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

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

Postby iguanamon » Thu Dec 03, 2020 3:17 pm

As the year ends, I tend to get quite busy with work. Then there's getting the boat ready for sailing again. Fortunately, this is the best season of the year weather-wise. Hurricane season is over. The weather is becoming pleasant- not so hot. I even have to use a blanket at night! Hey, anything here under 75F (24C) is cold, at least to me, and at night it can cool down to 72F (22C)! The nice weather usually lasts until mid-March when it gets hot again. The joke here goes "We have all four seasons: Summer, Mid-Summer, Late Summer and next Summer"!

Catalan
I am still going through the deuxième vague of Assimil Le Catalan Sans Peine up to lesson 86 now. It is difficult to go from French to Catalan because I'm not fluent in French tenses, but, I am getting by.

I haven't been watching Plats Bruts in the last couple of weeks. It might be because I'm reluctant to finish it, savoring the last few episodes, but I intend to get back to it. I'll finish it and move on. I'm dissatisfied with reading "L'home flac/The Thin Man" by Dashiell Hammett. I probably need to pick a new book in Catalan to read soon.

Haitian Creole
I am still going through the Book of Job/Jòb in the Old Testament. It's surprising me with its breadth of vocabulary, I have to look up a word or two from time to time. I've also picked up reading Papa Dòk again, getting an inside look into maniacal dictatorship in Haiti.

Ladino/Djudeo-espanyol
I finished reading Pasha in soletreo script. In the afterword it's revealed that it's a work of historical fiction. I thought the machismo of the narrator was a bit over the top to be real life!
Sephardic Horizons wrote:Dr. Jane Mushabac, associate professor of English at City Tech, City University of New York, specializes in American literature, New York City history and Sephardic culture. She wrote “Pasha” under the pen name Shalach Manot (which refers to the gifts of food given on the holiday of Purim to friends and family). It’s about a Turkish Jew who talks tough like a pasha.
Dr. Mushabac wrote the story in Judeo-Spanish/Ladino and translated it into English for publication in the
Jewish journal Midstream, where it appeared in Vol. 51, No. 4 (July/August 2005). Sephardic Horizons is
publishing it in the original for the first time...
This unusual work exemplifies Dr. Mushabac’s multidisciplinary approach. She was inspired to delve into her
Sephardic culture, she says, because, “It was my life. From the songs my father taught me, from studying
Spanish in high school, from my mother saying, ‘Let’s do a Sephardic cookbook,’ I was in the culture. I wanted
to communicate what was distinctive.

So, some modern somebody wrote the solitreo version. I thought the solitreo script was a bit too neat and easy to read! Still, It was fun to read the solitreo script in such a long form.

This week on the video series Enkontros de Alhad will be a discussion with host Bryan Kirschen and guest Alicia Sisso Raz about the Judeo-Spanish language of Morroco- Haketia.
Bryan Kirschen wrote:Hake-what? "The name #Haketia probably comes from the Arabic root حكي (ḤKY) meaning 'speech' or 'chitchat,' as it is an oral variant that borrows many words from the local Maghrebian dialects."

I won't be able to watch it live, but I will check out the video later. I never got excited about Haketia because there are significantly fewer resources available for it than the Djudeo-espanyol of the Eastern Mediterranean with significantly fewer speakers. That, and it seems to have been "re-hispanicized"in the 20th Century. Proximity and better communication with Spain is probably behind that. Anyway, It will be interesting to hear what they have to say. Below is an example of spoken Haketia:

Spanish; Portuguese
They're just part of my life. I read, listen, chat, and write on occasion. I always read an article almost every day in booth languages. I spoke in Spanish last night over the phone with a business client in Puerto Rico. I speak in Portuguese two or three times a month.

