Three's Company [deu + pol + gle]

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
User avatar
księżycowy
Blue Belt
Posts: 655
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2017 3:26 pm
Location: Earth
Languages: *Native*
English

*Studying*
Biblical Greek, Hebrew, German (Arabic)


*Waiting List*
Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, Italian, Modern Greek, Latin, Old English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese), Vietnamese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Aramaic, Amharic, Arabic, Haitian Creole, Cayuga
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17499
x 1488

Re: księżycowy's Log

Postby księżycowy » Sun Jan 12, 2020 5:44 pm

Ok, so the Holidays kicked my butt. And then there was getting back into the work routine the week after. So, here we are. :P

Japanese
I mostly did Anki reviews, and did some from the main textbook of MnN (Lesson 1). I'm more than ready to move on to the next lesson.

Chinese
I feel like my pronunciation of the tones was (and hopefully is still) getting better and more fluid. I can almost always identify a high tone and falling tone in slow speech (haven't tried it at normal, conversational speed yet). I'm also slowly learning to write the characters as I go. I'm much more concerned about recognition than writing, but it's a good skill to start picking up sooner than later. I am more than proud that I can read the character text of the dialogues in Lesson 1 without any assistance from the pinyin/tongyong versions!

I should probably take note of the characters I've learned as I go:
您,貴,姓,李,先,生,王,我,叫,好,是,美,國,人,嗎,不,英,你,什,麼,名,字,哪,呢,中,他,她,誰,台,臺,灣,華

Grammar-wise, the following structures have been taught:
N/PN + Neg/V + N
(ex. 我姓王。)
-or-
(ex. 你不是美國人。)

Statement + 嗎
(ex. 李先生是臺灣人嗎?)

N/PN/QW + Neg/V + N/QW
(ex. 誰是王先生?)
-or-
(ex. 她姓什麼?)

Statement + PN + 呢
(ex. 我是華人,你呢?)

(Key: N = noun, PN = pronoun, V = verb, QW = question word)

Taiwanese
I have reviewed the first lesson's dialogue and vocabulary. Most of the rest of the lesson is concerned with tone changes as illustrated by the numbers 1-99, and their use in money. I have yet to review the number system. I'm just happy that I practiced listening to the dialogue and vocabulary without the book open for once. But, that tone sandhi. It's a killer!

More to come next week!
2 x
Dead Log
Modern European Log
East Asian Log

DaF Kompakt A1-B1 (Klett) : 1 / 30
Modern German Pronunciation 2e (Hall) : 0 / 7
[Greek and Hebrew TBD]

User avatar
księżycowy
Blue Belt
Posts: 655
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2017 3:26 pm
Location: Earth
Languages: *Native*
English

*Studying*
Biblical Greek, Hebrew, German (Arabic)


*Waiting List*
Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, Italian, Modern Greek, Latin, Old English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese), Vietnamese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Aramaic, Amharic, Arabic, Haitian Creole, Cayuga
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17499
x 1488

Re: księżycowy's Log

Postby księżycowy » Sun Jan 12, 2020 6:13 pm

That reminds me, I've been thinking of doing some sort of rotational thing with Irish, Polish and German. I'm thinking of mostly confining it to the weekends. I'm not sure I should play with fire, but if things go well this week and the next with the big three, I might seriously contemplate it.
1 x
Dead Log
Modern European Log
East Asian Log

DaF Kompakt A1-B1 (Klett) : 1 / 30
Modern German Pronunciation 2e (Hall) : 0 / 7
[Greek and Hebrew TBD]

User avatar
księżycowy
Blue Belt
Posts: 655
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2017 3:26 pm
Location: Earth
Languages: *Native*
English

*Studying*
Biblical Greek, Hebrew, German (Arabic)


*Waiting List*
Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, Italian, Modern Greek, Latin, Old English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese), Vietnamese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Aramaic, Amharic, Arabic, Haitian Creole, Cayuga
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17499
x 1488

Re: księżycowy's Log (Japanese & Chinese)

Postby księżycowy » Tue Feb 04, 2020 4:48 pm

It has been far too long since I've posted here. Let's get this log back on track! :D

So, lately I've mostly been doing Anki reviews, as between my constant job hunting and my current job my mental energy is pretty wiped out by the end of the day. But I'm starting to get back into the lessons of MnN and PAVC. I'm still working on getting through Lesson 2 for both (and as I just bought the listening workbook for MnN, so I'll need to be caught up on that). I'll post a full update by Sunday.
1 x
Dead Log
Modern European Log
East Asian Log

DaF Kompakt A1-B1 (Klett) : 1 / 30
Modern German Pronunciation 2e (Hall) : 0 / 7
[Greek and Hebrew TBD]

User avatar
księżycowy
Blue Belt
Posts: 655
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2017 3:26 pm
Location: Earth
Languages: *Native*
English

*Studying*
Biblical Greek, Hebrew, German (Arabic)


*Waiting List*
Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, Italian, Modern Greek, Latin, Old English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese), Vietnamese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Aramaic, Amharic, Arabic, Haitian Creole, Cayuga
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17499
x 1488

Re: księżycowy's Log (Japanese & Chinese)

Postby księżycowy » Fri Feb 28, 2020 5:15 pm

As it's been far too long, it's time for an update!

