Not all those who wander are lost

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
User avatar
sfuqua
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1642
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 5:05 am
Location: san jose, california
Languages: Bad English: native
Samoan: speak, but rusty
Tagalog: imperfect, but use all the time
Spanish: read
French: read some
Japanese: beginner, obsessively studying
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9248
x 6299

Re: Not all those who wander are lost

Postby sfuqua » Sun Mar 01, 2020 9:38 pm

I would be really happy to get to intermediate in Irish this summer. My experiments with Irish novels suggests that I have a way to go before I can start to uses novel reading as a big part of my strategy. I'm working hard and it seems to be paying off. It is always amazing in anki, when you start a sentence card, it can seem totally alien, but a month later, after several repetitions, the same card seems trivial. I hope that the connections continue to build in the brain in the background while I study anki. It is extremely satisfying to see something unfamiliar in a new card, and to be able to understand it by putting those background connections together...

Since I'm studying material from books that focus on regional dialects, some of what I am learning is not part of the national standard dialect of Irish supported by the government. I probably will learn a mixed up version of Irish that contains features of different dialects, including some "nonstandard" things which might be considered incorrect by some native speakers. I'm not terribly worried about this because the most striking differences between the dialects is the pronunciation, and there really isn't one standard of "correct" pronunciation.

However, because of the national standard, I've been thinking of adding come cards from CEFR training materials for Irish, and listening exercises used for testing native Irish students for their school certificate examinations. These materials are in national standard Irish, and it might help me to fill in any blanks in my understanding of "school Irish."
The only thing holding me back is that I'm improving well with my current deck, and I'm not sure that mixing in a bunch of random sentences would help that much.

I get a little teary eyed when I look at some of the resources that are available to me and I think about the generousity of the people who made them available to all of us on the Internet.

While I'm not as active on this site as I once was, the community here has had such a wonderful effect on me during the last few years. I learned my first two nonnative languages in communities where they are spoken, but I probably never would have learned French, Spanish, Old English, or Irish without the support of folks here. Last night, I was playing with the dubs and languages on Netflix and realizing that my Spanish is still quite intact, at least for listening, while my French is still "Almost there but not quite." just as it was when I last worked on it.
What a joy to bounce between languages!
I still can't understand Altan and Clannad songs except for a few words, however, so back to Irish...
4 x
荒海や佐渡によこたふ天の川

the rough sea / stretching out towards Sado / the Milky Way
Basho[1689]

Sometimes Japanese is just too much...

User avatar
sfuqua
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1642
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 5:05 am
Location: san jose, california
Languages: Bad English: native
Samoan: speak, but rusty
Tagalog: imperfect, but use all the time
Spanish: read
French: read some
Japanese: beginner, obsessively studying
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9248
x 6299

Re: Not all those who wander are lost

Postby sfuqua » Fri Mar 13, 2020 2:09 am

Well...
Irish is continuing to go well. My recent Irish experience has reminded me of the importance of maintaining the right level of difficulty. If things are too easy or too hard, the whole thing seems too annoying to deal with.

It is also important to keep up the right number of new cards. Too many and it turns into a slog; too few and I start studying Old English or Old Norse or something else. Studying something else is fun, but it is not productive for finishing something.

It is so much fun to feel Irish falling into place. I'm finding myself knowing what the correct answer is in Irish, even when I can't really explain it. I can say big, long, possibly even correct sentences in Irish. I'm real shaky outside of the main tenses, but we're getting there. There is a lot of formal grammar in Irish, but I'm certainly at the pub visiting level. After a few pints, I'm sure I will be fluent.
Of course I can remember my night of fluency in Thai. After a few beers, with only about a 50 word vocabulary, I started speaking fluent Thai in a bar. Everybody kept nodding and smiling, and I was sure that I was doing great.
Uh, I suspect that I wasn't very fluent.
Thank Goddess that Irish doesn't have tones.

It's funny, but I was thinking that if I really wanted to communicate with strangers in Ireland, it would probably make more sense to tune up my Spanish. I've used Spanish in Ireland and France both. Dublin is full of Spanish speaking kids in the summer, and it can be fun to talk to them, when they're not too busy having fun being young people on holiday.

