iguanamon wrote:Oi, Expug. I read earlier that you're planning on watching Westworld with Greek subtitles. I just watched the first series in Portuguese dub and thoroughly enjoyed it. It is very well done and thought provoking. The actor who does Anthony Hopkins Brazilian voice dub even sounds like him. One of the series main actors is Brazilian. Rodrigo Santoro plays Hector Escaton- the Yul Brynner based character. It is a very intricately woven plot with a lot going on in it. I'm going to watch all ten episodes again soon, maybe in Spanish.
It took me a while to decide on watching it, as sci-fi pleases me but not so much western. In the end, I have yet to fit it into my busy schedule, and to hope I can benefit from it, that is, that my Greek is good enough for me to read the subtitles on the go. It's been spoken of but not so much so because it's on HBO, not on Netflix, and not everyone have time for not-on-demand TV these days, but I still want to know what's going on out there.
Ani wrote:Kafka On The Shore? Apparently it is Haruki Murakami's birthday today (reading group on another forum is all a-buzz over it) so this caught my eye. Would you recommend this (in a language besides Georgian) or any of his other books if you have read any? Trying to decide which of his books to start with.
Yes, Kafka on the Shore. I totally forgot I had already looked up the English translation before.
Don't get me wrong, it's a good book. So far I like Norwegian Wood better, but I'm only 1/3 into Kafka on the Shore. I just would rather have left it for when I'd reach a better level in Georgian, or for a stronger language. I'd be enjoying and benefitting from something lighter now in Georgian. Kakfa on the Shore has a bit of magic realism to it which makes you lost when it's on a B1ish foreign language and with parallel subplots.
galaxyrocker wrote:Also, Expug, I have to say I like following your log, even if I don't comment. It's just interesting to see how you balance all those languages, including less-commonly learned ones, as well as stay dedicated. I've been having trouble bringing myself to read Irish after work this week!
Thank you for the kind words! As you probably know from Irish, there is a strong sense of discovery through learning a less-commonly learned language.
From what you and others have said, Norwegian Wood seems to be the most commonplace one. No wonder I found it pretty reasonable for language learning. Even though it was set mostly in the 60's and in Japan, I could still learn a lot of common vocabulary and learn about how people describe and view their lives from it. I like absurd plots but I think I could tackle them in French, Norwegian, even German but I still have a hard time with them in Georgian or Russian. Funny how plain fantasy is ok, because it's worlds that have their own rules and the plot itself might be linear. I don't have trouble with following the plot of Narnia (which I read in Mandarin). It's when you get the absurd plot + magic tangled into daily life + difficult language that things get a bit more difficult and less productive for the sake of language learning.
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Today was a considerably better day with Norwegian audiobook listening. I'm about to finish the current book, and I'm looking forward to testing a new one.
I just ran into a book called "Tout le russe professionnel". It's rather an advice's list than a textbook, but seems inspiring. I'll keep it for my 'reading slot' though, instead of using it as a Russian-learning book.
Finished book 1 of Narnia. I couldn't find a match for text and audio for the second book. I found several audios and only 1 text, none matched that text. I'll have to work on what I got. Hope this helps improve my listening. I found a close one, where each character actually gets their own voice, so it's not just a read audiobook. Mostly the parts of the text that introduce the dialogue lines are missing, for this very same reason. I think I can catch up, as this book seems to have even more dialogues. Fingers crossed!
So, it looks like I've finished Odinsbarn. I still have some final pages to read after the story, which I read for language practice. I'm not sure I understood everything, but I'm looking forward to reading volume 2, though not now. Now I'm back to Jodtein Gaarder and a book with an audiobook, to be read intensively. My Norwegian has been progressing and I'm happy for that, even if it took considerably longer than my friends from this forum. I also chatted quite a bit in Norwegian on IRC today. Btw, I figured out I have another book whic I got for free at Tanum.no .
I've also finished another film, "Paris, je t'aime". A lot of English, not so good for language practice. It's a collection of short stories.
A friend said there are native Hebrew series with subtitles, and they can be easily found. Hebrew scores in the tournament for deciding my first afro-asiatic language for real. Go, wanderlust!
First day watching Kuxnya, having to rely only on machine-translated machine-generated subtitles, and I must say it's a success. I can understand much more from spoken Russian than I would have thought. Sometimes the subtitles are accurate enough for me to figure out more difficult passages, and only a few times I'm clueless.
Living Language Greek lessons are long and I feel I'm having enough Greek a day. So, once I'm done with the old Language Transfer course, I'm going to replace this 'slot' with another resource for another language. I'll keep the new LT course as well as the old Assimil edition for reviewing, when I'm more familiar with the language. Btw, LL Greek throws in some texts, which I find pretty interesting, as I can read and get the gist while learning the missing words. I'd have found those texts overwhelming if this were my first resource, but the way it is now it's productive. Choosing the right time for the right material also matters.