A Site with Potential: Govoluble

Over the past week, I've been exploring this new website: Govoluble. It's like lang-8 and italki rolled into one, with some additional features that I appreciate.

Like lang-8, you can submit your writing in your target language to be evaluated by other users. It has the added bonus of being able to add audio to your submissions, so that you can get practice speaking your target language in a less terrifying situation than speaking one-on-one with someone.

Like italki, you can meet language partners and arrange meetups to speak with them.

However, one of my favorite features of this site is that you don't need another program, such as Skype, to talk to the people that you meet. Your language exchanges, both text and video, take place through the site. I have found having to use Skype to generally be the dealbreaker for me, because I'm not logged into Skype normally so I miss when my language partners might be on.

You can also schedule either text or video sessions for designated times, and interested people can accept them. So you can get partners that can meet you on your schedule, and it saves a bit of overhead with trying to set up times to meet with people. You designate how long you want the exchange to last. When you are in the chatroom, it will tell you which language to start with, and count down the time to switch languages. It also provides topic suggestions for the tongue-tied. You can correct text in the chatbox itself.  I've had one successful meetup so far, and it was a pleasant experience.

I will note that the site is still fairly new, but the owner of the site has been very responsive to all my feedback so far, and I anticipate it will become better in the future.

And it's all free, so give it a try!

Not Dead, Just Not Posting: 3/15/15 Progress Report

Haven't been posting much here, but I'm still on the language learning train. Well, I say I'm on it, but it's more like I fell off, got stuck on a piece of the frame and am getting dragged along the tracks. I think it's fair to say that I've managed to climb back on. Sort of. I'm hanging to the hitch and panting while the tracks zip by underneath...

All right, I think I've beaten that metaphor to death.

General
The alternating-day rotation seems to be working out fairly well, all things considered. I'm starting to feel like French should get another day, but that would mean taking a day away from German or Danish, and I'm not prepared to do that, yet.

I notice that I have an overwhelming urge, when I can't remember a word in one language, to substitute a word from another (non-English) language in it. It probably doesn't help that I'm not learning all the same words in all the languages, so my mind helpfully reaches for the non-English equivalent it can think of.

I also keep thinking I'm going to take two weeks some time to do Toki Pona, just because.

French
Duolingo modified their French course, so on my French days I spend a lot of it trying to complete all the new lessons. I've slowed down on adding new words on Memrise. Instead, I watch Futurama and French Ted Talks, mostly. I do sometimes play Runescape in French on my off days, and I had my first spontaneous conversation in it last night.

I was killing black dragons. Along comes another player who is attempting to steal my black dragons. I panicked, slightly, before going, "Look, I know enough to tell this guy I have only three left. I can do this."

Me: "J'ai 3 plus."
Other guy: "Okay."
<get my three kills>
Me: "Merci."
Other guy: "Derien."

May not seem like much, but I didn't use Google translate for any of it. I successfully communicated (and got what I wanted) from another person in another language.

My French day is refreshing in a way. I realize just how much I know of it compared to German and Danish, and I feel slightly better about my ability in it.

German
Learning German is like hunting for Easter eggs. Or lost toys. Every now and then I will encounter a word I know from my childhood. Striking examples include "kaputt" and "badezimmer." I am also more rapidly able to pick words I've learned from stories and songs.

When I was a teenager, I had a stint at learning High German in school. Learning German now is like meeting an acquaintance and getting to know them.

Danish
Danish remains somewhat exotic and confusing. I am apparently familiar enough with the sound that I can recognize it being spoken by my coworkers, but it has French's problem in that what you hear is often not what you write.

My main focus has been on learning vocabulary from Copenhagen Cast by entering it into a Memrise course. I'm not progressing on it as fast as I would like, as there are (plenty of) days where I don't want to clip audio files for the Memrise course.

Why I Started with French

Okay, I didn't really start with French in terms of language learning, but it was the first language I actually made any significant progress on. A group at my work started meeting after hours to learn French, and I figured why the hell not. As with many things in my life that I've thought this about, it certainly ended up being a bigger deal than I anticipated.

The group started off using the free course from Open Learning Initiative. I ran into a problem early on with remembering the vocabulary. Not to mention that French can be really, really, unintelligible to the untrained ear. So yea, while I kept going to the weekly meeting, I wasn't doing enough outside of class to keep up with it.

Around the end of 2013, I read the book "Mindset: the New Psychology of Success" by Carol Dweck. I go on at length about what I got out of that book here, which rather changed my approach to language learning. Rather than just assuming I wasn't any good at it because it didn't come easy, I was going to spend 2014 seeing how far I could get with something I've always wanted to do, which was language learning. And since I was still in the group for French, it seemed as logical a place to start as any. And it wouldn't be a reflection of my self worth if I still wasn't fluent by the end of the year. After all, I was just in it to see how far I could get.

So, I started with French because I was learning it already. I've been told repeatedly that French isn't the easiest language to learn, but I don't always take the easiest path. And I've managed to keep up the language learning habit, which is probably the best thing I've done in 2014.

Learning French has opened a whole new world for me. I can't wait to prod at the boundaries of my understanding in all three languages.

Trawling the Net: Link Collection 3

I realize I haven't posted for a bit. No worries, I've still been collecting a smattering of links for ya'all to peruse.

General
Reverso Really cool site that lets you look up a conjugated word to find the original form. Covers German, French, Spanish, and English.
The Bible in over 1600 languages. Some have audio.
Great Language Game how many can you recognize or guess at?
Amazon.com -- great if you have a Kindle. Can usually find some for free or really, really cheap.
Ted Talks -- You can filter by language. You might only get subtitles for some languages.
ItchyFeet a lovely little comic on language learning and travel.

