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

[MamaPata]

Both?

[zjones]

French or Mandarin. What do you think?

French first. Compared to Mandarin, French will be a breeze. Also, it's fairly useful to know if you're a language-learner (although I'm not sure if you use Assimil or not).

You can always start Mandarin next year.

[Deinonysus]

Learn French but write it in Chinese characters.

[IronMike]

So I'm now reading Trip of the Tongue, and the first two chapters are about native American languages, so of course I now want to learn Navajo or Crow. Or go back to Choctaw.

[IronMike]

OK, so I started dabbling in Navajo on Duolingo last night. I muted audio because the family were watching Christmas movies. Imagine my surprise today when I turned the audio on only to discover they have no audio for the course. WTF? Was Navajo just a publicity stunt for Duolingo? I switched over to Hawaiian quickly and sure enough they have audio. Why come out with a course if you don't have audio? All those accented vowels...I really need to hear what the hell those words sound like!

[IronMike]

In the 2019 resolutions thread, I wrote the following:

A passing reference in my current non-fiction read Trip of the Tongue on native American languages led me down a rabbit hole in the Interwebs trying to find a local class in Wampanoag, the original language of this area. Unfortunately, the closest class is way down south of Boston in Quincy, which is way too far from not only my work but my home, so that's out. That led me to searching for other language classes in this area (tons, if you're willing to spend big money for tuition, which I am not).

I work now in what could easily be called the Little Italy of Boston. If I manage to walk around during the work day, I can easily greet older folks in Italian (the limit of my knowledge, besides some swear words my grandfather inadvertently taught me decades ago). Got me thinking: I'd always wanted to learn Italian. (Actually I always wanted to learn the languages of my ethnicity and Italian is my mom's side. Sadly, all the Italian speakers on that side of the family are dead.) So I searched around for Italian classes near my work and home, and found one literally a ten minute walk from work. And that's Google's estimate, which is slow. Even better, it meets on Monday nights, so that won't interfere with work. Only issue so far is that it looks like the Spring classes are continuations of the Fall, so perhaps I might not be able to start till September 2019.

There's also a possible opportunity through work to take some serious language training during the summer. It would take some selling to my boss, but if approved, it would be 3 hours of class a day, every day, for 10 weeks. They offer both initial and continuation, but I'd look at something initial, like French or Mandarin. For work reasons (which I'd need to specify in my justification for this training) I'm leaning toward French.

As always, I'll maintain my Russian. Primarily through reading, but there are Russians around Boston, so if I "run into" any here I'll find an excuse to talk to them.

And of course my true love, Esperanto. I'll continue reading, which is really helping my proficiency. At some point this year I'd like to meet up with the BRUEGO folks in downtown Cambridge, Mass. I've spoken before about meeting with Esperantists and my aversion to it, but I at least want to try this group at one of their monthly meetings. I want to get my speaking back up to snuff (it got pretty good in Moscow) because the Universala Kongreso will be in Montreal in 2020 and I am planning on going. I'd like to take the speaking and listening KER exam at that UK, hopefully at the C1 level, to match my C1 pass at the reading and writing KER exam last year.

Sure enough, the instructor for Italian wrote me back. It is true that Spring is a continuation of Fall's course, but there are special circumstances now. Seems that about half the class in the fall missed a bunch of classes, and are not ready for Beginner II. The instructor is considering having another Beginner I and a Beginner I.V (see what I did there?) for those guys who still need work. So there is a possibility that I may be able to take Italian on Monday nights for 10 weeks starting at the end of January. There's a meeting on 2 Jan for new students where I'll learn more. The course isn't badly priced and includes the materials (Sentieri - attraverso l’Italia contemporanea if any of you know this book, let me know how it is) and online access. They teach to the CEFR levels, which is nice. Perhaps there will be an opportunity to take a test in my future?

[Elsa Maria]

Great news about the Italian class! I recently got permission to jump into a weekly Beginners Dutch class that started in September. I have some catching up to do, but I am really excited. I thought I was going to have to wait for next September.

[IronMike]

Dear reader(s), stayed tuned to the general discussion forum for a special announcement from yours truly.

[IronMike]

OK, so the 1000th post is published and available here.

If you haven't read it yet, but are reading my log first (thanks!), the short story is: I'm giving away a language book to one lucky winner. Free to enter. Do it now!

[IronMike]

I've re-titled my log. Welcome to 2019!

Please read my giveaway post. If you haven't yet, what's holding you back? Do you not like free language books?