Multiligual log

Discussion in 'Language Learning Logs & Super Challenges' started by Bob, Oct 30, 2014.

  1. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    Cebuano: Well it's been a week now and my verbal parsing is still consistant. With at least the people I've been around allot, I can hear their words (or most of them). Last night I was listening to 4 or 5 Cebuanos talking to each other and I was able to participate. Often times I would know nearly everything they were saying, except the topic, so I would find a moment to ask someone something like "who are we talking about?" I heard someone clearly ask me "asa man ang hagdanan?", but I couldn't remember what a "hagdanan" was. (ladder)
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2015
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  2. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    Cebuano: haven't had much time lately for study. I've been exhausted and thus study is just a waste of time :p but recently had some repair men come by and I couldn't understand them talking to each other at all. Then they saw a native that they could talk to instead of me and asked "sir, do you speak Bisaya?" Since I understood nothing thus far I had to swallow my pride and say "no". Then they started talking to the other person and suddenly they where coherent to me. I had to talk with them some days later and got through it ok. I didn't understand at first when they said "freon" it sounded more like "pray-on"
  3. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    Cebuano/Tagalog: I've having to transcribe less and less as time goes on. I'm pretty sure my "broken" ear is healing ;) I've noticed that it usually takes me about 7 minutes of a constant stream of Bible or News to make sure everything starts "clicking". I'm listening to the Bible in both these languages, and the problem with Tagalog seems to be more vocab than "listening". Some parts turn out clear as a bell.

    NT Greek: after a -- hmm -- 2 week? hiatus, I got back on this... pushed through to the last big thing, Hebrews. Everything is worded differently than I'm used to in Greek & English. Feels doable though. There seems to be allot of implied words.
  4. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    Great day for Cebuano :) no 7 minute lag, undersood pretty much everything :) Got confused in one situation, but it turns out that the other guy assumed that I knew what he was talking about :p even yesterday I was understanding things from that soap that I never could before even without transcription.
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  5. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    Continuing to enjoy a general upgrade to my listening skills. Went back to Chavo del ocho and I can again understand it. French is becoming comprehensible. If I had anything to say about what I'm doing different, I would say that I'm taking the sounds and interpreting those instead of trying to hear the words directly. I would not try this with something I couldn't read. Also, it's not automatic but I suppose that might be the sign of C1.
    Last edited: May 15, 2015
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  6. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    Cebuano: at a fast food resturant, when I got up to the counter they said, "unsay ato?", and I paused for a moment because I was thinking either "what goes?" or "what us?" and I decided maybe they are asking me to order and just ordered. I later confirmed that my conclusion was true, and they they really were literaly asking, "what us"? :p
  7. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    Checking in.. Not allot of time the last few days for language study. We'll see if my listening skills are still there when I get back to it.

    NT Greek: Made it through Hebrews without to many hiccups. Word order many times caused me to read twice, but not too hard.
    Tagalog: Someone let me borrow some dual language picture books for kids. Pretty normal stuff, but no way I could read it cold. 2 readings were enough to absorb them. I understand a bit more TV now.
  8. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    finally got a chance today to sit down and listen to some recordings. My Cebuano hasn't been too good these last few days, but I confirmed just now that this is due to fatigue. I may be able to delare myself a B2 when fully rested, in Cebauno & Spanish. Listened to Cebuano (no lag) Tagalog and French. There was a French recording that was unusually clear.. I checked it and saw that it was the part I had transcripted several weeks ago.

    Had to talk to someone (last week?) in Tagalog to make myself understood. Just some basic phrases in both directions but it was quite the boost :p I realized later some mistakes I made and fixed them the next day. The mistakes was interference from Cebuano. As those kid's books show my usable vocab is not yet up to par.

    Cebuano: that awkward moment when you know the subtle deference between "liver" and a curse and still manage to get it wrong.
  9. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    NT Greek: I see the light at the end of the tunnel. Just got through the end of Jude, which means I only have John's Revelation left. And for completeness sake I'll probably go back read the Gospel of John Chapters that I skipped. I think it's a downhill slope from here.

    Spanish: Watching some more Chavo Del 8, but one of the characters is very hard to understand :p

    Portuguese: met a speaker today, but my Portuguese is so rusty. I asked him some phrases, and started picking out the words.
  10. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    NT Greek: My reading goal is completed! I can now read the NT without having to look stuff up... although sometimes an exact definition eludes me, I get pretty close with context clues. Sometimes I will still have to double check to see if a word is aorist rather than imperfect, and a review of -μι verbs would do me allot of good.

