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TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5461 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian
| Message 217 of 431 26 February 2011 at 1:07am | IP Logged |
Murdoc, კიდევ ერთხელ დიდი მადლობა გასწორებებისთვის. საბოლო პოსტში ბევრი
სულელი შეცდომა იყო. უნდა ვიყო უფრო ფრთხილად!
Time for a general update on my studies, I suppose. Everything is still going fine. I
am really quite amazed at myself that, over a year from the beginning of this project,
I am still opening up the Georgian books almost every day, and usually for over an hour
a day. I have no idea what it is that has made me so passionate and consistently
diligent with regard to Georgian in particular, but it has certainly lit a fire under
my arse, for want of a more refined expression...
My daily study at the moment mostly involves "Georgian Language and Culture: A
Continuing Course", and my Gold List books. I can't exaggerate how good the 100 pages
of dialogues are in the former. I am learning so much from them. As for the latter,
well, I'm still ploughing on with the old Gold List method, and I'm up to 1600 words,
but the days of remembering 30% of the words in the head lists are long gone, and I'm
having to figure out various shortcuts and adaptations in order to create my
distillations. I'm still convinced that it is better than just writing words in a
vocabulary book, though, which is why I haven't abandoned it altogether.
Then I have various bits and bobs of material from my group lesson, which is all a bit
random, but every little helps, I suppose, and my conversation lessons with Medea,
which are improving very slowly, but still mostly consist of me sounding like some kind
of wheezing, straining, choking, stammering weird person trying to speak Georgian.
I guess the biggest breakthrough has been with my reading. I can now read newspaper
articles, online blogs, and to a lesser extent short stories and novels, in Georgian
without a great deal of difficulty. Of course there are plenty of words I don't know,
but never an entire sentence whose basic structure (i.e. who is doing what to whom
when, where, how and why) I cannot fathom. This new skill of mine tickles me no end,
and I suppose is a big factor in my continuing motivation.
And in less than three months' time I will be in Tbilisi! How weird is that? Although
I utterly despised the movie Forrest Gump, he was right about that box of chocolates
thing.
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| Murdoc Triglot Senior Member Georgia Joined 5251 days ago 113 posts - 208 votes Speaks: Georgian*, English, Russian
| Message 218 of 431 28 February 2011 at 1:10pm | IP Logged |
TixhiiDon,
ნამდვილად არ გაქვს ბევრი შეცდომები, საკმაოდ კარგად წერ.
...
სულელური შეცდომა
Direct translation of 'stupid mistake' sounds wrong in Georgian. სულელური translates as stupid-ish.
Edited by Murdoc on 28 February 2011 at 1:10pm
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| Murdoc Triglot Senior Member Georgia Joined 5251 days ago 113 posts - 208 votes Speaks: Georgian*, English, Russian
| Message 219 of 431 11 March 2011 at 9:09pm | IP Logged |
TixhiiDon,
What a terrible misfortune in Japan. I hope you are safe and sound wherever you are. Good luck to you and whole Japan!
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| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5461 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian
| Message 220 of 431 12 March 2011 at 1:35am | IP Logged |
დიდი მადლობა პოსტისთვის Murdoc. I'm fine. The shaking was very strong here in Tokyo
too, but not strong enough to cause serious damage and injury - just strong enough to
scare the hell out of me!
The situation in the north of Japan is getting worse and worse, it seems. It looks like
there will be easily more than 1000 deaths.
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| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6139 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 221 of 431 12 March 2011 at 1:41am | IP Logged |
I'm glad to hear that you're okay! I was listening to a German radio station last night when I heard it announced and my first thought was that I hoped you were safe. Today in my Japanese class one of the exchange students was quite worried; she said that her family is all right but she doesn't know about her friends who are there because she doesn't know the state of her hometown... I didn't know that the death toll was so high though -- the last I had heard this morning was that it was only a couple hundred.
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| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5461 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian
| Message 222 of 431 12 March 2011 at 4:48am | IP Logged |
Thanks Philip. I hope your Japanese exchange student is OK. It was difficult to contact
people all day yesterday because the phone lines were so busy, but it seems to be OK now.
The death toll is now around 400 confirmed, but there are around 1000 missing, so it's
not looking good.
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| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5461 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian
| Message 224 of 431 31 March 2011 at 11:01am | IP Logged |
დიდი ხანია რაც დავწერე ამ ბლოგზე, და ამის მიზეზია ის, რომ დაკავებული ვიყავი
ეხლანდელი იაპონიის მდგომარეობთან დაკავშირებით.
ალბათ ყველამ იცის, რომ ეხლა იაპონიაში ძალიან რთული მდგომარეობაშია მიწისძვრის
გამო, რომელიც მოხდა დაახლოებით ორი კვირის წინ. ძალიან ბევრი ხალხი გარდაიცვალა
და ეხლაც ძალიან ბევრი ხალხი ცხოვრობს სახლი, წყალისა და შუქის გარეშე.
გარდა ამისა, ტოკიოს და ჩრდილო იაპონიის მცხოვრებები ნერვიულობენ ფუკუშიმიდან
მოსულ რადიაციას. ჩვენ არ ვიცით თუ ბოსტნეულის ჭამა და წყალის დალევა შეიძლება
თუ არა, და მდგომარეობა იცვლება თითქმის ყოველდღე.
მიუხედავად ამისა, ტოკიოელები საკმაოდ წყნარი არიან. ყოველდღიური ცხოვრება არ
შეცვლილა. ყველა დილით იღვიძებს, სამსახურში მიდის მატარებლით, მუშაობს,
ყიდულობს სურსათს სუპერმარკეტში, და ბრუნდება შინ საღამოს. შუქი საკმარისად არა
გვაქკს, ამიტომ სუპერმარკეტები და სადგურები ბნელია. ასევე, რამდენიმე სურსათი,
მაგალითად მინერალური წყალი და რძე, ძნელად პოვნა მაღაზიებში. მაგრამ ფუკუშიმის და
მიაგის ხალხთან შედარებით, აქ პრობლემები სულაც არა გვაქვს.
ბრიტანული საელჩო ტოკიოში გამოაცხადა რომ ბრიტანელებმა რომლებიც ცხოვრობენ
ტოკიოში და ჩრდილო იაპონიაში უნდა მოიფიკრონ გასვლაო, და როცა მე წავიკითხე ეს
განცხადება, ცოტა პანიკა დამეწყო და ვიყიდე ავიაბილეტი ინგლისამდე.
ერთ კვირას ვიყავი ინგლისში და ძალიან სასიამოვნო იყო ოჯახისა და მეგობრების ნახვა,
მაგრამ სამი დღის წინ დავბრუნდე იაპონიაში და მიხარია კიდევ იაპონიაში ყოფნა და
ნორმალურად ცხოვრება.
Phew, I didn't mean to write so much but I kind of got carried away with it. I got a
bit lost towards the end so there may be a lot of errors, or it might not make any
sense, or both... Anyway, for what it's worth, here's the translation.
"It has been a long time since I wrote in this blog, and the reason for that is that
I've been busy in connection with the current situation in Japan.
I guess everyone knows that Japan is in a very difficult situation right now because of
the earthquake that occurred approximately two weeks ago. Very many people died, and
even now many people are living without houses, water, and electricity.
Moreover, the inhabitants of Tokyo and northern Japan are worried about radiation
coming from Fukushima. We don't know whether it is possible or not to eat vegetables
and drink water, and the situation changes almost every day.
Nevertheless, Tokyoites are reasonably calm. Everyday life has not changed. Everyone
wakes up in the morning, goes to work by train, works, buys food in the supermarket,
and goes back home in the evening. We don't have enough electricity and so the
supermarkets and train stations are dark. Also, it is difficult to find some products,
such as mineral water and milk, in the shops. In comparison with the people in
Fukushima and Miyagi, however, we don't have any problems here at all.
The British Embassy in Tokyo announced that British people who are living in Tokyo and
northern Japan should consider leaving, and when I read this announcement I started to
panic a little and bought a plane ticket to England.
I spent one week in England, and it was very nice to see my friends and family, but I
returned to Japan three days ago and I'm happy to be back in Japan and to live
normally."
As for my Georgian, it has been somewhat neglected. Before all the mess here in Japan
I went on a nice little beach holiday to the Philippines, and, being the good language
student I am, I took my Gold List books with me. Unfortunately I left them out on my
hotel room balcony on the night of a big ol' tropical storm, and although the books
weren't damaged irretrievably, they are shadows of their former selves - a bit warped,
a bit smudged, just rather sad. I haven't opened them since.
My Georgian teacher has legged it back to Georgia to escape the radiation, just as I
did, and she is still there, so no lesson for tonight, and probably next week too. My
Wednesday group lesson was taken by her husband, my old teacher Kojima-sensei (keep up
you lot at the back!) last night, and he brought a load of photos of shop signs and
stuff from Tbilisi and had us read and translate them, which was both fun and useful.
I am almost beside myself with excitement at the thought that I will be there myself in
just over a month!
Oh, and to finish, another Georgian literature tip. In a big anthology called Best
European Fiction 2011 there is a short story by a Georgian writer called Zurab Lezhava
which is both very funny and highly irreverent. It's only a few pages long, but the
whole collection is well worth having as it is filled with short stories from writers
across the continent, from Liechtenstein to Latvia, Belgium to Belarus.
Edited by TixhiiDon on 31 March 2011 at 11:23am
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