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

[Elsa Maria]

Russian
My 6WC is going well. Which means that I didn't quit! Once I got into the habit of tracking with Twitter, I don't find the tracking to be onerous. Especially knowing that I will track for six weeks then take a break.

I have 11 hours in for my TL (Russian). I watched my first-ever full length Russian film using English subtitles. I could hear plenty of the words that I have learned with Pimsleur, so that felt good. I am on Pimsleur Lesson 20. I have all of Level 1 (30 lessons) and it took me a long time to acquire them through my Audible subscription. They are great to listen to whenever I am making dinner.

I'm trying out a new-to-me app called Beelinguapp. There are little bilingual texts that are read aloud.

Dutch
The University of Groningen course started yesterday. So far so good.

Latin
I have signed up for a beginner online class that starts in September. It is for us over 50 folks The beginning should be review for me, but I have no idea how much time per week I should allow once the class ramps up.

Danish
Mostly just reading. Always reading.

[Elsa Maria]

I finished the Danish series 1864 last night. It had far to many gory battle scenes for me to enjoy it. And there were some ridiculous plot points. It will be pulled from DRTV later this week, so I had to hurry up and finish it or forget about it.

[Elsa Maria]

6WC

I have put in 16 hours toward Russian (my TL) and 27 hours total. I just don't know if I can sustain an effort toward Russian after the 6WC. My Latin class starts in a few weeks, and I really want to work on Dutch because I have a more immediate need for it. I'm going to try not to shove Russian aside because then I will lose what I have gained this month.

Russian I am on track to finish the first six chapters of Road to Russia and Pimsleur Level 1 (30 lessons) during the 6WC. I will then have to go back and consolidate things.

Dutch I am mostly just working with the content of the free U of Groningen course. This is week 2 of 3. I am not going to sign up for the next part. I think my money could be better spent elsewhere at the moment, and I want to work at my own pace until I see how much time the Latin class requires.

Danish I'd like to finish up Sommerbogen by Tove Jannson this week. Most of my Danish time recently has gone toward reading literature. I watched a TV show the other night that was filled with teenagers talking and I realized that I have started to forget a lot of casual spoken Danish.

Latin Nothing. I'll wait for my class to start.

Spanish Watched a bit of YouTube.

ESL Volunteer Starting in September, I will be teaching a Beginning Conversation Class and continue tutoring one student. The organization that I volunteer for had a book club for students and tutors over the summer. It was a great experience - I really enjoyed it.

[Elsa Maria]

Apparently I am quite terrible at keeping a log.

6WC Dutch
This is my priority right now. I have a trip planned to the Netherlands in a few months, so that is great motivation. I am working through a grammar course (learndutch.org), listening to Pimsleur when I am cooking, and otherwise letting nijnte (Miffy) teach me Dutch.

Latin
I love my online class. The pace is perfect for me. It is enough to keep me moving forward, but it really does not take a lot of time.

Danish
I am doing a reading experiment. I've dropped back to the easiest books that I own, and I will work my way up. I confess that I own a lot of Danish books, so it could be a long time before I get to the highbrow literature that I want to read. But when I do get there I won't struggle. I have had a few italki lessons recently, and I plan to keep doing those.

[Kat]

I love your idea of booking a tour guide for the local language. I have a trip planned to the Netherlands, and I think I will try that idea.

I didn't want to clutter AlOlaf's log, so I hope you don't mind me replying here.

If you happen to be in Amsterdam, I can wholeheartedly recommend Gilde Amsterdam. I did several of their Dutch tours and found them all very enjoyable. My favorite was "Maritiem Verleden" -- I was lucky enough to be the only person on that tour (it was in the middle of January and the weather was really bad ), so I had a great guide all to myself. They are a volunteer organization and use the money they earn to finance community projects.

Edited: typo

[Elsa Maria]

2019 Log starts here

I've really enjoyed reading everyone's wrap-ups of 2018 and plans for 2019.

I actually had a reasonably good year with my languages, and I am very excited about my plans for 2019.

DANISH: I read ten books in 2018. Most of them were by Astrid Lindgren. Two of them (Havpaladset and Sprog) were originally written in Danish.

I have joined a Danish book club, and most of the books are admittedly too hard for me. But the people in the group are very nice and encouraging, and they don't mind if I don't read the whole book. I can participate in the discussion, and I follow the discussion reasonably well. It is a great opportunity.

I signed up for the 365 Day Challenge and the Output Challenge. In 2019, I plan to be brave enough to write part of my log in Danish.

DUTCH: I got started with the FLC Challenge, and now I am enrolled in a class that meets once per week. The only problem is that they started in September. Eek. I am going to have to work hard to catch up with the class, but again it is a great opportunity. I signed up for the 365 day Challenge and launched the Dutch Study Group. I will be in the Netherlands for a trip very soon

LATIN: I started an online class in September. We have a delightful instructor, and I just signed up to take the National Latin Exam in March.

Those three languages will keep me plenty busy, but I would very much like to put in 15-20 minutes daily on both Russian and Spanish. We'll see.

[Elsa Maria]

I am back from visiting the Netherlands. While I have been there many times, this was my first trip there after I started learning Dutch. Even my A level Dutch enhanced the trip a lot. Here are some of my observations:

I was only there for one week. I think that I could have mastered the predictable shopping conversations with just a little bit more time. I was able to understand the numbers quite well. I learned so many new words just by reading signs.

