After getting that dictionary which I did a short review for, I spent the morning and afternoon studying Japanese. I mainly learnt that using ’な’ after a plain infinitive verb is the same as the negative imperativ [ordering someone not to do something]. So 話すな on it's own as a sentence means 'don't talk'. However I think it's an informal construction. I also learnt that 間 means 'whilst' and あげる means more than just 'to give'.
Then after reading a post on a native French speaker who speaks Mandarin like a native I decided to go an experiment on listening to Mandarin and imitation what the speakers say without attempting to learn the meaning. You can read my post two entries down. Acording to LingQ I have spent 30minutes today doing this. I also have VLC media player which allows you to listen to audio slower than at normal so you have more time to process what you have heard. This was quite good at giving me a better chance at getting the tone right and giving me more time to repeat what I had just heard.
As for Portuguese I'm using VLC to listen to a podcast I've listened to a few times about detoxification. There are a lot of words I can pick out more easily in the podcast but it's taking for ever for it to get through so it's very hard to keep on concentrating. I also learnt that 'ter graça' means 'to have grace' or 'to have fun' but 'de graça' means 'for free.'
Tuesday 20 July 2010
A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar.
This is the first in a series of book reviews based on my own experiences with the book. Each book will have a star rating from ★ - ★★★★★.
The first book is 'A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar' by Seiichi Makino and Michio Tsutsui:
It is 600+ pages of Japanese grammary goodness which is one of the reasons why I love and yet I am so frustrated with Japanese. As the title suggests, this 600+ page dictionary only shows the basics. Infact there is also an intermediate dictionary and an advanced dictionary by the same publisher. From what I've read so far, the book is great. There is general information about Japanese at the front such as it's word order, verb tenses, i-adjectives and na-adjectives and then there is a main section' which takes particles and individual words with grammatical importance from A-Z and gives the usage of each word and some example sentences written both using the Japanese script and in romaji and then the English meaning. If a word is similar to another word, it tells you which word that is so you can look it up and observe the similaries and differences.
This above is a snippet of an entry for the word 方. Click on the photo to get a closer and clearer view.
This book is so thorough and in depth that I would have to rate this book as ★★★★★.
The first book is 'A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar' by Seiichi Makino and Michio Tsutsui:
It is 600+ pages of Japanese grammary goodness which is one of the reasons why I love and yet I am so frustrated with Japanese. As the title suggests, this 600+ page dictionary only shows the basics. Infact there is also an intermediate dictionary and an advanced dictionary by the same publisher. From what I've read so far, the book is great. There is general information about Japanese at the front such as it's word order, verb tenses, i-adjectives and na-adjectives and then there is a main section' which takes particles and individual words with grammatical importance from A-Z and gives the usage of each word and some example sentences written both using the Japanese script and in romaji and then the English meaning. If a word is similar to another word, it tells you which word that is so you can look it up and observe the similaries and differences.
This above is a snippet of an entry for the word 方. Click on the photo to get a closer and clearer view.
This book is so thorough and in depth that I would have to rate this book as ★★★★★.
Imitation
I encountered on the forum How-to-learn-any-language, a French man who speaks Mandarin like a native from Beijing. There is a video on youtube which shows him on a tv show having a conversation with 2 Mandarin speakers:
After reading through the rest of the post, the man who claims to be the man in the video starts posting on the thread and answering questions on how he achieved this feat. This is part of what he said :
I think this is such a interesting method and I too have sort of learnt some words this way in Japanese. I'm always listening to Japanese music and in songs there are some words such as 心 [kokoro-Heart] which always turn up. I can remember hearing this word and once I knew what it meant, I have never forgotten it. So I'm going to start an experiment. I will start my Chinese studies by repetitively listening to texts and then imitation what is said. I will not attempt to learn any of what is said until August 1st. I will be using LingQ as the main great resource for this experiment as it has both text and audio so you can read and listen at the same time.
After reading through the rest of the post, the man who claims to be the man in the video starts posting on the thread and answering questions on how he achieved this feat. This is part of what he said :
I started with tapes, and always by myself. Tried schools and university, and all added together lasted a month and half! My philosophy is that language is all about imitation, so learn THEN understand is the key rule. Unfortunately most education systems these days are more and more the contrary of my theory, since in order to make people feel good while learning they make sure you understand BEFORE learning. What a waste of time! Sometimes the more you think, the less you learn. Which also means that at the end you are less able to think.
Think of that: the main reason why we study a language faster in its country is because we don't understand anything. You keep hearing words and wondering what they mean, and will remember them before knowing their meaning. Which means when you start using them you'll do it naturally! If I teach you a word and tell you its meaning, say, “computer”, the only thing you’ll remember after a few days is that I taught you a word which meaning was “computer”. What was the word? Forgot it. Now if I don’t tell you its meaning, you’ll remember it a lot more probably.
I think this is such a interesting method and I too have sort of learnt some words this way in Japanese. I'm always listening to Japanese music and in songs there are some words such as 心 [kokoro-Heart] which always turn up. I can remember hearing this word and once I knew what it meant, I have never forgotten it. So I'm going to start an experiment. I will start my Chinese studies by repetitively listening to texts and then imitation what is said. I will not attempt to learn any of what is said until August 1st. I will be using LingQ as the main great resource for this experiment as it has both text and audio so you can read and listen at the same time.
Sunday 18 July 2010
Taking a breather
Around an hour ago, I posted a now deleted post on a routine I was going to set up. It would take 2 hours per day to get it finished but it would definitely help me to improve my skills. Part of this also included spending 15 minutes a day speaking a native speaker. However, the problem with all of this is that I'm turning a hobby into a chore. I'm not planning on studying Portuguese at university I'm studying it solely as a hobby but by forcing myself to stick to rules and deadlines I'm completely sucking the life out of it. Speaking plays another factor in this. Speaking online with a microphone to an unknown person in English would make me so nervous but doing it in a language that I'm no where near fluent is unbelievably nerve-racking. It's no longer any fun at all but something I really dread. This is now not a hobby, it's become something I feel that I have to do and that's something I detest. So from this point on Portuguese will no longer be a chore. If I feel like studying it and reading an article in Portuguese then I will. I'm going to deleted my sharedtalk account so I no longer feel obliged to go on it but I'll probably return when I think the time is right. Also, from now on, if on a whim I feel like learning any part of any language then I will. Because it will be fun and that's why I learn languages!
Progress 18/07/2010
After googling aprender línguas into Google Brasil I ended up discovering that Babble does online language courses for around 5-7 languages, Portuguese included. So I decided to try the free trial which I found really good! There's speech recognition which forces you to pronounce the word correctly before moving onto another vocabulary piece. There are many different courses for each language too with many subunits. You learn vocabulary and then reinforce what you have learnt through small exercises. I was quite impressed with it and might consider paying £8 for a month's trial. However I currently have three other courses in process: Livemocha 101, Busuu A1 and FSI Portuguese unit 1 so I would like to finish one of these before venturing onto another course. So I completed the Sports unit on Busuu and I'm just about to go onto livemocha to finish another part of 101.
