AroAro's log (languages, books, certificates)

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AroAro
Green Belt
Posts: 355
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:57 pm
Languages: • Native - Polish
• Certified - C1: French, Italian, Romanian; B2: English, German
• Estimate - B2: Russian; B1: Bulgarian
• Learning - Czech, Hebrew
• Dabbled in - eo, la, uk, sw, lt, oc
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... d80b60a5e9
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Re: Russian/Bulgarian/Hebrew + EN,FR,IT,DE,RO

Postby AroAro » Fri Aug 19, 2022 10:10 am

Russian – finished the graded reader for advanced learners (underlined 163 new or interesting words to be memorized). And now, it’s time for the last book in my Russian journey – “В мире бизнеса”, a book on using Russian in business situations and full of Russian vocabulary related to economics and politics. Other than that, lots of eavesdropping on conversations in Russian on the playgrounds, though there has been an increase in the presence of Ukrainian lately.

Bulgarian – finished both Assimil Le Bulgare Sans Peine and Intensive Bulgarian vol.1. I started reading Grammatica Bulgara by Vesselina Laskova, it’s funny to read about Bulgarian grammar in Italian but the book is excellent, they also have grammars for other Slavic languages. I read so far Chapter 1. Introduction to Bulgarian language and Chapter 2. Phonetics and ortography.

Vocabulary building – learned 34 words from online reading. Clozemaster progress:

#Bulgarian from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 2094, mastered 441 out of 7479 sentences
#Russian from English (>50,000 Most Common Words) => playing 1739, mastered 725 out of 9985 sentences
#Hebrew from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 449 mastered 0 out of 19999 sentences. I really like the recordings for this one, there are two voices – one male and one female, and they sound naturally to my untrained ears (though I guess the audio is auto-generated?). One complaint – the male voice pronounces את (2nd singular female pronoun “you”) as “et” when in fact it should be pronounced “at” (because if rendered as “et”, it’s a preposition introducing definite direct object). Also, חברה is pronounced as “khevra” (company, firm) rather than “khavera” (female friend) as it should be in these phrases.
Sure, Clozemaster is not perfect, there are errors in translations, there too many proper names but at least they give words in context which is an enormous boost for my comprehension. I checked Glossika which seems to have better reviews but the price is simply prohibitive so I’m sticking to Clozemaster.

Reading – read “La Déesse des petites victoires” by Yannick Grannec. The book is based on life of Kurt Godel’s wife and it tries to say something about what it takes to be a genius, what sacrifices those around a genius must make, and what it means to be constantly overshadowed by someone else and never be taken seriously. There are a lot of references to mathematical theories but they aren’t really necessary to understand what’s going on. On the other hand, there were some unknown words here and there and that was a welcome surprise for me, so I’m adding Grannec’s other books to my wish-list, I hope they will be equally challenging. But for now, I’ve chosen a short book for my next French read – “Petit Pays” by Gael Faye.
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bolaobo
Orange Belt
Posts: 237
Joined: Fri Mar 05, 2021 5:48 pm
Location: Pennsylvania
Languages: English (N), Mandarin Chinese, German, French
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=19845
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Re: Russian/Bulgarian/Hebrew + EN,FR,IT,DE,RO

Postby bolaobo » Fri Aug 19, 2022 11:30 am

Congratulations on finishing Assimil Bulgarian and Intensive Bulgarian!
4 x
Perfectionnement Arabe: 11 / 70 New Arabic Grammar: 30 / 51
Le Grec Ancien: 15 / 101
Hindi ohne Mühe: 44 / 54
Le Persan: 85 / 86
Le Turc: 19 / 71
Tobira: 3 / 15

User avatar
AroAro
Green Belt
Posts: 355
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:57 pm
Languages: • Native - Polish
• Certified - C1: French, Italian, Romanian; B2: English, German
• Estimate - B2: Russian; B1: Bulgarian
• Learning - Czech, Hebrew
• Dabbled in - eo, la, uk, sw, lt, oc
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... d80b60a5e9
x 1792

Re: Russian/Bulgarian/Hebrew + EN,FR,IT,DE,RO

Postby AroAro » Sat Aug 20, 2022 6:58 am

bolaobo wrote:Congratulations on finishing Assimil Bulgarian and Intensive Bulgarian!


