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Josquin’s Language Symphony (RU, IR, 東亜) | ||
Tags: Gaelic (Scottish) | Gaelic (Irish) | Icelandic | Portuguese | Multilingual | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | Japanese | Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Mani Diglot Senior Member Germany imsprachendickicht.b Joined 4905 days ago 258 posts - 323 votes  Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Swedish, Portuguese, Latin, Welsh, Luxembourgish | Message 593 of 646 28 January 2015 at 7:48am | IP Logged |
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Oh, and I was about to write in my update that you're probably through Britta Schulze-Thulin's Welsh textbook before I even reach chapter 5 ...
Joking aside, like Ogrim I also know periods when language learning isn't a priority, I think that's completely normal and you're making good progress in two other important fields. That's fantastic news! Maybe you just need a little break from your languages. p.s. I'm still convinced you'll finish the Welsh textbook faster than me though maybe I'll have the chance to reach chapter 10 by that time ... ;) Edited by Mani on 28 January 2015 at 11:11am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4844 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 594 of 646 28 January 2015 at 5:47pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for your kind words, Mani!
I think you'll have some time now to get through the textbook before I do. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4844 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 595 of 646 01 February 2015 at 8:46pm | IP Logged |
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SUNDAY, 1 FEBRUARY 2015
February has begun and I'm back at language learning! I was pretty bored this weekend and had nothing better to do, so I decided to take a look at my textbooks again. After a solid hour of studying Japanese, I was hooked and did some Irish, Portuguese, and Russian, too, and even a tiny bit of Korean. I don't know if I can make this a regular thing (knowing myself I'd say probably not), but it was actually quite nice studying the languages again which worked so fine for me last year. So, I guess the Celtic Challenge is definitely off. It was just too much of one thing at the same time. A little bit of diversity in your studies is quite nice and keeps you motivated. Also, Old Irish is a killer (!) language, but I will get back to it some day. The same goes for Welsh. Русский I'm not that interested in going on with Игрок at the moment. I'd rather learn some modern spoken Russian, so I watched another episode of Кухня (season 1, episode 14). This was a tough one! I needed the transcripts extensively, and even with them it was difficult to understand everything. Well, I did get the plot, of course, but some details went over my head. Gaeilge I repeated lessons 11 and 12 in Learning Irish. I should get back to doing the exercises in the Stenson Workbook though. Português Yes, I also repeated unit 12 in Portugiesisch mit System! Actually, Portuguese is such a pleasant and fun language, I don't know why I stopped studying it in the first place. I want to do more of it in the future. 日本語 I did lesson 14 in the Reading Section of Genki 2. If I get serious about Japanese again, I really need to work on my kanji. I somehow neglected them up to now, so I had to look up quite a few of them. Also, the text was quite challenging because I needed to refresh some grammar points like ～たがる, which is used in the third person instead of ～たい. 한국어 I repeated the hangeul alphabet and some pronunciation rules. I'd love to do more Korean in the future, but I guess I just don't have the time for it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4844 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 596 of 646 04 February 2015 at 5:34pm | IP Logged |
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WEDNESDAY, 4 FEBRUARY 2015
Another good day for my language studies! After calling off the Celtic Challenge, I have returned to my traditional combo of languages, that is Russian, Irish, Japanese, and Portuguese - topped off with a little bit of Korean. I think I will keep this combination, because it really has proven to work well: no interference and a lot of fun! Русский I read the beginning of the second chapter of Игрок while listening to the audiobook. When will I finally have such a nice, soft, flowing accent as the speaker!? Gaeilge I haven't been doing anything in Irish for the last few days. Português I started working on unit 13 in Portugiesisch mit System. It's about impersonal constructions with "se", the personal infinitive, reported speech, and several words meaning "can" or "to be able to". Most of it works like in other Romance languages, except for the personal infinitive, which is just another pecularity of Portuguese. The important thing will be learning when to use the personal infinitive and when to use a subordinate clause. As far as I understand it, the personal infinitive mainly follows some fixed expressions, such as "é preciso" or "é importante". 日本語 I repeated the Reading Section of unit 14 in Genki 2. Also, I repeated all kanji from Genki 1 which I had already forgotten. I'm thinking about getting the Basic Kanji Book in order to systematically study kanji again. It looks like it suits my needs best. 한국어 I repeated the pronunciation rules for the Hangeul alphabet in unit 4 of Elementary Korean. While Hangeul is supposed to be sooo easy to learn, pronouncing Korean words actually isn't. There are a lot of rules to be observed, depending on the position of the consonants in a word. Especially all the rules for the batchim are a killer! Well, it will probably take a while until I can fluently and correctly read out Korean text. Edited by Josquin on 04 February 2015 at 5:38pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Warp3 Senior Member United States forum_posts.asp?TID= Joined 5535 days ago 1419 posts - 1766 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Korean, Japanese | Message 597 of 646 04 February 2015 at 9:27pm | IP Logged |
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The rules about some sounds changing when they are adjacent in Korean is a bit confusing
at first, but before long it becomes second nature to do that even in words you've never seen before. Japanese has something similar with how the ん changes sound based on what follows it (making it sound like an M, N, NG, or even a nasalized vowel depending on the situation). The difference is that Japanese only has the one final consonant whereas Korean has several of them. Japanese does have other sound shifts though like the readings that sometimes get dakutens attached based on what syllables precede them. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4868 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 598 of 646 06 February 2015 at 6:26am | IP Logged |
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The pronunciation rules are certainly confusing at the beginning. I still have trouble with consonants changing because of the preceding or following syllable and tend to forget some of the rules when I see words I haven't heard pronounced before. Listening helps a lot to get an intuitive understanding of the pronunciation, though. My last epiphany was in Korean last year when I occasionally took the subway past 동립문 and the announcer kept saying 동님문 :) But it hasn't kept me from getting to a pretty decent level, so I guess it doesn't matter when some of the rules slip your mind.
I think you'll get the batchim down soon, a lot of listening definitely helps. Trying to pronounce them helps, too. In the beginning I found that difficult and it felt pretty strange, but soon enough you'll hardly think about it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4844 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 599 of 646 21 February 2015 at 5:38pm | IP Logged |
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SATURDAY, 21 FEBRUARY 2015
At the moment, my motivation for language learning is still rather low, because I have mainly been busy with other things. Well, I've still been doing a little bit with my languages here and there, but it hasn't been much. Generally speaking, I'm missing opportunities to really use my languages. Studying for studying's sake doesn't really motivate me any more and I don't travel much, so I don't really see any point in working hard on my Russian or Japanese. Well, I still like languages, but somehow that isn't enough any more, so I end up doing a little bit of irregular studying. In other words, I'm doing some tidbits now and then and that's it. Well, this is what I've been up to lately. Русский I have read some more pages of Игрок and Ну что, поехали? and I've watched some episodes of Кухня. Also, I listened to some episodes of the RussianPod101 intermediate and advanced series. Gaeilge I haven't really done anything in Irish, besides repeating a little bit of stuff from Learning Irish. Português I have worked through unit 13 in Portugiesisch mit System and started working on unit 14, which mainly deals with the passive voice and the future tense. The units are packed with grammar now and there's little time to digest everything. I'm still crap at conjugating irrgeular verbs and having to deal with one new tense per unit doesn't make it easier. Well, unit 15 will already be the last unit of the book, so I'll probably go through Lehrbuch der portugiesischen Sprache after this. I hope I'll be able to consolidate my knowledge there. 日本語 I haven't really made any progress with Genki, but I have been listening to some episodes of JapanesePod101 lately. I'm going through beginner series 5 right now. The grammar they present is mainly repetition, but it's good for training listening skills and broadening my vocabulary. Just yesterday I came across ～欲しがっている and ～たがっている, which I had recently repeated in Genki. I won't forget that anytime soon again. 한국어 Actually, I haven't done anything in Korean since I last posted here, but I will get back to it some day. @Warp3 and druckfehler: Yes, you're right, the pronunciation rules are quite logical when you think about them, but in the beginning they are still confusing. It's just so many of them at the same time. The comparison with Japanese ん makes certainly sense, but Korean simply takes the matter to a whole different level. Well, I'll get used to it some time, that is when I return to Korean. ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4844 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 600 of 646 06 March 2015 at 11:22pm | IP Logged |
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FRIDAY, 6 MARCH 2015
I've been studying very irregularly for the last two weeks, because I hve been concentrating on the completion of another chapter of my thesis. Now that I have sent it to my supervisors for comments and corrections, I have some time for studying before I start working on the next chapter. Русский I have been watching some Кухня with the help of the transcripts. I'm on episode 16 of the first season now. Generally speaking, I think my listening skills have improved, so I can understand easy dialogues without the transcripts. Very often, however, they speak so fast and colloquially on the show that I'm totally lost. Typical problems of the intermediate plateau, I guess. Português I've completed lesson 14 in Portugiesisch mit System and started working on unit 15. It deals with the conditional mood and the past subjunctive, hypothetical if-clauses, and some other minor grammar points. This is the last unit of the course, so after finishing it I will continue studying Portuguese with Lehrbuch der portugiesischen Sprache by Helmut Rostock. I think it will go much more in detail than the rather superficial Langenscheidt course, so I will have plenty of opportunities to improve my vocabulary and grammar. עברית I started a new language, that is Modern Hebrew! Please don't yell at me considering my short-lasting flings with Hungarian, Welsh, and Korean, but I just had to give this one a try. I'm using the Routledge Introductory Course in Modern Hebrew and so far I quite like it. The only problem is that the instructions for exercises are in Hebrew as well. I repeated the alphabet, which I had already learnt some years ago, and then started on unit 1. So far, I can say "Hello", "How are you?", and "What's your name?". More is yet to come. My motivation for Hebrew stems from my interest in Israel and Jewish culture in general. When I was at school, I wrote a paper about the history of the Jewish community in my hometown, which was almost completely eradicated by the Nazis. Their synagogue was destroyed in the "Kristallnacht" of 1938 (or "Reichspogromnacht", as we call it today) and there's nothing left of them but their old cemetery and a book written of the last survivor, who escaped Auschwitz. Being a German, I feel deep compassion for the fate of this people who lived in the diaspora for 2000 years, always confronted with prosecution and hatred. And when they were granted their own state in their historical homeland, it created nothing but hatred and violence again. But even more than by the history, I'm fascinated by the unique faith and traditions of the Jewish people, which have survived all these 2000 years. One part of this is, of course, the Hebrew language, which has been kept alive for centuries and even revived to fit the demands of the modern world. I want to understand this culture better, so learning the language seems to be the best way to do that. Also, it's just another language adventure, as it will be my first Semitic language (my short dabbling in Arabic last year doesn't count). So, wish me luck or, in Hebrew, "mazel tov"! Edited by Josquin on 06 March 2015 at 11:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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