Update 19:19
I submitted two exercises on livemocha, both a writing and a speaking exercise. I also looked over a short introductory video at graspchinese.com which teaches basic phrases such as '你好’ [ [Hello], ‘我很好,你呢’[I'm fine, yourself?], '我也很好谢谢‘[I'm fine too, thanks] which I already know but as long as I keep on studying for at least 5 minutes per day in a language then I'm satisfied.
Also on Huitalk where you can read reviews on different language books and it's becoming more and more tempting to go on ebay now but I already won a Japanese book off there today so I don't want to spend anymore money.
Update 19:19
I submitted two exercises on livemocha, both a writing and a speaking exercise. I also looked over a short introductory video at graspchinese.com which teaches basic phrases such as '你好’ [ [Hello], ‘我很好,你呢’[I'm fine, yourself?], '我也很好谢谢‘[I'm fine too, thanks] which I already know but as long as I keep on studying for at least 5 minutes per day in a language then I'm satisfied.
Also on Huitalk where you can read reviews on different language books and it's becoming more and more tempting to go on ebay now but I already won a Japanese book off there today so I don't want to spend anymore money.
Saturday 17 July 2010
Os esportes
I said yesterday that I need to focus on everyday topics that I can start using in everyday conversations. So I choose the topic 'hobbies' which is in Portuguese 'os hobbies' or 'os interesses' or 'os passatempos'. My next unit on A1 Portuguese in busuu was sports so that I'll has been my focus of today.
Here are some questions to ask what someone's interests are:
Que faz nos tempos livres? - What do you do in your free time?
Que hobbies tem? - What hobbies do you have?
Quais são os seus hobbies? - What are your hobbies?
Os esportes
Você pratica algum esporte? - Do you practice any sports?
Que esporte você pratica? - What sport do you practice?
Praticar um esporte - To practice a sport
Praticar ciclismo - To go cycling
Fazer exercício - To do exercise
Fazer atletismo - To do athletics
Fazer caminhada - To go hiking
Fazer windsurf - To go windsurfing
Jogar futebol - To play football
Jogar rugby - To play rugby
Jogar voleibol - To play volleyball
Jogar basquete - to play basketball
Jogar handebol - To play handball
Jogar tênis - To play tennis
Jogar batminton - To play badminton
Jogar beisebol - To play baseball
Jogar golfe - To play golf
Esquiar - To ski
Patinar - To rollerblade/To skate
Nadar - To swim
Velejar - To sail
Here are some questions to ask what someone's interests are:
Que faz nos tempos livres? - What do you do in your free time?
Que hobbies tem? - What hobbies do you have?
Quais são os seus hobbies? - What are your hobbies?
Os esportes
Você pratica algum esporte? - Do you practice any sports?
Que esporte você pratica? - What sport do you practice?
Praticar um esporte - To practice a sport
Praticar ciclismo - To go cycling
Fazer exercício - To do exercise
Fazer atletismo - To do athletics
Fazer caminhada - To go hiking
Fazer windsurf - To go windsurfing
Jogar futebol - To play football
Jogar rugby - To play rugby
Jogar voleibol - To play volleyball
Jogar basquete - to play basketball
Jogar handebol - To play handball
Jogar tênis - To play tennis
Jogar batminton - To play badminton
Jogar beisebol - To play baseball
Jogar golfe - To play golf
Esquiar - To ski
Patinar - To rollerblade/To skate
Nadar - To swim
Velejar - To sail
Progress 17/07/2010
It seems as though I haven't been doing much today because I haven't been looking up words in a dictionary and then putting them into my anki deck but now that I reflect on it, I have.
At 2:30 I went downstairs and went to the international section on my sky box. There are about 40 channels there, 1 in Chinese, 1 in French and thankfully 1 in Portuguese. The rest where all either Arabic or Hindu, Urdu or another Indian language. I was surprised at this because although there are a lot of people of South Asian origin living in the UK, there are an equal number of people from East Asian origin [especially Chinese] yet there is only 1 tv channel in Chinese. Anyways, I spent around 3 hours listening on and off to the 1 Brazilian tv show for some listening practice. I didn't understand a lot but I think I understood a part of a small 10 minute show to do with Switzerland that the shape of a Toberlone is mimicked after the shape of the mountains in the Alps. It makes sense but it never occurred to me before.
At the same time, I was typing away sending messages to people on Sharedtalk, so that's me done some writing practice today too.
Now, after last night, I was quite disappointed in myself because I completely froze-up when I was confronted with having a real conversation with a native Portuguese speaker but then within the last hour, I was talking to some other Brazilians whose English weren't so good and when I asked 2 of them a question, they asked me to repeat, hesitated and then left the conversation which made me realise that lots of people panic and freeze up when confronted with that type of situation. So I don't feel so disappointed anymore. I then spoke to another young guy who asked me if I spoke Portuguese and I quite easily replied with 'Só falo um pouco mas não falo muito bem' [I only speak a little but not very well]. It's a short sentence but it came out quite fast and I didn't really hesitate. I think that with practice and some more confidence in my abilities then I should manage to start to speak more and more.
So I'm going to find some texts to read on lingq to find some new vocabulary and then I'll have practiced all four skills today. =]
I might also continue some of FSI Chinese.
Update 01:15
I just had a conversation on Sharedtalk where 80-90% of it was in Portuguese and the other person was very aprehensive about speaking English so I was forced to use Portuguese to keep the conversation going. It lasted for around one hour and despite the fact that the two words I said most were 'Sim' and 'desculpe', it's still a start. Aparently I have a strong São Paulo accent which I found strange because the majority of recordings that I listen to are from Rio de Janeiro.
I also trudged through tape 3 of FSI Chinese and the tips in the tape of how to pronouce Chinese consonants which are different from English was extremely helpful but it's so slow and so tedious to work through. The woman explains something clearly and then she explains that thing again and again in slightly different ways. It's unnecessary! But I managed to get through it and although it was so boring, it will help.
At 2:30 I went downstairs and went to the international section on my sky box. There are about 40 channels there, 1 in Chinese, 1 in French and thankfully 1 in Portuguese. The rest where all either Arabic or Hindu, Urdu or another Indian language. I was surprised at this because although there are a lot of people of South Asian origin living in the UK, there are an equal number of people from East Asian origin [especially Chinese] yet there is only 1 tv channel in Chinese. Anyways, I spent around 3 hours listening on and off to the 1 Brazilian tv show for some listening practice. I didn't understand a lot but I think I understood a part of a small 10 minute show to do with Switzerland that the shape of a Toberlone is mimicked after the shape of the mountains in the Alps. It makes sense but it never occurred to me before.
At the same time, I was typing away sending messages to people on Sharedtalk, so that's me done some writing practice today too.