So, after finding most of the books cheap enough for me to pull the trigger on, I went ahead and bought (some of) Japanese: The Spoken Language and DeFrancis' Chinese course books. In case noöne has noticed by now, I'm a fan of audio-lingual materials (I'm also looking at trying to get the Speaking Korean series by Park, I'm just looking for the audio). :P

So with that said, I still very much value the other resources I have, so things for Japanese may be interesting, but for Chinese at least I've made up my mind. I will use DeFrancis as the main textbook, and will use PAVC throughout for updated Taiwanese pronunciation and vocabulary. The reason for the switch is the speed of the audio. Where as I can appreciate courses that use slowed down audio, I do like to dive right in and get speakers speaking at normal speed. PAVC builds to this, but does not do so at the beginning. I think it's important to get used to the normal speed and cadence of a language as early as possible. The notes in DeFrancis are also better than the minimal notes in PAVC.

For Japanese I'm not so worried about that, as MnN goes at normal speed throughout. So I might still use it. No sense in switching something out that is still working. But I would like to also use Japanese: The Spoken Language as it makes a point of teaching pitch accent. I think it would be good to be conscious of pitch accent at some point early on in my study. So I'm thinking I'll use a combination of some sort for Japanese as well.

More updates to come!
1 x
Dead Log
Modern European Log
East Asian Log

DaF Kompakt A1-B1 (Klett) : 1 / 30
Modern German Pronunciation 2e (Hall) : 0 / 7
[Greek and Hebrew TBD]

User avatar
księżycowy
Blue Belt
Posts: 655
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2017 3:26 pm
Location: Earth
Languages: *Native*
English

*Studying*
Biblical Greek, Hebrew, German (Arabic)


*Waiting List*
Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, Italian, Modern Greek, Latin, Old English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese), Vietnamese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Aramaic, Amharic, Arabic, Haitian Creole, Cayuga
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17499
x 1488

Re: księżycowy's Log (Chinese + others)

Postby księżycowy » Thu Apr 02, 2020 7:33 pm

It's been far to long since my last update. I have to say with the state of things lately (both with the pandemic, and with my applications with overseas schools), I haven't had the drive to do much lately. But that is changing! :D

I'm currently working on Lesson 1 of DeFrancis' Beginning Chinese. Nothing major to report at this point.

So, I'm not sure of this, but I'm thinking, as there is no pressing need (apparently) for me to learn Japanese, I may put it aside for a while. I do intend to go back to it eventually, but I'm having trouble landing a job in Japan ATM, so I figure I may as well put my energy into Chinese and some other things.

I'm going to take the opportunity of having quite a bit of free time at the moment to revisit some of my European languages: German, Polish and Irish. I don't intend to do anything too crazy or too intensive, but I would like to regain some skill in them.

I hope to have a more interesting update in a few days!
6 x
Dead Log
Modern European Log
East Asian Log

DaF Kompakt A1-B1 (Klett) : 1 / 30
Modern German Pronunciation 2e (Hall) : 0 / 7
[Greek and Hebrew TBD]

User avatar
księżycowy
Blue Belt
Posts: 655
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2017 3:26 pm
Location: Earth
Languages: *Native*
English

*Studying*
Biblical Greek, Hebrew, German (Arabic)


*Waiting List*
Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, Italian, Modern Greek, Latin, Old English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese), Vietnamese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Aramaic, Amharic, Arabic, Haitian Creole, Cayuga
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17499
x 1488

Re: księżycowy's Log

Postby księżycowy » Wed Apr 08, 2020 6:52 pm

Chinese:
I've decided to ultimately stick with PAVC. Even though I do like the methodology of DeFrancis a bit better. I do, however, love the challenge of having to read the notes/grammar in hanzi in PAVC (in the examples and such, the grammar and notes are in English).
Volume 1 lesson 2 goes over stative verbs and introduces the following sentence structures:

我很忙。
我不忙。
我不太忙。
我很忙,你也很忙。
你忙不忙?


Which basically can be formulated as:
Affirmative: N/PN + ADV + SV.
Negative: N/PN + NEG + SV. -or- N/PN + NEG + ADV + SV.
Question: N/PN + SV + NEG + SV?

Vocabulary Notes:
不 is usually unstressed in the SV question sentence type.

Hanzi Learned:
早,趙,小,姐,張,久,見,啊,很,謝,也,這,太,天,氣,熱,去,上,課,們,忙,再,冷
1 x
Dead Log
Modern European Log
East Asian Log

DaF Kompakt A1-B1 (Klett) : 1 / 30
Modern German Pronunciation 2e (Hall) : 0 / 7
[Greek and Hebrew TBD]

User avatar
księżycowy
Blue Belt
Posts: 655
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2017 3:26 pm
Location: Earth
Languages: *Native*
English

*Studying*
Biblical Greek, Hebrew, German (Arabic)


*Waiting List*
Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, Italian, Modern Greek, Latin, Old English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese), Vietnamese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Aramaic, Amharic, Arabic, Haitian Creole, Cayuga
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17499
x 1488

Re: księżycowy's Log

Postby księżycowy » Wed Apr 15, 2020 3:49 pm

Here's another update!

Chinese
I think I forgot to mention that I am also using A Practical Chinese Grammar by Cheung, et al. This will help to fill in some of the scant explanations in PAVC, and I think it does a tremendous job as a secondary textbook (I wouldn't recommend it as a sole textbook for anyone, as there is no audio, nor are there any exercises; it's more like a pedagogical grammar than textbook). The explanations in it are very well written and shed light on Chinese grammar in a very detailed, and yet simple way. Bonus points for having snagged a copy of the text in traditional characters!

Polish & Irish
For starters, I've decided (as I alluded to a few posts ago), to reactivate my skills in Polish and Irish. For these purposes, I'm going back to using texts which I was using before for them: First Year Polish by Oscar Swan and Teach Yourself Irish by Dillon & Ó Cróinín (the 1960's edition of TYI, not the one by Ó Sé ca. 1990's). My reason for selecting the older version of TYI is because I have family connections to County Cork in Ireland, where the Munster dialect is spoken. And, as it happens, the older version of TYI teaches that dialect of Irish!

Anyway, I don't have a ton to report at the moment for these two aside from the fact that I found myself remembering a good bit of Polish. Mostly conversational niceties, but those are just as important as anything else. As my main focus at the moment is Chinese (though, with the state of international travel, and quarantines and such, that could change at the drop of a hat unfortunately), I do not intend to do any intensive studying of these two languages, but I do intend to review what I did know, and continue (at a reasonable pace) to move through my textbooks.

Haitian Creole
After having acquired the audio to Ann Pale Kreyòl (yay!), I've decided to learn some HC. I have to admit that for the most part this language is just a fun one. I have no really strong reason to learn it, aside from pure interest.

Anyway, as I have some extra time, thanks to the quarantine, I've decided to indulge in some of my wanderlusts. Presumably, progress will be slow.

Malayalam
After saying I was going to learn some Malayalam for some time to my one friend who speaks the language, I've decided to at least learn how to read and write it (in the eventual hope that I will learn everything else).

So far I've learned the following consonants:
റ , ര , ർ , ത , ൽ , ന , ൻ , വ , പ , ഫ , ഹ , ഘ , ഷ , ച , ഛ
And the following connecting vowels:
റാ
റി
റീ

The textbook I'm using is for first-language learners, so I can't do every exercise, but for the most part I find it a very good textbook. Luckily it uses English for the instructions!

Attic Greek
I've been meaning to review my knowledge of Ancient/Koine Greek, and I figure now is as good a time as any. I'll be going through Mastronarde's tome Introduction to Attic Greek. I had learned Koine Greek during my graduate studies, but this time I would like to broaden my knowledge of Greek by starting with Attic, and then move into Septuagint and Koine Greek.

Old English
I've been having the itch to learn Old (and Middle English) for a long time. I figure I should start to paw through the book I have for learning OE finally. The book in question is A Guide to Old English by Mitchell & Robinson. Because of the set up of the textbook, I figure that will make it very easy to bite off small, bite-sized pieces and not overload myself.

