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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 |  | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4881 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 297 of 331 25 September 2014 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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I take back what I said about Assimil's Le Turc being an excellent course. I
took one last look when I put the book away, and found a perfect example of why it's so frustrating: Lesson 38: TR: yağmur dinmiş, gökyüzü pırıl pırıl FR: La pluie a cessé, le ciel est propre comme un sou neuf (brilliant brilliant) The Turkish sentence is pretty straightforward: "The rain stopped, the sky is shining." The French translation needlessly complicates this with an idiom that isn't even hinted at in the Turkish: "The rain stopped, the sky is clean like a new penny." What. The. %^&#$. This is very common in Le Turc - the French translations don't always help in deciphering the Turkish, and there is so much new vocabulary in each lesson that I spend most of the time looking up words in the dictionary. It kind of defeats the purpose of Assimil. Which is too bad. I like that it gives a more complex and nuanced presentation of Turkish than most books. It could be so good. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4881 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 298 of 331 03 October 2014 at 10:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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I make all these grand plans, and almost never follow them. But I keep making them.
I've been on a Game of Thrones binge the past few weeks, so haven't done much that was language related in the evenings. And yet I've made a few breakthroughs! Italiano I did Assimil Italian for all of twenty minutes over the course of a week, and finally admitted that I wasn't motivated at all to work on it. I want to be reading books already. So this week I tried installing a new Italian dictionary on kindle (Collins), and it is a huge improvement over Merriam-Webster. Odd, as they both have poor ratings on Amazon. It's not great - it still doesn't compare to the free Word Reference online dictionary, but it's good enough for me to read without too much frustration. And I finished the first part of Il Gattopardo yesterday. This is my first "real" Italian book, and this is the first real jump in comprehension I've had in awhile. For future reference, it took 1200 pages of reading to reach this point. Otherwise, I'm still doing Pimsleur in the morning, and listening to Lezioni di Musica on RaiRadio3 a couple times per week. Français For the first time in years I am not in the middle of a French novel. As my Italian strengthens I'd like to start rotating books between French and Italian. I did have an unexpected leveling-up in listening comprehension. Franck Ferrand was talking about Madame de Néandertal on Au coeur de l'histoire, and understood almost everything without much effort. This was a surprise, as usually I can understand the themes of the show and about half the details. I don't know if this was random luck & just happened to know, for whatever reason, all the terminology regarding Neanderthals, or if I was just "on" that day, or if I've really leveled up. I guess I'll find out with the next podcast. Meanwhile, Mubi is doing a retrospective on the films of Alain Robbe-Grillet this month. I haven't seen anything by him before; it all looks very avant-garde. The full French queue for this month is: Trans-Europ-Express. Alain Robbe-Grillet. 1966. 105 minutes L'immortelle. Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1963. 101 minutes Les plages d'Agnès. Agnès Varda. 2008. 110 minutes L'Âge d'or. Luis Buñuel. 1930. 63 minutes La mort en ce jardin. Luis Buñuel.1956. 104 minutes L'Éden et après. Alain Robbe-Grillet, 1970. 93 minutes La vie et rien d'autre. Bertrand Tavernier, 1989. 135 minutes Stupeur et tremblements, Alain Corneau. 2003. 107 minutes Glissements progressifs du plaisir. Alain Robbe-Grillet. 1974. 101 minutes ελληνικά I reloaded some decks into Anki, and so have been getting some daily exposure to Greek. It helps. I only have about one or two sessions per week where I can sit down and actively study the Iliad, but it is becoming easier each time. Türkçe Really, Turkish, I don't have time for you. I don't know why you won't stay on the shelf with the other language books, or why I keep finding you on my desk. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4039 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 299 of 331 04 October 2014 at 6:47am | IP Logged | ||
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Written Italian is quite different by spoken Italian.
If you want to read Italian literature is even more different. Good luck :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4881 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 300 of 331 07 October 2014 at 9:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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To Do List (Updated): October 2014 - January 2015
I know better than to make lists like this. Or at least, I know better than to share them publicly. Earn gold star in French Super Challenge (50 books and movies) Reach 35 each books and movies in Italian Super Challenge Finish Dante's Inferno (currently on Canto XX out of XXVIII) Reach Line 350 of the Iliad Book I (current: Line 223 / 600) Finish Assimil Italian, active phase (current: Lesson 70 / 110) Finish Assimil Le Turc (current: Lesson 40 / 70) (yeah. I didn't quit like I said I would) Finish building Anki deck for FSI French Level XXIV Begin building Anki deck for Assimil Italian Begin building Anki deck for Assimil Le Turc Start Living Language Italian Advanced Finish Pimsleur Italian III 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4901 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 301 of 331 08 October 2014 at 12:44am | IP Logged | ||
I believe 50 books + 50 movies is a bronze star. M has 150 films and 171 books and has a silver star. Nobody has 100 + 100, so that might be the level for the silver. Anyway, I know what you mean by the danger of making a list of goals (my goals made 2 months ago are already shot to hell), but your goals seem quite attainable considering your progress so far. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4881 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 302 of 331 23 October 2014 at 9:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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Now I've got some motivation to study! --- Three weeks in Italy next September - a
week solo in Napoli, then two weeks with friends in Venice, Verona, and Florence. That should give me plenty of time to learn Italian to a decent level. I have a final weekend (or more) that isn't planned - where I fly out of will be determined by whatever the best flight I can find is. At one point there was an amazing deal out of Istanbul, but it was gone before I could grab it. Now I find that I'm rooting for different exit cities: if it's Athens I'll learn Greek! Go Athens! But if it's Berlin maybe I'll finally start German! It's all kind of random. Which is also kind of fun. With all the fantasizing about where to go I've stalled on the actual language- learning part of the process. I had a burst of energy a few weeks ago, but for the past two weeks I haven't done much. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4881 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 303 of 331 29 October 2014 at 11:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Pre 6WC Self Test
And I'm dropping down to two: Italian and French. I'd like to come back to Greek again, but I'll do it when I can make it my real focus and not a side project. Turkish I'll just have to restart whenever life brings me back there. With that, I took an Italian test in advance of the next 6WC. It should give a nice baseline for whether I approve or not. Le 1000 parole Italiane più frequente: 26 / 30 87% Le 2000 parole Italiane più frequente: 22 / 30 73% Le 3000 parole Italiane più frequente: 16 / 30 53% Le 4000 parole Italiane più frequente: 14 / 30 47% Le 5000 parole Italiane più frequente: 09 / 30 30% Leipzig Vocab Test I'm scared to take the active part, since I'm sure to suck. But I figure I should, just so I can look back one day and hopefully smile at how far I've come. update: French results Les 1000 mots les plus fréquents du français: 29 / 30 97% Les 2000 mots les plus fréquents du français: 24 / 30 80% Les 3000 mots les plus fréquents du français: 25 / 30 83% Les 4000 mots les plus fréquents du français: 26 / 30 87% Les 5000 mots les plus fréquents du français: 26 / 30 87% Edited by kanewai on 06 November 2014 at 3:32am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4881 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 304 of 331 06 November 2014 at 4:05am | IP Logged | ||
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I've had some major projects at work, and haven't really had the mental energy to
focus intensely on languages. I turned in the last of my major reports on Monday, so hopefully I can regroup and make a strong showing in the 6WC. I've also lost interest in a lot of my shows, which hasn't helped. Italian I'm halfway through Il Gattopardo, and it's slow going. I didn't realize how reactionary of a novel it was the first time I read it. The heroes are definitely the aristocracy, and how they co-opted the revolution to maintain their privilege. It's still a great piece of history, it's just far more cynical than I remembered. MHZ stopped streaming La Piovra, though they still have it up on their YouTube page. I have two episodes left in the first season; I'm not sure if I'll continure with the second. The first couple episodes were great, but then it moved into more a cliched 80's-style cop show. It's showing it's age. MHZ also stopped streaming Il Commissario Montalbano. I guess it's good business - they get you hooked, and then you have to buy the dvd's if you want to continue! I genuinely like the series, so I'll suck it up and buy the next season. I've restarted Assimil, and am enjoying it again. The middle section was a bit dull, and I had put it aside. Currently on Lesson 76 (passive phase). I might be able to finish it for the 6WC. I'm also slowly tackling the third Living Language book. I breezed through the first two books, but the third takes more time. It's still a beginner's book, but the drills are perfect for my level, where I kind of know the grammar but it's not internalized yet. I was hoping to read some of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books in Italian, but they all disappeared from Amazon except for some expensive used copies. I'm not sure what happened. I should have ordered a bunch last month! I also uploaded some Anki decks in Italian, though I'll probably just use them for the 6WC. My reading rate has really slowed for the Super Challenge - I'm about 200 pages behind my target. My plan is to make a lot of progress during the 6WC; and hopefully the reading will be easier afterwards. French I'm also half way through L'oeuvre au noir, and it's fantastic. I'm looking forward to reading more by Margeurite Yourcenar. I finished Season 2 of Un village français, but it paled compared to the first season. It was ok, but most of the subplots involved adultery & I really didn't care about any of the couples nor their little dramas. There was a new German villain who was almost cartoonishly evil. The Resistance is slowly forming, so I hope that the next season will bring more real drama and less soap opera stuff. MHZ showed an episode of La sang de la vigne, about a wine expert who solves mysteries. Each episode takes place in a different chateau. It's only average as a detective series, but it's fun to see all the wine regions. I have a group of friends who do wine tastings; I might order the series & use it as a theme night next time I host. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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