Now, after last night, I was quite disappointed in myself because I completely froze-up when I was confronted with having a real conversation with a native Portuguese speaker but then within the last hour, I was talking to some other Brazilians whose English weren't so good and when I asked 2 of them a question, they asked me to repeat, hesitated and then left the conversation which made me realise that lots of people panic and freeze up when confronted with that type of situation. So I don't feel so disappointed anymore. I then spoke to another young guy who asked me if I spoke Portuguese and I quite easily replied with 'Só falo um pouco mas não falo muito bem' [I only speak a little but not very well]. It's a short sentence but it came out quite fast and I didn't really hesitate. I think that with practice and some more confidence in my abilities then I should manage to start to speak more and more.
So I'm going to find some texts to read on lingq to find some new vocabulary and then I'll have practiced all four skills today. =]
I might also continue some of FSI Chinese.
Update 01:15
I just had a conversation on Sharedtalk where 80-90% of it was in Portuguese and the other person was very aprehensive about speaking English so I was forced to use Portuguese to keep the conversation going. It lasted for around one hour and despite the fact that the two words I said most were 'Sim' and 'desculpe', it's still a start. Aparently I have a strong São Paulo accent which I found strange because the majority of recordings that I listen to are from Rio de Janeiro.
I also trudged through tape 3 of FSI Chinese and the tips in the tape of how to pronouce Chinese consonants which are different from English was extremely helpful but it's so slow and so tedious to work through. The woman explains something clearly and then she explains that thing again and again in slightly different ways. It's unnecessary! But I managed to get through it and although it was so boring, it will help.
Friday 16 July 2010
Progress 16/07/2010
After my last post, I went and studied two tapes of the first module of FSI Chinese and apart from it taking forever to get through, it was very useful! It focused on tones and had a couple of good exercises to practice distinguishing tones from one another. I think I'll continue with it.
As for Portuguese I took down a note on 'Por mais que' which means as 'Much as...' which I got off a nice wee blog for Portuguese speakers wanting to learn English. I wrote a new introduction on livemocha in Portuguese too and then read a message from a nice Brazilian guy who directed me to the site www.palcomp3.com which is a music site for independant Brazilian bands so that should help with my listening skills which I have definitely seen a bit of an improvement in recently.
Then I did another speaking exercise on livemocha and got '5 estrelas' which made me feel quite good.
Then I signed up to sharedtalk to practice speaking and my bottle crashed. In fact my bottle completely smashed into tiny little shards that it was no longer recognisable as the remains of a bottle. It's a great thing that the girl who I was speaking to was great at English. So then I decide to try to teach her a little French. I decided to translate 'I don't know what to say' in French only to forget halfway through, the French word for 'to say'. I give the girl a thumbs up for being able to understand my accent though! I might not be ready to start speaking but I'm a introverted person who doesn't talk a lot. After reading an article on a blog I've know forgotten about the 4 different skills in language learning [Reading, writing, listening and speaking] and how people often never get round to speaking a language after studying it for so long, I decided that I'm not going to let that happen to me and I'm going to practice potentially the most important skill in language learning. It didn't go at all like planned but I have to persevere.
Update 21:21
I need to start learning everyday language [not colloquialisms but language about hobbies, sports, food, routine etc] before things such as dieta, nutrição, viagens. So my new topic is hobbies!
As for Portuguese I took down a note on 'Por mais que' which means as 'Much as...' which I got off a nice wee blog for Portuguese speakers wanting to learn English. I wrote a new introduction on livemocha in Portuguese too and then read a message from a nice Brazilian guy who directed me to the site www.palcomp3.com which is a music site for independant Brazilian bands so that should help with my listening skills which I have definitely seen a bit of an improvement in recently.
Then I did another speaking exercise on livemocha and got '5 estrelas' which made me feel quite good.
Then I signed up to sharedtalk to practice speaking and my bottle crashed. In fact my bottle completely smashed into tiny little shards that it was no longer recognisable as the remains of a bottle. It's a great thing that the girl who I was speaking to was great at English. So then I decide to try to teach her a little French. I decided to translate 'I don't know what to say' in French only to forget halfway through, the French word for 'to say'. I give the girl a thumbs up for being able to understand my accent though! I might not be ready to start speaking but I'm a introverted person who doesn't talk a lot. After reading an article on a blog I've know forgotten about the 4 different skills in language learning [Reading, writing, listening and speaking] and how people often never get round to speaking a language after studying it for so long, I decided that I'm not going to let that happen to me and I'm going to practice potentially the most important skill in language learning. It didn't go at all like planned but I have to persevere.
Update 21:21
I need to start learning everyday language [not colloquialisms but language about hobbies, sports, food, routine etc] before things such as dieta, nutrição, viagens. So my new topic is hobbies!
Hankering for a new language.
After learning all the basics of Portuguese, I'm starting to want to venture onto another language. Don't yet me wrong, I still have a strong desire to continue with Portuguese and do not plan to stop studying it anytime soon but I feel as though I could be doing more with another language. Last night I had the desire to start learning Spanish after reading an article on wikipedia on the differences and similarities between Portuguese and Spanish and I think that Spanish would be extraordinarily easy to pick up with my knowledge of basic Portuguese. However I don't want to speak Portuñol and I think that studying Spanish may lead me to become confused with the two.
This morning I had a desire to start with my French again which has been long neglected for the last two years. To be honest, I wish there was a way to completely forget a language and start afresh but there isn't, unless you are willing to complete neglect the language for years. I have technically been 'studying' French 8 years through a utterly rubbish education system which teaches you how to memorize a language rather than learning it. Sure I can produce the phrases 'Je ne sais pas', 'Je m'appelle Erin', 'je voudrais aller à la université' [noting that I had to look up université in the dictionary to make sure I had spelt it correctly] without thinking about it but apart from those phrases that I've memorized I can't properly construct a sentence with ease. I asked one of my friends last year who has no interest in learning language but had studied French for 6 years, the question ' Comment t'appelles tu?' and he had no idea what I had asked him. After learning Portuguese for 1 year, my Portuguese far exceeds that of my French and it makes me feel really ashamed and embarrassed. The only good thing about my French is my listening skills and my pronunciation. So I'm hoping that Hugo's French is three months is very similar to its Portuguese equivalent because I need to start learning French rather than memorizing it.
I've been wanting to continue with my Japanese again too. I don't think I have ever been as interested in a language as much as Japanese. I love the country, culture and language but I need to find a different approach to learning it. It's a unique language with me in that I can understand every word in a Japanese sentence yet I still don't know what it means. So until I can find a method that works for me, I think I'll be postponing it for a little bit longer.
Now finally Mandarin. Mandarin is another language that I love and if were to only visit one other country in the world, it would be China. However, tones completely intimidate me. Then there's a question of the sentence structure which seems to get surprisingly difficult as you proceed with the language. But if I want to do Mandarin at university then I would like to enter the classroom with a little but of knowledge under me belt rather than have it all hit me at once. So I think that I'll start experimenting with it. The FSI course looks quite good for Mandarin [although I don't want to talk too soon after what happened with FSI Spanish] so I might give it a wee try.
