Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope (ES, PL, RU)

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Amerykanka
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Amerykanka » Fri Dec 18, 2015 1:44 am

Ok, I really must get better about this every-day-update thing.

So, poetry!

12/15/15 - "So we'll go no more a-roving" by Lord Byron, "Hope is the thing with feathers" by Emily Dickinson
12/16/15 - Rimas XXX y XXXVIII de Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer
12/17/15 - the first 28 lines of Lucretius' De rerum natura
12/18/15 - "The Destruction of Sennacherib" by Lord Byron
Last edited by Amerykanka on Thu Dec 24, 2015 4:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Mooby » Fri Dec 18, 2015 6:46 pm

Cześć Amerykanka!
Every language nerd needs a handy Professor.......the perfect justification to wander / dabble!
I like Szymborska of course, have you read Jan Twardowski's poems?
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Amerykanka
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Amerykanka » Mon Dec 21, 2015 7:57 pm

Mooby wrote:Cześć Amerykanka!
Every language nerd needs a handy Professor.......the perfect justification to wander / dabble!
I like Szymborska of course, have you read Jan Twardowski's poems?


Cześć Mooby! Yes, professors can be very useful in that way. :)

I have read some of Twardowski's poems, just not recently. But thanks for reminding me - they seem like good candidates for memorization.
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Amerykanka » Mon Dec 21, 2015 11:25 pm

GERMAN. IS. AWESOME.
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Amerykanka » Thu Dec 24, 2015 4:56 am

Well, I have good news, and I have bad news. Let's start with the bad news.

I have never been good at sticking to any sort of routine, because I end up feeling trapped and rebelling and then - shocker - not accomplishing anything. This tendency of mine is currently being exacerbated by the fact that I have a (very temporary) respite from my studies, so my mind is in relaxation mode. As you may have guessed, the purpose of this mini-exposition on the workings of my brain is to excuse the fact that I have done an abysmal job this last week and have not memorized anything.

However, I have decided that I need a break from scheduling and so I am abandoning the Poetry Challenge until next Wednesday, when classes will have resumed and I will be able to embrace a more organized study scheme once more.

So, the bad news wasn't actually very bad, I suppose. But in any case, let's move on to the good news.

I took my little sisters to the library a few days ago and, of course, gravitated toward the "Libros en español" section. I was looking for El juego del ángel by Carlos Ruiz Zafón, and the library website had indicated that there was a copy available at this particular branch, but alas! some wicked soul had slipped into the library in the hour or so before I arrived and stolen (*ahem* checked out) the book. After the necessary weeping and wailing, I calmed down enough to look for substitutes and ended up with Spanish translations of Pride & Prejudice and Harry Potter 7, as well as Inés del alma mía and Retrato en sepia by Isabel Allende.

Since then, I have read snippets of Orgullo y prejuicio, because Jane Austen is one of my favorite authors ever and Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy in Spanish was just too tempting. But more importantly, I started Inés del alma mía and I am now 180 pages in (roughly half way through). 180 pages in three days is not bad, and wouldn't be even if I were reading in English, given the amount of Christmas shopping I've been doing (I believe in quality over quantity, but trying to find one good present for each of my siblings is insanely time consuming!), and I am quite pleased with my progress. Furthermore, I'm going back to school on Monday, so I have to return the book to the library by Sunday evening at the latest, which is good motivation to finish it quickly.

I have never read any of Allende's adult novels before, although I read a few of her short stories and two of her YA novels (La ciudad de las bestias and El reino del dragón de oro). At this point, my Spanish will benefit most from lots of exposure, and I would like to familiarize myself with literature in Spanish to a much greater extent; Allende's writings seem highly useful from both perspectives. I've decided that after Inés del alma mía at some point I'd also like to read at least two more of her books, La casa de los espíritus and El juego de Ripper, so that I can say I've had a good sampling of her writing. Retrato en sepia also looks fascinating. Of course she has written so much . . .

I'll post a review once I've finished the book, but for the time being I'll just say that I am enjoying it. Although no matter what Inés says, I can't think of Pedro de Valdivia (as presented in the novel, who knows what he was like in reality) as a hero. I don't care that all the conquistadores abused the indigenous peoples, and that it was a common thing, I still can't consider anyone a true hero when there is so much brutality and injustice in his behavior. Furthermore, Pedro isn't exactly a saint when it comes to his relations with Inés, either, and it's a good thing that this book is not primarily intended as a love story, because if it was, I would stop reading it - seriously, all the characters need to figure out that passion does not equal love. Honestly, I can't figure out why Inés stays with him. . . . Okay, end rant! I'll save it for my review. After all, maybe the last half of the book will resolve the Pedro situation in a way more to my liking.

In addition to this Spanish reading, I also checked out a copy of Living Language's Ultimate German Beginning-Intermediate. I've read through the first 10 or so lessons, and I've added a few hundred words to my new German Anki decks. I'm starting slow, but I'm hoping to have a good base knowledge of grammar and a thousand or so vocab words by summer, when I will have time to crack down on my German studies.
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Chmury » Fri Dec 25, 2015 12:15 am

I would highly recommend Cuentos de Eva Luna by Allende. It was the first book of hers I read, and as the title says, it's a collection of short stories. However they all have a central female character as a protagonist and/or the narrator, which I love. I especially love the short story Walimai, which really questions and puts our western customs and values into sharp relief. It's a beautiful story. You can read it here - Walimai.

Also nice work with the 180 pages in 3 days, that's awesome! I would be very happy with that even if I was reading a book in English!

