so-many-words-so-little-time - Tumblr blog

[so-many-words-so-little-time]

Hey, Langblr!

So I started making this directory of the availability of different languages in language learning apps/websites. I figured that this would help a lot of us in our never-ending hunt for resources. The objective is to help in determining which apps/sites your target language is available in.

If you’d like to help in adding in languages/resources, the link is right here! Feedback is also much appreciated!

[so-many-words-so-little-time]

German resources

For anon! (I’m going to leave out the most obvious ones like Memrise and Duolingo. Feel free to add ones that I’ve missed.)

YouTube:

Deutsch Für Euch Easy German Get Germanized Slow German (also a podcast)

Online Proficiency Tests:

Deutsch Lernen Transparent Heidelberg

General Websites:

lyricstraining DeutscheWelle Buzzfeed Deutschland German resources Tumblr tag My German tag (gotta get that self-promo) Goethe Institut deutsch.info deutschdrang Internet Polyglot 1000 Most Common German Words deutsch-perfekt yourdailygerman

Websites specifically for A1-A2

learn-german-online A1 Goethe Institut A1-A2 longua.org A1 longua.org A2 A1 Vocab list deutschakademie A2

Websites specifically for B1-B2

B1 vocab list B2 vocab list longua.org B1 longua.org B2 german-course-vienna B1 german-course-vienna B2

Websites specifically for C1-C2

longua.org C1 deutschakademie C1 schubert-verlag C1 and here schubert-verlag C2 and here Quizlet C1-C2 vocab flash cards

German News/TV

ZDF ORF TLC Deutschland Das Erste ProSieben

German Music

Disney songs Rap Rock My German playlist

Online German Dictionaries

Linguee dict.cc reverso Duden Austrian dictionary Austrian German Glossary Bavarian dictionary Colognian dictionary Swabian - English

Finding people to talk to:

@polyspeak‘s German community list italki

[so-many-words-so-little-time]

Polyglossa’s 55 Days of Vocabulary Challenge

I thought I need a challenge to motivate myself to learn more Greek vocabulary, because I really need to get back on track with at least some language learning. So I came up with this idea. This challenge is about learning new vocabulary in different topics. For this challenge you only need to pick at least 5 words per day. The topics are the following:

Jewelery 

Love

Grain

Forest

Kitchen 

Family 

Make up

Clothing

Computer activity

Musical instrument 

Wedding

Tableware

Easter 

Spring

Favorite dish 

Friendship

Pets 

Bedroom

Outdoor activities 

Breakfast   

Bevarage

Night out

Crafting    

Christmas

Lunch

Accessories

Body

Book genre

Birthday 

Summer 

Beach

Dinner 

Meat    

Film genre

Holiday

Vegetarian Food 

Work 

Hair cut

Living room

Dairy 

School

Autumn

Bakery

Cutlery

City buildings

Electronic device

Bathroom    

Fish 

Winter

Vegetables

Board games

Garden 

Fruit

Decoration

Take away food

If you would like to take this challenge I would be glad if you let me know. If you post about it use the tag #55daysofvocabulary so I can see your post and all the vocabulary you’ll be picking :D

[so-many-words-so-little-time]

Ciao, hallo, ahoj, здра́вствуйте…that’s hello (hi) in languages that I’m learning - italian, german, slovak/czech (my first language) and russian. As you can see, I love languages. You could call me a language freak. I enjoy learning them and I would love to see other people enjoying it too. So that’s why I’m here today. Writing this post about how to learn any foreing language.

1. VOCABULARY

For me, vocabulary is the most important part of any language. You can know the grammar, the pronunciation and everything else, but if you don’t know words, you can’t do anything. For many years, as I was younger, I struggled to learn new words. I often just translated them and that was all. Then I finally did what was necessary. I wrote them down. Yes, that’s the first step. Write the freakin’ words somewhere, then write the translation, if you need to, a sentence where it is used (in languages such as german, do it so the word will be in nominative, so you won’t mess up the article). Read it out loud and when revising, make flashcards. One tip when it comes to flashcards with vocab. Don’t make a flashcard of every single word you have on your list. It will consume your time, paper and your energy. Do it only with really hard words that you can’t remember.

2. GRAMMAR

This is the most annoying thing for me to this day. I don’t like grammar, I struggled with grammar even in my native language (because we have i/y and billions of rules, you would understand if you were from Slovakia). What usually works for me is a simple training. Make a chart of the words in sentence, and write how did they change, or where do they need to be and so. Then just write simple sentences and have someone to correct them (teacher or some friend who is really good in the language).