This morning I had a desire to start with my French again which has been long neglected for the last two years. To be honest, I wish there was a way to completely forget a language and start afresh but there isn't, unless you are willing to complete neglect the language for years. I have technically been 'studying' French 8 years through a utterly rubbish education system which teaches you how to memorize a language rather than learning it. Sure I can produce the phrases 'Je ne sais pas', 'Je m'appelle Erin', 'je voudrais aller à la université' [noting that I had to look up université in the dictionary to make sure I had spelt it correctly] without thinking about it but apart from those phrases that I've memorized I can't properly construct a sentence with ease. I asked one of my friends last year who has no interest in learning language but had studied French for 6 years, the question ' Comment t'appelles tu?' and he had no idea what I had asked him. After learning Portuguese for 1 year, my Portuguese far exceeds that of my French and it makes me feel really ashamed and embarrassed. The only good thing about my French is my listening skills and my pronunciation. So I'm hoping that Hugo's French is three months is very similar to its Portuguese equivalent because I need to start learning French rather than memorizing it.
I've been wanting to continue with my Japanese again too. I don't think I have ever been as interested in a language as much as Japanese. I love the country, culture and language but I need to find a different approach to learning it. It's a unique language with me in that I can understand every word in a Japanese sentence yet I still don't know what it means. So until I can find a method that works for me, I think I'll be postponing it for a little bit longer.
Now finally Mandarin. Mandarin is another language that I love and if were to only visit one other country in the world, it would be China. However, tones completely intimidate me. Then there's a question of the sentence structure which seems to get surprisingly difficult as you proceed with the language. But if I want to do Mandarin at university then I would like to enter the classroom with a little but of knowledge under me belt rather than have it all hit me at once. So I think that I'll start experimenting with it. The FSI course looks quite good for Mandarin [although I don't want to talk too soon after what happened with FSI Spanish] so I might give it a wee try.
Thursday 15 July 2010
Um texto curto sobre vocabulário.
Isto é apenas uma tentativa para escrever e treinar mais meu português. O texto abaixo já tem corrigido por um locutor português. A cor verde indica uma correção.
Algo muito importante é utilizar as novas palavras com que você se depara, porque lendo palavras não quer dizer que você conseguirá usá-las quando quiser escrever. É possível que você já tenha um vocabulário em uma língua muito grande e possa ler textos com facilidade, mas quando você quer escrever neste idioma, não sabe quais palavras deve usar e como construir uma sentença. Isto acontece porque o vocabulário que lê é diferente daquele que usa para escrever. Ao ler um texto, o vocabulário reconhecido é chamado 'vocabulário passivo' enquanto que o vocabulário usado para escrever é chamado 'vocabulário ativo.' No entanto, seu vocabulário passivo pode se tornar vocabulário ativo se você tentar usá-lo em conversas do dia-a-dia. É por esta razão que eu tento usar cada palavra nova que vejo em uma sentença.
I'm not sure if I like the amount of green in there.
________________________________________
In English:
This is an attempt to write and practice my Portuguese more. The text below has already been corrected by a native Portuguese speaker. The colour green indicates corrections:
Something very important is to use the new words that you come across, because reading works doesn't mean to say that you will be able to use them when you want to write. It's possible that you already have a very large vocabulary in a language and can read texts easily, but when you want to write in this language, you don't know which words you should use and how to construct a sentence. This happens because the vocabulary that you read is different from that which you use to write. When reading a text, the recognisable vocabulary is called 'passive vocabulary' whilst the vocabulary that you use to write is called 'active vocabulary'. However, your passive vocabulary can become active vocabulary if you attempt to use it in daily conversations. It's for this reason that I try to use each new work that I see in a sentence.
Algo muito importante é utilizar as novas palavras com que você se depara, porque lendo palavras não quer dizer que você conseguirá usá-las quando quiser escrever. É possível que você já tenha um vocabulário em uma língua muito grande e possa ler textos com facilidade, mas quando você quer escrever neste idioma, não sabe quais palavras deve usar e como construir uma sentença. Isto acontece porque o vocabulário que lê é diferente daquele que usa para escrever. Ao ler um texto, o vocabulário reconhecido é chamado 'vocabulário passivo' enquanto que o vocabulário usado para escrever é chamado 'vocabulário ativo.' No entanto, seu vocabulário passivo pode se tornar vocabulário ativo se você tentar usá-lo em conversas do dia-a-dia. É por esta razão que eu tento usar cada palavra nova que vejo em uma sentença.
I'm not sure if I like the amount of green in there.
________________________________________
In English:
This is an attempt to write and practice my Portuguese more. The text below has already been corrected by a native Portuguese speaker. The colour green indicates corrections:
Something very important is to use the new words that you come across, because reading works doesn't mean to say that you will be able to use them when you want to write. It's possible that you already have a very large vocabulary in a language and can read texts easily, but when you want to write in this language, you don't know which words you should use and how to construct a sentence. This happens because the vocabulary that you read is different from that which you use to write. When reading a text, the recognisable vocabulary is called 'passive vocabulary' whilst the vocabulary that you use to write is called 'active vocabulary'. However, your passive vocabulary can become active vocabulary if you attempt to use it in daily conversations. It's for this reason that I try to use each new work that I see in a sentence.
Progress 15/07/2010
Discovered that Euronews allows you to watch news clips and provides the trascript underneath so you can read and listen at the same time. I think I'll start doing that for about 30-1 hour each day and acquire some of the vocabulary frequently used in the news.
Apart from that, I've been trying to write a little more. Yesterday I posted a writing in my lang-8 journal about active and passive vocabulary in Portuguese that I'll post in the next entry. I find it really useful and would definitely recommend that people use it. Now I know that I should use o subjuntivo after 'É possível que' [it's possible that].
Not been doing much about my diet topic. Read two articles today: one about how studies show that an adequate amount of Vitamin C can help you to shed some pounds and another about how soya based foods are important in alleviating menopause symptoms [assuming I correctly understood the articles]. Here's some of the vocabulary I took down:
Pular uma refeição - To skip a meal
A desidratação - Dehydration
A vitamina - Vitamin
O nutriente - Nutrient
O tumor - Tumor
O aminoácido - Amino acid
A infecção - Infection
A insônia - Insomnia
Update 19:57
Not really interested any longer in the topic 'dieta'. So I'm going to move onto traveling. I've only left Scotland once and that was to spend a few days in England but apart from that I've never been abroad. I learn languages in the hope of being able to visit and live in other countries. I currently have a 1000+ photo collection of around 70 different countries and this has helped to motivate me in the past to continue with a language. In brief, the new topic is 'Viajando'.
Apart from that, I've been trying to write a little more. Yesterday I posted a writing in my lang-8 journal about active and passive vocabulary in Portuguese that I'll post in the next entry. I find it really useful and would definitely recommend that people use it. Now I know that I should use o subjuntivo after 'É possível que' [it's possible that].