French
Audio and pdf for the first four Harry Potter books
Madagascar 1 in French
70 Ted Talks with French audio and human-translated subtitles

German
Sweet and Easy Cooking channel -- Has a lot of desserts, not surprisingly.
RTL Number of free shows in German.
German stories for children with subtitles
German documentaries
German lectures

Danish
A funny vid about Danes and Danish. Not especially instructional but funny.
Danish Disney songs on Youtube

Nothing Survives the First Encounter with Reality: Progress Report 1/17/2015

So what did I say I was going to do this week?
Right, write a post on why I started learning French.
Ha. Ha. Ha.
I also said I was going to do 5 Memrise items and 1 Duolingo lesson per day for German and Danish.
I should write fiction (I do, but that's not the point).

I've changed my language learning strategy a bit. Now I'm dividing things up by days.

Monday, Thursday, and Saturday are Danish days.

Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday are German days.

Tuesday is French day.

On a language's day I will focus on Duolingo, Memrise, and whatever other learning material I'm using for that language on that day. I will also be listening to music in that language on it's respective day. I am making a general exception for French talk shows at my work, because that's really the only language I know enough of to sort of understand what's going on while passively listening. Incidentally, this is also why I'm okay with French only getting one day out of the week. Every night right before I go to sleep, I review all my Memrise items for all three languages.

So...here's what I got going on for all of them currently:


French

Haven't touched Lingvist in a week. I've stopped trying to keep my Duolingo tree golden in favor of actively trying to strengthen my comprehension. I did a GLOSS lesson on renting an apartment. I also got a copy of the latest Charie Hebdo, and am forcing myself to look up the words I don't know until I get the gist of what is being said, using Voila. Also, on nights when I'm not too tired I add up to 15 Memrise items, since I'm doing it on my Kindle, and it's significantly faster than doing it on the website, if not as effective.


German

Level 5 in Duolingo still. Working through "Nominative Pronouns."  Up to 186 items in Memrise. About to start Module 8 in Headstart. I love German days because I get to listen to bands that I want to listen to anyways, like Ramnstein and Einsbrecher. Still watching the German Extra series. I looked at a GLOSS German activity, only to realize that I really don't have the knowledge at this point to do them.


Danish

Level 4 on Duolingo, starting the Genitive module. Strangely, Danish on Duolingo seems slightly easier than German, for whatever reason. I've gotten 70 items into the Conversational Danish course. I've been listening to CopenhagenCast, and I've started a Memrise course based on it so I can actually memorize the vocabulary. I've gotten the first three episodes of Season 1 into the Memrise course, or about 15 items. I'm planning to keep adding to this course as I go through the podcasts.


I think this day approach will work better; it answers the question of "what language do I work on now" and hopefully full days of semi-immersion will help me better retain the vocabulary. We will see.

Progress Report January 11, 2015

So...checking in with how it's going so far this year.

I got a pretty good start over my winter vacation on German and Danish, but with work starting in full force last week I'm finding that I have less time for...well...everything. As an example, I started writing this post he first Saturday of January, and it's been over a week already. Sigh.

French

I'm only up to 1577 words on Lingvist, nowhere near where I wanted to be (3000) by the end of break. I took the Duolingo progress test, and I'm only 2.41 out of 5. For a year's worth of study in a language, doesn't seem like much. Probably doesn't help that I've focused more on my passive skills and aiming for general comprehension rather than specific skills. Haven't touched Le Luth Brisè at all...

I was getting 20+ points of review in on Duolingo every day, but this wasn't enough to keep the tree golden. I've bumped it up to 40, but I may need to just spend an entire day or two of concentrated review to get it all golden again.

German

Level 5 in Duolingo. With Duolingo, Memrise, and Headstart, I feel like I'm getting a solid enough base. I watch Extra and Easy German videos, and I'm recognizing vocabulary that I've learned in the other places, up to and including when I was a kid and we'd use "Badezimmer" for "bathroom." I'm going to try to do 1 Duolingo lesson and 5 Memrise items, minimum, per day.

Danish

I've done some work on Duolingo (Level 3) and Memrise. I've checked out a few other sites, including Antosch & Lin and a site with podcasts (Copenhagen Cast). The podcast site requires a registration for full access, but it seems like it will be useful. I'm going to try to do 1 Duolingo lesson and 5 Memrise items, minimum, per day.


At this point, I'm probably still putting more time into French than others, because I can understand a lot more when listening to radio programs or music, which I do at work.  I am still unsure how to best divvy up my time between German and Danish, as I don't like alternating them on a daily basis, but doing both of them  at the same time is certainly hindering my retention of both. I'm not mixing words up per say, but I'm having problems remembering them, period. Certainly shaping up to be a challenging year.

And since this is just an update post, I'm going to pass translating it into French this time. I'm hoping to get out a post in the next week on why I picked French in the first place, and that one will be translated.

Trawling the Net: Link Collection 2

Here's a collection of links to start the new year!

General
Memrise ASCII course For help with remember those ASCII codes for all those accented letters
Language Basic quizzes Take a short quiz in your target language. Brief few minutes of fun.

Danish
Learn Danish Only two videos so far, but they're really good. Hope to see more on this channel soon. I was looking for videos with Danish pronunciation, since it seems so unfamiliar to me.
Danish Course This appears to be more of a regular course on Danish. I haven't tried it yet, but it may be of interest.

French
Mundijeux French gaming site with a variety of games.

German
Easy German series Looks like a promising YouTube series about learning German.