3. READ

Read books and articles in the language that you are trying to learn. Underline and translate the words you don’t understand (then follow the steps in 1.) Reading help so much. My english is not a product of teachers in schools and language courses after school. It’s the product of me reading every single book in english since I was 10 (or around 10 I think). Don’t worry about you not enjoying the book or the plot. That will come later. First few books are there for you to get used to it and then you will enjoy it. I promise.

4. SPEAK & WRITE

Find someone who you can speak and/or write with. Native speakers are the best and if they know your first language, that’s even better. This can help you so much, because you are actually using the language in real life situation. If you don’t know anyone in person, try the internet (if you want to speak with me, message me any time).

5. MOVIES, TV SHOWS

This one is really simple, just set the language to the one you want to learn. First you can try with only subtitles, then also the language. Maybe you won’t notice, but you will learn the correct pronunciation of words and you will learn the accent.

5. THE GREAT SOURCE OF KNOWLEDGE - INTERNET

If you are on your computer or phone, use sites like:

duolingo

memrise

quizlet

any news site in language of your choice

There are also applications where you can create digital flashcards (Wokabulary for example).

6. MOTIVATION

Never forget - the biggest thing is to have motivation. Don’t learn a language without one. Find something you love about the language, have some goal or something, but don’t learn the language just because you need to. It only makes you hate the language. For example I learn italian because I love the culture and people there and I want to be able to make friends in Italy as I go there every year. My reason to learn german is that I want to study (and late maybe live) in Austria and there is only a limited number of universities that teach in english so I need to be really good in german. Find something like this and I guarantee you that your next hobby is going to be called “foreing languages”.

I hope this will help you on your journey to become the ultimate language freak like me.

[so-many-words-so-little-time]

there’s a widespread myth that it’s impossible to learn to sound like a native speaker of a language other than your mother tongue if you didn’t learn it as a child and while being surrounded by it 24/7, but this is far from the truth! having good pronunciation and a convincing native-like accent is definitely achievable, especially if you have the right mindset and are determined to work hard.

▷ remember that babies usually have over a year of pure input before they actually begin to speak their first language. get as much audio exposure as you can. listen to the language in lots of different contexts (radio, tv, music, movies, conversations, speeches, audiobooks, youtube videos) and just focus on replicating what the language sounds like to your ears without necessarily trying to say actual words or worrying about grammar. @polysprachig made this video that goes into more detail on this topic and i’d also recommend checking out this article on omniglot. ▷ pick the specific accent that you want to emulate. this is especially important for people learning pluricentric languages like english/portuguese/arabic/etc where there is more than one spoken standard. the more widely spoken the accent you choose is, the easier it will be to find audio materials to listen to and people who speak with that accent (e.g. there are a lot of tv shows and movies in american and british english, but not many in australian english). blending multiple completely different dialects/accents (and mixing up slang from different regions and social groups) can make you sound very weird and unnatural, however narrowing it down to a particular region whose accent you’ll focus on imitating will allow you to easily develop a sense of belonging and closeness to the language. ▷ pay really careful attention to the sounds that are different in your target language to your native language(s) and any other languages you already speak. look for videos/instructions online for how to pronounce the sounds that you find difficult and practise every day by listening to them in natural speech and copying them as best you can. ▷ get to know your mouth. you may have to adjust the position of your jaw, tongue, lips, the way you breathe or the distribution of saliva if your mouth to comfortably replicate some sounds. if your mouth doesn’t feel a little uncomfortable with a new sound, you may not be pronouncing it right. ▷ find a native speaker to listen to you speak for a little while and ask if they can narrow down any areas you seem to have particular trouble with. concentrate on accuracy rather than speed. ▷ find the lyrics to some songs you love in your target language and sing along as best you can. it takes away your intrinsic need to worry about vocabulary or grammar and allows you to just focus on naturally replicating the way the language sounds. ▷ children’s books are often available with audio accompaniment that you can listen to while you read the text and also pause and repeat after if you wish. it’s like the perfect combination of simple easy to understand language and nice clear voices because they’re specifically designed to help children learn to read their own native language! ▷ for certain words or sounds that you find particularly difficult to pronounce, work on learning a few tongue twisters in the language that contain them. ▷ subtitles can help you mentally connect the symbols of the written language with the sounds of the spoken language, but they can also slow the speed at which you accustom yourself to processing the spoken language without assistance. try watching content both with and without subtitles to see what works best for you. ▷ if you’re having trouble with the pronunciation of a particular word or phrase, look it up on rhinospike or forvo. ▷ talk to yourself out loud whenever you get the chance. this not only helps you practise your pronunciation and build confidence speaking, but it forces you to put your thoughts into words in your target language, which is great for improving speed and accuracy when speaking and writing. ▷ don’t worry if you fear you’re not making any progress, you will improve slowly with consistent practice and also get the opportunity to hone your listening skills at the same time!

