The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino

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iguanamon
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Re: The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino

Postby iguanamon » Fri Oct 16, 2020 4:14 pm

Català
Lesson 88 passive and lesson 39 active in Assimil Le Catalan Sans Peine are in the bag. I'm starting to get used to the French tenses a little better. Usually, at this stage of a course, when I am almost finished, I usually start to think about putting it aside and moving on as it has already taught me pretty much what I need to know to learn on my own from native materials. So, why haven't I moved on? Curiosity. I want to do the complete Assimil procedure so I can say I have actually done an Assimil course. As well, I want to be able to better advise people doing the course.

I have explained my decision to do this course as opposed to the Spanish-based one, despite Professor A's and others' high recommendations. Now that I am near the end of the course's passive wave, I am more convinced that I've made the right decision for myself. Having three Romance languages under my belt already, plus two French-lexified creoles, I started learning the language by reading translated novels and a non-fiction book. Realizing that I needed more structure to make the language active in my mind, I decided to do a course. My usual method was not available- "Pimsleur, if you're listening, you could really do with a Catalan course". Still, I am indeed using the multi-track approach.

For listening, I am watching a Catalan comedy series "Plats Bruts". I've done 59 episodes now almost 30 hours. I watched about the same of the animated youth series "Els Germans Kratts". I've read almost seven books in Catalan- 5 in translation. I'm almost finished (90%) with "Collita roja/Red Harvest". I'm on Unit 12 of "Digui, Digui" a monolingual Catalan multimedia course with video. I intend to go through this course more thoroughly when I've finished Assimil's active wave. I really want to concentrate on speaking and writing. The French-base Assimil course concentrates on conversation and it's a good fit into my program despite it's shortcomings. I suppose I'm also passively learning some French too.

Learning Catalan at this stage, has meant that I am more in maintenance mode with my other languages. Twitter has been a big help with this. At down times during the day, I can go there to check my feed and read/listen in all my languages.

I came across this explanation on the difference between the Catalan verbs "sentir/escoltar". Both have the sense of to hear but the nuance lies between hearing and listening- similar to "oír" and "escuchar" in Spanish. Which also led me to this video about "escalivada". Escalivada is mentioned several times in "Le Catalan Sans Peine". It is defined simply in the course as "légumes grillés"- grilled vegetables... but it seems to be a bit more than simply "grilled vegetables" outside of course world

Kwéyòl
Kwéyòl refers to the French Creole spoken in the Lesser Antilles (Caribbean Islands; not Haiti). While Kwéyòl and Kreyól Ayisiyen (Haitian Creole) are mutually intelligible to a large extent (more so to native-speakers), there are some big differences- like the word for to have, which is "gen/genyen" in Kreyòl and "ni" in Kwéyòl; the use of "ka" as a progressive indicator; and many other differences- kind of a big deal. Anyone interested in St Lucian Creole shoud go to the Kwéyòl Sint Lisi site and follow them on twitter

Oktòb/October is International Creole Heritage Month/Mwa Éwitaj Kreyòl. Creole Month exists to publicize and promote the language(s) in the world. The French lexified creoles in the former French colonies all spring from around the same time and have many elements in common with each other. In the islands of Dominica/Saint Lucia/Trinidad, English is the official language and the language of most tourists who visit them. We all know the force that English exerts. Before these islands were English-speaking the language was Kwéyòl. The language has been stigmatized in the islands and perceived as "broken French". The name of the language is often referred to in Kwéyòl as "Patwa" (patois). The word patois is also used to describe Jamaican (English) Creole.

In Trinidad the language is on its last legs and disappearing as we speak. In Dominica and St Lucia the language is not in danger but the stigmatization is the problem. Creole month aims to counter the stigmas and promote pride in the language.

Aranés
Aranés is the Occitan (Gascon dialectal variation) language of the Val d'Aran in the Spanish Pyrenees of Catalunya. I feel drawn towards this tiny but proud language spken by about 5,000 or so people. The language is official in Catalunya alongside Catalan and Spanish. Though it is attractive to me to learn, until I have learned Catalan, there's no point in learning it alongside. The languages are just too similar. One day, when covid is in the rear-view mirror, I'd like to visit the Val d'Aran. It looks stunningly beautiful. On a hot day in the tropics, a photo like this can make me feel cooler.
Image

Djudeo-espanyol
The new edition of Aki Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Here) is online and available to read. AY is devoted to the preservation and promotion of the Ladino language. There's over 200 pages to read in Latin script.

Español
The creator of "Mafalda", "Quino"- Joaquin Salvador Lavado of Argentina, probably the most popular and beloved comic strip in the Spanish-speaking world passed away a couple of weeks ago. He was as big as any cartoonist in any language in the world. His comics were translated into Italian and Portuguese among other languages.

El País wrote:...10 frases de Mafalda
1. Al final, ¿cómo es el asunto? ¿Uno va llevando su vida adelante o la vida se lo lleva por delante a uno?
2. Debiera haber un día en la semana en el que los informativos nos engañaran un poco dando buenas noticias.
3. Indudablemente, la primavera es lo más publicitario que tiene la vida.
4. Tenemos hombres de principios, lástima que nunca los dejen pasar del principio.
5. Como siempre: lo urgente no deja tiempo para lo importante.
6. Hoy quiero vivir sin darme cuenta.
7. Mamá, cuando conociste a papá, ¿sentiste que te devoraban las llamas de la pasión o apenas algo se te tostaba?
8. Bueno, pero y el espíritu ¿a qué edad empieza a necesitar maquillarse?
9. ¿Qué habrán hecho algunos pobres sures para merecer ciertos nortes?
10. ¿Y Dios habrá patentado esta idea del manicomio redondo?

Eso es todo por ahora. Hasta la próxima, gente.
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iguanamon
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Re: The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino

Postby iguanamon » Thu Oct 29, 2020 7:12 pm

Catalan
I have finished the passive wave of "Le Catalan sans peine". The last 10 lessons don't add all that much new. I am up to lesson 59 in the active wave. I thought I'd go ahead and finish it to give Assimil a fair shake. For now, what I can say about the course is based on what I have done so far.

Lord knows that there are a lot of people here who are huge fans of Assimil. I know that many members are very grateful to Assimil for their ability to learn a second language. No course, in itself is perfect. No course, no matter how good, will lead any learner to language proficiency. Assimil claims it will lead a learner to B2. I don't think it will. There simply isn't enough built-in language practice in the course. It lacks certain elements, at least in the book/cd version of the course, that will take a learner to that level. I understand that the electronic version allows for more repetition. I tried to get in what I could by shadowing the main dialog a couple of times and trying to repeat after the translation exercise in TL. I didn't really need to translate the sentences given my language background. The pauses provided were often too short, but I managed.

Many people love that Assimil is light on grammar. That the exercises are few in number, that the lessons are short. I can see why this is so. The rapid and steadily increasing progress is something that can give a learner a good deal of confidence and a sense of accomplishment after each lesson. However, this very nature of the course is also one of its basic faults for me. It's just too light on exercises and does not have enough drills for me. Of course, that's one of the main reasons why the course is so beloved here.

Had I not already spoken Spanish; Portuguese; Ladino; Haitian Creole, I don't think the course would have been as useful to me. Of course, both Assimil Catalan courses are designed with romance language-speakers in mind. Many of the grammar concepts we English-speakers find difficult to grasp are similar in both French and Spanish. So, I can cut Assimil some slack here. Non-romance-speakers would have problems with this course. Assimil does have verb conjugation tables in the back of the book and more extensive grammar coverage there too. Though for me, those should be incorporated within the course itself.

Conjugations and pronouns are very important in romance languages. One of the reasons I didn't want to learn French was I didn't want to deal with yet more conjugations and pronouns- that and its damned spelling/pronunciation! The course does a poor job of explaining the uses of pronouns- "it's almost the same as in French!". Though I can puzzle out French to a large extent, I'm not a French-speaker. It's a minor gripe. I solved it with reading and listening outside the course.

This non-electronic design course doesn't allow for much repetition. Yeah, I could have played with the files on audacity, but, come on, man, I ain't doing that for my sixth language, :lol: . The dialogs are varied and go beyond the usual beginner language course material... but there's a reason that this material is so common in those typical courses... it's basic language.

One of the reasons I liked the DLI Basic Courses so much was because of their thoroughness. The drills do exactly that- drill the language into my mind. I liked the dialog with pauses because it allowed me to take each part in a two-sided conversation. It was almost like having a conversation. So, I did what I could to adapt the course. I watched a TV series. I read books, finishing "Collita roja/Red Harvest" while doing Assimil. I memorized common conjugations. I worked on pronouns. If I hadn't, I don't think the course on its own would have done me nearly as much good as it did.

