Expug's 2018 Log - Sustainable Dabbling

[Expugnator]

After the extended holidays, I got back to studying. Only partially yesterday, hopefully integrally today.

Luntik has longer dialogues now (so many for a cartoon), and is already over my head. Maybe it's time to change into the one Arnaud suggested, which has downloadable subtitles I can translate on GT.

Lesson 02 of Assimil Indonésien. It doesn't seem so much bookish, after all it starts with 'kamu'. On the other hand, it does seem too much intensive on vocabulary, probably only comparable to the Norwegian one (too many new words and too little recursion of the learned ones).

Wanderlusting for Icelandic. Too bad Assimil didn't release a full method. Icelandic doesn't seem that impossible to learn after Norwegian (though I'd still go for Swedish then Faroese first).

Today I finished tasks earlier and so I went on an app-frenzi(but Clozemaster). First was Hebrew: Mond.ly, then Memrise, then Duolingo. I'm going from the easiest to the hardest (new content basically shows up on Duolingo, while there is a lot of reviewing on mond.ly plus it has hints. Memrise is actually the Duolingo course, but it can be quite challenging even if I'm basically reviewing. Then Speak.ly for Estonian. It got updated and now I know I've learned 114 words out of 4000. The number 4000 is far from negligible, especially since it's active vocabulary (or at least cloze, text-input, even if there is no translation). I'm confident about activating my Estonian somehow this year.

And yet I feel like doing more for Hebrew each day. Remember my rant when all the materials were learner-unfriendly? Well, now that I've mastered the alphabet, they start to look usable again, and I'm actually suffering from too many choices. What I want is a grammar-translation material for using alongside with Assimil. A Textbook of Israeli Hebrew and The Routledge Introductory Course in Modern Hebrew are good candidates. The former is a bit old, has no answer key oraudio and uses its own grammatical terminology. It also has no vowels marked, it only gives the transliterarion the first time a word is introduced. And yet it might serve me right at this moment. It's no use "saving' it for a better stage as it will keep not having audio or an answer key or vowels, so I'd better use it for what I need right now. There will be good resources for when I'm at the A2 stage and I want to consolidate my knowledge.

[Expugnator]

The Papiamento newspaper I usually access has some issues with its digital issues. The main page itself doesn't get uploaded that much, so I tended to read the digitalized issues. My other source, Ret Karibense, gets updated very seldom. As a result, I might spend a couple of days not reading news in Papiamento (on the other hand, I'll keep listening to them, which is already enough to keep exposure to the language).

Today's Estonian episode had some interest insights about the relationship between Estonia and Sweden and how the Swedes view the Estonians. It was presented in the form of a stereotypical view from a stereotypical character, on purpose, and yet it was quite enlightening.

Still having troubles with the workbook to Modern Russian Grammar: a practical guide. Today a full section was out of answer keys. Now I'm going to part B, which is more about functions than morphology (and even so, , there's still so much about plain morphology in the Russian grammar at this section, which didn't happen in the German and Chinese editions). Anyway, I hope the next exercises are more useful.

I ran into some new usage at Elena Ferrante's novel:

Lui stette a sentire con attenzione e non fece quasi mai commenti. (...) Cenava, giocava un po’ col bambino, stava a
sentire i discorsi di lei.

The reason the author uses "i discorsi di lei" instead of 'i suoi discorsi' has to do with the subject being a man and with the need for disambiguation. "Lui" is Enzo and "lei" is Lila. This "di lei" is exactly how things evolved in Portuguese, which now has 'dele' and 'dela'. I don't know how furtherly developped it is in Italian, but it's certainly interesting to notice!

As for the translation in the form of the Norwegian audiobook, I've been listening to it today and noticed I can understand much more now. Maybe it's time I try again to follow a Norwegian audiobook without the text.

Watching L'Auberge Espagnole helps me figure out why so many people at Unilang wanted to learn Catalan around 2002.

I might be entering a good momentum for Russian. There's enough recursion at Luntik for allowing me to finally having some clues about motion verbs and directional adverbs. The translated novel I'm listening-reading is a quite productive activity, with some words starting to become transparent.

Not a day of completion. It all stopped at Estonian reading. It was a busy day here, I didn't have my headstart reading either in the morning or in the afternoon (I walked back here in the afternoon) and so I kept falling behind my schedule. Better luck tomorrow, as I'm really looking forward to more Greek, Hebrew and Indonesian.

