An opera fan's log - French, German, Italian, etc

[Deinonysus]

Unfortunately I haven't had as much time/energy to binge-watch operas as I thought. I've been coming down with a cold for the last few days and it's reaching a peak now. I'm still only one act into Die Walküre, the second of four operas in Wagner's Ring cycle.

I've heard the suggestion to use subtitles in the target language while watching a movie, but I honestly have no trouble parsing German as long as I know the vocabulary and can parse the syntax. My problem is that my vocabulary is seriously lacking. I have a plan to correct that, but until then, I decided to use the English subtitles. However, I only glance at each subtitle very quickly so that I have time to really listen to the sentences. Opera is great for this since most sentences come in much more slowly than normal speech.

The subtitles are not very literal and I'm not sure why. I think they were trying to match the meter, but that really isn't necessary in subtitles. Maybe they used an existing verse translation?

One thing that popped out was that Alberich repeatedly refers to himself as des Ringes Herr, or "the ring's lord." You know, I'm starting to think that this Wagner fellow ripped off Peter Jackson's hit movie trilogy with a similar name... \s

I've also been continuing my progress in Duolingo. I just passed a crown level of 200 out of a maximum of 608 (121 skills * a maximum crown level of 5, plus three bonus skills that only give one crown level each), so I'm a third of they way to maxing out the tree.

[Cèid Donn]

As it turns out, Amazon has some operas included with Prime so I thought I would check some out. And the result was... bizarre. As soon as the overture ended, it cut to the Rhinemaidens: three little girls with sock puppets that were quacking at each other, speaking their dialog instead of singing.

OK, so this might win out as the oddest relating of a performance of Wagner I've heard, and I got my bachlor's in music and was around a lot of opera people for a good part of my younger adult life. This is even weirder than the Star Trek: The Next Generation-esque setting of Parsifal that the Houston Grand Opera did back in the 90s that a member of the Early Music ensemble I was in back then saw and could not stop talking about how bizarre it was.

Sadly I can't say I'm a big fan of opera myself. I did my time as a music undergrad studying opera for a grade, cashing in on my student discount at the HGO and trying to practice my clarinet and guitar in the uni's practice rooms next door to student opera singers doing what student opera singers do. despite that, I confess I still enjoy Fidelio--I even listened to it last week as part of my Big Fat German Review. But regardless, I am a firm believer in enjoying your TL in any way you can, so more power to you with your German opera watching.

Unfortunately I haven't had as much time/energy to binge-watch operas as I thought. I've been coming down with a cold for the last few days and it's reaching a peak now. I'm still only one act into Die Walküre, the second of four operas in Wagner's Ring cycle.

I'm in the same boat myself. After a few days of holiday stress in combo with caring for an elderly parent who herself is recovering slowly from a cold, I am now stricken myself. And I'm barely doing anything with my TLs at the moment. So, my sympathies. Gute Besserung!

Opera is great for this since most sentences come in much more slowly than normal speech.

This made me immediately think of Wozzeck, which has possibly the slowest paced murder out of passion ever:



In addition to a less intimidating pace, opera librettos tend to stick with very common vocabulary, which means even if you don't know some of the words yet, exposure to them is a good thing, because you'll likely be seeing them again elsewhere.

The subtitles are not very literal and I'm not sure why. I think they were trying to match the meter, but that really isn't necessary in subtitles. Maybe they used an existing verse translation?

Probably the later. There are some frequently used older translations that older generation opera fans might be more familiar with that are used for these sorts of things, although I am of the opinion, as someone who uses subtitles/CC a lot for both language learning and because of hearing/sensory issues, that more contemporary and literal translations probably would be better.

[Deinonysus]

As it turns out, Amazon has some operas included with Prime so I thought I would check some out. And the result was... bizarre. As soon as the overture ended, it cut to the Rhinemaidens: three little girls with sock puppets that were quacking at each other, speaking their dialog instead of singing.

OK, so this might win out as the oddest relating of a performance of Wagner I've heard, and I got my bachlor's in music and was around a lot of opera people for a good part of my younger adult life. This is even weirder than the Star Trek: The Next Generation-esque setting of Parsifal that the Houston Grand Opera did back in the 90s that a member of the Early Music ensemble I was in back then saw and could not stop talking about how bizarre it was.

