Bjorn TAC 2014 backup

Discussion in 'Language Learning Logs & Super Challenges' started by Bjorn, Apr 20, 2014.

  1. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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    I've seen your log there and BAnna's corrections. I was banned by some mods there, but I can write here.

    This is my feeling, but I'm not native also:

    ,,Jetzt werde ich wieder anfangen, die deutsche Grammatik zu lernen."
  2. Bjorn

    Bjorn Active Member VIP member

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    Thanks a lot for taking time to correct my not so good written German :)

    I will explore Lang-8, and I'm also thinking about having a teacher at iTalki.com correct my German writing.
  3. Wise owl chick

    Wise owl chick Active Member

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    Hier kannst du auch auf Deutsch schreiebn natürlich. Normalerweise würde ich aber keine Verbesserungen vorschlagen weil ich keine Muttersprachlerin bin. Hier beim polydog gibt's zwei, glaube ich: Josquin und Fasuly.

    Warum lernst du Deutsch?
  4. embici

    embici New Member

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    How do you find I Learn Greek?
  5. Bjorn

    Bjorn Active Member VIP member

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    embici: http://ilearngreek.com/

    My main language is English, German and French mainly because I had these languages in school. :)

    For the first time I hooked up my mp3 player to my car's stereo system. I found it quite joyful and useful.
    I have different sources to listen to. But I found the Learn in Your Car really nice. They say it once in English, twice in German. I like this format.
    Don't know how it is for a newbie, but for me as an immediate learner I find the course useful. I know (almost) all the words used in this course. So I just saying out the sentence loud, or compare the sentence with Norwegian, since Norwegian is closer to German than English. Still have some unclear area of German grammar. I have to admit I'm a slow learner regarding grammar.

    LR Stephen King Es 84%. Going slower now, its summer, nice wetter and good beers.

    In my car listening to German I discovered that it is now more easy for me to self correct my pronunciations.
    I think that is partly watching some videos about German pronunciation and partly many hours immersion, especially the LR I have done lately.

    So learning about pronunciation is important. But for me immersion is still number one, especially LR.
    I rediscovered that I "see" word as they are spelled in my mind, therefore I believe LR will suit me fine. I'm now changing my plan for French more to a LR approach.

    Some time ago I was learning Vietnamese with a teacher.
    Sometimes the teacher was not happy with my pronunciation.
    Sometimes the teacher was very happy with my pronunciation.
    Problem was, I was not able to hear the difference :rolleyes:

    So for me, immersion (LR) is number one in language learning.
    Big_Dog likes this.
  6. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Same here. A solid way to review while driving. Avoid the Mandarin one though; not up to their usual standards.
  7. Bjorn

    Bjorn Active Member VIP member

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    Thanks for the tip about Mandarin course not being so good.

    Learning vocabulary in German has been a time consuming task. And now I'm wondering if it is a better way to acquire French vocabulary.
    I have flirted with Anki, trying making my own flashcards with audio, but that was too much work and very time consuming.
    I think I will go for a ready made vocabulary for French also. My days making my own flashcards is over :eek:
    For German I used Babbel, quite nice on a computer, but the Babbel app on an Android phone is not so good. I want a mobile solution to utilize dead moments.
    Although I'm more into the LR, I'm not ready to drop flashcards yet.
    Well, I have to think more about it and reread about LR to see if I have forgotten some important things about LR.
  8. hrhenry

    hrhenry Member VIP member

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    I've not heard of this series before. I'll have to check it out, although they don't have many languages. Russian is probably the only one I'd be interested in checking out.