Mèsi anpil pou li tou sa. Orevwa pou kounye a. M a wè nou pita!
Last edited by iguanamon on Thu Dec 03, 2020 11:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino

Postby Teango » Thu Dec 03, 2020 8:46 pm

iguanamon wrote:The weather is becoming pleasant- not so hot. I even have to use a blanket at night! Hey, anything here under 75F (24C) is cold, at least to me, and at night it can cool down to 72F (22C)! T

Time fo break out da long sleeves, brah! 8-) And good luck with getting everything shipshape by the end of the year!
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iguanamon
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Re: The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino

Postby iguanamon » Thu Dec 24, 2020 3:32 pm

Here we are at Christmas Eve, 2020, in the forgotten little backwater of the American Empire, St Croix, USVI. 2021 is fast approaching, hopefully with an end to the pandemic in sight. Last year opened for me with earthquakes in neighboring Puerto Rico on el Día de los Reyes Magos, which brought back memories of Hurricane María's aftermath with no electricity and chaos. Then the pandemic and we're still there. 2020 was the most active hurricane season on record, but thankfully, we were spared this year- that's one bright spot at least.

Catalan
I managed to finish le deuxième vague de Le Catalan sans peine. I've already posted my review of the course earlier. The only thing I have to add is that my opinion of Assimil hasn't changed. It's a decent course, but it falls short on sufficient repetition, drills and exercises. For me, it's not a "one-stop shop". Now I understand why some learners feel inadequate in their language skills after completing the course. It's not all their fault for feeling this way. The course simply fails them in providing enough repetition and practice. That being said Assimil is very good at what it does. The short lessons definitely give a learner a feeling of progress, but the course on its own is just not enough.

Fortunately for me, my language background has been a huge help. I can read practically anything in Catalan. My listening is getting better and better. Now, I'll go through the monolingual Digui, digui; finish watching Plats Bruts and start leveraging my season 1 scripts of the show.

Haitian Creole
I'm two thirds of the way through Liv Jòb / Book of Job in the Old Testament. This puts me at 45% through the whole Bible in Haitian Creole.

Christmas
Here in the Virgin Islands, Christmas has always been the most wonderful time of the year. The pandemic has put its stamp on this year's festivities- no Christmas jump-up (a street party with food and music); no boat parade with music and decorated , lighted boats; no fireworks over the old colonial Danish fort, Fort Christiansvaern; no "Quelbe Tramp" (a band on a flatbed truck playing traditional Quelbe music); most importantly, our beloved Three Kings Day Carnival parades are cancelled. Despite all the festivities going by the wayside, it's still Christmas and some traditions keep on going. I was awoken at 3 am last night by Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Nights (Stanley and TSK) traditional Christmas Serenade.

We all sleep with our windows open here pretty much all the time. Air conditioning is not a thing here- most expensive electricity in the US and, everything we do for fun is outside so there's no real point in it. Around Christmas time every year the trade winds out of the northeast come to cool us off. The weather is quite pleasant here til mid-March.

So, since my windows (and most everyone else's) are open, I heard Stanley and TSK go by at three in the morning on Christmas Eve playing and singing "Go Tell It On The Mountain". Though this year police cars were in front of and behind the truck to keep crowds from forming and dancing. Still, at least we could watch from a distance and enjoy the music. It's a sweet tradition. Here's a video from three years ago



Here Stanley talks about Quelbe music for the Smithsonian


We Three Kings


The most famous Crucian Christmas song is "Mama Bake Those Johnnycakes"
Image


My all time favorite is the "Crucian 12 Days of Christmas

The Virgin Islands Crucian English Creole still exists, though not as prevalent as it used to be. Some of the words may be unfamiliar to those who speak standard English. Here are the gifts for the 12 days:
1 Jimmy John ah guavaberry: The word "ah" refers to "of" a "Jimmy John" is a corruption of Demijohn a large container/jar of a couple of gallons. The name is a corruption of the French 'Dame Jeanne'. "Guavaberry" refers to the fruit infused rum popular at Christmas time here- usually made with 151 rum- considered a hazardous substance for air travel! Guvaberry is a powerful fruit. Our local ice cream shop makes guavaberry ice cream and it even stains the "stainless" steel!
2 Cruzan Rum: THE rum of St. Croix. Since there's no tax on it, a bottle of Cruzan Rum is cheaper than the mixers usually, We pour de drinks dem "long and strong" here (yah) mehson.
3 Sweetbread: just like the name, it's nearest equivalent outside of the Caribbean would be fruitcake- but it's much, much better.
4 Coconut
5 Guava Tart: a tart with guava
6 Shot ah Vodka
7 Pan ah Sardine
8 Ball ah Fungi: Fungi is a deep fried cornmeal ball with okra, garlic, onions and peppers, usually goes with fish.
9 Pound ah Okra
10 Sleepless Knights
11 Benya: a corruption of the French "beignet"- pronounced the same, these are fried sweet plantains
12 Dozen Roast fish

Another Caribbean Christmas classic is King Obstinate's Soca "How Will Santa Get Here".
"There is no reindeer in my country
He have to borrow me neighbor donkey!"


