If we were having coffee I’d be running a bit behind. I got distracted doing my language practice and my head’s rattling around new words, turning each new word over and inspecting it. One of these days, I really am just going to blast through all the “chapters” and reiterate it all. Consolidate. Conjugate. And so on.
I might get something chocolatey today. I’m in the mood for a brownie or something similar.
I’d tell you about the new stack of books I picked up at the library and the way the Totentanz whirls through my head now, little snippets catching on the corners. I’m a little uncomfortable in this coffee shop because the music is so loud, it’s just a few decibels shy of blaring. Let’s shift seats.
That’s better.
I’m still looking for work; there’ll be a new set of applications going out on Monday, if I can find them.
How was your week?
What language are you learning at the moment? Languages are so difficult, how do you focus and learn?! Good luck with your applications on Monday 🙂
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I’m doing quite a few at the moment. I find the trick is to have one language as a base and then go for the sister languages – for instance I learned German at school, so now I seem find it a bit easier when I’m on Dutch/Swedish.
I’m presently learning (shortlist) French, German and Italian. As for focus, Duolingo is my app of choice and it breaks down several tiny chapters that you can cover in 5-10 minutes per day. It’s all quite encouraging; Duo is never going to give you fluency 100%, but as far as I can tell it does give you a good foundation. I’m also motivated by not breaking the “streak” of how often I use the app, and by tracking my XP on the website – I’m the sort who wants to round it up to the next level, and then the next, and so on…
Eventually I’m hoping to be able to read/listen to music/watch a movie in the target language and then travel, so that’s also motivating.
Are you learning any languages?
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Wow that is super impressive! I’ve only just started using Duolingo for Spanish. I like it so far!
Otherwise I try and learn Mandarin but I’m an utter failure at it, although watching Taiwanese dramas helps sometimes. And I would like to take up Korean as well, but I’m too scared to overwhelm myself with too many languages!
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That’s awesome! Have you encountered any of Duo’s… wackier sentences yet?
Oh that’s cool, I hear Mandarin is really difficult to learn?
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I do find Mandarin difficult, yes! Send me your lingo-learning-powers! I haven’t encountered any weird sentences but I do like how Duo tries to trick you e.g. translate this sentence : [In Spanish] ‘My name is Julia and I am a woman’ said by a man in a man’s voice with a picture of a cartoon man haha. I totally get what you mean about the XP and stuff though, I wanna keep my 5 day streak going etc etc.
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*focuses hard* *sends*
Hmm… I tried, but I got the sentence in French and German… Tonight Duo (in German) asked “Do you like me?” I guess Duo needed that reassurance. Poor owl. I’ve also been seeing a robot, and a vegetarian zombie. Or maybe it was the bear that was vegetarian.
Yes! It’s addicting! Do you want to be Duo buddies? I find it encouraging to see when someone else makes more progress than I do 🙂
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Yeah why not, that would be awesome! Duo and me aren’t buddy-buddy enough yet for it to be asking me about my true feelings. My username is SianCheung 🙂 (not sure about how much progress I make – I try to complete one section a night!)
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You should look up wtfduolingo on Tumblr. Hilarity ensues.. sometimes. Other times, it truly is WTF.
Yay, same! I’m working through the German tree at the moment – I was rotating many languages and then decided I’d probably do a better job of retention if I learned one at at time.
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