Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

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sillygoose1
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Posts: 380
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:25 pm
Location: USA
Languages: _
NA: English
C2: French
C1: German, Italian, Spanish
B2: Russian, Portuguese
A2: Japanese
A1: Mandarin
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

Postby sillygoose1 » Sat Aug 13, 2016 12:49 am

French:

Finished up the Zola novel - wasn't too thrilled. I thought he would have changed way more than I had expected since Therese Roquin but that was not the case.

Almost finished season 2 of Mafiosa. Surprisingly, the show isn't all that hard as I had thought. The hardest part about it so far was trying to understand past the awful audio quality on the version I downloaded for season 1 but it's way better this season and I assume the following four.

On the other hand, I wouldn't recommend anyone under a C1 to watch Les bleus. It's full of slang, police jargon, and a few characters speak quite a lot in verlan so much so that I can get easily caught off guard.

Also watched Le bureau which is the French version of The Office. I can only compare it to the UK version as I never saw the US version, but the French version's "Gareth" (Joel) is great. The David Brent isn't that good, but the Tim is pretty funny.

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All in all, watch Mafiosa if you're around a B2 looking to improve and Les bleus to improve from C1.

Starting to read Les corrections by Jonathan Franzen. I'm on a postmodern kick again so I'll probably be reading the rest of Houellebecq that I didn't finish.


Spanish:

Nothing as of late. I have the rest of La lucha por la vida triology waiting for me with La mala hierba up next by Pio Baroja. I'm also wanting to finish season 2 of Vis a vis, season 2 of Alli abajo, and the rest of the Torrente movies before Summer is over. Ideally, I'd like to take my Spanish to a C2 passive level without actually wanting to if that makes sense. That's to say, by "maintaining" it I'll actually be improving it.


German:

I watched Fack ju goethe 2 and it was awesome. I'd go as far to say that I liked it more than the first. The vocab wasn't a big deal this time whereas during the first one I had to pause often to read the subs. Yay improvement! This makes sense as my reading has gotten way better to the point where I'm reading pretty much fluently while looking up the occasional word. Now to work on my listening and perfect my reading...

So I've been binging on Malcolm in the middle season 2 as well as trying to finish up 100 code. 100 code is kind of difficult for me still. Malcolm has been helping me loads though.

What I'm most excited for is to be able to read Die leiden des jungen Werther. My main short term goal is to read Er ist wider da then watch the movie. It's a satire about Hitler coming back to life in modern day Germany. It looks really funny.

I'm about halfway through Haruki Murakami's South of the border, west of the sun in German and it's going splendidly. I'm understanding what I'm reading and I don't have to look up every other word. I'm pretty sure my intermediate plateau has finally been tackled!!!!

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Russian:

Added Ultimate Russian advanced to the mix with Perfectionnement Russe. Yeah so, at this point the ideas of cases and declensions are ok but the vocabulary is a killer. I still couldn't even form a sentence or know the conjugations. I really need to start using parallel children's books soon.
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sillygoose1
Green Belt
Posts: 380
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:25 pm
Location: USA
Languages: _
NA: English
C2: French
C1: German, Italian, Spanish
B2: Russian, Portuguese
A2: Japanese
A1: Mandarin
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

Postby sillygoose1 » Mon Aug 22, 2016 2:12 am

French:

Saw Workingirls: La grande evasion. It was a nice finish to the series and since I don't think there will be another season of it in France, I'm happy that the series and this little movie have some decent re-watch value. It's been a longtime since I watched the series but everything came back to me. Really funny, but it's loaded with argot.

Also watched the 4th season of Hero corp. Kind of glad I finished it. It's meh. Superheroes were never my thing.

Anyway, I downloaded some cool Quebecois horror/thrillers. "Les gestionnaires de l'apocalypse" series by Jean Jacques Pelletier and a novel called "La noirceur" by Francois Levesque. I never read a quebecois novel before. I was close to reading Michel Tremblay but I didn't. :/

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Spanish:

Just some very light reading. I can't believe this, but even though I'm a huge Witcher fan I never read the novels. Well, that's about to change. I'm going to start with the first book in the series in Spanish, read one in French, one in German, and maybe one in Italian at least. When I'm done Blood and Wine, of course.

No series or movies lately. Haven't really had an urge to listen to Spanish despite my huge backlog of series and films.


German:

Currently reading the 4th novel in the Millennium series by David Lagerncrantz. His writing isn't bad really, and it doesn't seem as dense as Larsson's was so far. I'm still in the beginning so maybe it'll change by then. Anyway, I'm picking up a decent amount of words and phrases without losing the thread of the story and this is the first book in German where I'm sort of enjoying the ride.

