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Expug’s All at On(c)e Log - TAC14 | ||
Tags: Papiamento | Estonian | Georgian | Native Materials | Norwegian | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Mandarin | Russian | German | French | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5167 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 217 of 415 16 May 2014 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Eu gosto dessas combinações inusitadas, iguanamon. Precisamos aproveitar as condições que a nossa era tecnológica proporciona. :)
So, the combination of a good an easy translation and an effective tool such as Perapera allowed me to read 7 pages in Chinese yesterday! I just have to keep the rhythm in order to do a Half Challenge, but then I have to keep finding resources as useful as this one. Russian reading is still the skill that is lagging behind the most. Maybe today I can find another option, because I can only read the book I already started on weekends. It's not that good to read several books at a time but I always end up doing that. The TED app not working. Don't know if it is the network or the app. Will test it at home before deciding to bring the new device to here next week. The good news is that I managed to do more authentic L-R. I listened attentively to the English audio (missed the video, unfortunately) and would read the Georgian subtitles in real time, and it is getting manageable and easy! I don't know what is going to happen with long texts, but I'm becoming a little more confident. Both TED and Culture Talk are still way easier than a real novel, even if it is a translated one, though. As a sort of more active skill I answered a survey in Georgian! Had to translate some lines, but got most of the questions. It's from the online bookstore saba.com.ge . I think my answers were useful, though they may have no clue I'm a consumer from Brazil who is studying Georgian. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5167 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 218 of 415 19 May 2014 at 11:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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A little hard to catch up after a busy weekend at the forum, but I decided to stop for a while and update here.
I didn't do much at the weekend. I read 10 more pages from the Georgian Syntax grammar, not 20 as expected. Had a lot to water at Memrise. And I managed to read a few pages in Russian and in Chinese, nothing impressive, but enough to increase the ratio, as I'm doing all the planning for the SC based only on the weekdays. I really didn't feel the need to do any video/audio because I'm doing enough each day. The issue with the TED Talks last Friday is that my app stopped working at iOs 5.1.1. I don't want to start using the new one here, but I found a workaround that is actually better. I found the site Ted2Srt which allows me to download the video in good res and then prepare the bilingual subtitles. I only have to download all videos beforehand, but I already managed to do the frist third among those that are missing for Georgian. I'm still at the stage when I need thode double subtitles. I wouldn't need them for Norwegian, for instance. I'd do fine with just listening to the English and reading the full Norwegian transcript. Now, Georgian reading is the actual challenge of the Super Challenge. I can't do more than 2 pages a day. It doesn't seem to become easier, not at the rhythm I'm expecting or I'm seeing in other languages (even Chinese). I have to find other sources such as the RFE app (which I expected to count as listening). Those 2 pages a day still consist of blind-reading the Georgian text and then going for the original Portuguese so I can get the meaning. At the weeekend, I finished the first book from Paulo Coelho, "Nas margens do Rio Piedra sentei e chorei" and started a new one called "Manuscrito achado em Accra". I really hope things get better at the second book. Georgian really is my weakest reading language now and I can't even face a third page a day without risking burnout. This issue with Georgian reinforces my feeling that, for a language with no vocabulary discount, you actually get to a B1 in your active skills earlier than in your passive skills. If I pick a random Georgian novel and recognize 30% of the words, that will make reading it a total pain. OTOH, the odds are high that I I know these words enough to use them actively: those words were total alien for me once, so, knowing them usually means being able to use them in real life. With 30% of the words of a Georgian novel, I can have several conversations with natives. That is how I feel actually, my active skills in Georgian allow me to chat with natives with occasional word lookups, while on the other hand I can't read any text I'm not entirely familiar with its content. I'm still busy and maybe I'm actually spending too much time on Chinese video, but the main issue to be dealt with now is finding time for more reading in Georgian. And in Russian too, for I'm only reading some 10 pages in Russian at weekends. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5167 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 219 of 415 20 May 2014 at 8:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yesterday was a busy day here at work and I skipped two Chinese/Singaporean shows, The Recruit Diaries and Don't Stop Believing. As I realized I wouldn't have time for everything, I decided to do Russian and German first because I have enough Chinese exposure for the day.
