Expug's 2018 Log - Sustainable Dabbling

[Expugnator]

One thing I've realized with using double subtitles: it might be actually slower than listening-reading a novel. Therefore, it might favor intensive reading when compared to L-R or parallel reading with audio. I noticed this with the Estonian soap opera. Characters talk rather slowly, in a relaxed way, and I have enough time to read the subtitle, check the machine-generated translation and check the subtitle again, while still listening. I don't have the patience to do that while listening-reading, and I end up skipping a lot, just skimming through L1 text, and tuning in every once in a while, zooming in and out. With the Tv series in this case I manage to actually pay more attention. In the case of German, though, it's not exactly so because it's a super-hero series I'm watching, and so the action happens fast and I catch myself paying attention to the story and ignoring language learning.

I believe the series I've lined up for Hebrew will line up an experience similar to that of Estonian, as they're sitcom or soap-opera like. This is a proven path, something that works for me.

It all comes down to one's current level anyway. I couldn't afford doing it for Mandarin but now I almost always manage to, even now with subtitles in traditional characters at the Taiwanese show. The point where you can follow the story by looking at both subtitles quickly enough is optimal for learning. Then there is a stage when you get bored with the double subtitles but L2-only subtitles still leave many unknown words which might or might not be inferred from context. It gets better with time and at one point you notice subtitles are redundant. I'm almost there with German and Georgian but I still struggle with Norwegian's diversity of accents and richer phonology. Anyway, I'm thinking in terms of efficiency, of when is the best time to drop double-subs for the sake of either vocabulary-learning or listening-improvement. Double subtitles has proved a very efficient way of learning vocabulary, as it's essentialy the Assimil method replicated ad eternum in a much more realistic context. It's a safe path for learning, and my adjustments aim rather towards better efficiency. I'm happy overall because it's so much fun in the end of the day. The moment I realize I have L2 subtitles for an L2 of mine, I can relax because I can be sure I'm going to learn that language. I still haven't found this for Indonesian but there's always the option of using L2 on L1 audio, American series, which also works but more slowly than a native series.

I'm trying to find the energy and motivation back to work on the Estonian reading. Even though I only read 1 page a day, the moment I read it I'm usually starting to get tired, as it's when I'm done with my main languages and I'm starting on the second part of my schedule. It comes after 20 minutes of Georgian dubbed series, preceded by Russian which is always tiresome. Moreover, I feel that I learn much more from the Estonian soap opera, which is my first activity, and from Speakly.me. That's just a feeling, because reading is also a skill I need and want to develop, but until I get back on the mood I have to deal with this and avoid just skimming through the text every day. I'm doing it more or less the same with Georgian, where I'm reading a difficult text I'm not enjoying now. The Estonian one is maybe not as difficult but I've probably been reading it for too long now at the rhythm of one page a day.

To tell the truth, I have the same problem with Greek listening-reading, the task after that. Greek is becoming transparent, and I could have been reading much better now, if I had been coming to this task with my mind sharper and less tired. I might need to rotate, maybe insert a simpler or easier task in an opaque language between the Georgian dubbed series and the Estonian reading, or an app-learning break. I have yet to figure this out.

I actually finished my first novel in Greek today: The Lost Symbol, by Dan Brown. It was a great exercise. I started understanding veyr little and now I've reached a point where the parallel reading has become productive, as I have fewer and fewer unknown words in each paragraph. At this pace, I'll be soon reading in Greek better than in Georgian or Russian, which is more than expected, as I consider Greek a semi-transparent language, given the abundance of Greek radicals in Portuguese.

I also enjoyed the book a lot, and that will make me stick to Dan Brown and the next book, Inferno. Which I'm going to listen-read in Mandarin. A bit reluctant, because I can already understand Greek better than Mandarin, but the latest developments have been good for Mandarin too, as I've narrowedly read the Narnia series then several books of Jo Nesbø in a row. i'm actually confident about both languages: I believe I'll be able to keep improving while finding novels I'm really looking forward to reading regardless of language-learning. That's why I'll be resuming La Sombra del Viento series in Greek listening-reading (plus Spanish original to the side). After all, at my "pure" Spanish reading slot I'm missing the task quite often.