If a monolingual beginner asks me about Assimil, I will tell them that Assimi, works best with a complimentary course. Pimsleur would have worked great alongside Assimil... but... there is no Pimsleur Catalan. I can now understand why learners want to anki the heck out of Assimil... especially if it's their only course or their primary by far course. Still, I think a learner has to accept that the point of the course is not to have the learner know e v e r y f r e a k i n g word in the course. It's designed to give a learner enough basic vocabulary and grammar patterns to start using the language outside the course... and Assimil itself even tells its users that. I didn't learn every word but this does not worry me at all. I'll see them again... and again.

I'm a big believer in momentum, the "gathering snowball effect" of language-learning. The multi-track approach has worked well for me in the past. So, now, more than ever, I can confirm (at least for me) that using Assimil as it's designed to be used on its own isn't quite sufficient to get a monolingual (experienced learner, yes) beginner to where they can easily transition to native materials. I believe it simply has to be supplemented with something else- another complimentary course, reading, listening, writing, more speaking practice to model correct pronunciation. I still haven't gotten to where I like the course's slow audio, but I can see why some people may like it... and I also get why people like Assimil just the way it is... and why some learners are very frustrated with it.

I'll caveat this mini-review with this- I know nothing of their English-base courses. Perhaps they take more into account with English-speakers than they do for the French-speakers for romance-languages. So, no need for Assimil fans to defend Assimil here. I am not bashing it. I think it's a good course. I'll recommend it, with a caveat. I just believe it should not be the only resource a learner should use.

Assimil has brought many learners to a second language after failing with other courses and/or school. I also believe that it's the course's very approachable nature and light approach to grammar which can leave monolingual learners not properly prepared for confronting the language in the real world. It can also lead to them disliking the very hard work it takes to advance when there is no course to guide them.

Where is my level now? I am at a high B1, I'd say. I still need more work on grammar, writing and speaking. I need more listening and reading. Assimil was a part of making this happen for me (along with reading, listening, writing and speaking- at least with myself for now) and I give credit where credit is due. Assimil helped me to consolidate what I already knew and give me grammar patterns for speaking.

So, these are my impressions, for what they're worth.
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Re: The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino

Postby guyome » Fri Oct 30, 2020 8:31 am

Hi iguanamon,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts about Assimil. I'm probably slightly more enamoured than you are with Assimil but I still agree with the points you make. I like the bite-sized lessons but there is just not enough exercises. My experience with the Yiddish course was very positive but I think that's due in no small part to the fact that I spent a lot of time using (i.e. struggling with) native material on the side from very early on. This is where I got most of the practice and repetition that the course couldn't offer.

I'm now going through the Persian course and I'd say my experience/approach so far has more or less been the same: the course is very well done and makes it easy to learn the material, repeating the lessons over and over also works fine, but I soon reach a point where this is less helpful because I just know them too well. The repetition I get from listening to podcasts (even if I don't understand much) and from reading short stuff here and there is, I feel, a necessary addition.
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Re: The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino

Postby garyb » Fri Oct 30, 2020 1:49 pm

I've come to a very similar conclusion about Assimil after trying it for German (and Greek, but their Greek course is decidedly one of their weaker ones so it would be unfair to judge them all based on it). I found Assimil absolutely ideal for reviving and building on my high school French, then learning Italian after French, then Spanish after Italian, although even with those I had gone through Michel Thomas first to get a crash course in the structure. But for a genuinely new language it gets overwhelming very quickly since each lesson adds a significant amount of new vocabulary and grammar before the previous material has really sunk in.

I'd never recommend it to an absolute beginner, and I think it's better as a course to help someone who already knows the basics and/or knows a closely-related language to break through to the intermediate level. And even at that I agree that it should be complemented with other material rather than used alone. It earns its B2 badge not because it takes the learner to B2 but because it covers material that could be considered B2-level although without anywhere near covering all the ground before there. The advanced courses are even worse in that respect and I wish they'd focus more on intermediate everyday language before rushing into complicated and specialised topics.