Sadly I can't say I'm a big fan of opera myself. I did my time as a music undergrad studying opera for a grade, cashing in on my student discount at the HGO and trying to practice my clarinet and guitar in the uni's practice rooms next door to student opera singers doing what Gstudent opera singers do. despite that, I confess I still enjoy Fidelio--I even listened to it last week as part of my Big Fat German Review. But regardless, I am a firm believer in enjoying your TL in any way you can, so more power to you with your German opera watching.

Unfortunately I haven't had as much time/energy to binge-watch operas as I thought. I've been coming down with a cold for the last few days and it's reaching a peak now. I'm still only one act into Die Walküre, the second of four operas in Wagner's Ring cycle.

I'm in the same boat myself. After a few days of holiday stress in combo with caring for an elderly parent who herself is recovering slowly from a cold, I am now stricken myself. And I'm barely doing anything with my TLs at the moment. So, my sympathies. Gute Besserung!

Opera is great for this since most sentences come in much more slowly than normal speech.

This made me immediately think of Wozzeck, which has possibly the slowest paced murder out of passion ever:



In addition to a less intimidating pace, opera librettos tend to stick with very common vocabulary, which means even if you don't know some of the words yet, exposure to them is a good thing, because you'll likely be seeing them again elsewhere.

The subtitles are not very literal and I'm not sure why. I think they were trying to match the meter, but that really isn't necessary in subtitles. Maybe they used an existing verse translation?

Probably the later. There are some frequently used older translations that older generation opera fans might be more familiar with that are used for these sorts of things, although I am of the opinion, as someone who uses subtitles/CC a lot for both language learning and because of hearing/sensory issues, that more contemporary and literal translations probably would be better.

Wagner in space... I think I heard about that. It sounds like it would either be amazing or awful and nothing in between.

Which version of Fidelio did you listen to? My favorite Florestan is Jon Vickers but I couldn't find a full video with him so I ended up getting the Böhm video with James King and Gwyneth Jones. (I'm a bad Classical fan and I usually remember recordings by the singers and not the conductor).

I could actually understand most of that clip without subtitles! I'll have to pick up a copy of Wozzeck (or maybe just cheap out and watch whatever's on youtube). The last time I watched it was many years ago when I was working on my own music degree, and I didn't speak any German then although I sang in it.

Thanks, I'm already starting to feel better. I think I'm through the worst. I wish you and your parent speedy recoveries!

[SGP]

Thanks, I'm already starting to feel better. I think I'm through the worst. I wish you and your parent speedy recoveries!

My sympathy and wishes for the three of you (Deinonysus, Cèid Donn and the parent).

---

Die Ideen, die kommen, und gehen.
Doch eines kann man gut verstehen.

Manches würde weder in meinen Hauptlog noch bei dir wirklich gut passen rein.
Deshalb schreibe ich es in den Language Lab Log, das ist schon eher etwas fein.

So habe ich es auch bereits getan wegen zwei Themen
Für welche ich mich nicht tue im Geringsten schämen.

Wenn es dort etwas neues gibt, mich jedes Mal neu zu melden ich beabsichtige nicht.
Denn das Bewahren von Language Log Space hat auch für mich ein gewisses Gewicht.

DE: The Information / Informationen distinction

German: The first Language Comic (about "one" and "I" not being direct synonyms of each other).

[Deinonysus]

Na, die Ferien sind vorbei, und ich habe nicht viel Zeit bei Deutsch verbracht. Ich habe mich für Conlangs interessiert. Ich habe viele Sendungen vom YouTuber ConlangCritic gesehen, und jetzt lese ich das Buch "In the Land of Invented Languages". Es ist ein sehr spannendes Buch! Viele Conlangers waren bestimmt verrückt.

Ich weiß nicht, was meine Lieblingsconlang ist. Ithkuil ist spannend, aber ganz unbrauchbar. Auf Ithkuil könnte man lange, komplizierte phrasen sehr kurz sagen, wenn man auf Ithkuil sprechen könnte. Esperanto ist sehr bekannt, aber ich kann es nie lange lernen. Blissymbolics ist spannend, aber nicht eine echte Sprache.

