Nótaí galaxyrocker - Ancient Celtic Languages, (Old) French, Latin, Old English
Posted: Mon Jul 20, 2015 10:01 pm
Log Years:
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
Semi-Important Links:
Must-read Irish novels, and my collecting/read status
So I'm new to the forum, though I did have an account on the old one; I could never use it because it was so slow. So, I think I'm going to start doing a log here, though I most likely will be sporadic at updating it.
Irish
I passed the B2 exam earlier this year, though my listening portion was atrocious. So that's my main goal, and has been for a while. Sadly, I just haven't been super motivated to work on it. There's a great site, hosted by Maynooth University, call Vifax that has segments of NuachtTG4, one of the few un-subtitled shows, and then asks questions about the segment. It also gives a transcription, the answers, and some other general questions about grammar and such. It's a great resource, but I just can't sit myself down and make myself use it.
There's also Comhrá a great TV show which is perfect for intermediate speakers/listeners. My issue with that is that it's completely subtitled in English, and there's no way to turn them off. Needless to say, I get distracted by that pretty easily and take my attention off the Irish. This applies to all other shows that I'm aware of, as well, and is a huge issue when trying to learn Irish; there's nothing, as far as I'm aware, with actual Irish subtitles (or even without subtitles at all, except for the news)
As for reading I've got several books (ok, more than several) in Irish backlogged, and am currently reading some folktales (a collection from Micháel Phatch), which is great because, apart from spelling (which is annoying), most of the dialectal stuff has been un-sanitized, so there's a lot of non-standard grammar features that I really enjoy reading. And when that one's done, I've got some of the 'classics' of Irish literature, as well as a Scribd account, which has a surprisingly high number of Irish ebooks available (though, alas, I won't be able to use my Kindle's new Irish dictionary).
Writing: I've got a native speaker friend who I chat with via Google several times a week. topics are varied, and I learn quite a bit of vocabulary from them because of that. I've had several people offer to help me if I send them stuff I've written, so I might take them up on that.
Speaking: I speak with the same native speaker, though nowhere near as often as we just text chat. I also speak with another speaker from America on Monday nights. We used to have a native speaker in these chats, but he's been gone a while. When I get a job, I'm going to look at perhaps paying someone (maybe my former native speaker teacher) to help me just get better at dialectal stuff. However, I'm generally not too worried, as speaking was my best portion on the TEG.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
On top of all of this, I'd like to add a third language, but I have such a bad case of wanderlust it ain't even funny. I'm serious about learning one, but I'm not sure which one I want to learn. I've dabbled or had interest in French, Spanish, Finnish, Romanian, Japanese, Mandarin, Haitian Creole, Slovene, among others, but none of them have held my interest for really long. I'd like to learn Northern Sámi, but I don't know of many English resource, or a way to contact speakers. Any tips on how to pick a language and just stick with it would be appreciated; I took Irish as a subject in school, then became passionate about it so I didn't have this issue.
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
Semi-Important Links:
Must-read Irish novels, and my collecting/read status
So I'm new to the forum, though I did have an account on the old one; I could never use it because it was so slow. So, I think I'm going to start doing a log here, though I most likely will be sporadic at updating it.
Irish
I passed the B2 exam earlier this year, though my listening portion was atrocious. So that's my main goal, and has been for a while. Sadly, I just haven't been super motivated to work on it. There's a great site, hosted by Maynooth University, call Vifax that has segments of NuachtTG4, one of the few un-subtitled shows, and then asks questions about the segment. It also gives a transcription, the answers, and some other general questions about grammar and such. It's a great resource, but I just can't sit myself down and make myself use it.
There's also Comhrá a great TV show which is perfect for intermediate speakers/listeners. My issue with that is that it's completely subtitled in English, and there's no way to turn them off. Needless to say, I get distracted by that pretty easily and take my attention off the Irish. This applies to all other shows that I'm aware of, as well, and is a huge issue when trying to learn Irish; there's nothing, as far as I'm aware, with actual Irish subtitles (or even without subtitles at all, except for the news)
As for reading I've got several books (ok, more than several) in Irish backlogged, and am currently reading some folktales (a collection from Micháel Phatch), which is great because, apart from spelling (which is annoying), most of the dialectal stuff has been un-sanitized, so there's a lot of non-standard grammar features that I really enjoy reading. And when that one's done, I've got some of the 'classics' of Irish literature, as well as a Scribd account, which has a surprisingly high number of Irish ebooks available (though, alas, I won't be able to use my Kindle's new Irish dictionary).
Writing: I've got a native speaker friend who I chat with via Google several times a week. topics are varied, and I learn quite a bit of vocabulary from them because of that. I've had several people offer to help me if I send them stuff I've written, so I might take them up on that.
Speaking: I speak with the same native speaker, though nowhere near as often as we just text chat. I also speak with another speaker from America on Monday nights. We used to have a native speaker in these chats, but he's been gone a while. When I get a job, I'm going to look at perhaps paying someone (maybe my former native speaker teacher) to help me just get better at dialectal stuff. However, I'm generally not too worried, as speaking was my best portion on the TEG.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
On top of all of this, I'd like to add a third language, but I have such a bad case of wanderlust it ain't even funny. I'm serious about learning one, but I'm not sure which one I want to learn. I've dabbled or had interest in French, Spanish, Finnish, Romanian, Japanese, Mandarin, Haitian Creole, Slovene, among others, but none of them have held my interest for really long. I'd like to learn Northern Sámi, but I don't know of many English resource, or a way to contact speakers. Any tips on how to pick a language and just stick with it would be appreciated; I took Irish as a subject in school, then became passionate about it so I didn't have this issue.