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

[IronMike]

Felt horrible in the gym yesterday afternoon. Couldn't lift anything. Also noticed my throat feeling sore. Hmmm...related?! My DD was sick too; poor thing had her Biology AP exam that morning. She took it (It's hours long. Hours, dad!) and then came home. Been in her room/bed ever since.

I'm one of those people who hate when sick people come to work. Guess what? You're not that important. Keep your sick-a$$ at home! We don't want to get sick, you uncaring jerk. So in that spirit, I didn't go to class last night. Or work today. Working instead at home in my Ultimate Italian text. This is becoming more and more my fav.

On the home stretch towards my Italian DLPT. Really unsure how I'm going to do on this. It is an older version, a version IV. I liked those back when I took them for Russian and BCS. Not sure how this'll go. I listen to a lot of Pimsleur. Not much else, listening-wise. Reading a lot of easy readers, that sort of thing. Perhaps that'll be enough? Can't be sure. Not even sure how much more Italian I'll do. Maybe I'll take another course in the fall, maybe not. I only ever started Italian for two reasons: proximity and family.

The class I'm taking occurs about a quarter of a mile from work. That's just so damn easy. Easy works for me. I took Irish in DC several years ago, but after Irish I, I didn't take the follow-up course. It would take me about an hour to get there by car (20 minutes back home after because traffic), about the same there and back (hour) if by metro/walking. Add in parking cost if by car. All for a once per week 90 minute class. Learned a ton about Irish (I needed a teacher...that damn orthography), but just wasn't worth it to me in the end. This Italian class though: so close, so easy.

My mother's side is Italian. I've written about this before, how I missed out (unbeknownst to me at the time, of course) on getting immersed in Italian back when I was young (ages 5-10). I'd always wanted to learn Italian because of my grandfather (he outlived my grandmother, who died when I was only 10). Unfortunately, my early working years I had to concentrate on Russian and BCS for work. And by the time I got to a point where that was no longer required, my grandfather died. As far as I know, there isn't anyone left on that side of the family who speaks Italian. Unfortunately. Still, I wanted to learn it so the proximity of the class combined with this reason made this a simple choice.

But I don't really have anything keeping me attached to the language. I have no interest in reading any original literature. Or shows to watch. (I have very little me-only time anyway; if the TV is on, it is usually something my wife and I both want to watch.) I'm not planning a trip to Italy anytime soon. No real love for the Romance languages.

Bottom line, unsure how much I'll continue with the language. The two reasons to study the language do have a strong pull for me to continue the language in the fall, however. And I'm sure after I've taken the DLPT I'll want to go back, study harder, and try to score better! But we'll see. I miss Esperanto and I'm beginning to miss Russian, so I may be pulled back that direction. Who knows? We'll see!

[IronMike]

Great study day yesterday. I had a low-grade cold, so lots of couch time, which translated into studying. A few lessons in Ultimate Italian, and a few in Easy Italian Reader. But now I'm on lesson 8 in that and it is a poem, or song, or something with oodles of words I haven't encountered yet. Adjectives. Lots of them. Maybe 20% of the reading selection is known to me. Gonna be working on this one a bit, however I may just skip. Write down the vocabulary and try to learn it, but move on.

On the way to the train this morning I listened to Ultimate Italian on the go instead of Pimsleur. Nice to have some different voices and to go over some material that I'd already gone over in Pimsleur.

Also got a nice swim in this morning. Starts the day right!

[IronMike]

One thing about Ultimate Italian on the go: Advanced pretty quickly. One thing I don't like: It'll have you repeat very long sentences, but they'll only say it once. I've missed a few because they simply flew by me too fast. The lessons are short, but I'm finding I've got to go back to some of them repeatedly until I get what they're saying in some of the dialogues.

Thanks to Ogrim and StringerBell, I've found a few more resources to help with my multi-track approach. The Podcast italiano website is wonderful; can't believe I hadn't found it already. Great stuff for beginners, and I'm sure for those farther along than I am, too.

[StringerBell]

Next to Podcast Italiano, my other favorite resource for learning Italian is Italiano Automatico (this is one of the things I started with early on). Alberto's got 300+ videos on his YT channel that have duel Italian/English subtitles. I spent a lot of time using these until I eventually could watch the videos without subtitles.

It refuses to let me embed the video, so here is a link to one of the hundreds of videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUhWfQb ... ex=37&t=0s

[IronMike]

Listening to the great site that StringerBell recommended to me, Podcast Italiano. Listened to a bunch of the postcards (cartoline). Listened to La Storia di Italo. Simply listened to chapters 1 and 2, following along the words, not caring if I understood. (I didn't look at the English.) I'll go back over them later a few times, then go over them again but read the English while listening to the Italian (L-R).

One thing though, what is the accent that Patrizia is using in chapter two? Very interesting accent...the /r/...

