Jeff's language log

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jeff_lindqvist
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3135
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2015 9:52 pm
Languages: sv, en
de, es
ga, eo
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fi, yue, ro, tp, cy, kw, pt, sk
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2773
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Re: Jeff's language log

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Wed Jun 14, 2017 12:01 pm

2017 - Summary of week 23

Not much apart from Duolingo and Anki.

I've finished four books, among them Rise of the Dungeon Master (by David Kushner) - a graphic novel about the life of Gary Gygax, creator of D&D (which some of us love), and The Story of Be (by David Crystal). Yes, the story of the verb. :ugeek:

Inspired by an ongoing discussion about learning Czech, I've looked around for resources just in case I wanted to participate. It seems I am somewhat well prepared - but my textbook is from 1969.

I've signed up for Cainntear's online learning tool for Scottish Gaelic. It was a while since I had a look at that language (mid 1990s?).
0 x
Leabhair/Greannáin léite as Gaeilge: 9 / 18
Ar an seastán oíche: Oileán an Órchiste
Duolingo - finished trees: sp/ga/de/fr/pt/it
Finnish with extra pain : 100 / 100

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jeff_lindqvist
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3135
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2015 9:52 pm
Languages: sv, en
de, es
ga, eo
---
fi, yue, ro, tp, cy, kw, pt, sk
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2773
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Re: Jeff's language log

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Mon Jun 19, 2017 11:04 pm

2017 - Summary of week 24

It was a week mostly devoted to Scottish Gaelic. After signing up (and logging in), I took the pre-course quiz, feeling very rusty as I hadn't studied the language for years (nor written it!). During the following days I worked with module 1 and then completed progress check 1. I got an email today (Monday) saying that module 2 is now unlocked.

After reading the crossover threads about Slovak/Czech/DVD/subtitles/SRS I kind of decided to take part in Rdearman's six month project (starting on the 31st of June). I haven't yet decided which of the two languages it'll be.

Systematiker linked to a prehistoric thread from HTLAL which inspired me to study some Russian. Time to shadow my Assimil course.

I saw Ip Man 3 and got inspired to study some Cantonese again. And thought I might as well choose this language instead with "native content" approach, if I can only figure out how to convert the .srt files into pure Cantonese.

Today I noticed that Dan Brown's Inferno had been returned to the library, so I borrowed it again (plus Инферно). Time for more bilingual reading!

A new week, and more time for languages. If only it could rain. Summer is here to stay and I don't like the heat.
4 x
Leabhair/Greannáin léite as Gaeilge: 9 / 18
Ar an seastán oíche: Oileán an Órchiste
Duolingo - finished trees: sp/ga/de/fr/pt/it
Finnish with extra pain : 100 / 100

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Systematiker
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Posts: 823
Joined: Tue May 10, 2016 6:09 pm
Languages: ENG (N); DEU (C2+) // SWG (~C1); BAR (~C1); SPA (4/3); FRA (~C1); SCO (~C1); NLD (~B2*); LAT (Latinum Bavaricum); GRC (Graecum Bavaricum); CAT (~B2*); POR (~B2*); SWE (~B2*); HBO (Hebraicum); DAN (~B1*); RUS (~A2); KOR (~A1); FAS (still a raw beginner)
*Averaged for high receptive skill
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7332
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Re: Jeff's language log

Postby Systematiker » Tue Jun 20, 2017 12:50 am

jeff_lindqvist wrote:
I saw Ip Man 3 and got inspired to study some Cantonese again. And thought I might as well choose this language instead with "native content" approach, if I can only figure out how to convert the .srt files into pure Cantonese.



Ip Man 3 was surprisingly good - I figured that far into the series they'd just be making money off it, but it was very well executed, and Donnie Yen masterful as ever. And I've got a special place in my heart for Wing Chun.

Edit: I cannot type
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jeff_lindqvist
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
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Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2773
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Re: Jeff's language log

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Sun Jun 25, 2017 10:18 pm

2017 - Summary of week 25

Finally a week when I have time to write a summary before the week has ended!

Duolingo - level up again - I reached level 20 in Spanish (which is now next to Irish and German). I'll reach level 17 in French/Italian/Portuguese within a day or two.

Daily Anki sessions - a few Mandarin cards I created April 20th 2008 are now due *drum roll* on October 30th 2024 (!).

I've done a few more lessons in Scottish Gaelic from the language learning research. So far, the grammar works like Irish, and the vocabulary is basically the same, but the writing is sometimes different.

In another thread I mentioned that I borrowed ten children's books in Portuguese, and yesterday I had a go. I read each one aloud and finished the whole lot in exactly 30 minutes. Not a lot of words, as you can imagine.

Inspired by the recent threads on shadowing (and some dinosaur threads from HTLAL) I charged my old mp3 player and went for a 45 minute walk while shadowing Assimil Le russe sans peine. It was fun! I haven't listened to that content in years. Another 45 minute walk (different track) two hours ago. Both tracks are ~4.5 kilometres.

Inspired by a recent post in Jinx's log I re-discovered Bliu Bliu. It's an effortless way of reading while picking up vocabulary on the way.
2 x
Leabhair/Greannáin léite as Gaeilge: 9 / 18
Ar an seastán oíche: Oileán an Órchiste
Duolingo - finished trees: sp/ga/de/fr/pt/it
Finnish with extra pain : 100 / 100

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jeff_lindqvist
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3135
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2015 9:52 pm
Languages: sv, en
de, es
ga, eo
---
fi, yue, ro, tp, cy, kw, pt, sk
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2773
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Re: Jeff's language log

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Mon Jul 03, 2017 11:10 pm

2017 - Summary of week 26

This was a reasonably productive week for languages.

<Anki stats alert> (sentence-heavy languages)
Esperanto
Mature: 15461 (~1000 more than last check)
Young+Learn: 970
Unseen: 7378
Suspended+Buried: 0
Total cards: 23809 (one added card since May!)

Mandarin
Mature: 23052 (also about 1000 more than in May)
Young+Learn: 997
Unseen: 3449
Suspended+Buried: 0
Total cards: 27498

Portuguese
Mature: 9169 (again, ~1000 more than in May)
Young+Learn: 981
Unseen: 68301
Suspended+Buried: 0
Total cards: 78451
</Anki>

It seems that my daily Anki routine results in a thousand mature cards over a two-month period. I hadn't really thought about that until I decided to check the stats a few minutes ago.

Duolingo - I realised that level 17 requires 10500 points and not 10100, so no level up yet. In a few days...

A lot of reading! Mostly Swedish and English, but also one in Norwegian (about Norwegian as a neighbouring language).

EO: Chatting on Amikumu a couple of times a week. Yesterday I found a speaker 1 km from me - obvíously a tourist.

GA: As I said in the Celtic study group thread, I started reading Jules Verne again. Occasionally I understand a whole sentence, sometimes only a few words. All in good time.

GD: Unless there is more to come, I finished Cainntear's lessons (including all the progress checks) and got some inspiration to keep it up. Who knows how and when.

PT: I finished another children's book, and started reading Paolo Coelho's "O Alquemista" which I once acquired in a second hand bookstore for €1.

RU: In a little more than one week (nine days, I think), I used Assimil Le nouveau russe sans peine as my shadowing material during my walks. I finished the second round of the whole material halfway through my eleventh walk.

I finally signed up for Rdearman's Native Materials Study but at this point I'm not sure which language I will choose (and for that matter, which method). The only language for which I have a lot of DVD material with L2 audio and subs is Spanish, and possibly German - some seasons of Seinfeld have one of the languages, some both, and some also French (I think). But I want to learn something from scratch this summer. Based on my own DVD collection, possible candidates are:

  • Czech - no knowledge; access to limited (but native) content, including one (!) film with subs (and a couple of others without subs)
  • Cantonese - limited knowledge; access to A LOT OF films (but I'm not sure about the availability of Cantonese subs on any of my DVDs).
  • Catalan - no knowledge (unless Spanish somehow counts?), two movies with Catalan dubs - but no subtitles.

I'm sure there's a DVD or two with Hungarian audio, but I'm not up for it.

If I don't use DVDs as a major native input source, there's always podcasts, and hopefully easy ones.

Choose to be in the study group with Czech (and use all possible material available, including my native material)?
Cantonese because that's easiest to access?
Catalan just for fun (who knows - based on Spanish I might be able to get the gist of the simplest podcasts and progress from there?)?

What say you?
4 x
Leabhair/Greannáin léite as Gaeilge: 9 / 18
Ar an seastán oíche: Oileán an Órchiste
Duolingo - finished trees: sp/ga/de/fr/pt/it
Finnish with extra pain : 100 / 100

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Brun Ugle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2273
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Location: Steinkjer, Norway
Languages: English (N), Norwegian (~C1/C2), Spanish (B1/B2), German (A2/B1?), Japanese (very rusty)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=11484
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Re: Jeff's language log

Postby Brun Ugle » Tue Jul 04, 2017 6:17 am

Czech, because misery loves company.
2 x

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blaurebell
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Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3235
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Re: Jeff's language log

Postby blaurebell » Tue Jul 04, 2017 7:08 am

jeff_lindqvist wrote:Catalan just for fun (who knows - based on Spanish I might be able to get the gist of the simplest podcasts and progress from there?)?


I think you'll get more than just the gist. When we were in Barcelona last month I understood pretty much everything I heard in Catalan. It's really very close, which is why they don't really bother to repeat announcements in Spanish. Of course, you'll miss details with more complex content, but it's generally quite transparent once you get used to the pronunciation.
3 x
: 20 / 100 Дэвид Эддингс - В поисках камня
: 14325 / 35000 LWT Known

: 17 / 55 FSI Spanish Basic
: 100 / 116 GdUdE B
: 8 / 72 Duolingo reverse Spanish -> German

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Ogrim
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Location: Alsace, France
Languages: Norwegian (N) English (C2), French (C2), Spanish (C2), German (B2), Romansh (B2), Italian (B2), Catalan (B2), Russian (B1), Latin (B2), Dutch (B1), Croatian (A2), Arabic (on hold), Ancient Greek (learning), Romanian (on hold)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?t=873
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Re: Jeff's language log

Postby Ogrim » Tue Jul 04, 2017 8:49 am

You'd find Catalan very easy indeed. As blaurebell says, it has a lot in common with Spanish. You can quickly learn the differences in grammar and pronunciation, and the amount of words that are different, or have a different meaning to the same Spanish word is not that huge. For someone with a decent level of Spanish I'd say it would take a month or two at most to be able to read and understand spoken Catalan well.
3 x
Ich grolle nicht

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smallwhite
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
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Languages: Native: Cantonese;
Good: English, French, Spanish, Italian;
Mediocre: Mandarin, German, Swedish, Dutch.
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Re: Jeff's language log

Postby smallwhite » Tue Jul 04, 2017 11:45 am

jeff_lindqvist wrote:Cantonese

Can you write Cantonese? If so, you can Skype with me if you like. Or just to ask me questions once in a while, or to help you search stuff (maybe via PM). You've helped me a lot with Swedish because I use LingQ lessons made by you :P
Last edited by smallwhite on Tue Jul 04, 2017 5:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
1 x
Dialang or it didn't happen.

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Systematiker
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Posts: 823
Joined: Tue May 10, 2016 6:09 pm
Languages: ENG (N); DEU (C2+) // SWG (~C1); BAR (~C1); SPA (4/3); FRA (~C1); SCO (~C1); NLD (~B2*); LAT (Latinum Bavaricum); GRC (Graecum Bavaricum); CAT (~B2*); POR (~B2*); SWE (~B2*); HBO (Hebraicum); DAN (~B1*); RUS (~A2); KOR (~A1); FAS (still a raw beginner)
*Averaged for high receptive skill
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7332
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Re: Jeff's language log

Postby Systematiker » Tue Jul 04, 2017 1:13 pm

I'm torn as to what to recommend to you. Of course, I'd love to say Czech, because we're all crazy, and it's fun to have more companions on the way. But at the same time, I can only second what Ogrim has said about Catalan. You can probably turn on Radio Catalunya right now and understand the majority of it. It's a super low-investment pickup in your case, and that of anyone who has even intermediate Spanish. And I know you've got a good reason to want to watch films in Cantonese.

So why not start all three anyway, then it doesn't matter which one you do for the study :twisted: :twisted: :D
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