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Josquin’s Language Symphony (RU, IR, 東亜) | ||
Tags: Gaelic (Scottish) | Gaelic (Irish) | Icelandic | Portuguese | Multilingual | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | Japanese | Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4837 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes  Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 545 of 646 03 October 2013 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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THURSDAY, 03 OCTOBER 2013
@Solfrid Cristina: No need to get a bad conscience! I haven't used Anki in days either. :) In fact, I don't have as much time for language learning as I thought. Researching my dissertation is rather time-consuming and additionally I often don't feel like studying in my free time. Well, today is the national holiday of Germany and I managed to fit in some time for languages. However, I can't say yet how sensible it was to start Mandarin, because now I have three beginner-level languages (Japanese, Irish, Mandarin), which frankly speaking is a bit too much. Русский I have finished unit 3 in Colloquial Russian 2 and also the text about Anna Yaroslavna in my bilingual reader. I'm feeling new interest in Russian after having neglected it for some time. 日本語 I have finished unit 3 in Genki and started working on unit 4. The main topic of the unit is location words and the past tense of verbs. Indicating location in Japanese works quite differently from English or other Indo-European languages. Instead of saying "something is in something", you say it is "something of inside". A bit mind-boggling, but interesting! Gaeilge I have finished lesson 6 in Learning Irish and looked at lesson 7. Mícheál Ó Siadhail really throws all tenses of "bí" at the learner in lesson 7, contracted forms included. I really can't see any didactical approach behind that, but I'll try to make the best out of it. 中文 I haven't done anything in Mandarin for the last few days and maybe it wasn't a good idea to start it at all. If I continue to study so irregularly, Mandarin will probably become more of a dabbling language. Anyway, I have only learned basical greetings until now, so there's not much harm to it. And practising tones is quite a different challenge compared to remembering Russian verb paradigms. Edited by Josquin on 03 October 2013 at 12:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4632 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 546 of 646 03 October 2013 at 2:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Tag der Deutschen Einheit. I am glad you reminded me, as I was planning to go shopping across the border this afternoon. Germany is a ten minutes drive from where I live ;-)
How do you find Russian Colloquial 2? I have been using it on and off for a few months now, and find it quite useful, although a bit above my level, and the texts are interesting. Even if the book is about 10 years old, it still gives me a lot of insight into Russian life and mentality. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| AlOlaf Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5141 days ago 491 posts - 617 votes Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Danish | Message 547 of 646 03 October 2013 at 6:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Josquin,
I hope you don't mind me barging in, but I've never heard a native English speaker say "bad conscience"; it's always "guilty conscience". 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4837 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 548 of 646 04 October 2013 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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@Ogrim: Danke schön, ich habe einen sehr entspannten Feiertag verbracht. I'm glad I kept you from finding the shops all closed. ;) I like Colloquial Russian 2 quite well. It was above my level when I bought it a year ago, but now it's very useful. There's very much information in every unit and I think the texts are quite interesting. I wished something like that existed for Icelandic or Gaelic.
@AlOlaf: Thanks for the correction! Translating idioms is always dangerous. I'll try to remember that expression. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4837 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 549 of 646 12 October 2013 at 4:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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SATURDAY, 12 OCTOBER 2013
There's not really much to report. I'm working on my dissertation a lot and have only little time for languages. In fact, I only have time for them at the weekend. So, this is what I did over the last two weeks. Русский I managed to study some Russian and read another text in Colloquial Russian 2, which was about immigration to Russia. So, I'm working on unit 4 right now. The grammatical topic of this unit is reflexive verbs and ordinal numbers, which both is quite easy for me. Íslenska I relistened to some dialogues from Colloquial Icelandic. I must say, although I haven't done anything with my Icelandic for some time now, my listening comprehension has improved. I also noticed that Icelandic is much easier for me than the Celtic or the Asian languages - despite its complex grammar. Anyway, I probably won't get back to studying Icelandic seriously for the time being. Gàidhlig I reread some texts from Lehrbuch der schottisch-gälischen Sprache and listened to some episodes of Litir do Luchd-Ionnsachaidh. I will have to repeat some grammar in the near future, because Gaelic is a language I have got to love very much. Right now, I'm more interested in Gaelic than in Irish, because my Gaelic is already at a point where I can do something with the language. Gaeilge I did lesson 7 in Learning Irish, but I really dislike this course. The grammar is presented very thoroughly, but the texts are rather abstract and useless. This one was about life on a farm, which really isn't a topic a beginner in Irish would like to discuss. A little less focus on grammar and some more on communication would be quite nice! 