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Luso’s Silk Thread - Yürükler, TAC Rare | ||
Tags: Arabic (classical) | Sanskrit | Arabic | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4075 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 89 of 162 12 February 2014 at 4:22am | IP Logged |
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With respect to the "a-" for "non-", the words "atypical", "aconformist", and other
adjectives with "a" at the beginning are probably the English equivalent. Greece probably have a similar climate, Athens can be a scorching 40 C in summer, and perhaps the southerner islands might be even hotter. But this is quite irrelevant when I consider "hot" as anything above 18 or 19 C. I am fairly sure that I would pass out eventually living in 40 C for more than one week. Two years ago in September in Manchester it was 15 C, but much more humid than usual--I had to change my shirt thrice in one day because I overperspired. Edited by 1e4e6 on 12 February 2014 at 6:59am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4143 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 90 of 162 12 February 2014 at 7:58am | IP Logged |
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No, you wouldn't pass out if you looked after yourself, and there is air conditioning absolutely everywhere :) Two summers ago we got 4 days of over 46C. It was hell on earth, but it is rare. But last year it reached only 41C at some point. Generally it was a good summer.
Luso, good luck with your change of studying. I'm sure whatever you do it will work! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5846 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical) | Message 91 of 162 13 February 2014 at 8:31pm | IP Logged |
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German
Im Westen nichts Neues. There's too much in my plate right now and some language had to suffer. Right now, it's German, I'm afraid. Italian Just called the Institute, and it seems I got 17/20 as a final note for my C.1.2 class. Right now, it's holiday time. Arabic I managed to start my comprehensive revision of Arabic. The first two or three couple of days went very well. I'll try to make it a habit. Sanskrit This language is as classic as it gets, which means that learning methods are classic as well. Since there are three numbers and three genders, everything is multiplied by nine. And conjugation tables are presented in reverse order (third person, then second, then first). Go figure! When I ask about mnemonics, my teacher just shrugs. Edited by Luso on 13 February 2014 at 8:33pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5047 days ago 2237 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 92 of 162 13 February 2014 at 8:45pm | IP Logged |
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Parabéns, Luso! Você já tem feito muito bem no Italiano. :)
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| Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5846 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical) | Message 93 of 162 16 February 2014 at 6:13pm | IP Logged |
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This is a short but meaningful entry.
Sanskrit Friday I had another session with my teacher. Right now, we've come to the point of exchanging cultural and personal details. Obviously, I'll not go into that here, but it's something that helps set the mood to learning the language. Sanskrit is an Indo-European language with a complex grammar (yes, I know 99% of people in this forum already know this by heart, but indulge me). It has eight cases, but I understand one of them is quite similar to another one, so it's more like seven plus one. The strategy my teacher chose for our classes relies heavily on new stuff every class. In the beginning, we seemed to go slow, but now it's picking up a bit. The consequence is that sometimes I fall a little behind, but my path is always clear, should I find the time and disposition to catch up. In terms of contents, we started by learning the devanagari alphabet, then we jumped straight into the first pieces of grammar, coupled with vocabulary and a little sentence building. Right now, we got to the point where we've verb conjugation (just the present) in the nominative. Friday, there was an introduction to the genitive case. Our materials are similar to the ones used for language learning by kids for ages: pictures of students reading, girls dancing, horses running, elephants walking and monkeys eating, accompanied by short texts with Q&A like "What's that?"- "It's a horse."-"What's it doing?"-"It's running."-"Is it walking?"-"No, it's not walking, it's running.". In the beginning I wasted a bit of time trying to translate some parts of the text to no avail, because these are explanations... in Hindi. When I finally tried Google Translate, I got a quick answer (it doesn't have Sanskrit, but it has Hindi). So, I figured I'm using a Sanskrit manual for Hindi-speaking kids. Cool. In the last moments of our class, there was a magic moment, as my teacher handed me the pages for our next Friday, saying casually "and there's a couple of shlokas in there". For me, it was like the moment when I read an entire tale of the Arabian Nights, except I had to wait three or four years for that one. Edit: Not so short after all. Edited by Luso on 16 February 2014 at 9:14pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4653 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian | Message 94 of 162 17 February 2014 at 10:26pm | IP Logged |
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I wonder whether it was difficult to find a Sanskrit teacher... If that's not asking too many details, does your teacher have more private students or teach a class as well?
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| Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 5846 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical) | Message 95 of 162 18 February 2014 at 3:07am | IP Logged |
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As far as I know, I'm the only one right now, but that's something I've been wanting to ask him. I know for a fact that he teaches Hindi, both in a class and privately, and that he hasn't a Sanskrit class, as there are none in the Lisbon area. Which leads me to the first part of your question, that is, the difficulty in finding the teacher: it was in fact very difficult.
The language learning 'scene' here has a big tradition, but is very much goal-oriented. Even today, people look quizzically at me when I say I'm learning Sanskrit (which nevertheless a surprisingly high percentage of them has heard about) and ask me if someone still speaks it. I guess it's better than "you're learning what?". Oddly enough, a few of those questions happened when my former Arabic teacher invited me to a dinner with his present students. You'd expect a bit more sympathy from people that are learning a language reputed as useless, even if most of them quit after the first semester. I've been wanting to learn Arabic since 1990 or '91, and Sanskrit since 2006. I mean for real, with objective steps taken towards accomplishing it. During the '80s, if memory serves me well, the only "exotic" language you could learn was Japanese, as there was a language school that taught it, with a few levels available. There were a few introductory courses, both in universities and in miscellaneous embassies, but nothing really serious. I'm not counting Latin or Ancient Greek, which I'm sure were available at a number of universities. This is all the more strange if you consider our colonial past (and a very recent one at that: we left India in 1961 and Macau in 1999!). I attended an exhibit at our National Library commemorating the first contacts with non-European languages (I still have the catalogue somewhere). There's a number of relevant African, Asian and American languages whose first dictionaries were compiled by Portuguese missionaries. I knew of a couple of people who teached Sanskrit. One is my former teacher of History, Culture and Civilisation of India. He's a discreet old man and the most accomplished linguist I know (HTLAL included). The problem is that he only teaches classes, and when my former girlfriend and I asked him about teaching us, he said ok, provided we could find a few more students. This was an impossible task. Eventually, I got the contact of my teacher through an Indian friend of mine. Even so, it was quite an odyssey. In the mean time, he even put me in contact with the local Hindu priest. As the gentleman didn't speak anything but Gujarati and Sanskrit, it was a daunting task. Edited by Luso on 18 February 2014 at 3:17am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Gemuse Senior Member Germany Joined 3867 days ago 818 posts - 1189 votes Speaks: English Studies: German | Message 96 of 162 19 February 2014 at 2:53am | IP Logged |
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Luso, you might be interested in the young adults' sanskrit magazine "Chandamama" (short
stories). They offer subscriptions. www.chandamama.com/lang/SAN/index.htm (terrible website though) They also have English versions of the magazines (actually many language versions), so they can serve as Sanskrit+translation texts of contemporary young adult Indian literature. Edited by Gemuse on 19 February 2014 at 2:55am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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