Zelda's French Log (+ Modern Greek)

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arthaey
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Re: Zelda's French Log

Postby arthaey » Fri Oct 19, 2018 11:02 pm

Ani wrote:You should join the NaNoWriMo thread. I'm going for a short story ~10,000 words in November, but even if you had a goal of 1000 or 5000 words of cringy fan fiction, it would probably help and we can all lament our terrible writing together ;)

Yesss, joiiiin usssss. :)
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Re: Zelda's French Log

Postby rdearman » Fri Oct 19, 2018 11:06 pm

See! This is how they suck you in. Next thing you know you'll be learning Finnish with extra pain, or doing Setswana grammar books.
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Re: Zelda's French Log

Postby arthaey » Fri Oct 19, 2018 11:19 pm

rdearman wrote:See! This is how they suck you in. Next thing you know you'll be learning Finnish with extra pain, or doing Setswana grammar books.

You say that like it's a bad thing! ;)
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Re: Zelda's French Log

Postby Skynet » Sat Oct 20, 2018 10:38 am

Zelda, I am truly impressed by your progress in French and weightlifting...but even more impressed by your diving into German! You really inspire me to never quit!
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Re: Zelda's French Log

Postby zjones » Sat Oct 20, 2018 5:03 pm

I'll think about NaNoWriMo, but I probably won't join the dark side. I like imagining scenes in my head, but I'm terrible at translating those ideas onto paper.

German

I felt inspired, so I officially started German yesterday. I don't have Assimil yet, but I'm working with Pimsleur, doing one lesson a day. It feels like a snail's pace compared to what I did with French, but I don't mind. My husband has had to experience my random outbursts of "Entschuldigen Sie!" for the last 24 hours. Starting from A0 is fun.
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Re: Zelda's French Log

Postby zjones » Mon Oct 22, 2018 3:34 pm

German

Just a couple days of German and I am not inspired at all, which is worrying. Actually, I'm the opposite of inspired -- I really don't like speaking the words and I don't like the way they look (no offense at all to German speakers). I don't know if I should invest any more time into this language, since I'm not interested in it. German seemed like the next logical step after learning French, but I made a decision based on what other people usually do instead of what I actually want to do, which is...

Modern Greek

I have barely mentioned this on the forum, but I am in love with Modern Greek. The culture is intriguing, and the language is beautiful -- it has an earthier sound than Italian. Greek food too... YUM. However, I didn't want to start learning Greek because it didn't seem rational to do so... the language has a different alphabet, which strikes me as difficult, and there aren't as many resources available. I thought my desire for Greek could be chalked up to simple wanderlust, and that I should just ignore it, but my experience with German is making me think otherwise.

My goal this week is to allow myself to quit German (something I feel guilty about) and do some research on the qualities of Modern Greek.
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Re: Zelda's French Log

Postby MamaPata » Mon Oct 22, 2018 4:42 pm

I've never studied Greek so take my advice with a pinch of salt, but I don't think you'd struggle with the alphabet. Thinking of Cyrillic, it doesn't take more than a few hours/days (depending on how diligent you are/how good your memory is) to learn the letters and then you will get used to reading over time.
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Re: Zelda's French Log (+ Modern Greek)

Postby zjones » Tue Oct 23, 2018 8:37 pm

MamaPata wrote:I've never studied Greek so take my advice with a pinch of salt, but I don't think you'd struggle with the alphabet. Thinking of Cyrillic, it doesn't take more than a few hours/days (depending on how diligent you are/how good your memory is) to learn the letters and then you will get used to reading over time.


You're right about this!

Modern Greek

So I spent most of yesterday dabbling in Modern Greek, and I love it. I was starting from zero knowledge of the Greek language, so everything has been a brand new discovery. I was able to get Pimsleur's Modern Greek course from my library, and it seems like there are a handful of other free, professional beginner courses online (like Language Transfer and Kypros). Learning the alphabet over at http://langintro.com/greek/alphabet/ is a blast. My husband has agreed to learn Greek with me. :D

There are some particular things that I really like about Greek, and I haven't even touched the grammar yet. An accent sign simply designates where to put the stress in the word. For example: Τι κάνετε; which is how you say "How are you?" There are some words that change meaning depending on where the stress is placed: πολί (very), πόλι (city).

It seems like there are some good books available on Greek grammar, too, but I might have some trouble finding a copy of Harry Potter in Modern Greek.

edit: some mistakes
Last edited by zjones on Wed Oct 24, 2018 2:41 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Zelda's French Log (+ Modern Greek)

Postby MrsStarez » Tue Oct 23, 2018 8:42 pm

My good friend Neurotip is thinking of embarking on Greek next year. You should compare notes with him!
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Re: Zelda's French Log (+ Modern Greek)

Postby Melkor » Wed Oct 24, 2018 5:37 am

When I read your renamed blog title, I thought that Assimil had accidentally sent you Greek instead of German (or something of that order). :lol:

Yes, it is surely preferable to learn whatever you want, instead of what is suggested to you by other people (even on this forum). Well done for cutting your German losses in less than a week and moving on to something that interests you more. Do not feel guilty about abandoning German: remember, you're the one doing the learning, and you are not learning for anyone else but yourself. ;)

I now envy you for going down the path of learning a new script! All the best!
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