Bookworm's adventures in the exile

[Cavesa]

A pause from the story:

ASCR: started and finished a book by Levy: Sept jours pour une éternité. The story of my copy of the book will be part of the next part of my travel log post"

Apart from that, I've had plenty opportunities to speak French lately, and I used them. Sure, most times nothing longer and too deep, but still much more than the normal transactions and such things. A sad practice opportunity was speaking to a french policeman about a stolen bag.

I've had as well a few opportunities to translate in a business setting lately. I may have some more tiny jobs like this in near future and I would love to. Some more money would be great, I need something for my CV, I want to practice my languages, I wanna stop feeling like a worthless parasite. My studies are too long. And I am disappointed by my university and faculty again. This year should have consisted mostly of practical classes, being in the hospital, applying knowledge and learning for real, learning on the patients. Nope, we are mostly sitting in a cold (despite the weather still airconditioned!) lecture hall again So, I need something else to focus on.

I am now back in Prague with a horrible schedule (fortunately, it will be much lighter in just three weeks) and lots of other things to occupy me, such as getting new personal documents. Not that much time for my languages but I must make it. I need to get my Spanish and German higher and get at least B1 skills in Italian, if I want to apply for Erasmus. I don't have horrible grades but I don't have that awesome grades either. Therefore I want to be ready for a wider selection of countries. No use for Russian in this struggle. And Swedish would be too much optimism, Sweden is the prize for the absolute winner usually I just hope the exchange universities won't require a certificate in Spanish or Italian or German. I have no chance to prepare for one. Dele is in November, I have no clue whether I am at the point of "nearly ready" for a B2 exam now.

I had many doubts. Now I really want to go on Erasmus to a country where medicine studies are really about medicine, not about useless powepoint presentation reading. I want at least a few months of trully learning at school=in hospital. I want at least a few months that would motivate me to study the theory hard on my own, so that I could apply it. This simply doesn't happen much here.

I have asked some questions concerning Italian in another thread. I will appreciate any advice.

My sources for now:
1.A very dense and serious Italština by leda (probably the best czech publisher of language courses), that should lead up to C1. hmm, that sounds weird. We'll see where I'll end up. I am sure to learn a lot, if I manage to persevere.
2.A lighter, but high quality and still serious, Učebnice současné italštiny. Again a publisher I've already had good experience with.
3.memrise courses like this one: http://www.memrise.com/course/168472/us ... ry-unit-1/
4.Una grammatica italiana per tutti.

Russian: I still want to learn it but it is just not a priority, considering the practical uses. I'd love to see St Petersburg one day, perhaps Moscow as well. I want to read the awesome authors. But there are more things going on these days. I had a feeling I should start Italian a few months ago. I should have obeyed that instinct

[Cavesa]

Writing too much, I know.

Italian, day 1: The introductory pronunciation chapters of my courses. What a difference, compared to the Czech based French courses' approach "work hard to learn at least barely acceptable pronunciation. you are unlikely to succeed anyways. why do you even bother trying to learn this noble, awesome, and superhard language?". These courses start like "hey, Italian pronunciation is super easy for native czechs! Just watch out for these things. And the accent works like this, we are gonna use a special font for accents and for this pronunciation thingie, so that you get used more easily to it"

Sure, I agree the French pronunciation is harder for a native Czech speaker than the Italian one. But there are the things like the self-fulfilling prophecies and so on. The attitude of the course matters. And another difference: most czechs have more experience with the Italian pronunciation than with the French one. French loanwords are usually older and therefore already half Czech, when it comes to pronunciation. The Italian ones are either quite new and not damaged yet (the day I see pizza writen as "pica", I'm gonna lose the last bits of my hope for this nation forever) or old but close to their origins (the musical terminology. Most czechs have some background in music, even though most gladly gave up learning an instrument.)

My pronunciation is not bad, considering the fact I'm just beginning. Stressing the right silables is gonna be tought to get used to. And I am excited of all the ressemblance to my previous langauges. The key to not mixing the It+Es together is gonna be learning aloud. The pronunciation is very different, the accent is different, it is gonna work. It has to.

[garyb]

Enjoy Italian! It's interesting to see somebody choose it for practical reasons as well as just liking the language. I just replied to your questions thread. Also, good point about learning aloud, it probably helps to compartmentalise the languages more if you focus on their different sounds. Despite looking similar and having similar phonetic systems, they are indeed spoken quite differently. Your course sounds good, it always makes me happy to see a course giving the pronunciation the attention it deserves and emphasising the differences from your native languages.

Shame you didn't get as much time in France as expected, I'll be interested to hear more about the trip.

[Cavesa]

Thanks for your answers there, Garyb, and for your encouragement!

Day three of Italian: lesson one completed in the more rigorous course, half of lesson 1 in the other. Found the relevant grammar lessons to complete before going to lessons number 2. I am curious when will the two courses divert from each other, so that it won't be comfortable to follow both at once any longer.

