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TAC09: DE, RU, TR and...? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 magister Pro Member United States Joined 6401 days ago 346 posts - 421 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Turkish, Irish Personal Language Map | Message 9 of 118 08 December 2008 at 2:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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josht: Thank you for the recommendation. I installed Anki this weekend and have so far created 70 cards with German sentences. You're right: it is very easy to handle. It remains to be seen however, if I will continue to make use of it. I may have mentioned earlier that I've never been one to bother with flashcards -- much less digital ones -- but I am certainly open to trying different methods and tools occasionally.
JonB: Thanks for the entertaining continuation of the metaphor! DEC. 5 - DEC. 7 GERMAN I'm at the halfway point in my Calvin & Hobbes book. I'm taking it fairly slowly, frequently taking note of the colloquial structures by entering them into Anki. For example (and I hope a native will verify them): Mami hält immer zu dir! Mom always takes your side! Ja, ich hab's gerafft. Yes, I gathered that. Er ist ein Petzer. He's a tattletale. RUSSIAN Princeton Russian, Lesson 8. Listened again to the audio for Lessons 1-7. TURKISH FSI: Volume I, Lessons 14-15, and relistened to the audio for Lessons 12-14 (70 mins. of recorded material). I recall spending a great deal of time last year listening to the Lesson 15 drills. Because Turkish is agglutinative, aural comprehension of longer verb forms was frustratingly difficult; I was forced to hit the pause button after many utterances in order to disassemble the strings of component suffixes. Now, however, after hearing no Turkish for 11 months, I'm listening to these drills at speed and with full comprehension! This was a thrilling and extremely motivating surprise. An example from Lesson 15: Başlamadılar mı? (Did they not begin?) başla ma dı lar mı verb stem negative past 3rd pers. pl. interrog. particle This is just one aspect of the architecture of Türkçe that makes it so attractive to me. The Turkish-English translator of Orhan Pamuk's The Black Book, Maureen Freely, wrote an afterword to the novel in which she described Turkish with phrases such as "...a language that can evoke a thought unfolding...", and "...sentences that may be admired at length like pictures in a museum." She extols the virtues of its verb-final structure: a talented writer will take advantage of "...cascading clauses [which] create a series of expectations that are subverted by the verb, the twist in the tail, at the very end." In addition to FSI, I use Elementary Turkish by Kurtuluş Öztopçu, and Lehrbuch der Türkischen Sprache, Herbert Jansky, 9th ed., 1980. The local university library keeps several other titles which I make use of from time to time. CZECH Alas, nothing. LATIN Read assigned excerpts of St. Augustine, Ambrose, Lactantius, and St. Jerome. This later Latin is much easier to read than the prose of the "Golden Age" classical writers. My class is over this week, so perhaps this will free up some time to begin revitalizing my Czech. Edited by magister on 08 December 2008 at 2:04pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5645 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 10 of 118 08 December 2008 at 2:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi magister,
Like me you also bring some Turkish language examples. As your language collegue especially reading your Turkish language examples with explanation is valuable to me. Do you know what "fasulye" means? It is a Turkish word, you may look it up. Fasulye-Babylonia 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| magister Pro Member United States Joined 6401 days ago 346 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Turkish, Irish Personal Language Map | Message 11 of 118 08 December 2008 at 4:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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Certainly...a bean! But I don't know if I ever explicitly learned it in Turkish. I knew it because the Czech for "bean" is fazole, the Italian is fasole, and the Latin is faseolus and phaselus.
The latter word, phaselus, was also a type of small passenger ship which was bean-shaped (and was the subject of Catullus 4). Any interesting reason why it's your nickname here? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5645 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 12 of 118 10 December 2008 at 10:49pm | IP Logged | ||
I was browsing through my new "Visuelles Wörterbuch Türkisch-Deutsch" in the vegetable section, because I like eating vegetables. So why not chose a vegetable in my target language as a nickname? Fasulye-Babylonia Edited by Fasulye on 10 December 2008 at 10:50pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5645 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map | Message 13 of 118 11 December 2008 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | ||
Ja, magister, die drei deutschen Sprachbeispiele sind richtig! "Ja, ich hab's gerafft." ist stark umgangssprachlich-salopp, so etwas kann man auf keinen Fall in der Schriftsprache verwenden. Jugendliche würden zum Beispiel so sprechen. Edited by Fasulye on 16 December 2008 at 1:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| magister Pro Member United States Joined 6401 days ago 346 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Turkish, Irish Personal Language Map | Message 14 of 118 16 December 2008 at 12:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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DEC. 8 - DEC. 14
GERMAN I installed Stumble on my toolbar, set it to German, and clicked. It randomly whisked me away to this article on Swedish history. I read 3 of its 5 pages so far, entering plenty of unfamiliar vocabulary items into Anki. I read another of the aforementioned Leichte Lektüre, this one being entitled Oktoberfest. I only harvested two new words from it. RUSSIAN Princeton Russian, Lesson 9 ("I'm in a hurry. Where is my vodka??"). Nothing unfamiliar in the vocab or grammar. Overall, the resuscitation of my passive Russian is going smoothly enough; my active production is annother story. I also completed Units 6 and 7 of the Stilman course, which dealt primarily with the singular declension of adjectives. I need to figure out how to type in Russian: I'm considering posting a composition or two on lang-8, which I discovered recently thanks to posts here at HTLAL. TURKISH FSI: Volume I, Lessons 16-18, listened to the audio a few times each, which really adds up to a lot of listening practice. Each of these three lessons offers 15-30 minutes of audio, and since I have a 35-minute commute to work, it works out nicely. However, I usually take my teenage daughter to school in the morning; she is very accommodating of my FSI Turkish in the car, but sometimes she just needs a break and asks me to play her favorite radio stations instead. I'm only too happy to oblige. Last year I burned some random Turkish pop songs from YouTube onto CDs. Fortunately, my daughter really, really likes them (to the bewilderment of her friends!), so we listen to those from time to time. She can even sing along to some of them, which makes me a proud dad! Normally I despise pop, preferring classic or hard rock, yet in my target languages I enjoy listening to anything in which the lyrics are clear. A few which we like: (the music, not necessarily the videos!) Nil Karaibrahimgil, Organize İşler Ayça, Yıkılıyo Teoman, Kupa Kızı Sinek Valesi Serdar Ortaç, Dansöz CZECH Nothing. I might as well admit to myself that I have time for "only" three languages. Resurrecting my Czech might have to wait. Edited by magister on 16 December 2008 at 12:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| magister Pro Member United States Joined 6401 days ago 346 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Turkish, Irish Personal Language Map | Message 15 of 118 26 December 2008 at 6:42pm | IP Logged | ||
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DEC. 15 - DEC. 24
Overall, this was an unsatisfying period of language learning because Life, as it does from time to time, stubbornly got in the way (housework, car trouble, etc.) But other aspects of these nine or ten days were very satisfying, because the kids are home from college for the Christmas break. These opportunities are too few, so it goes without saying I will focus more on them than on my books! GERMAN I read the last of the Leichte Lektüren that I intend to read (entitled "Grenzverkehr am Bodensee"), as I have become bored of them: they've lost whatever challenge they once posed. The article on Swedish history, which I referenced previously, is holding my attention; I read the fourth page, and re-read the first three. I submitted my first anecdote on lang-8 (and corrected several entries in English), which I enjoyed doing. I intend to write more. RUSSIAN Introductory Russian Grammar (Stilman), Lessons 8, 9, and part of 10. This really is more of a course than strictly a "grammar." I have always been pleased with this textbook because there are no frills: no crossword puzzles, no pages filled with colorful photos and few words, no paragraphs on "suggested activities with your partner". Presentation is clear and not dumbed down. Exercises and readings are substantial. TURKISH FSI, Volume I, Lesson 19. I also breezed through Units 1-3 (of 30) of my Öztopçu textbook (Elementary Turkish). I've already been through perhaps two-thirds of this book, but that was quite some time ago (see my initial post). I want to start again from the beginning in order to solidify everything. I really ought to take the time to review the book here for the benefit of those seeking out Turkish learning materials now or in the future. My wife met a couple of Turks some time ago who work at our local mall, so I've been speaking my poor, halting Turkish with them occasionally. They're actually from Russia and have never even stepped foot in Turkey -- their parents had emigrated from Turkey decades ago. As a result, their Turkish is different than the "standard" language. Sometimes when I visit them I practice Russian instead. In any event, we all plan to get together in January, and I've taught my wife some basic set phrases. CZECH I finally found a whiff of motivation to read some Czech. I opened, for the first time, a book I semi-randomly picked up in a train station in the Czech Republic two years ago: Zákulisí Pána Prstenů, a behind-the-scenes look at The Lord of The Rings. But...sigh. I'm just not getting into it. I don't feel like reading a commentary on the trilogy, and I don't feel much like resurrecting my Czech. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| magister Pro Member United States Joined 6401 days ago 346 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Turkish, Irish Personal Language Map | Message 16 of 118 29 December 2008 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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DEC. 25
Now that the TAC has officially begun, I will try tracking my time, which I have never done before. I certainly do not intend to track it to the minute. Rather, I will round up or down to the nearest quarter-hour. Christmas Day turned out to be quite fruitful in terms of study because my family had to work much of the day. GERMAN I reread Grenzverkehr am Bodensee, paying particular attention to new vocabulary. Then I worked with Anki. 60 mins. RUSSIAN Completed Unit 10 of the Stilman textbook. Redid Units 9 and 10. 90 mins. TURKISH Completed Elementary Turkish, Unit 4. 30 mins. CZECH Nothing. WANDERLUST One of my daughters gave me Cortina's Modern Greek for Christmas. I am not actively studying Greek now, but I would love to take it up again. This book is nostalgic for me, because I have fond memories from when I was about 12, of frequently riding my bike to the bookstore to study from it. I couldn't afford to buy it, so I sat quietly in the aisle learning as much as I could. The shop owners didn't mind, for which I was always grateful. Greek 30 mins. Cumulative time: DE 1.5 hrs. RU 1 hr. TR .5 hrs. GK .5 hrs. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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