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

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Re: Rdearman 2016-22 원숭이도 나무에서 떨어질 때가 있다 (Sometimes even monkeys fall from trees)

Postby rdearman » Sun Jun 12, 2022 1:39 pm

Mandarin
I'm probably going to remove Mandarin again, I'm not really doing anything and my friend disappeared again.

Korean
So.... since the last update, I've had one more lesson in Korean. This time we went off-piste and off the lesson plan. This is because the week before, my teacher had taught me the conjugation for being very formal. Like speaking to the president or a stranger's grandmother. Anyway, this prompted me to sort out my notes. Twice now, I have collated all my notes and verbs on handwritten pages. I didn't have enough blank space on the papers to include another column for formal conjugations, so I decided to put them all in a spreadsheet.

I have installed a Korean keyboard for my Linux machine, so it was a simple operation to open a spreadsheet and type in the infinitives, then present tense, then past tense and the new formal tense. I've been given ~60 verbs so far, but on my handwritten notes I'd only spent time conjugating about half. Basically, when I figured I had got the gist of it, I stopped. In the spreadsheet, I decided I would do all the verbs regardless. I would also be able to add more tenses like past progressive, etc. easily.

Flash forward to last week's lesson and just before we started speaking on Skype, I asked my teacher if we could quickly run through the spreadsheet to make sure they were right. (If you guessed that they were not all right, then you are correct.) I had about 30 errors out of the 240 cells. Some were straightforward typos, since I'm doing a lot of "hunt and peck" typing with the Korean keyboard. I'm a touch typist on an English keyboard. Other errors were more basic and showed that I had misunderstood some lessons from way back when I started. So it was an excellent reminder and review of things I should have known.

My teacher is really cool, and he is so driven to help people learn Korean, we actually went an hour over my allotted hour of class so that he could explain everything I'd got wrong. He also gave me a homework assignment to "Think of a question!" since it is much easier for him to explain things in detail which I don't understand than it is for him to try and figure out what I don't understand. This homework assignment seems simple, but there is a clause at the end of it. Which was using the verbs and the words you already know, make simple sentences and find a question. He isn't going to look at my sentences, I can check really simple ones with Google Translate. But the point is to try and identify gaps.

I have also started to read 조지의 놀라운 마법의 약 / 로알드 달 (George's Marvellous Medicine - by Roald Dahl). I bought the Kindle version in English, so I could read it and know what was going on, and I've started intensive reading. This was one of the books which I'd picked up in my travels in Korea. It is one of the simpler books which I have.

I did manage one Korean language exchange and reviewed some of the stuff I've been learning and getting help with pronunciation.

Italian
I had to cancel my LE with my Italian friend, who has now gone off to Italy for 2 weeks, so probably not going to do any Italian speaking for a little while. I'm still trying to read a page or two a week of the Italian books I have. I might switch out the book I'm reading for something less... large.

French
My French friend had to cancel on me because her daughter came to visit. So probably not going to be doing my French. Although oddly I did watch a French film on Netflix today and I have been watching a lot of the travel programs in French on YouTube. I suppose when I don't "have to study French", I tend to do a lot more stuff in French. Go figure, huh?
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Re: Rdearman 2016-22 원숭이도 나무에서 떨어질 때가 있다 (Sometimes even monkeys fall from trees)

Postby rdearman » Thu Jun 23, 2022 3:12 pm

Mandarin
My Chinese friend has popped back up again, and I've had a request from a lady in Taiwan for some language exchanges. So I dug out my easy reader (a modern rewrite of the secret garden) and I'm reviewing what I already did and hope to progress some with characters. I decided to set aside some time to play around with Mandarin. I still watch 1-2 YT videos in Mandarin every week anyway, just because there are a couple of vloggers I like to watch in Mandarin.

Korean
Speaking of vloggers, I've looked for some in Korean, but I'm slightly disappointed. They either don't speak (which is useless to me) or all they do is say a couple of sentences and then eat a shite ton of food. I'm still searching, but if anyone runs into a Korean vlogger who actually speaks through the entire video and does some interesting stuff I'd be interested. One of the channels I watch in Mandarin is actually a German guy who lives in China, Thomas阿福 and in Italian there is a great cooking show, cuoredicioccolato.it. I have some salami curing in my fridge based on his recipe. French I watch some travel shows Le Pays préféré des Français but Korean I can't seem to find anything interesting. I have some pretty eclectic interests, so normally it isn't difficult to find something to watch. (I've watched sailing videos in Icelandic).

This week had another lesson and it went well. More grammar points and the seasons. I need to memorise all the vocabulary I've already been given and try to work on the verb conjugations. To that end, I have turned to the Internet to generate 100 random sentences in English for me, which I'm translating into Korean. These sentences obviously contain vocabulary which I haven't seen. However, the exercise is useful. For example, one sentence is:
She opened the door. ( 그녀는 문에 열려었어요. )
I already knew the word "she", but not "door" and "open". However, easy to look up the noun door and the infinitive version of the verb "to open" and then I used the rules I know to create a past tense sentence. (I've checked it with Google, but awaiting the teacher to check it and others).

I am also planning on working on my "Islands". I've recently purchased Boris Shekhtman's "How to Improve Your Foreign Language Immediately, Fifth Edition". This is the third time I've bought this book. I stupidly loaned it out twice, and they have never returned. I'll not be loaning out this one. :evil: I did notice in this one there is a quote in the back of the book from our very own Anthony Lauder - PolyNot. :lol:

Other things I have on the go, watching Korean dramas with the wife, and I've been asked by my teacher to find a drama to watch myself with this sequence of events.
  1. Watch with no subtitles
  2. Watch with Korean subtitles
  3. Watch with English subtitles
  4. Watch with Korean subtitles
  5. Watch with no subtitles

We'll see how I get on with that! But I don't expect to understand much. However, the same exercise with Star Trek in French did help a lot with listening comprehension.

Italian
My LE partner is still in Italy, but I'm doing 1-2 pages a week in Italian of a book. I really need to ratchet this up a couple of notches. My daughters got me a trip to Milan as a Fathers Day present. So I'll be able to practice, but that is months away yet.

French
Last exchange was cancelled, but should be speaking tomorrow, so it is all good. French is technically parked anyway. Technically.
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Re: Rdearman 2016-22 원숭이도 나무에서 떨어질 때가 있다 (Sometimes even monkeys fall from trees)

Postby rdearman » Fri Jun 24, 2022 10:44 am

<RANT>
I'm going to indulge myself in a little rant about YouTube. Once upon a time I accidentally subscribed and went a couple of months with no advertisements, it was bliss. Until I discovered how much they were taking out of my account, and I stopped that immediately. That was a couple of years ago, and I've been doing the "skip ads" thing for a while now. But I have noticed over the last 6 months that ads have become more frequent, and now they have the ones you can't skip.

This really p*&^s me off. Honestly, I watch a 7-minute video, there are two non-skipable ads before it starts, there are two skippable (if you're lucky) ones in the middle, and then they try to slip in 2 more at the end. So the time for advertisements is actual equal to or more than the actual video itself. If you're watching a 30-minute video, then you can fully expect to five pairs of advertisements in that time.

I'm not ranting about the YT content people, although they do have the option to stick in the non-skipable ads (because they get more money) but my real complaint is google.

In 2020 YouTube made $15 billion in ad business for Google. In one year, they made more than the GDP of countries like Jamaica or Botswana. But $15 billion isn't enough! So they have been driving ad revenue by forcing more ads and got $8.63 billion in revenue from YouTube ads in the fourth quarter of 2021 alone. So in 2021 they got almost $35 billion, which is the GDP of countries like Lebanon, Paraguay and Uganda. But not enough for those greedy "*&^£$ because in 2022 they have set targets to quadruple YouTube revenue using these new non-skipable ads to achieve the same GDP as Qatar or Hungary.

Personally, I'm getting sick of watching YouTube advertisements which are occasionally interrupted by some actual content.
</RANT>
I know adblock works on my computer, but watching on a TV app you have to watch the advertisements. I'm thinking about putting in a PiHole.

Note: I installed a Pi-Hole ad blocker, it doesn't work because google server the ads from the same server they serve the videos from, so if you block the ads you block the contents. Web-browsers are more clever than this, so looks like I'll have to watch everything on the PC. :ugeek:
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Re: Rdearman 2016-22 원숭이도 나무에서 떨어질 때가 있다 (Sometimes even monkeys fall from trees)

Postby cjareck » Fri Jun 24, 2022 1:22 pm

I'm using Firefox + AdBlock both on my computers and Smartphone. It eliminates most of the advertisements. As a YouTube creator, I allow advertisements only at the beginning and the end. Not inside the movies!

Some youngsters in Poland managed to create content that gave them millions of subscribers and a lot of money. Too much money and too quickly gained. It is a problem since the most desirable content doesn't have anything wise or valuable, and because of that, they feed their subscribers - primarily kids - with worthless things.
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Re: Rdearman 2016-22 원숭이도 나무에서 떨어질 때가 있다 (Sometimes even monkeys fall from trees)

Postby rdearman » Fri Jun 24, 2022 3:20 pm

cjareck wrote:I'm using Firefox + AdBlock both on my computers and Smartphone. It eliminates most of the advertisements. As a YouTube creator, I allow advertisements only at the beginning and the end. Not inside the movies!

Some youngsters in Poland managed to create content that gave them millions of subscribers and a lot of money. Too much money and too quickly gained. It is a problem since the most desirable content doesn't have anything wise or valuable, and because of that, they feed their subscribers - primarily kids - with worthless things.

Yes, I use FF and AdBlock also, so it is never a problem when I watch on my computer. The problem is sometimes I just want to relax on the sofa and watch a YT video on my TV, and this is when it becomes a problem.
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Re: Rdearman 2016-22 원숭이도 나무에서 떨어질 때가 있다 (Sometimes even monkeys fall from trees)

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Fri Jun 24, 2022 5:26 pm

rdearman wrote:<RANT>
I'm going to indulge myself in a little rant about YouTube.
Note: I installed a Pi-Hole ad blocker, it doesn't work because google server the ads from the same server they serve the videos from, so if you block the ads you block the contents. Web-browsers are more clever than this, so looks like I'll have to watch everything on the PC. :ugeek:
You're preaching to the choir, in my case, anyway. Correct me if I'm wrong, but can't you use a TV as your PC monitor? I do remember running PC sound through a stereo system, I think. Been awhile. ;)
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Re: Rdearman 2016-22 원숭이도 나무에서 떨어질 때가 있다 (Sometimes even monkeys fall from trees)

Postby cjareck » Fri Jun 24, 2022 5:36 pm

rdearman wrote:Yes, I use FF and AdBlock also, so it is never a problem when I watch on my computer. The problem is sometimes I just want to relax on the sofa and watch a YT video on my TV, and this is when it becomes a problem.

I don't have a TV, so I thought installing FF or something like that would be possible there. On my smartphone, I watch YT via FF, not by the native YT app.
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Re: Rdearman 2016-22 원숭이도 나무에서 떨어질 때가 있다 (Sometimes even monkeys fall from trees)

Postby rdearman » Fri Jun 24, 2022 8:19 pm

I can screencast from a PC, but it would be nice if something was just easy. :(
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Re: Rdearman 2016-22 원숭이도 나무에서 떨어질 때가 있다 (Sometimes even monkeys fall from trees)

Postby rdearman » Sat Jun 25, 2022 1:35 pm

Little update. I've decided since I have some time on my hands again to drop back into language exchanges. So next week I have:
  • Mandarin Exchanges x 2
  • Korean Exchanges x2
  • Italian Exchanges x 2 (maybe 3 not sure yet)
  • French Exchanges x1 (searching for a couple more)

7 exchanges plus a Korean class shouldn't be too bad. On the plus side I have spoken with most of these people before, so they are unlikely to be "no shows".
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Re: Rdearman 2016-22 원숭이도 나무에서 떨어질 때가 있다 (Sometimes even monkeys fall from trees)

Postby rdearman » Thu Jun 30, 2022 11:29 am

Mandarin
OK, I have climbed back on the Mandarin bandwagon, even though I know I'm going to be thrown off any second now. My friend as reappeared, and we did an hour on Monday (actually two hours). I've just finished an hour (actually hour and half) with a nice lady from Taiwan. Both have very good English skills in grammar and sentence construction as well as vocabulary, both just need work on pronunciation. I however, have forgotten just about everything regarding grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation.

