Expug's 2017 Log - It's now and forever

[blaurebell]

What's the Argentinian podcast you're listening to, if I may ask? I also remembered another Argentinian comedy program: La venganza será terrible (search for "venganzas del pasado"). I'm really enjoying that one a lot right now!

[Expugnator]

What's the Argentinian podcast you're listening to, if I may ask? I also remembered another Argentinian comedy program: La venganza será terrible (search for "venganzas del pasado"). I'm really enjoying that one a lot right now!

It's Al filo de realidad, way into the conspiracy side, but I like some themes though not believing in all, and the presenter seems to be a nice person.

I still can't find time for Spanish-language TV, so the podcast is guaranteeing me at least 20 minutes a day off practice.

[blaurebell]

It's Al filo de realidad, way into the conspiracy side, but I like some themes though not believing in all, and the presenter seems to be a nice person.

I still can't find time for Spanish-language TV, so the podcast is guaranteeing me at least 20 minutes a day off practice.

Ah cool! I didn't even know kooky stuff like that existed in Spanish too! If I get bored with venganza I'll give it a try. But then the venganza programs are like 1.5h long, so I've clocked like more than 8h in so many days. I think my husband has listened to 1000h+ of those without getting bored

[Expugnator]

The weekend had some partial losses in my Clozemaster streak, but using the app still has been quite productive. Besides, I could prepare material for this week and get some Romanian audiobooks. I'm looking forward to starting Romanian just so I can use those books.

I also had a look at the Italian podcasts. Not much that I couldn't try learning in a less common-language base. It doesn't make sense to read (or listen) about psychology or technology in Italian when everything is so crystal clear and close to either Portuguese or English. I'm more into the cultural side and the one I found was I Provinciani, but even this one doesn't feel like a must-read. Besides, there are songs during its 28 minutes of duration (usually in English).

Today was so busy that it became in practice a non-study day. It was the first day of school of the babies, and I went there to help for a while. I also spent a lot of time browsing for a new car for the family. Not in the mood for studying further. The only plus is I could read German at Fremdsprachenlernen mit System extensively almost at English speed with few unknown words.

[Expugnator]

This morning I decided not to go to the gym, which is a rare decision. Even when I get little sleep I still rely on exercising for feeling awake the rest of the day. Today, though, thanks to an itchy throat, not having the winter blankets and cloths ready and both girls having a cold I could only sleep from 3 to 5 am. So I decided to avoid the extra cold of going to the gym and to sleep a little longer. I couldn't sleep after 5 am but it was probably wise to avoid the coldest hours in the morning, from 6 to 7am. Yesterday we had the lowest felt temperature ever, of -5ºC. Even though the actual weather was just around +10ºC, the winds of 70/80 km/h made me feel the coldest in tropical Brazil ever, only second to when I arrived from Italy into Germany without full winter clothing.

In Estonian, before the end of the year people great each other as "Head vana-aasta lõppu" (= good end of the old year). I have to wait for the next episode to know the sequel, but I realized the soap opera was aired at the ordinary chronological time, so they are greeting each other into 2011 and the adoption of the Euro in the episode I'm watching now.

Final exercises of the Russian accusative. Dates seem to use accusative, also when meaning frequency. Just have to keep in mind that the feminine changes. Now the dative and a new set of endings to memorize. Bonus point: I read the final story in the chapter of the accusative and only looked up one word, which I had guessed from the context anyway.

I'm at a stage in Greek that I went through in Georgian. I'm still mixing up the frequent, non-composed verbal tenses. They were easier in Georgian, so I expect the challenge to last a bit longer in Greek. Greek, like Georgian, has some totally irregular/defective verbs where the aorist form, for example, a totally different root that got merged throughout the history of the language. It even seems more common with Greek, but coincidentally seems to affect the say/speak and the see ranges of meaning:

Georgian to see:

Present ვხედავ (vkhedav)
Imperfect ვხედავდი (vkhedavdi)
Aorist ვნახე (vnakhe)

Greek to see:

Present βλέπω
Imperfect έβλεπα
Aorist είδα

This will be a week of many changes in materials, with series and novels ending. This can be motivating. If it weren't for the missed Friday and Monday, I'd be done with a few by now.

In Greek, expressions of time go to the accusative, as in Russian. Diminutive nouns are neuter, as in German.

Against all odds, I managed to finish all tasks today. I feel a bit sleepy and tired, but I'm back on track at last.

[Brun Ugle]

Here, it's summer and we have a high today of 12°C and a low of 6°C. Perfect weather!

[Expugnator]

@Brun Ugle , I usually make this remark that our winter is like the Norwegian summer, but this time it really felt like a real winter! Maybe a subtropical one, but still a winter. Now though the wind is gone and it's more like Norwegian summer again.


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Life is back on track. I got some sleep. Though not all that one needs, as one of the girls was still a bit ill, but it was enough for the time being. Feeling better, too. I didn't get a ride from one workplace to another by wife so I went on listening to the Argentinian podcast again. My bluetooth earphones - the same model I can see used by drivers on the Chinese TV show I'm watching - wasn't connecting to the phone but then I just had to make the phone forget it and pair it again.

I might be a good Portuguese for foreigners teacher because my pupils keep recommending me to others, and even as an English teacher to their local, Brazilian colleagues.

The dative is falling into place, but I still find it utterly confusing how cases alternate endings through genders: the -u ending of the feminine accusative is the masculine dative; the -e ending of the prepositional is also feminine dative; the masculine genitive gets the -a ending which is typically feminine throughout the Indo-european languages. This is one of the reasons it takes me so long to get used to the Russian case system.

I'm starting to understand written Romanian, just by drilling some sentences. The threshold for turning an opaque language from a known family into a transparent one is really low. I didn't understand French automatically as I did with Spanish, but just after learning the most frequent words and grasping the concept of a present perfect with a past meaning I could read it with no problem. I believe a similar pattern might apply to Romanian, but I'll have to wait to check this because I'm not starting Romanian proper by now.

I gave up on reading from the German edition of The Emphatic Civilization, and will be reading just the English one. Not only the German edition is abridged - which, by itself, is shocking given the assumed top-notch quality and perfectability of everything made in Germany, but the chapters and subchapters are also split unevenly, which makes it even harder to match both texts. My German could be doing better, but it's not particularly bad given that I'm still being exposed to 15 minutes and 10 pages of it a day, besides Clozemaster.

I forgot to say that I've been talking consistenly in Mandarin (with other Brazilian learners) at the local polyglot meetups. I'm not far from reaching a basic sufficient level for Mandarin, but I lack practice and also a bit more of confidence. Most of the times I can't "remember" the tone of a word, only to realize I pronounce it correctly. Like, if you ask me how tongyi (as in agreeing) is pronounced I won't remember the numbers of the tones, but I'll pronounce it right. This is probably due to being more exposed through listening than through training vocabulary intensively with full transcription - even though both still happens, it's the acoustic memory that is prevailing.

The sequel of resource completion has started, I'm done reading the cheesy novel "Te lo dico sottovoce", by Lucrezia Scali. It' taught me a lot of vocabulary, though. Now I'll be gladly following the trend by reading a book by Elena Ferrante, the author that has been so often translated in the rest of the Romance world. Just a couple of pages read and the number of words to look up is considerably higher; not only because it's a new book by a new author - the words also sound more literary and not the type that would make them Latin-based cognates.

It took me longer than usual and I had to rely on staying overtime, but I could finish my tasks today. I only hope the calmer days come to stay.

[Systematiker]

Now I'll be gladly following the trend by reading a book by Elena Ferrante, the author that has been so often translated in the rest of the Romance world. Just a couple of pages read and the number of words to look up is considerably higher; not only because it's a new book by a new author - the words also sound more literary and not the type that would make them Latin-based cognates.

She uses a fair bit of dialect for effect in the original, right? I've read the first one in translation, and somewhere along the line I'd like to read the series in the original.

[Ogrim]

The dative is falling into place, but I still find it utterly confusing how cases alternate endings through genders: the -u ending of the feminine accusative is the masculine dative; the -e ending of the prepositional is also feminine dative; the masculine genitive gets the -a ending which is typically feminine throughout the Indo-european languages. This is one of the reasons it takes me so long to get used to the Russian case system.

[Expugnator]

She uses a fair bit of dialect for effect in the original, right? I've read the first one in translation, and somewhere along the line I'd like to read the series in the original.

I've just read the first chapter, but from browsing forward I didn't notice a heavy use of dialect, if any. I was put off by the list of characters - the fact there is one means it's confusing to remember all characters and follow the story, which kills the purpose of having such a list at all. Well, I'll let the text surprise me positively in the next days.

@Ogrim : I've been crying and whining for five years Now it's my last hope of becoming a grownup Russian learner.

Still struggling to fit everything into a tight schedule. The mornings are shorter as I come here later, and I also spend a lot of time just starting and preparing the table, the material and the computer for studying. I used to have 2 hours of study before having lunch, and that allowed me to go directly to Norwegian TV series. Just pressing play and watching. Now when I come from lunch I'm still at the Norwegian reading, which is pretty demanding as it's the intensive reading of 10 pages. This time I'm reading corporative self-help, which would be pretty dull and watered-down to read in Portuguese or English but which presents just the abstract vocabulary I need in Norwegian. The lunch time is also when there are more interruptions and noise around here, so it's hard to focus on reading. Maybe I'll reverse the tasks by doing the series thing when it's more crowded here and see if it is more effective.

One thing I forgot to comment on yesterday: since I'm following 2 audiobooks and 1 podcast at once, and since the players (MortPlayer and the iVox app) can store the data of where I stopped listening, I tend to always leave one file/chapter started. This way, even if I forget to write down where I stopped (which I always do for most of my tasks which aren't simply reading just 1 translation of the book, linearly). I just have to check which file is being played, as all the other ones will have the time stamp at 00:00 probably.

The new Language Transfer Greek is now complete (thanks crush for the info). It's scheduled for after I'm done with the Kypros one (currently halfway). I've already used the old course and I hope to review and activate the language with the new one. Greek is going fine, despite not having started native materials properly. I'm advancing in the language in a different way, filling in more gaps, reviewing more, but this isn't that much planned, it's just the effect of having good beginner materials and no time for native material (like the Dan Brown book I had started listening-reading). Clozemaster also plays an important rule in activating almost from start the little knowledge I know.

Another completion: I finished the second book on a series, Russian non-fiction. It is going to take me ages to finish. Doing some fiction in parallel would be so much fun, but I'm still learning a lot from this activity. The 3rd book in the series is shorter, but the 4th one has the average length but no audio, so I hope to be better at reading when I reach it.

I've learned (rather reviewed) the present participle in Greek. It's useful for when I decide to read novels, because it's the form used while describing how the characters did something, as in "he replied, smiling".