[Expugnator]

Side om side has important vocabulary that usually is not to be found on textbooks or more thematic series. It's a good resource for being used intensively.

Today I decided to just read German in parallel instead of listening to the audio, and I'm glad with how much I could understand and how seldom I had to check the translation. It's funny how we have different expectations about different languages. I am totally unwilling to read in German extensively because I keep waiting for the moment when I can read well enough to get the hang of it. I can't accept not knowing an important word in German. I didn't have as high a self-demanding level for Georgian or Norwegian. I'm ok with not understanding everything in these two, but German being a 'serious' language, one that could even bring career prospects, I treat it in a more intensive-study way.

Did some Clozemaster for Norwegian. I'm slowly getting over the most difficult, less obvious words.

A good day for Greek listening-reading. I'm starting to pay attention to not so obvious words as I master the common ones and the text becomes more transparent. These are new words I haven't met on textbooks yet, but they seem important and frequent ones.

Hebrew verbs might have its idiosyncracies which I'm yet to uncover, but at least it allows plain serialization. I'm starting to get the hang of the infinitive.

Today I didn't forget about reading in Spanish, as I did on Tuesday (on Monday and yesterday I simply didn't get that far).

A Textbook of Modern Hebrew has good premises, but the lack of an answer key or vowels kills the purpose of using it as a main self-teaching textbook. I'm using it only for the grammar and I'm learning to deal with the frustration to do such cool exercises on the grammar-translation format.

Today I could barely make it to the schedule. I shouldn't feel frustrated by not doing more. I believe I have more than enough additional activities for my languages to fill an entire period of 24 hours. So it's no point being obsessed. It's about learning to prioritize the right things.

[Expugnator]

I've found a new source for my news in Papiamento, Vigilante Korsou (I stick to Curaçaoan news because of the orthography). They have a refurbished site now, the news are shorter, better formated and more diverse, with news from different sections in the same timeline.

As I was in a hurry, I played the audiobook to "Historia om det nye namnet" before opening the Nynorsk and Italian texts. I understood much more than usual and could follow the story for several minutes.

"Han er og skifter" - this is the most laconic way of simulating a continuous tense in Norwegian. I wonder if there is a language change going on and Norwegian might have a full-fledged continuos tense, as in English.

Sometimes being in a hurry and forcing yourself to speed things up can be benefitial. Today I had to read faster in Georgian - almost at skimming speed - and I succeeded! I had to pause only a few times to check the translation. Same as the short Yabla clip I watched in Mandarin.

Today was a successful day for my studies, that ended a melancholic week with hope. I started after lunch - actually 2 hours after having come back from lunch - and managed to do in 5 hours what usually takes me 7. Being more focused from distractions helped me a lot.

[Expugnator]

The weekend was not particularly productive, as I've been pretty busy taking care of the kids and buying stuff for the renovation. I even had to give a class on Sunday. I attended the polyglot meetup on Saturday but I only managed to speak Spanish. There's a German old lady there but she doesn't seem thrilled about talking to me, I have no idea why.

So I prepared some resources, like the 2nd film of the trilogy Auberge Espagnole. Most important, I got to download the audio for both Hebrew textbooks I plan to use - have yet to decide which one to start from, you'll hear from me at the end of this post. I also got three grammars, one of them seems to be simply wonderful for Modern Hebrew. I have just taken a look at it on my phone and it loaded pretty slowly because of its size, over 1000 pages! Now I'm looking forward to analizing it more closely and maybe that'll be my second resource - because that's that, Hebrew is officially out of the dabbling stage and into a full-fledged beginner opaque language that is granted two textbook-study slots a day. I have to learn as much as I can from textbooks because I don't think I'm going to find audiobooks with text, dubbed series and the like.

I decided for a major change in my routine. I'm fully aware of the importance of the sentence method, of studying sentences intensively even if I couldn't care less about the SRS algorithm itself. Therefore, I'm going to introduce Clozemaster right after my first resource for that particular language. That means I'm doing my 4 rounds of Estonian right after watching the Estonian soap opera, then Russian multiple choice after the Modern Russian Grammar Workbook and so on (Mandarin Chinese clozemaster remains my wake-up resource early in the morning). That won't take me more than one minute each time and will totally remove the chore effect of doing all the languages at the end of a long day of listening, reading, watching and interpreting grammar. Hopefully I'll keep a sharp mind for doing the text input ones later on after my schedule, as well as the other apps - Speak.ly for Estonian is particularly useful now, and Duolingo has undergone some important changes.

Finished the second book in Elena Ferrante's tetralogy, the one I was listening-reading in Nynorsk.Here we get a book inside a book inside a book. The story of the poor district might have impact to the readers in Northern Italy - as in the novel itself - and to the rich Norwegian readers, but for myself it's pretty much commonplace, much less suffering than an average Brazilian life anyway (though with many similarities as the character of the Southern Italians helped forge part of Brazil and much of Argentina).

I'm not proceeding to the 3rd volume right now. I want to go back to plain bokmål as this will help me consolidate the progress I've made in understanding spoken Norwegian. I believe listening-reading this book in Nynorsk has helped bring breadth to my listening skills, which were still too oslo-centered. Even so, I'm back to fantasy, either the final volume of Odinsbarn or the second of Vindeltorn, and it's a matter of checking the prices, with a preference for the former.

Having paused a tetralogy halfway and having to remember and choose which one to read next in a trilogy lead me to the following practice: I'm going to write down on a Gmail draft where I stop in each book series, the way I already do with textbooks and TV series I put on hold. That will speed things up when I have to decide what to read next.

Today is a day of completions and new beginnings for Norwegian. I've also watched the final episode of season 5 of Side of Side, which is one of my favorite Norwegian series and highly recommended for its lively dialogues. Now I'm proceeding to Nesten Voksen, which is worldwide/forever tilgjengelig in NRK, which makes all easier. Still open to suggestion - I have my contacts in Norway and might find a way to watch even those that are geoblocked, like a couple non-fiction ones. I'm also looking forward to watch a couple ones without subtitles.

Tintentod's current chapter has a poem by Carlos Drummond de Andrade! The honor! I couldn't imagine Cornelia Funke would have heard about him. Maybe she chooses her quotes by googling some keywords and then picking the results she likes best?

Language Transfer Greek is really helping me master the common irregular Modern Greek Verbs. The inductive method for figuring out the aorist forms is really helpful, as it helps with seeing connections that weren't so evident to me before.

Still trying to work my way around the Hebrew materials. I tried Modern Hebrew for beginners but I could only find the audio for the dialogues, not for the wordlists. As I looked at it again, I concluded it's definitely not suited for self-study. So, that leaves Routledge's course or the new grammar I found as the options for my second resource of the day.

First day with my Clozemaster in-between strategy was a success. I might have spent 15-20 minutes more than usual - most on the Norwegian one which is text input, but the synergy effect was good. I didn't get it to Spanish or the languages I'm just dabbling at or the text input rounds for Mandarin, German, Russian and Greek, but it was a particularly busy day.

[Lawyer&Mom]

I’m sure you’ve done your homework regarding Hebrew media, you certainly seem to be an expert. (How do you find Georgian soap operas!?! Tell me your secrets!) But it seems surprising to me that it would be hard to find good Hebrew content. I know they don’t typically dub grown-up content, but what about cartoons, etc? Why no books on tape?

When you are ready, there is so much good Israeli TV. I watched the first two seasons of Srugim on Amazon, then subscribed to a streaming service from the Manhattan JCC to watch the third season. Then I watched the first season of Shtisel, which was even better!

Edited to Add:

How do you feel about the New Testament? Audio and text: http://listen.bible.is/HBRHMT/Matt/1/D

[Expugnator]

I’m sure you’ve done your homework regarding Hebrew media, you certainly seem to be an expert. (How do you find Georgian soap operas!?! Tell me your secrets!) But it seems surprising to me that it would be hard to find good Hebrew content. I know they don’t typically dub grown-up content, but what about cartoons, etc? Why no books on tape?

When you are ready, there is so much good Israeli TV. I watched the first two seasons of Srugim on Amazon, then subscribed to a streaming service from the Manhattan JCC to watch the third season. Then I watched the first season of Shtisel, which was even better!

I'm far from an expert in Hebrew Media, I haven't started looking for it at all! It's just my pessimistic side. I assume no other language apart from the FIGS will provide me with the combo dubbed TV series + translated audiobooks, which represent my optimal resource for the A2+ level on. In thecase of Hebrew, I believe it is going to be worse with regards to actually finding those resources, considering the different script and the fact I'll have to be at ease with searching the web in it. Moreover, dubbing and audiobooks tend to show up only in the demographic giants such as the aforementioned FIGS, Mandarin, Russia.

Thank you for the suggestion on Israeli TV. Regarding video, I believe on Youtube one can find videos with subtitles in Hebrew characters, transcriptions and English, and that is going to be useful as well.

Edited to Add:

How do you feel about the New Testament? Audio and text: http://listen.bible.is/HBRHMT/Matt/1/D

Thanks, but I'm better off skipping the Bible altogether. I'm going to use it only as a last resource for minor languages. I don't like using the same resource over and over again for all of my languages, it's part of my philosophy to avoid repetition and always go for fresh knowledge. I want to read the Bible in Hebrew, that's for sure, but that's at a later point when I plan to use Hebrew for studying the Bible, and not the other way round.

======================
So I'm back for the third volume of Odinsbarn, Evna. The narrator seems different, and he reads faster. It will take time before I am familiar with that universe's vocabulary again, it's even more unique than reading Elena Ferrante in nynorsk. I am pasting the text at GT for the time being, but I hope I can also read extensively once in a while. Just listening and actually following the story remains a dream.

Also started Nesten Voksen. Seems funny so far, with useful vocabulary, but far from Side om side's quality and photography. I have to get used though, even if it won't last long, as it's only 8 episodes. I need another suggestion next. Jeff?!

Noticed some improvement with German. I can almost follow the dubbed series without any subs.

Yesterday I had forgotten to do the Russian listening/reading. Luckily I remember it today again (I always write down where I've stopped, so it's really hard to simply forget one parallel reading or watching resource - exceptions are the books I read extensively and the audiobooks, those just keep saved at my smartphone or tablet, I don't record them). Anyway, the exercise is really productive. This won't be my worse year for Russian.

Language Transfer's Greek lessons start to become longer again. There's a lot of syntax being taught, and tense equivalence can be quite tricky with the infinitive and the likes. I still haven't aligned it tothe other languages I know that use the subjunctive heavily, like Portuguese, Italian and Georgian. It's useless to think in terms of English for that matter, so this is one of the parts of the course where English does harm.

I'm still on my quest for the ideal secondary textbook for Modern Hebrew. Routledge's seems promising, but I have yet to enter the first lesson. Just from reading the instructions I have the impression that, now that I have downloaded the full audio and video, the book will finally turn out quite learner-friendly.

Plugging along with Clozemaster. Today I could pratice at least one set of 4 rounds for the languages I'm studying regularly.

[Lawyer&Mom]

You may be pleasantly surprised by Hebrew. Because of the Jewish Diaspora, there is a large amount of interest from non-native speakers in all things Hebrew. So English language blogs recommending Hebrew online bookstores, tv-shows, music etc. For example, when I was watching Srugim, there was an English episode by episode recap available. American Jews trying to stay in touch with Israeli culture will be your friend.

[jeff_lindqvist]

Also started Nesten Voksen. Seems funny so far, with useful vocabulary, but far from Side om side's quality and photography. I have to get used though, even if it won't last long, as it's only 8 episodes. I need another suggestion next. Jeff?!

Fairly new Norwegian series I saw on SVT last year include Valkyrien, Mammon, Nobel and Monster - I doubt they can be viewed from abroad. Grenseland is on SVT at the moment (but the identically named series on NRK is a documentary).

I might have a look at Presten - maybe it's something similar to the Swedish sitcom "Halvvägs till himlen" (which was also "smårolig"). I'll let you know if I find anything!

[Systematiker]

Fairly new Norwegian series I saw on SVT last year include Valkyrien, Mammon, Nobel and Monster - I doubt they can be viewed from abroad. Grenseland is on SVT at the moment (but the identically named series on NRK is a documentary).

Grenseland (might be titled “Borderliner” elsewhere) and Nobel should both be on Netflix.

I've only watched a couple episodes (because I refuse to wanderlust into Norwegian), but Nobel is very good from what I've seen