#amharic:reflections

[guillemelgat]

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.

[guillemelgat]

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.

[guillemelgat]

January Language Reflections

Well, that’s another month over! I set really ambitious language goals at the beginning of the month, and...did not achieve them at all. I did do some interesting things this month that I hadn’t done before though, and I’d kind of like to reflect on them a bit.

I’ve read a lot of things about goal-setting, one of which was that goals need to be specific and achievable, and I think this is one of the hardest things about setting goals for languages. It’s definitely something I’ve struggled with in the past; it’s very easy for me to set daily/weekly goals of tasks I want to achieve, but there’s very little way to measure my progress between that and a general feeling that I’ve improved over the course of time. This month, though, I tried to experiment a bit with that.

Looking at estimations of how much time you need and how many words you should know in order to advance to the next CEFR level, I managed to create a better overarching goal, based in hours of language study. That way, I can feel like I’m working towards something specific even with languages where I’m not going to be able to speak fluently by the end of the year. CEFR levels on their own are not super helpful for me, since for most of the languages I’m learning they either don’t have the test, my goals don’t align with CEFR’s, or both. But looking at the time commitment gave me a good idea of what I needed to invest in all of them, as well as a more long-term vision of how to get there. This was really nice to have, since the idea of “fluency” or “understanding” is just sort of...exhausting?? Like, it doesn’t exist, and so if you set it as your goal you’re never going to get there. I need to learn how to just check off a box and be like I did that, I don’t need to worry about it anymore. Neverending tasks tend to make me want to give up before I’ve even started.

I set up a list of tasks, and kept track of how much time I was spending on them. Interestingly, I only spend about 10 hours for Amharic and Welsh respectively this month, but that on its own was enough to make my Welsh feel like I could easily reach a B1. While I only did 3 chapters of my Amharic textbook, and 9 SSiW lessons, I think it made a difference. And it also made me realize that if I did 100 hours of each, I could probably advance significantly. So while I’m a bit disappointed that I didn’t get as far in them as I’d hoped, I’m also feeling a lot better about my ability to progress in my languages this year – real, meaningful progress. Sorry for the long, rambling post, but I just thought this was a useful revelation.