I just realized that I never explained why I’m suddenly an Easily Distracted Tortoise instead of a Brown Owl. The name Brown Owl came from a dream I had back in my 20’s in which I was an owl. It suited me then, back when I felt like I could fly. Now in my 40’s though, I’m much more of an easily distracted tortoise, something that definitely doesn’t fly and doesn’t even move very fast. The name came about when Cavesa suggested our race to complete the GdUdE books was like a race between two easily distracted turtles. I chose to change it to tortoise because as everyone knows, turtles can swim and have ninja skills, and tortoises just meander about eating fruit and hiding in their shells at every strange sound. That sounds more like my style, although…….. I do like pizza……..
Now for a summary of the first week of the year: I didn’t do so badly. I decided to go back to tracking my time in an Excel spreadsheet. I’d stopped for a few years because it was getting a little inconvenient and stressful, but my life has changed a bit since then and now I think it could be useful again. I’ve also gone back to weekly goals…… sort of. I’m not going to do it like I did at the start of last year when I used to list up all my goals for the week in my log and then check off what I’d accomplished at the end of the week. That got to be a bit too much. Instead, I’m simply listing them on a little scrap of paper. I’m also being a bit looser about the goals themselves. For each language, I list one or two things that I will prioritize getting through that week and also a few extra things I can do if I feel like it. I look at them more as suggestions or guidelines than goals. The idea is just to give me a bit of focus so I don’t sit around too much thinking, “What should I do next?” Instead, I can just look at the list and it will tell me what my priorities are for the week. It seemed to work well this week, so I’m going to keep doing it for now.
I didn’t feel any wanderlust this week despite everyone’s efforts to distract me. I think you just made me immune instead. So, good job!
Spanish
My first priority was lesson 31 in FSI basic, which I did. This was the first lesson in part 3 and there is a bit of a jump from part 2. It’s not that it’s much harder, but that up to now, the readings and discussion questions at the end have been about visiting neighbors, playing tennis, shopping, etc. Now suddenly the reading and discussion questions were about trade between Latin America and Europe and between Latin America and the US. I didn’t really bother with that much. I read it, but that was all. I like FSI for the drills, but I think for reading and discussion, I can find more interesting topics elsewhere. I also did a GLOSS lesson. Those I think can be very useful and I intend to try to do them fairly regularly.
I still haven’t started a new TV series, but I did start reading a book. I had trouble getting started on reading this week. I tried to start a book in German and another in Spanish and didn’t get anywhere with either. I’m not sure if the level was too high for me, or if I was just too tired when I tried to start them. Anyway, I tried again with another book and this one was easy. I’m almost halfway through already even though I only started on Thursday. It’s another one of those free Kindle books. It’s a rather cheesy romance novel, but it’s very easy for me to follow, so I don’t mind. I don’t think I’d bother with it in English because it is very formulaic (why do people in romance novels always have to start out disliking each other, or at least arguing all the time before they fall in love? I can’t imagine falling for someone who always wanted to argue). Since it is easy to read and is in Kindle, and I can look up words with a simple touch, I have been looking up and highlighting every word or phrase that I don’t know, sort of halfway know, know but in a different context, or just feel a little bit curious about. I find it easier to read intensively when I don’t really need to for some reason. I’ve learned some interesting expressions as well. One of my favorites was the Spanish way of referring to a strapless dress --- “palabra de honor” --- “word of honor.” I guess because all you have is its word of honor that it will stay up.
Esperanto
I spent the minimum of time working on Esperanto. I’m trying to review the Duolingo course and make my tree gold again, but I usually get tired of Duolingo after about 10-15 minutes.
German
My priority was to review lesson 1 of FSI Basic, but I was really hoping to review a couple of lessons and get back to new stuff sooner. However, with one thing and another, I only got through the first lesson. I also did one easy GLOSS lesson. I chose an easy one, because I wasn’t feeling very well and didn’t feel up to anything too complicated at the time. I also continued to watch my telenovela, Sophie – Braut wider Willen. I got through 14 episodes this week, but they are only 24 minutes each, so that’s not as much as it sounds. I really like the show though. It’s not as cheesy as I’d expected, and I find myself getting attached to the characters. I even like the bad guy. I keep finding myself wondering if he isn’t starting to change and become nice.
Japanese
I didn’t do much for Japanese either. On my list, I only wrote that I should review the first chapter of my old beginner textbook, but I’d hoped to review a bit more than that since it’s so elementary. Still, at least I’m finally getting back to Japanese. I also started reviewing some kanji. I’m not making kanji a priority though. I hope to review my textbook and then start working on listening comprehension. But I will work it in gradually.
Finnish
I did six days of Assimil, so six lessons each in both passive and active waves. That means I’ve done up to 62 passive and 13 active.
Norwegian
I started reviewing an old TY textbook. The modern one. I have the old one too, but I’ll look at that later. Of course, there is nothing surprising there, but it’s nice to look at because I sometimes find myself having doubts about very elementary things. That’s one of the problems with speaking a language in real life. When you start speaking a dialect, you sometimes start to forget what the rules are in the standard form. I’ve just reviewed the first four chapters, so it will take me a few weeks to get through the book at this rate. It’s funny how awkward all the dialogues seem now. Of course, it’s hard to make very simple dialogues for beginners without them sounding a bit unnatural. I don’t think that kind of unnaturalness is really a problem, though I know some people hate it.
Danish
There was a Danish advent calendar available on the NRK app (Norwegian TV), but it was going to expire soon, so I decided to watch it fairly quickly as it looked like it would be fun. It turned out to be fantastic and I would recommend watching it if you get the chance. It was an advent calendar, so 24 episodes of course, and each episode was about 20-25 minutes. It was meant for children, but not small children. Actually, I had a nightmare one of the first nights I watched it, so it’s a bit scary. It was called, Den Annen Verden (The other world), and is about a girl who is transported into the world in which the Grimm fairytales take place. It was really well done and so exciting. I watched a few episodes each night on Monday and Tuesday, but then on Tuesday night I suddenly got a terrible stomach ache. I actually took a bucket to bed with me, but thankfully it was unnecessary. However, I still felt bad on Wednesday, so I spent the whole day lying on the couch watching the rest of the show.
Danish is kind of fun. It sounds a bit like someone who is trying to speak Norwegian, but they’ve just been to the dentist and had two or three root-fillings and their mouth and tongue are so numb they can’t really enunciate most of the consonants and even their vowels come out sort of mushy and halfhearted.
Swedish
Everyone over on Systematiker’s log has been playing along with the quiz-show På spåret. I was feeling a bit left out, so I decided to try an episode. I did absolutely horrendously. Part of my problem is that I don’t find the show all that engrossing and my mind tends to wander a bit, so I don’t always catch the entire clue. Also, I just don’t know a lot of the things they asked about. The sports questions are completely out and I tend not to know the music questions either. Geography is sort of half and half. It depends what the clues are. I haven’t watched the episode from this Friday yet. I’ll see if I get around to it, or if I find something more fun to do. I think it could be fun to watch together with a group, but it’s not so much fun alone. I’m not really a quiz-show person, I guess.
Oh, and just in case someone gets the wrong idea, Danish and Swedish aren’t signs of wanderlust. Those are part of my Northern Germanic Super Challenge.
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