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Amerykanka’s Adventures - 2015 and Beyond

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
55 messages over 7 pages: 13 4 5 6 7  Next >>
tristano
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 4039 days ago

905 posts - 1262 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English
Studies: Dutch

 
 Message 9 of 55
06 January 2015 at 10:15am | IP Logged 
LOL
I feel the same about Italian, but the other way around: Spanish is a sort of strange
dialect of Italian :P

Ghiaccio would be spelled something like 'Guiatcho' in Spanish.

A couple of remarks about 'uccello'
- doesn't look like Spanish, but it is closer to French ('oiseau')
- it's also a familiar way used mostly in the North to call the man's
kindermaakapparaat ;)
1 person has voted this message useful



Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5163 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 10 of 55
07 January 2015 at 3:19am | IP Logged 
Learning related languages is always interesting . . . By the way, how much Spanish could you understand
as an Italian speaker before beginning to learn Spanish properly? I'm doing my best to learn Italian but there
are so many other things that must be done before I leave for Europe that I am afraid I will end up relying
heavily on Spanish. How effective do you think this will be?


Polish Update #2
I have started reading Szatan z siódmej klasy by Kornel Makuszyński. So far I have only read about 30
pages, but I am enjoying it. I created a new flashcard deck mainly for vocab recovery - there are so many
words that have vanished from my active vocabulary. Even though they remain in my passive vocab, I am not
happy with the situation so I am working on refamiliarizing myself with them. I bought a Polish phrasebook for
this purpose, since most of the words I am forgetting have to do with everyday circumstances. And I was
never great with airport, restaurant, and general touristy vocab anyway since traveling wasn't my priority back
then.
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tristano
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 4039 days ago

905 posts - 1262 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English
Studies: Dutch

 
 Message 11 of 55
07 January 2015 at 9:34am | IP Logged 
Well, I started to learn Spanish by listening an intermediate podcast and then the
advanced one. After 6 weeks I can understand a video like
this or follow universitary
courses on Coursera or similar websites.

I think that this is subjective by the way, not all the Italians reach this degree of
comprehension of Spanish without previous exposure. In my case probably knowing
English and French helps me.

If you want to use Spanish to speak with Italians, be sure to speak slowly and avoid
words that are completely different to the Italian ones (if you say 'almuerzo' nobody
will understand what are you talking about). Rely heavily on gestures when
communicating and pay attention to their gestures. Italians communicate a lot with the
hands ;) You'll see that this does the trick. You can also try to speak Italian and
when you don't know a word in Italian, say it in Spanish.

Otherwise, there are Italians that speak English. Don't worry in any case. An Italian
would be able to go in China without knowing a word of Chinese and be invited to
dinner. :)
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Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5163 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 12 of 55
09 January 2015 at 4:44am | IP Logged 
Hmm, thank you for your explanation. I will continue working on Italian while in Italy and since I'll be there for several months, hopefully my Italian will be in pretty good shape by the time I leave. I definitely plan on attempting to speak Italian and only relying on Spanish as a last resort. At some point before I go I'm going to look up a list of false friends and that should be helpful. And I'm going to cram as much Italian vocab as I can within the next week.

I communicate a lot with my hands as well but probably not in quite the same way . . . in any case, I'm looking forward to trying to communicate. :)


Italian Update #2
Over the last few days I have listened to lessons 1-24 of Assimil's Italiano senza sforzo and looked up all the vocab that I didn't know. Most of my issues with listening comprehension come from just not knowing the words, although the intonation is pretty weird so that sometimes throws me as well. I am now at about 800 words, I'd say, and I am hoping to add 500 more before arrival in Italy. I have a week at home and then a 9-hour flight, after all.

I learned the imperative forms of the verbs and also all of the contractions of the definite article with a, de, da, in, and su. I also learned the present tense of uscire and sapere. I am feeling more comfortable with the language now. The listening in particular has added to my confidence.

I also messed around with duolingo for 30 minutes and I might do a bit more there tomorrow. It is addictive, but who knows how useful.

In the next week, between packing and figuring out international phone plans etc., I hope to memorize a few more tenses, and, as I mentioned above, learn 500 or so new words. I will obviously continue with the Assimil and vocab acquisition once in Italy, but I want to have most of the heavy-duty grammar out of the way.

Edited by Amerykanka on 09 January 2015 at 4:46am

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pesahson
Diglot
Senior Member
Poland
Joined 5720 days ago

448 posts - 840 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, English
Studies: French, Portuguese, Norwegian

 
 Message 13 of 55
26 January 2015 at 11:11am | IP Logged 
Amerykanka wrote:
Polish Update #1
No to zdecydowałam przywitać nowy rok z przykładem pracowitości więc wczoraj wieczorem zaczęłam
książkę Dziurę w sercu Romka Pawlaka i właśnie teraz ją dokończyłam.


z przykładem pracowitości - wiadomo o co chodzi, ale nikt by tak nie powiedział. Lepiej by było - Zdecydowałam przywitać nowy rok pracowicie.
Tytuł książki będzie tutaj w mianowniku - Zaczęłam książkę Dziura w sercu. Można też napisać Zaczęłam "Dziurę w sercu" i wtedy tytuł będzie w bierniku.

Amerykanka wrote:

Muszę przyznać się, że to nie bardzo wyrafinowana ni bardzo trudna książka


to nie jest ani bardzo wyrafinowana ani bardzo trudna książka

Amerykanka wrote:

Nie spodobała mi się zbyt dużo ta książka,

Nie spodobała mi się ZA BARDZO

Amerykanka wrote:
byłam tak zajęta, że ledwie dałam sobie radę przeczytać jakichś sto stron Zakonu Feniksa.


ledwie dałam radę - sobie tutaj jest niepotrzebne. Nie wiem jaka jest na to reguła gramatyczna, ale jak masz po tym czasownik: dałam radę wszystko zrobić, dałam radę przyjść na czas, dasz radę dokończyć? to bez sobie, ale gdy nie ma czasownika to używa się sobie: Dałam sobie radę ze wszystkim. Dasz sobie radę?

To tylko małe poprawki. Bardzo dobrze piszesz po polsku!

Edited by pesahson on 26 January 2015 at 11:13am

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Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5163 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 14 of 55
29 January 2015 at 10:23pm | IP Logged 
Bardzo dziękuję za poprawki - były bardzo pomocne. To po raz pierwszy słyszę o tym odróżnieniu w użyciu wyrażeń "dać radę" i "dać sobie radę", muszę to sobie zapamiętać.

Co do aktualizacji tego log'u, muszę powiedzieć, że obecnie przede wszystkim słucham książek audio. Wyładowałam Audiotekę do mojego iPad'a i kupiłam Władcę pierścieni i Szkołę narzeczonych. Ta pierwsza jest moja najulubieńsza książka, i ta druga była tania i do tego ma narratorkę, która mówi bardzo szybko, więc to będzie dobre ćwiczenie w słuchaniu. Nie mam wielu problemów z rozumieniem, ale od czasu do czasu czegoś nie rozumiem ze względu na szybkość mowy czy coś takiego. Może także problemy wynikają z faktu, że zwykle słucham tych książek w łóżku przed zaśnięciem, kiedy jestem bardzo zmęczona. W każdym razie bawię się dobrze z tymi audiobookami i myślę, że polepsza się mój polski.   
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Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5163 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 15 of 55
08 June 2015 at 8:50pm | IP Logged 
Ha, I suspected that I wouldn't be very active this spring and I was right. Studying abroad and trying to
maximize travel opportunities without letting your grades slide is amazingly difficult. However, now that
summer has arrived and I am back in the US, I hope to have time to update this log.

First, however, I just have to say: I finally was able to visit Poland!!! I only had time to spend a long weekend
there (in Krakow), but it was enough to reaffirm me in my love for all things Polish. Now I am determined to
return next summer for a longer visit. In preparation, I need to brush up on grammar and especially vocab. I
was very pleased with the way I managed to use my rusty Polish; I was able to communicate everything I
wanted, I understood 90% of what people said to me, and I was asked several times if I was Polish. But I
remember a time a few years ago when Polish was much more effortless - I want to regain that comfort, and
then move beyond it into true fluency.

As it so happened, I ended up spending more time in Spain - some friends and I took two weeks to walk the
last 200 miles of the Camino de Santiago. I was very pleased with my Spanish and I thoroughly confused
several Spaniards as to my nationality. They could tell I wasn't Spanish, obviously, but I guess they assumed
I was from some Spanish-speaking country in Latin America, so when I turned and started explaining things
to my friends in English, the Spaniards were shocked. One hostel-owner looked at me in outrage and
exclaimed, "¡Pero yo pensaba que hablabas español!"

Although I was pleased with both my Polish and my Spanish, both can definitely be improved. This summer I
want to read and listen extensively in both languages, and perhaps do some Skype exchanges if anyone is
interested.

This is all for now. I have a collection of Ana María Matute's short stories that is very tempting.

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Mooby
Senior Member
Scotland
Joined 6097 days ago

707 posts - 1220 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Polish

 
 Message 16 of 55
08 June 2015 at 9:46pm | IP Logged 
Witam serdecznie!!
Great to hear about your travels, especially to Kraków.
And well done for confusing folks in both countries!


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