Not been doing much about my diet topic. Read two articles today: one about how studies show that an adequate amount of Vitamin C can help you to shed some pounds and another about how soya based foods are important in alleviating menopause symptoms [assuming I correctly understood the articles]. Here's some of the vocabulary I took down:
Pular uma refeição - To skip a meal
A desidratação - Dehydration
A vitamina - Vitamin
O nutriente - Nutrient
O tumor - Tumor
O aminoácido - Amino acid
A infecção - Infection
A insônia - Insomnia
Update 19:57
Not really interested any longer in the topic 'dieta'. So I'm going to move onto traveling. I've only left Scotland once and that was to spend a few days in England but apart from that I've never been abroad. I learn languages in the hope of being able to visit and live in other countries. I currently have a 1000+ photo collection of around 70 different countries and this has helped to motivate me in the past to continue with a language. In brief, the new topic is 'Viajando'.
Wednesday 14 July 2010
Progress 14/07/2010
Still keeping in theme with studying only about specific topics once at a time. However, 'a dieta' is also related to 'a saúde'[health] e 'as doenças'[illnesses] that come with having a bad diet. Using itunes I came across a podcast called alimentaçao saudável which is entirely in Portuguese and which has some diet specific podcasts. I've currently listened to one called 'Dietas detox' and trying to download 'Uma dieta contra a envelhecimento' [A diet against aging] but it's not letting me do it at the moment.
Also read a few articles on 'A dieta japonesa', '4 razoes para não ganhar peso' [4 reasons to not gain weight] and 'Comer chocolate faz mal à saúde?' [Is eating chocolate bad for you?].
Learnt some new vocabulary and some new sentence constructions. I plan on taking a note of them so that if I lose motivation during this stage, there will be proof that I am improving.
Some diet/health related vocabulary:
Desintoxicar - To detox
Fazer uma boa dieta - to have a good diet
Exercitar-se - to exercise
Malhar - to work out
Fazer mal à saúde - to be bad for your health
O adoçante - Sweetener
O açúcar - Sugar
O estilo de vida - Lifestyle
A escala - Scales
O sangue - Blood
O metabolismo - Metabolism
O colesterol - Cholesterol
A diabetes - Diabetes
And some vocabulary less relevant to the topic:
A pressão arterial - Blood pressure
Os flavonóides - Flavanoids
A coagulação - Coagulation
A fadiga - Fatigue
O fluxo sanguíneo - Blood flow
A tensão pre-menstrual - Pre-menstrual tension
O ataque cardíaco - Heart attack
O envelhecimento - Aging
A estrutura óssea - Bone structure
Also, on another note. I've managed to get to 1000 vocabulary and 500 sentences in anki.
Also read a few articles on 'A dieta japonesa', '4 razoes para não ganhar peso' [4 reasons to not gain weight] and 'Comer chocolate faz mal à saúde?' [Is eating chocolate bad for you?].
Learnt some new vocabulary and some new sentence constructions. I plan on taking a note of them so that if I lose motivation during this stage, there will be proof that I am improving.
Some diet/health related vocabulary:
Desintoxicar - To detox
Fazer uma boa dieta - to have a good diet
Exercitar-se - to exercise
Malhar - to work out
Fazer mal à saúde - to be bad for your health
O adoçante - Sweetener
O açúcar - Sugar
O estilo de vida - Lifestyle
A escala - Scales
O sangue - Blood
O metabolismo - Metabolism
O colesterol - Cholesterol
A diabetes - Diabetes
And some vocabulary less relevant to the topic:
A pressão arterial - Blood pressure
Os flavonóides - Flavanoids
A coagulação - Coagulation
A fadiga - Fatigue
O fluxo sanguíneo - Blood flow
A tensão pre-menstrual - Pre-menstrual tension
O ataque cardíaco - Heart attack
O envelhecimento - Aging
A estrutura óssea - Bone structure
Also, on another note. I've managed to get to 1000 vocabulary and 500 sentences in anki.
Monday 12 July 2010
Progress 12/07/2010
Not updated in a while but I'm gettin back on track with my studies. Studied FSI 20 a couple of days ago and have completed half of FSI 21 today which is good revision of the imperfect tense. Only 3 and a half more lessons until I've finished the first course. I've not gotten very far with lingq but I'm 11% complete to my target [which is quite worrying since it's almost half way through the month].
If you read the post below, I'm trying to increase my Portuguese through learning topics at a time. The first topic focuses on 'diet and weight'. Here are some of the main vocabulary and phrases that I have found so far:
O peso - Weight
A caloria - Calorie
A obesidade - Obesity
A perda de peso - Weight loss
A dieta - Diet
A saúde - Health
A gordura - Fat
Emagrecer - To get thin
Engordar - To fatten
Perder peso - To lose weight
Ganhar peso - To gain weight
Queimar calorias - To burn calories
Consumir calorias - To consume calories
Pesar-se - To weigh oneself
Ser obeso - To be obese
Gordo/a - Fat
Magro/a - Thin
Esbelto/a - Slim, Slender
I'm currently reading the site aprendaemagrecer which is very clear and easy to read which has a step by step method to lose weight.
If you read the post below, I'm trying to increase my Portuguese through learning topics at a time. The first topic focuses on 'diet and weight'. Here are some of the main vocabulary and phrases that I have found so far:
O peso - Weight
A caloria - Calorie
A obesidade - Obesity
A perda de peso - Weight loss
A dieta - Diet
A saúde - Health
A gordura - Fat
Emagrecer - To get thin
Engordar - To fatten
Perder peso - To lose weight
Ganhar peso - To gain weight
Queimar calorias - To burn calories
Consumir calorias - To consume calories
Pesar-se - To weigh oneself
Ser obeso - To be obese
Gordo/a - Fat
Magro/a - Thin
Esbelto/a - Slim, Slender
I'm currently reading the site aprendaemagrecer which is very clear and easy to read which has a step by step method to lose weight.
Post-beginner
I'm currently getting to the stage where I no longer still have major grammar points to learn:
I know most of the tenses, how to expand my sentences using conjunctions, adjectives, articles, contractions [em + o = no], adverbs, pronouns and so on.
I'm reaching the stage between a high beginner and a lower intermediate level. This should be exciting but I'm quite fearful of it. I have been at this stage in French for the last 2/3 years and have been stuck in a rut ever since. In my opinion, this is the most unmotivating stage whilst learning a language because you no longer see any progress. This is not true- ever word you learn, mistake you correct, new sentence pattern you encounter contributes towards your growing language abilities- however it is very difficult to see your own progress. It's not like at the mid-beginner stage where you learn a particular tense such as the conditional or the subjunctive and suddenly a lot of sentences you read now become so much clearer and you can definitely say that you have made progress. In this stage you need to learn so many individual words, phrases and sentence constructions that you won't encounter very often [which may lead you to forget them] which makes your progress much more difficult to see. Furthermore there are so many expressions and words related to so many different topics that it seems you'll never get anywhere. The realisation that learning a language isn't as easy a ride you may have once thought dawns on you and leaves you completely unmotivated to continue.
However, after twiddling my thumbs in French for the last 2 years due to lack of motivation and making absolutely no progress at all, I've decided not to let my Portuguese suffer the same neglect. It will be hard and maybe unsatisfying but it's a necessary jump I'll need to make in order to see my dream of fluency in a language come that one step closer. I've decided to focus on one subject of conversation at a time. This is because when I used to go through French articles, this is what happened:
-I would spend ages learning all the vocabulary related to a subject.
