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Small Expectations | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5470 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 186 of 431 23 December 2010 at 11:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks Kuikentje. Good luck to you too. If you want to hear the language at its most
beautiful, how about this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-WLspuK9xs To continue with the sudden update splurge, I had a great lesson with Medea last night. I was finally able to produce some sentences in Georgian without completely messing them up. We were talking about Japanese customs, whether or not Georgia would ever become a member of the EU, and the situation in Belarus, so not bad going at all. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5470 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 187 of 431 29 December 2010 at 11:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have given myself 10 days off for Christmas and New Year, and it is such a luxury to
get up every day and think about all the nice ways I could spend it. I really need to work harder at winning the lottery - I would never be one of those people who say "Even though I've just won 30 million pounds I'm going to stay in my job at McDonalds because I just love it so much!" I would quit work in an instant. Anyway, lottery-winning daydreams aside, I have made the momentous decision to upgrade my Georgian level to Intermediate on my profile. The reason why I finally decided it would be OK for me to do this is that yesterday I was reading a Georgian novel I bought ages ago and I reckon I must have understood about 80% of it over the space of 4 or 5 pages. Admittedly those 4 or 5 pages may have been unusually easy to understand, but I reckon it counts as proof that I'm probably no longer a beginner. The novel is called იყო საღამო, იყო დილა, which I guess could be translated as something like "Once upon an Evening, Once upon a Morning", and it's by დავით ქართველიშვილი. I didn't know anything about the writer or the book, but Medea said she had heard of him vaguely and that he had fought in the civil wars in Georgia following the collapse of the Soviet Union. She kind of pulled a face when she was talking about him, which intrigued me So, 20 pages in we're with a young man who seems to be running away to the countryside with his girlfriend. He works in a bank in Tbilisi and lived with his father in Sydney for a few years after his father abandoned the family. I'm not sure what the purpose of the trip to the countryside is, but it seems to be more of an escape than an innocent vacation. The guy is constantly saying მე არეული ვარ, which I guess translates as "I'm f****-up". I'm also reading, as a homework assignment from Medea, a short story by ნუგზარ შატაიძე called დურმიშხან ბერუაშვილის პიჯაკი ("Durmishkhan Beruashvili's Jacket"). This is a nice little vignette about a retired wrestler and his mate who take a cargo of apples from Georgia to Russia to sell on the black market during Soviet times. The wrestler, Durmishkhan, wears a jacket printed with the name of his wrestling team but takes it off in the car and falls asleep. The car is stopped by guards on the Georgian Military Highway and Durmishkhan's pal is worried they will find the apples and that he'll have to pay a bribe, so he puts on Durmishkhan's jacket, figuring he might be able to dupe the guards into thinking he's a famous wrestler and therefore be given preferential treatment. Unfortunately the guard doesn't fall for it and challenges the guy to a wrestling match. If the apple guy wins he can travel onward, but if the guard wins he'll have to pay a hefty bribe. And that's where I'm up to. It sounds like it's a nice little comical story, but we were told at the very beginning that Durmishkhan died young, so tragedy may ensue. On the other hand, these stories were published in the 50s and 60s, so they are not likely to be too tragic owing to the censorship rules of the time. Anyway, it's great to be discovering good literature in a new language. Edited by TixhiiDon on 29 December 2010 at 11:33pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5470 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 188 of 431 13 January 2011 at 12:22am | IP Logged | ||
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A very belated გილოცავთ ახალ წელს to you all! Time for my first update of 2011.
I've been having a serious Georgian splurge (I seem to have an excessive fondness for the word "splurge") for the last few weeks, clocking up an hour or two of study every day, and of course much more on the days I have lessons. I tend to be one of those people who runs out of enthusiasm for new endeavours very quickly so I'm quite pleased with myself. Most of this enthusiasm is being generated by იყო საღამო, იყო დილა. This is a seriously great novel and worth getting a handle on the Georgian language for in itself. I'm up to page 50 now, and our two characters, თამაზ and his girlfriend მაკა, are having a romantic holiday in the countryside. They seem to be very happy and very in love. However, we have now been introduced to two new characters, a husband and wife who are not quite so cheerful. The husband (who hasn't yet been named) is working away from home for some kind of military organization to earn some money so he can buy his wife a flat and they can start a family, but he has just received a letter from said wife telling him, most abruptly, that she is leaving him. We then jump to the wife, who is portrayed as shallow, obsessed with looks and social status, and easily bored. The link between the two couples is that the house where Tamaz and Maka are staying is situated on a hill overlooking the headquarters of the organization where the jilted husband works... At the moment I'm reading very slowly, looking up every word I don't know, and adding all the new vocabulary to my Gold List book. I may become less thorough as I go on but for now I prefer to catch all the nuances in the book. For those that are wondering, the ნუგზარ შატაიძე story ended up with the guard wrestling Durmishkhan instead and getting beaten to a pulp, which doesn't sound particularly pleasant, but it was in fact just a nice little vignette as I suspected. Apparently this writer's work is all in a similar vein, and in general I much prefer urban writing over cute tales of the countryside, so Medea said she would look for something along those lines for me. In class yesterday we studied future participles and it was really valuable for me as they had been going way over my head til then. An interesting point is that Georgian has a grammatical structure that mirrors English "have to..." For example, წერილი დასაწერი მაქვს means "I have to write a letter", where დასაწერი is the future participle of წერს (he writes) and მაქვს means "I have". You can also use the "be" verb for constructions such as ეს წერილი არ არის გადასაგდები, which means "This letter is not to be thrown away". My private lessons with Medea have been getting longer and longer recently - I wasn't home until almost 11 o'clock last time - and although this is great for my Georgian it means I have to cycle home in the freezing cold, apologize to my dog for leaving him on his own for so long, take him for a walk to prove the sincerity of my apology, and then somehow squeeze in my nightly beer and something to eat before collapsing into my futon. Anyhow, we are meeting again tonight and I will try to get home before ten. I've just reread that last paragraph and it makes me sound like such an old man! 11 o'clock!! And to think that 15 years ago I used to stay out partying all night without a second thought... Ah well, old age comes to us all. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| E}{pugnator Newbie Brazil Joined 5172 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: Portuguese* | Message 189 of 431 17 January 2011 at 3:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Tixhiidon, nice tips on the future participle!
