Neoplanta log - German, French, Arabic, Urdu etc.

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Saim
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Re: Neoplanta log - Serbian, Hungarian, Mandarin, etc.

Postby Saim » Sat Feb 06, 2021 4:44 am

I forgot that I read these books in quarantine/on the plane, too.

Galician

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Co pai - Xosé Neira Vilas, 92 pages

I think this is my second full book in Galician (the first one was non-fiction); I think this is mostly autobiographical but in still in the style of a novel. It was relatively difficult because there was a lot of farm-related vocabulary.

Catalan

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El perquè de tot plegat - Quim Monzó, 170 pages

This was a lot more erotic than I expected. :lol:

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Mil cretins - Quim Monzó, 173 pages
El perquè de tot plegat - Quim Monzó, 170 pages
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Saim
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Re: Neoplanta log - Serbian, Hungarian, Mandarin, etc.

Postby Saim » Tue Feb 09, 2021 4:01 am

Punjabi

I've just realised that the Patiala dictionary has audio for all its entries. How had I not noticed earlier? Maybe they only added it recently... or maybe I just didn't think to check. :roll:

In any case, this'll make my life a lot easier, especially since Punjabi is a tonal language! I think I'll start spending more time on it. I used to think I should get better at Hindi first, since it's easy to find audio for Hindi words and due to all the common Sanskritisms in Hindi and Gurmukhi Punjabi texts, but I might as well just study focus on Punjabi and mostly abandon Hindi at this point (except for movies and stuff, which essentially doubles up as Urdu practice).
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Dagane
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Re: Neoplanta log - Serbian, Hungarian, Mandarin, etc.

Postby Dagane » Tue Feb 09, 2021 10:29 am

Se queres ler outros libros na lingua galega, a súa literatura ten algúns moi bos. Acho que o clásico "A esmorga" é dos mellores, aínda que pode que sexa un pouco difícil ao comenzo pola súa mestura de castelán, galego e castrapo.
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Saim
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Re: Neoplanta log - Serbian, Hungarian, Mandarin, etc.

Postby Saim » Tue Feb 16, 2021 11:43 pm

Saim wrote:Memrise

I've decided to do new cards on the browser version of the site, and do revision in the mobile app. I find having to type out the words helps a lot, but is generally overkill for revision.


I don't agree with this anymore. I find that the multiple choice tests are fairly useless, having to type it out makes it stick better. Multiple choice also leads to a lot of weird memory interference where I constantly guess a similar word or if I guess it correctly but don't know it that just messes with the algorithm, since it doesn't show up soon enough next time...

The only reason I preferred the mobile app was because I couldn't always be bothered to open my computer, but I've realised that I can just open the site on my phone and it works almost as well (thankfully it's not one of those websites that forces you to use the app if you're on your phone, I hate that). The only thing I'm worried about is the fact that the new "beta" version of the website has the same mechanics as the app... so I guess they'll eventually make the site useless, I guess people like the multiple choice quizzes because it's easier and gives the illusion of learning.

I've also added tone numbers to my Chinese cards, so I type out the characters first and then the tone numbers in the same order (so like this: 受欢迎412). I find it makes it easier to remember tones (I seem to be able to remember from the audio a lot of the time, but some combinations, for example 32, I find hard to perceive or remember). I wish I could do something similar for Japanese, but often single kanji represent multiple moras so it's impossible to mark the downstep without switching to hiragana. I wouldn't want to put it all in hiragana either, I prefer to revise terms in the form that I find them; although Memrise forces you to have separate "kana" and "kanji" fields if you mark your deck as a Japanese deck, I basically ignore that and put whatever I want to revise in the "kana" field. In fact I generally find kanji easier to remember than kana, at least when it comes to recognition.

Dagane wrote:Se queres ler outros libros na lingua galega, a súa literatura ten algúns moi bos. Acho que o clásico "A esmorga" é dos mellores, aínda que pode que sexa un pouco difícil ao comenzo pola súa mestura de castelán, galego e castrapo.


Grazas pola recomendación! Vexo que tamén hai un filme basado no libro.
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Saim
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Re: Neoplanta log - Serbian, Hungarian, Mandarin, etc.

Postby Saim » Tue Feb 23, 2021 11:46 pm

I'm going to start making a list of articles I've read in "harder" languages. I go through them quite slowly so this might help me feel more tangible progress.

Arabic
استعارة الحرب ودلالات متحولة.. كيف أثرت جائحة كورونا على اللغات؟ [Al Jazeera; "War metaphors and shifting meanings: How has the corona pandemic affected language?"]
بلاد ما بين النهرين ومصر وحوض السند.. كيف نشأت المدن المبكرة؟ [Al Jazeera; "Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Indus Valley: How did early cities emerge?"]

Basque

Al-Sisi, aliatu maite hori [Berria; "Al-Sisi, that beloved ally"]
Gorri [Berria; "Red"]
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Saim
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Posts: 676
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Re: Neoplanta log - Serbian, Hungarian, Mandarin, etc.

Postby Saim » Sun Mar 07, 2021 7:01 am

Basque

Here a Basque journalist specialising in the Middle East is interviewed. He discusses the sociolinguistic situation of Amazigh (Berber) and Kurdish in Lybia and Syria respectively.

Karlos Zuturuza: «Hizkuntza guztiek balio bera daukate» [Berria: "All languages have the same value"]

Karlos Zuturuza: «Hizkuntza guztiek balio bera daukate» [Berria: "All languages have the same value"]
Al-Sisi, aliatu maite hori [Berria; "Al-Sisi, that beloved ally"]
Gorri [Berria; "Red"]
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Saim
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Posts: 676
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Re: Neoplanta log - Urdu, Portuguese, etc.

Postby Saim » Mon Apr 05, 2021 11:56 pm

Urdu

I finished watching Emergency Pyaar. The second season almost felt like it happened in a parallel universe since half of the cast was swapped out and there was little continuity between the events of the season 1 finale and the first episode of the second season. It was also quite jarring since on YouTube the seasons weren't marked so I was left wondering if the Urdu dub had skipped an episode or something. I then checked the Turkish version and all the people commenting there were just as confused as I was (and I understood all the comments in Turkish! :D ).

I've started watching/listening to more non-fiction videos, specifically Taimur Rahman's videos and this one interview with the Prime Minister of Pakistan. I'll probably go back to a drama at some point, maybe an original Urdu production this time rather than a dubbed Turkish series.

I also wrote this: https://www.italki.com/post/CjbnAB6s1UIXJTeH3omXm5 .

Portuguese

I've been "watching" the telenovela Amigas e rivais. I put watching in quotation marks because half the time I just listen to it and don't bother looking at the screen. It's quite easy to do since there's so much exposition and everything is made very obvious (all the bad guys basically declare that they're the bad guys, usually more than once).

Serbian

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Igra anđela - Ljiljana Habjanović-Đurović, 462 pages

I forgot to mention, I finished reading this book quite a while ago. It was quite boring in some parts as it was almost all based on inner dialogue and the plot progressed very slowly, but it was nice to read a Serbian historical drama. I'm not necessarily rushing to read another Habjanović book after this one.

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Fiction

Ana Marija me nije volela - Ljiljana Habjanović Đurović, 184 pages
Javna ptica - Ljiljana Habjanović Đurović, 303 pages
Uho, nož, grlo - Vedrana Rudan, 172 pages
Mundo libre - Marko Krstić, 232 pages
Ostrvo - Meša Selimović, 198 pages
Sjećanja - Meša Selimović, 256 pages
Američki derviš - Ayad Akhtar, 354 pages (translated from English)
Glad - Mirjana Bobić Mojsilović, 224 pages
Derviš i smrt - Meša Selimović, 369 pages
Ono sve što znaš o meni - Mirjana Bobić Mojsilović, 235 pages
Tvrđava - Meša Selimović, 373 pages
Niko i ništa u Parizu i Londonu - George Orwell, 180 pages (translated from English)
Neoplanta ili Obećena zemlja - Végel László, 257 pages (translated from Hungarian)
Dvojnici iz tame - Morea Banićević, 282 pages
Elitna prostitutka - Jasmina Ana, 192 pages
Lutkar - Jostein Gaarder, 235 pages (translated from Norwegian)
Bljuzga u podne - Predrag Ličina, 243 pages
Roman o Londonu (Prva Knjiga) - Miloš Crnjanski, 388 pages
Paunovo pero - Ljiljana Habjanović Đurović, 49
Igra anđela - Ljiljana Habjanović-Đurović, 462 pages