- I would then move onto another subject that tickles my fancy and have to learn another load of vocabulary to learn.
You learn all the vocabulary in one article and then encounter little to none of that vocabulary in the next article and instead have another chunk of vocabulary to learn which makes you feel as though you haven't made any progress.
If I stick to one topic at a time then this is what I hope will happen:
-I'll spend a lot of time learning the vocabulary of a topic.
-I'll read another article on that topic and probably will still have quite a lot of terminology to learn.
-But after reading a few more articles, I'll start to recognise more of the words I've learnt related to the topic until I've read so many articles that I know most of the terminology without consulting a dictionary.
This way I will be able to see some progress which will keep me motivated. To start off with, I'll make my first topic diets. I've not been eating much recently due to nerves about my exam results which will determine if I go to university in September and which are due in 22 days. Being worryingly underweight as been an issue for me for quite some time. It's something I'm interested in reading about so that will be my first topic. I think it's important to choose a topic which has some significance in my current life or interests as it will make me more interested and motivated in reading it.
I know most of the tenses, how to expand my sentences using conjunctions, adjectives, articles, contractions [em + o = no], adverbs, pronouns and so on.
I'm reaching the stage between a high beginner and a lower intermediate level. This should be exciting but I'm quite fearful of it. I have been at this stage in French for the last 2/3 years and have been stuck in a rut ever since. In my opinion, this is the most unmotivating stage whilst learning a language because you no longer see any progress. This is not true- ever word you learn, mistake you correct, new sentence pattern you encounter contributes towards your growing language abilities- however it is very difficult to see your own progress. It's not like at the mid-beginner stage where you learn a particular tense such as the conditional or the subjunctive and suddenly a lot of sentences you read now become so much clearer and you can definitely say that you have made progress. In this stage you need to learn so many individual words, phrases and sentence constructions that you won't encounter very often [which may lead you to forget them] which makes your progress much more difficult to see. Furthermore there are so many expressions and words related to so many different topics that it seems you'll never get anywhere. The realisation that learning a language isn't as easy a ride you may have once thought dawns on you and leaves you completely unmotivated to continue.
However, after twiddling my thumbs in French for the last 2 years due to lack of motivation and making absolutely no progress at all, I've decided not to let my Portuguese suffer the same neglect. It will be hard and maybe unsatisfying but it's a necessary jump I'll need to make in order to see my dream of fluency in a language come that one step closer. I've decided to focus on one subject of conversation at a time. This is because when I used to go through French articles, this is what happened:
-I would spend ages learning all the vocabulary related to a subject.
- I would then move onto another subject that tickles my fancy and have to learn another load of vocabulary to learn.
You learn all the vocabulary in one article and then encounter little to none of that vocabulary in the next article and instead have another chunk of vocabulary to learn which makes you feel as though you haven't made any progress.
If I stick to one topic at a time then this is what I hope will happen:
-I'll spend a lot of time learning the vocabulary of a topic.
-I'll read another article on that topic and probably will still have quite a lot of terminology to learn.
-But after reading a few more articles, I'll start to recognise more of the words I've learnt related to the topic until I've read so many articles that I know most of the terminology without consulting a dictionary.
This way I will be able to see some progress which will keep me motivated. To start off with, I'll make my first topic diets. I've not been eating much recently due to nerves about my exam results which will determine if I go to university in September and which are due in 22 days. Being worryingly underweight as been an issue for me for quite some time. It's something I'm interested in reading about so that will be my first topic. I think it's important to choose a topic which has some significance in my current life or interests as it will make me more interested and motivated in reading it.
Saturday 10 July 2010
10/07/2010
Barely been doing anything for the last few days regarding my Portuguese studies but I have my laptop working today so hopeful I'll get back on track.
Monday 5 July 2010
Progress 05/07/2010
Listened to 5 of the podcasts that I downloaded last night by Tá falado and they're really good! They are mainly aimed towards people who already speak Spanish and who want to learn Portuguese so I actually think I learnt more Spanish last night than Portuguese. I like how clearly spoken Spanish is and how easy it is to be pronounced compared to Brazilian Portuguese but the heavy nasal sounds of Brazilian Portuguese makes it unique to me and it's one of the reasons why I like it. This morning I listened to their pronunciation podcast on the sound 'lh' which in my opinion is probably the hardest sound to make in Portuguese, probably due to its absence in the English language.
Sunday 4 July 2010
Progress 04/07/2010
My adventures with Spanish lasted approximately 20 minutes. I learnt next to nothing but I don't think I'll ever complain about the FSI portuguese course after trying out the Spanish course. The first unit concentrated on learning sounds and intonation as did the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth and maybe more but by this time I was too put off by the programme to bother checking.I didn't learn any words but I did kind of learn how to distinguish between a statement, a polite question and an informal question of which I had not a single clue what any of them meant. Then at the end of unit 1, in small little writing at the bottom of the page, were sentences which pretty much said that these recording were heavily exaggerated so you probably won't be able to tell whether or not the speaker is asking a question politely or informally or making a statement.
So basically, I learnt 'hee-haw' as you might say in Glasgow.
Now I'm just back to studying some Portuguese. I've decided to make use of anki's online service because I don't want to have to keep on starting a new one anytime my laptop decides to screw up. I wrote a new entry in my lang-8 journal in Portuguese yesterday and one of the members suggested that I should rewrite the entry out into a notebook with all the corrections so I can make comparisons between the correct way to write the sentences and how I previously thought they should have been written. Also, I found my ipod so I'm going to download some podcasts and songs and put them on it so I can listen to it before I go to bed.
Update 21:27
Wrote another entry in my lang-8 journal. Was just complaining about my laptop and the freak weather we've been having in Ayrshire today but it was nice to talk about something other than languages in another language. Been downloading some mp3s of Portuguese thanks to last.fm to listen to tonight. I've also solved my problem about not finding enough material to learn Portuguese. I've been typing in aprender inglês/português into google Brazil and reading some websites. It's interesting to see the perspective of people learning your language and some of their main difficulties.
So basically, I learnt 'hee-haw' as you might say in Glasgow.
Now I'm just back to studying some Portuguese. I've decided to make use of anki's online service because I don't want to have to keep on starting a new one anytime my laptop decides to screw up. I wrote a new entry in my lang-8 journal in Portuguese yesterday and one of the members suggested that I should rewrite the entry out into a notebook with all the corrections so I can make comparisons between the correct way to write the sentences and how I previously thought they should have been written. Also, I found my ipod so I'm going to download some podcasts and songs and put them on it so I can listen to it before I go to bed.
Update 21:27
Wrote another entry in my lang-8 journal. Was just complaining about my laptop and the freak weather we've been having in Ayrshire today but it was nice to talk about something other than languages in another language. Been downloading some mp3s of Portuguese thanks to last.fm to listen to tonight. I've also solved my problem about not finding enough material to learn Portuguese. I've been typing in aprender inglês/português into google Brazil and reading some websites. It's interesting to see the perspective of people learning your language and some of their main difficulties.
