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Expug’s All at On(c)e Log - TAC14

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Expugnator
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 5251 days ago

3335 posts - 4349 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento
Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian

 
 Message 81 of 415
29 January 2014 at 9:44pm | IP Logged 
Wow Chung! My birthday isn't close yet! And this isn't even about Estonian or any of the
languages in our team.
Be sure I'm going to make good use of it. Thanks a lot.
1 person has voted this message useful



Expugnator
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 5251 days ago

3335 posts - 4349 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento
Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian

 
 Message 82 of 415
29 January 2014 at 10:59pm | IP Logged 
The day started a bit uncomfortable. Due to the heat I got a headache and couldn't eat
proper. I have an issue with esophagitis sometimes and I think eating an apple with an
empty stomach wasn't the best idea. I just learned at yday's Travel in Chinese lessons
that apples are 'warm' while grapes, for instance, are 'cold'.

So, I kept with the headache, which by itself is rare for me, while at the gym, and
realized I wouldn't be able to do any running on the treadmill as I wouldn't breath
properly. It was symptomatic that I went home and couldn't even take a 'brunch' before
going to work, while I'm usually dead hungry when I come back from the gym.

So, how did I deal with this? I still had to walk to work, 20 minutes uphill under the
sun. I decided I would go slowly, started watching the English series while browsing
other stuff, preparing to study. Then I opened the Basic Georgian book and I got the
coolest lesson ever. It was about moods, states of spirit. I was happy that I was going
to refine some vocabulary I wasn't unfamiliar with. I was also happy to realize that
the version exercises are becoming easier and easier. I really like the way Basic
Georgian presents at least the future and the aorist (imperfect when aorist is missing)
alongside with each verb, and it follows a path based on effective usage and need, not
on grammatical categories. So, I "learned" (rather reviewed and reinforced) vocabulary
according to its necessity. I didn't have to learn everything from the I conjugation
before moving on to important verbs such as 'like, love, to be hungry, to fear' from
the III and IV conjugations. This is insightful. It's a brand new book from a
publishing house (Lincom) that supposedly aims for the linguists, and yet they managed
to publish a self-teaching manual that follows a natural order and puts grammar at
service of communication needs in an efficient way.

Thanks to today's lesson, I assessed the importance distinction between სუფრასთან (at
the table) and სუფრაზე (on the table).

I realized that listening is indeed tiresome. More so when done in the background, but
whichever way, in general, there seems to be a daily threshold I can't surpass without
bringing me some temporary headache, especially at hot summer afternoons. Yesterday I
was busy and could only finish my ultimate tasks (watching films in French, Chinese
cartoon and Chinese fables reader, Duolingo, Memrise) around 8 pm. That was 4 hours
later and at a time at which I am supposed to be on a different mood, staying on bed
doing short readings, enjoying the silence. My body/mind responded right after.

Well, at least last night I dreamed in Chinese. I was with a friend who already lived
in China and seemed to be Brazilian too. That friend was telling me everything I had to
know about life in China, but somehow refused to allow me to practice my Chinese. I
tried to ask something like 你在大学经常说汉语吗?,I rephrased it two or three times, but
that person was somehow impatient given that we had our native language in common, and
wouldn't encourage me to continue. Cut. We were on a room with other foreigners who
lived in China, and we were discussing how some latino-americans from Spanish-speaking
countries were using illicit money for buying out commerce in China and giving a tough
agenda to low-income customers and small businesses. It's rather the other way round in
the other side of the world. Go figure a dream. The good thing is that dreaming in a
language has historically been a good A2+ towards B1 level marker for the languages
I've studied. That might mean Chinese people's collective unconscious is finally
accepting me as a genuine tentative speaker of their language, to paraphrase a friend
from another community.

Today and partially the day before I've started a new routine of taking notes of
important issues and impressions as I experience them along my 5-6 hour learning
routine. This is good to keep track, but I'm afraid it will result in even longer
posts. Anyway, I noticed I've missed a few Tuttle Flashcards. I usually do them after
Anki, but the fact I started Memrise might have confused my brain as to think i've
replaced the hanzi practice from Tuttle's with Memrise. It's not always easy to keep
track of 20 language learning activities on a day.

I noticed that maybe reading notes on the go might work better with Le nouvel allemand.
There are still pauses at the clips and I use them for the notes. I think the overall
time diminished a bit. The fatigue did, and that's also important by now.

I was glad that the explanation on short adjectives at TY Russian was short, straight
to the point. I'm getting to that stage in Russian that I went through a few months ago
in Georgian: I'm rereading important grammar explanations and finally internalizing
them. The way I read them before, there was too much info and it was badly
hierarchized, so I'm glad this sort of second or maybe 3rd, 4th grammar wave is working
out.

French reading is supposed to be easier, but it is boring. Norwegian reading+audio is
exciting. I feel attached to the story about junior high school boys who play
football/soccer, and detached to Middle Age nobility and its values. If I am ever to do
any challenges in French, I need a better selection on stories that deal with
contemporary life. No wonder films are much better, and they are also more effective,
as my French listening keeps improving. As for my Norwegian listening, it's not
improving as much as the reading, though. I think I still have to reach a higher, maybe
B2 level in reading before I can have a B1 in listening. Himmelblå is almost over, but
then there's Hjem with Swedish subtitles which I won't translate and will use just as
an occasional crutch. There is Svarte Penger, Hvite Løgner which I just happened to
find subtitles for! Ok, life can go on now.

As I was busy and there was much forum activity, I watched XiYangYang in the
background. I promise I'll do my best not to let this happen again. It's cruelty enough
to do this with the Georgian series from which I could already be benefiting much more
at this stage, as more and more understandable sentences seem to get detached from the
blur.

I've discovered the series 后厨. Looks interesting. Subtitled, as usual. No, I don't
need to add yet another resource. Well, then, maybe alternating it with XiYangYang. I
do recommend it to fellow Magpie members.

I slowed down watching Le dîner de cons, as my wife wants to watch it, too, and I found
subtitles in BrPT. What we won't do for love. Now I feel I could watch more of a series
to make up for that, but I'm a bit too discouraged to start from scratch a series I
don't know whether I'll be able to watch often enough.
1 person has voted this message useful



Expugnator
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 5251 days ago

3335 posts - 4349 votes 

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