Systematiker's attempt at a log

[Systematiker]

Here's an update, such as it is.

Spanish
ES Reading: 3189 / 10000 ES Film: 131 / 200
ES NT: 81 / 89
Lots of use, little study. Moved on the NT project. Reading El Aleph (Borges), along with everything I haven't finished yet.

French
FR Reading: 2142 / 10000 FR Film: 79 / 200
FR NT: 17 / 365 FR Bible without Pent: 33 / 90
Again, use but no achievement. No film watched, and no books finished, but some progress in moving the reading list along. I've got to stop starting new things before others are finished (like, the Eco novel in French I've had forever). Base language for some other stuff, which helps.

Portuguese
PT Reading: 0 / 10000 PT Film: 12 / 200
PT NT: 19 / 60
Podcasts only, not even reading lately. On the list to remedy.

Catalan
CAT Reading: 3 / 10000 CAT Film: 5 / 200
I really don't have much opportunity to interact with Catalan, outside of podcasts. I tried to get a novel through interlibrary loan, but it didn't work out. I've actually gone back to finish out Assimil, because otherwise I just don't have much interaction with the written language. I could watch more, but that's a problem all over lately.

Swedish
SV Reading: 460 / 10000 SV Film: 31 / 200
SV NT: 21 / 365
Minor chatting, getting back to reading.

Danish
DK Reading: 72 / 10000 DK Film: 5 / 200
DK NT: 14 / 168
Still really proud of my conversation, but not much more done.

Latin
LAT Reading: 50 / 10000
I read, but I don't remember what, so I can't count it. I'm coming up on a period of using it more.

Ancient Greek
GK Reading: 55 / 10000
Slow and steady wins the race. I do some every week, and try to stretch myself.

Hebrew
Not only doing well, I've re-introduced Modern Hebrew through Assimil, and find it much easier going this time around. I could use some work on the basics for my Biblical grammar, which I intend in the coming weeks.

Korean
After a bit of "what now", I've settled on going through Assimil, followed by FSI. I'm using the French-base course, which isn't a problem, and I can read it, so the transliteration isn't necessary. That makes for an easy start.

Czech
Done a fair bit with the Gospel of John and the Malý Katechiszmus. I probably have 150-200 words of vocabulary, most of which are not terribly useful (Ja som tvoj Boh, nezabiješš, and so on), but I understand copulas, negation, and some pronouns. I've also gotten a native podcast, of which I can on occasion follow a whole sentence.

Dutch
NL Reading: 66 / 10000 NL Film: 20 / 200
Listening to a podcast right now, as it happens.

Gaelic
Memoriying Cros Chríst

Telugu
Anyone have any idea for resources for this? I'd like to get a head start before my friend is back from vacation, but am not really sure where to begin.

Russian
After having to stumble around in it, I'm unsuccessfully resisting the temptation to bring it back. Maybe if I just do a little passive Assimil, it can't hurt, right?

Welsh
Totally didn't spend any time today listening to music and trying to parse it. Nope. Not me.

[Systematiker]

Ten days...my absences seem to be coming back. And I can't really explain a lot of it, I'm not really doing as much as I have been in previous weeks. Well, anyway:

Spanish
ES Reading: 3189 / 10000 ES Film: 131 / 200
ES NT: 84 / 89
On one hand, I feel like I should complete my FSI project, at least to see where it goes. On the other, Spanish is literally giving me what I want out of it right now, as I'm reading Borges without problem and it's not like I've got a lot of opportunity to speak at the moment. I'd like to wrap the project up, to be honest, and maybe find more time to watch more film.

French
FR Reading: 2142 / 10000 FR Film: 79 / 200
FR NT: 17 / 365 FR Bible without Pent: 33 / 90
French hasn't been doing much at all in the last few days. I'm pretty comfortable, but would like to work on these projects I've got and get better.

Portuguese
PT Reading: 0 / 10000 PT Film: 12 / 200
PT NT: 19 / 60
Ha! I've at least been listening to some podcasts...

Catalan
CAT Reading: 3 / 10000 CAT Film: 5 / 200
I did a few lessons in Assimil, but couldn't sustain it. A couple of times I started to watch something and got interrupted. One of the least useful languages I mess with, to be honest, but it holds a lot of attraction.

Swedish
SV Reading: 460 / 10000 SV Film: 31 / 200
SV NT: 31 / 365
I didn't really get back to reading much, but I'm trying to catch up on my NT project, and have been listening to a few podcasts. The breaks seem to have done my ability some good.

Danish
DK Reading: 72 / 10000 DK Film: 5 / 200
DK NT: 14 / 168
Some stuff to read, none of which I've finished, and some podcasts. I've gotten to a really good point in listening, at least, and when I do the Danish morning prayer podcast can say the prayers along with it.

Latin
LAT Reading: 50 / 10000
Bäh

Ancient Greek
GK Reading: 50 / 10000
I'd be screwed on this if I didn't have to do something every week, but I wish I could make myself do more with it.

Hebrew
Playing around with Assimil again, it makes a lot more sense this time. I'm only progressing when I feel comfortable with it, though, which means I've only done a few lessons.

Korean
Assimil Korean needs attention, I've simply neglected it a couple of days. It's a good regimen for me at the moment.

Czech
Oh, what a mess. I thought for sure I would be able to do the Subs2SRS without a problem, but what I actually have are two .srt files and the .mp4, not a DVD, and the actual program was more complicated than I wanted to mess with. So I'm going to add the subtitles manually into Anki (also, they're not set right in relation to one another, so it wouldn't work anyway), and work with that. Eventually.

Dutch
NL Reading: 66 / 10000 NL Film: 20 / 200
A couple isolated podcasts

Gaelic
Still working on that poem

Telugu
I know a bit of the alphabet, now, still working on that. Got some decent resources, though.



The consolation in all of this is that I can look to the last month and a half or so, and see an across-the-board improvement in my ability to use almost every language I work on, especially in the area I neglect the most (actually speaking to people). I feel as if I'm coming back to things I neglect stronger (bow wave, anyone?).

[Systematiker]

Again, I wait forever for an update, but don't have much to show for it.

Spanish
ES Reading: 4092 / 10000 ES Film: 133 / 200
ES NT: 89 / 89
Here's where the progress has been made - that felt good. I've seen an increase in my reading speed as well. Borges had a fair few new words for me, not all of which I bothered to look up.

French
FR Reading: 2142 / 10000 FR Film: 80 / 200
FR NT: 17 / 365 FR Bible without Pent: 33 / 90
I've watched a tiny bit, and been listening to more podcasts, and feel like I'm better at listening when there's something else going on, with faster speakers, or with unclear speakers. Still a ways to go, though, and at some point I'd like to make my active skills a bit more, well, active.

Portuguese
PT Reading: 0 / 10000 PT Film: 12 / 200
PT NT: 19 / 60
I've been listening more, and feel like I'm doing better here as well. I would like to take the time to read some more, but I've got so many things started, I can't really seem to find the time to make progress on much of anything.

Catalan
CAT Reading: 3 / 10000 CAT Film: 5 / 200
A bit more Catalan listening than normal, and otherwise just some good intentions about getting back to my film and reading. I might try to start a Catalan NT plan, now that my Spanish NT slot is free. But then I'm not really working on any of the other plans, so...

Swedish
SV Reading: 460 / 10000 SV Film: 31 / 200
SV NT: 21 / 365
A few podcasts, and some theology works in Swedish (but only parts, so I didn't record them). I need to catch up on that NT plan, it's small bits...

Danish
DK Reading: 72 / 10000 DK Film: 5 / 200
DK NT: 14 / 168
I'm enjoying my better listening skills, but not much more.

Latin
LAT Reading: 50 / 10000
Nothing.

Ancient Greek
GK Reading: 47 / 10000
Slowly working through weekly stuff, I'd really like to make time to do more. I think I say this every time, but it's true.

