Multiligual log

Tagalog:
Listened all the way through the book of John, listening to each chapter 2 or 3 times. It went quite well. I think the next step is to find some movies/soap episodes that I can listen to multiple times, because those still blow me away.

Russian:
I didn't think I new Russian that well, but everytime I listen to stuff from John, it gets a bit clearer. Seems like a high A1 level that I'm at.

Japanese:
I broke down and started formally learning some of this language. Pulled out a movie "Spirited Away", listen to the first scenes several times. Learned a handful of words, but verbs are killing me.

Tagalog: I subscribed to a local "netflix" and started watching a Tagalog series. Allot of it makes sense the second time around, but usually not the first.

Japanese:
yesterday I found some beginner dialogs, for something easy to read. I went back to 1 john last night and there was a time were I could keep some sort of track of where I was in the text. some of the sentences sounded like : we ____ this _____to you, so that we ____ and _____.

Japanese: today when I listened to 1 John 1:1 I heard the sound "mono" after a verb. I thought... that's odd that they would have another word after the verb. There was a definite pause after that. Hmmm some verb ending I missed? Well I finally found the right google link, and it (can be) and ending meaning "stuff", and it's also used in words I already know like "kimono" which literally means "the thing that you wear". So what would be "What we have heard" turned into "the thing that we heard"

Japanese: 2 days ago I started examining 1 John very closely, and copied some things into google translate, just so that it would break up the words for me. I did pick out something I thought was a whole word "inochi", which means life, but I wasn't sure because "no" is also a preposition. I'm kind of lost in the grammar for these first verses. Gospel of John not as hard as it was before, but I need to really start looking up some words so I can see them and here them. I still haven't figured out what "light" is.

Japanese: Went through Japanese Teach Yourself, with a focus on reading comprehension. Pulled out some anime and I'm slowly learning to understand more. Tried out verbs on Memrise. Yes, my verb leximes are still horrible

Japanese: found a basic to intermediate Japanese reader. We'll see what happens when I'm done with it. Already John 1 makes more sense.

Cebuano: I now have a class that I teach in English, but my student only responds and asks questions in Cebuano... no problems on either side, and that's kind of cool. I think if a different person was here with a different accent, it would not work so well.

Cebuano: I'm marking this day in my log because it is the first time I listened to a news story soley for meaning. I may have hit a clutch for this language. Thank the Lord. I was feeling discouraged because I was listening for sounds (and understanding most of it) and trying to speak so much that I was dreaming about it, and then the next day I couldn't do anything. Here's hoping for continued success.

Cebuano: Listening since my last post seems alot easier since my last post. I don't know if it's because I'm doing it "right" or if the words are starting to be automaticly parsed. I'm starting to understand the mumblers and people on the jeeps where there is alot of background noise. At this point I still keep telling myself to just concentrate on what the words/sentences mean rather that focusing on sounds.

Cebuano: had several good days of listening with what I guess was automatic parsing. I've lost it for several weeks now. At the moment it seems like I need 8 minutes of news to get listening to work again. I'm concentrating on the sounds first again.

Hebrew: Going through Genesis for the second time now. I'm paying attention to the grammar a lot more than before. Lots of words that I can't recall at first, but vocab is defiantly going up. Some of the problem is words that are spelled the same, or almost the same. For example, fear & see often look allot alike, but I know that now and look at the context. Bless & first are the same with 2 letters swapped.

Russian: I was going though the teach yourself book again, and hit a brick wall somewhere in the middle. I think I need to goldlist some if I want to continue on without to much headache. What I did get through make more sense now.

Hebrew: read through Genesis a second time. Much easier, but still looking stuff up. Starting to get used to the idiom and common words that often look like other words. In fact that seems the hard part now, distinguishing similar words, sometime when they are "spelt" the same way. Almost read through Amos for the 3rd time. Seems like this is taking longer than most of Genesis because of the poetry.

Cebuano: I ignored working on this while pushing the Hebrew, and it took about 2 weeks to get it back to where it was. I keep "priming the pump" with some news in the afternoon, when my brain is working well, to avoid slippage. I'm concentrating on listening for meaning, sometimes achieving this perfectly and sometime just getting a gist, and with the right cue everything falls into place. I went to the bank, and there was some instructions that the guard gave me, and there was one word I heard just fine, but I couldn't get the meaning, as I knew the word, but it didn't seem to fit the context. I got a picture of someone tapping something force-ably. Later on in the process a bell went off and I thought "oh, that meant get it stamped!" I'm hoping vocab and automatic-ness of understanding will come over time.

Wow, I can't believe my last post was in April. Time to weigh in:

Cebuano: Nothing new on this front. Just have to keep my listening skills up. It has not become automatic. With any luck someday I'll be able to post success, but now I'm just playing the waiting game I think.

Tagalog: Started listening to news from Northern Luzon. I usually understand the 2nd time I watch.

Hebrew: pushing through the books with low frequency vocab, which are usually the poetry books. Currently working my way though Job. This has a side effect of me becoming much more familiar with the content because I have to read them about 3 times before it starts flowing. Read recently through the first 14 chapters of Genesis without needing to look anything up.

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on the side:
Russian: I was stuck in this language until I found the excellent hyplern app, and quickly blasted through 5 stories. Listening to it is going to take more of a commitment. I was finally able to get through the TY chapter I was stuck on. Also, the app is kind of buggy so go for the actual PDFs and MP3s if you can swing it.

French: finally hit a listening clutch a few months back. I just kept at it in my Bible App for a few weeks. I hear the words, things are starting to make sense.

Notes: "Listening for meaning" feels like the best approach to oral comprehension, but I first have to spend allot of time (as in French) just trying to parse sounds & words.

Hebrew: Well I finaly got through Job today, with a month hiatus in there. Hopefully that was the hardest I will ever have to work on reading the OT.

I think it's time for me to start another Cebuano listening "campaign" with whatever I can find on you tube. I was in the province last week where the English is not used very much, and was able to exchange a few statements other than the phrasebook variety, learned some new words, but usually did NOT fully understand what they were saying to each other. I should focus on talk radio and soap recordings.

A bit of Cebuano fun... although in practice, they just borrow the English names for these: