Expug’s 2020 Log: Austerity and Adaptability

[Expugnator]

I'm noticing better results on Clozemaster Indonesian. I'm starting to answer most clozes at the second level faster and more correctly. By the way, I'm starting to chat on Indonesian regularly.

A productivity tip: always have a tab opened that asks for confirmation before closing the browser window. In my case it's the IRC chat. Even if I might always restore the session, it still envolves refreshing everything.

I've joined a Whatsapp group for hyperpolyglots. Mostly Brazilians and Argentinians plus some other Latin-Americans. There's a guy who knows some Georgian and another one who knows Lithuanian, and this is pushing me into finally starting the language. There's a girl living in Finland too. Oh, and a native Mapuche who is writing learning material. This all goes along with my recent strategy of prioritizing languages I have people to practice with and/or learn together, which I've been following with Guarani and Papiamento.

Finished the third volume of The Lunar Chronicles. Unfortunately, volume 4 isn't available in Georgian. It has been a good, productive, speed read. Were it available as an audiobook in German or a book in Estonian I'd go for it. Meanwhile, I'll have to put it on hold and insert another book in between in the hope that by the time I finish this one the translation will already be available in Georgian.

Just for the record, first volume is available as an audiobook in Polish. Polish keeps surprising me at this respect. A thriving audiobook market there is in Poland.

So, although I had kept it for Romanian audiobooks, I'm going to read Neil Gaiman in Georgian. Starting with Stardust which is his earliest one available in Georgian.

Finished my second "wave" through Assimil L'Hébreu, 2007 edition. Actually I went through the lessons again, did the exercises in cursives but didn't cram vocabulary. It is frustrating, because the vocabulary escalates halfway and it gets overwhelming. I believe I retained very little from the book even after a second pass. I stopped paying that much attention to the lessons because I got full strings of sentences comprised only of unknown words, while not having practiced the most essential words well enough, which is a strength of most Assimils.

My Hebrew is not going any further. I shouldn't neglect the impact of not having clear, undoubtful pronunciation on memorizing vocabulary. My brain shuts downs words I'm unsure how to pronounce, and thus I retain very little. I know the most common roots but I haven't practiced them enough. At one point I was bragging around at how much more straightforward Hebrew felt than Indonesian, how further motivated I was for Hebrew. Well, my Indonesian has definitely surpassed my Hebrew because I managed to fill in the vocabulary gaps for the earlier stages. I did this through a string of two-three good textbooks but also Clozemaster Indonesian, while neglecting Clozemaster Hebrew (again using technical reasons as an excuse: I could only get TTS while at home). Hebrew can't do without a sentence-base method, and I don't even mean SRS here, but just intensive work at the sentence level and ongoing reinforcement of the main vocabulary.

As with Indonesian, it's all a matter of figuring out where the gap is and working on it. I'm still motivated for Hebrew and it's actually a language I enjoy hearing and which I wouldn't feel so embarassed about speaking at earlier stages. I just need more orality, more graded audio (because Assimil lessons were totally N+20) and I'll get back on track.

As a final resort I'm reviewing the old edition as promised - in the end it's graded more evenly than the newer one and tends to contain the key vocabulary more often. I'll combine it with Hebrewpod101 this time too, as it always features transparent material - transcript AND audio. It won't be that hard to do two short lessons in a day although I won't resist writing down the exercises on Assimil for the 4th time (two for each edition). I'm going to start pod101 anew as well.

Not much trouble on today's Linguaphone Indonesian lesson. OCR is working and I only had to paint one sentence. Still wondering what the differences between surat kabar x koran and teman x kawan are.

[Expugnator]

Carnival Holidays are over as quickly as they started. We went to the countryside just for the weekend because my brother came over specifically for the Carnival. he's younger and single so he could party. He set BH's Carnival real high, and the fact he is used to Bahia's standardas says a lot.

