SalzSäule's Multilingual Mess

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SalzSäule
Orange Belt
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:17 pm
Languages: English (N), German (C2), French (?), Czech (Beginner)
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Re: SalzSäule's German Log

Postby SalzSäule » Mon Apr 04, 2022 11:45 pm

I am going to France :-) Perpignan in particular. Bring on the flight chaos in the UK right now.

Naturally I've been binging French for this. My French isn't actually that bad I've come to accept. I cannot write for shit, for I don't practice this, but my reading is -100 emoji- and my listening is on the up. My speaking has actually got better, but probably psychologically due to reasons below.

I have come to accept, although it has taken many years, that my goal for German is completely unrealistic. I've always, even if subconsciously, been trying to work towards the same level as a native speaker. And whilst there's no denying that, perhaps, decades in the future something like that would be possible, right now this goal is just unhelpful and makes me overly critical. So I've relaxed up a lot lately and it's made it easier to communicate now I'm not trying so hard to be a 'convincing semi-native'. I would guess this has spilled over into French, for I feel oddly more self-assured about my French lately, whilst also being realistic that I still have a mountain to climb until I feel comfortable. But that's okay.

Lately I've been reading more of French news + watching some good ol' arte documentaries. I'm going through a book on French Stories (10 'short' stories by authors like Voltaire, Balzac etc.) and will be taking it to France with me. I've nearly finished the A2/B1 book I bought a long time ago, and I'm pretty confident that I'm solidly in the B-range now. Oh and in excellent news I cleared the Lingvist backlog and am once again learning new words.

I've also come to accept that pure input + flashcards isn't just going to cut it with French and I actually do have to keep trying to learn the grammar rules or I never will. Therefore, I've spent some time going through conjugations and I am 'okay' with at least six indicative tenses + ind. conditional + four verbs in ind. subjunctive so what more can you need really. What I still absolutely detest is the articles. I hate them. I just. Hate. Them. Can't we all just be more slavic and forgo the whole thing /s?

German's not forgotten, I've chosen to study business correspondance for my oral topic so I've been deep in the ''''''''''''''fun''''''''''''''' part of the language. I also finished Die Physiker by Dürrenmatt and read some random short story by Kafka. I think I will also take the, excitingly named, "Wirtschaftsgeschichte der Bundesrepublik Deutschland 1945-1980" pocket book to France too. At some point, I must also finish reading "Tauben fliegen auf".

Random German words I've recently learnt: Zimmernachweis (=Zimmervermittlung); Radau machen (ungebührender Lärm), Durchschlag (carbon copy).

/fin/
4 x
Da seufzt der Tropf im Purpur unter der unabwälzbaren Last seiner armseligen Individualität; während der Hochbegabte die ödeste Umgebung mit seinen Gedanken bevölkert und belebt.

SalzSäule
Orange Belt
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:17 pm
Languages: English (N), German (C2), French (?), Czech (Beginner)
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Re: SalzSäule's German Log

Postby SalzSäule » Mon Jun 27, 2022 3:08 am

Salut! Just popping in.

France didn't happen, the flight was delayed by too much and I gave up.

My German exam went well (I think?) and the Luxembourgish too. On the 8th July I'll find out if I actually managed to crawl my way through my degree or not.

French has been recommenced.

And in a complete change to the planned schedule, I have been learning Romanian for the past month. I was originally intending to go there for a month in summer, but now that's off. My motivation now is that i. I found Romanian (with a huge caveat) easier than Czech, and ii. a friend of mine is Romanian and I might surprise him with -snaps fingers- my A2 Romanian in October.

Apart from that, what have I done? I've had to read annoying numbers of German books, I got to 6000 words on French lingvist before again taking a break and coming back to it, and I (obviously) jumped onto Duolingo for Romanian.

Something interesting I've learnt recently? textilfrei, lit. 'without textile', is a way of saying 'nude' in German.

Another interesting thing I've learnt? There's a theory that the expression 'hocus-pocus' comes from jesters borrowing the phrase spoken during mass 'Hoc est corpus meum' and corrupting it. Hocus-pocus is also where 'hoax' comes from, and also the word 'hokum'.
9 x
Da seufzt der Tropf im Purpur unter der unabwälzbaren Last seiner armseligen Individualität; während der Hochbegabte die ödeste Umgebung mit seinen Gedanken bevölkert und belebt.

