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Gary’s 2015 TACtivation: FR, IT | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5210 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 33 of 187 21 January 2015 at 11:08am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Italian milestones (translations included, and corrections obviously welcome!)...
- Ho finito di leggere Il Gattopardo... sospiro di sollievo. Adesso ho voglia di qualcosa di più moderno e meno impegnativo. Nell'ultimo messaggio parlavo di Volo; l'anno scorso ho letto "Il giorno in più", una storia facile e con tanto dialogo benché un po' inverosimile e poco realistica (inoltre vi consiglio vivamente di evitare il film, è una cagata). Poi ci sono due romanzi di Ammaniti che ancora non ho letto, Branchie e Come dio comanda, dopodiché forse vorrei affrontare nuovamente opere più letterarie. Per esempio è da un po' che voglio leggere "Se una notte d'inverno un viaggatore" di Calvino. Finished Il Gattopardo. Sigh of relief. Now I feel like something more modern and less challenging. I was talking about Volo in the last post; last year I read "Il giorno in più", an easy story with lots of dialogue although a bit far-fetched and unrealistic (moreover I heartily recommend avoiding the shitty film of it). Then there are two Ammaniti novels that I've still not read, Branchie and Come dio comanda, after which I'd maybe like to attempt more literary works again. For example I've been wanting to read Calvino's "If on a winter's night a traveller" for a while. - Ho parlato Italiano per tre giorni di seguito! Sei mesi fa questa per me era una cosa normale, adesso però è davvero qualcosa di speciale. Domenica sera ho preso la lezione già menzionata, e nei due ultimi giorni sono andato a bere qualcosa con amici Italiani che non avevo visto da qualche tempo. Stasera penso di andare al meetup francese (per variare un po'!) poi a un compleanno dove ci saranno Italiani e spagnoli: forse un'altra occasione per parlare quest'ultimo ;). Purtroppo in questi giorni sono stanchissimo (niente di nuovo, concorso della solita insonnia e di troppa vita sociale) e pertanto il mio Italiano non è ottimo... pronuncio male e molte parole ed espressioni non sembrano a portata. Ma i miei amici lo capiscono perché in questo periodo tutti sono stanchi! I spoke Italian three days in a row! Six months ago this was a normal thing for me, now however it's really something special. Sunday evening I took the lesson that I've already mentioned, and in the last two days I went for a drink with Italian friends who I hadn't seen for a while. Tonight I'm thinking of going to French meetup (for a bit of a change!) then to a birthday party where there will be Italians and Spanish: maybe another chance to speak the latter ;). Unfortunately in these days I'm really tired (what's new, combination of the usual insomnia and too much social life) and so my Italian isn't great... I'm pronouncing it badly and a lot of words and expressions don't feel within reach. But my friends understand because at the moment everybody is tired! Edited by garyb on 21 January 2015 at 11:13am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5210 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 34 of 187 22 January 2015 at 12:30pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Music challenge for this week: Diaframma - Siberia
80s Italian new-wave/goth, similar to Joy Division etc. Cool stuff. That kind of music seemed to be pretty popular over there, for example most Italians I've met love Depeche Mode. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 4010 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 35 of 187 22 January 2015 at 2:05pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Darn it! Now I am going to have to learn Italian! :). I did some quick skimming, and I like this, so I am going to listen to the full thing a little later. But in all seriousness, do you know some similar music genre types bands in Spanish or French? This was fun. Edited by Mohave on 22 January 2015 at 2:41pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4912 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 36 of 187 22 January 2015 at 2:25pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Wow, that sounds familiar even though I've never heard it! Mohave, Telephone, a French rock group from about 1978 to 1998, sometimes sounds like this sort of thing. I'd welcome suggestions of anything else similar in French. Mov 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5210 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 37 of 187 22 January 2015 at 2:43pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
I don't know much I'm afraid. Some of Indochine's stuff from the 80s has a similar sound, like L'aventurier, although they're a bit more poppy. Also, Housse de Racket is a modern band with an obvious 80s influence, although again more pop, the song Aquarium is fun. I need to find more French stuff for the challenge, since I already know quite a lot of Italian music. I've no idea about Spanish! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| suzukaze Triglot Senior Member Italy bit.ly/1bGm459 Joined 4605 days ago 186 posts - 254 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, Spanish Studies: German, French, Swedish, Japanese | Message 38 of 187 24 January 2015 at 10:47pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I didn't seen you had started a new log! Anyway here are my corrections, let me know if something is not clear.
Text #1
You have to add something before the second half of the sentence, such as “finalmente posso tirare un sospiro di sollievo”. All your other sentences are linked with connectors so this one looks a bit odd. Not wrong, just different from the style used in rest of your text.
I’d use the plural form here: "tanti dialoghi" and replace “benché" con "anche se" or "nonostante sia/l’abbia trovata" which are more used.
This sounds a bit unnatural. You don’t need “forse” as “vorrei” already includes the sense of possibility. “Dopodiché” is slightly too formal, since you cannot use “poi” you can use “dopo”. Or if you aren’t strict about the order in which you’ll read these books you can simply say “vorrei/mi piacerebbe anche”. With "nuovamente opere più letterarie” you mean non-contemporary books? If that’s the case I’d say “vorrei ritornare a dei classici”.
Here are used two different language registers: the first part is mid-hi, the second part is low. It’s best to use one register only, a mid-level version could be “vi consiglio di evitare il film, non vale proprio la pena guardarlo” or a similar expression. Text #2
You can leave “questa” out, “per me” could be left out as well since it’s understood from the context that you are talking about yourself.
“Menzionare” is a bit formal, to maintain a normal register you can say “di cui ho scritto/parlato nel post precedente”.
“negli ultimi due giorni” and “alcuni amici Italiani che non vedevo”, “degli amici” is also correct but you already have “negli” so it wouldn’t sound good. And I think you already know that italiani shouldn't be capitalised, but apparently the forum keeps changing that :/
Instead of “quest’ultimo” I’d use “anche un po’ di spagnolo”. Also “un’altra” means that there are at least two different occasions. If you mention only one because the other was mentioned in a previous post, you should add some detail. If someone reads only this text he won’t know what’s this other occasion you are referring to.
“la solita insonnia unita alla troppa vita sociale”.
The expression is “essere fuori dalla portata” or “non essere alla *pronome possessivo* portata”. Here it becomes “non sembrano essere alla mia portata”. “Pertanto” is a bit formal, you can use “quindi” instead. It would be the easiest choice for a native. If you want to avoid the “e…ed” repetition since they are quite close you can say “pronuncio male senza contare che/, inoltre”.
Small inversion: “sono tutti stanchi”. Edited by suzukaze on 24 January 2015 at 10:56pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5210 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 39 of 187 26 January 2015 at 11:19am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Grazie mille suzukaze, incredibly helpful as always! Especially all the things that aren't exactly wrong but would sound better expressed another way, and the comments on register. I tend to read a lot of different things in different registers, from high-brow news articles to online comments by teenagers and everything in between, so when I write all gets a bit mixed up! I'm aiming for a natural style, not too formal or informal, but it takes a while to develop a good sense for that. A couple of questions/points:
I was referring to style more than age here, for example a book might be from recent times but be written in a "literary" style (formal register, unusual words and expressions, etc.), while to me "classic" implies a certain age. Of course it's partly a question of semantics; people talk about "modern classics" from the last few years, and older books aren't necessarily more formal. I suppose I should have avoided any ambiguity and talked about easier and more approachable books as opposed to more challenging ones.
Here I was trying to say that everybody is tired at the moment, not just my friends... although again it's a bit ambiguous because in reality I can't speak for everybody, only the people I know! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5210 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 40 of 187 26 January 2015 at 11:48am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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I'm on a roll, I've spoken Italian every day for over a week now! Except for Wednesday, but I spoke French for a few hours that day so it's all good. I've gotten lucky with Skype a few times, and at the weekend I made it to the Uni meetup (some more French there too) and to an Italian meetup. Now if only every week could be like that...
I've noticed a big difference, my spoken Italian was a lot better and felt a lot more natural yesterday than a week previously. I suppose that confirms my idea that the main thing I need is simply lots of practice. I'm quite aware that this daily practice isn't sustainable, but I'm enjoying it while it lasts. I've also read some Volo as I said I would: I'm halfway through È una vita che ti aspetto. It's exactly what I was hoping for, a couple hundred pages of informal modern Italian, so it's useful and quick to read. I like the story so far; his work often gets described as banal and clichéd, and I understand why, but as a young man I can sympathise with his characters enough to keep me turning the pages. The story is about a guy who feels like he's going through life without really living: hardly original, but most of us can probably identify with. And a bit of banality isn't a bad thing for a language student, similar to my previous comments on how the "everyday" themes of Fais pas ci, fais pas ça could be useful. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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