Xmmm's Log ...

[garyb]

I agree with your whole assessment. Using passato remoto is one of these things that I think is better avoided until you know what you're doing with it, especially since you can just use the passato prossimo for the same meaning. The only time when I think passato prossimo would really sound unnatural is when talking about history, and even at that you'll still be understood perfectly fine.

You'll also hear it a lot in Il commissario Montalbano, again set in Sicily, where some characters use it even to talk about things they did earlier the same day! But that's very regional usage (and it seems more common amongst characters with lower education levels, but I can't vouch for the truth of that and maybe I'm seeing a connection that's not there) and shouldn't be imitated.

[Xmmm]

Italian

I'm reading the book Cristo si è fermato a Eboli after first listening to it as an audio book. This book is essentially non-fiction, there is no story, nothing happens -- and it's great! It's a window into a lost world.

I will probably get the audio book for Un anno sull'Altipiano this week and do the same thing (listen first, read later).

I finished reading La romana finally. I have really mixed feelings about it. It certainly had intriguing aspects, but it was also pretty disgusting in a dreary sort of way. It dragged on too long and got a little repetitive as well. I would not recommend, but it's not the worst book I ever read either. It was easy to read though.

Russian

I listened to Роковые яйца as an audio book ... sigh. I haven't read the book before and listening to it cold was too difficult.

I did parallel reading of Леди Макбет Мценского уезда by Leskov. It was great! I particularly liked the cat that visited "Lady Macbeth" in her dreams. The image described was so bizarre that it will stay with me for a while.

I'm going to do Запечатленный ангел next. I'd never heard of Leskov before. Apparently, he was an odd duck and a very difficult individual. There's some quote from him along the lines of "I don't know what the great authors mean when they say they're going to study the common people so they can write about them. I grew up among the common people."

I wish it could just be reading and not parallel reading, but adult fiction is still too hard for me to read without resorting to deciphering. So it's either parallel reading or go back to my non-fiction book (which I ought to do, but not right now I guess).


Turkish

I'm doing a little glossika and a little Turkish Tea Time -- A1 maintenance. The problem as always is I'm having too much fun in the other two languages and don't have time for three.



I'm in the process of trying to convert my Italian and Russian reading into a coherent study program following the Core Novel Method. So I need a half dozen books in each language that I like, and then I would just cycle around through them re-reading them every few months.

[StringerBell]

It's interesting that you listen to the audio book, then read the text. So far I've combined audiobooks with simultaneously reading the texts, which is something I enjoyed a lot. The main problem I have is finding a decent selection of audiobooks - it seems like in Italian there is a really limited choice compared to other languages. Have you found a magical source your'd being willing to share? I really wanted to find an Italian translation of anything by Stephen King, because I figured that would be fun to read in Italian, but I couldn't find any audiobooks for his stuff. At this point, I'm reading without audio out of necessity (since I could find much in the way of audiobooks).

In English, I don't ever read crime thrillers, it's really not my genre at all, but since I wanted a book that focused on action and wasn't necessarily written particularly well but had a lot of modern dialogue, I chose the first Jack Reacher book "Zona Pericolosa" by Lee Child (mainly because it was one of the few audiobooks I could find through audible) and I bought the accompanying text through the kindle store. The main thing I didn't like was again, heavy use of passato remoto...I mentioned before that I've come to understand it passively, but I really wanted my reading to be reinforcing the proper conjugation and use of actual past tenses that people use conversationally. I finally figured that for that, I need to focus on non-fiction or stuff like articles, blog posts, forums, etc...so that's what I'm reading now.

[Xmmm]

Italian

I've almost finished listening to Un anno sull'altipiano and I have to say it's the best audio book I've ever heard. Usually I prefer just to hear the narrator read, because the audio books that try to be shows are poorly done, with lots of random and pointless music thrown in.

But Un anno sull'altipianno is a revelation. Every time it goes to dialogue, there's a whole crew of actors standing by. And every time the crazy general tells them to storm the emplacements for le mitragliatrici, you hear all these guys shouting "Savoia!" and "Avanti!" with various amounts of enthusiasm/terror ... and then silence. It's gripping. I feel like I'm sitting out on the Asiago Plateau with them.

Cristo si è fermato a Eboli is going well. I'm about halfway done, just having trouble finding reading time ...

... because I spent too much time watching Secret City on Netflix. I have a gripe about this show. The main character is a woman. They want to show how tough the character is, so she's shown doing all these physical activities (rowing, running, I think she's punching a bag at one point). Then they pick an actress who looks like she's never exercised a day in her life ... she has zero street cred with me. I don't believe the actress can row a skiff, I don't believe she could run more than 200 yards without getting winded, etc. There's a scene where this vicious and physically fit thug is chasing her and she outruns him and you can literally see him holding himself back so he doesn't (easily) catch her. Etc.


Russian

... And speaking of shows where actors are out of shape, I started watching живой with the actor from Sniffer. I think overall it's a better show than Sniffer, but the actor's wearing clothes that reveal his out-of-shapeness a little too much. He's supposed to be sprinting, hopping fences, fighting off thugs -- come on. And his love interest the cop -- they put her in the ring at the gym with a guy boxer twice her size and she knocks him down with one punch. And she clearly has zero training and not enough power to knock down a five year old. [This is one area that Iron Fist got right. The actress that plays Colleen Wing clearly did some training and is convincing in her athleticism during fights (they went with corny cinema-style fight choreography so verisimilitude is lost there, but that's not her fault)].

Still reading Империя должен умереть. Have crossed the halfway point, so only two more months to go. Thinking of getting a new Kindle. I'm on version 4.1 and can't upgrade to get Russian support. It's six years old, maybe it's time.


Turkish

Glossika!

[reineke]

Yeah but where's the chaos? Where's the failure?

[Xmmm]

Yeah but where's the chaos? Where's the failure?

You're right. I've been losing focus.

Failure

1. I keep saying securità. Apparently that's either not a real word, or it's a real word with a very obscure meaning that's not what I intend. I mean to say sicurezza. I've been corrected by my tutor on this at least 10 times, but I did it again this morning.

2. I frequently misconjugate verbs when I speak. I seem to have particular trouble with the future tense for whatever reason. When I slow down and apply all the rules, I invariably choose an irregular verb so it comes out wrong anyway.

3. I keep making excuses to avoid getting a Russian tutor -- "just let me do 25000 reps in Glossika first". I'm pretty sure my speaking ability has regressed to A2. But Russian tutors can be sarcastic. I scared.

4. I've spent almost 3 years on Russian but when I watch this lousy "other show" with the Sniffer, I can only understand 50% of what is said -- even though I've sort of specialized in watching cop shows.

5. My progress in reading Russian is even more alarming. I've finally found a non-fiction book in a light, journalistic style that I "can read" without a dictionary, but I only understand 60% and I still read less than 20 pages an hour.

6. Turkish is failing to launch. I'm trapped in an endless cycle of listening to 30 beginner dialogues and reading 10 pages of material over and over with no end in sight. For the super challenge, I'm on track to finish only 8 books.

Chaos

1. I spend hours trying to think about what language I ought to be learning instead of Russian, Italian, and Turkish. You know, the hip, easy language that you can use anywhere because everyone speaks it, but at the same you get major status for knowing it. I spend hours looking at the FSI listings for other languages and trying to cross-correlate them with what Glossika offers. Then I redesign my future beginning language strategy. Then I realize I don't actually like any languages other than the three I'm studying and I just lost 45 minutes of potential study time and my brain calms down. Until the next day.

[smallwhite]

Yeah but where's the chaos? Where's the failure?

The phrase was stolen borrowed afterall.

[Teango]

I felt like giving up Russian for good after switching between Zamyatin and Bulgakov (and this certainly wasn't an isolated occasion). At the time I wrote that reading Russian was like trudging through merciless sand dunes with wavering mirages of Bulgakov’s rascals mocking me on the distant horizon, and all the time I had (and still have) the niggling suspicion that with other languages I could already be sitting by a cool oasis sipping an over-embellished piña colada by now.

But don't lose heart, товарищ! Switching between authors or screenwriters can be а real kick in the teeth at first. However if you genuinely fall in love with aspects of the language and culture, personally connect with what the material's all about, and habitually and optimistically push onwards (perhaps with more assistance and stubbornness when struggling at first), you'll soon close that comprehension gap and find renewed focus, motivation, and confidence (note: please feel free to throw this post back at me when I next decry falling into a Russian sinkhole of despondency ).

[Xmmm]

Yeah but where's the chaos? Where's the failure?

The phrase was stolen borrowed afterall.

The word you are looking for is reappropriated.

You remind me of Strider. You could be the queen of this board, guiding everyone to the promised land with the magic spreadsheet system and 5 or 10 thousand carefully chosen words. Instead, you sit in the dark, smoking your pipe, muttering about "chaos and failure." Be the language guru you were born to be! I say that not for my sake, for I am lost, but for the sake of those to come ...

[smallwhite]

Yeah but where's the chaos? Where's the failure?

The phrase was stolen borrowed afterall.

The word you are looking for is reappropriated.

You remind me of Strider. You could be the queen of this board, guiding everyone to the promised land with the magic spreadsheet system and 5 or 10 thousand carefully chosen words. Instead, you sit in the dark, smoking your pipe, muttering about "chaos and failure." Be the language guru you were born to be! I say that not for my sake, for I am lost, but for the sake of those to come ...

I had said "chaos and failure" was not about your language learning (or others') but you keep thinking it was and keep giving me lessons.

Edit: (Oh, or maybe you do know it wasn't but just decided to give me lessons anyway).