I hope everybody is healthy and strong these days, so that we can get back to traveling and enjoying each others' company soon.
I know that the Internet lasts forever, so in case someone is reading this years from now, this is being written on March 12 2020 from San Jose, Santa Clara County, California.
I sure hope that doesn't mean anything special years from now.
steve
8 x
荒海や佐渡によこたふ天の川

the rough sea / stretching out towards Sado / the Milky Way
Basho[1689]

Sometimes Japanese is just too much...

User avatar
sfuqua
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1642
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 5:05 am
Location: san jose, california
Languages: Bad English: native
Samoan: speak, but rusty
Tagalog: imperfect, but use all the time
Spanish: read
French: read some
Japanese: beginner, obsessively studying
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9248
x 6299

Re: Not all those who wander are lost

Postby sfuqua » Wed Mar 18, 2020 4:24 am

LIke much of the world, I am trying to figure out how to spend my time until life returns to normal, even as I suspect that it never will in some ways.

Irish and the "big Irish deck" continue to work well, but, for the next few weeks, I have plenty of time. A couple of hours ago, while my family and I are hunkered down here, I was grinding through my anki deck, and some poor person walked by on the sidewalk, coughing steadily. I'm not inclined to go outside.

Well, one of the reasons I've been using a lot of anki is that I'm really busy during the school year. I'm able to get in a lot of studying during the day. It doesn't look like I'm going to be busy with school for a long time now. God, I miss my students! I hope all of those sweet 12 and 13 year olds are doing OK. See, I've already forgotten how silly they can be.

I'm not sure that there isn't something more fun to do than anki. There is a bit of stress these days. I've been thinking about doing a massive bunch of Listening-Reading, or something like that. It is too bad that Irish doesn't have a ton of novels. I mean, there are some, but finding one in a format where I can do L-R is sort of a pain. I have a bunch of things in other languages, so maybe I will try something else.

Strange days, indeed.
3 x
荒海や佐渡によこたふ天の川

the rough sea / stretching out towards Sado / the Milky Way
Basho[1689]

Sometimes Japanese is just too much...

User avatar
jeff_lindqvist
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3135
Joined: Sun Aug 16, 2015 9:52 pm
Languages: sv, en
de, es
ga, eo
---
fi, yue, ro, tp, cy, kw, pt, sk
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=2773
x 10462

Re: Not all those who wander are lost

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Wed Mar 18, 2020 5:39 pm

sfuqua wrote:I'm not sure that there isn't something more fun to do than anki. There is a bit of stress these days. I've been thinking about doing a massive bunch of Listening-Reading, or something like that. It is too bad that Irish doesn't have a ton of novels. I mean, there are some, but finding one in a format where I can do L-R is sort of a pain. I have a bunch of things in other languages, so maybe I will try something else.


Nine years ago, Teango posted this on his blog:
http://teango.wordpress.com/2011/02/13/ ... ing-irish/

Scroll down to the part Listening and reading materials for learning Irish.

And I’ve left the very best till last…you can now buy 8 short books by well-known contemporary Irish authors as part of the “Open Doors” collection. And the best part: there are corresponding audiobooks too!


I bought the books last time I was in Ireland, and every now and then I think I should order the audiobooks...
1 x
Leabhair/Greannáin léite as Gaeilge: 9 / 18
Ar an seastán oíche: Oileán an Órchiste
Duolingo - finished trees: sp/ga/de/fr/pt/it
Finnish with extra pain : 100 / 100

Llorg Blog - Wiki - Discord

User avatar
sfuqua
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1642
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 5:05 am
Location: san jose, california
Languages: Bad English: native
Samoan: speak, but rusty
Tagalog: imperfect, but use all the time
Spanish: read
French: read some
Japanese: beginner, obsessively studying
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9248
x 6299

Re: Not all those who wander are lost

Postby sfuqua » Thu Mar 19, 2020 4:27 pm

Thanks @Jeff! :D
I have some of those.
I'm sure that grinding through anki cards is useful, but when you have been doing one strategy for a while, it can feel really liberating to use a different approach. Sometimes you don't realize how much progress you have made until you try a different approach.
I think I'm going to try to do _Coinnigh Do Mhisneach_ as a listening-reading. One reviewer calls this book a trashy young adult novel, which is about my speed at this point. I made an audiobook of it by reading it with NVDA and abair.ie voice, and then pushing the output into audacity to change it into an .mp3.
I know I'm weird, but I often really like tts voices.
I also have _Cre na Cille_ and _MO SCÉAL FÉIN_ both in audiobooks(human) and ebooks, so that should keep me out of trouble for a while.
steve
1 x
荒海や佐渡によこたふ天の川

the rough sea / stretching out towards Sado / the Milky Way
Basho[1689]

