Celtic Team - Study Group

An area with study groups for various languages. Group members help each other, share resources and experience. Study groups are permanent but the members rotate and change.
crush
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Re: Celtic Team - TAC 2016 - Team Thread

Postby crush » Sat Jun 04, 2016 5:56 pm

Montmorency wrote:
crush wrote:I'm also studying Welsh, almost entirely due to montmorency's raving reviews of SSiW.


You might possible mean "rave reviews". On the other hand, you possibly might not... :-)

I'm sure you're probably right :oops:

Well, I had to return the favour. It was you who introduced me to HTLAL, if you can remember that far back. (and to audiobooks, actually...).
Yeah, i believe that was at the end of the old HTLAL split off site's reign that came about when the Admin added the pro features to HTLAL and a few folks weren't happy with the turn things were taking. But i think you missed that period.

I'm very pleased you are still doing Welsh. I think you'll like the new levels. I think actually, people who've done the old courses can appreciate them better, in a way, although I don't think Aran would agree.
I believe i did the first lesson when it was first released just to test it out, the biggest difference i noticed at the time was the change in music ;) But i am excited to go through it, i've been kinda hoping that the new course would be done by the time i finish the old course, and it may very well be, heh.

I like his positive approach! :-) Well that particular group moved to Skype as it seemed to be more reliable, although I had to drop out of it for various reasons. There was an international Skype group that met on Saturdays (5pm UK time, so that people on the West Coast of the USA could manage it reasonably conveniently), but I'm not sure if it's still running. I can check up and PM you details, if it's still going.

That'd be great, Skype would also be much better for me here in China (Google's blocked). 5pm should be about midnight here. I still have a small dream of attending a bootcamp...

I've been following the Northern course, not sure how much that makes a difference in the overal scheme of things but do you or anyone have any suggestions as to what to watch/listen to that i might have a slight chance of understanding? I'd also like to look at some stuff for reading, but i've read literary Welsh is quite a bit different and i'm not sure how far literary Welsh extends into (eg. the news, kids stories, etc.). I've got access to a UK VPN, so region-blocking shouldn't be an issue... I actually downloaded a bunch of radio programs a while back like Dafydd a Caryl, Post Cyntaf, and Tommo (i remember his show causing a bit of controversy when it came out).
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Montmorency
Brown Belt
Posts: 1035
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2015 3:01 pm
Location: Oxfordshire, UK
Languages: English (Native)
Maintaining: German (active skills lapsed somewhat).
Studying: Welsh (advanced beginner/intermediate);
Dabbling/Beginner: Czech

Back-burner: Spanish (intermediate) Norwegian (bit more than beginner) Danish (beginner).

Have studied: Latin, French, Italian, Dutch; OT Hebrew (briefly) NT Greek (briefly).
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1429
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Re: Celtic Team - TAC 2016 - Team Thread

Postby Montmorency » Sat Jun 04, 2016 9:08 pm

crush wrote:
Yeah, i believe that was at the end of the old HTLAL split off site's reign that came about when the Admin added the pro features to HTLAL and a few folks weren't happy with the turn things were taking. But i think you missed that period.


Yes - the Pro membership feature was already in place when I joined, and I did in fact take out Pro membership for a couple of years. I found it useful for using the full search capability.





That'd be great, Skype would also be much better for me here in China (Google's blocked). 5pm should be about midnight here. I still have a small dream of attending a bootcamp...


I think the fact that you were in China had actually escaped me, sorry! :) (I'll continue that theme in your log...).
I've been following the Northern course, not sure how much that makes a difference in the overal scheme of things but do you or anyone have any suggestions as to what to watch/listen to that i might have a slight chance of understanding? I'd also like to look at some stuff for reading, but i've read literary Welsh is quite a bit different and i'm not sure how far literary Welsh extends into (eg. the news, kids stories, etc.). I've got access to a UK VPN, so region-blocking shouldn't be an issue... I actually downloaded a bunch of radio programs a while back like Dafydd a Caryl, Post Cyntaf, and Tommo (i remember his show causing a bit of controversy when it came out).


:-) Yes, you are right about Tommo. He seems to have survived though. Apart from that "Sesiwn Fach" I mentioned, I don't actually listen much to music programmes on there. I tend to go for some of the discussion-type programmes (series, usually). There are a few of these that I have got to know, and got used to. TBH, it took me a long time to get into Radio Cymru with anything like moderate comprehension...probably at least two years. But I did get to the stage where - so long as I concentrated properly - I could understand a fair amount, and usually be able to write down correctly any words I didn't know to look up later. In recent weeks, I've been neglecting Welsh in favour of German and Norwegian, and it shows. I need to get back and get my "ear" into it again.