I had a much better time with reading in Chinese yesterday and I think I found an ideal procedure: a) Email the epub book b) Open with on FF with Epub reader c) Copy/paste portions of it and use pastebin d) In Pastebin you can use Perapera e) Keep track of the pages at the iBooks app, so that I can read it elsewhere when necessary I did spend a long time, as I was busy, but I ended up reading 7 pages in Chinese. It's really something important to keep consistent at. I somehow feel it gets a bit easier. Today was a good day for Georgian. As I'm watching the TED Talks on the computer, it's easier to pause and check sentence-by-sentence. Also, I'm reading Manuscript found in Accra and I think sentences start to make a little more sense. Adding to that, I believe I've got to a point I'm familiar with the Georgian grammar as a whole. I only have to become familiarized with the actual endings and some idiomatic usages, but I already have a 'feeling' for the Georgian sentence and that's an important thing. So, I'm finally confident again that I'm going to speed up with reading. I read 4 pages yday and 3 today, and I believe I understood more from each paragraph than I usually do before reading the original in Portuguese. This book is actually short, so I'm looking forward to reading another book. Will probably have to pick a classic from Jules Verne when I run out of Paulo Coelho's books. Speaking of the TED Talks, I realized that, although no newer talks have been added to the list of Talks subtitled in Georgian so far, a few ones (namely three) have been inserted to the list. That is, they are older than the first ones there, but they only recently got the Georgian subtitles. So, I should keep my eyes open for that, too. I took note of them, the ones by Ben Goldacre, Rory Sutherland and Jane Fonda, and will download them first at home and then get the double subtitles. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Penelope Diglot Senior Member Greece Joined 3870 days ago 110 posts - 155 votes Speaks: English, French Studies: Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 220 of 415 21 May 2014 at 9:06am | IP Logged | ||
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I didn't know about the TED Talks untill I read about them in your log, and a new world was opened up to me :)
I also feel things get easier the more I get into a language. Can you read something as old as a Manuscript found in Accra must be? So, the language hasn't changed dramatically then? (Images of Indiana Jones reading a Manuscript found in Accra) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5167 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 221 of 415 21 May 2014 at 8:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Don't worry, Penelope. It's actually just a modern Portuguese language story with a translation in Georgian. It's not a manuscript itself that I'm reading. =)
An encouraging day in Georgian reading., btw. Synergy is coming along! I could read each paragraph and grasp the overall meaning and that alone gave me enough encouragement to double-check translation and original. That is to say, my reading was more 'intensive' today and I feel I've learned more than usual. So, a better understanding helps me learn more from the text. That's why texts should be selected according to one's level, even when a translation is implied. In the case of Georgian, though, there's not much option in terms of easy and familiar readers with a translation, so I picked Paulo Coelho's books which are easy as adult novels and now at the second book it already starts to become easier. I'm still watching the film "Ensemble nous allons vivre une très grande histoire d'amour" without subtitles and today I understood quite a bit of it. Really missing only marginal dialogues. Then I could understand complete dialogues from the Chinese series 后厨. I watch it with Chinese audio and Chinese subtitles. Needless to say that focusing and paying attention helps a lot. I think I am at an above average day, though. I had a good training session at the gym and ran just enough at the treadmill, too. I though I wouldn't make it to the gym today, but all went well. I felt a bit sleepy after lunch but the constant switching of tasks brought my spirit back. The German Marktplatz podcast is becoming easier to read. Only the audio is still difficult, even after having beem through the text. I'm treating this all basically as text and when I play the audio I'm already busy with other things. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5167 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 222 of 415 22 May 2014 at 8:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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Yeterday I managed to do 8 Chinese pages. Still no Russian, because I was busier by the end of the day, but I'll get there eventually. Chinese is really becoming easier, at least the book I'm currently reading.