I was pleased that I could understand bits and pieces of the announcements on the planes and trains.

Most people did not immediately switch to English on me. It did happen twice, but otherwise the conversations stayed in Dutch until it was obvious that I had exhausted my level - which was very very quickly, I will admit.

January is a great time to be in the NL if you don't mind the weather (I don't). My hotel was practically empty and there were some very kind employees at my hotel who took the time daily to teach me things and let me practice. I am not sure that they would have had the time for that during a busier season.

I went to several bookstores with a Dutch friend of mine. She helped me pick out some books, and I am so excited about my new books! I will post some of the titles later.

The day before my trip, I had a tutoring session. Two days after I got home, I had my Dutch class. The momentum has been great, and the 365 Day Challenge has really helped me a lot. I had signed up for the 365 Day Challenge in both Dutch and Danish, and so far I have not missed a day in either language. It was tough to work in time for Danish some days, but I have so far managed. I am kind of shocked that I have not skipped a day!

[PeterMollenburg]

I am back from visiting the Netherlands. While I have been there many times, this was my first trip there after I started learning Dutch. Even my A level Dutch enhanced the trip a lot. Here are some of my observations:

I was only there for one week. I think that I could have mastered the predictable shopping conversations with just a little bit more time. I was able to understand the numbers quite well. I learned so many new words just by reading signs.

I was pleased that I could understand bits and pieces of the announcements on the planes and trains.

Most people did not immediately switch to English on me. It did happen twice, but otherwise the conversations stayed in Dutch until it was obvious that I had exhausted my level - which was very very quickly, I will admit.

January is a great time to be in the NL if you don't mind the weather (I don't). My hotel was practically empty and there were some very kind employees at my hotel who took the time daily to teach me things and let me practice. I am not sure that they would have had the time for that during a busier season.

I went to several bookstores with a Dutch friend of mine. She helped me pick out some books, and I am so excited about my new books! I will post some of the titles later.

The day before my trip, I had a tutoring session. Two days after I got home, I had my Dutch class. The momentum has been great, and the 365 Day Challenge has really helped me a lot. I had signed up for the 365 Day Challenge in both Dutch and Danish, and so far I have not missed a day in either language. It was tough to work in time for Danish some days, but I have so far managed. I am kind of shocked that I have not skipped a day!

Good work on not skipping your Danish! I'm glad to hear the Dutch didn't switch on you to English until the time was appropriate, even if that was pretty early on in the interactions. I'm excited that you've got this momentum now! Looking fwd to hearing about the books you purchased. I have been in NL around that time too, and yes it is much much busier during tourist peak times to the point I think the receptionists would've barely had time to notice you (or had trouble singling you out amongst the throng of tourists pouring in and out of the hotel), so it's great you learned a bit from them in this quiet period. Keep up the momentum, veel success!

[StringerBell]

Since you are learning Latin, I wanted to ask you if you have ever used the Cambridge Latin Course?

I didn't see you mention it in your log, but I thought maybe there was a chance you knew something about it. I have no idea why, but I ended up on the AMZ page by accident and after reading a few of the reviews almost decided to start learning Latin because the book sounded really intriguing. Then I came to my senses and realized that I had enough on my plate with Italian and Polish, but for some reason this book keeps beckoning to me.

[Elsa Maria]

Since you are learning Latin, I wanted to ask you if you have ever used the Cambridge Latin Course?

I didn't see you mention it in your log, but I thought maybe there was a chance you knew something about it. I have no idea why, but I ended up on the AMZ page by accident and after reading a few of the reviews almost decided to start learning Latin because the book sounded really intriguing. Then I came to my senses and realized that I had enough on my plate with Italian and Polish, but for some reason this book keeps beckoning to me.

StringerBell, funny you should ask about the Cambridge book - that is what my online class uses! When I signed up for the class, I thought it was ironic that the class was going to use one of the very few beginner Latin books that I didn't already own. I am what I think is called a false beginner in Latin. I have been through the very beginning of Latin multiple times. I signed up for this class because I was always dropping Latin for months at a time, and never really moving forward. My class has a gentle pace, but there is constant forward momentum and I am super happy that I am taking it. And the price was great - only $50 for the entire year.

Anyway, back to the Cambridge Book. What is it that appeals to you about this particular book? How do you like to learn grammar? I like the stories in the book well enough, but I do not care for the presentation of the grammar. But I like my grammar front-loaded to the extent that that is possible. Since you are learning Polish, you are well versed in how cases work. The first book of Cambridge Latin does not introduce all of the noun cases, and I don't like that. I also dislike the way the glossary is organized.

The stories are centered around life in Pompeii. I don't know if there is an answer key available, or if you care about that. If you want to know anything specific about the book, please ask and I will try to answer!

When I was only self-studying Latin, my favorite combination was Lingua Latina with Latin for the New Millennium (LNM). The LNM series is expensive - I already had it because two of my kids used it in high school.

You can probably find lots of posts about Lingua Latina. It is great for self-study, and very fun to work with. The whole book is in Latin, even the explanations. I am using it right now as a reading supplement to my class while I am preparing for the National Latin Exam.