kanewai's book shelf (current: italian)

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kanewai
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Re: kanewai's #01 famille-romance super challenge log no. 3

Postby kanewai » Tue Apr 04, 2017 1:17 am

April 3 Update

How has it been six weeks since my last update??? I think about updating my log all the time.

I'm currently at 88 books for the Super Challenge: 38 each for French and Spanish, 12 for Italian, and 1.5 for Latin. I want to complete a double, and am about 1000 pages behind. That will be hard to overcome. Meanwhile, I am far ahead of the curve for audio, mostly thanks to all the podcasts I listen to in Spanish and French. Sometimes I follow an episode easily, almost as if I'm listening to English. And other times I can't understand a thing, no matter how hard I concentrate.


French

I enjoyed Illusions Perdues much more than Le Père Goriot ... but that's not saying much since I hated Le Père Goriot. The parts of the novel that follow Lucien's fall and rise and fall in Paris society were great - and then I reached a part that I absolutely loathed. It involved very evil bankers and lawyers laying a very complicated plot to ensnare the very innocent and pure David and Ève. The characters were too simple; there was no subtlety or insight here, just a never-ending discussion about the French banking system. I almost didn't finish ... and then in the final chapters we meet a new character who might be my favorite villain in classical lit. One day I'll read the sequel, Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes.

French podcasts: Au coeur de l'histoire (my old standby), F Kermesse (pop culture podcast, lots of slang), Studio 404 (an excellent show that covers four topics per episode), Les Pieds sur Terre (short documetaries), and Polars et SF (sometimes I can follow the story, sometimes I am completely lost).


Spanish

I finally finished part 3 of Don Quijote. It was only 125 pages, but it took me six weeks to work my way through it. Reading an older style of Spanish does help, though; now modern Spanish feels so much easier to read.

Currently reading La sombra del viento (Carlos Ruiz Zafón, 2001). I read it when it came out, and knew that it would be near the top of my list once I could read Spanish. So far it's not too difficult, and I enjoy the Gothic moodiness of the book.

I have decided that I hate Spanish language tv & I'm not even going to try to watch any new series. Luckily I've found two interesting Radio Nacional de España (RNE) podcasts that I can follow and mostly understand: Nómadas (travel) and Documentos (documentaries).


Italian

I'm slowly working my way through Storia del nuevo cognome. It's really good, though I can't discuss much without spoilers.

I haven't found any really good Italian podcasts. I've tried podclub, but the topics (horoscopes, dating, alt. medicine) mostly irritate me. I've tried some music ones, but they're mostly music (surprise!) and not much talking.


Latin

I haven't given up on Latin, but I've only had a couple hours per week to work on it.


Arabic

I wish I had the time for every language I want to study. But I don't, and Arabic is not a language built for flirting. She wants a serious commitment, and I can't make one at the moment.
2 x
Super Challenge - 50 books
Italian: 11 / 50
Spanish: 50 / 50
French: 16 / 50

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kanewai
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Re: kanewai's #01 famille-romance super challenge log no. 3

Postby kanewai » Wed Apr 12, 2017 3:00 am

t minus 120 Days

I'll be walking the Camino de Santiago this summer, from Le Puy en Velay to Santiago de Compostela. I'm budgeting 75 days to walk 1500 km across southern France and northern Spain. This week I have officially entered the holy shit wtf are you thinking? phase of the journey.

It's a cultural experience, it's a personal challenge, it's my own reward to myself for turning 50 ... and it's a chance for me to really push myself to achieving fluency in French and Spanish. And so it's time to really get to work.

I'll be hitting the books hard the rest of the spring and summer. I want to finish FSI Spanish, and redo the second half of FSI French. On my commute I'll also redo the Pimsleur courses for each, starting with level III. I'll work on LingVist for vocabulary. It will be hard ... but I know that this combination really works for me.

I still want to keep working on my super challenge goals, but my priority is going to be on the more intensive learning methods.

Gulp.
6 x
Super Challenge - 50 books
Italian: 11 / 50
Spanish: 50 / 50
French: 16 / 50

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kanewai
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Re: kanewai's #01 famille-romance super challenge log no. 3

Postby kanewai » Thu Apr 13, 2017 10:08 pm

This is going to be harder than I thought.

