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

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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
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Re: So many eels, only one hovercraft. IronMike's 2019 log (EO, IT, RU)

Postby IronMike » Thu Jun 13, 2019 9:31 pm

OK, tomorrow is the big day. Double-checking all modes of travel (commuter rail vs. subway) to make sure I can experience everything on the USA-Canada Esperanto Congress program. I'll take tons of pictures and update this log along the way. Unsure I'll be able to do it daily as the day and night will be filled, but we'll see.

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You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

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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
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Re: So many eels, only one hovercraft. IronMike's 2019 log (EO, IT, RU)

Postby IronMike » Sat Jun 15, 2019 12:38 am

First day of the Congress a success! Nice, calm opening for IronMike. Two hours of Esperanto speaking, my tongue is tired. Nice seeing, and in some cases meeting, Esperantists I've only read about or met "online."

Got to look through program. Big problem: There are too many prelegoj (talks) that I want to attend that are happening at the same time. So how do I choose?

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You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

David1917
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Re: So many eels, only one hovercraft. IronMike's 2019 log (EO, IT, RU)

Postby David1917 » Sun Jun 16, 2019 1:24 am

IronMike wrote:Got to look through program. Big problem: There are too many prelegoj (talks) that I want to attend that are happening at the same time. So how do I choose?


That's always my biggest gripe when attending conferences - like what's the damn point? Especially if there are overlapping themes! I always think about a) people I know/follow and b) people/topics I will want to hopefully interact with, as opposed to something interesting that I could just read up on independently after the fact.
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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
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Contact:

Re: So many eels, only one hovercraft. IronMike's 2019 log (EO, IT, RU)

Postby IronMike » Sun Jun 16, 2019 1:55 am

Today was great! Lots of information from Vinilkosmo, the Esperanto music production company. Also had a great speech from the research librarian of the Perkins School for the Blind, which has a rich, early 20th c. history in the Esperanto movement.

Humphrey Tonkin, president of the Esperantic Studies Foundation, gave a briefing on the mission of ESF and their future plans.

Lots of talking. At one point, I met an Esperantist from Montreal whose name is Ĵenja. I asked her if she's Russian, and sure enough she is. I then tried to say something in Russian, and I just couldn't. I was dumbfounded. I seriously couldn't come up with Я служил в Москве дипломатом. It took me forever to come up with Я жил в Москве и работал в посольстве. My brain was so switched on to Esperanto...
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.

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devilyoudont
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Re: So many eels, only one hovercraft. IronMike's 2019 log (EO, IT, RU)

Postby devilyoudont » Sun Jun 16, 2019 1:39 pm

IronMike wrote:Lots of talking. At one point, I met an Esperantist from Montreal whose name is Ĵenja. I asked her if she's Russian, and sure enough she is. I then tried to say something in Russian, and I just couldn't. I was dumbfounded. I seriously couldn't come up with Я служил в Москве дипломатом. It took me forever to come up with Я жил в Москве и работал в посольстве. My brain was so switched on to Esperanto...


Switching between languages has always been really hard for me as well... I hope it's something that gets easier with practice :lol:
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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
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Contact:

Re: So many eels, only one hovercraft. IronMike's 2019 log (EO, IT, RU)

Postby IronMike » Mon Jun 17, 2019 6:56 pm

The Congress closed around noon today and I'm still digesting my thoughts, and will write about it soon. Great immersion (mostly) opportunity, so much so that I thought I heard Esperanto spoken in a shop. Nope. English.
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
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Contact:

Re: So many eels, only one hovercraft. IronMike's 2019 log (EO, IT, RU)

Postby IronMike » Wed Jun 19, 2019 1:57 am

So, the Congress.

It was a very good experience. Lots of spoken Esperanto. (Some crocodiling, which surprised me, frankly.) Most of it very good, fluent speech. My listening, I've realized, is pretty good. My speaking, a-ok. Got better after a few hours.

The talks I listened to:

Flo Martorell's History of Vinilkosmo/EURROKA; How to find Esperanto music; the path of Esperanto music from creation to publication.
Perkins School for the Blind Grace M. Hill Esperanto Collection.
Harry Potter and the art of translation by Julie Schwartz.
Mark Fettes (UEA president): Essence and future: The significance of Esperanto and UEA for the modern world.
Universala Kongreso in Montreal discussion by Ĵenja and Suzanne la dua.
Overview of the chemistry of preventative medicine.
Screening of Natalie MacMahon’s new Esperanto miniseries Malsano Nomata Amo
Screening of Gerda Malaperis
Humphrey Tonkin and the ESF.
History of NASK.

Of them all, the one about all the different translations of HP was brilliant.

Image

Just one of the issues that Ms. Schwartz talked about was Lord Voldemort. Since Tom Riddle's full name was an anagram for I am Lord Voldemort, translators had to come up with names which would translate to their language's version of I am Lord Voldemort. (The translations for Dumbledore were interesting, too.)

The Perkins School for the Blind sent their research librarian who told us about the Esperanto club the school had in the early 1900s. It was fascinating. It all started with an Esperantist who wrote to the school, pointing out that a membership list for the first American Esperanto association listed six members who had Perkins School as their home address. This librarian put together a wonderful presentation. She even brought old copies of a braille Esperanto magazine. Great presentation.

The two movies...well. Better than Incubus, that's for sure.

The presentation for the UK in Montreal next year was impressive. I really hope I'll be able to make it. It looks like it's gonna be so much fun. And so close. Only a $200 r/t flight!

There were only a few people there that I would say were the types of Esperantists that get the bad rap for being weirdos. There were many hobbyist language geeks like me. And some serious Esperantists.

All in all, I believe this helped my productive proficiency in Esperanto. My receptive skills have been pretty good. I got C1 in reading (and in writing, so that covers the productive side of that skill pairing). Wasn't really sure about my listening, till this congress. The variety of talks I sat through and understood almost everything. Made me feel a lot more confident. And my speaking is getting somewhere. I met some of the locals here and they meet a couple times a month. In fact, there are two groups. One meets once a month downtown. Another meets once a week at a mall near my home! I'm going to make an effort to go to both of these meetings so I can keep my speaking up after this immersion experience.
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.

Nogon
Green Belt
Posts: 305
Joined: Sat May 13, 2017 6:21 pm
Languages: German (N), Swedish (C), English (?), French (A2), Esperanto (A2). Reading Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Afrikaans. Wanting to learn Polish, Yiddish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16039
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Re: So many eels, only one hovercraft. IronMike's 2019 log (EO, IT, RU)

Postby Nogon » Tue Jun 25, 2019 9:54 am

IronMike wrote: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.


Do you recommend that book for consolidating one's Esperanto? Are there many exercises for producing Esperanto?
I've done Duolingo and the lernu! course and read a few books, so my reading ability is okay, but I can't write or speak it, so I need practicing output.
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Assimil French : 65 / 113
Active wave : 15 / 113

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 eels, only one hovercraft. IronMike's 2019 log (EO, IT, RU)

Postby IronMike » Tue Jun 25, 2019 12:51 pm

Nogon wrote:
IronMike wrote: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.


Do you recommend that book for consolidating one's Esperanto? Are there many exercises for producing Esperanto?
I've done Duolingo and the lernu! course and read a few books, so my reading ability is okay, but I can't write or speak it, so I need practicing output.

Tons of exercises and they're all set to particular CEFR proficiency levels, which is one of the many reasons I love the book. Every chapter has listening, reading, writing and speaking exercises, with answers in the back. Definitely recommend it.
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.

Nogon
Green Belt
Posts: 305
Joined: Sat May 13, 2017 6:21 pm
Languages: German (N), Swedish (C), English (?), French (A2), Esperanto (A2). Reading Danish, Norwegian, Dutch, Afrikaans. Wanting to learn Polish, Yiddish
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=16039
x 1068

Re: So many eels, only one hovercraft. IronMike's 2019 log (EO, IT, RU)

Postby Nogon » Tue Jun 25, 2019 1:16 pm

That sounds great! Thank you! I'll place an order soon.
1 x
Assimil French : 65 / 113
Active wave : 15 / 113


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