I haven’t done an update on my own language learning is going since my review of 2017-18 in late December. It’s time to catch up. I also want to flag up what’s been going on the site….and what’s coming up.
Back in Germany
I’m writing this from Berlin at the start of a twelve day period in the German “Sprachraum”.
I’m here to celebrate the joint 50th birthday of three old German friends (from my time as a graduate student in Heidelberg in the mid 1990s).
In anticipation of the time in Germany and Austria, I upped my listening and reading in German in the last couple of weeks before the trip but I hadn’t actually spoken the language since I was last over here in spring 2017.
The party was last night but I arrived on Thursday. I have an AirBnB apartment in Prenzlauer Berg until Wednesday, when I travel on my train for my first trip to Vienna. I’ve been taking my time in cafés, reading German magazines and newspapers and soaking up the atmosphere.
My German has been flowing reasonably well. On Friday I had lunch with a friend whom I know from Polyglot events and we just spoke German.
Last night I didn’t get back from the party till the small hours…and everything was in German.
Then a group of us met up for lunch and spent a relaxing afternoon. First we went to the Prater beer garden. Then we visited the flea market at the Mauerpark and finished up at a café in Prenzlauer Berg.
When I speak a foreign language, I’m always conscious of my errors and what I can’t say and rather discount the things I get right.
Is that a tendency you’ve noticed too?
It’s not just when you’re a beginner. If anything, it may get worse as you get to intermediate or advanced level (in any skill, really).
You’re never really satisfied because you demand more of yourself.
Sometimes, it’s good, then, just to step back: for the last two days, I’ve been conversing with native speakers in a relaxed and natural way 🙂
Lower Intermediate Basque
I started learning Basque in September 2013 and I’m now at a lower intermediate level.
Regular visitors to the site may have read about the various language “challenges” I’ve done to help me focus on the language. These culminated in my month’s intensive study in the Basque country a couple of summers ago.
Since I started, I’ve put Basque on hold when I was travelling for work. Things also ground to a halt when I was focussed on language exams: my December 2015 German Geothe-Institut C1 exam, my summer 2016 Russian TRKI third certificate exam, and my summer 2017 Russian TRKI third certificate writing paper retake.
Otherwise, I’ve been moving forward slowly and steadily. All the way through, the mainstay for me has been one-to-one lessons online with teachers or informal langauge partners.
I’ve reported on this in the past and here’s an update of what I’ve been doing in recent months:
December 2017
4 x 45 minute lessons with Unái
2 x 30 minute lessons with Eider
3 hours 30 minutes of additional study
January 2018
8 x 45 minute lessons with Unái
3 x 30 minute lessons with Eider
4 hours of additional study
February 2018
6 x 45 minute lessons with Unái
2 x 30 minute lessons with Eider
1 hour 15 minutes of additional study
March 2018
6 x 45 minute lessons with Unái
4 x 30 minute lessons with Eider
4 hours 15 minutes of additional study
April 2018
4 x 45 minute lessons with Unái
2 x 30 minute lessons with Eider
30 minutes of additional study
In the forty-five minute sessions with Unái (usually Tuesdays and Thursdays before work) we do some general conversation (maybe the first fifteen minutes) and then work with materials I have from Habe (the Basque teaching agency).
In the Saturday morning thirty minute sessions with Eider, we generally talk for about half the time. Then we work with the Bakarka 4 self-study textbook. I do the written exercises, but verbally. We also work through the short reading texts and the questions to them.
I make occasional use of Assimil, Colloquial and King books, for self- study. You can find out more about these materials in the review I recently wrote about them.
I’ve continued to listen to the radio a lot online. I do this for all my languages, as I illustrated (if a little tongue in cheek) here:
Until about a month ago, I was also listening to the audio to the Assimil Le basque unifié book on my MP3 player while jogging. Now I’ve finally replaced my creaking Samsung SIII mini to a shiny new iPhone X, I’m listening to native level Basque radio while running.
In the last couple of months, I’ve also started watching some at least the Basque daily TV news on my lap top, while having my evening meal.
I understand maybe about a third of the radio or TV content. This is too little for maximum learning efficiency. If it’s available in your target language, you may prefer graded material just above your current level. The research shows that exposure in this “zone of proximal development” is the most effective for learning.
That said, I like the “in at the deep end” feeling of exposure even to native material that I don’t properly understand. My listening at this level is still for getting used to native-level speaking speed and for reinforcing things I do understand. I’m certainly understanding more and more, which is encouraging.
I’ve also read a couple of novellas in Basque. Again, these were not graded readers, just because I wanted to see how it went. I do plan to get some Basque graded readers though (there is a selection available from the Bilbao-based publisher Elkar).
