Ezrae Via Linguarum Classicarum

[Ezra]

So, it was a pretty hard year for us. Astrologers world-wide were vindicated: the Great Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn did play out harsh for the world. Hopefully, next year will be better for all of us.

So, what about this year language learning-wise? It was not bad, though it was far from ideal. I had some other things to attend to and devoted quite a lot of time to other learning adventures. Here is some stats.

Classical Chinese - 204 hours. Seems like a lot but not really. I feel like to make a breakthrough, I need 1000 hours. But for now, I am in character harvesting mode.

Latin - 180 hours. It got much better but still far from fluent reading. On the bright side, I do not hunt verbs but read normally (albeit slowly, depending on the text).

Hebrew - 111 ½ hours. It was solely devoted to reading the Tanakh. I did not finished it this year as I wanted to, but still got quite far. Finished the Prophets' part and continued to the Writings.

German - 140 hours. Mostly reading, 20 hours of playing a game in German. Close to the end of the year, I've started to read unadapted prose in conjuction with Russian paralled text. Also I've started to listen German podcasts though I do not understand much.

These languages were in the focus last year. Others are bits and pieces: Spanish - 7 hours, Italian - 5 hours, Japanese - 10 minutes .

Plans for the 2021

Well, plans are make to be change and we never know what future holds for us.. Still, after analyzing this year stats I've made some observations.

If we calculate total hours for the main four languages, we get 635. On the one side, it is quite good. On the other, this is only 12 hours a week, which are spread between 4 languages. No wonder my progress in anyone of them is not as good as I would like it be (except Latin, I am more or less satisfed with it). So, my plans for the 2021 is to increase the number of language learning hours to 20+ a week. This would give 1000+ hours. I identified some easy targets to get rid of: it turned out, I spent 100+ hours on reading LitRPGs and another 120+ hours on playing games. Those have to go.

Language-wise, the main focus is going to be German, then Latin, Hebrew and Classical Chinese. I am also thinking about starting Ancient Greek again. I know, I said it is not a good thing to spread limited time on too much languages but I have a glaring hole in my Classical's faculties and this hole is Ancient Greek. They make a lot of Greek references in Latin texts, especially in Renaissance ones. On the other side, learning Ancient Greek is a good way to exercise three languages at one with Zuntz in German, Athenaze in Italian and grammars in Latin.

So, that's an approximate outline for the year 2021.

[Ezra]

It seems I've switched from monthly to quarterly updates .

In general, all is well. I am continuing to learn languages with a focus on Latin and German. First one because it became much easier, so I actually can read books in Latin! It is much less tiring now. There are several books are being read right now:

«Legatio batavica» - still going through it. About ¼ has left.
«Sic et non» by Peter Abelard. I am very interested in scholastic philosophy, so now I trying myself in reading some of original writings. «Sic et non» is, basically, a compendium of the Christian Church Fathers opinions on different philosophical and theological questions, and there is a variety in styles of Latin in it.
«Сicero letters to Atticus» - this one I read in parallel with English Loeb translation.

Goldlist method

Roughly at the same time I've read about two independent things. First one, some people read dictionaries from cover to cover. Second one, about Goldlist method which is analog counterpart of Anki (you have to actually write down words in paper notebooks). There are number of threads on it on this forum. Suddenly I was striken with the idea to work through dictionaries using this method!

For Latin I use two dictionaries. One is quite old 18th-century "A Full Gesner's lexicon" which has a nice feature: words are grouped by roots! So, for example, under "Aedifico" article there will be «superaedificium» as well. But as Gesner's lexicon is quite old, for actual word meanings I use a modern Dvoretsky's dictionary. Gesner's and Dvoretsky's dictionaries are big, so this is going to be a long project.

For German I have found a modern German-Russian dictionary done along the similar lines: words are grouped by root or root word. It is very neat as German has a lot of compound words. This dictionary has about 12000 words. German has too much unknown words , and I hope this will help to bootstrap my reading. Currently reading takes too much time because of too many unknown words.

It turned out I like this method a lot comparing to Anki. First, I like to write by hand. Second, I memorize a lot of words actually. Grouping, probably, helps a lots.

Hebrew

I read several Tanach's books and currently on Esther. There were few quite difficult poetic books, but Esther is much easier to read.

[Ezra]

There is an (un)expected change in my language plans. Obviously, we — language learners — rarely stray from our well-developed plans. Having Iron wills and infatigable, we are hell-bound on archiving our New Years plans. Still, sometimes, we make small changes.

And the change I am talking about is that Japanese is back.

Why?

The Original Plan

Well, first, when I was putting Japanese on the back burner, my original plan was

1. Learn Classical Chinese
2. ????
3. GLORIA AETERNA Triumphantly return to learning Japanese.

After almost two years of Classical Chinese I've made two observations.

1. Classical Chinese is in no way "impossible" even if one does not want to learn Modern Chinese first. The road is clear. The necessary tools are here.
2. The road is going to be very long.

So when I will reach its end, I will have forgotten all Japanese already, and having devoted so much time to it, I do not really want to lose it. I watched several videos in Japanese (like this one and this one) and realized that I understand quite a lot. More, listening Japanese and playing a game in Japanese was so exhilarating that I've understood: I need my Japanese fix.

The Goldlist Grail

The third thing that made me reconsider is the Goldlist method. It works really well for me. Actually, it works better than Anki and it did not annoy me as Anki does. Somehow, it is much easier for me to calmly write and speak out words than to bear with Ankish button-clicking frenzy. It is also much healthy.

Also I made some crude math backed up by practical experience and it seems that goldlisting is much less time-consuming. On the surface, it might look like otherwise but try to set an Anki deck to 40 new words a day. I do not mean adding them, let's consider they are already in. Still, 40 words a day is quite a lot, and the total number of reviews will quickly build up. The Goldlist process is much more linear. It is also much more flexible. Using Anki one might face hundreds upon hundreds of reviews after few days missed. This is not the case for goldlisting.

So the Goldlist method answers my problem with acquiring and retaining vocabulary. I've tried it for Latin and German, but I had the same problem before albeit amplified with Japanese. I am not going though to work though the dictionary as for those two — this would be too much. I am going to mine words in other way. This is where the Bear is coming into play.

Going Back into Japanese

How to get back into Japanese? thought I and decided that playing old good Danganronpa again is the ideal way to get back on the road of Japanese language supremacy ! "To learn and at due times to repeat what one has learnt, is that not after all a pleasure?" - as Confucius said . My main problem back then with playing and reading in Japanese was Japanese words were too fast getting out of my memory. Now, two factors will, hopefully, help to combat it.

The first one is my new aforedescribed Goldlist routine.

The second one is that now, after my Classical Chinese studies I look different on Kanji/Hanzi. Meaning of many individual kanji was very fuzzy for me. Earlier I would look brief descriptions in Tagaini Jisho (a Japanese application I use) and it would be like this: ok, here we have word "fear" of two kanjis - "fear" and "fear", great, impeccable logic .

Now it is different. For characters I use Gran Ricci - the best western CC dictionary. Every character now is not a brief (and at times errouneus KanjiDic description) but a full-pledged word with rich etimology and range of meanings which can be connected to each other. So while playing Danganronpa I will not only mine words for goldlisting but also characters for my Classical Chinese studies.

The Bear is Back

Now, why Danganronpa? First, I've like it and I played it already on the one side, on the other - first few minutes have shown I've forgot a lot of Japanese words. It is better to repeat it over again. Second, Danganronpa has a really good balance between text and audio. Visual novel part is partly (no pun intended) voiced and trials (it is a kind of crime story with a touch of bearish madness) are fully voiced. So there is a lot of content.

So, the Monochrome Bear is back as well as Japanese!

