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Small Expectations | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Hendriklohuis Diglot Newbie NetherlandsRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6183 days ago 4 posts - 4 votes Speaks: Dutch*, Russian Studies: Georgian, Pashto | Message 257 of 431 30 July 2011 at 11:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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Dear TixhiiDon,
I'm glad you enjoyed the trip to Georgia. Could you by any chance tell me which Georgian textbook you bought in Tbilisi; the book you mention in the post of May 17, 2011? I want to order the first two levels of the Biliki textbooks; the full set for the second level has just been published. The publisher, the Language School, referred me to Prospero's Bookstore. Have you ordered from them before? I hope you can give me some advice. Hendrik 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5467 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 258 of 431 31 July 2011 at 1:17am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Hendrik,
Thanks for your post. The textbook I bought in Georgia has an English title "Teach Yourself Georgian" and a Georgian title ქართული ენის თვითმასწავლებელი, and it's by Medea Kraveishvili and Grigol Nakhutsrishvili. I haven't looked at it properly yet, but it is VERY grammar-heavy and I have a feeling it may be quite difficult to follow. It contains lots of Georgian texts, though, which may be quite useful. I bought the Biliki 2 textbook from Prospero's Books in Tbilisi, along with some other stuff. It was about 100 lari, which is crazily expensive, and they didn't wrap it carefully enough so the CDs broke on the journey. Be sure to tell them to wrap it thoroughly! Postage was also very expensive to me here in Japan, but will probably be cheaper for you. However, the book itself is pretty good. It helped me get to grips with the perfect tense especially. I will definitely buy books 3 and 4 if they ever see the light of day. I'm not sure what level you are at, but the best thing I bought from Prospero's Books was a Georgian novel ჯინსების თაობა and its English translation "Flight from USSR", by David Turashvili. The English translation is laughably bad, but the Georgian is quite simple, and by reading the two side by side I managed to get through my first Georgian novel. Great story too. Anyway, the staff of the shop were very helpful so I'm sure they'll respond to any questions you have. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5467 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 259 of 431 11 August 2011 at 4:12am | IP Logged | ||
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Yey! 60,000 views! I know superficial stuff like that shouldn't matter, especially
since I almost never update these days, but it's nice to know at least a few people have been following my progress with ქართული ენა. The lack of updates is because there's not really a great deal to report. I'm still going to classes on Wednesdays and Thursdays, still reading დავით ქართველიშვილი, and still doing a little bit here and there with my Gold Lists, and that's about it. There are some changes afoot, though. Sadly, in October my teacher Medea is returning to Georgia indefinitely. Her husband is not going with her (not sure about the ins and outs of the arrangement, and it certainly isn't my place to ask!) so he will be taking over the Wednesday group lesson, but I guess my Thursday conversation class will end unless Medea offers to find a replacement. As usual I have mixed feelings - it'll be nice to get my Thursday nights back but a real აფსუს! to lose my Georgian conversation practice, especially as I have been making good progress in that area recently. However, Kojima-sensei on Wednesdays means back to some solid grammar practice, and that's exactly what I need at the moment and what I just can't seem to force myself to tackle at home, so it will be a welcome change in that respect. By the way, Medea and Kojima-sensei have together created a website for Japanese people interested in Georgia and Georgian people interested in Japan. The site is called "Japan meets Georgia", and for all of you who can read both Japanese and Georgian, can be found here A lot of it is still under construction, but hopefully it will flourish in the coming weeks/months. Another treat for all you Japanese-speaking Georgian learners is that Kojima-sensei has written a Georgian textbook that will be published on September 18th. It's called ニューエクスプレス グルジア語 by 児島康弘, and includes a CD narrated by Medea and a Georgian guy living in Tokyo (possibly one of the sumo wrestlers!), and promises to be a fantastic addition to the Kartvelology canon, albeit somewhat limited in use! Ellasevia, you're the only person I can think of on HTLAA who may have some use for the book, but I'm sure you'd find it interesting. Edited by TixhiiDon on 11 August 2011 at 4:13am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6145 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 260 of 431 11 August 2011 at 4:26am | IP Logged | ||