Thank you! I'm happy too, even though it feels like there is still a lot of work to be done to get a proper grasp of the language.
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User avatar
AroAro
Green Belt
Posts: 355
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:57 pm
Languages: • Native - Polish
• Certified - C1: French, Italian, Romanian; B2: English, German
• Estimate - B2: Russian; B1: Bulgarian
• Learning - Czech, Hebrew
• Dabbled in - eo, la, uk, sw, lt, oc
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... d80b60a5e9
x 1792

Re: Russian/Bulgarian/Hebrew + EN,FR,IT,DE,RO

Postby AroAro » Mon Aug 29, 2022 6:40 am

Russian – reading slowly “В мире бизнеса” - it’s not the most exciting textbook, even though I’m an accountant myself :) watching a lot of YT videos

Bulgarian – did another 3 chapters from “Grammatica Bulgara” - Substantives, Adjectives and Numerals (there are 23 chapters in total).

Vocabulary building – learned 27 words from online reading.

Clozemaster progress:
#Bulgarian from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 2534, mastered 673 out of 7479 sentences
#Russian from English (>50,000 Most Common Words) => playing 2619, mastered 1459 out of 9985 sentences
#Hebrew from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 639, mastered 1 out of 19999 sentences

For Russian and Bulgarian, I immediately mark as “mastered” all the phrases that contain proper names, and especially in the case of Russian, I retain only the phrases that somehow strike me as interesting and worth reviewing sometime in the future. That’s why according to the statistics, I’ve already mastered more than half of the phrases I’ve played in Russian. I think that for both languages, I should finish the collections by the end of the year. For Hebrew, it’s another story, I’m just glad I’m actually doing anything with the language.

Reading – so I quickly read “Petit Pays”, the book was quite short (210 pages) and very easy in terms of vocabulary. I didn’t like it much, I mean it was not bad but not great either, it simply left me rather indifferent. There was nothing in the style that would elevate it above other books narrating other tragic events. Now, I’m reading in Polish Ivo Andrić’s “Most na Drinie” (“Na Drini ćuprija”/ “The Bridge on the Drina”). It’s a much more demanding and slower read, I guess I’m getting what I asked for while reading “Petit Pays”. Also, I didn’t expect it to be so cruel, that detailed depiction of impalement really questioned my limits when it comes to representation of violence and cruelty.
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User avatar
AroAro
Green Belt
Posts: 355
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:57 pm
Languages: • Native - Polish
• Certified - C1: French, Italian, Romanian; B2: English, German
• Estimate - B2: Russian; B1: Bulgarian
• Learning - Czech, Hebrew
• Dabbled in - eo, la, uk, sw, lt, oc
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... d80b60a5e9
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Re: Russian/Bulgarian/Hebrew + EN,FR,IT,DE,RO

Postby AroAro » Wed Sep 07, 2022 10:24 am

Russian – finished “В мире бизнеса”. This was the last book I used for Russian, I think I should make some kind of summary of what I achieved – so in short, I can comfortably read in Russian, which was definitely not the case in December 2020 when I started learning the language. I understand Russian podcasts and YT videos – there is still room for improvement though, I don’t have much trouble understanding 3-4 YT channels I watch the most but I tend to struggle watching interviews for example, because I guess they are not scripted and people speak more naturally and faster. I’m going to focus on honing listening skills in the following months. I intentionally neglected speaking and writing so nothing to say about these two skills. All in all, I am satisfied with what I achieved.

Bulgarian – did another 3 chapters (Pronouns, Verb aspect, Use of Perfective/Imperfective forms).

Vocabulary building – learned 29 words from online reading.

