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Tags: Using Foreign Languages | Living Language | Catalan | Romance Languages | Latin | Russian | German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4637 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 73 of 109 21 November 2014 at 3:37pm | IP Logged |
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I just realised that I have not written anything in this log for almost a month, so it is high time.
First of all an update on my Russian studies: Unfortunately I have been very busy with work and other commitments lately, so I have had little time to advance in Russian. Last week I even felt that I was going backwards, when I picked up again the book Анекдоты: самые новые и смешные. I reread a few pages I studied quite intensely last summer, and discovered that I had forgotten quite a few words which I had made a point of learning back then. I really need to set aside more time for vocabulary study and reading. I also missed my Russian classes the last two weeks, due to work obligations. Hopefully things will get calmer as we get closer to the Christmas holiday and I can feel that I am advancing in Russian again. Español La verdad es que dedico bastante tiempo a seguir el campeonato mundial de ajedrez. El noruego Magnus Carlsen de 23 años defiende el título de campeón ante Viswanathan Anand, que perdió ante Carlsen hace un año. No soy un gran jugador, pero el ajedrez siempre me ha fascinado y cuando hay un campeón noruego es especialmente interesante seguir los partidos. La televisión noruega y el periódico VG transmiten todos los partidos en directo, y en VG también puedes ver todas las partidas y analizar cada jugada. Para no limitarme al vocabulario de ajedrez en noruego e inglés, leo también los artículos de Leontxo García en El País. El señor García es un gran conocedor y buen jugador él mismo, y sus análisis de las partidas valen la pena. (Lately I have been dedicating a lot of time to the Chess World Championship, where Norwegian champion Magnus Carlsen who is only 23 defends the title against Viswanathan Anand, who lost the title to Carlsen last year. You can follow all the matches live on Norwegian TV and via the internet site of the Norwegian newspaper VG. At the same time I am learning chess vocabulary in Spanish by reading the articles of the great Spanish chess expert Leontxo García in El País.) Romontsch sursilvan Il davos temps hai jeu era viu ina seria sin rtr.ch che senumna “Minoritads en l'Europa”. Ils programs ein fetg interessants, la televisiun romontscha ha visitau ils Bascs ed ils Catalans nella Spagna, ils Fris nella Hollanda, ils Sorbs nella Germania, ils Alsazians nella Frontscha ed autras minoritads linguisticas en Europa. Ils programs ein sin romontsch, aber la glieud entrevistada tschontscha sils lungatgs minoritaris dal liug visitau. E sche ti capeschas buca romontsch, aber tudestg, pos ti veser il program sur la minoritad romontscha, lu dat ei subtetels sin tudestg. I have been watching a series on Romansh channel RTR called “Minorities in Europe”. The programmes are really interesting, as they have visited the Basques and the Catalans in Spain, the Frisian in Netherlands, the Sorbs in Germany, the Alsatians in France as well as other minorities. The programmes are obviously in Romansh, but the people they interview speak their own languages. Unfortunatly there are no subtitles so I have no idea what e.g. the Basque people are talking about. However, if you do not understand Romansh, but know German, then the programme about themselves, i.e. the Romansh, has German subtitles. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4637 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 74 of 109 03 December 2014 at 11:51am | IP Logged |
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Français
Ayant vécu à Bruxelles il y a quelques années, je me souviens très bien des baraques à frites dans les rues et sur les places, où on pouvait acheter des pommes frites servies avec beaucoup de mayonnaise ou d’autres sauces. De temps en temps je mangeais ce produit très calorique surtout après quelques bières trappistes de trop. Maintenant il s’avère que j’ai fait une contribution à l’unité de la Belgique, parce que selon cet article amusant dans Le Figaro, les belges sont enfin unis pour que la frite belge soit inscrite au patrimoine culturel immatériel de l'Unesco. Sur cette liste on trouve beaucoup de choses, parfois surprenantes, comme par exemple la diète méditerranéenne, le café turc, la calligraphie mongole, le culte des rois Hùng à Phú Thọ, Vietnam, ou encore le savoir-faire de la dentelle au point d’Alençon. D’ailleurs, avec l’article du Figaro, j’ai appris deux nouveaux mots en français : « fritophile » et « culture frituresque ». Je n’ose pas dire les associations qui me donne le mot fritophile, mais je suis tout à fait prêt à partager la culture frituresque la prochaine fois que je visite la Belgique. J’ai passé presque sept ans à Bruxelles, et je regrette vivement que je n’ai pas profité de l’occasion pour bien apprendre le néerlandais. J’ai fait des cours de néerlandais pendant deux ans, mais je n’ai pas beaucoup étudié, et je n’ai presque jamais utilisé la langue dans la pratique. Comme mon niveau n’était pas terrible, quand j’étais à Flandres, les flamands ont vite changé de langue, le plus souvent en anglais, et je n’ai pas insisté pour continuer en néerlandais. Donc, aujourd’hui je peux lire un texte en néerlandais sans difficultés, et je comprends pas mal la langue parlée (surtout l’accent flamand), mais je ne sais pas vraiment parler ou écrire en néerlandais. Un jour peut-être je trouverai le temps pour m’y mettre à nouveau. (Some years ago I lived in Brussels, and I remember well the “chip shops” in the streets and on the squares where you could by “pommes frites”, that is chips (or French fries as they say in the USA) with lots of mayonnaise or other sauces. Now and again I would eat this high-calorie product, especially after a few too many Trappist beers. Now it turns out that I made a contribution to the unity of Belgium, because according to the newspaper Le Figaro, the Belgians are finally united to get the “frite” included in Unesco’s list of intangible cultural heritage. There is a lot on this list, sometimes rather surprising things, like the Mediterranean diet, Turkish coffee, Mongolian calligraphy etc. I also learned two new French words, “fritophile” and “culture frituresque”. I dare not say what associations I got from the word fritophile, but I am happy to celebrate the “culture frituresque” next time I visit Belgium. I actually spent seven years in Brussels, and I strongly regret that I did not learn Dutch to a high level at the time. I did some classes for a couple of years, but I didn’t study much, and I almost never practised the language. As my level was not that good, whenever I went to Flanders people would switch to English most of the time, and I would not insist on going on in Dutch. So today I can read Dutch without difficulty and understand most of the spoken language, at least the Flemish dialect, but I cannot really speak or write it. Maybe someday I will have the time to do something about it.) Edited by Ogrim on 03 December 2014 at 11:53am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4637 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 75 of 109 04 December 2014 at 4:42pm | IP Logged |
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I've finally been able to give a boost to my Russian studies again. True enough, that takes time from other activities, so I've spent less time over the last couple of weeks with Romansh, and nothing at all on Catalan. However, I felt that in order not to regress, I really needed to do something more substantial.
I've mostly been concentrating on certain grammar points, not least drilling verbs of motion with prefixes and getting the genitive plural right. In addition I try to enhance my vocabulary as much as I can through intensive reading of all kinds of short texts: news from the internet, book extracts and song lyrics. I recently discovered that there is somthing called "русский шансон", and I managed to find two albums on Amazon and an interesting website dedicated to this. I really like the songs of Константин Бубнов, and at this time of the year I can recommend the song "Новый год", which you can listen to on Бубнов's official site here. There is also another, for all I know more famous version performed by Михаил Шуфутинский and Варвара Комиссарова, here is a videoclip on YouTube, but personally I prefer Бубнов's own version. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4637 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 76 of 109 17 December 2014 at 11:06am | IP Logged |
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The new year is approaching, I will soon go on holiday and will probably not find much time to visit HTLAL, so I'll post my end-of-the-year summary here, taking stock of where I am with my languages and where I want to be twelve months from now.
