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Josquin’s Language Symphony (RU, IR, 東亜) | ||
Tags: Gaelic (Scottish) | Gaelic (Irish) | Icelandic | Portuguese | Multilingual | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | Japanese | Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4832 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes  Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 161 of 646 23 September 2012 at 2:31pm | IP Logged |
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SUNDAY, 23 SEPTEMBER 2012
My copy of Colloquial Japanese still hasn't arrived. According to Deutsche Post, it will come tomorrow, so I used my Saturday for repetition in Russian and Icelandic. I went to the library and borrowed an old copy of Kirschbaum's Grammatik der russischen Sprache as well as Mitchell and Robinson's Guide to Old English. In addition, I borrowed an anthology of Old English and Old Norse literature, which contains excerpts from Beowulf, some sagas, and many poems. I skimmed through the Kirschbaum, reading mainly about grammatical points that were unclear to me, then I tried to decipher some Old Norse texts. I also had a look at some Old English texts without understanding anything. Those languages really worked their charm on me and I was enraptured in the study of Russian and Icelandic once more. In fact, it really got me thinking whether it was such a good idea to start with Japanese right now. I would really like to deepen my knowledge of Russian and Icelandic and maybe do some Old English on the side just for fun. Japanese would be just one more language to dabble in. Well, I pondered the pros and cons and finally decided to order Colloquial Russian 2. That means I will go on with Russian as my main target language! I don't know yet what I'm going to do with my copy of Colloquial Japanese though. Maybe I'll just leaf through it and then decide whether I'll keep it or not. Fortunately, Amazon is rather accomodating with returning articles. But maybe I'll keep it -- just in case I feel the urge to study something left-branching and mind-boggling with a crazy writing system. So, here I am back. It was just a short break, but I simply noticed I couldn't live without a regular dose of good ol' Russian. It would be too early to take a break now, as I have just been studying for four months! It seems I have a soft spot for heavily inflecting, highly irregular languages with fascinating cultures behind them. Well, Japanese, pity for you! Maybe, it will work out between the two of us some other time. Until then: Добро пожаловать назад and Velkomin til baka! Edited by Josquin on 23 September 2012 at 3:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4695 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 162 of 646 23 September 2012 at 4:22pm | IP Logged |
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Keep it - you might want to study it anyway!
Успеха! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4832 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 163 of 646 23 September 2012 at 5:03pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks, tarvos! I guess that's what I'll do, cause hey! it's Japanese! ;)
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4832 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 164 of 646 24 September 2012 at 6:14pm | IP Logged |
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MONDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2012
My copy of Colloquial Japanese has finally arrived and I can definitely say now that Japanese just isn't my cup of tea -- at least not at the moment. It looks very exotic and exciting, but I just don't want to learn hiragana, katakana, and kanji right now! I would love to refine my knowledge of Russian grammar and not start Japanese from scratch! Moreover, the vocabulary just doesn't "speak" to me. I guess, I'm just an old-fashioned lover of Indo-European languages. Of course, it would be interesting to learn Japanese, but it simply doesn't thrill me the same way as Russian, Icelandic, or even Old English do. I simply crave for learning more in these languages -- don't have that feeling with Japanese right now. So, quoting Lenin: Что делать? I'll simply have to wait for my copy of Colloquial Russian 2 to arrive, then I can happily go on with my Russian studies. Until then, I'll try to learn the outlines of Old English noun and adjective declension and maybe tackle the one or other Old Norse saga. And who knows? Perhaps, I'll suddenly feel the urge to learn some hiragana. At least, I'm prepared now! Edited by Josquin on 24 September 2012 at 6:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4832 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 165 of 646 26 September 2012 at 7:26pm | IP Logged |
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WEDNESDAY, 26 SEPTEMBER 2012