I was really inspired to watch this young English chap who went from zero to advanced conversational level in only a year and a half. (He also studied 4-6 hours per day in a covid lockdown, but lets ignore the hard work and assume he is just good at languages.)

I probably don't have 2800 hours to invest just with Mandarin, so I seriously doubt that I'll be able to hit this level anytime soon. But I can do a couple of hours per week in exchanges and a couple of hours practising. It is a little annoying that I can't use the Amazon Polly with Mandarin to make audio sentences. :cry:

Korean
I had a lesson and 2 language exchanges in Korean. My lesson again was sidetracked by my questions. It is ok, I'm paying for it, but sometimes I think I should really stick to the lesson plans. Anyway! We got sidetracked because I was creating sentences last week. I had hit on this idea of just creating sentences from all the vocabulary I'd been taught. Then I looked at all the words and thought coming up with sentences on my own would be hard, and I'm lazy. So I thought I would just find a random sentence generator on the Internet and translate as many of those as I could.

This worked fine, however I soon hit some snags where I couldn't express the exact meaning of the sentences. An example being: Brad came to dinner with us. or Brad went to dinner with us. but all I could express was Brad ate dinner with us. I had numerous problems with the concept of an evening meal, with the use of 고 / 서 for and / and so ...

Anyway, we dipped into a lot of grammatical structures he hasn't taught me yet. I could express the concept of "we go" but not "we can go". Then later oddly I spent a lot of time explaining in my Korean language exchange the difference between "will" and "would" when using would or could as part of a conditional statement, like "I would pick you up tomorrow, but ...." as opposed to "I will pick you up tomorrow."

I have been hitting the anki deck a lot! Inspired by the Chinese learner above who was doing vocabulary on anki 2 hours per day every day, I figured I really should get proficient at all the words which my Korean teacher has taught me so far. He often has to remind me of words (embarrassingly often in fact) and I need to get a handle on these. There are less than 200 words, so I need to get my act together.

I am watching a ton of k-dramas one series with the wife and English subtitles, another with no subtitles then again with subtitles.

I'm also looking at doing some sentence mining and islands.

Italian
Two exchanges so far in Italian, nothing major to report. No problems and I can generally get along well. To be honest, I could probably have 8 exchanges a day in Italian if I wanted to. I get approached so often by Italians, it is unreal. Slowly but surely whittling down through the Italian books.

French
I have had 1 of my 2 language exchanges in French, the other will be tomorrow. Tomorrow is my regular weekly conversation with my friend. The other was with a lady I've spoken to before. Back then her English was ... well, non-existent is a little strong, but close. Since then, she has done zero study of English and completely dropped it. So my hour and half long language exchange was, other than 3-4 sentences she attempted in English conducted entirely in French. Two of the four sentences were "Hello" and "Goodbye" so basically we just talked in French for 1.5 hours. Still, it is good to know that I can speak for almost 2 hours without any problems. It is easier when you are on a roll and the whole conversation is in French. I struggle to do a load of code switching.

General Stuff
I had forgotten what a time-sink language exchanges are. :shock:

I had a look at Moses McCormicks FLR language method recently. I know it is just mainly geared around getting to beginner level conversation with strangers, but Moses did post his method on HTLAL.com before he started selling it. I thought it might be useful as part of my sentence mining for Korean (or possibly Mandarin) to go back and find that post and pull the contents. I'll stick it here in case someone is interested.

http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=18808&PN=0&TPN=1

Moses was mainly looking to speak with people face to face in his local area, and the conversations would almost always follow the same pattern, so memorising these types of dialogues was really a sort of Boris Shekhtman island for him. For me, it would be relatively easy to generate an audio program from these prompts using Amazon Polly (I really do need to upload that video showing how to use it to my YT channel!) but having gone back to look at the sentences only a few would be useful for me. The two books I bought in Korea for English learners have better sentences and they've all been vetted by Korean natives, so I'm sure it would be easier to use those.
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