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TAC’13 DaraghM Nebun\*jäŋe\Clan Lugus | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6156 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 17 of 35 22 March 2013 at 10:27am | IP Logged | ||
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If I stick to one language it's very easy to track my study, but when I jump between them it's a bit trickier. I've the distinct feeling that I've failed to log some study. Since the last update, I found myself studying a small bit of Scottish Gaelic. This was precipitated by a trip to Edinburgh last week. It started when I was doing a tour of Edinburgh castle, and a lot of the exhibits had quotes from various Gaelic sources beside them. The language is very close to Irish, and my partner and myself, found we could easily translate the texts.
In a military exhibition, they talked of the officers receiving a ceremonial knife the 'sgian dubh'. The Irish for knife is scian, and I assume the dubh means black. The Irish for black is dubh. The one thing I wasn't sure about was the pronunciation. In Irish this can be pronounced two ways. In the Munster dialect it will sound like the English word dove, but in the Donegal dialect, it sounds similar to the English word do. I assumed it would be similar to the Donegal pronunciation, since a lot of Scottish arrived in the north during the plantations. However, according to Teach Yourself Gaelic the pronunciation of 'bh' is a 'v' sound. In other news, I've finally completed the French course 'Vite et Bien 2'. I still have a few other courses from the A2-B1 range to complete, but that hasn't stopped me moving on. I've started into 'Édito' and 'Version Originale 4'. Both these courses are intended for classroom study at the B2 level. I have to admit there's a bit of a jump between the end of 'Vite et Bien 2' and the start of these courses. The main difference is the audio. Both of these courses rely on television, radio and film extracts. One of the listening exercises involves a very colloquial rap song in the 'langue familiere'. I've also decided to widen my approach. This means I'll slow down on the courses, and use lots of other resources. This includes the rather substantive 'Using French Vocabulary' and lots of monolingual dictionary reading. Study since 01/01/2012 Lessons challenge Romance: 21 units (French +4) Slavic: 7 units (Russian +1) Hungarian: 2 units Time Spent since 01/01/2013 Romance: 151 hours (Spanish-49,French-100,Italian-1.9) Slavic: 39 hours (Russian-37, Polish-2) Celtic: 21 hours (Irish-20, Gaelic-1) Finno-Ugraic:5.5 hours (Hungarian-5.5) Total:- 215 hours 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6156 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 18 of 35 12 April 2013 at 10:49am | IP Logged | ||
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I've broadened my French study to include a lot more native materials, but also to focus on specific problem areas. I'm not a huge fan of novels in any language, but I've started reading the 'Le Comte de Monte-Cristo'. This is a huge text consisting of five separate books. I've never read the book in English, but I'm familiar with the story from numerous television adaptations. My favourite was the French series starting Gerald Depardieu. I might pick that up on DVD and watch it again, without the subtitles this time.
I've also being reading Paris-Match to acquire useful vocabulary around topical issues. It seems that the articles in Paris-Match are much easier to understand than the comprehension tests in the B1\B2 course material. I wasn't expecting this. I assumed the course material would be easier than native materials. I've also watched a number of debate shows on TV5. It seems the dominant topic is 'la crise économique'. My main problem area is rapid conjugation of pronominal constructions in speech. E.g. 'Je les ai faits' or 'j'en ai demandé'. I can easily work these out on paper in the various grammar exercises, but doing this fluidly in speech with proper liaison is tricky. Thankfully this is one of the strengths of the FSI style courses, and I'm using various drills from various units to get this mastered. In other language news, I've been dabbling lightly in both Irish and Scots Gaelic. Regarding Irish, I'm very familiar with the Connaught and Munster dialects but less so with the Ulster. The difference between the dialects is quite significant. I'm sometimes feel the Ulster dialect is a language in it's own right. The Irish for dog is madra, but it becomes madadh in the Ulster dialect. In Gaelic it's cú, which is the Irish word for hound. Most Irish people would think of Cú Chulainn the legendary hero. Study since 01/01/2012 Lessons challenge Romance: 29 units (French +8) Slavic: 7 units Hungarian: 2 units Time Spent since 01/01/2013 Romance: 204 hours (Spanish-49,French-153,Italian-2) Slavic: 39 hours (Russian-37, Polish-2) Celtic: 22 hours (Irish-20.5, Gaelic-1.5) Finno-Ugraic:5.5 hours (Hungarian-5.5) Total:- 270 hours 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4609 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes Speaks: English* | Message 19 of 35 27 April 2013 at 12:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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It's great to hear you've gotten your foot in the door with Scots Gaelic! The
similarity with Irish is very apparent, more so in orthography than in speaking.
