Cito's Randomly Dispersed Updates

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cito
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Re: Cito's General Log

Postby cito » Fri Mar 25, 2022 3:50 pm

Log ~11

I had some fun over the past few months dabbling in Italian, Russian, and Persian for various amounts of time, but didn't stick with any of them. No harm no foul.

My siblings seemed really excited about Italian, but none really did it; Russian and Persian at the same time was fun (Arguelles gave me the excitement / motivation) but the schedule was a bit tough, and I felt like I didn't have enough motivation external to thinking it would be "fun" to learn these languages, so I didn't continue with them (also time! wow how it is a limited resource). Being a full time student is a lot of work and there is only so much time in the day. I had fun with these languages and I can see myself picking up Italian in the future once I have some more time / if I am sure I might travel there.

I think traveling itself is enough of a reason to learn, so if my parents tell me we're going to Denmark (my mother has cousins there), I might have to learn a little, even if people say it's "futile." I doubt I could learn better Danish than the Danes know English, but I think they would still appreciate it at least a little haha.

French

Anyways, French is going great. I haven't made as many Anki cards in the last 30 days, as I was on break and I decided to actually give myself a break. I finished Harry Potter à l'école des sorciers and it was a lot of fun! I read a bit of the next one but I am going to read Kiffe Kiffe demain first. I'm going to Quebéc City with my school French Club in April and I'm going to try and pick up:

1. En attendant Godot - Samuel Beckett
2. Terre des hommes - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
3. Candide - Voltaire *
4. Le Dernier Jour d’une Condamnée - Victor Hugo

*there's a copy of this at my Uni library so I might not (but it's a bit battered).

As far as "progress" with French, I've been learning for 284 days, which is around 9.5 months. I have been watching some youtube videos lately, reading, and listening to L'Heure du Monde which I really love and have been keeping up with for a while. I'm at the point with my listening where a somewhat "formal" podcast like that I can understand with relative ease. Definitely a few words per episode I don't know but I am growing with my listening and can really listen and enjoy them.

I've been making Anki cards from episodes of Insomnie on Youtube, which is a fantastic series of interviews (with subtitles!). I've gone back to having a single vocab word on the front, as I tend to just memorize the sentence rather than the word.

Other news/travel plans:

Today I think I am going to finish my last piece of paperwork for my Uni to go to France this summer! I'm studying in the south of France and the Alps for a total of 7 weeks I'll be all set and glad to have the stress of applications off my back... but they'll return:

I talked to the head of the Languages Department (who is also my French prof) and he told me I would be able to fit being an Honors student (requires extra classes) and a double major in English / French in my schedule and still be able to graduate on time! Yes! But that means more applications because I'll be studying in a Francophone country Spring of 2023! I just need to select a program. I'm looking for programs in Paris that will let me study literature and art history hopefully. So exciting!

Overall, I think I have move passed a lot of the disillusionment I felt before about not being Fluent in 3 Months™️ (joke), and I am pretty content with my French progress. I was able to skip a year of Uni classes by studying on my own for 3 months, I've watched fantastic movies in a language that was incomprehensible to me a year ago, and I've read one of my favorite books in the original language it was written in... but the best part yet: I've enjoyed doing it and it's only up and better from here!

Hope everyone is doing well! Bonne chance

p.s. I'm boosting the goal to 15 French books in 2022, I got this!!
Last edited by cito on Tue Jun 07, 2022 6:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
7 x
50 French Books: 20 / 50
LLPSI-FA: 33 / 35
Greek ASSIMIL: 29 / 100
Russian ASSIMIL: 43 / 100
(On Pause)
Latin ASSIMIL: 29 / 101
Spanish ASSIMIL: 40 / 100

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MorkTheFiddle
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Languages: English (N). Read (only) French and Spanish. Studying Ancient Greek. Studying a bit of Latin. Once studied Old Norse. Dabbled in Catalan, Provençal and Italian.
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Re: Cito's General Log

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Fri Mar 25, 2022 4:54 pm

An inspiring post. Keep it up! And thanks for the suggestion about L'Heure de Monde.
1 x
Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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cito
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Re: Cito's General Log

Postby cito » Thu Mar 31, 2022 7:10 pm

petit entrée dans le journal de bord aujourd’hui
(little entry for my log today)

truc d'ouf quoi
(crazy stuff)

I was at my college dining hall with a friend who also likes French. We just got confirmation over email that our school trip to Quebec City this weekend was still going on. I was excited and in a Francophone mood, so I introduced my friend to a woman I met this semester. We all started talking.