Finished season 2 of Malcolm in the Middle, downloaded season 3. Still have to finish out 100 Code. From there, I'll probably watch The Lives of others with subs (EVEN THOUGH ONE OF THE ASSIMIL BOOKS SPOILED IT!!!). Really happy with my German progress and I'm juked to be able to unlock a key language of the region soon enough!

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Russian:

We have a love/hate relationship as of late. I got to lesson 40 in Assimil, but I decided to pause and do the active wave a bit differently this time around. I'm going to stop moving forward and revise the lessons from 1-40, then when I reach 40 I'll finish it off then I'll go from 40-70. This language for me requires much more revision than I've ever had to use before, so I want to do it right. I'm definitely not ready for native materials anytime soon.
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sillygoose1
Green Belt
Posts: 380
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:25 pm
Location: USA
Languages: _
NA: English
C2: French
C1: German, Italian, Spanish
B2: Russian, Portuguese
A2: Japanese
A1: Mandarin
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

Postby sillygoose1 » Wed Sep 14, 2016 2:41 pm

A nice, long break always does wonders for language learning!

French:

Watched two seasons of Flics and one season of Hard. I've also been watching some Secret Story which is pretty fun all things considered.

Flics was gritty and depressing. Olivier Marchal is like the master of French police films right now and this is no exception.

Hard was hilarious. Sophie's son Jules and "Roy la poutre" are British comedy-tier level funny. It's basically about a prude, stay at home wife/mother whose husband dies and she inherits his porn business. Some crazy things happen along the way.

Secret Story is basically a reality show like Big Brother. Nothing too interesting there but it's nice to hear how these people talk to get used to it.

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So now that I've been doing a lot of French watching, I'm going to take it slow and just read a bit. I've neglected Spanish for far too long.


Spanish:

Going to ease back into Spanish by watching season 2 of Narcos and then Crematorio which is a series about corruption in Spain.

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German:

Halfway through Malcolm season 3 and oh my god the difference is astounding. During season 1 I could hardly understand anything now I'm getting like 70% easy.

Going to read Murakami's newest book in German then switch off to some of the classics like Schilling. Not sure if I'm ready for Nietzsche, Freud, or Goethe's Faust yet but I can see them being tackled in the near future.


Russian:

My Russian plan has proven itself to be working well. I stopped at 40, went back and re-did all the lessons, then I'm going to continue one lesson/day at 41. After that, I'm going to go back to 41 and revise 3-4 lessons a day until I'm done. By then I should be good to go for parallel texts and a grammar book.
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sillygoose1
Green Belt
Posts: 380
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:25 pm
Location: USA
Languages: _
NA: English
C2: French
C1: German, Italian, Spanish
B2: Russian, Portuguese
A2: Japanese
A1: Mandarin
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

Postby sillygoose1 » Thu Oct 13, 2016 2:17 pm

French:

I've begun re-reading Le maitre et Marguerite since the last time I tried to read it a few years ago it was difficult and I just remembered it. I've only done 3 chapters so far but I'm looking to read more later today.

Started season 2 of Falco. Comprehension is much easier than it was last year with season 1, but that's not saying much because the last season I understood fine.

So after Le maitre, I'm going to read Victor Hugo's 93.


German:

Finished Book I of Murakami's 1Q84. I can't believe the difference I've noticed from when I read Adler Olsen novels to now. Although Murakami uses pretty simple language, it's still the first time I've been able to read fluently without looking up many words. My goal now is going to do a hell of alot more listening then read more and more.

Also watched Bang Boom Bang: Ein todsicheres Ding which was pretty funny. I learned some new words to say the least.


Russian:

Finally finished Assimil Perfectionnement! Yay! I still couldn't produce a damn thing in Russian, but hey it's a start. I guess the plan for now is to utilize as many parallel texts as possible, read children's books, and watch a few children's shows. Oh and of course, read through Assimil's grammar appendix and a grammar book.



I've also restarted Swedish, Greek, and Latin. I'll post more on those later. As far as Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, I haven't done anything with them really since my last post. I do kind of miss Italian....
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sillygoose1
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Posts: 380
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:25 pm
Location: USA
Languages: _
NA: English
C2: French
C1: German, Italian, Spanish
B2: Russian, Portuguese
A2: Japanese
A1: Mandarin
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

Postby sillygoose1 » Fri Oct 14, 2016 11:56 pm

French:

Forgot to mention I watched a movie called Colt 45. A nice 1:15 long French action movie. Nothing spectacular, not too awful. It was fun.

