Expug's All Languages

Discussion in 'Language Learning Logs & Super Challenges' started by Expugnator, Jul 26, 2014.

  1. Expugnator

    Expugnator Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2014
    Messages:
    31
    Native Language:
    Portuguese
    Advanced Languages:
    English, French, Papiamento
    Intermediate Languages:
    German, Italian, Mandarin, Norwegian, Georgian
    I already write a lot at HTLAL and there's not much new to be said here (if any), but it's wise to keep another log for a mixed audience.

    Today I'm taking the day 'off' from my study routine as I usually do at weekends (the exception being the previous weekend and this really made me really tired). I am trying to find people to practice my languages, joined Skype and sharedtalk but no answers. Will take the day to watch some films and read non-language stuff for the moment.

    I have most of my languages at a close intermediate level now, after starting 4 at once, insanely. The late 2012 and 2013 had been troublesome as I had so many languages for which I had already been through the early euphoria of meeting up new language structures but still hadn't reached the phase at which I could start enjoying the content they provide. Well, that's still better than a past of dabbling, 14 to 08 years ago where I didn't know nowadays' techniques - there wasn't even the culture of discussing techniques - and therefore only wasted time, making little progress.

    Now I have some chriteria for adding more languages. I separate them between languages I have a good vocabulary discount for and languages I have to start from scratch. I take no more than 4 languages at once at a textbook stage, but when I decide to drop textbooks and do native material only, I consider there's a slot open. Currently I'm studying Mandarin, Russian, Estonian and German from textbooks. Once I realize German textbooks aren't teaching me much, I will start a new vocabulary-discoutn language, which will be either Spanish or Italian. Same goes for Russian, but now with a language from scratch (either Turkish or Indonesian). My latest addition was Estonian in May 28th, once I finished all of the Georgian textbooks I got in hand (I must say it was rather a lack of more textbooks + a laziness about reviewing stuff, because I'm far from mastering the Georgian grammar and I still haven't reached a comfortable reading level, even though I can function as a tourist).
  2. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

    Joined:
    May 27, 2014
    Messages:
    613
    Native Language:
    English
    Intermediate Languages:
    German
    Basic Languages:
    Spanish
    For your intermediate languages, do you have a good idea of your vocabulary level in each, and specifically whether you have reached or are near reaching, the reading lexical threshold in each, i.e. 15-20K words? You could extrapolate from either average unknown words per 100 in newspaper articles, or using Iversen's dictionary headword method with a reasonable size dictionary. I am just curious as to what criteria you use to assess a language as intermediate, and whether one for vocabulary size is included.

    Re vocabulary discount languages, it is obvious that Dutch is the biggest discount with a knowledge of German. I can often understand longish patches of Dutch just with German. But for the northern Germanic languages, although I see many similarities, it seems there is not as much a vocabulary discount as there is a grammar discount. Perhaps though I just have not studied the issue enough, and obviously one's knowledge of English plays into the matter as well.

    Are you tempted to learn another Asian language or Chinese dialect? Maybe not as much of a discount as with Germanic and Romance langs, but not negligible either.
  3. Expugnator

    Expugnator Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2014
    Messages:
    31
    Native Language:
    Portuguese
    Advanced Languages:
    English, French, Papiamento
    Intermediate Languages:
    German, Italian, Mandarin, Norwegian, Georgian
    I'm not assessing them in terms of vocabulary level. I think 15-20k words is more than advanced, though. I'm considering more the competencies listed at the CEFR chart. I notice that the further the language is from the Romance group, the sooner I reach the active competencies before the passive ones, because I still manage to talk a bit with my limited vocabulary. Other than that, when I notice there's not much new in any of the textbooks I may use, I am aware I'm no longer a begunner. Well, I might be wrong and be still A2 for all of them, but my concern here is what methods to use, and I reached a point at which native resources already make more sense than textbooks, though for Russian, for example, I'm more in the limbo.

    The largest vocabulary discount between German and Norwegian come from either abstract words formed on Germanic roots (unlike English that forms them on latin-greek roots) or from basic, daily-life words that aren't the same as in English or happen to correspond to a more obscure synonim (the blattant example being 'hund').

    My next Asian language will surely be Indonesian. I don't foresee anything tonal or not written in the latin script in the middle run. Though I believe I'll be able to recognize a bit from Japanese as I learn more Chinese characters.
  4. Expugnator

    Expugnator Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2014
    Messages:
    31
    Native Language:
    Portuguese
    Advanced Languages:
    English, French, Papiamento
    Intermediate Languages:
    German, Italian, Mandarin, Norwegian, Georgian
    I'm going to travel back from my hometown soon, so I think I make a better use of the remaining time by writing here some notes instead of studying in a rush. I'm going to have enough time of waiting and flying the commuting to at least do part of the due reading part.

    My learning strategies aren't that efficient, in the sense that I don't learn or retain much. Ideally I should focus in one language, but I can't study one language all those 9 hours. I get fed up with a language after a hour and can't learn any new vocabulary, and that's why I shift to another one. My main gap is that I don't ensure I've understood a lesson properly before moving or. I mean, I might have understood the grammar just fine, but I won't have retained 20% of the vocabulary after that. I always expect the next textbook to help me remember and consolidate the vocabulary from the preceding ones, but when it comes to the intermediate stage I drop tetxbooks and start reading extensively. That's when I think my learning activities aren't being that effective.

    First I am going to set each of the languages in time:

    French - I studied from an old TY textbook and got to A2, back in 2001. I enrolled on a course after taking a placement test that would take me to the IV semester, but as it still wasn't available I started at the third one. Studied for 3 semesters with a native teacher from Senegal. That was 2003-4. The classes went over due to lack of students and I didn't know what to do to keep progressing. I could read French but I had no idea how much there was to be learned once you got reading fluency in a language. I got stuck, that is, and my only progress was using Assimil books in French for dabbling into other languages. That lasted till 2006 when I dropped language-learning for good and started working on radio with a program on music from the world. In January 2012 I resumed languages. I did Assimil French . I travelled to Paris in February 2012 and my French was still rusty. I got to talk to shop assistants, hotel concierges etc. but I didn't always understood back. I am sure I could have got along in French only if necessary, though. I pursued this textbook study with the intermediate Assimils (Using French, Le Français des Affaires) and a few more intermediate textbooks I recommend (Streetwise French, French for Marketing (actually an advanced one), Hugo's Advanced French and Linguaphone Intermediate-Advanced French. When I realized textbooks were too easy, I dropped them. That was either August or November 2012. I had already started watching dubbed series with subtitles. At my second dubbed series I realized I could get most of it without subtitles. Then I tried native series and films and I still couldn't understand. I kept working on it and about 1 year ago I became able to follow native films. But then I resorted to using subtitles again and am using them again and again for films. When it's a news clip or TV I understand just fine. I just fear not using the subtitles and missing the film's momentum. I know I have to remedy this. Whenever I talk to natives live or through Skype I also understand just fine. After following some rencontres francophones at my city, I started to understand natives speak among themselves. I can do it fine when there isn't much noise. I also have little trouble speaking, but I still make many mistakes, namely when writing. I'm afraid my level is still B2 and I want to take it further because French is a language I admire, a prestigous one and one I've put already much effort on.

    Mandarin - I started it with an Assimil lesson a day, in june 2010. I don't even consider I was back into languages. I kept working really slowly on Mandarin, only adding more when I noticed I could stand it. Even so, the first year and a half was nightmarish, with constant burnout. I'd listen to a dialogue and think it was just too much and I couldn't make any sense, any word out of it. I worked with Méthode 90 which I highly recommend, twice. Twice with Assimil, too. That means a lot, because I hate reviewing and even so I think there was still much to learn from each one before moving on. I also did a lot of standard American-British textbooks and I was reluctant to add native materials until after 1 1/2 or 2 years. Only this year I've started to feel comfortable about having short conversations in Chinese. My routine hasn't changed much in the past two years, so I'll just describe it after this intro.

    Georgian - My most exotic language, Georgian was a reality shock. I started it in January 2012 nearly from scratch. I still expected to be able to read a language comfortably after going through a few textbooks, and Georgian keeps proving me wrong. Even if I ran out of textbooks (without mastering them, actually) and even though I may understand half the words in a text, that's not enough for me to understand it without an accompanying translation. Right now I'm not using textbooks any longer and that's ok, because my main drawbacks in terms of grammar are some composed past tenses, but vocabulary just seems not to reach a turning point at which I may work more independently with the language.

    Norwegian - Started in August 2012. It moved much faster than Georgian, for sure. I went through both foreign textbooks and monolingual textbooks, and I expected to reach a B2 level, but not yet. My Norwegian reading skills now are a bit like my French ones back in 2012: I can get the gist of a text but I miss names of objects etc. Conversationally I'm optimistically B1, as Norwegian sentences just keep popping on my head. I still dare not get rid of subtitles, though.

