Rdearman 2016-24 You Can't Have Your Kate and Edith Too.

[Deinonysus]

Learn French but write it in Chinese characters.

Edit: I meant to write this in IronMike's log because he was trying to decide between French and Mandarin, but 法语 is for everyone!

[Brun Ugle]

Good luck on that. I've almost given up hope on knowing a second language.

In that case you should try French like you said you were going to. I hear 2019 is the year of the French language learner. I think they are giving out cookies at the gathering for French learners.

I should probably give up the cookies too.

[rdearman]

Learn French but write it in Chinese characters.

Edit: I meant to write this in IronMike's log because he was trying to decide between French and Mandarin, but 法语 is for everyone!

I recommended Chinese to him, because for me, given a choice between anything and French, I will pick the anything nine times out of ten.

[rdearman]

Good luck on that. I've almost given up hope on knowing a second language.

In that case you should try French like you said you were going to. I hear 2019 is the year of the French language learner. I think they are giving out cookies at the gathering for French learners.

I should probably give up the cookies too.

That is just crazy talk !

[Brun Ugle]

Learn French but write it in Chinese characters.

Edit: I meant to write this in IronMike's log because he was trying to decide between French and Mandarin, but 法语 is for everyone!

I recommended Chinese to him, because for me, given a choice between anything and French, I will pick the anything nine times out of ten.

If French is so horrible, why were you suggesting I learn it? I thought you were my friend.

[rdearman]

Learn French but write it in Chinese characters.

Edit: I meant to write this in IronMike's log because he was trying to decide between French and Mandarin, but 法语 is for everyone!

I recommended Chinese to him, because for me, given a choice between anything and French, I will pick the anything nine times out of ten.

If French is so horrible, why were you suggesting I learn it? I thought you were my friend.

You said you wanted to learn it. I'm just encouraging you to do what you already want. Even if I do have some reservations about the wisdom of your choices

[rdearman]

If anyone is actually watching this subs2srs tutorial series, I just published the 4th one and I'll create a playlist after the last and final one is completed.



EDIT: The family was out this afternoon Christmas shopping, so I managed to complete the final part. I've created a playlist with all 5 parts. Hopefully someone will find this useful !!

[rdearman]

OK. January is almost upon us and observers will note that I have signed up for the Output Challenge and the 365 Challenge. However, I have been very clever and done this in the same language. Mandarin. This means I get to count 30 minutes of scriptorium (writing Chinese characters) for the 365 Challenge and count the characters written towards my Output Challenge.
I am the Master of the Lazy Fist !

depositphotos_62889407-stock-illustration-fighting-old-warrior.jpg

Today I had three language exchanges, two in French and one in Italian. Lots of people with free time between Xmas and New Year. One of the exchanges was with one of my regulars and she spent almost 2 hours with me correcting an exercise which I'd done during my 20 minutes on "French Grammar in Context". Basically I keep making the same old errors, and to correct this we created a "checklist" for me to use after I've written something in French. I can add to it as I find more things I need to check. At the moment it only holds three items, but if I didn't have these three problems then about 80% of the stuff I have written (for her) would be correct.

1. Check the gender of all nouns and make sure I've used the correct article and possessive. Le, La, notre, ton, etc.
2. Check the number of nouns and make sure I've made the word plural and used the correct article and possessive. Les, mes, nos, etc.
3. Check the correct conjugation of the verb with the pronoun. (Especially that pesky TU)

I've paid for a nice Setswana textbook (since I'm done with the FLC I can actually pay for things now) so I'm awaiting that. Meanwhile I will continue with memrise and the resources I have.

In the last week I have only done 2.6 hours of language study. My excuse is the holidays, but actually I just couldn't be bothered. This doesn't count watching episodes of "Fun with SINGnese 新语研究所" on Singapore catchup TV, or watching some French shows on Netflix, reading in Italian or any of the language exchanges I've done. The real loser language-wise has been Setswana because I've only done 40 minutes of work on that language in the last week. A pretty poor showing. I'm a quarter of the way through my 2nd mathematics book, so you can probably work out that I spent more time doing that. In fact as much as Italian, Setswana and Mandarin combined.

So I'm considering another Lazy Fist manoeuvrer and doing these maths books.

1. La géométrie; René Descartes
2. Le calcul des résidus et ses applications à la théorie des fonctions by Lindelöf
3. Mathématiques et Mathématiciens: Pensées et Curiosités by A. Rebière
4. Leçons de Géométrie Supérieure by Ernest Vessiot
5. Journal de mathématics pures et appliquées
6. Sur les Principes Fondamentaux de la Théorie des Nombres et de la Géométrie
7. Abrégé de la Théorie des Fonctions Elliptiques by Charles Henry

Another "2 birds, 2 stone" move. There aren't any maths books on Gutenberg for Italian, and most Italian books there are history books. But there were a couple of interesting (to me) subjects.

1. I funghi mangerecci e velenosi dell'Europa media by Giacomo Bresadola
2. La Seconda e Terza Guerra Punica by Leonardo Bruni

But I'm reading fiction in Italian so I don't get any extra bang for my buck doing that, so probably just look at doing the French maths books.

I'm not particualry happy with my progress this year, but hopefully if I keep plugging away 20 minutes (now 30 for Mandarin) I'll have learned something by the end of next year. If nothing else I might know a bit more maths.

[DaveAgain]

There aren't any maths books on Gutenberg for Italian, and most Italian books there are history books. But there were a couple of interesting (to me) subjects.

1. I funghi mangerecci e velenosi dell'Europa media by Giacomo Bresadola
2. La Seconda e Terza Guerra Punica by Leonardo Bruni

But I'm reading fiction in Italian so I don't get any extra bang for my buck doing that, so probably just look at doing the French maths books.

There's a handful of italian language maths books on the BNF.fr website. (advanced search function: subject=maths, language=italian)

I'm not particualry happy with my progress this year, but hopefully if I keep plugging away 20 minutes (now 30 for Mandarin) I'll have learned something by the end of next year. If nothing else I might know a bit more maths.

I'm surprised you feel that way. Your language exchange reports this year certainly impressed me

[rdearman]

I'm surprised you feel that way. Your language exchange reports this year certainly impressed me

Well perhaps it is just because I see all the faults, or rather know them. For example, during a language exchange my partner might not actually know there were about 10 words I didn't know because I used an alternative, or circumnavigated around it. Also there are a tonne of grammatical mistakes I make, but people rarely point them out. If they can understand they just let you keep talking. So LE's are good for some stuff, not for others. But I shouldn't complaint I suppose. Thanks for the book links.

I'm not as smart as I thought I was with the Output Challenge & 365. Seems I need to do about 300 characters a day and I'm only doing about 30 for the 30 minute period of the 365 challenge. I'll let you do the math, but it just isn't enough. Need to write more or faster or both.

Did a LE with an Italian fellow today his english is better than my Italian which is normal, but he has only been studying for 2 years.

I haven't been reading in Italian each night like I should be. I find Italian so much harder to read than French. Lack of practice, but it just makes it a struggle to want to read when you know you're going to be looking words up all the time.

Just have to keep trying, because it is like Homer Simpson says:Trying is the first step toward failure.