Read 2 more chapters of Maitre et Marguerite


German:

Watched Episode 1 of Knallerfrauen. Eh. Whatever. It consists of short sketches that should help me out a bit. Read chapter 1 of book 2 of 1Q84


Russian:

Since I finished Assimil, I've been going through a site I found called russianlessons. It's helping me understand grammar and some basic vocab which is great. I plan to go through every section then go through their parallel texts when I'm done. They also have audio for them so that's great. My goal before the end of 2016 is to be ready to L/R Crime and Punishment. Yeah, it's a stretch but that's the point. It gives me something to strive for.


Greek:

Re-did up to lesson 38. Way easier this time around which gives me a bit more confidence. After learning about aspects in Russian, the aorist tense doesn't seem like such a beast anymore.


Swedish:

Going through Le suedois sans peine once more - on lesson 25. I'm also going through Lo Svedese (newest edition in Italian) and also on lesson 25.


Latin:

Re-did up to lesson 50. Looking to power through it by the end of next week then start Winnie Ille Pu.
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sillygoose1
Green Belt
Posts: 380
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:25 pm
Location: USA
Languages: _
NA: English
C2: French
C1: German, Italian, Spanish
B2: Russian, Portuguese
A2: Japanese
A1: Mandarin
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

Postby sillygoose1 » Sat Oct 22, 2016 9:36 pm

French:

Halfway through Le maitre et marguerite. I've run into some old fashioned vocab and idioms that I haven't seen or seen in a long time. For example, I don't remember the last time I heard or read the phrase "battre la campagne" (which means to go a little nuts). Many new words I've seen that I looked up on WordReference all have "litteraire" next to it so I'm happy to be learning some more formal vocabulary. Another example: I remember seeing "rembrunir" quite a few times but I've always used "sombrer" instead.


German:

Starting the Witcher series in German! One of my favorite video games ever! The reason why I'm using these books to improve a language instead of wanting to understand the whole book, well, I like fantasy on TV and in video games but not in books. It's weird, but I never cared to read the Witcher series until I saw it as an opportunity to better my German.

Watched episode 2 of Knallerfrauen. I was quite pleased with what I understood.

1Q84 got real boring real quick. I think I'm done with Murakami.


Russian:

Going through russianlessons.net parallel texts with audio. I finished Irina and now I'm on Masha. Hopefully by the end of Masha I can move on to some easy books. Speaking of easy, I'm downloading some children's shows. I never used them before, but for Russian it might be necessary.

Masha and the bear & Luntik. I'm actually really excited because Russian is the farthest language I've learned from English and the first language with a new alphabet. I'm starting to get the same feeling I had when I read my first books in French like 4 years ago.


Latin:

Assimil lesson 57. So I'm definitely going to be buying some books - Diary of a wimpy kid and The little prince - in Latin. I already have the first two Harry Potter books, Winnie the Pooh, and The Hobbit. When I was a beginner in Portuguese I tried reading the Hobbit but it was too hard so I don't remember much. It'll be like starting fresh!


Greek:

Lesson 41.
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sillygoose1
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Posts: 380
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:25 pm
Location: USA
Languages: _
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C1: German, Italian, Spanish
B2: Russian, Portuguese
A2: Japanese
A1: Mandarin
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

Postby sillygoose1 » Sun Nov 20, 2016 1:47 am

So where am I at now? Because my medicine dosage has been increased, I've found myself more lethargic and all around sleepy. It's harder to concentrate than before. But, I'm still pulling through as best I can!


French:

Nothing too much on this front besides reading. I'm getting into French Romanticism literature quite deep and it's pretty cool. I read a short story by Theophile Gautier and on deck I have Musset, d'Aurevilly, and Chateaubriand. Looking to tackle more psychology/philosophy works. I'm currently reading Pouvoirs de l'horreur by Julia Kristeva which is right up my alley right now.

Haven't really watched anything or did any listening at all really. Still have to finish Falco. I also downloaded Mesrine movies again with Vincent Cassel. I'm really happy with my French and not really eager to push the limits like I have before. I want to get some reading done, watch the occasional episode here and movie there.


Spanish:

Do I even speak this language still?


Italian:

Read some psychology/philosophy works. Maybe it's just me but I could not keep up with him in Gli equivoci dell'anima. I was lost every other sentence.

