Showing posts with label Languages. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Languages. Show all posts

4 Mar 2016

Mondly

English

Hello guys!

Today I bring to you the second app review of this little review series I’m doing! Don’t worry I’ll still post stuff other than reviews, but I want to give you more information about the resources to really learn and this app specifically made me understand something important.


Before I get to that I must specify I used this app for both Italian and Japanese. Even in Italian the app was pretty confusing, we have a little tutorial in the beginning, but still I couldn’t quite grasp how it worked. The lessons were pretty basic in my opinion, they covered just vocabulary, almost zero sentence structure and so on, but even the vocabulary was covered in a very random way, they picked a handful of words and threw them in a very incomplete theme.

Now to the worst part, the Japanese version was a EXACT copy! Same structure, same words, you only had a choice to put the words in romaji or kana. This made me angry, and I’m a very peaceful person.
I think this app represents what’s bad with most Japanese learning app. Japanese is NOT a romance language, not even a western language, saying that you should never EVER try to learn it as such! Japanese is a very complex language that has its own way to be learned, its own techniques, and it really makes me mad when I see apps like this because then people will go and try to learn it like that and never completely succeed. I made the same mistake four years ago when I first started to learn Japanese and it set me back YEARS I can never take back, that is why I feel so strongly about it!


From all I think it was one of the worst apps I ever tried, not just because of the Japanese and I honestly don’t recommend it at all!

This will be all for now guys, see you next time!
Nana

Português

Olá pessoal!

Hoje trago-vos a segunda review das aplicações que andei a experimentar no passado mês! Não se preocupem, vou voltar a fazer outro tipo de posts, e não me vou focar apenas nestas pequenas reviews, apenas quero que saibam mais sobre os recursos por aí, e algo em especifico que me apercebi ao experimentar esta aplicação.


Mas antes de chegar aí quero clarificar que usei esta app para Italiano e Japonês. Até em Italiano esta aplicação é muito confusa, temos um pequeno tutorial no início mas ainda assim senti que não aprendi nada sobre como navegar pelas lições. As lições em si eram bastante básicas, apenas nos apresentavam algum vocabulário, não explicaram nada sobre estruturação das frases e aspectos gramaticais. Mas mesmo o vocabulário era apenas um punhado de palavras atiradas para dentro de um tema bastante incompleto.

Agora para o pior, a versão para Japonês era EXACTAMENTE igual! Mesma estrutura, mesmas palavras, a única diferença é que as podíamos ler em romaji ou kana. Isto deixou-me zangada, e eu considero-me uma pessoa bastante pacífica.
Acho que esta aplicação representa o que está mal com a maior parte das aplicações para aprender japonês. Japonês NÃO é uma língua latina, nem sequer do Ocidente, com isto em mente NUNCA devia ser aprendida da mesma forma! É uma lingua muito complexa com maneiras e técnicas muito especificas para ser aprendida, e deixa-me muito mas muito zangada quando aplicações como esta ignoram isso pois estão a prejudicar e a atrasar um iniciante que ainda não sabe a maneira certa de estudar! Eu era assim há quatro anos e aplicações como esta atrasaram a minha aprendizagem ANOS que nunca poderei recuperar.


De todas penso que foi das piores aplicações que alguma vez experimentei, não apenas por causa do Japonês, e honestamente não a recomendo a ninguém!

Isto é tudo por agora pessoal, até há próxima!

Nana



2 Mar 2016

Busuu

English



Hello my jellos!

So, lately I haven’t been posting anything on my Weekly Goals segment, simply because I haven’t been studying, at all. You might even ask, ‘well Nana this is a languages blog, so what is the point of us reading of your journey if you don’t study anything?’ and yes, you do have a point, but these last month I haven’t been completely procrastinating! I’ve been testing out some language apps, many you might know about, to remake my learning schedule, and I have to say... I’m disappointed.

I’ll make individual posts about all these resources, explaining how they work and why I didn’t like them, and hey, what doesn’t work for me might work for you!



Today, as you may have guessed by the title I’m here to talk about Busuu.


This is a fairly good app/site IF you can afford it... It’s true, although you have some free content most of it is only available with a premium membership, which is a shame. I completely understand maintaining such a website might be impossible without any remuneration whatsoever, but I remember I used it a few years back and it wasn’t like this at all, it had a lot more content available, and a lot of fantastic features, all of them are now premium.



I was pretty disappointed when I saw that and it really was a deal breaker, I’m sure they make fair prices (honestly I didn’t even check them because I know I won’t be able to afford), certainly a lot cheaper than a tutor, but there are far more complete resources out there!



Still, I always recommend everyone to check them out by themselves, as I’ve said before, what works for you is different than what does for me.

And it’s all for now sweethearts, I’ll be back later with more reviews!

Nana

Português

Olá meus queridos!

Então, sei que ultimamente não tenho postado nada no meu segmento de “Weekly Goals”, simplesmente porque não tenho andado a estudar, de todo. Podem perguntar, ‘bem Nana, este é um blog de línguas, então qual é o ponto de o lermos se não estás a estudar nenhuma língua?’ e sim, têm razão, mas não passei o ultimo mês sem fazer nada! Tenho andado a testar algumas aplicações de aprendizagem de línguas, e devo dizer… Estou desapontada.

Irei fazer um post individual sobre todos os recursos que experimentei, explicando um pouco de como funcionam e o que não gosto sobre eles, mas hey, o que não funcionou para mim pode funcionar para vocês!

Hoje, como podem ter adivinhado pelo título, venho falar-vos do Busuu.


Este é um bom site/aplicação… SE o puderem pagar! É verdade, apesar de ter algum conteúdo gratuito, a maior parte está apenas disponível na versão Premium, o que é uma pena.
Compreendo completamente que para manter um site como este seja preciso algum tipo de remuneração, mas o que me desiludiu mais foi como mudaram tanto, há uns anos usei este site e muito do conteúdo agora bloqueado era gratuito, para além disso tinha muito mais variedade de recursos disponível, todos eles agora pagos.



Fiquei mesmo extremamente desiludida quando vi isto e para mim foi o suficiente para desinstalar. Honestamente nem sei os preços para Premium porque sei que não poderia pagar a longo prazo, mas com tantos recursos gratuitos (e honestamente melhores) por aí Não investiria neste.


Ainda assim, recomendo a toda a gente a darem uma olhada há mesma, como disse, o que não funciona para mim pode funcionar para vocês!

E vai ser tudo por agora meus queridos, voltarei mais tarde com outras reviews!

Nana


5 Jan 2016

2016 Expectations and Delusions

Hey guys!

So I just wanted to drop by today and make an overview from what I learned in 2015 and what my hopes are for 2016!

Well what to say, what to say...

As so many times before, I started seriously studying Japanese, learned Hiragana and Katakana completly finally! (still they need some reviewing, especially Katakana) 

I learned more Latin but unfortunatly put it on hold because summer vacation kicked in and I was having private lessons from my middle school Portuguese teacher!

Also started Italian in the middle of August, with some Spanish reviews here and there... In reality I didn't finish either courses, but I'm learning a lot form different sources, not only Duolingo trying to make sense of it all!

Well I think this was pretty much my 2015 language-wise, but I have higher hopes to 2016!

I want to start a Youtube channel, even if to just practice my speaking and having you all judge me there, this has been a little idea of mine for quite some time now, I follow a lot of polyglots on Youtube or just foreigners that are learning another language, and I always wished to become one of them!

Also, I wish to finish Italian and start French (That I should already know because I had it as a subject for three years in middle school, back when I wasn't really interested in languages other that English and Japanese) it's one of my biggest regrets not have taken advantage of the teachers I had at the time!

Getting into Kanji by the end of the year would also be perfect, if everything goes well I might have Japanese classes in colleage, so I'll certainly take advantage of that!

Kind-of-language-related wish is going to the UK to study, although I might not go to Languages, I really want to immerse myself in another country and learn as much as I can about that wonderful place! Besides from there I can travel to other places and experience a lot of more fun things and report it all back to you!

These are my main wishes for this year, I hope I can accomplish them all, if not I'll always have the next and so on, so on!

Tune in for more posts, I'm going to make some changes to the blog and the Tumblr page soon, so check that out!

Nana

22 Dec 2015

My Favorite Langblrs

Hey minna!

So two weeks ago I talked about the wonderful world of languages and how great of a community it is.

So today I came to share with you some of my favorite langblrs!

- Japanese Words
- language + literature
- Daily Japanese Phrase
- The Polyglot Haven
- Languages and Linguistics
- My Language Studies
- Hi Salut Hola
- Poliglotic
- definitly lingual
- Languages. What else?
- language studyblr
- You wouldn't understand: It's an Italian thing
- Translated Thoughts
- Kanji with Tavo
- Polyglot Nerd
- The Polyglot I'll Be
- I polyglot this
- Asociación Políglota Autodidacta de México

And there are many, many more I love to follow, these although, are the top ones, I hope someday this blog can reach and help as many people as these help me!

This will be all for now, see you next time!

Nana

1 Dec 2015

English

Hey guys!

So just the other day I realized I never did apost about how I learned english. To be onest I'm not even sure how I learned it myself! This marvellous language come like a second nature to me, of course I still make errors, but even in portuguese is the same!

I started learning english throughTV and words my parents taught me. "Oficially" I started learning on my fourth grade, but I knew nearly everything, and that can be said for all of the following school years. I was like a sponge, watching tv shows, listening to english music and reading texts on the internet I learned like 80% or 90% of the english I know today, the rest was the grammar structures that yes I learned in school (but still I always hated grammar.

Four years ago I did the Cambridge onine and it put me on a C1 level, since then I improved a lot, so i consider myself a C2 on a reading/writing level, talking sometimes I'm really good, others I jumble everything up so I'm not really sure, but to me it's really like second nature and I know I would be able to live depending on my English skills!

Well this will be all for now, see you next time!

Nana

17 Nov 2015

Cheers!

Cheers mate!

This is an expression heard mostly in Australia, and sometimes in the UK. It has graduated to a common greeting, but the word "Cheers" was mainly used when making  atoast in a diversity of situations!

Every country has their own version of "Cheers" and today I bring to you a small list of the ones I know!

Portugal - Tchim tchim!/ Saúde!
Spain - Salud!
Japan - Kanpai! 
Russian - За здоровье! [za zda-ró-vye]
Germany - Prost!
Italy - Salute!
UK (and other english speaking countries) - Cheers!
Korea - Geon Bae (건배)

All of these roughly translate to wishing good health to the people around you and it's very used in celebrations mainly like New Year, Christmas, birthdays, etc... When friends and family come together to celebrate life and prosperity.

I know this is a small post, but it will be all for today, I hope you enjoyed it and see you next time!

Nana

3 Nov 2015

Español (Castellano)

Hola hermosos!

Today I'm here to talk about another language I have come to know.

I started learning Spanish on my freshman year of highschool (Portugal's 10th Grade), and I learned it for two years, reaching B2 level!

I'm a little rusty now, so I try to practice it from time to time, I sometimes watch videos completly in spanish, or I look for subs in spanish for tv shows/anime instead of english ones, just to polish up a little. While I understand relatively well the language, speaking sometimes is trickier, because I have to mentally put together whole sentences which is a little difficult for me, and the similarity to portuguese just makes it worse because I sometimes jamble it up a little.

I did take an exam in the end of my spanish classes and scored 17 (out of 20) and overall I had a 16 if I'm not mistaken, which isn't excellent because I had a really tough time with grammar, but I'm happy with the result, to me it was a good grade!

I also had the opportunity to put my abilities to the test earlier this year on a school trip to Madrid, where I was forced to interact with the culture in a much more direct way, it was really fun, although I didn't speak much spanish, mostly with store clerks and museum guides, still I was happy to have that experience to get out of my comfort zone.

This is all for now, hope you liked one ore language post, I won't write many posts in spanish since it's not something I'm currently learning, but I might post some fun facts and stuff like that, so look forward to that!

Nana

18 Oct 2015

CEFR & JLPT

Hello guys!

Today I'm here to explain to you how I determine in which level I fit in each language when I don't have a teacher to say it to me or an exam to determine it.

It's very simple really, it exists something called CEFR (Common European Framework of Referance for Languages) that works as a guideline (mainly to european languages) to determine which level I'm in!

And how does this work?