SalzSäule
Orange Belt
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:17 pm
Languages: English (N), German (C2), French (?), Czech (Beginner)
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Re: SalzSäule's German Log

Postby SalzSäule » Fri Jul 29, 2022 10:19 pm

Exams went very well, about what I expected but slightly better.

My French has utterly stagnated at the cost of Romanian and the minimal effort of German going on.

Romanian is going fairly O.K. tbh. It's been about 50ish days since I started learning it, and I'm fine with my progress. I've done a lot of scriptorium + Anki after the scriptorium, and I've been using LanguageReactor to compare Romanian and English sentences through subtitling.

For Romanian I've been using Duolingo (NB: The second section of Romanian Duolingo is perhaps the biggest jump up I've ever seen in a language on that site, it's literally going from how to say "the desserts" to "I bring down my brother's lion" in a heartbeat), the DLI Romanian course, some kids songs on YouTube, and Learn Romanian with Nico on YouTube as well.

For mini progresses, I managed to understand some Romanian slogan on a crisp packet after only a few weeks of work and was quite surprised. Also understood some billboard in Eurotruck Sim. 2 in Romania :-)))))

An exciting German word that I didn't know before, which I can present to you today, is "Ziffernblock" -- it's how you say "number pad".
5 x
Da seufzt der Tropf im Purpur unter der unabwälzbaren Last seiner armseligen Individualität; während der Hochbegabte die ödeste Umgebung mit seinen Gedanken bevölkert und belebt.

SalzSäule
Orange Belt
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:17 pm
Languages: English (N), German (C2), French (?), Czech (Beginner)
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Re: SalzSäule's German Log

Postby SalzSäule » Sun Jul 31, 2022 11:10 pm

My toxic trait is adding words into Anki, not getting around to learning them for two months, and then being disappointed at myself that I don't remember a word that I saw only once at a cursory glance when ''writing'' it onto a flashcard :P

Moving out soon, cannot wait to leave this place.

I will try put some more structure into my posts now that I'm doing the 6wc.

German:

I learnt that the German equivalent to 'straw that broke the camel's back' is Der Tropfen, der das Fass zum Überlaufen brachte (the drop that overflowed the cup) and this is usually the version in most other European languages (vgl. goutte d'eau, qui fait déborder la vase (fr), picătura, care a umplut paharul (ro) etc.)

Apart from that I did some flashcards today, read some more of a book I've been trying to get through. Gave up on Faust because it just didn't hold my interest enough. Considering watching Netflix series in German with RO subtitles instead of English with RO subtitles but not sure whether conducive or not.

Romanian:

Catching up on what I've missed by doing 3 DLI lessons in a row and now obviously having to recap them, but thankfully it was grammar I'd mostly already seen. I think I'm on lesson 12 now, so the first booklet is nearly over.

Did some more scriptorium, did some more anki flashcards, some more Duolingo.

Today I also practiced scriptorium of multiple sentences all based around one phrase (în față = in front of). So I have, from tatoeba:

* Privește/Uită-te în față = Face forward
* El stătea/ședea în față mea = He sat in front of me
* Am stat față în față = We stood face to face
* Vântul rece îi sufla (mereu) în față = The wind (always) blew in her face.

Grammar-wise, finally got the hang of accusative pronouns. Honestly, if you love pronouns and clitics, Romanian is your language. Now a sentence like ''I no her lie on mother-the my'' finally makes sense 8-) (crude translation of ''Eu nu o mint pe mama mea'')
Last edited by SalzSäule on Tue Aug 02, 2022 12:01 am, edited 1 time in total.
6 x
Da seufzt der Tropf im Purpur unter der unabwälzbaren Last seiner armseligen Individualität; während der Hochbegabte die ödeste Umgebung mit seinen Gedanken bevölkert und belebt.

SalzSäule
Orange Belt
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:17 pm
Languages: English (N), German (C2), French (?), Czech (Beginner)
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Re: SalzSäule's German Log

Postby SalzSäule » Mon Aug 01, 2022 11:25 pm

Went to Manchester today so haven't done as much as I wanted to, but still enough. Next few days are so busy for me :(

Today was mostly Romanian:

Naïvely hoped Waterstones might have some books on Romanian: they had a dictionary or a course book (which cost £40) so no thank you! Today I did more scriptorium, Duolingo, and some verb conjugation drills. Conjugation in Romanian is not too bad as long as you never speak in the present tense : )

Today I focused on în spatele/urma and expressions with pula/pulă :?. I'm typing on phone so I'm going to have to correct typos when I'm back on PC:

* uită-te în spatele tău - look behind you
* a pășit înăuntru și închise ușa în urma lui - he stepped inside and closed the door behind him
* vă rog închideți ușa în urma dumnevoastră - please close the door behind you
* în urma accidentului și a-pierdut și văzul și auzul - due to the accident he lost his vision and hearing
* Cine e în spatele intrigii? - who is behind the plot?
* Să-mi bag pula - I'm amazed !
* Mă fac pula - I'm getting wasted
* O pulă de om - an asshole
* Ete pula! - No way
* Bag pula - I give up
* Ei s-au salutat - They saluted each other (honestly just putting this here so I remember to find out why there's an s here but I'm sure it's something to do with să)

I am never doing BBCode on phone again.
4 x
Da seufzt der Tropf im Purpur unter der unabwälzbaren Last seiner armseligen Individualität; während der Hochbegabte die ödeste Umgebung mit seinen Gedanken bevölkert und belebt.

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AroAro
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Re: SalzSäule's German Log

Postby AroAro » Tue Aug 02, 2022 8:17 am

SalzSäule wrote:* Ei s-au salutat - They saluted each other (honestly just putting this here so I remember to find out why there's an s here but I'm sure it's something to do with să)

I am never doing BBCode on phone again.


In fact, it's the reflexive pronoun "se" that got contracted before a vowel. It's true that the contracted forms of both "se" and "să" look the same ("s-") so that can be misleading.
1 x
corrections are welcome

SalzSäule
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Re: SalzSäule's German Log

Postby SalzSäule » Tue Aug 02, 2022 10:06 am

AroAro wrote:
SalzSäule wrote:* Ei s-au salutat - They saluted each other (honestly just putting this here so I remember to find out why there's an s here but I'm sure it's something to do with să)

I am never doing BBCode on phone again.


In fact, it's the reflexive pronoun "se" that got contracted before a vowel. It's true that the contracted forms of both "se" and "să" look the same ("s-") so that can be misleading.


I did consider this after I had written 'each other' (the translation I originally wrote was worded differently) and now it seems so obvious :D thank you so much!
1 x
Da seufzt der Tropf im Purpur unter der unabwälzbaren Last seiner armseligen Individualität; während der Hochbegabte die ödeste Umgebung mit seinen Gedanken bevölkert und belebt.

SalzSäule
Orange Belt
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:17 pm
Languages: English (N), German (C2), French (?), Czech (Beginner)
x 352

Re: SalzSäule's German Log

Postby SalzSäule » Tue Aug 02, 2022 11:13 pm

Enjoyed my time in Manc., even though I've already been there so many times. None of the second-hand book shops were open today, so I couldn't hunt for some language gems :(

Today, again, almost exclusively Romanian besides some German flashcard review which took 4 minutes.

Romanian:

Did some more verb drills (this time adding ajunge, avea and începe), now I have a pretty stable foundation of how to form imperf./futur/conditional and gerunds if I have the infinitive. Present tense is still hard for me to do because Romanian verbs are a hot mess. A lot of the tenses + moods (the other 4 futures, subjunctive etc.) are going to have to wait because it seems you need to have a good understand of present tense conjugation in order to form those paradigms. And, considering Romanian has 11+ verb groups, I imagine that will take a lot of exposure and practice.

I've been using Learn Romanian with Nico to get some listening practice (whilst transcribing too). For some extended writing practice, today I translated the DLI dialogues for lessons 1-3 into English and then back to Romanian and tried to memorise the Romanian as the course was designed.

I feel I largely have all the accusative pronouns + clitics under control now, so everything is calm (until we get to the dative) on that front. Duolingo was mostly me practicing that and some profession-related vocab. today. Completed all the Anki reviews too.

And, of course, scriptorium. Today didn't really have a theme as I just used the random sentence generator on tatoeba:

* Aștept deschiderea magazinului- I'm waiting for the opening of this shop.
* Mary colecționa cești de cafea - Mary collected coffee cups.
* Tom era căsătorit cu Mary de trei ani - Tom was married to Mary for three years.
* Ce ar putea fi atât de rău în asta? - What could be so bad about that?
* În ansamblu, ideea ta este una bună - By and large, your idea is a good one
* Noi am avut ședințe - We had meetings
* Cum spui XXXX in limba ta? - How do you say XXXX in your language?
* În culutra noastră, nu ne putem căsători cu două femei deodată - In our culture, you cannot have two wives at once.

Apart from that, just small words like atunci, asemenea, and doar.
4 x
Da seufzt der Tropf im Purpur unter der unabwälzbaren Last seiner armseligen Individualität; während der Hochbegabte die ödeste Umgebung mit seinen Gedanken bevölkert und belebt.

SalzSäule
Orange Belt
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:17 pm
Languages: English (N), German (C2), French (?), Czech (Beginner)
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Re: SalzSäule's German Log

Postby SalzSäule » Wed Aug 03, 2022 3:23 pm

Just a small update so far to air my ennui with the Romanian language. Moving house today so can't do as much.

Today I've done some scriptorium so far, delved more into verb conjugations, and did some verb drills. Reviewed flashcards and I'm contemplating now doing a memory palace. Found an appendix on wiki for Romanian verb conjugation which has been a blessing. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix ... (Gerundive)

All I have in my head is

L-am auzit cântând
L-am auzit cântându i-fetei
L-am auzit cântându le-fetelor
Am auzit o-cântându-i prietenului ei

The clitics never end.
2 x
Da seufzt der Tropf im Purpur unter der unabwälzbaren Last seiner armseligen Individualität; während der Hochbegabte die ödeste Umgebung mit seinen Gedanken bevölkert und belebt.

SalzSäule
Orange Belt
Posts: 106
Joined: Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:17 pm
Languages: English (N), German (C2), French (?), Czech (Beginner)
x 352

Re: SalzSäule's German Log

Postby SalzSäule » Sat Aug 06, 2022 12:06 am

Finally finished moving, so Romanian can get more focus again. I've not had much time recently to practice, but I've maintained at least:

Still carried on with the verb drills and I'm getting quicker and quicker. Next I will do the conjugation for 'to take' and 'to do', owing to their frequency. I have been using Assimil's 'le roumain sans peine' and trying to memorise the dialogues, just like with the DLI. I have the first three dialogues of each one nailed down, with the fourth one in progress. I'm finding it much easier to formulate basic sentences now and don't think so much about grammar. Reading is also noticeably quicker if it's about a simple test.

I will, however, soon return to the Romanian: An Essential Grammar book as I think it's a great way to combine both sentence mining + vocab learning + grammatical principle exposure without having to go through hundreds of books, newspaper articles etc. to get the same thing.

A small sample of recent scriptorium sentences:

* Tom vrea să se răzbune - Tom wants revenge. (Tom-wants-n/a.-himself-takerevenge)
* Ar trebui să te lași de fumat - You should stop smoking. (il faudrait-n/a.-yourself-let-from-smoking)
* Urăsc ploaia - I hate the rain (hate-rainthe)
* Cât de des o vede Tom pe Mary? - How often does Tom see Mary? (howmuch-of-often-her-sees-Tom-on-Mary)
* Am nevoie de ceva de mâncare - I need something to eat (have-need-of-something-of-eating/food)
* Nu mi-o da! Dă mi-o! - Don't give it to me! Give it to me! (Not me-it give! Give me-it!)
* Luați/ia loc - Take a look (formal/informal)
* Tom s-a gândit la toate - Tom thought of everything (Tom-himself-has-thought-to-everything)

Testing out crude literal translations (won't always work when words are just there to fulfil grammatical functions and in particular with prepositions) as an experiment to see whether it will ease sentence formation.
Last edited by SalzSäule on Mon Aug 08, 2022 12:12 am, edited 1 time in total.
6 x
Da seufzt der Tropf im Purpur unter der unabwälzbaren Last seiner armseligen Individualität; während der Hochbegabte die ödeste Umgebung mit seinen Gedanken bevölkert und belebt.


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