An Opsimath's Log: DA, LA, NL, FR

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Elsa Maria
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An Opsimath's Log: DA, LA, NL, FR

Postby Elsa Maria » Sun Jun 18, 2017 6:08 pm

2021 posts start here.

2020: No log except for a miniscule number of posts in December.

2019 posts start here.

2018 posts start here.


----
Opsimath : a person who begins to learn or study only late in life.
ETA (28Jan2019): The title of my log was An Opsimath's Log until today. I got tired of it, but couldn't think of an interesting title :)

With regard to foreign languages, the opsimath label certainly fits me :) I started Danish at age 46, Latin at 50, and now Russian at 53. Before Danish, all I had was high school Spanish and some piddling around with Spanish in my 30s.

I decided to start a new log. This homeschool mom is finally on summer schedule, and I should have lots of time for language study. Now I just have to make sure that I make good use of the summer!

Here is an overview of where I am now and what I am planning:



DANISH
My pronunciation is reasonable, my speaking ability is tolerable, my listening comprehension is middling, my reading ability progresses steadily, and my writing is pitiful. There remain miles to go before I sleep.

LATIN
Two years ago, I was doing rather well with Latin and enjoyed it. I would say that I completed about one year of high school Latin. I have not touched Latin in probably a year. I plan to start over with Familia Romana (Ørberg). I have to see how much I have forgotten before I make a plan.

RUSSIAN
Sigh. I think I have posted several times that I am starting Russian...and I have really done so very little. :oops: My child, on the other hand, has been a very diligent Russian student and will help me out this summer.

ESL
I am a volunteer English as a Second Language (ESL) tutor, and this is an important part of my life.

DOWN THE ROAD

Norwegian: Once I can read Danish easily and fluently, I want to start reading in Norwegian. Because of the similarities, this should not be a monumental effort.

Dutch: Someday! I recently came back from two weeks in the Netherlands, and I bought lots of Dutch books. 2019, maybe?

ESL Certification.

post edited for clarity and to add the ESL stuff
Last edited by Elsa Maria on Mon Sep 19, 2022 7:17 pm, edited 35 times in total.
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Elsa Maria
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Re: An Opsimath's Log

Postby Elsa Maria » Wed Jun 28, 2017 4:44 pm

Since I launched this log 10 days ago, Danish received the most effort. And that is as it should be for me right now. Latin got a much needed reboot, and I worked a bit on Russian. Realistically, I should drop either Latin or Russian but I am would have a hard time choosing between them right now.

DANISH
I had a boost in speaking. I had two Italki sessions (my first ever), and today I had great success with an important and rather difficult phone conversation.

LATIN
I easily worked through Chapters I through V (including the pensum) of Familia Romana. Pronoun declensions were my only weak area, which is no surprise. I never really learned them properly.

RUSSIAN
I finally settled on a spine. I tried out both the Penguin text and Nina Potapova's Learning Russian. I'm going to use the Potapova book. With that, I am looking for simple texts to read and listen to. I have two sources now:

Russian Texts with Audio
http://www.russianforfree.com/texts-wit ... ith-audio/

Bookbox.com
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... C29E209394
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Elsa Maria
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Re: An Opsimath's Log

Postby Elsa Maria » Thu Dec 07, 2017 10:00 pm

I have not updated my log since June, and I wanted to do it before it became a New Year's thing :)

Still plugging along with Danish. My reading has come a long way.
Latin gets attention in fits and spurts.

My travel prospects for the future include both Russian and Spanish, so I have decided to give them both equal weight. Eventually, I want to add Dutch and Norwegian into the mix.
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Elsa Maria
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Re: An Opsimath's Log

Postby Elsa Maria » Thu Feb 01, 2018 7:39 pm

Books read in Danish in 2018:

January
Min historie by Zilan B.

February
Mio, min mio by Astrid Lindgren

March
Brødrene Løvehjerte by Astrid Lindgren

April
None :(

------

I spent most of January either sick or looking after someone who was sick. The first of February feels like a new beginning to me :)

In 2017, I read 65 books in my native language (English), and six books in Danish. I would like to at least double the number of Danish books this year. Reading is just about my favorite thing to do with my free time, and I will continue to read heavily in English. That is just not something I am willing to give up.

LATIN
Habits pave the way for me. When I have the right habits in place, I am very productive and do not suffer from decision fatigue. I have successfully created the habit of working on Latin first thing in the morning. I do this in my warm bed while drinking coffee. And it is really working well, because I noticed the other day that when I went to make the coffee, I was already thinking about the forms of is, ea, id without even noticing. My main resource is Lingua Latina, but I also use the Latin for the New Millennium (LNM) textbook.

I have completed all of the Pensum through Chapter 6, and I have read through Chapter 10. This week, I started reading the Colloquia Personarum, and these are really fun to read. I have completely memorized the first four noun declensions, and all of the pronoun forms that are in LNM Volume 1. I thought I was NEVER going to get them into my memory, but now I feel that they are securely there. I worked on that almost every day of January.

Lingua Latina:
https://www.amazon.com/Lingua-Latina-Il ... gua+latina

Colloquia Personarum:
https://www.amazon.com/Colloquia-Person ... personarum

Latin for the New Millennium:
http://www.bolchazy.com/Latin-for-the-N ... P3352.aspx


RUSSIAN

I have tried out the first chapters in multiple texts. I don't love any of them, but if I am ever going to make progress then I just have to pick one or two and keep at it. I splurged on Road to Russia during a pre-Christmas sale. There is much to like about it, but I just discovered that the answer key is incomplete. I was so disappointed that there is no answer key when the exercise asks me to translate from English to Russian. On the plus side, it is nicely designed. I don't like textbooks that look busy, and its simple design pleases me. It is too big to carry around, though.

Road to Russia:
http://ilearnrussian.com/en/content/6-r ... a-textbook

I have Nina Potapova's Learning Russian for putting in my bag and studying while I am out. I am very fond of this vintage text.

The other resource that I have used regularly is Pimsleur, which I get through Audible. I am on Unit 8. I have to listen to each unit a ridiculous number of times for it to stick. I usually listen to it while I am cooking dinner.

--
Well, that is enough for now. One of the reasons I have failed at logs before, is waiting a long time between posts and then feeling compelled to write something massive to catch up. Next time, I will write something about Danish, Spanish, and Dutch. Since I am also an ESL tutor, maybe I will write about that.
Last edited by Elsa Maria on Tue May 01, 2018 3:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Elsa Maria
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Re: An Opsimath's Log

Postby Elsa Maria » Tue Feb 06, 2018 9:16 pm

Well, I am demoting the Road to Russia text. The explanations in Nina Potapova's book are better and so is the answer key.

--
I think it is time to remind myself why I am studying what I am studying:

Danish
I would like to get ONE language to a high level, and this one has the best chance because I am far enough along to believe that it will happen. And I still enjoy the language and the culture enough to keep working at it.

Latin
I think that spending time in Lingua Latina is fun, and I have a hard time putting it aside. But other than that, I am not really sure why I am studying Latin. It could be more a bit of a sunk cost fallacy language, because I really do not want to forget what I have already learned. But I am not really sure what I want to DO with Latin. Well, I am a fan of early church music and poetry - that is probably what I could use it for.

Russian
I have plenty of good reasons for studying Russian. In truth, I have better reasons for studying Russian than Latin. (1) I think that I will travel to Russia at some point. (2) I have a Russian study buddy who is ahead of me and can help me. (3) I can think of lots of things that I would like to do with the language.

Spanish
I'm just playing around and trying to reactivate what I used to know. I started doing Duolingo and Clozemaster, and I remember more than I thought I would. But this is definitely in the 15-minutes-or-less-per-day category. But I feel no angst over progress. And I might replace it with Dutch soon.
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Elsa Maria
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Re: An Opsimath's Log

Postby Elsa Maria » Sun Feb 18, 2018 9:58 pm

Danish

I have been reading Astrid Lindgren. I finished Ronja Røverdatter and Mio, Min Mio. I just started Brøderne Løvehjert. I am trying to decide if I am up for reading Jens Andersen's biography of Astrid Lindgren (Denne dag, et liv) in the original Danish. It is coming out in English soon, and I think I might need both versions to tackle it.

I'm trying to finish up Matador. I still have four episodes to go. Dare I admit that I started this series YEARS ago? :oops: Sheesh, and I even like it. Not sure what happened. All I can say is that I don't do well with long series. I watch a lot of YouTube videos and the news, instead. I did find two podcasts about Matador, and I have started listening to those.

I'm not sure what happened to Politiken's Bogfolk podcast. I had really liked that one, but there hasn't been a new episode since December.

I found a set of five dictation exercises. I have only done one so far, and I was pretty happy with my results. And I think these are fun to do. But I totally blew it on nogen/noget/nogle. I did some grammar exercises on that point this week, and I think I get it now. Yay.

Still procrastinating on writing in Danish. I will write something in Danish this week. I am right promising myself!

Latin
Latin has been going really well. I have been getting to it every day. I bounce back and forth between Lingua Latina and Latin for the New Millennium. I'm not going super fast, but that is fine with me. I need everything that I do learn/know to be really solid, because sooner or later I have to move Latin to a lower priority if I want to work on both Russian and Dutch.

Russian
Still trying to find my groove. I watched a bunch of YouTube videos this week. I think that is all I did. Oh wait. I am still listening to Pimsleur. I am on Lesson 10.

Dutch
Just starting to get acquainted with Dutch. I started the Duolingo tree and started reading my grammar (Dover Essential Dutch Grammar). I have owned this book for over a decade :lol:

Spanish
Just doing Duolingo and trying not to forget the little bit that I learned years ago. I am at the 35% mark in the tree, and it is still very easy for me. It is a very low priority.
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Re: An Opsimath's Log

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Sun Feb 18, 2018 10:58 pm

Elsa Maria wrote:I'm trying to finish up Matador. I still have four episodes to go. Dare I admit that I started this series YEARS ago? :oops:


Same here - I started watching the series in August 2011 (!) and the last episode I watched was #16 (Lauras store dag) half a year later... Time to start over, I guess.
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Elsa Maria
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Re: An Opsimath's Log

Postby Elsa Maria » Mon Feb 19, 2018 2:38 pm

jeff_lindqvist wrote:Same here - I started watching the series in August 2011 (!) and the last episode I watched was #16 (Lauras store dag) half a year later... Time to start over, I guess.

That's funny. I also stopped at Lauras Store Dag. I think that was in 2013 or 2014. Must be something about that episode :) When I restarted the series, I just watched Lauras Store Dag again for a refresher and then moved on.
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Re: An Opsimath's Log

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Mon Feb 19, 2018 5:17 pm

Hey, that's funny indeed! One of my plans this year is to watch the whole series - it's great and it helps my Danish.
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Elsa Maria
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Re: An Opsimath's Log

Postby Elsa Maria » Wed Feb 21, 2018 11:48 pm

Tom wrote:Turns out I am an opsimath too...I just started my first foreign language (Spanish) a few months ago, and I'm 52, almost 53. Although I did have a little bit of French and Spanish in school ages and ages ago. Just thought I'd stop in and say hi to a fellow opsimath. :)

Thanks for your comment, Tom. I hope you are enjoying learning Spanish! I just recently found out about this thread through Josquin's Log:

Language Learning after 50


Mary Hobson is now my latest inspiration!
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