日本語 I haven't made any progress in Japanese. I repeated the dialogues from unit 4 in Genki, but that was all. 中文 I haven't made any progress in Mandarin either. Well, I repeated unit 1 in Colloquial Chinese and reread the first dialogue from unit 2, but in order to really learn Chinese I would have to practise the tones much more intensively than I actually do. By now, it has become clear to me that I'll only dabble in this language. At the moment, I don't have any capacities for serious studying anyway. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4837 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 550 of 646 24 October 2013 at 3:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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THURSDAY, 24 OCTOBER 2013
Okay, I think this is going to be the shortest entry in my log ever. I haven't been doing anything with my languages for the last two weeks and I think this isn't going to change in the near future, so there probably won't be anything to report for some time. I plan on getting back to Russian, Irish, and Japanese some time, but at the moment I'm busy with other projects. I'll post again when I have returned to my languages. See you, guys! Edited by Josquin on 24 October 2013 at 3:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Largactyl Diglot Newbie United States Joined 4481 days ago 18 posts - 20 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Icelandic, Hungarian, Irish, Old English | Message 551 of 646 25 October 2013 at 6:25am | IP Logged | ||
I'm only on Lesson 2 right now, so I'm trying to reserve judgment for the time being, but I've noticed this as well; the exercises are rarely anything anyone would ever actually say. I recognize that they have to demonstrate certain concepts, but a little more effort towards more practical examples would have been appreciated. They seem to be the absolute bare minimum to be both grammatically correct and show the aspects they're meant to show. I'll keep on truckin' for the time being though... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4837 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 552 of 646 07 November 2013 at 5:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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THURSDAY, 07 NOVEMBER 2013
Well, it has been two weeks since I posted my last entry in this log. I have mainly been busy with other stuff and haven’t really had time for language learning. Consequently, I haven’t registered for the 6WC, because I didn't want to score even worse than the last time. Русский I have been doing a bit of Russian now and then, mainly reading texts in Colloquial Russian 2. It’s a nice resource and I like the informative texts. I probably ought to concentrate on grammar and vocabulary more, but I think I have finally found my own approach, which is reading a lot and letting everything "sink in" naturally. I hate cramming vocabulary and doing exercises when I have no need for it. Gàidhlig agus Gaeilge I’m a bit at a loss how to continue learning Gaelic. When I started Irish, I had planned to quit Gaelic in favour of Irish, but now I’m thinking quite the opposite. I have a solid foundation in Gaelic, while I’m still a bloody beginner in Irish, so why should I let it wither? The only problem is resources. Besides Litir do Luchd-ionnsachaidh, I’m not aware of any Gaelic resources for intermediate learners. Of course, I could do a course at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig or at the German Centre for Scottish Gaelic Language and Culture, but that would be rather expensive and I don’t have the money for that right now. So, although I’d love to, I’m not doing anything with my Gaelic besides repeating texts from Lehrbuch der schottisch-gälischen Sprache and reading an episode of Litir do Luchd-ionnsachaidh now and then. I’m trying to do some Irish as well, but I’m still not happy with Learning Irish, although I’m getting used to it. I will buy Living Language Irish when it comes out in February and I really hope this will finally be a useful Irish course. 日本語 I haven’t really done anything with my Japanese, but I’m not giving up. What’s keeping me from making progress is learning the location words. I recognize them when I see them, but I can’t really use them actively with confidence. But I think I should be fine after repeating them once or twice more. Then I can finally go on with unit 5 in Genki. Other My Mandarin experiment is officially over. I was curious as to what a tonal language would be like, but now that I know, my curiosity is satisfied. Mandarin didn’t really "click" for me. I have thought about trying out another language, probably Ancient Greek or Hungarian, but I haven’t decided yet. It will depend on how much time I can find for language learning in the near future at all. On the positive side, I have been reading some Italian and Latin for my thesis, so at least my work is somehow related to languages. And I'm watching Mad Men and Downton Abbey in English, which is quite a nice alternation between British and American English and two different time periods. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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