[Ezra]

After my decision to return to Japanese, I got an additional justification. It turns out there is an absolutely fabulous Classical Chinese-Japanese 15-volume dictionary called「大漢和辞典」(Dai Kan-wa Jiten)", arguably, the best one among all Classical Chinese dictionaries. So, Japanese has become fully justified, and it gave me an additional push (in my worldview a language is "useful" if it is either classical or can help significantly for learning classical language(s); call this my answer to career utilitarians out there).

This means playing Dangaronpa brings me closer to reading Classical Confucian texts which is my primary goal for Classical Chinese. Therefore I devised a combined routine targeted on effective memorizing Japanese words and mining characters for my CC studies. Here it is.

Japanese & Classical Chinese combined routine

1) Play some Danganronpa and write down all unknown words (obviously I look them in dictionary in order to understand what's going on but I write them down in a specific text file).

2) Lately goldlist all these words. I estimated they should be memorized quite effectively as they were found in an engaging context. Comparing to normal Goldlist routine (here in-no-way-affiliated link for those who interested in the method) I've made a small change: every kanji-word takes two lines - one for word+meaning, another for word+pronunciation spelled in hiragana. Even in this regard Japanese is much more effort-consuming as a typical twenty lines set now serve only ten words but this approach is much more effective for memorizing plus it gives more kanji writing practice.

3) After writing a set of words, I check whether any character is not in my Classical Chinese deck. If not (this happens quite often) I look it in the Grand Ricci dictionary and copy its entry. Sometimes a character is a Japanese simplification of a proper CC one - in this case I make an entry for a classical character and put a Japanese variant into a specific deck field.

4) Lately I go through new characters by writing and rewriting them in my special chinese character copybook while repeating their key meaning in my broken spoken French (Grand Ricci is in French).

So it is a quite thorough procedure but I estimate it to be more time effective in the long run due to better memorizing of words and much better understanding of characters' meaning. Let's take, for example, 準備 「じゅんび」(preparation, arrangements) which I had to search over and over again in my previous Danganronpa run (and I had to look it this time anew! )

An analysis of 準備

Here is how KanjiDic (an open-source collaborative kanji dictionary) defines both characters:

準 - semi-, correspond to, proportionate to, conform, imitate
備 - equip, provision, preparation

Now 備 is easy. It is "preparation" (though it is also "equip"). But how and why the hell 準 + 備 gives us 準備 meaning-wise? It is not that old Japanese scholars or writers just put some good-looking character together (oh, we have 備 for "preparation" but we need two syllables at least, so 準 will do and "junbi" sounds good). And this "semi-" looks really out-of-place.

The problem with Kanjidic's definitions is that they are derived from meanings of compound words which, in their turn, derived from a proper Classical Chinese meanings of their constituent characters, so there are a lot of distortion and disjointment in final Kanjidic's meanings that makes them hard to remember.

Let's look 準 in Le Grand Ricci.

Note : Avant les dyn. 北魏 Wei du Nord et 晉 Jin, ce car. et celui du n. 准 zhǔn étaient souvent empl. l’un pr l’autre.
Plan; horizontal. Aplanir; niveler.
Niveau (un instrument); fil à plomb.
Rabot.
Établir l’équilibre. Égaliser. Égal.
Ajuster. Juste.
Norme; modèle; règle; référence; standard.
Certain; fixé; précis; exact. Précisément.
(Mus. chin. – anc.) Nom d’une grande cithare de 10 pieds de long et à treize cordes, qui servait à accorder les autres instruments de musique.
Prendre pr modèle ou pr norme. Imiter.
Imiter; reproduire; copier (un modèle).
Être assimilé à, comparable à; considéré comme. Quasi- (p. ext.)

So, now it is clear. We start from "plane", then go to "spirit level tool", then to adjusting (using this tool) and establishing norms, models, rules and standards, and - finally - following this rules and models and imitating them. 準備 then means "preparation according certain rules or following certain standard", "proper preparations".

