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Kanewai 2015: Team Caesar | ||
Tags: Super Challenge | Catalan | Ancient Greek | Turkish | Polyglot | Arabic | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | Japanese | French | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4887 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 313 of 331 16 March 2015 at 9:25pm | IP Logged |
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March 16
Français Finished re-listening to Pimsleur IV. We had our first French night at my house, and watched the first episode of La sang de la vigne. It's a good show, though the episodes always feel a bit too long - they are 90 minutes each, and would benefit from being cut to 60 minutes each. I picked up an English copy of Notre-Dame-des-Fleurs / Our Lady of the Flowers, mostly to see how much of the French I was missing. There is so much argot that is not in my dictionary, and it's easy to get lost in Genet's stream-of-conscious style. It turns out I was missing a lot, and most of it had to do with detailed descriptions of the various characters private body parts. I was also having trouble figuring out if the main character, Divine, was transgendered, dressed in drag only while she was selling herself, or just effeminate and so used female pronouns to refer to herself. And I still can't tell completely ... even with the English! ... though I think she dresses in and out of drag depending on her situation. Italiano Assimil active phase, lesson 57 - The active phase is getting challenging. I listen to the dialogues a few times, and then focus on perfecting the exercises orally and in writing. This takes a lot longer than the "five extra minutes" that Assimil claims the active wave will take. Living Language Advanced, lesson 11 - I pretty much just do this on the weekend. It's really useful for me at this stage to have a workbook, though LL is not really 'advanced.' This section (reflexive verbs of reciprocity) has been more challenging than the others; for the most part this isn't a hard course at all. I'm about 1/4 of the way through Il nomme della rosa. Some sections I can read on my own, while I still need to check the English translation to work through others. Español I didn't find as much interference between Spanish and Italian as I'd feared, but I still not ready to tackle both of them at once. Edited by kanewai on 16 March 2015 at 9:26pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4887 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 314 of 331 19 March 2015 at 3:12am | IP Logged |
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Small kine update
Finished Pimsleur IV Lesson 10 today, though I might repeat it. This set of dialogues has been on agriturismo, buying and cooking local produce from regional farms, visiting wineries, and basic vinology terms. All good stuff! It's good practice, but if they doubled the new vocabulary it would be close to perfect. The Assimil active phase continues to be challenging. It's taking me longer to do an active chapter than it did to do the same passive chapter. Reading, though, is going well. There are painful chapters on theology, schisms, and Church politics where I struggle, and then there are action-packed chapters (hidden passages through the crypt, messages written in invisible ink and a secret code, midnight chases in the labyrinth, mysterious lights in the library, and a monk found head down in a vat of pig's blood) where I'll stay up late to finish. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Arnaud25 Diglot Senior Member France Joined 3840 days ago 129 posts - 235 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Russian | Message 315 of 331 19 March 2015 at 7:02am | IP Logged |
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It's Le sang de la vigne...
In fact, that serie features an actor, Pierre Arditi, that is very popular in France. He's played in another serie called "Sauveur Giordano" in the 2000's, also a serie of middle quality, but I've watched it with pleasure. I simply like his voice and diction (he makes a lot of voice-over on documentaries, advertisements, etc, like André Dussollier). Their voices are immediatly recognisable. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4887 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 316 of 331 03 April 2015 at 3:31am | IP Logged |
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Paris, 1943: Le bal travesti
