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

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

Postby PeterMollenburg » Thu Oct 29, 2020 10:47 am

Ogrim wrote:
Cavesa wrote:The French seem to publish quite a lot of stuff for the Arabic learners. It was one of the things tempting me to try Arabic instead of Hebrew. I wonder, what are the German based learning resources like, if you compare them to the French ones? Are there any general characteristics and differences? These two base languages are still important but get discussed so little on the forum :-)


It is true that you can find a lot of material in French for learning Arabic, but when I did my research a couple of years ago I did not find much that was suited for self-learning from scratch.


What about Ghalib Al-Hakkak's Manuel d'arabe series? They start from scratch and seem to be really quite detailed courses with loads of audio and video. Did you not find the material to your liking, Ogrim?
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SamiraZain
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Re: Ogrim's language experiences - Russian, Romansh, Romanian, Arabic and more

Postby SamiraZain » Thu Oct 29, 2020 4:47 pm

Hey guys! That is such a very interesting topic! Yes it is true. One of the most amazing videos I watched regarding this topic is this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x2q5b7Y-SXM. It is true. I grew up in Egypt and I've been always using French words in my daily conversations without even noticing. Lots of family members names and titles are common between Arabic and English like this list in here https://www.twinkl.com.eg/resource/t-t- ... mat-french and also most of the music instruments are basically French, but then they were added (with their exact French pronunciations) into Arabic, check this one https://www.twinkl.ae/blog/what-are-the ... -for-music and this one https://www.twinkl.com.kw/resource/fr-t ... ing-french

Also it's very important to note that Arabic has lots and lots of accents, for example in Egyptian Arabic we use some French words, but in Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco it's mostly French with some random Arabic words, crazy right?! Check this audio recording and you'll get what I mean https://www.twinkl.com.qa/resource/inte ... -t-mfl-310

Please let me know what do you think of these! And I'm looking forward to more examples!

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

Postby Ogrim » Thu Oct 29, 2020 10:07 pm

PeterMollenburg wrote:What about Ghalib Al-Hakkak's Manuel d'arabe series? They start from scratch and seem to be really quite detailed courses with loads of audio and video. Did you not find the material to your liking, Ogrim?


Sure, I forgot to mention this one, but then I wasn't aiming at making an exhaustive list of resources. Also, although Al-Hakkak's course is French-based, it is not your typical "learn-yourself" course. Just the size of the book is intimidating ;) (it is huge, not something you put in your bag to use when travelling). Secondly, there are no grammar explanations, almost everything is in Arabic script except for translations of phrases and sentences, you really depend on the video and audio to advance. That is not a bad thing in itself, but personally I like to get grammar explained in simple sentences.

I used it for a while, without following Al-Hakkak's method to the letter (I never do with any course), and I think it is a great resource, but it is really for serious desk study and I also think it is better to combine it with other learning material - using just this book without a tutor or teacher can be difficult, especially for someone who is not used to self-study. Using this book with Al-Hakkak as your personal teacher would probably be great.

P.s. It is 23.06 so in 54 minutes I am back in confinement for probably a month or more. Looking forward to being indoors all November spending time on languages. :D
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Arnaud
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Re: Ogrim's language experiences - Russian, Romansh, Romanian, Arabic and more

Postby Arnaud » Fri Oct 30, 2020 3:54 pm

FYI, at the beginning of 2020, Sensei Al-Hakkak has started to published a podcast associated with each page of his 1st book, in french.
His 3 big books are now sold at the "Gibert" bookshop of bvd St-Michel in Paris, for those who would like to leaf throught them.
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Ogrim
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Re: Ogrim's language experiences - Russian, Romansh, Romanian, Arabic and more

Postby Ogrim » Thu Nov 05, 2020 5:08 pm

I have had a very busy few days at work (that is at home working) with all-day interviews via Bluejeans (it's like Zoom but only for business), and that has left me totally exhausted in the evening and therefore my language activities have suffered. It is not healthy to spend 8 hours or more in front of a screen every day - and recruitment interviews demand that you are really concentrated all the time.

I have also been distracted by the ongoing events in USA. I won't enter into politics, but I've always found it baffling that such an advanced and great country as the US of A has such a strange and complicated electoral system (although I do know the historical background for it). Here in France the presidential candidate who gets 50% + 1 of the votes is the winner, so we normally know who has won at the time the voting closes, not days after the election ended. But enough of that, I don't want to enter into a debate, so please don't start a discussion about American politics here. ;)

I have been able to do a little bit of Arabic these days but less than I wanted. My aim was to start on the Romeo and Juliet adaption this weekend, but that will have to wait for a few more days or weeks - I don't feel I am ready yet. I need to build up my vocabulary a bit more, so I don't have to look up every second word.

I have also worked on acquiring vocabulary in Classical Greek, and I have managed a few more pages of Apuleius in Latin, but not as much as I would have liked.

Things should be calmer next week, so I will be able to get back into my routine again.
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Ogrim
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Re: Ogrim's language experiences - Russian, Romansh, Romanian, Arabic and more

Postby Ogrim » Tue Nov 24, 2020 3:02 pm

I thought things were going to get calmer, but it actually got busier at work, or maybe it is just that some things take longer when you are teleworking, so in any case I have not been able to do as much language-wise as I would have liked. Still, I manage to do some Arabic studies every evening. When I have to choose, I stick to Arabic as my main focus, so there has only been the occasional foray into Classical Greek and Latin these last 10 days. I go very slowly with Apuleius - it is not the most difficult Latin I've ever read, but I still have to look up quite a few words and sometimes I am struggling with making sense of the syntax. I guess I should have found a commented edition, but the one I am using is a free downloaded e-book from The Latin Library and it is just the text, no vocabulary lists, grammar explanations or parallel text. So it is more of a challenge, but it also makes the reading experience more pleasant when I do make sense of it.

