Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope (ES, PL, RU)

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Amerykanka
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Languages: Modern: English (N), Spanish (C1), Polish (C1-), Russian (B1+)

Ancient: Latin (advanced), Ancient Greek (advanced) (currently completing PhD in Classics); Akkadian (beginner)

Levels are based on assessment at university and/or summer programs
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=745
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Amerykanka » Mon Aug 10, 2015 12:20 am

http://www.cuadernoscervantes.com/ele_52_preterito.html

Este enlace ofrece un resumen muy comprensivo del uso del pretérito y el imperfecto. Me ha resultado muy útil, entonces quería compartirlo aquí. Creo que lo leí por primera vez hace varios años, pero digamos que hoy lo re-descubrí mientras navegaba por la red.
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Mooby
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Mooby » Mon Aug 10, 2015 7:31 pm

Hi Amerykanka, glad your log is taking off here.
Hope your Polish is surviving amid all this Spanish 8-) !
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Amerykanka
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Ancient: Latin (advanced), Ancient Greek (advanced) (currently completing PhD in Classics); Akkadian (beginner)

Levels are based on assessment at university and/or summer programs
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Amerykanka » Wed Aug 12, 2015 3:10 pm

Mooby wrote:Hi Amerykanka, glad your log is taking off here.
Hope your Polish is surviving amid all this Spanish 8-) !


Good to hear from you, Mooby! I wish I could say that my Polish is doing as well as my Spanish, but alas. I have been thinking about a way of including more Polish study hours in my schedule - hopefully I will be posting details here soon. In any case, my Polish is definitely surviving - just not thriving as I would like it to be.

I just uploaded some Polish Christmas carols and folk songs to my computer, however, and I am looking forward to listening to those. :)
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Amerykanka
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Levels are based on assessment at university and/or summer programs
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Amerykanka » Fri Aug 21, 2015 6:55 pm

I haven’t updated this log properly in several weeks – I hope to remedy this now. The school year is starting and I am in the process of moving halfway across the country to the university, so everything is pretty insane and it will take me a few weeks to get back into the routine. I’m excited though because I shipped Gramática del uso del español (C1-C2) to my school address and I’m hoping it will be there when I arrive.

SPANISH UPDATE
- I am now halfway through Season 4 of El Internado, but I am taking a break, partially because I was bored and mostly because my friend keeps on texting me and saying, “Have you watched anymore of Águila???!!!”
- Speaking of which, I started watching Águila roja again; so far I’ve watched 8.5 episodes, so I am ¾ of the way through Season 2. I had forgotten how good this show is. I am a sucker for superhero movies in any language, so a superhero ninja in 16th-century Spain was bound to interest me. I had originally taken a break to improve my listening comprehension with slightly easier shows, and I must say that after three seasons of Gran Hotel and three of El Internado, my comprehension of Águila has skyrocketed – success! I still can’t always understand everything Sátur says, but then, I don’t necessarily want to – seriously, there are some things that I definitely don’t need to know about his anatomy.
- In other listening comprehension news, I have watched another half-episode of Madrileños por el mundo. This one was set in South Korea so I learned a lot . . . and I am exerting a lot of self-control so that Korean won’t appear on my language list. I also listened to 4-5 episodes of Buenos Días América – I love that podcast. I really need to count up all my listening hours so I can update my progress bar.
- I am on page 386 of La Sombra del Viento. I know I said I needed it done by August 19, but I’ve been given a temporary reprieve. Right now we’re visiting my grandmother en route to school, so when I leave her house tomorrow night I can give the book to my parents to return to the library. Anyway, this means that I have one and a half days to finish 180 pages.
- I went on the Cervantes website and did part of a C1 practice test. I got 37 out of 40 of the questions right on the reading comprehension portion in about 2/3 of the allotted time, so I’m not worried about that part. Especially since one of the missed questions was a stupid grammar mistake, and the other two were based on a telephone contract – I don’t understand those things in English, either. So as far as reading goes, I’m going to continue reading whatever novels and short stories I feel like, and I’ll just throw in some instruction manuals, contracts, and maybe a few scholarly essays for good measure. This, as well as Gramática del uso de español, should fully prepare me for the reading portions, and help on the writing, too. My listening comprehension results weren’t quite as good as I would have liked. I had time to do 25 of the 30 questions (for clarification: I didn’t run out of time test-wise – I finished the questions easily in the time given by the Cervantes audio – but my other everyday obligations prevented me from doing one of the tasks). In any case, I only got 18 of the questions right, which was highly frustrating. However, I did understand at least 90% of the audio, and my experience with these kinds of tests tells me that with a bit more practice, I can bring up my average. Nevertheless, I still have a lot of work to do in this area. My current plans include watching more of Águila and El Internado, watching Madrileños por el mundo intensively, and listening to Buenos Días América daily. With Madrileños, I am dividing it into 20 minute segments and then, if I don’t understand every word of a segment, I listen to it again and rewind as much as necessary so that I understand every word. I am doing something similar with Buenos Días. I may start taking notes, too, since for the DELE it is important to pick up little details and be able to talk, write, or answer questions about them.
- I wrote one or two compositions on iTalki and a letter to my friend, but I need to get in the habit of submitting 2-3 things on iTalki per week. I also need to look into letter writing conventions and other such things because formal letters always seem to show up on these kinds of tests. This practice coupled with Gramática del uso should take care of the writing portion of the test, which just leaves speaking. I’m probably going to start Skyping with some people on iTalki. Also being back at school and working in the language department means that I’ll run into the Spanish professors a lot, so I should be able to get some practice that way.

