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

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Brun Ugle
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18/19 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby Brun Ugle » Thu Jan 03, 2019 7:27 am

Circumlocution is normal. I do it plenty in Norwegian. I even do it in English sometimes when a word slips my mind. The trick is learning to do it fast enough that nobody knows you had to say something in a slightly different way than you wanted to. That’s called “being fluent.” So, if as you said, you partners didn’t notice the ten words you didn’t know and had to circumlocute, then, congratulations; you are fluent. Now stop whining and get back to work on your languages.
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rdearman
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18/19 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby rdearman » Sat Jan 05, 2019 2:07 pm

Brun Ugle wrote:Now stop whining and get back to work on your languages.

Wow, harsh!

Dave just posted a new episode of the lollygaggin-podcast.

But more importantly I got my Setswana textbook today! A re bueng Setswana. Thanks to avalon for posting it to me.
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18/19 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby avalon » Sat Jan 05, 2019 2:13 pm

I'm so glad it has arrived safe and sound!
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rdearman
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18/19 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby rdearman » Wed Jan 09, 2019 11:44 pm

Time to update everyone on how badly I'm doing. So I'll try to do it by language, although for all languages my language exchanges were all a bust, nobody showed up.

French
I have gone back to the very first textbook I ever used, which is completely in French BTW, and I'm doing it all over again. I managed a couple of written exercises from the Grammar in Context text book and my French friend checked them. They were only very short texts describing how to get to my house from the train station, etc. My error rate is ~14%. One section she didn't even bother because my French is so poor she couldn't figure out what the hell I was trying to say. My ongoing hate/hate relationship with the French language continues.

Italian
I booked some time with Italian, this week. I discovered a new cookery channel on YouTube and it is in Italian (he does an English version too) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW2xLi ... JhFOz0kokw

Other than some reading and Clozemaster I haven't done a lot. I am supposed to fly to Bologna this weekend, but probably will not be able to go. This is annoying because it was a birthday present, but things have cropped up which mean I can't go.

Mandarin
Still doing scriptorium and because this was the language I signed up for in the 365Challenge I got a lot done, however most of the reason I didn't get much done in the others was because I couldn't take this out of the rotation. I was given a Chinese name this week which was good. It is actually a modification of a name someone gave me in Singapore about 8 years ago. 龙辰

Setswana
I managed to get halfway through the first chapter of "A re bueng Setswana" and plan to focus on this a little more next week.

Misc
Still working on my maths studies and about 1/3 of the way through my second book. I booked a slot at the Gathering 2019 and I hope nothing comes up to ruin that trip. I had a good idea for a speech, but I think I'll probably just blow that off and sit in the audience.

So there you have it, I'm going nowhere at a rate of knots.

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rdearman
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18/19 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby rdearman » Fri Jan 18, 2019 12:17 am

Well, this week has been a bust for the most part. I haven't managed to do much, other than the odd app here and there while waiting for things. I've not made a lot of progress on anything. I've had 4-5 people contact me about language exchanges, and I've organised a couple in both Italian and French. I'm not really sure if I should jump whole-hog back into doing a lot of language exchanges, but they do help with speaking practice, and it is fun to speak with people, even if my side of the conversations are not up to the standard I'd like.

My statistics are pretty bad.
  • Italian - 40 minutes
  • French - 60 minutes
  • Mandarin - 1hour 4 minutes
  • Setswana - 0 minutes
  • Maths - 20 minutes

I have watched a number of YouTube cookery videos in Italian, but I don't count them above, and I don't count reading or language exchanges. My only LE however was just a quick 40 minutes speaking with someone to organise a hour later in the week. 3 hours of study time over the course of an entire week is a bad showing. I'll need to do something to get myself in the groove. I would love to be one of those people who listen to podcasts 24/7 but all the ones I've checked out don't really interest me.

On the bright-side my calligraphy is getting better and I can write smaller and it looks better in Chinese from all the scriptorium stuff I've been doing. Also the characters seem to stick in my head more since I'm writing them. Which makes sense since I'm literally copying a book!

Chinese-sample.jpg


I used to write in a block which was about 1cm square, but now I write on normal graph paper where the blocks are 3mm square. I can write much tighter and neater now in this smaller space. I still struggle to get some characters inside the block and still look correct, but for the most part I'm good. Obviously I'm still just copying and free writing is still a long way off, but I enjoy this exercise.

Need to get back on schedule with the rest of my learning and try to do something each day.
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zenmonkey
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby zenmonkey » Fri Jan 18, 2019 9:35 am

rdearman wrote:Back for another boring update! I figure they are boring because I am just repeating myself all the time. I'm still plugging away ...


Not in the least bit boring. And you aren't repeating. That just a negative voice in your head.
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18/19 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby StringerBell » Fri Jan 18, 2019 11:52 pm

rdearman wrote:I discovered a new cookery channel on YouTube and it is in Italian (he does an English version too) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW2xLi ... JhFOz0kokw


OMG! I'm so glad you like Cuore di Cioccolato; Andrea makes a lot of really interesting recipes from around the world he's such a great guy. (I wonder why he always looks like he just rolled out of bed and is still sleepy?) Unfortunately, he doesn't have anywhere near the subscribers he should have, I think because Italians - in general - don't tend to embrace cuisine from other countries. My husband started making cheese after watching a few of the cheese-making videos and now it's an obsession. 1/3 of our fridge is dedicated to cheeses in various stages of aging. We frequently make a lot of the recipes on that channel, they're usually really good.

Since you're doing Scriptorium, can I ask if it's really as simple as saying a sentence out loud and writing it down? That seems way too simple and I'm convinced I'm missing something.
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18/19 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby rdearman » Sat Jan 19, 2019 12:10 am

StringerBell wrote:
rdearman wrote:I discovered a new cookery channel on YouTube and it is in Italian (he does an English version too) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW2xLi ... JhFOz0kokw


OMG! I'm so glad you like Cuore di Cioccolato; Andrea makes a lot of really interesting recipes from around the world he's such a great guy. (I wonder why he always looks like he just rolled out of bed and is still sleepy?) Unfortunately, he doesn't have anywhere near the subscribers he should have, I think because Italians - in general - don't tend to embrace cuisine from other countries. My husband started making cheese after watching a few of the cheese-making videos and now it's an obsession. 1/3 of our fridge is dedicated to cheeses in various stages of aging. We frequently make a lot of the recipes on that channel, they're usually really good.

Since you're doing Scriptorium, can I ask if it's really as simple as saying a sentence out loud and writing it down? That seems way too simple and I'm convinced I'm missing something.

Yeah he is great. And I have to admit that I have a batch of Kefir cheese hanging in my fridge beside the Dry Cured Pork. :)

Well, Scriptorium for me is that simple. But because I'm doing it for Mandarin it helps me a lot with the script. Chinese characters require memorisation unlike Italian. But I did it for a little while with Italian too a long time ago. I wrote probably the first chapter of "tre uomini in una barca". It helped a lot, although the listening to the audio probably helped more. To be honest if I'd have done more Scriptorium for French I'd probably be a lot better at French spelling. Give it a try for a little while, it can't hurt and it might help.
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Brun Ugle
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18/19 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby Brun Ugle » Sat Jan 19, 2019 7:31 am

StringerBell wrote:
rdearman wrote:I discovered a new cookery channel on YouTube and it is in Italian (he does an English version too) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCW2xLi ... JhFOz0kokw


OMG! I'm so glad you like Cuore di Cioccolato; Andrea makes a lot of really interesting recipes from around the world he's such a great guy. (I wonder why he always looks like he just rolled out of bed and is still sleepy?) Unfortunately, he doesn't have anywhere near the subscribers he should have, I think because Italians - in general - don't tend to embrace cuisine from other countries. My husband started making cheese after watching a few of the cheese-making videos and now it's an obsession. 1/3 of our fridge is dedicated to cheeses in various stages of aging. We frequently make a lot of the recipes on that channel, they're usually really good.

Since you're doing Scriptorium, can I ask if it's really as simple as saying a sentence out loud and writing it down? That seems way too simple and I'm convinced I'm missing something.

And suddenly I’m subscribed to an Italian cooking channel. You people are a bad influence on me.

I do a lot of Scriptorium at times. That’s one of the things I do in the passive wave of Assimil. If I’m using Assimil, or something with a recording, I listen to the sentence first. Then I read it out loud myself. (If there’s no recording, I just read it out loud.) Then I write it slowly, one word at a time, sounding out each word as I write it. Then I read the sentence I wrote out loud, and repeat the process on the next sentence. It is important to do it slowly and consciously. Notice the details of the pronunciation, word endings, prepositions, etc. It’s very easy to start going to fast and then you lose the benefits, but if you can do it slowly and carefully, it will help you to absorb the tiny details that are easily lost. And it is surprisingly good for improving pronunciation. I’ve often come across sentences that I struggled to say even after trying several times to repeat after the recording, but after writing them scriptorium style, I had no trouble saying them.
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Re: Rdearman 2016/17/18/19 [Remember if we get caught, I'm deaf and you don't speak English]

Postby Iversen » Sat Jan 19, 2019 10:56 am

StringerBell wrote:Since you're doing Scriptorium, can I ask if it's really as simple as saying a sentence out loud and writing it down? That seems way too simple and I'm convinced I'm missing something.

When Professor Arguelles introduced the word scriptorium in HTLAL he expected people to write as beautifully as they could and to read aloud while writing. I find it too tiring and distracting to read aloud, and my handwriting can't really be called calligraphic. In spite of these minor differences in the actual execution of the exercise the scriptorium is one of my main intensive activities because it forces me to work my way through so s l o w l y through the texts that I can't avoid noticing all the small things I otherwise just would skip, and it also supplies me with the words for a large part of my wordlists.

As for the Cuore di Cioccolata I already eat too much of the stuff...
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