kanewai's book shelf (current: italian)

[kanewai]

Challenge Week 7

Amazingly, I didn't fall behind during my trip. Two long flights and one five hour train trip balanced out the weeks of no reading.


French

audio: Les trois mousquetaires. Five hours remaining. This has been a very enjoyable ride! Dumas is perfect for audiobooks. I'll add more of his books to my queue once I've finished this one.

reading: La Prisonnière. I re-read about fifteen or twenty pages by accident - I didn't even realize I had already read them until I came to a memorable passage. Proust is, honestly, a bit dull with his obsessive attention to the tiniest details. He's also sometimes brilliant and insightful. I'm glad I'm working my way through his books, but I will never read these again.

I also started reading Patrick Modiano's Rue des boutiques obscures. I wanted a hard-cover book for the plane ride, and was hoping I could finish this on my trip. It's an existential noir mystery (how very French) about a private investigator with amnesia who is trying to discover who he really is.


Spanish

reading: La catedral del mar. It's good. Not great. At least it's an easy read.

audio: La Casa di Papel is decent. I'm only four episodes into the first season. My podcasts remain Documentos and Nómadas.


Italian

reading: I am enjoying Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando furioso far more than I thought I would. Ariosto is much easier to read than Dante, though I still need assistance to work through the text. It took me awhile to find what works. I eventually settled on reading a canto from Barbara Reynold's translation (Penguin Classics), then reading Italo Calvino's guide. Calvino's book is a mix of commentary and the original poem, with a lot of footnotes providing modern Italian translations for the original Tuscan.

I had tried to use a 'modern verse' translation as a guide, but it was horrible.

audio: Romanzo Criminale is much better than I was expecting. I listened to a podcast on the Banda della Magliana at History of Fire, which added a lot of depth to the fictional portrayal of the gang. Also, though I think I'm cynical, I still thought the podcast was genuinely shocking.

I've reached Aurelian (#15) in 20 Imperatori Romani. Next up: the fall of the pagans, the rise of Christianity, the fall of the west, and the rise of the East.


Latin

reading: I finished the passive phase of Le Latin . I'm taking a step backwards & working my way through Hans Ørberg's Lingua Latina Pars 1 (currently on chapter XIV out of XXV). Afterwards I'll go back and finish the active phase of Assimil. And after that, either Ørberg' Pars II, Vergel, Ovid, Caesar, or Apuleius!


German

I need to clear out my schedule a bit before I start in on Assimil German.


Current stats
Full challenge benchmarks: 402 pages reading, 724 minutes audio
French: 260 pages, 660 minutes
Spanish: 195 pages, 780 minutes
Italian: 265 pages, 720 minutes

I haven't been tweeting.

[kanewai]

Challenge Week 8

(edit: oops, that was only week 7!)

Slow and steady here. I'll stick with a few key updates here rather than a comprehensive summary.


French

Les trois mousquetaires. Finished! The last fifth of the story was a wild ride ... this went from a book I liked to a book I loved. And, like so many classics, when I realized that it was nothing like what I thought it would be.

This style of action-adventure stories are perfect for audiobooks. I'll be coming back to Dumas after I finish off a few of the podcasts in my queue.



Spanish

Still doing well. Made plans to attend a music and dance festival in Playa del Carmen in 2019, so I have a goal to work towards.


Italian

I am seriously enjoying Orlando furioso, even though it's slow going and killing my Italian progress! I am continually surprised at how 'modern' parts of it feel. Just one example: one of the heroes ends up in Scotland, where a princess is facing death after being accused of having an affair. Only a hero can redeem her honor, by fighting her accuser to the death. So far, standard medieval sexism. But Ariosto has our hero go off on a tirade about cruel laws, about how women are condemned for doing the same things that men are praised for, and that no woman should be punished for love. And even better, the prince fights for the princesses's honor, she is redeemed ... and she is so disgusted by the whole thing that she leaves all the men behind and joins a convent in Denmark.

This is not what I expected from a story from the 1500s!

I finished the first season of Romanzo Criminale. It was good, and I'll watch the next season. I'm usually not a fan of the gangster / crime genre, but this is one of the better ones.

And ... it looks like I'll be doing the Cammino di Assisi with some of my brothers and sisters next summer! It will be ten days walking in Tuscany and Umbria. That will be enough to keep me motivated with Italian.


Latin

I'm continually amazed that a course without any translations can work, but I'm now past the half-way mark of Lingua Latina. I don't have time to study Latin every day, though, so sometimes I forget basic words. I just downloaded a Latin dictionary, though I hope I don't have to use it much.


Indonesian

A surprise entry. I spent a lot of time in Indonesia back in the 1990s, and the last trip I spent 2 months in a Bahasa-only environment. It was the first language that I successfully taught myself. Friends have picked Bali for our fall trip .... which for me means I get to revisit the language! I don't think I'll make a serious effort; at this point I think that I'll get the Pimsleur course on audible and buy one of the "Easy Indonesian" grammar books to help me refresh my knowledge. It will be interesting to see how fast it comes back, or if it does.




Current stats
Goals: 230 pages reading (50%), 828 minutes audio (100%)
French: 290 pages, 960 minutes
Spanish: 222 pages, 840 minutes
Italian: 265 pages, 940 minutes

Still on track!

Motivation recap
November 2018: Bali, Indonesia
February 2019: Arena Festival, Playa del Carmen, Mexico
July 2019: Cammino di Assisi, Italy

[kanewai]

I have a Latin app that contains passages from a couple dozen Roman authors, along with English translations. I just took a look at Horace to see if I was ready for him. I couldn't understand the Latin. I looked at the translation ... and I can't even understand the English:

Maecenas, born of monarch ancestors,
The shield at once and glory of my life!
There are who joy them in the Olympic strife
And love the dust they gather in the course;
The goal by hot wheels shunn'd, the famous prize,
Exalt them to the gods that rule mankind;
This joys, if rabbles fickle as the wind
Through triple grade of honours bid him rise.

Maybe it makes more sense in the original.

[reineke]

"A dedication of the first three books of the Odes to Maecenas. The first Epode, the first Satire, and the first Epistle are addressed to the same patron and friend...
Various are the pursuits of men,—athletics, politics, agriculture, commerce, epicurean ease, war, the chase. Me the poet's ivy and the muse's cool retreats delight. Rank me with the lyrists of Greece, and I shall indeed 'knock at a star with my exalted head.'

...Maecēnas: Caius Cilnius Maecenas, for a long time the Emperor Augustus' chief adviser, and a distinguished patron of literature. Not only Horace but Vergil, Propertius, and others profited by his patronage. Some of his ancestors were said to have been lucumōnes (chiefs) of Arretium, hence the use of regibus here. The Augustan poets are fond of dwelling in this way on the contrast between Maecenas' half-royal descent and his modesty in remaining a knight and declining promotion to the Senate..."

http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Hor.%20Od.

[kanewai]

"A dedication of the first three books of the Odes to Maecenas....

That context helps, thanks. Still, I can't get past how tortured and pompous the English is. This was the style in the 1800s in England and the US, but it's painful to read today. I'm not sure if Horace himself was like this or not. I've got a long ways to go before I'm ready to tackle him.

Of course I also find the opposite - where English translators try to sound too hip and modern - to be equally painful.

[kanewai]

Challenge Week 8

(the real week 8)

Couple thoughts this week:

- My French, Spanish, and Italian skills still aren't stable. Some days I'll listen to a podcast and it feels like English - I can follow along without effort. Other days I realize that I've been listening without understanding a single thing. It's odd, and I can't really find a pattern to it.

- While I've learned to balance multiple languages, I find that I can only put in real effort into one at a time. This has been a challenge this week. Orlando Furioso, Lingua Latina, and Proust are all difficult reads. I need to limit myself to one difficult book at a time.



French

I finished Rue des boutiques obscures by Patrick Modiano. This is a decent noir-style existential mystery, where a detective with amnesia tries to discover who he was.

Next up, back to Proust and La Prisonnière. The narrator is living with Albertine, and there have been some surprisingly explicit night time scenes.

The podcast Au coeur de l'histoire released a seven-part miniseries dramatizing the Flight to Varennes. It's been a fun listen, and I hope they do more series like this in the future.


Spanish

Close to half-way through La catedral del mar. It's good, though certain subplots are starting to drag the story down for me. There's been a fair amount of rape, and the main female characters have to turn to prostitution to survive. I've seen this trope defended as "historically authentic sexism" - and it's common in a lot of historical novels and fantasy novels - but I don't accept that it is necessarily historically accurate. Especially now that I am also currently reading an actual medieval epic that is full of female sorcerers and warriors and princesses who fight back against the bad guys.


Italian

Orlando furioso is rapidly turning into one of my favorite epics. It is so full of surprises. In Canto IX Orlando confronts a king with a strange and powerful new weapon, a metal tube that can shoot objects that will penetrate any armor. It turns out it's an arquebus ... gunpowder has made its ugly appearance in this world of sorcerers, magic rings, and fantastic beasts. It's discordant. It's as if someone showed up at Hogwarts with a gun. The author, Ludovico Ariosto, is very clear that he does not approve of this affront to chivalry.

I finished the RAI2 podcast series 20 imperatori romani, and am currently enjoying a longer series called La storia in cucina. I can easily recommend both for anyone looking for Italian content.



Latin

Made it to chapter XXI of Lingua Latina.



Indonesian

It looks like our fall adventure will be to Oaxaca, not Bali ... so Indonesian is off the table for now. I almost picked up my German books again, going on the twisted logic that I now had a slot open. Instead I'll wait until I get over the main hump with Latin, and then start a new language.




Current stats
Goals: 230 pages reading (50%), 828 minutes audio (100%)
French: 290 pages, 960 minutes
Spanish: 242 pages, 960 minutes
Italian: 280 pages, 985 minutes



Adventures
November 2018: Oaxaca
February 2019: Arena Festival, Playa del Carmen, Mexico
July 2019: Cammino di Assisi, Italy

[kanewai]

I feel like I'm getting too bogged down in hard books. I need to lighten the load, so here's my revised bookshelf:

French
Out: La Prisonnière. Proust. I don't want to read three hundred more pages of the narrator's obsessive love or about his incessant mommy issues.
In: Le tour de Gaule d'Astérix.

Spanish
Out: La catedral del mar. I simply do not care about any of these stock-characters, and the history is only half as interesting as listening to actual history podcasts. I finished 350 pages, and there's over 300 to go.
In: I just ordered Cixin Liu's El problema de los tres cuerpos for the July Book Club.
Also on deck: Isabel Allende. Memorias del águila y el jaguar. It looks like a fun, easy read.

Italian
Still in: Orlando Furioso. It's hard going, but very rewarding.
On deck: James S.A. Corey. Leviathan: Il risveglio

Latin
Don't know: Lingua Latina, and Assimil's Le Latin, are also hard but rewarding. The problem is, I only have enough mental energy for one hard piece of work at the moment, and Latin is consuming a lot of my time. It's time to take a break.

[kanewai]

Challenge Week 9

The purge

A problem I have, in general, is that I'll start a lot of projects at once. I'll binge on the ones I really enjoy, but then I'm left with a bunch of things - books, shows, podcasts, work projects, etc - that don't excite me. I hate not finishing things, but sometimes I need to clear the decks.


French

I'm with Germaine Greer on Proust: reading him is like visiting a demented relative. That's not always a bad thing. Maybe ten percent of what he wrote is genuinely stunning and beautiful. Ninety percent, though, is just him droning on and on and on. I've tried to join reading groups to help me through the text, but Proust-lovers are almost as irritating and obsessive as Ayn Rand-lovers.

And so I put La Prisonnière down for now. 100 pages in, and all Proust has been talking about is his obsession for Albertine, and how freaked out he is that she might be sleeping with other women. I'm not a jealous guy by nature, and at this point I'm finding the narrator to be more psychotically creepy than sympathetic.

I picked up a book by Marc Levy, Un sentiment plus fort que la peur - and read thirty pages in one sitting. I left our heroes stranded on Mont Blanc during a snow storm. He is a famous alpinist. She is a rich woman with dark secrets who is up to something on the mountain. And I need to know what happens next.

I think I know which book I'll be continuing.

This month's F Kermesse podcast episode was Apocalypse, l'évangile selon Johnny. It was a nerdy, pop-culture take on the end of the world.


Spanish

El problema de los tres cuerpos arrives tonight. I ordered a real book rather than using the kindle version; I'll find out soon if I'm ready for it.

Instead of traveling this week the Nómadas podcast stayed close to home, and did a beautiful episode on Syrian refugees in Spain discussing their homeland in Siria en el alma.


Italian

So, this happened:



Angelica is chained to a rock and about to be sacrificed to the Orca di Ebuda; Rugggiero flies in on his hippogriff to fight the invincible sea monster. Woodcut by Gustave Doré (1894)

How is this not more famous?

I'm keeping Orlando furioso as my "hard" book. It's not really that hard, but Calvino's commentary has a dozen footnotes per page, and I frequently need to glance at an English translation (which has more footnotes) to help with the Tuscan words in the original (which also has lots of footnotes). For each chapter I end up with a table full of books with half a dozen bookmarks marking where I'm at in each. I feel like I'm back in grad school.

It's still easier than Dante.


Latin

Made it to chapter XXIV of Lingua Latina - and I think this might be it. I took a look at some of the classics, and I am a long ways off from understanding them. I think I'd have to do some serious studying to make the jump from text books to original texts. My casual style of studying works for modern languages, where I can 'fake it 'til I make it,' but it has it's limits with Latin and Greek.



German

I took the Assimil off the shelf. I reloaded Pimsleur onto my iPod. I did one lesson of each. And thought: what the hell am I doing? This is not purging. This is the opposite of taking it easy.

At some point, German will be my next language. But not this week.


English

I finally started on Zore Neale Huston's Barracoon: The Story of the Last "Black Cargo." It's a book she wrote in 1931, based on her interviews with Cudjo Lewis, the last survivor of the Middle Passage. It wasn't published until earlier this year. It is predictably horrifying. The first chapter is set in Africa, with the King of Dahomey's troops raiding rural villages, executing all the women and elders, collecting their heads as tribute, and selling all the young men to the American slave traders. It's nightmare material, and still hard to grasp that this really happened.


Current stats
Goals: 260 pages reading (50%), 930 minutes audio (100%)
French: 400 pages, 1080minutes
Spanish: 252 pages, 1140 minutes
Italian: 262 pages, 1060 minutes

[kanewai]

The Return of Language Roulette

A few weeks ago I made a commitment to myself that I was going to have an easy summer. I'd read fun novels, sci-fi and fantasy. I wouldn't try and learn hard extinct languages, or start Pimsleur in a new language, or juggle three different Assimil books. I was just going to chill.

I chilled my way right back up to trying to balance six languages. Each little decision was so small, so easy, so seemingly insignificant. And then bam, here I am again.

French

I've been using French going on seven years now. It sounds like such a long time, and I wonder what I'm doing wrong that I'm not fluent like a native. And then I do the math ... if I averaged 30 minutes of French a day for seven years that comes to 1260 hours. The FSI numbers come in handy here: they estimate it takes 1000 hours of active study to reach near-native levels. And I realize that I'm not even close, even with all my reading and travel. Even if the FSI numbers are approximate, they provide a nice reality check when I get too hard on myself. They also provide a nice realty check when I get too ambitious, and think foolish things like "I think I can learn Japanese in a couple months."

French bookshelf
current: Marc Levy. Un sentiment plus fort que la peur
on deck:
Ágota Kristof. Le grand cahier
Marguerite Duras. Un barrage contre le Pacifique 
Michel Houllebecq. Les particules élémentaires
Orhan Pamuk. Mon nom est rouge. Potential Book Club selection. I just realized this summer that I could read international authors in many languages, that I wasn't limited to English translations. It's so obvious ... I don't know why it took me so long to realize it. Maybe Dostoïevski is next!
Alexandre Dumas. Le comte de Monte-Cristo (audiobook)


Spanish

I actually started Spanish back in 2010, but have not been consistent at all. I work at it for a couple months, then do nothing for a year, then wonder why I've forgotten everything.

Spanish bookshelf
current: Cixin Liu. El problema de los tres cuerpos. July Book Club selection
on deck:
Isabel Allende. Memorias del águila y el jaguar. August Book Club selection.
Gabriel García Márquez. Cien años de soledad. It's been sitting on my shelf forever. I think I'm ready.


Italian

Italian could be my case study for why the Super Challenge works. I have spent twice the amount of time formerly studying Spanish than Italian, and have spent more time as a tourist in Spanish-speaking countries. But I did one of the Super Challenges in Italian, and now Italian completely dominates my Spanish.

Italian bookshelf
current: Orlando furioso, raccontato da Italo Calvino. I love it, but it's half modern Italian, and half in Renaissance-era Toscana. I love this book, but it is very slow going.
on deck:
Umberto Eco. Storia delle terre e dei luoghi leggendari. It's a big picture book.
James S.A. Corey. Leviathan. Il risveglio. First part of the Expanse series
Apuleio. Le metamorfosi. If I can't read Latin, I can at least read the next best thing. Optional: editions with Testo latino a fronte. Possible Book Club selection.


German

German is the last of the languages that I think I can bring to the same level as my French / Italian / Spanish ... if I just stick with it. Every year I flirt with German for a couple months. I'll listen to Language Transfer, or Michel Thomas, or Pimsleur. Then I'll set it down, vowing to come back.

I have Assmil ready to go, and am currently reviewing Michel Thomas. Really, I should just stick with it this time ... even though it cuts into my reading time in the Challenge.


Latin

I've been steadily working on Latin since December. I finished one wave of Assimil, and 78% of Lingua Latina. I'm still a long ways from being able to read native text. I don't have time to commit to it now, and doubt I'll ever reach reading fluency. I've looked at English / Latin dual texts, and they confuse me more than they help me. But ... Italian / Latin dual texts might work. I'll find out soon. In the meantime, I'll work on Lingua Latina when I can, even though I suspect that my skills will rapidly decline if I don't do it every day.


Japanese

Tonight my friends and I will finally decide where out fall adventure will be. Right now Kyoto, and the Kumano Kodo trail, is looking like the best option based on airfares. That's one of the prices of living in paradise ... vacations are very dependent on what flight bargains we find.

I focused on Japanese intensively for three months in 2013, and it was enough to carry on very basic conversations in Tokyo. I forgot everything immediately afterwards. I'll review MT or Pimsleur about once a year, but it's not been enough to make progress, or even maintain what I had. Right now I'm reviewing MT for the third time. So far it's easy. And I do have Assimil Japanese at home ...


It's ridiculous to think I can balance all these. I can do it for a week or two, but not for any significant length of time. I know that. And yet ... I don't know what to cut!

[kanewai]

Challenge: Three Months

It's so hot this summer that I don't want to do anything on the weekends but lie on my couch and read. I might be the only person who is excited to come into work early on Monday morning - it's when I log all of my progress on twitter and on my excel sheet.

I'm still balancing six languages. I'm trying to quit, I just don't have the will power.


French

Marc Levy. Un sentiment plus fort que la peur. This guy is supposed to be the world's best selling French author, with more books in translation than anyone else. And yet when I talk books with French friends none of them have heard of Marc Levy. Or maybe they just deny having heard of him. This novel is some sort of thriller-romance-mystery, and I liked it at first. The plot became increasingly ridiculous, and half-way through I decided it was too stupid to continue.

Maurice Pagnol. Jean de Florette. I remember everyone loving this movie in the 1980s, though honestly I don't remember a thing about it. I'm definitely loving the book so far, though it's making me want to drop everything and move to Provence right this instant.

(edit:: Marcel Pagnol. Thanks Sizen!)

Alexandre Dumas. Le comte de Monte-Cristo. (audio book, narrated by Éric Herson-Macarel) More adventures in the south of France! I just started. The audio book is 25 hours, and I think that might just be the first part. I'll be with this one for awhile.


Spanish

Cixin Liu. El problema de los tres cuerpos. An excellent read, and an excellent translation - in that it didn't feel like a translation. I have no idea how accurate it actually was, as I have zero knowledge of Chinese. I've already ordered the second book.

Isabel Allende. La ciudad de las bestias. On deck, for August's Book Club read.


Italian

Orlando furioso, raccontato da Italo Calvino. I'm so in love with this epic. There are dozens of intertwined plots, and all of them have original twists. Calvino's guide helps to put some form into it, and provide context. I can read Calvino's commentary without a lot of problems, though sometimes I struggle during the passages that are taken directly from Ariosto. I can follow the main plot, but I'm sure I'm missing a lot of the nuances.

This is really in need of a great English-translation.

Alle otto della sera: La storia in cucina (podcast). A twenty-part series on the history of Italian cuisine. Almost every episode had something new and interesting to me. I highly recommend this one for any Italian students out there!


Totals
11 French books, 13 Spanish books, 8 Italian books. On track for a half-challenge; maybe I should aim for a full one?
1720 hours French audio, 1485 hours Spanish, 1405 hours Italian. No problems here!


Non-Challenge Stuff

Japanese

Japanese is so much easier the third time around! Friends and I are planning a trip to Kyoto for two weeks in November, and I'd really like to visit some of the smaller mountain villages in the Wakayama / Kumano area. My buddies were worried about traveling to non-touristic areas when none of us spoke Japanese. I told them not to worry, that I knew enough to get by.

I might have exaggerated that a bit. Now it's time to put my money where my mouth is. I'll finish up Michel Thomas's Foundation course in the next day or two, and I'm 12 chapters into Assimil's Japanese with Ease. I have Pimsleur on deck. Last time, back in 2013, I hit the wall half way through the Japanese II. We'll see how far I get this time.


Latin

I don't know what my end goal is with Latin, which makes it hard to keep up motivation. It used to be that I wanted to be able to read Ovid, Virgil, et al. in the original. Now I'm not so sure that's feasible given my very lazy way of learning languages (a few months of study up front, then tons of passive input). I've looked at parallel texts in English-Latin, but they are actually more confusing than helpful. I haven't tried Italian-Latin ... and there are a ton of those out there. I ordered a dual language copy of Apuleius (Metamorphoses), though it won't arrive until September.

In the meantime, I have a copy of Fabulae Syrae, which is a partner-text to Lingua Latina. There are five one-page "fabulae" that go with each chapter of Lingua Latina, starting with Chapter XXVI. It's easy enough to read one of the stories at night. It's keeping my Latin active for now, though at the most minimal level.


German

I do know what my goal is with German: to bring it to the level of my French/Italian/Spanish. And I know how to do it, I just don't know how to find the time to do it. Right now I'm reviewing Pimsleur I, which is fine because I have a lot of time to listen (between bike commuting and the gym, I have a couple hours each day with my headphones on). I'm not sure what I'll do when it's time to crack open the books.


English

Zora Neale Hurston. Barracoon, The Story of the Last "Black Cargo." This book is a compilation of a series of amazing interviews Hurston did in 1927 with Cudjo Lewis, the last known survivor of the Middle Passage. It felt more like a long magazine article than a book, which was my only disappointment. I wanted so much more. It wasn't published in the 1920s, in part because Hurston tried to capture Cudjo's style of speaking, and the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance felt that using black dialect didn't help the civil right's cause. They wanted her to translate his words to 'proper' English, she refused, and the manuscript was shelved.

Here's Cudjo's account of the punishment for a murderer back in Africa:

When de executioner touch de murderer wid his knife, dat is a sign dat he is dead already. So dey wrap de cord around de neck of de dead man. Dey wrapt de cord around his body an' around de body of de dead man. Dey wrap his arm an' de dead man's arm wid de same cord. His leg is wrapped as one wid de leg of de man he done killed. So dey leave him dere. His nose is tied to de nose of de dead man. His lips touch the lips of de corpse. So dey leave him.

De king an' de chief talk palaver 'bout other things while dey watch de struggles of de murderer.

Sometime if he be a strong man, an' de person he kill be little, he manage to get up and go a little away wid de body, but if de corpse be heavy, he lay right dere till he die.

Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities. (audio book; narrated by Simon Vance) I've never managed to finish a single book by any of the famous 19th century British authors. I love the big Russian novels, and the big French novels, but British novels always left me cold. Earlier this year, though, I listened to Middlemarch on tape, and having a British narrator really helped me develop an ear for the English-style. It really is different from the American style! Dickens bored me when I tried to read him. For whatever bizarre reason, I can hear his brilliance when I listen to him on tape.