I started listening to the audiobook, and after a lot of unnecessary reviews it started with the preface to the Greek edition. which obviously isn't translated; I can't copy/paste the DRM-protected text either. I don't think this Greek preface is essential to the story anyway. I listened to it and tomorrow I'll be starting from chapter 1.

The busiest week in the year turns out not that busy, and I'm managing all my tasks but some app-learning. It helps that this year after the restructuring I have a much lighter earlier schedule. This week is shorter actually, as I have the day off on Friday.

[Expugnator]

The word for 'palm' in Georgian is ხელისგული , which means hand's heart (yes, I'm deliberately helping Xmmm solve his cognitive dissonance issues with choosing Georgian as a dabbling language).

In a most chaotic day, I started listening-reading El Juego del Ángel in Modern Greek. Mostly description in long paragraphs so far, which makes it harder to follow. The narration of the audiobook is breathtakingly fast, it sounds like it has been accelerated on a software. This is extra difficulty, but like it happened with a more amateur audiobook I got for Mandarin, I hope it will actually help enhance my comprehension in real-time. So, for the time being I won't slow it down. I will wait to see if it isn't hindering vocabulary acquisition too much, because that's a goal as much as listening comprehension.

Today I really rushed through the Hebrew materials, because I was afraid I wouldn't have enough time for everything. I regret that, because some drills had words I'm not familiarized with which weren't translated anymore.

Tomorrow I have the day off and a lot of pending tasks, so back on full-schedule studies on Monday.

[Expugnator]

The extended weekend didn't have much language-wise. I didn't study at all on Friday. Didn't do any more work either, but I spent the afternoon with the kids.

I also played around with the Hebrew series I got, and the good news is I managed to set double subtitles for Hebrew. There's hard-coded Hebrew subtitles and there is a .ASS file which I converted to SRT, then translated online into English. The result is encouraging, as it is encouraging how much I can already understand from Hebrew, but it's still not the moment for that. It just feels good to know that I've managed to set a path for learning Hebrew doing what I like.

I also finished the book Positive Discipline, and I'm looking forward to reading more from the author, like the one focused on preschoolers. For the moment, i'll be reading The High Price of Materialism by Tim Kasser.

As I wasn't doing regular studies, I decided to focus on Clozemaster. I missed part of the languages on Saturday and so for the first time I decided to make up for it on Sunday. I noticed that doing 8 rounds instead of 4 wasn't as much tiresome as I had thought, though it did take a lot of time. There was flow, actually, especially with the text input exercises as I really saw myself enter the "mode" fdor each of the languages. Overall, i've seen a remarkable improvement in Romanian, to the extent that I might be approaching basic reading fluency. That with only having dabbled in the language. Romanian isn't exactly transparent, despite being a Romance language. I believe this intensive sentence reading helped me see the hidden connections and turn more vocabulary into transparent, while learning the most common entirely transparent words as well, which is a must when you start a transparent or semi-transparent language.

I also remembered was supposed to proceed with Lemon Snicket's books, as I only have German as audiobooks. What can do? I'm stuck with Eschbach's Trilogie for the time being.

Regarding my daily quota of Papiamento videos, I can't scroll backwards in the TeleCuraçao channel anymore, can't search by date either, so now I'm starting from the newer videos (silly limitations on Youtube and too crowded channels). I might soon run out of videos even among the newest ones as they aren't published on a daily basis, so it might help to have another channel lined up, one from Aruba for example. Or to listen to the embedded audio/video from Ret Karibense while reading the main newsstory. I believe I'm successful at maintaining Papiamento with some 20 minutes of Journalism a day. I was giving some tips to a friend who is travelling to Curaçao and Aruba. It brought me good memories to think about the places I visited back then.

Finished the audiobook "L'occhio del lupo, by Daniel Pennac". A short, nice one, translated from French. I don't think I got the end fully, though. Now I'm doing Le meraviglie del duemilla, by Emilio Salgari. My first classic in Italian, my first Librivox audiobook. So far, so good. The audio quality is good, volume is high. Vocabulary-wise, the language is transparent. I just need to concentrate a bit more, especially at the beginning, if I want to actually be able to follow the story.

Got hold of Exploring Norwegian Grammar . The book doesn't have much new to me, but it's well-structured and thus a good reference work. It is worth a try for intermediate learners of Norwegian as well. I like its layout.