Even this mysterious "semi-" is clear now. In some words it indicates a lesser imitation of a more perfect entity. For example, 準急 「じゅんきゅう」"Semi-express train, local express train, sub-express train, slower than an express (more stops)." - a lesser imitation of an originally perfect express train!

It works the other way

I've noticed that learning compound words helps to retrieve meaning of individual characters. Not only I've memorized 準備 as an individual compound word, I can now more easier retrieve meanings of individual characters if they are to be treated as fully-pledged words (as it is in Classical Chinese) because every compound Japanese word is a mini-sentence which already provides a small but substantial context. That's why Japanese and Classical Chinese really walk hand in hand!

[Ezra]

Another three months have passed, another update!

Goldlisting

I had started to goldlist four languages (Latin, German, Hebrew and Japanese) in March and, as someone could easily predict, eventually crashed (in May). After some thought, I stopped adding new words for Hebrew and Latin, bringing the list down to German and Japanese.

Latin

I have almost finished "Legatio Batavica". Only about 15-20 pages are left. Now I realise this work is not only not really easy but it is also written in a quite clumsy style. Author might imitate Cicero but he is no Cicero . "Legatio" is not the only thing I read now in Latin. Abelard and Bonaventure joined the company. The latter has an interesting work "De profectu religiosum" which is intended for new monks but it is also quite interesting for anyone pursuing a big goal outside of regular mundane domains. For example, he gives a clear analysis of harmful emotions (such as pride, avarice, hate and so on), why they are bad and how to combat them.

Language-wise these medievals are easier: not only their syntax is less convoluted, but vocabulary is much less varied than in "Legatio" (this is probably because of difference in topics).

I've also returned to Adler's book and making translations from English to Latin. I remember it became intolerable somewhere about 30th lesson but now, after 1000+ pages of Latin read and a stronger grasp on its grammar, it should go much smoother and might open a path to writing in Latin.

Plans: start learning Aeneid by heart. I've to a conclusion that learning poems/texts by heart in a target language is the one of a few real "shortcuts" to learn it to a high level (another one is Goldlisting). Aeneid seems to be a little big - about 9000+ verses ... but well... Anything memorized will help. If learning a whole thing will turn out to be impossible for some unexpected reason I will select some inspiring passages. Also after finished "Legatio Batavica" I will probably start another travelogue (this time in Russian setting).

Hebrew

I've finished "Nehemiah". It is an interesting story about restoring/installing (depending on a reader's outlook) a desired order of things in spite of many difficulties and adversaries. There are only too books left: Chronicles I and II. Chronicle I is quite monotonous: it is mostly a enumeration of who begot whom and who ruled what.

I am also exploring Sefaria these days. They have a very convenient interface for reading books in Hebrew and there is a very decent choice.

Plans: start learning Psamls by heart. As for books to read after Tanach here is an approximate list: Benjamin of Tudela's travelogue (it seems to be easy in style and vocabulary), Halevi's "Kuzari" (I have a Hebrew-Latin parallel edition) and Ibn Gabirol's works. Hebrew book tradition is very rich and there is a plentiful choice.

German

Not in focus now but slowly improving. Goldlisting, it seems, helps not only by memorizing goldlisted world but also to faster memorize unknown words in general. I've started a Stellaris run in German and it is going quite fine. Somewhat slow but tolerable. There is a lot of new vocabulary but it is being repeated all the time.

Japanese and Classical Chinese

I am very satisfied with my new combined Goldlist+Anki routine I've described earlier. The only downside — it requires A LOT OF time. But it seems to be the only way for me to finally remember decent amount of Japanese & CC vocabulary. Writing it down helps a lot.

Plans: well, yes, you guess correctly. Memorizing. I've come to a conclusion that in order to be able to read CC fluently and to reach this level fast (say, ten years instead of thirty) traditional techniques has to be employed. I will start with "Three Character Classic". For pronunciation — Palladius system following medieval learners of Classical Chinese from Japan, Korea and Vietnam who used their local phonetic systems.