    Cebuano: listened to a lengthy discusion between 2 natives, and I had a hard time following... I realized later it was because they were refering to people and places that I was not familiar with. After a while I did at least idenify what words were names. (and a person as opposed to a place.)

    Going to try and get some synergy boost for Cebuano/Tagalog by reading my dual language stories. The cool thing is I can normally fill in the blanks without refering to English by bouncing back and forth between the facing Filipino languages.

    I haven't transcribed in a while. Maybe I should
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  11. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    Portuguese: found this which appears to be some show about different places in Brazil. I find the accent enjoyable, and learned the word for "werewolf" ;)

    Spanish: When trying to converse in Spanish, I currently find myself responding in Cebuano :p

    Hebrew: After a 3 month hiatus, I pulled this out again, and after a rough start, started reading Genesis again. I can't seem to bring myself to complete a grammar course on my own. I think taking a class would benefit me greatly to solidify my knowledge.
  12. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    Cebuano motivation is low today. I don't know I just always have to be alert and active to do it and I feel lazy now :p

    What I did feel like doing was some Hebrew transcription. I have a "dramatization" of the OT and it gives it a little life rather than just me reading it off a page. I basically keep transcribing the same thing everyday, and it gets a little better every day. I don't bother writing vowels... I figure they don't now in modern Hebrew anyway. It's a bit different asking myself, for example, what letter makes a 'k' sound (there are 2 and I couldn't think of either one at first.) This appears to be keeping up my listening skills that I've let get wimpy of late.
  13. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    My listening got rusty around that last post, but I'm back into the swing now. It helped to go and listen to something else that I don't know quite as well. I went and listened to some Portuguese again. It also help to just kick back and not care about the content, and just to listen to the sounds.

    edit: yesterday I understood a news reporter giving a report over a crackly cell phone. :)
    Last edited: Jul 6, 2015
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  14. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    This reminded me of how language learning works, and somehow was encouraging. About the kid being better at it though, here's someone else that tried it.



    Since it took this guy about 10 hours across several dedicated days, maybe that kid isn't so good ;) Seems like this particular skill is small enough to fit into short term memory.
  15. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    OT Hebrew: Well I've completely ignored Cebuano for about two weeks now, and tried to tackle this again. I found a recording of someone saying the (high frequency) Hebrew words, followed by a pause, and then the translation. I ended up putting it into audacity, and listened to it several times, editing out the words that were automatic to me... in a somewhat Goldlist-ish way. Every so often I go through it again and take out the words that are automatic to me that time around. I started with an hour of audio, I have about 17 minutes today. After my first full pass of this Genesis got easier to read.
    I don't remember where I saw it, but it was helpful that someone pointed out that OT Hebrew really only has 2 "tenses" and they don't really match up with English tenses. There is only "complete" and "incomplete" action.
    I am now in Chapter 8 of Genesis.
  16. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    In that last push to get my Hebrew going again, I neglected my (general) listening skills for about 2 weeks and it seemed like it took me forever to get it back. Note to self: I cannot let myself stop practising this skill. I'm still pushing forward through Genesis, around chapter 17. After goldlisting, and the initial week spent on Jonah, it really seems like if I read it twice (checking the translation the first time), I've got it pretty good. But I don't feel like I've achieved reading "fluency" because I still have to look up stuff the first time.
  17. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    Hebrew: I'm up through chapter 31 of Genesis now, still doing about a chapter a day. Chapter 30 was hard I think because there were allot of new words related to breeding sheep and goats. I must have gone through that part 5 times.
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  18. Big_Dog

    Big_Dog Administrator Staff Member

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    Nice - now your ready to talk to all those Jewish shepards!
  19. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    Indeed I could ask them if they have speckled sheep.

    Tagalog: LRed some Tagalog Bible. I didn't transcribe. Now what's crazy is when I try to speak Cebuano today some Tagalog words start coming out :p Same thing happens with Spanish when I watch a half hour show.
  20. Bob

    Bob Active Member VIP member

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    Hebrew: Level up! Read a few chapters today in the 30's using only my reader's edition that has low frequency words labelled. This means I am used to the Hebrew phrasing, and don't need to keep looking at English. It also means that my low frequency words that I would learn in a Biblical Hebrew course are (almost) solid. I did a general review of the verb system, because I could not tell, other than from context, if a verb is active or passive. Much better hold on verbs in general now.

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