattimore on her two sons

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby księżycowy » 2017-04-28, 17:59

I know, but I would have more satisfaction from figuring it out myself! :hmpf:

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby dEhiN » 2017-04-28, 18:03

linguoboy wrote:
dEhiN wrote:You know Google Translate has Irish, right?

It's garbage though, as I just recently demonstrated.

Yeah I remember. I was hoping that if księżycowy wrote in Irish, GT would give enough intelligible output that, combined with the context, I could figure out what he meant. Otherwise I would have to use Wikipedia on each word.

księżycowy wrote:I know, but I would have more satisfaction from figuring it out myself! :hmpf:

For some languages I like doing that. For language I have never touched in terms of studying even a little, I will take the easy way out and use a shitty online translator.
Native: (en-ca)
Active: (fr)(es)(pt-br)(ta-lk)(mi)(sq)(tl)
Inactive: (de)(ja)(yue)(oj)(id)(hu)(pl)(tr)(hi)(zh)(sv)(ko)(no)(it)(haw)(fy)(nl)(nah)(gl)(ro)(cy)(oc)(an)(sr)(en_old)(got)(sux)(grc)(la)(sgn-us)

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby księżycowy » 2017-04-28, 18:09

For the record, I am joking around. In case that's lost on anyone.

And yeah, I sometimes use Google Translate. I have used it on friends before. :P But then again, they have no idea what I'm saying in whatever language anyway, so they can't tell me how shitty the translation is to begin with. :wink:

I've even done that with Irish before. But more as a joke than anything else.

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby dEhiN » 2017-04-30, 10:36

Here's the list of languages I'm thinking of studying going forward:

  1. French
  2. Portuguese
  3. Spanish
  4. Japanese
  5. Korean
  6. Swedish

And here are the resources I'm planning to use for each language:

  1. French
    • French in 24 Hours
    • Teach Yourself Beginning French
    • Duolingo French
    • Mango Languages French
  2. Portuguese
    • Practice Makes Perfect: Basic Portuguese
    • Duolingo Portuguese
    • Mango Languages Brazilian Portuguese
  3. Spanish
    • Teach Yourself Complete Latin American Spanish
    • Teach Yourself Beginning Spanish
    • Duolingo Spanish
    • Mango Languages Latin American Spanish
    • ¡Adelante! Uno
  4. Japanese
    • Japanese for Beginners: Mastering Conversational Japanese
    • Mango Languages Japanese
  5. Korean
    • Integrated Korean Textbook + Workbook
    • Mango Languages Korean
  6. Swedish
    • Duolingo Swedish
    • Mango Languages Swedish

I'm thinking of going through the list of languages in much the same way Vijay does, doing one language at a time and moving sequentially through the list. I listed the different resources I have just to have it down in one place. I haven't decided yet whether I'll pick one resource for each language and go through that resource. If so then I'll probably do something like study one or two chapters per round for the books, or two or three lessons per round for the apps/sites. If I decide not to stick with one resource per language, then I'll have to figure out some other way to study; perhaps I can do something like a study for a certain amount of time.

I'm still doing Duolingo Portuguese; I've been doing it every day for the past 3 days. Due to other personal stuff I'm going through, I'm not pushing myself with a lot of language study right now. That's why I haven't decided fully on how to proceed with my TAC. I've also intentionally left Tamil off my list. I'm not terribly interested in Tamil anymore. I suspect due to personal stuff I've shared here, there's a subconscious reason I'm not interested in Tamil right now, and that same reason (if it exists) could also be why I started learning Tamil almost 18 years ago and have never progressed past a beginner. Obviously I do have some interest in learning Tamil, partially because it's my heritage language and partially because there's rarely a language I'm not interested in. But there are probably associations with the culture, language, and country that are blocking me.
Native: (en-ca)
Active: (fr)(es)(pt-br)(ta-lk)(mi)(sq)(tl)
Inactive: (de)(ja)(yue)(oj)(id)(hu)(pl)(tr)(hi)(zh)(sv)(ko)(no)(it)(haw)(fy)(nl)(nah)(gl)(ro)(cy)(oc)(an)(sr)(en_old)(got)(sux)(grc)(la)(sgn-us)

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby księżycowy » 2017-04-30, 11:16

Is the Integrated Korean textbook from the U of Hawaii KLEAR series?
If so, is it the first or second edition?

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby dEhiN » 2017-04-30, 11:31

księżycowy wrote:Is the Integrated Korean textbook from the U of Hawaii KLEAR series?
If so, is it the first or second edition?

I'm not sure; it's the textbook and workbook we used in the course I took last year in the fall at my college. (Remember, Canadian college = American community college). It's this one.
Native: (en-ca)
Active: (fr)(es)(pt-br)(ta-lk)(mi)(sq)(tl)
Inactive: (de)(ja)(yue)(oj)(id)(hu)(pl)(tr)(hi)(zh)(sv)(ko)(no)(it)(haw)(fy)(nl)(nah)(gl)(ro)(cy)(oc)(an)(sr)(en_old)(got)(sux)(grc)(la)(sgn-us)

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby księżycowy » 2017-04-30, 11:57

That would be a yes then. :)

I have/had the first edition for a while. (Can't remember if I sold it yet or not. :lol: ) The overall series is very comprehensive, and once I get to learning Korean I'm going to get around to buying the second edition books.

I also have some Tuttle textbooks (by King and Yeon), I'll probably start with those first. Sometime College textbooks are a little.....non-relevant in places.

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby dEhiN » 2017-04-30, 12:54

księżycowy wrote:Sometime College textbooks are a little.....non-relevant in places.

Definitely!
Native: (en-ca)
Active: (fr)(es)(pt-br)(ta-lk)(mi)(sq)(tl)
Inactive: (de)(ja)(yue)(oj)(id)(hu)(pl)(tr)(hi)(zh)(sv)(ko)(no)(it)(haw)(fy)(nl)(nah)(gl)(ro)(cy)(oc)(an)(sr)(en_old)(got)(sux)(grc)(la)(sgn-us)

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby dEhiN » 2017-05-02, 19:58

dEhiN wrote:Swedish
  • Duolingo Swedish
  • Mango Languages Swedish

I forgot to add two print resources I have for Swedish. Well one is a pdf, actually.

Swedish
  • Duolingo Swedish
  • Mango Languages Swedish
  • Swedish: An Essential Grammar
  • Teach Yourself Complete Swedish

The Essential Grammar is a pdf. I don't recall ever using purely a descriptive grammar before. I was talking to the person who gave me the pdf and they were suggesting it might be boring to just go through it, and perhaps I should use it as a reference. But I might give it a shot anyway, and see whether it fits my learning style.
Native: (en-ca)
Active: (fr)(es)(pt-br)(ta-lk)(mi)(sq)(tl)
Inactive: (de)(ja)(yue)(oj)(id)(hu)(pl)(tr)(hi)(zh)(sv)(ko)(no)(it)(haw)(fy)(nl)(nah)(gl)(ro)(cy)(oc)(an)(sr)(en_old)(got)(sux)(grc)(la)(sgn-us)

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby dEhiN » 2017-05-02, 20:19

If you've been paying close attention to my signature, you'll have noticed that the string of flags beside A0 keeps getting longer. That's because for me, A0 is a list of the languages I've studied in the past and still remember at least a word or two in.

As I mentioned before, I'm going to adopt a study practice similar to Vijay's in terms of going through my languages sequentially. For most of the languages in my list, I'm going to use one or more resources to study the language - learn vocabulary, grammar, etc. For French, Portuguese, and possibly Spanish, I'm also going to practice using the language through writing stuff on this forum, and possibly other things like Meetups, language exchanges, etc.

Where does my A0 list fit in? Well, instead of continually giving into wanderlust, I want to work toward adding the A0 languages to my study list; that way I can start working on reaching a higher level in those languages. Of course I'll do this a little bit at a time.

So for now, here's my study list (the same as what I listed before). When my school courses start, I'll temporarily take French and Spanish off the list.:
  • French
  • Portuguese
  • Spanish
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Swedish

Here's the list of my A0 languages plus Tamil:

Code: Select all

Tamil
German
Frisian
Hawaiian
Hindi
Hungarian
Indonesian
Italian
Nahuatl
Occitan
Ojibwe
Polish
Romanian
Russian
Albanian
Tagalog
Turkish
Mandarin

If you asked me to list the words I still remember in each of those languages, it might take me some time. But I'm pretty sure I still remember at least one word. There are other languages I've learnt the odd word in, like Finnish and Thai, that I'm not including because, even if you gave me all day, I probably couldn't remember anything without looking it up. There's also Sinhalese which I know a few words in from my parents and uncles/aunts, but I never desired to learn Sinhalese. I just learnt some words because I'm a language nerd and these words were oft repeated.
Native: (en-ca)
Active: (fr)(es)(pt-br)(ta-lk)(mi)(sq)(tl)
Inactive: (de)(ja)(yue)(oj)(id)(hu)(pl)(tr)(hi)(zh)(sv)(ko)(no)(it)(haw)(fy)(nl)(nah)(gl)(ro)(cy)(oc)(an)(sr)(en_old)(got)(sux)(grc)(la)(sgn-us)

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby dEhiN » 2017-05-06, 11:01

These are my goals for French; I had actually decided them on May 2, right after my last post.

French
  • Respond to all the threads in the UL French forum that I can respond to -- due May 6
  • Ask any questions I have about French in my UL French thread -- due May 6

While trying to do goal 1, I realized that my French is probably more at a lower intermediate or B1 level, rather than B2. While trying to participate in the various games in the French forum, I found that there were many (what are probably) intermediate-level words that I didn't know off-hand. So frequently I would be reading what someone wrote, and encounter one or a few content words that I had to look up to be able to understand the whole sentence. Of course looking up words is one way to improve my vocabulary, especially at an intermediate level. But finding myself having to do that often made me realize I don't think I can say I'm at an upper intermediate level.

I may have mentioned before but I'm going to merge the goal-based approach księżycowy (I always want to write kzies!) uses with the sequential list-based approach Vijay takes.
Native: (en-ca)
Active: (fr)(es)(pt-br)(ta-lk)(mi)(sq)(tl)
Inactive: (de)(ja)(yue)(oj)(id)(hu)(pl)(tr)(hi)(zh)(sv)(ko)(no)(it)(haw)(fy)(nl)(nah)(gl)(ro)(cy)(oc)(an)(sr)(en_old)(got)(sux)(grc)(la)(sgn-us)

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby dEhiN » 2017-05-06, 11:13

Update time! :D

French
  • Respond to all the threads in the UL French forum that I can respond to
  • Ask any questions I have about French in my UL French thread

For goal 1, I couldn't actually respond to any threads. Well, I could've if I had been arsed to look up the various words I didn't know. But I wasn't. (Partially because I've been doing stuff for Portuguese at the same time! :shock: ) For goal 2, I did ask one question in my "Le fil de français de dEhiN" thread. Currently I can't think of any other questions.

For my birthday (which was on April 25 :D ), I asked my brother to get me Practice Makes Perfect: Basic French. If you read the question I posted in my French thread, you'll see that there are still basic French grammar rules I don't fully know. As much as PMPBF will probably include stuff I already know, it's good practice, and also it will hopefully reinforce or teach anew rules I don't actually know.
Native: (en-ca)
Active: (fr)(es)(pt-br)(ta-lk)(mi)(sq)(tl)
Inactive: (de)(ja)(yue)(oj)(id)(hu)(pl)(tr)(hi)(zh)(sv)(ko)(no)(it)(haw)(fy)(nl)(nah)(gl)(ro)(cy)(oc)(an)(sr)(en_old)(got)(sux)(grc)(la)(sgn-us)

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Re: TAC 2017 dEhiN

Postby dEhiN » 2017-05-06, 11:35

Alright, so time for Portuguese. I've actually been doing Duolingo Portuguese daily for the past 8 days or so. I did miss 1 day yesterday because I ended up sleeping all day. But apart from that I have done at least one or two practice exercises each day. I started Duolingo Portuguese way back and had finished the first 9 categories, including passing the first checkpoint. When I open Duolingo again 8 days or so ago, I was down to 7% fluency* and the progress bars in all 9 categories had fallen quite low. Instead of trying to build up the progress in each category separately, I've just been using the general practice button. I'm currently at 18% fluency* and the first 6 categories' progress bars are at full progress.

In a way I could say that I've done some stuff in Portuguese and move onto Spanish. However, I would like to fully catch up in Duo Portuguese - have all 9 categories' progress bars at full progress. I start Spanish class May 19 and French May 13. So I'll make this my goal:

Portuguese
  • Bring progress bars for Duolingo Portuguese categories "Plurals", "Tu/Você", and "Possession" to full -- due May 10

I'm not entirely sure what I'll do after I move on from Portuguese - whether I'll keep doing Duolingo every day or not. That does kind of defeat the purpose of doing one language at a time.
Native: (en-ca)
Active: (fr)(es)(pt-br)(ta-lk)(mi)(sq)(tl)
Inactive: (de)(ja)(yue)(oj)(id)(hu)(pl)(tr)(hi)(zh)(sv)(ko)(no)(it)(haw)(fy)(nl)(nah)(gl)(ro)(cy)(oc)(an)(sr)(en_old)(got)(sux)(grc)(la)(sgn-us)


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