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

[Expugnator]

Finished Tone Almhjell's Vindeltorn. A nice book. I'm not going directly for the next volume, therefore I'm busy now with choosing what to listen-read next in Norwegian. I still have some suggestions lined up, but the Real has lost falue against the Norwegian Krone, so I'm going for the cheapest and this is Råta, sequel to Odinsbarn. Same combo: ebook and nedlastbar lydbok. There are several translations of books I want to read, like Neil Gailman and even Elena Ferrante (in Nynorsk!), but I'm trying to keep it in the orginal Norwegian.

It's interesting how languages collide into one another. The last minutes of Eyjafjallajökull (a French comedy) has some Greek spoken.

Finished the good, well-produced German series You Are Wanted.I was going to watch Sedwitz, but couldn't find the subtitles yet. So, for the time being, I'm picking the sequel to Keinohrhasen, Zweiohrküken, then probably back into dubbed series.

What I said about not seeing much progress in Indonesian just from the earlier levels of Clozemaster doesn't seem to apply to Turkish. I'm obtaining important insights on its grammar as well as acquiring vocabulary just through practicing the 100 most common words. The Turkish deck does start with the basics.

[Mista]

My mother read Elena Ferrante this summer and recommended the books to me, she said the translations were very good. I have a nynorsk project going on, as I have to relearn to write it in connection with my studies this fall. I haven't read the books, but I got the audiobooks, and have so far heard the first of the trilogy, Mi briljante venninne (L'amica geniale in the original, I think). I enjoyed it a lot and am looking forward to the rest. I agree about the quality of the translation, and I also liked the reader. From a learning point of view, I liked that the language seemed to be pretty standard, both in grammar and vocabulary. It's probably a good starting point for reading nynorsk.

[Expugnator]

My mother read Elena Ferrante this summer and recommended the books to me, she said the translations were very good. I have a nynorsk project going on, as I have to relearn to write it in connection with my studies this fall. I haven't read the books, but I got the audiobooks, and have so far heard the first of the trilogy, Mi briljante venninne (L'amica geniale in the original, I think). I enjoyed it a lot and am looking forward to the rest. I agree about the quality of the translation, and I also liked the reader. From a learning point of view, I liked that the language seemed to be pretty standard, both in grammar and vocabulary. It's probably a good starting point for reading nynorsk.

Many thanks for the follow-up, Mista! I'm looking forward to listening-reading the second volume of the Neapolitan series in Nynorsk with the Italian original in parallel. It might take a few months, though, as I'm slowly going through the first book.

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At a Whatsapp group I found an interesting channel with Hebrew songs with Hebrew subtitles, transcripts and English subtitles. They're religious songs, but I think it won't hurt.



This is the channel .

My Mandarin reading or listening/reading or watching is suboptimal. I only have 1 resource that is fully comprehensible input, which are the Yabla videos, but most of these are on a register that I'm not aiming at: documentaries, videos for learners with mostly English, explanations on idioms that use written languages. Few dialogues. At the TV series, I have the English subtitles separate from the Chinese ones. And regarding the listening-reading of Narnia, I first listen and use Pera-pera for the Mandarin, and only later I read the Portuguese translation. So it's not parallel reading the way I did when I started. Reading with Pera-pera takes much time and makes it hard to catch up with the audio, that's why I read the translation only afterwards. So I read long excerpts in Mandarin while losing track of the story, and this makes the text non-comprehensible, even if most individual sentences are. I don't manage to catch up. For the next book I'm going to leave the Portuguese open because since it's my native language I know that even having a glance at is enough to catch up, and I'll be able to take most of the story info from the Mandarin text.

So I started Råta! Sounds fun. I like the audiobook reading, and the book seems much easier to understand now, as Odinsbarn was a bit more difficult. I've figured that pasting text on GT on a split screen is more productive. You have narrower columns and so it's much easier to catch up. The quality of the machine translation is fairly good for this text, and maybe this more literal translation will work better than an actual English translation which was the cause with Vindeltorn. besides, knowing the text in the stronger language is a machine translation forces me to pay more attention to the original in Norwegian.

Another film finished in French, Eyjafjallajökull. Now Un ticket pour l'espace. I can't wait to finish my film quota and resume some of my favorite series.

Today is the day of completing materials. I finished reading Crónicas de una muerte anunciada in Georgian. Interesting book, I like the style and I want to read more from GGM, but the exercise wasn't that useful for my Georgian because the audiobook is way too abridged. So, since my reading level is now much better, I'm going to just read my next book in parallel, not bothering about finding an audiobook. So, now i'm going to read "The Parent Agency", by David Baddiel. Hope it's fun and easy. There are other options for YAF but they are the first of a series and the rest hasn't been published in Georgian yet. Anyway, Georgian has so many translated books and they are so cheap that I should read only what I want in the language and not whatever comes up just because it's in Georgian.

Another book finished, my non-fiction reading. It was Jeremy Rifkin's The Third Industrial Revolution. In French. Now only one of his books left, The Zero Marginal Cost Society, which I'm going to read in French again. After all, this reading slot used to consist only of French books, whether fiction or non-fiction.

Except that I happen to have this book also in Greek. So I'll give it a try. I might not read all pages, but at least 1 or 2, and the rest in French. Next I do want to read non-fiction in German, Italian and Spanish.

Definitely the day of finishing resources. Finished the 3rd book on a Russian non-fiction tetralogy. The worst so far, boring, but at least it was also the shortest. Now volume 4 starts and after that I'll have to dig a really cool fiction book to read in Russian, no matter if translated. It can be YAF or contemporary urban fiction.

Well, now on the 4th book the reader has changed and the voice is a little less monotonous. Oh rather...hold on...it's TTS!! So i'm back on my initial idea of just reading this time. It's much slower in weaker languages (the audio serves to push me forward), but maybe I can take the chance and finally improve my Russian.

[Systematiker]

Man, I was gone for a bit, and you went and started Hebrew! Good on you. Thanks for that video channel link, by the way - I can't quite leave modern Hebrew alone, so it's useful.

Did you like Zweiohrkueken? Keinohrhasen was alright, at least as far as Til Schweiger can act (which ain't far, let's be honest, but it was an ok watch), but I was really disappointed with the sequel.

You're also contributing to my temptation with Ferrante - I had to read the first one in English for a conference last year, and only my promise to my wife about getting back to Italian together has kept me from continuing the series.

[Expugnator]

Man, I was gone for a bit, and you went and started Hebrew! Good on you. Thanks for that video channel link, by the way - I can't quite leave modern Hebrew alone, so it's useful.

I'm really excited about it! I started through the modern one, as with Greek, but in the distant future I might give the older variants a try.

Did you like Zweiohrkueken? Keinohrhasen was alright, at least as far as Til Schweiger can act (which ain't far, let's be honest, but it was an ok watch), but I was really disappointed with the sequel.

I watch films slowly, few minutes a day, so I can't tell yet. So far, the same Til Schweiger formula, but it's fun.

You're also contributing to my temptation with Ferrante - I had to read the first one in English for a conference last year, and only my promise to my wife about getting back to Italian together has kept me from continuing the series.

There's always the option of reading her in translation...

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The weekend didn't have much language learning. I travelled for a birthday party in the countryside. Three hours drive each way. It was fun. I could barely keep my Clozemaster streak for my main languages, but I did start my current non-fiction book. Oh, and Italian podcast.

Regarding my curren readings: I'm still reading 20 pages in non-fiction (currently French) and 10 in Norwegian (actual listening-reading). In practice, the book I was reading previously was an epub with very small font. Now it's a true pdf with larger font. Same goes for the Norwegian one, except that it's both epub. So, I'm reading much less in (French) non-fiction and Norwegian for the same 20 and 10 pages. I don't think it's an issue, though. I'm more motivated when it's a fair page count. The previous books had too many letters crammed within.

Still not reading Greek, though. I was supposed to start with the French non-fiction but I read in French ahead.

