Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

[Cavesa]

I totally share that struggle, I'd say it is quite common among the German learners.

I found SRS to help a lot with vocabulary. I know, perhaps you don't like it, but it helps me.
For the other two troubles, I hope those will get sorted out once I'll have read a few books. If not, that will be something to worry about

P.S: I totally admire your devotion to langauges and hard work! Making time for several is no easy task, especially with such hard ones on the plate, like Greek.

[sillygoose1]

Yeah it's a hard plateau to cross. It's quite a unique situation.

Thanks! I can't take all the credit though because I'm mainly just dabbling for now. I'd love to study a more exotic language in the future though!

[sillygoose1]

French:

Finished season 2 of Lascars after putting it off for like a year. It was actually pretty hard to understand everything. I felt like an intermediate learner again. They use A LOT of slang and verlan so if any learner is reading this and wants to watch it, I'd recommend getting to a pretty high level first to enjoy it at all. If not, you'll be completely lost.

Spanish:

Watched episode 4 of season 7 of El internado. There was a pretty heartbreaking scene in this one, it got to me. I loved it. That's about it lately.

Italian:

Watching Romanzo Criminale some more, getting ready to watch some films. I found a pretty funny trio - Al, Jack, and John. Aldo, Giacomo, Giovanni. I think they have two comedies about the mafia in the US during the 40s or 50s. I forget exactly because I haven't watched them yet. I'm not sure, but I think my Corsican study has helped me to understand Central/a few Southern dialects a bit easier. I'll have to keep an eye on this.

Oh, and for those learning Italian this is a pretty funny Youtube channel I found. They're Italian pranksters who pull off some funny stuff - https://www.youtube.com/user/theshowisyou

German:

Still slogging through this novel. It's disheartening at times but it's like exercise. Sure, it's painful at first but it starts to get better.

Corsican:

More Assimil

Portuguese:

Still haven't watched a movie yet, I'm getting ready to though. I found a few gems which look promising.

[sillygoose1]

Some good news. To fill out some of my upper level elective courses, I've decided to take a bunch of literature and film classes at university in some of my TLs. At the moment, I have an appointment lined up with the head of the Italian department and if I understood what the professor said correctly, I may be able to skip the intermediate level classes and just go straight to the literature, writing, conversation, and film stuff. We spoke together in Italian via email and it seemed to have went really smoothly. I'm going to talk to the Spanish and French professors also to see if I could skip the intermediate courses as well. Even if I can't, I already automatically tested into the intermediate level so it'll count either way towards my requirement. I'd like to also take the opportunity to take a Catalan or Portuguese course for Spanish speakers which, of course, will be taught in Spanish. Usually I wouldn't bother with language courses at university, but watching movies, reading, and conversating in my TLs a few times a week for credit? Count me in.

[sillygoose1]

Italiano:

Ieri sera, ho cominciato a guardare la serie "Squadra Antimafia - Palermo Oggi". Non e' niente male, ma come le serie spangole ogni episodio dura piu di 90 minuti. Mi piace che cosi ci si possa essere piu immersi, ma c'e anche una parte di me che dice che ci vuole investire piu di tempo nel corso della giornata per guardare vari episodi. Due episodi di quella egualiano all'incirca 3-4 di una serie americana. Ma sopratutto, cio che mi rende il piu entusiasta... ci sono al meno tre attori di Romanzo Criminale! Il Libanese, Ruggero, e Scialoja.

Eccone una foto della sesta stagione, l'ultima finora. Credo che ci sara una settima.



In quanto alla letteratura, leggo il terzo libro della trilogia da Stieg Larsson. La seconda l'ho letta in spagnolo ma non ho mai letto la prima.


Espanol:

Tengo mucho exito ultimamente al convencer a los sudamericanos que sea hispanohablante en Dota. Hay que reconocer que Dota ya es un juego lleno de insultos, ninos, y personas muy creativas en lo que dicen pero los insultos de los sudamericanos me hacen reir hasta explotar a veces. Estoy contentissimo que este' a este punto de mi aventura con espanol en el que puedo asimilarme a sus conversaciones y a sus gracias. Son personas muy graciosas a parte de "los ratas" (se les llaman asi a los ninos y a los que arruinan cada partido)

[sillygoose1]

Italiano:

La prima stagione di "Squadra Antimafia" e' mezza finita. Ho appena guardato il terzo episodio su sei. Non direi che era fantastico, ma credo che stia per dare una bella sorpresa prestissimo. A parte questo, ieri lessi il secondo capitolo de "La regina dei castelli di carta" da Stieg Larsson. Ricordai che avevo gia letto il primo capitolo, ma non era difficile d'iniziare dal secondo. Era come un altro prologo in qualche modo. Ho imparato un pugno di nuove parole e i capitoli sono abbastanza lunghi di modo che mi ritengono l'attenzione sul libro e cosi non mi annoia. Mi sa che dovrei seguire col generi di giallo e noir come ho sempre fatto. Il problema e' che non ce ne sono tanti che trovo ben scritti. Pare che faccia parte dell'avventura dell'apprendimento delle lingue.


Espanol:

Lei el octavo capitulo de "Niebla".


Deutsch:

Obwohl die Lekture fur mich einfacher wird, gibt es noch sehr Arbeit zu tun. Um es milde zu sagen, mein Deutsch ist grottenschlecht.


Corsu:

Ancu si un aghju ghje truvatu un amico corsu, cuntinu a amparallu cu l'Assimil ch'o so che un ghjornu truveru qualcunu cu chi pratica! Ma ci vole di' chi un n'aghju troppa speranza.. :/

[sillygoose1]

Italian:

Watched another episode of Squadra Antimafia and thinking about starting the second episode of Romanzo Criminale for my second rewatch soon. Anyway, I got pretty accustomed to the Sicilian accent and vocab. Sometimes they use words from Sicilian like for example instead of "quello" they'll say "iddu". I've noticed that some characters also replace the "p" for "ch" like piu = chiu which I thought was only a Southern mainland thing.

After rewatching some scenes from Boardwalk Empire & Godfather in Sicilian, I noticed that I'm able to recognize the words better where I had some problems before. I'm looking forward to watching some more shows/movies set in Sicily. Their way of speaking can be pretty melodic to my ears and at the same time a little too dramatic. Although I'm not a big fan of Sicily in itself, it's still nice to widen my knowledge of regional speech.

Read the third chapter of La regina...

Spanish:

Watched the 1st episode of the 3rd season of La que se avecina + read another chapter of Niebla. I haven't been watching Guapas at all lately since I went on a little binge and I need a breather. I still need to finish a lot of other series like the 6th season of Aguila Roja, the 2nd and 3rd of Isabel, and the 2nd season of Profugos all of which I haven't seen for 2 years.

German:

I put Extincion on the backburner for now and picked up Die Verwandlung - Metamorphasis by Franz Kafka. It's in a graded reader format and it says it's for B1 level learners. It's exactly my level and I'm reading it well. I'm curious as to what are some B2 level books. Probably Harry Potter? I'll have to try to read that again.

Latin:

Each lesson I feel more and more comfortable. I'm at the 26th of Il latino senza sforzo and although I don't think I could produce much I can certainly understand what I'm learning

Corsican:

Finished the 33rd lesson. A lot of differences are starting to come up between it and Italian but the transition isn't too bad.

Portuguese:

Some light Stephen King reading. Finished the first chapter of A Casa Negra.


Other -

Greek:

Sone light Assimil dabbling. On the 9th lesson.

[sillygoose1]

I passed my interview today. The professor said that I have enough knowledge to be able to take higher level electives, but I decided to take a composition course to work more on my active skills. This may or may not change depending on how my abilities evolve from now until the next semester, but for now that's the plan. During the interview the professor brought up a good point - why not just major in Italian since I'd be taking upper level courses anyway? I'd fill out the elective requirements then get another piece of paper along with it. So I asked myself again, what if the same thing happens tomorrow for Spanish? Would I be able to just major in that also if I get placed into higher level courses? About 2/3 of the program is 1001 level - Composition level while the rest are literature and film courses. I'm not sure how it works but that's something I'd love to do. Assuming the Spanish professor gives me the ok tomorrow (crossing my fingers), I'll have to bring it up.

Anyway, my Italian was a little off today as far as speaking goes. I could understand him fine and I read fine, however. I'm not sure if the Spanish program would be more rigorous or not due to the large amount of heritage/native speakers and demand. Anyway, if you're reading this, wish me luck! If all goes well, next semester to the end of my college days I'll be studying everything I love!


Italian:

Read the 5th chapter of La regina... It was sort of a filler chapter so I found myself having to skip most of it towards the end. I'm still encountering new, more formal vocab. My reading is really fluent though. I'm reading it almost as fast as I can read in English except for when I come across a new word that doesn't quite have a fixed meaning based on context. I'm going to watch an episode of Squadra antimafia today hopefully as well as read one more chapter.


Spanish:

Reading more Niebla and I'm going to have to watch some TV in order to get ready for my interview tomorrow - something I neglected to do for Italian. I'm thinking some La que se avecina and an episode of El internado to get me on top of my A game.


German:

More reading, more finding books, etc.


Latin:

Lesson 30 of Assimil


Greek:

Lesson 13 of Assimil

[sillygoose1]

I passed my Spanish interview and I'm now able to take higher level courses! The professor said I had a real talent(she doesn't know about the HTLAL secret ) for learning languages and was surprised to hear that I've never taken a formal Spanish class/learned it all by myself. Anyway, I'm debating on what to do at this point. I initially wanted to take upper level courses to fill out electives, but if I'm already 2/3 of the way through both the Italian and Spanish programs I should just major in both or major in one and minor in one. I'm going to talk to the professors about it and see if my idea of the situation is skewed or feasible. And I'm also not sure if being in both of those programs will technically count towards my original major's upper level electives or not. Anyway, that's all for today!

[PeterMollenburg]

That's a great result with your assessments! You must be doing something right. Well done