TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

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TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby Antea » 2016-12-29, 11:46

I'm beginning a new TAC, but this time I will try to focuse mainly in some languages. I know that with my constant wanderlusting this will be difficult. But finally, it's true that time is limited, and that it would be better to focuse and be more realistic :yep: .

[flag=]ru[/flag] I will continue with Russian. I am now beginning my third year. I don't go to classes anymore, so I'm learning it on my own, mainly listening to audio material on internet.

My goal is to reach a real B2 level, above all in listening comprehension. For that I will need to increase my vocabulary. I suppose that some reading would help me with that. But when I try reading a book, I have to look up almost every word, and that is boring :roll: .

[flag=]de[/flag] I'm satisfyied with my level of German. When I'm listening something in German, I understand almost everything. The problem is that I don't have any practice. So I make gramatical errors when I speak and write.

My goal is speaking more fluently, and increase my vocabulary.

[flag=]ar[/flag] My main goal here is understanding more. I will try to understand audio materials. But I know it's going to be difficult because of the dialects mixing up constantly, and because of my lack of vocabulary (once more).

[flag=]hi[/flag] Last year was my first year of Hindi. So my level now is A1, I guess. But the problem is that because of Russian, I had no more time left to continue with Hindi.

My goal is to refresh my level, and maybe get to an A2 level :hmm:

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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby dEhiN » 2016-12-31, 19:05

Bonne chance!

Antea wrote:I'm beginning a new TAC, but this time I will try to focuse mainly in some on a few [it sounds better to say it this way] languages. I know that with my constant wanderlusting this will be difficult. But, finally, it's true that time is limited, and that it would be better to focuse and be more realistic :yep: .

[flag=]ru[/flag] I will continue with Russian. I am now beginning my third year. I don't go to classes anymore, so I'm learning it on my own, mainly by listening to audio materials on the internet.

My goal is to reach a real B2 level, above all in listening comprehension. For that I will need to increase my vocabulary. I suppose that some reading would help me with that. But when I try reading a book, I have to look up almost every word, and that is boring :roll: .

[flag=]de[/flag] I'm satisfyied with my level of German. When I'm listening to something in German, I understand almost everything. The problem is that I don't have any practice. So I make grammatical errors when I speak and write.

My goal is speaking to speak more fluently, and increase my vocabulary.

[flag=]ar[/flag] My main goal here is understanding more. I will try to understand audio materials. But I know it's going to be difficult because of the dialects mixing up constantly, and because of my lack of vocabulary (once more).

[flag=]hi[/flag] Last year was my first year of Hindi. So my level now is A1, I guess. But the problem is that because of Russian, I had no more time left to continue with Hindi.

My goal is to refresh my level, and maybe get to an A2 level :hmm:
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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby Antea » 2017-01-11, 13:18

[flag=]ru[/flag] Not feeling very enthusiastic lately. I've spent so much time with Russian that I'm feeling exhausted, or burned out, or something like this.

[flag=]de[/flag] Yesterday I made a mistake when I was speaking to a German. I said "wir kommen später ", and I was trying to say that we "were late", which is obviously a literal translation of "llegamos tarde", but it really means "we will come later". I should have said "wir sind zu spät ". And I knew it at the moment I opened my mouth :roll: It's mortifying.

[flag=]ar[/flag] I've been watching some youtubers, but I find difficult to understand them, just with my limited "Fussha ".

I'm feeling a little bit down. It's just this feeling that I'm not getting anywhere :hmm: That remembers me of my existentialists days back at college :roll:

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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby voron » 2017-01-11, 13:20

Antea wrote: I've been watching some youtubers, but I find difficult to understand them, just with my limited "Fussha ".

What have you been watching? Are there any vlogs in fusha?

Feel free to ask any questions or just make random posts in the Russian forum. I'm always there to read and reply.

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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby Antea » 2017-01-11, 13:35

voron wrote:
Antea wrote: I've been watching some youtubers, but I find difficult to understand them, just with my limited "Fussha ".

What have you been watching? Are there any vlogs in fusha?

Feel free to ask any questions or just make random posts in the Russian forum. I'm always there to read and reply.


Thank you Voron. In fact, I was watching a YouTuber from Dubai that Saim had mentioned in your TAC (yes, I read them because of Arabic :ohwell: ). But, of course he speaks a dialect, and I'm trying to get used to it, but I can just pick up the "regular" words that are the same or similar in fussha.

