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Russian and Greek, TAC2014 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4632 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 81 of 99 30 January 2014 at 11:42am | IP Logged | ||
I've been wondering about Colloquial Greek by Routledge. I found their Russian course very useful, in fact I am still working with Colloquial Russian 2, which builds on the beginner's course. My local bookshops do not have this Greek course though, so I would have to buy it without having had a proper look at it. You can have a preview in Amazon, and from the few pages they show you there it seems similar to the Russian one. The only negative thing I have to say about the Colloquial courses I have used so far is the audio material that comes with it. There is a lot of talking in English, instructing you to do this and that. In the Russian one there is this obnoxious lady with a very posh British accent who keeps telling you "now listen to Sasha and Peter talk about their holidays, then answer a few questions in Russian..." I do not need that kind of instructions! Luckily, the Langenscheidt course has only Greek in their audio, spoken more or less at natural speed, which is indeed a challenge, but one I enjoy. Edited by Ogrim on 30 January 2014 at 11:43am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4351 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 82 of 99 30 January 2014 at 2:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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Here is a link with several free e books. It has the FSI books too, but don't use those because the language is dated.
Colloquial must be ok. Why don't you follow it and see what happens? 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4632 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 83 of 99 30 January 2014 at 4:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the link, very helpful. I will look into this and see what I can use in addition to Langenscheidt and maybe I will go for Colloquial Greek as well.
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| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4351 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 84 of 99 30 January 2014 at 9:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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Παρακαλώ :) I'll see if I can find more helpful sources.
I found thispage. Scroll down and you'll see many sources for greek as a second language. Not all the links seem to be working though. I couldn't test them all as you understand. But many of them are ok. Edited by renaissancemedi on 30 January 2014 at 10:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4632 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 85 of 99 05 February 2014 at 5:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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A quick update: This week in my Russian class I had kind of a revelation. Well, not a religious one, but definitely a linguistic one. I suddently understood (I think) how word formation works in Russian. My teacher showed how e.g. an adjective has been derived from a noun, or a noun from a verb, or how you get new verbs by adding prefixes to a verb. And suddenly it all seemed logical and fell into place.
I am dedicating some time this week to explore this issue further. I especially see that it is extremely useful to learn well the basic meaning of prepositions as they play a key role in word formation. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4632 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 86 of 99 03 March 2014 at 5:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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I see I haven't written anything here for a month now. Partly that is because I have been very busy at work, and during February I also spent a lot of time (probably too much) on Romansh, which I have written about in my other log.
I have been working hard on Russian though. Especially last week, when I was on holiday, and could dedicate a lot more time in the day than I normally can on languages. I have been through three more lessons of Colloquial Russian 2, one about Russian demographics, one about Russian society and one about its educational system. The information is clearly outdated, as the book is from the early noughties (2003 if I remember correctly), but that in itself is interesting, as it gives you an idea of the way Russian society has developed over the last ten years. With regard to grammar, I have worked again a lot on verbs of movements, always a headache, as well as the declination of numerals, which I have a hard time mastering no matter how many exercises I do. The numerals is really one of those "small" but significant grammar issues that sometimes make me tear my hair out in frustration... As I am starting to get bored with too much textbook work, I have also read quite a bit from other sources. I have tried to get through a few news articles, the last few days in particular about the recent developments in Ukraine. One great thing about learning languages is also that you get to read different takes on what happens in the world, and the narrative in Russian media is not exactly what you read in the "Western" press. I will not enter into politics though, just make the remark that reading about politics is also a good way of learning a language. I have not made much progress with Москва, я не люблю тебя, as I find the text rather difficult. However, I have started on another e-book I found on Amazon, Анекдоты: самые новые и смешные, which is basically a collection of jokes or anecdotes, as the title indicates. Since it consists of short texts with a punchline, it is quite amusing and a great way of improving vocabulary as well as learning some colloquial expressions. Here is just one very small example (hoping not to infringe copywright law by reproducing this): -Как дела у Сани? -Да вот, 15 лет дали. -Что, посадили? -Да нет, ипотеку взял. As for Greek, I am ashamed to say that I have done very little. I went through another couple of lessons in Langenscheidt at the beginning of the month, but have not really given any more time to it since then. I think I need some new material (apart from more time) in order to make more progress with this language. Edited by Ogrim on 03 March 2014 at 5:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4351 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 87 of 99 03 March 2014 at 6:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's good if you are busy! Time is hard to find these days :)
When you say greek material, would reading online newspapers etc help? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4351 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 88 of 99 03 March 2014 at 6:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ελευθεροτυπία
Το βήμα Τα νέα Espresso (gossip) 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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