I finished the audiobook Quiet - The Power of Introverts. A great, insightful book that will prepare me even for parenthood. Now I'm not picking other non-fiction audiobooks in English. I don't want to limit my important, non-fiction reading to only those books I have as audiobooks. Besides, I want my listening for the lunch time to be both lighter in terms of content (not bothering about actually absorbing the content) and richer in terms of listening (which for English and French would be no big deal). So I'm starting the Slow German podcast. I believe I can finish it in no time by listening to several a day (I have over 30 minutes of listening time during my lunch break). This way I'll have reached my goal of improving my German listening through comprehensible input and I'm going to fill in some important vocabulary gaps, sorted by theme. I'll keep dowloading the pdfs as well for skimming through them whenever I have the chance, but my focus remains on reading.

My idea of reading in parallel in Mandarin worked out. Whenever I get lost at the Mandarin text I take a quick glimpse at the Portuguese one. This way I keep track of the story, and so by the time I'm done with the Mandarin I'm done for the day. I don't have to re-read the pages in Portuguese. My listening also gets more like comprehensible input, because when the Mandarin is too hard and I get lost I can then read ahead in Portuguese and thus just associate the Mandarin audio with the meaning I'll have grasped from the Portuguese.

Going further into my reading-only, no audio Russian. It's a struggle, but it's getting better. I'm forcing myself to pay attention to the full Russian sentence. The vocabulary is familiar but some sentences are still puzzling.

[Expugnator]

When you are listening to materials you really enjoy and not just for the sake of language learning, you are capable of rewinding two minutes because you heard the most important part when you were looking for a park lot, and you didn't pay attention. It's really fun to learn languages this way.

I gave up on reading Greek extensively for the moment (billingually with French). I will read intensivley first (still have to find a free slot, though). Will keep reading the current Jeremy Rifkin's book in French-only. It seems to be less repetitive than the last 3 I read.

I forgot the portable HDD at home in the morning, so Russian in Exercises and Råta got delayed. I was supposed to be ahead of schedule because I didn't give classes in the morning, but I took some time for obtaining material - namely, Skam, my upcoming Norwegian series (finally). I also wasted over 40 minutes through traffic, parking and walking in here. Well, not wasted, because I really enjoyed today's Argentinian podcast.

Speaking of podcasts: Slow German is a success! It's right at my level. I don't need transcripts at all. It's both slow and self-explainable. I can pick new words from context and the ones still missing are no big deal. I'm really happy I managed to find the suitable resource for improving my listening also in German. One day I might do the same with Norwegian, but my vocabulary is still limited there and there is no such graded, well-prepared resource as Slow German, which is even more appropriate than Slow Chinese (in the sense that it is made for true early intermediate learners).

I'm done with Season 4 of Side om Side, and before season 5's episodes are all up, I'll get busy with Skam in the meantime.

The combination long, boring, almost-all-English videos on Yabla and the Georgian reading in paralle without audio after lunchtime are responsible to almost putting me to sleep every day. I need to get used to that Georgian reading so that I can read more quickly and attentively.

Looks like my source for English subtitles of In the name of people is being updated. That means I'm stuck to the show for the time being. It has 55 episodes so I hope more are added in English till the end. Actually, it's more productive when the English and Chinese subtitles are both displayed on-screen, but I'll have to make do this way. Even Viki which is a good source of shows (the standard dramas) only allows for double subtitles when you have a vip account.

[Expugnator]

Yesterday I could work on all languages on Clozemaster, after several days only doing the main ones. Still not time for the second, active round for Norwegian, German, Russian, Greek and Mandarin, though.

Today I was particularly attentive while watching Õnne 13. I can understand a lot of the Estonian subtitles, and for the missing words I can quickly check the English machine translation and not lose track as much as before.

Russian in exercises decided to cover thoroughly the instrumental, which means there were a lot of nominal complement usages, much more than the previous usages.

Slow German is my new favorite pastime. I can listen to over 3 episodes a day, which means I'll be done with them in no time. That, too, is motivating.

Started Skam. More fun in learning. It doesn't seem that hard to understand, and yet I'm using double subtitles and thus improving vocabulary learning. Still, I believe I might be reaching a higher listening level because Råta also felt much easier to follow today. Anyway, the school textbooks owned by the characters on Skam are a dream resource for learners of Norwegian, who struggle to find any non-fiction.

