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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 |  | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4705 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 185 of 646 03 October 2012 at 2:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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Tack för ansvar. Min svenska är en projekt som jag här tänkt upp för att se hur många man
kan lära under fyra månader. Jag vet att det betyder som jag kan inte tala flyttande, men nu behöver jag det också inte än - det ska jag göra senare. Men när jag har avslutat FSI- kursen kan jag få en aning, hur mycket arbeta det ska ta för att tala flyttande. Jag tror att jag kan inte säga att jag har lyckats att tala på nivå B1-B2 på svenska. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 186 of 646 03 October 2012 at 9:04pm | IP Logged | ||
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WEDNESDAY, 3 OCTOBER 2012
As I already told you, today was the German national holiday and that meant I had lots of time for learning languages. It was really a good day! I continued the first chapter of Colloquial Russian 2. I am still recapulating the basics of the Russian case and aspect system, so grammar was no problem, but the text on which I worked today was rather advanced. It dealt with the failed coup d'état of 1991 and had a lot of unknown vocabulary in it. I temporarily even doubted whether the Colloquial course might be too advanced for me, but when I checked the following dialogues, I found out that they were much easier than this particular text. So I'll just go on and ignore most of the vocabulary I don't know. I then had a look at Colloquial Japanese. I learnt the kana which were introduced in the first dialogue and even some kanji. I practised writing some kana, but it isn't easy to produce well-proportioned symbols. Finally, I read the dialogue, which was partly in kana and partly in romaji. I enjoy dabbling in Japanese. It's fun to have a look at such an exotic language without any pressure. I still don't know how much Japanese I will learn. I just want to try it out. I am not satisfied with Mitchell and Robinson's Guide to Old English. It's just a reference grammar with a reader. There are no sentences for practising and no exercises. Simply cramming declension and conjugation patterns is a bit too dull for my taste, so I searched the Internet for other introductions to Old English. I found two different books and ordered them via my university library. They seemed to be at least minimally didactical, which doesn't seem to be very usual among text books for Old English. While searching the online catalogue of my uni library, I had a sudden idea and looked for Michael Klevenhaus's Lehrbuch der schottisch-gälischen Sprache. They really had it and I ordered it immediately. I have wanted to get this book for like ever and now I can get it for free! So, here I go with Scots Gaelic again. Well, I probably won't study Gaelic right now. I'll simply have a look at the book: How it is structured and if it's interesting. After that, I will decide what to do. Maybe, I'll kick out Faroese or postpone Old English. Oh, damnit! I need better time management... PS: Yay, this is my 600th post already! :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 187 of 646 08 October 2012 at 8:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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MONDAY, 8 OCTOBER 2012
Well, I had some visitors during the weekend, so I didn't have much time for studying. Nevertheless, I managed to learn a little bit yesterday and today. I didn't do much Russian though, instead I rather dabbled in my other languages. I did read the next text in Colloquial Russian and I did the exercises in my head, but it's not really worth mentioning it. There was no serious work on Russian this weekend. I read some stories in E. V. Gordon's Introduction to Old Norse. I could read extended passages fluently, but there also were some sentences which I had to puzzle out by looking up every word in the glossary. Altogether, it was a good experience, as it showed me that my Icelandic/Old Norse really has taken roots. Additionally, I worked through the introduction and the first two chapters of Klevenhaus's Lehrbuch der schottisch-gälischen Sprache. I really like Gaelic, so I would like to go on with it. I have some foundations from BBC Alba's Beag air bheag online course, but I never really learned the grammar, so the Klevenhaus is an interesting read for me. Consequently, I have decided that Faroese and Japanese have to wait for some other time. I haven't been learning them seriously anyway, so that's no problem. Japanese script is fascinating, but I'm completely busy with my other languages at the moment. I still don't know what to do with Old English. I'd really like to get a basic working knowledge in this language, but it seems there are no graded courses for it. All books I have found overwhelm the reader with declension and conjugation paradigms on the one hand, but on the other hand there are no texts and exercises for practising. I don't know if I can learn a language this way, even if it's a dead one. Edited by Josquin on 08 October 2012 at 9:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 188 of 646 10 October 2012 at 9:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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WEDNESDAY, 10 OCTOBER 2012
