rng's log (Latin, Greek, Coptic, German, Spanish, Russian)

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rng
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Joined: Tue Jan 25, 2022 2:42 am
Languages: English (N), German (advanced), Spanish (intermediate), Latin (low intermediate), Russian (beginner), Greek (beginner), Coptic (beginner)
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rng's log (Latin, Greek, Coptic, German, Spanish, Russian)

Postby rng » Tue Jan 25, 2022 4:03 pm

Background: I used to be a serious student of Latin as well as several modern languages. In high school I studied German, Spanish, and Russian, and I continued those studies in college, while tacking on the Latin and learning a bit of Coptic. In the later years of college, and in the years thereafter, I gravitated towards speech and language technology, and so topics in linguistics, computer science, and machine learning began to take up my attention. After a pause of some 7-8 years, I am eager to take back up a study regimen.

Current goals: Maintain German and Spanish, Refresh Russian and Latin, and learn Greek and Coptic.

Approach: I will study Latin, Greek, Coptic, and Russian in the morning every weekday, and I will read German or Spanish for 30 minutes before bed.

5:00 AM - 5:50 AM: Latin
6:00 AM - 6:50 AM: Greek
7:00 AM - 7:50 AM: Coptic
8:00 AM - 8:50 AM: Russian
9:00 PM - 10:00 PM: German/Spanish

After following the above regimen for a couple weeks, I hope to be in a position to determine whether it is working, or whether I need to cut back the number of languages I am maintaining, refreshing, and learning.
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rng
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Languages: English (N), German (advanced), Spanish (intermediate), Latin (low intermediate), Russian (beginner), Greek (beginner), Coptic (beginner)
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Re: rng's log (Latin, Greek, Coptic, German, Spanish, Russian)

Postby rng » Tue Jan 25, 2022 7:03 pm

Here are the resources I am using:

    Latin: "Latin: An Intensive Course" by Moreland and Fleischer
    Greek: "Greek Readings for Review" by Kaegi and the cross-referenced "Greek Grammar" by Kaegi.
    Coptic: "Coptic in 20 Lessons" by Layton
    Russian: No clue what to use. I have a couple readers and beginner-level textbooks, but nothing particularly inspiring. I am looking for suggestions. If you have one, please drop it in the thread below!

Here's what I have picked out for reading tonight:

    German: "Goethe & Schiller: Geschichte einer Freundschaft" by Ruediger Safranski
    Spanish: "Exploraciones en literatura" by Kenneth Chastain (an intermediate-level reader that I had on my shelf)
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Caromarlyse
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Re: rng's log (Latin, Greek, Coptic, German, Spanish, Russian)

Postby Caromarlyse » Wed Jan 26, 2022 9:20 am

rng wrote:Russian: No clue what to use. I have a couple readers and beginner-level textbooks, but nothing particularly inspiring. [b]I am looking for suggestions. If you have one, please drop it in the thread below!


It's difficult to give recommendations because I think I'm a bit of an outlier in my preferences, being quite a fan of older-style textbooks. I'm also not sure at what level you'd be looking at, given you say you've done Russian before. But I'll give you some thoughts, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

I liked the Точка ру textbooks. I used the A1 and A2 books, but I see that they now produce a B1 book. Despite the coloured pages etc, I'd say these are quite traditional - there are some translation exercises, for example, and they very much follow the approach of having you learn nationalities, names of food, names of rooms in a house, etc. But there are answer keys, so I think they lend themselves quite well to independent study. There is also some audio, but not a huge amount at the A levels. The books are available in hard copy and in e-book form (direct from the publisher), and I found the publisher to be extremely responsive when I got in touch with them.

I used Новый сувенир 3 next, which is supposed to be B1 level, but I didn't find it demanding enough, and it is (in my view) way too thin to give you anywhere near enough practice actually to make the A2-B1 jump. They have lower level books too, which I think were published under a different imprint though with the same author, so they might be of a different quality.

