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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 4830 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes  Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 137 of 646 12 August 2012 at 6:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
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SUNDAY, 12 AUGUST 2012
The weather has been gorgeous today! It's sunny, but not too hot, and there's a small breeze going which provides some fresh air. I am not working on my dissertation at the moment, because I am waiting for some books that I have ordered from the library, so I had enough time to enjoy the sunshine and study some Russian. After a little recapitulation of lesson 15 (I somehow managed to remember the vocabulary without really cramming it), I started with lesson 16. It's all about the comparison of adjectives, especially the simple comparative on -ee respectively -e. There are some consonant shifts at work in the comparative, so one has to be careful and make sure whether or not the stem consonant of the adjective changes. Of course, there are some rules for this, but I decided not to learn them by heart. I'll rather wait for the information to sink in naturally. There are also some irregular comparatives as лучше from хороший. The reading section was a comparison between Russian and German mentality -- quite amusing, but not to be taken seriously, I think. The dialogue was a visit at the doctor's. I couldn't help but notice that the Russian names for some common diseases are rather funny: кашель for 'cough' and насморк for 'the sniffles' sounds somehow exotic to me. Reminds me somehow of the word карандаш ('pencil'), which also has this 'exotic' feeling to it. I haven't done any exercises yet, but I listened to the recordings. I somehow like the sound of Russian. It sounds so soft and melodious and not harsh at all, as it is sometimes portrayed. I was really startled when, after listening to some Russian dialogue, the German announcer reappeared. German sounds so edgy and clear compared to Russian softness. Now, I get it why some people say German sounds 'ugly' (the Italians even used to say the Germans only 'barked'). Well, be that as it may. It was really good to do some Russian again. I think I will repeat the rules for the comparative tomorrow and then perhaps do some exercises. Доброй недели! Edited by Josquin on 12 August 2012 at 7:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4845 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 138 of 646 13 August 2012 at 2:33am | IP Logged | |||||
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I've finally read it. Well, Swedish - decent, but could've been better, German - ekhm, ekhm.
Well. Everyone has his own other activities. And other BA dissertations :P 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4830 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 139 of 646 16 August 2012 at 9:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
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THURSDAY, 16 AUGUST 2012
Today, I drove home to visit my family, because tomorrow is my birthday. I used the time on the train for repeating lesoons 15 and 16 of my Langenscheidt course. Unfortunately, I didn't have a table, otherwise I could have done the exercises concerning the comparative of adjectives. So, I just reread the dialogues and the reading sections. Additionally, I repeated the vocabulary. There won't be any time for studying tomorrow, because I will celebrate, but perhaps I will manage to do the exercises during the weekend. The comparative isn't hard, but I will have to practise the consonant shifts. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4830 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 140 of 646 21 August 2012 at 10:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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TUESDAY, 21 AUGUST 2012
Oh my God, the weather is killing me! Today, it was 36 °C hot (Yes, that's 97 °F, my dear friends from the US!) and I was in no condition to do anything productive. Nevertheless, I managed to do some language learning after it had become dark and less hot. First, I repeated lesson 16 from my Langenscheidt Russian course. I reread everything and listened to the recordings. I wanted to do the exercises, but they were to stupid. I don't need any exercises to be able to use the compound comparative with больше and меньше. The other exercises concerning comparison were silly as well, so I skipped them altogether. Same story with у меня не было (будет) + gen. Who needs stupid drills repeating the same construction over and over again? The only interesting exercise was a translation, which I did in my head. I guess the heat made me too lazy to work really hard. After that, I had a look at Colloquial Icelandic in order to do some Icelandic again. I read one of the advanced dialogues and I understood nearly everything. I nevertheless noticed my Icelandic has become a bit rusty, as I have been concentrating on Russian for the last four months. I also noticed that I don't have that kind of inner connection to Icelandic as I have to Russian. I don't know why, but somehow Russian appeals to me more. Perhaps it's because Russian is more exotic and stranger being a Slavic language as opposed to Icelandic as a Germanic language. And then, there is the aspect that Russian is the language of a former world power and a rich culture, while Icelandic is a very small language mainly associated with fishing and Vikings. I don't know. Russian simply has a different feel to it, which - at the moment - is more attractive to me. Maybe next year, I'll think the complete opposite. Well, I'll conclude the evening by watching some episodes of How I Met Your Mother, thus practising my passive English skills. I should really get some interesting French series, as my French listening skills are really crappy and could need some brush-up. Well, anyway, it has been a polyglot evening! Edited by Josquin on 21 August 2012 at 11:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5042 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 141 of 646 22 August 2012 at 5:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Do you mean более и менее?
“Stupid” exercises are created to get accustomed to new constructions, I think. Although that’s in general, I haven’t seen your exercises. Edited by Марк on 22 August 2012 at 5:39pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4830 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 142 of 646 22 August 2012 at 7:24pm | IP Logged | |||||
Yes, of course. Don't know why I mixed it up.
Yeah, but sometimes it's simply not necessary to form four sentences with the same construction, because you've already understood how it works. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4830 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 143 of 646 23 August 2012 at 10:53pm | IP Logged | |||||
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THURSDAY, 23 AUGUST 2012
Okay, today, I was really on fire. I spent studying and reading about languages the whole afternoon and evening. Besides my main TL Russian, I covered Icelandic, Faroese, and my newest fling: Old English. I started by reading the chapter about Faroese in Kurt Braunmüller's Die skandinavischen Sprachen im Überblick. It's a short grammatical overview and a comparison with other Scandinavian languages. I have had that book for years, but I think I've never really read the chapter about Faroese. Then I skimmed through Höskuldur Thráinsson's Faroese. An Overview and Reference Grammar. It's the first comprehensive grammar of Faroese that has been published outside of the Faroes. It looks very interesting. I will certainly read it more thoroughly during the next days. After that, I spent some time with Wolfgang Obst's Lehrbuch des Altenglischen and Henry Sweet's Anglo-Saxon Primer. So far, I've only read the introduction into the history and phonology of Old English. I've always been interested in Old English and wanted to learn it. If I can fit it into my daily routine, I might learn just a bit every day. Obst's approach is more about passive comprehension of texts, while the Sweet is a complete grammar of Old English. I then skipped to Icelandic. I intend to go into the sagas again at some point in the future, but first I have to brush up and enhance my Icelandic. I L-R'ed some dialogues from Colloquial Icelandic and I once more noticed the tendency of Icelanders to slur the language. I am better at understanding spoken Icelandic now than I was some time ago, but sometimes it's still difficult. Even Braunmüller writes about this phenomenon in his chapter on Icelandic. My main weakness besides oral comprehension, however, is vocabulary. I will have to work on that. I wanted to finish my language learning session by quickly (!) doing the exercises of lesson 16 of my Langenscheidt Russian course. In fact, it took my an entire hour! As already mentioned, the exercises were not very challenging, but time-consuming. The most difficult exercise was the translation, because translating is my only opportunity to actively make use of my Russian at the moment. This is it: 1) Разговор по телефону: - Привет, Ольга! Это Анна. Я слышала, ты больна? Как ты себя чувствуешь? - Привет! Сегодня я чувствую себя уже лучше. У меня был грипп. Всю неделю мне надо было лежать дома. Врач сказал, мне нужно сейчас больше спать. - Может быть, тебе помочь? - Нет, спасибо. Мне можно уже вставать. - Ну, тогда выздоравливай! 2) Две подруги в магазине «Обувь»: - Какие туфли мне купить, красные или чёрные? - Возьми чёрные, они более практичные. - Ты права. Но красные красивее. - И намного дороже. Чёрные лучше подходят к твоему пальто. - Но они мне малы. Мне больше нравятся красные. I will continue with lesson 17 next time. It's about the poet Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin and job interviews -- interesting combination! ;) The grammar will deal with ordinal numbers bigger than 40, counting years, the superlative of adjectives, and fleeting vowels in masculine nouns. Gangi ykkur vél and до свидания! Edited by Josquin on 23 August 2012 at 11:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5042 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 144 of 646 24 August 2012 at 11:51am | IP Logged | |||||
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Какие туфли мне купить, красные или чёрные?
I think it should be like that: Какие туфли купить: красные или черные? The colon suits more. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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