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Rhoda Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5604 days ago 166 posts - 196 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, Swahili, Ancient Greek, German
| Message 41 of 115 11 August 2009 at 3:47am | IP Logged |
Schedule for tomorrow:
-SWAHILI: Listen to & read 2 FSI lessons
-Review TY Unit 10. And, what the hell, move on to Unit 11.
-UGA KIKO Units 6 & 7
-Finish Hadithi za Esopo. Maybe reread some fables and/or Haiba & the 7 Dwarves. NO dictionary!! (for rereading anyway)
-FRENCH: Read some Bienvenue au Club
-OTHER (sorry, has nothing to do with languages): work out, read (in English), paint.
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| Rhoda Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5604 days ago 166 posts - 196 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, Swahili, Ancient Greek, German
| Message 42 of 115 11 August 2009 at 11:21pm | IP Logged |
I've begun reading into TY Unit 11. Stuff is getting pretty complicated (in a good way!) and I'm starting to see how all the different language pieces come together.
I spent about 2 hours painting, and even more than that walking home, which is why I haven't accomplished much. Tonight, after recovering from the 95+ degree weather, I'll study some more.
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| Rhoda Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5604 days ago 166 posts - 196 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, Swahili, Ancient Greek, German
| Message 43 of 115 12 August 2009 at 3:33am | IP Logged |
Finished up with Hadithi za Esopo. I'll be rereading it and Haiba & the 7 Dwarves this week.
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| Rhoda Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5604 days ago 166 posts - 196 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, Swahili, Ancient Greek, German
| Message 44 of 115 12 August 2009 at 6:26pm | IP Logged |
Reread Haiba & the 7 Dwarves. No dictionary. I didn't understand every single word, but I got the gist of it and there were many passages that I could translate word for word. Also, I noticed that I remembered a lot of vocabulary (not all, but a lot) that I looked up the first time.
There is a sequel to Hadithi za Esopo!! I am really happy about it, since I love reading the fables. I read 5 new ones and understood them very, very well, so I was obviously very, very pleased! The first four, I used a dictionary (though more sparingly than before), and for the fifth one, I simply read through quickly (about as fast as I would read in English) and abandoned the dictionary. And I understood more than I expected! Got the point of the fable, and a good portion of the grammar forms & vocab. When I encountered words & phrases I didn't know, I still had a pretty good idea of what was going on.
There is a certain form that keeps popping up in a lot of the stuff I am reading, it is -nge-, and I've seen it in many many verbs. It looks to me, especially after what I've just read today, that it might be conditional (ni-nge-penda = ningependa = I would like). I'm not sure though, but it fits, so hang on & I'll check...
OK, I've just checked on Mwana Simba, and YES, it is conditional!! Exciting!! I haven't actually done too much work today, so it's fun having an easier time reading basic stories and starting to get a hang of the grammar and word order and everything naturally.
Tomorrow, I will be gone all day. I had to return TY to the library (and am still awaiting the one I ordered off of Amazon). So tomorrow I'll take a breather from Swahili and bring along Bienvenue au Club. It'll be good to return to French and have something to do in the car.
In less than a month, I'll be back at school! And taking Swahili classes. My initial worry was that it would be difficult and take up a lot of time, but now...I'm worried the class will progress with excruciating slowness. I've already read more than half our text book, after all, in addition to going through ~30 FSI lessons, reading a few chldren's books, and occasionally trying out other internet sources. At any rate, it will be great to practice speaking and listening to an actual Swahili speaker!
Since I have such a short amount of time before I'm buried in biology & chemistry & exams, I think after tomorrow's daytrip, I'll be putting in intense studying up until I leave. 5+ hours per day. Listening up to FSI ~40 and finishing Hadithi za Esopo II will be my main goals, followed by composing my own basic sentences, rereading Hadithi za Esopo I, and watching the UGA KIKO videos, and possibly drilling the conditional tense. As for French, I'm 60 pages into my book, with 120 more to go, so I'll aim for reading another 50 pages before school starts. Come to think of it, I do have plans to meet up with friends nearly every day for the rest of the summer. So I'll have to be super-productive & not waste any time I have free (umm, that includes not making insanely long log posts...). It is difficult to have a busy social life (not to mention various other responsibilities) and still find time for languages. Ah well. I've always had about fifty different, competing interests going on at once, and somehow everything gets done.