Today it took me a lot of time till Tutu loaded properly at Letv. It didn't load at all at Youku. As a result, I didn't pay that much attention, but overall my comprehension has improved. Yet I start to think my comprehension of TV series starts to get even with the ones in cartoons. Tutu isn't comprehensibly easy for being a cartoon. Reading Marktplatz' scripts is getting easier. I bet German will soon catch up with Norwegian, and at least passively I'm not mixing the languages up that much. I have high expectations about German for this SC. I hope I can keep up with it and meet my goals. Well, the first one has been reached in the sense that I can read language books in German with the help of a dictionary now and then. Neither Russian nor Georgian had a significant day. I think my mind isn't that 'sharp' for interpreting sentences and learning vocabulary from them, as I didn't sleep that long last night. I still managed to keep up with going to the gym and working on my schedule normally. Actually now my post-schedule activities are almost outnumbering the 'schedule' ones. Since I'm approaching B1 in all languages, I don't really have trouble with textbook study. I even want to drop it for German after Marktplatz, with the risk of missing important grammar topics, though. Today I chatted in Georgian and Norwegian for long. I chatted with a Georgian from italki. I usually chat in Norwegian and French at the IRC, there's always people there. Norwegiann sometimes seems as natural as French in the sense of forming sentences. I use GT only to check what I already had in mind. Only my progress in terms of listening comprehension isn't that much blattant; I still think I'd benefit more from a series than a talkshow. It's easy to lose focus when watching I Kveld med Ylvis. When I do focus, though, I feel I can almost transcribe the Norwegian text even if I won't always have enough comprehension speed for listening in real time. Btw, I got one correction at iTalki for my May Challenge at Team Rare (Georgian). I made few mistakes, but it was interesting how one of the items corrected was on the description of khinkali which I took from a Culture Talk lesson! That is, those 4-5 words may have sounded a little bookish and the native speaker rephrased them to make them sound more natural. This is an important lesson on how we should not be so much worried about style corrections, and really focus on the grammar/orthography ones at a first moment. I believe many of the 'corrections' I got in French while writing at lang-8 are a matter of taste. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5167 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 223 of 415 26 May 2014 at 10:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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Time for an update! I was so busy opn Friday that I didn't even manage to watch the Chinese TV series. I decided the Chinese reading to be my first post-schedule task or even a scheduled task. If I leave it for late in the afternoon, which is the busiest time, I will have a really hard time keeping track of where I'm reading. It's better to do videos at those times, it's just a matter of pausing and playing. Besides, I have to keep my mind clearer. Reading in Chinese does require a better quality time. I only did 3 pages on Tuesday and 4 on Thursday and I want to keep the pace of 8 pages which is required for accomplishing a half challenge. Actually, it's already started to get easier, and I hope I can find another bilingual translation like I found 'The old man and the sea'.
