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TAC 2009 - DaraghM | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5933 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 65 of 177 18 February 2009 at 3:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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17/02/09
I lost access to the forum for a good while during it's maintenance mode. It seems others were posting in the interim, so I'm a little confused. The following post is a bit rushed, but I have a few questions and observations that are fresh in my mind, which I might forget. Russian (Active ~15 minutes, Passive ~15 minutes) Thanks again SSI for the clarification. Still ploughing slowly through урок 7. I've encountered a construction in an example sentence, which isn't explained, and has me a little confused. они понимают друг друга - They understand each other. Don't друг and друга mean friend, or have they another meaning ? Spanish (Active ~50 minutes, Passive ~40 minutes) I started into my Spanish essay last night, and it's taking a lot longer than expected. I've been trying to come up with a few different expressions about watching television, and what programs interest me. As I don't watch television much, this is very hard. So far I've used, Disfruto viendo - I enjoy watching Ando hojeando las cadenas - Browsing around the channels (I'm not sure about this.) Paso esperando encontrar algo que me interese - I spend hoping to find something that interests me. If I get a bit more structure on the piece, I might try and post some extracts here. I haven't figured out how to compare Irish television with other countries, and not 100% if that's what he was asking. All I distinctly remember was the word count. On a separate note, I've been continuing to use the Platiquemos course, and getting some benefits from it. My main gripe at the moment is that one of the speakers at the end of Unit 15, sounds really depressed. The poor guy sounds almost suicidal. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Flarioca Heptaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5664 days ago 635 posts - 816 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Esperanto, French, EnglishC2, Spanish, German, Italian Studies: Catalan, Mandarin | Message 66 of 177 18 February 2009 at 6:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, this forum is still somewhat chaotic.
The basic meaning of cadena is chain. I don't know if they use it for channel. The verb hojear seems to be more specific to books, but a native speaker could tell us better. Anyway, I guess that estoy a vagar por los canales would work. EDIT - PS: Yes, they do use cadena for TV as a simple google search has shown me :-)) Edited by Flarioca on 18 February 2009 at 6:05pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 magister Pro Member United States Joined 6385 days ago 346 posts - 421 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Turkish, Irish Personal Language Map | Message 67 of 177 18 February 2009 at 6:37pm | IP Logged | ||
Indeed, друг can mean friend, but you have to think of друг друга as a set expression meaning each other. You will also see it appear in other cases, e.g., друг другу or друг от друга. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5933 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 68 of 177 19 February 2009 at 10:44am | IP Logged | ||
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19/02/09
I emailed Francois about the forum, and he said the outages should be over now. I lost a large post yesterday which was a bit frustrating. Thanks magister and Flarioca for the tips and advice. I didn't get much too much study done yesterday, as I'd to complete my end of year tax returns, and compile my books for the accountant. I've still a lot of work to do on both. Spanish (Active ~1 hour, Passive ~40 minutes) Almost completed Platiquemos Unit 15, with a small bit of revision left for today. I noticed the Platiquemos dialogues are much shorter than the original FSI dialogues, and contain English audio translations. This makes them easier to study while walking or travelling, but reduces the amount of material in each. I didn't get too much done on the essay, and I'm starting to panic slightly. I've only today left to complete it, as I'm travelling tomorrow for a surprise 60th birthday. This also means I'll be getting no study done this weekend, as I'll be with herself and her folks the whole time. To pad out my essay, I might use examples of quizzes that are broadcast in both Spain and Ireland. E.g. Who wants to be a millionare - ¿Quién quiere ser millonario? Countdown - Cifras y letras (from the French original Des chiffres et des lettres) Family Fortunes - ¿Qué Dice la Gente? I also completed an exercise in the B2 Gramática on plurals. It covered a number of nouns that don't change, such as medical conditions E.g virus, gastritis. It also covered nouns that can end correctly in -s or -es. E.g. bengalís/bengalíes, marroquís/marroquíes. Edited by DaraghM on 19 February 2009 at 10:52am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SII Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5574 days ago 184 posts - 194 votes Speaks: Russian* Studies: English | Message 69 of 177 19 February 2009 at 10:36pm | IP Logged | ||