Good swimming week. Today was blessedly sunny, so of course had to go to the beach.



Can't pass up a sunny day. Ever! Water was 54-55F. Thought I'd been out there an hour when it was only 47 minutes. Really need to start wearing a watch! (I have my GPS watch under my cap, so can't look at it while swimming.)

[IronMike]

Got my copy of Complete Esperanto today. With the US-Canadian Congress* coming up soon (25 days!), I'm going to have to get my Esperanto back up to snuff.

I picked this book due to the great reviews I'd read online. Also, I need to get back to basics. I'm good at reading novels and the awesome travelogues of Tibor Sekelj, but this Congress I'll need to be able to hang with Esperantists with basics, what I like to call the "Berlitz level" of language, the B1-type stuff. Been a while since my days of sitting around a table in Moscow with other Esperanto speakers.

The book has 18 lessons. After my Italian DLPT on the 22nd to the start of the Congress on the 14th of June is 23 days. A smidge over three weeks. My plan is to do six lessons a week. This'll give me a day a week flex. The book also has free audio online.

Also on the 22nd, pretty much on the drive home, I'll start again listening to my Eo podcasts. I've missed them. And reading novels. I've already got a bunch of Eo accounts followed on my Twitter. I'm really loving the multi-track approach. Dankon, iguanamon!

After the Congress unsure what I'll do. I've decided I don't want to lose what little Italian I've gained in these last few months. I also am finally missing Russian. My future may include something crazy like one Italian lesson a week along with Podcast Italiano audio; one or two lessons a week from Progressing in Russian; Eo podcasts and reading. I like the idea of varying my reading: one Eo novel then a Russian one. Maybe throw an Italian easy reader in there every few?

*Holy crap. Just as I was getting the URL for this link, I noticed on the page that Humphrey freaking Tonkin is going to be here! He translated one of my favorite Eo books, La Dangxera Lingvo (The Dangerous Language). Additionally one of my fav Eo singers, Zhou-Mack, will be there. Also the author of one of my fav Eo books, Being Colloquial in Eo, David Jordan. And the UEA Prez, Mark Fettes. I'm going to have to bring a bunch of books with me to get them signed!

[jeff_lindqvist]

One thing though, what is the accent that Patrizia is using in chapter two? Very interesting accent...the /r/...

Ah, that r... I think I've heard it once (maybe twice) before (from Italian speakers, that is). German has both varieties, as do Swedish and Norwegian. Oh, I've also heard one Russian sample many years ago (HTLAL).

[IronMike]

Last Italian class tonight. It was fun. Only three of us, so lots of talking back and forth. The instructor told me he'd have no problem if I skipped the next level and took the one after that in September. I might. We'll see.

Tomorrow left to cram for DLPT on Wednesday. In bocca al lupo to me. And I answer, Crepi!

[IronMike]

Great swim week so far. Had a great swim yesterday, working on distance tolerance. Did 3 x 1000 at pace. With warm-up and cool down, 4000 yards. Today, even better. After my Italian DLPT today I swam in Walden pond. Yes, that Walden pond!



A smidge over 1.5 miles. Water temperature so wonderful. Weather beautiful. Loved it. Did lift on Monday, too, so the Polyglot Fitness Challenge, or whatever the heck I'm calling it, is going, wait for it....swimmingly! (You know I had to.)

Oh, my DLPT? You wondering how that went? Well let me just tell you!

OK, can't tell you about the test. That's test compromise of course. But you can read about the Defense Language Proficiency Test all over the Interwebs. This one today was my sixth language I have taken a DLPT in (Russian, German, BCS, Czech, Slovene). This version is a IV, so 65 questions in the listening and 65 in the reading. The IV has been my favorite version of the test all along. You can take the DLPT5 and shove it.

Within 2-3 questions on the listening I thought, "Oh crap, what have I done?" It was hard. But then I began to catch things that I understood. Patiently went through it, done pretty quickly. Somewhere around questions in the 30s I started to miss a lot, and simply picked an answer at random. Toward the end, when the questions got to the level 3 range, well hell, I had no idea what was going on. Breezed through those and went and took a break before the reading.

Reading felt pretty good. I must admit that based on my Esperanto and, frankly, my English, I thought maybe I'd made some pretty good, educated guesses. In reading it wasn't till the 40s that I started to really have no idea what I was reading. The last five questions, ah hell, random answers there. Was that even Italian? /jk/

Imagine my surprise when the proctor gave me my scores. Remember that 1/1 was my goal. The class, while a great intro, wasn't very challenging, and didn't get us very far. Which is why I did so much on my own.

Well, I managed the 1 in listening. Hurray! But holy crap. A 2 in reading!

So, I'm very happy. Now on to Esperanto for 3-ish weeks.

[MamaPata]

Congratulations! Fantastic work!