The other day I took an assessment beta test in French devised by a commercial vendor. Respecting the vendor's wishes, I won't say who or give references for now. The test's 20 questions covered grammar and listening comprehension. I scored over 86%
on the listening part and around 30%
on the grammar part. I was expecting opposite results, but maybe listening to hundreds of hours of French over the past year or so helped. Also, it has to be said that the test had only 20 questions, so how reliable or valid it could be is an open question. I think the alpha version of the test will be available in a few weeks, after the test maker can incorporate the results of the beta tests.
In another matter concerning French, sheer frustration. Reading
Rick's endorsement of
Engrenages the other day, I decided to put my head down and attack that series. One dead end led* to another until I finally cornered the series for pay on Amazon. So I plunked down US $5.47 for the first season, began watching the first episode, and got disappointed immediately. The dialogue is in French and there are English subtitles. I did not want the English subtitles and worse they can't be turned off. So, not acceptable. I have a query out to eBay about the first season for sale there.
* Originally I wrote "lead" instead of "led." I think I was influenced by the spelling of "dead" just before. There is actually a term for that kind of mistake in manuscript analysis, but unfortunately I can't remember what it is.
SpanishA book that I have had around for a while is
Campo cerrado, the first volume of
El laborinto mágico, a series of books about the Spanish Civil War written by Max Aub. The rich vocabulary of the book set me back a bit right away, and what I knew was definitely under the 98% mark. To give you an example, here is the first page, thanks to a copier, with words I did not know underlined (the Spanish Civil War still arouses passions, but let's avoid a discussion about that
). Have a go yourself if you like:
De pronto se apagan las luces: las diez, la luna luce su presencia en las paredes jaharradas: el jalbegue se parte, mitad blanco, mitad gris. El silencio corre por las calles del poblado como un calofrío, de la cabeza a los pies, desde la plaza al Quintanar Alto, ya pegado al alcor. Primeros de septiembre y el aire frio bajando por el Ragudo; más arriba las estrellas de monte, tachas del viento.
La plaza, por ocho días ruedo verdadero, apuntaladas las fachadas limpias de derrengaduras con escaleras y tablones; el casino adargando su última luz tras las talanqueras; en el centro, la fuentecilla barroca con su canto de agua de cuatro caños recobrando su calaña de abrevadero; la plaza, acabadas de tocar las diez, ombligo del mundo. Mil quinientas almas y la Raya de Aragón. Hacia abajo, caídos hacia la mar, por Jérica y Segorbe, los pueblos de Valencia; cuesta arriba, por Sarrión, el áspero, desnudo camino de Teruel.
El reloj de la iglesia tiene la luna de cara; a todos les baraja el regustillo del miedo con el de la espera, un no se sabe qué otea por las espaldas; hay menos aire entre las. gentes. Las diez y cinco: un rumor levanta su cola, asoman por los postigos las cabezas de los valientes, ya corren y cazcalean frente
. . . .
I spent a lot of time looking up those unknown words because not just any old Spanish-English dictionary defines them. None of the free apps I downloaded to my iPod helped with all of them, even my large
Oxford Spanish Dictionary failed a few of the words. Eventually I finished up online, though I can't remember what I used
FrenchReading
La Grande Guerre des Français: 1914-1918 by Jean-Baptiste Durocelle is going slowly, too, not because of vocabulary but because the book is so dense and covers political and economic aspects of the war in addition to the military side. I am on page 246 of 448.
Ancient GreekReading Book 8 of Herodotus'
Histories is taking longer than I expected, but I am today up to Chapter 119 (of 144 total). A. M. Bowie's Green and Yellow commentary is indispensible.
LatinI've been dabbling with
Julia by Maud Reed, a pdf from the book published in 1941. Reed starts off with the life of the Roman girl Julia, but soon expands the subject matter to Roman myths and history (assuming there is a difference!
).
That will do it for today.
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson