Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

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MamaPata
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Long lost: Arabic and Latin.
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3004
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

Postby MamaPata » Wed Sep 19, 2018 5:06 pm

sillygoose1 wrote:
MamaPata wrote:Haha, we have the same goal, except for that whole business of all of the ancient languages. I'll leave those to you! My chances of managing the UN ones are questionable enough!



That's awesome! We both have some Latin experience as well it seems. I assume you're going to restart your Arabic one day - any particular dialect you're aiming for? I wonder if other people here are aiming for all six because that would make for a fun group.


Yeah, I did a little Latin previously. I did really enjoy it but...

This is a good question! I studied MSA in the past and didn't really get along with it (though that was partly about teaching) then did a few classes with a Syrian guy, which I liked a lot more. So I think I would rather start with a dialect and then work back if necessary. But I don't feel like I know enough to decide which one - I don't have a particular connection to any one. How about you?! What's your plan?
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sillygoose1
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A1: Mandarin
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

Postby sillygoose1 » Wed Sep 19, 2018 8:34 pm

MamaPata wrote:
sillygoose1 wrote:
MamaPata wrote:Haha, we have the same goal, except for that whole business of all of the ancient languages. I'll leave those to you! My chances of managing the UN ones are questionable enough!



That's awesome! We both have some Latin experience as well it seems. I assume you're going to restart your Arabic one day - any particular dialect you're aiming for? I wonder if other people here are aiming for all six because that would make for a fun group.


Yeah, I did a little Latin previously. I did really enjoy it but...

This is a good question! I studied MSA in the past and didn't really get along with it (though that was partly about teaching) then did a few classes with a Syrian guy, which I liked a lot more. So I think I would rather start with a dialect and then work back if necessary. But I don't feel like I know enough to decide which one - I don't have a particular connection to any one. How about you?! What's your plan?


I'm not in any sort of rush at the moment, so I'm going to roll with MSA then put my focus on the Levantine and Egyptian dialects. Levantine because I'm most interested in Lebanon/Syria/Palestine/Israel and Egyptian because something like 3/4 of Arabic media comes from there. I'd like to speak Levantine but have passive Egyptian comprehension.

Do you have any immediate plans to toy with Mandarin?
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sillygoose1
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Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

Postby sillygoose1 » Wed Sep 26, 2018 7:57 pm

Russian:

Episode 7 of The Road to Calvary.

Finding it hard to keep up with Russian subs on. I've decided to not pause every other sentence in order to try to learn vocab from context and that is proving to be difficult at the moment. I'm *probably* going to have to read more in order to get to that point. This is one of the deepest intermediate holes I've ever experienced because of how different it is from Western European languages but I'm hoping to find a solid method to use for when I get to this point in Arabic + Mandarin as well. Hopefully by the time I get to Japanese my Mandarin will help somewhat.

I've tried Streetwise Russian, but the problem is that it's probably outdated just as Streetwise French was when I looked at it. I would be mortified to use an expression from 30 years ago in a conversation with a Russophone. Imagine someone going up to an Italian and saying "E' LO SBALLO" or to a Spanish speaker "ES LO MAXIMO".


Arabic:

Pretty easy-going at the moment. Two things that stuck with me is how "but" is used and gender agreement with numbers used from 3-10. Basically, a noun gets "butted" and the "but" has to agree in gender and number. For the second, if a noun is masculine but it's counted from 3-10 then the genders get reversed. If it's a feminine noun then when you decline it with the number, the number 3-10 is then masculine. However, if it's something like 13 then ONLY the "3" part gets reversed while the "teen" part is normal.


Chinese:

I'm not sure if it's the Assimil version or the language itself, but it's going really well. On my dialogue listening where I don't look at the text, then it's easy to understand. The tones aren't as bad as I thought once you get used to it. The pronunciation is hard at the moment obviously and the characters are difficult, but the grammar isn't bad at all.
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sillygoose1
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Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

Postby sillygoose1 » Mon Oct 22, 2018 12:52 am

French:

Watched "Sous le meme toit" with Gilles Lellouche. Just your normal, run of the mill comedy I suppose. I had decided to watch it after a month or so without any French listening and I understood just about everything I could even with the subpar sound quality of the video file. Sound quality is a funny thing. I watched a trailer for a movie and understood every word, then watched another that had more of that odd echo and missed some sentences. This happens in English too and it makes me wonder if people even realize or care how many words they are unable to understand (because I know it's not just me) because of the trailers they decide to use.


Italian:

Saw "Metti la nonna in freezer". Average. Good actors, just sort of got boring towards the end. Also, first episode of the new season of La mafia uccide solo d'estate


German:

Watched Die dunkle Seite des Mondes, one episode of Jerks season 2, and about halfway through Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften. It's taking so long because the light in my room went out and because I get sidetracked with other things. My comprehension is getting really comfortable and progressing really quickly as my reading is getting more fluent. I'm finding that my reading comprehension of this novel isn't the greatest most likely because of its complex nature of multiple different stories with multiple characters. If I had to use CEFR, I'd say I'm around a B2 at the moment approaching C1.


Spanish:

Watched two episodes of season 2 of El marginal. Hard to understand. The accent is killing me but I need to improve it.


Portuguese:

Watched three episodes of 3% season 2 with PT subs


Russian:

Reading Ivan Vasilievich by Bulgakov. No idea what's going on. Finished Road to Calvary awhile ago as well as Fartsa with Russian subs. All difficult. No idea how to proceed. Going to do so anyway. I couldn't even begin to elaborate on the fact with more than I just need to improve all around.


Chinese & Arabic:

Assimil still. Halfway through both
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DaveAgain
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire (German & Russian focus w/ French maintenance)

Postby DaveAgain » Mon Oct 22, 2018 7:42 am

sillygoose1 wrote:My real vocabulary gaps are tools, household items, bathroom items, car, clothes, animals, and some foods.
I'm coming to the end of Les Peugeot by Alain Frerejean (ISBN: 9782080688040). There's been more unknown words for me than usual, I think these could mostly be described as various metal widgits made by Peugeot's early metal-bashing companies, and particular vocabulary related to car technologies.

I think I'll going to have to read it again and look up the unknown words anyway though. It'll bug me! :-)
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sillygoose1
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A1: Mandarin
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire (German & Russian focus w/ French maintenance)

Postby sillygoose1 » Tue Oct 30, 2018 2:28 pm

DaveAgain wrote:
sillygoose1 wrote:My real vocabulary gaps are tools, household items, bathroom items, car, clothes, animals, and some foods.
I'm coming to the end of Les Peugeot by Alain Frerejean (ISBN: 9782080688040). There's been more unknown words for me than usual, I think these could mostly be described as various metal widgits made by Peugeot's early metal-bashing companies, and particular vocabulary related to car technologies.

I think I'll going to have to read it again and look up the unknown words anyway though. It'll bug me! :-)



Glad I'm not the only one! What I like to do is scour Amazon in my TLs for an hour or so each night until I fill in my gaps. That was quite handy especially because of how many kitchen/bathroom based vocab I was missing!
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sillygoose1
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Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

Postby sillygoose1 » Wed Nov 07, 2018 11:06 pm

German:

About 300 more pages left in Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften then I'm going to listen to Die elixiere des teufels on audiobook and watch the second season of Deutschland 86!

So I'm not quite sure what's going on still in the novel. Maybe because my mind has been wandering, because I take long breaks from it, because it's above my level. A lot of possibilities. What I'm sure of is that my German ability will have improved a ton after finishing it. I believe the word order is still a bit weird to me on a certain level because I've noticed by the end of the sentence sometimes my mind hasn't caught up. I'm really solid on cases, conjugations, and my vocab is still improving. I think I just need to simply use it more.

Russian:

I've been watching movies really. Still can't say I've improved much, but it's getting there. What I need to make a point of doing right now is read a grammar book (again). Maybe a more advanced one? Maybe more L/R? The last story I read besides Ivan... by Bulgakov was The Death of Ivan Illich and despite it being a shorty story, I only got the gist. It's possible I just need more exposure. I guess I'll go on a little movie/series marathon then L/R Dead Souls by Gogol.

Arabic:

Finished Arabic with Ease. It wasn't great but I did it anyway. Only 42 short lessons. I'm not even close to ready for an intermediate textbook and I'm still not even 100% on the alphabet (note: I knew Cyrillic comfortably by the time I finished Russian with Ease)

I wouldn't recommend it. Assimil has an advanced course in French which seems fine but don't bother with With Ease. I'm going to go through Living Language's Intermediate + Advanced Arabic books, then Colloquial Levantine, then Perfectionnement. I shouldn't need Routledge's reader by that time but who knows.

Chinese:

Finished volume 1 of Assimil. Lessons are short, but with a language like Chinese that's to be expected. Can't say grammar is a big problem right now. Lessons are sticking with me fairly well. My biggest challenge by far will be the characters but I'm still not 100% sure if I want to be able to read in Chinese yet. I have so many things I want to do outside of languages and that would take up too much time.

Japanese:

Lesson 30 in Assimil was a huge roadblock and humbled me quite a bit. Really nothing else to say on the subject.
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sillygoose1
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Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

Postby sillygoose1 » Fri Nov 09, 2018 7:21 pm

Arabic:

Working on Living Language Intermediate. Really good review for basic points that With Ease glossed over and a better grammar explanation. For instance, I had no idea that most words ending in consonants were male while "a" endings were female. It also explains the concept of sun and moon letters as well with what letters they are used. I probably would have been better off doing this whole series or Ultimate beginner-intermediate.

The hamza is throwing me off. From my understanding, it's more of a separator for vowels especially in the beginning of a sentence. Maybe someone can correct me here, but it reminds me of Japanese where you have the hiragana then the little kanji on top. With the hamza, you have the stick then a little letter on the top or bottom.


Chinese:

Finished With Ease Vol 1. Moving on to p. 2
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sillygoose1
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B2: Russian, Portuguese
A2: Japanese
A1: Mandarin
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

Postby sillygoose1 » Tue Apr 14, 2020 6:53 pm

Russian:

Finished L/R Anna Karenina, Crime and Punishment, and Brothers Karamazov. It didn't go so well as in I could hardly understand what I read at the time, however since then I have improved. At the moment, I've been reading The Gulag Archipelago and listening to In the First Circle both by Solzhenitsyn. At first my plan was to read the full 3 volume text of Gulag, but I had to do too much word searching and looking up vocab so I opted for the abridged version which is the same length as one full-length volume. Listening to First Circle has left me more confused than not since I don't even know the story too well despite being on chapter 20. However, this is necessary to improve and a process I have always done.

Mandarin:

Finished Colloquial and now on Colloquial 2. I wish I could say much, but I'm still virtually a beginner despite having completed Assimil and such. The tones aren't that bad and the grammar is rather simple so far, but the characters will certainly pose a problem in the long run.

Japanese:

Currently going through Assimil. I've used other courses and resources which gave me a better base to use it so now I feel like Assimil is benefiting me.


I'm excited to get to the intermediate stage in both Mandarin and Japanese solely because of the readers and courses I've picked up for specifically this level.
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sillygoose1
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Posts: 380
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 6:25 pm
Location: USA
Languages: _
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A2: Japanese
A1: Mandarin
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=751
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Re: Sillygoose1's Language Extraordinaire

Postby sillygoose1 » Wed Apr 15, 2020 10:24 pm

Japanese:

Extremely taxing lessons today.

In Assimil 32, I was passively exposed to more kanji and the author is also putting a lot of emphasis on honorifics/grades of speech which so far in Genki has been absent.

In Genki 10, the lesson involved comparisons which due to my still weak grasp on hiragana was hard to get through but I managed it. Unfortunately, the practice dialogues were utterly incomprehensible to me although I could at least hear the words as I listened. So, they are not really running together anymore. I'm slowly getting there.

The good thing about these two is that they seem to fill in each other's gaps quite nicely. I'll go through some elementary transcribed readers on my tablet tonight while before I go to sleep.


As for more languages today, I'll probably finish this very short chapter in Gulag Archipelago for Russian. As for Mandarin, I want to spend some more time on improving my Python programming so I may be too mentally exhausted for it today. If not, I will be doing lesson two in Colloquial 2.
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