She speaks French (very clearly which is awesome) and works in the dining hall, and the only way I knew was because once when she was on break I heard her speaking French into her phone, so I approached her while she was working (she's always behind the pizza bar) and just said "Bonsoir! Comment allez-vous?" and ever since every once in a while I'll say hello to her and we'll chat about the weather and what not.

We all started chatting and I introduced my friend and he asked her where she was from (I just never bothered to ask :lol:) and she said Brazzaville.

Then she asked me if I was from Canada

When I tell you I freaked out after I can't even describe. She was complimenting my French and was so kind it was crazy!!! I mean granted its really loud because of the fans in the dining hall but still! What!?!?!? Truc d'ouf!!!!

Hope everyone is well!!
6 x
50 French Books: 20 / 50
LLPSI-FA: 33 / 35
Greek ASSIMIL: 29 / 100
Russian ASSIMIL: 43 / 100
(On Pause)
Latin ASSIMIL: 29 / 101
Spanish ASSIMIL: 40 / 100

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cito
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Re: Cito's General Log

Postby cito » Fri May 13, 2022 3:26 am

log 13

updates and things!!

Really unfortunately, I've been slacking really hard with French. The last two months I've made maybe 40 or 50 Anki cards and it's been a while since I've learned a new word. I feel kinda ashamed but honestly I've just been finishing up this semester at Uni. I also had COVID-19 but luckily made a good recovery and (mostly) feel better, besides some residual shortness of breath.

The problem mainly has been that Uni has been stressing me out and I've been getting brain fog as a result (as far as I know). I got blood work done and came back clear so it must just be stress and a bad diet (Uni food is really bad). Personal life things have been a bit hectic (adding a lot of stress) but I'm thinking now that it's the summer I might be doing a bit better.

I just finished The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison (in English) and it was a fantastic read. Next on my English reading list is Purity of the Heart is to Will One Thing by Søren Kierkegaard. I picked up a copy of La Ballad de l'impossible by Haruki Murakami (English/Japanese title is Norwegian Wood). I read this first semester in English and absolutely adored it, so I'm going back to it now in French. I'm about 110 pages through out of ~450. It's long but there aren't many words per page I don't know. For this book I think I'm at about a 98% comprehension rate which is nice, but my lack of reading lately has slowed me down and I need to pick it back up!

I watched most of Drôle on Netflix. I think the name in English is "Standing Up." It's about stand-up comedians and it's great, honestly. I also watched the first two episodes of Les 7 vies de Léa which is also great. I gotta finish both of them.

My goal for the 10 days or so is to finish Kierkegaard, Finish Murakami, Finish Le Petit Prince (I really don't know why I've read the first half / first 3 chapters a billion times and haven't finished it yet), and read Romeo and Juliet and maybe On The Road (by Shakespeare and Kerouac, respectively, both in English). Maybe I'll try and sneak in and finish Kiffe Kiffe Demain by Faïza Guène too. In total 5 or 6 books in 10 days, with R+J, LPP, and KKD being books I can read in a day. Main ones of importance are Murakami, Kierkegaard, and Shakespeare, though.

The reason I am cramming all this is because in 10 or so days I leave for the UK!!!! I'm very excited and I'll be bringing La Peste by Camus and Terre des hommes by Saint-Exupéry with me. After the UK for 2 weeks I am going to a city in the south of France for a few weeks and then too the alps for a few also! I literally can't wait and if I remember I'll post updates here!!! I'm really hoping I can get my French back on track before I get to France and really step up to another level. I'll be there for 8 weeks in total so I really think I will be able to get better. My goal is to read an hour a day (in French) while I am there and to put all the vocabulary I learn throughout the day and all the sentences I don't know how to say (but can ask an unlimited pool of native speakers about) rather than sentence mining (which I haven't been doing in the first place).