    Still have to write on Russian, Papiamento, German and Estonian and only then I'll start my schedule.
    Peregrinus likes this.
  5. Expugnator

    Expugnator Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2014
    Messages:
    31
    Native Language:
    Portuguese
    Advanced Languages:
    English, French, Papiamento
    Intermediate Languages:
    German, Italian, Mandarin, Norwegian, Georgian
    Papiamento - A succesful story! Much of this success is due to it being a Spanish-Portuguese-English-Dutch creole. In practical terms, this means I only miss one Dutch word here and there when reading Papiamento. It took me a while to get used to its cool, interesting Creole grammar, but I have to say I understand more from it than from French, hence my calling it an advanced language. What I am about to say might sound like heresy or mania, but I planned a trip to Curaçao and Aruba instead of another destination on the Caribbean because of the language. The trip was last September. I started studying in April 2013 and was fluent by September 2013. Even though I didn't get to speak Papiamento and people would keep answering me in Spanish (my English is much better than my Spanish), I still had a few conversations that made the natives' eyes shine. Papiamento is the spoken language among natives in both Curaçao and Aruba, no way people will give up on it for English or Spanish. I brought some newspapers, an original novel, a book of tales, translated novels for teenagers and kept on studying. Just like it happened with French and my trip to Paris, I'm much better now than when I went there for the first time, and if I'm given a second chance I'll be able to communicate without any problems.

    Russian - Sometimes it's my greatest source of frustration. I had a false start years ago (before 2006) where I didn't get to A2, I believe. Then in November 2012 I decided to take Russian seriously and regularly. I started with one textbook, small doses. My idea was to read the classics one day, but reading textbooks for learning Georgian and other ex-USSR would be already quite rewarding. Yet I'm far from reaching a reading level in Russian. I'm a bit more comfortable with basic conversation, which reinforces my impression that talking just teaches you how to talk, and when you focus on resources for learning to speak you shouldn't foresee reading fluency anytime soon. Anyway, I've been through all of the Assimil editions, Living Language Beginner's, Russe 90 (just finished), Nina Potapova's book and even though I'm more comfortable with grammar now, my Russian reading is still behind Georgian. I expected Russian to surpass Georgian, which I started only 10 months earlier, given the Indo-European nature of Russian and the false start I'd had. Yet I'm longing for the day I'll be able to progress in Russian with fun, i.e. through reading with less effort. I started native materials around the beginning of 2014. I'm learning a lot of conversation from Poor Nastya but I'm not improving much in reading; I'm using two works translated into Russian, one book from Agatha Christie which I am slightly better at and one from Brazilian Portuguese which is helpless even if I know what the story is about. A book from the same author was among my first ones in French, so it's actually my Russian case that is helpless for the moment. I really wish there was more of a graded resource, but the gap A2-B1 is even more intense than with Georgian. People always expect you to read whatsoever text with irrestricted vocabulary after going through a textbook that covers grammar, as if learning case endings implied getting to know the roots of the slavic vocabulary.

    German - Another false beginner. In my previous language-learner incarnation, I had studied two halves of Assimil and the whole Deutsch Warum Nicht. I resumed German in January with a more agressive approach: finish all the Assimils, including the two intermediate ones I have, all the DW B1 courses (Wieso Nicht? and Marktplatz) and then see what was still necessary to get from the textbooks. German used to be a source of frustration the way Russian still is now, and I must say much of this frustration is gone thanks to my studies of Norwegian; I got much synergy in terms of Germanic roots, both daily, household nouns and abstract nouns: those are exactly the ones that differ from Romance languages the most. Now I'm finishing an old TY that got a Brazilian edition and I'm happy about that. Started native materials and I can already understand about 85% from a non-fiction book. That is, at every 8 or 9 periods out of 10 I get one with an unknown word that hinders global comprehension. I'm still not excelled in German conversation the way I am with Norwegian, but I expect it to change. I'm really learning a lot from Easy German's videos.