Already tuning in to the new Greek audiobook, El Juego del Ángel. It helps to be humble. I put the audio on 0.8 speed. It feels slow, but the normal speed seems to have been accelerated. I plan to get to 0.9 soon, as it feels fast but still natural. The paragraphs are long but I still get to follow the story. It's a useful exercise even if Dan Brown's with shorter lines, more dialogues and translation in Portuguese instead of L1 text in Spanish was easier to follow.

Enjoying and savoring FSI Hebrew. Today I got a good description on the verb forms. I would have had trouble understanding it the first way round, but with the basis from other sources things start to fall into place now.

[Expugnator]

Finally finished a disgusting book I was reading in Georgian translation. The story is good and I plan to keep reading it (not in Georgian: same old issue of having only the first volume of a series translated into Georgian), but the writing style is too florished, which makes it unnecessarily hard. I had trouble following the paragraphs in English even.

Now I'm proceeding to YA Fiction which also has a translation in Portuguese. Time to turbo my Georgian.

I need to do something about my Mandarin. The language deserves a better treatment. I can understand a good deal and communicate a little. I can feel the emotion in the lyrics of a song directly, not mentally translating into L1. I'm enjoying the Taiwanese series because it feels denser and less colorful than some Mainland series I've watched in the past. I'm even starting to get used to the accent and the merge of some initials which create even more homonyms. The language seems to respond welcomingly to the time I put on it, it's I who don't give it the attention it deserves for reaching an ultimately significant level.

I keep forgetting about the Spanish reading. Not being a linear book doesn't help its cause (even non-fiction books can be more linear than this fiction one). Today I got stuck in a chapter that reminds me of the Brazilian Raduan Nassar with his streams of conciousness. Practical consequence: no safe place to bookmark. I paused reading after 17 pages and many interruptions, as I couldn't foresee an end to the chapter.

It's a bit annoying to study from The Berlitz Self-Teacher Hebrew when all sentences use the most formal negative, the one that agrees in person instead of just placing לא in front of any affirmative sentence. It feels like negating English the German way.

[Expugnator]

Yesterday was a non-study day, as I was busy with some translations. Still 8 to go this year, which means 4 more non-study days at least. I did most of the Clozemaster but fell asleep again when doing it, when I was doing German text-input. This tells a bit about my fatigue. Lesson learned: leaving the whole of Clozemaster for the end of the day is a recipe for missing some streaks.

Today I expect a calmer study day even if I'm starting 1 hour later, as I have a class in the morning.

Trying to tune in to the new Georgian novel. My Georgian still isn't as good as I had thought in the end, but at least the missing words now make more sense, they are contemporary words and not kingdoms and chevalry-related vocabulary. The computer is awfully slower today, which makes it less comfortable to study and turns even Clozemaster into a burden. Or probably it's just Firefox as it's always lagging severely behind in updates here.

Russian is evolving, little by little. I'm not doing much for the language, I admit. I'm not looking forward to using any Russian-based resource for a minority language for the time being.

Georgian music with subtitles:



Modern Greek is evolving. I'm used to the new novel already. It feels like the first one, even if it's technically no sequel or prequel. I see real progress in consolidating and acquiring new vocabulary now.

Apparently, Indonesian uses teman baik and it's enough to mean "best friend". Reminds me of 好朋友 . Indonesianpod101's lessons has some real gems, words you aren't likely to find in other learning materials tha often, such as pemarah (grumpy - related to marah I assume) and cengeng (a crybaby).

I got derailed a bit, talked a lot and so I had to rush through the Hebrew part of my studies. It was still valid, though. As much as I like FSI's explanations, drills don't suit me, so even if I understand the main idea of the verbal forms, I expect to learn them properly from context.

Tomorrow is a bank holiday, so back to regular studies on Monday. I hope to keep with Clozemaster for the time being.

[Axon]

Apparently, Indonesian uses teman baik and it's enough to mean "best friend". Reminds me of 好朋友 . Indonesianpod101's lessons has some real gems, words you aren't likely to find in other learning materials tha often, such as pemarah (grumpy - related to marah I assume) and cengeng (a crybaby).

Yes, Indonesian and Mandarin complement each other very well. Lots of things make plenty of sense viewed from a Mandarin perspective. And the combination of the two forms an excellent stepping stone for Vietnamese for some reason.

pemarah is formed by the peN- prefix added to marah. Because /m/ is a nasal, it appears as just pe-. If the first sound of the root isn't a nasal, the prefix adds a nasal in the same place of articulation as the first sound.

The peN- prefix relates to a person or object capable of performing action. In this case we would translate pemarah as "a grump" - a person who easily gets angry.

It's a very productive prefix. I've never heard the word cengeng or any word for "crybaby," but watch this: I can take the word for "to cry" menangis and switch the meN- prefix to peN-. When I check my new word penangis in the Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, I find orang yang mudah atau suka menangis, cengeng!

[Expugnator]

The extended weekend didn't see much in terms of language learning. I was stuck at Clozemaster, where I spent most of each day. Whenever I was done with Clozemaster, I'd read a bit from the forum. I'm unsure about how much I actually benefit from placing Clozemaster above any more relaxing activity at the weekend (like enjoying a novel or a TV series in an easier TL). I might be falling for the gamification component a bit too much, which is even more harmful given my messy stats which I've mentioned here before.

As a matter of fact, I created a reddit account for posting on the Clozemaster sub, as the developper seems to be more keen to answer to threads there. The problem is I accidentally posted a screenshot instead of the text, and when I quickly deleted that post and tried to post again, it seems reddit still thinks I am a bot and not a human being. I've read people testify that they can only post once a week

At least I managed to do some resource gathering. I renewed my playlist, which was a motivator boost for waking up early for the gym at the first Monday after the start of Daylight Saving Time (I didn't get to listen to any of the new songs, though; there's some German and Norwegian and I want to add some French next time).

The other resources I gathered were French audiobooks. I noticed that a previous source I used only once now has way more audiobooks. So I'm really looking forward to staying contemporary with regards to French audiobooks. Classics can wait, severely ranked by relevance.

As the extended weekend was approaching its end, I managed some non-fiction reading ahead for today, but not enough it seems. I gave a class in the morning and so I'm lagging behind my schedule the old-school way, with a prognosis of running out of time before proceeding to Hebrew.

Now that I'm picking Papiamento videos directly from the newly added videos on the Youtube channel I access, I noticed some are just program announcements, but others are full programs themselves. So I might as well let go of the 3-videos-a-day rule and listen to around 10 min at minimum while doing some repetitive tasks.

Finished 24 jours, a shocking film. Now I'll be watching Qu'est-ce qu'on fait au bon Dieu, which I expect to be lighter. I'm almost running out of films as my usual source, which means I'll be resuming TV series later. Really looking forward to that.

Third day of reading and I'm already tuning in to the new Georgian novel. It helps that the vocabulary is a bit of down-to-earth futurism. My Georgian isn't that bad, it seems. I was counting on just skimming through Georgian and translation, considering that I'm far behind schedule, but my slightly improved performance in understanding it encouraged me to do the proper parallel reading.

Starting to enter the thrilling transparent stage on Mandarin dialogues. It's just an early stage around the B1 range, but one to be celebrated. Understanding texts is a different ball game, but I'm happy with the latest developments in Mandarin as well.

[SGP]

My Georgian isn't that bad, it seems. I was counting on just skimming through Georgian and translation, considering that I'm far behind schedule, but my slightly improved performance in understanding it encouraged me to do the proper parallel reading.

Now there would be a question that maybe already has been answered through one of your posts, but since your log is close to 30 (forum) pages I'd still like to ask. How were you able to begin with Georgian at the time you (unless you would already have had previous exposure to it) were starting from scratch? It is a rather unique language after all.

That one interests me because I am someone who, in addition to learning languages (rotating, not several of them at the very same time, but possibly more than one on some days), is also merely familiarizing himself with some others, like Polish and Korean.

In addition, there is a question I simply love asking y'all Latinos these days: Do you sometimes drink the fresh juice of cana-de-açúcar? This is coming from someone who, in addition to having a passion for the different ways of speech in the world (called languages ) is also interested at least in some of all of those cultural aspects, so that's why I ask. A Short And Maybe Even Not Really Necessary Disclaimer Using SGP's Personal Tradition Of Sometimes Fully Capitalizing Every Single Word In An English Phrase But This Time It Is Much Much Longer Than Even He Usually Would Do : Not believing in any of those false stereotypes and cliches out there. Simply asking because of myself interlinking knowledge about languages and knowledge about traditions.