I've improved Georgian a little, studying through some Russian textbooks. I have some questions regarding usage, especially verbs, but it's hard to find native speakers to contact. Unfortunately the forums here are all so crowded with posts, with no categories for specific languages. Anyways, I won't flood your thread with my own questions and impressions. Keep the good work! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5470 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 190 of 431 18 January 2011 at 2:40am | IP Logged | ||
Hi E}{pugnator. Thanks for the comments. Please feel free to ask your questions on my log. We may be able to work out the answers between us, and if not, a native Georgian speaker may come along to help us. I've had at least two Georgians read my log, as you can see, so it's not beyond the realms of possibility that another one will turn up. Besides, it would be really enjoyable and beneficial for me to discuss Georgian with another learner. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5470 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 191 of 431 21 January 2011 at 10:21am | IP Logged | ||
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ერთი კარგი ამბავი და ერთი ცუდი ამბავი მაქვს.
ცუდი ამბავია ის, რომ ჩემი ძაღლი გაცივდა. მე არ ვიცოდი რომ ძაღლებსაც შეუძლიათ გაცივება, მაგრამ შესაძლებელია! უკვე სამი დღეა ჩემი ძაღლი საშინლად ახველებს და მადა არა აქვს. დღეს დილით წავიყვანე სასეირნოდ მაგრამ სუსტად იყო და როგორც კი სახლიდან გავედით, მას უნდოდა დაბრუნებულიყო. ძალიან ცოდოა. გუშინ წავიყვანე ვეტერინარტან მანკანით და წამალი მივიღე. იმედია რომ სწრაფად უკეთ იქნება. ახლა კარგი ამბავი. გუშინწინ ერთი იმეილი მივიღე ჩემი ბიძაშვილისგან და იმ იმეილში ეწერა რომ ჩემი ბიძაშვილი ჩამოდის იაპონიაში გაზაფხულზე და აპირებს იცხოვროს აქ დაახლოებით ექვსი თვე. სხვადასხვა ადგილზე მასთან ერთად წასვლა ძალიან სასიამოვნო იქნება ჩემთვის და იმედი მაქვს რომ ჩვენ კარგი მეგობრები გავხვდებით. The muse suddenly hit me and I was moved by the gods of language learning to attempt to write something in Georgian for the first time in ages. Here's the translation. "I have one piece of good news and one piece of bad news. The bad news is that my dog has caught a cold. I didn't know that dogs too could catch colds, but it is possible! For three days my dog has been coughing terribly and he has no appetite. This morning I took him for a walk but he was weak and as soon as we left the house he wanted to come back. Poor thing. I took him to see the vet yesterday by car and got some medicine. I hope he will get better quickly. Now the good news. The day before yesterday I received an email from my cousin, and in this email my cousin wrote that he is coming to Japan in Spring and intending to live here for about six months. It will be really nice for me to go to various places together with him and I hope we become good friends." It was massively less painless to write this than the messages I was writing to Mari six months or so ago, so I must be making some progress. I should probably do it more often. Edited by TixhiiDon on 21 January 2011 at 11:21am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rahdonit Bilingual Tetraglot Groupie Ukraine Joined 6620 days ago 50 posts - 87 votes Speaks: Russian*, Ukrainian*, English, German | Message 192 of 431 22 January 2011 at 5:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi TixhiiDon, this is really impressive! Did you look for some place on the internet where you can find native speakers to exchange text messages - chat-rooms or forums?
Using your permission to ask questions about Georgian in this thread, I would like to raise the following question: Lesson 7 of Tschenkeli's book deals with declension of proper nouns and he says that whenever a first name and a surname are used together, only the surname is declined and the first name is used in its stem form in all cases. On the same day reading Kiziria's book I encountered "იცნობთ ჯონს ბრაუნს?" "Do you know John Brown?" In the Georgian sentence both John and Brown get the acc/dat ending -ს. My first thought was that Tschenkeli’s rule did not apply to foreign names, but that is not true as he gives also an example using foreign names. Do you have an idea? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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