I have a list of a bunch of books I wanna get (hopefully all those beautiful Folio Classiques, they're lovely and economical), and will be on the hunt for two other books as well... which brings me to....

Ancient Greek (?)

Some of you saw the post I made about Ancient Greek vs Modern Greek and I greatly appreciate all the answers! Iversen's notes were really cool to read, and Ryan's were very helpful, so thank you if you see this!

Since May 1st I've been doing about a lesson a day (- a few days when I had finals) from John H. Dobson's Learn New Testament Greek (2nd ed.) and putting example sentences in Anki. I think the pace is getting to be a little quick, so I am cutting it down to about 1 lesson every two days, in order to keep my new Anki cards at about 5-10 a day instead of 15+. The Anki reps are allowing me to really memorize the declension endings quickly and get a grasp on the (to me quite foreign) word order. It's very cool and I'm hoping to be able to read the New Testament as a stepping stone into harder Ancient Greek literature.

My goals for it (if I stick to it, which I think I actually might, as it hasn't confused me and my French yet) would be mainly to read the New Testament, Homer, and Plato. While in France I am going to look for the Italian or Spanish edition of Athènaze and ASSIMIL's Le Grec Ancien. At my current rate I should finish this book right before I get home, so I'll have some time to relax and take a little break before starting another resource. I picked up the Tyndale House Greek New Testament Reader's Edition (as you need a GNT starting at lesson 17).

Another Living Language (?)

My idea was that since I started studying French on June 14, 2021, it would be fun to start another living language on around June 15, 2022. This idea may be super goofy but I think it would be kinda motivating and nice to start it half-way through the year. I'm a little torn on what to do, though, and I feel like I'm torn between Spanish and Arabic mainly. Italian would be really nice, German also (graduate school and academic readings, mainly), or maybe even Hebrew, but Spanish and Arabic seem like the top contenders.

However, I think that Spanish is in the lead, as 1) it is the most useful (subjective but for me true, 2) has a (n amazing) literary corpus that won't take years to gain access to, 3) I am already familiar with (took it in high school and French and Spanish are both Romance Languages), 4) I have family/friends who speak it (a [favorite] uncle), and 5) has a written language that is somewhat similar to the spoken language (looking at you Arabic).

Arabic is extremely interesting and beautiful sounding to me, but I'm not sure if I am at the point in my life where I could really learn it and await the 'return on investment' that I would want, which would be comprehending it and being able to read it. Honestly, no offense to anyone of course, but Spanish doesn't rouse me (yet/as much) in the same way that French or Arabic or Italian do, probably just because I spent 6 years learning it in school- but Neruda and Márquez and Cervantes do. I know they're tough as hell, but it will be quite the motivation.

I'm thinking I'll get the ASSIMIL Spanish book and just make double-sided Anki cards for each line as my main study, along with Language Transfer. I have the feeling it won't be too overwhelming, as I know a decent amount of what will be in the book already. I kind of miss doing ASSIMIL anyways, even if it got a bit too much (I just think the French course was too loaded by lesson 50, with each new lesson having 20+ lines of dialogue, but maybe I'm viewing the past with rose-tinted glasses). I can use my phone to scan the text into a note and copy it into Anki, decreasing the work load/annoyance amount greatly. If it gets to be too much I'll just slow down and do a lesson every two days. If I want, that might just be my plan from the beginning, and work on it over time, along with language transfer. If I do a lesson every 2 days I'll be done by June 1, 2023, which is so perfect for my weird little brain, so maybe that's just the plan! My plan after that is to use the graded readers suggested by What's Good English on Youtube and watching tons of telanovelas.