    R.
    ==
  9. Bjorn

    Bjorn Active Member VIP member

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    Spotify has the Learn In Your Car series and pdf to some of the courses you can find at Audible.
  10. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    fyi - Russian is quite good.
  11. Bjorn

    Bjorn Active Member VIP member

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    At last I'm finished with Stephen King: Es, that was 51 h 52 m LR. Before next big book, I will LR Assimil Easy German a few times or maybe shadowing it. Still need a more systematic way of activating speaking. Haven't had time yet to explore what is the best way for me.
    As an experiment I'm trying out Supermemo's Extreme Deutsch vocabularies on Android. Explanation is in German, its real dry (grammar orientated with example sentence), but I don't have to type in the answer.
    Almost finished all the Babbel German Courses. I like the vocabulary part, not so much the courses, it is like a stricht teacher you have to follow. Really hates the the scrolling text that disappear. I liked the old format that the Babbel apps had on the ios. The new one on android is clunky and take to much time to type the answer. Therefore I now have a backlog of 3600 words/sentences :rolleyes:

    French
    I find the Super Challenge motivating, so now I have joined with French also.
    I think I just will start with LR Assimil Easy French. And se what other easy French stuff I can use for LR.
    Not so good with daily routine, so I think I will do the Assimil lessons one by one using Supermemo to tell me then to repeat. Dropping the daily passive/active method.
    Busuu seems to be a candidate for LR. I will have a look at it and if it is not to time consuming, I will make a ebook for Kindle. That would be nice for travels.

    Babbel is still candidate for French :D

    I like multiple approaches to things. Then I'm bored, I can shift to another activity.

    Other
    I have given up on LingQ, now I export text to Kindle or www.readlang.com

    My days with iPad/tablettes or whatever is nearing the end.
    When my iPad mini is broken, I think I will switch to an ultraportable PC/MAC.
    The apps is simply not good enough.
    Big_Dog likes this.
  12. Bjorn

    Bjorn Active Member VIP member

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    Busy week. One kid moving in and one kid moving out :D

    Since my language study are getting more complicated, I'm here thinking of writing in German and grammar studies. I don't know where my files is.
    So I'm going to use this software http://www.zengobi.com/products/curio/ to collect all my files. I hope this will make me more effective :rolleyes:

    Now I'm reading
    Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy #1) in English, because next LR in German will be the german edition: Sturz der Titanen.

    In French I have mostly listen to French music and different French texts.

    As usual every Tuesday I have Skype conversations with Germans.

    The rest of this week will be busy, hoping that next week will be more normal.
  13. Bjorn

    Bjorn Active Member VIP member

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    More quiet now, and more time for languages.

    German
    Still not finished reading Fall of Giants in English, but I found the book Jo Nesbo: Die Larve, I knew I had it somewhere :rolleyes: , and I have the audiobook. So I will LR this first. It's about 16 hours.

    French
    As I'm into LR these days, I tried to read about it at HTLAL, so many different opinions. So I think I will just stick to the source and make my own opinion.
    http://users.bestweb.net/~siom/martian_mountain/! L-R the most important passages.htm

    After about 50 hours LR, I feel it's kind of the same as you have been driving a car for some years. It goes on autopilot, you are in the "flow", maybe you are thinking about something, but "wake up" if something important happens in the traffic because the "body" knows you have to be alert.
    The same happens with LR. My mind can wander, but if something interesting for me is in the text, I "wake up".
    Ok, my mind doesn't wander for a long time. I was a professional driver in my younger days. So I'm good at putting my brain where it should be when driving: Analyzing the traffic.

    So now I got the "flow" in LR. Analyzing text and audio. Can switch between different aspects, like meaning of a word, sentence construction, grammar, audio etc. And putting my mind back to the LR task when it wants to daydream without losing the "flow".

    This is probably the closest thing to Nirvana that is possible for a language learner.:D

    For lazy days I got the complete series The West Wing with French audio. Found the French subtitles on internet. I think I just will google translate the French subtitles and make a parallel text. Quick and easy. Or maybe start with English subtitles, not sure yet. The best solution would be English and French subtitles at the same time, like Yabla have in their videos, but I suspect that would be to much time consuming to make.