Clozemaster progress:
Bulgarian from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 2934, mastered 909 out of 7479 sentences
Russian from English (>50,000 Most Common Words) => playing 3399, mastered 2140 out of 9985 sentences
Hebrew from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 759, mastered 5 out of 19999 sentences

Reading – finished reading “The Bridge on Drina”, and now I’m reading “In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts” by Eugen Ruge, winner of the German Book Prize 2011. I haven’t been feeling well in the last couple of days, so I barely touched this book.
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User avatar
AroAro
Green Belt
Posts: 355
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:57 pm
Languages: • Native - Polish
• Certified - C1: French, Italian, Romanian; B2: English, German
• Estimate - B2: Russian; B1: Bulgarian
• Learning - Czech, Hebrew
• Dabbled in - eo, la, uk, sw, lt, oc
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... d80b60a5e9
x 1792

Re: Russian/Bulgarian/Hebrew + EN,FR,IT,DE,RO

Postby AroAro » Fri Sep 16, 2022 8:43 am

Bulgarian – did chapters on four past tenses: Past Imperfect, Aorist, Present Perfect and Past Perfect. I thought that I figured out when Aorist and Present Perfect should be used but this book added so many different shades of meaning between the two that I have to review it all once again.

Hebrew – so thanks to the fact that I no longer spend time on Russian, I can direct a little bit of effort back on Hebrew. I decided to check the FSI course (at least the first 15-20 units), just to get a hang of what it actually is. I use it mainly as listening input. By the way, in my previous post I said I was going to work on my listening skills in Russian, which is very much happening, but in the meantime I decided to spend just as much time on German podcasts. I would like to elevate my German listening skills to a higher level (that of my French or English). I tried to do it in the past but still, when I listen to a German podcast, I need to be constantly on guard otherwise I may lose the thread. Listening to German just doesn’t come naturally to me. The other thing is that I’m interested in Yiddish and Dutch, and it makes sense to have a good command of German (even though we’re talking only about passive skills here) before dabbling in any other Germanic language.

Vocabulary reading – learned 23 words from online reading.

Clozemaster progress:
#Bulgarian from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 3254, mastered 1121 out of 7479 sentences
#Russian from English (>50,000 Most Common Words) => playing 3879, mastered 2557 out of 9985 sentences
#Hebrew from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 839, mastered 9 out of 19999 sentences

Reading – finished reading “In Zeiten des abnehmenden Lichts” just yesterday – what a slog! I won’t check the other books by this writer. Well, it’s not that it was bad but the book tried forcibly to be funny in a quirky way (or maybe my German is really that bad and all the author’s intentions flew over my head), and I didn’t find it funny nor quirky, just tad boring. There are some memorable scenes but they don’t warrant the time I spent on the book so I’m happy to move to Keith Kahn-Harris’ “The Babel Message: A Love Letter to Language”.
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User avatar
AroAro
Green Belt
Posts: 355
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:57 pm
Languages: • Native - Polish
• Certified - C1: French, Italian, Romanian; B2: English, German
• Estimate - B2: Russian; B1: Bulgarian
• Learning - Czech, Hebrew
• Dabbled in - eo, la, uk, sw, lt, oc
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... d80b60a5e9
x 1792

Re: Russian/Bulgarian/Hebrew + EN,FR,IT,DE,RO

Postby AroAro » Mon Sep 26, 2022 6:48 am

Bulgarian – read another chapters (Future Tense, Future Perfect, Future in the past, Future Perfect in the past, Passive Voice).

Hebrew – going through the FSI Basic Hebrew Course. The first 5 units were pretty much straightforward, but starting with the unit 6 there are more and more details, grammar notes and drills. I think I will continue up to the unit 10 and then I plan to go through Assimil L’Hebreu Sans Peine once again (I did this course in 2020/2021) to refresh my Hebrew notions.

Clozemaster
#Bulgarian from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 3614, mastered 1623 out of 7479 sentences
#Russian from English (>50,000 Most Common Words) => playing 4419, mastered 3082 out of 9985 sentences
#Hebrew from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 929, mastered 13 out of 19999 sentences

Reading – finished reading “The Babel Message” and I liked it a lot. The sheer idea of writing a book centered around warning message on Kinder Surprise Eggs is to me mindblowing and I feel as if this book were written especially for me because I love reading multilingual messages on products or instructions, trying to match the words from a language I know with the language I have no grasp of, wondering whether this or that word is a substantive or maybe verb… Well, I once talked about this fascination of mine with my wife but she just raised her eyebrows and I knew I didn’t succeed to intrigue her… So I’m glad to see someone out there who indulges in warning messages :) Briefly speaking, the author presents the warning message underlining how vague it actually is despite its conciseness. He adds translations into more languages than initially translated by Ferrero Company (sadly, in most cases there are no transliterations for languages that don’t use Latin script) presenting different stories and fun facts about these languages, comparing the translations and trying to find out the differences and common points among them. He spends a lot of time on conlangs and that was quite new to me. And yes, he contacted Ferrero but they declined politely to provide him with any details on the warning message and translation techniques used.

