Kundê qehweyî diçe dibistanê --- Brun Ugle tries a more sensible approach, one language at a time (first up = Kurmanji)

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Brun Ugle
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Re: Brun Ugle tries a more sensible approach, one language at a time (first up = Kurmanji)

Postby Brun Ugle » Tue Aug 10, 2021 6:47 pm

I was getting so frustrated about not being able to use LWT that I posted on their forum to ask how to fix it, saying that I don’t know much about computers and needed simple explanations. And someone there told me I just needed to download and install phpMyAdmin and repair the database, because people that are good at computers think saying something like, “download and install phpMyAdmin and repair the database” is perfectly clear and understandable. And it probably is perfectly clear and understandable to computer people, just like Chinese is perfectly clear and understandable to Chinese people. I didn’t understand it so well though. I couldn’t even figure out how to install that php-thingy and got very frustrated. So, I tried the same thing I had tried dozens of times over the past few months since LWT broke. I started the Easy php Devserver thingamajig, crossed my fingers and tried to start LWT, hoping it had magically fixed itself. It hadn’t. But then I noticed on the Easy php thingamajig where it said “Open Dashboard” and thought to myself, “I wonder what would happen if I clicked that?” I already had everything important on an extern hard-drive, so I gave it a try. It opened up a webpage and, on the webpage, there was something that said something like “MySQL Administration bla bla bla” and a button to open it. So, I clicked the button and a new page opened. I clicked on various things for a while and eventually found a list of tables and one of them looked a little different, clearly the broken one. I clicked some more stuff trying to figure out how to fix it and eventually checked off the box next to it and found a menu item that said repair. So, I clicked it and suddenly it was fixed. Like magic! LWT works again! :D

Naturally, I ran out to the garden to do my “I am so smart” dance. My boyfriend was out there cleaning out the shed so I explained about how I’d fixed the database and since he knows even less about computers than me, he had no idea what I was talking about, but he agreed that I was very smart and danced with me, which is exactly what a boyfriend should do.

I haven’t gotten much studying done today what with fixing the database thingy, the cats having to go to the vet, and my boyfriend having a friend over, but tomorrow is a new day and now I have LWT to play with. And I am feeling very smart. :ugeek:
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Re: Brun Ugle tries a more sensible approach, one language at a time (first up = Kurmanji)

Postby rdearman » Tue Aug 10, 2021 7:18 pm

Sigh...
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Brun Ugle
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Re: Brun Ugle tries a more sensible approach, one language at a time (first up = Kurmanji)

Postby Brun Ugle » Wed Aug 11, 2021 6:37 am

rdearman wrote:Sigh...

I am so smart!
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Re: Brun Ugle tries a more sensible approach, one language at a time (first up = Kurmanji)

Postby Brun Ugle » Sun Aug 15, 2021 1:51 pm

First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for the warm welcome back. I meant to do it last week and I spent so much time trying to remember and write up all I’d done during the week that I forgot. So, this time, I’m going to start off by saying thank you. It is nice to know that people actually think of me sometimes when I’m not around. I feel like I have a lot of friends on this site even though I haven’t yet met most of you.

Now, on to how my week went. Rdearman may not be impressed by my genius, but I am very pleased with myself, and especially with the fact that I can now use LWT again. I’m having so much fun reading Kurdish now. The only problem is that any kind of computer or desk work quickly gives me shoulder problems. I need to figure out what to do about that now.

On Monday my Kurdish class started up again. It’s level 5, but don’t let that impress you. After level 4, we were supposedly B2. I tried explaining to the teacher that that’s not how the levels work, but I don’t think he really cares so much. I didn’t bother getting the “certificate” from him, but I could have. Then I’d have a very impressive B2 certificate in Kurdish and at best A2 abilities. I guess we’ll be “C1” after this course, since it’s level 5. :lol: I wish I could zip through the levels that quickly and easily.

I was very disappointed after Monday’s class. I’d been studying and studying and thought I’d really improved, and then in class I felt like a beginner again. It felt like I couldn’t do anything right. So, I decided I was “overtrained” because I’d been listening to Kurdish constantly during my daily walks. I find that can be very helpful for a few days, but then it gets to be too much. My brain needs some rest. Also, there are no fun, useful Kurdish podcasts for learners like there are for other languages, so I end up having to listen to stuff that’s above my level. I’m very happy when I sometimes understand a few minutes at a stretch and then I start thinking I’ve made a breakthrough, but then suddenly my comprehension goes back to words and phrases and maybe getting the gist. I think to get listening practice without wearing out my brain, I should maybe listen for a few days or a week and then take a few days off. I’m going to give it a try anyway, and tweak it until I find a good amount of listening.

After taking a few days off from listening so much, Friday’s class went very well. It also helped that the teacher had given us the reading and the questions on Monday so we could prepare. I pasted the reading into LWT and went through it and prepared some questions about a coupled of grammar points which I probably wouldn’t have had time to notice if he’d just given us the reading in class. I also made some notes about how I could answer the questions he was going to ask us. I often get stuck when he asks us questions in class without any preparation, but if I’m prepared, it goes much better. Then I don’t have to think so much about what to answer, only how to answer. I mean, even if you asked me in English what I did yesterday, I’d have trouble remembering. And in Kurdish, I not only have to remember what I did, but figure out how to say it with my limited vocabulary and grammar.

Other than classes, and all the homework he gave us, LWT, and watching some videos, I haven’t done much this week. I did buy some stuff from pirtukakurdi.com though. Their books usually come very fast, so I hope they will be here Monday or Tuesday. It’s a great bookstore with low prices and fast delivery, but their search function leaves a lot to be desired. Still, for good, cheap Kurdish books, I’m willing to spend hours scrolling through the whole website. One of the books I got is an audiobook, the only one I could find in Kurdish. On the website, it says it is DVD format, but I’m not sure what that means for an audiobook. Hopefully, I will be able to use it. I got the book in paper as well. And I even found it as a PDF, so I can paste it more easily into LWT. I don’t think there is an English translation, but I’m hoping to at least be able to listen and read. I’ll have to rely on LWT to help me figure out what everything means. I can’t wait to get it. It’s a book my Italki tutor recommended. He said it’s an excellent book and isn’t too difficult to read. It’s called “Bîra Qederê” by Mehmed Uzun.
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Re: Brun Ugle tries a more sensible approach, one language at a time (first up = Kurmanji)

Postby jeffers » Sun Aug 15, 2021 1:59 pm

Brun Ugle wrote:
rdearman wrote:Sigh...

I am so smart!


I am so smart, S M R T !



(That's what the "I am so smart" dance looks like in my house, anyway!)
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Re: Brun Ugle tries a more sensible approach, one language at a time (first up = Kurmanji)

Postby Brun Ugle » Sun Aug 15, 2021 6:04 pm

jeffers wrote:
Brun Ugle wrote:
rdearman wrote:Sigh...

I am so smart!


I am so smart, S M R T !



(That's what the "I am so smart" dance looks like in my house, anyway!)

That’s the one!
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Re: Brun Ugle tries a more sensible approach, one language at a time (first up = Kurmanji)

Postby Brun Ugle » Sun Aug 22, 2021 5:15 pm

I’ve had a great study week. I took part in the 40h7dLC (40 hour 7 day Language Challenge) on Twitter, and have studied over 40 hours of Kurmanji this week plus read a bit in Spanish. My brain melted and when it resolidified, I could understand the Kurdish comedy series I’ve been watching. I don’t understand every word, and certainly not all the humor, but my comprehension seems to have taken a leap forward. I’ve been working with LWT for an hour or two each day, listening to the audio I downloaded from some YouTube videos while I take my daily walks, watching a comedy series and attending an online class. I’ve also read a bit of a grammar book, and done some textbook work, writing and other homework for my class. It was tiring, but useful. However, I had to drop my daily yoga and some other important stuff to do so much, so I think I’ll go back to prioritizing other things again, but I do hope to keep up the momentum a little. Now that I can understand my series and enjoy “reading” stuff in LWT, I can have a lot more fun with the language which means I will probably also manage to study a bit more too.