Today, my copy of Colloquial Russian 2 has arrived. That means I'm ready and prepared for any language learning scenario one might think of. Besides Colloquial Russian and Colloquial Japanese, I have also Kirschbaum's Grammatik der russischen Sprache, Mitchell and Robinson's Guide to Old English, Lockwood's Introduction to Modern Faroese, and Kress's Isländische Grammatik at hand -- as well as the Longman Anthology of Old English, Old Icelandic and Anglo-Norman Literatures. But this hasn't kept me from looking for some books on Welsh and Irish this afternoon. Well, this is my study plan for the next three months: Main target language: Russian I want to deepen my knowledge of Russian grammar, vocabulary, and idiomatic expressions. The Colloquial book seems to be a thorough course for advanced beginners. It has a lot of dialogues and texts on diverse topics and contains many grammar explanations and exercises. I want to concentrate on written Russian at the moment. There are CDs available, but I'll hold off from buying them. If I feel the need to listen to some native speakers, I still have the Langenscheidt CDs available. I will maybe use the Langenscheidt vocabulary trainer, which is quite a handy tool. So, I can repeat the words I have learnt during the Langenscheidt course and make sure I don't forget them. Secondary target language: Icelandic/Old Norse Unfortunately, there are no materials for advanced students of Icelandic available, so I will repeat some texts from Colloquial Icelandic and search for some easy Icelandic stories. I've found that sagas are optimal, because their language is straightforward and uncomplicated, although the vocabulary may be old-fashioned. But sooner or later, I want to read the sagas anyway, so that's no excuse. A little bit of Old Norse won't hurt and modern vocabulary can always be acquired by using a dictionary and making Iversenian word lists. Languages for dabbling: Old English and Faroese I want to work through A Guide to Old English, which will be quite a dry read, because it's more of a reference grammar plus reader and not a real course with units, graded texts and exercises. An Introduction to Modern Faroese is constructed the same way, so I will more or less dabble in these languages, learn what interests me, and see how far I come. I would love to become able to read some of the Old English texts that are included in the reader. Last and also least: Japanese So, I have bought Colloquial Japanese while suffering from some sort of manic episode and now I'll see what I can do with it. From what I can tell by now, Japanese is an absolutely new dimension in my language learning career. It's the first Non-Indo-European language I have ever studied and it's the first language that's not based on an alphabet. I guess learning Japanese would be harder than anything I have learnt before, and I have neither the time nor the willpower for doing that at the moment. I have already learned some hiragana and even kanji, but I think I will just have a look at the book every now and then when I feel like it. Future projects When I'll have brought my Russian to a solid intermediate level (B1-B2), I might want to go back to the Celtic languages. I would like to continue my studies of Scottish Gaelic, but Welsh and Irish intrigue me as well. Other languages on my hitlist are Hungarian, Polish, Czech, and Spanish (Everybody seems to know Spanish, so why not me?). Doing some Ancient Greek again would be great, too. So, there is a lot to do. Quoting Goethe: "Die Zeit ist kurz, die Kunst ist lang" ("Our time is short, but art takes long"). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4695 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 166 of 646 26 September 2012 at 7:32pm | IP Logged |
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I like your interest in the Celtic languages, I share it. However, may I be partisan and
suggest that you have a look at the Breton language. It's an even funnier specimen than the other three. (In fact, I think we share a lot of languages in common, except that I lack Italian of course, and that I haven't yet studied Icelandic in depth) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4847 days ago 890 posts - 1190 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish | Message 167 of 646 27 September 2012 at 12:59am | IP Logged |
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I don't know why, but I find Spanish soooooooo, soooooooo boring. Maybe it's just "I want to be special" kind of thing in my case...
(So, as you can see, not everybody knows Spanish) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4832 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 168 of 646 27 September 2012 at 7:15pm | IP Logged |
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@tarvos: Thanks for your suggestion, but I think I'll stick to the "normal" Celtic languages--as if they weren't fancy enough...
@prz_: That's what I thought, too, but perhaps I'll just give Spanish a try when I have nothing better to do... In fact, I can already understand some Spanish from my knowledge of French, Italian, and Latin, so it wouldn't be that much work to reach A2 or the like. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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