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A Linguistic Odyssey | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6144 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 121 of 265 11 December 2009 at 4:48am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Well, I actually have been having a bit (well a lot) of free time suddenly. I thought I would be really busy. But instead of working, I have just been relaxing, but I think that's alright because I have been really stressed with stuff lately. So, I guess I'll just pretend that this week didn't exist. And especially tomorrow--it's December 11th.
And what is the significance of December 11th? It was the extended "due date" for my basic fluency in Italian. On December 11th, 2008, I started to study Italian. My original goal to reach basic fluency in six months, which was to say June 11th, 2009. I did not realize, however, how much time I would actually have to study and how much of that I would actually devote to studying... I wasn't as serious last year, and this year I'm a lot busier. So, I extended the date for another six months. In that time, my standards have apparently changed significantly because I now don't think I'm am quite at the level of basic fluency yet, whereas if I knew of my current Italian skills a year ago, I would have definitely have considered myself 'basically fluent'. But now, not so much. So, I think I will extend the date, again. This time, I will either 1) give myself another three months or so to reach basic fluency or 2) give myself another year to read advanced fluency, but I'm not sure which yet. I'm leaning toward the first option, because I'm not sure how motivated I will be to continue with Italian once I reach basic fluency. In other news, I have suddenly and quite randomly become fascinated with Bulgarian. I don't know why exactly, but I think it had to something do with me reading about it being the easiest of the Slavic languages. I love the Slavic languages and thought perhaps that if I went for Bulgarian first, I would be able to get a "preview" into the grammar and vocabulary of the group and when I move onto other more difficult ones that I have prioritized much higher (Russian and Czech), they will be easier. However, I'm not sure I want to take the approach of learning one language to get easier access at another, it seems like cheating to me. In addition to thinking about Bulgarian, I have been really wanting to study Czech. I fell in love with Czech when I visited Prague with my grandparents and brother three years ago (June 2007 I think) and heard the language. It was so pretty, and so interesting to look at when written. Despite my fascination with Czech, I think I will go after Russian first because of the slightly simpler grammar and more abundant resources (some of which I already have because of my brief sojourn into Russian this summer). Without a doubt, Russian will be the next language I pursue, but I will not start it until I free up my schedule a bit. I'd first like to free the days of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and possibly Sunday before I start a new language (remember that Italian and Swedish have now switched days). That reminds me. In case anyone is confused or has forgotten (assuming you care enough), here is my modified schedule: Monday: Portuguese Tuesday: French Wednesday: Italian Thursday: German Friday: Greek Saturday: Japanese Sunday: Swedish So, what have I actually done? Well, shamefully, not much. I have watched several more episodes of El Internado (I'm about halfway through season three now) and have noticed how my Spanish oral comprehension has improved since I started watching it. And just my Spanish in general. Sometimes now I don't know if I'm reading in Spanish or in English when I am reading in Spanish. I was reading a post on here in which half of the message was written in English and the second half was written in Spanish and I didn't even notice the change until a couple minutes later. And now I'm thinking in Spanish a lot, and forgetting how to say some things in English, which has been happening slowly since this summer. Here is a message I wrote in Liz's log:
I have also done a bit of kanji, but not much. Tomorrow I have an essay for a district assessment in my French class. We're not supposed to know the prompt (the teachers aren't allowed to tell us) ahead of time, but I was able to procure it through various methods. It's about the importance of studying foreign languages, which would have been super easy even if I hadn't known it already. Also relating to my French class, I might get to move up into AP French 5 next semester, teacher permitting... I have yet to ask her, though. I feel bad leaving her class AGAIN, though, because I had originally signed up for her level 2 class last year and then moved up into level 3 within a week. And now I'm in level 4 with her, and doing that again would be a bit odd. On the other hand, I would get to take the AP exam this year and then have more room in my schedule for later on. I have already decided for sure that I'm going to take German and Japanese at school next year (but no more Spanish and possibly no more French). I'm probably going to take German 3 and Japanese 2. So, I should go do homework. And finish writing my goals for the break time (Winter Break is from approximately December 18th [but finals week, starting the 15th, is pretty easy too because of the small amount of school time--only four hours a day max] until January 5th). Good night. --Philip 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6144 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 122 of 265 12 December 2009 at 6:18pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Well, December 11th came and went. I am not quite to my standards of basic fluency yet, so I am extending my basic fluency goal for four months until April 11th, 2010. I am quite sure that I will be at that level by then. I might even be at that level now, but I rarely have been able to actually speak in Italian with someone. Yesterday I tried to explain to one of my friends in Italian about my goal and it flowed pretty easily, but I think I should learn some more vocabulary and "formalize" some of the knowledge of grammar. After all, what did I buy all those books for?