Yes, the Ulster dialects certainly have their own "blas", but exposure quickly sorts that out. I myself find it easier to follow than heavily accented Munster Irish. The way the verbs combine with the pronouns, as well as the stress on the second syllable of words makes it much harder to follow I follow. In short, studying the various dialects can be very interesting and rewarding. The more you study of one, the more you learn about the gaelic language as a whole, which has been my main motivation in learning the Scottish variety. Above you gave the example of the word for a dog, which is in fact "mada" in Connemara, madadh (or madú) in all of Mayo and Ulster, "moddey" on the Isle of Man, and Cú in Scotland (though madadh is there too). I cannot remember where "madra" is used, supposedly in Munster somewhere. The best of luck for the month ahead! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6156 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 20 of 35 15 May 2013 at 10:30am | IP Logged | ||
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I've just realised it's been over a month since my last update. Since my last post I've been in London, Paris and New York for various reasons. In case you're wondering, I'm most definitely not a fashion model. From a language learning perspective, the four days in Paris were the most valuable. The French language is really starting to click. I think my partner was impressed by the level of conversation I could maintain in various interactions with natives.
French is still my dominant language for study, and I've been making heavy use of my three dictionary technique. Apart from that, I've also started using Vocabulaire Progressive du Français - Niveau Avancé (B2-C1), and the Yale published Tu Sais Quoi ? The course Tu Sais Quoi is also written entirely in French, but it includes English translations. The course is designed to improve fluency in spoken French and is aimed at students in their third year of college. The slightly odd thing about the course is that it also includes some very basic French. While the first unit starts with a number of idiomatic expressions, it then discusses the various salutations in French. Perhaps they're included to discuss register, but some very basic French is scattered through out. I think the course is intended for students who are doing further study in France, Canada or Belgium, and need to revise the basics. Aside from French, I've been dipping into Russian. My two main courses are still "The Way to Russia" and Rus'. I really like "The Way to Russia" even if it's a little basic at the start. I decided to start with it, and hopefully I'll work through all the levels to B2. The other thing about the course is the extremely thorough pronunciation drills across the four CD's. I've never come across anything quite as detailed in any other language course. The drills don't cover words but a large number of consonant and vowel clusters. In contrast to "The Way to Russia", the Rus' course moves very quickly. Even by the second unit a large amount of vocabulary is covered. If I've never encountered Russian before, and I was using this as my college textbook, I'd be waking up in a sweat every night. It's a very formidable course, and I've recommend it to anyone interested in really tackling the language. A word of warning: none of the vocabulary is translated and not all exercises have answers online. All my other language activities have been reading or watching television in Irish, Spanish and Italian. My time tracking system broke down when I was in New York, and at various points since the last update. This means I've studied more than I've accounted for in my stats. I've also had my free time squeezed tightly between work and other commitments. This has meant a lot less time for the forum, and tracking the various TAC logs. It's probably a good thing that my fellow team mates are hard to find, as it means everyone is studying hard. Thanks liammcg for the Irish update. You got my vote. I never realised there was so many other variants here for dog. I assumed madra, which was thought in school, was the standard. I'm tempting to get my hands on some detailed Irish linguistics book. Study since 01/01/2012 Lessons challenge I'm pulling out of this as I've lost track. :-( Time Spent since 01/01/2013 Romance: 243 hours (Spanish-53,French-187,Italian-2.5) Slavic: 62 hours (Russian-60, Polish-2) Celtic: 23 hours (Irish-22, Gaelic-1.5) Finno-Ugraic:19 hours (Hungarian-19) (forgot to include in my post above) Total:- 347 hours 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6156 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 21 of 35 14 June 2013 at 10:20am | IP Logged | ||
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It's been almost a month again since my last post. I'm finding my forum, and my study time, quite limited in the past month. This is slightly frustrating as I can't locate all the various team members logs. Are there many people still left posting ?
