Are you still making progress?
Based off of the A2 rubric, I’ve decided that I’m no longer A1+, but instead A2-. I haven’t mastered all the required A2 skills (so I’d likely fail any real test), but I’ve got enough A2 level skills that I think A1+ is selling myself short.
I’ve picked up significantly more songs from Spotify, especially by focusing on translated Disney songs. Disney does offer very high quality songs that I already know. Of all the Disney songs I’ve listened to, I’m finding that the Lion King, Tarzan, Princess and the Frog, Tangled, and Frozen, seem to be the best songs. At least in my opinion.
On an “Anki” perspective, I had a big review this Monday. I dumped all of my remaining vocabulary into Anki and had a 500+ review session day on Thursday last week. Which of course followed up with 200+ review session days for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. That got me enough practice that I feel like my review session/test was done well on Monday. Because I feel a bit burned out, I prevented any new words from coming into my Anki reviews for ~3 days (Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday). I don’t feel so burned out any more so I’ll add new cards starting Thursday.
I enjoyed “Herr von Ribbeck auf Ribbeck im Havelland”, though I don’t fully understand it yet. I’ll probably watch more of “Die Maus” moving forward.
Had some motivation over the weekend and learned a lot of grammar. And now I’m struggling with vocabulary again, I’m too lazy to create anki cards for all the words I should already know. Also trying to find someone to actually talk to in Korean.
A chance to practice Norwegian in everyday life has presented itself. My country’s public TV channel is terrible when it comes to showing the Olympics so I’ve been watching the winter Olympics through the Norwegian public channels. Understanding the commentary takes much more concentration than I thought it would but they speak more clearly than most Norwegian media so it’s pretty helpful for listening practice. These channels also show other sports and some documentaries so I’ll try to continue watching after the games are over.
This was a reasonably solid week. I didn’t do enough speaking practice, but I did manage to navigate a couple of government paperwork sessions without much trouble. I’m still having difficulty with filler words, but the key words are getting better when I listen.
We’ve discovered the lexile level of the TV show WaPo Berlin (Water Police - Berlin) is very good for us at the pre-B1 level. The vocabulary is a stretch (perfect), and the speed of most interactions is pretty reasonable. We’ll be watching more of that.
I did re-read through Dragonball manga collection (3 normal books in one) books. I’m up through book 5 and I re-read them off and on to refresh the vocab. I spent time reading a few kids books, translating some 1-3 grade books, and did a couple of days taking on Der Tagesspiegel news.
I am re-reading a German learning book (A1-A2) that I finished a few months back. I’m able to read it about 60% speed with almost no word look ups. That’s huge. Having my reading speed get closer to reasonable is a huge deal.
Oh, and the Berlin Fenster news/entertainment screens on the trains are getting easier to read. I can usually get about 50% of it before it changes screens on me. If they could slow that down just a bit, I’d be very thankful.
I did manage to get partway through a call with a doctor (I was sick most of last week) in German before we switched to English. That was great!
Too bad Germany is currently not entering new people into Integration Courses for immigrants. I was hoping to find one near the almost B1 level to finish up early and get my certificate ASAP. Residency can be had in about 460 days! Lasst uns das Ziel im Auge behalten!
Had my first full day of language study today for the first time in a couple weeks-ish. Felt good. I feel more settled in general after giving up some other things I was working on that can wait for a better time. Cutting out mental clutter and setting aside time for mental maintenance is so important. If you don’t make time for your body, your body is eventually going to make that time for you whether you like it or not.
For Japanese itself, I realized when listening today I still don’t have a firm grasp of a rather elementary concept (demonstratives with か or も) and that’s pretty frustrating considering how common they are. I’m going to drill them next month when I’m wrapping up Tobira.
@emb I was having technical problems with anki but I think it’s mostly fixed now… I downloaded this deck for Japanese
