Ogrim's Krambu - a plethora of languages, mostly European, both old and new

[PeterMollenburg]

Interesting Arabic resource there Ogrim. I’m keen to see what you make of it. Although, if I follow your lead, I’ll definitely have a preferance for Arabic from a French base. Still, outstanding Arabic courses from an English base would be worth considering. I’d not heard of Udemy before, btw. I hope you’re back to a 100% healthier state!

[Ogrim]

Thanks for the Udemy recommendation - I'll be having a look!

Interesting Arabic resource there Ogrim. I’m keen to see what you make of it. Although, if I follow your lead, I’ll definitely have a preferance for Arabic from a French base. Still, outstanding Arabic courses from an English base would be worth considering. I’d not heard of Udemy before, btw. I hope you’re back to a 100% healthier state!

I am fully recovered thank you, but a lot to do at work these days.

I came across Udemy by chance, looking for Maltese resources . I guess the quality of the courses you find there will vary. After all, the site is more of a marketplace where creators of video courses can sell their stuff, so it's worth checking the reviews before buying. As a course-book-learner myself, I find the experience of learning from a video course a bit strange, but it is a nice supplement to my books.

PM, I would love to find a good Arabic course with a French base, but nothing has convinced me so far. Of course there is Assimil, which we've talked about before. There is also a Harrap's Méthode Express which does not look too bad, but I have not used it (yet) so can't really comment. I prefer to stick to one or two courses in the early stages of my learning a new language, and with Langenscheidt, my old Linguaphone course and the Udemy course I have enough to keep me busy.

Yeah, it gets expensive quick if you use everything. I'm lucky that I've had a decent income to fund my learning. I think the things I constantly paid money for were LingQ and tutors. I can't imagine what the bill would be if I started adding all things that were available. Still it's all cheaper than a university education

I guess it is (cheaper than university) although at least in some European countries university education is free or very inexpensive. The only drawback being that it is difficult to work and study full-time in parallel.

[Ogrim]

I have neglected Russian somewhat in the last few weeks, so I need to get back to speed in order to keep some progress, not least in vocabulary acquisition. I am slowly working my way through the Tschaikovsky biography. It is not too hard, but the nice layout with pictures and textboxes is actually a bit distracting . It seems that I concentrate better if I have just plain text on a white background. I am also trying to get back into the routine of reading at least one news article in Russian every day. There sure is plenty going on in the world so it's just a matter of choosing the topic to read. Today I picked two articles in Kommersant, one about the situation in Palestine and another about the American writer Tom Wolfe who recently passed away.

After finishing the book Dandy in Swedish, I decided to turn to something else, because if I keep on reading only in Swedish I will become lazy . I therefore decided to read some Portuguese again and I've finally picked up the third and last volume of Assim nasceu Portugal. I read the first two books last year, but then took a break from reading Portuguese. The story is still entertaining, although halfway through I kind of look forward to getting to the end - as with many authors I find that Amaral is a bit too wordy and he could have told the story in a more succinct manner.

Truth is the list of books I want to read is constantly increasing, and although I try to alternate between different languages all the time, I sometimes come across a book I just have to read right away. That is happening again as I just became aware that the Norwegian author Tom Egeland published a new book last year in his Bjørn Beltø series. I think I've mentioned Egeland before in this log - his books have certain similarities with those of Dan Brown, only Egeland is in my view a much better and more intelligent writer. His last book, called Lasaruseffekten in Norwegian, will be the next book in line as soon as I am done with the novel in Portuguese.

On the Arabic front, I do as much as I can in the little time I have available. I've spent some more time with the course I found on Udemy, but I am still in the introductory lessons about Arabic script, so it is not yet at a stage where I am learning something new.

[jeff_lindqvist]

That is happening again as I just became aware that the Norwegian author Tom Egeland published a new book last year in his Bjørn Beltø series. I think I've mentioned Egeland before in this log - his books have certain similarities with those of Dan Brown, only Egeland is in my view a much better and more intelligent writer.

Interesting! I like Dan Brown, so hopefuly this Egeland is something for me. I'm pretty sure I've seen his name here before (but now I can't find anything, though). Sirkelens ende and Ulvenatten are available (in Swedish) through the library in my area - have you read them?

[Ogrim]

Interesting! I like Dan Brown, so hopefuly this Egeland is something for me. I'm pretty sure I've seen his name here before (but now I can't find anything, though). Sirkelens ende and Ulvenatten are available (in Swedish) through the library in my area - have you read them?

Yes I’ve read both of them. Sirkelens ende is the first book about the albino archaeologist Bjørn Beltø and the thematic is very much the same as in the Da Vinci Code, but Egeland wrote his book before Dan Brown published his bestseller. Ulvenatten is more of traditional thriller about terrorists taking a Norwegian Tv channel as hostage. Both are good but I enjoy the books about Beltø the most as they are packed with knowledge about religion, history and archeology.

[Ogrim]

I have not posted for a while, and the reason is that I have been going through a "language-learning crisis" these last few weeks. I'll explain: I'm having a very busy time at work and family-wise, which has increased my stress levels and I often feel tired. I also felt that I was getting nowhere with Arabic, due to lack of time and not being able to concentrate when actually having some time available. And I found that I was neglecting my Russian, in my last weekly class I made stupid mistakes and could not remember some basic words.

So rather than trying to copy Expugnator studying multiple languages at the same time I'll "do a Peter Mollenburg" and stick to one language. Arabic has been shelved again, it's the third of fourth time , Greek has been shelved (for the second time), and I will concentrate fully on the big beast Russian for the next few months to see if I may finally bring my abilities a bit closer to that desired C-level.

It has not been an easy decision, because I was really eager to succeed with Arabic this time around, but I have to face realities. My priority now is to consolidate and improve my knowledge of Russian, and if that means Arabic has to be put on hold so be it. Also, in my current situation it was a mistake to try to do Greek as well on the side, I just cannot find time for two, let alone three languages to study seriously. I hope to get back to Arabic (and maybe Greek) one day, and I may pick up my course book from time to time just to maintain what little I have learnt, but no serious studying.

So there we are. I will of course continue to enjoy literature, music, TV and news media in all my other languages regularly as I always do. Due to recent polotical events I have been reading and listening to a lot more Italian these last couple of weeks than usual. I also finished the German crime novel "Fjord" (which was a huge disappointment by the way), and I've been enjoying listening to lyrical songs in Catalan performed by Josep Carreras. My main focus will be Russian though, and to put myself in a better mood I have been watching a few clips on Youtube by the comedy group Уральские пельмени. I thought I would share one of them for the Russian-learners amongst you to enjoy. I guess many people have experienced something similar when queuing in a supermarket:

[Ogrim]

Since my last post I have put in a lot more time on Russian, and I feel that I am getting my confidence level back. I've been reading a lot, which helps enormously in reactivating and acquiring vocabulary, and I've also revised some grammar points, like those awful verbs of motion which I still mix up and use in the wrong way. I do understand the principle, but applying the rules in practice is still a big challenge.

I am well underway with the Tschaikovsky biography. It is a relatively short book, less than 100 pages, and as there are many illustrations I should be able to finish in few days if I put my mind to it. The problem is that I've also started another book in Russian. It is the autobiography of the young(ish) pop singer Maksim, whom I have mentioned earlier in my log. I would say that her life is not that interesting per se, but it gives a very interesting picture of growing up in a small Russian town in the 1980s-1990s, and it will also be interesting to get an insight into how the pop music industry works in Russia.

I've also added a couple of other books in Russian to my Kindle (meaning I have at least 50 books stiill to read only in this language). The website Litres now offers you a free book every three weeks or so. (There is one every day, but once you "buy" one, you must wait three weeks before getting a second.) I actually got a Russian translation of a Catalan book, "Jo confesso" by Jaume Cabré. It could be an interesting experience to read it in parallel in Russian and Catalan, but that will be for another day. Then I bought Лестница Якова (Jacob's ladder), a historical novel by Людмила Улицкая (Ludmila Ulitskaya) which apparently is a bestseller in Russia. It is 650 pages long though, but hopefully I should have finished the two Russian books I am currently reading before the summer holidays, in which case this will be the book I will read on the beach this summer.

To top it of, I am also reading the fourth book in the Swedish series Brobyggarna. I actually enjoy this one more than the second and third in the series. It is mostly set in Sweden and Germany in the 1930s with the rise of Nazism and Hitler's power grab as an important part of the story. I now find reading Swedish so easy that I don't even think about the fact that I am reading a "foreign" language.