Понимать, видеть, встречать etc "друг друга" = "each other", not "friend". They may be hostiles, friends, neutral each other... This is one of many Russian... er... "special cases" in using of words. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5933 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 70 of 177 20 February 2009 at 10:17am | IP Logged | ||
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19/02/09
Spanish (Active ~50 minutes, Passive ~1.5 hours) All my active study was spent working on my essay. This still isn't finished, and I've to head down the country today for that 60th birthday. Aagh. I don't normally do any active study on Sunday nights, but I'll have to this weekend. My evening walks, which have slackened off lately, I normally use for Hungarian. This evening I did more Platiquemos, so I didn't break my Spanish concentration. I'm not sure whether I should speed up through the course. All the material I've so far encountered grammatically, I already know backwards. However, a few expressions are new, and so is a small subset of the vocabulary. Russian (Active ~15 minutes, Passive ~15 minutes) There is enough material in урок 7 to easily span two lessons. In addition to the aformentioned prepositional adjectives, and possessives, it also covers the possessives in the prepositional case. E.g. Мне, Тебе, Нём, Ней, Нём, etc. as well as the prepositional demonstratives. E.g. этом, этой, этих. After this, they sneak in more about the accusative case for animate male nouns. E.g. брат (brother) going to брата. Initially, I thought they had a typo when they mentioned the Ivan Turgenev novel, "Fathers and Sons" as Отцы и дети, as дети means children. However, this is the proper title, and the English uses "Sons" for better effect. Edited by DaraghM on 20 February 2009 at 10:36am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5933 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 71 of 177 23 February 2009 at 3:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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Weekend Summary 20/02/09 - 22/02/09
Spanish (Active ~1 hour, Passive ~1 hour) I just lost a long and detailed post, after a power failure. Aagh. Very annoying. The one point I wanted to highlight, before I forget, was that Platiquemos uses very Mexican specific Spanish. In Unit 16 the FSI course is re-written to use platicar (to chat), while charlar is more universally understood. This poses a slight problem for me because my Spanish classes are focused on Castillian as spoken in Spain. The teacher already highlighted another persons usage of Latin American Spanish, as a woman said, "Soy casada", instead of "Estoy casada". The idea is you speak one variant instead of blending different regions, but can still conjugate both vos and vosotros. [EDIT] I also finished the essay but there's a lot of mistakes, and some very adventurous Spanish contructions. I'll hopefully get to post my corrections next week. Edited by DaraghM on 23 February 2009 at 3:53pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 5933 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian | Message 72 of 177 24 February 2009 at 10:35am | IP Logged | ||
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23/02/09
Spanish (Active ~2.5 hours, Passive ~40 minutes) Yesterday was my second instance of Spanish class. The original teacher was out sick, so we had a substitute teacher cover the course. Teaching styles differ a bit between the teachers, even if the course material is the same. The woman who took our class concentrated on the grammar, and describing fictional stories and legends (las leyandas). This meant we covered vocabulary such as la hada (the fairy), la bruja (the witch), and el mago (the wizard). Thankfully she didn't set us an essay, which took up a huge chunk of my study last week. Russian (Active ~15 minutes, Passive ~15 minutes) As the news was on during my study, I was briefly distracted by an item on Масленица (Maslenitsa), Russian Pancake week. This is the last week in the Orthodox calendar before Lent begins. In Ireland, and England, today (24/02/09) is our day of celebration called Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Tuesday),but the Russians do it, in true Russian style, for a whole week. While meat is prohibited during Масленица, dairy products are still allowed. The week ends with Прощённое воскресенье (Forgiveness Sunday), the last day that dairy products are allowed, thus giving it's other name of Cheesefare Sunday. [EDIT - Thanks SII. Corrected a spelling with mistake Прощённое. I had googled the word, but whatever site I used was obviously wrong.] Edited by DaraghM on 25 February 2009 at 9:47am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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