The Language Pad

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Elenia
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Re: The Language Pad (TAC 2016 HR & EO)

Postby Elenia » Tue Jan 19, 2016 1:34 pm

Jinx wrote:– watched entire first “book” of Kaamelott (about 300–400 minutes of FR television, with EN subs)
notes: I love this show. Seasons are referred to as "books". I could only find the first book with subtitles, so I guess I'll have to struggle through the rest of them without any (unless someone can help me out here...?).


No subs but transcripts are available here, if that's any use to you :)
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Re: The Language Pad (TAC 2016 HR & EO)

Postby Cavesa » Tue Jan 19, 2016 2:52 pm

Kaamelott is, in my opinion, one of the more difficult series for a learner to watch. If you want an original one, not dubbing, there are easier examples, such as Profilage (crime series and comedy, I might be actually recommending this one quite often now that I think of it). I think you might like it.
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Bao
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Re: The Language Pad (TAC 2016 HR & EO)

Postby Bao » Tue Jan 19, 2016 9:00 pm

... hey, would you recommend that one to me? Or maybe a different series?
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Teango
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Re: The Language Pad (TAC 2016 HR & EO)

Postby Teango » Fri Jan 22, 2016 1:00 am

Jinx wrote:– spoke lots of German and French
notes: mostly to myself, partly to the cat

It all counts, especially if you have a multilingual cat!! :)
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Jinx
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Re: The Language Pad (TAC 2016 HR & EO)

Postby Jinx » Tue Jan 26, 2016 3:07 am

Elenia, thank you SO much for the link! Transcripts are, in my opinion, even better than subtitles, because I can read through them separately, looking up all the words I don't know, and then watch the episode without being distracted by text on the screen. That site is a treasure trove, I am so excited to have it as a resource.

Cavesa, what matters to me is not so much level of difficulty but whether I find the show interesting or not. ;) I am not a big fan of TV in general and find it very difficult to get interested in any show at all, so it's a miracle really that I found Kaamelott and enjoy it so much! Thank you for the recommendation, though, I will check out Profilage and see if I like it too.

Bao, sorry I didn't see your post here sooner – I hope some of the links I gave you ended up working! Otherwise there are always... other methods... I suppose. *wink wink nudge nudge*

Teango, he'll be multilingual by the time I'm done with him, at least! ;D

***

This past week, I maintained my Duolingo streak (doing French, Spanish, and Russian) and worked my way up through lesson 6 in Teach Yourself Spanish. As I mentioned in my last update, I'm using the 1977 edition. I LOVE those old-edition TY books – they move at a pace that really holds my interest! I wish I could find 1970s TY books for every single language out there. I would be set for life if that happened. :)

A few sample sentences from the latest TY Spanish lesson (I'm doing all the translation exercises into Spanish, not out of it, in order to make it a bit more of a challenge): "Hay muchos libros en mi habitación; los que he comprado esta mañana están sobre la cama," and "¿Has visto a Carlos? Dos amigos suyos llegarán hoy de Barcelona," and the saddest sentence of all, "He vendido mis libros y ahora tengo bastante dinero para comprar dos botellas de vino." I hope I never get my priorities as mixed-up as the person in that last sentence.

I didn't really mean to pick up Russian on Duolingo, but so far it's been exceptionally easy due to my familiarity with Croatian, so it's kind of a fun break from the others. I'm only on level 4, though, so I presume it will get dramatically more difficult soon. I'm really only temporarily sating my Balkan hunger with Russian and Polish in order to keep myself distracted until Duolingo finally decides to make a Croatian (or Serbian, or...) course. That will be a happy day indeed.

I'm worried, however, that the political-identity issues surrounding the BCSM languages might be a serious stumbling block to the Duo team. If they choose to do only one of the languages, speakers of the others will be annoyed that theirs wasn't picked; and if they choose to do a general course (first hurdle: what to name it? "Serbo-Croatian" certainly wouldn't fly!), EVERYONE will be angry. It really looks like a lose-lose situation right now.