Unfortunately, the books I ordered didn’t come as fast as I’d hoped, but just when I was starting to get worried that I’d have to write them an e-mail, I got an e-mail from them that the books have been sent out. So, hopefully, my books will come sometime this week.
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Re: Brun Ugle tries a more sensible approach, one language at a time (first up = Kurmanji)

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Sun Aug 22, 2021 9:23 pm

I inadvertently also participated in the 40 hour challenge this past week. I binged the first four seasons of Bureau des legendes, which is almost exactly 40 hours. My brain melted, and now I can speak French. Well, not really, but my ability to string together coherent sentences primarily in the present tense skyrocketed. Whole sentence structures just come out of my mouth without thinking. I wouldn’t do it every week, but there is definitely something to be said for short but intense periods of immersion. I definitely leveled up. I hope you enjoy your new skills!
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Re: Brun Ugle tries a more sensible approach, one language at a time (first up = Kurmanji)

Postby Brun Ugle » Mon Aug 23, 2021 6:57 am

Lawyer&Mom wrote:I inadvertently also participated in the 40 hour challenge this past week. I binged the first four seasons of Bureau des legendes, which is almost exactly 40 hours. My brain melted, and now I can speak French. Well, not really, but my ability to string together coherent sentences primarily in the present tense skyrocketed. Whole sentence structures just come out of my mouth without thinking. I wouldn’t do it every week, but there is definitely something to be said for short but intense periods of immersion. I definitely leveled up. I hope you enjoy your new skills!

I'm not sure my new skills haven't vanished already. I was trying to watch the next episode of that series last night and I don't know if I was too tired or if that episode was significantly harder than the one before, but my comprehension dropped back down. Still, I think all the studying had an impact. I might just need to rest my brain between study binges.
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Re: Brun Ugle tries a more sensible approach, one language at a time (first up = Kurmanji)

Postby Brun Ugle » Sun Sep 12, 2021 6:23 pm

Oof! I’ve only just started this log and already I’ve had a couple weeks of not writing any new entries. I had planned to write every Sunday.

The 6WC kept me a bit busy, of course, but now that’s over, and it looks like I might have come in first on both target language and overall, for the first time ever! Of course, that’s only because all the energetic people either sat this one out or dropped out in the middle, but still, I’m rather pleased with my results. I’ve also been busy with my Kurmanji classes. This coming Friday is our last class. I can’t believe it’s almost over already. I doubt there will be another level. I don’t think they usually even have a fifth level, but there were enough of us that begged him for one, so he managed to come up with something. And I’ve also been busy with the restarting of Norwegian training and other volunteer work.

But what really threw me off was all the unanticipated extra things that came up. First of all, I had too many cats. The animal protection society seems to think that since I have a guest room, I have room for an extra cat. So, suddenly in addition to the mother and three kittens in my living room, I had an extra cat in my guest room. But I had already promised my guest room to a human guest for the weekend, so I had to tell them I couldn’t have all these cats. Fortunately, the kittens were already set to leave and the mother could move out temporarily too and I could move the scared cat from the guest room down to the living room. But while all this was going on, we were suddenly invited to the wedding of some Kurdish friends of my boyfriend. I didn’t know this, but apparently, it’s pretty normal in other cultures to invite people the week before the wedding. That didn’t give me a lot of time to either lose some of the extra pandemic weight (my gym has been closed since March 2020) or to find new clothes and my boyfriend didn’t have any nice clothes at all, just jeans, t-shirts and some hoodies and things. We also weren’t sure if our friend would be arriving on the Friday (when we would be at the wedding) or on the Saturday. But after a bit of a scramble, everything worked out really nicely. Our friend didn’t come until Saturday, I managed to squeeze into my clothes and my boyfriend was given a suit by one of his other friends.

The wedding was lots of fun, but far too noisy. As my nerves have gotten so much better, I’ve gotten out of the habit of carrying earplugs everywhere, but I almost died walking into the hall. My boyfriend noticed and immediately went out and scoured the town for an open pharmacy to buy me earplugs. He’s very sweet. With earplugs, the wedding was very nice. It’s not like a Norwegian wedding where there are vows and stuff first and then a party after. They probably signed some papers beforehand, but the rest of the ceremonial bits were mixed into the party. There were numerous Kurdish circle dances and in between the groom read a poem to the bride, and some other poetry was recited. Then the groom and bride danced around each other waving scarves, but not touching, while everyone else held hands danced around them. Towards the end, the bride’s head was covered with a red cloth and both bride and groom had one of their fingers dyed with henna. There was a bid ceremony around this, but I couldn’t really understand much of it. And finally, everyone lined up to wish them well and give them money for their new life. It was really nice and not very formal. Many people dressed in traditional Kurdish formal clothes or western formal clothes, but there were also plenty of people that had on jeans and t-shirts. So, it wouldn’t have mattered if we hadn’t found any nice clothes to wear.

The rest of that weekend was also very nice. My boyfriend’s brother wanted to come home with us, but we had to tell him that the guest room was already taken. Our friend that was staying with us used to live in our town, but recently moved away to study. He had to come back for the weekend though because he’d promised his old boss to do some work for him. However, after coming all this way, he was told that he wasn’t needed, so he only worked on the Saturday and then he and my boyfriend spent the Sunday fishing. We had a very nice time though, all of us together. It kind of reminded me of living in a dorm in college, especially when we were making dinner together on Sunday and suddenly an old high school friend that I hadn’t spoken to in thirty years called me out of the blue.

Unfortunately, with the wedding being on a Friday night, I ended up missing my online Kurdish class for the first time ever. Up to that point, I was the only person who had never ever missed a class. The classes are recorded and I watched the recording later, but it isn’t really the same. It also took me the whole week to catch up because I had to make time to watch the class and I had several homework assignments that I had to get through. I got a bit behind in the rush to find wedding clothes and figure out what to do with the cats and organize the house for a visitor. So, I ended up missing another week writing in my log.

As for studying, it’s still up and down. That is, I’m doing a good bit of studying, but I’m not progressing as fast as I’d like. I still think one of the reasons I’m struggling is that there aren’t the kind of materials I really need for learning. I do a lot of listening, but most of it is to stuff that is really way above my level. So, it isn’t as useful as it would be if I had materials made for learners with gradually increasing difficulty and matching transcripts. I’m still watching that same comedy show. I think it has a few hundred episodes, so it should keep me busy for a while. Sometimes, I feel like I understand an episode really well and understand large chunks of dialogue, but then in the next episode, I’m back to the same low level of understanding as before. So, I just keep watching and concentrate on listening even if I don’t understand. I also watch some documentaries. Those are easier in a way because the speech is slower and clearer, but I still have trouble. I need to get back to transcribing them when my class is over.

Reading is a bit better because I have some textbooks and also some easy-ish books, like “The Little Prince”, but it’s still difficult because I often encounter words that I can’t find in any of my dictionaries. It is getting better though. I’m using learn-with-texts and it’s really helping me, but it’s much slower than it was in Spanish because of the dictionary problem. Kurdish just doesn’t have the level of resources that Spanish does.

My class is going well, but again, it’s up and down. I feel like I am probably the best in the class right now though. There is a German girl who is also pretty good, we might be about the same level, but she isn’t there every time. There is a Russian girl who also lives in Norway who used to be better than me, I thought, but she had a baby a few months ago and now she seems to struggle to get the time to study. The Swedish girl doesn’t seem to study much outside of class, or at least, she often seems a bit lost. And the Haitian guy who lives in the US seems also to be a bit lost at times and seems to type things into Google translate and read them whenever he has to say something. At least that’s what he appears to be doing. He seems to always want to say things far above his level, rather than just saying was he’s capable of saying.

I’m getting much better at writing. We have a writing assignment after almost every class and I usually push myself and try to stretch my abilities. My teacher keeps saying that he’s very impressed with my work, but maybe he says that to everyone. After the class ends, I intend to keep writing several times a week using topics from lists of topics and questions for language exchanges. I’m also planning to make recordings along the same lines. I had intended to start doing that again already, but it hasn’t worked out.

I also want to get back to working on my textbook a little every day or at least a few times a week. I’ve let it slide because I was doing classes and homework, but I want to get back to it now.
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