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

Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2017 9:43 pm
by vonPeterhof
Хостелы сейчас довольно сложная тема в России. Большая часть из них расположена в многоквартирных жилых домах, и существует мнение, что это нарушает права жителей домов. В прошлом году был подготовлен законопроект о запрете размещения хостелов в жилых домах, но окончательно его принять не удалось. Сейчас разрабатывается компромиссный вариант, в который включены исключения из запрета и возможности договориться с жильцами домов, но в каком виде будет принят закон пока неизвестно. Подробно об этом можно почитать здесь.

BTW, I think it would be better to say "я уже начал процедуру получения лицензии". "Выдачи лицензии" implies that you'll be issuing the licence to someone else. Anyway, good luck with becoming a licensed tour guide!

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

Posted: Fri Apr 07, 2017 8:47 pm
by Expugnator
@vonpeterhof: I've already finished the course, that was just handing in the documents for obtaining the credential, so I wouldn't call it a process. I got the license's certificate and I'm only waiting for the badge to arrive; thanks for the invaluable info, btw.

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Reading my 20 pages of non-fiction in a stronger language during hidden moments instead of during the schedule is saving a lot of time. I'm saving more desktop time for studying materials that need guidance, dictionary look-up, audio/video support.

Have the Scandinavian bookworms read anything by Tone Almhjell, that is, Vindeltorn and Maretorn? I wonder if it's worth the try. Browsing through the English text, I notice it has a lot of concrete vocabulary and pointing to movements of the characters. Maybe that's the vocabulary I need for Norwegian now.

A Brazilian polyglot friend who also knows Norwegian has shared this article. Feira de Santana is a town in my homestate, Bahia. The same news in Portuguese.

Finished The Age of Access, by Jeremy Rifkin, in German. It was a long read at 10 pages a day. It was helpful to my German. Now I'm free to read the book on language learning in German - Fremdsprachenlernen mit System (no wonder Germans are regarded as a systematic people, their learning books are all 'mit System', all methodical). I'm also reading more from Rifkin in a stronger language and have an easier time with his next book. My next reading at the 20-pages slot will be his next book, The Hydrogen Economy, this time in Italian.

How do I select which language will be granted this rotating slot of non-fiction? So far I'll be reading my absolute priority of non-fiction in either French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese or English. French has precedence, because originally it was a slot for reading in French, and that was how I reached over 5000 pages in it. Italian and Spanish have obviously precedence over Portuguese, and English only when there is no other language available (which is usually the case for the earlier books of a given author, since it's mostly American authors). How do I select between Spanish and Italian? Well, the one with be cover, large font and better format =D So it is Italian, a true pdf, even though I could be reading way faster in Spanish.

So here I am, approximately six pages more read from Fremdschprachenlernen mit System (Why can't Kobo and Kindle display actual page numbers, even resizable ones). I'm using the online Kindle reader so that I can split windows and use dict.cc at another window. I'm really reading intensively, around 2-5 word lookuos per page, and I just resent not being able to search for idioms, as sometimes the isolate word will still leave me clueless. This time I want to consolidate some abstract nouns in German that I started to aprehend in my previous reading. I want to be able to recall their meaning instantly and not only after reading the whole sentence and with context. This is an important step for my German while the book itself is an enlightening and joyful reading on the familiar topic of language learning. Besides, I'll be able to read during hidden moments on the phone and new ipAd, with the help Let the flow in German reading begin.

I'm becoming repetitive but I'm really happy about my progress in Estonian. I complete two years of study in May, I do no more than 15 minutes a day and I'm approaching the B1 reading level while expecting good progress to happen when I start watching native series with plenty of dialogues and bilingual subtitles. I think it was wise not to burn myself out with 30-60 minutes on a language I could only study intensively. 15 minutes of intensive study pays off better than reading extensively at very low word coverage levels. What makes me really happy is that I'll take this lesson to my next languages and I no longer expect to suffer the way I did with Russian, German, Georgian and Mandarin again.

A cool sentence at today's Kypros lesson: Οι κόρες μου είναι όμορφες.

Looks like I'm the leader in Estonian on Clozemaster, and I've made it to the top 20 in other languages. I'm just doing 4 rounds a day for each language most of the days, and in the case of Estonian I have no new sentences, only reviewing.

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

Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2017 9:29 pm
by Expugnator
The weekend was somehow productive. I started watching one of the many series I have on my list. It was Travelers, on Netflix, dubbed and subtitled in German. It's possible to download it on the app, so that makes it perfect for hidden moments. I was expecting more sci-fi than FBI for the first episode, but let's see how it comes along.

