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Estival Ambitions: A Linguistic Odyssey | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5298 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 81 of 242 27 July 2010 at 7:43am | IP Logged | |||||
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Have fun with aspect :). I'm technically past that right now, but it still confuzzles me, and I forget rules a lot. I
always want to say something and use the wrong aspect and then sound like a complete idiot (my Russian friend always corrects me and laughs). I still confuzzle myself with the future. There isn't even technically a "future". It's just the future of the verb быть and an infinitive. But wait, there's more! You can make a future also with the pairing of the (I'm gonna say perfective, but I could be wrong) aspect and the present tense, which makes a future verb. I'm pretty sure that's how it goes, because right now I'm way too lazy to check my book :P. It seems like Michel Thomas is working well for you. Is it as good as the ones actually by him? I know that it's some Russain woman who does it instead of him. At least you speak French AND Spanish so you can just use Assimil (even though you've said you're using Penguin Russian). I wanted to use my German for that, but I couldn't order it off of Amazon, and it was SOO expensive from the Assimil website. I'm sorry that paragraph above looks like it was written by a slow squirrel. I'm on a lot of caffeine right now (thanks 5 hour energy :), so I'm switching from thing to thing really quickly, but my processing is impaired so it's essentially a bunch of thoughts from my mind inconherently put together when I write. BTW HAPPY BIRTHDAY :D! ALLES GUTE ZUM GEBURTSTAG! С днём рождения! Grattis på födelsedagen! გილოცავ დაბადების დღეს! Χαρούμενα Γενέθλια! (got the last three from omniglot, because I'm cool) I know it's tomorrow, just wanted to say that, and have fun! :D 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5959 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 82 of 242 27 July 2010 at 8:03am | IP Logged | |||||
Haha, yeah aspect is fun. I think it's actually easier in Greek though, by the way. Yeah, the MT course has already taught the construction with быть + infinitive, and I learned the present perfective (yes, you're correct, because imperfective is the only one used for the actual present tense) construction today while I was researching Russian aspect. I think I actually like the MT courses that weren't by him a little better. He was just a little annoying at times, and I prefer having a native speaker doing the teaching because of pronunciation. I've done the Italian and German courses, which are by him, and the Japanese, Dutch, Polish (only part though), and Russian ones, which are not. The German was okay because I think he was semi-native in German, but the Italian one was painful, perhaps because I already had a pretty good foundation in Italian and Romance grammar in general. The Japanese, Dutch, Polish, and Russian were much more enjoyable to listen to, although the woman's voice in the advanced Japanese one was really annoying too. Now that you mention using Assimil, I realized that in my last post I completely forgot to mention that I 'inherited' ten Russian books today! Like I said before, my great-uncle is a retired Russian professor and has a ton of used old Russian books, so he just gave me some today. Among the titles were: Beginner's Russian (from Hipprocrene) ГОЛОСА 1 and 2 Russian in 10 Minutes a Day Russian: Language and People Russian For Everyone (+ two workbooks) Russian Readings Basic Russian, Book 2 I now need to find a new bookshelf or something because these three are now full. And that's not even with my Dutch dictionary which is on the way, any future books that I might get for my birthday, or the books I loaned to friends. Thanks! Danke! Спасибо! Tack! გმადლობთ! Ευχαριστώ! Seeing the Georgian there reminded me that I need to review the script again. When I was in Tanzania, I was telling a girl on the trip about how beautiful it was and then tried to write something and realized that I had forgotten several letters. About that Greek, that may be the "official" way to say happy birthday, but I've never actually heard anyone say that. You should say χρόνια πολλά (lit: many years) instead. That's used for lots of occasions in Greece: birthdays, name days (mine is November 14th btw), etc. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5298 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 83 of 242 27 July 2010 at 8:15am | IP Logged | |||||
I tried his French one, and I had a better accent than him :P (according to my French friend). I listened to his German, and I can't really decipher it (his accent). Wherever he learned it it was nothing familiar to what I know. He's a good teacher, he just should have gotten some more native speakers. About the books, I ENVY YOU O_O. Well, they aren't all the buzz, but it's still handy to have them around. I really wanna get a new Russian reader, so perhaps I'll check that one out. I haven't seen the Hippocrene before (I mean like looked through the Russian course). I actually have never attempted to tackle Russian with a "mainstream" course like Teach Yourself, Colloquial, or Hippocrene. Reviewing the script is easy. I always "forget", but my Georgian friend tells me I could NEVER forget it, and then proceeds to write something In Georgian and has me translate it. It's usually along the lines of "See, told you that you can't forget Georgian script :)". At least I know how to say Happy Birthday in Greek now! XD What is a name day? btw... Edited by ruskivyetr on 27 July 2010 at 8:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Emme Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5164 days ago 980 posts - 1594 votes Speaks: Italian*, English, German Studies: Russian, Swedish, French | Message 84 of 242 27 July 2010 at 3:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Hi, Philip!