I don't really watch much on S4C: currently only "Rownd a Rownd" which is a twice weekly "soap" set in Anglesey (so Northern Welsh). It's quite dialect-rich and quite hard to understand sometimes, but it does have the advantage of having Welsh subtitles (as well as English), which not all programmes have (most have just English s/t - a few have none at all).
Hot Tip: you can easily save the s/t from a browser: on the programme-episode webpage, do "view page source", then search for two .xml files (there should only be two, one for English, one for Welsh). Right-click and download those files, and Bob's your uncle. :)
You'd have to do some editing or simple programming to extract the bare text from all the xml stuff, but e.g. you could put it into SRS, or make a parallel text out of it, or just hang on to it for reference.

Just lately, I've been recording the audio from Rownd a Rownd using Audacity. Once I've watched the programme once, I don't really need the video to remind me what is going on, and I can usually recognise people's voices these days, so I'll re-listen to it a few times, with or without the subtitles (Welsh and/or English). And the audio doesn't take up as much space as the video would. :)

One programme you might want to try is "Dal Ati" ("keep at it"!) which is specifically aimed at learners. That also has Welsh s/t.

Coming back to radio for a moment, it's hard to know what to recommend. As I say, I've got used to it over time, and got used to those relatively few discussion type programmes (e.g. "Dan yr Wyneb"), but I wouldn't necessarily recommend them to people just starting out listening, well, except perhaps in small doses. One think I think I can recommend, is "Y Talwrn" which is on Sunday evenings.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07d30jl

It's actually a series of poetry competitions - heats for the National Eisteddfod.
Now, you may not understand much, but why I recommend it is that the contestants usually speak very clearly, and then the chairman / judge (not sure if he has an official title, but beirniad - adjudicator - might cover it, repeats the entries of the contestants, usually fairly carefully, sometimes commenting. And it's not all serious, as you will hear. There is usually a lot of laughter. (I wish I was in on the joke a bit more often, i fod yn onest! ).

Reading: literary Welsh, etc. I'll come back to this in another post some time. This one has already gone on too long. Rhy hir. (or perhaps rhy bell - too far).
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geoffw
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Re: Celtic Team - TAC 2016 - Team Thread

Postby geoffw » Sun Jun 05, 2016 3:32 am

galaxyrocker wrote:
jeff_lindqvist wrote:God willing


You using this made me remember how often a similar phrase is used in Irish. I'm talking about le cúnamh Dé (lit. with God's help), but it's often used in place of 'hopefully', though I do believe go dóchasach can be used.


Cf. "Im yirtze Hashem," "Inshallah," also very common, at least in the appropriate communities.
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crush
Blue Belt
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Languages: EN (N), ES, ZH
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Re: Celtic Team - TAC 2016 - Team Thread

Postby crush » Sun Jun 05, 2016 4:41 am

Montmorency wrote::-) Yes, you are right about Tommo. He seems to have survived though.
[...]
Reading: literary Welsh, etc. I'll come back to this in another post some time. This one has already gone on too long. Rhy hir. (or perhaps rhy bell - too far).

Wow, this post was amazing, thanks so much! If there are really Welsh and English subtitles available, that would be perfect for some subs2srs courses. I'll definitely have to look into that as i've been loving subs2srs the past year or so for Mandarin as well as Basque (though unfortunately without Basque audio). So this would fit into my current routine very well! I don't know how to begin to thank you, gonna check out all of those! I remember you working on German back then, glad to see you're still at it. I'd love to spend more time with German as it's the language that really got me interested in learning languages, unfortunately time seems to slip away from me...
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Montmorency
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Posts: 1035
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2015 3:01 pm
Location: Oxfordshire, UK
Languages: English (Native)
Maintaining: German (active skills lapsed somewhat).
Studying: Welsh (advanced beginner/intermediate);
Dabbling/Beginner: Czech

Back-burner: Spanish (intermediate) Norwegian (bit more than beginner) Danish (beginner).

Have studied: Latin, French, Italian, Dutch; OT Hebrew (briefly) NT Greek (briefly).
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1429
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Re: Celtic Team - TAC 2016 - Team Thread

Postby Montmorency » Sun Jun 05, 2016 4:36 pm

crush wrote:I remember you working on German back then, glad to see you're still at it. I'd love to spend more time with German as it's the language that really got me interested in learning languages, unfortunately time seems to slip away from me...


German is a life-long thing for me, I suspect. I was coping with Welsh and German at the same time, just about, but I fear adding Norwegian may have knocked me off kilter a bit (not that I'm planning to give it up!). I just need to plan my time better (famous last words :) ).
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Montmorency
Brown Belt
Posts: 1035
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2015 3:01 pm
Location: Oxfordshire, UK
Languages: English (Native)
Maintaining: German (active skills lapsed somewhat).
Studying: Welsh (advanced beginner/intermediate);
Dabbling/Beginner: Czech

Back-burner: Spanish (intermediate) Norwegian (bit more than beginner) Danish (beginner).

Have studied: Latin, French, Italian, Dutch; OT Hebrew (briefly) NT Greek (briefly).
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1429
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Some movement on SSiCornish ("Say Something In...")

Postby Montmorency » Thu Jun 09, 2016 7:59 pm

Looks like there may be some movement on "Say Something in Cornish". There is already a short course, but it may be being added to soon.

I'm not 100% sure if this thread is open to people not registered and signed in, but I'll link to it anyway:

http://forum.saysomethingin.com/t/thoug ... ssicornish

Something in there that was news to me:

By the way, @naltun, if you like Radyo an Gernewegva, you'll probably also enjoy An Nowodhow — the weekly Cornish language news bulletin on BBC Radio Cornwall. It's at 5 pm on Sundays, but you can listen to the current and recent episodes any time here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p001d77s4

Also, the script for the most recent episode (with English translation!) is always available to read at
http://www.cornish-language.org/annowod ... cript.pdf2 — which makes it a lot easier to follow what you're hearing and learn a few more words along the way!
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jeff_lindqvist
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Re: Celtic Team - TAC 2016 - Team Thread

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Thu Jun 09, 2016 10:56 pm

I remember Simon Ager saying that the intention was to make it a full course (three levels, I suppose?) and also keep it 100% free since it's a minority language. The same goes for the upcoming Manx course. :)
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jeff_lindqvist
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Re: Celtic Team - TAC 2016 - Team Thread

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Fri Jun 10, 2016 12:08 pm

Milestone

I just finished lesson 26 of Course 1.

Dwi'n licio siarad Cymraeg. :)
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Leabhair/Greannáin léite as Gaeilge: 9 / 18
Ar an seastán oíche: Oileán an Órchiste
Duolingo - finished trees: sp/ga/de/fr/pt/it
Finnish with extra pain : 100 / 100

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Montmorency
Brown Belt
Posts: 1035
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2015 3:01 pm
Location: Oxfordshire, UK
Languages: English (Native)
Maintaining: German (active skills lapsed somewhat).
Studying: Welsh (advanced beginner/intermediate);
Dabbling/Beginner: Czech

Back-burner: Spanish (intermediate) Norwegian (bit more than beginner) Danish (beginner).

Have studied: Latin, French, Italian, Dutch; OT Hebrew (briefly) NT Greek (briefly).
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1429
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Re: Celtic Team - TAC 2016 - Team Thread

Postby Montmorency » Tue Jun 14, 2016 8:25 pm

jeff_lindqvist wrote:I remember Simon Ager saying that the intention was to make it a full course (three levels, I suppose?) and also keep it 100% free since it's a minority language. The same goes for the upcoming Manx course. :)


Speaking of which:

Say Something in Manx - now available

https://www.saysomethingin.com/manx#

There are 18 lessons available: 10 in Level 1, 8 in Level 2.

The first lesson is freely downloadable for anyone. To get further, you have to register and login, but I have a feeling that at least the first level may be free (as is the Welsh one). I'm not 100% sure about that. Because I am already a subscriber for more than one language, I cannot tell how it looks to a non-subscriber.

Like most SSi courses, lessons ("Challenges" in the current setup) are about 30 minutes long. It's all aural / oral, but there is a written vocabulary list. You are encouraged not to look at the written material until you have done the listening / speaking. That is actually the nub of the SSi method: listening and speaking. The list is only provided in case you really can't quite hear what is being said.

Edit: Comment on the SSi forum from Aran Jones, founder, about the Manx course:
Yes, that's right - Level 1 is free, Level 2 is pay-per-session - once we have enough material available (say about 50 or so sessions) we'll discuss moving over to the Welsh low monthly sub approach...
Last edited by Montmorency on Wed Jun 15, 2016 4:41 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Montmorency
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Posts: 1035
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2015 3:01 pm
Location: Oxfordshire, UK
Languages: English (Native)
Maintaining: German (active skills lapsed somewhat).
Studying: Welsh (advanced beginner/intermediate);
Dabbling/Beginner: Czech

Back-burner: Spanish (intermediate) Norwegian (bit more than beginner) Danish (beginner).

Have studied: Latin, French, Italian, Dutch; OT Hebrew (briefly) NT Greek (briefly).
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1429
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Re: Celtic Team - TAC 2016 - Team Thread

Postby Montmorency » Tue Jun 14, 2016 8:25 pm

jeff_lindqvist wrote:Milestone

I just finished lesson 26 of Course 1.

Dwi'n licio siarad Cymraeg. :)


Da iawn Jeff! Dal ati!
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