#language tracking

02/21/21// 02/28/21

This week hasn't been super productive in terms of studying.

April language-related highlights

Norwegian (9/22 posts for April wotd challenge) 

Listened to three podcasts from norskbloggen and… actually understand around 60-70% of what was being said!?

Read articles for the April wodt challenge about topics ranging from hiking safety to ASMR to dream analysis 

Japanese (12/22 posts for April wotd challenge)

Spoke to my former Japanese teacher on the phone for over 30 minutes 

Watched Japanese figure skating coverage and read several articles about figure skating, using them as a basis for vocab lists

Dutch + Flemish (5/22 posts for April wotd challenge)

Chatted with a colleague from the Netherlands

Watched three episodes of the Flemish drama Déjà Vu with Dutch subtitles. Since the Dutch subs don’t always match up with the spoken Flemish, I often rewind and listen to the dialog multiple times.

Language-related goals for May

Finish April wotd challenge (8 words)

2-3 (photo)journal entries weekly

Find a private Norwegian teacher or tandem - I need to practice speaking 😅

Watch and take vocab notes on Japanese interviews about everyday topics (ex. videos from That Japanese Man Yuta, かずえちゃん) 

Review my notes for Power-Grammatik Niederländisch (maybe create some grammar posts)

The past month was quite busy for me. Some of my April highlights not related to studying my target languages:

Had a project I helped my project group at work apply for receive funding from the German government 🎉.

Began a new hip stretching and strengthening routine at the advice of my orthopedist 🤞🏽

Received my first Covid vaccine 💉

Completed my first two paid interpreting assignments, where I supported newly arrived refugees at medical appointments 🏥

Hope everyone has fun in their studies/work/life in the upcoming weeks and stays healthy!

Listening

ManotoPlus: 50 mins. I felt a little frustrated because I feel like I'm plateauing in my ability to understand. Also I really wanted to know about their tips for sleeping better at night (and felt bad for the lady trying to do guided mediation with horrible feedback and a weird screechy alarm in the background). They showed a French car (Matra) that I've never heard about before. I'm not too sure the point they were making about it though. Something about a sale?

Reading

Advanced Farsi Reading: 15mins. About half a page (they are very small pages). I'm reading twice in a row because I have to do my assignment tomorrow and I will be writing for that.

Studying

Mango languages: 15 mins. Building on past lessons.

Studying

Weekly Review: 30mins. Reviewed grammar points from the week. This week the only grammar point from EasyPersian was the past perfect. I also went over some key sentences from Mango and a few of the grammar points from Mango. A lot of the lessons focused on verbs/modals that are subjunctive triggers (including but not limited to: کمک کردن، خواستن، باید، گذاشتن). I also reviewed verbal nouns and to use قبل از before nouns.

Anki: 20mins. Reviewed week3 deck. I would say I'm pretty confident with the words from the deck. If someone were to quiz me I would probably be able to produce the right answer but the real test is if I will be able to remember them in conversation and use them appropriately. I also created my week4 deck. I also created a deck for important and re-occurring verbs, some of which I can get confused with (i.e., گذشتن vs. گذاشتن) especially if they sound similar to me or have multiple meanings. The tools I've been using to create my verb deck are: google translate, forvo, and the verb conjugator for figuring out the present stems. Both decks are still in progress. I will be done with week4 by tomorrow but the verbs deck will probably require a bit more time.

Speaking

Session: ~10mins. I saw my tutor today. I have developed a small arsenal of routine words and phrases that I use to answer her routine questions (shocker, I know). I spoke a lot more spontaneously today, though, drifting away from familiar phrases and trying to put out my English thoughts in Farsi. That's not to say my speech was more fluid or accurate; I was just more comfortable trying. It's been quite a freaking shift because I did not say one word of Farsi that she didn't have to basically forcefully pry out of me for the first like 3-4 weeks with her.

Listening

Session: 20-30mins. It's hard to tell how much exposure I get, but I think my tutor tries to speak in Farsi for a majority of the session. A lot of it is routine or questions directly from the materials. Sometimes we go on tangents and it's less routine. I have an okay time understanding her during our tangents because she does keep it simple, slow, and inject English in when necessary.

Fairytales: 10mins. I honestly enjoy these a lot more than I expected.

Podcast: 20mins. Listened to Storytime in Farsi on Spotify.

Studying

Listening

ManotoPlus: 50mins. I got the gist of certain segments such as the TikTok trend of calling your dog's name while they're next to you, the gold mining segment(which brought me back to the Gold Rush part of the curriculum of 4th grade in California ), the Dr. who taught the hosts how to properly wear a surgical mask, and the game at the end.

Reading

My Mother's Persian Stories: 30mins. A little over half a page. Did have to stop here and there to transiliterate and translate.

Studying

Mango languages: 25mins. Learned to say "let me/allow me... ...بگذارید".

EasyPersianL47: 25mins. Learned a few new verbs and continued to practice the past perfect tense.

02-08-2021 // 02-14-2021

Listening

French: 2hrs. Comme d'habitude, cette semaine j'ai regardé des vidéos de ma Youtubeuse française preferée, Dairing Tia. J'ai aussi décourvert quelques chaines nouvelles: Liv, qui fait des vidéos sur des faits bizarres ou mysterieux et MusicFeelings TV. Spanish: 40mins. Siento verguenza que no he logrado ni una hora escuchando. Tengo dos-tres canales Youtube que me interesan pero a veces no tomo el tiempo de verlas/escucharlas. Mis canales favoritos son Luisito Comunica , Jose m. , y Valentrina . Siempre aprendo algo nuevo con esos. Korean: 1hr12mins. I've been watching Extracurricular and Miss Baek. Miss Baek is super sad so far. I used to be big into Kpop almost a decade ago and some of the women in the show were in groups I'd listen to. And now seeing where life has taken them after kpop and hearing about the horrible things they lived through is heart-wrenching. Portuguese: 50mins. Girls of Ipanema again. I'm probably going to look into YouTubers too just to vary it up.  Had to cut a bit of my watching/listening time because I got busy during a few of the days I've allocated to Portuguese. Persian: 4-5 hours.