    Other
    I have been playing with Flashcards Deluxe and like it. The TTS voices are not so bad. So I will use it for small projects.
    The first one will be German phrases, just an experiment, see how it goes.
  14. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    Ich werde keinen Geld für Vokabeln zahlen! Wörter muss kostenlos sei! :)
    Last edited: Jun 29, 2014
  15. Bjorn

    Bjorn Active Member VIP member

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    Vielen Dank für Ihre Meinung. Ich habe keine Zeit für Freebies suchen. ;)
  16. Bjorn

    Bjorn Active Member VIP member

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    I have been wasting time finding out how to make parallels texts. And also wasting time how to make interlinear txts for ebooks.
    But at least now I know how to to do it.
    Also been wasting time making ebooks. Stupid, I know, but I can't help my self.

    Been thinking about what is most effective, parallel text or locking up words a la Lingq/Readlang while LR French, that is learning a new language as an false beginner.
    And also been thinking about if I have to LR every time. How about just listen for example 5 times and LR one time, or something like that. Would be nice to know what is most effective.

    Anki has been parked. Flashcards Deluxe is my main flashcards app now. I have exported my German vocabulary from Babbel into Flashcards Deluxe.

    Had a trial session with an English teacher. Had a lot of interference from German.
    Quite shocking really, so maybe I should practice speaking English once a week, hoping that will reduce the interference

    Wanderlust (and impressing neighbors)
    I have ordered Assimil Russian course and the new Spanish course
    No plans for these languages , its just in case.
    Anyway they will look good on a bookshelf.
  17. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

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    Re interference from German to English, what types of words came to you in German but not English? Was it lack of knowing a word in English, or lack of knowing important discourse marker type of phrases for transitions? And how much do you actually read in English each week other than here or HTLAL?

    The quickest way to me to make a parallel text is just with a spreadsheet and copy/paste. The hard part is finding a good translation, but a bad one (i.e. google translate) is better than none.

    Re wasting time, being an obsessive myself, but also trying to optimize my time, I often commit to *short* experiments, whether with Anki, parallel texts or whatever. Mainly in fact to see how much time such resources take to create, and estimate whether the payoff would be worth it.

    If you only have one, or even just 2 or 3, shelves of mostly unused language learning materials, you're still a rank beginner :).
  18. Bjorn

    Bjorn Active Member VIP member

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    Haha, I have 2 shelves with mostly unused learning materials. I have to buy more :D

    Yeah, I also found out that the spreadsheet was a good and easy way of making parallel texts, after I had bought a DTP programme. It didn't cost much and now I can decorate my parallel texts with flowers or something if I want to. :rolleyes:

    Regarding interference from German into Englisch, eh.. I mean English, I have had it for some time now then I'm writing Englisch, heh...English.
    But I doesn't speak much English...English since I don't need in my daily life.
    So it came as a schock...gaahh..shock.

    I spoke quite fast in English and the German words just mixed with the English. Then I had to think about what a word I should use in English, the German word was popping up first. This was mostly simples words like "Auto" popping up instead of "car". Also small expression/sentence like "Das ist kein Problem" instead of "That is not a problem"

    Normally I read English without locking up words, but I haven't read much English lately since I have spend all my time learning German.
    Maybe it's time for a more balanced studying/maintenance between the languages.
    Perhaps I should LR some English, since it seems to have a brainwashing effect. :eek:
  19. Bjorn

    Bjorn Active Member VIP member

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    I have made enough material now, so I have started with LR French.
    Some parallel texts and some French only. I will be using Readlang for Lingquing (and a mp3-player).
    Haven't used Readlang so much yet, so I have been playing with it. The export of flashcards are quite advanced and easy to use. And it works!
    I will put aside some time for pronunciation, grammar etc.
  20. Bjorn

    Bjorn Active Member VIP member

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    I have joined the Super Challenge with English.
    Need to refresh my English.
    I have degraded myself to immediate in English in this forum.
    I will not set it to advanced until I have taken the CPE, which of course will never happen.

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