More work on Russian
My advanced Russian has been in holding mode since I finally passed the TRKI third certificate (C1) exam in July last year.
Bad: I’m not writing (which is my weakest skill. I feel I should be practising daily).
Good: I’ve been reading quite a lot.
The reading has been mainly on my commute:
I also keep a couple of Russian novels at my bedside. At the moment I’m reading children’s classic Детсево Чика by Fazil Iskander. This is aimed at kids maybe 10 to 14 years old. I’m also two-thirds of the way through Alexander Chudakov’s fictionalised memoir Ложится мгла на старые ступенки. This won the Russian Booker of Bookers prize.
Besides regular radio listening, I also watch Russian sitcoms on YouTube (Kukhnya is my favourite. Each episode is about 24 minutes long and I’m now at episode 90).
I’ve also started to follow some Russian YouTubers on topics of interest to me (politics, language learning, travel…and gardening).
I’ve had a couple of opportunities to use Russian this spring.
An old friend from my Moscow days periodically visits London and we usually meet up for a meal. A couple of weeks ago he played a gig in Islington with his band. I went along and got to speak the language.
In London, I have a Russian-Hungarian photographer friend with whom I always speak Russian. We catch up maybe three or four times a year. At the very beginning of May he had his graduation exhibition near London Bridge and I went along to offer some support and see the work.
The only other maintenance I’m doing at the moment is with my upper intermediate/lower advanced French. You’ve guessed it: I’m listening to French as well on the radio as I go about my household chores.
Developing the site and the channel
I said at the beginning of the year that I wanted to post more general pieces about language learning on the site and to post more regularly.
You’ll see from the home page that so far in 2018, that’s what I’ve been doing.
Sunday is posting day. Among other topics, I’ve continued with the series on reading skills, written a three-part series on language exams and covered the topics “How long does it take to learn a language” and “Translation as a language learning method”.
I’ve done an interview with Karen Rutland about translation as a career and interviews on the YouTube with Lydia Machova (talking about the Polyglot Gathering) and Tetsu Yung (talking about LangFest).
Talking of YouTube, for the last three months, I’ve been doing two videos a week on the channel. Tuesday is usually a “quick tip” vlog, though last week I did a general update, out of which this post has grown:
On Thursday, it’s a more in-depth look at a language learning issue or an interview or a travel vlog.
If you’re a reader of the blog, do you check out the YouTube channel as well? If you’re into YouTube, please subscribe. Please let me know if you have any feedback, including whether you think that posting twice a week is too much (or two little).
Staying in touch: if you’re in the Email Club, please reconfirm
Have you signed up for email updates (the “Howtogetfluent Email club”)? You can do that using the sign up box at the bottom of this post (where you can also get my free “Discover how to get fluent” video course).
If you’re already on the list, you should have had an email from me today asking you to click through the line in the mail to reconfirm that you’d like to stay in touch 🙂 or unsubscribe 🙁 This doesn’t apply to anybody who signs up today or later.
It’s a simple process but necessary to make sure I’m compliant with the new EU General Data Protection Regulation. I’ve also adopted a privacy/cookie policy for the same reason.
If you don’t confirm by the end of 25 May 2018, I’m afraid I’ll have to take you off the list (but you can re-subscribe at any time).
Looking ahead
The plan is to continue weekly (Sunday) posts. There’ll be more on reading skills and I’ll move to look at the other core skills: speaking, listening and writing (the latter already cover in relation to my own Russian studies). Another topic I’d like to cover is pronunciation.
I’m also looking forward to developing my own paid courses/mentoring on general language learning and individual languages. In order to do that, I’m bringing my own thoughts about method further into focus (and look out for videos and posts on that).
If you’re in the Email Club, you’ll know that I recently wrote to ask you what language(s) you’re learning and what your main problems with them are.
Thanks to all of you who’ve responded so far (there’s still time!). I am going through the results. This will help guide me in the choice of topics to cover here and on YouTube and as I develop my own courses.
I leave Berlin on Wednesday. I’m bound for Vienna (by train). It’ll be my first visit. I’m really looking forward to the museums, the architecture and the cafés…..and the language.
Then it’s straight to Bratislava for the Polyglot Gathering. You may have seen my reviews and vlogs of this event on the site. This will be the fifth Gathering. It’ll also be the fifth at which I’m a speaker. I’m talking about “The Talent Question” (a look at individual differences in language learning ability and how we can overcome them).
If you’re curious about the Gathering, check out my past reviews. Have a look too at that interview with head organiser Lydia Machová.
Auf Wiedersehen and look out for a new post a week from today.
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