Jeffers' German, French and Hindi

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jeffers
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Posts: 848
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Location: UK
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Hindi (A2-B1)

Learning: The above, plus French (A2-B1), German (A1), Ancient Greek (?), Sanskrit (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19785
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Re: Jeffers' German, French and Hindi

Postby jeffers » Mon May 11, 2020 11:08 pm

I'm making good progress in the Super Challenge for all three of my languages. I've managed to raise all of them into the green zone or above in both books and films. This is the first SC in which I've kept all my chosen languages up-to-date from the start.
dashboard May 11, 2020.JPG


On the other hand, for the time being I've dropped all my other means of study: no Assimil this week, no Memrise, and I let my 150 day streak on Duolingo die. I will start to work other things in slowly as I feel I need them. I'd definitely like to resume Assimil German soon, and stick to it until I finish it.

French
Le petit Nicolas a des ennuis finished 10/16 chapters. For me this is reading for fun. I probably look up a word every 2-3 pages. I'll have this finished in a day or two, and then I'm not sure what to read next. Maybe a Maigret book? Maybe one of the book club choices? I have too many options to choose from! :lol:
Les p'tits Diables I finished the first DVD (of 4). I feel like I'm understanding 70-80% of the words, while I understand what is going on almost completely. At times I was getting bored because the stories are predictable and I've watched them before, but I think I only rewatched the first couple of DVDs, so as I progress they'll get a bit more interesting again.

German
German Easy Reader I read it all while listening to the audio. While it was useful, it was also a bit painful, so I don't think I'll do that with the next one. After finishing reading it, I listened to the audio while taking my walks. This week I'll start the 2nd easy reader.

Hindi
लौट के चूहा घर को आया reread this once, looking up the unknown words (which weren't very many).
बेसुरा धोंदु ("Besura Dhondu" "Discordant Donkey") This is a children's book with CD, with which I'm taking an "extensive/intensive" approach. I listened to the audio on a walk, then read the book, underlining all the unknown words (5-6 per page). I listened a 2nd time, and today I spend a fair bit of time looking up and taking note of the unknown words. Finally, this evening I listened to the audio a 3rd time on my evening walk, and understood a lot more. I'll probably read and listen once more this week, and maybe bring it back again in a few weeks.
This week I'd like to try to finish मास्टर साहब, a slightly longer children's book which has a lot of unknown words.
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4 x
Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien (roughly, the perfect is the enemy of the good)

French SC Books: 0 / 5000 (0/5000 pp)
French SC Films: 0 / 9000 (0/9000 mins)

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Peluche
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Re: Jeffers' German and French

Postby Peluche » Tue May 12, 2020 12:19 pm

jeffers wrote:Finally, for Hindi I'm just dabbling in the Duolingo course. Again this is way below my level, but it's fun anyway. Duolingo Hindi is currently quite a short course, so I may finish it fairly quickly. There is one very serious problem with Duolingo Hindi: it uses the most familiar form right from the start. Hindi has three levels of familiarity:
आप (aap) which corresponds to French vous or German Sie
तुम (tum) which corresponds to French tu or german du
The third is extremely familiar: तू (tuu) which is only used for intimate relations, children, God, a lover, close friends, and possibly servants.
Duolingo not only uses this form extensively, but even uses it for things you would only ask a stranger, like "Where do you come from?" and "What is your name?" For an experienced learner of Hindi this isn't a problem, but for a beginner it could lead to serious awkwardness.


Hi Jeffers :)

I'm surprised with the course using the tum form heavily. It really isn't appropriate for adult learners.

Hindi usage is nice in the sense that aap is a safe choice. Always. Unlike in German where Sie isn't always a safe choice (when I was learning German, I was hoping I could just forget about du, but nope). You can use aap when talking with close colleagues, and with children. Completely natural.

You mentioned you had read the entire Tintin series in Hindi: where did you obtain the full series from?
2 x

jeffers
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Languages: Speaks: English (N), Hindi (A2-B1)

Learning: The above, plus French (A2-B1), German (A1), Ancient Greek (?), Sanskrit (beginner)
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Re: Jeffers' German and French

Postby jeffers » Tue May 12, 2020 1:12 pm

Peluche wrote:You mentioned you had read the entire Tintin series in Hindi: where did you obtain the full series from?


