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Geoffw in TAC2015: RU, HE and Friends

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geoffw
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4473 days ago

1134 posts - 1865 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish
Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian

 
 Message 81 of 251
10 February 2013 at 3:48pm | IP Logged 
Recordkeeping update:

geoffw wrote:
I've been keeping track using post-it notes, but it seems like a
good idea to record it here, now that I have my own log, in case I lose my post-it notes.

Books in which I have been making substantial recent progress:

(stalled, but some progress) German: Das Lied von Eis und Feuer 05 (George R. R. Martin) [300 pages read]
(just restarted, and progressing better, 75%) Italian: Harry Potter 1 [60% read]
(DONE) French: Le Seigneur des Anneaux, tome 1 [250 pages read]

Audiobooks:

(DONE) German: Das Erste Horn: Das Geheimnis von Askir (Richard Schwartz) [11.5 hours listened]
(DONE) French: 20,000 lieues sous les mers (LibriVox) [two-thirds listened]
(ADDED, and DONE) Dracula (German)
(ADDED) Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Dutch)

Inactive books in which I have made substantial progress (i.e., about 100+ pages or 25%+ complete):

German: Mein Leben (Bill Clinton)
(Probably picking this up next, 50 %) French: Le trône de fer, tome 1 (George R. R. Martin)
French: Dune (book 2 = second half of English edition)
Italian: Andreuccio da Perugia (graded reader)
Yiddish: In fremde hent (Chassidic mystery/adventure novel)
(ADDED) Yiddish: Der Hobbit
(ADDED) Russian: The Hobbit, or There and Back Again (well, not really--but maybe some day)

1 person has voted this message useful



geoffw
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4473 days ago

1134 posts - 1865 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish
Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian

 
 Message 82 of 251
10 February 2013 at 6:16pm | IP Logged 
SUPER CHALLENGE UPDATE - Added Italian audio entries 25-26, French audio entry 42, French book entries 17-18
and Dutch Audio entry 32

I think this is progress. I finished a reasonably sophisticated book in French (that I'd already read in English) of 700
pages in 2 months, and with pretty decent comprehension. This was the first book where I felt reasonably
confident that I was correctly understanding the tenses of the verbs, etc. According to my schedules, that's pretty
good, especially in a language that I was really struggling to read a few months back.

Game of Thrones in French was a bit too tough to enjoy when I started it a few months back, but I may try it again
now. I can already tell that it'll be a bit easier now.

Listening comprehension in French is getting easier, too. I recently was watching and enjoying/understanding a
documentary on TV5MONDE about an archaeological excavation project in the Nile, uncovering all sorts of ancient
Egyptian inscriptions, sculptures, etc., and trying to determine exactly what technologies were used in making and
transporting obelisks. Neat stuff.

BOOKS (Italian): 0. ...

FILMS, ETC. (Italian):

25. Serie A: Torino - Sampdoria
26. Serie A: Juventus - Fiorentina

BOOKS (French):

17-18. Le Seigneur des Anneaux (Livre II)

FILMS, ETC. (French):

42. TV5MONDE: news, documentary, etc.

BOOKS (Dutch): 28. ...

FILMS, ETC. (Dutch):

32. Beatrix: Achter het Koninglijk Masker, NOS Beatrix 30 Jaar Koningin

I am not entered in any Super Challenge for German, but I also am still reporting for my log:

BOOKS (German): 12. ...

FILMS, ETC. (German): 43. ...
1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6382 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 83 of 251
10 February 2013 at 7:56pm | IP Logged 
i watched fiorentina too... sigh...
1 person has voted this message useful



geoffw
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4473 days ago

1134 posts - 1865 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish
Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian

 
 Message 84 of 251
10 February 2013 at 8:02pm | IP Logged 
Serpent wrote:
i watched fiorentina too... sigh...


I take it you weren't pulling for Juventus. As someone with little emotional investment, the first goal was at least
pretty to watch (though resulting from a very unfortunate defensive header). BTW, depending on your age, Juve's
uniforms look, to American eyes, like either 1) referee's uniforms (esp. as seen in American football, but also in ice
hockey), or 2) old-timey prison uniforms. All kinds of subliminal ideas coming across there...

Edited by geoffw on 10 February 2013 at 8:02pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Serpent
Octoglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
serpent-849.livejour
Joined 6382 days ago

9753 posts - 15779 votes 
4 sounds
Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish

 
 Message 85 of 251
10 February 2013 at 8:37pm | IP Logged 
Yeah I support Fiorentina in Italy.
LOL about prison uniforms:)
1 person has voted this message useful



geoffw
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4473 days ago

1134 posts - 1865 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish
Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian

 
 Message 86 of 251
12 February 2013 at 4:01pm | IP Logged 
From emk's log:

tastyonions wrote:
emk wrote:
username=emk_langs">Rockin' the Super Challange these last few days. I re-read Le Petit Prince
yesterday, and discovered that it's now an easy, nostalgic read.

That's a great feeling, coming back to something that seemed so difficult before and finding that it's now easy.