It's on his video titled, "How To Learn A Language In 2021 // What I Did To Obtain Fluency // Language Learning Advice" However you feel about his claims, he is pretty good (as far as I can tell) at Spanish and recommends some great resources. I would link it but I can't figure it out. :lol:

Well, anyway, I gotta finish up these Anki cards and read the Little Prince,
bonne soirée!
Last edited by cito on Tue Jun 07, 2022 6:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
9 x
50 French Books: 20 / 50
LLPSI-FA: 33 / 35
Greek ASSIMIL: 29 / 100
Russian ASSIMIL: 43 / 100
(On Pause)
Latin ASSIMIL: 29 / 101
Spanish ASSIMIL: 40 / 100

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cito
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Re: Cito's General Log

Postby cito » Fri May 20, 2022 3:23 am

A quick log 14

Just a little book haul from today. Went to a few bookstores all under the same name, one had lots of fiction, one had the foreign languages, and one had the classics / latin & greek (not only that, but thats what I was interested in). Was able to get both JACT Reading Greek books, Teach Yourself Finnish, and Croatian for Tourists.
bbooks.jpg

I think I'll use JACT once I'm done with Dobson's Learn to Read New Testament Greek I think.

I also got Entre les murs which I have watched the movie, Thirty-Eight Latin Stories, and a dual language (English-Spanish) version of The Fields of Castile.

Hope everything is going well for everyone!
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10 x
50 French Books: 20 / 50
LLPSI-FA: 33 / 35
Greek ASSIMIL: 29 / 100
Russian ASSIMIL: 43 / 100
(On Pause)
Latin ASSIMIL: 29 / 101
Spanish ASSIMIL: 40 / 100

jeffers
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Re: Cito's General Log

Postby jeffers » Wed May 25, 2022 1:26 pm

The JACT course is great! The story it begins with is fairly interesting and the difficulty increase is just about right. I like the fact that it begins with entirely modern creations, moves on to highly adapted original texts, and slowly builds to completely unadapted ancient Greek by the end. I didn't find the grammar instruction to be as good as the story approach, because it's trying to be "inductive" when at that stage most of us just want to be told what's what. But given that you're already getting the basics from Dobson, you should find it quite enjoyable.
5 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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cito
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Re: Cito's General Log

Postby cito » Tue Jun 07, 2022 6:45 pm

Log 15:

A week from a year of learning French!

Currently in the south of France, and I just had my first day at a local language school. It went great and I made friends with a Japanese guy and an Iranian girl, they're super fun and we get along really well! It's very fun because we mostly spoke French together today and it's mostly because, even if the Iranian speaks amazing English, our Japanese friend's French is better than his English, so it feels a lot less prioritized, and French is all our language in common. There are lots of Japanese, Iranians, Germans, and Irish at the school, and I really like the ambiance.

I'm still reading La peste, but I picked up a few other books too. I got Candide by Voltaire, Vingt mille lieues sous les mers by Jules Verne, and Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. I think I'm gonna read them in that order. I've also been adding a few cards to my Anki deck just from reading and also I'll add some from class today!

My brain fog is unfortunately really bad, but it went away for a few days in England (which was incredible, some of the best times of my life so far!!!) but it was when I stopped eating gluten... so I'm trying to cut it for a little and see how I fare. If I still have the problem I'll go to a doctor here and try and figure out what is going wrong. I think it's possible the reason is gluten as a little more than a year ago my brother suddenly became intolerant to gluten. Honestly super bad luck, especially being in France :( But hey, I'd rather be a little healthier and think better than eat bread (even if I really, really love bread).

French is going well and I feel it improving even with the few months of slacking I did before getting here. I got placed into the Intermediate+ group at the school, what they call B2. I'm excited to be here and I hope I can read some good books and enjoy the culture and get a lot better at French!

Greek is going nice and slow, but I think I might try and do the Listening-Reading method with the ESV book of John and my Greek New Testament. I think I might just go nice and slow and do one chapter a week, listening a few times a day. They're only around 7-10 minutes each, and it's worth a shot. I'm on lesson 17 of the Dobson, going on 18 (just a few more Anki cards to make).

Overall, just hoping I can figure out the brain fog and learn/read lots and make lots of friends!

Au revoir!
6 x
50 French Books: 20 / 50
LLPSI-FA: 33 / 35
Greek ASSIMIL: 29 / 100
Russian ASSIMIL: 43 / 100
(On Pause)
Latin ASSIMIL: 29 / 101
Spanish ASSIMIL: 40 / 100

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cito
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Re: Cito's General Log

Postby cito » Fri Jun 10, 2022 10:34 pm

Log 16:

Not much to report for French. Being abroad alone for the first time is definitely a bit tough but I'm sure I'll get used to it. Getting a little frustrated with there being so many people in my programs who just wanna speak English. I get it though, French (or any foreign language) isn't easy.

[insert deleted part about listening-reading for Ancient Greek: I don't have the time or mental capacity to add that. I'll just stick with Dobson and Anki]

I'm also pretty excited to start Spanish again in a couple of days! I'm not sure if I'm going to start making Anki cards for it in the end. I think of course it would be more effective, but I'm not really in a rush/in a need to be fluent in Spanish. I'll probably just take it at a slow pace and enjoy it. Maybe I'll do some kinda Luca Lampariello style Bidirectional Translation. Who knows. I just don't wanna add too much stress. I think doing Language Transfer will be fun tho (as will Assimil, especially without thinking about making Anki cards :lol:)
Au revoir!
Last edited by cito on Mon Jun 13, 2022 9:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
3 x
50 French Books: 20 / 50
LLPSI-FA: 33 / 35
Greek ASSIMIL: 29 / 100
Russian ASSIMIL: 43 / 100
(On Pause)
Latin ASSIMIL: 29 / 101
Spanish ASSIMIL: 40 / 100

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Xenops
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Re: Cito's General Log

Postby Xenops » Fri Jun 10, 2022 11:33 pm

cito wrote:
My brain fog is unfortunately really bad, but it went away for a few days in England (which was incredible, some of the best times of my life so far!!!) but it was when I stopped eating gluten... so I'm trying to cut it for a little and see how I fare.


Exactly my experience: eat bread, get brain fog. Though it seems that the sensitivity comes and goes: I was sensitive for a few years, and then can eat bread with no problem for 3 years, and now I'm back to being G-F. Another additional benefit to being G-F is the extreme decrease in flatulence. ;)
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cito
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Re: Cito's General Log

Postby cito » Tue Jun 14, 2022 6:33 pm

Log 17

1 year of learning French!!1!!1! Yay!!!1!!

It's been a fun journey and I feel like I never knew I could get this far learning a language. So, today I celebrated by studying Greek :lol::lol:, no but seriously I'm really happy with my progress, even if I don't really feel "fluent yet."

I did some word lists while in French class today. We always have 10-15 words in the content we work with that I don't know so I try and write them down and look them up. I actually really like French class! I really thought it was gonna be my least favorite part of being here but honestly it's been a bit hard being abroad and socializing so I've actually really enjoyed the classes. I think wordlists might actually be a fun strategy for me to try, and they feel like less of a chore than making Anki cards and reviewing them. I'll finish up a few columns I have left and do a review of some other ones from earlier today, then I think I'll review tomorrow, maybe reread them in a few days, and then do an actual review in a week. Why not.

I'm currently having a mini-crisis (which I already posted about) regarding Ancient Greek. I think I might quit Dobson but I'll stick it out and see. I need to figure out what I'll supplement my studies with until I can get home and do JACT. It might be Alexandros, it might be the Italian Athenaze (which I was already planning on buying), or perhaps, if I wanna spend a pretty penny, Assimil's Le Grec ancien. I was surprised they didn't have it at the bookstore I went to today. There were a ton of Assimil books! It was so weird looking at them on the shelf and not on the screen :lol:. They had Croatian, Russian, Spanish, German, Italian, Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish... no Ancient Greek tho :(. I'll figure out what I'm going to do and I know I should keep going with Dobson and form my own opinion. I just don't want to stop for two months because I feel like I'll loose a lot of my progress waiting for when I get home and I can use JACT.

I'm pretty excited to start up Spanish again tomorrow, it's been a while Assimil... I've missed you!
6 x
50 French Books: 20 / 50
LLPSI-FA: 33 / 35
Greek ASSIMIL: 29 / 100
Russian ASSIMIL: 43 / 100
(On Pause)
Latin ASSIMIL: 29 / 101
Spanish ASSIMIL: 40 / 100


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