On the fourth language front, I am completely torn between Russian and Albanian. I know Russian might be more "useful." And I really love the sound and the mystery and the culture and plan to travel there someday in the next 5-10 years. But my recent infatuation with Albanian is still strong. I don't know. It'd be killer to start them both at once...
In any case, I have another 3-4 months to decide. I've been working on Swahili for a month and a half, and I want to get a solid base before moving on. I'm also trying to develop efficient study habits, so that once I'm up to 5-6 languages, I have the time to maintain and improve them all.
Edited by Rhoda on 18 August 2009 at 5:25am
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| Rhoda Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5604 days ago 166 posts - 196 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, Swahili, Ancient Greek, German
| Message 45 of 115 14 August 2009 at 6:04am | IP Logged |
Away for the whole day, but I brought Bienvenue au Club in the car and read a substantial portion. I love this book, really love it.
"Au troisième tour de Galop, comme je m'ennuyais un peu, j'ai eu l'idée d'avoir peur de la lettre B, tout à fait comme si je ne l'avais jamais vue. Alors au moment où on est passés devant j'ai pris ma tête de cheval effrayé, j'ai fait un énorme écart puis j'ai donné plusieurs Coups de Cul et finalement Eric a été par terre."
Typical horse...
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| Rhoda Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5604 days ago 166 posts - 196 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, Swahili, Ancient Greek, German
| Message 46 of 115 15 August 2009 at 4:00am | IP Logged |
Once again, I've been out all day...As much as I love Swahili, I draw the line at sacrificing my social life. I did read a few Hadithi za Esopo though! They are so much fun & are great for getting new vocab & figuring out how the language fits together.
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| Rhoda Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5604 days ago 166 posts - 196 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, Swahili, Ancient Greek, German
| Message 47 of 115 16 August 2009 at 12:16am | IP Logged |
FRENCH
Started the day well with substantial progress through Bienvenue au Club over breakfast.
SWAHILI
I've been reading through FSI (lessons 33-37) and have found some helpful stuff:
Unafanya kazi gani?
What kind of work are you doing?
Unafanya kazi kwa nani?
Who are you working for?
Umefanya kazi hii kwa muda gani?
How long have you done this kind of work?
Kwa miaka minne.
For four years.
The last couple of sentences could come in handy in a simple conversation with a native speaker.
Umejifunza Kiswahili kwa muda gani? (How long have you studied/learned Swahili?)
Kwa miezi miwili tu. (For just two months.)
Also, with the hu- tense:
Wewe hufanya kazi gani?
By the way: it's "huenda," drop the kw-.
Here is some more basic stuff covered in 36 that is nice to know cold:
Jana ulikuwa wapi? (Where were you yesterday?)
Nilikuwa sokoni. (I was at the market.)
Ulikwenda saa ngapi? (What time did you go?)
Niliondoka nyumbani saa sita mchana. (I left home at noon.)
Ulinunua nini? (What did you buy?)
Chumvi hii ni ya nani? (Whose salt is this?)
Vitu hivi ni vya nani? (Whose things are these?)
---------------
Also read another new Hadithi za Esopo, first without a dictionary, then with one. First read-through (no dictionary): understood ~65%, there were some sentences I understood totally, some I missed because of strange vocab, and some where I got stuck on tricky grammar. Mostly got the gist of it.
Second read-through (w/ dictionary): understood ~88%. There were a few words the dictionary did not have, but the sentences were still comprehensible. I had to wrestle with a construction or two, but overall not half bad!
Edited by Rhoda on 16 August 2009 at 4:14am
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| Rhoda Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5604 days ago 166 posts - 196 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, Swahili, Ancient Greek, German
| Message 48 of 115 16 August 2009 at 10:10pm | IP Logged |
Read through 7 Hadithi za Esopo, which mostly went really well!
Edited by Rhoda on 17 August 2009 at 3:30am
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