Oh my God, my log has already hit the 10,000 views mark! I'm really overwhelmed by your interest in my language journey. Well, this will only be a short report for today, but I hope you'll like it nevertheless. I have come to the conclusion that Colloquial Russian 2 is too advanced for me at the moment. It does repeat all the basic grammar, but the texts are all about economics and politics. Those matters are still a little bit too complicated for me to discuss, so I will save this book for some other time. Instead, I ordered Colloquial Russian 1 from Amazon. I can repeat all my grammar there and even expand my knowledge, as it covers topics which my Langenscheidt course did not mention. However, I won't receive the book before the weekend, so I have to busy myself with other things. I have read through chapter 3 of Lehrbuch der schottisch-gälischen Sprache. I have ultimately decided that I want to go on with Scottish Gaelic and deepen my knowledge. It's a truely beautiful language, although the lenition rules are really a pain in the neck (or somewhere else...). Moreover, I have finally found a suitable Old English method: Peter S. Baker's Introduction to Old English. Like all other OE text books, it confronts you with complete declension paradigms right from the beginning, but at least it's a bit didactical and there are example sentences and texts for practising. However, the main focus is on making you prepared for tackling original Anglo-Saxon literature and not on becoming proficient in the language first. Well, let's see how far I'll get with it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 189 of 646 15 October 2012 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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MONDAY, 15 OCTOBER 2012
A very short update for today. I travelled during the weekend, so there was not much time for studying. I visited my brother who celebrated his 40th birthday on Saturday, so I had some time for reading Old Norse sagas on the train (Hrafnkels saga freysgoða). I also leafed through Baker's Introduction to Old English, but I couldn't really study. Additionally, I read the first chapters of an introduction into Old English and Old Norse literature, so my weekend was rather dedicated to literature than to language study. I don't know how much time I'll have this week, because my internship will demand a lot of time. Some good news: Colloquial Russian 1 has arrived, so I will be able to return to my long-term target language. I hope I will be able to give you some updates on the Russian front soon. See you then! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| viedums Hexaglot Senior Member Thailand Joined 4664 days ago 327 posts - 528 votes Speaks: Latvian, English*, German, Mandarin, Thai, French Studies: Vietnamese | Message 190 of 646 16 October 2012 at 10:37am | IP Logged | ||
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If you’re looking for a textbook to use after the beginning level, have you considered “Intermediate Russian: The Twelve Chairs” by Slava Paperno et. al., published by Slavica? I used this a long time ago for a third-semester Russian course, in fact Slava was my teacher. The book is based around an adaptation of Ilf and Petrov’s comic novel, in which the main character, Ostap Bender, searches for a jewel hidden in one of twelve fancy chairs that have been dispersed in the wake of the Revolution. It’s a very funny book and the source of many sayings like “kliuch ot kvartiry, gde dengi lezhat” (sorry, no Cyrillic keyboard). What I can recall is that it contains a lot of text and vocabulary, which is really helpful after getting the basics down. If you’re interested in Russian literature, it’s a good start on reading texts in the original too.
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| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 191 of 646 16 October 2012 at 7:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks for the suggestion, viedums! Unfortunately, Intermediate Russian is a little bit too expensive for my taste. I'll have a go at Colloquial Russian first.
By the way, I ordered the wrong edition of Colloquial Russian. I wanted to have the 1997 edition, which is far more comprehensive than the 2009 edition that I received yesterday. According to Amazon, the 1997 edition is still for sale, so I'll return my copy and order the old edition. That means I won't be studying Russian for some time until the book has arrived. Instead, I'll happily dabble in Scots Gaelic and Old English. Slàn leibh and Wesaþ hāle! Edited by Josquin on 16 October 2012 at 7:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4857 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 192 of 646 16 October 2012 at 11:44pm | IP Logged | ||
A priceless sight :D 1 person has voted this message useful |
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