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

[Ogrim]

Russian
I have had a couple of classes in my B2/C1 group and we are working on some quite advanced texts from online news sites. One is about the burkini controversy in France and another one about American-Russian relations. A lot of useful vocabulary for discussing politics, but I won't go there on this forum.

I have realised that the extensive reading in Russian which I did over the summer (more than 400 pages in a few weeks) has had a very positive result on my vocabulary. However, I notice that my grammar has got worse. In the last class I made some elementary mistakes which was not the case a couple of months back. I even got a blank when having to use the first person present of ездить (to go by vehicle). The lesson I draw from this is that I must stop being lazy and kidding myself believing that my Russian will get better only through reading and listening to the language. It is time to pick up the grammar book again, do some drill exercises and start writing in Russian.

Arabic
Progress is painfully slow, due to lack of time. I have concentrated on Langenscheidt, and focus is mostly on vocabulary acquisition, as for some reason Arabic words don't stick very easily in my brain. I am not in a hurry, but I wish I could set aside some more time during the week for this language. I really enjoy it when I do have some time to study.

I am soon of to Portugal. I have just watched a couple of the videos recommended by Iguanamon, no serious study. In any case I am just going there for three days, two of which will be spent at a conference where the common language is English (of course), so I guess I will get along just fine with English, and if need be speak portuñol.

[Ogrim]

It is a week since I am back from my short trip to Lisbon, but it has been incredibly hectic this last week, with a lot to catch up on at work and some important family business to take care of, so little time for studying and even less time for being on the forum.

Linguistically speaking there is nothing much to say about my stay in Lisbon - apart from the fact that I met up with forum member Luso, who was kind enough to take me around the city for a longish walk while giving me interesting conversation. We also had dinner together a couple of nights. Thank you Luso for the time you spent with me, it was highly appreciated.

The sad thing is that my Langenscheidt Arabic course book disappeared during the trip . I don't know whether it fell out of my bag on the plane going there or I somehow mislaid it in the hotel room. Thing is, when I packed my bag to go back home I could not find it. I can hardly suspect any of the hotel staff of taking it, after all, who would steal a German-based Arabic course?? Anyway, if I am going to continue with Arabic I guess I will have to buy a new book.

My interest in Portuguese has of course been awaken by my visit to Lisbon, and when I was waiting for my flight back I bought a Portuguese historical novel, Assim Nasceu Portugal by Domingos Amaral. It is the first volume of a trilogy about the birth of Portugal as a nation, and it has sold very well in Portugal. I haven't really had time to start reading it yet, just a few pages while on the plane, but it does not look too difficult - I just need to look up a word here or there which I do not recognise from my knowledge of other Romance languages.

[Luso]

Linguistically speaking there is nothing much to say about my stay in Lisbon - apart from the fact that I met up with forum member Luso, who was kind enough to take me around the city for a longish walk while giving me interesting conversation. We also had dinner together a couple of nights. Thank you Luso for the time you spent with me, it was highly appreciated.

Likewise, thank you. Sorry to read about your lost book, though.

[Ogrim]

Linguistically speaking there is nothing much to say about my stay in Lisbon - apart from the fact that I met up with forum member Luso, who was kind enough to take me around the city for a longish walk while giving me interesting conversation. We also had dinner together a couple of nights. Thank you Luso for the time you spent with me, it was highly appreciated.

Likewise, thank you. Sorry to read about your lost book, though.

Thanks Luso. It is just a book, so easy to replace, but it means I will have to fork out 40 euros again. And Langenscheidt doesn't let you buy only the book, the pack always comes with the CDs, which I already have of course.

[Ogrim]

I will start this post by quoting myself from another thread:

Right now I am struggling with deciding whether to give up Arabic (again) which I started this year, to be able to spend more time on advancing in Russian. On the one hand I really want to learn Arabic, but on the other hand I want to get to a C1 level in Russian, and that will require putting in a lot more time than I do currently. Choices, choices...

As for my advanced and "semi-advanced" languages, what I do is to find ways of using them pursuing my other interests. Not only does it help to advance and keep my languages, but it also opens up fresh perspectives and gives different points of views compared to sticking mostly to literature and articles written in English with an Anglo-American perspective, whether it is with regard to European history and politics, astronomy, religion or food and wine.

I have decided not to give up Arabic. I had a pause for a couple of weeks, so I will need to revise more or less from scratch again, but a new copy of Langenscheidt is on its way (should arrive on Monday next if Amazon keep their promise) and in the meantime I have spent a little bit of time listening to the audio of the three first lessons and I have also found the odd moment to use the Madinah Arabic app, which at least is great for drilling simple sentences and revising some vocabulary. Lady Grey has had the excellent idea of creating Team Middle East, and that is an additional inspiration to pursue my Arabic studies.