My study since the last post has been an even mix of French, Hungarian and Russian. For French I'm using all the resources mentioned previously, and I've also started 'Grammaire Progressive du Français - Niveau Perfectionnment'. This is my favourite book in the series, and it really expands on some of the finer points of French grammar. It's also been designed to fix the reoccurring errors that French learners make. My Russian study has been enhanced using the three dictionary technique, and heavy use of the voluminous Cambridge published "Using Russian Vocabulary". I've also read a lot of the course material for DLI Russian, but I'm very disappointed to discover the audio doesn't match. Another Russian course I've recently enjoyed is the Ruslan series by John Langam. It consists of three short levels, but they're quite succinct in their coverage. The DLI Hungarian course seems to be the best of the DLI courses I've found. It's similar to FSI, but the drills seem less tedious, and more focused on spoken Hungarian. The only odd thing I've noticed is they say goodbye with "Isten Vele - May God be with you". I've checked through a few Hungarian sources but I haven't found this usage. Is it used anymore ? Time Spent since 01/01/2013 Romance: 295 hours (Spanish-54,French-236,Italian-2.5) Slavic: 87 hours (Russian-85, Polish-2) Celtic: 23 hours (Irish-22, Gaelic-1.5) Finno-Ugraic:32 hours (Hungarian-32) Total:- 439 hours 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6156 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 22 of 35 02 July 2013 at 3:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've finally managed to do some forum catch up, and read some of the various teams logs, but not as many as hoped. I'm glad to see that TAC '13 is still strong half way through the year. Since my last post my dominant language is still French. I've also dabbled a bit in Spanish and Italian, but I've forgot to log all the time for these. This is a succint post in case I don't get another chance to update soon.
Time Spent since 01/01/2013 Romance: 338 hours (Spanish-57,French-278,Italian-2.6) Slavic: 89 hours (Russian-87, Polish-2) Celtic: 23 hours (Irish-22, Gaelic-1.5) Finno-Ugraic:32 hours (Hungarian-32) Total:- 486 hours 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6156 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 23 of 35 31 July 2013 at 10:42am | IP Logged | ||
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Just another quick log update. The biggest change since my last update is I've started studying Malay, or as it's officially known, Bahasa Malaysia. The common name Bahasa Malayu is meant to be politically incorrect. Studying a language like Malay is a bit of a challenge, as their isn't a huge amount of courses available. I'm currently using Colloquial Malay and the Teach Yourself course. I've previously studied Indonesian and this has helped immensely as the languages are extremely close. They seem closer than Ulster and Munster Irish, but this may just be a misperception on my part.
Time Spent since 01/01/2013 Romance: 390 hours (Spanish-60,French-327,Italian-3.8) Slavic: 91 hours (Russian-89, Polish-2) Celtic: 23 hours (Irish-22, Gaelic-1.5) Finno-Ugraic:36 hours (Hungarian-36) Austronesian: 33 hours (Malay-33) Total:- 574 hours 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6156 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 24 of 35 14 August 2013 at 10:57am | IP Logged | ||
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I think I'm in love with too many languages. I keep wanting to return to previously studied languages, look into starting new ones, while keeping all my existing ones on the go. My dominant language since my last post is still Malay. I'll be heading to Malaysia next week, and this will test how much I've managed to learn in the past couple of weeks. As mentioned previously, the hardest thing about learning the language is the lack of resources. I'd love a comprehensive grammar book that explained the various grammatical features in detail. The main problem is with prepositions, and the fact that the two courses, don't explain them in detail. The preposition 'di' can mean at, of or from depending on context. Prepositions rarely match between languages and this is where a good grammar book really helps.
Romance: 398 hours (Spanish-60,French-334,Italian-3.8) Slavic: 92 hours (Russian-90, Polish-2) Celtic: 23 hours (Irish-22, Gaelic-1.5) Finno-Ugraic:36 hours (Hungarian-36) Others: 62 hours (Malay-62) Total:- 612 hours 1 person has voted this message useful |
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