Lemus log

[Lemus]

A couple weeks in now into my Spanish-heavy period. The Anki reviews for Italian did not drop off as much as I would hoping so I did not start building the Spanish deck the way I had hoped but Italian is now down to a manageable 50 a day or so (from a sum total of 1,167 now with the leech cards removed).

Three total Spanish books down, which puts me well ahead of pace! Embarking on my fourth now, Mauricio Rosencof’s Las Cartas que no Llegaron, a novel written by an Uruguayan man who was once active in the Tupamoro guerillas. Given how short this is I will probably be done with my Spanish goals by the end of May so I think I will add an ambitious sixth book, perhaps something by Mario Vargas Llosa.

Vocab-wise I will probably need an additional book. I’m at just 398 towards my goal of 1,000. I’m also watching a great deal of Spanish-language Netflix but I’m not always writing down words.

Pimsleur Persian is also finally finished! It’s a real shame they don’t have more lessons as I really liked the format. Since my morning commute has become “Persian time” I am going to try out some podcasts so I can keep the audio input going.

[Lemus]

It’s been a rather long time since I’ve updated the log. There are three reasons for this. The first is that I have been busier than usual, the second is that once you fall out of the habit it is harder to get back into it, and the third is that for a stretch I was not making the progress I would have liked and part of me was a bit reluctant to post that (this is partially, but not entirely, due to the busyness).

Also some circumstances in my life has changed to where it would be really beneficial if I were to be able to speak at least basic Portuguese. I have been kicking around starting that one for a while but now I am just going to go for it.

Anyhow now I’m mostly finished with level one of Pimsleur and going strong. In a couple of months I think I’ll dive into some Netflix shows and grammar books once I have a firmer base established. Not shockingly, it already has proven much easier than Farsi given my background in Romance languages.

This means, of course, that I am shortchanging Farsi. I was listening to podcasts in the morning (Learn Persian with Chai and Conversation-I would recommend) but otherwise not doing too much. I am still listening to the occasional podcast to not lose everything but clearly Farsi is just going to go on hold for a while. Unfortunate but necessary.

With Spanish meanwhile I finished my seventh book. Up to 858 on Anki as of today. I initially said only five books but I also said 1,000 words and those words have to come from somewhere. I like the thought of going for a nice clean ten but I do want to pivot away from too much Spanish once I start doing Portuguese native materials. Therefore I think I will cut off once I get to 1,000 words and then move onto German, which I am pretty sure will clash less with Portuguese.

Hopefully I will not take another three months to update this log again!

[Lemus]

Alright, I’m back to regular log updating!

I cleared level 1 of Pimsleur Brazilian Portuguese an am moving along to level two. I am quite pleased at my consistency in doing the lessons and the amount I’m retaining (quite a bit more than with Persian, obviously because of the Spanish connection to draw from). One thing I am still not sure of is when I begin the more intensive Netflix/reading/Anki period. For now I’m just sticking with Pimsleur and I’ll see when I feel ready to move on.

I hit 960 words in Spanish Anki meaning that I should reach 1,000 by the end of the week. That also means I will probably end up going considerably over since I’m only halfway through my ninth book.

Some comments on my ninth book: I am reading Canta Irlandesa by Javier Reverte. I love travel books and something I realize increasingly is that the genre is dominated by Americans and Englishmen. It’s hard to find books originally written in other languages. I have started actively seeking them out and am enjoying what I have found.

In this particular case, Reverte, as a Spaniard, has an interesting connection with Irish culture. He shares an upbringing in a strongly Catholic culture and many people he encounters seem very pro-Spanish based on their historic feud with the English (it is remarkable how often the Spanish Armada seems to be coming up). The passage where he describes what The Quiet Man, shot in Ireland in technicolor in the 1950s, meant to him as a child living in dour post-Civil War Madrid is also quite moving. I love Bill Bryson and Paul Theroux but that is not a passage that either of them could write.

Anyway, strongly recommended and I intend on reading more of Reverte’s work later.

[Fortheo]

I just started pimsleur's Brazilian Portuguese too. It seems like a fun language this far. I'll be interested to see how you choose to continue your studies after pimsleur.

[Lemus]

I just started pimsleur's Brazilian Portuguese too. It seems like a fun language this far. I'll be interested to see how you choose to continue your studies after pimsleur.

I will keep you posted!

I finished Canta Irlandia, making it nine Spanish books total, and began my tenth and last, El Camino Mas Corto by Manugel Leguineche. I have officially crossed the 1,000 word threshold in Anki, which is a nice mark to be hitting, although I will keep adding words until I finish the book (it’s about a journey around the world in a jeep and so far they’ve only made it from Morocco to Egypt, so I have a while to go still!)

When I finish this book, probably sometime next week, that will mark the official end of the Spanish portion of the year and I can move hardcore into German. Since I also plan on getting more seriously into Portuguese around then I think that will work a lot better to avoid confusion.

At lesson 41 of Pimsleur for Portuguese. There is not much to say about that other than I am keeping it up consistently.

I am also engaging in one of my favorite parts of starting a new language: watching endless YouTube music videos to learn about the music about a country/region. One thing I especially enjoy is that no matter what genre or language a song is in there will always be a comment section that is mostly variations on “Who is still listening in 2019?!” for any song that is more than about five years old.

No matter what our differences may be, the impulse to post useless and repetitive YouTube comments is apparently entirely universal.

[Lemus]

Yet again I have fallen behind on my log, having gone over another month without posting an update. This time luckily it is not that I have not hit my targets but that I have just forgotten to keep this log updated.

I successfully finished my Spanish targets for the year, having both crossed 1,000 words in Anki as well as finished my tenth book. Very pleased to think that I have finished 15 books this year in languages that are not English (many people I know struggle to find the time to hit 15 for a year in any language). Admittedly that does not seem like a lot by the standards of this forum but I have to keep reminding myself the people here are exceptional and I should not feel bad because I cannot keep up with their incredibly impressive achievements!

German of course now poses a bit of a dilemma because while part of me is ready to go and finish that off as well Portuguese is pulling me away. I just crossed lesson 80 of Pimsleur and have started a book of short stories designed for the A2 level, which I am finding to be not that difficult. I also started watching nature documentaries on Netflix (the audio is slow and if I don't understand anything I can always just watch the lions or whatever. It's not like there is a plot I need to follow).

Portuguese will probably take priority over German then for at least the next few months. I like the idea of hitting all of my yearly targets but my life has changed from where it was in January and Portuguese simply has more practical value at the moment. Plenty of my language studies have shown no obvious utility (cough*Persian*cough) and it is not a bad thing I'm spending some time of something useful for a while.

[Lemus]

I recently crossed 100 lessons into Brazilian Portuguese, which I am very happy about. There have probably not been more than a handful of days since I started in which I didn't do a lesson, which I think is important for Pimsleur in particular. I've started watching things on Netflix in Portuguese and I'm pretty happy with my comprehension level. Also started my first novel in Portuguese, which I'm about halfway through. As an odd aside, I feel like I'm cheating a bit relying on Spanish when reading it more than I can do when listening so I kind of prefer to do audio things.

I have been neglecting my Anki reviews but I think there is some point when I can just stop doing them. With the Italian words I kind of feel like if I don't know them by now I'm unlikely to ever learn them through Anki reviews. It's been months since I added anything to that deck and with Spanish I'm quite worried about cross contamination (and I haven't added anything to that deck in a while either). I might start a Portuguese deck but I'm still early enough that most of the words I'm looking up appear again in other contexts soon enough that I don't need to artificially create ways to encounter them again.

Also as I approach the end of Pimsleur part of me is starting to wonder what other courses might be fun to do, although of course if I started something new that would be a distraction from Portuguese, which I really do want to keep going with. I'm thinking perhaps Swiss German might be interesting to do, since it's a short course and I could view it as just a German variant rather than something entirely new in itself (I am aware Swiss German might be a language in itself-not looking to start any debate here over that). It might also help assuage a little of my guilt that I largely abandoned my German goals for the year in favor of Portuguese.

[Lemus]

I finished my first Portuguese novel, which is a big symbolic step. That makes Portuguese the fifth language I have finished a whole novel in, something that I am very proud of when I stop to think about it.

I am hoping to finish four more by the end of the year. That's probably a tad optimistic (I won't reach it at my current rate) but it's still a good goal to shoot for. Also, I have been adding words into Anki and I am up to 128. Definitely could be a bit more aggressive with this and I plan to be, particularly given I've stopped Anki reviews for my other languages on the basic theory that if I don't know the words at this point I'm just going to have to run into them organically.

Pimsleur is at lesson 128 of 150, so very close on that! At some point I should look into podcasts or something to fill the listening gap that will open once I'm done with Pimsleur (if anyone has any favorites that are ideally general interest, Brazilian, and suitable for intermediate listeners I am open to suggestions!)

[jeff_lindqvist]

I finished my first Portuguese novel, which is a big symbolic step. That makes Portuguese the fifth language I have finished a whole novel in, something that I am very proud of when I stop to think about it.

Which book was it?

By the way, you haven't mentioned Portuguese in your profile - perhaps you should, now that you're reading literature. (Well done!)

[Lemus]

Which book was it?

A translation of William P Young's Christian novel, The Shack. Not the kind of thing I usually read much of, but I happened to stumble across a copy and I can only be so choosy with Portuguese language novels in the US. According to the blurb on the front it apparently sold four million copies in Brazil, so it is perhaps less of a random find than I initially thought.

Since then I have acquired a couple of mysteries and thrillers which I will read next. If I'm feeling really ambitious I also have a copy of Fernando Pessoa's the Book of Disquiet, but I think I will hold off on that for now (I've read it in English and while it is fantastic it looks like very high-level Portuguese).