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Georgian?! Really?!?

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liddytime
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
mainlymagyar.wordpre
Joined 5989 days ago

693 posts - 1328 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician
Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 41 of 65
24 April 2012 at 5:15am | IP Logged 
Wow!

I just realized that this is my 500th post here. I should really do something big for this post,
something monumental,
something ground-breaking,
something earth-shattering!!!!!


Nah.

But I do think I should look back and see what I have done language-wise since I joined this forum 1632 days
ago!
(It is slightly ironic that this is going under the heading of my Georgian log; the language I just started a week
ago!)

    1. Started learning Georgian (I still can't believe the alphabet was that easy to learn)
    2. Repeatedly pursued and abandoned Korean.   Sigh, I just don't think this one is for me.
    3. Mandarin Chinese. From zero to holding a basic conversation and recognizing 100-200 characters. (TBC-to
be continued!)
    4. Arabic - definitely an "on again/off again" language for me. Completed the Living Language "Basic" course,
Teach Yourself Arabic, Teach Yourself Arabic of the Gulf and a semester conversational course. Dabbled with the
DLI MSA course. TBC - especially if my travels take me to an Arabic -speaking country!
    5. Hungarian - Got a fair amount of study under my belt for a trip to Hungary that, unfortunately, fell through.
Finished FSI part one and about half of Assimil Hungarian. Felt pretty good having basic Hungarian conversations
and still have fairly good reading comprehension.
    6. Hindi - I took this up for a 6 week challenge a year or so ago.   I made it through Teach Yourself Beginner's
Hindi but was having a really hard time speaking it. It seemed that all the Indians that I came into contact with
spoke a language OTHER than Hindi. Nevertheless it was a fun experience.
    7. Italian - prepared fro a trip to Italy a few years ago by watching/listening to a TON of Italian internet
TV/radio. I don't recall which books, if any I used. By the end of the trip I think my Italian was better than my
Spanish or Portuguese. My "yessssssss!!!" moment of the trip came when we were eating dinner at a table with a
handful of Italians talking about this and that. After a while, they asked where I was from and I said I was from
the Boston area. Their eyes got huge... "Really?!, We totally thought you were Italian!" (OK they could have been
being nice ....   but let's say they weren't!! :-)   )
    8. Haitian Creole - Shortly after the 2010 earthquake I volunteered to provide anesthesia for a small, remote
and suddenly overburdened hospital. I challenged myself to learn as much Kreyol as I could manage in the three
weeks preceding my trip. Albert Valdman at Indiana University was kind enough to send me his Ann Pale Kreyol
course at cost. I managed to finish most of it before I left and actually picked up a fair amount of Kreyol. I could
explain things fairly well to the patients but more importantly, I could haggle with the Haitian taxi drivers! One
of them even gave me a Haitian music CD compilation!
    9. Persian - Persian is another one of those "on again/off again" languages. At one point I made it through
Pimsleur I and through 30+ units of the DLI course. I adore Persian. I love speaking it, I love how it sounds.   I
just don't have much "use" for Persian. I don't see myself visiting Iran anytime soon, there aren't any Persian
speakers in my area... I just don't have anyplace to "use" it. So, every few years I pick it up only to get re-
discouraged that I'm not able to use it.
    10. In addition to the above, I've also toyed with and "felt out" many others including: Albanian, Finnish,
Romanian, Indonesian, Icelandic, Serbo-Croatian, Hausa and Swahili!



I am really grateful that this site and this forum exists. It is mainly through this site and the support of this
forum community that I have been able to even attempt what I have done above! There are several other
"language" sites and forums, but none of them offer the genuine sense of "community" that I have found here.

Seriously?!

Where else can a handful of Georgian learners on four different continents get together to assist, encourage and
critique each other?! Where else can I ponder the utilities of the available resources for Sami and have a response
in less than an hour? (I'm sure a place exists, but I sure haven't found it yet!)

I reiterate, I'm glad that such a community exists and there are thousands of people out there with the same
passion for speaking other cultures' languages that I have.
( I'm still not sure how or why I contracted that passion, but I'm sure I could have less healthy interests...)



Here's to the next 500!!! :-)
5 persons have voted this message useful



zhanglong
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4689 days ago

322 posts - 427 votes 
Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese

 
 Message 42 of 65
24 April 2012 at 7:34am | IP Logged 
I'm looking forward to reading your 10,000th post.

Onward, amigo, onward!
2 persons have voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5094 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 43 of 65
24 April 2012 at 7:58am | IP Logged 
Congratulations on your 500th post! I share your feelings for the forum. You are one of the many people on
this forum which makes me feel quite dull and unimaginative when it comes to language learning. That is
actually a good thing, because I am used to feeling like a freak for being so obsessed with languages. Keep
up the good work. You are an inspiration!
2 persons have voted this message useful



mick33
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5684 days ago

1335 posts - 1632 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Finnish
Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish

 
 Message 44 of 65
24 April 2012 at 10:38pm | IP Logged 
I'll also congratulate you for your 500th post! Your logs are always inspiring. You seem to really enjoy learning languages and the enthusiasm always comes through in your writing.
liddytime wrote:
1. Started learning Georgian (I still can't believe the alphabet was that easy to learn)
I knew it. One of these days I'll have to stop being so freaked out by different alphabets, especially since the Georgian alphabet is not complex at all.
    
liddytime wrote:
    

I am really grateful that this site and this forum exists. It is mainly through this site and the support of this
forum community that I have been able to even attempt what I have done above! There are several other
"language" sites and forums, but none of them offer the genuine sense of "community" that I have found here.

Seriously?!

Where else can a handful of Georgian learners on four different continents get together to assist, encourage and
critique each other?! Where else can I ponder the utilities of the available resources for Sami and have a response
in less than an hour? (I'm sure a place exists, but I sure haven't found it yet!)

I reiterate, I'm glad that such a community exists and there are thousands of people out there with the same
passion for speaking other cultures' languages that I have.
( I'm still not sure how or why I contracted that passion, but I'm sure I could have less healthy interests...)



Here's to the next 500!!! :-)
I feel the same way about this forum, it is pretty great and I look forward to your next 500+ posts!

Edited by mick33 on 24 April 2012 at 10:40pm

3 persons have voted this message useful



liddytime
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
mainlymagyar.wordpre
Joined 5989 days ago

693 posts - 1328 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician
Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 45 of 65
24 April 2012 at 11:54pm | IP Logged 
Thanks for the kind words everyone!

Solfrid Cristin wrote:
... That is
actually a good thing, because I am used to feeling like a freak for being so obsessed with languages. ...
!


Hey now! Don't forget ... This world needs freaks! ;-)
3 persons have voted this message useful



liddytime
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
mainlymagyar.wordpre
Joined 5989 days ago

693 posts - 1328 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician
Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 46 of 65
27 April 2012 at 1:09am | IP Logged 
So what is new with Georgian?


I got a basic handle on Georgian numbers. I heard from several people "oh, they're soooo hard, they don't make
any sense"

Bumpkus!   

They are based on groups of (or base) 20 - sort of similar to French eg:

20 =ოცი = otsi      ( twenty )
40 = ორმოცი = ormotsi      ( 2 twenty)
60 = სამოცი = samotsi      ( 3 twenty )
80 = ოთხმოცი = otkhmotsi (4 twenty )

SO, for numbers between 21 and 99 use : 20, 40, 60, or 80, drop the final i, add da (= and) and the number from
1 to 19; e.g.:

21 = ოცდაერთი = otsdaerti =(20 + 1)      
30 = ოცდაათი otsdaati = (20 + 10)     
38 = ოცდათვრამეტი = otsdatvrameti = (20 + 18)      
47 = ორმოცდაშვიდი = ormotsdašvidi = (2 x 20 + 7)      
99 = ოთხმოცდაცხრამეტი = otkhmotsdatskhrameti = (4 x 20 + 19)

and that's it! Not that hard.

I have almost finished the Peace Corps booklet. I am on Unit 8 and it only goes up to 11. (feel free to insert your
own Spinal Tap joke here)

The big news is that on the Video #8 at exactly 1:02 ... Keti SMILES!! (almost laughs!) ... for about 3 seconds. I
replayed it about 5 times to make sure I was seeing it right.

It is incredible how many times I have to play the phrases over before they "click". Yeah, that's right; Georgian is
hard. OK, got it, keep moving on!

I want to jump ahead to Kiziria but I really do want to get through the Peace Corps material first. The first time I
looked at Kiziria's Chapter 1, I was totally overwhelmed. I think it will make more sense after I have gotten
through the "survival course".

What I would really like to do when I have the time is go back and read TixiiDOn , hrhenry and Expugnator's first
posts when they started out. Haven't had time yet but I think this would be a big help!
edit: sorry zecchino1991, yours too!!


Edited by liddytime on 29 April 2012 at 5:55pm

4 persons have voted this message useful



pigsonfire
Newbie
United States
Joined 4835 days ago

26 posts - 37 votes
Speaks: English*
Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Cantonese

 
 Message 47 of 65
27 April 2012 at 7:47pm | IP Logged 
Looking forward to following your progress on this one! You have your work cut out for you!
1 person has voted this message useful



liddytime
Pentaglot
Senior Member
United States
mainlymagyar.wordpre
Joined 5989 days ago

693 posts - 1328 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Galician
Studies: Hungarian, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew, Norwegian, Persian, Arabic (Written)

 
 Message 48 of 65
30 April 2012 at 6:27am | IP Logged 
I have done it!    
(Don't get too excited ... I have merely moved on to unit 1 of Kiziria's Beginners Georgian. )

It is not as intimidating as it was a few weeks ago. I do think the Peace Corps Introduction is a great way to "get
one's feet wet" with Georgian. I would highly recommend this to anyone starting out with Georgian. I'd say I know,
maybe 50-75 Georgian words now; up from zero two weeks ago. Even though I am comfortable with the alphabet, it
seems like it is still taking me a long time to read sentences. I can really empathize with my 5 year old son who is
learning to read. I feel like we are on about the same level (with my Georgian reading - I feel fairly comfortable
reading English).


1 person has voted this message useful



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