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

[rdearman]

Well it has been a little over a week since I last posted. I've scaled right back on language learning. In fact I have scaled back to zero. I have done a couple of language exchanges with the people who are my regulars, so this means I've only done about 5-6 exchanges in the last 9 days. I've stopped actively looking for language exchanges and so they are naturally tailing off. I don't have anything scheduled for the rest of this week. I roughly calculated I have almost 1500 words and phrases which have gone stale in various apps, anki, memrise, closemaster, transparent, HelloChinese, etc. and I doubt I'll get around to them soon. I manage a page or two in Italian most nights, but that has died off recently as well. I'm just not in the mood for it.

[Ani]

Most people would not consider 5-6 language exchanges and a page or two of Italian per night "zero" language study
There is a natural flow to these things. I'm sure it will be ok.

[rdearman]

If I were going to do a presentation next year I know the topic! What I learned after 300+ Language Exchanges.

[rdearman]

I'm sure everyone has been waiting with baited breathe to find out what I have been doing. [[ NOT ]]

I stopped reading my Italian book. It wasn't a great book and so I stopped reading at about 40% and posted the 90+ pages to the SC and started a new book. The new book is a translation of a Lee Child book that I've already read, but it is more enjoyable than the other book. I've decided not to count that book toward my personal 100 books in Italian. So although my SC score is 18 books, I'm still at 3 books completed on my little personal challenge.

I'm done a couple of language exchanges over the last couple of weeks, but not anything like I was doing previously. I'm planning to pick up Setswana again. I took a break after the 6WC because it burned me out.

I noticed the other day that I've been admin here for almost three and half years. Where did all that time go?

[DaveAgain]

The new book is a translation of a Lee Child book that I've already read, but it is more enjoyable than the other book. I've decided not to count that book toward my personal 100 books in Italian. So although my SC score is 18 books, I'm still at 3 books completed on my little personal challenge.

I'm done a couple of language exchanges over the last couple of weeks, but not anything like I was doing previously. I'm planning to pick up Setswana again. I took a break after the 6WC because it burned me out.

Lee Child books are always good page turners

(I'm battling the urge to reread James Herbert's Dune series in french.)

Is there an italian book behind the Don Camillo films? That might be a fun one.

[rdearman]

The new book is a translation of a Lee Child book that I've already read, but it is more enjoyable than the other book. I've decided not to count that book toward my personal 100 books in Italian. So although my SC score is 18 books, I'm still at 3 books completed on my little personal challenge.

I'm done a couple of language exchanges over the last couple of weeks, but not anything like I was doing previously. I'm planning to pick up Setswana again. I took a break after the 6WC because it burned me out.

Lee Child books are always good page turners

(I'm battling the urge to reread James Herbert's Dune series in french.)

Is there an italian book behind the Don Camillo films? That might be a fun one.

Seems so.

Most of the Don Camillo stories came out in the weekly magazine Candido, founded by Guareschi with Giovanni Mosca. These "Little World" (Italian: Mondo piccolo) stories amounted to 347 in total and were put together and published in eight books, only the first three of which were published when Guareschi was still alive.

EDIT: More info:

The following Italian language books have been published:

Mondo Piccolo: Don Camillo. [Pub: Rizzoli, 1948] Literally: Little World: Don Camillo
Mondo Piccolo: Don Camillo e il suo gregge. [Pub: Rizzoli, 1953] Literally: Little World: Don Camillo and His Flock
Mondo Piccolo: Il compagno don Camillo. [Pub: Rizzoli, 1963] Literally: Little World: Comrade Don Camillo

The following Italian language books have been published posthumously:

Mondo Piccolo: Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi. [Pub: Rizzoli, 1969] Literally: Little World: Don Camillo and the Youth of Today
Gente così. 1980.
Lo spumarino pallido. 1981.
Noi del Boscaccio. 1983.
L'anno di don Camillo. 1986.
Il decimo clandestino. 1987.
Ciao don Camillo. 1996.
Don Camillo e don Chichì. 1996. The complete version of Don Camillo e i giovani d'oggi
Don Camillo e Peppone. [Pub: Rizzoli, 2007] ISBN 978-88-486-0355-3

[rdearman]

Well it seems more time has passed and I haven't really done much of anything. I have had a couple of conversations only. One French and one Italian. I've read 5 chapters of this Lee Child book in Italian, and I've watched 3 episodes of Carabinieri. I used to watch Carabinieri a lot but didn't really understand much about what was going on. I have all 7 seasons but no subtitles. It is interesting now how much more I understand having returned to it. I haven't been doing a lot in Italian, but I think the conversations have helped a hell of a lot with listening comprehension. This effect seems to be helping in French as well, I have watched some YouTubers in French and I understand a hell of a lot more than I did before.

I suspect this is simply because I was listening to and using 1-2 hours of French and/or Italian every single day for the last few months. Conversations are always the most common vocabulary constantly repeated. With the odd strange topic thrown into the mix, like my conversation about Italian building regulations, or French republics. Which there are calls for a 6th one, although the reasons why they want a new Republic escaped me.

I was so interested in my idea for a talk on what I learned after 500 language exchanges that I did start a presentation and got to about 15 slides. So if I go to another Polyglot gathering and if I do a presentation then I'm almost done. But that is 6 months away, and I'll probably be distracted by something more shiny by then!

It is my birthday this weekend and I'm getting very old. Too old. I have noticed that language learning seems to be a young man's game. (Forgive the gender biased idiom) and I do wonder if my tired old brain should concentrate on one language. But I'll probably just keep plugging away at the current ones.

Language learning certainly seems to be heavily dependant on what you practice. After so many conversations in French and Italian I have absolutely no hesitation in speaking to someone online, or in person in those languages. Some people were asking how to get over introversion or shyness and I have to say that I got over mine by just forcing myself to do it. Schedule a lot of language exchanges and don't allow yourself to back out of any of them. I don't do this anymore, now I simply chat with the friends that I've made.

I am planning on doing a language profile for the static site for Setswana next week. So hopefully I'll get a lot of feedback and assistance from all the people learning Setswana.

Been reading a lot of English books also, mostly about habits, learning, and other psychological items of interest. I realise that part of the reason I've not been sucessful at keeping my vocabulary learning and apps current is because the habits I had developed as a daily commuter have been disrupted and not replaced. So I need to think of some new cues for study which aren't dependant on train travel or other commuting.

For example, Setswana I managed to read a fair amount of the bible while on the train, and also completed a significant amount of HelloChinese as well as clozemaster and other apps. At the moment I only really complete anki, and this is because doing anki is linked to walking my dog. I take my dog for a walk and do anki reps. My dog has to be walked everyday, so I do anki everyday. A nice cue like this for other habits would be helpful so I'm trying to think of simple cues to kick off a habit of speaking in French, or listening to Italian audio, or whatever.

One idea I like is to listen to Italian podcasts in the shower but this might annoy people in my family. We'll see. Somethings which I have considered are:

Email my future self. https://www.futureme.org/ or http://www.whensend.com/ in French or Italian and see if I can correct myself or use a shorter time period to just try to work out what I was trying to say! This would at least be a trigger for some action in the future. So any suggestions for using this "Future email" would be great. Any ideas out there how I could use a future email prompt to learn things now or perhaps then?

[DaveAgain]

With the odd strange topic thrown into the mix, like my conversation about Italian building regulations, or French republics. Which there are calls for a 6th one, although the reasons why they want a new Republic escaped me.

The recent language learning heroes thread linked to a book/PDF which mentioned the value of an L2 discussion/monologue described a series of events, going ever deeper into a subject.

I've been wondering about combining that with the wikihow.com website that Axon mentioned. Describing how to do x in an L2 every day.

[Elenia]

HBD, as all the cool French kids say. (Or said, back when I knew what cool French kids did).

As for the presentation: I'm sure some of your helpful friend can remind you

[rdearman]

HBD, as all the cool French kids say. (Or said, back when I knew what cool French kids did).

I have no idea what you're on about. But then I was never A) French B) Cool and C) it is a long time since I was a kid.

I've been wondering about combining that with the wikihow.com website that Axon mentioned. Describing how to do x in an L2 every day.

I do have a random French wikipedia page show up everytime I open Firefox and sometimes I read it if it looks interesting. So it does trigger me to read more than I normally would.