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Amerykanka’s TAC 2012 (Teams Žá & Żubr)

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Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5173 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 73 of 119
02 September 2012 at 12:08am | IP Logged 
It has been almost two months since I posted anything here. I wish I could say that I have been studying a lot,
but actually, I haven't. I was out of town for two weeks in the beginning of August, and when I returned home
school started and everything was pretty crazy. Besides, I think I needed a break - now I can get back to
languages and enjoy myself!

The following is a list of general things I accomplished over the last two months.

1. I finished La Ciudad de las Bestias (finally) and read the first 76 pages of El Reino del Dragón de Oro.
I don't agree with a lot of the philosophical and moral ideas in these two books, but since I already bought
both of them, I decided to read them anyway for the Spanish practice. I do enjoy parts of them very much!

2. I spent a week in Nicaragua, during which I had many opportunities to speak Spanish. I could not
understand everything people said to me - informal language sometimes bewilders me - but I managed to
communicate effectively and interpret for other members of our mission team.

3. I watched some Polish cartoon adaptations of fairy tales on YouTube and read some of Stara baśń.

4. I read through the rest of Wheelock's and started John F. Collins' A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin.

5. This doesn't really count, but I spent some time learning some basic Esperanto and reading about Old
English grammar.
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Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5173 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 74 of 119
14 September 2012 at 1:44am | IP Logged 
I am still really busy - college applications and all. But I expect a temporary respite at the end of this week. At
least I was able to write one of my essays all about my experiences studying Spanish! That was fun! No one
who reads THAT essay will doubt that I like languages. (I found ways to mention Polish, Latin, Arabic, and
Ancient Greek, even though the essay was about my Spanish studies. Originally there were also
references to Korean and Czech, but I had to cut those.)

I have a new job, which is fun (and challenging): I am tutoring a high school senior in Latin. Right now it's
basic stuff (noun declensions, prepositions) but he never learned English grammar so I have to explain the
meanings of subject, direct object, appositive, etc. Anyway, it is the perfect job for me! It will help with MY
language skills, too, since I'll be constantly reviewing different aspects of the language.

I found a really neat book on Amazon - Spanish Vocabulary: An Etymological Approach by David
Brodsky. I've been using Amazon's browse-inside feature and the book is fascinating. I'm going to buy it and
use it for vocabulary acquisition and to increase my knowledge of the Spanish language.

I hope to be back on a regular schedule soon. Things don't seem normal if I'm not updating my log here!

EDIT: My essay also had a reference to Old English, but even I thought that was overkill, so I deleted it.

EDIT: I forgot. There were also references to French and German, but I had to bow to the authority of space
limits and shorten my essay.

Edited by Amerykanka on 14 September 2012 at 1:56am

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Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6599 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 75 of 119
14 September 2012 at 4:26am | IP Logged 
Docendo discimus :) Sounds like a great job!
The Spanish vocab book sounds awesome too:) It's available in Uzbekistan;)
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Kerrie
Senior Member
United States
justpaste.it/Kerrie2
Joined 5397 days ago

1232 posts - 1740 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 76 of 119
14 September 2012 at 4:37am | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
Docendo discimus :) Sounds like a great job!
The Spanish vocab book sounds awesome too:) It's available in Uzbekistan;)


Who's in Uzbekistan?
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Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5173 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 77 of 119
14 September 2012 at 8:45pm | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
Docendo discimus :)


That's just what I was thinking! :)

As for the Spanish book, it is great - I just wish it wasn't so expensive. But I'm glad to know it's available in Uzbekistan! :)

Edited by Amerykanka on 14 September 2012 at 8:46pm

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Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5173 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 78 of 119
20 September 2012 at 7:15pm | IP Logged 
Yay, I'm back! I changed the email address in my account and then I had to wait a while for the account to be
reactivated, but now I can use the forum again, thank heavens!

Update time! I am using Collins' A Primer of Ecclesiastical Latin now, and I just finished Unit 7. I like
Collins because the book moves very quickly and gives a lot of vocabulary. I learned about the dative of
possession the other week for the first time - for some reason dative of possession was never mentioned in
Wheelock's. I also translated part of Psalm 91, a passage from Proverbs, and a passage from Samuel (all
taken from the Vulgate). Since there were very many unknown words, I used Leo Stelten's Dictionary of
Ecclesiastical Latin
for reference. Overall, I am very satisfied with my Latin studies right now. I have a very
solid knowledge of Latin grammar, syntax, and vocabulary, so now I can focus on developing skills in my
weaker areas (for example, gerunds) and learning more advanced grammatical constructions.

I really enjoy my tutoring job. I have an excuse to talk about Latin declensions and gender rules for hours! I
can't wait til we get to verb conjugations! :) (I don't think my pupil is quite so enthusiastic, but even though he
isn't a language nerd, he pays attention and works hard.)



Edited by Amerykanka on 20 September 2012 at 7:16pm

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Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5173 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 79 of 119
22 September 2012 at 8:18pm | IP Logged 
Por fin tengo un poco de tiempo libre y puedo escribir algo aquí en español. He estado estudiando mucho,
pero hay que reforzar mis esfuerzos. No hablo español mal, pero frecuentemente las palabras
españolas no quieren salirme de la boca y acabo por refunfuñar incoherentemente. También me hace falta
una mejora en mi comprensión auditiva - ¿para qué sirve poder decir todo lo que quiera si no entiendo nada
de las respuestas? Pues, estoy exagerando - suelo entender la mayoría de lo que me dicen - pero no se
puede negar que a veces la gente me confunde mucho con la extrañeza de sus acentos o la rapidez de sus
palabras. Entonces, ¡adelante con los estudios!

Hace unos días encargué dos libros nuevos de Alibris y espero que lleguen hoy con el correo. Pedí el libro
que mecioné más arriba (Spanish Vocabulary: An Etymological Approach) y también El Aprendiz de
Mario Méndez. Éste segundo es un libro juvenil que tiene lugar durante las invasiones inglesas en Argentina.
Voy a leerlo para practicar mi comprensión de lectura y aumentar mi vocabulario (y además para aprender
un poquito sobre la historia de Argentina). Me gustan mucho los libros juveniles (lo que tiene sentido, dado
que todavía me faltan unos años para cumplir 20) y estaba muy emocionada al encontrar éste. ¡Ojalá sea
buenísimo y me enseñe mucho!

Ahora voy a mirar un episodio de "La Rosa de Guadalupe", aunque mi familia me considera loca por siempre
mirar esta telenovela. Confieso que no es muy buena, pero tiene la atracción enorme de ser rodada en
español.

Como siempre, si alguien se entera de algunos errores, ¡corríjanmelos, por favor!



Edited by Amerykanka on 22 September 2012 at 8:19pm

2 persons have voted this message useful



Amerykanka
Hexaglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5173 days ago

657 posts - 890 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian

 
 Message 80 of 119
28 September 2012 at 2:14am | IP Logged 
¡Llegaron! (Refiero a los libros, por supuesto. :)) Estoy ocupadísima (¿existe esta palabra?), así que no he
podido hacer nada con ellos, pero todavía me hace feliz tenerlos a mi alcanzo.




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