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Small Expectations | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5463 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 1 of 431 19 January 2010 at 9:29am | IP Logged |
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I've been studying Georgian for approximately one month now, and since I find my motivation starting to wane just ever so slightly, I have decided to write this learning log as a way of charting my progress and keeping myself motivated. Whether it will work or not remains to be seen.
This is not a total annihilation thing because, as the title of my log suggests, I do not have any expectations of greatness. I know myself too well. The plan is just to keep on studying throughout the year and to see where it takes me. On the plus side, I have been super-motivated for the first month. I can't remember when any subject has caught my interest as much as this. So, to my Georgian. I'm using Beginner's Georgian by Dodona Kiziria and the Georgian for Reading Purposes book (don't have it to hand and can't remember the exact title) for home study, and Byki for vocabulary boosting. I'm also going to a Georgian class here in Tokyo once a week, on Saturday afternoons. I joined a class that has been studying for around 9 months and I've already pretty much caught up with them, so the class may outlive its usefulness quite soon, but it's fun and I am one of those people who like learning in a classroom atmosphere. Also, I've already signed up and paid for 3 months of classes so it's another motivator. Today, I reviewed Lesson 5 of the Kiziria book and listened carefully to the dialogue of Lesson 6 for the first time. The grammar is all very well and straightforward when you read about it, but actually producing it is going to be a different matter. That's what my class is for, I suppose. Oh, and I had a good few minutes of ritual humiliation last Saturday in my class. Having been asked where I lived, I confidently replied "At home", thinking I'd been asked where I worked (I'm a freelance translator and so my home is my office). The follow-up question, naturally, was "Where is your home then?", to which I confidently replied "My name is ****** *****." (the words for "name" and "house" are similar in Georgian, 'onest guv). Having learned languages for many years, I should be used to such embarrassments, but I still found myself going red. There will be no study tonight due to family duties, but I'll be back with another entry just as soon as I have something to report. Edited by TixhiiDon on 19 January 2010 at 9:30am 6 persons have voted this message useful | |
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5463 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 2 of 431 20 January 2010 at 9:36pm | IP Logged |
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Tuesdays and Wednesdays are particularly busy for me, so not a lot done. I did do a little bit of work on Georgian: A Reading Grammar by Aronson (to give it its proper title) and read ahead to see what delights are in store for me in the future.
Each chapter of the Aronson book is HUGE! I think he aims to make you a native speaker by the middle of Lesson 4 and president of Georgia by the end of the book. Watch out Saakashvili, here I come! My goals for today and tomorrow are to catch up on my stale Byki words, of which there will be plenty no doubt since I haven't used it for a few days, and to look over the Japanese course we're using in our class in an attempt to avoid the embarrassment of last week. By coincidence, I came across the verb "I blush" (no infinitives in Georgian) in the Aronson book yesterday. It is, for all those who can't face the thought of life without knowing: ვწითლდები (vts'itldebi) Which brings me nicely round to a moan about Byki. I posted a message singing its praises the other day, but I have since discovered that on the Georgian version, verbs are provided in their verbal noun form due to the lack of an infinitive in the language. So basically, instead of "to pronounce" you get "pronunciation". This makes it all but impossible for a beginner like me to actually conjugate the verbs from the form provided. Hmm, ten points off Byki. Edited by TixhiiDon on 20 January 2010 at 10:28pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6033 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 3 of 431 20 January 2010 at 9:47pm | IP Logged |
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Just out of curiosity, why do study Georgian? (apart from the coolness of the alphabet ;-). There seems to be a fair number of people interested in this language.
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| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5463 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 4 of 431 20 January 2010 at 9:57pm | IP Logged |
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Lots of vague reasons and no sensible ones, to be honest, Sennin! I am a bit of a geek when it comes to the history and society of the old socialist Eastern bloc, hence my Russian and Polish, and like most of us on here, I am also a language geek too.
I was originally interested in Armenian, but after downloading the basic Byki software for both Armenian and Georgian, I found both the sound and the alphabet of Georgian to be much more aesthetically pleasing. Someone on this site directed me to a Georgian class here in Tokyo, where I live, so I'm now in the bizarre situation of being a Brit studying Georgian through Japanese. It's been many years since I decided to pick up a new language and I'm loving it so far. Just hoping the motivation lasts... 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5463 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 5 of 431 21 January 2010 at 10:38am | IP Logged |
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Caught up on Byki today. As I expected, around 50,000* stale words to review, but most of them seem to be fixed in my brain, which is good news.
I've been trying to talk to myself in Georgian throughout the day, coming up with profundities such as "Very good" and "It's cloudy today". Possibly my greatest Georgian thought of the day was "Today I went to the park." Kant and Heidegger are rolling in their graves as I type... I wanted to add "with my dog" to the park sentence, but I'm not sure how to say "with". If any Georgian speakers happen to read this, is this OK? დღეს ჩენს ძაღლთან პარკში წავედი Or even better, how do I say "I took my dog for a walk to the park" in nice, natural Georgian? *80 really, but a little exaggeration never hurt anyone. Edited by TixhiiDon on 21 January 2010 at 10:40am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5463 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 6 of 431 23 January 2010 at 8:13am | IP Logged |
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Just got back from my weekly Georgian class. Hmm.... The teacher is a really nice guy and obviously a hugely intelligent and talented linguist, but, well, being a talented linguist doesn't make you a talented language teacher. Out of a 90 minute class I would say on average we spend about 3 minutes actually talking in Georgian. The rest is grammar explanations, drills, and reading aloud. I was kind of hoping to do all the grammar stuff at home and put it into practice in the class, but it looks like it's not going to work out that way.
I should have known really. This is how everyone attempts to learn foreign languages in Japan, and then they wonder why they can barely produce a sentence after two or three years. I've paid upfront for three months and the class is not completely useless of course, so I'll stick with it for now, but I'm kind of disappointed. Apart from that, what have I done? Did a fruitless search for Georgian audiobooks, but discovered I can watch Georgian TV for free on my computer. Of course I can barely understand anything yet, but I figured out that people tend to say დიდი მადლობა more often than გმადლობთ, and stuff like that is good to know, so I'll persevere. Edited by TixhiiDon on 23 January 2010 at 8:18am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5463 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 8 of 431 23 January 2010 at 9:31pm | IP Logged |
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Servus, kirutamenikiru! Thanks very much indeed for the links.
I notice you're in Austria. Vienna, by any chance? I spent 9 very happy months in that city - surely the most beautiful in the world. Well, I woke up this morning with a new lease of life after the disappointing class of yesterday. I'm re-energized and re-motivated. I think the way forward is to focus on my home studies and just use the class for review and asking questions. I'll also try to push those 3 minutes of Georgian conversation to 4 or 5. Plan for the day is to work with the Kiziria book. This is definitely the best resource I have at the moment. I'll be going through Lesson 6 and listening to the dialogue of Lesson 7 today. Till next time, კარგად იყავი! EDIT: Haha, Kiritamenikiru! The only audiobook produced in Georgian is a Jehovah's Witnesses tract for children! Oh, the indignities us minority language learners are reduced to. French learners have Zola and Maupassant, Russians Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, Germans Goethe and Schiller, and Georgian learners the bloody Jehovah's Witnesses. Actually, for pure language purposes it's probably going to be extremely useful. Since it's made for children the language is going to be quite simple, and I've found audio in both English and Georgian and text in English. If I can just find the text in Georgian I'll be all set for some serious L-R. I will try not to be converted as I read! Edited by TixhiiDon on 23 January 2010 at 10:00pm 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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