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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 |  | |
| Nieng Zhonghan Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member Antarctica Joined 3669 days ago 108 posts - 315 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, Japanese*, Spanish, Galician Studies: Finnish, Icelandic, Armenian, Mongolian Studies: Old English, Russian, English, German, Korean, Mandarin | Message 361 of 415 17 November 2014 at 10:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
I second that. It is so frustrating when you live in an environment where you cannot make much use of your target language. People tell me that nowadays there is internet and that I may practice both speaking and writing with native speakers; however it is obviously not the same being actually in the place where people speak your target languages. I already contact native and advanced level speakers of my target languages, but still feel that many things are obviously missing. I am planning to move to another country by 2016; therefore, I am still thinking whether I would pick up a European language or not (since the country is not located in Europe). European countries are very expensive, generally speaking (or maybe I am very poor haha). Of course, I may some of the European countries again, but as for me, I think it is time to move on to another (non-Europan)language. One thing I can recommend you is buying US dollars and euros during the year whenever possible. You may buy dollars in March and euros in Apri, for example. You can keep doing this throughout the year, except during the high season, of course. I suppose that between the end of November or beginning of December until February, the exchange rates are very high in Brazil. I am saying this because I traveled to Europe without burdening too much my budget. The thing is that the rates changes over times and we never know exactly whether it will keep rising or not. It depends on many variables and I knew that during the World Cup period, things would be more expensive than usual in Brazil; I thought that after the elections the dollar would rise again; it was said to me by a Brazilian acquaintance who specialized in Economics; and so I read in the news. Therefore, I suggested my Brazilian acquaintances to buy US dollars before the presidential elections, if possible. They complained and didn't trust me, but they did what I suggested. Now, indeed it seems to be higher. Anyway, keep on learning your languages. I am following your log in order to learn how you learn and maintain your languages. It is impressive how you manage your time. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4045 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 362 of 415 17 November 2014 at 11:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi @Expugnator!
What is your opinion about RussianPod101? Was it useful? Can be useful for a complete beginner? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5164 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 363 of 415 18 November 2014 at 6:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks for your support. You're absolutely right on your analysis. In my case, I wouldn't be able to buy dollars anyway, but I should have bought the ticket, I tried my best but I'm not a lone person and other things that I wouldn't consider so prioritary came on the way. It's still not the end, though, and I will see if I can still make it.
They are just fine, quite comprehensive and recommended. I like the fact the lessons all have translation, not only at the main dialogues but also within sample sentences and cultural insights. They have repetition of grammar points throughout the levels, which is helpful too. There is so much on Russian out there that I wouldn't make them my main resource, but the more advanced levels are really useful as a transition to native materials. =================================== Started грузинский язык самоучитель, by Gadilia and Zaviadadze. This book belongs to a series called Живой язык, which looks promising, considering that there are titles for languages such as Latvian and Lithuanian in it. Since my Russian is weaker than my Georgian and I'm striving to read in both, I'm going to count this book for the Super Challenge at a ratio of 1 page for each language, because that's more or less the book's format - text or sentences in Georgian mirrored by its Russian translation. Explanations are also in Russian, so I'm counting these separately. I think this will give me more motivation for reading. Well, the first day wasn't so successful. Russian is still way above my head. I spend a lot of time typing out words at Google and waiting for Google to convert them to cyrillic and only then translate. I was planning on doing 1 lesson a day, this way I could finish the book in 4 weeks and my Georgian wouldn't suffer, but it is not possible so far. This is my 'review slot', so after this textbook on Georgian one on Norwegian would come, before this one I was doing French. But that is life, I will have to sacrifice this for the sake of cramming to read a couple more pages intensively in Russian. Today I counted 4 pages in Russian from this textbook. When I find pages filled with Georgian texts, I will count them for Georgian. I expect to spend an average of 2 days on a lesson. There is not much new in Georgian in terms of grammar to understand, so I'm rather going for the Russian so far; not the reading practice in Georgian, that one indeed will be good Georgian training. Well, I've tried this before, to learn Georgian through Russian, and it didn't work because my Russian was still weak, but now I'm taking it easy and trying to intensively learn the most important grammatical terms in Russian and thus allow myself to learn languages with Russian as L1 in a definitive way. I managed to do it for German, after all. Finished Nettverking and started a serial novel for which I only have the first volume, in Norwegian. It's more relieving when you know you won't continue and so you are not that worried about understanding the story. Finished 'Der Mann mit den zwei Leben' and started Aqua Viva, by Clarice Lispector: Brazilian literature. Will get back to non-fiction later. Today wasn't a sharp day in terms of reading for any of my languages, maybe I'm really tired. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| 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 364 of 415 18 November 2014 at 6:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Живой язык... у меня есть экземпляр для изучения сербского. Я книжку купил в Иркутске,
когда я был там во время путешествий. Пока мне не удалось ее рассматривать. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5164 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 365 of 415 19 November 2014 at 9:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I don't know if it was worth the price for Serbian which has more resources out there, but they seem a good reading, tarvos. Lots of useful expressions.
So, I read more from the Живой язык textbook. I read more pages, which is important for the SC: I logged in 7 pages in Russian and 3 in Georgian, taking into account that I counted the pages with sentences by half to each language. Right at Lesson 1, there are dialogues which allow me to keep learning my Georgian more consistently. I believe the worst parts of the alphabet are gone. Those sections on pronunciation usually present uncommon vocabulary for the sake of introducing obscure combinations of letters, and I'm glad they are over. Now most of the lesson is in the format Georgian-Russian dialogues or sentences, and these prove to be effective for both languages. Perfect! I will practice my Russian while reading explanations on Georgian aspects I already know, and this will prepare me for using Russian-based textbooks later. Then I will be delighted with over 5 pages with parallel Georgian-Russian dialogues and sentences, which are up-to-date, NOT bookish and help me with both languages. I'm enjoying the new Norwegian reading, after descriptions are over. By the way, just to keep the tradition of having one good day following a bad one, today was terrific with Norwegian (also with the video) and with German. I'm reading a book from Clarice Lispector and even though it is not quite a novel and is mostly introspective sentences, they still made use of well-known expressions and feelings, easy for you to feel attached to. And easy to learn German from, as well! I just checked and there are other novels of hers translated into German, and I'm looking forward to them. The highlight of the reading was when I spotted a common quote of hers that is spread like wildfire in the Brazilian social media. It was there, in the middle of my German practice, it was a consistent part of a book and not a quote from an interview she gave or so. I'm still impressed because the book itself, Agua Viva, is not common and the quote has become quite a clichée already. So, here it is: Não quero ter a terrível limitação de quem vive apenas do que é passível de fazer sentido. Eu não: quero é uma verdade inventada. In German, that became: Ich möchte nicht der schrecklichen Beschränktheit derer verfallen, die nur von dem leben, was einen Sinn hat. Ich nicht: ich will eine Wahrheit, die erfunden ist. This quote and the book as well, Clarice's style in general reminds me of Solfrid Cristin and her travel posts. Clarice Lispector happened to be born in Ukraine; she was an introvert, for that matter, but she expresses herself in a way that women do feel like quoting her all the time, so, whatever life challenges and reflections a woman may go through, it is somehow expressed in Clarice's works. I'm done with the Chinese cartoon Tutu. Didn't like the 5th, 3d season that much. Now I am supposed to have more free time, which I can use maybe to start a new item in the mornings, or will just use the extra minutes for running a lit longer on the treadmill. I don't have to worry about online Estonian courses by now because I managed to download the one from panglosskool. so maybe I will just enjoy the free time and have calmer mornings. I'm already trying to transition from a too fixed schedule to finishing up earlier and having time to try random intensive reading sessions, which help me a lot. Edited by Expugnator on 19 November 2014 at 9:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| 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 366 of 415 19 November 2014 at 11:40pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The thing is I was in the biggest bookstore in Irkutsk and that was everything they had
concerning Serbian which I could use as a beginner. My Russian was ok then but it's much better now. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5164 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 367 of 415 20 November 2014 at 6:52pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Today I read another set of useful sentences at грузинский язык самоучитель.
The book has such an extensive content. I dare say it is the most important conversational resources Usueful sentences. Extensive content. I dare say it is the most important conversational resource I have for Georgian. There is more content for learning to speak Georgian than in the extensive textbooks I've used before. I'm avoiding multitasking with a higher effort. No listening in the background while browsing other pages. Except in the case of Georgian, where I understand so little and have no subtitles, and I end up reading something here and there while I listen to the episod. Thanks to Jules Verne, I know how to write the name of the team I root for in Georgian: ვასკო-და-გამააააააააა ააა!!! (The context isn't the same, he obviously meant the explorer). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5260 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 368 of 415 20 November 2014 at 7:12pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Vasco da Gama? Vi a tumba dele, há quase um ano, em Lisboa.
1 person has voted this message useful |
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