[so-many-words-so-little-time]

1 Month 1 Language

1 Month Kanji Challenge

6 Words A Day

14 Day Langblr Challenge

30 Day Langblr Challenge

34 Hour Langblr Challenge

55 Days of Vocabulary Challenge

90 Day Vocab Challenge

100 Days Challenge For Langblrs

100 Hour 40 Day Language Challenge

Advanced Language Study

A Question A Day Challenge

BaBaDum Challenge

Build Your Vocab Challenge

Composition Challenge

Fiction Writing Challenge

Langblr 25 Challenge

Langblr Accent Tag

Langblr Culture Challenge

Learn A Language Challenge

Original Langblr Content Challenge

Review Challenge

Subtitles Challenge

Summer Language Challenge

Translating Challenge

Writing Challenge

Challenges for certain months: 

February Polyglot Challenge

March Polyglot Challenge

April Polyglot Challenge

May Polyglot Challenge

May Polyglot Challenge

August Polyglot Challenge

September Polyglot Challenge

September: 30 Day Langblr Resource Photo Challenge

October Polyglot Challenge

November Polyglot Challenge

December Polyglot Challenge

December Polyglot Challenge

10 Polyglot Things to Do This September

10 Polyglot Things to Do This October

Langblr NaNoWriMo

[so-many-words-so-little-time]

PART 1 / GRAMMAR

German tenses & moods 

Present tense 1 ; 2 ; 3 ( exercise: here ) 

Simple Past 1 ; 2 ; 3 ( here )

Present Perfect Tense 1 ; 2 ; 3 ( here )

Past Perfect Tense 1 ; 2 ; 3 ( here )

Future Tense 1 ; 2 ; 3 ( here )

Future Perfect Tense 1 ; 2 ; 3 ( here )

Imperative Mood 1 ; 2 ; 3 ( here )

Passive Voice 1 ; 2 ; 3 ( here )

Reflexive 1 ; 2 ; 3 ( here )

Subjunctive II 1 ; 2 ( here )

Subjunctive I 1 ; 2  ( here ) 

!! Conjugator for German Verbs !!

Nouns and Articles

Gender 

Articles

Plurals ( here )

Nominative

Accusative

Dative

Genitive

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns 1 ; 2 ; 3  ( here )

Possessive Pronouns 1 ; 2 ; 3  ( here )

Reflexive Pronouns 1 ; 2 ; 3 (  here )

Relative Pronouns 1 ; 2 ; 3   (  here )

Interrogative Pronouns 1 ; 2 ; 3  (  here )

Demonstrative Pronouns 1 ; 2 ; 3 ( here )

Indefinite Pronouns 1 ; 2  ( here )

Nominative 

Accusative

Dative

Genitive 

Adjectives

Types

Formation

Declension 

Comparative Form

exercises (with Adjectives):  Opposites ; Endings ;  Superlative ;  Comparative ;  Comparative and superlative ; Declension

youtube:  Adjectives & Opposites ;  Adjective Endings ;  Adjective Endings - Nominative - Definite and Indefinite Articles ;  Adjective Endings - Accusative - Definite and Indefinite Articles ;  Adjectives ; Basic German Adjectives; Declining German Adjectives 

Adverbs

Types

Location and Comparative Forms of Adverbs

exercises (with Adverbs):  Adverbs of place ;  Adverbs of time ;  Adverbs of manner

youtube:  Adverbs of Time; Adverbs of Time ;  Adverbs of Time ; 

Adverbs of Time  ; Adverbs of Manner ;  Adverbs of Place ;

Prepositions

Types

Cases

exercises (with Prepositions):  Dative prepositions ; Accusative prepositions ;

Genitive prepositions ;  Dative and accusative prepositions ; Prepositions of place ;  Prepositions of time  ;  Prepositions: aus or von  ;  Prepositions: nach or zu

youtube:  IN ; AN ; POSITIONSVERBEN ; AUF ; ÜBER ; UNTER ; ZWISCHEN ;  NEBEN - DANEBEN - NEBENEINANDER ;  HINTER - DAHINTER

