Lingua's Italian All The Time Log

[lingua]

Because of my ongoing quest of finding more Thai sources I paid for three months of this Malimar TV Network: https://www.malimar.tv/. They have a ton of cooking shows, drama, sports, etc. I started off with AR LOY LEUDAND KUN LID which are only 4-5 minutes and appear to be restaurant reviews. Episode 1 was about a Japanese restaurant and I believe episode 2 was about a Chinese restaurant. They talk about the food of the restaurant as near as I can tell. I only picked up a few words but since food & cooking are just about my favorite thing I decided to concentrate on Thai food vocabulary.

I will say that some of the shows appear to be quite silly but at this point I don't mind. It doesn't seem like there is much in the way of Thai film. A lot of fighting/boxing style and a bit of horror. Since I prefer drama or detective/mystery type I doubt I will be watching many Thai movies.

[lingua]

I watched the first episode of Teungplek Teungkeng today which is a Thai cooking show. I watched through the first time and was able to recognize quite a few words even if I didn't comprehend the entire sentence. Since they displayed some words/phrases on the screen I looked them up and then added them to memrise. I watched a second time listening for the words I had looked up. I'll include these words in my SRS sessions over the next few days and then listen a third time to see if my comprehension improves.

[lingua]

Italian

I continue to do about 20 minute of Italian memrise per day. Including all courses/decks that are in process or completed I have learned 1764 of 13848 words/phrases. I am finding it helpful in my reading as I come a cross quite a few verbs that I've learned in the last couple of months. I finished my first book and reread about 20% of it so I could add the full book to the SC since I started reading it about a week before it started. I plan to continue rereading it slowly as active studying to get some of the vocabulary into my long term memory since I will read the last book in the series at some point. I started a new book called Gastromania. I also want to start L'amica geniale soon which I have in hard copy. I use the Kindle for most of my books.

Also watched one episode of Montalbano (The Scent of the Night) and one episode of Inspector Manara (The Letter of Leopardi). Inspector Manara feels very 70's to me even though it was produced in 2007. I don't really think it's very good but it's easy to listen to so I will complete the series. I had two hours of pro teachers on italki and continue to find it to be a good use of my time and money.

Thai

For Thai I do about 30 minute per day of memrise and have learned 731 of 4066 words/phrases (including all courses/decks that are in process or completed). I end up doing a lot more review with Thai than Italian. I still find Thai difficult but I'm committed to learning it. I watched the first episode of Teungplek Teungkeng one more time after SRSing the terms I'd found for it originally. I am clearly hearing words I recognize. I also watched the 2nd episode but didn't hear much that I recognized so I will be repeating it a few times more. I plan to go through the series slowly. I tried to listen to Glossika and decided that I really didn't like it until I'm at a higher level. Not too long after I purchased Glossika I discovered the producers of the "Learn Thai Podcast" had a course. I wished that I had seen it before as I would not have purchased the Glossika course. So I purchased that course and listened to the first lesson on it. Some of the material is the same as the free podcasts but more extensive. I think it will work much better for me. We also had our weekly session with our Thai tutor and again I was able to recall words that I'd learned so I continue to see progress ever so slowly.

Of all of these words "learned" between Italian & Thai only about 75% are in the LTM according to the stats which is what is reflected in the SRS graph.

[lingua]

Italian

Still spending about 20 minutes a day of Italian memrise per day. Including all courses/decks that are in process or completed I have learned 1980 of 14064 words/phrases. I am not enjoying the book Gastromania as I thought it would be about food and instead the author seems to be on some kind of an anti-foodie rant so I started reading Il Diario di una Cameriera... a Londra (which is an easy read) and am splitting my time between the two so as to keep my frustration level down.

Watched one episode of Montalbano (The Goldfinch and the Cat), one episode of Donna Detective (What Love), two episodes of Inspector Manara (The Green Ray, Chain Reaction), two episodes of Inspector Vivaldi (My Son Episodes 1 & 2) I had only one hour of pro teachers on italki since the other one was not available (most likely due to our holiday weekend). I also listened to about 30 minutes of Italian podcasts.

Thai

I spent about about 30 minute per day of memrise and have learned 800 of 3941 words/phrases. I am flitting from one site to another trying to find something that will work better for the way that I learn. I don't know if it's age (I'm on the wrong side of middle-aged ) or what but I have a hard time remembering Thai words. Some days I seem to remember everything on memrise and the next day barely anything. I watched the second episode of Teungnplek again and plan to watch at least one more time later today. The Learn Thai Podcast course I purchased has a suggested lesson plan so I will be following it starting today doing 10 minutes of a Vocabulary Lesson and 15 minutes of a Grammar Lesson. We had our weekly session with our Thai tutor and learned a lot of new verbs followed by practicing conversations. I also listened to 24 minutes of Thai podcasts.

[lingua]

Italian

Didn't spend as much time on memrise this past week so only increase words by a few for a total of 1988 of 14064. Watched two episodes of Montalbano (Turning Point & Equal Time), three episodes of Inspector Manara (Dreams of Glass, Death of a Cowboy & Strangers in Paradise), two episodes of A Case of Conscience (A Deliberate Accident & Like a Ton of Bricks) & two episodes of Inspector Vivaldi (The Cold Equation & Sins of the Father). Continued to read one of my books but seemed to have given up on the other one for now. Had two hours of italki pro teacher sessions and 11 minutes of podcast.

Thai

Mostly reviewed Thai on memrise so no real change from last week (801/3941). I had a good tutoring session this week to the point where she said she could see my improvement which was nice to hear. I spent quite a bit of time writing sentences and added some verbs to memrise for future learning. I plan this week to listen to more Thai podcasts and watch a cooking show or two.

[lingua]

Italian

memrise: 2015/14064

film:
2 episodes of Montalbano: The spiders patience & Find the lady
5 episodes of Inspector Manara: One body too many, Blessed Among Women, What Lies Beneath, A Wedding with Murder, Lara's Farewell
1 episode of Young Montalbano: The Man Who Followed Funerals
1 episode of A Case of Conscious: Blackout
1 episode of Inspector Nardone: The Everywhere Gang

italki: 3 one hour sessions with pro teachers


Thai

memrise: 803/3941 (continue to do a fair amount of review)

film:
teungplek teungkeng: episode #3 & #4 (watched #3 twice & #4 once)

plus one hour tutoring lesson

My husband and I spent some time with Thai food flashcards (we are studying Thai together) this week. We are happy to see that we're able to read the words without too much problem though we both struggle to get our tones correct. There is so much to remember.

[lingua]

After reading the Extensive LRing thread here http://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=2957 I decided to give a variation of it a try with L'amica geniale by Elena Ferrante since Audible had the Italian version.

I started this book in Italian last week and had felt like I was missing something even though I knew most of the words. Last night I read the first section of English followed by listening to the Italian while following along in Italian. As it turns out I missed nothing in my original reading. I plan to continue with this variation a chapter at a time as I like the recording and it helps with pronunciation of some words that I tend to stumble over.

I also tried another variation with a short book and audio that I picked up called Cibo per il cervello by Erica Bernini who appears to be a self-publishing eBook writer. There is no English for this so I just read and listened at the same time. The book is only 52 pages and the recording about 100 minutes so I will do it a second time reading aloud along with the recording. The language for this book is diet, brain and health which includes many words similar to English so not at all difficult.

[lingua]

I didn't get much done this week due to other commitments. When I first started using memrise I really liked it but now there are some features that are starting to bug me. Even though I have several Italian & Thai decks/courses with daily goals it will show that I already did my goal even though I didn't and then the next day it will show I didn't do anything the day before even though I did. It's as if it lost my time zone but when I check it's correct. The other thing is if you remove a course/deck you will lose them from your total learned words which causes a problem for me since I'm using it to keep track of my SRS goal it's an annoyance.

Italian

memrise: 2075/13970

italki: 1 one hour session with pro teacher

film: 1 episode of Young Montalbano: Room Number Two

books:
after completing the listening/reading of Cibo per il cervello I then reread it without sound since it was so short (only 52 pages).
continued on with the modified LRing of L'amica geniale

Thai

memrise: 795/3049

film: teungplek teungkeng: episode #5 & (watched twice)

ThaiPod 101: How to Greet Someone with Perfect Thai

[lingua]

I haven't done much language related in the last couple of weeks as I've either been out of town or had house guests. I thought I would get more reading done during this time but I doze off after only a few pages of reading.

Italian

memrise: reviewed about 200 words/phrases

film:
Montalbano - Paper Moon
Inspector Manara - Murder in the Bedroom

book: I'm about 80% done with La briscola in cinque a short mystery.

Thai

memrise: reviwed about 300 words/phrases

[lingua]

Italian

memrise: 2200/13079

film:
2 movies: Scusate se esisto! & Nessuno mi può guidicare
2 episodes of Inspector Manara: Miss Maremma & Underwater World
2 episodes of a cooking show on Rai TV: La prova del cuoco (unlike movies, this show is easy to understand)
1 episode of a really stupid show on Rai but I can't recall the name (I did a free one week tryout of Sling TV International Italian but the quality was terrible so I cancelled after about three days)

podcasts: 55 minutes

italki: 3 one hour sessions with pro teachers

book: about 90% done with La briscola in cinque and plan to finish it today

Thai

I will be working on the lessons from the two podcasts even though it will be redundant in some cases. I need to hear more Thai then I'm getting from memrise or my weekly tutor session. And while watching the Thai cooking show is educational from a food culture perspective I undertand very little that is being said.

memrise: 833/3672 (continue to do a fair amount of review)

film: teungplek teungkeng: episode #6 & #7 (once each)

LearnThaiPodcast:
Holiday Thai Lesson 1: Introduction and Basic Words and Phrases

ThaiPod101:
Getting Started (basic phrases)