In these unprecedented times, I do wish you an "Irie Christmas". Wherever you may be, may the warmth and joy of Christmas be with you. Most important, be safe, be healthy and if you celebrate it, have a Merry Christmas.
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iguanamon
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Re: The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino

Postby iguanamon » Thu Feb 18, 2021 4:56 pm

It's been a while since I've posted here, since Christmas! Now it's 2021 and time for an update. My languages keep going on with reading, listening, writing and speaking. I plan on getting back into studying Catalan. I'd like to complete Digui-digui- the monolingual Catalan audio/video course. I still read and listen in Catalan.

Also, I've been reading an article everyday in French on the Radio-Canada app. I find that it's not too difficult to do though I miss some words here and there. All that is thanks to my Creole and Romance language background. I don't pretend to be qualified to say that I in any way "speak" French, but I do understand it at some level.

Speaking of which, I've been following a new account on Twitter from Louisiana, in the US- @KreyolParle -"In plas pou moun kréyol lalwizyan pou lir en kouri-vini é komensé kiltivé nô kominité-yé"
My rough translation: A place for Louisiana Creole-speaking people to read in Louisiana Creole and begin to cultivate our communities". "Kouri-Vini" is used as a nickname for the Louisiana Creole language (with many similarities with Caribbean French Creoles) because the term "Creole" in Louisiana also means French descended. There are two types of native French in Louisiana both close to standard French- Cajun French (from the Acadians from Canada) and "Creole" French which is the standard French spoken by the original French colonists. Whereas kréyol lalwiziyan is a true Creole language related to Haitian and Lesser Antilles Creoles... and the other French-lexified Creoles all over the world.

I first noticed that I could understand Louisiana Creole after I had studied Haitian Creole and Lesser antilles French Creole. When I was at Jazzfest in New Orleans a few years ago, I could understand the lyrics from Kréyol songs. Some words are different ("Mo" for first person singular instead of "M" and "Mwen" for example) and similar words have some different spellings but the grammar and vocabulary are very, very similar.

According to Wikipedia, Louisiana Creole is an endangered language with only about 10,000 native-speakers left. The language has a similar history and influences to the other Caribbean French-lexified Creole languages. There's a large amount of mutual comprehension between them. There's a website for those who want to learn the language, or learn more about it- Kouri-Vini. The site has links to a two part beginners audio mp3 conversational course and a free pdf course- Ti Liv Kréyòl: a Louisiana Creole Primer. The audio mp3 course is downloadable for $20 for each volume.

Unlike French itself, the Creoles are much easier to pronounce and are written more phonetically. Learning Kouri-Vini would be easy for someone with a background in other French Creoles, or French itself. Like other speakers of endangered languages, Kouri-Vini speakers are trying to generate interest in learning their language by their own people, and also it would seem among those who appreciate their culture. Here's a review of the course book on youtube.

Not only is the Louisiana Kouri-Vini language endangered but also the state of Louisiana itself is endangered due to climate change and man-made actions taking away its land at an astonishing rate. The oil exploration and containment of the mighty Mississippi River along with sea level rise and a more active hurricane season have combined to make life more tenuous.
Satesider Magazine wrote:Picture the outline of the state of Louisiana, and the image in your mind is wrong. Louisiana is losing ground. As Elizabeth Miller found, the only thing permanent about the Louisiana coastline is constant change. As the ground under their feet succumbs to the tides, local residents are forced to make impossible choices.
Last edited by iguanamon on Fri Feb 19, 2021 12:14 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Thu Feb 18, 2021 5:41 pm

Thanks for the Radio Canada app recommendation. It also inspired me to find the Deutsche Welle news app, which has content available in 30(!!) languages. Both apps are very pretty, which makes them slightly more fun than their equivalent websites?
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iguanamon
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Re: The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino

Postby iguanamon » Thu Mar 04, 2021 3:56 pm

Lawyer&Mom wrote:Thanks for the Radio Canada app recommendation. It also inspired me to find the Deutsche Welle news app, which has content available in 30(!!) languages. Both apps are very pretty, which makes them slightly more fun than their equivalent websites?

