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Re: So many languages, so little time. A(nother) language log (RU, EO, maybe some others)

Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 6:37 pm
by IronMike
Got great news today. I passed my KER exam! I am officially a C1 in Esperanto in the writing and reading skills. W00t! I am so excited. Been waiting forever!

Now, back to reading my Esperanto books!

Re: So many languages, so little time. A(nother) language log (RU, EO, maybe some others)

Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 8:56 pm
by jeff_lindqvist
Gratulojn!

Re: So many languages, so little time. A(nother) language log (RU, EO, maybe some others)

Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2017 6:34 pm
by MamaPata
Congratulations!

Re: So many languages, so little time. A(nother) language log (RU, EO, maybe some others)

Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2017 8:24 am
by IronMike
Family and I got back from our NY vacation, got over jetlag (results varied) and turned around 9 days later and flew to Kotor, Montenegro. Beautiful! Hot! Lovely food. And, of course, a chance to work on my very atrophied srpsko-hrvatski. Or crnagorski, if you prefer. ;)

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Found the ONE bookstore in all of this area (nearest other is many miles away) and they had no electricity, so couldn't see any of the books. Thankfully, we're still here for a while and the guy promised to have lights on next week. He also promised to have Harry Potter. I've got a Croatian version of HP, but need a version from this side of the former Yugoslavia, hopefully in Cyrillic. If not that, I'll find something on a similar level (last time I tested, I was a B2 in reading, about 8 years ago)...the language will come back.

Re: So many languages, so little time. A(nother) language log (RU, EO, maybe some others)

Posted: Sat Aug 12, 2017 3:42 pm
by IronMike
Speaking of crnagorski, I used the ATM yesterday and on the first screen when you got to choose your language, they offered the choice of both srpski AND crnagorski! ;)

Went back to the bookstore, they had electricity! I had the family in tow and know that means I have to be quick, so I picked up a small edition of Sherlock Holmes' in The Creeping Man for only 3.50 euros. The owner again promised me Harry Potter next week, so we'll see.

Re: So many languages, so little time. A(nother) language log (RU, EO, maybe some others)

Posted: Tue Aug 15, 2017 10:47 am
by IronMike
Got the best compliment ever yesterday at restaurant Ellas in the south side of Dobrota.

We walked in and were scouting out tables. As we were seven, we almost always have to ask to put tables together. I went right inside and told the bartender we were seven (Mi smo sedam osoba) and motioned that I'd like to put tables together (Mozemo da /insert hand signals here/). She asked if we'd just be drinking or eating too. I answered that we'd be eating. She then started rapid fire about going upstairs and the terrace. That much I caught, but she went way beyond my abilities. I said in English:

I'm sorry, but you've gone beyond my abilities in Serbo-Croatian.

She looked at me, surprised, and said
Oh my, I'm sorry. You were speaking so well I thought you were Serbian!


I'll take it!

Re: So many languages, so little time. A(nother) language log (RU, EO, maybe some others)

Posted: Sun Aug 20, 2017 1:08 pm
by IronMike
Left Montenegro yesterday, two short flights to home in Moscow. Twice on the plane, I told the Aeroflot flight attendant Hvala instead of Спасибо. I actually had to mentally check myself the third time, to tell my brain Now Russian. I can't remember this happened to me two years ago when we spent three glorious weeks in Croatia, but maybe it did?

Managed to find one more book before departing Crna Gora: A BCS-version of Metro 2033. I've read the book in Russian and English, so figured as I know the story pretty well, I can tackle the BCS version. Sadly, when we got to our layover in Beograd, we had to run to our gate. We went through another security only to realize we had plenty of time before they would begin boarding. I looked through the glass separating our gate form everyone else and right there, a small but nice sized bookstore, with one of Ivo Andric's books staring me in the face. I grabbed my boarding pass and passport, prepared to talk myself backwards through security to go buy a book (or three), when the gate attendant called that he needed to talk to several passengers, all four of us included, of-frigging-course. My last minute book buying frenzy was not to happen.

No BCS reading just yet, though, as I'm about 100 pages into the excellent Mi Stelojn Jungis al Revado. Very well written historical novel about the Esperanto movement in the Soviet Union 1917-1938. Two thumbs up (so far).

Re: So many languages, so little time. A(nother) language log (RU, EO, maybe some others)

Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2017 1:54 pm
by IronMike
Can't get over how good Mi Stelojn Jungis al Revado is. I'm hooked. Goes well with having finished La Danĝera Lingvo about a year ago. The history of the Esperanto movement in the burgeoning Soviet Union is fascinating. There were parts of the history I didn't know about, like their kicking out all UEA delegates and representatives from the entire country. Seems they didn't agree with UEA's political-neutral stance for the language.

Only about a third of the way through the book; it's currently about 1923 and the book goes through 1938 I think. In fact, going to end this now so I can shut my laptop and read more. Hope you're all doing well!

Re: So many languages, so little time. A(nother) language log (RU, EO, maybe some others)

Posted: Sun Sep 03, 2017 6:34 am
by IronMike
Got my grades from my KER Esperanto exam. Did pretty good on the self-expression writing section!
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Next is to work on speaking and listening. In that vein, there is a meeting of the speaking club of MASI next Saturday that I'm going to try and make. In similar news, MASI now has a newsletter. Can you spot yours truly?

Re: So many languages, so little time. A(nother) language log (RU, EO, maybe some others)

Posted: Wed Sep 13, 2017 4:38 pm
by IronMike
The next semester of Russian language training at the embassy starts at the end of the month. I am really looking forward to it. I spent so much time over the summer working on Esperanto, I'm anxious to get back to Russian.

I pulled a couple of books off my shelf which I think I'll start after the septembra Sumoo ends the 24th of the month. I've got a Boris Akunin book (Библотека Златоуста version) of Смерть Ахиллеса. A little on the easy side. But it's been months.

The other one I'm really interested in is Конструирование языков (от эсперанто до дотракийского). I'm a sucker for linguisticsy books, so this may be the go-to starting in a couple weeks.

So how are your studies going?