Are we really the only two people on here with some knowledge of Japanese and an interest in Georgian? I was sure there were at least a couple others... Then again, it's not exactly a common language combination. In any case, thank you for the recommendation -- I'm sure my Japanese is not good enough to benefit from it yet, but I'll keep it in mind for when I eventually get around to studying Georgian more seriously than an occasional dabble treat. Hopefully I'll be able to use Japanese as the base language to study another language by then... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| E}{pugnator Newbie Brazil Joined 5169 days ago 9 posts - 9 votes Speaks: Portuguese* | Message 261 of 431 13 August 2011 at 1:37am | IP Logged | ||
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TixhiiDon, maybe you could work with them on preparing an edition in English then! I'm sure that wouldn't be so difficult.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5467 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 262 of 431 22 August 2011 at 7:29am | IP Logged | ||
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I have some quite sudden and unexpected (even to myself) news. My brother and his wife
have just had a baby, making me an uncle for the first time, and so I have been planning for a while now to go and visit my new niece in December this year. The other day I was looking at calendars and flight prices and things when it occurred to me that I could use the opportunity to pop over to Georgia again. I thought about it a bit more, and since I was unable to find any convincing reasons why I shouldn't, I decided I would definitely go. So I booked the flights and hotels today, and barring war, natural disaster, and death, I am off on my second jaunt to ol' საქართველო for five days in December. How exciting is that? Hopefully Tbilisi won't be too bleak and dark and grim in Winter, although I presumably won't be sitting on benches and at outdoor cafes as much as I did in May. I think this time I'm going to get some Georgian lessons while I'm there - maybe a few hours' tutoring in the morning, leaving me free to shop, wander around, and drink beer and wine in the afternoon and evening. And Medea will probably be there too so I won't be quite as lonesome as I was last time (which was not even slightly lonesome, to tell the truth, but anyway...) This is also a good motivator to study a bit harder than I have recently, as it would be horribly depressing if I found I was no better, or even worse, than when I was there last time!
Nice idea in theory, but I have a feeling a Japanese Georgian textbook translated into English would end up an incomprehensible mess, even if it was translated by someone far more skillful than me! EDIT: The way I wrote this it looks like the sudden and unexpected news is my brother and his wife's baby. This is of course not sudden and unexpected, and was in fact nine months in the making. Just to avoid any confusion... Edited by TixhiiDon on 22 August 2011 at 10:43am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5467 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 263 of 431 15 September 2011 at 1:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, Kojima-sensei's Georgian textbook is officially published tomorrow. I already
got my copy at a 20% discount (always good to have connections!) and it's a really great-looking book. Unfortunately it only covers the basics of Georgian grammar - there's plenty of scope left for a volume 2 and even 3 - but it is the only one of it's kind in Japanese and one of the very few Georgian textbooks in the world, so I am suitably impressed. You can see a few pages on the publisher's website here Otherwise, I am ploughing on as usual. Frustration at my utter inability to form the perfect and pluperfect tenses has led me back to my old nemesis, Georgian: A Reading Grammar. There is absolutely nothing to beat it in the kartvelology canon. At the moment I'm pushing myself to do the translation exercises at the end of the chapter dealing with the perfect and pluperfect screeves in reverse (i.e. from English to Georgian) with the aim of getting a good active knowledge of these difficult verb tenses. After that I'm intending to go back over the conditionals, which never really got fixed in my head. Edited by TixhiiDon on 16 September 2011 at 12:33am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6145 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 264 of 431 16 September 2011 at 3:22am | IP Logged | ||
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I enjoyed looking at those pages, if only because it was hilarious seeing Georgian transcribed into katakana. Wait a second... Why did they use hiragana in some places instead? In the first line of that dialogue, for example, it looks like they have "ガマるジョバ とっくヴェン イアポネリ はると?" (hiragana in bold).
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