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Kanewai 2015: Team Caesar | ||
Tags: Super Challenge | Catalan | Ancient Greek | Turkish | Polyglot | Arabic | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | Japanese | French | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| sctroyenne Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5394 days ago 739 posts - 1312 votes  Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish, Irish | Message 185 of 331 23 October 2013 at 11:19pm | IP Logged | ||
I've been having the same reaction with my initial studies of Sgaw Karen. The grammar seems pretty simple and logical. I'm sure there are plenty of undiscovered difficulties though (beyond learning the alphabet, the tones, the fact that there are no space between words). 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4892 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 186 of 331 01 November 2013 at 11:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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French Super Challenge Update: 94%
89.1 / 100 books 98.8 / 100 films It's going to take me right up to the last week to finish my reading! I made up some ground last weekend, but my pace has slowed again this week. La vie mode d'emploi (Georges Perec, 1978) was another epic slog. I think the author must be some kind of mad genius. He went into excruciating detail about everything in one Paris apartment building - the people, the decorations, the furniture, the type of fabric on the furniture, the historic period the furniture was from, and the frikkin' cutlery - in every single room. Buried under all this were some interesting stories that I enjoyed, and I think the point was that the stories were buried and hidden behind all the extra details. I'm glad I read it, and I can agree that the author is absolutely brilliant, but I never want to read another one of his books again. I'm about a quarter through La chartreuse de Parme (Stendhal, 1839), and the hero Fabrice has only now arrived in Parme. I guess the first couple hundred pages were just a warm-up? It's a faster read than the last book, and it's nice to be reading on a kindle again. I can definitely sense that this is an older style of French; it doesn't flow as easily as more modern novels do. It's a fascinating look into the past, though! Fabrice is an Italian noble who gets caught up in revolutionary fervor, and runs off to join Napoleon's army - right when Napoleon's army is destroyed at Waterloo and the royalty in Italy reasserts itself. Fabrice's aunt (and possible lover) marries an ageing count for the money, then gets her other lover, the head of the Secret Police, to help Fabrice get a position as a bishop in the court at Parma. The Prince at Parme is paranoid, the Princess chronically depressed, and their son a bit of an idiot. It is not a Walt Disney fairy tale kingdom, at all. I don't think I've written in awhile about the mostly crappy French movies I've been watching, so here goes: Les parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964) - For forty five minutes the main characters sing to each other: je t'aime. non, je t'aime. But I love you more. No, I love you more. No no no, I love you more. I couldn't wait for tragedy to strike. L'inconnu du lac (Alain Guiraudie, 2012)- A guy witnesses a murder at a lake, and then follows the murder into the woods and has sex with him. The next hour of the movie is them having sex in the woods. There's not much plot, but there's a lot of flesh. Ne le dis à personne (Guillaume Canet, 2006) - A thriller. I've already forgotten the details. Judex (Georges Franju, 1963) - This was weird but fun. Judex is a masked caped crusader who fights injustice out of his secret cave. Yeah: Batman. Except Judex was a character from the old French silent film serials. Who would have guessed that he was originally French? I'd recommend drinking a lot when watching this movie. It's very over the top, and you might better appreciate the scenes when the killer nun appears if you've got a bit of a buzz. 
Les enfants du paradis (Marcel Carné, 1945) - I loved this (I don't hate all French movies) - it's a 3-hour drama about love and passion and the theater in 19th Century Paris. The cinematography alone is stunning and almost perfect. 
Le chat du rabbin (Joan Sfarr, 2011) - I enjoyed this anime, but mostly because I also enjoyed the graphic novels. It was fun to see the characters brought to life. The movie covers parts of the first two books, and then jumps to the fourth (I think; I've only read the first three) I don't know how well it would flow if you haven't read the books. 
I intend to keep reading a lot - I've barely made a dent in my bookshelf! - but I doubt I'll be watching French films as intensely after this challenge. There are a lot of French tv shows that look interesting though, and I might order some of them online. Edited by kanewai on 02 November 2013 at 10:46am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4892 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 187 of 331 06 November 2013 at 9:33pm | IP Logged | ||
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Japanese Base
Three months in of light studying (15 to 45 minutes a day, maybe five days a week), and I finally feel like I have a good base in Japanese. It's not much - the "elementary proficiency" (FSI S-1) or "breakthrough" (CERF A1) stages are a ways off. What I have now is the foundation to reach those levels. Here's what worked and what didn't: Very useful: Michel Thomas Foundation: An excellent start, gives a nice sense of the structure Pimsleur I: Can be challenging, but it really helps in developing a nice accent. Living Language, Essential: Covers less ground than the above two, but has more vocabulary and drills. Has online games. Less useful at this point: Pimsleur II: I made it half-way through, but I was just parroting the sounds without having any comprehension. I think I can come back to it now that I have a stronger base. Learning the script: It kind of helped, but it was very time consuming. I don't understand the people who say you can learn it in a weekend. My goal is to be able to talk on a tourist-level, so this wasn't really worth the effort. Japanese the Manga Way: Interesting, but it seems more designed for people who have a year or so of Japanese under their belt. I'd still recommend it for your library, as it discusses the different politeness levels, and gender differences. The other courses don't. Not useful: FSI Headstart - I'd love to see the FSI Basic Course uploaded! I haven't liked any of the Headstart series. Next up: I'll do the Michel Thomas Japanese "Advanced" and the Living Language "Intermediate" courses, and finish Pimsleur Japanese II. It's amusing how "advanced" Japanese courses are still very much at an A-1 level. FSI FAST also looks interesting, especially now that I have a decent (I think) grasp of the prosody. Edited by kanewai on 06 November 2013 at 9:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4892 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 188 of 331 12 November 2013 at 11:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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I make all these great plans, and then I break them.
This year was supposed to be all about French and Spanish. But then this trip to Japan unexpectedly came up, so I deferred Spanish (again) for a few months. Next year, though ... Then I had enough miles to go to Italy and France this spring. So, ok, French and Italian, then I'll get back to Spanish. And then, last week, my buddy found round trip tickets to Istanbul for $600. That, for us, is an insane price that we couldn't pass up. It is pretty much the other side of the planet - we can't even get to the US mainland for that little. Six of us so far bought tickets. And so ... my new language plans are French, Italian, and Turkish. Spanish will have to wait a bit more, and Ancient Greek is about to fade to a pleasant memory. I love combining travel and language learning, so these are all good things! It would be nice to be able to spread things out a bit, though. One of the really good things about a long-term challenge like the Super Challenge is that it has kept me focused on French through all my shifting plans. So here's the new plan: November: Focus on Japanese; French Super Challenge December: Focus on French (Finish FSI if possible. Super Challenge) Light Italian and Turkish January, February: Italian and Turkish. Light French reading. March: Hard focus on Turkish April: Hard focus on Italian and French May: Super Challenge for Spanish???? Also: If any HTLAL-ers are out there: Party on the Golden Horn in March! Edited by kanewai on 12 November 2013 at 11:13pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| dbag Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5025 days ago 605 posts - 1046 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 189 of 331 13 November 2013 at 1:00am | IP Logged | ||
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Kanewai, did you know that there was a fsi basic style course called Mastering Japanese ?
I think that's the closest you will get to an fsi style course. I believe its still available in the ether somewhere if you know where to look. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4892 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 190 of 331 13 November 2013 at 1:28am | IP Logged | ||
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I missed the FSI one! That would have been an interesting book to download.
Japanese is one of my "flirt" languages - I'll learn enough for traveling, but I'm not ready to make a long term commitment to it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4892 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 191 of 331 13 November 2013 at 2:12am | IP Logged | ||
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Super Challenge: French Flics
Favorites Les misérables (Raymond Bernard, 1934) La règle du jeu (The Rules of the Game; Jean Renoir, 1939) Les enfants du paradis (Marcel Carné, 1945) Orphée (Jean Cocteau, 1949) Jeux interdits (Forbidden Games; René Clément, 1952) French Cancan (Jean Renoir, 1954) Nuit et brouillard (Alain Resnais, 1955) Ascenseur pour l'échafaud (Louis Malle, 1958) Le beau serge (Claude Chabrol,1958) À bout de souffle (Breathless; Jean-Luc Godard, 1960) Plein soleil (Purple Noon; René Clement, 1960) Le bonheur (Agnès Varda, 1965) Les demoiselles de Rochefort (Jacques Demy, 1967) Z (Costa-Gavras,1969) La cage aux folles (Edouard Molinaro, 1978) Le dîner de cons (Francis Veber, 1998) 8 femmes (François Ozon, 2002) Incendies (Denis Villeneuve, 2010) Carlos (Olivier Assayas, 2010) Polisse (Maïwenn Le Besco, 2011) L'enfant (Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, 2005) Le Havre (Aki Kaurismaki, 2011) Les adieux à la reine (Benoît Jacquot, 2012) Dans la maison (François Ozon, 2012) Gainsbourg (Vie héroïque) (Joann Sfarr, 2012) TV: Kaamelott (45 episodes) The Middle Les visiteurs du soir (Marcel Carné, 1942) Séraphine (Martin Provost, 2008) Ma saison préférée (André Téchiné, 1993) Coco avant Chanel (Anne Fontaine, 2009) Le hérisson (The Hedgehog; Mona Achache, 2009) Le mystère Picasso (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1956) & Guernica (Paul Éluard, 1950) Danton (Andrzej Wajda, 1983) La grande séduction (Jean-François Pouliot, 2003) Le dernier métro (The Last Metro; François Truffaut, 1980) Sous les toits de Paris (Under the Roofs of Paris; René Clair, 1930) Camille Claudel (Bruno Nuytten, 1988) Le jour se lève (Daybreak; Marcel Carné, 1939) Le hussard sur le toit (The Horeseman on the Roof; Jean-Paul Rappeneau, 1995) Le grand voyage (Ismaël Ferroukhi, 2004) Ne le dis à personne (Guillaume Canet, 2006) Judex (Georges Franju, 1963) Le chat du rabbin (Joan Sfarr, 2011) Remorques (Jean Grémillon, 1941) Journal d'un curé de campagne (Robert Bresson, 1951) Les quatre cents coups (François Truffaut, 1959) L'Histoire d'Adèle H. (François Truffaut, 1975) Masculin féminin (Jean-Luc Godard, 1966) Cléo de 5 à 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962) Les diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1954) Pépé le Moko (Julien Duivier, 1937) Lunch with Madame Murat (Mary Moody, 2007) Les Patriots (Eric Rochant, 1994) Viva Laldjérie (Nadir Moknèche, 2004) Holy Motors (Leos Carax, 2012) Tu seras mon fils (Gilles Legrand, 2011) Les cousins (Claude Chabrol, 1959) Potiche (François Ozon, 2011) Diva (Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1981) Trois couleurs: Rouge (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1994) Au hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966) La bête humaine (Jean Renoir, 1938) À bout portant (Fred Cavayé, 2010) Le silence de Lorna (Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, 2008) Nuit Blanc (Frédéric Jardin, 2011) TV: Engrenage (Spiral) - Season 1 The Bad: Dull, poorly acted, poorly written, or pretentious. Sometimes all four. La tête en friche (Jean Becker, 2010) L'arnacoeur (Heartbreaker; Pascal Chaumeil, 2010) Change moi ma vie (Change My Life; Liria Bégéja, 2001) Monsieur Batignole (Gérard Jugnot, 2002) Les femmes de l'ombre (Female Agents; Jean-Paul Salomé, 2008) Un héros très discret (A Self Made Hero; Jacques Audiard, 1996) Une vie de chat (A Cat in Paris, Jean-Loup Felicioli, 2010) Angel-A (Luc Besson, 2007) La nuit Américaine (Day for Night; François Truffaut, 1973) Les parapluies de Cherbourg (Jacques Demy, 1964) L'inconnu du lac (Alain Guiraudie, 2012) Thérèse Desqueyroux (Claude Miller, 2012) Les femmes du 6ème étage (Philippe le Guay, 2010) De rouille et d'os (Jacques Audliard, 2012) Monsieur Lazhar (Philippe Falardeau, 2011) Jules et Jim (François Truffaut, 1962) Trois couleurs: Bleu (Krzysztof Kieslowski, 1993) So Bad I Didn't Finish La fille du RER (André Téchiné, 2010) Le carrosse d'or (Jean Renoir, 1954) L'illusionniste (Sylvain Chomet, 2010) De battre mon couer s'est arrete (Jacques Audiard, 2005) Garcon stupide (Lionel Baier, 2004) Les poupées russes (Cédric Klapisch, 2005) Un prophète (Jacques Audiard, 2009) Parlez-moi de la pluie (Agnès Jaoui, 2008) La mome (Olivier Dahan, 2007) Poupoupidou (Nobody Else But You; Gérald Hustache-Mathieu, 2011) Un été à La Goulette (Ferid Boughedir, 1996) La graine et le moulet (The Secret of the Grain; Abdel Kechiche, 2007). Coup de torchon (Bertrand Tavernier, 1981) Zazie dans le métro (Louis Malle, 1960) Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo? (William Klein, 1966) Au revoir les enfants (Louis Malle, 1987) Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001) L'armée des ombres (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1969) Et Dieu ... créa la femme (Roger Vadim, 1957) La nuit de Varennes (Ettore Scola, 1982) Alphaville (Jean Luc-Godard. 1965) Yeah. I could not stand Amélie, and I tried twice. I know people love this movie, so maybe you should read this list upside down, and avoid the flics I liked and start with the ones I didn't! Edited by kanewai on 13 November 2013 at 2:16am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| sillygoose1 Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 4639 days ago 566 posts - 814 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish, French Studies: German, Latin | Message 192 of 331 13 November 2013 at 3:23am | IP Logged | ||
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Not only am I surprised that you hated Amelie, but Un prophete and De battre mon coeur s'est arrete also?!!?
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