Main foci (until further notice) will be: Mandarin; Irish & Polish, Attic Greek.
2 x
Dead Log
Modern European Log
East Asian Log

DaF Kompakt A1-B1 (Klett) : 1 / 30
Modern German Pronunciation 2e (Hall) : 0 / 7
[Greek and Hebrew TBD]

User avatar
księżycowy
Blue Belt
Posts: 655
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2017 3:26 pm
Location: Earth
Languages: *Native*
English

*Studying*
Biblical Greek, Hebrew, German (Arabic)


*Waiting List*
Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, Italian, Modern Greek, Latin, Old English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese), Vietnamese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Aramaic, Amharic, Arabic, Haitian Creole, Cayuga
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17499
x 1488

Re: księżycowy's Log

Postby księżycowy » Wed Apr 15, 2020 6:06 pm

German
I am thrilled to have just received the beginning textbook I had ordered from PONS! I ordered Der Grosse Sprachkurs - Deutsch Als Fremdsprache. So far I am really liking it, the only issue I have is finding the vocabulary to the lessons. It is suppose to be posted on their website, but thus far I have not found it. So I emailed PONS in the hope that someone will reply soon.
0 x
Dead Log
Modern European Log
East Asian Log

DaF Kompakt A1-B1 (Klett) : 1 / 30
Modern German Pronunciation 2e (Hall) : 0 / 7
[Greek and Hebrew TBD]

User avatar
księżycowy
Blue Belt
Posts: 655
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2017 3:26 pm
Location: Earth
Languages: *Native*
English

*Studying*
Biblical Greek, Hebrew, German (Arabic)


*Waiting List*
Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, Italian, Modern Greek, Latin, Old English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese), Vietnamese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Aramaic, Amharic, Arabic, Haitian Creole, Cayuga
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17499
x 1488

Re: księżycowy's Log

Postby księżycowy » Sat Apr 18, 2020 3:00 pm

Haitian Creole
So far so good with this one. Leson En (Lesson 1) doesn't go over much grammar-wise. It introduces the personal pronouns and the construction "Se...." ("it's....")

For the pronouns:
mwen - I, me, my
ou - you (sg), your (sg)
li - he/she/it, etc.
nou - we, you (pl)
yo - they
(This leson does not introduce the short forms, even though they are used in the dialogue.)

Of particular interest is the fact that nou designates both "we" and plural "you". I'm curious to see how that works as I go along. Also, the pronouns in Kreyòl do not change based on their grammatical use (subject, direct object, indirect object, etc.). Therefore mwen means I (sub.), as well as me (obj.), my (poss.), etc.
Therefore you can have:
Mwen rele Lwi. - I am called Lwi.
Se pitit mwen. - It's my child. ("That's...")

Which brings me to the next construction taught, se.
In this leson, it is introduced as a means of pointing someone out, or identifying them.
Se ou? - Wi, se mwen.
Is it you? - Yes, it's me.
2 x
Dead Log
Modern European Log
East Asian Log

DaF Kompakt A1-B1 (Klett) : 1 / 30
Modern German Pronunciation 2e (Hall) : 0 / 7
[Greek and Hebrew TBD]

User avatar
księżycowy
Blue Belt
Posts: 655
Joined: Fri Aug 25, 2017 3:26 pm
Location: Earth
Languages: *Native*
English

*Studying*
Biblical Greek, Hebrew, German (Arabic)


*Waiting List*
Irish, Polish, Lithuanian, Italian, Modern Greek, Latin, Old English, Japanese, Korean, Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, Taiwanese), Vietnamese, Mongolian, Tibetan, Aramaic, Amharic, Arabic, Haitian Creole, Cayuga
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=17499
x 1488

Re: księżycowy's Log

Postby księżycowy » Sun Apr 19, 2020 5:36 pm

Chinese
I reviewed some from A Practical Chinese Grammar. Most of it is either stuff that was already sufficiently covered in PAVC, or is new (so I'll skip it until it shows up in PAVC). However, there are a few pearls of wisdom to be found in the first few lessons.

It is noted that in normal descriptive sentences (what PAVC calls stative sentences) it is necessary in Chinese for there to be an adverb between the subject and adjective (stative verb). It is interesting to note that the adverb which fills this need most often is 很. [The Practical Grammar also notes that the force of 很 is not as strong as it is in English, and a sentence like「我很好」can simply translated as "I'm fine,"
without the need of acknowledging 很.]

Another important note is the placement of 也 and 都. As with any adverb, the word order in a stative sentence is:
subject + adverb + adjective/stative
Therefore, it is impossible to say in Chinese:
*都他們好。
*她好也。
Like you would be able to in English.

Interestingly, when both 也 and 很 are in the same sentence the word order is:
subject + 也 + 很 + adjective/stative
Last edited by księżycowy on Tue Apr 21, 2020 6:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
2 x
Dead Log
Modern European Log
East Asian Log

DaF Kompakt A1-B1 (Klett) : 1 / 30
Modern German Pronunciation 2e (Hall) : 0 / 7
[Greek and Hebrew TBD]


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests