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

[Expugnator]

Yesterday I worked overtime and I had some resources lined up for when I'd be done with everything + Clozemaster, but I still haven't done anything else. I was planning on resuming The Lost Symbol in Greek to check my current level. There's also the Italian series I enjoy watching, it's light entertainment. Anyway, there is a lot I could be doing and I do expect to have more time once my reading skills in German, Georgian and Russian develop even further - they already have and I'm already reading faster in all these.

Now I remember that I decided to read the forum instead. Almost catching up on Cavesa's log. Definitely worth it. I'm not commenting so far because I'm still a couple of months behind, but I'll catch up eventually on that one and on the other more active logs.

The Argentinian podcast has some repetitive episodes, to the extent that I think I'm listening to the same episode again and it turns out it's another one where the same subject is described with nearly all the same words. I think even in our native language(s) we end up developping some islands on topícs we talk about too often.

Today I could clarify a bit more my issue with Russian verbs of motion. I even anticipated some answers to the exercises. As I dealt with the Russian verbs of motion, I remembered there are also the Georgian ones! Estonian has some differentiations too, but much narrower, as far as I can remember. Those concepts are hard for a Romance-speaker. We are not used to specifying position and direction that much: we don't even use verbs such as hang, lie or stand.

Thanks to a network blackout, I'm reading-listening to Råta without the translation. And I can actually understand enough now. I miss the chance of learning the fewer new words, some important ones, but at least I know now that my comprehension has improved and I've reached a point at the book where I'm familiarized enough with the story (which I'm enjoying, btw). Still not enough to just listen to the audiobook, though. I might pick a non-prioritary Norwegian audiobook to try my next attempt.

Finished the first season of Skam, and really looking forward to the second, which I'm going to start...tomorrow. I'm even postponing Side om Side's new season. I think Skam is particularly suited for teaching the language, even if the main character speaks bergsensk.

Finished also the animated movie "Le roi et l'oiseau". A nice one too. It doesn't have much dialogue but then there are some full speeches from the oiseau that are more like written discourses. Now I'm going to watch more urban, contemporary cinema.

Today was a good day for reading Georgian, but I'm no big fan of the book The Parent's Agency. I might finish it in a couple of weeks, and I want to find something better. It's not because it's YA fiction that a book is necessarily good or even light-reading or a page-turner.

Who here has read A series of unfortunate events? They are available in Georgian and i'm tempted, as the language seems simple, but I'm wondering if I shouldn't save it for a language shorter of resources (like Mandarin) or just stick to the Netflix series altogether.

Not that I'm running short of audiobooks in Mandarin. Just found out a series by Ursula K. Le Guin - anyone read from her? There are also Jo Nesbø and H. G. Wells. I've also refined my skills. If I notice the audio and text don't match, I listen closely to the first words in the audiobook and google them. Just worked with The Invisible Man. So I think I can comfortably dedicate a whole new series to Georgian, and I hope to improve my skills, especially speed, by reading a whole series.

Today I came here earlier but I didn't make a good use of the extra time. Actually I finished my tasks later. I had some bureauchratic stuff to deal with.

[Xmmm]

Just found out a series by Ursula K. Le Guin - anyone read from her?

I've read The Lathe of Heaven. Excellent. I recommend it. But I never read any of her other stuff.

Back in the 70s (my childhood) she was extremely popular with the critics, even in the 80s she was still a big name and folks like Orson Scott Card were considered really third-tier writers not worth mentioning (I've still never read anything by him and mostly likely never will).

But it seems like LeGuin's stuff was too high-brow, too subtle and possibly too interested in sociological issues at the cost of action or hard science or whatever, to really achieve mass popularity. There's a lot of big science fiction writers from the 1970s that no one talks about any more, and she is maybe the best of the forgotten authors.

And the funny thing is, back then Phillip K. Dick was considered to be a complete nobody by most science fiction readers. I saw his stuff in the bookstores back in the late 70s and walked right past it. Garish covers, ridiculous plot summaries ... what a clown. Now it turns out he was the greatest American writer of the 20th century. "Don't judge a book by its cover" -- literally.

Anyway, LeGuin is very, very good. But high-brow. I know The Lathe of Heaven is very readable and pretty exciting, but I think it might be her most commercially appealing work.

[Xmmm]

By the way, if you looking for science fiction books in Mandarin, you should track down The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu.

People are saying it's the best hard science fiction novel in the last thirty years. I haven't really kept up with that field, but it has to be true because the book is just ... explosive. One of those things where you stay up to four a.m. finishing it.

The opening might be a little slow because it's like a long prologue. It covers some background events that happened during China's Cultural Revolution and you might think you're reading some mildly interesting Chinese historical novel. Then something big happens. I literally said "Oh, my God!" out loud when I was reading it. You'll know it when you see (or hear) it.

[jeff_lindqvist]

I think even in our native language(s) we end up developing some islands on topícs we talk about too often.