Declension (in general)

Sentence Structure

Main Clauses 

Negation

Questions 

Dependent or Subordinate Clauses 

youtube:  Position of Main Verbs in Main Clauses ;  Questions ; Time Manner Place ;  Direct & Indirect Objects ;

Conjunctions

Introduction

Indirect Questions

Infinitive Clauses

Participle Clauses

Relative Clauses

Conditional Clauses

Indirect Speech

exercises(with Conjunctions): here ;  Subordinate conjunctions ; Conjunctions: dass or weil ; Conjunctions: dass or ob ;  Conjunctions: als, wenn, wann or ob ;  Conjunctions: als, wenn or wann

That’s all! GOOD LUCK!

PS: number 3 is always a youtube video.

[so-many-words-so-little-time]

hey! do you have any recommendation for songs in Spanish? the genre doesn't matter to me as long as the language is relatively easy and there isn't too much instrumental sound like metal I guess

Well, I don’t listen to many artists/groups that are popular now, but I sure can recommend some of my favorites (the genre is pop/rock). The singers are from different countries, so some pronunciations are different but still easy. I’m adding links to videos with lyrics.

Casi humanos - Dvicio

Fuiste tú - Ricardo Arjona y Gaby Moreno

La prisión - Maná

Perdón - HaAsh

A Dios le pido - Juanes

Perfecta - Miranda!

Me voy - Julieta Venegas

Skalavera - El tambor de la tribu

Caraluna - Bacilos

La playa - La oreja de Van Gogh

And maybe some of my followers can recommend some others for you (⌒∇⌒)

[so-many-words-so-little-time]

german duolingo lady: Er trinkt

me: i didnt hear this better click the Slow Pronunciation Turtle of Shame

german duolingo lady, now with intense judgment and hate in her voice, articulating like im 5 years old: ER….. TRINKT……

[so-many-words-so-little-time]

Reblog if you can speak, read, or at least kinda communicate in more than one language.

[so-many-words-so-little-time]

NEW VIDEO ON MY CHANNEL! 

I had quite a few people ask me how I completed the Dutch tree on Duolingo, so I thought I’d make a video about it! Please subscribe to my channel if you want to see more travel and study related videos and give the video a ‘thumbs up’ if you like it. :) 

[so-many-words-so-little-time]

2019 Language Goals

It being the new year I’ve made a few language goals for 2019 and they are:

 - Finish the Spanish workbooks I got in 2018

- Read the entire Book of Mormon in Spanish

- Read Santos: El Estandarte De La Verdad

- make it through the Spanish course I’ve been going through on SkillShare

I am also hoping to make it through English Grammar for the Spanish Student this year and maybe participate in some Langblr challenges along the way as well.

I’m trying to focus on Spanish for right now, but I did get some German workbooks for Christmas this year and I’m super excited to start on them but I’m going to wait until I get a better grasp on Spanish first.

I hoping that by sharing these goals it will encourage me to actually complete them, and maybe I can make a few posts about my progress along the way too. What about you guys? Any language learning goals for 2019?

[so-many-words-so-little-time]

So this blog has basically been dead for a while, but I have plans to revamp it in the new year, so look forward to that! First though, I am gonna try to participate in some Language challenges to help me with my Spanish, so look out for that. 

Also, if anyone has any suggestions for Spanish singers they like to listen to, send them to me! I’m trying to bolster my Spanish playlist. I’m really into alternative rock and pop punk stuff if that helps any. Thanks so much in advance!

[so-many-words-so-little-time]

@nevercatchmewithoutabook has a winter break language challenge on their blog! You should check it out.

does anyone has a language learning challenge or something to link me ?

Christmas break is coming and I would like to go back Italian and/or Swedish !!

[so-many-words-so-little-time]

you know what’s more freeing than killing yourself? running away to a small town and getting a job as a waitress. buying a cheap car and sticking a bed in the back and driving southwest. adopting a cat. learning a new instrument. moving apartments. visiting a friend in another city. chopping all your hair off.

you can kill your current life without dying. you can kill this version of you and make a new one.

maybe I’m just a bipolar sucker for rebirth but sometimes that thought is all that keeps me alive

[so-many-words-so-little-time]

also yeah the best feature tumblr has (or lacks, i guess) is the inability to see other people’s follower count. not knowing how many followers anyone has makes this site more fun it’s easier to pretend we’re all just like, hanging out in a cave together.

[so-many-words-so-little-time]

The Blues Brothers (1980)