You're welcome, L&M. I've been listening to Deutsche Welle in Spanish and Portuguese for years. DW has a live 24/7 news and features channel in Spanish. It also has a documentaries channel on youtube with a wide selection DW Documentales.

In Portuguese, I regularly watch Camarote 21 which is a topical features program about Germany and Europe. I enjoy keeping up with tech innovations by watching Futurando. Both are hosted by native-speakers.

When I was learning Portuguese, though I concentrated on the Brazilian variety, I also used DW África to listen to the daily newscast in African Portuguese- though sometimes the newsreader would be Brazilian.

Deutsche Welle has great free and legal resources for learning German. The resources are also available in other native language bases including Portuguese; Spanish; and French; also- Arabic; Russian; Persian; Polish; Mandarin.

One of the most under-utilized resources is DW Learning By Ear. LBE is a series of radio plays in podcast format available in English; French; Portuguese; Swahili; Hausa; and Amharic. The good thing for language-learners is the topics are quite varied; each audio is 10-15 minutes long; there is an accurate, free to download transcript in pdf. A learner, with some effort can hand-make their own bilingual parallel text using the English text. Doing this helped me a lot with vocabulary, listening, and reading when I was learning Portuguese. There are tons of hours of free audio with a transcript. The plays are appropriate for A2-B1 learners, though like anything, a learner has to work at it. If a learner wants to break out of the high beginner/low intermediate stage; to improve vocabulary without srs; to train listening; these are a good way to do all that.

Catalan
I am halfway through the Dashiell Hammett novel El falcó maltès/The Maltese Falcon. I have the physical book and the electronic version as well. I'm over a third of the way through it. Hammett, in a addition to being the classic "noir" novelist, is good for my purposes because his novels are mostly conversational. I had tried reading L'home flac/The Thin Man a few months ago and just didn't get into it. I may pick it up later.
.

We really do live in amazing times for language-learners.
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Re: The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino

Postby iguanamon » Thu Mar 18, 2021 2:38 pm

Catalan
I finished the classic noir novel "El falcó maltès/The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiell Hammett. The novel was first published in 1929, translated into Catalan in 1966. So it's 92 years old now. It reads like a contemporary novel. Which shouldn't be surprising. Crime, suspicion, deception, treachery, and greed are all part of the human condition and probably will be for a long time to come.

Hammett's novels have been the inspiration for a number of more modern novels and films. His novel "The Glass Key", which I read in Catalan translation as "La clau verde", inspired Akira Kurosawa of Japan to create his film "Yojimbo"... which inspired Italian director Sergio Leone's film "A Fistful of Dollars". Hammett's book "Red Harvest", which I read in Catalan translated as "Collita Roja", inspired the Coen brothers' film "Blood Simple". So even a book written almost a hundred years ago can still have relevance in the 21st Century.

For language-learning, I find Hammett's books to be quite useful as they contain a lot of dialog. At times reading his novels is almost like reading a screen play. The stories maintain my interest and make me want to keep reading. Momentum is such an important, yet a so often overlooked and underestimated, component of language-learning.
Dashiell Hammet- El falcó maltès wrote:Català
El falcó maltès
Ella es va moure mig adormida, i les seves parpelles es van bellugar. Tot d’un plegat s’incorporà fent uns ulls com unes taronges. Va veure Spade, va somriure i es va repenjar al respatller de la cadira fregant-se els ulls amb els dits.
—De manera que ja has tornat? —va dir—. Quina hora és?
—Les sis. Què hi fas, aquí?
Ella va tremolar; es tapà amb la jaqueta de Spade i va badallar.

