Grayson's Language Log

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grayson
Yellow Belt
Posts: 59
Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2022 1:46 pm
Location: Netherlands
Languages: English (N)
Dutch (fluent)
Spanish (false beginner)
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Re: Grayson's Language Log

Postby grayson » Mon Nov 07, 2022 5:38 pm

WEEK 45 – In which I start logging weekly progress

I've settled on a routine that should take me through several months before it needs revising. See the footnotes for details. Progress so far:

FRENCH – Assimil's with Ease – lessons 1–2.
GERMAN – Assimil's zonder moeite – lessons 1–2.
MANDARIN – Princeton's First Step – lesson 1.
SPANISH – Assimil's with Ease – on pre-order; waiting for it to arrive.
DUTCH – Renkema's Schrijfwijzer (6th ed.) – voorwoord (preface [1]).
ENGLISH – Garner's Modern English Usage (4th ed.) – both prefaces & "Language Wars" essay.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Penrose's Road to Reality – pp 1–19.
Maudlin's Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity – preface & pp 1–5.
Baggott's Quantum Cookbook – preface & pp 1–3.



FOOTNOTES
[0] Why not keep polishing my best languages, too? Hence the entries for Dutch and English. I've consulted Renkema and Garner for years; now I'll go through their guides from front to back. Of course I bought the latest editions of both, to avoid missing any changes. In case you're wondering if I'll find this reading to be a slog, I'll let Garner speak for me from his preface to the first edition, back when it was Modern American Usage: "...on a wintry evening while visiting New Mexico at the age of 16, I discovered Eric Partridge's Usage and Abusage. I was enthralled. Never had I held a more exciting book." Just so.
[1] Not
foreword, despite the resemblance; Renkema wrote it himself, so it's a preface. Dutch uses the same word for both.
[2] The physics reading is blatantly not language-related, but it's short enough that I hope you'll tolerate my including it here to track progress. On methodology: I usually gobble down information, understanding it all as I go but later unable to reconstruct it — I suspect because I don't give myself time to truly digest anything before I whizz on to the next page or chapter. So I'll keep reading sessions short, one small section or idea, and see if that aids retention. Since sessions will be shorter, I can read three books instead of one, and benefit from the complementarity. (Terrible pun not intended, but now that it's there...)
[3] Still undecided about going back to academia. Will attend the linguistics department's "experience day" on November 25, mainly to see how they respond to me. I don't mind some initial surprise ("are you here with your son or daughter?") but I experienced some nasty ageism at a different uni in 2019 and want to test the waters here.

5 x
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~~~
Much madness is divinest sense, to a discerning eye; much sense, the starkest madness. —Emily Dickinson

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grayson
Yellow Belt
Posts: 59
Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2022 1:46 pm
Location: Netherlands
Languages: English (N)
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Re: Grayson's Language Log

Postby grayson » Mon Nov 14, 2022 3:50 pm

WEEK 46

FRENCH – Assimil's with Ease – lessons 3–9.
GERMAN – Assimil's zonder moeite – lessons 3–9.
MANDARIN – Princeton's First Step – lessons 1–2. [0]
SPANISH – Assimil's with Ease – on pre-order; still waiting for it to arrive.
DUTCH – Renkema's Schrijfwijzer (6th ed.) – pp 1–33.
ENGLISH – Garner's Modern English Usage (4th ed.) – "Ongoing Tumult" essay & pp 1–4.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Penrose's Road to Reality – pp 20–62.
Maudlin's Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity – pp 6–17.
Baggott's Quantum Cookbook – pp 4–7.



FOOTNOTES
[0] I've now ordered the accompanying workbook and will "catch up" on lessons 1 & 2 when it arrives.

5 x
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~~~
Much madness is divinest sense, to a discerning eye; much sense, the starkest madness. —Emily Dickinson

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grayson
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Re: Grayson's Language Log

Postby grayson » Mon Nov 21, 2022 4:44 pm

WEEK 47

FRENCH – Assimil's with Ease – lessons 8–11.
GERMAN – Assimil's zonder moeite – lessons 8–11.
MANDARIN – Princeton's First Step – lessons 1–3. [0]
SPANISH – Assimil's with Ease – on pre-order; waiting for it to arrive.
DUTCH – Renkema's Schrijfwijzer (6th ed.) – pp 34–41.
ENGLISH – Garner's Modern English Usage (4th ed.) – pp 4–6.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Penrose's Road to Reality – pp 63–93.
Maudlin's Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity – pp 17–18.
Baggott's Quantum Cookbook – pp 8–11.