In Arabic I am mostly doing repetitions and expanding my vocabulary before starting on Romeo and Juliet. When I do start I want to avoid having to look up every other word. As it looks right now I will probably start working on it closer to the Christmas holiday. This year will almost certainly be the first year we do not go to spend the holidays with family in Norway or Spain :( , so I guess it will be a quiet couple of weeks spending a lot of time at home. We still have no idea what will be permitted and what not in a months time.

I have been reading a fair bit of Russian these days - it was about time, because I notice my Russian is still at a level where a continuous effort is needed in order to keep vocabulary and grammar knowledge fresh and expanding. I have a bunch of Russian books on my Kindle, and as I will soon finish the Dostoyevsky biography I will try to pick up a novel for once. I just have to decide if I go for a modern, "easy" novel or something more challenging like the good Dostoyevsky himself. I should also watch more Russian TV to get listening practice, but at least I have managed to watch a few snippets of news on Youtube.
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guyome
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Re: Ogrim's language experiences - Russian, Romansh, Romanian, Arabic and more

Postby guyome » Tue Nov 24, 2020 5:03 pm

Hi Ogrim,
(...) I guess I should have found a commented edition, (...)
I have found the ad usum Delphini editions to be an interesting and valuable tool. The original text is followed by a Latin paraphrase (interpretatio) using different words and a more straightforward syntax, and rather useful notes. Being 17th c. editions, the text and the notes may not be up to date but, to me, being able to rely on a Latin paraphrase more than made up for it. Maybe that's something you'll find handy too.

The original editions show which words have been added to the paraphrase by having them printed in normal font instead of italics (see below dependentibus, meam, etc.). I found this helps when going back-and-forth between the text and the paraphrase. The 19th c. reprints have a critical apparatus.

Links to the 19th c. Valpy reprints
Link to the first volume of the original 1688 Delphin edition of Apuleius.

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

Postby Ogrim » Wed Nov 25, 2020 3:33 pm

Thanks guyome, this looks interesting so I will certainly have a look. The idea of an interpretatio in Latin is something I have not seen before. I guess it is as if you take the works of Chaucer or Milton and add a modern English prose version below.

Yesterday I wanted to watch some videos in Russian and re-discovered the channel Энциклоп. The guy makes great videos about languages, my only problem is that he talks way too fast! Luckily I have now discovered that it is possible to play YouTube videos at slower speed. That is a great help for me when watching certain Russian content. I enjoyed this one about the Norwegian language, although there are one or two minor mistakes in what he says, but I won't be nitpicking.

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

Postby Ogrim » Mon Jan 04, 2021 3:54 pm

Happy new year!

I realise I haven't written anything here in December. In fact I was very busy during the weeks leading up to the holidays, and when they finally came I was tired and felt lazy. I have tried to keep studying a little every day just to keep the flow, but there is not much exciting in that. Some review of Arabic vocabulary, a few pages of Latin, a couple of articles in Russian and my usual reading of stuff in most of my languages.

This is the first year that we have not gone to either Norway or Spain for Christmas, so it was a different experience, but actually quite nice. We enjoyed good food and drink and relaxed at home most of the time. Thanks to modern technology it was also possible to see our relatives far away, although on a screen.

I did watch an Icelandic TV series called Ráðherrann (The Minister). I won't give away any spoilers, just say that it is a well made series about an unconventional politician who becomes Prime Minister of Iceland, but then starts acting strange. What was fun was to see how much, and yet so little, I could understand of Icelandic. Sure I recognise a lot of words, and some very short sentences sound like they could be from a Norwegian dialect, but overall the language is too different and I was certainly not able to follow the dialogues without subtitles.
What is also interesting is that there are quite a few words which sound similar to Norwegian, but where the meaning is not the same. For example, I learnt that "sick" in Icelandic is veikur. In Norwegian there is the word "veik", which means weak. I also found it amusing that a political party is called flokkur, when a "flokk" in Norwegian is a "crowd of people or animals". President is forseti, which seems related to the Norwegian word "foresatt", which more or less means "parent" or "legal guardian". (The literal meaning would be someone who is in the front seat, or put in front of someone.)

So Icelandic seems like a lot of fun, but I am not going to take it up, at least for now. I tend to be a victim of wanderlust lately, and from experience I know that it won't lead to anything if I cannot commit fully to one or max. two new languages at a time. So I will stick to spending my study time mainly on Arabic, hoping to make solid progress this year.

I haven't made any 2020 review, and I decided not to, because 2020 has been a weird year, and most of my admittedly loose plans were not kept. I am therefore not going to make any big plans for this year either - I will just continue with what I have been doing so far, as much as time allows.
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Expugnator
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Re: Ogrim's language experiences - Russian, Romansh, Romanian, Arabic and more

Postby Expugnator » Mon Jan 04, 2021 7:27 pm

Happy New Year, Ogrim!

Just thought I'd join the discussion on French-based Arabic resources:

Voie Express - Arabe - Brigitte et Bassam Tahhan
Méthode 90 - L'arabe d'aujourd'hui en 90 leçons
Langues pour tous - 40 leçons pour parler arabe

Méthode 90 is my second favorite after Assimil (which I know you dislike, but Méthode 90 is like Linguaphone lessons made shorter and with all within 4 pages).
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