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Amerykanka’s TAC 2013, Teams Żubr & Nebun | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4159 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 153 of 176 02 August 2013 at 4:29pm | IP Logged |
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Nad Niemnem is now on my list too! If you really want an entertaining watch, go to YouTube and watch "Akademia Pana Kleksa." It's so strange it's actually entertaining!
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| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4961 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 154 of 176 03 August 2013 at 4:03pm | IP Logged |
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Mooby, just what I need - more Anki! I am still regrouping and tending my wounds after the last flashcard
attack. Fuenf_Katzen, thanks - I need more Polish movies to watch, so I'll take a look at Akademia Pana Kleksa! I finished watching Nad Niemnem yesterday! I need to watch the last hour or so again, since I missed some of the dialogue the first time through, but I thought it was a good movie. I would definitely recommend it to both of you. The wait proved too much for me, so I started reading Nad Niemnem, too. I've read about 25 pages and I like it even more than the movie so far. This isn't surprising, since I almost always prefer books to their movie versions. The only exception I can think of is Les Miserables. Anyway, now I am reading Harry Potter 5 and Nad Niemnem at the same time, but the styles are so different from each other that I think they provide some good contrast. I'm now on page 114 of Harry Potter 5, so I haven't been neglecting this book in favor of my newest addition. Has anyone else noticed that in Polish literature they mention specific kinds of birds, trees, and flowers all the time? I learned all the basic words (jay, crow, swan, maple, oak, willow, rose, violet, pansy, holly, etc.), but I'm no naturalist, so I never bothered to dig deeper. However, after coming across yet another pastoral description full of such names, I decided that something had to be done. Yesterday I started making "picture" cards. I put the Polish name for a given bird, tree, or flower on one side of the card and a photo of the species on the other side. I also include the English name under the photo. I can identify more bird species than the average American, but this knowledge does not extend to European species; and when it comes to trees and flowers, I am clueless. I hear words like "maple", "aspen", and "elm" and I know there's a tree in question, but the only trees I can picture with clarity are pines, magnolias, dogwoods, and weeping willows. So including these photos is proving to be educational in many ways! I think I may have gone a bit overboard with the bird species, though. I went down this entire list of Polish birds and added flashcards of all the birds whose names I had seen in books before and of some birds that appeared to be common in Poland. Around 25-30 total. But I had a lot of fun doing it, and now I will have a greater understanding of Polish wildlife, not to mention Polish novels. :) Edited by Amerykanka on 03 August 2013 at 4:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 5895 days ago 707 posts - 1219 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 155 of 176 03 August 2013 at 7:50pm | IP Logged |
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I really enjoy stumbling across names.
For example; I was checking the word for "belligerent / agressive" (napastliwy) and made a note of the masculine derivative napastnik which means an "attacker" - usually in reference to an attacking football player. I then noticed the feminine derivative napastnica, which means "foxglove", maybe in reference to the shocking pink of the flower spikes somehow 'attacking the eyes'(?) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4961 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 156 of 176 03 August 2013 at 11:40pm | IP Logged |
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Neat derivation! I think that there will soon be a card titled "naparstnica" (according to Wikipedia, there's an R
in there) appearing in my Anki deck. I learned a lot of similar words in Polish years ago, but I never had a concrete idea of what the English translations stood for. The result is that now I recognize many Polish words as meaning "some sort of plant/shrub/tree", but I can never think of the English equivalent . . . because the English word really means nothing to me. I am trying to rectify this situation. And people think learning languages is boring!!! For example, when I was eleven or twelve I learned the word "wrona", and ever since I have envisioned big black crows whenever I see or hear that word. But yesterday I came across the entry "wrona" in the list of Polish birds, and I clicked on it just for fun. And I was shocked! In the US we have American Crows (wrony amerykańskie) - which are black - and in Poland they have Hooded Crows (wrony siwe) - which are GRAY and black. Gray crows are probably no surprise to a lot of the Europeans, but they fascinate me! Next time I see the word "wrona", I will be prepared with the following image fixed firmly in my mind . . . 
Doesn't this bird look awesome? (My apologies to all of those people who see these birds every day and probably think they're just as much of a nuisance as we Americans generally think our crows are.) Edit: I can't make the photo show up! :( Edited by Amerykanka on 03 August 2013 at 11:43pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 5895 days ago 707 posts - 1219 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 157 of 176 04 August 2013 at 1:13am | IP Logged |
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You're right......after all this time, I never noticed the 'r' in "naparstnica"!
As there isn't an 'r' in the other two words, I simply overlooked it. Makes me wonder what else I've missed. Another amusing example is the words for "slug" and "snail" Ślimak = "snail" Ślimak nagi = "slug" or literally, a 'naked snail'. This reminds me of a joke: "There were two snails crawling along a wall and behind them was a slug. One snail said to the other, "Don't look round dear, we're being followed by a nudist!" 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4961 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 158 of 176 04 August 2013 at 11:04pm | IP Logged |
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Haha, I'm going to start telling that joke now! (And I'll include the tidbit about Polish snails and slugs, of
course.) UPDATE I read around 50 more pages of Nad Niemnem. I'm enjoying it much more than the movie, as I predicted I would. There is just so much more detail! I'm mad that my Polish isn't good enough for me to sit down and simply devour the book, like I would if it were in English. I've been known to read Dickens novels in just a few days' time, but I suspect this one will take me at least two weeks. And that's if I have lots of time to read. But on the other hand, I'm thrilled that I can read classics in Polish at all! :) In general, if asked, I would say that I have a better knowledge of Spanish than Polish, and I'm definitely more comfortable speaking, writing, and listening to Spanish. But when it comes to reading classics, I find Nad Niemnem MUCH easier than Cien Años de Soledad. I think that, in spite of everything, my passive Polish vocabulary is still ahead of my passive Spanish vocabulary by a few thousand words. If there's a rare word, I'm much more likely to know it in Polish than in Spanish. However, this preference for Polish does not extend to other forms of reading - I'm much better at reading, say, news articles, or even Harry Potter, in Spanish. Isn't that rather strange? Edit: I almost forgot. The characters in Nad Niemnem saw some crows in a field and I was thrilled! Edited by Amerykanka on 04 August 2013 at 11:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Amerykanka Hexaglot Senior Member United States Joined 4961 days ago 657 posts - 890 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Polish, Latin, Ancient Greek, Russian | Message 159 of 176 06 August 2013 at 3:33am | IP Logged |
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Time for a Spanish update, since I've been going on about Polish rather a lot lately. ;)
First, I am slowly but surely moving through Cien Años de Soledad. My plan is to read 10-15 pages per day and finish by the end of August. I must say that, although I don't like this book, there are passages that are masterfully written! Second, I am very pleased with my speaking skills. Since returning from Nicaragua, I have had two impromptu conversations in Spanish (one with the mother of my Mexican friend and the other with my Puerto Rican aunt) and I was able to conduct them both without too much difficulty or word-searching. When my friend decided to introduce me to her mother, I was a bit worried, because I had been reading and listening to Polish all day and I hadn't done much of anything with Spanish in a few days. But I managed to keep Polish words from coming out of my mouth and I only thought them in my head once! Anyway, I think that my biggest issue with speaking Spanish is lack of practice. I notice improvement even within the scope of individual conversations - once I've been talking for 5 minutes or so, words start coming easier and my tongue stops getting tangled up. Finally, today I watched two 42-minute episodes of "La Rosa de Guadalupe". I was shocked at how easily I understood everything! I hadn't watched any of this television show in a few months, and before I'd still had trouble understanding different scenes. But this time, although I did miss words and sentences now and then, I had very little trouble following the story lines or the conversations. So all those hours of listening comprehension are starting to pay off! Edit: I forgot to add that since January I have learned around 900 new words, not to mention hundreds of idiomatic phrases. Edited by Amerykanka on 06 August 2013 at 3:56am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4159 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 160 of 176 07 August 2013 at 3:11am | IP Logged |
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That's really interesting that you find your self more comfortable in Spanish in general, especially because you have had exposure to Polish for longer. I've always been curious about how that happens, and if you had any ideas as to why you feel more comfortable with Spanish. The passive vocabulary doesn't seem too surprising--after spending so much time listening to and learning Polish, I imagine it's pretty easy to develop a good passive vocabulary.
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