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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 4845 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes  Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 641 of 646 27 June 2015 at 9:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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SATURDAY, 27 JUNE 2015
Thanks for your comment, BAnna! I think I’m slowly coming to terms with my inner monkeys. At least I hope so… :) It has been a while since I last posted here and, as always, I have been busy with a lot of things. I’ve had my first concert as a tenor with a choir I joined some time ago, I have a new flatmate, and I’ve had an important meeting with my advisor concerning my dissertation. I think I’ve already told you that my scholarship will expire at the end of September, so I’m applying for interesting job offers right now. Unfortunately, there’s no way I will finish my thesis before the scholarship expires, so my advisor is urging me to work as hard as possible and make the most of the time I have left. He wants me to finish my dissertation as soon as possible, but unfortunately I’m having problems with my motivation right now. I have been working on this thesis for three years (with a one-year break in between) and I’m nowhere near the end. Instead, I’m slowly losing interest in the topic I’m working on. I just wished that bloody thing were finished already, so I could busy myself with more interesting things again. Or, to put it plain, I’m bored out of my f*cking mind! Well, my biggest hope is getting one of the research positions I have applied for, which would allow me to keep working on my dissertation. Having to go back into economy, where I’ve already worked for a year, would probably mean the end of my PhD plans or at least delay the completion of my thesis by several years. Also, I’d much rather work in science than in economy, so I’m kind of at the crossroads at the moment and I just don’t feel like working hard on my thesis while my whole future is in jeopardy. This is where my language studies come in. It’s one of those things I’d rather deal with at the moment, so I end up procrastinating on my thesis by studying Irish. I have borrowed two heaps of books about Irish and the Celtic languages from the library and I’m slowly ploughing through them. I have made two interesting discoveries. One of them is the textbook Irisch für Anfänger by Britta Schulze-Thulin, which I already told you about. In fact, I’m a bit enthusiastic about it, because it seems to come very close to the kind of textbook for Irish that I’ve been searching for all the time. I will probably continue my studies by working through this book. Another interesting discovery I made is the original Graiméar na Gaedhilge leis na Bráithreachaibh Críostamhla from the year 1901. It’s a complete grammar of pre-Standard Irish focusing on the Munster dialect and printed in old orthography and Gaelic type! This is such a gem, it’s incredible! It teaches the dative case (as can be seen in the title of the book), has all sorts of personal endings for verbs, and contains interesting information on earlier stages of the language, such as the form "ní fhuil", which has been contracted to "níl" in the Caighdeán. It also explains where the r in past tense particles like "ar" and "níor" comes from (there once was a past tense particle "ro", which is preserved in these forms) and why the word "atá" is written together (answer: It’s an old form of the verb "bí" and doesn’t contain the relative pronoun at all!). I actually hoped to get this kind of information from A History of the Irish Language, but unfortunately, it’s more of a sociolinguistic survey than an actual history of the linguistic development of Irish. It’s interesting as well, but not the kind of history I was hoping for. Other than that, I have been playing around with Learning Irish and A Handbook of Irish, but I think I’ll concentrate on Irisch für Anfänger in the near future. Also, I’m keen on learning some Polish, but I’ll have to see if time and money allow for actually studying it. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4845 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 642 of 646 03 October 2015 at 1:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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SATURDAY, 03 OCTOBER 2015
Hi guys, I decided to keep posting in this log as well. Messages from the meantime can be found at Josquin's Ceol agus Ól. It has been quite a while since I last posted here. The reason is quite simple: I had some more or less serious health problems, which left me with no time or energy to deal with Irish. At the end of August, I was confronted with the news that I wouldn't get the post in Vienna that I had applied for. At the same time, my scholarship was expiring, so I was left with the question what to do now. In combination with some other problems, this led to a mental crisis from which I only slowly recovered, but I think the worst is over now. Unfortunately, I have this tendency towards anxiety and depression which always troubles me when things get rough. Be that as it may, I'm inbetween jobs right now, but I have a part-time job beginning in January, which will allow me to keep working on my dissertation, search for a full-time job, and do what I love in my sparetime. This is not what I hoped for, but better than long-time unemployment. I also might move to Cologne next year, but that still needs to be confirmed. All this time, I really missed studying Irish. I think I have settled on this language now. Ireland is the country I love the most, and Irish is the language I love the most. So, my times of wanderlust are over for the time being. As soon as I can fully concentrate again, I will continue working with Irisch für Anfänger and Learning Irish. As I wanted to give myself a present while I was ill, I bought myself a copy of the newly issued Wörterbuch Irisch-Deutsch by Caldas and Schleicher. I already had a Collins dictionary, but it is always good to have the materials that are available in your native language. As I will be earning quite well at my new job (considering it's only part-time), I hope I can afford a trip to Ireland next year. I want to go to Dublin and Cork again, but I'd also like to see Galway and the Connemara Gaeltacht. I hope these plans will come true. So, yes, this is my news ("scél lem dúib" to quote a famous Old Irish poem), not very good news I must admit, but it's good to be back nevertheless. See all of you soon! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4845 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 643 of 646 06 December 2015 at 3:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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SUNDAY, 6 DECEMBER 2015
Okay, this year has officially been a catastrophe for my language learning. On the one hand, other activities like my PhD thesis and my singing have taken a great deal of my time, so I didn't get to study, on the other hand, there were life problems which needed to be solved and took away a lot of my energy. Now, the year has almost come to its end and it's not clear whether or not there will be a TAC next year. I'm not going to organize it this year as I need to invest my energy into my dissertation, my music, and my languages now. Also, I will start working again in January, so I want to enjoy the remaining leisure time I have. I thought I'll already draw some kind of conclusion for the TAC 2015, as I don't know whether I'll post in this log again before New Year's. So here we go: I took part in three TAC teams: Team Pushkin, Team Celts, and Team 東亜, with three languages: Russian, Irish, and Japanese. My Japanese went down the drain very early and so did my Russian a little bit later. The only language I kept studying more or less actively throughout the year was Irish. And even that came to an untimely end in September. Granted, the forum crisis played a role, but the main reason was my health crisis. So, the conclusion is short: The TAC 2015 was a failure. But instead of mourning the lost opportunities, I'd like to plan the next year already. Long story short, I want to get back in the language game, but I also know I won't have much time. So, the key to success will be short enjoyable language bits that I can integrate into my daily routine. As for now, I have the following plans: Русский I'd like to stop my once quite respectable Russian from deteriorating, so I'm going to start reading in Russian again. I have a heap of Russian books on my shelf, which means I just have to choose one. Probably, I'll start with Дама с собачкой, which was a good and easy read and deserves to be read again. The next one after that might be Игрок, which has the advantage that I also own the audio book. Also, I want to start watching Кухня again. Gaeilge I want to resume my studies with Irisch für Anfänger and Learning Irish. Maybe I'll also start reading native materials like An Hobad, Cú na mBaskerville, or Asterix na nGallach. Português If I have the time, I would like to work through the Portuguese readers I bought some time ago. Also, I should brush up my active skills, but this is really a matter of time available. فارسی And this is a little surprise! I have started dabbling in Persian a.k.a. Farsi. I don't know how serious I will get, but at the moment I'm working through the first units of Colloquial Persian and I'm enjoying it. This seems to be one of the better Colloquial books I have worked with, although it suffers from focusing on colloquial language too much. If I get more serious, I will work through Lehrbuch der persischen Sprache, which is available from Buske and teaches the literary language. So, you see there are many good resolutions for 2016 and the next TAC, if there will be one. Let's hope the enthusiasm won't vanish into thin air again. ;) 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| dampingwire Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4666 days ago 1185 posts - 1513 votes Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Japanese | Message 644 of 646 08 December 2015 at 10:53pm | IP Logged | ||
Sorry 2015 was tough for you. Here's hoping you have a better time in 2016! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4860 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 645 of 646 20 December 2015 at 11:45am | IP Logged | ||
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Hallo! Good to see that you're still here after these months :) I had a tough year as well, it seems that simply the adulthood whips...
If anything, I can help you with Persian to an extent I can do it ;) P.S. How's your Icelandic? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4845 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 646 of 646 20 December 2015 at 2:21pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks, dampingwire! So do I! :)
Hi prz_! Good to hear from you! Hope you're doing well. I'm not really studying Icelandic any more, so it's not too good, but I'm dealing with a bunch of other languages now. I'm still taking baby steps in Persian, but if I need any help I'll ask you. Thanks for the offer! How's your Bulgarian? I saw you opened a new log at the new forum, so I guess we'll see each other there. Take care! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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