Other languages
My new laptop charger, only 4 days old, has broken. This means that I can't access the 700 word anki in Portuguese and 300 sentence anki that I had built up over the last few days. So I'm back onto my old computer. For some reason, being on this computer makes learning another language more appealing. It may be because I have a lot of Portuguese things on my laptop which distract me from other languages. Last time I was on this computer, I had a hankering to learn Korean, a language which I long gave up on 2 months or so after I had started it back in 2007 and even dutch. Now, I would really like to learn a Scandinavian language due to their close proximity to Scotland, the fact that they are Germanic languages like English and because I really like the countries. Not only that, but I like the idea of 'buy one language' get two half price in regards to their supposed mutual intelligibilty. The only problem is that materials for these languages are probably more scarce than those for Portuguese.
So instead, I might finally get opening some of the Spanish books in my collection I've been saving up in case I end up studying Spanish at university [something I'll find out a month today]. I've only studied a little Spanish in the past and it's been well over a year since that happened but Portuguese and Spanish are very similar so I might find I know a bit more than I think. Besides, I have Hugo's Spanish in three months which I borrowed from the library [which contains approximately 4 language books] gathering dust under my bed and if the Spanish one is as great as the Portuguese one than I should make good use of it before it has to go back.
So instead, I might finally get opening some of the Spanish books in my collection I've been saving up in case I end up studying Spanish at university [something I'll find out a month today]. I've only studied a little Spanish in the past and it's been well over a year since that happened but Portuguese and Spanish are very similar so I might find I know a bit more than I think. Besides, I have Hugo's Spanish in three months which I borrowed from the library [which contains approximately 4 language books] gathering dust under my bed and if the Spanish one is as great as the Portuguese one than I should make good use of it before it has to go back.
Friday 2 July 2010
Listening Comprehension with songs
Unfortunately, reading any word doesn't in any way guarantee that you will be able to recognise it when spoken. Even with languages like Japanese and Spanish where words are spoken exactly as they are written it can still be a difficulty to recognise all the different sounds in a sentence and translate them into individual words with meanings. So I've just decided to pick a song in Portuguese which I wouldn't mind repeatedly listening to, pausing the song after each line and trying to write down what I think is being said in that line. There are drawbacks such as not knowing all the vocabulary but the same situation might occur in daily life.
So I picked a song by Clã called Problemas de expressão. My first attempt was abysmal but that's to be expected. So I decided to have a second attempt. I'll post my version first in yellow and then the exact lyrics in green:
Note that the [----] refers to a part of the song I couldn't quiet catch.
Sobre dizer que ti amo
Só pra dizer que te Amo
I was almost correct on my first attempt with 'sobra' but I hadn't recognised it as a word I knew so I though it may have been 'sobre'. I'm kicking myself now because a couple of days ago I learnt that 'só ' is pronounced 'saw' and I've usually been good at picking out 'pra' and 'para'
Nem sempre conto ---
Nem sempre encontro o melhor termo
I was slightly on the right track but not close enough.
Nem -----
Nem sempre escolho o melhor modo.
This sentence was just a failure.
---dizer como um cinema
Devia ser como no cinema
A língua inglesa fica semprovise
A língua inglesa fica sempre bem
I'm pleased that the majority was correct. Not sure how I heard 'vise' when I should have heard 'bem'.
E nunca --- ninguém
E nunca atraiçoa ninguém.
Never knew what atraiçoa [a form of the verb atraiçoar 'to betray'] meant, hence the space but at least the other words were correct.
Eu te o mundo está perta de meu
O teu mundo está tão perto do meu
At least half of this sentence is right. For my first attempt I wrote 'oute' which I though was some form of a verb I didn't know but then changed it to 'eu te o'. Since I'm predominantly learning Brazilian Portuguese, I'm used to using 'o seu' rather than 'o teu' which is used in Portugal to mean 'your' but I'll still have to be able to recognise the European Portuguese accent.
E que diga que tão longe
E o que digo está tão longe
Como mamostro seu
Como o mar está do céu.
Not a clue where I got 'mamostro' from.
Sobre dizer que ti amo
Só pra dizer que te Amo
nunca ---
Não sei porquê este embaraço
It's a shame since I was a tad close on my first attempt.
-------
Que mais parece que só te estimo.
Até ------ não quero
E até nos momentos em que digo que não quero
é que sinto por ti
E o que sinto por ti
If it weren't for that one little word...
são coisas confusas
são coisas confusas
The only fully correct sentence.
E até parece que ----
E até parece que estou a mentir
Nearly there.
as palabras custo sair
As palavras custam a sair
I'm surprised at this sentence because I thought it was just making up 'custo'
não o que estou---
Não digo o que estou a sentir
Digo ---- que eu senti
Digo o contrário do que estou a sentir.
Eu te o mundo está perto de meu
O teu mundo está tão perto do meu
é que digo estão tão longe
E o que digo está tão longe
At least I made an improvement from the first time as I got tão this time.
como maristado seu
Como o mar está do céu.
E então difíceis dizer um --
E é tão difícil dizer amor
---- Disse que eu cantar
É bem melhor dizê-lo a cantar
Porize esta noite fiza está canção
Por isso esta noite fiz esta canção
I had no idea what 'porize' was when I wrote it but I thought it was a word I didn't know. I'm disappointed that it was 'por isso'.
Palavras ouver a problema de expressão
Para resolver o meu problema de expressão
I suppose I can see where I got 'palabras ouver' from, even though I thought it made no sense when I was writing it.
E fica mais perto ---do perto
Pra ficar mais perto, bem mais de perto.
Fica mais perto ---do perto
Ficar mais perto, bem mais de perto.
So that was my first time doing so but I don't think it'll be my last. It was good to try to gauge what they were saying and then analyse what I had thought they were saying with what the actual were saying. I'm a tad disappointed since there were only 3 or 4 words I didn't understand when I read the lyrics but that indicates to me that I just have to continue practicing! But now I'm off to translate the song to make sure I fully understand what the lyrics mean.
So I picked a song by Clã called Problemas de expressão. My first attempt was abysmal but that's to be expected. So I decided to have a second attempt. I'll post my version first in yellow and then the exact lyrics in green:
Note that the [----] refers to a part of the song I couldn't quiet catch.
Sobre dizer que ti amo
Só pra dizer que te Amo
I was almost correct on my first attempt with 'sobra' but I hadn't recognised it as a word I knew so I though it may have been 'sobre'. I'm kicking myself now because a couple of days ago I learnt that 'só ' is pronounced 'saw' and I've usually been good at picking out 'pra' and 'para'
Nem sempre conto ---
Nem sempre encontro o melhor termo
I was slightly on the right track but not close enough.
Nem -----
Nem sempre escolho o melhor modo.
This sentence was just a failure.
---dizer como um cinema
Devia ser como no cinema
A língua inglesa fica semprovise
A língua inglesa fica sempre bem
I'm pleased that the majority was correct. Not sure how I heard 'vise' when I should have heard 'bem'.
E nunca --- ninguém
E nunca atraiçoa ninguém.
