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Köln to Kiev TAC ’14 | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4167 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes  Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 17 of 55 06 April 2014 at 12:05am | IP Logged |
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After another break, it's time to get back into language learning. This first quarter hasn't been very good! I basically did nothing throughout March, and won't be able to really get back into the swing of things until after I'm finished with preparing for a trial in a few weeks. But it's good to start up again.
German: I'm still okay with this language actually. I just started reading again from my book, and didn't find it very challenging. Good to know I haven't really lost anything! I will say, something that has helped a lot is all of the German threads that have popped up on HTLAL recently. I feel like I'm really starting to understand the nuances of the language. So thank you to all of those members who have posted those questions! Polish: I started listening again to realpolish.pl. Especially after such a long break, it's good to ease back into it through slower speech. Again, I'm surprised my ability hasn't really decreased that much, because like I said, I really haven't done anything with it in the last month. Ukrainian: The big news of the week is that I got accepted into an intensive Ukrainian language class, the same program I did for Polish last year actually, and was accepted with full tuition covered. What is really amazing is that this is the first year in awhile that the university has been able to have a Ukrainian class, and I believe 6 people have signed up for it (not sure how many will be attending). In looking at the sudden Ukrainian interest on here and for this class, I'm very surprised (pleasantly)! I'm assuming the situation over in Ukraine has sparked an interest in terms of signing up for a class. In any case, it works out very well for me! You really can't beat full tuition to study a language for 6 weeks. Afrikaans: I just got into listening to this language again, and I remembered why I enjoy it so much. My biggest challenge with it is forcing myself to not be dependent on my German knowledge in order to understand it. And that's the update for now! Knowing that I have a whole summer to dedicate to Ukrainian, that gives me options to focus on some of my others now. Polish will probably take first place because I probably shouldn't spend too much time on it this summer for my own sanity. I'm happy to know that I can prioritize a bit here. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4420 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 18 of 55 06 April 2014 at 2:06am | IP Logged |
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Congratulations on being accepted into the Ukrainian class. I'm sure many people here are quite envious!
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| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4167 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 19 of 55 24 April 2014 at 1:39am | IP Logged |
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Now that April is almost over, and my trial work has slowed down a bit, it's time to get back into language learning. Polish will be taking the priority from now until I start my Ukrainian class--I think it's a bad idea to do too much Polish work during those 6 weeks. The issue though is where to start with Polish: because I stopped doing a lot of language work, I ended up regressing a bit in my ability, so to get back into it is a challenge. I keep saying I'm going to make more of an effort to write in Polish and use the language but I never end up actually doing it (afraid of making mistakes maybe???).
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| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4167 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 20 of 55 28 April 2014 at 4:25am | IP Logged |
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Ein Ukrainisches Ostern
Seit dreizehn Jahren bin ich beschäftigt als Kirche Musikerin-ich habe für Hunderten Hochzeiten, Gottesdienste, und Beerdigungen gesungen. So es ist mir keine Überraschung, dass die Heilige Woche (Osterzeit) so anstrengend ist. In dieser Woche singe ich am Palmsonntag und dann Gründonnerstag, Karfreitag, Karsamstag und endlich Oster. Ich könnte mich aber nie vorbereiten, für Oster in der Ukrainischen Kirche. Wir beginnen um 8 Uhr (Morgens) mit Nokturn...der Chor singt fast Alles. Dann beginnen wir eine Prozession um die Kirche und singen weiter. Endlich singen wir die Matutin und die Liturgie. Fast vier Stunden haben wir gesungen (im Stehen)! Es ist nicht, dass die Musik technisch kompliziert ist. Es ist aber sehr leicht, sich zu verstimmen, denn die Musik repetitiv und a Capella ist. Und natürlich sangen wir auf Ukrainisch. Zeit vielen Jahren habe ich gesagt, die Oper Sänger und Sängerinnen sind die Beste in der Gesangs Musik. Nach diesem Oster, sage ich dass die Ukrainische Chöre auch die Beste sind! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4167 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 21 of 55 30 April 2014 at 10:28pm | IP Logged |
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I had some fun with Wikipedia and Polish today: music terminology 101. Learning basic musical terms in other languages is an unexpected challenge. Even phrases like "quarter note" "half note" "c4" etc. is something new. This shows me how much language I actually need to learn before I can say that I am able to talk about everything that I can in English.
Fortunately, with a subject like music, it's so widespread that there is a lot of information in many languages, which makes me think that Wikipedia (for all its potential faults) can be a good language resource. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Mooby Senior Member Scotland Joined 5903 days ago 707 posts - 1219 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Polish | Message 22 of 55 30 April 2014 at 10:57pm | IP Logged |
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Hi FK,
Just dropping by on a former bison! Enjoying your log, it's nice that you're combining your languages with your other interests. That's what it's all about I guess. Trzymaj się. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4167 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 23 of 55 13 May 2014 at 7:51pm | IP Logged |
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Back from vacation in the beautiful Dominican Republic (we stayed in Punta Cana). Aside from the usual high-pressured sales and the representative from the travel agency we booked through who told us he didn't like working with Americans (and he said it so casually along with many other things that were condescending it actually was incredibly funny!) the trip went without any problems. Fun language observations and experiences though.
One day when we were on the beach we sat next to this bar. We started playing a game where whenever somebody came up to order a drink, we would try to guess where they were from before they started speaking. It's actually amazing how many nonverbal indications you can give off as to where you are actually from, not even based on physical appearance but just body language. We were usually right. Apparently though something about us must have been a little different, because we would get salespeople trying to sell us things and speak to us in either German or Spanish. Now, Spanish would make sense because obviously it is a Spanish speaking country, and there are a lot of German tourists who go there, so I can see why either would generally be assumed. What was interesting though was that with other Americans they tended to be approached in English. From being in the Dominican Republic before, we knew that German was a popular language though, so we tried to speak Polish to each other. That seemed to do the trick (for now!) but there were a lot of Slavic language speakers, so in a few years we might need a new language! Add to it that I was reading a Polish book and I ended up with quite a few interested looks from people who seemed to think I didn't "look" Polish but was reading in it. The best part of the trip though was getting to practice my German. From having to fill out the check-in form, which was in German French and Spanish (no English), to overhearing many conversations--most of which weren't anything that interesting though, to finally breaking my comfort zone and approaching a young German couple, I got quite a workout! Interesting thing about the couple I started talking to. They were both probably a little younger than I am, and interestingly enough did not speak enough English to have a conversation in it. And after having had a few too many delicious cocktails, lets just say my German wasn't in the best shape it could have been in. It was still very interesting to have a conversation though, and maybe on future vacations I'll be a little less hesitant to approach others. Punta Cana is a beautiful place to visit, and I would say the general languages you will hear will be Spanish, German, Russian, and French. I wouldn't necessarily say Spanish is "expected" at the resorts, but wow, it would go a LONG way. This particular resort had several ponds set up around it too so there were a lot of birds that you could see, including two little babies! Absolutely adorable! This trip was what I needed before my big Ukrainian summer. Edited by Fuenf_Katzen on 13 May 2014 at 7:52pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4167 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 24 of 55 21 May 2014 at 12:51am | IP Logged |
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With Ukrainian-fest 2014 coming up quickly (June 9th), I figured it was a good time to get back into active studying so that I'm a little further ahead when I start. Luckily, we're using the same book I've been using (Shevchuk, Beginner's Ukrainian). I reviewed some of the vocabulary, and worked on nominative plurals. This isn't really "new" material, but I skipped over it initially because I went into learn all the cases mode. I'll be interested to see this book used in a classroom setting, because I don't know that it's really designed to be done solely for self study for solely for students who are learning with a teacher.
As an aside, it's interesting to me how different books present the cases in different orders. This particular one goes nominative-locative whereas my Polish one went nominative-accusative (and I know others go in the nominative-instrumental direction). I don't know that this ultimately affects how well I learn the cases, but I found this to be interesting. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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