A humble langblr for my language study

things are getting real now!!!!! DELE C1 exam I’ll be seeing you in May 😎

am i excited? yes 

am i shit scared? also yes 

thanks for the tag @kaelen​!

nickname: kelly

zodiac sign: scorpio

height: 5’4”

hogwarts house: ravenclaw

last thing i googled: princess diana (i was listening to the You’re Wrong About podcast series on her and 10/10 would recommend)

song stuck in my head: Too Much Time Together by San Cisco

number of followers: 77

amount of sleep: i slept like a solid 9 hours last night which is a nice break from the usual lmao

lucky number: 14

dream job: i simply do not dream of labor but i’m enjoying my english teaching gig atm so lets go with that for the moment

wearing: gym shirt and shorts because i thought it would inspire me to do some exercise today but alas

favorite song:  currently it’s She’s a Riot by The Jungle Giants (it’s a bop go listen)

favorite instrument: trumpet 🎺🎺🎺

aesthetic: literally just Eleanor Shellstrop from The Good Place

favorite author: currently Roxane Gay

favorite animal noise: very soft cat purr

random: i am a huge fan of bubble tea !

niñ@ 1: hola

so in classic 2020 fashion, life got itself firmly in the way of my posting for a solid minute there but the challenge still stands and the studying hasn’t stopped!

wishing everyone a very Happy New Year and all the best for 2021! 🥳🥳🥳

This is the 3rd and pénultième exam in my language challenge and quite possibly the most difficult!

🌟 why am i doing this ?

French has always seemed like a super interesting language to learn and I’ve always been really intrigued by the phonetics of it, but I was always discouraged from studying it as i am an absolutely atroshis terrible speller. Nevertheless, it’s a language that I’ve always said I’ll ~learn it one day~ and there’s no time like the present 💪

Having basically no prior knowledge of this language (apart from the basics I needed in order to get by when I was travelling through France a couple years back) it will be quite a challenge to go from zéro to A2 in less than a year but I’m very much looking forward to seeing just how far I can get! 

I feel like I may have a slight advantage with French as there are a lot of similarities between it and Spanish, so knowing this language might help a lot in terms of vocab and learning the grammar a bit quicker. Here’s hoping I don’t just muddle them up or getting confused with false friends😅

🌟 when am i gonna do it ?

Depending on which center I end up enrolling in, I’ll either be taking this exam in mid September or early October. I feel like this will be a good time to take this exam as I’ll have plenty of time after the first two exams to focus on French while still being ahead of my birthday deadline in November 🥳🥳🥳

🌟 what will be on the exam ?

There are a LOT of things I’ll need to learn for this exam. Not only is there the huge range of vocab and the many many grammar concepts I’ll need to learn, I’ll also need to know about various socio-cultural practices in French, with a surprising amount of emphasis given to knowing about administrative practices

The format of this exam, especially as it’s for quite a low level, is fairly straightforward. It has the four main language components: reading, listening, writing, and speaking and lasts for just one hour and 45 minutes. According to this,  each of these sections are given as:

Listening comprehension: 25 minutes wherein a handful of short recordings (max. 5 minutes long), are played twice, with topics about everyday life. 

Reading Comprehension: 30 minutes of answering questions on four or five written documents about everyday life.

Writing: 45 minutes to write a letter or message to a friend or family member about a personal experience/event or a greeting card style note to express regret, or congratulate or thank someone

Speaking: a three part section: first, a guided conversation followed by an information exchange scenario and a role play exercise. This section is 20 minutes in total but as part of this I’ll get 10 minutes of preparation time so the actual time I need to speak is limited.

🌟 what will i need to do ?

As I’m basically starting from scratch here, I’ll need to build my way up to A2 just as I would with any other language and learn it all step by step. However, pne of the aspects I know I’ll need to work on the most with French (even more so than the other 3 languages) will definitely be pronunciation and spelling

🌟 how will i study ?

I’ll start with this free! textbook which introduces French grammar and basic vocab 

I’ll also be consulting a few youtube tutorials on French pronunciation to try and start off on the right foot and not end up with any bad pronunciation habits 

I also have the absolute privilege of having a close friend who tutors French to high school students and has offered to help me on my journey! With regular practise I hope I can bring my speaking skills up to speed bientôt 😊

Hopefully once I get a grip on the basics I’ll be able to start tackling more challenging listening and reading exercises and be able to hold conversations! If there are any other French langblrs out there who’d like to practise in the future please give me a shout! Likewise any resources you might know if that could help me out are always super appreciated!

jusqu'à la prochaine fois !

The second hurdle for my year-long language exam challenge! 

🌟 why am i doing this?

Everything I learnt my two years of german study at uni has eVAPORATED from my brain after not having practised for quite some time and I’m back for redemption!! When i left uni i would have been pretty solidly at B1 level with german so my goal for this language exam is simply to get myself back to were I was 💪 

With effort I could mayyyyybe go for the B2 exam - that is, if study goes well and I’m able to get myself back up to the level I had when I left uni with time to spare- buuuuuuut for the time being I’d prefer to set my goal as B1 which is much more manageable. If I get near to the exam date and feel like I’ve got my skills up to a passable B2 standard I might revise this goal 😎

imho German is such an awesome language to learn and I really enjoyed my classes at uni so i’m definitely looking forward to diving right back in! I also have a few friends who are German native speakers or living in a German speaking country and learning the language so I’m really looking forward to the opportunity to practise with them (and any other German speaker/learner here who is up for a chat!)

🌟 when am i gonna do it?

The actual exam dates in the center I’m likely to take this exam in have not yet been posted for 2021, but it looks like the B1 exam is held a coupe of times a year - with any luck I hope to sit this exam in around July 2021. However if i do end up feeling brave and going for the B2 this might be pushed back a bit  ✌️

🌟 what will be on the exam?

in a very helpful move, the Goethe Institute has written on their website (in English) the main assessable goals for the B1 exam:

understand the main points of information in conversations and texts on familiar matters relating to work, school and leisure time, etc. when clear, standard language is used,

deal with most situations typically encountered when travelling in German-speaking countries,

express yourself simply and coherently when talking about familiar topics and areas of personal interest,

report on experiences and events, describe dreams, hopes and ambitions as well as make short statements and explanations.

Like most other language exams, there will be four main parts: reading, listening, writing and speaking and these components together will have a total run time of 3 hours (and I might be able to take the sections on different days? its unclear but huge if true)

🌟 what will i need to do?

first step will 100% be revising everything I learnt grammar-wise at uni and jogging my memory on all the vocab i learnt (i’m sure it’s all tucked away in my brain somewhere,,, memrise and quizlet here i come 😅) 

this exam will be quite a challenge because in some ways i feel like i’m really starting from scratch again but hopefully i’ll be able to pick it up again fairly easily. this is also a good level to be coming back to because a lot of what is covered on this exam are general topics so in this case I’m looking to study topics more freely for a bit and get a feel for the language again, but sooner rather than later i’ll focusing in on the exact questions and format of the exam itself (many thanks @lagom-languages​ for your advice on this!)

🌟 how will i study?

the really awesome thing about learning German is that there is an AMPLE amount of free online resources to get stuck into (like easy to read news, slow german podcasts etc) so little by little, each week I’ll be working on reading and listening that way, and practicing writing responses/summaries of what I read. All this plus an occasional chat with a willing speaking partner and following a textbook for grammar exercises should be a good way to get started!

If anyone has any specific recommendations for A2-B1 level resources that I’ve missed here, or any other tips in general pls let me know! 

another super long post from me (only 2 more to go 😅) so thank you to anyone who’s read to the end of this plus a huge thanks to everyone who’s already reached out to help me!! 

thanks for tagging me @rainie-day 😄

closed curtains or open window / bumblebees or butterflies / banana bread or cheesecake / tulips or roses / lemon & honey or apple & cinnamon / hillside cottage or city apartment / warm or cold / book or video game / organized bullet journal or cluttered sketchbook / smoothie or milkshake / sunshine or moonlight / relaxing or productivity / holding hands or back hugs / sunset at the beach or stargazing in a field / poetry or prose / candle or diffuser / longing for the past or longing for the future / vocals or instrumentals / snowy mountain or rolling green hills

I disappeared for a while so here’s an update! More about the actual exams up soon ✌ 

Scroll to the end for English and if you have ganas I’d super appreciate any corrections for errors I make! (not in the english part though - pls let me be a bad speller in peace haha)

¿qué has hecho esta semana?