—Em vas dir que m’esperés fins que telefonessis o que tornessis.
—Oh, ets una bona germaneta per a aquest xicot entremaliat.

—Jo no anava… —Es va interrompre, es redreçà i deixà relliscar la jaqueta a la cadira, darrera seu. Mirava amb ulls preocupats i excitats els pols de Spade, sota l’ala del barret i exclamà—: Oh, el teu cap! Què t’ha passat? —Tenia els pols dret inflat i fosc.

—No sé si és que he caigut o m’han pegat. No crec que tingui importància, però em cou com un dimoni. —Es va tocar el front descobert amb els dits, va enretirar la mà ràpidament i la seva ganyota es va tornar un somriure, i va explicar—: He anat de visita, i m’han deixat fora de combat a base de gotes, he retornat dotze hores després i estava estès al terra del pis de l’home.
Ella es va posar de puntetes per aconseguir el barret i li va treure.
—És terrible —va dir—, has d’anar a un metge. No pots pas anar pel món amb un cap així.
—No és tan dolent com sembla, fora del mal de cap que em dóna, i això és efecte de la droga. —Va anar al lavabo que era en un racó de l’oficina i va mullar un mocador amb aigua freda—. Hi ha hagut res de nou durant la meva absència?
—Has trobat la senyoreta O’Shaughnessy, Sam?
—No encara. Ha passat res des que he marxat?
—Han telefonat del despatx del comissari. Et vol veure.

—Ell mateix?
—Sí, almenys així ho he entès. I un xicot va venir per dir-te que el senyor Gutman estaria encantat de poder parlar amb tu abans de dos quarts de sis.

Spade va tancar l’aigua, va escórrer el mocador i va sortir del lavabo amb el mocador al front.
—Ja l’he rebut —va dir—, vaig trobar el xicot a baix. És parlant amb Gutman que m’ha caigut aquest regalet.
The Maltese Falcon
She stirred, raised her head drowsily, and her eyelids fluttered. Suddenly she sat up straight, opening her eyes wide. She saw Spade, smiled, leaned back in her chair, and rubbed her eyes with her fingers.

"So you finally got back?" she said. "What time is it?"
"Six o'clock. What are you doing here?"
She shivered, drew Spade's overcoat closer around her, and yawned.

"You told me to stay till you got back or phoned."
"Oh, you're the sister of the boy who stood on the burning deck?"

"I wasn't going to--" She broke off and stood up, letting his coat slide down on the chair behind her. She looked with dark excited eyes at his temple under the brim of his hat and exclaimed: "Oh, your head! What happened?"
His right temple was dark and swollen.
"I don't know whether I fell or was slugged. I don't think it amounts to much, but it hurts like hell." He barely touched it with his fingers, flinched, turned his grimace into a grim smile, and explained: "I went visiting, was fed knockout-drops, and came to twelve hours later all spread out on a man's floor."
She reached up and removed his hat from his head. "It's terrible," she said. "You'll have to get a doctor. You can't walk around with a head like that."
"It's not as bad as it looks, except for the headache, and that might be mostly from the drops." He went to the cabinet in the corner of the office and ran cold water on a handkerchief. "Anything turn up after I left?"
"Did you find Miss O'Shaughnessy, Sam?"
"Not yet. Anything turn up after I left?"
"The District Attorney's office phoned. He wants to see you."

"Himself?"
"Yes, that's the way I understood it. And a boy came in with a message--that Mr. Gutman would be delighted to talk to you before five-thirty."
Spade turned off the water, squeezed the handkerchief, and came away from the cabinet holding the handkerchief to his temple. "I got that," he said. "I met the boy downstairs, and talking to Mr. Gutman got me this."

I read the book without referring to the English text. I didn'tlook up very many words- one or two per page. In full disclosure, I had seen the film before, several years ago, so I was familiar with the story to a certain extent. I wish I had the Catalan dub. I have the DVD, maybe I can find Catalan subs and add them in the VLC player. In the meantime, I've started a new, very short two part, Hammett novel "106.000 dòlars, diners de sang". After this, I'll move over to reading original Catalan. Well, I always wanted to read Hammett anyway and Catalan gave me the excuse I needed. Not too mention that in a new language, the advantage of the familiar is not to be overlooked. It is quite helpful and useful. If a learner wants a series of novels with loads of dialog, look for Hammett translations in your TL.