[Expugnator]

My Georgian isn't that bad, it seems. I was counting on just skimming through Georgian and translation, considering that I'm far behind schedule, but my slightly improved performance in understanding it encouraged me to do the proper parallel reading.

Now there would be a question that maybe already has been answered through one of your posts, but since your log is close to 30 (forum) pages I'd still like to ask. How were you able to begin with Georgian at the time you (unless you would already have had previous exposure to it) were starting from scratch? It is a rather unique language after all.

I struggled a lot at the beginning. I have a log at the HTLAL forum that is specifically about my journey with Georgian. What happened was that the amount and quality of resources got way better ever since I started (January 2012). Now there are more resources and some have better didactics, even if one hasn't managed to teach Georgian grammar in a learner-friendly way.

In addition, there is a question I simply love asking y'all Latinos these days: Do you sometimes drink the fresh juice of cana-de-açúcar? This is coming from someone who, in addition to having a passion for the different ways of speech in the world (called languages ) is also interested at least in some of all of those cultural aspects, so that's why I ask. A Short And Maybe Even Not Really Necessary Disclaimer Using SGP's Personal Tradition Of Sometimes Fully Capitalizing Every Single Word In An English Phrase But This Time It Is Much Much Longer Than Even He Usually Would Do : Not believing in any of those false stereotypes and cliches out there. Simply asking because of myself interlinking knowledge about languages and knowledge about traditions.

Yes, I really like drinking caldo de cana AKA garapa, cold with some drops of lemon. Though it's not as common here where I live as it was in my hometown. Moreover, it's not exactly healthy for my glycemia levels, I feel.

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Finally back into a full study day. Hope I don't get derailed that much and managed to do some app-learning. Yesterday I didn't do the remaining text input on Mandarin, Russian, Modern Greek and German, or Estonian multiple choice.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I finished listening to Les particules élémentaires by Michel Houellebecq. It was a disgusting book that really didn't catch me up. This coming from someone who liked Extension du domaine de la lutte, Soumission and La carte et le territoire.

Watching full TV programs instead of short video excerpts might have its advantages. I was just watching the VT of a program from Tele Curaçao and there was an ad from a gas station's auto service system where you can pay with your debit card at a totem standing right next to the gas pump. When I went there I got a bit lost with the idea of paying inside the shop and then coming back and filling up the tank on my own. Now a friend is going there next January and is expressing the same concerns. Having the totem right next to the fuel dispenser might turn things more straightforward to him. In Brazil we still have station attendants, they are even mandatory.

I'm not sure I've watched season 6 of Side om Side. Probably not, but it strangely starts in a familiar way. No, actually not. It's my next one after Kampen for tilværelsen. Then Oslo Zoo, then we'll see again. Parterapi sounds interesting, it is tilgjengelig.

Still got derailed through the day, mostly in the morning actually. I wasn't particularly busy. It's a matter of getting used to the previous rhythm again. I haven't used Speakly.me or Duolingo for several days, and I'm missing on some Clozemaster.

[Expugnator]

Finding some flow at Georgian reading. I'm sticking to around 1000 "units" (I never know how those units are counted, either at the Georgian website or at the Kindle format), which corresponds to 5 pages at the largest font size, 4 at the middle one (It was a sound decision to increase font size, Georgian isn't as small like Arabic but by default it tends to appear much smaller on screen than the Latin alphabet).

At today's Лунтик episode, Пупсен was pretending to sing opera on playback. It was impressive to know that the well-known Italian opera songs have pretty well-timed versions in Russian.

Today I read my Estonian page more or less intensively. I used the GT add-on when necessary, but not that often. It seems my overall level has improved.

The end-of-lesson review conversations on FSI Hebrew from lesson 20 on are in Hebrew script, with low readability. Sorry, they lost me.

Clozemaster Hebrew level 2 is becoming easy. It's a limited pool of words at a rather large sublevel. I might make some incursions into level 3, because I'm being exposed to harder vocabulary through FSI. Actually, I think at this point I'd have fun either reviewing the newer Assimil edition or doing the first one.