[Ogrim]

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[Ogrim]

My wife and I spent last weekend at a spa hotel in Schwarzwald (the Black Forest) in Germany. (And I know I should write this in German, but I am a bit lazy right now - maybe next time.) This is my favourite part of Germany, and only a short drive away from where I live. It was a good occasion to speak German, as the hotel staff, except for one person, were monolingual, and all information was exclusively in German. The hotel was really in the middle of the forest, difficult to access by car, but great for going on walks and enjoying peace and quiet. On Sunday we visited the small town Rottweil, probably best known for having given its name to a certain breed of dogs, the Rottweiler. The only dogs we saw on that day however were small and fluffy, not big and black . It is a nice little town though, well worth a short visit if you are in those part of Germany.


Main street in Rottweil

I also got into a discussion with a German guest at the hotel about the World Cup. Germany had not played its first match yet, so the guy was full of optimism being certain that Germany would win all three matches in the group stage. As Norway did not qualify, I had no particular team to defend, although I did tell him that if I had to pick a team it would be Iceland.

Talking about the world cup, I am not a huge football fan but I do love the World Cup and the Euros. The fact that it takes place in Russia this year is also a nice coincidence because I have been able to read some interesting articles and watched videos in Russian about the game and the locations where matches are played.

Edit: By the way, I really wanted to share this video directed by the Icelandic goalkeeper/film director Hannes Þór Halldórsson. Ok, so it is a commercial for a well known drink, but it is also about the Icelandic football team, and I love the way they recreate that famous Viking "HÚH".

[Ogrim]

It has been over two months since my last post, and I have not been visiting the forum much during this time, but here I am again, highly motivated for la rentrée, so you'll probably see me here more often during the next weeks and months.

Actually the six weeks have been very good on the language-learning front. Main news: Arabic is back , and I feel I have made much progress lately both on buidling vocabulary and getting to grasp with some of the more complex grammar points introduced at an early stage in my Langenscheidt course. I therefore hope to be able to maintain the current level of motivation for Arabic by finishing the Langenscheidt before Christmas and adding additional material . I have watched a few more lessons of the Udemy course I've mentioned earlier in the log, and I have also brushed the dust of my old Linguaphone course to work on in parallel.

I think one of the tings that demotivated me early in the summer was that I tried to master everything in each lesson before moving on, and it meant I would repeatedly go back to earlier lessons because I had forgotten some words or how to form the plural of a specific noun. I am now taking a more relaxed attitude, thinking that I will progress faster and better if I just keep working through the lessons at a reasonable speed and add additional material to get more exposure, in particular to the written language. I've discovered that the Kindle app for iPad has an in-built Arabic-English dictionary, and although it is not 100% effective it can be a great help in vocabulary building. I may get one or two children books and see if I can get somewhere with that. In addition I also have a couple of intermediate textbooks, like "Arabic Voices", which I would like to start working with in a few months' time. It really is about getting over that total beginner stage where everything feels overwhelming, especially in a non-transparent language like Arabic.

I know I said I would concentrate fully on Russian, but Arabic is too much fun to let go. In any case I have also worked a lot on my Russian vocabulary this summer. I've activated the "Vocabulary Builder" in my Kindle paperwhite, and although I have never been a fan of SRS I actually like the way it works in Kindle, because it gives you the word in the context you've been reading it. You can also choose to get flashcard just from one book, or randomly from any book where you have highlighted words (which means I sometimes get Portuguese, German and Dutch words amongst the Russian ones).

I finished the autobiography by Maksim, and it was actually more interesting than I thought. She is clearly a clever and intelligent woman who has made her way in music through hard work and persistence. Lately she has taken a step back from performing and recording, as she is concentrating on running a music school in Moscow which she has founded. I am also more or less done with the Tchaikovsky biography, and I have just started on the novel Дом, в котором… by Мариам Петросян. It tells the story of a boarding school for disabled children and it was a bestseller in Russia and has received several awards, including the 2009 Russian Prize for the best book in Russian by an author living abroad (Mariam Petrosyan is Armenian).

I've also been reading books in Swedish, French, German and Romansh this summer. I've had a lot of time off, with travels to Norway and Spain, so that has given me plenty of time for reading and langauge-related activities.

Then I went with the family to Malta, but I'll talk more about that in a separate post.

And as I can't leave without posting a music clip , here is one of Syrian singer Faia Younan, a beautiful little song called يا ليته يعلم (which I believe translates as (Oh the Lord knows.)