Re: kanewai's book shelf
Posted: Fri Jan 24, 2020 8:12 pm
Spanish
I leave for Mexico in three days, and I actually feel less confident with my Spanish than I did last month - even though it's been my main focus all month.
courses: Lesson 50 of FSI Spanish Basic Course had drills using the imperfect subjunctive plus the conditional tense to indicate an improbable future action ... and I actually understood it. The conjugation was so regular that I found it much easier than other less-advanced skills. I'm not sure I could actually use it in real life situations - but I can definitely drill it! Meanwhile, I am getting destroyed by all the irregular present and past-tense verbs over in Kwiziq. I've been supplementing these with work on Speakly and Lingvist a couple times a week.
It's insanely satisfying watching my Kwiziq brain map slowly get filled in:
book: Fernando Aramburu, Patria. I've been studying more, and reading less, so I'm only a third of the way through this book. So far I'm really enjoying it. It's set in the Basque country before, during, and after the period of terrorism. It follows the lives of two families, which could have been cliched, but the characters are so fully drawn, and feel so completely real, that we are drawn into their lives.
audiobook: Gabriel García Márquez, Cien años de soledad. Narrated by Gustavo Bonfigli. I listened to the first half a couple years ago, and am finally getting around to finishing it. Each generation recycles the names of the previous generation, and I get lost trying to keep track of all the José Arcadios and Aurelianos. In the audiobook I am often hopelessly lost. This is a book I admire more than love.
French
book: Ibrahim al-Koni, Les mages. I've stalled a bit, but intend to restart and finish one I'm back from Mexico.
courses: I haven't done much this month, but try to do some exercises from Une dictée par jour, Kwiziq, or CLE International a few times per week. My main focus will be on French for the next couple months, and I hope to fill in a lot of the map:
Italian
course: I've done occasional drills on Speakly just so that my Italian doesn't completely fade.
Arabic
course: Memrise has so much potential, but it's killing me. I wanted to at least finish one level, but I spend 90% of my time now on the reviews, and never make any forward progress. The other programs (Speakly, Lingvist, and Kwiziq) will have you review difficult words. Memrise thinks I have to review every single thing five times a week, plus do pronunciation practice, plus do it in a lightning round. I just took a look at the site, and it tells me that I've 'learned 227 words - and it wants me to review 82 of them, plus an additional 31 "difficult" words. I'm just wasting time at this point.
Others
I've been playing with Turkish on Memrise, and it's also frustrating - but I know more Turkish than Arabic, so at least I can do the reviews faster. Some of the drills are absolutely ridiculous, though. One "word," for example, is: o ... (-dir; -tir). The answer is:
he's; she's; it's; that's. Now, I know what they're aiming for here, but if you didn't know some Turkish this would make zero sense. And drilling on this out of context is useless.
I've also been doing occasional German drills on Lingvist and Speakly. I'm not investing a lot of time in it, as I think I would need to do more focused study to make any real progress, but it's enjoyable. One day, some day, I really will focus on German.
I just listened to a podcast series on classical Greek drama, and now I'm dreaming of Athens and Sparta and Thebes. It will probably be a couple years before I'll have enough vacation time to take a proper trip to Greece (I want a whole month so that I can dive deep), but Greek will be my focus language once I have the time!
I leave for Mexico in three days, and I actually feel less confident with my Spanish than I did last month - even though it's been my main focus all month.
courses: Lesson 50 of FSI Spanish Basic Course had drills using the imperfect subjunctive plus the conditional tense to indicate an improbable future action ... and I actually understood it. The conjugation was so regular that I found it much easier than other less-advanced skills. I'm not sure I could actually use it in real life situations - but I can definitely drill it! Meanwhile, I am getting destroyed by all the irregular present and past-tense verbs over in Kwiziq. I've been supplementing these with work on Speakly and Lingvist a couple times a week.
It's insanely satisfying watching my Kwiziq brain map slowly get filled in:
book: Fernando Aramburu, Patria. I've been studying more, and reading less, so I'm only a third of the way through this book. So far I'm really enjoying it. It's set in the Basque country before, during, and after the period of terrorism. It follows the lives of two families, which could have been cliched, but the characters are so fully drawn, and feel so completely real, that we are drawn into their lives.
audiobook: Gabriel García Márquez, Cien años de soledad. Narrated by Gustavo Bonfigli. I listened to the first half a couple years ago, and am finally getting around to finishing it. Each generation recycles the names of the previous generation, and I get lost trying to keep track of all the José Arcadios and Aurelianos. In the audiobook I am often hopelessly lost. This is a book I admire more than love.
French
book: Ibrahim al-Koni, Les mages. I've stalled a bit, but intend to restart and finish one I'm back from Mexico.
courses: I haven't done much this month, but try to do some exercises from Une dictée par jour, Kwiziq, or CLE International a few times per week. My main focus will be on French for the next couple months, and I hope to fill in a lot of the map:
Italian
course: I've done occasional drills on Speakly just so that my Italian doesn't completely fade.
Arabic
course: Memrise has so much potential, but it's killing me. I wanted to at least finish one level, but I spend 90% of my time now on the reviews, and never make any forward progress. The other programs (Speakly, Lingvist, and Kwiziq) will have you review difficult words. Memrise thinks I have to review every single thing five times a week, plus do pronunciation practice, plus do it in a lightning round. I just took a look at the site, and it tells me that I've 'learned 227 words - and it wants me to review 82 of them, plus an additional 31 "difficult" words. I'm just wasting time at this point.
Others
I've been playing with Turkish on Memrise, and it's also frustrating - but I know more Turkish than Arabic, so at least I can do the reviews faster. Some of the drills are absolutely ridiculous, though. One "word," for example, is: o ... (-dir; -tir). The answer is:
he's; she's; it's; that's. Now, I know what they're aiming for here, but if you didn't know some Turkish this would make zero sense. And drilling on this out of context is useless.
I've also been doing occasional German drills on Lingvist and Speakly. I'm not investing a lot of time in it, as I think I would need to do more focused study to make any real progress, but it's enjoyable. One day, some day, I really will focus on German.
I just listened to a podcast series on classical Greek drama, and now I'm dreaming of Athens and Sparta and Thebes. It will probably be a couple years before I'll have enough vacation time to take a proper trip to Greece (I want a whole month so that I can dive deep), but Greek will be my focus language once I have the time!