IronMike's 2023 log: Fewer means better, right? (EO & RUS)

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
User avatar
IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
x 7265
Contact:

Re: So many languages, so little time. IronMike's 2018 language log

Postby IronMike » Wed May 30, 2018 11:14 pm

OK, so I dropped Maigret hezitas because I started Sendependaj homoj (Independent people) by Halldor Laxness. It's great so far, so that's what I read for most of the latest Sumoo, and will read daily for the SC. And still listening to pola ret-radio for excellent Esperanto.

The Middle Egyptian course started this week. We're starting slow and have 3 weeks to complete lesson 1. Lesson 1 makes sense so far, and they passed on a Memrise course which goes over the vocab for lesson 1, which is nice. Need to buy a notebook so I can practice writing the hieroglyphs. Hate living out of a suitcase. Going one two months. Maybe will have a home in a month. Sigh...

Besides that, not much more going on language-wise. Two are enough anyway, one I'm fairly proficient in and one I'm a beginner at. Exactly how I like doing two languages. With respect to this way we're studying Middle Egyptian, the study group with a moderator, I think I'm really gonna like this method. In fact, I might look for an Old English course like this in about a year. And if I don't find one, maybe i'll start a study group for OE and moderate it. I can't wait to get my books back. Most all of my language/linguistics books have been in storage since 2014. My God, it'll be like Christmas. My poor wife. She's gone 95% ebook. I'm still at about 50/50. ;)
5 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

User avatar
IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
x 7265
Contact:

Re: So many languages, so little time. IronMike's 2018 language log

Postby IronMike » Sun Jun 03, 2018 1:01 pm

Getting ready to head out to Boston for house-hunting. Looking forward to this move, just need a place to live first. Then Boston...so much history, so many foreigners. Maybe a neighbor will speak a language I'm interested in? We can barter, beer for language lessons?! Who knows.
6 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

User avatar
IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
x 7265
Contact:

Re: So many languages, so little time. IronMike's 2018 language log

Postby IronMike » Mon Jun 11, 2018 1:25 am

So the house hunting went great. Well, it was great at the end of the week. The majority of the week was stressful, but we got our #1 in the end, so we're happy.

And of course as soon as I got back to VA, I looked up the language profile of Boston! Looks like we'll be able to work on Spanish with our future neighbors!

Heard lots of languages during our week there, which was nice. Seriously looking forward to our time in Beantown!
8 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

User avatar
IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
x 7265
Contact:

Re: So many languages, so little time. IronMike's 2018 language log

Postby IronMike » Tue Jun 19, 2018 10:52 pm

First lesson of Middle Egyptian done. w00t! Now we are moving on to semantic determinatives. So much fun and a great way to learn a language together. Having fun with my DD working on this language together.
2 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

User avatar
IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
x 7265
Contact:

Re: So many languages, so little time. IronMike's 2018 language log

Postby IronMike » Sat Jun 23, 2018 2:09 pm

Humanity's innate desire to communicate is the theme of the week. The article I linked in the main forum about the 15-year old girl on Alaska Airlines. My goodness, what a great story. I love stories like that. Reminds all of us that the vast majority of humanity are wonderful people. I like to fill my FB timeline with those stories and less so the stories of horrible humans. This story has the added benefit of being about language.

One of my first linguistics books ever was David Crystal's wonderful pick-up-and-open-to-any-page tome: The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. I still have the book somewhere in my household goods storage and I can't wait to get it. I remember reading a page in that book about this very same kind of communication for those unfortunate souls who are both deaf and blind.

In language news, Spanish is on the back burner. We're moving to Boston in a week so I decided to hold off on Spanish until such time as we're all settled up there. We're going to try and find a group class that all of us can sit in.

For Middle Egyptian, the DD and I have decided we'll do this week's homework, due 1 July, early as 1 July is the day we're driving up to our new home! Then a week later we'll need to submit even more homework. Thankfully, our new home is literally 306 feet from a huge library, so we may be doing internet submissions there until we have ours set up.
4 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

User avatar
IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
x 7265
Contact:

Re: So many languages, so little time. IronMike's 2018 language log

Postby IronMike » Fri Jun 29, 2018 1:04 am

So an off the cuff suggestion from me and I'm now taking part in a book club here! w00t! The book, The Three-Body Problem, has been on my list for a while, so I'm pumped that I've got an excuse to read the book.

Getting excited for our move up to Boston. Can't wait to see what languages our neighbors speak. Can't wait to hear the variety of languages!
4 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

User avatar
IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
x 7265
Contact:

Re: So many languages, so little time. IronMike's 2018 language log

Postby IronMike » Fri Jun 29, 2018 2:00 pm

The July Esperanto Sumoo starts on Sunday, the same day I'm driving from DC to Boston. Hurray? ;)

This time I will be reading Sendependaj Homoj by Halldor Laxness, Nobel prize winner from Iceland. The book is interesting, I'll say that. Slow read, and my current situation living in my SIL's basement, I'm not getting much Esperanto read. Had lots of metro time in Moscow during which to read. Have to drive to work here.

Boston will be good for reading. My commute will be about 20 min on a commuter train, besides about a total of 0.7 mile walking, which I'll most likely fill with pola-retradio.
8 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

User avatar
IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
x 7265
Contact:

Re: So many languages, so little time. IronMike's 2018 language log

Postby IronMike » Sat Jul 07, 2018 12:16 am

We have internet!

Been here in Boston since Sunday. In our house with almost nothing. The wife and I have sleeping pads and our suitcases. The girls have sleeping pads and their suitcases. We have our pets. We created our own embassy "welcome kit" from Goodwill: 4 each forks, spoons, knives. 6 plates. 4 bowls. 4 glasses. 1 wine glass (which my wife broke today). Out stuff from Moscow and stuff from 4-years of storage should be here in 2-3 weeks.

And we are so happy.

This place is great. Hot as balls, but everywhere here now is hot. But the train is 300m from my house. Whole Foods (I sometimes call it Whole Paycheck) is 600m from the house. A wonderful little Main Street with great shops is 500m from the house. An affordable grocery store, 450m from home. Отлично.

I've gotten some Esperanto read this week on the train. Certainly not the quantities of pages like I got in Moscow, but at least some language done daily. Podcasts listened to this week, including twice through interview on Pola Retradio with a Brazilian who just finished the 3-year post-grad program in Interlinguistics in Poland. His emphasis: a Brazilian author who was an Esperantist. An interesting person: before he became a doctor he worked for the National Academy of Geography and the director told him he had to learn Esperanto, as his (the director's) plan was to communicate with other Geographic institutes in other countries around the world in Esperanto. So this author learned E-o to a professional level and inserted Esperanto-ish things into his Portuguese writing. Very interesting 20-min interview. The speaker was incredibly well spoken in E-o, very fast speaker, so great practice listening. Wonderful. (If you're interested, the interview starts at about 11:00 of the 15.05 edition of the podcast.)

Middle Egyptian is going well. The DD and I submitted our homework on Friday last right before we drove up here on Sunday. Now that we have internet we'll work on our homework tomorrow and submit by midnight Sunday night UK time. Still going well, getting better at identifying the signs. Fun language. Anyone else taking part, besides @ani?
8 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

User avatar
IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
x 7265
Contact:

Re: So many languages, so little time. IronMike's 2018 language log

Postby IronMike » Mon Jul 23, 2018 11:48 am

Saturday morning we got our household goods that have been in storage for the last 4 years. You know what I'm doing. Language books! Language books everywhere. Oh so much Irish. Gaelic stuff. Esperanto. Oh joy.

All my BCS stuff! I'm reviving my BCS so I love having my Ronelle Alexander text and grammar. Also my two Croatian grammar books, one in Croatian and one in English (different books, not a translation), and an old prose and poetry book in Croatian. (I obviously need some Serbian books!) Missed my books so much.

All my linguistics books, too. Ah...

And this week it is possible we'll get our stuff from Moscow. More language books! Hurray!
10 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

User avatar
IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
x 7265
Contact:

Re: So many languages, so little time. IronMike's 2018 language log

Postby IronMike » Sat Aug 04, 2018 1:42 am

It's August!

OK, so time flies. After apparently being the genesis of the monthly book club here, I spent a straight 7-8 days reading The Three Body Problem, at the expense of any Esperanto reading, thus affecting my language challenge numbers. Great book. Not available in any language I'm good at except Russian...and Russian and I are taking a break. Possible divorce in our future. We'll see.

After I finished that book, went back to reading Esperanto. Have no book now, but just got all our stuff from Russia on Wednesday, so all my language books are staring me in the face (Gaelic without groans, for example), so it is hard not to get wanderlust. But I'm sticking to Esperanto, reading through an old copy of Beletra Almanako, and the winners of the Beletra Konkurso in 2012. Reading now an eseo about a Russian Esperantist in the early 1900's and his writings. Turns out I have one of his stories in a collection of stories I just got back two days ago! (The book is Trezoro, one of my favorites. Easy to pick up and browse, reading a story or two at a sitting.)

In other language news, still working on the Middle Egyptian, although it is tough to do when your living room (every room, really) is filled with moving boxes, bubble-wrap and paper... Almost to the point where we are "stable," have our house set up and can do normal family things again. So close...can't wait.

At work I'm working on my BCS. My goal over the next few years is to get it back up to a C1 level. Might even be able to get some 1-on-1 class time in the next few months. ;)
7 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 3 guests