Ich habe ein paar Assimil Bücher und CDs auf Französisch billig gekauft: L'italien und Le grec ancien. Ich will eines Tages beide lernen, aber jetzt soll ich nur Deutsch und Hebräisch lernen. Aber, Altgriechisch… vielleicht werde ich nicht widerstanden können.

[SGP]

Ich weiß nicht, was meine Lieblingsconlang ist. Ithkuil ist spannend, aber ganz unbrauchbar. Auf Ithkuil könnte man lange, komplizierte phrasen sehr kurz sagen, wenn man auf Ithkuil sprechen könnte.

Bin mir gerade nicht ganz sicher, ob konkret Ithkuil die eine Conlang ist, die niemand fließend sprechen kann, nicht einmal der Erfinder.

Aber, Altgriechisch… vielleicht werde ich nicht widerstanden können.

Du kannst den kleinen Korrektur-Newsletter, bei dem du ungefragt eingetragen wurdest , auch abbestellen, wenn du möchtest.

Ansonsten: Widerstand (m) ist resistance.
Aber das Verb ist widerstehen.
Dass du kein langes I geschrieben hast, ist wiederum etwas, das du besser machst als so einige Muttersprachler. Es ist ziemlich üblich, die Vorsilben wieder- und wider- zu verwechseln. Die Regel dafür ist: wenn es um eine Wiederholung geht, dann ist es ein langes I. Wenn es andererseits so etwas bedeutet wie z.B. "gegen", dann ist es kurz.

[Deinonysus]

Vielen dank, SGP, das hilft mir sehr! Ich will nicht abstellen.

Ein anderes Wochenende ist vorbei, und noch einmal habe ich nicht viel Zeit mit Deutsch verbracht, sondern ich habe viel Diablo 2 gespielt (leider auf Englisch). Heute habe ich nochmal begonnen, Pimsleur im Auto zu lernen. Am Freitag beginnt der zweite Semester Zwischen Deutsch.

Wenn ich Pimsleur Deutsch V beendet habe, will ich Hebräisch lernen. Das soll in Februar sein. Und in Februar kommt wahrscheinlich meine Tochter! Deshalb werde mein Gehirn nicht so gut funktionieren, aber ich werde trotzdem versuchen.

[SGP]

Vielen dank, SGP, das hilft mir sehr! Ich will nicht abstellen.

Gerne. Freut mich, wenn es ein wenig dazu beitragen kann, eine deiner Schwestersprachen besser zu verstehen. Auch die ist ja ziemlich vielseitig verwendbar. Eine eierlegende Wollmilchsau ist sie aber trotzdem nicht. (Das ist ein bestehender, und relativ weit verbreiteter, Ausdruck. Es gibt aber immer wieder auch deutsche Muttersprachler, die ihn nicht unbedingt kennen würden. Und dann eben ihre eigenen Assoziationen bilden/formen würden.)

P.S.: Bestellen ist "to order". Und das Gegenteil davon wird mit dem deutschen Affix "ab-" ausgedrückt. Also ab-be-stellen, d.h. abbestellen.
Abstellen gibt es auch. Das ist z.B. bei einem Abstellraum besonders relevant.

P.P.S: Und die Zukunft von "werden" für die 3. Person Einzahl wäre: "wird".
Babies werden auf Deutsch mal mit -ie- geschrieben, und mal mit -y-. Das ist halt so eine sprachliche "Eigenart" von manchen. Auf YT gäbe es desweiteren auch noch ein Video von einem singenden (!) Baby, aber einem der ganz anderen Art. Und ein Baby kann "so ziemlich alles sein". Natürlich ist es kein Mensch in diesem Fall. Der Titel wäre: "Bin das Baby". Der hat schon seinen eigenen Track releast, als andere noch mit Bauklötzen gespielt haben. Naja, das macht er selbst auch noch. Aber trotzdem. #Nostalgie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIU4wlq5RD8

[Jean-Luc]

Adjective declension

There is an easier and more logical way to learn German declension and without all those declension boards. Ask a good German teacher.

[SGP]

Adjective declension

There is an easier and more logical way to learn German declension and without all those declension boards. Ask a good German teacher.

No doubt there are some other possibilities as well. Because the German-speaking Kleinkinder also learned those declensions in an easy way. But are you able to provide any (even vague) information on what method you are hinting to?