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

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

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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Amerykanka » Sat Feb 18, 2017 6:12 pm

I am supposed to be studying for my ancient history comps which is why, of course, I have been working on an annotated bibliography, reading an economics textbook (!), and, now, browsing this forum and wishing I had time to sit down and do all the marvelous language things that are in my head.

I don't have time to do a proper update, so instead I will mention what a source of amusement/bewilderment I probably am to my Russian professor and to my fellow classmates. So, I don't know if I mentioned that I am enrolled in a Russian course (First-Year Russian I, yay!). I decided to take the class NOT because I thought it would teach me much (beginning languages courses :roll:) but because it would free up time in my schedule that I would otherwise have to spend studying for some other, more difficult course. And then, of course, I now have an actual, legitimate excuse to study Russian on my own. The upside is that - yay! - I am now learning Russian. The downside is that I have to sit through extremely slow explanations of what cases are and listen to everyone getting mixed up about verb agreement that feels instinctive to me.

So, I did tell my professor that I spoke Polish, but he still seems shocked whenever I know something I shouldn't. He introduces new words - окно, почта, etc. - and there I am, guessing "window", "post office", etc. without a second thought. And then he will say собака and look at me expectantly (such an easy word, right, surely she will know it . . .), and I'll just shrug like "Sorry, cognate failure here!"
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Amerykanka
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Amerykanka » Sat Feb 18, 2017 9:44 pm

Procrastination is still in full swing. But now I can say that I have less than 1,500 reviews due tomorrow in my main Spanish Anki deck - this is major progress, considering that I was at 5,000+ about two weeks ago.

Now I am feeling sick again. (What is going on??? I thought I was better!!!) Time for a nap.
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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 (ES, PL, RU)

Postby Amerykanka » Thu Mar 09, 2017 12:39 am

I promise, I have not abandoned my log again! I am determined to keep it up this time. In some distant past, back when I was in high school, I think I did actually have a log going steadily on HTLAL for over a year. Alas for those bygone days of (comparative) freedom.

In any case, I haven't posted in a while mostly because I haven't been satisfied with my progress. I got sick again (grr!) and then was out of town for a few days, and this effectively messed up my plans. But now I have returned, reinvigorated by my anger.

I HATE RUSSIAN VERBS.

There appear to be serious disadvantages to learning Russian after Polish. One of them is losing one's temper whenever the Russian past tense is mentioned. I mean, come on! Four endings??!! Is that all??!! Where are my thirteen beautiful Polish endings? Something within me cries out in agony every time I am required to say something like "Я говорнла ро-рольски". I feel like I am committing some sort of horrible grammatical crime.

Other than the past tense debacle, Russian has been going quite well and I am enjoying it a lot. I am now capable of short sentences:

Привет! Меня зовут Ревекка и я живу в Америке. Я изучаю русский язык в университете. У меня есть синий учебник и маленький словарь.

Very limited, but better than nothing.
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby vonPeterhof » Thu Mar 09, 2017 4:17 am

Amerykanka wrote:Although I must say, all the "sh" and "ch" sounds are confusing me. I can't tell if they are equivalent to hard or soft sounds (are we talking about Polish sz and cz or ś and ć? Or both?). Щ is especially problematic, because the Polish websites I have looked at say the sound is szcz, but my English textbook says it is like "fresh sherbet". If anyone could offer some input, I would be very grateful. :)

Sorry, I only just came across this post, so I'm not sure if my input is still needed. Basically, ш, ч and щ are roughly etymologically equivalent to sz, cz and szcz, respectively, but it's only the first sound of the three that's pronounced more or less identically to its Polish counterpart. The pronunciations of ч and щ are closer to ć and śś, respectively. The latter is traditionally transliterated as "shch", and it can be pronounced as ść or even szcz for effect or emphasis, but otherwise those are pretty much obsolete pronunciations in both standard Russian and most people's colloquial varieties.
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MamaPata
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope (ES, PL, RU)

Postby MamaPata » Thu Mar 09, 2017 5:05 am

You and I have very different problems with Russian verbs! :lol:
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Amerykanka
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope (ES, PL, RU)

Postby Amerykanka » Thu Mar 09, 2017 3:21 pm

vonPeterhof wrote:
Amerykanka wrote:Although I must say, all the "sh" and "ch" sounds are confusing me. I can't tell if they are equivalent to hard or soft sounds (are we talking about Polish sz and cz or ś and ć? Or both?). Щ is especially problematic, because the Polish websites I have looked at say the sound is szcz, but my English textbook says it is like "fresh sherbet". If anyone could offer some input, I would be very grateful. :)

Sorry, I only just came across this post, so I'm not sure if my input is still needed. Basically, ш, ч and щ are roughly etymologically equivalent to sz, cz and szcz, respectively, but it's only the first sound of the three that's pronounced more or less identically to its Polish counterpart. The pronunciations of ч and щ are closer to ć and śś, respectively. The latter is traditionally transliterated as "shch", and it can be pronounced as ść or even szcz for effect or emphasis, but otherwise those are pretty much obsolete pronunciations in both standard Russian and most people's colloquial varieties.


Thank you - this is very helpful! Also very interesting. At some point, once I know more Russian, I really need to learn more about the history of Slavic languages.

MamaPata wrote:You and I have very different problems with Russian verbs! :lol:


Haha, I'm sure I will have other problems as I go along!
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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 (ES, PL, RU)

Postby Amerykanka » Tue Mar 28, 2017 1:46 am

Time for a much-needed update. Of sorts.

SPANISH
I had brought the number of reviews due on Anki down to zero, but then travel and homework messed me up and now I am around 800 again. In other news, I am now on page 152 of El amor en los tiempos del cólera. I haven't been the most dedicated of readers (again - travel and homework), but it has been great so far. I have a few plane rides ahead of me this week, and I would like to think that I might have some time to read.

I also got some listening practice in yesterday when I went to an exhibition of Mexican art. Audio-guides were available in Spanish as well as English, and I was pleased by the fact that I understood everything rather effortlessly (probably 25-30 minutes total).

RUSSIAN
Did I mention how annoyed I am about the past tense? Oh yeah. Right. That's old news . . . anyways, not much of interest has happened here. I've been going to class and reviewing my flashcards, but I haven't had time to do anything on my own.

POLISH
I wrote an email to my Polish friend, and while writing I realized how much my active vocabulary has shrunk in recent years. I must work on that. I have also been reading the news in Polish, and I watched part of Awantura o Basię on YouTube - which reminded me that I ought to read that book.

Also, I have to write a report and give a presentation on a modern adaptation of Aeschylus' Agamemnon for my Greek tragedy course, and I have chosen Jan Klata's Oresteja. This means that all my bibliographic entries will be in Polish, which is extremely exciting. I'll have to translate my citations, of course, but I fully intend to put the original Polish into my footnotes.

Speaking of Klata's Oresteja, check out the trailer on YouTube:



As a classicist and a Slavic languages enthusiast, this video makes me very happy.
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Amerykanka
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Posts: 85
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 3:08 pm
Location: USA
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
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope (ES, PL, RU)

Postby Amerykanka » Tue Mar 28, 2017 1:54 am

And here's the link to Awantura o Basię (the 1995 version), in case anyone is interested - and also so I can find it again easily.

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

Postby Mooby » Tue Mar 28, 2017 4:56 pm

Dzięki za link do filmu, przeczytałem książkę kilka lat temu.
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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 (ES, PL, RU)

Postby Amerykanka » Tue Apr 18, 2017 4:21 pm

Time for an update!

SPANISH
I am now hopelessly behind on flashcards again. :/ Oh well. I have reached page 246 of El amor en los tiempos del cólera - this is taking me forever. Once I finish my thesis (sigh!) I need to sit down and read the last 100 pages or so in one sitting.

POLISH
Better news here. I decided to start listening to the The Hunger Games in Polish at the gym, with the result that I now have about 3.5 hours of listening comprehension from the last few weeks. Seeing as I managed to effect this change without disrupting my daily schedule at all, I am very pleased. (Note that until recently, there wasn't wifi in the gym - so this is a big improvement.)

I also listened to a wonderful podcast about horseradish the other day: http://www.sbs.com.au/yourlanguage/poli ... anguage=pl

I am finishing up my last month of school, and then I will have more free time. My language studies are currently inhibited by the fact that a) I am working on my thesis and b) these next few weeks are probably the last time my friends and I will ever live together in the same place - since next year we are scattering all over the US and the world - and consequently I really want to make the most of my time with them.
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