Heads up: this selection has some adult themes. Viewer discretion is advised. For Team Caesar's "Hear a non-dominant voice" challenge, I worked on a translation of a passage from Notre-Dames-des-Fleurs (Jean Genet, 1943). The story so far - Divine is now supporting two men: her lover, the African Seck Gorgui, and the 16-year old assassin Notre-Dame-des-Fleurs. Gorgui and Notre-Dame are macs, masculine hustlers, while Divine is one of the transvestite tantes. Tonight Prince-Monsigneur is hosting a costumed ball at a dive bar. Divine dresses Notre-Dame in one of her dresses, a ball gown from 1900; it is the first time he has gone out in drag. ____________________________________________________________ _________ Au sommet de la rue Lepic, existe ce petit cabaret dont j’ai déjà parlé: Le Tavernacle, où l’on fait de la sorcellerie, triture des mélanges, consulte les cartes, interroge les fonds de tasses, déchiffre les lignes de la main gauche (quand on l’interroge le sort a tendance à répondre la vérité, disait Divine autrefois), où de beaux garçons-bouches s’y métamorphosent quelquefois en princesses à traine. Le cabaret est petit et bas de plafond. Prince-Monsigneur gouverne. S’y réunissent: Toutes, mais surtout Première Coummunion, Banjo, le Reine de Roumanie, la Ginete, la Sonia, Perséphess, Clorinde, l’Abesse, Agnès, Mimosa, Divine. Et leurs Messieurs. Chaque jeudi, la petite porte à chevillette est fermée à la clientele de bourgeois curieux ou aguichés. Le cabaret est livre aux <<quelqu’uns qui sont pures>>. Prince- Monsigneur lançait les invitations. Nous étions chez nous. Un phono. Trois garçons servaient, aux yeux pleins de malice, vicieux d’un vice joyeux. Nos hommes font des zanzis et des pokers. Et nous dansons. Pour venir, il est d’usage de s’habiller en nous. Rien que des folles costumées, qui se frottent à des macs-enfants. En sommes, pas une grande personne. … On s’habilla très vite, ce soir-là, parce qu’on allait au vrai plaisir. Divine mit sa robe de soie noire, par-dessus, une jaquette rose, et prit un éventail de tulle pailleté. Gorgui porte frac et cravat blanche. Ils descendirent l’escalier. Taxi. Le Tavernacle. Le portier, tout jeune, et beau au possible, fais trois oeillades. Notre-Dame l’éblouit. Ils entrent dans un feu d’artifice éclaté pas de se dégager da la fumée. On danse la fumée. On fume la musique. On boit d’une bouche à l’autre. Les copains acclament Notre-Dame-des-Fleurs. Il n’avait pas prévu que ses fermes cuisses tendraient autant l’etoffe. Il s’en fiche qu’un voi qu’il bande, mais pas à ce point-là, devant les copains. Il voudrait se cacher. Il se tourney vers Gorgui et, un peu rose, lui montre sa robe gonflée en murmurant: - Dis, Seck, laisse-moi planquer ça. Il ricane à peine. Ses yeux sont moullés, paraît-il. Gorgui ne sait s’ils le sont de blague ou de chagrin; il prend alors l’assassin par les épaules, le plaque, le serre contre lui, emboîte entre ses cuisses de colosse la dure saillie qui soulève la soie, l’entraîne sur son coeur dans des valses et des tangos qui dureront jusqu’au jour. Divine voulait pleurer de rage, déchirer des mouchoirs de batiste avec ses ongles et ses dents. ____________________________________________________________ _________ At the top of Rue Lepic is the little cabaret I spoke about., Le Tavernacle, where we practice sorcery, mix our potions, consult the tarot, read the tea leaves, decipher the lines of the left hand (these have the tendency to reveal the truth, Divine said another time), where beautiful garçons-bouches transform themselves into princesses in ballgowns.. The cabaret is small, the ceiling is low. Prince-Monsigneur rules. They are all united there. Everyone, but above all Première Coummunion, Banjo, le Reine de Roumanie, la Ginete, la Sonia, Perséphess, Clorinde, l’Abesse, Agnès, Mimosa, Divine. And their men. Every Thursday the small door is closed to the regular bourgeois clientele. The cabaret is dedicated to “those that are pure.” Prince-Monsigneur sent out the invitations. We are at home. A phonograph. Three servers, their eyes full of malice, mean with a joyful vice. Our men play dice and poker. And we dance. It is our custom to come in drag. Nothing but costumed fools rubbing up against child-pimps. In short, not a single adult. ... We dress fast that night, because we are going out for real fun. Divine wears her dress of black silk, and over it a pink jacket, and carries a glittering tulle fan. Gorgui wears a dress suit and a white tie. They descend the stairs. Taxi. Le Tavernacle. The doorman, quite young and as beautiful as possible, winks three times. Notre-Dame dazzles him. They enter the brilliant artificial fire that can’t dispel the smoke. We dance the smoke. We smoke the music. We drink from mouth to mouth. His friends applaud Notre-Dame. He hadn’t realized that his firm ass would hug the fabric this tight. He doesn't give a damn that his hard-on shows, but not this much, not in