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STELINGO’S TAC 2013: SPARTA /KOFOLA | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4358 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes  Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 73 of 84 11 March 2013 at 8:48am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi stelingo.
Yes, θες is an alternative to θέλεις. By now you must have noticed how many words have alternatives. You seem to have a talent for etymology and recognising words, so have faith in your instincts (which is knowledge and experience I bet). Ο ΦΙΛΟΣ ΜΟΥ Είναι ψηλός, έχει περίπου 2 μέτρα ύψος και είναι πολύ λεπτός. Έχει κοντά, καστανά μαλλιά και καστανά μάτια. Δυστυχώς έχει κάποια καρδιακή πάθηση, πάσχει από αρρυθμία και συχνά πρέπει να πάει στο νοσοκομείο. Μερικές φορές έχει μια κρίση (or τον πιάνει μια κρίση) και πρέπει να του κάνουν ένεση. Είχε πολλές θέσεις εργασίας, είναι εργατικός αλλά έχει χάσει πολλές θέσεις εργασίας (or Έχει κάνει πολλές δουλειές, ..., αλλά έχει χάσει πολλές θέσεις εργασίας ) εξαιτίας της οικονομικής κρίσης. Αυτή τη στιγμή δουλεύει με κουλοχέρηδες, συλλέγει τα χρήματα και τους φτιάχνει (ή τους επισκευάζει). Έχει πάντα οικονομικά προβλήματα και πολλά χρέη. Ο ΘΕΙΟΣ ΜΟΥ Είναι μετρίου αναστήματος, έχειύψος περίπου ένα και εβδομήντα πέντε. . Έχει κοντά, σκούρα καστανά μαλλιά, αλλά τα μαλλιά του γκριζάρουν. Έχει λίγη φαλάκρα.. Έχει καστανά μάτια αλλά δεν έχει ούτε μούσι ούτε μουστάκι. Στα νιάτα του ηταν πολύ λεπτός, αλλά τώρα είναι παχουλός, γιατί τρώει πάρα πολύ και σπάνια κάνει γυμναστική. Notes: As always great. You never sound foreign, and I can tell you that's rare! Careful where you place the accents. I know most times it's a typo. Try not to use the same word in a sentence, instead find synonyms etc. It's not wrong to use the same word, but for style's sake... Ο κουλοχέρης: male. The way you described your uncle's height wasn't really wrong, but it was awkward. 1 μέτρο και εβδομήντα πέντε ύψος, would sound better. But the way I wrote it is the more natural phrase. The 2 meters height sounded ok, because it's a shorter sentence. When you have too many words one after the other it takes some practice to know what sounds more natural. We don't really say "a bald patch", we say "a little baldness". Or you could say :έχει ένα φαλακρό σημείο, he has a bald spot, and people will understand perfectly, but be prepared to use your hands to show where on his head the bald spot is :). As always, well done. Oh, and thanks :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5832 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 74 of 84 11 March 2013 at 5:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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Not sure what you're thanking me for but thank you renaissancemedi for your correction on comments. I also posted the paragraphs on Lang8 and the person who corrected them said αρρυθμίa is often used in the plural. Would you agree?
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| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4358 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 75 of 84 11 March 2013 at 5:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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You can use both types, and it would be correct either way. (Καρδιακή) αρρυθμία/(καρδιακές) αρρυθμίες.
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| Gomorritis Tetraglot Groupie Netherlands Joined 4278 days ago 91 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English, Catalan, French Studies: Greek, German, Dutch | Message 76 of 84 12 March 2013 at 2:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think I will also take advantage of that Καθαρά Δευτέρα discount in Bibliagora.
If you google the name of the readers from Deltos adding "hueber pdf", you can find a preview of the first pages. I've been checking them out, but I don't really see much difference between level 2 and 5, for example. I think I might buy all of them from level 3 to 5, except the mythology ones. About θες, I think it's actually the way most Greeks I know usually say it. I also say it like that. EDIT: Order placed! Edited by Gomorritis on 12 March 2013 at 2:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5832 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 77 of 84 12 March 2013 at 5:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Personally I think the readers on Mythology will be the most interesting.
