TAC 2010 Mei (JP, DE, ES, RU, KO, SV, ZH, FI, TH, AR)

[Mei190]

I'm a little late but only by a few days and a total newbie so hope I go about this okay!

[flag]jp[/flag] Japanese
Current Knowledge
I am wavering somewhere between a high intermediate and advanced level on all aspects apart from reading.

Goals
To reach a steady advanced level.
To actually know all the Jouyou Kanji, rather than half.

Resources
TV & Films
Books
Friends

[flag]de[/flag] German
Current Knowledge
Took it for 4 years at school, but remember near to none of it. I am now a first year double language major at Uni and German is one of them

Goals
Reach upper intermediate level in all aspects.
Ace the German exams!

Resources
My Uni books - which seriously need to be binned.
TY German - not too shabby
Books - lots of Novels
FSI

[flag]es[/flag] Spanish
Current Knowledge
Have no previous knowledge of Spanish, however it is my other major. Still a first year, still no hardly anything.

Goals
Reach an intermediate level and get more great grades

Resources
My grandmother who lives in Mallorca
My Uni books - burn them....
Some Novels
TY Spanish
FSI

Now is where my experiment comes in, adding each language after doing one month intensively. There are 7 in total (Yes, I must be mad ). How well can I do? We will just have to see. I have previous knowledge.. in none, nada!

[flag]ru[/flag] Russian
Current Knowledge
This is a language a spent a little time on last year, however not nearly enough by any standard. Hence why it is first! In short, I know basic greetings and sentence construction, nothing more.

Goals
My goal is to reach firm high beginner to intermediate.
Be able to speak somewhat about everyday subjects.
Have read at least 2 novels.

Resources
Princeton Russian
TY Russian
Novels

[flag]ko[/flag] Korean
Current Knowledge
None apart from basic greetings.

Goals
Reach a firm beginner level. I am dubious by how hard people have said this language is. However, I have a keen interest in everything to do with Korean culture, so hopefully this will propell me along.

Resources
FSI
LL Korean
TY Korean
Tons of movies and TV.

[flag]sv[/flag] Swedish
Current Knowledge
None

Goals
Reach an intermediate level. It is another Germanic language, so hopefully that will help. I fell in love with the language while watching 'Let the right one in'.
Read 'Let the right one in' among other novels in the original format.

Resources
TY Swedish
Friends
*to be updated*

[flag]zh[/flag] Mandarin
Current Knowledge
None

Goals
To reach a firm higher beginner stage. - Obviously writing will probably be lesser than the others.

Resources
TY Mandarin
FSI
*to be updated*

[flag]fi[/flag] Finnish
Current Knowledge
None - the language sounds so magical, I have to learn it.

Goals
Reach a beginner level - I am so not underestimating this language!

Resources
CQ Finnish
*to be updated*

[flag]th[/flag] Thai
Current Knowledge
None

Goals
Reach a firm beginner level.

Resources
CQ Thai
TY Thai
*to be updated*

Arabic
Current Knowledge
None

Goals
Reach a firm beginner level!!

Resources
TY Arabic
*to be updated*

As one can tell, I like TY books! I find they give a reasonably good basis to start working on much more material. I hope everyone participating can achieve our goals and wish everyone the best of luck!

[Danial]

Finally, someone who's more insane than me lol hi

[Polarkreis]

I bet you're going to have a hard time with that number of languages. Good luck to your study. You'll need it. A LOT.

[Mei190]

Thank you Danial! I shall keep an eye on your blog as well

Polarkreis: I am a language student so during study time I am already doing my German and Spanish. I know it is still a lot but you don't know unless you try!

[Polarkreis]

Polarkreis: I am a language student so during study time I am already doing my German and Spanish. I know it is still a lot but you don't know unless you try!

Lucky you! I hardly can find some time for me to study languages.

[phaed]

I have no idea how you manage 10 languages at once.. I can barely manage 2 with school.. maybe 4 without school Good luck, though, I think you're setting TAC records here

[Mei190]

I am not totally sure how I am going to either I need all the luck I can get!

[Riptide]

I can help you with your Spanish if you want. I can speak it pretty well.

[Mei190]

Thank you for all the support.
As this is the beginning of my year of study, I usually like to take the beginning of the year slowly and work up, adding over time. Today's studies (that might be edited as the day is not over).

German - Read the first chapter of Harry Potter 1. Didn't get too much of it, however might study for a couple more hours in the books and then retry the chapter. - 1 hour w/ dictionary.

Spanish - Watched Mexico's Next Top Model episode 1 as I was bored - 1 hour

Japanese - Studied the kanji I took out of my magazine and then reread the articles until I got most of the words. Famitsu magazine, for anyone interested. - 1 1/2 hours.
Replied to my emails from my friends - 30 mins.

Swedish - Got hold of Rosetta Stone Swedish so tried it out. It definately is not great, but I guess it is ok in the short term. Done up to unit 4 on the first 'section'. I think the speech component is seriously screwed on the program though. - 2 1/2 hours.

Time so far (in hours)
Japanese: 2
German: 1
Spanish: 1
Russian: 0
Korean: 0
Swedish: 2.5
Mandarin: 0
Finnish: 0
Thai: 0
Arabic: 0

[etoile]

I am dubious by how hard people have said this language is.

Personally I would say that the hardest aspect of Korean is the word order. But seeing as you are calling yourself a high-intermediate in Japanese, that's the biggest hurdle over already. Their word orders are identical.

Just don't be surprised when you start to fuddle up your tenses and noun conjugations. They're bitches.

I wish you the best of luck and will be following this log with interest!