Expug's 2017 Log - It's now and forever

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Systematiker
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Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7332
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Re: Expug's 2017 Log - It's now and forever

Postby Systematiker » Wed Jan 11, 2017 11:58 am

Brun Ugle wrote:
Systematiker wrote:Please say that we can all call you "Mr. Pug" now :D :D

oder gar "Herr Mops" :lol: :lol:


(I hope this comes across funny!)


Does the golden retriever need a friend to share his tennis balls with?


I don't have enough likes for this post :D :D :D :D

And we both chase so many languages.... :lol: :lol: 8-) 8-) :geek:

(Was this your 1000th post?? :shock: )
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Brun Ugle
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Re: Expug's 2017 Log - It's now and forever

Postby Brun Ugle » Wed Jan 11, 2017 1:08 pm

Systematiker wrote:
Brun Ugle wrote:
Systematiker wrote:Please say that we can all call you "Mr. Pug" now :D :D

oder gar "Herr Mops" :lol: :lol:


(I hope this comes across funny!)


Does the golden retriever need a friend to share his tennis balls with?


I don't have enough likes for this post :D :D :D :D

And we both chase so many languages.... :lol: :lol: 8-) 8-) :geek:

(Was this your 1000th post?? :shock: )


Oh my goodness, it was! I didn't even notice. I guess I should celebrate. I can't imagine how I could've managed to find so much to say as to have made 1000 posts already.
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Re: Expug's 2017 Log - It's now and forever

Postby Expugnator » Wed Jan 11, 2017 8:33 pm

I never thought the shortening of my nick would remind of a dog breed. Pugs weren't even fashionable back in the early 2000's...The Latin meaning is still strong in my mind :lol: :lol: :lol:

The day started well for listening. After giving a Portuguese class to a Dutchman, I listened to the Norwegian audiobook and understood even more than usual. I wonder what will happen when I pick a novel with a linear plot, instead of mostly conscious streams that characterize Elling's series. Then Narnia in Chinese started to make more sense than usual. I hope the next book is easier to follow as there is more action and less description now that the story is set.

I still haven't decided what to do about my Mandarin, though. I'm waiting for 'Slow Chinese' to be over so I can do intensive watching at the Yabla videos. Still not in the mood for monolingual textbooks with writing prompts.

I finished another book from my 20-pages-a-day priority-reading slot. This one was in Italian, and it really improved my vocabulary. Now back to English.

I must say once again "Kafka on a beach" is a bit too boring for me to read it in Georgian. i'm looking forward to reading and listening to YA audiobooks in Georgian the way I do in Norwegian and German and add a little more fun to my learning pool (in the case of Georgian, at least with TV I have fun, as I watch both native series and dubbed series everyday). One noel by Gabriel García Marquez wouldn't be a bad début, as there are quite a few audiobooks in Georgian and I'm supposed to study Spanish this year.

It turns out I'm not missing out on French that much, now that I made my 20-page French a 20-page whatever strong language. I'm reading Murakami's book in Georgian and French, I'm still watching 10 minutes of a film a day and I'm studying from Grammaire Progressive niveau perfecionnement. I think my French needs more fine-tuning, but I'm still too busy for writing essays and watching native series.

Intensive Norwegian watching is really paying off. I'm looking some words up that I knew vaguely and that I'm starting to understand more precisely.

Upper-Beginner lessons at Greekpod101 are a relief. More Greek, less English. The thought I could be doing an intermediate lesson in a couple of months still gives me the creeps, though.
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Re: Expug's 2017 Log - It's now and forever

Postby iguanamon » Wed Jan 11, 2017 9:48 pm

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.
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Re: Expug's 2017 Log - It's now and forever

Postby Ani » Wed Jan 11, 2017 10:14 pm

Expugnator wrote:I must say once again "Kafka on a beach" is a bit too boring for me to read it in Georgian.


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.
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Re: Expug's 2017 Log - It's now and forever

Postby tuckamore » Wed Jan 11, 2017 11:18 pm

Ani wrote: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.

I am currently reading "Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World" in French and Japanese and, so far, it is one of my favourite books by Murakami. Of his books that I've read in English, "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle" was one of my favourite reads of all time. I read it years ago, so I don't remember much except that it was bizarre and I was totally absorbed into its wackiness. Actually, I'd like to reread it some day to see if I would be just as impressed or if I would be off put. "Norwegian Wood" is a favourite among many, but I didn't like it too much.
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Re: Expug's 2017 Log - It's now and forever

Postby Systematiker » Wed Jan 11, 2017 11:49 pm

tuckamore wrote:
Ani wrote: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.

I am currently reading "Hardboiled Wonderland and the End of the World" in French and Japanese and, so far, it is one of my favourite books by Murakami. Of his books that I've read in English, "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle" was one of my favourite reads of all time. I read it years ago, so I don't remember much except that it was bizarre and I was totally absorbed into its wackiness. Actually, I'd like to reread it some day to see if I would be just as impressed or if I would be off put. "Norwegian Wood" is a favourite among many, but I didn't like it too much.


I enjoyed The Wind-up Bird Chronicle as well, and like you, I can't seem to bring myself to finish "Norwegian Wood , I'm just not that into it.
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Re: Expug's 2017 Log - It's now and forever

Postby galaxyrocker » Thu Jan 12, 2017 4:24 am

Ani wrote:
Expugnator wrote:I must say once again "Kafka on a beach" is a bit too boring for me to read it in Georgian.


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.


Like the previous two, I've found The Wind-Up Bird Chronicles to be fun, though, to be honest, I think I preferred Kafka on the Shore. He also has a new one coming out soon, if that interests you any.


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!
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Re: Expug's 2017 Log - It's now and forever

Postby Expugnator » Thu Jan 12, 2017 8:07 pm

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.


========================================
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.
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Re: Expug's 2017 Log - It's now and forever

Postby Expugnator » Fri Jan 13, 2017 7:52 pm

I was a bit fed up with Jänku-Jussi 8-minute long videos on visits to museums (I watch them intensively), but it was easy to follow today's one, on world art. I had to look up very few words. Even though there are subtitles, I'm paying attention to audio as well. Estonian doesn't have many audiobooks or dubbed series, so I'm better off taking the most out of short native videos with subtitles before I can try films or native series.

Sounds like i'm working out the second book of Narnia. The audio matches the text most of the time, and since it's not that hard to follow, I can catch up after just a few seconds when some parts are skipped at the audiobook. It helps that the audio is fantastic, the readers, the intonation. The previous book had a flat intonation and a high reading speed; now I can have the dialogues read in proper intonation, which pauses between words that help me understand syntax. I strongly hope that if I keep working I'll end the whole saga at a much better level of Mandarin.

Started the new book in Norwegian I mentioned yesterday: Anna. The listening will feel quite slow, as I'm used to higher speeds. The vocabulary seems diverse, more complex than that from Odinsbarn (if we disregard the terms unique to Odinsbarn's world), but that might be just the beginning.

Started watching L'arnacoeur. I like the scene where he says something in Portuguese and recognizes the woman has been in Salvador, thanks to the Senhor do Bonfim ribbons. I passed the NYE in Salvador, have lots of relatives there. Anyway, Romain Duris isn't much convincing as a donjuan, it's like having Miguel Falabella playing a ladies' man's role.

I have to make some decisions concerning my three audiobook-only slots, because I'm about to finish the non-fiction English book I'm listening. These three 'slots' are: the 20+ minutes I walk from home, the 30 minutes I go have lunch and the 20+ I walk home.

- So far I do Norwegian listening at the first slot (usually a book I don't care much for to the extent of willing to know the story in detail, as my listening level still isn't fluent). This first slot is considered my strong-language fiction slot.
- At the 2nd slot, I started with English, but after the first novel and the notice of some improvement, I decided to make it just a prioritary non-fiction slot. That said, it's quite hard to find non-fiction audiobooks exactly for the books I want to read, and I don't want to do whatever book just for the sake of practicing, not for this slot at least (the same way I'm reading only relevant books at my 20-page strong language slot). So, if I don't manage to always find relevant non-fiction audiobooks, I'll probably alternate Norwegian and French fiction at this and the first slot.
- The third slot is suspended because a) the Italian audiobook I had picked turned out too complex to figure out just from an audiobook and b) I'm often too tired of listening, as the final part of my schedule involves a lot of TV watching and audio courses. I do plan on resuming it. Probably for German fiction, following the same chriterium I did with Norwegian: not so relevant books which I wouldn't feel sorry for if I finished them and didn't understand anything. So, that leaves Italian, German or Spanish for this level. I could start Spanish anytime, and pick a XXth-century classic as a start, like something from Gabriel García Marquez, but then i'm saving his books for Georgian as there are loads of Georgian audiobooks for his novels.

The planning of materials becomes more and more complex when several languages are involved. I tend to favor languages with less resources, leaving the most easily available authors and novels for them.

The immediate decision I have to make is about my lunchtime audiobook. I want it to be non-fiction again, so I'll probably have a look at all those 'to read' non-fiction books and see if I can found one of them as an audiobook. After all, that's how I started The Shallows.

How about language-learning discussion audiobooks? Are they available for any of the most famous titles? (I have already read Benny's and Shektman's books, for that matter).

After a quick search, I found Steve Kaufmann's book. I dare say I'm still much more tempted to go for social psychology, behavioral economy or technology.

Then I have to decide what to do next for Russian (finishing my current book in a few weeks). I'd like to stick to non-fiction. Maybe I can find the most well-known corporative self-help books, but these aren't really my cup of tea.

Living Language Greek has been approved. It gives a more consistent grammar explanation than the other resources I've used. Looks like I'm going to use the same path for Swahili as for Greek, assuming that Duolingo will be available: Assimil, lessons from a website, Language Transfer, Living Language, Duolingo. Only that I still haven't got hold of a good grammar-translation method for Swahili (I'm sure this exists), but on the other hand I vaguely remember some other very cool resources.

When I started my language journey, audio-only courses were out of question, as my English itself wasn't good enough. I've skipped them for the most common languages, but I wonder how much I could have gained in terms of automaticity. Maybe I should try an intermediate level for German or for Russian?

I've finished my schedule and post-schedule over 1 hour earlier today, and this despite having procrastinated for half an hour while deciding which audiobook to pick next. It's likely that most of this additional time is spent on a course I'm attending on Coursera (in English). Nevertheless, I did manage to chat consistently in Norwegian (again) and in French, and could have added German to the mix, hadn't it meant an additional conversation to follow and even more distraction.
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