Herodotean's log (Latin, Greek, German, Spanish, etc.)

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Herodotean
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Re: Herodotean's log (Latin, Greek, German, Spanish, etc.)

Postby Herodotean » Mon Nov 01, 2021 7:50 pm

MorkTheFiddle wrote:I am reading the "highlights" of Thucydides in Greek and using all the help I can find. Just now I'm reading the bit about the Spartans' attempting to build a mound of dirt against the wall at Plataea. With the actual text, two commentaries, two English translations and one French translation, I'm still not 100% clear what the Spartans did and what the Plataeans did as a countermeasure. This is Book 2, chapters 75 and 76. The translations are Rex Warner (Penguin), Crawley (Free Press) and de Romilly (Belles Lettres 2014). The Fall of Plataea and the Plague at Athens by Sutthery and Graves (Macmillan 1894) and the Cambridge Green and Yellow for Book 2 by Rusten are my "commentaries," though Rusten's is practically useless and the other of minimal help.
In that quote you cite, Cicero was quite right. :)
Though still limping along, I can brag that I am beginning to be able to appreciate Thycidides' sentence construction. But that's for a different day.

That sounds about right! Since Rusten isn't helpful, I was going to suggest a Bryn Mawr commentary, but there isn't one on Bk. 2. You might look at Shelmerdine on Bk. 6 anyway, though. Marchant's commentary on Bk. 2 is on Perseus and Google Books; it might be more helpful than Rusten.
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Re: Herodotean's log (Latin, Greek, German, Spanish, etc.)

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Mon Nov 01, 2021 8:47 pm

Herodotean wrote:That sounds about right! Since Rusten isn't helpful, I was going to suggest a Bryn Mawr commentary, but there isn't one on Bk. 2. You might look at Shelmerdine on Bk. 6 anyway, though. Marchant's commentary on Bk. 2 is on Perseus and Google Books; it might be more helpful than Rusten.

I did not know about Shelmerdine, so thanks for that. I did know about Marchant, but, unaccountably, forgot about him. :(
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Re: Herodotean's log (Latin, Greek, German, Spanish, etc.)

Postby Herodotean » Fri Nov 05, 2021 6:24 pm

This hasn't been a great week for languages so far. But I did pick up a copy of the A and B volumes in this series. That should help with my German grammar. I can usually feel my way through German texts well enough, but it's time for some focused study.
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Re: Herodotean's log (Latin, Greek, German, Spanish, etc.)

Postby Herodotean » Sun Nov 14, 2021 9:19 pm

Let's see, what have I done since my last update . . . ?

Greek
I finished the Euripides play I was reading. I've read a fair amount of Greek here and there for research, but nothing solely for the sake of the language.

Latin
Teaching prep has been about it, sadly.

German
Perhaps because the ancient languages are starting to feel like work rather than recreation, I've put more time into German and Spanish recently. I remembered that the ARD Mediathek exists and found out that they have quite a good iOS app with subtitle support. Even though much of the content is geoblocked, Tatort, some fairy tale dramatizations, and some documentaries are not. I watched part of a fascinating show on letters sent from East Germany to the BBC in West Berlin. I've also discovered German Schlager, including some songs that I'm familiar with in their original English versions, thanks to a Peter Alexander song on Tatort. I've been pleased to find that my aural comprehension is substantially improved from a year or so ago: I still need German subtitles, and I still need to look up words occasionally, but I can follow the broad outlines of a Tatort plot without pausing every minute or so to look things up. I think watching YouTube videos on German pronunciation (Deutsch mit Beniamin and Ritchtig Deutsch sprechen) has helped a lot with Tatort's rapid-fire colloquial German.

Spanish
I have a few days left on my one-week Pantaya trial through Amazon Prime. The selection isn't fabulous, but it's way better than what's available through standard Prime Video, and most content is subtitled. Right now I'm watching La Negociadora, which is about as plausible as any show in the genre, and Herederos por accidente, which is stupid but self-aware. Looking around for podcasts, I found Españoles olvidados; it's suprisingly comprehensible (to me) for a Spanish show.
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Re: Herodotean's log (Latin, Greek, German, Spanish, etc.)

Postby Herodotean » Sat Nov 20, 2021 10:18 pm

Greek
More reading for research.

Latin
Mostly teaching, but I started reading Lactantius’ Epitome divinarum institutionum, an abridgment of his much larger work on Christianity and Roman religion. Usually abridged versions of ancient works that have come down to us were made by later redactors, but this one is an exception: Lactantius himself did it. I'm summarizing each section (about a page) with a sentence or two in Latin. I need to get back to Bradley's Arnold.

German
I started Buscha and Szita’s A-Grammatik (see below). It was time for a systematic grammar review. I could probably do the B1/B2 volume, which I also purchased, but it’ll probably be more effective after using this volume as a refresher. Time has prevented me from doing much else with German this week. Today I read a bit of Auerbach’s Mimesis and Schwab’s retelling of classical myth.

Spanish
I’ve watched maybe 20–30 minutes a day of various shows. I think my listening comprehension is improving. Recommendations welcome for shows on Amazon Prime (including FlixLatino and Pantaya). Or should I just get Netflix?

French
A bit of academic prose.

Italian
A bit of academic prose.
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Re: Herodotean's log (Latin, Greek, German, Spanish, etc.)

Postby Herodotean » Tue Nov 23, 2021 7:21 pm

À propos of nothing, I was delighted today to recognize the word weiden ("to graze") in an article about renewable energy in Wyoming from my just having read about Io, Zeus' mistress who was turned into a cow, in Schwab.

Einer der schon bestehenden Windparks in Wyoming, in dem auch schon mal Rinder weiden.

Dort legte er Hut und Schwingen ab und behielt nur den Stab; so stellte er einen Hirten vor, lockte Ziegen an sich und trieb sie auf die abgelegenen Fluren, wo Io weidete und Argos die Wache hielt.
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21-27 November 2021

Postby Herodotean » Sun Nov 28, 2021 4:11 am

Greek
I've started reading Plato's Republic while also taking notes in Greek. I've read pieces of it before, but never all of it. My goal is to finish it before I teach it (in translation, alas) next spring. Whatever happens, it's a useful exercise, and the writing will keep my Greek active in the absence of conversation partners. This week, I read 327a-337a (but only on three days; I'll need to be more consistent).

Today, I read about 800 lines of a Euripides play, which I'll finish probably on Monday. 300 lines to go.

Latin
More Lactantius while taking notes in Latin. No prose composition. Today I read a few pages of Erasmus' Colloquia; I should probably just read through all of them. I might do that. No teaching for most of this week due to Thanksgiving, a welcome break.

German
I've done 15-30 minutes of Buscha and Szita's A1-A2 grammar book every morning this week. It's helpful review, and I have no intention of stopping, but I do wish there were more exercises for each topic. Other than that, I've spent time every day doing random things: reading some retold classical myth, watching YouTube videos (I'm pleased to find I can mostly understand TerraX documentaries with subtitles now), listening to kitschy 60s German Christmas songs, catching up on Anki cards . . . After almost a decade of dabbling with German, it's exciting to feel that the last couple years of concentrated effort are paying off.

Spanish
Sometime next year, probably after I finish Buscha and Szita's German book, I'll undertake a systematic Spanish grammar review. Currently I'm focusing on developing listening comprehension. Last year, I watched La Usurpadora on Amazon Prime with Spanish subtitles: its plot is completely ridiculous, but the production values are high enough that I find it much more watchable than the average telenovela. After reading around on the forum, I decided to rewatch it without subtitles. So far that's going better than expected: some characters are easier to understand than others, but I think overall my comprehension is certainly better than what it was last year and probably better than it was a month or two ago. I've also found a few podcasts for native speakers that I can (mostly) understand without a transcript.

Italian
Trying to restart Dante. I read a canto the other day with help from Esolen's parallel translation.
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Re: 21-27 November 2021

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sun Nov 28, 2021 5:52 pm

Herodotean wrote:Greek
I've started reading Plato's Republic while also taking notes in Greek. I've read pieces of it before, but never all of it. My goal is to finish it before I teach it (in translation, alas) next spring. Whatever happens, it's a useful exercise, and the writing will keep my Greek active in the absence of conversation partners. This week, I read 327a-337a (but only on three days; I'll need to be more consistent).
Book 1 is all I have read of The Republic in the original, but it is one of my favorites of Plato, it being so rich in ironies.

Herodotean wrote:Today, I read about 800 lines of a Euripides play, which I'll finish probably on Monday. 300 lines to go.

Which play? I have read but will not claim to have understood Medea, Alcestis and Electra.

Herodotean wrote:Spanish
I've also found a few podcasts for native speakers that I can (mostly) understand without a transcript.

Would love to know which. I am always looking for Spanish and French podcasts I can understand without subs or scripts.
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Re: 21-27 November 2021

Postby Herodotean » Sun Nov 28, 2021 6:18 pm

MorkTheFiddle wrote:
Herodotean wrote:Today, I read about 800 lines of a Euripides play, which I'll finish probably on Monday. 300 lines to go.

Which play? I have read but will not claim to have understood Medea, Alcestis and Electra.

The Hecuba, my first time through it. I'm using Battezzato's recent Green and Yellow, which is quite good. I need to read Alcestis; Medea and Electra I've read before.
MorkTheFiddle wrote:
Herodotean wrote:Spanish
I've also found a few podcasts for native speakers that I can (mostly) understand without a transcript.

Would love to know which. I am always looking for Spanish and French podcasts I can understand without subs or scripts.

La historia del mundo. The last episode was released in 2018. I mentioned Españoles olvidados somewhere upthread.
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Re: 21-27 November 2021

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sun Nov 28, 2021 6:42 pm

Herodotean wrote:The Hecuba, my first time through it. I'm using Battezzato's recent Green and Yellow, which is quite good.
Would love to know which. I am always looking for Spanish and French podcasts I can understand without subs or scripts.
La historia del mundo. The last episode was released in 2018. I mentioned Españoles olvidados somewhere upthread.

I've not read the Hecuba even in translation.
Thanks for the names of the podcasts.
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