    Estonian - Finishing my Georgian textbooks opened up the possibility of starting a new language from scratch, not as a false beginner. The choice is Estonian (I do have some chriteria: next ones will be Indonesian then Turkish). I'm fascinated with the grammar of this finnic language. I like the sound too. And I appreciate the number of comprehensive and consistent textbooks. I'm not repeating the mistakes I made with Georgian, but it's too soon to tell if my trajectory with Estonian will be any smoother. I'm trying not to feel too excited about this early A1 stage when progress is fast, but I'm really happy with the way things are going on. I started in May 28th and went through Colloquial Estonian, Peace Corps Competencies (which I really recommend), Teach Yourself Estonian and now I'm working on Basic Course in Estonian and book2.
    Peregrinus likes this.
  6. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

    Joined:
    May 27, 2014
    Messages:
    613
    Native Language:
    English
    Intermediate Languages:
    German
    Basic Languages:
    Spanish
    Very nice summary of your languages!

    Re German, my focus for the past year, cramming 30 words/day on average has made all the difference and I can now read non-fiction with ease, apart from very technical stuff. If you stick with Deutsche Welle, there is enough there to take you to the C levels. Top Thema mit Vokabeln would be my recommendation, starting in the archives for the beginning (2007). There is an audio clip for each adapted articles, though after a while I just did the reading. Even when you have mastered one of those articles, you can click on the link for the original unadapted one and still get challenged.

    With Mandarin, which I studied for 3 years decades ago, do you have a rough guess as to how many characters and how much of the HSK vocab list you know? What about chengyu? You might as well start memorizing them now, as one needs hundreds of them, and being based so much on classical sources, you mostly can't decipher them from a knowledge of modern Mandarin.

    Nice success story with Papamiento. Though on the one hand I imagine it is easier since creoles tend to have a smaller vocabulary, on the other hand that is probably counterbalanced by a lack of written material. What is interesting is that having so many language inputs, you can get by without a lot of Dutch. Whereas with Hatian Creole one probably has to know French reasonably well to make any headway.

    Russian was my first foreign lang in high school, but for me revising Mandarin is probably a lot easier. I think Russian would take a singular commitment that I am unwilling to give. Georgian and Estonian are a couple cool unusual choices for a learner, especially not knowing a related language.

    I know I come across as a tireless and tiresome Anki fanatic, but whatever method is used for learning vocabulary, learning lots and lots of it as fast as one can, is the way to really close the reading gap in any language, as well as getting to the point where just free reading of native materials takes care of maintenance. Even just shorter bursts of 500 words at a time like emk does would make a lot of difference in a year.
    Expugnator likes this.
  7. Expugnator

    Expugnator Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2014
    Messages:
    31
    Native Language:
    Portuguese
    Advanced Languages:
    English, French, Papiamento
    Intermediate Languages:
    German, Italian, Mandarin, Norwegian, Georgian
    I believe in the importance of finding graded texts, the ones you can read from with only a few lookups per paragraph, and these words you look up actually correspond to your daily learning quota. For example, I'd need a Russian text, 5 paragraphs-long, at which I'd miss 6 words per paragraph and thus i'd learn 30 words from there. The way it is now, I'm reading from texts I only know 20% from.

    I still have to elaborate on my daily schedule, but my story with Chinese is constant with SRS. It's the language at which I put synergy to work at extremes. I dare say the SRS courses are the main resource now and what I do is to refresh the newly learned words in other sources. I learn from a sentences deck at Anki and I work on the HSK courses from Memrise. Currently at HSK4, which means that even though I'm not totally familiar with HSK 3 I can estimate my vocabulary at about 60% of the words necessary for HSK3. This keeps growing though, as I only recently tried reading a translated novel extensively for the first time and I new about 40% of the words. I'm also learning chengyu on the go.

    For other languages I believe SRS works better with sentences. I had a sentences deck for Russian but it was too short and ended long ago. I learned much of my Papiamento by going through a phrasebook twice then creating an Anki deck with the sentences and reviewing it once (it is a shared deck now).
  8. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

    Joined:
    May 27, 2014
    Messages:
    613
    Native Language:
    English
    Intermediate Languages:
    German
    Basic Languages:
    Spanish
    I mentioned this in another thread how nice it would be to have a series of graded readers to a very high level, and Cainntear responded with a reference to his "Spanish Inquisition" project. This is indeed the challenging thing, i.e. finding graded texts for one's current level. They seem to run out for most languages around the B1 level, if even getting that far. While a number of German publishers have published a fairly large collection of graded readers to the B1 level and a little beyond, I found that my Anki deck more quickly outstripped them.