Thank you for offering your help with Russian. It's just a little frustrating to be working so hard in a language that, in fact, I cannot use very much here, and therefore it's also difficult to improve. But I suppose it's just a little burn out, and that I will get back to it.

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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby dEhiN » 2017-01-12, 0:23

Antea wrote:It's just a little frustrating to be working so hard in a language that, in fact, I cannot use very much here, and therefore it's also difficult to improve. But I suppose it's just a little burn out, and that I will get back to it.

Yeah burnout can happen; that's why I like to juggle several languages. One thing you could try is to passively keep your Russian going but actively work on other languages. So you listen to Russian music or put on the news when at home / in front of your computer. But put the volume low enough to be in the background.
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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby Saim » 2017-01-12, 4:16

dEhiN wrote:But put the volume low enough to be in the background.


I don't think that makes sense. You have to pay attention to audio to learn anything from it.

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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby dEhiN » 2017-01-12, 4:22

Saim wrote:
dEhiN wrote:But put the volume low enough to be in the background.


I don't think that makes sense. You have to pay attention to audio to learn anything from it.

Not to learn anything, but to I guess have a part of your brain passively paying attention to whatever language you're learning. That way you can focus actively on other things and not get burnout but at the same time not forget what you've learned. At least, that's what I imagine would work. Otherwise, if Antea stops doing Russian completely due to burnout and focuses on some other language, and if she does that long enough, she'll start to forget some of her Russian.
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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-01-12, 4:35

dEhiN wrote:she'll start to forget some of her Russian.

Which may not actually matter.

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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby Saim » 2017-01-12, 5:56

dEhiN wrote:Not to learn anything, but to I guess have a part of your brain passively paying attention to whatever language you're learning. That way you can focus actively on other things and not get burnout but at the same time not forget what you've learned. At least, that's what I imagine would work. Otherwise, if Antea stops doing Russian completely due to burnout and focuses on some other language, and if she does that long enough, she'll start to forget some of her Russian.


In that case I think music would work better than radio programs and the like. That way you internalise the melody so it's much easier to memorise the lyrics later, and when you translate it the meaning is more likely to stick with you. That's what I've always done. I don't think the brain does passively pay attention to much, it's pretty good at completely ignoring irrelevant things.

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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby Antea » 2017-01-18, 18:35

[flag=]ru[/flag] Well, I'm not going to let down Russian and I don't want to stop learning it. But I feel like I'm stuck in a plateau or wathever, and I need to go further. So I've decided to take some classes, and see if it's possible to improve.

Anyway, I think that it's also a question of time. Personally , I think that to reach a level of B2- and maybe C1level, I need an average of 5 years :hmm: . Yes, I know it's a lot of time, but it takes me almost two years to get the basics of the language, and to get used to them. Then I need to improve my vocabulary. And finally to practise it. And it's true that with Russian I am beginning my third year, so :hmm: .

[flag=]ar[/flag] Today, after such a long time, I had the opportunity to talk in Arabic. And I could do it, these are wonderful news for me. It's true that the other person was also speaking fussha, so it was not a very "natural" conversation. But it worked. After all, the 5 or 6 years I studied fussha, still remain.

Then I realised that maybe it was even easier for me to speak Arabic than Russian (even though it has been a long time since I have been actively been learning Arabic), and that has also kind of frustrated me a little (because,on the contrary, I've been working on Russian so hard, lately) :roll: .

One, of these days I should get back to Hindi :yep:

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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby dEhiN » 2017-01-19, 10:32

Antea wrote:[flag=]ru[/flag] Well, I'm not going to let down (my level in) Russian go down and I don't want to stop learning it. But I feel like I'm stuck in a plateau or wathever whatever, and I need to go further. So I've decided to take some classes, and see if it's possible to improve.

I've heard that B1/B2 can create a plateau where it's hard to see improvement and you feel like you're stuck. In some ways I'm facing that with French.

Anyway, I think that it's also a question of time. Personally, , I think that to reach a level of B2- - and maybe C1 level, I need an average of 5 years :hmm: . Yes, I know it's a lot of time, but it takes took me almost two years to get the basics of the language, and to get used to them. Then I needed to improve my vocabulary. And finally to practise it. And it's true that with Russian I am beginning my third year, so :hmm: .