Y ¡Feliz Navidad Amerykanka! ¡Que tengas un día maravilloso!
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Amerykanka
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Amerykanka » Mon Dec 28, 2015 9:52 pm

Chmury wrote:I would highly recommend Cuentos de Eva Luna by Allende. It was the first book of hers I read, and as the title says, it's a collection of short stories. However they all have a central female character as a protagonist and/or the narrator, which I love. I especially love the short story Walimai, which really questions and puts our western customs and values into sharp relief. It's a beautiful story. You can read it here - Walimai.

Also nice work with the 180 pages in 3 days, that's awesome! I would be very happy with that even if I was reading a book in English!

Y ¡Feliz Navidad Amerykanka! ¡Que tengas un día maravilloso!


Hola Chmury, ¡espero que tú también hayas pasado una Navidad feliz!

Gracias por la recomendación; me parece que recuerdo haber visto tus comentarios sobre el libro en tu viejo log en HTLAL. Acabo de leer "Walimai" y me ha encantado - es un cuento bonito a pesar de encerrar algunas cosas feísimas. Me gustaría familiarizarme con más de los cuentos de Allende (hasta la fecha sólo he leído "Dos palabras" y ahora "Walimai") pero por lo general no puedo leer muchos cuentos conseguidos, después de dos o tres ya me aburro, entonces creo que voy a esparcir los cuentos entre capítulos de novelas y de esta manera disfrutaré de ellos lo máximo posible.

Ay, y casi me olvido - ¡ayer terminé Inés del alma mía! 350 páginas dentro de una semana - estoy muy orgullosa. :D Ahora tengo que escoger otro libro. Vamos a ver, mis papás me regalaron Conversación en la catedral de Mario Vargas Llosa y Como agua para chocolate de Laura Esquivel para la Navidad, y tengo San Manuel Bueno, mártir de Miguel de Unamuno bajado en mi iPad. Además tengo acceso a la biblioteca universitaria, la que tiene bastantes libros en español, sobre todo clásicos. Pensaba leer Como agua para chocolate con los del club de libros, pero me parece que van a ir muy lentamente, entonces necesitaría escoger otro libro para leer al mismo tiempo. Quizás San Manuel Bueno, mártir sea la mejor selección, ya lo empecé en el avión y me intrigó, y además es un libro relativamente corto y escrito en un estilo claro, entonces lo podría terminar pronto. No lo sé . . . hay que pensarlo.

De todos modos, ahora voy a ordenar mis cosas y descansar tras un día largo de viaje. Mañana intentaré de escribir una reseñita de Inés del alma mía.
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Amerykanka » Tue Jan 05, 2016 5:21 am

Happy New Year, everyone!

One of my New Year's resolutions this year is . . . not to make resolutions. Okay, I'm joking, but I have indeed decided to stop setting specific goals for my language studies. It just stresses me out too much and ultimately minimizes my productivity. So this year I'm going to try a more spontaneous approach - we'll see how it goes.

Anyways, I haven't posted my review of Inés del alma mía yet, although I still intend to, but I did read San Manuel Bueno, mártir and I loved it! I really enjoy Unamuno's writings in general. Also, I was pleased that I could sit down and read the book in an evening - granted it isn't that long, maybe 60 pages?

I am also one chapter into Como agua para chocolate and I am already hooked. I can see why people rave about that book.

I would have gotten more done over the weekend but I had the (misfortune?) of becoming addicted to the TV show The 100. Seriously, it's an awesome show - it is like a mixture of Lost and The Hunger Games.

My German book got here today and I checked some books out of the library, so expect more activity soon. Incidentally, has anyone read Allende's El juego de Ripper? I'm trying to decide whether I want to buy it or not, because the library doesn't seem to have it.
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Amerykanka
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Amerykanka » Mon Jan 11, 2016 3:31 am

Interesting language week. Not the most productive. But here goes . . .

I am reading Palmer's The Latin Language as a way of improving my knowledge of the history of Latin. I also checked out some books on introductory phonetics and phonology to help me understand Palmer's terminology. I really must give myself a crash-course in phonetics.

I read some Aristotle in Greek because we were reading it in my philosophy course and I decided it was too good an opportunity to miss. There were definitely some weird sentence patterns, but overall I was pleased with my comprehension rate.

German update - I'm going slowly through Living Language's Ultimate German Beginner-Intermediate. I've been working on my Anki decks, too. I can now say "Ich komme aus den Vereinigten Staaten" and "Ich heiße Rebecca". And my pronunciation is slightly less abysmal. At least I don't ever confuse "ei" and "ie" since my last name has "ei" in it - this is the one German spelling rule I will never forget!

I did over 700 Spanish cards today, so I am beginning to deal with the Anki Issue. I also read Chapter 2 of Como agua para chocolate and wrote a minor rant about it in the book club thread over in the Spanish forum.

And I played around with the new Polish Duolingo. I tested out of all the levels, but I was amused by sentences like "Czarna mysz pije wodę". And reminded of how terribly I've been neglecting my Polish.

Incidentally, one of my friends is currently obsessed with Japanese and this is VERY BAD for my mental stability because I've been wanting to learn a non-Indo-European language since forever and Japanese would be a wonderful candidate.
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Re: Amerykanka's Adventures - A New Hope

Postby Mooby » Mon Jan 11, 2016 9:29 am

Well, it sounds to me that you had a pretty productive week.
I need to do a 700 Anki blast myself - I'm trying to get as many 'young' cards into maturity before I add too many new ones and end up overwhelmed. I also need to check out Duolingo's Polish again, and find out what else the black mouse is doing!
All the best with your studies....
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