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

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
User avatar
Ogrim
Brown Belt
Posts: 1009
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 10:29 am
Location: Alsace, France
Languages: Norwegian (N) English (C2), French (C2), Spanish (C2), German (B2), Romansh (B2), Italian (B2), Catalan (B2), Russian (B1), Latin (B2), Dutch (B1), Croatian (A2), Arabic (on hold), Ancient Greek (learning), Romanian (on hold)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?t=873
x 4168

Re: Ogrim's language experiences - Russian, Romansh, Romanian, Arabic and more

Postby Ogrim » Fri Jul 09, 2021 3:21 pm

I sincerely thought I was going to write a lot more regularly here when I posted last time, but since then almost three months have past. My lack of activity on the forum has mainly been due to a very heavy workload over the last few weeks, especially May and June were really hectic, and it also made my language learning suffer a bit.

Since June I've started to go back to the office two or three days a week, and although it is nice to meet colleagues in person again after so many months of "télétravail", it also means getting up earlier in the morning, getting dressed for work (for me that means a suit and a tie) and taking the time to walk between home and office. Depending on how things develop over the summer, we are meant to be back at least half of the time in the office, but working from home on a regular basis has become the new norm, and that suits me just fine.

Language-wise I have kept studying Arabic at a slow pace, and I have tried to keep a regular rhythm with Classical Greek, but I must admit progress has been less rapid than I hoped back in the spring. I've been reading a lot of Latin though, and I feel my ability to read Latin prose has increased a lot - I spend much less time now looking up vocabulary and I don't struggle so much with making sense of syntax and morphology. I am in possession of a reMarkable "paper tablet", and they offer an extension in Google Chrome which lets you convert any text on the web into an e-book which is then sent to my reMarkable. This has been a great way of collecting texts in Latin - I've taken a lot from The Latin Library website, but text from any website will do as long as it is not in pdf format (in which case I just download the pdf of course).

Russian does not get as much attention as it should, but I am slowly working my way through Fathers and Sons and I watch a little bit of Russian TV now and then - mostly the news. Hopefully the next couple of months will be quieter as people start leaving for their summer vacations, meaning more time and energy to engage with languages.
14 x
Ich grolle nicht

User avatar
Ogrim
Brown Belt
Posts: 1009
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 10:29 am
Location: Alsace, France
Languages: Norwegian (N) English (C2), French (C2), Spanish (C2), German (B2), Romansh (B2), Italian (B2), Catalan (B2), Russian (B1), Latin (B2), Dutch (B1), Croatian (A2), Arabic (on hold), Ancient Greek (learning), Romanian (on hold)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?t=873
x 4168

Re: Ogrim's language experiences - Russian, Romansh, Romanian, Arabic and more

Postby Ogrim » Wed Jul 14, 2021 6:17 pm

Now that the whole family is vaccinated against you-know-what, we can finally start travelling again, so I've booked a trip for my wife and me to Sardinia the last week of July. (My kids being grown up are going their separate ways with friends, one to Mallorca and the other to Nice). I really look forward to it; we went to Sardinia in 2019 and I just loved it - the nature, the sea, the food, the people, it's probably my favourite Mediterranean island. (I obviously haven't been to all of them, but of those I know the only other island that comes close is Crete.)

It also means that my language priorities have changed somewhat, and in the coming 10 days before the trip I will spend as much time as I can on brushing up my Italian again. This means reading a lot and watching videos in Italian as much as possible. I've got a reasonably good level of Italian, but I have hardly used it since 2019 so I definitely need to reactivate it. The place we are going to is a typical tourist resort, but I expect there to be mostly Italian tourists given the current situation.

I've also been tempted to return to Romanian, which after all is in the title of my log and a language I have been dabbling in ever since my student days, but it is hard to find sufficient time, as I already struggle to give sufficient time to Arabic and Classical Greek. Maybe after the summer my priorities will change again, in which case Romanian is high on the list.

Aujourd'hui c'est la fête nationale de la France, mais au moins dans ma région le temps est affreux - il pleut sans arrêt - et il n'y a pas de fête publique ou de feux d'artifice à cause de la situation sanitaire. Donc c'est simplement un jour férié et j'ai profité pour lire quelques pages de Romeo et Juliet en arabe et j'ai commencé un livre en italien: Che cos'è il tempo? Che cos'è lo spazio? écrit par Carlo Rovelli, professeur de Physique théorique à l'université d'Aix-Marseille.
10 x
Ich grolle nicht

User avatar
Ogrim
Brown Belt
Posts: 1009
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 10:29 am
Location: Alsace, France
Languages: Norwegian (N) English (C2), French (C2), Spanish (C2), German (B2), Romansh (B2), Italian (B2), Catalan (B2), Russian (B1), Latin (B2), Dutch (B1), Croatian (A2), Arabic (on hold), Ancient Greek (learning), Romanian (on hold)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?t=873
x 4168

Re: Ogrim's language experiences - Russian, Romansh, Romanian, Arabic and more

Postby Ogrim » Wed Jul 21, 2021 3:22 pm

My trip to Sardinia is coming up very soon and I have spent a good amount of time preparing for it. As mentioned in my previous post, I am reading a book in Italian about space and time. It is the second book about astrophysics that I read in Italian, and this one is a bit more difficult than the first one I read, but that has more to do with the topics than the language. However I enjoy the book very much, because the author, Carlo Rovelli, also talks about experiences from his own life: his upbringing, his rebellious youth, famous people he has met, countries he has visited and so on.

I've also been watching regularly some YouTube videos in Italian, mostly clips from the programme Unomattina estate from RAI1. It is one of these programmes that mixes hard news with "soft" stories about culture, gastronomy and art. The good thing about it is that you get to hear a lot of different people speak in a natural manner - unlike the typical newsreader who mostly will have a very clear standard pronunciation with little variety in intonation etc.

My app for reading French newspapers and magazines in electronic format, "ePresse", has an international section and they recently included Corriere della sera, so I am also reading this every day. I have the impression Italian newspapers have developed a special version of the language in their headlines. I guess to make it short and punchy they often omit the verb in the titles, which makes it difficult sometimes to grasp the meaning, at least for me.

I am not really doing any speaking practice, so I just hope I will be able to activate it once I am in Italy, as I managed to do last time. I am very aware that I mix in a few Spanish words from time to time, but at least that has not hindered my conversation ability in the past.

All this Italian activity means that I have spent much less time on other languages, but as this is just a temporary boost for Italian, I will get back to Arabic, Greek and Latin soon enough.
15 x
Ich grolle nicht

User avatar
Ogrim
Brown Belt
Posts: 1009
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 10:29 am
Location: Alsace, France
Languages: Norwegian (N) English (C2), French (C2), Spanish (C2), German (B2), Romansh (B2), Italian (B2), Catalan (B2), Russian (B1), Latin (B2), Dutch (B1), Croatian (A2), Arabic (on hold), Ancient Greek (learning), Romanian (on hold)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?t=873
x 4168

Re: Ogrim's language experiences - Russian, Romansh, Romanian, Arabic and more

Postby Ogrim » Thu Aug 05, 2021 2:41 pm

I am back from my week in Sardinia and I had a great time. We stayed at a beach resort hotel near the village of Orosei on the east coast of the island. It was busy but not overcrowded, and I estimate that at least 90% of the guests were Italians, but I also heard French, German, Dutch, Polish, Russian, (Argentinian) Spanish and Swedish. In any case I had no problem speaking Italian almost all of the time, I got the impression most of the staff at the hotel did not speak English (or any other foreign language) very well and were all to happy to engage with me in Italian, in spite of my undoubtedly non-Italian accent. I also had some nice conversations with a young couple from Milan we got to know during breakfast - they commented on my "cute" Spanish accent when speaking Italian :? .

As we wanted to relax we only did one long excursion by car up to the north-west of the island to visit Castelsardo, a small walled medieval old town where you can only get around walking. There I could listen to a couple of elderly women in black speaking Sardinian with each other. They were selling pottery and other handicraft objects to the tourists, and as soon as they saw a foreigner they would switch to Italian or what my wife calls "inglés macarónico". I could make out some of what they said in Sardinian, but as I have never really studied the language most of their conversation was not intelligible to me. I think I need to find a small Sardinian course book...

Sardinia isn't huge, but the roads are not great, there are few stretches of what you could call motorways or highways, and a lot of the secondary roads are narrow, steep and full of curves, going up and down the mountains and valleys, so it was a looong drive to Castelsardo from Orosei, and as the signposting on Sardinian roads is totally surreal I got lost at least three times. But hey, that is also part of the charm, right?

The only other excursion we did was by speedboat to some of the "cale" along the coast between Orosei and Cala Gonone. Here we also visited a cave - Grotta del Fico - which was nice because it was a hot day and inside the cave it was only 18 degrees. On this excursion we shared the boat with two German families, so I also got to speak a bit of German with them during the trip.

The village (or town) of Orosei is not terribly interesting, except for eating in a couple of good restaurants there is not that much to see or do. There are other parts of Italy with much more interesting cities, towns and villages - I recommend Sardinia for the beaches, the sea and, if you like trekking, for its wild and unspoiled nature in the interior.

Sardinia has very low incidence of Covid cases, so although one had to carry a mask inside, it felt pretty relaxed and normal most of the time.

The upcoming weekend will be a very different experience as we are driving up to The Hague in Netherlands. My son starts university there later in August, and he has to pick up the keys to his student residence beginning of next week so we will go by car with all the stuff he needs for the autumn. I don't think I will bother to try speaking Dutch - firstly because I speak it terribly and secondly because most Dutch people speak perfect English. I guess I rather focus on Arabic again, with a sprinkle of Ancient Greek and Russian in between. I did very little study when in Sardinia, preferring to read in German, Swedish, French and English when on the beach.

Orosei town:
Image

Marina d'Orosei:
Image
20 x
Ich grolle nicht

User avatar
Ogrim
Brown Belt
Posts: 1009
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 10:29 am
Location: Alsace, France
Languages: Norwegian (N) English (C2), French (C2), Spanish (C2), German (B2), Romansh (B2), Italian (B2), Catalan (B2), Russian (B1), Latin (B2), Dutch (B1), Croatian (A2), Arabic (on hold), Ancient Greek (learning), Romanian (on hold)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?t=873
x 4168

Re: Ogrim's language experiences - Russian, Romansh, Romanian, Arabic and more

Postby Ogrim » Thu Aug 12, 2021 4:16 pm

I had a long weekend in Den Haag - The Hague, Netherlands, where my son is starting his university years later this August. As he could get the keys to his student accommodation already now, we decided to go there by car to bring the stuff he needs and to get to know the city.

I had only been to the Netherlands three times before this, and each time I was in Amsterdam for a day or two, so it was nice to spend four full days in The Hague. I was positively surprised by the city; I had expected a very modern, somewhat boring place, and sure there are many modern buildings but there are also some very charming neighbourhoods, lots of cafés and restaurants, not to mention the beach which is a short tram ride away from the city centre. The seaside is just buzzing with life, at least now in summer, and there are countless beach clubs, bars and restaurants along the shore, and the beach itself is kilometres long. You can also go bungee jumping from a crane at the pier if that is your sort of thing.

Turning to the language, I made two observations: Firstly, not all Dutch people are proficient in English, contrary to what many (me included) believe. We would always be greeted in Dutch and, sure, when we replied in English in restaurants and bars they would swiftly switch, but some people actually struggled with English and one waiter went to get a colleague to serve us instead. If I went to live there I would definitely learn the language well. Whether my son will is another question, he'll probably have more than enough with his studies.

Secondly, I read Dutch a lot better than I understand spoken Dutch. That may have to do with the fact that I learnt the Flemish version of the language, the pronunciation of which is quite different from standard Netherlands Dutch. I could understand a lot when I heard it spoken, but it took a couple of days for me to adjust my ear to the Dutch pronunciation. Flemish Dutch just sounds more "open", if I can put it that way (it reminds me a bit of the difference in pronunciation between Spanish and Portuguese, without drawing too much of a comparison).

As we will certainly return several times to the Netherlands as long as my son is there, I think I will try to find some time to improve my Dutch again, at least my passive understanding of spoken Dutch. At least this weekend wet my appetite for improving my skills in this language which I have never really paid too much attention to before now.
19 x
Ich grolle nicht

User avatar
Ogrim
Brown Belt
Posts: 1009
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 10:29 am
Location: Alsace, France
Languages: Norwegian (N) English (C2), French (C2), Spanish (C2), German (B2), Romansh (B2), Italian (B2), Catalan (B2), Russian (B1), Latin (B2), Dutch (B1), Croatian (A2), Arabic (on hold), Ancient Greek (learning), Romanian (on hold)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?t=873
x 4168

Re: Ogrim's language experiences - Russian, Romansh, Romanian, Arabic and more

Postby Ogrim » Tue Aug 31, 2021 2:04 pm

I am back from two weeks in Valencia, Spain, where my wife and I celebrated our silver wedding anniversary. It was a nice celebration, the only bémol was that my friends and family from Norway could not attend, due to Spain being considered a high-risk area by Norwegian health authorities, so they did not want to risk being quarantined when returning.

Apart from the celebration we spent most of the time lazily on the beach, which meant I managed to read quite a bit, including an autobiography of sorts by the Swedish journalist and writer Jan Guillou called Ordets makt och vanmakt, I got through most of Die Welt der Deutschen Litteratur by Siegfried König, I read a few pages of De Trinitate by St. Augustin, and I started on a novel in Dutch, De donkere kamer van Damokles by Willem Frederik Hermans. This novel is considered one of the great works of literature in Dutch, it is set in the Second World War during the occupation of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany, and the story seems interesting so far - it is about a man who becomes involved with the resistance movement but obviously has to keep it a secret.

Now we are back in France and tomorrow it is la rentrée for both of us, work is waiting and life will be busy again. I have decided on some "new year resolutions" - I've always found it is easier to live up to such resolutions starting in September rather than January. My most important resolution is to get in better shape, as I did a medical checkup and there were some results that were a bit inquiétants. So I've decided to cut out alcohol and go on a much more Mediterranean diet with less meat and fat and more fruit and vegetables and legumbres (I've never found an English word that is fully equivalent). I'll also exercise more regularly, as I need to get rid of a few kilos.

The second most important resolution is of course to keep on learning languages. :) I will continue to focus on Arabic, I'll try to keep Russian into the mix but I will also certainly take up Classical Greek again and go back to reading a few pages of Latin every week. I will also try to make Dutch part of my routine (if I can really call it a routine) from now on, as I look forward to my next trip to visit my son in The Hague. This means that I will also try to watch the news and other programmes in Dutch on a regular basis. I've even bought the Kindle version of Dutch: A Comprehensive Grammar by Bruce Donaldson, edited by Routledge. My ambition is not to become fully proficient in Dutch, but I do want to understand it better and perhaps be able to have simple conversations in "decent" Dutch next time around.
13 x
Ich grolle nicht

User avatar
IronMike
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2554
Joined: Thu May 12, 2016 6:13 am
Location: Northern Virginia
Languages: Studying: Esperanto
Maintaining: nada
Tested:
BCS, 1+L/1+R (DLPT5, 2022)
Russian, 3/3 (DLPT5, 2022) 2+ (OPI, 2022)
German, 2L/1+R (DLPT5, 2021)
Italian, 1L/2R (DLPT IV, 2019)
Esperanto, C1 (KER skriba ekzameno, 2017)
Slovene, 2+L/3R (DLPT II in, yes, 1999)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5189
x 7264
Contact:

Re: Ogrim's language experiences - Russian, Romansh, Romanian, Arabic and more

Postby IronMike » Wed Sep 01, 2021 12:56 am

Ogrim wrote:I am back from two weeks in Valencia, Spain, where my wife and I celebrated our silver wedding anniversary. It was a nice celebration, the only bémol was that my friends and family from Norway could not attend, due to Spain being considered a high-risk area by Norwegian health authorities, so they did not want to risk being quarantined when returning.

Congrats! Wife and I in December celebrated our 30th, which is pearls. Not sure it's called the "pearl anniversary," but my gift to her was pearls. ;)
2 x
You're not a C1 (or B1 or whatever) if you haven't tested.
CEFR --> ILR/DLPT equivalencies
My swimming life.
My reading life.

User avatar
Ogrim
Brown Belt
Posts: 1009
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 10:29 am
Location: Alsace, France
Languages: Norwegian (N) English (C2), French (C2), Spanish (C2), German (B2), Romansh (B2), Italian (B2), Catalan (B2), Russian (B1), Latin (B2), Dutch (B1), Croatian (A2), Arabic (on hold), Ancient Greek (learning), Romanian (on hold)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?t=873
x 4168

Re: Ogrim's language experiences - Russian, Romansh, Romanian, Arabic and more

Postby Ogrim » Fri Sep 17, 2021 2:42 pm

I'll try to remember to buy pearls in five years time :) .

The last two weeks I have really been able to boost my study of languages. I've managed to put in quite some time on Arabic again, picking up the Romeo and Juliet booklet/audio and revising a few grammar points which I still struggle with, especially regarding verbs. I now need to think about what to do when I finish Romeo and Juliet, I don't really consider that I am up to working only with native material yet, for that my vocabulary is too limited. I do have a couple of other adapted books I've bought from Lingualism so I will probably start on one of them and work more intensively on enhancing vocabulary.

I have also had good progress with Classical Greek. In addition to working through the lessons of Reading Greek, I have gone through a couple of pages of the New Testament in Greek each day, and I've decided to start on the classical novel Δάφνις καὶ Χλόη (Daphins and Chloe) by Longus. I go very slowly, as it surely is at too high a level for me at this point, and I need to look up a lot of words. Still I need something apart from the course book in order to keep up my motivation - and classical prose is a lot easier to read than verse.

I've spent less time on Latin these two weeks. I've done a few more pages of De Trinitate by St. Augustin and I've been listening to a few of the videos on the Latinium website.

On the other hand I have spent more time on Russian. I returned to the many notes I had taken during my Russian classes (which stopped abruptly in 2020 due to Covid) and refreshed a lot of vocabulary. My "crazy" Russian project now is to start reading Dostoyevsky's masterpiece Бра́тья Карама́зовы (The Brothers Karamazov). As the print editions are normally around 700-800 pages I don't expect to finish it in a good while, but my aim is to read between 10 and 20 pages per day at least, which means I should be able to finish it before Christmas.

Finally Dutch: After struggling with the above-mentioned languages, going to Dutch feels like a "walk in the park". Of course I still need to learn vocabulary, improve my grammar knowledge and eventually start speaking the language, but it feels so easy on the brain compared to Arabic or Greek that I find it relaxing reading or listening to Dutch for an hour. Talking about vocabulary, I came across an expression I didn't know by reading a Dutch magazine called Jan: "Om op te vreten". Literally it means something like "to eat up (everything)", but the actual meaning is more like "Sooo cute!" It is interesting because you find the same idea in Spanish: "Para comérselo." I am not aware of other languages which use this particular expression to indicate that something is cute or adorable.

As always when I start working seriously on a modern language I look for music, and I've discovered quite a number of contemporary Dutch pop, rock and rap singers thanks to YouTube. Here are just three examples, ranging from soft pop to rap. Lately I listen a lot more to classical music than pop music, but I do enjoy a good pop tune from time to time, especially when it is not in English. ;)

Suzan & Freek: Goud:


Donnie & Frans Duijts: Frans Duits (I like how the title of this songs plays on the name/pseudonym of the singer at the same time as it means "French German".


WAWA: In de Octhend
10 x
Ich grolle nicht

User avatar
Ogrim
Brown Belt
Posts: 1009
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 10:29 am
Location: Alsace, France
Languages: Norwegian (N) English (C2), French (C2), Spanish (C2), German (B2), Romansh (B2), Italian (B2), Catalan (B2), Russian (B1), Latin (B2), Dutch (B1), Croatian (A2), Arabic (on hold), Ancient Greek (learning), Romanian (on hold)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?t=873
x 4168

Re: Ogrim's language experiences - Russian, Romansh, Romanian, Arabic and more

Postby Ogrim » Fri Oct 15, 2021 2:11 pm

Time flies, I cannot believe that a month has passed since my last post. But then there has not been a lot of news to report in during this time. My language efforts are continuing more or less on schedule.

I have been giving a boost to my Russian these weeks. I am well on track with my reading of Бра́тья Карама́зовы, even if I do have to look up a number of words on almost every page. The literary vocabulary of Dostyevsky is quite different from modern everyday prose that I read on news websites. I've also reviewed some finer grammar points about use of cases and revisited some irregular verbs. Then I have watched a few more videos from the YouTube channel Энциклоп, like this clip about the origin of the Cyrillic script:



Latin continues to be a daily companion. Apart from reading a page or two of De Trinitate I've watched a few videos on Latinitium to get a bit of spoken Latin as well (even if it is by a Swede ;) ).

I am making good progress with Classical Greek. I found this website called Bibliotheca Augustana which is hosted by the University of Augsburg, Germany. There are texts from a large number of Greek authors, and although there are just texts with no notes or explanations it is still a good resource for diving into authentic, original texts. I am still just a little bit into Daphnis and Chloe, but next on my list is the work Barlaam and Josaphat, Βαρλαὰμ καὶ Ιωάσαφ in Greek, normally attributed to Saint John of Damascus.

Arabic has had less time devoted to it lately. I think I "overdid" it for a while and just got tired as I've been spending a lot of time on the same text (the Romeo and Juliet adaptation), is I really need to find some other and more varied material to work on as well. I've got another e-book with matching audio from Lingualism called Mido - it is sort of based on the French children book series Le petit Nicolas with small stories about the everyday life of a boy called Mido and his family. Not exactly great literature, but great for learning everyday vocabulary and expressions.

I almost forgot to mention Dutch. I keep enjoying it a lot. I watch a short news programme on the NPO app every day, and I am more than halfway through the Dutch novel I am reading. It is interesting, and I've already purchased a few more Dutch books for my Kindle, by the same author but also by others. Dutch is certainly now part of my language routine.
11 x
Ich grolle nicht

User avatar
Ogrim
Brown Belt
Posts: 1009
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 10:29 am
Location: Alsace, France
Languages: Norwegian (N) English (C2), French (C2), Spanish (C2), German (B2), Romansh (B2), Italian (B2), Catalan (B2), Russian (B1), Latin (B2), Dutch (B1), Croatian (A2), Arabic (on hold), Ancient Greek (learning), Romanian (on hold)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?t=873
x 4168

Re: Ogrim's language experiences - Russian, Romansh, Romanian, Arabic and more

Postby Ogrim » Wed Nov 10, 2021 3:44 pm

I really should post here more often than once a month. That makes 12 posts in a year, which is nothing compared to Radioclare's 365 :D !

I have been doing some serious thinking about my study priorities lately. As my spare time is limited I really cannot keep up with four languages actively on a regular basis - that is Arabic, Classical Greek, Latin and Russian. I am however reluctant to give any of them up totally, but still I have to ask myself if I wouldn't be better of focusing on just one or two max intensively for some months - it is a bit like deciding between trying everything on the buffet table or just focus on one of the dishes you really like a lot.

The thing is that I am a bit frustrated by lack of progress in both Arabic and Russian. I find Arabic hard - I am still a long way from being able to read a novel or follow a news programme on TV with some ease. As for Russian, I am at a much higher level, but reading Dostyevsky I realise that I still have tons of vocabulary to learn and I could certainly benefit from doing more grammar drills. You may say that Dostyevsky is literature written in the 19th century so people today don't use all those words, but that is exactly the point - I want my Russian to be at a level where I can both engage with Russians of today and read the great classics from the time of the Tsars.

As for Latin and Classical Greek, I am more relaxed about whether I make a lot of progress or not, I just enjoy the ride and the ability to slowly get more out of reading original texts.

But I have to make some choices, so I have decided that I am going to give top priority to Russian over the next weeks and months. I firmly believe that I can bring my Russian to C1 (at least when it comes to reading and listening) by working more diligently on vocabulary and grammar on a regular basis. I will keep maintaining my current (weak) level in Arabic, but spend less time than I have done so far this autumn. As for Greek and Latin, they will be "distraction languages", something I pick up from time to time but not necessarily every day.

As for other languages, they will just continue to be "passive enjoyment" - I read in Dutch and watch Dutch TV or listen to Dutch radio several times a week, as I do in German, Romansh, Italian etc.
15 x
Ich grolle nicht


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests