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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 193 of 331 13 November 2013 at 3:28am | IP Logged | |||||
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I tried with Amelie, I just couldn't get into it. I actually liked it both times in the
beginning, but could never finish it. As for Jacques Audiard's movies ... I don't like the way he fetishizes violence, and have passionately hated everything he's done - and only realized afterwards that they were all his. Edited by kanewai on 13 November 2013 at 3:31am 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 194 of 331 14 November 2013 at 10:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The Problem with Pimsleur
Japanese I like Pimsleur, but sometimes it just makes me want to scream. Here's Japanese II, Lesson 2: This is Bill. Billu san des. Got it. Nice to meet you. Hajimemashite. I remember this. Unfortunately I have to go. ainikushitsureishinakerabanaranaendes. WTF????? What kills me is that last phrase contains grammar points that are not explained at all. I recognize "nae n des" from skimming ahead in another book, and can guess that "shinakeraba" must be some new tense of "to do," though it isn't covered in any of my beginning textbooks. Grr. Anyways, I've hit Book 2 of Living Language, and have re-started Pimsleur II from the beginning - I don't think I retained much from my first pass. Français - I liked Stendhal in the beginning, but I quickly lost interest. I read that he wrote Le chartreuse de Parme in six or seven weeks ... and it shows. After a great first couple chapters set during the Battle of Waterloo the book began jumping all over the place. I'm not going to finish it. I'm currently 3/4 of the way through Pêcheur d'Islande, by Pierre Loti (1886). It's a sad, romantic story set in the fishing villages of Brittany - of men who spend the season fishing off the coast of Iceland & haven't seen France in the summer since they were children, and the women who stay behind, never knowing who will return and who will be lost at sea. I like Loti's writing style a lot - the novel feels like an impressionist painting in words. I took a look at an English edition in the library, and the translation was awful. The fishermen all spoke like pirates in a budget movie ... they actually say "ahoy, matey" to each other. This is a great example of a book that needs to be read in French (or that needs a modern translation!). It's also short, which is nice. ελληνικά - No action. Español - I started watching Águila Roja again. I might be able to finish the film part of my half-super challenge. The reading part will only be possible of I finish all of my French by this month, which is unlikely. Türkçe - I've started organizing my materials. My base will by Pimsleur I, the FSI course, and my old Teach Yourself (I don't think it's been updated since I bought it). I was tempted by Assimil's Le Turc, but it's $110, and I don't trust Assimil with non-Romance or non-Germanic languages, so I'm going to pass on that one. I'm surprised that there's no Michel Thomas or Living Language Turkish course! Though I think I already have plenty to work with. And I'm looking forward to working with Turkish again; it's been awhile, and I enjoyed the language the last round. Italiano - I will definitely order Assimil's Italian with Ease, though! I felt like I learned Italian quickly the last round, so I think Assimil + a Michel Thomas review might be enough. Edited by kanewai on 14 November 2013 at 10:43pm 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 195 of 331 17 November 2013 at 9:19am | IP Logged | |||||
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L'écume des jours
I leave for Tokyo in seven days, and I meant to make this a Japanese weekend. Instead, it's been totally Frenchie. It's as if trying to focus on a new language has the side effect of invigorating the others. I even read some Greek this morning, for this first time in six weeks. But it's really been all about the French. I finished Pêcheur d'Islande, and would easily recommend this to other language learners. Pierre Loti was a naval officer, and set his novels in exotic locations. He doesn't seem to popular now, and I would have never heard of him if a friend hadn't taken me to watch the sunset from the Pierre Loti Café in İstanbul. Since then, I've always been curious about him ... not everyone gets a hill and café named after them! 
Next up: L'écume des jours (Boris Vian, 1946), a romance set in the age of jazz and science-fiction. I want to read more modern fiction, although it means reading it the old-fashioned way: a physical book, rather than a kindle. I thought this would be easy with L'écume, but things got a little surreal in the third chapter. As far as I can tell, an attendant at the skating rink had the head of a pigeon, and one of the skaters laid an egg while doing a spin. And I'm pretty sure this wasn't a metaphor. I've heard great things about this book, but the surrealism is going to be a challenge - I won't be able to understand new words from context if the context isn't based on anything in the real world. I'm looking up everything in the dictionary. It's a fun book, though. The characters are all obsessed with American jazz, and so I've started playing the music they discuss while I'm reading the chapter. Right now my "soundtrack" to L'écume is Duke Ellington's Chloe (Song of the Swamp) I also learned it's a movie directed by Michael Gondry (Eternal Sunshine!), and starring Audrey Tatou and Romain Duris. I really, really, hope it's good - I loved both of them in their early movies, but haven't liked much of their work at all lately. 
And finally ... I found a site that streams Les revenants. Two episodes in, and I'm hooked. Also, there have been a few moments that I forgot that I was watching it in French. I was following it without thinking, and only snapped out of it when one of the teenage girls started talking & I couldn't understand her slang. I'll get back to my Japanese tomorrow. Maybe. Edited by kanewai on 17 November 2013 at 9:21am 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 196 of 331 23 November 2013 at 1:02pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Tokyo Countdown
Seven hours until I hop on the bus to the airport, and (as usual before a trip) I'm too wired to sleep. I've put a fair amount of time into studying Japanese, but still feel like I'm only half way to beginner level. I tried to run through some imaginary conversations in my mind, and realized how many basic, little things I still didn't know. I'll be able to order food, and navigate on the trains, but my skills won't go much beyond that. I don't quite know why this is. Japanese isn't hard, really. I understand the grammatical concepts so far. It's just really different. But Turkish was also different, and had more complex concepts for me to grasp, yet it took less time. We'll see how I do soon! My travelling partner speaks Japanese, so it's not critical that I speak. It will be weird being the one needed help though - usually I'm the one who does the translating. 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 197 of 331 07 December 2013 at 4:10am | IP Logged | |||||
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The Problem with Pimsleur
Japan Trip Report I did moderately well with Japanese. It took my a few days to get the accent right, but after that could handle simple sentences (Where am I? Where am I going? and I want to eat that. All the important things in life). This helped immensely - I seem to end up a lot in areas where no one spoke English. I wasn't even close to being able to carry on even a simple conversation, but I could cover basic needs. In retrospect, I would have done better to focus more heavily on the Living Language course, and not so much on the last couple Michel Thomas courses. I like them, but I wasn't ready to use complicated grammar in real life. My traveling partner used to speak Japanese for work, and it was interesting: his vocabulary was huge, but his grammar was atrocious. I was trying to use the correct case endings, and he declared that I was making things too hard, and that he would just mumble them. People were friendly, though, and very quick to switch from English to Japanese when they thought I understood. I also noticed that people spoke in a much more "sing song" voice than I hear on the tapes. I remember the French did this too. My traveling partner tended to speak in a gruff style, like someone from the old samurai movies. I felt that I was getting a much nicer reception with my limited, but polite, Japanese than he was with his rougher style. There were some bumps. Once I thought I had asked for "two more glasses (of beer)" (mo nihai o kudasai) , the waitress smiled and bowed, and I thought: I'm doing pretty well! I was all proud of myself, until she brought out a single whiskey cocktail. I'm still not sure where I went wrong with that one. Français One of the things I love about long plane rides is that I can bury myself in a good book for hours on end. I've caught up with my Super Challenge, and have less than 100 pages to go. I'll actually finish! L'écume des jours was really good. The surrealism, I think, helped the author deal with some difficult issues. I also restarted and finished Le Père Goriot. Last year I quit half way through. I thought it was too dry and too simple, and I took the other Balzac books off my reading list. But what a difference a year makes - this round wasn't as difficult, and the story seemed so much more exciting and dramatic. Balzac is now back on my list. I want to see what happens next, especially with the cynical criminal mastermind Vautrin. I'm currently reading Voyage au but de la nuit (Louis-Ferdinand Céline, 1932). This, so far, might be one of the most intense and angry anti-war books I've ever read. It's also wonderfully obscene - I don't even recognize half the words he uses to describe his officers, but I know that I probably shouldn't use them in polite company. The story is fast paced: a 20-year old youth is drafted, and decides he'd rather live free than die in the mud. In the first 100 pages he's gone from the killing fields at Flanders to a Paris hospital to a mental hospital to an experimental neurology clinic. I also started on Lesson XXII of FSI. I'll do another lesson in Feb, and the last one in April. It's helped to space them out like this, even though it's been a 2- year process. ελληνικά - No action. Español I'm still watching episodes ofÁguila Roja, and just learned that season 2 is out for Isabel. This will be enough, I think, to keep the language alive until I can get back to properly focusing on it. I thought I might finish the film part of the half challenge, but I'd have to watch four movies a week. It won't happen. Türkçe I made copies of all my materials for the five of us going to İstanbul. They say they want a study group, and we have a couple friends who are fluent ... we'll see who actually sticks with it. I started Pimsleur, and it's been pleasant to revisit Turkish again! I can't recall much on my own, but as soon as I hear a word it comes back to me. I feel like I'm re-visiting an old friend. I liked Turkish a lot, and loved Turkey itself. The two are probably combined. It's nice to be able to dive right back in, rather than having to struggle with the new concepts like vowel harmony and agglutination. I've posted two or three times that I didn't like Assimil for non-European languages, and that I didn't like the Turkish speakers on Assimil. Then I found a copy of Le Turc for $40 on Amazon. And ordered it. I find that I am constantly changing my mind with language learning. Italiano - I hope to start sometime mid January. _______________________________________________________ ; My plan for the next four months is to work in shifts. At any one time I'll have FSI for one language, an audio course for the second language, and Assimil for the third language. Each three weeks or so I'll rotate. I'm hoping this way will help me balance three languages at once without burning out or becoming too compulsive. I'd prefer to work on one language at once, but I study some languages just for travel, and the economics of living so far away from everything means that me travel is always clustered in the low season: October / November and March / April. And that means that my studying tends to cluster too. The good news is that I now have somewhat of a base in most of my life-time target languages! Any studying from here on out will be building on those bases, which will be pleasant. My current lifetime goals: Fluency French Spanish Chuukese - Micronesian (though it's mostly faded, and I have no plans to re-up it) "Travel Languages" - these will come and go depending on my wanders Arabic Turkish Indonesian Italian Japanese Little to no experience, but maybe one day: Greek, Thai, Portuguese, Hindi, Farsi (if the US and Iran ever find peace) ... who knows, it's a big world Reading Only Ancient Greek Latin One day: German Perhaps one day: Old English, Russian That is a ridiculously long list, but I'm sure I'm not the only one here who has one like it. Edited by kanewai on 07 December 2013 at 9:56am 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
 emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5524 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map | Message 198 of 331 07 December 2013 at 12:07pm | IP Logged | |||||
I saw that! Congratulations on your progress. The thing that amazed me towards the end was how much reading I could get done if I really set aside some hours and focused. A language learner is somebody who never needs to fear a plane flight or 10 minutes in line, and who has an excuse to watch all the TV and read all the comic books they'd like. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
 songlines Pro Member Canada flickr.com/photos/cp Joined 5201 days ago 729 posts - 1056 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French Personal Language Map | Message 199 of 331 07 December 2013 at 9:37pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Thanks for the film list, and the posts on L'écume des jours, Kanewai. I visited Librairie l'écume des
jours in Montreal, and later wondered about the origin of its name. Your "shift work" plan sounds interesting. - Looking forward to following your continued progress in 2014! 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 200 of 331 10 December 2013 at 12:01am | IP Logged | |||||
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I forgot to mention
Kinokuniya in Tokyo - a wonderful seven-story bookstore, and the top floor is all foreign-language books, most at a better price than I can find online. We can add this to the list of the world's great bookstores.
likely to walk the 20" to the grocery store than bike or drive when I have a tape or podcast I'm working through. I've tried doing language drills on the treadmill, but that was too mental.
before that never quite worked in the real world ... we'll see! _____________________________________________ FSI, as usual, became challenging by the third tape in the lesson. I can usually manage the first couple sections of each chapter using audio only, and then it gets hard. Here's a sample exercise: Instructeur: Il y a longtemps qu'on ne s'occupe plus de ça. Etudiant: On ne s'occupe plus de ça depuis longtemps. Instructeur: Nous avons repris les relations diplomatiques avec ce pays-là il y a deux ans. Etudiant: Nous avons des relations diplomatiques avec ce pays-là depuis deux ans. I can read these with close to 100% comprehension, but when I try to do them using only audio my accuracy plummets completely. So I'm slowing down. I go through the section reading only. Then I try doing them as written exercises - and I find that I make a lot of little mistakes that are easy to gloss over when speaking. The third or fourth round I'll listen to the tapes again. This is probably good - I need to slow down and focus on the details. And as much as I love using native materials, my experiences with my travel partner in Japan (huge vocabulary, bad grammar) convinced me that we, as language learners, really do need to go back and actively study from time to time. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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