For the past couple years my approach has been to do something every day, whether it was a podcast, or reading, or a tv show, or ... sometimes ... formal study. It was good for maintenance, but not so good for pushing myself to the next level.

I'm now aiming for 30-45 minutes of formal study per language per day. The time commitment isn't that different, but the mental energy difference is enormous. The only way I'm going to be able to pull this off is to get my act together overall - as in, getting enough sleep, or not having a glass of wine until after I finish hitting the books, and going to the gym before work instead of after so that I have time in the evenings to study ...

These are all good things, of course. And I might be genuinely fluent by the end of the summer - if the healthy living doesn't kill me first.
5 x
Super Challenge - 50 books
Italian: 11 / 50
Spanish: 50 / 50
French: 16 / 50

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kanewai
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Re: kanewai's #01 famille-romance super challenge log no. 3

Postby kanewai » Sat Apr 22, 2017 1:13 am

I'm seeing a major connection between how much sleep I get and how intensively I can study. I've had some erratic hours at work, and had to be off island for one day, & it threw my normal schedule off. I had one long day of driving (six hours in the car, which is more than I usually drive in a couple months), so I had plenty of time to immerse myself in tapes and podcasts. The rest of the week was junk. I could do a good, normal, 30-minute intensive stretch, but then my mind would wander.

It's not like I'm even really sleep deprived! It reminds me of when I was in competition. To be in peak shape for a race you'd need to get everything right: sleep and diet as well as training. Trying to do two languages intensively feels the same. It takes a bit more overall commitment than studying just one, or studying multiple languages at a moderate level.

I geeked out and mapped out benchmarks on excel, but I think I was overly optimistic. I'd forgotten how long it takes to do a proper FSI lesson. A 30 minute audio tape takes about 90 minutes to finish.

One nice thing I've noticed is a massive bump in comprehension if I listen to a podcast after doing 30-60 minutes of FSI. I don't know how I can incorporate this into my routine, especially with two languages, but I'll try.
6 x
Super Challenge - 50 books
Italian: 11 / 50
Spanish: 50 / 50
French: 16 / 50

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kanewai
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Re: kanewai's #01 famille-romance super challenge log no. 3

Postby kanewai » Fri Apr 28, 2017 9:11 pm

I needed the intensity of the last two weeks to shock my system, but the pace is not sustainable. At least, it's not sustainable if I want to have any kind of social life.

FSI: Both the French and Spanish courses are great, but it's a bit easier to close the books and completely immerse myself with the French audio. It's hard, but super effective. I can do this with some of the Spanish lessons, but a lot of the substitution drills require you to have the book open - the cues are written, but not read out on the tape. It's still effective, but not as brutally effective as trying to do it using only audio clues.

I still want to finish FSI Spanish this summer. I'm not sure if I'll be able to finish a complete review of the French or not.

Pimsleur: I'm stumbling a lot on basic Spanish conjugations. It's frustrating. I haven't internalized them as much as I have with French verbs. I need to put some time into basic verb drilling this weekend.

LingVist: I've been trying to go through 50 words each night, but I'm not sure it's worth the time. At least, it's not worth the time commitment when I'm already working using FSI and Pimsleur. I'd rather spend that half hour reading.

TV: The only foreign language shows I'm watching now are Le Bureau des Légendes and Gomorra. Both are excellent. I tested out a new streaming service that has international tv, Walter Presents, but all they seem to have are mediocre shows about crooked cops, mob bosses, and / or serial killers. I found nothing interesting.

Podcasts: Still going strong.

Novels: Now that I'm focusing on formal studying I've been having a hard time reaching my super challenge goals. I'm bummed, but it's what's working for me at the moment. By my count we should have read 60 books by now, or 120 for a double challenge. I'm at 42 French books, 40 Spanish, 13 Italian, and 2 Latin. Good for a single challenge, but I'm 1281 pages behind for the double.
0 x
Super Challenge - 50 books
Italian: 11 / 50
Spanish: 50 / 50
French: 16 / 50

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Re: kanewai's #01 famille-romance super challenge log no. 3

Postby kanewai » Fri Jun 02, 2017 9:50 pm

Still making slow and steady progress here. I'm not even close to reaching my personal goals, but that's par for the course. I usually map out goals when I have strong weeks with lots of times for studying ... and usually don't take into account the fact that there will be other weeks where I'm too busy at work, or have lots of social commitments, or have friends in town, or am just not in the mood.

