Con calma, a new and better log for 2017

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
Cavesa
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4960
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:46 am
Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
x 17566

Re: Con calma, a new and better log for 2017

Postby Cavesa » Mon Jun 19, 2017 9:38 pm

Reading Whispers Under Ground. It's awesome. The same great sense of humour, more thrilling story than in the previous book.

Continuing with Clozemaster.

Studying in French and Czech, I have an exam on Thursday. And another next week. And an infernal one in September.

Systematiker inspired me to get back to my attempts to read the Bible regularily, I have been making excuses for a very long time. I wonder whether reading it in foreign languages might help me make a habit of it. I know it sounds weird. But I was more regularily in the church in France too, but definitely not just for language practice. The mass is, however, a very interesting phenomenon from the language learning point of view. The order of the parts and the rhytm of the prayers is more or else the same everywhere, I'd say a catholic can attend the mass anywhere in the world and not get lost during a large part of it.
4 x

User avatar
Systematiker
Blue Belt
Posts: 823
Joined: Tue May 10, 2016 6:09 pm
Languages: ENG (N); DEU (C2+) // SWG (~C1); BAR (~C1); SPA (4/3); FRA (~C1); SCO (~C1); NLD (~B2*); LAT (Latinum Bavaricum); GRC (Graecum Bavaricum); CAT (~B2*); POR (~B2*); SWE (~B2*); HBO (Hebraicum); DAN (~B1*); RUS (~A2); KOR (~A1); FAS (still a raw beginner)
*Averaged for high receptive skill
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7332
x 2070

Re: Con calma, a new and better log for 2017

Postby Systematiker » Tue Jun 20, 2017 12:37 am

Cavesa wrote:Systematiker inspired me to get back to my attempts to read the Bible regularily, I have been making excuses for a very long time. I wonder whether reading it in foreign languages might help me make a habit of it. I know it sounds weird. But I was more regularily in the church in France too, but definitely not just for language practice. The mass is, however, a very interesting phenomenon from the language learning point of view. The order of the parts and the rhytm of the prayers is more or else the same everywhere, I'd say a catholic can attend the mass anywhere in the world and not get lost during a large part of it.


Glad I could help inspire you! I also think that reading or even prayer in other languages is a part of making the languages a part of life, especially when it's connected to the habit and ritual of what we do, and when we're not immersed in the language it is still a part of our way of being.

I think Elenia and I had a similar conversation a while back about the liturgy - I'm convinced that between the Mass and the Bible, one familiar with them could pick up an entire language pretty well, even if there were no other resources available besides those two. Lutheran services the way I know them look pretty much like the Roman Catholic Mass, and I find it pretty neat as well that one can experience basically the same thing in so many languages and still follow most of it. Actually, as I recall, some of the argument against Mass in the vernacular after Vatican II was that the Latin Mass allowed people to be united in worship anywhere; really, though, with so much the same (even if it's slightly different tunes), if you've been for a while in one language you can usually keep up in any other.
4 x

Cavesa
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4960
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:46 am
Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
x 17566

Re: Con calma, a new and better log for 2017

Postby Cavesa » Tue Jun 20, 2017 1:18 pm

That is an amusing thought: "Let's stick to Latin during the mass, so that we can all understand. Except for the poor who can't afford education. Those won't understand the mass anywhere on the planet and who cares."

But we've still kept a lot. Pater Noster is extremely understandable across languages, and that is just one example. And still, there is more to it than the words, I find it weird that the national languages would be considered a problem in this sense. I must admit I found someof the little differences between the Czech and French and Spanish texts of the prayers (those that I know, I have gaps in my knowledge) pretty interesting and sometimes meaningful.
...................

The Czech scientists from Brno, in colaboration with the US and Hungarian scientists, are exploring the connections between languages, cultures, and neurodegenerative diseases. The theory is that language and culture may affect the individual layout of one's brain , for example French would be training a bit different areas than Mandarin, which could lead to different development of the diseases like Alzheimer or Parkinson, and to more efficient treatments. They'll be using neurobehavioral methods and MRI.

If I think a step further than that, the prevention advice from doctors could one day be something like: "Eat healthy, don't smoke, only small doses of alcohol, sports, and learn Finnish." Or "considering your family antecedants of Alzheimer, I recommend your children took Japanese instead of Spanish at school." Or "As you are bilingual in English and Polish, I think we could achieve better results by adjusting the Memantine doses accordingly."

Well, languages are very important in healthcare even now, not only in examples like mine, when my first patient in France spoke only Moroccan Arabic. A friend of mine works in a center for old people with dementia here in Prague. And they have a client who had immigrated from Russia a few decades ago, learnt Czech perfectly, later got a dementia (I don't know which type) and forgot Czech completely. Given the fact none of the staff speaks Russian, the care is quite complicated. Given the fact our population is aging and being more and more diverse, this is going to be a trouble in future. We must just hope that members of our minorities will not only grow old with us, but that sufficient amount of their bilingual kids is masochist enough to become healthcare professionals here. It is a complicated matter, their situation is sometimes pressing them much more to fields with good money, and healthcare is simply not that. Medicine studies are not extremely bad at attiring them despite being no match for economy fields, thanks to the remaining prestige of being a doctor, but the problem lies in the other healthcare professions. The other way is educating the existing personel. Yeah, for the laughable money, they will not only bear the conditions breaking the work laws, the very hard job, the lost free time, the degree requirement, they will also learn two or three languages and still take less money than a supermarket cashier. And now I'd like to hear the one about Rapunzel.
..........................

Aaronovitch is winning my heart (as a writer of course!), as not only the main hero has to learn Latin for his magic studies, but now he was normally asked by his master "How's your French?" and had to disappoint him, and settle for a less quality reference book in English. In general, I love the motive of libraries, especially multilingual libraries, in literature. And movies. And everywhere. And at home. :-)
8 x

User avatar
jeff_lindqvist
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3135
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2015 9:52 pm
Languages: sv, en
de, es
ga, eo
---
fi, yue, ro, tp, cy, kw, pt, sk
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2773
x 10462

Re: Con calma, a new and better log for 2017

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Tue Jun 20, 2017 5:09 pm

Cavesa wrote:Aaronovitch is winning my heart (as a writer of course!), as not only the main hero has to learn Latin for his magic studies, but now he was normally asked by his master "How's your French?" and had to disappoint him, and settle for a less quality reference book in English. In general, I love the motive of libraries, especially multilingual libraries, in literature. And movies. And everywhere. And at home. :-)


Cool stuff! I just borrowed the first volume in the series.
1 x
Leabhair/Greannáin léite as Gaeilge: 9 / 18
Ar an seastán oíche: Oileán an Órchiste
Duolingo - finished trees: sp/ga/de/fr/pt/it
Finnish with extra pain : 100 / 100

Llorg Blog - Wiki - Discord

User avatar
Robierre
Green Belt
Posts: 293
Joined: Fri Jul 31, 2015 7:35 pm
Languages: Speaking: Croatian (N)
Learning: French (C2), Polish (B1)
Using: English
On hold: German (B2), Italian (C1)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=941
x 382

Re: Con calma, a new and better log for 2017

Postby Robierre » Tue Jun 20, 2017 6:37 pm

Cavesa wrote:
Systematiker inspired me to get back to my attempts to read the Bible regularily, I have been making excuses for a very long time. I wonder whether reading it in foreign languages might help me make a habit of it. I know it sounds weird.

I started to read the Bible in French last year (online) and it was a very interesting experience. Finally I stopped somewhere in the middle of the Old testament, but plan to continue with it.
2 x
Si ce n'est toi, qui le fera? Si pas maintenant, quand sera-ce?