Non-fiction

Nova lica jezika, Ranko Bugarski, 250 pages
Mađarska revolucija 1956 - Ivan Ivanji, 325 pages
O psovanju - Predrag Krstić, 125 pages
Imaginarni Albanac - Aleksandar Pavlović, 128 pages

Total fiction: 5636
Total books: 6464


Mandarin

I've reconsidered my approach to Chinese characters (again :lol: ). I want to be able to write any character I see, not necessarily write characters from memory, so Heisig's keywords are useless. I'm still going to use the same deck but delete any cards where I can guess the stroke order on my first try and only work on characters where I don't find the order intuitive, and go from character > stroke order rather than keyword > character and stroke order. I will learn recognition and meaning through reading and memorising vocabulary on Memrise.

I have also added a separate deck to Memrise where I have to type out pinyin with tone numbers for characters. I was starting to feel like the tones just weren't sticking and needed some extra work.
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Saim
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Re: Neoplanta log - Urdu, Portuguese, etc.

Postby Saim » Fri May 14, 2021 7:24 am

Portuguese

Image

I've finished the telenovela Amigas e rivais. I've calculated it as being around 84 hours long. This is actually the "shortened" version -- apparently the original run was condensed from 180 to 140 episodes (and the last 40 were only 35-30 minutes long rather than 40-45!), and the full version was only shown in reruns. For that reason, the last 40 episodes went much faster than the earlier ones, I felt like I was getting whiplash. I didn't really mind though, I was almost happy to be done with it sooner. :lol: This is certainly the longest show I've ever watched from start to finish.

This was quite good for my language skills; generally for audiovisual materials I tend to spread myself too thin and don't watch often enough, so I don't usually get the benefits of sustained exposure. I think I might try to get to 100 or so hours and then circle around to focusing on another language. For Portuguese I'll watch a couple of Netflix movies or something like that and then move on.

I might try out the Hungarian soap Somszédok (I'd like to try something newer but almost everything seems to be region-locked), which is around 165 hours long, so if I manage to get hooked I won't need anything else for the full 100 hours.

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Coisa mais linda - 9.75 hours
Amigas e rivais - 84.25 hours

Total - 94 hours
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Saim
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Re: Neoplanta log - Urdu, Portuguese, etc.

Postby Saim » Thu Jun 17, 2021 12:06 am

German

Blutwette, Andreas Franz & Daniel Holbe

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read 221/394

After two months of having this book borrowed out from the state library I have to return it. I haven't finished it, but I did notice it getting substantially easier around page 180 (I've been adding a lot of flashcards). I think I might borrow it out again in a couple of months once I've gone through all the words I've noted down, maybe it'll be more fun to finish at that point. Or maybe I'll just move on to a different book, who knows.
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Saim
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Re: Neoplanta log - Urdu, Portuguese, etc.

Postby Saim » Sun Feb 13, 2022 2:58 am

Hi, it's been a while.

I've been focusing on settling in at my new job and also getting into a new hobby (Latin dance). I've still been doing language stuff but haven't had time to log it.

Interaction, not "output"

I've come to the conclusion that for a number of languages I've been procrastinating when it comes to production. It seems pretty clear that experience with interaction has a positive effect on comprehension, it's quite easy to miss nuances in pragmatics or avoid learning how to "listen quickly" if all you're doing is raw input. That's not really output though, because interaction contains both input and output.