    Linguamor suggested on HTLAL the use of Readers Digest for a L2, but even that might be too incomprehensible until a strong B1. Mostly I have just relied on Anki to slowly make native materials more comprehensible and it has worked well, and then using whatever I read to reinforce that vocabulary, including course texts from which I got the words. In the end parallel texts, which one can make for oneself, are easier to me than constantly searching for a suitable graded text for my current level.

    For Russian have you looked into Ilya Frank method books for Russian learners of English? I assume you could just use them in reverse.
  9. Expugnator

    Expugnator Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2014
    Messages:
    31
    Native Language:
    Portuguese
    Advanced Languages:
    English, French, Papiamento
    Intermediate Languages:
    German, Italian, Mandarin, Norwegian, Georgian
    I'm familar with Ilya Frank's method, it's just the texts that aren't what I'm most interested at. I'm currently reading texts billingually with translations, like Agatha Christie's book, but my point is these texts are still too hard for me to learn from them comfortably. In fact, I believe that even between basic and intermediate textbooks there is a huge gap. I'm working on Colloquial Russian 2 and I believe it should provide translation for the texts instead of just a glossary, because when the language is distant enough one or two expressions may hinder or delay the understanding of a text, one thing that could go much smoothly with just having the translation to look up when necessary. Unfortunately, translation is still seen as 'cheating' (I've written an article about translating that a friend will publish in his online magazine). So, even those many readers directed into learners are way too much into B1 for someone to make a smooth move into B2. The transition A2-B1 is painful when the language is not transparent, at least that's what I've seen. People who developped language materials assume you'll retain everything from the A2 textbooks which is far from the truth. Besides, reading and actually understanding in a motivating rhythm requires a larger level of comprehension, about 80%. What those courses or readers do is assume "Ok, you know 500 Russian words, now we're gonna teach you 500 more so you reach 1000 words, therefore we'll give you texts at which you will know half the words and learn the other half. But that's still a torture, at least for me. Even more so when you have to type in a new scripture to look up a word in a dictionary, a word you supposedly know but in fact you don't. Hence Chinese being easier for me than Russian so far. Not just easier, actually much more fun. I did have a nightmarish period with Chinese but it lasted until I started using native materials, but with Russian I've been using them for six months and the learning process is still a pain. In the case of German I used another Germanic language, Norwegian, as a crutch, but doing so for Russian would be counterproductive at this stage as Russian is still the only evident goal in its family for me.

    To sum it up, the transition A2-B1 is still the most tricky point in terms of reading, especially for non-transparent languages.
  10. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

    Joined:
    May 27, 2014
    Messages:
    613
    Native Language:
    English
    Intermediate Languages:
    German
    Basic Languages:
    Spanish
    I agree that it is a bigger jump than many/most think, because it is not a simple linear step, but rather represents a doubling of needed vocabulary. Perhaps you could find word lists from Russian B1 level courses and drill that. I found lots for German, but perhaps they aren't available for Russian as easily. I personally think you need around 5000 words for a comfortable B1.

    Re the Frank method, the texts do tend to lean to literary fiction, which is not everyone's cup of tea. One good idea from HTLAL years ago was to try to find a progression of L2 textbooks for native children from grade school through high school, but that probably is not as doable as it sounds.
    Expugnator likes this.
  11. Expugnator

    Expugnator Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2014
    Messages:
    31
    Native Language:
    Portuguese
    Advanced Languages:
    English, French, Papiamento
    Intermediate Languages:
    German, Italian, Mandarin, Norwegian, Georgian
    Now I'm going to write a bit about how a day in my life seems like (hehe sounds so dramatic put like this):


    Early in the morning - 1) Chinese SRS: Memrise (currently HSK4); 2) Anki decks: Chinese sentences and German words/sentences

    After the gym - This is where I have to study online stuff with video, which in my other studying place is blocked apart from Youtube:
    3) Papiamento short news video (1-2 minutes)
    4) Chinese podcast lesson (currently Upper-Intermediate)
    5) Russian podcast lesson (currently Upper-Intermediate)
    6) Chinese cartoon (currently 大耳朵图图, S04E22, ~= 10 min)
    7) CHinese TV series for learners from CCTV (currently Happy Journey Across China 44, ~=8:40 min)

    Along the day
    8) Estonian textbook 01 (currently Basic Course in Estonian)
    9) Estonian 'textbook' 02 (currently book2)
    10) Russian textbook (currently Colloquial Russian 2)
    11) German textbook (currently Aprenda Sozinho Alemão, probably my last one and this 'spot' will open)
    12) French reading (20 pages from a novel)
    13) Norwegian reading (10 pages from a novel)
    14) French video (10 minutes from a film, in sequence)
    15) Norwegian video (10 minutes from a film, in sequence)
    16) Chinese reading (8 pages from a novel or non-fiction)
    17) Chinese textbook (about to finish 'El Chino de Hoy II)
    18) Georgian reading (5 pages from a novel)
    19) Georgian video currently TED Talks with subtitles in Georgian and Brazilian Portuguese simultaneously)
    20) Papiamento reading (2 pages from a novel)
    21) German video (currently 'Easy German', at least 10 min)
    22) Chinese series 1 (currently 后厨, 10 min a day)
    23) German reading (10 pages, currently non-fiction)
    24) Chinese series 2 (currently 我们等你, at least 10 min)
    25) French video extra (short 1-2 min excerpts, non-fiction)
    26) Russian series (currently Poor Nastya, 10 to 20 min)
    27) Russian reading (5 pages, currently Agatha Christie's novel)
    28) Norwegian tests from Goethe-Verlag, 3 a day
    29) English series if everything else goes well.

    Bedtime
    Watering memrise and doing some planting in advance.
  12. Peregrinus

    Peregrinus Active Member

    Joined:
    May 27, 2014
    Messages:
    613
    Native Language:
    English
    Intermediate Languages:
    German
    Basic Languages:
    Spanish
    That is very impressive. Assuming you are satisfied at the end of the day with having a good mental workout just as with your physical one, as opposed to just being on a hamster treadmill :). I love the methodical nature of the scheme.
  13. Expugnator

    Expugnator Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2014
    Messages:
    31
    Native Language:
    Portuguese
    Advanced Languages:
    English, French, Papiamento
    Intermediate Languages:
    German, Italian, Mandarin, Norwegian, Georgian
    It can actually be addcitive, to the extent that it's more tiresome to just keep browsing random sites, reading news, chatting than to follow this path of study and have the feeling of accomplishment.
    Most of the activities are really fun. Usually the textbook studies are tiresome (currently Estonian and Russian), but I understand it as a necessary part of the process. The routine as a whole is fun and not a nuisance. Funny how I have to deal with wanderlust not only for different languages, but also for books I'm still not reading within the languages I'm studying.

    The physical workout is a must too...the mind functions much slower when I don't work out or run for a few minutes on the treadmill while listening to music.

    Actually what brings up anxiety and frustration is the feeling that I'm not making much progress in languages such as Georgian and Russian (or Norwegian to some extent). I keep wondering what I'm doing wrong. Ideally I should focus on a few of them and study more, but the issue is, after a given number of pages my mind just starts wandering and it doesn't get better within the day. So, if I decide to read 5 pages more in Russian I just won't be able to learn much from it. That's why I just move on to another activity, and I don't think one of them canibalizes the other. I could be working more on active skills, like writing dialogues, but after the recent practice times I figured out reading is still the skill I find more trouble at, and that my active skills usually come up when the need arises and I realize I can speak much better than I thought I could.
  14. Expugnator

    Expugnator Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2014
    Messages:
    31
    Native Language:
    Portuguese
    Advanced Languages:
    English, French, Papiamento
    Intermediate Languages:
    German, Italian, Mandarin, Norwegian, Georgian
    It was a busy day so I will only leave a short update for German. I finished the Portuguese edition of an old TY German, which was great. Now I'm going for Modern German Grammar, by Routledge, and its workbook. I had planned on dropping textbooks for German but I believe this one will bring up important insights. Anyone who is familiar with the books feel free to comment on them.
  15. Expugnator

    Expugnator Member

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2014
    Messages:
    31
    Native Language:
    Portuguese
    Advanced Languages:
    English, French, Papiamento
    Intermediate Languages:
    German, Italian, Mandarin, Norwegian, Georgian
    I'm heaving a hard week, relocation, problems with previous trips, appointments at the doctor and I'm hardly accomplishing all the tasks I mentioned on a day. It's been the first 'bad string' that lasted that long since January 2012, but I'm confident that once all the major issues have been solved I'll be able to get back on track. As for today, I will focus on dealing with the most critical resources, the ones that take the longest part of my day. The good news so far is that working on Russian texts intensively is proving effective. OCRing and pasting at the Google Translator saves up a lot of time and diminishes the issue with losing track when looking words up.

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