front of his friends. He wants to hide. He turns to Gorgui and, slightly blushing, shows him the bulge in his dress and mumbles: - Look, Seck, let me hide this. He laughs a bit. His eyes are damp, it seems. Gorgui doesn’t know if he’s joking or embarrassed. He takes the assassin by the shoulders, turns him, pulls him tight, wraps his colossal thighs around the hardness pushing against the silk, and holds him close to his heart during the waltzes and tangos that last until dawn. Divine wants to cry with rage, to shred her handkerchiefs with her teeth and nails. ____________________________________________________________ _________ Edited by kanewai on 03 April 2015 at 3:37am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4887 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 317 of 331 28 April 2015 at 12:34am | IP Logged |
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April
Français Super Challenge: 51.9 books, 75.4 films I'm a bit behind in books, but I'm not worried. I have a Fred Vargas mystery, Pars vite et reviens tard, on order, and I can read genre fiction pretty easily. France Culture has done a ten-part dramatization of Pars vite, which I'd like to listen to after reading the book. I can listen to non-fiction podcasts well enough, but still have a hard time with fiction, & find that I get lost quickly if I'm not familiar with the story first. http://www.franceculture.fr/oeuvre-pars-vite-et-reviens-tard -de-fred-vargas.html On the weekends I've been using Lingvist, and using Kaamelott as a study tool. I ordered both the text and the videos, and usually run through each sketch a couple times (watching it without subtitles, reading the script, reading and listening, watching a final time). It's helping me a lot to become more comfortable with casual spoken French. I also have Pimsleur Phase V downloaded on my pod; I'll start it in May. Italiano Super Challenge: 43.3 books, 50.6 films Way behind. I'm not sure I'll complete it at this rate; especially with the films. I just don't have the motivation to watch that much tv, and my comprehension isn't strong enough to use audiobooks. Just finished Pimsleur Phase IV this morning. It got more challenging at the end, and I had to repeat most of the lessons after Lesson 20. Moving slowly through Living Language and Assimil. Now that I'm done with Pimsleur I'll need to make more of an effort to work with them daily. And I'm 80% of the way through Il nomme della rosa. I'm enjoying it, though I'm also ready to read something a bit easier next. German I uploaded Michel Thomas's Foundation Course to my ipod. Because I have so much free time, I guess [/irony]. I actually do have time for a MT course; I just don't have time the time to follow it up with any kind of serious effort. We'll see if I actually start it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kanewai Triglot Senior Member United States justpaste.it/kanewai Joined 4887 days ago 1386 posts - 3054 votes Speaks: English*, French, Marshallese Studies: Italian, Spanish | Message 318 of 331 02 June 2015 at 12:05am | IP Logged |
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May
I started tracking my times on an excel sheet, which has been interesting. My May stats were: French: 20.7 hours; average 40 minutes per day. 39% Italian: 27.2 hours; average 52 minutes per day. 51% German: 5.7 hours; average 11 minutes per day. 11% Français Super Challenge: 55.7 books, 76.7 films Deficit: 465 pages. Yikes. I was at dinner with friends and someone, who used to live in Paris, decided that we should speak French with each other. And his was pretty bad - but mine was non existent. All I could mutter was bah, ouais ... mais ...shit, let's just drink. I know I can speak when I'm immersed. I've been fine speaking only French on two separate vacations. And yet I still can't turn it on as needed. It's frustrating. Pimselur V - 8 hours. Through Lesson 12. I've reviewed this in another post. Kaamelott - 1.9 hours (read/listen). Through Book 2 Chapter 14. Even with a transcript I can't understand Léodagan. I can also do a pretty good Perceval imitation. I don't know if that's a good thing or not. 
Lingvist - 2.9 hours. I'd like to start using Lingvist more regularly. Podcasts - 4 hours. My mainstays are Terre a terre and Au coeur de l'histoire Reading - 3.9 hours. I thought this would have been more; I'm surprised. Currently reading a Fred Vargas mystery, Pars vite et reviens tard. It's a fun read - someone is leaving mysterious graffiti around Paris that seem to indicate a coming apocalypse.. Like a lot of novels, there were a lot of new words in the first few chapters and I needed a dictionary; after that it was easy to simply read it. 