English What to say? English is my main working language, I write and speak it every day in the job, and the situation will be the same next year. Therefore I don't really need to do anything specific to improve or maintain it. French Almost the same situation as English. I use it daily at work, and obviously outside of work interacting with people here in France. I do want to be able to write more elegantly in French, but I learn by doing and by getting feedback from French colleagues who read what I write. Spanish Another language I use every day speaking with my wife and Spanish friends. My only goal for 2015 is to read more literature in Spanish, but that means finding more time for reading overall. German High passive level (C1/C2), but I can certainly improve my spoken and written German (probably more at B2 level). However, not a priority language, so I'll just continue dabbling in it and take advantage of the frequent trips I take to Germany to talk with natives. Italian A language I have neglected somewhat. Apart from reading a couple of books in Italian I haven't done anything with it this year. I might go to Italy next summer, so I may try to do something to activate my speaking and writing skills next year. Not a top priority though. Romansh The love of my life:) I don't really have any opportunities to speak it (and another trip to Surselva is not on the cards for the time being), but I will continue as this year with reading books, using RTR as a resource and write short texts here in the log. In 2015, I have the additional goal of getting better at reading and understanding Vallader, the second most important idiom in terms of speakers. Russian My top priority. This year my study rythm has been somewhat irregular, but I think I have improved a lot and I am possibly a strong A2 in active skills and B1 in passive. I have concentrated on getting the grammar to stick and on enhancing my vocabulary, but there is still much to do. I really want to get to a strong B1, and if possible B2 level by the end of 2015. My intention is to write a lot more in Russian, getting texts corrected on lang-8. I will continue with my weekly classes, and I've also signed up to the Russian TAC team. Catalan Not a top priority, my passive skills are good, but I cannot really speak Catalan without mixing a lot with Spanish. I'll try to read more, and write texts on lang-8 more regularly. Latin I have no specific goals for Latin, I read it from time to time just to keep it lukewarm. However, as my daughter has started learning Latin in school this year, I help her out with homework, and that has proven useful for me as well as a way to refresh my knowledge of Latin grammar. Greek It's in my profile, but I have done absolutely nothing with Greek this year. However, I'll keep it on my list and see if I can pick it up sometime during the year. I'll probably start more or less from scratch again though, as what I did back in 2013 is mostly forgotten. Other languages I have no current plans to start on new languages in 2015, but sometimes wanderlust gets the better of me, and I am tempted by Romanian (which I learnt 25 years ago but most of it is hidden somewhere deep down in my brain). I would also like to learn a Semitic language, Arabic or Hebrew, but I know it will require a lot and I don't really have the time for it. That's it. I look forward to a new, great language year. Edited by Ogrim on 17 December 2014 at 11:12am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5164 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 77 of 109 17 December 2014 at 9:55pm | IP Logged |
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What a nice list, Ogrim. Count on us at the new Russian Team! Writing does make a difference, so you're right about your priorities.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4637 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 78 of 109 18 December 2014 at 4:17pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks Expugnator, I read the list on your log as well and it is quite impressive. Yes, writing Russian will be an essential part of my learning process next year.
Today I had my last Russian class before the holiday break, and as I was the only student attending it became a great private lesson where I had the chance to talk a lot (and be corrected a lot as well:) We basically talked about Christmas and New Year traditions in Norway, Spain and Russia. I explained why Norwegians give each other gifts on the evening of 24 December instead of in the morning of the 25th, and why Spanish people eat 12 grapes at midnight on New Year's Eve. My teacher in turn explained the Russian traditions, and due to the fact that Orthodox Christmas comes after New Year, it is New Year's Eve that is the most important day for Russians (and why Russians have a New Year's tree rather than a Christmas tree). She also explained the Orthodox tradition of the priests blessing rivers and lakes on 19 January whereupon people jump into the freezing water (sounds very refreshing!). I really enjoy it when I learn not only language but also culture in a language class, but apart from this we also worked through a few exercises mainly about how to use prefixed verbs of motion and the corresponding prepositions. It is very logical, but at the same time very complex. Question of getting used to it I guess. Edited by Ogrim on 18 December 2014 at 5:01pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5332 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 79 of 109 01 January 2015 at 6:32pm | IP Logged |
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So happy to be on the same team as you! And I hope that this will be the year when we finally meet up :-)
Good luck with your Russian studies! (And all the others) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4637 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 80 of 109 06 January 2015 at 10:45am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the wishes, Solfrid Cristina.
So, 2015 is here, and after a holiday period where it is time to return to HTLAL and start logging again. During the holiday I did not visit the forum as priority was spending time with family and friends. However, I did find time to study Russian as well as reading in other languages, although not as much as I would have liked. The Christmas season always becomes more hectic than it should. As for Russian, I have continued doing exercises, mostly related to prefixed verbs of motion - and I finally feel that it's starting to stick in my brain and make sense. For this I use a French book called Grammaire pratique du russe: exercices et réponses. I find it quite good, and it is useful that you can correct yourslef with the key at the end. In addition I have started to read more or less intensively the book Как жить с французом. It turns out to be tougher than I thought, because the author uses what I assume to be colloquial vocabulary, so there are words I don't find in my regular Russian dictionaries. I've been through the introduction and the first chapter so far, and will continue working with it over the next couple of months. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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