Hebrew
Assimil: 2 / 90
I've done at least some Assimil, right?

Korean
Assimil: 4 / 90
Stalled, but not stopped.

Czech
Mostly more audio. But I did tell Facebook to never translate Czech anymore, because I can stumble through short posts like that part of the time!

Dutch
NL Reading: 66 / 10000 NL Film: 20 / 200
Yeah nothing.

Gaelic
Haven't really made even progress with the poem, but I'd like to

Telugu
Still working on the alphabet in small bits. Got some resources, but my native-speaker-guide seems to be much less excited than before. I guess I'll keep dabbling in it?

Russian
Again, I run into something where I use it, and think, why am I not working on this? And then I remember all the other stuff I don't get done...

Igbo
What? I'm working with an Igbo speaker, and as a lark learned a few phrases, and now he's excited that I learn some more. So I'm probably going to go spend a couple weeks with him next year, and why not make use of it. This is absolutely just dabbling.

[lavengro]

...
Spanish
ES Reading: 3189 / 10000 ES Film: 131 / 200
ES NT: 84 / 89
... Spanish is literally giving me what I want out of it right now, as I'm reading Borges without problem ...

I'm dying from envy a little bit a lot in reading this!

[Elenia]

Your not much is still a lot more than my not much, so well done to you!

[Systematiker]

Here we go - less than a week between log updates, what's up with that?

Spanish
ES Reading: 4401 / 10000 ES Film: 138 / 200
Hey, I'm pretty close to having an SC done in Spanish, look at that. Still using, listening, reading, watching, etc. Spanish is low-effort, and probably won't even get put on pause when I get super busy in a couple of weeks.

French
FR Reading: 2142 / 10000 FR Film: 83 / 200
FR NT: 61 / 365 FR Bible without Pent: 33 / 90
I feel like I'm making progress in French - TV without subtitles isn't really a problem, podcasts are fine, I understand everything I read - but I'm not nearly so comfortable as with Spanish. Well, look at the numbers, silly, that's why.


Portuguese
PT Reading: 0 / 10000 PT Film: 12 / 200
PT NT: 20 / 60
Not much to report here - podcasts and social media.

Catalan
CAT Reading: 3 / 10000 CAT Film: 6 / 200
I've been watching again, and should perhaps get back to reading.

Swedish
SV Reading: 460 / 10000 SV Film: 31 / 200
SV NT: 61 / 365
Slow, but steady, progress on reading plans, along with podcasts and the occasional Facebook stuff.

Danish
DK Reading: 72 / 10000 DK Film: 5 / 200
DK NT: 14 / 168
I kind of stalled with Danish, as a time consideration. Slower progress, still working along.

Latin
LAT Reading: 50 / 10000
Small phrases here and there in my regular reading, no concentrated study.

Ancient Greek
GK Reading: 45 / 10000
I'm feeling better about my Greek than, well, ever. I'm not really doing all that much in it, the weekly readings is about it, but I'm parsing super well without recourse to anything else, and picking up on quite a bit of nuance. This is a good working level for the familiar text...which makes me want to go try something less familiar, or even Homeric...

Hebrew
Assimil: 3 / 90
LR Psalms First Pass: 5 / 150
Only moving on Assimil when I have complete understanding, but I've also decided to do a few passes of LR on the Psalms (I know them pretty well!). First pass is all Hebrew, audio and text, sometimes with a pre-read and sometimes without.


Korean
Assimil: 5 / 90
I'm not confident that Assimil is really doing anything for my Korean, but I can't summon up the effort to do much more, so...