Well there are 3 Major levels: A (basic), B (independant) and C (proficient). Each of them breaks into two smaller sub levels which will then further specify your degree of knowledge:

A1 - Beginner

A2 - Elementary

B1 - Intermediate

B2 - Upper Intermediate

C1 - Advanced

C2 -  Proficiency

All this information I acquired from the respective Wikipedia page on the matter, so if you want further information on this I reccomend you read it!

But as I explained, this chart is better used to evaluate your skills on European languages, what about other languages like Japanese for example? 

Well each country has (or should have) a test to foreigners to get a certificate on how they learned that country's language (the tests are not necessarily made in the country of the language you learned, they can have other spots in your own contry where they have it, like a local university).

I can only speak of the cases I know, and the only I know for sure is the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test). This test is held several times in several places (to the portuguese and spanish readers I know there is a place in Spain that holds the test) and if you pass you get a certificate on how you know Japanese.

There are a total of 5 different levels, meaning, five different exams, it starts on the N5 this being the lowest one and N1 being the highest level you can achieve. 

There are also schools in Japan with the sole purpose of prepairing foreigners that come and reside there to take this exam.

People everywhere argue on the usefulness of this exam, many say it doesn't leave you near of proficiency, because like in every other language class you focus on grammar structures instead of real life applications, even though I plan to take this test once I'm on a higher level, but I won't dismiss in any way the practical learning of said language!

If you are interested in learning this or any other languages that aren't European I reccomend you search these tests (if it's something you are aiming for of course) even if it is to give you a small notion of the degree you want to achieve.

Another way I like to set limits is using books, I would choose an YA (Young Adult) book in my target language (because these are usually the ones that use common, day-to-day vocabulary and not some medical terms I never heard of) and I won't stop studying until I can read it whole, even if slowly and with as dictionary by my side, if I reach "The End" I know my job is done and I just have to review it a whole lot (because you never really stop learning a language or you'll forget it...)

So this is all for today, if you have any questions don't hesitate to ask!

Arrivederci,

Nana!

15 Oct 2015

日本語

Ohayou minna!

Today I bring you another post about languages! This one is about the second language that I'm currently learning: Japanese!

This one has a different story... I've been learning japanese for about... FOUR YEARS!!!

Yeah so you're thinking "wow she must be soooo advanced already" LIES! I barely finished memorizing my Hiragana and scraping into some Katakana on the side, the reason for this is just that I'm veryyy lazy and was always stoping and continuing my studies, the result being I completly forgot everything!

I only started to get REALLY into japanese was after i found out about Memrise that has been a great help to conquer Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji, and some useful vocabulary as well!

To this point I'm able to read phrases like "わたしはうれしいけどかれはつかれています。" with some ease and quickness, of course depends a lot on the vocabulary used and if I know it well!

Besides Memrise I previously mentioned I have been almost collecting Japanese PDF textboks and audiobooks, using them from time to time to review some vocabulary or grammar rules!

The reason that led me into this adventure was essencially anime! Yeah it's the most cliché reason ever, but I'm a big fan of anime and japanese culture in general since a very young age, so one day I decided I wanted to deepen my knowledge on it and so I began studying it at home with the help of a friend that takes real classes and some very nice japanese folks!

I will get more into my sources of study in another post, this was just a brief presentation, I will see you later!

Nana

14 Oct 2015

Italiano

Ciao,

Mi chiamo Nana e imparo italiano da due mesi!

So yeah that is the extent of my italian to date xD I know how to say other basic phrases, and my progress is quite a good one in my opinion, still I can't hold a full conversation just yet!

The reason why I started learning this language is because I think it's a beautiful language, one of the richest ever! It's so full of grace and history, I really wanted to be able to undertand that!

In these two months I have learned solely on Memrise, doing three Elementary courses, I have finished them and I already reviewed them a lot so I think i'm ready to advance to Intermediate, and soon I'll have to start practicing some texts and speech in general!

I also use an app on Android called "HelloTalk" that helps me find language partners directly from Italy, which is great because it's another way to train by writing texts and adapting my knowledge to each situation!

Regarding this language I'll be posting some small texts I write in Italian with the knowledge I have, so please guys look forward to it!

Arrivederci,

Nana