Rdearman 2016-24 You Can't Have Your Kate and Edith Too.

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rdearman
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Re: Rdearman (FR, IT, ZH) 2016/17 - The way of the lazy fist.

Postby rdearman » Sat Apr 01, 2017 11:43 am

OK, so French must be parked now! I've booked a holiday in Sardinia and I don't want to be incompetent in Italian. I'm at 141 films in French as of today, but I need to switch focus back to Italian until June. This isn't really a problem from a Super Challenge point of view because I'm lagging behind there in Italian. I'm a little disappointed not to carry on my self-appointed binge experiment in French. I just found 3 series on the All-4 (Channel 4 in UK) catchup which are in French. Spin, Mafiosa, and one I'd not seen before The Hunter. Plus I still have 5 series of Star Trek NG to watch. I can only find one series on Netflix which is in Italian. So, I desperately need recommendations for TV series in Italian, on Youtube, or whereever. Anything I can get in front of my eyes in the UK. I would be nice to watch something new.

I think I'll probably pay for some tutor time on italki, and try to phone my friends in Italian more (although this tends to degrade into English so need to knock that on the head). For Italian I need to focus more on output than French because I understand Italian more. There is less slurring of word boundaries, and overall seems easier for me to comprehend.

I've only got another 663 cards to go before I complete the 10k anki challenge, I suppressed the number of reviews so I can get more words in and get this challenge done and dusted. When I turn reviews back up to normal I'm going to have a lot of reviews to do!

I also need to prepare for the Polyglot Gathering.

It would appear I haven't been updating my log frequently enough, I know this because when I'm not it gets buried about 5-6 pages back in the log forum! :)
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Re: Rdearman (FR, IT, ZH) 2016/17 - The way of the lazy fist.

Postby DaveBee » Sat Apr 01, 2017 1:09 pm

An italian theatre troupe have afew videos on YouTube, A christmas carol, in italian
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Re: Rdearman (FR, IT, ZH) 2016/17 - The way of the lazy fist.

Postby rdearman » Thu Apr 06, 2017 4:02 pm

This is a completely off-topic post, but I've written a book and I'm looking for some beta-readers. It is "beach fiction" reading, a spy-thriller. So if you're into that sort of thing, and you can handle poor grammar and spelling in English, then PM me.

EDIT: This btw does involve some work on your part, not only reading it but giving feedback.
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Re: Rdearman (FR, IT, ZH) 2016/17 - The way of the lazy fist.

Postby rdearman » Sat Apr 08, 2017 8:18 pm

I've switched to binge watching in Italian now. I'm watching Enterprise (more Star Trek) in Italian, but unfortunately it doesn't have Italian sub-titles. I've been using English subtitles, but I'm also watching a series called Carabinieri for which I don't have any subtitles at all. So I concentrate really had with no subtitles, and it is a nice break to use the sub-title crutch. However, this is not optimal, and I've noticed they have French subtitles for Enterprise. So from this point on I'll just read in French and listen in Italian. That should fry the old brain cells good and proper. :)

I'm reading in Italian, I have a ton of Italian books. I decided to switch to Italian just as the library sent me a note telling me the 6 French books I'd put on backorder had arrived. So annoying!

I really want to take a test to evaluate my French & Italian. Seems a bit stupid I have to tell them what level I am, in order to take a test to see what level I am. I had a paper which was shared on the old HTLAL which you self-assess and also have a teacher assess you. I had my tutor do this and she rated me at about A1 or A2 in Italian. So either she is really harsh and critical, or a crap tutor since she's been teaching me for ages. The irony of this was lost on her. :)
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Re: Rdearman (FR, IT, ZH) 2016/17 - The way of the lazy fist.

Postby Vedun » Mon Apr 10, 2017 8:08 pm

I've heard that there are a lot of good Italian comedies, if that's your thing.
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Re: Rdearman (FR, IT, ZH) 2016/17 - The way of the lazy fist.

Postby Ogs » Mon Apr 10, 2017 9:14 pm

rdearman wrote:So, I desperately need recommendations for TV series in Italian

Hi! I'm not sure if you have seen these but here are some that I've liked :) :
La piovra, about the mafia on Sicily, I’ve only seen the first season (out of 10), but it’s pretty good. Available on youtube
Boris, a parody of RAI fiction, really funny. Also on youtube.
L'inspettore Coliandro, another parody that makes fun of action movies, cop shows etc. The later seasons have a better budget and I think every season is pretty much standalone so I would recommend you watch those.
È arrivata la felicità, a RAI series that’s both the usual romance and comedy stuff typical of RAI, but it also makes fun of the usual tropes. (24x50 min)
I've only watched a few episodes of this but, Non Uccidere is a crime show that's alright. It's niche seems to be crimes commited in families, a dark secret.. etc :roll:. There's also something with the main characters family..

Also, not sure if this counts but La meglio giventù is really good. It’s a movie but was aired as four parts on RAI (360 min). It follows two brothers from their graduation in the 60’s to the early 00’s, but it’s also a story of Italy in those years.

Of these I think È arrivata la felicità is the easiest one (except one character that speaks with a strong Napoli(?) accent).
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Re: Rdearman (FR, IT, ZH) 2016/17 - The way of the lazy fist.

Postby rdearman » Sat Apr 15, 2017 10:38 pm

I made a discovery about Netflix. I changed my language to Italian, and now there are a load of TV series with Italian audio. All of the Star Trek's. So I've been alternating between Enterprise and Next Generation. I've also been watching Carabineri (because there is not subtitles and I can't cheat). I've also subscribed to a large number of podcasts in Italian.

The upshot of all this is my Super Challenge graph for Italian films has gone from more or less flat line, to a straight vertical line. I've watched almost 60 hours of Italian in the last month at least 2 hours per day. I believe my comprehension is going up and I must say that just like my previous experiance in binge watching French I'm starting to catch myself thinking in Italian. It doesn't happen a lot but once or twice a day a thought will form in Italian rather than English. This is obviously encouraging but I'm still not dreaming in Italian like I was in French. I'm not really sure why that hasn't happened yet.

I'm reading a SciFi book in Italian called. Limit which was originally written in German. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Limit-Frank-Sc ... 3596184886

Interesting, but quite big. The German version is 1300 pages. Should get me through the super challenge. :)

The reason for this massive push with Italian is a holiday in Sardinia and I really want to be able to get by without too much hassle. I've been using HelloTalk as well, but I try to use the voice recording thing so that I'm forced to speak in Italian (or occasionally French) I've been told I have a lot of problems with pronumciation, which doesn't really suprise me much. I'm planning to take some advice which I got in a thread here about using audacity and repetitive shadowing to help pronounciation problems. Rather than use audacity however, I plan to use emk's substudy program to rip some audio mp3 and using the subtitles select some interesting sentences to practice pronounciation.

I am also planning to get entire films into audio using substudy and getting them on repeat in the car. I will try to speak along to a soundtrack I already know. For example, Jaws. Because it is always useful to know how to say 'I think we need a bigger boat.'
:D
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Re: Rdearman (FR, IT, ZH) 2016/17 - The way of the lazy fist.

Postby rdearman » Mon Apr 17, 2017 11:26 am

Minor update. I believe I've realised why binge watching (hereafter known as BW) French had me dreaming and thinking in French, while Italian binge watching hasn't had as much impact. The problem is of course, English!

While BW in French I would either have no sub-titles or French. This is because I can read better in French than I can understand or output. However, for Italian there isn't any option for Italian sub-titles, so I was using English. I'm sure this crutch is what is keeping me back. So from this point on I'm not counting anything I watch with English sub-titles unless I'm unable to get rid of them.
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Re: Rdearman (FR, IT, ZH) 2016/17 - The way of the lazy fist.

Postby rdearman » Sat Apr 22, 2017 8:39 pm

My Italian binge watching was interrupted by a computer problem. But I am doing what I can. I've decided I'm going to try to get at least 90 minutes every day before my vacation, which would net me another 90 hours of Italian. But then I realised the Polyglot gathering will interrupt my language study!
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Re: Rdearman (FR, IT, ZH) 2016/17 - The way of the lazy fist.

Postby reineke » Mon Apr 24, 2017 3:51 pm

rdearman wrote:I also noticed that Reineke only seems to watch films and post to this forum. Either that or doesn't sleep...

Not much to report. I should complete the 10k flashcard challenge in the next month or so assuming I keep doing it regularly, which is a big if.


Neither activity requires much mental effort. Reineke also does not waste time on piles of flashcards. Good luck with your Ianguage learning!
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