I also finally watched another episode of Side om Side. I read subtitles more than I listened to the dialogues, though. I kept track with Clozemaster but no Hello Chinese, no forum reading either, and thus a lot to catch up. I was planning to read more from my 20-page-slot book so I could finish it before Wednesday, but I didn't manage to. But then this is a short week and I probably won't study on Thursday.

Finished the movie Kirsitubakas, my first in Estonian. Already noticed a significant improvement in deciphering the sounds of the language. Now I'm going to start a fantasy adventure for children, Supilinna Salaselts.

What I like about the book "Physics of the Impossible", by Michio Kaku, is that since it starts by making reference to the tools imagined at the sci-fi stories, I end up hearing a lot of recommendations, like the novel Slan, about telepathy, by the Canadia author A.E. van Vogt. I've found it in French and I've added it to my list. There are a lot many works of his which have been translated in Romanian, so there it goes to my to-read list, too.

The Kindle app still works in my 1st-gen iPad With dictionary! Kudos to Amazon for this, and for having the Cloud reader for computer where I can't install apps. I almost feel like buying a Kindle now (I was close to last month, but most of my books are in pdf so it wouldn't work well).

So the reading of Fremdsprachenlernen mit System is going smoothly. My solution: split-screen, one window Amazon Cloudreader, the other Google Translate on another browser. GT has instant translation for German, so before I'm done typing it already hints on the possible words and the translations below. That's faster than pop-up word look-up! Dict.cc will have to wait for when I delve into writing.

One info of the book: one needs 20 languages in order to communicate with half humankind. Seems achievable: Mandarin, Spanish, English, Hindi, Arabic, Portuguese, bengali, Russian, Japanese, German, Javanese, Vietnamese, Telugu, Marathi, Tamil, French, Korean, Urdu, Italian and Turkish. Some of these are not for my taste, though, so maybe I'll stick to some 30% of humankind.

With the dubbing and double subtitles for Black Mirror (starting to tune in for understand just the audio now), German is finally receiving the attention it deserves, and with the same daily amount as of yet.

Decided to resume Westworld with Greek subtitles (instead of Russian, Estonian or Italian) today. Progress is astonishing. Now it can actually work as bilingual reading, and I know most of the words with each dialogue line. I just can't read Greek fast enough yet to do this double-subtitle reading the way I do with Estonian, but at a 10-minutes session it's worth it pausing now and then.

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

Posted: Mon Apr 10, 2017 11:37 pm
by iguanamon
Expugnator wrote:I almost feel like buying a Kindle now (I was close to last month, but most of my books are in pdf so it wouldn't work well).

Calibre works very well for converting pdf to mobi format. As long as pdf's are not formatted in too complex of a way (multi-column; too many photos) or not ocr'ed, it works great. I do it all the time. I use an old generation 4 kindle e-ink reader. I bought it for $49.00 US new. It has paid for itself many, many times.

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

Posted: Tue Apr 11, 2017 9:47 pm
by Expugnator
I've used Calibre and I might have it installed somewhere at my home PC, but going through the burden of converting every single file isn't worth it right now. I do use the iPads for browsing other stuff and I have 1 app for each ebookstore.

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Started the movie Supilinna Salaselts! Not only it seems fun, it's great for language learning. I got trained for children's voices after Jänku-Juss, and the audio is clear with lots of dialogues. There are Estonian subtitles and proper English subtitles. All in all, a great exercise!

On another further Northwestern note, I got North Sámi grammar, by Routledge! It's a good add to the most popular Sámi language. After a quick browse, I only miss more sample sentences. It is typical of Routledge grammars to have every grammar point ilustrated by several sentences with translations, which end up serving as reading material themselves. All in all, this work is encouraging for learners of Sámi, but I would bet there aren't enough literature or audio in the language. Music, there is, but not much else. So, while one might get to know about every aspect of the grammar, linguistic-wise, as well as become conversational, one would still lack the input for reaching the vocabulary density that would lead to fluency. This is typical of minority languages, so it's nothing to blame the language itself. According to this blog, there are two translated novels.

I had to run some errands again and stayed 3 hours away from my desktop. In between, I managed to read German with the downloaded GT dictionary, so it was almost like an ordinary day. Actually it was more useful as an exercise because I could focus on the reading while sitting and waiting.

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

Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 4:47 am
by galaxyrocker
Expugnator wrote:I've used Calibre and I might have it installed somewhere at my home PC, but going through the burden of converting every single file isn't worth it right now. I do use the iPads for browsing other stuff and I have 1 app for each ebookstore.


If you get the Kindle Fire, which I have, it's fairly easy to read PDFs on it. Plus, you can get the Scribd app, and I'm a huge fan of that. $9.99 a month and you get three books a month, with credits rolling over to a max of 9 at a time. I like it because they have every Irish language ebook published. They've got a few Scots Gaelic too, so I'm sure they have a lot for the bigger languages. You can mass convert with Calibre (I love Calibre, as well).