Al principio de este proyecto de exámenes de lenguas tenía muchas ganas de estudiar todas las lenguas a la vez, aunque supiera que no fue la mejor idea porque iba a abarcar más de lo que pude e iba a terminar con el desgaste muy temprano 😅 Por eso, decidí comenzar con unos pasos pequeños para ayudarme formar buenos hábitos y no inundarme con tareas

(y también pq acabo de empezar en un nuevo puesto de trabajo y no he tenido mucho tiempo libre esta semana jaja)

E N T O N C E S

Esta semana se me he dedicado al español y he empezado unas nuevas actividades para cada destreza del lenguaje 😃

Lectura: a través de la app de la biblioteca pública en mi ciudad, puedo descargar libros electrónicos y para empezar, he seleccionado una novela para jóvenes - Invisible por Eloy Moreno  

Trata de un chico que ha desarrollado superpoderes y se ha vuelto invisible, pero por causa de un “accidente” ha perdido sus poderes y se coloca en un hospital psiquiátrico.

Es un libro bastante fácil de leer, salvo que ningún de los personajes han sido presentados con sus nombres propios y se refieren solo con descripciones (p. ej. el chico exinvisible, la niña de las cien pulseras en la mano, el chico con nueve dedos y medio etc). Eso me confunda un poco de vez en cuando porque encima se narra la historia por cambiar con frecuencia la perspectiva de los personajes y a veces es difícil saber quién exactamente está contando la historia jaja

Leer este libro me hizo dar cuenta de que tengo deficiencias en mi vocabulario para los partes del cuerpo (los que son más específicos que cabeza, hombros rodillas, pies...) así que he hecho una poca de revisión sobre este tema también✌

Comprensión auditiva: he descargado el podcast War of Words que trata de la lingüística - es una buena manera de practicar la comprensión auditiva y también repasar lo que estudié en mi título universitario 😊

Escritura: pues escribir esto cuenta, ¿no? 😅😅😅 (¡por favor corrígeme mis errores! 🙏)

Expresión oral: tampoco mucho esta semana, pero tuve que hacer un poco de trabajo administrativo por teléfono y para mí eso vale como práctica

Gramática: he estado usando el app ConjuGato para practicar conjugando verbos en el presente y el pretérito simple. Es súper divertido y un día compraré la versión premium para poder practicar con más verbos y con más formas (el imperfecto, subjuntivo etc)

Entonces, aunque esta semana no ha sido llena de estudiar estoy bastante contenta con lo que logré! Poco a poco alcanzaré mi objetivo 💪

~ English ~

¿what have you done this week?

When i first started this language project I was keen to start studying all 4 languages at once even though i knew that it wouldn’t be the best idea as I would be biting off way more than I could chew and would probably end up burning out pretty early on 😅 So I decided to start small to help me form good habits and to not overwhelm myself with work

(and also bc i just started at a new workplace and I’ve been pretty stretched for time this week lmao)

SO

This week I’ve dedicated myself to my Spanish study and I started some new activities for each of the language skills 😃

Reading: through the app that my city’s public library has I’m able to download ebooks and to kick us off I chose a youth fiction novel -  Invisible by Eloy Moreno

this story is about a boy who develops superpowers and turns himself invisible, but due to an “accident” he loses his powers and finds himself in a psychiatric hospital.

It’s a pretty easy book to read, except for the fact that none of the characters are presented with their names and they are only referred to by descriptions (eg. the boy who is no longer invisible, the girl with 100 bracelets on her arm, the boy with nine and a half fingers etc). This confuses me a bit every now and then bc on top of this the narration of the story changes quite frequently between characters and sometimes it’s difficult to know exactly who’s telling the story lmao

Reading this book has also made me realise that i have some gaps in my vocabulary concerning the names of body parts (the parts that are more specific than head, shoulders, knees, and toes...) so I’ve done a bit of revision on that topic too

Listening: I’ve downloaded a podcast called War of Words which is all about linguistics - it’s a good way to practise both my listening skills and also revise what i learnt in my uni degree 😊

Writing: writing all this counts, right? 😅😅😅

Speaking: I haven’t done too much on this skill this week, but i did have to make some work calls in Spanish which to me counts as practise

Grammar: I’ve been using the app  Conjugato to practise conjugating verbs in present and simple past tense. It’s actually super fun and one of these days I’ll invest in the premium version so that I can practise with more verbs and more verb forms (inc. the imperfect, the subjunctive etc)

So although this week wasn’t study-heavy I’m still pretty happy with what I’ve managed to achieve so far! Little by little I’ll get there 💪