True, true. I have several topics that go on autopilot. Probably the same how/when/why/etc. questions you all get regarding work, hobbies, family... (It was brought to our attention by an ethnology professor of ours during storytelling/narrative practice.)

I think Skam is particularly suited for teaching the language, even if the main character speaks bergensk.

Bergensk!? That's reason enough for me to watch the series! (I haven't seen anything of it yet.)

[Expugnator]

Anyway, LeGuin is very, very good. But high-brow. I know The Lathe of Heaven is very readable and pretty exciting, but I think it might be her most commercially appealing work.

Thank you for the extended feedback, Xmmm. To my Brazilian mindset, sci-fi and highbrow literature are two unmatchable concepts, but I am sure they can coexist. That makes it more interesting actually.

As for The Three Body Problem, it's on my list. I'm just doing easier translated stuff first. I want to enjoy it at a higher level of Mandarin.

I think Skam is particularly suited for teaching the language, even if the main character speaks bergensk.

Bergensk!? That's reason enough for me to watch the series! (I haven't seen anything of it yet.)

If you want to hear even more bergensk, you should check Side om Side and the character Jonas, on NRK.

==============
Trying to figure out my current level in Estonian. I've improved my understanding considerably, and I think I need to refresh basic conversation in order to finally reach an A2 active/B1 passive stage. I remember going through this stage in Russian. Languages with a similar backround (i.e. two opaque ones, heavily inflected) tend to go through similar paths.

Today was a particularly difficult day with German reading, with many new words. I wasn't on a bad "German-day", because I could understand the Slow German podcast just fine. The book I'm reading is advancing towards an end and it probably was time to introduce some final new concepts.

On the other hand, I'm not doing that bad on German-dubbed Captain Future. I'm just failing to concentrate. Subtitles would help in this case not only with meaning, but also with capturing my attention.

Like yesterday (when I spent a lot of time on Mandarin and Georgian prospects), today I was browsing Estonian ebook translations. There's more than enough on YA fiction and other light reading genres. I have some classics lined up, but if I find something contemporary I really like I'll probably buy it. Even if it costs 10x more than the same translation published in Georgia(n). One author I'm looking forward to reading is the Canadian Jonathan Auxier. There's also Carlos Ruiz Zafón which I could read in Spanish parallel. Looks like there are great Estonian authors as well!

Still on Spanish non-fiction, today I read 20 pages to make up for yesterday. I read them pretty intensively, and looked up at least 1 word per page.

[Expugnator]

The weekend was great for relaxing, for spending time with the babies and for gathering material. I finally dealt with my disk space issue and got hold of Indonesianpod101, which means I might start it soon. I shouldn't, but I have a theory about dabbling. The Indonesian Way is also on stock.

On Saturday afternoon I went to the local Polyglot Meetup after many weeks. It was great, though I spoke mostly English. There was a couple there, an Egyptian man and a Lebanese woman, and I almost regretted not being studying Arabic now. They're not staying for long, though, so that shouldn't affect my language-learning decisions in the short term. When time comes, I'm sure I won't have any trouble finding native Arabic speakers around, even if not from the dialect I prefer (as this is the first time I met an Egyptian in person).

I also got to read most of the logs and some of the forum posts. I'm really looking forward to catching up as I'm staying out of invaluable discussions. The best platform for reading is surprisingly the phone. It makes the text lines shorter and it feels like I'm reading faster.

Clozemaster Mandarin has been working wonders. I remember when I started using it, I could barely answer a couple of sentences right on the multiple choice, random. Now I seldom make mistakes, even on longer sentences, in the text range.

This morning, I was going to watch a lecture on Content Marketing but it was cancelled because the lecturer felt ill. Since I don't know whether it's going to be rescheduled, I got the book Content Marketing by Rebecca Lieb and put it into my to-read-soon list.

Things go well with Norwegian. Even on Clozemaster, I'm starting to recall some not so common or obvious word like oppmuntre.

German is starting to fall into place. I have considerable better understanding of Slow German and of the dubbed cartoon I'm watching.

I'm almost done with the set of Hebrew Alphabet videos, but I think I'm going to review the whole series once I start the 'normal' lessons, so as to finally learn both written and cursive scripts separately in my mind.

[Expugnator]

The day yesterday turned out really productive. It's true that I had one extra hour of study, but I had it also on Thursday and Friday and got caught up in other tasks. Yesterday I finished all tasks earlier including Clozemaster, could resume an old task and even started Indonesian.

This morning I could resume listening to Al filo de la realidad for longer. The previous days, my morning commute was shorter so it was less than 15 minutes of listening each day.

In the Modern Greek resources, I miss an associative table that links which cases keeps the nominative form. This became crystal-clear for me in Russian. I never forgot that the neuter and inanimate masculin nouns don't change in the accusative. In M. Greek, it seems, it's the neuter and feminine nouns that keep their forms, but I still don't have this lesson learned despite having gone through many resources.