I've only read 2 of the books in Hindi, but I collected most of them on a visit to India, after buying a couple in London for comparatively exorbitant prices! I didn't bother with Tintin and Alph Art nor with Tintin in the Congo, mainly because I had never read them as a child. The only ones I couldn't find in India were the two moon mission volumes (which may not have been published yet). I eventually bought those two from a seller on Amazon.co.uk, again for way more than they cost in India. Now they are all available on Kindle in the UK, which isn't a bad option, but I do like having the physical books.

When I was on that trip to India four years ago, I had every intention to read them all "in the next year or so", but I just didn't get around to it, so "soon" became "one day". Now that the new Super Challenge has started I'm thinking more and more that "someday" needs to be now, or it will probably be never! So I certainly intend to drag out at least a few of the volumes and read them in the coming months!
2 x
Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien (roughly, the perfect is the enemy of the good)

French SC Books: 0 / 5000 (0/5000 pp)
French SC Films: 0 / 9000 (0/9000 mins)

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Peluche
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Re: Jeffers' German and French

Postby Peluche » Tue May 12, 2020 6:52 pm

jeffers wrote:
Peluche wrote:You mentioned you had read the entire Tintin series in Hindi: where did you obtain the full series from?


I've only read 2 of the books in Hindi, but I collected most of them on a visit to India, after buying a couple in London for comparatively exorbitant prices! I didn't bother with Tintin and Alph Art nor with Tintin in the Congo, mainly because I had never read them as a child. The only ones I couldn't find in India were the two moon mission volumes (which may not have been published yet). I eventually bought those two from a seller on Amazon.co.uk, again for way more than they cost in India. Now they are all available on Kindle in the UK, which isn't a bad option, but I do like having the physical books.

When I was on that trip to India four years ago, I had every intention to read them all "in the next year or so", but I just didn't get around to it, so "soon" became "one day". Now that the new Super Challenge has started I'm thinking more and more that "someday" needs to be now, or it will probably be never! So I certainly intend to drag out at least a few of the volumes and read them in the coming months!


Did you buy them from a physical store or an online retailer in India?

I have bought a few books from Amazon.in, the issue I had is that often the books come with bent covers, and not in a new condition.

PS: I think they have more Asterix titles in Hindi:
https://www.amazon.in/Astérix-Talwarbaz ... 935276711X
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jeffers
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Location: UK
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Hindi (A2-B1)

Learning: The above, plus French (A2-B1), German (A1), Ancient Greek (?), Sanskrit (beginner)
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Re: Jeffers' German and French

Postby jeffers » Tue May 12, 2020 8:13 pm

Peluche wrote:Did you buy them from a physical store or an online retailer in India?

I have bought a few books from Amazon.in, the issue I had is that often the books come with bent covers, and not in a new condition.

PS: I think they have more Asterix titles in Hindi:
https://www.amazon.in/Astérix-Talwarbaz ... 935276711X


The ones I bought in India were from physical bookstores. The two I got from Amazon.co.uk came in perfect condition.

I am aware of the Asterix in Hindi series. I bought Asterix the Gaul in Hindi on one of my last two trips, but they said the others weren't out yet. They're now available on Kindle here in the UK, so I may start getting them... once I finish with Tintin! :lol:
2 x
Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien (roughly, the perfect is the enemy of the good)

French SC Books: 0 / 5000 (0/5000 pp)
French SC Films: 0 / 9000 (0/9000 mins)

jeffers
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Posts: 848
Joined: Sat Aug 22, 2015 4:12 pm
Location: UK
Languages: Speaks: English (N), Hindi (A2-B1)

Learning: The above, plus French (A2-B1), German (A1), Ancient Greek (?), Sanskrit (beginner)
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Re: Jeffers' German, French and Hindi

Postby jeffers » Fri May 15, 2020 10:28 am

According to my dashboard, I'm making good progress with my three SC languages:
dashboard May 15, 2020 (morning).JPG


When I made the speedometers, I hadn't realized how helpful they would be on a day to day basis. I have a lot of language activities that I'd like to do at any given time, but the problem has always been that I have too many choices! Now I can look at my dashboard and see that I'm nearest to falling below target in my Hindi reading and German film challenges, so today I will read at least a handful of pages in Hindi and listen to something in German when I take my walk. This does not mean I will be a slave to my dashboard? Of course not! Tonight my wife is making her wonderful chicken curry à la Mussoorie (recipe from Curries Without Worries), and we will watch Lagaan while eating it. And despite the needle for French books being on the border of "super", I still intend to keep reading at least one chapter of French every day.

French
I finished Le petit Nicolas a des ennuis on Wednesday, so I started a B2 easy reader of Simenon's La tête d'un homme. It's one I've listened to at least a half dozen times, but never gotten around to actually reading. I'm about half way through it, and I have to say that I think the "B2" label is an exaggeration. I have only had to look up a handful of words, and the grammar has been simple enough.
I also watched the film Le petit Nicolas this week, without subtitles. It is a really enjoyable film based on the books. I've seen it before, but I hadn't realized until this viewing that many of the events in the film are based on Le petit Nicolas a des ennuis.

German
I started the Brian Smith German Easy Reader 2 on Tuesday. The stories are a bit more interesting than the first reader, and one or two sentences in the first chapter were tricky. I will keep reading at least one chapter per day, and then either repeat or move onto GER 3.
As I'm reading the easy readers, I'm realizing that I should pick up my Assimil textbook again to get a fuller picture of the grammar. On the one hand, I have no difficulty making out what each and every sentence means, but in reality a lot of the grammar is still opaque to me. Opaque enough that I don't even notice it. That sounds good, but actually it's simply that I'm ignorant of the grammar but know the vocabulary well enough to piece it all together. Without actually learning the points of grammar I'm missing, there's no way that I would be able to eventually produce my own sentences in German.
First I need to finish my "dictation wave" and then continue through the book. I feel like once I finish with Assimil I will be in a much better position to learn from my readings. In theory I would like to get Assimil done by the end of August, but as that's only 108 days away that would mean finishing a lesson every 2 days. More realistically, I should try to finish it by the end of the year. "By the end of the year"... that sounds endless to my mind, so it's an easy goal to set and then ignore!


Hindi
For the time being I'm reading children's books that I bought when I lived in India, a few of them with CDs. In stark contrast to the supposed "B2" French book I'm reading, I find that there are many unknown words on every page of some of these children's books! I finished मास्टर साहब (Master Sahib), underlining 5-6 words on each page. I'll probably start to reread it slowly next week, looking up unknown words.
I watched Barfi yesterday, a beautiful film about a deaf/mute man, the beautiful rich girl he falls in love with, and the autistic girl he knew as a child. Mostly set in Darjeeling in the 1970s, they did an excellent job making the town look like it should have in the past.

Like with German, my Hindi readings are making me realize that I need to spend some time with Assimil Hindi. When I last was using it, about 2 years ago, I had gotten up to chapter 26 of 55. I won't make a target to finish it as yet, but I'd like to start working on it again. I may also dig out Teach Yourself Hindi, which I never did finish, and try to complete a couple more chapters.


One nice thing about my SC dashboard is that I can see at a glance that all my SC languages are on target or above target, which means that I know I can spare a bit of time from reading and watching to crack open some course books.
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10 x
Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien (roughly, the perfect is the enemy of the good)

French SC Books: 0 / 5000 (0/5000 pp)
French SC Films: 0 / 9000 (0/9000 mins)

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merlin
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Re: Jeffers' German, French and Hindi

Postby merlin » Sat May 16, 2020 12:59 am

In case you want more Hindi books to read, here is a great resource I've found: https://www.learning-hindi.com/post/92741100095/google-drive-60-hindi-childrens-books-our. It is a google drive folder with 60 children's books in Hindi, with English translations and high quality Hindi audio, made available free of charge by an Indian nonprofit. :D
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jeffers
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Learning: The above, plus French (A2-B1), German (A1), Ancient Greek (?), Sanskrit (beginner)
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Re: Jeffers' German, French and Hindi

Postby jeffers » Sun May 17, 2020 12:30 pm

merlin wrote:In case you want more Hindi books to read, here is a great resource I've found: https://www.learning-hindi.com/post/92741100095/google-drive-60-hindi-childrens-books-our. It is a google drive folder with 60 children's books in Hindi, with English translations and high quality Hindi audio, made available free of charge by an Indian nonprofit. :D


Wow, that's quite a collection! I've downloaded all of the books in Hindi and English, and all the audio files. There are 183 books in Hindi, 87 English books, and 25 audio files. Quite a pile of reading material! The books are organised into 4 levels, so I've started going through the files and putting a number at the beginning of the file name. That way I can work through from level 1 to level 4.

I already read one book twice: सालाना बाल-कटाई दिवास (Annual Haircut Day), a level 2 book. I only had to look up a few words, and they were words I wouldn't expect to know anyway, e.g. बढ़ई - carpenter. Most of my Hindi children's books come from the Children's Book Trust (CBT), which make really beautiful and relatively inexpensive books. However, I believe their philosophy is to try to extend children's vocabulary, so they often use more unusual words when a simpler word would do, even in their lowest level books.

सालाना बाल-कटाई दिवास is one of those stories that has a sentence that repeats regularly, but one or two words change each time:
"इतने लम्बे बाल काटने के लिए आज बिलकुल समय नहीं है" I don't have time (समय samay) to cut such long hair today! "I have no time" is literally "there is no time".
"इतने लम्बे बाल काटने के लिए आज मेरे पास बिलकुल वक़्त नहीं है" वक़्त vakt is another word for time, "I have" is more literally stated (मेरे पास, mere pas).
"इतने लम्बे बाल काटने के लिए आज मुझे फुर्सत नहीं" मुझे mujhe is a reflexive way to say "I have", फुर्सत phursat is "free time".
"इतने लम्बे बाल काटने के लिए आज मेरे पास समय नहीं है"

It's a nice way to keep the story simple for children, and to show them how the same thing can be said in different ways.
2 x
Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien (roughly, the perfect is the enemy of the good)

French SC Books: 0 / 5000 (0/5000 pp)
French SC Films: 0 / 9000 (0/9000 mins)

jeffers
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Learning: The above, plus French (A2-B1), German (A1), Ancient Greek (?), Sanskrit (beginner)
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Re: Jeffers' German, French and Hindi

Postby jeffers » Wed May 20, 2020 9:24 pm

The SC continues to go well for me, well enough that I've bumped my French challenge up to 1.5, and I'm wondering if I should consider bumping my Hindi and German challenges up to full. But of course, that's simply because I have a bit more time on my hands right now with the lockdown and all.
dashboard May 20, 2020.JPG


French
I finished La tête d'un homme, which was too easy to be a B2 reader, but anyway an enjoyable read. I was thinking of starting something more serious, but instead I started an old favourite, Les récrés du petit Nicolas.

Yesterday morning I watched the film Les vacances de petit Nicolas. The actor for Nicolas is different from the first film, which isn't surprising since they filmed it a few years later. The first film ends with his mother having a baby girl, and in this film he's still an only child. That sort of thing is slightly jarring, but once I got over that it was quite an enjoyable film. Tonight I watched another old favourite, Le dîner de cons, which I think is the funniest film I've seen in any language. "Il s'appelle Just Leblanc. - Ah bon, il n'a pas de prénom ?" Classic! :lol:

Feeling the need to try something more, yesterday I found a website of dictées en français: https://dictee.orthodidacte.com/. The guy reads the text on a video and you type what you hear in a text box. Press the button at the end and it shows you your errors! I did one dictée in the morning, made about 8-9 mistakes, did the same dictée in the afternoon and got it 100% correct. I completed a dictée for primary children, but the site also has FLE dictées, so I may do them a few times per week.


German
I read Brian Smith's German Easy Reader 2, and listened to the audiobook twice. Dull but effective. I also decided to get back into Assimil a bit, so I did a dictation review of lesson 27 yesterday and did a dictation of the text of 28 today without reviewing the notes yet. I'll probably try to do a few lessons per week.


Hindi
I've really been working a lot with the children's books Merlin pointed me towards. I've read 14 of them in the past four days, reading once looking up the few unknown words, and then rereading each one 20-30 minutes later. I plan to continue to read 3-4 books per day for a while, but also to go back and reread each book a week after my first reading.
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6 x
Le mieux est l'ennemi du bien (roughly, the perfect is the enemy of the good)

French SC Books: 0 / 5000 (0/5000 pp)
French SC Films: 0 / 9000 (0/9000 mins)

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Klara
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Re: Jeffers' German, French and Hindi

Postby Klara » Thu May 21, 2020 8:56 am

Feeling the need to try something more, yesterday I found a website of dictées en français: https://dictee.orthodidacte.com/. The guy reads the text on a video and you type what you hear in a text box. Press the button at the end and it shows you your errors! I did one dictée in the morning, made about 8-9 mistakes, did the same dictée in the afternoon and got it 100% correct. I completed a dictée for primary children, but the site also has FLE dictées, so I may do them a few times per week.

Thank you very much for this link! The dictées are great and because of the automatic correction, I am going to use this site a lot. :D
It fits so nicely into my French study routine.
3 x


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