Going forward with hebrew. It's the same first resource I used for Greek: I'll be exposed to basic vocabulary and grammar, I probably won't retain much but will be able to have a better understanding when I get down to more slowly paced textbooks.

[Expugnator]

Starting the day with a Estonian song I've know for over 10 years (before there was Youtube!) and which I heard at today's
Õnne 13 soap opera episode.

The greatest feeling is that I can understand most of the lyrics now. Anyway, there are the full lyrics and translation at the Youtube link.

Genialistid - Leekiv Armastus



At Russian in exercises, I'm on the final sections on cases before moving on to motion verbs. Not doing that bad on reviewing the cases.

I had started reading the book "The Parent Agency" in Georgian and found it a bit too hard for a book meant for tweens and with too few dialogues. Well, three days later the story starts to have more vocabulary and I'm also familiar with more words, and so it's indeed turning into good, productive practice. The book isn't that long, and I read 3% a day, which means I'll soon be able to start a new one and thus keep speed and momentum. Way to go with Georgian.

The way people say "2nd-hand cars" in Norwegian is more like the way we say in Brazil, bruktbil cf. carro usado.

Thank you Annik Rubens for Slow German and for the early feelings of being fluent in German! Today I listened to over 5 episodes.

The so-called Arrowverse is much more complex than I had thought. I was just about to finish Arrow S4E08 and was trying to decide whether to continue with Arrow or go back to Flash, when I found the list of chronological order. It seems I'm missing out on a full Vixen series which is no longer available, as well as Constantine and Supergirl episodes, and will have to watch Legends of Tomorrow sooner than expected. That can be more confusing than language learning. Obviously not all can be found dubbed in Georgian.

Today I got here early, as my class was cancelled. I finally managed to advance all my tasks and focus on a non-language-related course which I hope to finish soon.

[Expugnator]

At Russian in Exercises, I started the dreadful verbs of motions. I think the book did a good job for my knowledge of cases. I'm not proficient but I know how it works now and I can keep learning from input until I decide to write more often in Russian. I hope it goes like this with the verbs of motion.

Skam's 2nd episode was just 16 minute long, so I decided not to split it into two days of watching.

Reading in Georgian is getting easier and I'm focusing on fewer unknown words per page.

The Duolingo Hindi course team has been renewed and they are rewriting some lessons so they can teach the writing system mor efficiently. Looks like there will be progress in the next months.

I'm surfing through the lessons of the Kypros course. A real flow. Today I learned building plot, in Greek and in English. When it gets to the time that I need Greek-only podcast for learners, apart from the more advanced levels of Greekpod101 I'm also going to have the podcast of the Hellenic American Union. It keeps surprising me how good materials are there for Greek. The only missing key are the dubbed subs. I'm really looking forward to watching native Greek series and soap operas. I'll probably start with films because then the chance of finding subs is higher.

Today was a productive day. Not only I had a lot of fun with my language learning. I also finished some pending tasks and I'm on my way to finish other tasks.

[Expugnator]

The weekend was averagely productive. I had a really good time with Clozemaster. I think it's working particularly well for Modern Greek and for Mandarin. I'm making much less mistakes now and I'm consolidating some words I have seen more than enough but were not part of my active vocabulary yet. I also listened to two podcasts in Italian - I understand more now from them - and started reading a non-fiction book in Spanish by a former president of Bancolombia. A member of the local Poliglot Club lent me this book.

Also time to read the forum. I almost caught up with everyone's logs, but I have no idea what's been discussed in terms of language learning in the past two months.

The Kypros course does a good job teaching the conditional. The exercises involve going from one type of conditional to the other. It also helps strongly learning how to go from present to aorist and imperfect. The exercise also works almost like "parallel grammar learning":

E. Αν είχα χρήματα, θα σου έκανα πολλά δώρα.

A. Αν έχω χρήματα, θα σου κάνω πολλά δώρα.

Today was not particularly busy but I had some stuff to do and so I could barely finish my schedule.