Besides that, I'm going to re-watch the Romanzo Criminale and Gomorra series. I've been watching clips on youtube and my understanding of Romanesco and Neapolitan has gotten wayyy better.


German:

Did a lot with German! Read a book by Ludwig Tieck, read Miss Julie by August Strindberg, Read Die Kindermorderin by Heinrich Wagner which was actually good. Also finished season 1 of Knallerfrauen. What's next? Some of Freud's works probably. Like French, I'm all about the Romanticism era literature and philosophy in German.

I also got through some of the Canterbury Tales in German and Ludwig Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations. My next series will probably be one called Der Lehrer. I still want to solidify my reading more, though.


Russian:

Working through Without Toil, then going to finish the last 30 lessons in Perfectionnement - again. The good news is that everything is FINALLY starting to somewhat stick in my head. The parallel texts on russianlessons are sort of challenging but I'm getting through them.

Getting really excited about this one you guys.


Latin:

Lesson 80. I never finished this Assimil course past 85 so to get to 100 and finish will be great.


Greek:

Lesson 46. I'm not sure how to translate it since I'm using the Italian version, but the temporary and continuous future tenses are devilish. Between the aorist and those two tenses, I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to speak this language with fluency without a hell of a lot of work which, for Greek, I don't want to invest. A B1 or B2 in this language and I'm set. My main motivation for learning Greek is for etymology reasons.


Swedish:


Lesson 30. I feel like the speakers eat half of the letters somehow. It's really weird but I'm enjoying it as a side activity.
Last edited by sillygoose1 on Fri Jun 01, 2018 1:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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sillygoose1
Green Belt
Posts: 380
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:25 pm
Location: USA
Languages: _
NA: English
C2: French
C1: German, Italian, Spanish
B2: Russian, Portuguese
A2: Japanese
A1: Mandarin
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

Postby sillygoose1 » Sun Nov 27, 2016 5:19 pm

French:

Finished Falco. Now on to season 3 of Mafiosa and season 1 of Ainsi soient-ils. I was a little hesitant on the latter but the first episode seemed pretty solid. Besides being a show about priesthood, I'm not sure what else to expect.

Season 3 of Mafiosa is good so far. Already a death or two + some attempts. It kind of reminds me of a Gomorra Lite version. The first season was not really too good and a bit all over the place. However the second started to pick up nicely and the third seems solid.

As far as reading goes, I downloaded a bunch of "oeuvres completes" by various authors which I'm so excited to break into. I'm going through the decadent poets first (Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Verlaine). Got a whole bunch of others like Moliere, Descartes, Hugo, Balzac. After going through some Rimbaud, I'm learning a lot of niche/literary/archaic vocabulary and it makes me feel like I'm getting closer and closer to native status.


German:

I watched Generation War/Unsere Muetter Unsere Vaeter over the past two days and it was just fabulous. I wish they would have focused more on the Western front but still that didn't alter my opinion of the series at all. My comprehension was pretty solid w/ English subs.

I also watched a movies called Neues vom Wixxer which was a German comedy taking place in Scotland Yard. German humor is seriously right up my alley. Next to British it's probably my favorite. I was able to watch the movie without pausing to look up words which, had someone told me that months ago I wouldn't have believed them.

Halfway through a book by Jakob Arjouni - a detective novella called Happy Birthday Tuerke. The whole culture clash thing is pretty annoying and he acts as if the Turks in Germany are all innocent beings who get discriminated against for no reason which is annoying while all of the German characters speak like uneducated baffoons. Had I not been learning German I wouldn't have bothered with it. The type of novels where someone of a different background writes about how their people are treated in a foreign country are incredibly bothersome.

It's good that I'm learning some colloquial vocab though.

As far as media, I might dive into a series called Der Lehrer without subs. Time to get my ear developed to German.


Italian:

I promessi sposi is up next by Manzoni for reading. Besides that, I watched an episode of Dov'e Mario and after that series I'm onto 1992.


Russian:

Almost finished Without Toil again, then will dive into parallel texts of The Little Prince, Harry Potter, then hopefully by February I'll start L/R of Crime and Punishment after I finish the HP series.


Latin:

Almost done Assimil - Lesson 90. I might power through the rest of the book today depending on the difficulty then read Willie Ille pu tomorrow. I read one page and it was way easier than last time I tried to read it. I'm really not sure if I'll be able to produce Latin anytime soon but I will damn well try regardless of grammar errors. There's so much I want to read anyway like Confessions by Augustine and Meditations by Cicero.


