Safe arrivals in China. Japan, Finland, Russia and Taiwan

  Germany and USA are more commonly sent.

Also sent to China, Japan, Finland, Belgium, India, Russia and Taiwan.

I sent 8 post cards yesterday.  I can't wait to see if they come over many days.  Usually, they come in batches of 2 to 4 cards in my mail box, not spread out one per day.

Duolingo September Progress includes Zulu, Haitian Creole, Irish, Swedish and Czech

Learning Focus in September: trying to level up in Duolingo (jump each language to the next increasing Duolingo level)

I am trying different ways to keep me on track around work and family and keep my motivation up.

My September Challenge

This month, I am working through languages I haven't had a chance to revisit for a while.  I am dabbling in them until I level up.  Each subsequent language level is harder to obtain because each level is a much higher number of XP.  Level 25 is the highest level.

Trying out the new Duolingo update

I have enjoyed revisiting languages once again and getting into their mode or head space.  I am also enjoying this in combination with the new interface in Duolingo.   I have been a Duolingo member since begin on their waitlist 10 years ago.  I love the new path way and how it organises a set path of mini steps to try in bite size pieces as well as revision sets of mistakes, listening and speaking that can be forgotten about if like me you often play Duolingo in waiting rooms and near others so you never want to to turn the volume up in case it annoys other people.  The speaking and listening exercises remind me to concentrate on these skills when I am away from others.

So far, I have levelled up in 9 Languages across Turkish, Polish, Russian, Irish, Danish, Swedish, Czech, Finnish as well as the newest language Zulu.  I have worked hard and am enjoying every minute of Level 11 Zulu.

I wonder how many more level ups I can work towards by the end of September? I don't want to set a goal, because my family and work come first, but I celebrate every achievement along the way. 

Dabbling across more than 30 languages in my long term goal at my own pace. 5 languages I have already reached Level 25: Italian, French, German, Spanish, Welsh, however as Duolingo evolves and updates more lessons and units are being added to more courses. So, 38 - 9 levelled up recently - 5 at level 25 = 24 languages to work my way though.  At the moment, I am cycling through 3 langauges daily, usually a Romance language, a Germanic language (as the two language families I have the most experience/background in) and one from another family.

Next in line: 

•  Romanian, Latin,
• Norwegian*, Finnish, 
• Indonesian, Chinese, Korean
• Hawaiian, Navajo, Swahili
• Arabic, Greek, Yiddish

*Norwegian is a huge course

Level 6 vs Level 23 comparison

*Norwegian is a huge course and is going to hard to be level up from Level 23 to level 24. This next level needs over 1200XP to be completed. Be aware, lower levels like my Hindi is only on level 6, so needs only 150 XP to level up.  I think this tiered systems is effective because it allows you to concentrate in bite size amounts when you first meet a langauge and lets you get spaced repetition until you do the next lesson.  Whereas, with higher levels, you can concentrate for longer periods when you are used to more grammar and more vocabulary and can take on more complicated sentences. I certainly notice how much more alert you are and how quickly you fatigue with a new language as a beginner.

Hence, I have currently completed 10 trophies but Spanish and French as 2 of the largest courses with the most learners have been significantly updated and grown.

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Edit

Next 10 level ups completed: Esperanto,  Scottish Gaelic, Swedish, Japanese,  Hungarian, Hindi, Dutch, Haitian Creole, Hebrew and Vietnamese this week.

Now 19 levels up in September :-)

Welsh Learning Log - word order

        

  

Rule: :Welsh has a similar word order to English. 

Welsh - Ydy hi'n gallu sgio. (Is she able to ski?) 

English - Can she ski?

Reflection:  Looking at this example. Ydy means is, hi'n means she and gallu means 'can' or 'able to"

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Teach Yourself Beginner's Polish - Review

Teach Yourself Beginner's Polish on Amazon

Description: 250  pages, A5 textbook with exercises and keywords

Includes 15 sections

Sample sentence inside;

  Polish    Nie. Nie jestern glodny. (No. Not I'm hungry.)

  English   No. I am not hungry.

Pros:

• organised by 15 sections
• 2 audio CDs
• normal font size
• some black and white illustrations
• English/Polish  vocabulary
• key to exercises
• pronunciation guide

Cons: 

• first published 2009
• no index with page numbers

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Teacher Yourself Cantonese (Chinese) Review

Teach Yourself Cantonese on Amazon

Description: 428  pages, A5 textbook with exercises and keywords

Includes 26 sections

Sample sentence inside;

  Cantonese    Keuih sing mat-yeh a? (What is he surnamed?)

  English   What is his surname?

Pros:

• organised by 26 sections
• 2 audio CDs
• includes index with unit numbers
•  normal font size
• some black and white illustrations
• English/Cantonese  vocabulary
• key to exercises
• pronunciation guide

Cons: 

• first published 2006, 2010

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Short Stories in Danish for beginners - Review

Short Stories in Danish

Description:240 pages, A5 with exercises and keywords in bold

Includes 8 chapters

Sample sentence inside;

  Danish    Mit navn er Daniel.

  English   My name is Daniel.

Pros:

• organised by 8chapters
• normal font size
• Danish to English glossary for key words
• some black and white illustrations
• multiple choice answer key for each chapter in index

Cons: 

• no audio
• no pronunciation guide

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Short Stories in Dutch for beginners - Review

Short Stories in Dutch

Description:224 pages, A5 with exercises and keywords in bold

Includes 8 chapters

Sample sentence inside;

  Dutch    Wat is er, Julia? antwoord ik. (What is it, Julia? answered I.)

  English   What is it, Julia?  I answered.

Pros:

• organised by 8chapters
• normal font size
• Dutch to English glossary for key words
• some black and white illustrations
• multiple choice answer key for each chapter in index

Cons: 

• no audio
• no pronunciation guide

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Top 10 countries of postcards

  

See my other blog post on postcrossing. Every postcard you send you get another in exchange from a random country.

*****

Today, one arrived in USA after 29 days (usually between 22 * 42 days for USA to & from Australia)

See picture below of the top 10 countries I usually exchange postcard with.

Below is all the countries I have received International postcards from since 2008, including from my languages learning list Romania, Phillipines, France, Italy, Poland, Japan, Germany, The Netherlands and Finland.

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Postcrossing off to FINLAND

 

See my other blog post on postcrossing. Every postcard you send you get another in exchange from a random country.

*****

I usually buy 10 international postcard stamps at a time.  

Today, I sent my last one, until I buy more on pay day, to FINLAND.

See picture of my last 25 postcards received from a mixture of contries, including Germany, Japan, Spain and Finland.  You get a surprise country in return, usually from the countries that have more postcrossing members.  It is more likely you will be paired with Germany, Finaland, USA and The Netherlands.  I love getting snail mail that is not bills ... but I get extra excited if I get my first posstcrossing postcard from a country I haven't got in my collection yet.

I love my scratch travel map to record my languages I am dabbling in as well as countries I have in my postcard collection.

ScratchTravel Map

Happy September 1st! Happy 1st day of Spring in Australia.

And Happy 8th birthday to our standard poodle, Billy. He is a beautiful dog to grow up with our child.  And they are almost birthday twins.  Actually, born 7 days apart exactly.  This time next week we will have an 8 year old in our house :-)

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