Sometimes Japanese is just too much...

crush
Blue Belt
Posts: 514
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 3:35 pm
Languages: EN (N), ES, ZH
Maintain: EUS, YUE, JP, HAW
Study: TGL, SV
On Hold: RU
x 953

Re: Not all those who wander are lost

Postby crush » Fri Mar 20, 2020 7:58 pm

Ah wow it's nice to see you learning Irish! Welsh has been one of my main wanderlusts over the years, Celtic languages in general just sound so beautiful.

Also had no idea you were in San Jose, i just left San Jose about 9 or 10 months ago. If you ever saw a crazy person walking around a park doing Say Something in Welsh lessons or Cantonese Glossika reps, that was probably me ;)

Lately i've been enjoying building up my passive skills, it's nice just sitting back and reading or watching a movie, it's definitely a nice break from active study. They're things i really enjoy doing but often push to the side in favor of active study.
2 x

User avatar
sfuqua
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1642
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 5:05 am
Location: san jose, california
Languages: Bad English: native
Samoan: speak, but rusty
Tagalog: imperfect, but use all the time
Spanish: read
French: read some
Japanese: beginner, obsessively studying
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9248
x 6299

Re: Not all those who wander are lost

Postby sfuqua » Sat Mar 28, 2020 10:07 pm

I've been meeting with my students online. Here is a training video on how to do it.
https://www.facebook.com/foilarmsandhog/videos/899444937160368/?funlid=OJsf8aWvwr1fZlMu&d=w&vh=e

I'm fooling around with the Irish deck and I can't seem to keep my hands off Old English. I even made an Anki deck for Latin.

Anything to get far away from this reality...
4 x
荒海や佐渡によこたふ天の川

the rough sea / stretching out towards Sado / the Milky Way
Basho[1689]

Sometimes Japanese is just too much...

User avatar
sfuqua
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1642
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 5:05 am
Location: san jose, california
Languages: Bad English: native
Samoan: speak, but rusty
Tagalog: imperfect, but use all the time
Spanish: read
French: read some
Japanese: beginner, obsessively studying
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9248
x 6299

Re: Not all those who wander are lost

Postby sfuqua » Mon Apr 06, 2020 11:57 pm

I installed Linux on my laptop and I seem to have lost my password. I can't log In. I can't seem to reset my password. There is a lot going on. I hope to get back into this account soon...
0 x
荒海や佐渡によこたふ天の川

the rough sea / stretching out towards Sado / the Milky Way
Basho[1689]

Sometimes Japanese is just too much...

crush
Blue Belt
Posts: 514
Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 3:35 pm
Languages: EN (N), ES, ZH
Maintain: EUS, YUE, JP, HAW
Study: TGL, SV
On Hold: RU
x 953

Re: Not all those who wander are lost

Postby crush » Tue Apr 07, 2020 1:08 pm

Which Linux distro are you using? You should be able to drop into the root shell if you can get to the Grub boot screen. From Grub, open the recovery mode and select root mode. From there you should be able to reset the password for your main user. There should be more explicit steps/guides online if you need them.

Alternatively, you can use a live CD/USB to get access to all the files you need (you can mount your filesystem from a live CD).

Good luck and hope you can get access back soon!
0 x

User avatar
sfuqua
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1642
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 5:05 am
Location: san jose, california
Languages: Bad English: native
Samoan: speak, but rusty
Tagalog: imperfect, but use all the time
Spanish: read
French: read some
Japanese: beginner, obsessively studying
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9248
x 6299

Re: Not all those who wander are lost

Postby sfuqua » Fri Apr 10, 2020 10:03 pm

I'm OK, I used to be a command line Unix guy professionally, but this is a new world.
I'm logged in.
2 x
荒海や佐渡によこたふ天の川

the rough sea / stretching out towards Sado / the Milky Way
Basho[1689]

Sometimes Japanese is just too much...


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests