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

[javier_getafe]

I'm completely delighted to know about your experiences from Bratislava!!!

Looking forward to hear from you again!

[jeff_lindqvist]

Over the last three years I don't think it ever rained once while I was here so it was a bit unexpected.

But it did! In 2017, the last day, after the afternoon lectures, just in time for the evening dinner.

If I were there this time, I would have enjoyed your game. I think I could score a few points.

Say hello to everyone I know! (Extra points if you use your target languages. )

[IronMike]

Interesting that no one has asked you yet if you got the 5 points through the slap method...

[Brun Ugle]

Over the last three years I don't think it ever rained once while I was here so it was a bit unexpected.

But it did! In 2017, the last day, after the afternoon lectures, just in time for the evening dinner.

If I were there this time, I would have enjoyed your game. I think I could score a few points.

Say hello to everyone I know! (Extra points if you use your target languages. )

I reminded him about that rainstorm before he wrote the post, but it seems he didn’t believe me or he forgot again immediately.

You should come next time and we can all play the game together.

[Querneus]

Hey rdearman, I was talking briefly half an hour ago with one of the two authors of the Chinese Zero to Hero online courses (specifically the guy that appears on the right in the website's banner). He's at the Polyglot Gathering right now, and coincidentally it turns out he attended your talk. The view from his seat:



(I have a higher resolution version if you're interested in this picture for some reason...)

He said he'd like to talk to you but I have no idea how to introduce you both. Maybe if you see him you can talk.

Full disclosure: I have provided him instructions to give you a good, hard slap across the face on sight if he spots you. I hope you'll see it coming.

[IronMike]

Hey rdearman, I was talking briefly half an hour ago with one of the two authors of the Chinese Zero to Hero online courses (specifically the guy that appears on the right in the website's banner). He's at the Polyglot Gathering right now, and coincidentally it turns out he attended your talk. The view from his seat:



(I have a higher resolution version if you're interested in this picture for some reason...)

Hey Ser, that picture and the back of the guy's shirt about saving languages. Does your picture show what is below that last line? I follow many sites about endangered languages. Just wondering if that guy is "advertising" one I haven't found yet.

[Querneus]

Hey Ser, that picture and the back of the guy's shirt about saving languages. Does your picture show what is below that last line? I follow many sites about endangered languages. Just wondering if that guy is "advertising" one I haven't found yet.

No, that's where the picture I was given ends.

[rdearman]

That guy is Dave Prine, who is my roommate this week! The shirt says:

Love Languages?
Help save them!
Ask me about my talk

Hey polyglots! Endangered
languages
need your help!

At the polyglot Gathering 2019!

His presentation was not long after mine and he is putting all of his links and notes at the URL below.

https://Bit.ly/PG19HELP

[daveprine]

Hey Ser, that picture and the back of the guy's shirt about saving languages. Does your picture show what is below that last line? I follow many sites about endangered languages. Just wondering if that guy is "advertising" one I haven't found yet.

No, that's where the picture I was given ends.

Not advertising a site, per se, but rather a follow-up to my slides (which will need some revising since several were deleted before the presentation). The link was created after I made the shirt, sadly.

I'll be starting tonight and adding the slides by next weekend once I'm done traveling. If you have any questions about anything in particular, let me know. If you want a book on the Essentials of Language Documentation (I forget the title), use this link:

https://www.degruyter.com/page/1897

Hurry, since it expires on May 31 and then a new one is available. (DeGruyter is giving away a free ebook every month.)

[rdearman]

FYI, I think that is the back of Brun Ugle's head in that photo.

Well the Gathering is over now. I did a quick video with Dave which I will post soon on YouTube. However, as usual I will write up my experiences at the Gathering like I do most years here on the forum. I didn't manage to meet Sers friend nor did I got us smack on the face for an extra five points. However I was one of the joint winners of the competition.

Overall the Gathering is great but it does have a tendency to lean heavily toward beginners. Which is in my opinion in a bit of a silly thing since I never saw one badge with less than three or four languages on it. Still we all have to start somewhere. My talk was well-received I believe mainly because everybody wants to do language exchanges at some point. But not everyone is quite sure how to go about it or to find conversation partners.

Two or three of the talks had me thinking about my levels in French and Italian and what I could do to drag them up to a level of C1 or C2. I have been speaking with my roommates at the Gathering and thinking about a little challenge that I can do for myself before the next year is out. I did just about every lecture that was done in Italian this year and there were actually quite a few. While my level has improved it just isn't good enough.

So I was considering making a concerted attempt to get to C1 or C2 in either French or Italian at least for comprehension at a minimum. Brun Ugle suggested then I could use some of the past certification exams to test my current level before starting. I had considered actually going and paying for a certification. The problem with this is however that like the French exam you have to know your level before you start. Although I don't know if Certification testing is an essential requirement for this challenge.

What I believe I will do is a long period of listening-reading combined with some activities such as transcription, shadowing or chorusing, and also translation back and forth. I believe that it would be possible for me to get upwards of a 150 hours solid of this activity done before next year. I do have the conundrum of if I should do French, or if I should do Italian. The most practical and logical thing to do would be to practice French since I plan to spend two to three weeks in Bordeaux sometime early next year. However having considered my feelings toward the French language I decided that I will do a Italian instead.

I don't have all of the steps here but basically the plan is to do the following for approximately 150 hours and total:

1. LR
2. Chorusing
3. translation
4. transcription
5. Language exchanges with natives

I have a large number of obstacles in my way before I can proceed. The first one is finding a sufficient amount of audio and textual things for resources. Chorusing will not be a problem since I wilI have the audio to use for that. Translation should also be easy since I will have the resources. The reason for the language exchanges is to ensure that I am getting corrections from native speakers about pronunciation or grammar mistakes as I move forward. Then address these problems specifically.

I'm hoping that simply overloading my brain with Italian on a daily basis for hours at a time will beat it into submission. I would really like to attend next year's Italian lectures with a C1 or C2 comprehension level. My task at the moment is to collect as many resources as I can possibly find for Italian where there is a book in English and Italian with the audio in Italian as well. So if anyone has a list of resources that I can find for free that would be great and if you have a list of where I can buy audio books with an English text version as well I would love to know. Obviously I'm aware of things like Amazon's Audible and some other stuff but if you have anything more obscure than that let me know.

So that is my scheme or challenge if you prefer, to do 150 hours of LR before the next gathering in Italian. And if it works really well I might also do the same thing for Polish to get to A2 maybe?

Like PM I'm pretty good at setting up plans, but perhaps not so good at following through with them. At the end of the day I think the results might be a lecture that would be well-attended next year

"How I got from B2 to C2 in 150 hours"



The only real problem I can see is getting the assessment for the starting point without using one of those crappy online certification test, and then doing a certification test at the end. But like I said this might not be a requirement simply something which is a nice to have.

Any comments, questions, or suggestions will be gratefully received!