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| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5832 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 78 of 84 18 March 2013 at 12:08am | IP Logged | ||
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I have given up reading Το Περιπτερο στην Αριστοτελους. There didn't appear to be any story line, just the owner of the περίπτερο gossiping about the local residents, I very quickly lost interest. So I have now started another reader: Ποιος είναι ο Α.Μ.;
Continued working through Lesson 4 of Communicate in Greek, the main grammar point is the genitive plural. The actual endings are simple, all nouns end in -ων, however many nouns undergo a shift in stress, and there is no explanation given of which nouns undergo this shift. Do any rules actually exist, or is it a case of learning the stress with every individual noun? If I'm not mistaken, nouns which are stressed on the antepenultimate syllable move the stress to the penultimate. Otherwise I don't see any patterns. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| modus.irrealis Bilingual Triglot Newbie Canada Joined 5878 days ago 29 posts - 37 votes Speaks: English*, Greek*, French Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Danish, Turkish | Message 79 of 84 18 March 2013 at 8:56am | IP Logged | ||
There are patterns, and usually if you know the nominative singular and the gender, you'll know which pattern the noun follows, e.g. neuters that end in ι always stress the genitive plural, so κορίτσι > κοριτσιών. But sometimes you can't tell, e.g. μητέρα > μητέρων but ώρα > ωρών, or θάλασσα > θαλασσών but ταυτότητα > ταυτοτήτων (although with these it helps if you know the ancient declension), or e.g. άνθρωπος > ανθρώπων but καλόγερος > καλόγερων (although here there is a sort of rule that it's mostly certain kinds of compound nouns that don't shift the accent, and also these nouns don't shift the accent in the genitive singular either, so καλόγερου unlike ανθρώπου). Edited by modus.irrealis on 18 March 2013 at 9:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| stelingo Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5832 days ago 722 posts - 1076 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, French, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Czech, Polish, Greek, Mandarin | Message 80 of 84 29 December 2013 at 9:17am | IP Logged | ||
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SUMMARY OF 2013
As you can see by the dates, I gave up updating my log in March. It was becoming too time consuming and I wasn’t convinced it was worth the effort. For the sake of completeness here is a summary of the year. This year I started using lang8 quite intensely and wrote several paragraphs in all my languages, other than Arabic, on it. I found it a really valuable way of improving my vocabulary and learning how to express myself more naturally. FRENCH, Spanish, PORTUGUESE I didn’t do a lot on these 3 languages, since they are my strongest ones. Wrote some paragraphs on lang8, read a French novel l’Étranger, read online articles and watched online TV, and films. Saw 3 Spanish language films and one Catalan at the Viva film festival. (http://www.cornerhouse.org/viva2013) ITALIAN This became my main focus language from May onwards in preparation for my trip to Italy in August. I completed 5 chapters of Advanced Ultimate Italian, 10 chapters of Azione Grammatica, wrote several paragraphs on lang8 and skyped in Italian a few times with an Italian friend. Read 3 novels, (Viaggio di maturità by Deborah Gambetta, Un eroe del nostro tempo by Vasco Pratolini and Io non ho paura by Niccolò Ammaniti.) Watched half a dozen Italian films and the Italian news regularly. I also listened to RAI radio podcasts. I spent 2 weeks travelling around Italy, visited 5 different cities and stayed with Italians (rented rooms in private houses using airbnb.com). All the people I stayed with were very welcoming and I had regular opportunities to speak Italian. I also visited my friend who I spoke to exclusively in Italian. Unfortunately my wallet was stolen on the metro in Rome, but this did give me the opportunity to further practise my Italian at the local police station. I felt happy with my progress in the language but there’s always room for improvement, especially in my listening skills. GERMAN I completed 5 chapters of Advanced Ultimate German and 8 chapters of Edexcel German grammar. Watched the German news once a week and listened to German news podcasts. Also watched several TV documentaries and the crime series Großstadtrevier. RUSSIAN Completed 3 chapters of Ruslan 3, started using a Russian course published in the Czech Republic: Učebnice současné ruštiny, completed the first 7 chapters. This is a very thorough and useful refresher course which allows me to compare Russian and Czech vocabulary and grammar structures as the examples are presented in both languages side by side. My brain does get a little frazzled, however, when translating sentences from Czech into Russian in the exercises. Watched the Russian news and listened to several podcasts on Эхо Москвы. CZECH Completed lessons 1-7 of Krok za Krokem 2, one lesson of Čeština pro cizince, read a Czech teenage novel (a translation of Gangsta Granny by David Walliam)). Watched all of series 2 of the Czech retro series Vyprávěj and most of the 3rd series (with Czech subtitles) http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/porady/10195164142-vypravej/). Read online newspapers and listened to numerous podcasts. Regularly watched ČT 1 news and spoke extensively in Czech with friends when in Prague. (I was there 6 times this year) POLISH Completed going through Polish in 4 Months Part 1 a second time, and completed the first 5 lessons in Part 2. Started using the textbook Z Polskim na ty, Completed the first 2 chapters (Grammar sections and corresponding language sections at the back) Started rewatching Polish soap Londyńczycy and Polish TV news. Listened to several bloggy Polish podcasts. (http://bloggypolish.co.uk/podcasts_b1.html) MODERN GREEK Completed 6 chapters of Communicate in Greek 2, 5 chapters in Akou na Deis, and started using a new textbook, Ellinika B, in which I completed the first 2 chapters. Read one Greek reader. MANDARIN Completed Colloquial Chinese. Started working through A New Practical Chinese Reader 1. I am using it as a refresher course before starting NCPR 2. Going through it fairly rapidly and have reached lesson 12. Hope to start NPCR 2 fairly soon in the new year. Used Skritter (www.skritter.com) and learned around 200 characters. ARABIC The language I wasn’t going to study this year. MSA Started the year using Linguaphone, but by Lesson 7 I was feeling overwhelmed by all the new vocab. So I switched to Teach Yourself Arabic (reached L7) and Langenscheidt’s Praktisches Arabisch (also reached L7) Then also added a book I found in Italy ‘Lingua araba contemporanea’ (Reached L8) ECA Started the year using Kallam al3arabi 2. I love the audio but the lack of English grammar explanations and incomplete vocab lists led to frustration so I switched to Colloquial Arabic of Egypt. I am on the last chapter and hope to start Kalaam Gameel early in the new year. Thanks to everybody who read and commented on my blog, and special thanks to renaissancemedi and Majka who corrected my Greek and Czech paragraphs respectively. Next Summer I am hoping to go to China, so Mandarin is going to be my focus language. I haven’t decided yet whether I will join a TAC team or even keep a log. Wishing everyone all the best in their language endeavours in 2014. Edited by stelingo on 29 December 2013 at 9:22am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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