So, I made a BIG list of goals to be done by January 5th, 2010. 33 listed goals, many of them with little subsections, for a total of 160 goals. This is how it breaks down: Portuguese: 4 big goals --> 10 mini goals French: 4 big goals --> 8 mini goals Italian: 7 big goals --> 45 mini goals German: 5 big goals --> 23 mini goals Greek: 6 big goals --> 37 mini goals Japanese: 4 big goals --> 18 mini goals Swedish: 3 big goals --> 13 mini goals So... Portuguese = 6.25% French = 5% Italian = 28.125% German = 14.375% Greek = 23.125% Japanese = 11.25% Swedish = 8.125% However, some goals will be easier than others. I have also calculated that in order to get all of this done in the approximately 26 days that I have, I shall have to accomplish about six of these mini-goals per day. Oh dear... Yesterday, I didn't get much done out of them. It was late start at my school, so I slept for an extra hour and then did most of an Ultimate French vocabulary list until my brother woke up and started bothering me. I went to school and did my essay in French, and completely forgot everything I was going to say (stupid huge biology test the previous period). After school I went to my grandparents' house and did one Greek lesson out of that Νέα Ελληνικά book with her. And we ate cherry Jell-O. I like Jell-O. Okay, that was random. When I got home, I had planned on finishing up that vocabulary list and doing some other stuff, but my family coerced me into watching this movie with them, which ate up my remaining study time. Luckily I have very little homework this weekend so I can focus on the language goals. (Who cares about finals!?) This morning, I got up and finished that vocabulary list for French that I started yesterday. Then I did another one. Hooray, that takes care of two of my 160 goals... I still have a long way to go yet. So, I suppose I shall do the last two Ultimate French vocabulary lists and finish off that "big goal" (it was to do four lessons from that). I might post again later. --Philip 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6144 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 123 of 265 13 December 2009 at 9:03pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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WORDS OF THE DAY:
French la quincaillerie = hardware store l'aquarelle = watercolor The thing at the top with the words of the day was from yesterday, actually, but it's something that I would like to start doing. These are words that I've learned that day and liked for some reason or another... I don't have any ready for today yet, though. Yesterday was so-so productive. I did four French lessons from Ultimate French and listened to one episode about winter in Milan from LearnItalianPod. I also then listened to a bit of Michel Thomas German. Then, I watched an episode of El Internado and typed up a vocabulary list for Portuguese. Today so far has been nightmarish. This morning I did two Portuguese lessons, and then the productivity ceased (although it's not even 1 PM yet). Apparently my mom has decided that we are going to starting being religious and she made us go to church for no apparent reason, which surprised my grandparents a lot. So, that was a complete waste of over an hour. I always get so bored, and I can't understand half of what anyone is saying (not that I would really care though). I keep myself from going insane usually by reading anything I can get my hands on--just to keep my eyes moving and keep my mind off the fact that I've been standing nonstop for like an hour and my feet hurt. Today I tried to practice Italian by telling myself a story in Italian, but it failed miserably, because I kept getting distracted by the chanting and then when I could concentrate, I would get bored of the story. I'm hopeless this way. When we got home, I had lunch and then was sent out on my bike to buy tortillas for dinner. Lately we have been having some sort of Arctic front moving through the area and it has been FREEZING and there is snow and ice everywhere--a problem that is not helped by us living at a high altitude next to the mountains. So, I was attempting to listen to some Michel Thomas Advanced Japanese as I was slipping and sliding along on the icy/slushy roads... And then I realized that it was cold. It wasn't too cold when I was leaving the church and people had been saying that it was going to warm up, so all I had on was a light jacket and no gloves or anything. And then there was the wind, which was blowing against me the whole way (when I turned around to go home it had suddenly changed directions). When I finally got to the tortillería over a mile away from my house, I was a bit disoriented because of the weather and the fact that I had been listening to Japanese (and previously at church, Greek), so I was struggling to bring to mind my Spanish to communicate with the cashier at the little market. And then I realized I had brought no backpack to put the bags of tortillas in, so I had to carry them on my arm, in the freezing cold, as the wind was blowing against me, and as my bike was sliding on the ice. Oh, and it was uphill back to my house. It wasn't fun, to say the least, so it has put me in a bad mood and I don't know how much more I'll get done. I think I'll just go and watch an episode of El Internado and that should make me feel better. --Me Edited by ellasevia on 14 December 2009 at 6:10am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6144 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 124 of 265 14 December 2009 at 6:20am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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WORDS OF THE DAY:
Portuguese a poupança - savings Swedish en sjuksköterska - nurse The first word I chose because I like its sound... It was in one of my Portuguese vocabulary lists today. The second word was not one that I learned today, but I reviewed it, so I thought it might count. I really like it, and currently it is my favorite word in Swedish. So, I watched two episodes of El Internado, and I'm almost done with season 3. I also did one more Ultimate Portuguese lesson. I did several tutor reviews for Livemocha. That means that I accomplished seven goals today, but four of those were the tutor reviews. One of the submitted texts was so bad that it nearly brought me to tears because I was laughing so hard, which sounds really horrible, I know. But it's true. It was so poorly written that if I corrected the grammar and misspellings, it would still make no sense. I would post it here, but I don't want to hurt the author's feelings (if you really want to see it, I'll PM it to you--yes, I saved it). I had to simply write her a note for the comment saying that I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about... I also reviewed all of my Livemocha Swedish vocabulary, intending to then finish up Swedish 101. But then I had to go have dinner and then a friend called asking about biology homework that I didn't know that we had. So then I had to go do that: charts of tedious dihybrid crosses (genetics). So, I finished reviewing all my LM vocabulary and did all of the speaking and writing submissions up through where I am in the course (the speaking/writing exercises were added not long ago). Now all I have left to do for that are four more lessons. :) Okay, that's about it. Oh, wait, never mind. I also did some Italian grammar 'workbooking' today in the car to and from church. And did I mention that I listened to some Japanese Michel Thomas? --Philip 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6144 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 125 of 265 16 December 2009 at 6:11am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Well, finals have started and I finally understand the usage of the future subjunctive and personal infinitive in Portuguese...
Finals started today, but I didn't get anything done yesterday and not much today. :( But at lunch today (one and a half hours because of finals schedule) I translated the whole next Swedish text into English. This one looked tame, but it was massive and had some brutal vocabulary in it (like, um... maypole?). This is going to be a challenging lesson, I can tell. I am going to go ahead and post my translation of this text. It was a letter from a girl to her parents talking about her experiences so far on the Swedish island of Kymmendö. I had to change the wording a lot because it sounded very awkward to translate it literally, and the last sentence of the first paragraph still doesn't make sense to me. If anyone could help with this text, that would be great... Lesson Seven: Ett Brev (A Letter) Swedish to English Kymmendö Midsommarafton Kära mamma och pappa! Tack så mycket för brevet. Nu har jag varit på Kymmendö en hel vecka och vi har haft underbart väder. Stockholms skärgård är mycket tjusig. Den lilla stugan vi bor i ligger alldeles vid stranden. Eriks pappa har byggt den själv och den är verkligen jättesöt. Vi har badat nästan varje dag, eftersom det är minst 18 grader i vattnet. Vi har redan blivit mycket bruna. Vi har också rott omkring i en gammal roddbåt och tittat på alla de vackra små öarna i närheten. Eriks pappa har just köpt en liten segelbåt och vi har följt med honom till Dalarö och handlat ett par gånger. I dag har vi plockat blommor och hämtat björklöv till midsommarstången som vi har rest på ett litet fält framför stugan. I eftermiddag ska vi dansa ringlekar kring den och i kväll blir det dans på bryggan till dragspelsmusik. Visste ni förresten att Strindberg har bott på Kymmendö? Det finns fortfarande folk här som kan berätta om honom. Jag har just läst hans roman Hemsöborna, som handlar om folk här på ön. Det är roligt at kunna känna igen allting från romanen. Hur har ni det? Det måste vara trist att vara kvar i stan. Kan ni inte komma ut och hälsa på oss någon dag? Det skulle vara jättekul. Många kärta hälsningar! Kerstin P.S. Jag tittar just nu ut genom det öppna fönstret. Utsikten mot havet är underbar med det gröna vattnet, den blåa himlen och de vita havsfåglarna. -- Kymmendö Midsummer’s evening Dear Mom and Dad! Thanks so very much for the letter. I have been on Kymmendö for a whole week now and we have had wonderful weather. Stockholm’s archipelago is very enchanting. The little cottage that we live in is right on the beach. Erik’s dad built it himself and it is really very sweet. We have bathed almost every day because it is at least 18 degrees warm in the water. We have already become very brown. We have also rowed around in an old rowboat and looked at all of the beautiful little islands in the vicinity. Erik’s dad has just bought a little yacht and we have accompanied him to Dalarö and shopped a couple of times. Today picked flowers and collected birch leaves for the maypole that we raised in a little field in front of the cottage. This afternoon we will dance round dances around it and tonight there will be a dance on the wharf to accordion music. Did you know, by the way, that Strindberg lived on Kymmendö? There are still people here who can tell stories about him. I have just read his novel The People of Hemsö, which is about the people here on the island. It’s fun to be able to recognize everything from the novel. How are you? It must be miserable to be left behind in the city. Can’t you come out and visit us someday? That would be great fun. Best regards! Kerstin P.S. Right now I’m looking out the open window. The view towards the sea is wonderful with the green water, the blue sky, and the white seabirds. Edited by ellasevia on 16 December 2009 at 3:33pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| Lizzern Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5911 days ago 791 posts - 1053 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: Japanese | Message 126 of 265 16 December 2009 at 11:13am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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Nice. Comments:
"Bruna" means tan in this context, not brown. Yes, that is the generic word for "tan". A "segelbåt" is a sailboat, not a yacht. I don't know if the word yacht covers the meaning of sailboat in English, but it doesn't in Norwegian at least, so I imagine the Swedes use the words more or less the same as we do. A yacht is what the poshies in Cannes have. About the last sentence of the first paragraph: Ringlekar = ring+lekar, this is one of the potentially confusing things about Scandinavian languages because we don't separate words like this one, at first I read this as ringle+kar and figured it must be done form of dance. It's actually ring+lekar, ring games. "Den" refers to "midsommarstången" from the previous sentence. "I kväll blir det dans" means roughly "tonight there