I have also used the Liden & Denz B1.1 book. The same people also produce books for the lower levels. I'd say the B1.1 is already pretty demanding, and from experience you don't need to know anywhere near what it teaches in order to pass B1 exams in relation to grammar/vocabulary. I haven't got round to the B1.2 book yet as I decided I needed consolidation first. The texts are pretty interesting, and I think that at least the book I have used was good in giving collocations that, if you use yourself, you impress people! There are answer keys here too, but I found the lack of transcripts for the audio to be a bit of a hindrance. Their website has a free level test if you wanted to see where they suggested you start.

I also quite like the books produced/used by UCLA in their Russian department. I have Russian: From intermediate to advanced, which is pitched at getting you to a B2 level. В пути is the one that comes before that, though I haven't used it. I also have their Russian through art, which I'd say is a similar B1-B2 level, and is structured in a very similar way, though obviously with a limited focus on one subject area. The UCLA books (or at least the ones I have used) are good in having a lot of native audio (including video) as part of each chapter (available on the sister website). They also are very heavy on exercises, and very dense generally, which I find useful in terms of trying to hammer Russian into my head! The website contains the answer keys, transcriptions of the audio, and some online tests. You can sign up to the website without owning the books, which could help you to decide whether you like the approach.

For listening practice (no books provide enough, in my view), I'm a fan of Russian with Max, and credit listening to those podcasts on walks with getting from the A levels in listening ability to being able to ace a B1 listening exam (conducted with a teacher only but under exam conditions). I'm using the podcasts with transcripts now to move forward - I think that going for a fuller understanding rather than just the gist and trying to learn words from them, makes these podcasts a worthy tool up to the B2 level too. But bear in mind that I'm not a TV/series fan, so am not inclined to work on my listening that way, which may well be more efficient.

For graded readers, I've tried a few, but here you're probably better off looking around for yourself. Litres.ru sell e-books. I think you might be US based, but the shops Ruslandia (in Finland) and European Bookshop (UK) have a large Russian stock, and you could browse their sites for ideas.

I could go on, but will leave it at that for now, and you can let me know if it was of any use!
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Sonjaconjota
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Re: rng's log (Latin, Greek, Coptic, German, Spanish, Russian)

Postby Sonjaconjota » Wed Jan 26, 2022 1:43 pm

rng wrote:Russian: No clue what to use. I have a couple readers and beginner-level textbooks, but nothing particularly inspiring. [b]I am looking for suggestions. If you have one, please drop it in the thread below!

I don't know any Russian, but I enjoy the graded readers by these publishers for other languages:
https://www.circonverlag.de/sprachen-lernen-2017/weitere-sprachen-sprachen-lernen/russisch-sprachen-lernen.html
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rng
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Languages: English (N), German (advanced), Spanish (intermediate), Latin (low intermediate), Russian (beginner), Greek (beginner), Coptic (beginner)
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Re: rng's log (Latin, Greek, Coptic, German, Spanish, Russian)

Postby rng » Thu Jan 27, 2022 3:19 am

Thank you Caromarlyse and Sonjaconjota for your suggestions. Many of those seem promising, but I realized this morning that I will likely need a week or more to determine at what level I should pick Russian back up. Right now I am constantly drudging up old, forgotten knowledge of the language. That is a fun experience, but it still leaves me guessing as to what level I will be at in a week after reviewing basic vocabulary and the grammar :)
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rng
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Languages: English (N), German (advanced), Spanish (intermediate), Latin (low intermediate), Russian (beginner), Greek (beginner), Coptic (beginner)
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Re: rng's log (Latin, Greek, Coptic, German, Spanish, Russian)

Postby rng » Thu Jan 27, 2022 3:19 am

Progress for Jan. 25-26:

    Latin: I worked through Moreland & Fleischer pp. 20-33, including the text, drills, preliminary exercises, and the exercises of Unit One. I am finding Moreland & Fleischer to be a useful textbook for review after some seven years away from the language. Being true to its title as "an intensive course", it is a brisk yet systematic review of the grammar, which is welcome, given that I am not starting from zero.

    Greek: Yesterday I completed all of Part I: "On the Sounds". I skimmed some advanced topics, but I plan to revisit Part I after I know more of the morphology and syntax. Today I began Part II: "Inflection". I am up to Section 28, where I am now busying myself with the A-Declension. I memorized how to decline "the house". I appreciate that Kaegi reminds the reader to compare with the Latin where appropriate. My next goal for Greek will be to acquire some vocabulary so I can make use of the "Greek Readings for Review" book as soon as possible.

    Coptic: Yesterday and today I worked through Layton pp. 1-12, which includes Exercises 1. Up to now, this has been a review of phonetics, phonology, and the writing system. Tomorrow I will begin with morphology and syntax.

    Russian: This morning I was surprised to find that I had trouble writing in cursive. To remedy this, I copied a few pages out of a reader that I had and referenced some handwriting examples. The writing came back to me within a half hour or so, along with all the vocabulary they used. Despite its elementary level, I may read through the remaining pages of "First Reader in Russian" by Ann Rolbin before picking up any more advanced material.

    Spanish: Yesterday I found myself reading "El Arbol de la Sciencia" by Pio Baroja instead of the intermediate-level reader. I made it through pp. 7-10 in 45 minutes and noted some vocabulary I found interesting.

    German: Today I spent 45 minutes reading the Preface to "Goethe und Schiller: Geschichte einer Freundschaft" by Ruediger Safranski. The level was appropriate, and I realize with some degree of anticipation that the subtleties of Safranski's language in this work of cultural history may well prove challenging for me.
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rng
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Languages: English (N), German (advanced), Spanish (intermediate), Latin (low intermediate), Russian (beginner), Greek (beginner), Coptic (beginner)
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Re: rng's log (Latin, Greek, Coptic, German, Spanish, Russian)

Postby rng » Tue Feb 01, 2022 3:06 pm

Progress for Jan. 27-28 and Jan. 31-Feb. 1:

    Latin: I worked through Moreland & Fleischer pp. 34-43, including the final exercises of Unit One, the text of Unit Two on the perfect system, the subjunctive mood, and a typology of conditional sentences, and the Unit Two drills. Tomorrow I should wrap up Unit Two.

    Greek: I learned the present indicative active conjugation for the thematic verbs, learned the O-Declension, did Lessons 1-2 of "Greek Readings for Review", and learned the associated vocabulary. I have read through Section 31 in Kaegi's "Greek Grammar".

    Coptic: I am working through Exercises 2 in Layton. The topic is nouns, pronouns, and articles.

I have not made much progress on Russian, Spanish, or German in the past week. I might have to allocate time differently to work on each language everyday.
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księżycowy
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Re: rng's log (Latin, Greek, Coptic, German, Spanish, Russian)

Postby księżycowy » Tue Feb 01, 2022 4:26 pm

Just wanted to say good luck on the Greek, Latin and Coptic! I'll especially be looking forward to your updates on Coptic, as it's one I'm quite interested in as well. :)
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rng
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Languages: English (N), German (advanced), Spanish (intermediate), Latin (low intermediate), Russian (beginner), Greek (beginner), Coptic (beginner)
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Re: rng's log (Latin, Greek, Coptic, German, Spanish, Russian)

Postby rng » Tue Feb 01, 2022 5:10 pm

księżycowy wrote:Just wanted to say good luck on the Greek, Latin and Coptic! I'll especially be looking forward to your updates on Coptic, as it's one I'm quite interested in as well. :)


Thanks, księżycowy! I took a one-semester course on Coptic in 2012 while I was in college. The class worked our way up to reading the Gospel of Thomas with heavy use of a dictionary and grammar. I subsequently forgot almost all the vocabulary, and a lot of the grammar, and it's not coming back so easily. :lol:
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rng
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Re: rng's log (Latin, Greek, Coptic, German, Spanish, Russian)

Postby rng » Wed Feb 02, 2022 1:57 pm

Though I wish it were not so, since I have only just begun to get back into the swing of a study regimen, I have made the decision to pause my studies through next Friday, Feb. 11. I will probably not be posting much until then. I have some pressing things in my career to which I need to devote my early morning study hours. I plan to continue with my Anki flashcards for Latin and Greek, though I will not have time to progress through my regular study resources.
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