I fly into Lyon August 15, and it helps to have an end-point that I'm aiming for.

French

Reviewing French FSI has been great. I still need the written text as back up, but can usually work through a lesson using only the tapes, which makes it a much more immersive and challenging experience. I'm currently on lesson 16.5 out of 24. At my current pace I'll reach lesson 21.5 before I head to Europe. I'm not too concerned about pushing myself to reach the end.

Reviewing Pimsleur is somewhat useful. It helps with re-activating my speaking skills, and it's easy to do on my commute, which is the main reason it's still part of my studies.

I'm currently reading Aurélien, by Louis Aragon (1944). It's fantastic, which took my by surprise. It didn't sound like my kind of book based on the description (a romance set in Paris in the 1920s), but I've seen it on a lot of 'best-of' lists, and it's been sitting on my shelf for a couple years now. I'm surprised how modern it feels. It reminds me of the American 'lost generation' novels of Fitzgerald and Hemingway, though with a lot more sex and seduction.

My podcast list hasn't changed much: Au coeur de l'histoire, F Kermesse, Studio 404, and Les pieds sur terre are all solid.

Spanish

I read once that Spanish starts off feeling easier than the other Romance languages, but is actually more challenging once you try and advance past an intermediate level. I'm definitely finding this to be the case for me. The third volume of FSI Spanish is suddenly a lot harder as it shifts it's focus to the nuances of the different tenses. I remember becoming stuck in Assimil too on a few chapters, in a way that I never got stuck with Italian or French. I'm currently on Lesson 42. I'd like to finish the course before August I won't cross into Spain until mid September; it'll be interesting to see how much I retain after six weeks in France.

I've reached Level IV on my Pimsleur review. I might or not finish all five levels before August, but it's not a priority.

I'm close to finishing La Sombra del Viento, Carlos Ruiz Zafón (2001). It's good, though not as great as I remember. Everything is in the shadows, it's always overcast or raining, and I think I'm learning every Spanish term for all things gloomy and morose.

I've been listening to two podcasts put out by Radio Nacional España, Documentos and Nómadas. Documentos is challenging, as they often cover people and events I have never heard of. Nómadas is a nice travel program, but I find that I can understand the Radio professionals well enough, but won't understand a word of the people they talk to. I don't know if it's regional accents, or country accents, or what, but it sounds like have the people slur their words, mumble, or are talking with a mouth full of food.

Italian

Italian isn't a priority right now, though I'm slowly working through La storia del nuevo cognome by Elena Ferrante (2012). It's great, but I've also been reading it all year! It's taking me forever.

Meanwhile, Gomorra season 2 has started, and it is even darker than the first season. Even though every single main character is genuinely bad, the series is completely riveting.
2 x
Super Challenge - 50 books
Italian: 11 / 50
Spanish: 50 / 50
French: 16 / 50

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kanewai
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Re: kanewai's book shelf

Postby kanewai » Fri Apr 20, 2018 11:11 pm

I've changed the name of my log, again. I haven't decided if I'll do another super challenge or not, though I probably will - there's more than enough for a couple challenges here.

And if anyone else has the same books on their shelf, and is interested in doing a group reading, let's talk!

French

(audiobook) Alexandre Dumas. Les trois mousquetaires. Narrator: Bernard Bollet. I'm really enjoying this. It's my first time listening to a French audio book.

On the bookshelf
Patrick Modiano. Rue des boutiques obscures. I've really liked some of his other books. At the moment Modiano is my favorite modern French author.
Honoré de Balzac. Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes. The sequel to Illussions perdues. Balzac can be slow going, so I keep delaying picking this one up. It's been in my kindle for a long time.
Marcel Proust. La Prisonnière. I'm kind of burned out on Proust, and am tempted to skip to the last book of Lost Time, which is set during WWI. Other times I think I should persevere.


Spanish

Ildefonso Falcones. La catedral del mar. This is a big fat novel that will probably take me months to finish. It's exciting, though - so maybe it will be a fast read.

On the bookshelf
Gabriel García Márquez. Cien años de soledad. I started this once before, but my Spanish wasn't strong enough. I think it is now.
Manuel Puig. El beso de la mujer araña. I loved the movie back in the 80s. I wonder if I'll love the book?


Italian

Elena Ferrante. Storia della bambina perduta. This is the last of what has been a stunning quartet. I'm close to finishing it.

On the bookshelf
Orlando furioso di Ludovico Ariosto, raccontato da Italo Calvino. Calvino retells the epic of Roland (Orlando). I'm excited to start this one.
Francesco Petrarca. Canzonieiri. 1327-1368. I've read a few of the sonnets, and really enjoyed them.
Giovanni Boccaccio. Decameron. This is a maybe. I'd love to find a modern Italian version, if one exists.
Dante. Paradiso. I made it through the inferno, and through purgatory. I should see how this ends.
Giacomo Casanova. Storia della mia vita. This one should be interesting.


Latin

Assimil. Le Latin. I should finish the passive wave in a couple weeks. After that I'd like to give some literature a try.

On the bookshelf
Virgil. Aeneid. I ordered Clyde Pharr's annotated guide to books I-VI. I hope I'm ready for it.


German

Assimil. German with Ease. I've had this on my shelf for a year and a half. I'm not even sure I have the time for this, but I'm giving it a go. Still on the first week with it. German is the last of my main target languages ... the ones where I'd like to be able to read and speak.


Japanese

Assimil. Japanese with Ease. On order. I did Pimsleur and Living Language a couple years ago, and just restarted Pimsleur in prep for a possible hiking trip to Japan this October. I'm still not sure on this one. I want to give it a try, especially since Japanese is such a common second-language where I live.
4 x
Super Challenge - 50 books
Italian: 11 / 50
Spanish: 50 / 50
French: 16 / 50

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Fortheo
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Re: kanewai's book shelf

Postby Fortheo » Sat Apr 21, 2018 11:06 am

Good luck with Japanese! I'm interested to see what kind of progress you make, especially I'm in pretty much the same position as you--i did pimsleur, Michel Thomas and some Anki decks years ago, but now I'm trying to pick it up seriously.

Is Assimil your main study material right now for Japanese? I plan on using it to once I finish reviewing pimsleur. Do you have a plan for kanji, or will you just learn them as you go?
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Re: kanewai's book shelf

Postby Robierre » Sat Apr 21, 2018 1:05 pm

kanewai wrote:Honoré de Balzac. Splendeurs et misères des courtisanes. The sequel to Illussions perdues. Balzac can be slow going, so I keep delaying picking this one up. It's been in my kindle for a long time.

I have it on my shelf in Croatian translation (Sjaj i bijeda kurtizana); from the first ten pages I'd say it might be difficult. Or maybe I was not in the right mood for Balzac - I left it for later!
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Si ce n'est toi, qui le fera? Si pas maintenant, quand sera-ce?

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kanewai
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Re: kanewai's book shelf

Postby kanewai » Mon Apr 23, 2018 7:15 pm

Fortheo wrote:Good luck with Japanese! I'm interested to see what kind of progress you make, especially I'm in pretty much the same position as you--i did pimsleur, Michel Thomas and some Anki decks years ago, but now I'm trying to pick it up seriously.

Is Assimil your main study material right now for Japanese? I plan on using it to once I finish reviewing pimsleur. Do you have a plan for kanji, or will you just learn them as you go?


I still haven't fully committed to Japanese - which means I don't have much of a plan. Right now I'm just reviewing Pimsleur. I'll give Assimil a shot once I've finished the Latin book. I have no idea how it will go. I've tried Assimil for 'harder' languages, like Turkish and Ancient Greek, and stalled out about 2/3 of the way through. It just got too hard. Both of those were French-based, which added to the challenge.
1 x
Super Challenge - 50 books
Italian: 11 / 50
Spanish: 50 / 50
French: 16 / 50


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