Reflexions (Setmana 8 del Repte Idiomes Estiu 2021)
Sí, he fet el càlcul i tinc la setmana correcte...benvinguts i benvingudes a la vuitena setmana del repte! La cosa va bastant bé, heus aquí els números:
basc* (1129/1903 mots = 59%)
gal·lès* (477/1632 mots = 29%)
romani (355/715 mots = 50%)
amhàric* (687/1646 mots = 42%)
Tot i el progrés que he fet, no crec que arribi al final dels cursos abans que acabi el repte. Dit això, mai he passat la fita de mil paraules en un curs de Memrise, així que ja ha valgut la pena. I penso seguir, si puc, durant l’any. Però primer, cal enfocar-me en les quatre setmanes que em queda, perquè amb això ja hi puc fer bastantes coses.
També estava pensant, i crec que estic en el moment ideal per fer un “level up” amb el gal·lès i el basc. És a dir que gairebé els sé parlar – no dominar, però simplement que em comencen a sortir frases i paraules sense haver-les planejat abans. Per això, vull tenir més hores d’estudi amb aquests dos, perquè si començo a entendre sèries/cançons/converses/et cètera, ja tindré més hores de pràctica i que no em faci mandra. Perquè amb el català ja tinc més de 100 hores aquest any (i amb la resta dels idiomes, menys de 20), només perquè miro sèries i vaig a hores de conversa i tal. Per tant, aquest és el meu repte per finals d’any.
Yes, I did the calculations and I have the right week...welcome to the eighth week of the challenge! It’s going pretty well, here are the numbers:
Basque* (1129/1903 mots = 59%)
Welsh* (477/1632 mots = 29%)
Romani (355/715 mots = 50%)
Amharic* (687/1646 mots = 42%)
Despite the progress I’ve made, I don’t think I’ll make it to the end of the courses before the challenge ends. That being said, I’ve never passed the milestone of a thousand words in the Memrise course before, so it’s already been worth it. And I think I’m going to continue, if I can, during the year. But first, I need to focus on the four weeks that I have left, because I can still do a lot with that.
I was also thinking, and I think I’m in the ideal moment to “level up” my Welsh and Basque. What I mean is that I almost know how to speak them – not master them, but just that words and phrases are starting to come to me without having planned them beforehand. Because of that, I want to have more hours of study with these two, because if I start understanding series/songs/conversations/et cetera, I’ll have more hours of practice and that won’t bore me. Because with Catalan, I already have more than 100 hours this year (and with the rest of my languages, less than 20), just because I watch shows and go to conversation hours and stuff. Therefore, this is my challenge for the end of the year.
Crec que havíem passat el punt del mig alguna setmana per aquí, no n’estic segur perquè fa tant de temps que no faig un post sobre el repte que ni sé en quina setmana estem (crec que la sisena però no us ho sabria dir segur). Però vaig estudiar molt durant el viatge, probablement perquè no tenia Tumblr per ocupar-me, i vaig avançar bastant. Aquí els percentatges i els números:
basc* (982/1903 mots = 52%)
gal·lès* (327/1632 mots = 20%)
romani (239/715 mots = 33%)
amhàric* (578/1646 mots = 35%)
rus* (455/4995 mots = 9%)
He deixat de banda el rus perquè el curs té àudio, cosa que m’és molt útil, com que no llegeixo bé el ciríl·lic, però que em fa molta mandra :P La resta em van bé, he après gairebé (o potser més de) 200 paraules cadascuna. I no hi ha cap curs amb un percentatge de menys de dues xifres! Així que estic bastant content amb el progrés que faig.
He canviat una mica alguns objectius per a finals d’any però ja us ho explicaré més endavant.
English below cut :)
I think that we’ve passed the middle point some week in here, I’m not sure because it’s been so long since I’ve made a post about the challenge that I don’t even know what week we’re on (I think the sixth but I’m not 100% sure). But I studied a lot on my trip, probably because I didn’t have Tumblr to keep me busy, and I advanced a fair amount. Here are the percentages and the numbers:
Basque* (982/1903 words = 52%)
Welsh* (327/1632 words = 20%)
Romani (239/715 words = 33%)
Amharic* (578/1646 words = 35%)
Russian* (455/4995 words = 9%)
I’ve set aside Russian because the course has audio, which is very useful for me, since I don’t read Cyrillic very well, but also annoys me :P The rest are going pretty well, I’ve learned almost (or maybe more that) 200 words for each. And there’s no course with a percentage under 2 digits! So I’m pretty happy with my progress.
I’ve changed some of my goals for the end of the year but I’ll explain that to you guys later.
Everything going pretty well, starting to understand stuff, and I wrote the Biography section for Ilargipean today, it’s terrible but at least it’s long and in Basque…
Also for extra motivation, I told my dad that I would pay him $1 if he could understand Spanish before I could understand Basque and $2 if he could understand Romanian (not planning on paying either of these, since Romanian was an offhand joke and he doesn’t spend much time on Spanish anyways, also he has a job that pays him much more than that so he probably could care less about my puny $3).
Anyhow, we’ll see if there’s an improvement by the end of the month, praying for one because I’ve sacrificed too many hours listening to Glaukoma.
I’ve been talking for a while about how with Basque I’m trying to use a few traditional learning materials as possible, just listening a lot and translating and speaking. I had some doubts early on. My learning wasn’t going that fast, I could barely understand anything, and it just seemed to difficult. But I’ve managed to push myself out of that initial rut and suddenly I’ve been racing along at breakneck speed.
What I’ve discovered is how to stop worrying about being a perfectionist, just translate everything and focus on the little things. If I understand one line of an Esne Beltza song, that’s one more line than I understood before. I’ve been going on word sprees, translating everything in sight, and using a dictionary that requires root forms has been very helpful in learning to take apart the parts of the word. I’ve been speaking without too much worry of whether or not I’m grammatically correct, just pushing myself to the boundaries and trying to go a bit farther than I could the day before. With that, I’ve seen myself improve a lot. I can pick out words on TV shows. I can understand sentences in Esne Beltza songs. I can talk about something without having to go to the dictionary (too often) to look up words.
This is language learning in its essence. Whether you use Rosetta Stone or learn by talking to the guy next to you on the train, language learning is about pushing yourself to understand just one more sentence, to get that feeling of satisfaction when you do something you couldn’t have done yesterday.