Lately I've been doing a lot of 1-1 online classes for Portuguese, which I've been enjoying a lot. It helps that my tutor is fun to talk to. I would like to work on my French the same way but I'm not sure when I'll be able to fit it in.

I'm thinking that even for some of my weaker/more difficult languages I could benefit from some more interaction. I think talking to people in the language definitely helped my comprehension levels in Hungarian and Urdu and got me to the point I am now where input is relatively pleasant to consume (less so with written Urdu sources), and I didn't necessarily do that much input (and definitely not mass audio input) to get to that level. I'm not convinced anymore that "mass input" is the most efficient way to go about this.

Then again, it's hard to find the energy and motivation to talk in languages that you're bad at. It'd be more fun to do group classes but it's hard to find good ones, as I mention in the German section below.

What source of input?

I think I've been forcing myself to read novels a bit too much. There are a couple of subreddits and Facebook groups in certain languages that I enjoy reading so I'll try to do a bit more of that, I find it easier to get lost in the material and do 3 hours straight.

As for audiovisual material, I think I'll not force myself to do too much listening or TV watching because I enjoy reading much more. I think I can mostly get away with a combination of reading, flashcards and interaction; I won't worry about listening that much unless I have a compelling reason to do so.

If I watch any TV shows, I'll do it in Urdu (just because it's a harder language with a lot more "different" ways of expressing things, so it'd be good to drill some of those common expressions in by watching simple dramas; when listening to Turkish dramas dubbed in Urdu I understand upwards of 95% of the dialogue). I won't force myself to binge any shows because I don't like doing that, a lot of the time 20-30 minutes is enough. Who cares how long it takes me to finish watching some stupid drama.

I might have to get into listening to more German at some point, though.

German

I have a pretty compelling reason to get better at German, so that's been my main focus. I should probably do more for it but I also want to spend time in the Romance and Slavic languages because I enjoy it a lot. Oh well. I guess I can still ease myself into it.

I've been reading Rafik Shami's Der ehrliche Lügner fairly slowly (and re-read the first 30 or so pages several times). I also re-read the first 70 pages of Blutwette a while back.

I'm also taking German classes at a language school but they're lower intermediate and I feel like I'm a bit above the level. I have been learning some new words of course and I'm definitely benefiting from speaking to the teacher in German... I do feel like I would get more mileage out of 1-1 classes, but then again they can be more tiring at times. It's a shame that group classes so often seem pointlessly basic, they can be very hit-or-miss; I'm glad I managed to take classes at university (for say Hungarian, Polish, Hebrew) which were generally of very good quality and often with fairly motivated and dedicated students.

Flashcards

I've pretty much given up on Memrise. I can't sign in anymore for some reason, and it's not too good anyway (reviews pile up too fast).

I have found that I can get away with single word cards (which is what I was using Memrise for anyway) in Anki, as long as there's another card that has a sentence with that word in it.

I also tend to add multiple cards with the same word and then click the option to randomise the order so they don't come up on the same day in the deck.

  • For languages where I can't find many sentences with only one new word, I'll add all the words from a bunch of sentences as single word cards, randomise them, and have the sentences come in later in the order.
  • For languages where I can use monolingual dictionaries, I'll have one card with the original sentence I found + monolingual definition, and another one with a translated example sentence from glosbe or bab.la.
  • Sometimes I'll have two monolingual cards.

For Punjabi unfortunately most pdfs aren't searchable and it's hard to find example sentences on the internet (not much presence on glosbe, tatoeba; no bab.la), so there I guess I'll just have to add single word cards only and then re-read passages. Or type out sentences straight from books? Could work, but it seems like a bit of a hassle. Either way I'm not expecting to progress too fast.

Maybe I should just buckle down and buy one Punjabi book and expect to finish in ~12 months (I'm not in any rush anyway so why not?), rereading lots of passages. I can't do that with the books I've been reading in Punjabi recently since they're from the local library, so I just end up reading/studying the first handful of pages and then returning them.
Last edited by Saim on Fri Feb 18, 2022 8:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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