Edit to add: you can also upload the pdf to scribd and download it to the app and offline mode (amazing wonder! tho you have to check in like once a month just to make sure subscription is valid) and read it through the app. Only issue I've ever had is from poorly scanned pdfs that way.

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On another further Northwestern note, I got North Sámi grammar, by Routledge! It's a good add to the most popular Sámi language. After a quick browse, I only miss more sample sentences. It is typical of Routledge grammars to have every grammar point ilustrated by several sentences with translations, which end up serving as reading material themselves. All in all, this work is encouraging for learners of Sámi, but I would bet there aren't enough literature or audio in the language. Music, there is, but not much else. So, while one might get to know about every aspect of the grammar, linguistic-wise, as well as become conversational, one would still lack the input for reaching the vocabulary density that would lead to fluency. This is typical of minority languages, so it's nothing to blame the language itself. According to this blog, there are two translated novels.


I actually bought this too, when it first came out. I absolutely love Routeledge's Essential Grammar series, and N. Sámi is on my list to learn, eventually. That said, I do think the book mentioned radio stations in the language, which are a great help for audio, and that there are several books with more being written. Plus, I'm personally against translations in minority/smaller languages. A language needs to have its own tradition if it's to survive; it can't just have everything translated from the majority language tradition. This is a huge issue with Irish right now, imo, especially with the hype that translations receive as opposed to new, native, materials. So, really, I'd love to see more Sámi-only and Sámi-original books published. But, if you ever decide to give N. Sámi a good look, let me know! I'll definitely try to keep up with you!

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

Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 8:02 am
by Elenia
galaxyrocker wrote:
expugnator wrote:On another further Northwestern note, I got North Sámi grammar, by Routledge! It's a good add to the most popular Sámi language. After a quick browse, I only miss more sample sentences. It is typical of Routledge grammars to have every grammar point ilustrated by several sentences with translations, which end up serving as reading material themselves. All in all, this work is encouraging for learners of Sámi, but I would bet there aren't enough literature or audio in the language. Music, there is, but not much else. So, while one might get to know about every aspect of the grammar, linguistic-wise, as well as become conversational, one would still lack the input for reaching the vocabulary density that would lead to fluency. This is typical of minority languages, so it's nothing to blame the language itself. According to this blog, there are two translated novels.


I actually bought this too, when it first came out. I absolutely love Routeledge's Essential Grammar series, and N. Sámi is on my list to learn, eventually. That said, I do think the book mentioned radio stations in the language, which are a great help for audio, and that there are several books with more being written. Plus, I'm personally against translations in minority/smaller languages. A language needs to have its own tradition if it's to survive; it can't just have everything translated from the majority language tradition. This is a huge issue with Irish right now, imo, especially with the hype that translations receive as opposed to new, native, materials. So, really, I'd love to see more Sámi-only and Sámi-original books published. But, if you ever decide to give N. Sámi a good look, let me know! I'll definitely try to keep up with you!


Sveriges radio offers Radio Sápmi which can be accessed through Radio Garden. There is some Swedish on the broadcast, and I find the presenters tend to use Swedish words a fair bit (although the times that I've listened to it I've noticed that their interlocutors tend not to use loanwords).

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

Posted: Wed Apr 12, 2017 9:12 pm
by Expugnator
galaxyrocker wrote:I actually bought this too, when it first came out. I absolutely love Routeledge's Essential Grammar series, and N. Sámi is on my list to learn, eventually. That said, I do think the book mentioned radio stations in the language, which are a great help for audio, and that there are several books with more being written. Plus, I'm personally against translations in minority/smaller languages. A language needs to have its own tradition if it's to survive; it can't just have everything translated from the majority language tradition. This is a huge issue with Irish right now, imo, especially with the hype that translations receive as opposed to new, native, materials. So, really, I'd love to see more Sámi-only and Sámi-original books published. But, if you ever decide to give N. Sámi a good look, let me know! I'll definitely try to keep up with you!


I see translations just as part of the learning process, like an extension of Assimil or, when it doesn't exist, a way to fill in some gaps when textbooks are too much oriented towards grammar. My main goal remains reading literature, and once I've reached a comfortable level for reading extensively I stick to original works only, at least for fiction. I don't think all that hype is necessary, either.

As for learning North Sámi, I'm all for it, but that's not happening within a few years, as I plan to reach B2 in both Estonian and Finnish first. Well, that's an extra motivation!

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I've spent some time browsing the catalogue of the publishing house Emons, for audiobooks. It doesn't have a vast catalogue yet, but there is enough to keep me busy at my current favorite pastime (although I'm better off listening to Norwegian audiobooks, as I can understand Italian fine and not yet Norwegian). Anyway, most of the books are below 10€, so I find it a reasonable and sustainable resource.