Still on Greek, the Cortina manual is definitely not for beginners. Actually, it fills an important gap of transition into intermediate and native materials. I don't have Linguaphone but it's ideally used before it and after Assimil.

I' ve been slacking on Italian. I'm reading 4 pages a day but almost always extensively. Not watching anything. It can be deceiving how much you understand thanks to Romance mutual intelligibility. I can compare my current Italian, and even my Spanish, with my French (French being the foreign Romance language I've been studying regularly over the past five years). Whenever I read in French, I meet very few unknown words, and even those are mostly clear through context or won't harm understanding. In Italian and Spanish, I find many words that, if don't harm my overall understanding, still reduces it considerably. And those are languages that supposedly have a higher mutual intelligibility with Brazilian Portuguese. Two lessons to be learned: that my French studies were worth it, as my comprehension improved and I can clearly see it at a higher level than the non-advanced Romance languages; and that I should invest the time on both Italian and Spanish, also on improving my reading skills, which many Romance learners take for granted.

Another day of efficient study; I'm slowly finding time for other activities at the end of the day. Second day of Indonesian.

[Expugnator]

Second day of Indonesian, and I'm confident. I had one doubt regarding the pod101 lessons and asked on two Whatsapp groups and got prompt answers on both. Looks like I'm going to have a good support from natives.

It would be a far cry to call it journalism, but today at the usual TeleCuraçao Multimedia channel I watched a video of a marriage, with the usual sayings, all in Papiamento. It's great that they have such diversity among the millions of news videos.

Finished my current non-fiction reading, La nouvelle société du coût marginal zéro (The Zero Marginal Cost Society). The best of Jeremy Rifkin's works. You can probably skip all the others, though they were helpful to build up comprehension on the author's premises. Now I'm going to read in English, because I want to know more about Content Marketing in case the cancelled lecture is rescheduled.

I just listened to a Dialogue episode of Slow German, and I liked the format a lot. It's an extensive dialogue, like the ones in the Kypros Greek course. You get to read the dialogue slowly and then a bit faster but not exactly normal speed, as it's still clearly articulated. I could understand near everything from the three episodes I listened to. That makes me confident for retrying audiobooks later.

Good advise from Fremdsprachenlernen mit System: forget about the idea of writing a good or even a complete text at once. Be open to the idea that there will be many changes on it. This is something I have to watch for because I usually avoid writing altogether unless I have the concrete idea for the full text well-developped.

Yesterday I had the normal number of hours of study and yet I managed to finish my tasks one hour earlier. I see a trend here, where I'm saving up time by reading faster in some languages as my overall level goes up.

[Expugnator]

Another day with inverted schedule. I did all the watching or listening activities in the morning, and left the reading to the afternoon. I was still busy but managed to complete everything for the day.

The Cortina Greek lessons are much fun now. Less notes and authentic vocabulary.

I feel the need of learning basic Indonesian grammar, rather than more vocabulary. Indonesianpod101 sometimes translates words idiomatically into other grammatical categories in English and I can't learn grammar only from that, without a hyperliteral translation. I also need some phonetic background, as the finals, especially the -k in the -nk combo, seem barely audible. Maybe nk goes velarized but I wonder how it contrasts (if ever) with ng.

Also, adalah reminds me of the Russian является.

[Expugnator]

Finished another book in Georgian. It's the translation of The Parent Agency, by David Baddiel, which I read in parallel. Not one of the best. It turned easier towards the end but still not enough so. Anyway, the offer of translated YA fiction has increased considerably in Georgian, so much so that it's hard to make a choice as to what to read next.

Now i'm going for Italian children's literature. I picked Gianni Rodari's Le avventure di Cippolino. This will be a test before I start a series of books again. My idea is to follow the relative success of Narnia, which I read entirely in Mandarin, and read A series of unfortunate events in Georgian. For this, though, I want to assure I have a better reading level as to allow me to read extensively occasionally. Let's se e how it comes along for this translated Italian adventures first.

I'm enjoying Cortina Greek's lessons. Now there are fewer notes, but a lot of new vocabulary. Many words I haven't encountered at all, and other ones I'm reinforcing. On the other hand, I'm already finding the audio slow, which means the sentences are easier to understand and with more unknown words than it was the case when I started the textbook.

Finished my Spanish non-fiction book. Now I'm resuming another one which I started reading very slowly, out of any schedule. I've already listened to it as an audiobook in Norwegian, and I think that wasn't enough as I want to understand this book better. I shouldn't worry about the fact I'm not doing textbook study, like perfecting my grammar. At this stage, I'm better off just writing and trying to observe prescritive grammar, which is equivalent to the Portuguese one, in the sense that it's nitpicky about the same themes. Also, even though I'm not watching TV series or films from Spanish-speaking countries, and that is killing me because I learn a language for its culture, learning-wise I'm not that much behind because I'm listening to 20-40 minutes of the Argentinian podcast a day. Yet I want to find time for watching En Terapía.

Updated my profile to show the later incursions into wanderlust. Looking forward to updating the older languages according to levels, too.