alteratlas

[alteratlas]

Arabic Focus - Current Plan

My time off from school/work is coming to an end and with it comes a new beginning for me. I am no longer part of any language classes and am entirely responsible for what I want to learn. It's both daunting and exciting. Vaguely put, what kind of improvement do I want to see?

Vocabulary: - I want to be able to take in as much vocabulary as possible from Masri, Shammi, and FusHa. (Especially words with roots I have yet to learn.) - I want to go back to what I've learned so far to take note of words that I have trouble with. It will be most review for FusHa, partially review for Shammi, and entirely new content for Masri. - I want to add words that I find myself wanting to use often, even if I do not know them. (Think of things like "500 Words to Know in Your Target Language" type things.)

Grammar: - I want to review FusHa grammar and take note of any concepts I struggle with - I want to learn more on Masri grammar

Reading: - I want to find reading larger texts less daunting and do well on catching both the bigger picture. - I want to build the ability to not lose context when I'm tripped up over a single word. I don't have this problem in other languages and honestly find it rather odd how something so small can cut my concentration/understanding. I think it's related to finding the readings daunting, but it's still good to keep it in mind.

Listening: - I want to intentionally seek out more auditory Arabic content and see improvement in how much I can pick up on what is being said.

Speaking: - I want to be able to switch to Arabic only conversations with people when possible

Writing: - I want to be able to spell well. I can't spell in any language and I refuse to continue the trend with Arabic. ----- Now how will this be tackled time wise? Daily: - Learning/Reviewing vocabulary I feel is important to me at the time (Need to find a happy medium between overwhelming and underwhelming.) - Listen to something and pay heavy attention to what is understood (News, Music, TV Show, etc) - Keep a daily diary in Arabic about life or talk to an Arabic bot for a bit.

Weekly: - At the very least, 2 Grammar lessons per week. These shouldn't be too long, as I believe I've gotten through the worst of Arabic grammar with FusHa. (At least I hope I have....) I don't have much information on how different Masri grammar is, but I have hopes it will be "less think, more do" considering its colloquial.

Monthly: - Go out with someone with the intention of speaking mostly/only Arabic. - If not possible, find someone online and try to hold a conversation/game with them. (I love the idea of finding people to game with through target languages.) ----- I'm not expecting myself to follow this plan perfectly, but I like having it written down to return to. I also have a feeling it will change as learn what I want to focus on more.

#language #langblr #arabic #language learning #learning languages

[alteratlas]

Where are we going with this?

Looking ahead to the summer season, I'm struggling to figure out what is reasonable to expect of myself goal-wise. Let's start off with how comfortable I feel with each language in general. I currently have self estimates on what my CEFR would be for each which I plan to break down later. (I'm not particularly a fan of how CEFR works but it's what I've seen the most on here.) I think I want my overall goals to be focused on the meaning behind those scores, particularly in reaching higher levels of comfort/ease when using said languages. Here they are in order of importance to me:

Arabic:  Currently - Between A2 and B1, closer to B1 Want to reach - Higher B1 or B2

Here I am counting Arabic mostly as FusHaa, Shammi, and Masri which make up most of the contexts I'm in. I'll probably do a focus on Yemni and Iraqi Arabic further in the future... Inshallah I'm feeling relatively confident in this since it is my highest priority. I want to reach the point where it feels easier to grasp new words from context and just soak the language in.

Spanish:  Currently - A1 Want to reach - Between A2 and B1, closer to B1

This one might be the most ambitious considering I have never studied Spanish before. I do think I have a leg up here vocab and speech wise compared because I already speak a Romance language, but the grammar portion is going to be interesting.

ASL:  Currently - A1 Want to reach - ?

ASL here is bit odd for me. I'm not sure if I should be learning American sign language or another signing language because I don't really know what region of the world I will settle in. Either way, I think it's a good introduction to HOH and Deaf culture for now that I hope to expand upon continuously.

Romanian: 

Currently - B2

Want to reach - Between C1 and C2

I feel relatively confident in this one despite it being so low on my priority list. I think the real challenge will be making sure to maintain practice with it rather than the difficulty of reaching the nuances of the higher levels.

------ I hope to return to this post at the start of September with joy. See you then future Atlas... Make yourself proud!

#arabic #asl #langblr #language #romanian #language learning #cerf #learning languages #foreign languages #spanish

[alteratlas]

What's up chat?

Hi, I'm Atlas and I'm here to learn languages. I finally decided to dive in and make my own account for this when I realized I no longer saw my favorite langblr posting. This is going to be a mix of things I find interesting linguistically, things I find useful for my target languages, and notes on progress. Feel free to message.

------ Already Speak ------

English: C2

Romanian: B2

------ Actively Learning ------

Arabic: A2-B1

ASL: A1

Spanish: A1

------ Here and There ------

German: A1 Korean: A1

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#langblr #language #english #romanian #arabic #asl #spanish #german #korean