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TAC 2011 Przemek’s language odyssey | ||
Tags: Swahili | Hindi | Turkish | Portuguese | Multilingual | Arabic | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Przemek Hexaglot Senior Member Poland multigato.blogspot.c Joined 6476 days ago 107 posts - 174 votes  Speaks: Polish*, English, SpanishC2, Italian, Portuguese, French Studies: Turkish, Hindi, Arabic (Written) | Message 1 of 16 29 December 2010 at 1:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi! So it's time to start, no more procrastination! Holiday passed and it's time to get to work!
Swahili It is my first "African" language (not counting Arabic), I hope I will go to Kenya next year (or in two years'), I'm a beginner. Arabic I like the sound of Arabic spoken. I will learn MSA and Egyptian dialect. Beginner Turkish I spent my holiday in Turkey two years ago, and I love the country and the people. I would say I am at A2 level Hindi My first "Asian" language. I started to learn this beautiful language a year ago, I am at B1 level, I think Italian I've learned it for several years, I think I am at B2 level; I want to pass CELI exam next year Portuguese I'd say I am at B2, I want to move further. I learn European Portuguese Russian I would say I am at A2, I learned Russian many years ago, at school, but I treated it as an obligation then, I didn't use it after, I need to refresh and learn more Edited by Przemek on 01 January 2011 at 11:53am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Przemek Hexaglot Senior Member Poland multigato.blogspot.c Joined 6476 days ago 107 posts - 174 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, SpanishC2, Italian, Portuguese, French Studies: Turkish, Hindi, Arabic (Written) | Message 2 of 16 01 January 2011 at 12:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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A new year has come! I am so excited because I joined TAC this year and I am curious if I manage to learn all the languages I wrote about and if I will able to update my log. We'll see...
Last week I was a bit lazy and although I was at home I didn't do that much as I wanted. But I did some things... Swahili As I said, this is my first African language. I'm an absolute beginner. I did all 10 lessons from the Pimsleur course. It is not my favourite course (if you can call 10 lessons a course), but it helped me to get a first glimpse of a language, and to automatize some expressions like „hujambo”, „sijambo”, „ninataka” and so on. Then I started „Colloquial Swahili”. I bought it some time ago and I want to go through it. I studied first four lessons and browsed through three or four more to know what's in store :) I know it won't be easy. First: Swahili belongs to the different family than the languages I learned previously and nearly all the vocabulary is new to me. Well, some words I do recognize thanks to my knowledge of Hindi, and from the words I learned in Arabic. These are for example words like „salama” and numbers from 20 upwards like „ishirini” (20), „thelathini” (30), „arobaini” (40). Second: the nouns classes. There are eight of them! And you have to learn them well because according to the class you create possesives, pronouns, adjective, even numbers. I treat them as „genders” in other languages. You have to know the gender of a noun to be able to use a right adjective and so on. We'll see if this method works... I decided I will go to Kenya in two years' time (not this year) so I have plenty of time to learn. Arabic I read many times here that it is best to learn MSA first and then to proceed to a dialect. Although I started to learn Egyptian Arabic (15 lessons from Pimsleur and 5 lessons from „Colloquial”) I switched now to MSA. I am studying „Teach Yourself Arabic”. I heard it's not the best source, but I bought it some time ago in a second-hand bookstore so I want to go through it first. I did two first lessons. In fact, I started to study this book some time ago. So reading these two lessons just helped me to remind what I already know. What's more I did „Teach Yourself Arabic Script” a year ago, so I am accustomed to the writing. I wouldn't say I know how to write, but it is not quite new to me. That is why I like TY book, because I can learn not only to talk but also to read and write. I tried to watch to the news on Al-Jazeera Arabic and on Nile News from Egypt but it was too much. (Thanks to the satellite dish I have many Arabic TV channels.) This is my method. I try to watch, listen and read even at the very early stage of my language studies to get accustomed to the sounds and „flow” of the language. I have to admit I caught only one word from what they said. It ways „ithnayn” which means „two”. What's more. I spent quite a time to download the episodes from ArabicPod. It seems very interesting and gives you the learning materials in small interesting chunks. Turkish I did 6 lessons from „Colloquial Turkish” just to refresh what I alrady know. I watched TRT-Türk (through the satellite). I will try to read as much as I can. I have some daily papers which I bought while I was in Turkey. In fact, I always return home from my holidays with a suitcase full of books and papers in the languages I learn. Hindi I like this language and although I guess I won't go to India again, I will continue my studies. While I was in India I bought some papers and books to read. I got many learning materials, so I will go through them systematically. Italian I want to pass CELI exam this year. My goal is to read and watch as much as I can – movies, news etc. I got many Italian TV channels. I got some books, magazines and papers. In fact this week I've read some articles from „La Repubblica”. It was „5 ottobre” issue. Apart form the page 1, the next two were about the Nobel in medicine to Robert Edwards, father of artificial conception, namely „fecondazione artificiale”. I am not sure if I need all the vocabulary connected with this topic, but the articles were interesting to read and had plenty of constructions needed to discuss and give opinions. Portuguese I didn't do anything in this language this week. I will get to it today and tomorrow. Russian I learnt Russian many years ago, at school. I need to refresh what I learnt then. First I will go through all three parts of Pimsleur, simultaneusly with „Teach Yourself Russian”. This week I've done two lessons (19th and 20th) from Pimsleur) and lesson 4 from „TY”. After reading Ellasevia's log, I think I will ad another language to my schedule – Swedish. In fact I flirted with it a year ago. I like how it sounds. I have contacts with Swedish people in my job so I have many occasions to practice. They all know English, so it is natural to communicate with them in English, but why couldn't I learn some Swedish? From what I learnt so far I know that it's not a difficult language, especially if it comes to grammar. I don't forget about English and Spanish. I am fluent in them but I need to work on them too. I watch TV, I read books, I talk to my friends for whom these are native languages. Apart from that, I will flirt with German and French. Edited by Przemek on 01 January 2011 at 3:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Przemek Hexaglot Senior Member Poland multigato.blogspot.c Joined 6476 days ago 107 posts - 174 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, SpanishC2, Italian, Portuguese, French Studies: Turkish, Hindi, Arabic (Written) | Message 3 of 16 01 January 2011 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't know who tagged my log with "Korean" but I don't study this language. It's not even on my list. Please, fix it
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5848 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 16 01 January 2011 at 1:27pm | IP Logged | ||
I have untagged "Korean" for you. If you click on the "ADD TAG" button on the top of the thread, the chosen tags will appear with a grey dustbin besides every tag. If you click on the grey dustbin besides a tag, then the tag is deleted. So that's what I did with the tag "Korean". Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 01 January 2011 at 3:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Przemek Hexaglot Senior Member Poland multigato.blogspot.c Joined 6476 days ago 107 posts - 174 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, SpanishC2, Italian, Portuguese, French Studies: Turkish, Hindi, Arabic (Written) | Message 5 of 16 01 January 2011 at 3:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ok, thanx, Fasulye
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| Przemek Hexaglot Senior Member Poland multigato.blogspot.c Joined 6476 days ago 107 posts - 174 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, SpanishC2, Italian, Portuguese, French Studies: Turkish, Hindi, Arabic (Written) | Message 6 of 16 03 January 2011 at 1:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Time to report what I did on Saturday and Sunday. Well, not much...
Saturday was a day for rest after New Year's Eve. I did some Portuguese, watched some news on Spanish and Italian TV. Sunday was the Swahili day. I did 4th lesson from "Colloquial" with days of the week, months, telling the time and traveling by train. I learned that object concord is put between participant + tense markers and verbs which looks like this: I see you - ni+na+ku+ona where "ni" means "I", "na" is a present tense marker, "ku" is an object marker for "you" singular and "ona" is a stem of "see" verb. I guess it will be difficult to get used to such a construction with objects but as they say practice make a master. In fact I met similar construction in the future tense in Portuguese, e.g. ver-te-ei - I will see you, where "you" is put in the middle ("te"). Swahili is more difficult than I thought it would be but it makes learning it the more interesting :) Ah, my New Year's resolution: to use the things I learn in my Facebook - to write to my friends there in their native languages Edited by Przemek on 03 January 2011 at 1:44pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| strikingstar Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5174 days ago 292 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, Cantonese, Swahili Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written) | Message 7 of 16 05 January 2011 at 4:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hujambo.
Ninafurahi sana kwamba ukajifunza Kiswahili. Ni lugha ya ajabu sana. Ninaweza kukusaidia kama unahitaji. Usihangaike kuhusu 'agglutinations'. Si ngumu. Utazoesheka hivi karibuni. Ninaona kwamba ukasoma Kiarabu pia. Nilianza kusoma Kiarabu mwaka uliopita. Labda tutaweza kusaidiana. Kiswahili ni salihi kwa kusoma Kiarabu kwa sababu Kiswahii kilikopa maneno mengi kutoka Kiarabu. Baraka nzuri. PS: Technically there are 18 noun classes (ngeli). m/wa/m/mi/ji/ma/ki/vi/n/n/u/?/?/u/ku/pa/ku/mu. Classes 12 and 13 are now defunct. Class 12 was the dimunitve 'ji' class. E.g. kijitoto = infant Class 13 was another 'ki' class. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Przemek Hexaglot Senior Member Poland multigato.blogspot.c Joined 6476 days ago 107 posts - 174 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, SpanishC2, Italian, Portuguese, French Studies: Turkish, Hindi, Arabic (Written) | Message 8 of 16 05 January 2011 at 8:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you strikingstar for clarifying it for me. I checked in my "Colloquial Swahili" once again, and yes, they say there are 8 classes. I browsed Wikipedia and found the same info you have given. They explain that in Swahili plural is regarded as a class. It seems that is why "Colloquial" says about 8 classes. I guess that is European/American point of view. We don't treat singular and plural as separate things. So the same noun in singular and plural is regarded as one class.
That explanation makes me feel at ease. I was horrified when I read about 16 classes! I even thought about quitting Swahili, but that feeling lasted just a minute. Yesterday I started FSI course, in addition to "Colloquial". I like the excercises in the course. They may seem boring at times, but they help to train the constructions and grammar very roughly. I start to like Swahili anew. As for the passage you wrote in Swahili, I didn't want to put it through Google translate. It is a bit difficult for me, yet; I will try to find the words I don't recongnize in a dictionary and translate it by myself. I am not sure I will have time for it today, but tomorrow I will do it for sure. I will write it here, and if you (or other Swahili speaker) could be so kind as to review it, I would be more than obliged. Once again, thank you for your post. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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