I still need to work on my Russian in a more structured way. I read a lot, listen to the news and to Russian music, but I produce too little output and I have to go back to doing grammar and vocabulary drills again. I did a few exercises last weekend relating to use of perfective vs. imperfective and choosing the right case after different prepositions. The problem is that my days are very hectic so I cannot put in as many hours as I wish or even find a good consistent rythm. Still some is better than nothing.

Turning to the second paragraph of my quote, I normally don't list here everything I do in every language, but I would like to expand a bit just to give some examples of how I combine languages with other interests.

Astronomy/cosmology is one of my little hobbies, and lately I have been concentrating on reading some books and magazines mostly in French about this. I've already mentioned the books of Etienne Klein earlier in this thread. There is also a nice French magazine called Ciel & espace which I read on my iPad thanks to the application le Kiosk. There I also found a an Italian magazine called Le Scienze, and the latest number had a very interesting article about the Schiaparelli mission to march, which as we know did not have a happy ending.

As regards German, I tend to read more about European history and politics in this language. I am currently reading an essay with the rather long title Grossbritannien, die EU und die liberale Vision für Europa: Zwischen Brexit, Politischer Union und Reform, I recently finished a books about the history of Switzerland and my next book on the German list is Freiheit statt Demokratie: Russlands Weg und die Illusionen des Westens, which promises to be intersting reading with a rather different take on Russia than what you read in most Western newspapers nowadays. Apart from reading, I also watch a little bit of German TV, and most days I listen to parts of the programme Mittagsecho from WDR/NDR during my lunch break.

I could have given a lot more examples, but I don't want to be boring. I'll just mention one more thing, as I talk about food and wine in the quote: When in Lisbon I came across a magazine called Revista de vinhos - para apreciadores exigentes and bought a copy. I know quite a lot about wine from France and Spain, but very little about Portuguese wine, and this magazine gave me a good opportunity to learn more about it reading in Portuguese. As they have a good website I can continue to read about wine in Portuguese once I've finished the magazine. (Now I just need to find out where I can buy Portuguese wine, it is not easy to come across here in France.)

[Ogrim]

When I was a kid I used to enjoy tongue twisters in Norwegian, and sometimes in my family we would play a game where everyone had to take turns repeating a set of tongue twisters as quickly as possible. Whoever got something wrong lost and was eliminated from the round. Tongue twisters are normally harder the more times you repeat the same one.

Yesterday I had some fun working on some Russian tongue twisters I found on the net (I know, I should have studied grammar instead, but I was tired ) so I thought I would just share a few of them here for other Russian learners to give it a try:

У вас наш нож и у нас ваш нож.

Кукушка кукушонку купила капюшон.
Надел кукушонок капюшон,
В капюшоне кукушонок смешон.

Чеpепахa, не скучaя, чaс сидит зa чaшкой чaя.

В четверг четвёртого числа четыре четверти часа
Четыре чёрненьких, чумазеньких чертёнка
Чертили чёрными чернилами чертёж.
Чрезвычайно чисто.

Иди, что же ты стоишь?

The last one is actually not a tongue twister as such, but a line from a song by МакSим, a very popular Russian pop artist. However, when I tried to sing along I had a hard time getting all those consonants right, so I thought I would include it here. The song is called Иди (Go!). Here is a video clip of the song:

[Ogrim]

Русский язык
Сегодня я в первый раз хочу что-то писать по-русски в этом журнале. В прошлой неделе я много читал по-русски но я чуть никогда не пишу на русском языке у это нельзя. Я прежде всего читал статьи русских газет но я тоже начал читать книгу называемую «Гнилое яблоко» Натальи Сальниковы. Я уже прочитал другую книгу той же писательницы, «Страсть», которая мне очень понравилась. Мне не слишком трудно её понимать несмотря на то, что мне надо искать много слов. Но я читаю по «Kindle» и есть электронный словарь.

For the first time, I want to write something in Russian in this log. Last week I read a lot in Russian but I almost never write anything and that cannot be. I read above all articles from Russian newspapers, but I also started a new book which is called “Rotten apple” by Natalia Salnikova. I already read another of her books, “Passion”, which I enjoyed very much. It is not too hard to understand although I must look up a lot of words. However, I read it on my Kindle which has an electronic dictionary.

By the way, please feel free to point out the errors in my Russian text

Romontsch
Jeu less auch scriver sin romontsch, perquei ch’ei fa bia temps che jeu scrivel nuot sin quei bia lungatg ed uss vi jeu recumandar per tgi ha bein la musica clasica in program che jeu hai viu ier sin RTR. Ei setracta da in omagi al cumponist romontsch Gion Antoni Derungs, ch’ins considerescha in dils pli gronds cumponists svizzers. El ei morts en 2012, ed il program datta da quei onn. Tuttas las persunas dil program tschontschan sursilvan ed ei dat suttetels sin tudestg.

Il davos temps hai jeu buca saviu dedicar bia temps al romontsch, aber jeu legel La Quotidiana mintgadi, e da temps en temps vesel jeu in pogram sin RTR. Jeu drovel era anflar il temps per il roman “Hannes” da Oscar Peer, che fuss igl emprem cudisch sin vallader che jeu vegnel a leger.

I also want to write in Romansh, because I have not written anything in this beautiful language for a long time. I want to recommend to those of you who like classical music a programme I saw on RTR yesterday. It is a tribute to the late Romansh composer Gion Antoni Derungs. He is considered one of the greatest Swiss composers. He died in 2012, and the programme was made that year. All the persons who appear in the programme speak Sursilvan, and there are German subtitles.

I haven’t had much time to dedicate to Romansh lately, but I do read the newspaper “La Quotidiana every day, and from time to time I watch a programme on RTR. I should also find time for the novel “Hannes”, which would be the first book I read in Vallader.

Arabic
Slowly picking up speed again. Yesterday I bought a French-Arabic dictionary as well as this little book from Larousse. They call it a visual dictionary but it is not a dictionary in the traditional sense. Words are grouped by theme, as in a tourist phrase book, so you get a collection of words related to e.g. work, the house, the body, vegetables, IT etc. I do think it can be helpful to build vocabulary for an absolute beginner, but I would not recommend it to anyone more advanced in Arabic.

[vonPeterhof]

Сегодня я в первый раз хочу что-тонибудь написать по-русски в этом журнале. ВНа прошлой неделе я много читал по-русски, но я чутьпочти никогда не пишу на русском языке у это нельзя. Я прежде всего читал статьи русских газет, но я тожетакже начал читать книгу, называемую «Гнилое яблоко» Натальи Сальниковыой. Я уже прочитал другую книгу той же писательницы, «Страсть», которая мне очень понравилась. Мне не слишком трудно её понимать несмотря на то, что мне надо искать много слов. Но я читаю пона «Kindle» и есть электронный словарь.

.

Comments about the underlined bits:
-Did you mean to say "Today I want to write in Russian for the first time" or "Today's the first time I've wanted to write in Russian". The way you phrased it kind of implies the latter. For the former it would be better to say "Сегодня я хочу в первый раз..."

-"писать" would have worked better if you had omitted "что-то/что-нибудь". Otherwise it should be "написать".

-Did you mean to say "I almost never write in Russian and that's a bad thing"? It should probably be "я почти никогда не пишу на русском языке, а так нельзя" or "я почти никогда не пишу на русском языке, и это плохо".

-"называемую" isn't necessarily wrong, but it's a bit stilted; "которая называется" or "под названием" would come across more naturally. Additionally, placing the author's name at the end there is a bit awkward, unless you leave out "называемую" entirely. So, I would have said either "книгу Натальи Сальниковой под названием «Гнилое яблоко»" or "книгу «Гнилое яблоко» Натальи Сальниковой".

[Ogrim]

Thank you for the corrections vonPeterhof, very useful.

-Did you mean to say "Today I want to write in Russian for the first time" or "Today's the first time I've wanted to write in Russian". The way you phrased it kind of implies the latter. For the former it would be better to say "Сегодня я хочу в первый раз..."

It was the latter meaning I was trying to convey, yes. It is not the first time ever that I write in Russian, but the first time I write it in my log.

-Did you mean to say "I almost never write in Russian and that's a bad thing"? It should probably be "я почти никогда не пишу на русском языке, а так нельзя" or "я почти никогда не пишу на русском языке, и это плохо".

That was the meaning yes. In fact I was unsure whether нельзя could be used in this sense.

-"называемую" isn't necessarily wrong, but it's a bit stilted; "которая называется" or "под названием" would come across more naturally. Additionally, placing the author's name at the end there is a bit awkward, unless you leave out "называемую" entirely. So, I would have said either "книгу Натальи Сальниковой под названием «Гнилое яблоко»" or "книгу «Гнилое яблоко» Натальи Сальниковой".

Thank you. My Russian teacher always tells me to make it simple, but sometimes I want to try more complex constructions with participles. I can understand why it came across as stilted in this sentence though.

[Ogrim]

Deutsch
Am letzten Wochenende bin ich in Karlsruhe gewesen. Es ist so wie eine Familietradition dass wir jedes Jahr einige Wochen vor Weihnachten nach Karlsruhe fahren um Weihnachtsgeschenke zu kaufen und den kleinen Weihnachtsmarkt besuchen. In Karlsruhe gibt es viele Geschäfte die wir nicht in Frankreich haben, obwohl da sind natürlich auch alle die großen multinationalen Laden, die man heute in jeder Stadt der Welt findet. Wir essen auch immer in demselben Wirtshaus, wo sie badische und bayerische Spezialitäten servieren.

Karlsruhe ist nicht eine sehr schöne Stadt, und deshalb auch nicht eine Stadt, die viele Touristen besuchen. Ich gebe zu, dass dies mir gefällt, weil die Leute gern auf Deutsch mit dir sprechen. Die Stadt ist vor allem bekannt als Sitz des Bundesverfassungsgerichts, und vielleicht auch für das Karlsruher Schloss, das von Markgraf Karl Wilhelm von Baden-Durlach in 18. Jahrhundert errichtet geworden ist. Heute ist das Schloss Sitz des Badischen Landesmuseums. Das Stadtzentrum besteht aber aus modernen, funktionellen Gebäuden die nicht bemerkenswert sind.

Français
Le marché de Noël de Strasbourg est bien sûr beaucoup plus grand et renommé que celui de Karlsruhe, mais je n’aime plus le visiter. À cause de la menace terroriste, le centre-ville est actuellement « sous siège », on ne peut pas entrer en voiture, il y a des points de contrôle partout où il faut montrer sa carte d’identité et où les sacs et les poches sont fouillés. Bien sûr, le marché est si beau comme toujours, et il vaut mieux qu’il y a des contrôles vu la situation actuelle. Cependant, je ne trouve pas l’ambiance de Noël quand je vois des centaines de soldats avec des fusils qui patrouillent dans les rue du marché. Donc on visite plutôt les marchés de Noël en Allemagne.

Je ne vais pas parler de la politique, mais qui suit le débat sur le Brexit ne peut pas éviter de voir souvent l’expression anglais « have your cake and eat it ». En français les journaux traduisent cette expression par « vouloir le beurre et l’argent du beurre », ce qui me parait plus clair et précis que l’expression anglaise. Connaissez-vous des expressions similaires dans d’autres langues ?

Translation
Last weekend we went to Karlsruhe, which has become a family tradition a few weeks before Christmas. We go to buy presents and to visit the small Christmas market in the city. Karlsruhe has several shops which you don’t find in France, although there as everywhere you see the same multinational chain stores. We also always eat at the same Inn, which serves specialities from Baden Württemberg and Bavaria.

Karlsruhe is not a very beautiful city, and therefore not a city with a lot of tourists. I must say I like that, because it means people are more ready to only speak German to you. The city is mostly known as the seat of the German constitutional court, and maybe also because of the castle which as built for Count Karl Wilhelm of Baden-Durlach in the 18th century. Today it is the museum of the “land” Baden Württemberg. The city centre mostly consists of modern, functional buildings which are of no particular interest.

The Christmas market in Strasbourg is certainly much bigger and more famous than the one in Karlsruhe, but I no longer like to visit it. Because of the terrorist threat it’s like the city centre is under siege. You cannot enter by car, there are checkpoints everywhere and you have to show ID and have your bag and pockets searched. Of course, the market is still as pretty as always, and in the current situation it is better that there are strict controls, but I don’t get the Christmas feeling when I see hundreds of soldiers with guns patrolling de streets. That is why I rather go to Germany.

I won’t talk about politics, but whoever follows the Brexit debate cannot avoid hearing or reading the expression “have your cake and eat it”. In French they translate this as “want the butter and the money for the butter”, which to me seams clearer and more precise than the English expression. Do you know a similar expression in other languages?

With regard to serious language learning, November has been a bad month. The "end-of-the-year - time-to-panic" feeling at work came even earlier than usual, where unreasonable demands just have to be met because, well, it is almost the end of the year!!!!!!!

Seriously though, I continue working on my Russian whenever I can, although it is mostly reading, watching Youtube videos and listening to music. As for Arabic, I rather not go there, I have probably spent the massive amount of max. three hours during the month of November. I really hope I can do a lot more during the Christmas holidays.