Czech
I think I'm going to have to drop out of Rick's study. My data is so skewed from some unexpected stuff coming up, and in just a week and a half I'll be gone for over a month (longer than anticipated!). This has been a neat little challenge, but if I'm going to actually learn any Czech, I should probably get a little bit of a foundation instead of the puzzling I'm doing. I've had issues with the framework of the study, including a trainwreck of attempting to set up SRS and losing a notebook where I was attempting goldlists. I really am on the verge of just saying forget the study (in both groups, my Korean isn't doing much for it either!) and running through some of the learning materials I have available. I feel like I get a great deal of mileage out of what I've done already, and I imagine it wouldn't be hard to bang it up to a point where I could comfortably let it passively grow (maybe). That said, I'm also leaving in a week and a half...

Dutch
NL Reading: 66 / 10000 NL Film: 20 / 200
Nothing here, the bar is just in my outline file.

Gaelic
I still haven't memorized that poem, but I did read some other ones...

Russian
I've been exposed to a rather interesting, if obscure in the anglophone world, philosopher (Lev Shestov) who engages with stuff
I'm very interested in. A friend of mine shared some things with me, and bemoaned that one of the most interesting works was only ever published in Russian and a long-out-of-print French version. Lo and behold, the Russian version is online. I'm going to sit down with it and a dictionary and see what sense I can make of it - and this gives me more motivation for Russian than "you invested a fair amount of time in it" and some people that I really don't talk to very much any more.

Anglo-Saxon
Today's September 14th, so I read through, and read aloud, the Dream of the Rood. Crist wæs on rode.

Igbo
Just playing with this a bit still. I've got a few phrases, and have looked at the tonal rules - but I'm not going to dive in until I'm sure I'm really going to have an opportunity to use it.

Telugu
I've gotten radio silence from the native speaker that was supposed to work with me on Telugu (and interestingly, he was to work with professionally as well - what's going on with this guy). So I'm just playing with an app for learning the alphabet. If I don't hear from him by the time I manage to learn the alphabet reliably, I may just chalk this up to an experience with another script.

Scots
SCO Reading: 25 / 10000
Did some reading.

[Systematiker]

I'm not far from doing no language study at all - this coming Sunday I leave for a week-long retreat, where I won't do much, and the following Sunday afternoon I"ll leave for my month away. I will be lucky there to do anything in any language other than English most days.

That said, I'm 5 hours and 500 pages away from having a Spanish SC done, so I wonder if I can get that in before I go.

I didn't really stick with the plan, even though I knew this was coming up - I'm probably going to lose a fair amount of ground in Korean, at least, taking so much time off (but perhaps not that much, because I haven't been doing all that much!). I will likely lose all the Czech I've gained, which also wasn't much.

However, I'm reasonably confident that I won't really see a loss in anything else. I'll have the chance to listen a bit, or read a bit, and I really don't have to expend much effort at all do do those things in Spanish, French, Portuguese, Catalan, Swedish, or Danish. Or German, of course. Depending on how the free time falls, I may even be able to log a bit of progress on a few days. So I'm really not worried about any of those. Latin and Greek and Hebrew have been swimming around at about the same level for years - a month of little practice isn't going to do much. And Dutch seems to always be there, waiting on me to do something, but never really losing much even when I ignore it, so it won't hurt either. My movements in the direction of Modern Hebrew will probably be wiped out, but I managed that on my own once already, so who cares.

I do wish I had had the motivation, discipline, and above all time, to really stick to the plan for Korean and get, well, somewhere. Yet, who knows if I would have really been able to get to a point where I wouldn't be seeing significant losses anyway. And I kind of wish I had finished FSI Spanish, since I never did, but I'm pretty comfortable speaking at the moment so I'm not sure if it wouldn't be diminishing returns (see that logic right there?).

I'll pick back up with Czech and Korean after I get back, and lay out some plans for perhaps activating French in the way that has been working so well for Spanish (or Swedish, despite it being less useful, a run through FSI is only like 18 lessons, right?). Maybe I'll go ahead and restart Modern Hebrew then as well. And with the new year, I'll make a whole new set of plans, and see where it gets me - or maybe I'll stop, it's getting hard to maintain all these, and I'm already having to do a balancing act (but Russian...and Gaelic...and...).

A lot of words to say: I didn't do what I wanted to do, but I'm not very disappointed with the results anyway.

[Systematiker]

I'm back!

My time away was a far greater demand on my temporal resources than anticipated, so I pretty much didn't use my "free time" for much of anything other than playing catch-up, although I did get to watch some video on a couple different days. I did absolutely no TL reading of any kind while I was gone.

While away, I did get to hang out with a couple of Spanish-native speakers (a few of us who speak Spanish and those native speakers, along with a couple of native-bilinguals, had a couple "Spanish-only days" which was fun) and work with a couple of native-Korean chaplains (who were kind enough to practice with me a bit as well). So I had some unexpected production.

We're now on baby watch, with the due date having been moved up (and I was worried about being back before baby comes!), so who knows what the coming week or so will hold. Probably not a whole lot of posting here (I did log in an read posts once while I was away, so I've only got half a forum to catch up on...).

[Systematiker]

Alright, since I've gotten back and re-adjusted (somewhat!), it's probably about time to have one of those posts where I take a look at what I'm doing.

Languages I Wanted or Needed

German
At this point I think I have successfully navigated all of what caused my worries about German back when I came "back" to this forum (well, "back" and found out that it existed and that there was a move here from HTLAL). A lot of my issues were stress-related and being in the middle of that translation project. No, I'm probably not as eloquent as when I was teaching at the LMU. Yes, I have a slight accent now, because I'm not speaking and hearing it constantly. Having those things probably isn't realistic where I'm at now. I'm still 99% as good as ever.

Spanish
I've gone from "I should speak Spanish" to falling in love with the language in the last year. Spanish is a regular part of my life, and gets used way more often than I ever thought I would after the move. Spanish now feels like German did in 2010 or so, and I'm beginning to get a vision for not being productively limited in the language. I'm not always in love with the popular culture that happens in the language, with some exceptions; Spanish is a language for me that's about being with people (you know, or literature). I would like to actually finish those FSI drills, to see how much more active facility I can get out of them, and then I don't know. Keep on with film and reading, and talk to my friends.

French
I don't really remember why I learned French, aside from the vague feeling of obligation that one has to speak French, and my wife. And a trip to France. But in the meantime, I've come to enjoy it, and enjoy using it (and the film!) - though I don't really have much opportunity to speak it, and I don't think I have any connections with people that happen exclusively, or even mostly, in French. And yet I've done enough in French that it works for me, and it's not going anywhere - and since it seems to be following Spanish on a 3-4 month lag, I guess I'll see what happens. Probably something similar to Spanish, see what I can activate and hold on to and keep using it.

Latin
I had to learn Latin, and have to use Latin in my research. I'd love to have better Latin, and would love to be able to compose Latin, but really, it's good enough for what I need at present, and I'm probably not going to do more than slowly gain receptive skill by use and reading.

Ancient Greek
I'm better at Greek than I've been in a long time, maybe better than I've ever been. Part of me is ready for that next step in composition. Part of me thinks the other part of me is an idiot. A third part of me eyeballs things in Modern Greek and says "hey, you could pick that up super easily." Tentatively, I'd like to start some more intensive work with Greek...but maybe after Christmas.

Hebrew
I keep making jaunts into Modern Hebrew, and trying new things to brush up/learn more in Ancient Hebrew, and just haven't been successful diligent. Watch this space in a couple weeks for the "New Year Plan" like I did last year.

Languages I Ended Up With

Bavarian
So, it's neat to have a command of it, but it's not like I use it, or have opportunity to. It would be great not to lose too much - but how?

Swabian
This I care about more, and actually work with from time to time. I'd love to be able to fully switch, and not fake it (read: I can perform as a typical Swabian of my age who had mandatory Hochdeutsch, but have to do so even in fully Swabian situations, I have to use Hochdeutsch as a crutch. No one notices, but I know the difference).

Scots
Let's be honest, learning Scots was for the worst possible reason (making my stupid 7-27 goal) and I have no plan or purpose. But I have a New Testament, and it's kind of cool.

Dutch
It just never goes away. Seriously, even if I say I'm simply not enamored with Dutch and I don't know why I learned it, I'll end up reading news articles or something in Dutch. And I've got a lot of sunk-cost in it. So I'll probably never let it rust into oblivion, but unless I have a major change, I probably won't really do much intentional with it.

Portuguese
Portuguese was a "well, why not" language, and I'm enjoying it. I've no need for it, it doesn't really give me access to much that I didn't already have access to, and I don't know what I'm doing with it, but it's fun.

Catalan
See Portuguese, only more so because it's a minority language. And actually, I like it more, which of course is a pain because of a dearth of stuff I actually want to do in the language.

Swedish
Started as a lark, and actually became really useful. I've had a lot of opportunity to use it, and it actually does let me do things I wasn't aware I was missing out on. Swedish has actually become a pretty normal part of my life now.

Danish
Everything I said for Swedish applies here, mutatis mutandis.

Languages I Don't Really "Have" Yet

Korean
If you've been following this log, you've heard me complain about my lack of ability discipline and the hard lazy path I have had learning Korean. I've got plenty of reasons to learn it, there's media and people that I care about, and it would be truly useful. I'm either going to learn this language, or spend another decade complaining about not learning it.

Russian
I really need to bite the bullet on this and learn Russian. I keep running into opportunities to use it, and stumble through a bit, but it would be a major thing for me to be able to use it. I just have to find the time discipline to grind through the tough bits.

Gaelic
This was fun, and I really enjoyed it. Cuts are going to have to happen, though, I can't balance all I've got. I don't know if Gaelic will make it, and if it does, if I'll ever do more than dabble.

Welsh
Same as Gaelic, with less likelihood of making it.

Euskara
Basque, on the other hand, fascinates me still. I don't know if anything short of a major commitment will result in anything other than it being my new Korean, though, so I'm hesitant.

Languages I've Dabbled in "Recently"

Finnish
Mercilessly cut. It was neat to play along, and it would actually be occasionally useful, but at the moment, just nope.

Chaldean
It was fun to play with, and maybe I'll revisit it someday, but - cut.

Anglo-Saxon
I have no plans to do active study at this point. I can puzzle it out, and I read things now and again (at least once a year!), but unless the bug really bites me, it's on ice.

Telugu
Cut

Igbo
Cut

Czech
And here I wrestle, because I've really grown to like the language and the culture. I look at what I want out of other languages and I have to ask, can I do anything with Czech without imperiling those? I frankly don't know. Well, I'll figure it out in the next couple of weeks.

That Other List
(This could probably be a lot longer, but I'll limit myself to my main three temptations.)

Swahili
This would be super useful, I've got resources, but I don't have capacity. And isn't there going to be a group on this anyway at some point?

Afrikaans
Man, I still want to learn this. The "why" of it is what stops me, even the relatively low bar of another Germanic language is enough, given what I've got on my plate, to need a long-term goal for it, and I just don't have one.

Italian
I swear, the only thing keeping me from launching into Italian is the idea that my wife and I were going to revisit it together, and since that looks like it might be years off...no, no, I made a promise...


None of this is news to anyone who has been following what I write. It just helps me keep my thoughts in order.
As I begin to plan for the new year, I'm making a mental distinction between languages I'm actively "studying" and ones that I'm using (to a greater or lesser degree) and polishing (to a greater or lesser degree, independent of the former). The polishing bit is what makes languages that otherwise would just be background to life take more time and effort.

You know what would have been interesting? Reaching my growth/polishing goals in the languages I'm comfortable in so I could just use them when useful. Because then I could really take a look at some effort into active study. On the other hand, I took the timer off myself for exactly that reason. There's something in here, I'm not sure what quite yet.

[Xenops]

Welcome back! Any news of the wife and kid yet?

I understand your frustration of liking too many languages, but I think limiting the number you study is a fine idea. I’m curious to know what doors opened for you when you have some knowledge of Swedish and Danish?