I still think that Assimil is the best course at doing what it does (introducing natural and progressively more advanced language through dialogues with explanations) and I owe a lot to it for my Romance languages, and of course a relatively thin book isn't going to cover everything a student needs in the several years of work it might take to reach B2, but like most language learning materials it's sold as something more complete than what it really is and as a one-size-fits-all solution.
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Re: The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino

Postby PeterMollenburg » Fri Oct 30, 2020 10:02 pm

I thought I'd add to the sentiment. I've had similar conclusions as guyome and garyb. Like guyome, I am a little more :? (okay a fair bit more) enamoured with the Assimil content than yourself, iguanamon and I also I agree with garyb's comments with regards to the B2 level.

I don't think Assimil are necessarily stating that you'll be an accomplished B2 language user after using the course, but that you'll be using content relative to that level nearing the latter stages of the course. As with my French learning magazines that indicate level for each article, I'm not going to be an accomplished C2 level language user after reading and learning the vocabulary from one or even several C2 rated articles. It's just content relative to that level. However, also agreed, iguanamon, that their B2 labels and other such labels are a little ambiguous. Perhaps it's just a little hard not to be ambiguous in a market in which grabbing the buyer's attention is part of being able to sell your product. If many other well-selling products are claiming some degree of fluency after a few months study, then you sell your little product and label it as "C2 in several thousand hours", I'm not so sure your product would grab the attention of most of the market. All in all, agreed, the labelling is misleading.

Iguanamon, you did have me realise after discussing this Assimil course, that you are indeed correct - Assimil courses are not advisable for a complete monolingual beginner. It dawned upon me that I'd actually completed several other courses prior to my arrival at Assimil New French with Ease and I likely had such a good experience with the Assimil course since I was at a good point in my learning to leave basic pronunciation drills and detailed grammar explanations for the most part behind. In doing so, little grammar tidbits here and there were either perfect reminders of grammar structures already covered or not so overwhelming if a new concept to distract from the progression, and the audio great for me to shadow. So, no, not great for a complete monolingual beginner.

I went on to complete the more advanced course Assiml Using French and the 'fun' continued. It's a nice sentiment progressing through an Assimil course without the overwhelming size of each lesson as say the lessons of French in Action, for example. I've become a pretty keen fan of the Assimil courses and could even be labelled as a collector of their offerings, now from not only an English base but from other base languages. It's great they have the several generations and base languages on offer for some languages, as should one enjoy such a course, as we know motivation is essential to success in language learning, then getting a little Assimil obsessed can't do too much harm, right? :o

And of course, as you mention, the exercises aren't enough and to reiterate, the grammar is light-on. This is why I would do several reviews and run-throughs of the content and perhaps why I've sought out more generations, since while I really enjoy the format it does, as you point out, have it's weaknesses, so I use other courses, buy other generations or drill the content more. And... when learning Dutch through a French-based Assimil, not only do I get to learn Dutch, but reinforce my French and can translate bidirectionally. Fun fun! Okay, i'm a definite language nerd!

Still, had I had only one option for one course for a new language, I wouldn't choose an Assimil course as it doesn't cover enough on its own.

Perhaps we need to create a DLI/Assimil hybrid? An Assimil course on steroids with basically several generations worth of content in the one course?

Like you, I'm not going to piss around with audacity. I just can't be bothered and no matter how quick someone out there is going to tell me it is, I'm just not going to attempt it, as I will take much longer than the average to do that. I'd just rather re-listen in the car or while exercising or something.

iguanamon wrote:One of the reasons I liked the DLI Basic Courses so much was because of their thoroughness. The drills do exactly that- drill the language into my mind. I liked the dialog with pauses because it allowed me to take each part in a two-sided conversation. It was almost like having a conversation.


Perhaps I need to go back and do French DLI? ;)

Finally, absolutely agreed, after Assimil one must continue to learn... with more Assimil courses!!! No, with whatever keeps the learner motivated to proceed/progress and transition to native content. Some of us are ready sooner than others ;)

Thanks for your impressions, iguanamon! Good luck completing the second wave!
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Re: The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino

Postby Cavesa » Fri Oct 30, 2020 11:40 pm

One of the biggest advantages of Assimil: It exists for many languages, often as the only or one of very few serious resources trying to get beyond the touristy level (or often the only one). I realised that now, picking a course to start my Hebrew path with. It is one of the very few options that is neither a touristy phrasebook (most resources, paper or online), nor totally inaccessible without a teacher (the asiatheque books or monolingual books from Israel), nor serious but only up to an extremely low level (perhaps Teach Yourself) with no follow up.

I love the material, the dialogues are usually great (Spanish was a disappointment, I tried and didn't feel like doing it), not dumb and cookie cutter (I am tired of the stupid "adventures" of an exchange student), and I like the way they are progressively getting harder. And they tend to be fun. And the audio is excellent

But I don't like two main things about Assimil. I am not fan of the two waves. I did a part of Assimil German (too bad I didn't finish it years ago), and this was simply not sufficient at all. I progressed well only after I started doing much more repetition of everything. The suggested one lesson a day progress was possible only for the first two weeks, then the learning curve suddenly went crazy.

And the second is lack of exercises. You can partially improve that artificially, if you put everything to Anki. Normal or cloze deletion cards. You can also do substitution drills. But that's it. That's why I think one of the best combinations on earth could be Assimil+Progressives. Too bad that Assimil is making rather dumb and bad and superficial exercise books now, as one of their side products. If the normal Assimil course was accompanied by a huuuuuge exercise book, I think it could actually give the learner extremely solid knowledge up to B2, requiring just more external input as practice. But it is not possible to digest all the content with two tiny exercises per unit.
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Re: The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino

Postby PeterMollenburg » Sat Oct 31, 2020 1:05 am

Cavesa wrote:If the normal Assimil course was accompanied by a huuuuuge exercise book, I think it could actually give the learner extremely solid knowledge up to B2, requiring just more external input as practice. But it is not possible to digest all the content with two tiny exercises per unit.


Agreed! This would be a fantastic course.
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Re: The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino

Postby Lysander » Sat Oct 31, 2020 2:40 am

iguanamon wrote:Catalan
Many people love that Assimil is light on grammar. That the exercises are few in number, that the lessons are short. I can see why this is so. The rapid and steadily increasing progress is something that can give a learner a good deal of confidence and a sense of accomplishment after each lesson. However, this very nature of the course is also one of its basic faults for me. It's just too light on exercises and does not have enough drills for me. Of course, that's one of the main reasons why the course is so beloved here.

If a monolingual beginner asks me about Assimil, I will tell them that Assimi, works best with a complimentary course. Pimsleur would have worked great alongside Assimil... but... there is no Pimsleur Catalan. I can now understand why learners want to anki the heck out of Assimil... especially if it's their only course or their primary by far course. Still, I think a learner has to accept that the point of the course is not to have the learner know e v e r y f r e a k i n g word in the course. It's designed to give a learner enough basic vocabulary and grammar patterns to start using the language outside the course... and Assimil itself even tells its users that. I didn't learn every word but this does not worry me at all. I'll see them again... and again.

It was cool to see such an experienced language learner like yourself give Assimil a go and report back!

Being 19 lessons into New French With Ease, this conversation has been enlightening. Having done the English-base Brazilian Portuguese course a few years ago through lesson 86, I can say NFWE seems to cover more vocabulary with lengthier, though still too short, grammar explanations.

Here is a comparison of lesson 19's dialogue of each course for comparison:

French:
Two conversations at the restaurant.

What are you eating? It smells good.
It's a beef stew. [Do] you want some?
No, thank you. I'm not hungry. I have already eaten.
Well, have a glass of wine.
No, thank you. I'm not thirsty either. But I will have a coffee.
Good. Waiter! Two coffees and the bill, please.
I'm not going to take holidays this year.
It costs too much (expensive). And you?
Me, I'm going to Greece in September for two weeks.
To Greece? You're lucky! I'm jealous.


Brazilian Portuguese:
One, two or three postcards?

Do you like this postcard?
Yes, it's pretty. I like Sugarloaf Mountain very much.
And that [one] with Ipanema Beach?
No, I don't like [it].
How many [post]cards do you want to buy?
I don't know.
One for my mother, one for my father [and] one for my brothers.


Subtle, but I think clear the French is giving you more in both grammatical complexity and vocabulary. Interestingly, though, I found the Portuguese course a bit stickier throughout and can still remember some phrases from it years later. Regardless, there is a bit of variation between all of the courses, but I think your summary did it all justice from what I have seen and read!

Also, it is kind of funny how all companies buy into the CEFR grade inflation since the French course says B2 on the cover, but if you search it on Assimil's own website, it says A1-A2 below it. See for yourself.
Cavesa wrote:But I don't like two main things about Assimil. I am not fan of the two waves. I did a part of Assimil German (too bad I didn't finish it years ago), and this was simply not sufficient at all. I progressed well only after I started doing much more repetition of everything. The suggested one lesson a day progress was possible only for the first two weeks, then the learning curve suddenly went crazy.

And the second is lack of exercises. You can partially improve that artificially, if you put everything to Anki. Normal or cloze deletion cards. You can also do substitution drills. But that's it. That's why I think one of the best combinations on earth could be Assimil+Progressives. Too bad that Assimil is making rather dumb and bad and superficial exercise books now, as one of their side products. If the normal Assimil course was accompanied by a huuuuuge exercise book, I think it could actually give the learner extremely solid knowledge up to B2, requiring just more external input as practice. But it is not possible to digest all the content with two tiny exercises per unit.


I did take the time to use audacity to edit the lessons. It was a time suck, but it will more than pay me back in time saved once I complete the course. I definitely don't plan to ever do the anki flash cards or cloze deletion thing.

That said, when I went to the library to get a dual-language reader, I checked out the short Dover's Essential French Grammar too. Once I give that a quick read through cover-to-cover and read through the dual-reader, I think what I most want to supplement NFWE (besides native material, don't worry iguanamon!), is explicit grammar! Something like Schaum's Outline of French Grammar seems like it could fit the bill nicely. Almost 600 exercises with answers for under $20, and I think it should complement Assimil very well in terms of filling in the weak points of the course.
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Re: The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino

Postby tangleweeds » Sat Oct 31, 2020 11:40 am

Lysander wrote:I checked out the short Dover's Essential French Grammar too.
Now that's another resource that I wish existed in more languages! It covers so much ground with zero wasted words.

Lysander wrote:Something like Schaum's Outline of French Grammar seems like it could fit the bill nicely. Almost 600 exercises with answers for under $20, and I think it should complement Assimil very well in terms of filling in the weak points of the course.
There are also the similar Practice Makes Perfect books, only with lots more books with more specialized focuses, particularly if your budget is low. But with a bit more to spend, students of French are blessed with the gold standard in exercise books, CLE's Grammaire Progressive du Français.
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Languages: Speaks: English (Native); Spanish (C2); Portuguese (C2); Haitian Creole (C1); Ladino/Djudeo-espanyol (C1); Lesser Antilles French Creole (B2)
Studies: Catalan
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=797
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Re: The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino

Postby iguanamon » Thu Nov 12, 2020 8:49 pm

Català
Thanks everyone for your replies. It's nice to be validated. The good thing about finally doing the course is I now understand what learners go through when they use Assimil. I will now be better able to advise beginners who have trouble with the course.

I've started a new book. Continuing on with Dashiell Hammett- "L'home flac/The Thin Man". It's about half as long as the last book. I like the noir genre and I'd never read any of Hammett's books before. There are advantages in reading books by the same author. The vocabulary repeats- especially adjectives. Hammett's books have a lot of dialog and first person narrative- all of which are good for language-learning.

I'm now up to lesson 70 in the second wave of Assimil. It's more difficult because of my imperfect ability in French- especially more colloquial French, but I'm muddling through. I've only got 10 more episodes of "Plats Bruts", the 20 year old Catalan sitcom, left to watch. The episodes are only around a half an hour long, but they hold my attention well. They're funny. I do have the first season transcripts to use to work with listening more intensely. I intend to do that at some point soon after finishing the series... kind of an "active wave" for a series, you could say. There are lots of ways to work with a transcript- 1) use it as an answer sheet while transcribing. 2) read first then listen, take notes and use as an answer sheet. 3) use to figure out what was missed while listening. 4) listen first, read, then listen again. 5) read first, listen, then read again.

There are 72 episodes total of "Plats Bruts". So this makes about 36 hours. On its own that's insufficient and I will, of course do more listening. I'll probably pick a new series to watch soon on TV3 Catalunya... most likely another sitcom. I just can't deal with drama right now.