I also started reading "Fajron sentas mi interne" and am currently about forty pages in. There's good news and bad news. Good news: it's easy yet not mindless, and absolutely flies by, making me forget that I'm even reading in a foreign language! Bad news: I can't stand the narrator. He's a whiny emo teenage boy who creeps on girls he likes while wallowing in the kind of self-pitying pseudo-philosophy that only a high schooler can wield so well. Not very attractive. But I'm sticking to it, telling myself it's the "Catcher in the Rye" of Esperanto culture. And you know, lots of people love that book (although again, not I). So I suppose it's just a matter of taste, like so many things in life.

I got a little distracted by Esperanto and forgot to do much reading for my Tadoku challenge. This past week I only read nine pages of French – a Georges Simenon mystery I just started, "L'ami d'enfance de Maigret". I adore how easy Maigret stories are – again, I constantly forget that I'm reading in a foreign language. I was reading it at the local coffeeshop and my favorite barista said "You're reading a mystery novel in French? You're my crushtomer!" and gave me a free coffee. So that was a plus. ;D

Today, however, I received a surprise package in the mail that will hopefully boost my Tadoku stats a little: a beautifully illustrated edition of Proust in the graphic-novel style (À la recherche du temps perdu – Du côté de chez Swann – Combray) from my parents and sister.

Oh, and I almost forgot, the week's biggest linguistic breakthrough! I read an entire short story (eight pages) in Dutch, and was so caught up in the story that I forgot it wasn't my native language I was reading in! It was a good story, and I recommend it to anyone who's not scared off by slightly morbid themes. It can be read for free online here: Terug tot Zanger Rob.
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Radioclare
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Re: The Language Pad (TAC 2016 HR & EO)

Postby Radioclare » Tue Jan 26, 2016 9:20 pm

Jinx wrote:I'm worried, however, that the political-identity issues surrounding the BCSM languages might be a serious stumbling block to the Duo team. If they choose to do only one of the languages, speakers of the others will be annoyed that theirs wasn't picked; and if they choose to do a general course (first hurdle: what to name it? "Serbo-Croatian" certainly wouldn't fly!), EVERYONE will be angry. It really looks like a lose-lose situation right now.


Yes, I periodically check the discussions to see if there is any chance of a Serbo-Croatian course, but I really can't see it happening :( On the one hand it would seem like overkill to create two separate courses with such similar content, but on the other hand no one would ever agree on the name if there were a combined course (or whose flag should be used in the logo!). And unfortunately I don't think the Duolingo format would lend itself too well to explaining the subtle differences between the different variants.

I've never read "Fajron sentas mi interne" but you're not selling it to me :lol:
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Jinx
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Re: The Language Pad (TAC 2016 HR & EO)

Postby Jinx » Fri Apr 22, 2016 1:04 am

Classic me: I post regularly for a little bit, then disappear for months on end!

Since the beginning of March I've had almost the longest "dry spell" of feeling uninterested in language study that I've ever gone through, but now it's FINALLY starting to ramp up again. I've taken to reading Simenon mysteries in French during my commute (read two more of his Maigret novels since the last time I posted here, I think), and today I read an entire book in Spanish: something by Marie Lebert called "El Internet y los idiomas". It was rewardingly easy to read, somewhat out of date now but still very interesting because it includes mini-interviews with the founders of tons of my favorite websites: Ethnologue, WordReference, and many more.

I've also been on-and-off reading Rilke's novel "Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge" that my friend bought for me. But no Duolingo or anything for a horribly long time. No Croatian or Esperanto either! Hopefully I will get back into the swing of things soon.
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Bao
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Re: The Language Pad (TAC 2016 HR & EO)

Postby Bao » Sat Apr 23, 2016 1:48 pm

My no Duolingo time is longer than your no Duolingo time ... just sayin'
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Jinx
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Re: The Language Pad (TAC 2016 HR & EO)

Postby Jinx » Sun Apr 24, 2016 4:56 am

Bao wrote:My no Duolingo time is longer than your no Duolingo time ... just sayin'

Awww thanks Bao, that makes me feel a little better :3
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Jinx
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Re: The Language Pad

Postby Jinx » Fri May 26, 2017 12:49 am

Sigh.

Someone remind me to never make any more promises or predictions regarding how active I plan to be on this forum, because it seems that I have developed a shameful and nigh-on unbreakable habit of only popping up here once a year or so.

So let's try this again from the top, once more with feeling, but with no promises this time. I won't take part in a TAC and vanish off the face of the forum by May (it seems there isn't much of a TAC this year in any case), I won't set dramatic impressive goals (because they seem to discourage, rather than encourage, me), and I can't guarantee timely replies to any friendly comments (sorry :| I LOVE reading them though, so feel free to pop in here and say hi any time!).

Instead, I'll just post here whenever the spirit moves me, and who even KNOWS what those posts will be like. Updates on my language-learning progress? Maybe? Probably? Past experience would suggest so… but let's not place any bets.

***

I’m finally progressing through Assimil Kroatisch ohne Mühe at a semi-steady pace. Currently on lesson 19. I like this book a lot. I’m simultaneously working through the 1963 edition of Teach Yourself Serbo-Croat by Javarek and Sudjić. (Anyone who knows me knows my penchant for charming, vintage, completely out-of-date language-learning materials.)

Assimil moves at what is for me a comfortable, trundling-along kind of pace. It’s cozy. It feels like home. And true to Assimil tradition, you don’t even really notice the grammar you’re learning.

The 1963 TY, on the other hand, is a somewhat more challenging task-master. And I love it. I love both of them, in their different ways. Assimil holds my hand and walks along with me, making sure I don’t get too tired or intimidated. TY just hits me with brutal reality in every new lesson, not even glancing back to see if I’m able to keep up. If I were doing TY only, I think I’d soon be too overwhelmed and confused to progress any further. But doing a TY lesson now and then while continuing to use Assimil as my “daily bread” is a match made in heaven.

Thanks mostly to TY, in fact, I FINALLY feel for the first time – after years of being completely mystified by Croatian grammar – that I am starting to really understand the declensions. For the last couple of lessons, I’ve gotten about 95% of the exercises right. Yippee!

Oh, and I’m reading “Harry Potter i kamen mudraca” on Bliu Bliu. Double yippee! I’m almost halfway through, according to Goodreads. :)

***

I had some sort of a weird breakthrough with French and Esperanto two days ago. As I’ve mentioned before, those are the only two languages I’ve ever really had trouble developing a fondness for. Unfortunately, they also happen to be my two strongest languages after English and German.

So I was reading aloud a website to myself – the website was about Esperanto meet-ups in France, and so it was mostly in French but there were big chunks of Esperanto too – and as I switched back and forth behind the tonalities and rhythms of the two languages, speaking aloud to the empty room, I found myself actually enjoying them, both of them, more than ever before! My French prosody sounded better than it ever had and my speed was absolutely flowmendous, and even my read-aloud speed in Eo was less stumbly than usual.

The feeling didn’t last, of course. But now I’m excited that it might come back, and trying to come up with ways to make this possible. Maybe I’ll download audiobooks in the languages and listen to them on my commute. I’ve never gotten into audiobooks, but maybe I’ll give them one more shot.

***

I gilded half the Esperanto tree on Duolingo in a fit of productivity the other day. I’ve only ever gotten through three-quarters of it, but now I’m going to try to finish it completely, because that’s really one of the better Duo courses, IMO. I also return to my (finished) French tree now and then, without any real rhyme or reason.

***

WANDERLUST UPDATE:

I randomly got interested in Tagalog the other day. Well, I was looking at Filipino, actually; but the problem is that most English-language language-learning resources I’ve found announce themselves to be all about “Tagalog”, and I can’t figure if they really do mean “exclusively Tagalog as opposed to Filipino” or “we’re lazy but enthusiastic foreigners who don’t know the difference and think ‘Tagalog’ sounds more exciting so we’re going to use it to refer to Filipino”. To be fair, I didn’t know the difference myself until I looked it up…

Oh well, in any case the point is semi-moot now because I really shouldn’t be picking up a new language-toy to play with, and Bliu Bliu is down right now anyway (I read texts on Bliu Bliu whenever I have a free moment during the workday, so it’s one of my main language-learning tools nowadays).

Also, I read War and Peace this past winter (in the English translation by Constance Garnett), and so now of course I feel a mad desire to read it in the original one day. Russian is going to have to stay mostly on the back burner until my Croatian is more established, though. So I'm only noting that for posterity's sake, I suppose.

***

Note to self: I was thinking I ought to take a leaf out of Iversen’s book and start practicing some of my languages by writing not only about them, but IN them, here. So maybe that’ll be coming soon, too…
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