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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 4398 days ago 263 posts - 370 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek | Message 97 of 108 11 May 2014 at 5:25pm | IP Logged |
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I'm still here, still working on Greek, at a snail's pace.
I still have weekly tutoring on Skype. Beyond that I'm not doing much, mostly just listening when I have a chance. My goal this year was to finish two chapters of Ellinika A and B each month but I'm nowhere near that pace. But, rather than beat myself up over it, I'm accepting my slow pace. I have no reason to hurry, really. The trip to Greece has been put on hold indefinitely. When I do have the opportunity to hear Greek spoken by people here, I can get the gist of it (it helps that there is a lot of English thrown in). I'd like to keep this log going. Is there a way to change the title? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4427 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 98 of 108 12 May 2014 at 9:43am | IP Logged |
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Long time no see. Nice that you are still around.
If I remember correctly you can change the title by going to the first post of the log and click the edit button. I had to put Greek on hold for a while, I found that I had too little time to work seriously on both Russian and Greek, in addition to maintaining other languages. It was not easy, and I will take up Greek again in the near future, when time allows. I love the way it sounds and I love Greek culture and people, so I am not willing to give up completely the idea of getting to an intermediate level some day. Anyway, good luck with your further studies! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5653 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 99 of 108 13 May 2014 at 12:18am | IP Logged |
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Welcome back, embici! You can change the title by editing the first post. If it won't let you edit it (it's a forum bug, the edit button disappears after a certain amount of time), press the quote button and then remove the "M=Q&" part from the URL.
I pretty much fell into the same situation as Ogrim, though for me it was mostly being bummed about the Language Transfer course 4 and 5 never coming out and not being able to fit in textbook study time ;) But i too love how Greek sounds and really enjoy Greek grammar, so i hope to see you around and get more and more jealous of you! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| embici Triglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4398 days ago 263 posts - 370 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek | Message 100 of 108 13 May 2014 at 2:06am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for stopping by, Ogrim and Crush. I've stopped by your logs now and again and admire your dedication, even though I'm a little saddened to have lost you to other languages. ;)
I keep nudging the Language Transfer people on Twitter and where ever else I can find them, hoping they'll get 4 and 5 going. It's such a great program. And thanks for the help. I will attempt to change the title soon. One thing I've enjoyed adding to the mix of materials for Greek studies is Twitter. Those short but sweet tweets are great for my level. I'm not ready to tackle newspaper articles but 140 characters seems more manageable. I've just tried out Lingualy and it's looking like a nice tool. I can click on the words I don't understand, it gives me a translation, and then it stores those words. I haven't done anything with those ords yet. I'll let you know how it goes. I got on the Mixxer mailing list some time ago. If memory serves its a language exchange website (I think everyone is on iTalki nowadays). Anyway, they had a posting about a Spanish MOOC in July where they will match us up with partners to assist us in our studies should we register. Well, I'm not sure I'll do that, but something that caught my eye was a Cervantes Institute test to check my level of Spanish.It was a short, on-line test. Being from Canada, I wasn't familiar with these European classifications for languages before coming to this site. I've never been tested using that rubric so I was curious... When I completed it the level it had me at was C1.3-1.4. Now I can't remember if it said to take courses at that level or to take the exam at that level. I think it was the former. I didn't know they had such precise classifications! I think now I will have a look around the Cervantes Institute website a bit more and review materials for my level. MOOC de Español: Curso abierto para hablantes de inglés que deseen mejorar su español (2014) TEST DE CLASIFICACIÓN Edited by embici on 01 June 2014 at 11:52pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5653 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 101 of 108 14 May 2014 at 1:46am | IP Logged |
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Creo que eso es el nivel más alto que puedes sacar en el examen. El Instituto Cervantes divide todos los niveles mayores a A (o sea, B1, B2 y C1) en cuatro partes, supongo que es prueba también de lo "eficaz" de su método, ya que supongo que cada semestre equivaldrá una de esas partes.
Será que te han dicho que tomes esas clases, pero no creo que ofrezcan clases más allá del C1.4, entonces podría resultar que sus clases no te servirían de mucho ;) Gracias también por el enlace al MOOC de español, creo que voy a apuntarme. Hace tiempo que no estudio el castellano y tengo miedo de que poco a poco se me vaya olvidando... Ah, vaya, ¡resulta que ya tenía una cuenta de Mixxer! Y como ha dicho Ogrim, yo también espero retomar el griego bien pronto. Seguro que no puedo resistir cuando saquen los nuevos cursos de griego, sólo espero que sea más temprano que tarde ;) A propósito, ¿tienes algunas ideas de cómo mejorar tu castellano? Hace años que dejé de estudiarlo, ahora sólo leo, veo películas y hablo con hispanohablantes que viven por aquí. Parece que me he estancado hace rato. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Penelope Diglot Senior Member Greece Joined 3657 days ago 110 posts - 155 votes Speaks: English, French Studies: Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 102 of 108 14 May 2014 at 7:15am | IP Logged |
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Hi, embici. Nice to see you back. :)
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| embici Triglot Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4398 days ago 263 posts - 370 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Greek | Message 103 of 108 16 May 2014 at 4:06pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the comments and support, everyone.
I have a new language I might add to the mix if only temporarily... Swiss German. There is a chance I might travel to Switzerland for a very quick trip this summer. Many years ago I bought Pimsleur's Swiss German because it was the only course I could find for that language/dialect. But, I didn't like Pimsleur. As a young, female student, so the dialogues just seemed totally irrelevant to me. I'm not the first to complain about Pimsleur's focus on businessmen trying to pick up local women so I won't go on. Some people are able to get past that and use the program effectively. I wasn't at the time. Now I just have to figure out how to play the cassettes since I don't think I own a functioning cassette player! Have you studied Swiss German before, Ogrim? I was listening to a Romansh link you provided somewhere and the melody reminded me so much of Swiss German. I'm not sure how I will work on my Spanish, Crush. Late in 2013 I took a few Spanish lessons and found a conversation partner in anticipation for a trip to Cuba. I didn't continue because I didn't feel the urgency to work on Spanish after the trip was cancelled. In addition, I was speaking with Spaniards and since my Spanish is so thoroughly Latin American (I can't even conjugated verbs in the vosotros form!) I found instead of making progress I was subconsciously struggling to make my Spanish conform to theirs, overthinking my word choices instead of just letting the words flow. Silly, I know. I like the idea of watching films, Crush. Do you have a favourite director? Edited by embici on 01 June 2014 at 11:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Crush Tetraglot Senior Member ChinaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5653 days ago 1622 posts - 2299 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Mandarin, Esperanto Studies: Basque | Message 104 of 108 17 May 2014 at 4:06am | IP Logged |
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I don't have any particular favorite director, i tend to pick movies based on their themes. I've seen a lot of films centered around the Spanish Civil War (El laberinto del fauno, Libertarias, Tierra y libertad, La lengua de las mariposas) because i'm really interested in that time period. I actually ended up reading the book Libertarias was based on (La monja libertaria) when i found it at a used book shop in Spain.
Some other movies i've enjoyed were Martín (Hache), Caballos salvajes, Los olvidados, El día de la bestia, Mar adentro, La ciudad quemada (though i saw it in Catalan: La ciutat cremada), and Los amantes del círculo polar. I've seen a lot of older movies, too, as for a while i was going through lists like "Las mejores 50 películas en español" searching out the movies that sounded the most interesting. Some that stand out are El verdugo, Nazarín, Muerte de un ciclista, and Atraco a las tres. Lately i've been watching more documentaries than actual films, though, again mostly about the Civil War and the Maquis. I don't know if you'd really be interested in that, though. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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