FOOTNOTES
[0] Amazon canceled my workbook order; apparently the book was damaged in transit? To which my response would be to pack up another one and send it to me, but apparently Amazon's response is to cancel the whole shebang. Waiting for the refund, then will order again.

4 x
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~~~
Much madness is divinest sense, to a discerning eye; much sense, the starkest madness. —Emily Dickinson

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grayson
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Re: Grayson's Language Log

Postby grayson » Sat Nov 26, 2022 4:59 pm

Friday was Experience Day for the bachelor's program in linguistics at Leiden University, and it was fabulous. The lectures were fascinating (an introduction to the endangered language Siona, spoken on the border between Ecuador and Colombia, then a tutorial on verb structures in that language), but I'd expected that. What I hadn't expected was how perfect their response to me as old-lady-among-18-year-olds would be.

I'd expected some polite confusion about why I was there without a son or daughter, and hoped they would rapidly adjust to the concept of me being there for myself. What happened instead was no confusion about my status whatsoever. Aside from one student who used the Dutch formal "you" when he spoke to me — which is simply polite; his parents would be pleased, I'm sure — no one gave any indication they even noticed my age. It couldn't have gone better.

This is, of course, how things should be. I only feared they wouldn't because three years ago, an absolute ogre of a woman at the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation in Amsterdam made a huge deal out of my age and heavily discouraged me from even applying. Unfortunately for me, she was the head of the two-person admissions committee, and my application was rejected. I haven't experienced that kind of inappropriate power play at my expense in a long, long time. It had never occurred to me, before then, that my age would be any kind of barrier to higher education. Why would it be? But it was, and I bore the brunt of this woman's prejudice.

I'm so relieved that it was indeed just one petty person I had the misfortune to encounter, and not endemic to the academic culture here.
8 x
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~~~
Much madness is divinest sense, to a discerning eye; much sense, the starkest madness. —Emily Dickinson

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grayson
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Re: Grayson's Language Log

Postby grayson » Mon Nov 28, 2022 4:42 pm

WEEK 48

FRENCH – Assimil's with Ease – lessons 12–18.
GERMAN – Assimil's zonder moeite – lessons 12–18.
MANDARIN – Princeton's First Step – lessons 3–5.
SPANISH – Assimil's with Ease – on pre-order; waiting for it to arrive.
DUTCH – Renkema's Schrijfwijzer (6th ed.) – pp 42–61.
ENGLISH – Garner's Modern English Usage (4th ed.) – pp 7–11.
- - - - - - - - - - -
Penrose's Road to Reality – pp 94–128.
_|____ Needham's Visual Complex Analysis – pp 1–9. [0]
_|____ Stillwell's Mathematics and Its History – pp 1–33.
Maudlin's Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity – pp 19–26.
Baggott's Quantum Cookbook – pp 12–18.



FOOTNOTES
[0] I've taken some of Penrose's "further reading" suggestions to heart, to help me follow Penrose himself.

4 x
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~~~
Much madness is divinest sense, to a discerning eye; much sense, the starkest madness. —Emily Dickinson

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grayson
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Re: Grayson's Language Log

Postby grayson » Thu Dec 01, 2022 7:21 am

So... I've been admitted to the Leiden University bachelor's program in linguistics, to start on September 1.

Image
13 x
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Caromarlyse
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Posts: 387
Joined: Fri Dec 06, 2019 2:31 pm
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Re: Grayson's Language Log

Postby Caromarlyse » Thu Dec 01, 2022 8:13 am

grayson wrote:So... I've been admitted to the Leiden University bachelor's program in linguistics, to start on September 1.


Congratulations!
3 x

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Elsa Maria
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Re: Grayson's Language Log

Postby Elsa Maria » Thu Dec 01, 2022 3:53 pm

Very exciting news! Congrats!
2 x
Corrections are always welcome.

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grayson
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Re: Grayson's Language Log

Postby grayson » Mon Dec 05, 2022 10:47 am

WEEK 49

A very light week for study; we celebrated surprise (sur-PREEZ-uh; Dutch Secret Santa) on Saturday and I spent the week concocting my masterpiece ;) and cleaning and stocking the house for a weekend of our older kids + their partners being here.

FRENCH – Assimil's with Ease – lesson 19.
GERMAN – Assimil's zonder moeite – lesson 19.
MANDARIN – Princeton's First Step – lesson 5.
SPANISH – Assimil's with Easeon pre-order; waiting for it to arrive.

I've cancelled this order, both because it's taking forever and because, as I start to plan the 9 months before my full-time return to uni, I've discovered that Assimil's beyond-beginner offerings are spotty to none in languages I speak well enough to learn in. Even the English-language Using French follow-up to the with Ease book is out of stock on Assimil's website. I'm currently exploring where I'll turn instead. More on the plan for 2023 in a later post.

DUTCH – Renkema's Schrijfwijzer (6th ed.) – pp 62–64.
ENGLISH – Garner's Modern English Usage (4th ed.) – p 12.
- - - - - - - - - - -

Penrose's Road to Reality – pp 129–135.

This is the last week I'll track reading Penrose; I'm putting it aside. Despite my stronger-than-average math and physics background, the book moves too quickly for me. It's fascinating to see Penrose's mind at work, and I love listening to him lecture, but this book is probably more useful as a reference for extra insight once you already know all the pieces he covers.

Maudlin's Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity – [no progress].
Baggott's Quantum Cookbook – [no progress].
7 x
gbmj.net | my 2024 log | my 2024 life areas | my 2024 commitments
~~~
Much madness is divinest sense, to a discerning eye; much sense, the starkest madness. —Emily Dickinson

User avatar
grayson
Yellow Belt
Posts: 59
Joined: Sat Sep 17, 2022 1:46 pm
Location: Netherlands
Languages: English (N)
Dutch (fluent)
Spanish (false beginner)
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Re: Grayson's Language Log

Postby grayson » Mon Dec 12, 2022 4:19 pm

WEEK 50

Lots happening in non-language life; I'll be returning to full-time work in January, to fill the eight months until the linguistics program starts next September. Funny how that works — now that I know what my next big project is, my sabbatical feels complete, and I've just got eight months of waiting ahead of me! As promised, I'll write more later on what all this means for my language study in 2023. I won't be stopping — just reorganizing. Meanwhile, here's what I did last week:

FRENCH – Assimil’s with Ease – lessons 20–26.
GERMAN – Assimil’s zonder moeite – lessons 20–24.
MANDARIN – Princeton’s First Step – [no progress].
SPANISH – Card’s La tierra desprevenida – pp 1–8.

Last week I scrapped the Assimil course because it was taking forever to arrive; rather than replace it with other Spanish lessons, I've opted to jump straight into novels. The dictionary is definitely my friend right now, but grammar isn't giving me any trouble — I recognize the verb tenses etc. from all those years of Spanish instruction long ago. I'm looking up about two words per sentence, on average.

I first thought I'd read some familiar favorites in translation, but when I saw how many books there were in the Enderverse that I hadn't read yet, I decided to just read them... in Spanish. It's a lot more engrossing than a rehashed novel, and now my Spanish efforts can do double duty as my nightly pleasure reading. This book is the first novel in the Formic Wars series, set 100 years before the events of Ender's Game.

DUTCH – Renkema’s Schrijfwijzer (6th ed.) – [no progress].
ENGLISH – Garner’s Modern English Usage (4th ed.) – [no progress].
- - - - - - - - - - -
Maudlin’s Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity – [no progress].
Baggott’s Quantum Cookbook – [no progress].
9 x
gbmj.net | my 2024 log | my 2024 life areas | my 2024 commitments
~~~
Much madness is divinest sense, to a discerning eye; much sense, the starkest madness. —Emily Dickinson


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