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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 |  | |
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes  Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 57 of 646 18 May 2012 at 9:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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FRIDAY, 18 MAY 2012
What a sad day! Today, the famous German baritone and Lied singer Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau has died. He was one of the greatest singers of the last century, especially famous for his Schubert interpretations. I will miss him a lot. Nevertheless, I managed to work on my dissertation and to study some Russian. I repeated vocabulary from lessons 4 and 5 and made myself acquainted with the dialogue of lesson 6. Moreover, I repeated the rules for the instrumental case and did some case drills on my own. I am starting to get the hang of the different declensions. Basically, you have to watch out whether a noun stem ends in a soft or a hard consonant (or a vowel) and regard the exceptions for velars (г, к, х) and sibilants (ж, ц, ч, ш, щ). The rest is easy - with the exception of feminine nouns on -ь and -ия, which are somewhat special. This way, you can cover the main declension groups, but of course there are further exceptions - otherwise it wouldn't be Russian! Tomorrow, I will concentrate on lesson 6 and the further grammar explanations. There are some forms of the personal pronouns and some irregular verbs to be learned, and I will do some exercises. EDIT: If you want to learn more about Fischer-Dieskau, you can read his obituary in the NY Times here and you can listen to him here. Edited by Josquin on 18 May 2012 at 11:22pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 58 of 646 18 May 2012 at 9:27pm | IP Logged | ||
That is very interesting! Thanks for the information. Now, I understand Russian numerals a little bit better. Unfortunately, counting doesn't become easier by knowing this information, but now I know why it's so difficult. Edited by Josquin on 18 May 2012 at 9:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 59 of 646 19 May 2012 at 12:16am | IP Logged | ||
Well, there won't be much of an intuitive approach in learning Icelandic... ;) Even knowing German won't help veeeery much (though more than knowing Bulgarian). 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 60 of 646 20 May 2012 at 12:25am | IP Logged | ||
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SATURDAY, 19 MAY 2012
Today, I'll have to blow off some steam, because Bayern Munich have lost unfortunately against Chelsea London in the European football Champions League finale on penalties. Bayern were clearly the better team, but didn't use the chances they got - and in the end, Chelsea were simply lucky. My language learning history of today is rather short. I concentrated on lesson 6, listened to the dialogue, learned the vocabulary and the grammar, and did some exercises. After mastering the elementary singular declensions of the nouns, I'm now concerned with personal pronouns. Thank God there are only eight of them and some forms repeat themselves. I'll now drown my frustration in some beer. Losing is bitter, losing undeservingly is more bitter, and losing against the English is the most bitter of all... Edited by Josquin on 20 May 2012 at 12:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4857 days ago 890 posts - 1190 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish | Message 61 of 646 20 May 2012 at 2:24am | IP Logged | ||
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Oh Gooood, this match seems to be topic number one today.
(Says the awkward guy who strongly dislikes football/soccer) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 62 of 646 20 May 2012 at 3:13pm | IP Logged | ||
Well, I wouldn't describe myself as a football fan either, but when Bayern is about to win the Champions League or Germany plays against England in a championship, I sometimes watch a game. Yesterday's game was really incredible, a traumatic experience for Bayern after already losing the German championship and the DFB cup. But that's life, and there are more important things than football, e.g. learning Russian! :) EDIT: By the way, I just remembered one of the few things I can say in Polish: "Nie lubię piłki". :) Edited by Josquin on 20 May 2012 at 4:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 63 of 646 20 May 2012 at 8:44pm | IP Logged | ||
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SUNDAY, 20 MAY 2012
After slowly recovering from the football desaster last night, I concentrated on repeating grammar and vocabulary today before taking the next step. I did some exercises and took the "test" after lesson 6, which shows your progress in the language. I scored 33 out of 34 points, so I can merrily continue with lesson 7 without having to repeat the old grammar. I already had a look at lesson 7, and the texts seem to get more complicated. Lesson 7 mainly deals with the adjective in the nominative singular and plural, the reflexive verbs, and the verbs ending in -овать and -евать. The dialogue introduces the learner to a lot of adjectives, so I will have to learn many new words. I am already looking forward to continuing my studies tomorrow. The more complicated it gets the more interesting it is! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4842 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 64 of 646 21 May 2012 at 10:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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MONDAY, 21 MAY 2012
Oh, I am really starting to fall in love with Russian! This language is so interesting and complex, there is always something new to discover. The way of expressing thoughts is gently different from what I am used to, but it's not so mind-boggling that it would be completely strange. I think I really like the Slavic languages, but better ask me again when I start learning the verb aspects... Today, I listened to the dialogues of lessons 5, 6, and 7. By listening to lesson 5 and 6 I made sure I understood everything, then I started with lesson 7. First, I listened without the book, then with the book, and then I shadowed the dialogue. The dialogues on my CDs are recorded in two different speeds: normal colloquial speed and slower overarticulate speed. The slower recordings are excellent for shadowing and repeating after the speakers! The grammar of lesson 7 deals with adjectives, reflexive verbs, and verbs ending in -овать/-евать. Furthermore, it deals with answering the question откуда? ('where from?') by using the prepositions из and с and with the differences between the verbs учиться, изучать, учить, and заниматься, which all express a different nuance of 'to learn' or 'to study'. Something I noticed by listening to my recordings is that palatalized т and д sound very close to ц. At least there is some kind of hissing that sounds very close to an s-sound, at least to my German ears. And although I can perceive this special quality of ть and дь, I find it very hard to imitate. Perhaps Марк can give me some insight on this matter? And then I have a question about expressing possession. In my dialogues, the persons sometimes say мой and sometimes у меня when they mean 'my'. Example: У меня брат живёт в Новгороде. Could one as well say мой брат or would that change a subtle nuance in the meaning? My textbook doesn't mention any difference between the two constructions. Is there any? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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