Yeah, I can relate. Yesterday I came back to the Game of Thrones book translation in French, and today I came back
to the same book translated into Italian. In both cases, it was as if a thick veil had been lifted. The French one was
less dramatic, because I already had a reasonably good understanding of it, but I was still very hazy on the details
and was missing a lot of key vocabulary until recently. The Italian was a much bigger change, going from
struggling mightily to follow anything to now being able to read (at least in the beginning, where I remember the
storyline very well) with about 95% comprehension, as long as I don't try to rush. My improved French vocabulary
probably helped a lot with figuring out the Italian vocabulary. It also helped that I learned the progressive past
tense this morning, as it showed up a lot in the few pages that I read.

As you know, I'm doing a 6WC right now in Russian, which is going ok...except I may have lost my time for
yesterday. I had it written down on the same piece of paper I used as a shopping list, then I think I threw the list
away after I finished the shopping. I'll look for it again and maybe just guess if I can't find it. I'm sure I had at least
2 hours of Russian to log, but maybe not more than 20-30 minutes in any other one language.

I'm mostly using Assimil in the most passive way possible, basically reading the translation a couple times and then
listening to the lesson over and over and over and over until I completely tune it out. Then I go back and read all
the notes and do the exercises, which tend to be very easy after this overexposure to the lesson. Also review
completed lessons frequently. I've finished the first three weeks of lessons (some of it was pretty basic review for
me) and feel comfortable with what has been covered so far. I'm trying to see how much of the passive wave I can
get through this way before the end of the challenge.

Italian active wave starts now! I wish I'd finished the French active wave already...20 lessons to go still...
1 person has voted this message useful



geoffw
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4473 days ago

1134 posts - 1865 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish
Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian

 
 Message 87 of 251
12 February 2013 at 5:02pm | IP Logged 
SUPER CHALLENGE UPDATE - Added Italian book entries 1-3

The big news here is that I finished my first ever book in Italian! As was the case with French, and to a lesser
extent, Dutch, I did not understand everything, or even close to everything, but I understood a lot, and my reading
comprehension improved tremendously over the course of the book. After debating whether to try another Harry
Potter book or something else, I've stuck to "something else" for the moment and am working on Il Trono di Spade
(Game of Thrones, first book). It's looking unlikely that I'll finish even a half Super Challenge in Italian before time
expires, but that was always the case, especially since I joined so late in Italian. But based on my recent
experiences with French and Dutch, if I can even get my book count (i.e. 100 pages X n, where n is a non-negative
integer) in Italian up even to 10-15 or so, I should expect to be able to push my reading comprehension into a
usable (~B1/B1+) level, which is probably all I will need to do everything I want on my as of yet still theoretical trip
for later this year ("B1 = can handle almost all situations likely to arise while traveling," generally, IIRC).

BOOKS (Italian): 1-3. Harry Potter e la Pietra Filosofale

FILMS, ETC. (Italian):

26. ...

BOOKS (French):

18. ...

FILMS, ETC. (French):

42. ...

BOOKS (Dutch): 28. ...

FILMS, ETC. (Dutch):

32. ...

I am not entered in any Super Challenge for German, but I also am still reporting for my log:

BOOKS (German): 12. ...

FILMS, ETC. (German): 44-54. Dracula (audiobook)
1 person has voted this message useful





emk
Diglot
Moderator
United States
Joined 5317 days ago

2615 posts - 8806 votes 
Speaks: English*, FrenchB2
Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian
Personal Language Map

 
 Message 88 of 251
12 February 2013 at 5:58pm | IP Logged 
geoffw wrote:
But based on my recent
experiences with French and Dutch, if I can even get my book count (i.e. 100 pages X n, where n is a non-negative
integer) in Italian up even to 10-15 or so, I should expect to be able to push my reading comprehension into a
usable (~B1/B1+) level, which is probably all I will need to do everything I want on my as of yet still theoretical trip
for later this year ("B1 = can handle almost all situations likely to arise while traveling," generally, IIRC).


That's the thing that really amazes me these days: If you start from, say, A2 or B1, progress really is an almost mechanical function of (semi-)comprehensible input, at least for receptive skills. It's like:

500 pages -> you can more or less read
2000 pages -> you can read a great many books for pleasure, with or without a dictionary
5000 pages -> you can read fast and fluently, and only have problems with really unfamiliar styles and materials

20 episodes of a TV show -> you can understand at least 60%
80 episodes of a TV show -> you can understand at least 80%, often more
add other TV shows and movies -> you broaden out to understand new voices

Of course, the exact numbers will vary from one person to the next, depending on background, aptitude, the language, the media chosen, etc. And all this assumes some modest curiosity about vocabulary and grammar (e.g., you occasionally look up interesting words and flip through grammar books). And maybe you watch the occasional movie with subs on and rewind a bunch.

The other thing that I find amazing is the sheer speed of adult language acquisition under these circumstances. Seriously. 5000 pages is a few dozen Hardy Boys books. 80 episodes of a TV show is a few weeks on the playground for a kid. You still won't be anything like a native, but they get 20 years of full-time immersion and school before anyone expects them to sound like an adult.

Adult language acquisition: Surprisingly fast and predictable, if you're talking about receptive skills. A full Super Challenge will get you a large fraction of the way to C1.


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