gzt's ambling log

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gzt
White Belt
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:37 pm
Languages: English (N), Esperanto (B2), French (B1). Not learning: Sanskrit (A1), Attic Greek (A1), Russian (A1).
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Re: gzt's ambling log

Postby gzt » Mon Jan 16, 2023 7:06 pm

Kind of stalled a little bit on Les mis, grinding slowly. The text itself is just being a bit slow. Going to start Assimil Using French. Thinking about maybe doing Business French afterward (though I don't care much for the business setting) but the materials are hard to find.
4 x

gzt
White Belt
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:37 pm
Languages: English (N), Esperanto (B2), French (B1). Not learning: Sanskrit (A1), Attic Greek (A1), Russian (A1).
x 126

Re: gzt's ambling log

Postby gzt » Sun Jan 22, 2023 3:51 am

The production quality of Assimil Using French is a bit less than the main course. Also the first few lessons have slightly slow speech.

Tuned in to some Esperanto twitch streamer the other day. Found more Oz books in Esperanto, maybe I'll read more of them, though I'm not familiar with the series beyond the first book.

Considering going to the French meetup this week. And there's an Esperanto meetup Saturday.
5 x

gzt
White Belt
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:37 pm
Languages: English (N), Esperanto (B2), French (B1). Not learning: Sanskrit (A1), Attic Greek (A1), Russian (A1).
x 126

Re: gzt's ambling log

Postby gzt » Thu Feb 23, 2023 12:57 am

About halfway through Assimil Using French. Halfway through Book III of Les Mis, kind of slowed down on that, rarely pick it up, the narrative has just been a bit boring lately. Finished Mortimer, the translation of Terry Pratchett's Mort. Haven't been doing much Esperanto lately, I should pick up a book. I've been plowing through English Pratchett for the last couple months to the exclusion of most other activities. Never read it before.

Considering hopping on the C1 Esperanto test train. Would have to do a bit of work for that.
5 x

gzt
White Belt
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:37 pm
Languages: English (N), Esperanto (B2), French (B1). Not learning: Sanskrit (A1), Attic Greek (A1), Russian (A1).
x 126

Re: gzt's ambling log

Postby gzt » Sat Mar 11, 2023 2:04 am

Finished tome iii of Les Miserables last night. Great stuff.
4 x

gzt
White Belt
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:37 pm
Languages: English (N), Esperanto (B2), French (B1). Not learning: Sanskrit (A1), Attic Greek (A1), Russian (A1).
x 126

Re: gzt's ambling log

Postby gzt » Mon Mar 20, 2023 10:53 am

Still grinding through Assimil Using French, I'm at the part where they're giving you excerpts of literature. Also reading Les Miserables and some translated Terry Pratchett. I'm at a part where Hugo is waxing philosophic so it's slow going. On the one hand, it's not hard language, but on the other, the chapters are long and I have less interest in reading them.

Haven't been doing much Esperanto and I really should.
3 x

gzt
White Belt
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:37 pm
Languages: English (N), Esperanto (B2), French (B1). Not learning: Sanskrit (A1), Attic Greek (A1), Russian (A1).
x 126

Re: gzt's ambling log

Postby gzt » Wed Mar 22, 2023 8:50 pm

I have a chess tournament on April first and i don't want another "chienlit" experience, so I'm going to be a little chill on languages until then. Last night, I decided to try listening to a rather long chapter of Les Miserables, only looking at the text if I couldn't figure out what they were saying, and trying to keep up with any lookups without pausing the audio. Worked fairly well, I think I might keep up with that exercise in the future. I think this was perhaps a relatively easy chapter for it though.
3 x

gzt
White Belt
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:37 pm
Languages: English (N), Esperanto (B2), French (B1). Not learning: Sanskrit (A1), Attic Greek (A1), Russian (A1).
x 126

Re: gzt's ambling log

Postby gzt » Sat Mar 25, 2023 12:33 pm

Finished reading Pratchett's Hogfather in French translation (Le Père Porcher). Don't think I'll pick up another one until I'm done with Les Miserables.
2 x

gzt
White Belt
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:37 pm
Languages: English (N), Esperanto (B2), French (B1). Not learning: Sanskrit (A1), Attic Greek (A1), Russian (A1).
x 126

Re: gzt's ambling log

Postby gzt » Wed Apr 12, 2023 12:58 am

Just finished Using French, the second Assimil French book.
1 x

gzt
White Belt
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:37 pm
Languages: English (N), Esperanto (B2), French (B1). Not learning: Sanskrit (A1), Attic Greek (A1), Russian (A1).
x 126

Re: gzt's ambling log

Postby gzt » Sat Apr 15, 2023 5:29 pm

The first level of Assimil was very helpful for getting my "False Beginner" French back up and getting me acquainted with some new words. Using French was also fairly good, though as with all intermediate stuff, you're certainly going to progress less for the time invested. The latter spends what might be considered a disproportionate amount of time in the passe simple, but if you consider it as preparation for reading, that's fine. If you want education on the finer aspects of the subjunctive, you'll have to turn elsewhere, but you are exposed to pretty much everything, I think (I don't recall if every type of past subjunctive occurred). It's the resource I've used the most in getting back up to speed before starting reading novels again. I don't know how well it works for people who don't already have a base, but as somebody who knew all the grammar and such in advance and got rusty on the vocab and usage, it was pretty good.

As I'm polishing things off, I do have the idle thought of, 'Ah, what next?' I really should perfect my Esperanto and French, but there's always the temptation of something new (or revisiting something old and rusty). Spanish is useful, American Sign Language is useful and very different, I have some background in Russian and want to get back on that, same with German but less background and even more rusty.

Anyway, I'm at the part in Les Mis where Marius and Cosette FINALLY meet.
2 x

gzt
White Belt
Posts: 48
Joined: Fri Sep 23, 2022 11:37 pm
Languages: English (N), Esperanto (B2), French (B1). Not learning: Sanskrit (A1), Attic Greek (A1), Russian (A1).
x 126

Re: gzt's ambling log

Postby gzt » Thu Apr 20, 2023 3:13 am

Listened to RFI news in simple French while on a short run, got pretty much all of it, got the gist and filled in what I missed. Partly not knowing vocab, not recognizing the sound of words, and missing because of distraction/outside noise (probably twice as much as normal). So, very good. I haven't listened to it in a while but was not this good previously.
3 x


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