Never knew what atraiçoa [a form of the verb atraiçoar 'to betray'] meant, hence the space but at least the other words were correct.
Eu te o mundo está perta de meu
O teu mundo está tão perto do meu
At least half of this sentence is right. For my first attempt I wrote 'oute' which I though was some form of a verb I didn't know but then changed it to 'eu te o'. Since I'm predominantly learning Brazilian Portuguese, I'm used to using 'o seu' rather than 'o teu' which is used in Portugal to mean 'your' but I'll still have to be able to recognise the European Portuguese accent.
E que diga que tão longe
E o que digo está tão longe
Como mamostro seu
Como o mar está do céu.
Not a clue where I got 'mamostro' from.
Sobre dizer que ti amo
Só pra dizer que te Amo
nunca ---
Não sei porquê este embaraço
It's a shame since I was a tad close on my first attempt.
-------
Que mais parece que só te estimo.
Até ------ não quero
E até nos momentos em que digo que não quero
é que sinto por ti
E o que sinto por ti
If it weren't for that one little word...
são coisas confusas
são coisas confusas
The only fully correct sentence.
E até parece que ----
E até parece que estou a mentir
Nearly there.
as palabras custo sair
As palavras custam a sair
I'm surprised at this sentence because I thought it was just making up 'custo'
não o que estou---
Não digo o que estou a sentir
Digo ---- que eu senti
Digo o contrário do que estou a sentir.
Eu te o mundo está perto de meu
O teu mundo está tão perto do meu
é que digo estão tão longe
E o que digo está tão longe
At least I made an improvement from the first time as I got tão this time.
como maristado seu
Como o mar está do céu.
E então difíceis dizer um --
E é tão difícil dizer amor
---- Disse que eu cantar
É bem melhor dizê-lo a cantar
Porize esta noite fiza está canção
Por isso esta noite fiz esta canção
I had no idea what 'porize' was when I wrote it but I thought it was a word I didn't know. I'm disappointed that it was 'por isso'.
Palavras ouver a problema de expressão
Para resolver o meu problema de expressão
I suppose I can see where I got 'palabras ouver' from, even though I thought it made no sense when I was writing it.
E fica mais perto ---do perto
Pra ficar mais perto, bem mais de perto.
Fica mais perto ---do perto
Ficar mais perto, bem mais de perto.
So that was my first time doing so but I don't think it'll be my last. It was good to try to gauge what they were saying and then analyse what I had thought they were saying with what the actual were saying. I'm a tad disappointed since there were only 3 or 4 words I didn't understand when I read the lyrics but that indicates to me that I just have to continue practicing! But now I'm off to translate the song to make sure I fully understand what the lyrics mean.
Progress 02/07/2010
Did my first speaking exercise on livemocha for a while and scored 5*. There are still a few errors with my pronunciation such as pronouncing 'lh' as 'i' and not saying 'rr' correctly, but apart from that everything seemed okay. It was a nice little confiance booster and makes me want to keep on studying Portuguese even more. Yet again, I still have a lot of work to do to diminish my accent but that will come with time and lots of practice both speaking and imitation through extensive listening. Speaking of listening, I was listening to a nice song the other day when I found the phrase 'lobo em pele de cordeiro' which is the first idiom I studied whilst looking at animal vocabulary last week. It was nice to see a phrase which I thought would be useless until I have a much higher level of Portuguese being used in some context only a week after studying it.
I also studied the present subjuctive in Portuguese today which, to my delight, is the same as the imperative tense which I learnt two or so weeks ago. It was a nice surprise because whilst learning French two years back, there was always such a big fuss over the subjuctive tense and how to use it and even how to completely avoid it. Now I'm starting to wonder what the big deal was. Sure, it's rarely used in English but there are set conditions and set phrases after which it should be used [when expressing doubt, uncertainty, probablity etc] which in my opinion makes it quite easy to deal with. If I see someone who wants to try to avoid it in the future, I would tell them to at least be able to recognise it because, like it or not, it is a part of the language.
Update 22:37
Just finished unit 19 of FSI Portuguese. It was much more interesting than other lessons because it was much more informal with sentences such as 'O que há com o professor' [What is it with the teacher/What's up with the teacher] and 'é mesmo?' [Is it really?]. Apart from teaching some informal sentence constructions, it mainly focused on the present progressive tense [the tense that ends in -ing in English] which was nice revision. It also taught a few good pronunciation pointers such as the final vowel before the -ndo in the progress tense [falando, saindo, fazendo] is nazalised. Not only this but the 'm' in 'com o professor' [with the teacher] shouldn't be pronounced otherwise it sounds like 'como o professor' [like the teacher]. Anyway, it was a nice change compared to the previous boringly repetitive lessons and I hope the next lesson like this one.
I also studied the present subjuctive in Portuguese today which, to my delight, is the same as the imperative tense which I learnt two or so weeks ago. It was a nice surprise because whilst learning French two years back, there was always such a big fuss over the subjuctive tense and how to use it and even how to completely avoid it. Now I'm starting to wonder what the big deal was. Sure, it's rarely used in English but there are set conditions and set phrases after which it should be used [when expressing doubt, uncertainty, probablity etc] which in my opinion makes it quite easy to deal with. If I see someone who wants to try to avoid it in the future, I would tell them to at least be able to recognise it because, like it or not, it is a part of the language.
Update 22:37
Just finished unit 19 of FSI Portuguese. It was much more interesting than other lessons because it was much more informal with sentences such as 'O que há com o professor' [What is it with the teacher/What's up with the teacher] and 'é mesmo?' [Is it really?]. Apart from teaching some informal sentence constructions, it mainly focused on the present progressive tense [the tense that ends in -ing in English] which was nice revision. It also taught a few good pronunciation pointers such as the final vowel before the -ndo in the progress tense [falando, saindo, fazendo] is nazalised. Not only this but the 'm' in 'com o professor' [with the teacher] shouldn't be pronounced otherwise it sounds like 'como o professor' [like the teacher]. Anyway, it was a nice change compared to the previous boringly repetitive lessons and I hope the next lesson like this one.
Thursday 1 July 2010
June progress
June
Portuguese
716 / 700 words. 102% done!
French
/ 350 words. 0% done!
I'm loving the fullness of the Portuguese bar but I can't say the same for French. I'm completely focused on Portuguese right now and find that it's the only thing I want to study but as soon as my exam results come on August 4th, this could completely change so I want to study Portuguese as much as I can for July. That's why I'm aiming for an ambitious 1400 new known words. It may seem a tad too ambitious but learning, reading, exposing myself to Portuguese is the only thing I've been doing since summer started in June so I think it may just be possible =].
Portuguese
French
I'm loving the fullness of the Portuguese bar but I can't say the same for French. I'm completely focused on Portuguese right now and find that it's the only thing I want to study but as soon as my exam results come on August 4th, this could completely change so I want to study Portuguese as much as I can for July. That's why I'm aiming for an ambitious 1400 new known words. It may seem a tad too ambitious but learning, reading, exposing myself to Portuguese is the only thing I've been doing since summer started in June so I think it may just be possible =].
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