It is a day of finishing resources, which I always find encouraging. First, non-fiction 20 pages. I finished the book I was reading on the Kobo app and I've already started Economia dell'idrogeno by Jeremy Rifkin. I was slow with Italian non-fiction before, but this one came out almost as quick as reading in French or Spanish. Really remarkable progress, and this is probably thanks to listening to crime audiobooks with longer paragraphs. I trained myself to process Italian information more quickly.

Another resource - and this is a relief - is Jostein Gaarder's Maya, a book I've had on my iPad for several years. It was too long and not so much useful as a learning resource. Next I was planning to go for the sequel of Odinsbarn, Råta, but I got to know the author Levi Henriksen, who isn't a crime novelist like most Scandinavians are. It's an opportunity to have an insight into the Norwegian way of life, but with much less blood. I was going to listen to the audiobook-only, as part of my commute, but I decided to make it my main reading. I'll keep the crime novels and those books I can't find on epub for my audiobook listening slot.

When you reach a level in Chinese where you know many characters, you start to know at least 1 of the pair in two-character-words. That makes it immensely easier to figure out new words from context. You read a word in context and you have an idea what it relates to (measure words also help on this).

Searching for Romanian

Yes, there are audiobooks in Romanian. Contemporary novels are harder to find, but I got one of Murakami's as well as the text. One more incentive for it to move up in my list. Let's hope I reach C1 in Spanish quickly.

There are also plenty of ebooks in Romanian. Even translations of contemporary Italian novels, such as Niccolò Ammaniti. Btw, I learned that some sites can expand URLs from those URL shorteners so that you don't have to go through all the ads, Link Expander, for example.

Next step is knowing whether Romanians dub or subtitle, and whether there are native series with subtitles. I guess the answer is 'no' to both, so I'll have to do like Greek, read subtitles for series in English and later on start native series.

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

Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2017 9:08 pm
by Expugnator
I was offline from Thursday to Sunday, on Easter extended holidays, so I didn't study on Thursday or on Friday. Watching 'Travelers' dubbed in German with German subs is my new way of taking profit of the hidden moments. Unfortunately, the subs don't match at all, and the dubbing isn't as high as dubbings usually are, it is barely audible through the background sound. It wasn't this time that I started Hebrew, though, and without internet I couldn't use Clozemaster either.

Not much on the front of resource gathering: i'm considering Chinesepod, but with thousands of lessons it would become a permanent resource, and I'm not sure it's the best to do now. After all, at this point a 'podcast lesson' is not much besides a text to be listened-read intensively, and these I can find through sources for native speakers. I actually need to write more in Mandarin and to discuss the learning process with other learners.

Finished my first audiobook from the series Montalbano. As I went through it I saw considerable improvement in my listening skills, like a consolidation of the previous work. I even understood some dialectal sentences I heard through it. Now I'll be doing a rare Norwegian non-fiction audiobook, but I'm still thrilled as for whether I'll be able to actually follow it.

Started "L'economia dell'idrogeno". It is taking me longer each day to go through the same 20 pages as in my previous resource. I think it's worth because I'm both learning a lot of Italian and reading on a topic I find i interesting, but I have to find a way to keep making use of my hidden moments so there is less to read during my usual morning spot.

Finished watching the film trilogy Fantomas. Not an actual end. Disgusting. Not getting back to it through any other media.

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

Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 9:01 pm
by Expugnator
Time for a small celebration: I listened to the first chapter of my Norwegian non-fiction book and I could actually follow the text. Not 100%, but I'm familiar with the content and I hope I'm starting to fill in some blanks.

At Narnia in Mandarin, I went through three pages of dialogues and so I could follow the story before reading the translation. It's a lot of fun. I'm actually happy I'm only halfway through the whole heptalogy, because I don't want to part the story any time soon.

I'm currently having an overdosis of Norwegian and it's not exactly reflecting on my listening skills for non-enunciated texts. I think I still need to reach better reading fluency before dreaming with better listening skills. Levi Henriksen's text is particularly unusual at this respect.

Fantomas contre Scotland Yard was my logged French film #100 (which doesn't mean I haven't watched other films before). Now I'm watching Le Prénom, which started in an interesting way with a narration. A typical urban Parisian film so far.

German distinguishes Mauer (muro) and Wand (parede) just like Portuguese. Overall my German is improving as my Norwegian is quite stagnant. I'm starting to understand dubbed German better. Maybe it's time t get dubbed Norwegian on Netflix?! (With so many native Norwegian series I want to watch, but then I don't fully understand what's being said in those series and thus it is suboptimal for learning).

Today was a very busy day. A typical Tuesday is back. At least I got to watch another episode of The OA in Russian and chatted a bit in Greek on Speaky.