A language learners’ forum

2020 - Summary of week 2

GA: Another week of daily walks with nothing but Irish in my ears. The podcasts are from all over the place (but from . I would lie if I said that I understand a lot, but it's still enjoyable to listen to one of my favourite languages. It's music to my ears.

And speaking of music, some really old podcasts are fleadh recordings. If you've been playing this music for nearly 30 years now, you develop a good ear for what you're listening to. One group stood out. Just based on the arrangements, the sound, and the repertoire, I made a correct guess. A group which I've never heard, but of course I've heard about them.

Seán Ó Riada with Ceoltóirí Chualann - if you've ever heard of the Chieftains, you would recognize some of the band members; and their individual styles, the repertoire, everything, is present in these Ceoltóirí Chualann recordings.

More Duolingo.

Cultural content: No Chinese TV this week either. One South Korean film (Parasite). A handful of books finished.

jeff_lindqvist wrote:In the 4th episode of the TV drama series World on Fire, a familiar face appeared. Who was it? Where had I seen this guy? After some thinking - Michael Levi Harris, the actor from Polyglot Gathering Berlin 2015+2016!

I looked that up:

Acting techniques to improve your polyglot skills
The stagecraft of multilingualism
The craft of the hyperglot

I like the idea of the acting techniques one, give characters to lanugages. I've not watched the others yet.

Thanks for mentioning him.

2020 - Summary of week 3

Time for a late update.

GA: More podcasts. More Duolingo. I didn't manage to stay among the top 10 (and get promoted to the next league - not that it matters...). I spent part of the Sunday evening talking about Irish grammar with a friend of mine who is currently taking the same university course as I did a few years ago. I also had a look at my remaining Irish language novels I still haven't read - nine in total. Later this year. Perhaps.

Cultural content: One or two books finished.

External factors are in the way at the moment. I hope there will be a change soon.

2020 - Summary of week 4

Another late update.

GA: More podcasts. More Duolingo. 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there...

Cultural content: One of the books I'm reading is Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien. Yes, there are notes about languages here and there. I'm also reading AD&D Player's Handbook (2nd edition).

External factors are still in the way, and will be for another month.

2020 - Summary of week 5

An update in time.

GA: More podcasts. More Duolingo. I will at least stay in the Diamond league and not get demoted.

Recent topics have mentioned auto-antonyms (the Nihongo thread and the one about passion). Now that I think of it, I've come across the concept before.

I remember when I chatted with a Chinese who asked me if it was difficult to search for jobs in Sweden. (they meant to find jobs; cf. 找 vs. 找到). A Russian speaker once asked which language was the easiest to teach (while they meant to learn - учить can have both meanings). Some years ago, I read in The Horse, the Wheel, and Language that some languages in the old days had the same word for give and take.

As if the transaction itself played the major part instead of who was doing what (as in search/find and teach/learn above). Interesting, to say the least.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auto-antonym

Literary content: I finished Letters of J. R. R. Tolkien and at least two more books - The 3-Minute Rule (Brant Pinvidic) and Loserthink (Scott Adams).

2020 - Summary of week 6

Almost in time.

GA: More podcasts, among them some music with the legendary fiddle player John Doherty (1900-1980), a short radio drama from the 1970s, and an excerpt from a live recording with the Castle Céili Band from 1968. More Duolingo. Irish has only 11 irregular verbs. Cold comfort, I say. I'm trying my best to accept that the stem changes every so often. Maybe there's some historical logic to it.

http://www.nualeargais.ie/foghlaim/irre ... hp?teanga=

Literary content: I finished a book with the appropriate title Burnout.

2020 - Summary of week 7

Time for this week's update.

GA: More podcasts - in one them of them I recognized a familiar voice - but from where? Wasn't it one of the voice actors of the old Cúrsa Gaeilge / Linguaphone? Yes! Padraic Ó Raghallaigh.

More Duolingo. Every time I see freagra, freagraíonn and the likes, I want to link it with question (sv. fråga, de. Die Frage etc.), but it means answer. Another one of these antonyms! I had to consult the Interweb.

A brief Comparison between some Aspects of Irish and German Grammar and Vocabulary has something to say about it:

There are words which have an intriguing characteristic. Whilst they carry the same root in Irish and German - they have opposite meanings. The Irish word freagra (m) means answer but the corresponding German word Frage (f) means question. Similarly the Irish verb gheibheann siad means they get but the German verb sie geben means they give. The Irish sníodh means to knit whilst the German schneiden means to cut.

I was too tired to check whether they are the same roots, or if it's just a coincidence.

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The recent topic about Steve Kaufmann and mindset got me thinking of an old ProfArguelles post which sadly I can't find at the moment (I read it on HTLAL back in 2006-2007). He mentioned three typical groups of learners, and their success rates. In his experience, learners with a genuine interest were the most successful, and learners who (just?) had a need for the language were the least successful. The middle group? I can't remember.

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Cultural content: I finished at least four books, and started watching a British TV series with some Russian dialogue.

In case readers of my log wonder what happened with the stats from 2019, I haven't forgotten about it. It's just that I'm unable to find the time right now. Maybe in March.

2020 - Summary of week 8

First visit in over a week. No internet at home.

DE: Some reading in Der Stumme Tod - the sequel to Der Nasse Fisch (by Volker Kutscher).

GA: More podcasts. More Duolingo. Without internet I found other ways to study. Linguaphone Cúrsa Gaeilge. I've studied two lessons per day (two extra on the Sunday, making 16 lessons so far). I can't believe I used this material while still in high school. No wonder I found it a difficult language - at least less straightforward compared to (Swedish)/English/German/Spanish/French. Now, some 27 years later, I can see that the progression is actually quite steep. There is a lot of material I probably once "knew", but currently don't know. Most of it looks slightly familiar though. It's a great resource. I am glad that I purchased it a long time ago.

GD: I had a look at the first three or four lessons in Teach Yourself Gaelic.

PT: I picked up my copy of O Alquemista (by Paolo Coelho). It seems it's in EU-PT rather than BR-PT.

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Cultural content: I think I finished three books.

lavengro wrote:Summary of all of 2019

I think I finished three books in 2019. At least two books for sure. Or mostly for sure. Definitely at least one.

It's not a competition. I have a dozen books on rotation so it's not that I read the three from beginning to end in the same week.