User avatar
Brun Ugle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2273
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 12:48 pm
Location: Steinkjer, Norway
Languages: English (N), Norwegian (~C1/C2), Spanish (B1/B2), German (A2/B1?), Japanese (very rusty)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=11484
x 5821
Contact:

Re: Con calma, a new and better log for 2017

Postby Brun Ugle » Tue Jun 20, 2017 6:50 pm

jeff_lindqvist wrote:
Cavesa wrote:Aaronovitch is winning my heart (as a writer of course!), as not only the main hero has to learn Latin for his magic studies, but now he was normally asked by his master "How's your French?" and had to disappoint him, and settle for a less quality reference book in English. In general, I love the motive of libraries, especially multilingual libraries, in literature. And movies. And everywhere. And at home. :-)


Cool stuff! I just borrowed the first volume in the series.

Title please? You probably mentioned it somewhere, but I must have missed it.
1 x

Cavesa
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4960
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:46 am
Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
x 17566

Re: Con calma, a new and better log for 2017

Postby Cavesa » Tue Jun 20, 2017 7:34 pm

Brun Ugle wrote:
jeff_lindqvist wrote:
Cavesa wrote:Aaronovitch is winning my heart (as a writer of course!), as not only the main hero has to learn Latin for his magic studies, but now he was normally asked by his master "How's your French?" and had to disappoint him, and settle for a less quality reference book in English. In general, I love the motive of libraries, especially multilingual libraries, in literature. And movies. And everywhere. And at home. :-)


Cool stuff! I just borrowed the first volume in the series.

Title please? You probably mentioned it somewhere, but I must have missed it.


The first book is Rivers of London, five books have been published so far. I am curious how many there will be before Martin finally finishes the Winds of Winter.
1 x

Cavesa
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4960
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:46 am
Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
x 17566

Re: Con calma, a new and better log for 2017

Postby Cavesa » Sat Jun 24, 2017 7:30 pm

The last few days:

I passed one exam. One more to go before summer (summer studying, not proper holidays), and than the last infernal one in September.

Finished another Aaronovitch, and now I am in the middle of book 4, Broken Homes. Who used the term binge reading? They probably know me. Lost time, guilt, the mass reading, all is there :-D

Studying still in French and Czech.

I had a short conversation in Spanish a few days ago. I sounded really stupid, as he surprised me, while I was so lost in Aaronovitch that I almost missed my station. I should work on language switching.

And I am taking singing lessons again (my teacher passed her exams and I got the worst part done). That means Czech, Italian, French. Italian is the best language for music.
9 x

DaveBee
Blue Belt
Posts: 952
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2016 8:49 pm
Location: UK
Languages: English (native). French (studying).
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7466
x 1386

Re: Con calma, a new and better log for 2017

Postby DaveBee » Sat Jun 24, 2017 9:14 pm

Cavesa wrote:The last few days:

I passed one exam.
Well done You! :-)
1 x

Cavesa
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4960
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 9:46 am
Languages: Czech (N), French (C2) English (C1), Italian (C1), Spanish, German (C1)
x 17566

Re: Con calma, a new and better log for 2017

Postby Cavesa » Mon Jun 26, 2017 10:49 pm

Thank you.

My studies are not going well. I really could do with a study partner. You know, a friend with whom to sit and study, both hesitating to make yet another break while the other one goes on. I am alone. And I feel very lonely with the task.

When I'll have passed my next exam, I'll buy some books as a reward. Some Spanish fantasy and sci-fi. I have sent an email to one eshop who might be able to provide me with them without the horrible delivery fees. I really want to get to know these a bit more. I've looked on some online lists, including the list of Minotauro winners and finalists. Curious there are no such lists on goodreads (at least now). I want to avoid mediocre books, that won just because the competition wasn't that fierce the particular year (some review suggest that), I want to find the real jewels. One question. Why do the Spanish steampunk authors love London so much? The last Minotauro winner won with yet another book taking place in London. Nope. Ok, Felix Palma is one of the "Londoners" too, but he is an exception.

And I found Curso de lectura, conversación y redacción series by José Siles Artés. Anyone knows it? It looks good, it may provide me exactly with what my resources are missing. But I wouldn't want to waste my money. I can have more fantasy books for it instead, afterall. :-)

And I finished Broken Homes. I will not visit any bookshop until I have the damn exam. That is the only way to stop this madness :-D
5 x


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: guyome and 2 guests