I'm also doing some reading at weekends. Not only for Chinese, but also for Russian. I read 18 pages in Russian this weekend. Still not enough to make up for all the weekdays without reading, but I'll get there eventually. I believe those people who said there's a steep curve for the reading part of the Super Challenge. After 26 days, I feel an improvement for my three weak languages, Chinese, Georgian and Russian. One can't compare them with French and Norwegian, which I read extensively and yet manage to follow the story (Norwegian) or understand almost everything (French). German is in between, but I'm still reading it only intensively. I'm basically reading the transcript from Marktplatz' lessons and afterwards I will get hold of a translation with its original. That's what I did for French and Norwegian and am doing for Georgian and Russian too, but I suspect my translation-time will be much shorter for German than it was for Norwegian, for instance (one of the reasons being Norwegian itself that helped with intergermanic vocabulary). At the weekend I also read a bit more from Georgian Syntax. I may finish this book tomorrow. Still considering if this is the right time for Estonian. I may not have much time to work on it, being busy with the Super Challenge, and it may end up slower than my first year with Russian. By the way, I also have to decide if it's time to move German to native-materials only and start an Assimil sprint for Spanish then Italian. The problem with brushing up all those languages out of the textbook-only stage is finding the time for working with native resources for all of them. As much as textbook study supposedly requires more attention and trouble, it often does take less time for me than the study with native materials. My daily lesson from Russe 90 doesn't take longer than 15 minutes, while I watch several videos for 10 to 15 to 20 minutes each. On Saturday I resumed the German film I was watching. I tried to merge the English and German subtitles with SRT Merger but it didn't work. It is hard to find subtitles that match completely, or maybe I did something wrong. Will try later. So, the best news of today is that I managed to read 5 pages of Georgian. I had increased my daily amount to 3, and today I could take 5 pages and not feel burnout. I'm starting to get the hang of the Georgian phrase. I also watched the TED Talk video more or less intensively. It's much easier to do this at the computer than it would be at the tablet. So, this was an example of a seemingly bad deed that turned into a very good opportunity. In a few weeks, I will run out of talks translated into Georgian, and while digging in for more Georgian videos - probably without subtitles, I'll have to pick another language for using TED Talks with. German is a good candidate as I already have loads of resources with subtitles in Chinese and Russian would still be too boring, but ideally I can use this powerful tool to alternate through languages and allow myself some non-fiction vocabulary, as I'm mostly watching and reading fiction. One more note on the great quality of the TV Series 'Happy Journey Across China'. The series is entirely available on Youtube at HD quality; the video quality itself is excellent, with takes on landscapes that are bretahtaking. I could never imagine there would be a city as beautiful as Dalian, with squares and ancient buildings. It's the type of surprise that is totally unknown to the foreign tourist crowd. Language-wise, the dialogues are at an appropriate level, not too hard nor too easy. The grammar points highlighted are maybe too easy, but it's only 1 or 2 per lesson, not enough to make it boring. Besides, you get a lot of double-subtitled sentences you can listen to and compare. From my experience with Georgian, reading becomes faster and faster in this case, and Happy Journey Across China has the plus of having audio in the target language. My relationship with Norwegian has been ambiguous lately. I feel like emk when he was approaching B2 in French, though I'm not sure I'm that far in B1 in Norwegian. The show I'm watching, I kveld med Ylvis, has English subtitles. I would be learning much more from Norwegian subtitles, but at least I seem to be focusing more on the audio and not on the reading. So, I believe using subtitles in a source language may be appropriate for when you want to start understanding the TL speech as whole, without dettaching and looking up words. If I had more time I'd start doing 10 minutes more from a film with subtitles in Norwegian, even if the most accessible ones have subtitles in English, too. The reading part has never been so comfortable. It's a crime novel and I have only 50 pages left. I read most of it extensively: I tried intensive reading for the first 100 pages but I don't have a translation and GT was annoying. Then I started to look words up not so often and ended up just reading regardless of comprehension. Some 150 pages later, I started to be able to follow the story, and after 100 pages more I really started to get the hang of it. I believe I'm at a higher level now than after my first semester in French reading, which is quite an improvement considering that French is so much easier for me. I still feel I'm not giving Norwegian the attention it deserves, in the sense that I really should work on a few short texts in an intensive way, news items, for example. I did learn more non-fiction vocabulary as this is a crime fiction that involves the police and the government, but I think I'm still not comfortable enough with Norwegian at this respect. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4522 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic | Message 224 of 415 26 May 2014 at 11:26pm | IP Logged | ||
I have to try this one day, didn't know such a tool existed. What I've usually done is to reencode the movie with subtitles burned in and then use the second subtitle file in addition when playing the movie (mplayer lets you change the size and position of subtitles from srt files). Edited by daegga on 26 May 2014 at 11:28pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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