Now, I’m reading a non-fiction book about Eugene Terre’Blanche in Polish by Wojciech Jagielski. Last year, I read his book about child soldiers in Uganda and didn’t like it at all so I approached this book with apprehension. Fortunately, it turned out to be much more gripping and better written.

Additionally, I had a conversation in English last weekend, we had a family reunion to celebrate my parents 40th wedding anniversary and I talked with my sister’s friend and oh well, I sometimes struggled for words! The lack of experience is simply visible, it’s hard to expect a flawless conversation if I don’t practice my speaking skills. I guess my performance would’ve been even bleaker if I were to speak in another language, like German or Romanian.
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User avatar
AroAro
Green Belt
Posts: 355
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:57 pm
Languages: • Native - Polish
• Certified - C1: French, Italian, Romanian; B2: English, German
• Estimate - B2: Russian; B1: Bulgarian
• Learning - Czech, Hebrew
• Dabbled in - eo, la, uk, sw, lt, oc
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... d80b60a5e9
x 1792

Re: Russian/Bulgarian/Hebrew + EN,FR,IT,DE,RO

Postby AroAro » Wed Oct 05, 2022 7:48 am

Bulgarian – almost finished Grammatica Bulgara (last chapters were about conditional phrases, imperative mood, renarrative mood, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions). I was a little bit deceived that so little space was given to renarrative mood, it’s such a unique feature of Bulgarian (and Macedonian) that it really deserves more in-depth analysis and exercises. Anyway, I still recommend this book to everyone interested in Bulgarian grammar. What’s next? I’m going to go back to basics and plough my way through “Beginning Bulgarian” and “Bulgarian Textbook for Foreigners Part 1” simultaneously. I will use them mostly as reading material and will try to consolidate basic vocabulary that still escapes me sometimes.

Hebrew – so I did the unit 10 from FSI Basic Hebrew and started doing once again the Assimil course. So far, so good, the first lessons are too easy even for me.

Clozemaster
#Bulgarian from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 3974, mastered 2116 out of 7479 sentences
#Russian from English (>50,000 Most Common Words) => playing 4959, mastered 3639 out of 9985 sentences
#Hebrew from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 1019, mastered 16 out of 19999 sentences

Reading – reading “How High We Go In The Dark” by Sequoia Nagamatsu. I felt a sudden urge to read something dystopian and that book fits the bill. It’s an ok book even though it reads more like a short stories collection than a full-fledged novel. My next read will also be in English but haven’t decided yet which one, I’m leaning towards “Pachinko”.
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User avatar
AroAro
Green Belt
Posts: 355
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:57 pm
Languages: • Native - Polish
• Certified - C1: French, Italian, Romanian; B2: English, German
• Estimate - B2: Russian; B1: Bulgarian
• Learning - Czech, Hebrew
• Dabbled in - eo, la, uk, sw, lt, oc
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... d80b60a5e9
x 1792

Re: Russian/Bulgarian/Hebrew + EN,FR,IT,DE,RO

Postby AroAro » Fri Oct 14, 2022 11:53 am

Bulgarian – I did the 3 initial lessons from “Bulgarian Textbook for Foreigners Part 1” and the first lesson from “Beginning Bulgarian”. Both textbooks were published in 60’/70’ so there is no audio. The former has 51 lessons in total, the latter has only 20 lessons but they are much longer and the learning curve is much steeper. Sadly, there are no answer keys as these books were designed for classrooms rather than for independent learners.

Hebrew – I’m at the lesson 11 of reviewing my Assimil course.