Greek:

Lesson 55 - It's now taking me an extra replay or two of the audio for the lessons to stick. I'm really wondering if I should also use Assimil ancien Grec to read ancient texts or if knowing modern Greek would suffice...




I've also been messing around with Dutch and Romanian a bit. Wonder where that'll take me. Dutch is extremely transparent for me right now which is tempting to me while Romanian isn't as much but still an interesting language.
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sillygoose1
Green Belt
Posts: 380
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:25 pm
Location: USA
Languages: _
NA: English
C2: French
C1: German, Italian, Spanish
B2: Russian, Portuguese
A2: Japanese
A1: Mandarin
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

Postby sillygoose1 » Tue Nov 29, 2016 10:33 pm

Minor update


German:

Act II Scene II of Die Raeuber by Friedrich Schiller


Russian:

Chapter IV of The Little Prince w/ English & Russian texts


Latin:

Lingua Latina mihi amica facta est. I finished Assimil. Moving on to Winnie ille pu and other children stories. Might read The Little Prince again in Latin
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sillygoose1
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Posts: 380
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:25 pm
Location: USA
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NA: English
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B2: Russian, Portuguese
A2: Japanese
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Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

Postby sillygoose1 » Mon Dec 05, 2016 3:06 am

Français :

Bon, voyons donc. J’ai enfin décidé de configurer mon ordi afin d’écrire en d’autres langues. Ça fait tellement longtemps que je n’ai pas écrit ainsi mais je crois que ça vaut le coup de le faire. Auparavant, je n’ai écrit que sans les accents ce qui a enlaidi les langues en soi. Désormais, il faut en faire autrement.

Alors, qu’est-ce que j’ai fabriqué ces dernières journées ?

J’ai enfin lu le livre d’Éric Zemmour intitulé « Le Premier Sexe » qui traite de la féminisation, ou plutôt, la dévirilisation perçue de l’homme occidental. C’est vrai que je me suis trouvé bloqué concernant deux-trois trucs par exemple comment il fait la comparaison entre les athlètes d’aujourd’hui et ceux d’antan. Néanmoins, je trouve qu’il a mis dans le mille pour la majorité du livre.

J’ai commencé la série Ainsi soient-ils comme je l’ai déjà dit et je viens de regarder le 2eme épisode. Il y a pas mal d’intrigue là-dedans a laquelle je ne me suis pas attendu.

Mon prochain livre à lire c’est sans doute un ouvrage de Merleau-Ponty ou Gilles Deleuze je me le jure.



Español:

Bueno. Aquí está mi primer texto en español desde hace muchísimo. No sé si haré muchos errores o no. Espero que no por lo menos. Visto que tengo la intención de relanzarme por así decir en el idioma, quiero aprestarme un poco antes de que me meta de lleno.

Mis planes son los siguientes- Leer un poco de mi autor español preferido, Miguel de Unamuno. Mirar unas pelis y una serie – Alli Abajo temporada 2, Vis a vis temporada 2, Buscando el norte temporada 1. Todo eso antes de que se acabe el mes.



Deutsch:

Was ich will schreiben hier, dass will nicht sehr zu gut aussehen aber ich brauche tun es. Wenn man sieht dies, vergesse nicht dass wenn B2 ausgegeben wird, verweise dass auf mein Niveau von meinen passiven Faehigkeiten.

Also gut. Ich habe ein Buch um Marie Antoinette von Stefan Zweig zu lesen begonnen. Also.. eine Biographie. Was interessiert mich am meisten ist wie junge sie war als sie sich verheiratet geworden. Ein Kind in ihrem Alter haette spielen mit den anderen Kindern sollen. Ich verstehe jetzt warum eine Revolution ausgebrochen wurde nach ihrem Aufstieg zur Thron mit ihrem Mann.

Abgesehen davon, ich habe Die Raeuber von Friedrich Schiller gelesen. Eine Sprache ziemlich veraltet aber ich habe es geschaffen.




Italiano:

Quando stavo scrivendo il mio post in italiano, Office ha deciso di farmi un bel casino e dunque non potro' utilizzare gli accenti. Be, che si puo' fare?

Comunque, mi vedo costretto a finire Dov'e Mario appena possibile per fare altre cose. Ho un libro in mente. Si tratta di Giulio Cesare e le sue grandi battaglie. E' scritto per lo stesso autore chi ne ha scritto altri trattando dell'impero romano. La dinastia - con Augustus e il suo regno (intrigo credo, non e' un saggio) e l'altro tratta delle grandi battaglie del medioevo.
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