Mork's Log 2017

[MorkTheFiddle]

Pas mal. Although I did not understand more than half of it, I know that better understanding of TV shows comes with time.
Plus the first comment about the episode provided a useful phrase, "cela me rappelle des souvenir," "that brings back memories."

[DaveBee]

Pas mal. Although I did not understand more than half of it, I know that better understanding of TV shows comes with time.
Plus the first comment about the episode provided a useful phrase, "cela me rappelle des souvenir," "that brings back memories."

From episode two I learned 'pot de colle' > glue-pot > pest.

"...un vrai pot de colle"

EDIT
I don't usually read the comments under videos. Your souvenir find may make me change my habits.

[MorkTheFiddle]

Pas mal. Although I did not understand more than half of it, I know that better understanding of TV shows comes with time.
Plus the first comment about the episode provided a useful phrase, "cela me rappelle des souvenir," "that brings back memories."

From episode two I learned 'pot de colle' > glue-pot > pest.

"...un vrai pot de colle"

EDIT
I don't usually read the comments under videos. Your souvenir find may make me change my habits.

Good find of a good expression.
Comments in English tend to be inane or abusive, so I usually avoid them. Comments in other languages sometimes provide useful tidbits about language or culture. Disclaimer: I don't read ALL comments for ALL L2 videos

[MorkTheFiddle]

Recently I started using Mastronarde's Vocabulary study tool and the Greek Ollendorff with a Key created by Bedwere, textkit member (and a big shout-out to him!). Both are straightforward tools. The Vocabulary tool gives good reviews of words and provides a place for typing the Greek equivalents of the English. Offendorff provides simple but progressive drills of words and phrases.
I have finished over 500 lines of the Electra by Euripides with great help from the translation by E. P. Coleridge (not the poet) and the notes and commentary by Keene, noted above. This can't be Euripides at his best because the plot is implausibly contrived, but it's a start.

This morning I solved the puzzle of "la princesa Tanabata." The name came up in the fascinating Novela de Genji that I am reading. A footnote in the Kindle edition at location 8114 explains this as (I translate from the Spanish)

a reference to the the legend of the stars called the Weaver (or, in Japan, "la princesa Tanabata") and the Plowman or Altair and Vega, who, although they love each other, only meet in the sky once a year, exactly on the 7th day of the 7th month.

The Japanese story goes that a weaver fell in love with a cowherd and they became so enamored of one another that they neglected their duties. So an angry master separated them in the sky, but later relented a bit and allowed them to meet once a year in July. That's the story, anyway. The difficulty I had was to realize that "weaver" has nothing to do with the name Altair and that "plowman" has nothing to do with the name Vega. A yearly festival celebrates the event in Japan: Tanabata Festival (in Spanish).

I continue to watch the French TV series from the 90s called Les Filles d'à côté. A series similar to Hélène et les garçons, but the principals are in their 30s rather than their 20s. The writers are the same, so there is a kind of sameness to the stories, despite the difference in ages, and there is the same appeal to the hormones in both series. Coincidentally and perhaps irrelevantly, both series have an American actor playing one of the principals. Bradley Cole from California as Daniel in Les Filles d'à côté and Rochelle Redfield from Texas as Johanna in Hélène et les garçons. No attempt is made to hide or ignore their American accents. I am not to the point yet where I can make out that the accents are American, except that in the case of Rochelle Redfield I can tell that hers is different from the accents of the others.

In German I'm up to Lesson 6 or 7 of Deutsch, Warum Nicht? I want to get back into German with baby steps, but Deutsch, Warum Nicht? may be a tad too slow for me. So I looked at some of the German Resources that Reineke posted 07 June 2016 and 26 October 2017. I looked at some of the sites, liking some and not liking others, but mostly being overwhelmed by the number of sites and the complexity of some of them. What I am hoping to find is a graded series of listening exercises that will get me to genuine native content as quickly as possible. I'm a false beginner, so in three months? I won't hold my breath.

[MorkTheFiddle]

DaveBee is keeping me busy. First a French TV show, now a series of Montessori podcasts in French: From Accompagnement théorique 6/16 - La posture de l'adulte, Monrtessori Lecture, which I am happy to say I am able to follow.
In Ancient Greek I have climbed to line 712 of Electra by Euripides, out of 1356 total lines, finished a few exercises in Greek Ollendorff and reviewed some vocabulary in ancientgreek.org. I am terrible with accents in both Ollendorff and ancientgreek.org but don't much care. Mostly I use those two tools to review English to Greek. I ordered A Little Greek Reader by James Morwood in hopes the selections are short enough and clear enough to work as an aide to learning some of the vocabulary.
I found some German audio consisting of the recounting of the stories of Dracula and a couple other old chestnuts. The important point being that I can understand them, mostly. If I can build a progressing library of German audio, I'm happy, for the time being. Also, I quit Deutsche Welle Warum Nicht because it is so slow. Instead I am using DW Learn German.
I discovered that searching for name-of-language-in-the-language plus A1 turns up some useful stuff: français A1 or español A1 or Deutsch A1. I suppose A2, B1, B2 etc might work as well.

[Cavesa]

I discovered that searching for name-of-language-in-the-language plus A1 turns up some useful stuff: français A1 or español A1 or Deutsch A1. I suppose A2, B1, B2 etc might work as well.

Yes it does. But there are some catches:
1.You need to filter out the tons of language schools advertising their classes of the level.
2.A lot of the links will prove irrelevant, as many people are using the levels too freely.

But the most important bit that caught my attention: Congratulations to your Ancient Greek progress! Just reading about it makes me wish I had time for this important pillar of our culture.

[MorkTheFiddle]

I discovered that searching for name-of-language-in-the-language plus A1 turns up some useful stuff: français A1 or español A1 or Deutsch A1. I suppose A2, B1, B2 etc might work as well.

Yes it does. But there are some catches:
1.You need to filter out the tons of language schools advertising their classes of the level.
2.A lot of the links will prove irrelevant, as many people are using the levels too freely.

But the most important bit that caught my attention: Congratulations to your Ancient Greek progress! Just reading about it makes me wish I had time for this important pillar of our culture.

Thanks for the tips about the language links.
And thanks very much for the congratulations about Ancient Greek!

[reineke]

In German I'm up to Lesson 6 or 7 of Deutsch, Warum Nicht? I want to get back into German with baby steps, but Deutsch, Warum Nicht? may be a tad too slow for me. So I looked at some of the German Resources that Reineke posted 07 June 2016 and 26 October 2017. I looked at some of the sites, liking some and not liking others, but mostly being overwhelmed by the number of sites and the complexity of some of them. What I am hoping to find is a graded series of listening exercises that will get me to genuine native content as quickly as possible. I'm a false beginner, so in three months? I won't hold my breath.

Hueber and "Black Cat" offer graded readers and audiobooks.

https://shop.hueber.de/de/sprache-lerne ... rbuch.html

http://www.blackcat-cideb.com/en/

[reineke]

I still await the second saison of Eureka dubbed into French to come in the mail. Cavesa called this an excellent segue into understanding spoken French, and she is right.
I'm still working on Kaamelott, with thanks to Eleni and Cavesa.
I watched the first episode of Epitafios, Argentine series about a serial killer. I have the first season on DVD picked up for less than $10. Tip of the hat to Iguanamon for suggesting this.
Still working on the old animated series Justine Je T'aime. Thanks to Reineke for the link.
Also still watching Hélène et les garçons. I'm up to episode 34. A light romantic comedy with some moments not so light.

I've just started watching "les filles d'à côte" (one episode!) which was made by the same production company as Helene & co, AB Productions.

I mostly understood what everyone was saying, and there's lots of episodes and pretty people, so I'm officially sold!.

Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue is a 1791 novel by Donatien Alphonse François de Sade, better known as the Marquis de Sade.
Juliette je t'aime is a French translation of a Japanese animated dramedy called Maison Ikkoku. Very tame and family friendly if you ignore Akemi and her very thin nightgown. I watched it as Cara Dolce Kyoko many years ago. I prefer the Italian and Spanish dubs.

