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.