will be (a dance)", but dance in the sense of dancing, not referring to the party itself... If that makes sense. You might want to read up on the use of the word "det" if it still hasn't come up in your book, it's very important. I've never really thought about this before but I guess you can use "har (something - lived or whatever)" for things that are definitely past tense and completed actions. If I was listing famous people who have lived in a certain place it's possible I might use "har bodd", though not necessarily, but I can't quite put my finger on the reason why there would be a difference. So don't worry about it. Anyway, "har (verb'ed)" would normally be translated with the equivalent-looking form in English, not a simple past tense. "Hälsa på (somebody)" if used like in Norwegian, is really more like greet, in the sense of meeting, rather than actually visiting someone. I don't know if the Swedes do this, but in Norwegian you can say "hils", "hils (someone)" or "hils innover" to tell people to say hi to somebody else. For example, if I'm on the phone with mum and she tells me she's off to visit grandma later the same day, I might tell her to "hilse" ("du må hilse da..."). You might pass it on by saying "(jeg) skulle hilse fra (...)". There's usually no need for a reply. I know this tends to confuse people in other countries who aren't used to passing on greetings, but it's very common. Hope that helps... Liz 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6144 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 127 of 265 16 December 2009 at 3:28pm | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
Thanks!
It does sound more natural for me to say "tan" in English, but I have heard "brown" in this context too, in fact my book uses it this way.
When I saw segelbåt, I thought it meant "sailboat," which it does, but it also gave yacht as a meaning, so I decided to use that instead (I think I misread the other meaning--"sailing boat"--and got confused).
Hm. I know about the usage of den and det, but I guess I didn't know the expression bli det and wasn't fully paying attention (I was doing this in my school's cafeteria as people were hitting each other with newspapers all around me). In my book's vocabulary list for this lesson, it shows the components for ringlek individually (ring = ring, lek = game) and then gives the meaning for ringlek as "round dance, chain-dance." I have no idea what those are though.
When I originally translated this by hand, I left all of the present perfect as is (har bott = has lived), but when I was typing it up, it just didn't sound natural to me to say it that way for all of the contexts. I suppose, as I am thinking about it, that some of the cases that I changed to simple past could have been the present perfect still (he has lived here, I guess)... But otherwise, many of them just sound very awkward and incorrect like that.
I'm not so sure about the hälsa på thing. In my book all it says for the meaning is "to visit (a person)." Maybe it does have the connotation that you mentioned, but it doesn't quite seem right to me in this context. Thanks so much, Liz! -- Philip Edited by ellasevia on 16 December 2009 at 3:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6144 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 128 of 265 17 December 2009 at 6:40am | IP Logged | ||||||||||||||
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WORDS OF THE DAY:
Portuguese o sabão = soap enxugar = to dry I chose these words because I like them. Hooray. Today I was very preoccupied with studying for my biology final, which is tomorrow. I had a sudden realization this morning that even if I only have to get a 66% on the final to keep an A in the class, that still means that I have to get 66% correct! And I also looked at the review sheet and panicked (is that really how you spell this word? it looks wrong to me...) at how much we had covered this semester and how much I'd forgotten. What does this mean? I didn't do much language stuff. I retook four tests for practice and went over a fifth one too. I'm overwhelmed with biology at the moment. Anyways, I did do one lesson of Ultimate Portuguese this morning and did a small bit out of my Italian grammar workbook after I finished my geometry final. I also started going through another Swedish Livemocha lesson but then life kicked in. And then I remembered that over break 11 family members are descending upon our house for Christmas... Oh dear, that means I will not be able to concentrate and work. On the other hand, I get to see my cousins and other relatives. :) We'll see what I can get done. I'm exhausted, I refuse to write anymore, and therefore I'm going to bed. Good night. --Philip Edited by ellasevia on 17 December 2009 at 6:41am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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