Spanish
I've always been a bit envious of Serpent's ability to watch soccer/football in all her languages. As an American, I simply don't have the interest in the sport. It isn't "in my blood" like it is for many other people around the world. In this part of the world we have our own sports. Baseball is one of my favorites. In North America it is spring again and soon baseball will be up and running again with renewed hope for a less pandemic influenced season.

Béisbol is also a popular sport in Latin America, and especially so the Spanish-speaking Caribbean. A large percentage of the players in the US Major Leagues are Hispanic. If a learner wants to follow baseball in Spanish, it can certainly be done.

MLB.com/es is the site for Major League Baseball in Spanish. ESPN Deportes provides coverage all season long. I watch games on ESPN Deportes during the season in Spanish. Even without cable, you can watch the games with an MLB.com subscription/or on the ESPN app. Many teams have online radio broadcasts in Spanish. Several teams have websites in Spanish. You can follow the daily stories on baseball on the Associated Press en Español and in El Nuevo Herald from Miami- especially the Miami Marlins- though there's a paywall after a certain number of free articles. The Miami Marlins have a site in Spanish.

A good place to look for baseball podcasts in Spanish- Con las bases llenas.

If you're looking for a good glossary of baseball vocabulary in English/Spanish you can learn a lot from labeisbolista.com.

Also, if someone is learning Japanese or Korean and likes baseball there's MLB.com in Japanese and [url]MLB.com in Korean[/url]

Here is a complete game to watch from the Cuban League Championship from 4 days ago audio starts at the 9min 30 sec mark.
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Re: The iguana's tale- Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole and Ladino

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Thu Mar 18, 2021 4:52 pm

iguanamon wrote:Catalan
I finished the classic noir novel "El falcó maltès/The Maltese Falcon" by Dashiell Hammett. The novel was first published in 1929, translated into Catalan in 1966. So it's 92 years old now. It reads like a contemporary novel. Which shouldn't be surprising. Crime, suspicion, deception, treachery, and greed are all part of the human condition and probably will be for a long time to come.

Hammett's novels have been the inspiration for a number of more modern novels and films. His novel "The Glass Key", which I read in Catalan translation as "La clau verde", inspired Akira Kurosawa of Japan to create his film "Yojimbo"... which inspired Italian director Sergio Leone's film "A Fistful of Dollars". Hammett's book "Red Harvest", which I read in Catalan translated as "Collita Roja", inspired the Coen brothers' film "Blood Simple". So even a book written almost a hundred years ago can still have relevance in the 21st Century.

For language-learning, I find Hammett's books to be quite useful as they contain a lot of dialog. At times reading his novels is almost like reading a screen play. The stories maintain my interest and make me want to keep reading. Momentum is such an important, yet a so often overlooked and underestimated, component of language-learning.
The Maltese Falcon is one of my favorite movies, which I have watched many times. I have also read the novel, as well as The Glass Key. The connection from The Glass Key to Yojimbo to A Fistful of Dollars is interesting, and I did not know about it before. As it happens, I've seen both Yojimbo and A Fistful of Dollars, so thanks for the tip. As always an interesting post. I especially like the remark about momentum.
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Many things which are false are transmitted from book to book, and gain credit in the world. -- attributed to Samuel Johnson

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

Postby iguanamon » Thu Jun 24, 2021 10:56 pm

From March to June, that's a long time without posting an update to my log. There's a pattern here with long time members. We tend to transition to being more like alumni than active learners. That's not such a bad thing. It makes room for the next group to rise up and shine, to be more of an influence to those who are starting out.

I haven't stopped with languages, far from it. I just haven't gotten the inspiration/motivation to learn a next language yet. Is it the pandemic and limited travel opportunities? Well, that's certainly part of it... but not all. I've said in the past that I don't want to learn a language just because I can, that I need a motivation beyond that- something about the culture and/or people of an L2 that gets me interested.

Perhaps that's too narrow of a justification. Once I start to learn a language I tend to get more and more interested in the culture. I like going from zero to understanding and making it happen. I like being able to go beyond courses and apps to teach myself through the language itself after and while building a foundation. That's a lot of the fun for me.