[flag=]ar[/flag] Today, after such a long time, I had the opportunity to talk in Arabic. And I could do it, these are which is wonderful news for me. It's true that the other person was also speaking fussha, so it was not a very "natural" conversation. But it worked.


After all, the 5 or 6 years I studied fussha, still remain.

This sentence is a bit unnatural in English. When you use "still remain", that implies that you studied something for a while, then stopped studying it for a while, and now are trying to study/use it. If that's what you meant, then it's better to say: After however many years (ex: after 6 years) of not studying fussha, my fussha still remains (or: I still remember what I learned).

Instead, if you have been studying fussha for 5-6 years without a break, it sounds better to say: Finally, my 5 or 6 years of studying fussha is paying off.
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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby Antea » 2017-01-19, 11:34

dEhiN wrote:Instead, if you have been studying fussha for 5-6 years without a break, it sounds better to say: Finally, my 5 or 6 years of studying fussha is paying off.


Ok, thank you for the corrections.

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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby dEhiN » 2017-01-19, 11:53

[flag=]fr[/flag] De rien!
[flag=]es[/flag] De nada!
[flag=]de[/flag] Bitte!
[flag=]pt[/flag] De nada!
[flag=]sv[/flag] Det var så lite!
[flag=]it[/flag] Prego!
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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby Antea » 2017-02-13, 9:50

It's time for an update.

[flag=]ar[/flag] Lately, I'm concentrating myself on reviving my Arabic. I'm doing it mostly by trying to listen and understand videos on youtube. I can understand much better when the person speaking is using a "neutral" Arabic, without much dialect in it. I listened to this video, which treats precisely the problem of teaching Fussha or dialects for Arabic teachers.
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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby Antea » 2017-02-16, 21:46

[flag=]ar[/flag] I met an Arab teacher who said to me that in fact learning Fussha it's OK, because all Arabs could understand themselves using this language, and that dialects are not so difficult to learn, after it, because they only differ in some words :hmm:

[flag=]ru[/flag] I should review it, because I don't want to forget it, now that I'm also with Arabic.

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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby Osias » 2017-02-17, 0:15

Antea wrote:[flag=]ar[/flag] I met an Arab teacher who said to me that in fact learning Fussha it's OK, because all Arabs could understand themselves using this language, and that dialects are not so difficult to learn, after it, because they only differ in some words :hmm:


I'm reading this http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_ ... rabic.html
2017 est l'année du (fr) et de l'(de) pour moi. Parle avec moi en eux, s'il te plait.

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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby dEhiN » 2017-02-17, 10:22

Interesting article Osias.

Antea, apart from that article and what it speaks about, Arabic is known to be a diglossic language. I guess perhaps with media and television a "neutral" Arabic dialect is developing, but for many years there was a huge divergence between MSA and the dialects. It's not just the vocabulary; the pronunciation and I think perhaps some grammar is also different. I believe that's why dialects aren't written in Arabic, but in a romanisation using Latin letters. It's because MSA uses vocabulary and grammar that not all the dialects use, or use in the same way.

I'm not learning Arabic, but I know Meera, eskandar, Saim, vijayjohn, perhaps voron, and a few others on here either are learning Arabic, or know some Arabic already. And what I've always seen them do is learn MSA and a dialect. And usually they seem to focus on one dialect.
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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby Antea » 2017-02-17, 12:08

dEhiN wrote: And what I've always seen them do is learn MSA and a dialect. And usually they seem to focus on one dialect.


Yes, I know it's usually like that. But when I speak to a person, from an Arabic country, I talk to them in Fussha. They automatically know that I'm not a native, and they instantly change to a "neutral" Arabic, and then we can talk and understand each other. For sure, I will never pass as a native Arabic speaker, nor do I pretend it. But at least, communication is possible. If now I begin to learn a dialect (with the time that it should imply, instead of improving my fussha Arabic), that would imply that I should only be able to use it with the people of that specific country. But what happen with people from other Arabic countries. How many dialects should I learn, then? I don't know if that would be very useful for me :hmm:

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Re: TAC 2017 - Antea (Russian, German, Arabic, Hindi)

Postby dEhiN » 2017-02-17, 12:37

I didn't know you could use fussha to speak to Arabic speakers. I always thought fussha was mainly used for reading, nowadays. If you find speaking fussha is working for you, then continue using it. You could always PM one of those I mentioned, or even post on their TAC if you're trying to decide between learning a dialect or continue using fussha.
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