Clozemaster
#Bulgarian from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 4374, mastered 3259 out of 7479 sentences
#Russian from English (>50,000 Most Common Words) => playing 5559, mastered 4830 out of 9985 sentences
#Hebrew from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 1119, mastered 311 out of 19999 sentences

Reading – yesterday, I finished reading “Pachinko” by Min Jin Lee and I simply loved it. I was really swept away by the story, it was such a pleasure to be so hooked on a book, doesn’t happen so often. Of course, the book is not without its faults – I think that the author could’ve concentrated more on the main character Sunja who in later chapters steps in the shadow. The book spans many decades and limiting its timeframe would be for the better. Nevertheless, it’s a wonderful story. I was not aware of the difficult situation of ethnic Koreans in Japan (e.g. even those born in 3rd or 4th generation don’t automatically get the Japanese citizenship and have to use South Korean passports if they want to go abroad). Next read – Polish translation of Yoko Ogawa’s “The Memory Police”.
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User avatar
AroAro
Green Belt
Posts: 355
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2020 12:57 pm
Languages: • Native - Polish
• Certified - C1: French, Italian, Romanian; B2: English, German
• Estimate - B2: Russian; B1: Bulgarian
• Learning - Czech, Hebrew
• Dabbled in - eo, la, uk, sw, lt, oc
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... d80b60a5e9
x 1792

Re: Russian/Bulgarian/Hebrew + EN,FR,IT,DE,RO

Postby AroAro » Mon Oct 24, 2022 10:11 am

Bulgarian – “Bulgarian Textbook for Foreigners Part 1” – lesson 12, “Beginning Bulgarian” – lesson 3

Hebrew – lesson 21 from Assimil course.

Clozemaster
#Bulgarian from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 4774, mastered 3916 out of 7479 sentences
#Russian from English (>50,000 Most Common Words) => playing 6159, mastered 5596 out of 9985 sentences
#Hebrew from English (Fluency Fast Track) => playing 1219, mastered 512 out of 19999 sentences

Reading – finished reading “The Memory Police” by Yoko Ogawa. It was a real page-turner, just like “Pachinko”, but in a very different way. I didn’t know much about the book except for the fact that it had been shortlisted for International Booker and that it must have something to do with… well, memory, I guess? Spoiler alert=> so it was a huge surprise for me that it’s actually about life under a totalitarian regime but told from a very intimate perspective. I really liked the narrator, definitely not an omniscient one, who herself tried to make anything out of things that were happening around her and to her. Then we have a “story within a story” (because the narrator is a writer writing a novel) that is basically the main story but told in a “reverse” way. <=end of spoiler. All that makes for quite a confusing (in a positive way) and disconcerting read. I had to make a two day pause before reaching for another book, I really needed time to let it all sink in and think about what Ogawa wanted to convey through her book. Then, I read a book in Romanian “Cât de aproape sunt ploile reci” by Bogdan Coşa. Let’s say it’s in a different league, I don’t really have much luck with my Romanian reads. Nothing happens, which is not a bad thing per se, but I need to be hooked to enjoy the book, be it by a story, an unusual mood, writing style, whatever that would keep me interested. Fortunately, the book was quite short so I quickly moved on to Sofi Oksanen’s “Koirapuisto” in Polish translation. I read her “Puhdistus” some 10 years ago but was not entirely sold on that one but I got a copy of “Koirapuisto” from an acquaintance and am really enjoying that one, it’s much better than “Puhdistus”. It’s also very timely as most of the action takes place in modern Ukraine.

Here is a birthday gift from my wife that she gave me last week. It was a nice surprise because generally speaking she kindly tolerates my language learning hobby without giving it too much thought. But she’d had a hint that I’m interested in Yiddish because next month I’m going to Warsaw for two days and the highlight of my stay there will be seeing a play entirely in Yiddish at the Jewish Theatre.

Yid.PNG


Moreover, I had a short conversation with my manager about languages – she’s now involved in a new project for a Czech client. She said that she cannot understand anything of the language except for very basic and similar sounding words, and that proves that Czech and Polish are not mutually intelligible despite a close connection. In the past, she worked extensively with Slovak people and stated that Slovak language is definitely more transparent and similar to Polish. I don’t talk much about foreign languages with anyone so that was a nice change.
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