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Embici’s slow road to Greek | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| embici Triglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4388 days ago 263 posts - 370 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek | Message 73 of 108 03 July 2013 at 4:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, it seems my de-motivation didn't last long. I have been carrying on with Ελληνικά
Α'. I'm about halfway finished the book. I'm using it more as a replacement for the active wave in Assimil. There isn't much that's new for me in this book (thanks to Assimil, Michel Thomas and Language Transfer) but it's the first time I'm doing written exercises on a regular basis so I'm moving beyond the passive knowledge I was gaining from Assimil. It's definitely not ideal for self-study as there are no grammar explanations just charts of declensions and conjugations. There are 20 lessons in the book with about four short audio tracks per lesson. I find the dialogues interesting as the vocabulary seems very up-to-date and close to the way people really speak now. TY and Assimil seem a bit dated. Ελληνικά Α' is not focussed on tourist vocabulary but rather everyday vocabulary for people living in Greece. It's obviously meant for a classroom of new immigrants. It has a lot of exercises in it, many of which are to be done with classmates and their topics are very specific to life in Greece. For my taste, there might be too many exercises and not enough audio. For someone like me who is not in Greece and not exposed to the language on a daily basis I think the more input-heavy programs are probably more useful to me. It's too bad the Assimil New Greek with ease isn't more fun to listen to. Because Ελληνικά Α' is written with a diverse audience in mind I find they spend a lot of time on distinguishing sounds. For example there are a pile of exercises where you have to listen to a word and write whether it is a δ or ντ, π or μπ, μπ or β, π or φ, γ or γκ, and τ or θ, for example. Sounds that wouldn't confuse an English speaker, but would others. Something else I don't like about the book is that it's huge. Assimil has portability going for it, that's for sure. That's my half-way point, mini-review of Ελληνικά Α'. My tutor uses it, so I will carry on. I hope to move through it faster during the summer as my workload has eased up lately. I didn't finish either TY or Assimil so I'm determined to get through at least one beginners' course! Small edit for clarity. Edited by embici on 14 July 2013 at 9:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| embici Triglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4388 days ago 263 posts - 370 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek | Message 74 of 108 07 July 2013 at 3:00am | IP Logged | ||
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I'll admit, when it comes to telling time, I've led a very insular, sheltered life. I
still get confused when I hear a Brit say "Half five." Is that 4:30 or 5:30? I'm never sure. I heard about Swahili time a couple of years ago and that surprised me. But what had my head spinning today was Catalan time. It's based on quarters of the hour to come. So, if you want to say it's 18h35 (6:35pm) you would say "Són dos quarts i cinc de set del vespre." Literally, "it's two quarters and five of seven in the evening." Got that? You can click here to find the time where you are in Catalan. EDIT: darn typos Edited by embici on 08 July 2013 at 5:00pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4417 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 75 of 108 08 July 2013 at 10:19am | IP Logged | ||
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Thank you for the link to the Catalan clock! I was aware of this particular way of telling time in Catalan, but I never saw a detailed explanation of it until now.
It is not used by all Catalan speakers though. In the dialects in Valencia and the Balearic islands you do not find it, nor in southern parts of Catalunya. Catalan has indeed som very interesting peculiarities compared to other Romance languages. Even after many years being exposed to and reading Catalan, I still haven't got used to the fact that "anar + infinitive" expresses a past tense, when in French, Italian and Spanish the similar construction indicates future. By the way, glad to see you got your motivation back for Greek. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| embici Triglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4388 days ago 263 posts - 370 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek | Message 76 of 108 08 July 2013 at 5:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Ogrim, it is such a fascinating language and I see why so many people here study it. I just saw that anar + infinitive construction briefly this morning as I was glancing at future chapters. I thought to myself, "Am I reading this right?" Thank you for clarifying that.
Part of me is trying to convince myself that Portuguese or Italian would be much more practical to study but Catalan just looks so darn fascinating right now. If this interest doesn't wear off I will probably buy the Assimil course since everyone using it raves about it. For now I'm using the Curso Pons Catalan. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4417 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 77 of 108 11 July 2013 at 4:26pm | IP Logged | ||
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I haven't used Assimil for Catalan, so cannot comment on how good it is. I see you use a Spanish course, and I think that it is a good idea to learn Catalan through Spanish if you can. A good Spanish-based course will normally highlight both similarities and differences. Normally the progress will also be quicker than in an English-based course.
My first manual was an old Teach Yourself course, and later on I used purely monolingual sources and course books. As a matter of fact, I used a course in Valencian, but for all purposes it is the same language (and I for one do not want to enter the Valencian vs. Catalan debate, as my wife's family is Valencian:-) Finally, anar + infinitive corresponds to the Spanish pretérito indefinido. Catalan also has a "pretèrit perfet" but as far as I can tell you hardly see it used nowadays except in literature. I read former Catalan President Pujol's memories, and he uses the "anar" construction all the time. Check out this website for an overview of Catalan verb conjugations: verbs.cat 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Gomorritis Tetraglot Groupie Netherlands Joined 4056 days ago 91 posts - 157 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English, Catalan, French Studies: Greek, German, Dutch | Message 78 of 108 14 July 2013 at 9:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have heard many people use "pretèrit perfet" around Valencia. It's true some people (probably some regions) use it
more than others and I can't give you exact information about this, but I do know I have heard it a lot! I'm Valencian myself, but from Spanish-speaking family and with mostly Spanish-speaking friends, which means I'm very confortable understanding Catalan, but not so much speaking it. I'm glad you didn't abandon Greek, embici. I abandoned it for 2 months now because I've been very busy, but I will for sure go back to it. I will be in Skopelos for 8 days in August, so at least I should do some reviewing before. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| embici Triglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4388 days ago 263 posts - 370 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek | Message 79 of 108 14 July 2013 at 9:33pm | IP Logged | ||
Thanks so much for that link, Ogrim. What a handy site that is. It's nice to see that so many people are going to Greece! Lucky you, Gomorritis. I hear tourism is down because of the crisis so I would like to hear your impressions. I'll get back there again in the next couple of years, I hope. Edit: I am the typo queen. Edited by embici on 15 July 2013 at 3:11pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| embici Triglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4388 days ago 263 posts - 370 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek | Message 80 of 108 15 July 2013 at 12:09am | IP Logged | ||
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I was debating putting my Greek studies on hold before my last Skype lesson but during
the lesson we chatted for about 50 minutes in Greek, before we even opened the textbook. I had a nice sense of accomplishment after that and it was a enough motivation to keep me going. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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