[MorkTheFiddle]

Hueber and "Black Cat" offer graded readers and audiobooks.

https://shop.hueber.de/de/sprache-lerne ... rbuch.html

http://www.blackcat-cideb.com/en/

Both offer some interesting selections, and I will be visiting them in due time. I should say, by the way, that I am a false beginner in German. This is probably round three. Yesterday afternoon I went to one of the local used book stores and bought the following. Since I got them so cheap, I've added their prices (mods, can I do that?):

1. Beyond the Dictionary in German. Beatrix Anderson and Maurice North. New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1968. $7.99. I have the Spanish and French versions of this. I enjoy thumbing through them from time to time.
2. Living Language German: The Basics. 2008. $5.49
3. Deutsch heute: Grundstufe, 4th Ed. Jack Moeller and Helmut Liedloff. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1988. $7.99
4. Komme Mit! Holt German Level 2, Teacher’s Edition. Austin: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1995. A textbook once in the high school of a nearby city. $4.99.

Although I want to give equal time to listening, I like textbooks for the review they provide and for their short readings that help to solidify basic vocabulary. And two books that are not textbooks.

5. Von Mäusen und Menschen Of Mice and Men. 4th Berlin Biennial for Comtemporary Art. Berlin: KW Institute for Contemporary Art, 2006. A pretty and hefty book of photos of art with bilingual explanations. $19.99.
6. Der erste Amerikaner: Das Rätsel des vor-kolumischen Indianers. Original Title: The First American. Kurt Wilhelm Marek (writing under the pseudonym C. W. Ceram). Frankfurt am Main: Büchergilde Gutenberg, 1971. The subject matter covers only findings in what is currently the USA. This will be the most challenging book: there are 325 pages of non-bilingual text, but the subject matter interests me (in a hobby kind of way). $7.99.

Momentum kept me going, I guess, and last evening I bought a number of audio bits from Audible. Since some of the recordings were dirt cheap, I include their prices as well.

These first three are short and sweet, less than 30 minutes.
1. Der zweiköpfige Drache [The Two-headed Dragon]: Eine kurze Geschichte für kleine und große Leute [A short Story for Young and Old] by D.C. Morehouse. $0.26.
2. Ein Geschenk für den König: Eine Geschichte für kleine und große Leute by D.C. Morehouse $1.03
3. Der gütige Riese: Eine Geschichte für kleine und große Leute by D. C. Morehouse. $1.05

The four Rilkey repeat-after-me dialogues run about 20-25 minutes.
4. Learn German Dialogues: Level 1: Rilkey Language Systems by Rilkey Language Systems. $0.52
5. Learn German Dialogues: Level 2: Rilkey Language Systems by Rilkey Language Systems. $0.52
6. Learn German Dialogues 3: Rilkey Language Systems by Rilkey Language Systems. $0.52
7. Learn German: Dialogues 4 from Rilkey Language Systems by Rilkey Language Systems. $0.52

8. Rapid German: Volumes 1 & 2 by Earworms Learning. $22.15. The most expensive and most elaborate of my purchases. I simply like the approach they take, effective or not.

9. German Short Stories for Beginners: German Audio: Improve Your Reading and Listening Skills in German by My Daily German. $15.11
10. German Short Stories for Beginners: 8 Unconventional Short Stories to Grow Your Vocabulary and Learn German the Fun Way! by Alex Rawlings, Olly Richards $5.26

The Learn German with Stories series are told exclusively in German and last about an hour. They are not however ten "stories," but rather ten episodes of the same story. Of the newcomers to Germany variety.
11. Café in Berlin (Learn German with Stories 1 - 10 Short Stories for Beginners) by André Klein. $2.68
12. Ferien in Frankfurt (Learn German with Stories 2 - 10 Short Stories for Beginners) by André Klein. $2.68
13. Karneval in Köln (Learn German with Stories 3 - 10 Short Stories for Beginners) by André Klein. $2.76
14. Momente in München (Learn German with Stories 4 - 10 Short Stories for Beginners) by André Klein. $2.68
15. Ahoi aus Hamburg (Learn German with Stories 5 - 10 Short Stories for Beginners) by André Klein. $2.68

I listened to just snippets of most of these audios, just enough to assure myself that I could follow them.

Juliette je t'aime is a French translation of a Japanese animated dramedy called Maison Ikkoku. Very tame and family friendly if you ignore Akemi and her very thin nightgown. I watched it as Cara Dolce Kyoko many years ago. I prefer the Italian and Spanish dubs.

I picked up your recommendation of this in another post. I watched with interest (and understanding) until the series introduced the complication about Juliette's father.