[For those not in the know... check out http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=18408&PN=1&TPN=1 ]
It's the end of the semester, and I'm looking forward to two months at
home, during which I plan to do as much language study as possible. To
that end, I intend to track my progress and motivate myself by keeping
a log here. I tagged it TAC because I hope to continue my log
throughout the year (my spring studying abroad, summer at home, and
fall at university), but my updates may be rather sporadic!
There, I've got the statement-of-intent part out of the way. Now, down to the nuts and bolts...
TARGET LANGUAGES (primary 3 plus extra 2)
German (self-assessed level: low intermediate/maybe B1?)
This is my primary, first, and favorite foreign language. I'm
a college junior majoring in German Studies with an emphasis in
translation, so I want to get my level of German knowledge as high as
possible by the time I graduate.
PAST: I took an intensive (fifteen hours a week) immersion
course in my freshman year, followed by a month of language study (five
hours a day) in Heidelberg, accompanied by a home stay which offered
yet more opportunities for practice. Since then I've taken two courses
back here in the US that were taught entirely in German, done a private
writing-intensive one-semester tutorial, done another private tutorial
focused on translation (working on translating a novel called "Die
Wand" by Marlen Haushofer – I think this is going to become my senior
project), and attended a weekly group tutorial to practice speaking.
GOALS: At the beginning of March I'll be heading to Berlin
(if all goes as planned) for three and a half months of study at
Humboldt University, prefaced by a one-month language course to brush
up my skills in preparation for taking university courses in German. By
the end of this calendar year, I'll have those four and a half months
of study in Berlin behind me, as well as another German course back
here in the fall (I hope). Taking all this into consideration, I hope
to be at a high intermediate or low advanced level, able to have
spontaneous conversations on most topics, read a variety of literature,
and write in my practice journal about anything that doesn't involve
too-specialized vocabulary.
MATERIALS: At this point I'm basically just absorbing German
from every possible direction. I hope to do more translation work on
"Die Wand" while I'm at home in January and February, and also
translate some song lyrics – I love the challenge of trying to make
singable translations. I have a bunch of books in German, of which I
will enumerate the details in a later post, as well as some
intermediate- and advanced-level textbooks. I also regularly listen to
lots and lots of cheesy pop music in German (my number one method for
learning – I swear by it!), write shamefully infrequently in my
practice journal, and listen to quite a few podcasts on a daily basis
(well, at least Deutsche-Welle's Nachrichten on a daily basis, the
others rather less often). I also downloaded Pimsleur's "German Plus"
and "German Instant Conversation." I have no idea if they're the right
level for me, but they're worth trying. I'm considering supplementing
my studies with some of FSI's substitution drills as well, which I
briefly tried in the past and found useful, but a bit daunting.
Finally, I somehow also have Assimil's "La pratique de l'allemand." If
my French is up to it, that might be fun.
French (self-assessed level: intermediate beginner)
I haven't done much actual study of French, but I find it
quite easy in comparison to German, and know it's a requisite for any
would-be polyglot (even if only so one can take advantage of all the
Assimil courses!). My roommate speaks fluent French, and hearing it all
the time has rekindled my interest in learning it. The most difficult
part of it for me is the pronunciation.
PAST: I took three years of French in high school, but we all
know what high school language classes are like. I remember hardly
anything from it. Just this past summer I bought the classic
yellow-cover Teach Yourself (from now on referred to as TY) French and
began going through it, but I only got a few lessons into it before
college started up again it and I had to put the majority of my
language study on hold for the semester.
GOALS: My family wants to travel to Brittany in the summer of
2011, so I'd really like to be at least conversational in French by
then (ideally by the end of this year, because I assume my last
semester of college will be a bit mad). I know the French aren't the
most welcoming when it comes to foreigners attempting to speak their
language, and this is good motivation for me.
MATERIALS: During the past semester I bought "L'Étranger" by
Albert Camus, which I've read before in English, and started working my
way through it. I need to look up several words on each page, but my
progress hasn't been too slow, and I'm really enjoying it. I practice
reading aloud passages to myself to work on my pronunciation. I also
still have the TY book, as well as several other French textbooks and
books in French, which I'll list along with my German books in a
separate post. For about a year now I've been subscribed to the "RFI
Journal en français facile" podcast, as well as a couple of other
French podcasts. I also somehow have Pimsleur French I, II, and III;
French With Michel Thomas; Just Listen 'n' Learn French; and something
called "Learn French Fast" (anyone know what this is like? I haven't
heard of it). Oh, and I downloaded a French grammar called "Grammaire
Progressive – intermediate." Haven't looked at it yet.
Italian (self-assessed level: low beginner)
I don't really have a good reason to learn Italian. Well, I
lie: I'd love to visit the country and even live there for a while
someday, and my uncle speaks it, so I could practice with him. But he
lives in California and I'm in Massachusetts, so that's not the most
practical excuse. Regardless, I love it and want to be a polyglot, so
it's on the list!
PAST: Italian is my most recently started language. Last
February I suddenly got the urge to learn it, acquired the Pimsleur
course and proceeded to work my way through levels I, II, and III.
After that I began the TY book, and got up to about lesson 20 of 30
before school started, at which point all my language studies (besides
German, of course) stopped.
GOALS: I don't have a particular level of knowledge I want to
reach by a certain point. Maybe I'd like to be able to read a simple
book in Italian – that seems like a reasonable goal. I'd also love to
be able to write, but I don't like to start output until I've had a LOT
of input. For this year, I'd like to finish my first work-through of
the TY book (with an eventual goal of going through it again) and also
repeat the Pimsleur levels I through III, perhaps edited down to
include only the Italian and not the English talking. I'd also like to
start work on a new Italian program from among my...
MATERIALS: I still have the Pimsleur levels I/II/II as well
as the Michel Thomas Italian (I hear his accent isn't the best, but
I've heard a lot of good Italian accents at this point so I don't think
I'll be swayed). I've also got something called "Parla subito –
Italiano per stranieri" – I don't know if it's combination
audio/reading or just one or the other. For the past year I've been
regularly listening to podcasts (Radio Feltrinelli and the Repubblica)
as well. Again, I've got a couple of books in Italian, but... you know
the drill about books by now.
Esperanto (self-assessed level: high beginner)
I've been studying Esperanto for far too long to have any
excuse for still being such a "komencanto"! It's terrible! I just can't
get up enough excitement about it to put in long hours of dedicated
study, which is what I really need at this point, to learn new word
roots. Vocabulary is my only dramatically weak spot, although I'm still
kind of sketchy on a few grammatical usages as well.
PAST: I started studying Esperanto concurrently with Italian,
so almost a year ago now. I've only been studying it on and off,
though, neglecting it almost entirely during the summer, and studying
only very lightly during the academic semesters. I've completed several
of the online courses offered by http://lernu.net and also done the
independently-hosted correspondence course from http://www.pacujo.net .
GOALS: Esperanto is not one of my primary three languages for
this coming year, but despite that I hope to reach a solid intermediate
level in it by next January. My primary usage of it will be writing and
reading on the internet.
MATERIALS: At the moment my Esperanto resources are
exclusively online, and the majority of those are from lernu.net . I've
heard that the old TY Esperanto book is quite good, so I may look
around for a copy of that if possible.
Latin (self-assessed level: complete newbie!)
I randomly did a few weeks of intense Latin study this past
May, and pretty much completely abandoned it after that. However, I
really enjoyed it and have a zeal for etymology which makes me
appreciate the study of Latin in an entirely different way than with
other languages. That's why I'd like to take it up again, although I
don't have any concrete goals I'd like to reach with it (at the
moment).
PAST: Those two weeks were it. I worked steadily through a
beginner's Latin textbook, but once I got to the end of it nothing else
happened.
GOALS: Again, Latin isn't one of my primary languages for
this year, but I'd like to work through as much of Wheelock's as I feel
able to tackle.
MATERIALS: Wheelock's Latin is my primary text right now. As
with the previous languages, I'll list my books in a later post devoted
entirely to that purpose.
Recent Comments