Embici's slow road to Greek

[embici]

A quick update before bed time.

I did the Language Challenge February 2019 on iTalki. I reached my target, the lowest one, of 12 lessons in the month.

I'm also doing the 6 week challenge over on Twitter and am currently in 10th place. All those lessons helped with that! I've had several teachers now and seem to be narrowing them down. Sometimes they start off great, but then they start talking too fast, and way over my head and I feel completely lost, or they rely too heavily on written materials.

I'm thinking of starting the 30-Day Speaking Challenge but I'm not totally clear how it works. What are the topics? Who monitors this? Anyway, when I'm more awake I'll do some searching. http://hugginsinternational.com/30dayspeakingchallenge/

[embici]

Because it seems that I prefer to collect Greek-learning materials rather than actually use them, I bought Assimil's le Grec super pack. I'm disappointed that it doesn't have a text file with all the lessons like le Nouveau Grec sans peine had. I was looking forward to uploading the text to Readlang and my e-reader.

[embici]

I find my progress is often derailed by my discovery of an important aspect of Greek grammar that I should have known by now.

Just the other day I was shocked to discover that the word μια is pronounced something like "mnya".

I saw it transliterated that way in the new Assimil and then I heard it on a YouTube video. How could I have been studying Greek so long without ever noticing the pronunciation of an article?

[embici]

I've just come back from a three week stay in Greece and it was lovely.

Because I'd taken so many breaks from my Greek study and I'd put so little effort into it I really didn't expect to have made any noticeable progress. Once I got to Greece, however, and my skills were put to the test with our Greek-speaking relatives, I did much better than expected. I think I even occasionally stepped into B1 territory!

Now that I'm back in Canada I'm now assessing my future with Greek. We've been to Greece twice in the last three years and we don't feel a desire to go back any time soon. Getting from our part of Canada to the region of Greece where the relatives live is a long, tiring and expensive trip.

I may just look for a language exchange partner now to keep up with Greek. I haven't explored that possibility in the past because I thought my level was just too low so I hired tutors instead. I might be ready now.

I like the idea of doing some Listening-Reading with French but what is a challenge for me is that I'm not a big fan of fiction and I'm not sure how to go about finding some interesting non-fiction in English and French with text and audio. I do enjoy listening to podcasts in English so if anyone knows of some good French podcasts with transcriptions, please let me know.

[embici]

Because it appears I can't seriously study a language without spending money and enrolling in courses I have started taking weekly lessons, in person.

I know I should be able to learn faster with my own materials and Skype lessons but experience has shown me that if I'm not forced to do homework and attend a class on a regular basis, I make little progress. I'm lazy, I'll admit it. I usually choose the path of least resistance and tend not to really push myself to study daily and use challenging materials.

In a series of weak moments I've signed up for French, ASL, and Greek lessons. And more recently, after a few beers with some Cape Bretoners, I may have even signed up for Nova Scotian Gaelic lessons.

The French lessons are okay, but the teacher speaks European French and is not so familiar with Canadian French. She "corrects" me when I use a Canadian word or pronunciation which I find a bit frustrating. She doesn't seem to believe me when I tell her that I'm pretty sure I'm right.

While I'm motivated to improve my Greek and French because there are people in my life who speak those languages, I have no Deaf friends or family so it's purely for the enjoyment. ASL is fascinating and fun. The class is free, with no homework and taught by a Deaf teacher. I've never learned a language from zero without translation before.

Edited for typos.

[embici]

I am absolutely fascinated by ASL!

Our classes were suspended due to COVID-19 but I feel I'm getting more exposure to the language than I've ever had by watching press conferences with public health officials. It's so good to see that they are prioritizing accessibility and hiring interpreters. When the prime minister talks there are two interpreters. I believe one is translating into ASL and the other into Quebec Sign Language (LSQ). Apparently ASL and LSQ were heavily influenced by an older version of French Sign Language so there is some mutual intelligibility but there is no mutual intelligibility between ASL and British Sign Language or between LSQ and the French Sign Language of today.

Watching Greek news, I've recognized a few words and some of the letters of Greek sign language, but not much. I'm still very much a beginner so not the best judge of similarity.

My comprehension of ASL fingerspelling has improved greatly since I started using this website: http://asl.ms/. If anyone knows of a better one, please let me know!