Anyway, that's enough navel gazing for now.

Spanish
Clemente; La pasión y el carisma del último héroe del béisbol
I finally finished reading "Clemente" by David Marannis. The book is a biography of the late Roberto Clemente. One of the greatest players ever in Major League Baseball. He has been described as the "Jackie Robertson" for Latinos because he became one of the most successful Latinos in baseball. Always proud to be Puerto Rican, he always stayed connected to the island even when playing on the mainland US. Clemente was not only famous for his baseball exploits but he was a humanitarian as well. Clemente died on New Year's Eve 1972 while on a badly overloaded and troubled airplane flying from San Juan, Puerto Rico to Managua, Nicaragua delivering earthquake relief supplies. He had heard about the then Dictator Somoza sending irregulars to the airport to confiscate supplies and siphon off a percentage for corruption. Clemente figured that this wouldn't happen if he were there to oversee things, because of his celebrity. He went out on top of his game and serving a cause greater than himself. Thanks to jeff_lindqvist, I was able to make to make the image below smaller.


This is mainly for people in the Americas: I've been watching a lot of baseball in Spanish lately on MLB.com. Their streaming service, MLBtv.com has every major league game in HD video. Some of the teams have Spanish language audio, synced from radio broadcasts. The app on the smart phone makes listening to games easy. It actually works quite well! It costs about $50 for the remainder of the season for all teams out of market. Living here, all the teams are out of market for me. Some of the radio stations are also online- XEMO (Tijuana, Mexico) for the San Diego Padres; WAQI "Radio Mambi" for the Miami Marlins. I'm sure a google search for Spanish broadcasts of the New York teams, Houston and maybe Denver/Chicago will yield more. I've only subscribed for a little over a week so, I'm still exploring.

As an American, it's possible to get a lot of your dailiy media in Spanish;
TV News: Telemundo; CNN en Español
Print News: AP en Español
Weather: US National Weather Service (Kansas City, MO chosen)
Sports: AP Deportes; ESPN Deportes (béisbol)
Entertainment News: AP Espectáculos
So, you can immerse yourself in Spanish in the US in your own culture and in the US immigrant Latino culture too. I love El País, but I am an American.

El lector de Julio Verne
I've followed the Clemente book with "El lector de Julio Verne" by Almudena Grandes. I'm over a third of the way through it and I'm enjoying it. I've had it for years languishing in the dust. I was somewhat inspired by rdearman to take it off the shelf and read it. The book was written by a well known Spanish author. It's about a young 9/10year old boy, the son of a "Guardia Civil" living in post civil war Spain. 10 years later, the war is now a hit and run guerilla war- a low-level but "never-ending" war. The boy, Nino, doesn't want to be in the guardia civil when he grows up. He hates the brutality and violence around him. He finds solace in his friend, a worldly adult man from Madrid, who introduces him to the books of Jules Verne.

Image

I always thought the Spanish Civil War ended with Franco's victory... but the guerilla war kept going (at a much lower level) well into the 1960's. I'm only at 150 pages out of 400 in the book so far. There's a lot of Iberian specific vocabulary and grammar, but it's not a big deal. I'm reading without a dictionary in hard copy.




In English


¡Hasta luego, amigos y amigas! Hasta la próxima vez, nos vemos.

(edited to make image smaller)
Last edited by iguanamon on Fri Jun 25, 2021 1:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
19 x

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

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Fri Jun 25, 2021 7:46 am

iguanamon wrote:Sorry for the big picture below. I don't know how to make it smaller.


Solution presented here, one month ago (by RDearman):

Code: Select all

[scaleimg=200,300]https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/71gbLDjJGCL.jpg[/scaleimg]
(I have added a scaleable image to the BBCode options, used above)


In other words, use the scaleimg tag insteag of img, and then choose appropriate settings.
11 x
Leabhair/Greannáin léite as Gaeilge: 9 / 18
Ar an seastán oíche: Oileán an Órchiste
Duolingo - finished trees: sp/ga/de/fr/pt/it
Finnish with extra pain : 100 / 100

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