ruskivyetr already did a nice job of wishing you happy birthday in several languages, but let me add Italian: Buon compleanno! Have a nice time hanging out with your friends today, and don’t worry if that means you won’t have much time for studying left: language learning can wait till tomorrow. Emme 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Teango Triglot Winner TAC 2010 & 2012 Senior Member United States teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5373 days ago 2210 posts - 3734 votes Speaks: English*, German, Russian Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona | Message 85 of 242 27 July 2010 at 3:48pm | IP Logged | |||||
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@ellasevia
And it there's room for one more at the party...breithlá sona duit! Hope you have a superb day. :D
If it's the same as in Russia (i.e. Greeks and Russians being mainly members of the Orthodox Church), then it's probably the day you celebrate your saint's name (e.g. the feast day of Saint Philip). ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5959 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 86 of 242 28 July 2010 at 8:39am | IP Logged | |||||
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DAY 4: Greek, Portuguese, Swedish
Anki Reviews: 925 repetitions in 48.12 minutes Kanji Reviews: 741 due; 0 reviewed; 0 restudied @Emme: Grazie mille! @Teango: Go raibh maith agat! And by the way, that explanations of name days you gave was correct. Honestly, today wasn't great. I think I would have rather spent my birthday like I did last summer--studying Russian all day if I recall correctly. Today I was reminded of why I generally don't get together with friends all that often. The people I had over today were mostly just school friends (two actually invited themselves over), meaning that we get along well when at school and doing school-related things, but outside of that not so much. Inside school, they're usually like how I am all, or most of the time, but outside they're more like "normal" teenagers. I also really dislike parties (even small ones--they're just...overwhelming). I guess I'm just abnormal. :) Most of my good friends I don't go to school with anymore and they were out of town. :( Oh well, it doesn't matter that much and this is really off-topic! Before people came over this morning I was able to do my Anki reviews (and did more later this evening) and my two hours of Greek study. I did lessons 21 and 22 from LGWT. Lesson 21's vocabulary was really difficult for some reason, so that took a really long time to finish, but the second lesson today was better. The guests stayed a LOT later (as in three or four hours) later than I expected, so that really impacted my study time negatively. Even so, I managed to finish my half hour of Swedish, doing two more lessons from Swedish 201 on Livemocha, followed by an hour of Portuguese, doing lessons 3 and most of 4 from Colloquial Portuguese of Brazil, after dinner. Unfortunately, I just didn't have enough time to do any kanji or to do my Portuguese Anki reviews. Tomorrow will probably have similarly (if not more) dismal results as today. It's Wednesday, so I'll be volunteering again for four or so hours in the afternoon, and then later in the evening we're going to see a Shakespeare play (The Taming of the Shrew, I think?), but I don't know for how long. I'm anticipating serious time constraints tomorrow though. However, if I do have a chance to study, I'll be working on German, Swahili, and Russian. That's all for now... Today's conclusion: birthdays are really quite a nuisance, aren't they? Καληνύχτα! Boa noite! God natt! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| darkwhispersdal Senior Member Wales Joined 5857 days ago 294 posts - 363 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Ancient Greek, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Mandarin, Japanese, Latin | Message 87 of 242 28 July 2010 at 10:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I hate parties and tend to avoid them as do alot of people I know so you're normal in comparsion to me and the people I know :-)
I'm just glad that my friends like to meet up and discuss world politics, languages, philosophy and sport rather than the normal things we supposed to. Enjoy the play and I hope you'll have a more productive day. by the way С днём рождения 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 5959 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 88 of 242 29 July 2010 at 8:50am | IP Logged | |||||
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DAY 5: German, Swahili, Russian
Anki Reviews: 871 repetitions in 42.40 minutes Kanji Reviews: 853 due; 0 reviewed; 0 restudied @darkwhispersdal: Большое спасибо! Today was okay, but rather tiring and stressful. I got the minimum amount of studying done, which is good, but it would have been nice to not have my time be so limited. It was just an unlucky convergence of volunteering day and a play in the evening. Before going to volunteer this morning I did two hours of German study. I actually could have probably done all my studying before I left, but I spent so much time procrastinating and trying to figure out if I would have time that...well, I didn't. For my German study I finished (yay!!!) typing all of that Aktuelles Deutsch (the school textbook) vocabulary into Anki. For the rest of the time I worked from TYIYG, on lesson three. I completed the entire lesson, but I still have to study a rather large amount of vocabulary from it... I then did some Russian (listening to MT) while I was riding to and from the workplace and on my lunch break, and then I continued with that when I got home because I was adding the new words introduced from MT into Anki, and so I was in "Russian mode" already. I did lesson two out of Penguin Russian, which was just teaching the Cyrillic handwriting, which I intend to learn, but not quite yet. It had lots of sample words and some pronunciation stuff too, so I got a list of almost 40 words to study on my next Russian day. My great-uncle (the retired Russian professor) was at the play this evening and he and I were talking a little more about verbal aspects again... He's very helpful, and my mom suggested that I could take weekly lessons with him. I'm not sure if I will, but it sounds like a nice idea. I did a bit less than an hour of Russian study today, even though I only needed half an hour. By the time I started with Swahili, it was already late and I was VERY tired. I worked out of Spoken World Swahili again, on lesson thirteen which is about jobs and working. I got through all of it save the dialogue (which I do last, even though it's one of the first things in the lesson sequence) and the reading section (I do that just before the dialogue). Under normal circumstances I probably could have gotten through it all, but as I was so tired I was working very slowly and kept getting distracted looking up related words and seeing what the original Arabic word looked like, etc. No kanji and no new Anki decks reviewed today. Tomorrow I promise I will. Gute Nacht! Спокойной ночи! Lala salama! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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