I'll probably keep the same balance of materials for June. It's working for me. Italiano Super Challenge: 49.2 books, 56.4 films Deficit: 750 pages. 9 movies. Crap. This is not looking good. I leave for Italy in 12 weeks! I go back and forth between thinking I'm in a good place and thinking that I suck and don't know anything. Which is par for the course for me. Rationally I know I'm doing well. Opera - 8 hours. This is new. We have tickets for Tosca in Venice and Nabucco in Verona; these will be my first taste of major opera. I tried to watch an opera in Honolulu, but fell asleep during the first act & now my friends refuse to go with me anymore. It's time to redeem myself. I downloaded the libretti, and have been working slowly through them using read/listen technique. Or is it listen/read? I forget. Anyways, I'll read through a scene in the libretto a few times, writing out translations for any words I get stuck on. Afterwards I'll listen to a recording and try to follow along. Here's my take on Act I Scene 3, where the priest Zaccaria urges the people to fight the Babylonian army that is about to enter Jerusalem: Come notte a sol fulgente, come polve in preda al vento, sparirai nel gran cimento, dio di Belo menzogner. Tu, d'Abramo iddio possente, a pugnar con noi discendi; ne' tuoi servi un soffio accendi che sia morte allo stranier. Like night before the brilliant sun Like dust in the mercy of the wind You will destroy in the grand endeavor The lying god of Baal. You, the mighty god of Abraham, descend and fight with us Give to your people a breath of fire That will bring death to the aliens. It's good stuff. It turns out that opera is kind of fun when you can understand the words. I don't think this is going to help my reading or speaking much, but I'm enjoying it. I've only worked my way through the first five scenes of Act I of Nabucco; I have 21 to go and then it's on to Tosca. It will take me the rest of the summer. And then: front row seats in Verona! (and upper gallery with the rabble in Venice; we could only afford one splurge). 
Living Language - 2.8 hours. One more chapter, plus the review, and I'm finished with the course. It's been good practice, though I really wish I had something more hard core, like an Italian FSI, to really drive the concepts into my brain. Assimil - 4.6 hours. Through lesson 84. 21 to go. When I'm finished I think that I'll make some old-fashioned flash cards out of the review sentences. Podcasts - 6.9 hours. I can't tell if these help or not. My Italian isn't good enough for me to follow along with a full podcast, and I only understand snippets. All I could get out of a show on Aretha Franklin was la la la la la la la la girl group la la la la la cresca en Detroit la la la la la la la la prima rivoluzione era quella della Supremes la la la cue music. I can't tell if I'm learning or not. When I'm in the mood I listen to Lezioni di musica and Lezioni di rock. Reading - I finished Il nome della rosa. By the end I was familiar enough with Eco's writing style that it was a smooth and pleasant read. Then I moved on to an older classic, La coscienza di Zeno (Italo Svevo, 1923), the story of one man's adventures in psychoanalysis. A few of the shorter chapters were enjoyable, especially a comic one where he attempts to quit smoking (he enters a health spa for treatment, and then seduces the nurse so he can escape and have one last midnight smoke). But overall the writing style in the book was difficult for me, and the main character was too much of a neurotic mess for me to enjoy the book. I read about sixty pages and called it quits when I found a more enjoyable book: La solitudine dei numeri primi (Paolo Giordano, 2008), about two very scarred young people. A couple people on HTLAL have recommended it, and so far I really enjoy it. And even better: I'm reading it hard cover, not on my kindle, and without the aid of an English text. This is a first. Sometime I can read a page straight through, sometimes I need to look up a dozen words; either way it's a major breakthrough for me. 
Movies - 20 minutes. Why do I even bother. Audiobooks - 2 hours. I listened to the first chapters of both Pinocchio and Zeno. I still don't understand much, and like the podcasts I'm not sure if this is useful. For June I'd like to finish Living Language and do another ten chapters or so of Assimil. In July I'll start to focus a lot more on speaking: Pimsleur IV again, and flashcards with Assimil sentences. German Still slowly working through Michel Thomas. I can only do this because it's easy; I don't have the time or energy to properly tackle a third language. Edited by kanewai on 02 June 2015 at 12:43am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5205 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 319 of 331 02 June 2015 at 10:31am | IP Logged |
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I know what you mean about La coscienza di Zeno: it was great at first, especially the smoking part, but as it went on I found it less and less interesting. I slogged until the end, but I don't think you've missed out much stopping early. I've been put off Il nome della rosa as I expected it to be too difficult, so it's nice to see you found it manageable. I didn't find Zeno too hard once I got used to the slightly old-fashioned vocabulary.
I didn't enjoy the film of La solitudine dei numeri primi too much so I've been reluctant to try the book, but I could reconsider. The story might be a bit easier to follow in writing than on film. Enjoy the opera! I've never been to the opera but it's something I'd like to try sooner or later, especially with my Italian knowledge. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jeffers Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4907 days ago 2151 posts - 3960 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Hindi, Ancient Greek, French, Sanskrit, German | Message 320 of 331 02 June 2015 at 11:54am | IP Logged |
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Occasional mentions I've seen of Fred Vargas has piqued my interest. I have been very disappointed to discover that on UK kindle they only have her books in English and in German, not in French. The weird thing is that they have 12 of her books in German on kindle in the UK and only 9 in English.
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