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jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6902 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map
| Message 193 of 227 19 October 2014 at 10:56pm | IP Logged |
Get well, Josquin! Reading logs like this keeps me motivated to study, and to write a summary now and then.
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| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4837 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian
| Message 194 of 227 22 October 2014 at 12:45pm | IP Logged |
Go raibh maith agaibh, a chairde!
Your support means a lot to me. I actually already feel a little bit better, but I can't really concentrate at the
moment. So studying isn't an option right now, although I'm bored out of my mind and sorely long to do some
Irish. Typical problems of a language junkie with withdrawal symptoms, I suppose! ;)
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| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4837 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian
| Message 195 of 227 29 October 2014 at 11:49am | IP Logged |
WEDNESDAY, 29 OCTOBER 2014
So, I have mostly recovered from my recent sickness although I seem to have caught a cold on top of everything else. The most important thing, however, is that I'm able to dedicate my time to my everyday activities, such as studying languages, again. I'm taking it easy at the moment, because I don't want to ask too much of myself right now, but I'm finally back in the game.
The downside of everything, however, was that I had to cancel a presentation I was supposed to give in Munich. That was very disappointing, because I was supposed to present my research to my supervisors, but I guess there was nothing I could do about it. When you're ill, you're ill.
Русский
I have been listening to some Russian videos on YouTube with different results. While I was able to comprehend some without problems, I couldn't understand other ones at all. It seems to depend on the content that is being discussed, which shows me that I'm still at a B1 stage in Russian.
Well, as I said, I'm not very serious about improving my Russian at the moment, but I will continue watching Кухня nevertheless.
Gaeilge
Irish is my focus language at the moment. I have been repeating stuff from Teach Yourself and Learning Irish and I'm rather serious about it right now. When I'm listening to music, it's either classical or Irish traditional music, so I'm very keen on Irish culture as well. On top of all, I bought an English translation of the Táin Bó Cuailnge and I still plan to do some Old Irish as soon as my Modern Irish is good enough.
Português
I'm not doing much in Portuguese right now. I have been listening to some of the dialogues from Portugiesisch mit System, but I noticed I already have forgotten the rules of how to form the past tense. So if I get back to Portuguese, I will have to repeat some stuff. At the moment, I have other fish to fry though.
日本語
My Japanese is on hold as well, although I bought all those resources for intermediate Japanese. Before I dive into them, I will have to repeat some things from Genki though. There are some grammar points I have already forgotten, some vocabulary I didn't learn properly, and, on top of everything else, all the kanji I haven't memorized yet.
2 persons have voted this message useful
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5549 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona
| Message 196 of 227 29 October 2014 at 6:33pm | IP Logged |
Great to have you back, Josquin - I hope you shake that cold and feel much better soon!
And let us know how you get on with "Táin Bó Cuailnge"...I'd be interested to hear how reading Old Irish compares to reading Modern Irish?
1 person has voted this message useful
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4837 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian
| Message 197 of 227 30 October 2014 at 11:25am | IP Logged |
Thanks, Teango!
Actually, my cold is already better, so things are almost back to normal.
For the time being, I'm reading the Táin in English, but it would of course be absolutely awesome to be able to read it in the original one day! But, as I said, I first need a solid foundation in Modern Irish before I can go on with Old Irish.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4837 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian
| Message 198 of 227 31 October 2014 at 2:44pm | IP Logged |
FRIDAY, 31 OCTOBER 2014
At the moment, I'm mainly repeating stuff in order to consolidate my level in the languages I'm studying. Although I usually have quite a good memory, I noticed that I had forgotten some grammar points in my languages and that I needed to refresh them. I also noticed that this is probably due to my studying languages rather loosely for the last few months. I'm getting more serious about studying again, so I will try to fill the holes in my knowledge before I start learning new stuff.
Русский
I have watched several episodes of Кухня without using the transcripts. While it is possible to follow the plot, more elaborate details of conversations and jokes go clearly over my head. For this reason, I will rewatch the episodes, this time with the help of the transcripts.
Also, I have read several texts from my bilingual reader Ну что, поехали. They are interesting, as they cover Russian history, however the vocabulary used in them is sometimes rather abstract. So, I need to consult the German translation from time to time to make sure I understand every word in a sentence.
Gaeilge
I'm still repeating things from Teach Yourself and Learning Irish. I have been studying Irish very loosely for the last few months, so I need to catch up on vocabulary and also do exercises to consolidate my grammar.
日本語
The same situation in Japanese: I'm repeating stuff from Genki to consolidate my level and reinforce my abilities. Other than that, I started listening to JapanesePod101 again and I have nearly finished season 4 of the beginner level. I already know most of the grammar they teach, but it's useful to repeat and reinforce it. However, there's quite a lot of unknown vocabulary in each episode.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4837 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian
| Message 199 of 227 02 November 2014 at 12:46pm | IP Logged |
SUNDAY, 02 NOVEMBER 2014
So, I decided to register for the 6WC although I don't know yet how hard I will be able to study. My focus language will be Irish as I'm really serious about improving it now. I will continue dabbling in my other languages, but Irish will be the language I'll concentrate on. Is fearr Gaeilge bhriste ná Béarla cliste!
Gaeilge
I have a new learning strategy for Irish. I will concentrate on finishing Teach Yourself and then continue with Learning Irish and the Lower Intermediate version of Gaeilge gan Stró. I am on unit 15 in Teach Yourself now and while I notice that my passive skills are definitely getting better, I also notice that I especially need to work on my active skills.
Teach Yourself doesn't offer a lot of exercises, but as soon as I go back to Learning Irish, I will do all the exercises and complement them with the ones from Basic Irish. I really want to study Irish systematically now, so I will probably also create an Anki deck as soon as I can concentrate on that sort of activities again.
One problem with resources is the kind of Irish used. While Learning Irish focuses on the dialect of Cois Fharraige, Teach Yourself teaches the Official Standard with a preference for Munster Irish and Gaeilge gan Stró teaches the Official Standard with a preference for Connacht Irish.
Personally, I prefer Connacht Irish, but I'm not a fan of the Cois Fharraige dialect, because it has some peculiar features I don't particularly like. As Learning Irish is the best resource available, I will have to deal with Cois Fharraige Irish nevertheless, but I'll try to be aware of its pecularities in pronunciation and grammar without adopting them.
Other than that, I read an interesting blog post about the difference between traditional Irish and the kind of Irish spoken today. The author blames the Caighdeán Oifigiúil for propagating artificial and even incorrect Irish. One example is the word "Gaeilge", which is firstly spelt incorrectly in the Caighdeán (it used to be "Gaedhilge") and secondly the genitive of the word "Gaedhilg", which itself is an old dative form of the original nominative "Gaedhealg" (see here).
So, that's the real problem with learning Irish. There are so many dialectal variants without a real standard language! The Caighdeán Oifigiúil is an artificial construct and Irish on the media is often influenced by English. The most notorious symptom for this is the use of the English approximant R instead of the Irish trilled R. That and the dearth of good resources is what makes learning "real" Irish a Herculean task.
Mar sin féin is maith liom Gaeilge a fhoghlaim. Tá sé an-deacair, ach is í an Ghaeilge teanga an-álainn. Slán agaibh!
Edited by Josquin on 02 November 2014 at 3:08pm
3 persons have voted this message useful
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4837 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian
| Message 200 of 227 11 November 2014 at 11:56am | IP Logged |
TUESDAY, 11 NOVEMBER 2014
Registering for the 6WC hasn't worked out too well so far. I managed to study for the impressive amount of 90 minutes, so I'm on place 56 right now.
I have a good excuse for not studying though, as I'm still suffering from health problems. I'm not really sick any more, but I'm not totally healthy either. The worst part, however, is the psychological aspect of worrying and wanting to be fit again.
I hope I'll finally fully recover during the next days, so I'll be able to study again. Until then, all I can do is being patient, which isn't my strong suit to be honest.
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