Spanish: 11 doublepages of Gramática today, a tiny bit of viva el vocabulario. Spanish must not be cast aside for my newest language.

Today, I have some more studies for my uni classes planned. And if I am a good girl and finish at a reasonable hour, which is not likely right now, I'll read a bit before going to sleep. I am getting behind my plan, a few lectures have been quite interesting lately, therefore leaving me too little time to read

[Cavesa]

I hate my faculty. The person doing the schedule for the first three weeks must have been on really weird drugs. Or perhaps they should have been reminded the teleport hasn't been invented yet and that spending whole days at university actually keeps the students from studying. And some of the ancient lecturers should take inspiration in Terry Pratchett books and use an "I am not dead" note during their longer pauses in speech. We were worried.

My languages died for several weeks, apart from a few translations and interpreting opportunities.

Finished two books from my To Read/Reading Shelf (which I am worried for, I have no clue what is the maximum weight it can support).
French: Alliance des Trois. A reread. I love the series! Now rereading Malronce.
English: Nesbø:Phantom. Really good but perhaps a bit too dark for my taste at some points. I need some happy endings now, gonna read the LotR and WoT as soon as my schedule allows it.

Watched an episode of Cuentáme cómo pasó. Awesome! And bringing up my moral and mood.

And my quite new and great boyfriend interferes with my studies as well. And I blame the Czech educational system for incompetence (again). How comes most guys can't watch movies in English without subtitles with me?

Plans: Continue with my normal activities. It's gonna be difficult this year, with at least two exams per month but I need to go on. Especially as I might have good chance at the student exchange concours this year.

[Elenia]

Good luck! And about the new boyfriend... all he needs is a few more movie nights! Or get him hooked on a great series

[Cavesa]

You're right. He is actually wathing the Game of Thrones, I hope in English. And he surprised me once with a bit of Dothraki. He's not a lost cause

From tommorrow on, I'll have more time again! YAY!

Today, I held in my hands an old German translation of te international classification of illnesses and such stuff. Apart from seeing really long words representing professions, I was as well pleasantly surprised to understand quite wall the introdutions to each of the chapters! YAY!

Just wanted to share. It was the best part of the morning, the lecturer was extremely bad. And I passed an exam later today, I fell much better. Just tired. 36 or so hours since I last slept. Good night

By the way, shouldn't we plan the November 6wc? Is someone planning already? I have no clue, I believe the BotMaster stayed on the old htlal.

[PeterMollenburg]

You're right. He is actually wathing the Game of Thrones, I hope in English. And he surprised me once with a bit of Dothraki. He's not a lost cause

From tommorrow on, I'll have more time again! YAY!

Today, I held in my hands an old German translation of te international classification of illnesses and such stuff. Apart from seeing really long words representing professions, I was as well pleasantly surprised to understand quite wall the introdutions to each of the chapters! YAY!

Just wanted to share. It was the best part of the morning, the lecturer was extremely bad. And I passed an exam later today, I fell much better. Just tired. 36 or so hours since I last slept. Good night

By the way, shouldn't we plan the November 6wc? Is someone planning already? I have no clue, I believe the BotMaster stayed on the old htlal.

I hope you're sleeping!!

[Cavesa]

I should continue writing about the Paris journey but not today.

Language related news:

French: finished rereading Malronce by Chattam. I love the book series!
Spanish:watching Cuentame

Italian: started the 6wc, currently in second unit of each of my courses.

[Cavesa]

You may have noticed I tend to write a second post right after the first (and originally only) one meant for the day/week. Why? I usually realize tons of things I wanted to include right after hitting the "Submit" button.

So, today's forgotten stuff:

1.Italian is beautiful. My goal for the 6wc? I want to get through a large chunk of my courses of course. I want to deal with the beginner stuff and dive soon into the ocean of fun! There is so much I am looking for. But I got a bit discouraged both about the language and my medicine studies. There are too many young doctors in Italy, I read it is quite impossible to get there

2.My Super Challenges! I know I need to read a lot and watch a lot. But I still have a good chance to finish it all on time.

3.Distractions! Distractions everywhere!
Why? For months, there were no new anglophone tv series episodes for me to watch. Now, there are new seasons of Doctor Who, Grimm, The Big Bang Theory, Once upon a Time and there will be Lost Girl soon!!! I am probably an addict, at least I am not starting new series. But I don't mind not watching everything as soon as it comes out. Oh, who am I kidding, I do mind but I need to control myself. And there are stupid pc games and such things that are always so tempting when I am stressed.

So: I got some new resistance mechanisms. I am gonna apply them.

4.I am probably lazy. That's why I keep postponing German. That and another fact. While it could be superawesome and superuseful, it is unlikely to be superuseful in a year or two. All the awesome students are fighting over exchanges with Germany, no chance for me there. But another reason: the Romance languages are just so easy with my background. I am not saying I believe I'll rock in Italian in a month, no. But still, much easier than German. Any ideas how to finally break the curse, once I am finished with the Italian 6wc?