The weather didn't help that much with going to the club so we didn't. On Monday morning I took the girls along to do grocery shopping. Not the greatest idea. I put them in a cart and they started jumping around and pushing it at the front and the rear. Turns out this specific shopping cart is very light so they flipped over and fell. For the first two times I could hold them before they hit the floor, but then at the final one they fell hardly. The first-born hurt her stomach and the next-born fractured her wrist. I was just to the side picking some fruits and I had already warned them after the first two incidents, but there's only so much one can do with 3 y.o. children, an age which is considered the child's adolescence.

I've felt devastated ever since. I have never had any broken bones nor has my wife. Technicall the bone just inflated and it's likely to get restored properly giving the girl's age, but parents are never worried enough. She will have to wear a sling for 3 weeks so no swimming pools which is where we have the greatest time. Then soon the autumn arrives. It's not cold for weather standards but it is for bathing standards. Well, the club still offers great playgrounds which are worth the subscription as any of these inside a mall is pretty expensive so we'll probably keep it for the time being. Fortunately we managed to extend the swimming classes (at a gym/school, not at the club, we might move the them to having classes at the club when they learn to swim properly) for both of them so that the one who got the sling won't fall behind.

I had a lot of free time which combined with my Norwegian tree being complete and the Mandarin one almost there (really, a pretty short course) made me add Czech, Hawaiian and Swahili to Duolingo. Czech is still easy so far as I know some Russian and I've been doing Clozemaster hazardously, but as for Hawaiian and Swahili it's pure dabbling and warming up as there is no way one can learn from that course alone.

I did some gathering material but not much as I had to watch diskspace. New series have been exaggerating on screen resolution - I'm watching them at the computer after all.

I managed one episode from Podcast Italiano only yesterday when I was preparing the sandwiches for today and tomorrow. Davide was explaining how the double consonants in Italian are actually a glottal stop pronounced before the consonantal sound. I always thought it would come either between consonants - but then it doesn't make sense as we don't hear two distinct sounds - or after the consonant being doubled, but his explanation makes more sense phonetically. I tried.

Then I got some more Chinese audiobooks. I'm focusing on getting the audiobooks first and when the time comes I'll check for the text again or resort to L2 audio + L1 text only. The Chinese paying system is utterly complicated and a foreign credit cart seems unable to come through The Great Paywall. Some alternatives have been discussed at Chinese Forums but as a new member I'm not getting my posts approved. I hope they do because at my Chinese journey I'm getting to a point where I will benefit from regular interation with other learners from abroad, as we seem to face the same issues, both pedagogically and practically.

I discussed the double consonants issue at an Italian Whatsapp group. I sent voice messages. Turning this into a habit will do well to my Italian.

The Russian listening-reading went without audio for 2 pages as the rest of the chapter hasn't been recorded, but it went smoothly. I didn't feel the need to browse around at the end of each paragraph, which shows my Russian is getting better.

Started reviewing L'Hébreu Sans Peine old edition from scratch, Hebrewpod101 from Basic Bootcamp. Hope I won't regret my decision and the language will stick this time.

Is the word 'bung' still used for addressing a stranger in Indonesian?

I'm really enjoying Linguaphone Indonesian. Short lessons with dialogs long enough to make sense, that's a road paved to success. If I manage to complete it before the end of the year I'll probably move up one CEFR level.

As I noticed I've become more productive these days, I've really been wondering about adding an extra language or two, one of those transparent ones I'm pretending not to speak: Catalan, Swedish, Esperanto. Really, 2019 went off with no new 'official' languages. Adding a new 'official' language now just means performing a 10-min Assimil lesson. I should also add an opaque language as well to keep my coherence, and Turkish ranks high as it has all my favorite materials. We'll see how things will come alone in the second half of the year.

[Adrianslont]

I hear “bang” which is the same as “bung”. I don’t hear it as much as Mas or Pak.

I hear guests on the Kick Andy talk show call the host Bang or Bang Andy. It seems that Bang is more versatile with ages as Andy is nearly sixty. I would be calling him Pak, myself - using my simplified approach to this matter! And I would be far from alone, many guests call Andy, Pak. I’m pretty sure Andy always calls his male guests over thirty Pak.