(I really should blog more often as every post turns out to be a medium-size novel .)

[malach]

I've to a conclusion that learning poems/texts by heart in a target language is the one of a few real "shortcuts" to learn it to a high level

I remember at school, my first eye-opener to how different people's learning abilities could be was coming back after summer to find some of my classmates had memorised all the parts of Aeneid we were studying! They were trading latin verses back and forth. This ability seemed completely beyond me at the time. Of course, they were on their way to A grades in Latin and A levels in classics - I just about scraped a B, using my own special ability ... writing a computer program to train me on vocabulary...

start learning Aeneid by heart.

Good luck!

I was interested to read how you are using Goldlisting and why. I also prefer it to Anki or similar. Somehow, with the computer-based systems, I feel a pressure to actually get things right - you are 'penalised' for getting something wrong as it adds to your upcoming review list. With Goldlisting, I'm only expected to remember about a third of the words after two weeks! And nothing's forcing me to work on the next due list until I'm ready. It's so much more relaxed.

[Ezra]

writing a computer program to train me on vocabulary...

Good luck!

Thanks! Actually, I am not a pro-memorizer and did not really trained all these years in order to undertake this task . I did some memorizing in school though, but it was a long time ago, so it is a novel experience for me especially in the context of language learning.

I was interested to read how you are using Goldlisting and why. I also prefer it to Anki or similar. Somehow, with the computer-based systems, I feel a pressure to actually get things right - you are 'penalised' for getting something wrong as it adds to your upcoming review list. With Goldlisting, I'm only expected to remember about a third of the words after two weeks! And nothing's forcing me to work on the next due list until I'm ready. It's so much more relaxed.

So true! Much more stress-free and free-form. Another advantage is less time spent staring at the screen.

By the way, here is my Goldlist supplies (Goldist-ready! )

[MorkTheFiddle]

Hmm. Your approach to goldlisting looks a lot more inviting than my approach.

[Ezra]

July was very productive. August is lazy and slow as I've took a vacation and moved to my dacha .

Classical Chinese - I've found a new direction of study. At first, I tried to learn by heart Three Character Classics but as a result I found an interesting way to mine and assimilate characters. Here is what I did.

1) Read ten verses and put all unknown characters to Anki.
2) Work through these character as usual (write every one of them ten times etc.)
3) Now write down every verse 5-6 times. I use lined copybooks - these allows to write from top to down (as it is customary in Chinese). In a line next to the line with characters I write pronunciation in Palladius system. (I wanted to post a photo but I do not have this copybook at hand)

It seems characters are much better learned after these routine, so my goal is to work through TCC this way until the end of the year.

Latin

Learned several dozens of verses for a test. Not quite easy but very satisfying. I did not use any special mnemonic tricks like building a Memory palace this time but it will be probably necessary for learning more than couple of hundreds verses.

Continue to go through Adler's grammar. Also continue to read Latin from different books.

Hebrew

Not much progress done. Still going through first Chronicles.

Italian

Here is where a minor change in plans lies: I was instructed in a dream to focus on Italian, and decided to follow this advice . I've started to work through "Grammatica in contesto" and watch "Italian automatico" on Youtube.

German

Goldlisting mostly.

[verdastelo]

I just stopped by to tell you that your Classical Chinese journey is inspiring. I will want to follow in your footsteps in a couple of years. Keep going!

I also wanted to share a bunch of 文言文 graded readers for Korean children which can be found on 사이버서당. They are legally free.

On 사이버서당, you can read easy texts with translations (in Korean), grammar explanations, and an in-built dictionary with pretty comprehensive definitions. Even someone who knows only a hundred characters can read the first sentence in the image: 上有天.下有地. (Overhead is the firmament and [right] beneath [you] is the Earth.)



In Russian itself, I recently came across Крюков and Хуан Шуин's Древнекитайский язык, which, it seems, can be used to study Classical Chinese on your own.

Good luck!