POLISH UPDATE
- Not as much is happening in this department as I would like, but I did spend 50 minutes the other day listening to LOTR. I am always impressed with my Polish listening comprehension – it is way better than I deserve. I guess all those years of Polish Saturday school and weekly conversations paid off. I almost think that my Polish listening comprehension is better than my Spanish, although this doesn't actually make any sense. Maybe what I mean is that I’ve read more Polish classics than Spanish ones, so I understand formal, literary Polish much better than I understand formal, literary Spanish. In any case, I understood most of LOTR and if I finished the audiobook, I’m sure it would do wonders for me. I am 18 hours in and I have 40 hours left – this would be a good project for this semester, I think. I also have 5.5 hours of Szkoła narzeczonych left. 45 hours of listening comprehension should be doable even considering the insane amount of school, work, and Spanish studying that I have to do.
- I have vague plans for reading this fall, which I will have to determine more precisely at a later date. During the school year – and in general, honestly – I have a hard time focusing on more than one “non-school” language, so I will be focusing on Spanish this fall until after the DELE in November. After that, assuming that I believe the test went well, my tentative plan is to switch my main focus language to Polish and to work towards taking a C1 exam. I’m guessing my level in Polish has dropped to a high B1 or low B2, so this will take a great deal of work. It will also be harder to find somewhere to take the Polish exam, but this will make a good long term goal and motivation for Polish. Eventually I’d like to do C2 but I’m under no delusions that I am anywhere near that level now. Anyway, my main objective currently is to ensure that I get at least an hour of solid Polish in per week; I don’t want to lose any more than I already have. This hour may include reading, or grammar, or TV, or anything I think will be useful.

ANCIENT LANGUAGES
In preparation for the school year, I have been filling out some verb synopses in both Latin and Greek, and I pulled out my Greek irregular verb principal parts flashcards to start drilling them again. I have a long car ride up ahead so I expect I'll get some more practice in then.

This is a long, somewhat rambling post, but I hope that it made some sense. I'll be back later this weekend with a review of La Sombra del Viento.
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Amerykanka
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Amerykanka » Fri Oct 02, 2015 3:11 am

Dang, I know that I usually disappear once school starts, but this is a record, even for me. Needless to say, I haven't actually stopped studying languages - I've just been buried in homework and two jobs, etc., etc.

I will attempt to start posting again regularly, but we'll see.

EDIT: Why do even my language professors think I'm weird??? Why isn't learning 4-5 languages normal???
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Serpent » Fri Oct 02, 2015 11:03 am

What? :P
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Amerykanka
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Amerykanka » Wed Dec 02, 2015 11:23 pm

Well, this is embarrassing. . . .

1 Greek recitation, 4 papers, and 6 finals to go - but then I'm done for the semester. And then I will return to the forum for at least a few weeks until classes begin again.

I really must get better at managing my time so that I actually write updates during the school year. I just tend to get off the internet once I get stressed, which I suppose isn't actually a bad thing, in general.

So, language news: Latin has never been better - I've been sight-reading Sallust with great success. And who knew it would be so much fun to memorize Latin prose? Greek too is going strong; I finally got used to weird Homeric conventions and now I am just mildly (sarcasm) freaking out about my translation and grammar analysis finals.

Spanish has suffered a bit - I simply haven't had much time. I watched another season of Águila roja, which was good, and I work as a Spanish tutor, so I'm not completely disconnected. I did decide to wait on the DELE til next spring sadly. I just didn't have time. Next spring my course load is heavier on languages, which means less stress and more free time for Spanish.

Polish - ha. Definitely need to work on this.

And now - a new arrival. My Classics professors have been telling me that I'll never get into a first-rate grad school if I don't pick up some German immediately, and I, of course, put up an ENORMOUS fight and was heartbroken at the thought of learning ANOTHER language . . . In other words, I am thrilled to have an excuse to explore a language that I've been wanting to learn for years. I'll be starting as soon as classes end.
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Chmury » Wed Dec 02, 2015 11:39 pm

Why is German so heavily preferenced in high-end universities over in the states? Or is it simply highly valued in the field you're studying (which is?.. Linguistics? Classical Languages? Language & Culture? Translation?) and not a general blanket desire?

And don't worry if you're not posting during the semester due to working hard on your languages, that's awesome! Agreed, definitely not a bad thing that you're not wasting hours of your life scanning through rubbish on the internet. And congrats with all the progress you've made with Latin and Greek!
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Amerykanka
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Levels are based on assessment at university and/or summer programs
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Amerykanka » Tue Dec 08, 2015 3:08 pm

Chmury wrote:Why is German so heavily preferenced in high-end universities over in the states? Or is it simply highly valued in the field you're studying (which is?.. Linguistics? Classical Languages? Language & Culture? Translation?) and not a general blanket desire?


I would say it's more of a field-specific thing - there is a lot of good Classics scholarship in German. But then this is also true of scholarship in a lot of different fields, so who knows. In any case, for grad school in Classics, German is a necessity. And I am happy to oblige, since I've been dying to start German for years. :)
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Amerykanka
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Ancient: Latin (advanced), Ancient Greek (advanced) (currently completing PhD in Classics); Akkadian (beginner)

Levels are based on assessment at university and/or summer programs
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Amerykanka » Tue Dec 15, 2015 5:23 pm

Finals are (finally) over, so I'm back! For at least a month or so, until spring semester starts. However, the goal is to manage my time well enough next semester that I can actually be present on this forum AND get the desired grades in my courses.

I need to sit down and evaluate The Language Situation, and this post is theoretically the beginning of the process. But first, I'd like to introduce my new challenge: the Poetry Challenge. For several years I have been telling myself that my knowledge of poetry is abysmal and that I would like to have more Shakespeare memorized (this is what happens when a lot of your friends are into drama), and now I have decided to combine my desire for exposure to poetry with my ever-present love of languages. The challenge is simple: to memorize at least one poem every day for 30 days. The only rule is that I have to switch languages every day; note, however, that there is no restriction against switching from English to Polish one day, for example, and then back to English the next day. My primary languages in this endeavor will be, of course, English, Polish, Latin, Greek, and Spanish. But who knows, maybe I can add some German in by the end!

For my Homer course this semester, my professor gave us a choice between either writing a term paper or memorizing 50 lines of the Odyssey. I picked memorization and saw immense growth in my knowledge of meter, vocabulary, and grammar, as well as in my overall "feel" for the language. The addition of even 30 new poems to my repertoire will cause exponential growth in my languages - and it will be incredibly fun! It seems like the perfect holiday combination.

I technically began this challenge on the 13th, so today I will be reporting several days. Also, I often get carried away and memorize more than one poem, so there's that, too.

THE POETRY CHALLENGE
12/13/15 - "Z nie odbytej wyprawy w Himalaje" by Wisława Szymborska
12/14/15 - Horace Carmina 1.22 ("Integer vitae scelerisque purus" etc.), Horace Carmina 3.30 ("Exegi monumentum aere perennius" etc.), "Atlantyda" by Wisława Szymborska

Okay, now I should go an evaluate The Language Situation. Also, I should start looking into German resources.
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