I also have subs2srs cards from a movie where a woman calls her neighbour, who she clearly knows, Bang.

Oh, and I’ve watched another talk show called Indonesia Lawyers Club whose host always seems to be referred to as Bang Karni.

With strangers I don’t really know, sorry. I think so but don’t quote me. Axon?

I stick with my Mas and Pak approach, even in Bali where I know Mas should be Bli. I just haven’t got around to learning all the forms of address in Balinese. No one seems offended - sometimes I am told it should be Bli in a good natured fashion. And told I should learn Basa Bali. I have also been told I should learn Batak, Sundanese, and Javanese!

[Expugnator]

Thank you @Adrianslont , it's all clear now. Spot on, as always.


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Watched Dora The Explorer in Hebrew. Cute. I can understand bits and pieces. It's enunciated pretty clearly and it's less dumb than Peppa. There is enough repetiton within each episode for some words to start to stick.

I'm starting to get immersed into Neil Gaiman's Stardust in Georgian. There are longer paragraphs and less dialog, the vocabulary is a bit rural/XIX century but it's been a good exercise. The book is shorter so I'm averaging 3% a day on the very 5 pages I read a day. Maybe I can even read a little less and keep doing a productive session while saving time. Fewer minutes more attentively might result better than getting distracted halfway.

Not much new. I stuck a class in the middle of the day, around lunch time, but apparently it didn't affect my studies.

[Expugnator]

The weekend was busy but still productive. I managed to go to the polyglot meetup on Saturday. I spoke Mandarin and German. I'm happy with how I'm actuall starting to have conversatons in German. The words are coming up naturally, sometimes to my surprise. I also got some tips on how to get into the translation business from a friend and member.

The interest in Norwegian is apparently on the growth here in the country. Many people looking to learn it.

I didn't have time for podcasts last weekend but at least I gathered some material, including my first audiobook in Swedish. Most of Harry Hole's audiobooks are available in Chinese - they will keep me busy for a long time - but I could only find the first episode in the series in Swedish. So whenever I find the time I'll jump into the language.

I'm glad I got a reply at the Chinese forums. Not only now I have access to the community, but I also know how to subscribe and buy audiobooks from my iTunes account. Navigating involved OCR-dictionary on my phone over the iPad, which is also a breakthrough because I can do the other way round too and have my audiobooks on the same Chinese app which I have on both devices.

The Clozemaster rally slowed down and I wasn't so much productive on Duolingo so I had a calmer Sunday. It ended up us taking the girls to the hospital where the one with the arm in a plaster cast got it changed.

Reading Neil Gaiman in Georgian is real fun. The descriptive passages are challenging at the adequate level, they're pushing my forward. The author's style looks good and I'm really looking forward to reading more.

Russian listening has seen quite an improvement and I can sometimes just listen and still follow the story.

Having had two classes alongside the day I could only go as far as the dubbed Georgian series. This is a first for a long time. Might turn into a trend or not; I'm having some classes and I'm trying to consolidate them.

[Adrianslont]

Expug, I always skim your posts for the Indonesian bits and also usually enjoy the family life bits, too - I have two daughters myself. They are about twenty years older than yours but I can still identify!

Anyway, I just looked at your recent post where you describe the shopping accident! I had previously missed that bit! Sorry to hear about the broken wrist - hopefully it mends in a straightforward fashion. The incident reminded me of when I used to take my daughters to do the weekly shopping every Saturday at that age. And of the time my oldest broke her nose! That was actually at home. Boy was there a lot of blood!

So, hopefully the wrist will be fine and you will just have a family anecdote in years to come.

PS I also took them for years of swimming lessons and remember that fondly! It was a weekly ritual we all enjoyed, especially donuts and milkshakes after the lesson!

[Expugnator]

@Adrianslont thank you, it is supposed to recover fully but I must confess some anxiety about the removal of the plaster, hope it comes soon!

As beginners they have to take individual swimming lessons but I can't wait to seem them swim all around.

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The Spanish podcast seems to have better audio now that I got new earphones. It seems to have higher volume as it doesn't get that much covered by other sounds such as notifications and Clozemaster TTS. It's weird how increasing volume in iVox is a premium feature, which means you have to pay just to listen at normal volume - I have the impression all podcasts tend to play much lower than music and other apps. It's not premium on Castbox for instance, but this Spanish podcast is not fully avaliable on Castbox.

Side om side's 7th season is one of the best. The characters are more developped now and they feel less superficial.

Regarding the German podcast, it's been great to listen to it. Today I got immersed in the content and just forgot I was listening to German!

Not a brilliant day, just enough to complete my schedule. I arrived earlier but had to run some errands at noon and got a bit distracted as well.

[Expugnator]

Started a new level on Esperanto. 2000 most common. The deck is rather large so each level accounts for thousands of sentences. Will spend a long time on this one but then I'll have the basic vocabulary for Esperanto covered because I do a lot of reviewing as well.

On Side om Side, there were some jokes involving playing on words. It was fun to be able to figure out easily those silly puns:

Jeg kunne ikke betale strømregninga. Det var en mørk periode.

...
Apropo innovasjon: Dere vet hva de sa til han som fant opp null?
"Takk for ingenting".

The day got a bit intense towards the end. I had one class during the day so that alone meant 1 hour less for studying. I still managed my schedule. It would have been perfect if I hadn't forgotten to add Indonesian subtitles to my final series of the day, which I kept watching in dubbed Russian with Portuguese subtitles for most of the daily quota.

[Expugnator]

I had two classes in the morning so since I was already lagging behind I decided to take care of some language social networking. I answered some messages on Speaky and contacted Georgians on Skype and Whatsapp. I was able to write full sentences in Estonian without looking up. Then in Georgian I described the same situation and it wasn't that bad.

Duolingo Incubator now has K'ich'e, Yucatec and Maori starting to be built. I hope they are denser in content than the Hawaiian course.

I'm managing a good speed at Clozemaster Norwegian now.

העיר בת שלוש מאות שנה .הרהוט העתיק היה בן תשע מאות שנה.Funny how Hebrew expresses ages for things using 'son' and 'daughters' as for human beings.

Still trying to find my way through Hebrew. Obviously the early lessons both on Assimil and Hebrewpod101 all have words I've seen before (in the very same materials and in others) but I'm far from including them even in my passive vocabulary. I keep reading and thinking "oh, this one I had totally forgotten about". My memory is not serving me well for Hebrew and the orthography makes it harder indeed for words to stick. So I have to do this sort of overlearning. I tend to do it just by going through several materials at the appropriate level - something I learned to judge better with time: at first I would just race through resources and if I started a book that I considered too hard I'd just rush till the end. Well, I haven't been making this mistake anymore since Hebrew and Indonesian.

In the case of Assimil and Hebrewpod, they are accessible with audio and translation all along. I'm not really looking forward to resources where I quickly find myself staring at texts I can't translate and/or pronounce.

In the end I managed all the tasks. Having the evening class unbooked I might even get some rest.

[Mista]

The interest in Norwegian is apparently on the growth here in the country. Many people looking to learn it.

Do you have any idea why?

A curious note on Norwegian spelling: loan words from French have a tendency to be spelled as in French - which often results in some curious pronunciations . One example is "-ment" words, which could easily have been spelled "resturang" (a bad example of a -ment word, now that I think about it...) or "departemang" if the Language Council had wanted it that way (if I'm not mistaken, they use that sort of spelling in Swedish). Then you have words like "apropos", where we cut the last consonant, because that's what they do in French (since you have the word from an oral source, you will have noticed that the pronunciation doesn't have much in common with French in other respects). Then we have words like "pommes frites", where we cut the last consonant because that's what they do in French. And then we do the same thing once more, for the same reason, and the result is "pom fri" . Another example of this phenomenon is "bearnaise" = "berne". However, most people will change that for "pom frit" and "bernes" once they realize what the correct French pronunciation is, so you'll hear both.

However, the "French spelling" rule seems only to be valid for relatively new loan words, and not, for example, "asjett" and "serviett", which probably date several centuries back.