Djudeo-espanyol/Ladino
There are several videos online now of Enkontros de alhad. Enkontros de alhad (Sunday meetings) are zoom videos of Ladino conversations with well known figures in the modern Ladino movement.

I've been reading a lot in Solitreo lately, an account of a Turkish Sephardic immigrant to New York in the early 1900's. It's slow going through the handwritten cursive script. The letters "t"; "g"; and final "a" have minor differences and can be hard to distinguish in this person's handwriting. My reading is significantly slower than in Rashi script. Still, my reading would be slower if it were in Latin alphabet cursive too.

Solitreo script, at first glance, looks a little like Arabic, and that's kind of cool.
Image
My translation
So David Aroughetti, djudio turko
I am David Aroughetti, Turkish Jew
Todos saven ke ay dos klasas de djente, los ke se ven komo
Everybody knows there are two classes of people, those who are seen as
patrones, ke son grandes i tienen una manera ke dize al
bosses, who are big and have a way about them that says
mundo entero ke son importantes, ke son fuertes, ke avlan kon
to the whole world that they are important, that they are strong, that they speak with
fuersa, direktamente, dishendo lo ke keren i pensan, i por
strength, directly, saying what they want and what they think and of
siguro kontando kon resivirlo i ke todos van a eskucharles.
course counting on being received and that everyone will listen to them.
No importa ke eyos son—kual es la palavra?—godros;
It doesn't matter who/what they are- what's the word?- big shots;
es mijor, porke no ay ayre ke pueda soplarlos a un lado,
it's better, because there isn't any wind (air) that that can blow them to one side,
no ay persona ke pueda trokar sus ideas. No t’espantes,
there isn't anyone who can change their minds. Don't be scared,
atavanado*. Si, puede trokar de opiniones o ideas; ma al prinsipio,
Don't let it make you go crazy trying to figure it out. Yes, opinions or ideas can be changed; but at the beginning
dezde el primer momento esta klasa de persona avla kon fuerza.
from the first moment this class of person speaks with strength
I despues no importa, kon el mizmo poder, dize el kontrario
And afterwards it doesn't matter, with the same power, this person says the opposite
kon la mizma fuerza, kon el ojo klaro, i no tiene ke
with the same strength, with a clear eye, and doesn't have to
eksplikar a dinguno el motivo por el trokamiento. No importa.
doesn't have to explain to anybody the reason for the change. It doesn't matter.
Agora es lo ke es, i todos deven eskuchar i azer todo lo ke dize.
Now it is what it is, and everybody must listen and do what this person says.
*atavanado: so crazy as to walk on the ceiling (from Turkish: tavan- ceiling)
This description reminds me a lot of the new "populist" "big man leaders" in the world of late. and this guy, the narrator, fancies himself as one of them, it would seem. Well, the man is of his time.

Español
With the big news this past week being about the recent US election, I'd rather get my news straight from the source, but I can still do it in Spanish. Associated Press en español; The New York Times en Español; El Nuevo (Miami) Herald and more locally from Puerto Rico Telenoticias Puerto Rico and for television from the US CNN en Español. All of these are more relevant to me in my own country than El País or RTVE. Even though I live under the US flag, with a post office, zipcode, ESPN, the US dollar, and all of that, I can't vote in US federal elections because I live in a US Territory- which for all practical intents and purposes, according to the UN, is a colony. If anyone wants to know why they can watch this video by Scouser (Liverpool native)/American John Oliver. In addition to being rather serious about the situation, he also makes the ridiculousness of it quite funny ("whacky stick"; :lol: ). Ironically, I as an 11th generation American, born and raised, who served in the US Army, whose ancestors fought in every war the country ever had, including the Revolution, cannot vote. My representative to the US Congress can't vote either in Congress. Every four years this situation is made naked and raw to all of us. We are essentially- "Americanos de la segunda"/Second class Americans. We do get to choose our own local government and pass local laws, but ultimately the US Congress can override any of our laws it doesn't like.

Most people don't think of the US as having an overseas "empire"... but we do, from the Caribbean to the Pacific. The French do too, but they call their former colonies "overseas departments". Their citizens have the right to vote in French national elections and have voting representation in the French legislature. The British still have island "British Overseas Territories", but they are more like the US in how they treat their citizens there- no vote or representation in the British parliament, though they do have the right to live in the UK. I don't know about the situation of the Netherlands' colonies in the Caribbean.
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