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Brun Ugle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2273
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 12:48 pm
Location: Steinkjer, Norway
Languages: English (N), Norwegian (~C1/C2), Spanish (B1/B2), German (A2/B1?), Japanese (very rusty)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=11484
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Re: Cèid's Super Happy Fun Language Log

Postby Brun Ugle » Thu Dec 06, 2018 12:56 pm

I’m really enjoying your log and your taste in music. Keep it coming.

Regarding your question about the SC, you’re allowed to include things you listened to or read during the SC period even if you hadn’t signed up yet. Also in the case of uncommon languages, there is a tendency to be more flexible with the rules than with other languages.

I have the same problem with days. I have a clock which has a two letter code to show the day of the week and which can be set to different languages, so I often end up wondering whether it’s “mandag” or “martes”.
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Cèid Donn
Blue Belt
Posts: 513
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2018 10:48 pm
Languages: en-us (n); français, gàidhlig, gaeilge, cymraeg, brezhoneg, español
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Re: Cèid's Super Happy Fun Language Log

Postby Cèid Donn » Thu Dec 06, 2018 3:43 pm

MamaPata wrote:Excellent choice, I see no problem.

Tongue-in-cheek humor aside, it's actually a smartly crafted pop song. Moreover, one could easy write a dissertation on how German popular music, both mainstream and underground, of the 70s and 80s is a remarkably insightful historical record of the culture of Cold War-era Europe. I first started learning German in the late 80s as a junior high student and this has been an enduring fascination for me, even after years of not actively learning or using German.

Ok, now I have to post one of my favorite songs from the 80's... :D



Brun Ugle wrote:I’m really enjoying your log and your taste in music. Keep it coming.


Mòran taing, a charaid. Hope you enjoy the Peter Schilling as well! :mrgreen:

Brun Ugle wrote:Regarding your question about the SC, you’re allowed to include things you listened to or read during the SC period even if you hadn’t signed up yet. Also in the case of uncommon languages, there is a tendency to be more flexible with the rules than with other languages.


Thanks. I had hoped this was all legit within the norms of the challenge. I appreciate the confirmation.
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Note from an educator and former ESL/test skills tutor: Any learner, including self-learners, can use the CEFR for self-assessment. The CEFR is for helping learners progress and not for gatekeeping and bullying.

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Cèid Donn
Blue Belt
Posts: 513
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2018 10:48 pm
Languages: en-us (n); français, gàidhlig, gaeilge, cymraeg, brezhoneg, español
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Re: Cèid's Super Happy Fun Language Log

Postby Cèid Donn » Sat Dec 08, 2018 1:50 am

Talk about distractions: I came home from work today, sat down to do some pre-dinner Duolingo, and my PC, which had been in sleep mode, wouldn't wake up or detect peripherals like my mouse and keyboard. After no small amount of panicky fiddling and fussing, I got my PC running again, and while I'm not 100% sure what is going on, I am about 75% sure it's the HD that is failing and very likely has corrupted my OS (today's issue isn't the first symptom of impending HD doom that I've noticed). The hard drive is about 4 years old, so it's due for a replacement anyhow. I hope that's all it is, because the alternatives (replacing the psu, mobo, gpu, or cpu) get increasingly more costly. But my study time right now is being eaten up by transferring and backing up files, including language learning materials and my journals/writings that are not on my external drive, to a USB drive. I built my PC, so replacing parts is relatively easy, and I own a USB copy of my OS (which comes in handy when you need to boot your PC with it, like I did today), but it all just takes so much time and effort no matter how adept you are at fixing PCs.

While I do have a new Samsung Galaxy tablet and a hand-me-down HP notebook that I can use until my desktop is back to being fully functional, I'm still in the process of getting those set up with all the needed files and accessibility and blah blah. Le sigh. I'm old enough to remember when they promised us computers would save us time. :lol:

Anyhow, in case I end up without a PC for longer than I anticipate, I wanted to update my progress for this week, just to keep on top of things:

Colloquial Welsh : 13 / 18

  • completed Units 12 and 13

I am hoping to start reviewing my Duolingo Welsh tree this weekend. I'm aiming for a level 3 tree like with German, although both of these trees are pretty long by Duolingo standards. Given how long it took me to finish the Welsh the first time, this is going to take a while. :roll: At least this particular course is quite well-structured with lots of good content.

French Films SC : 25 / 100 -- 2219 minutes ( + 95 minutes)

  • 2 episodes of Dark (French audio)

French Books SC : 12 / 100 -- 616 pages (+ 155 pages)

  • completed remainder of Harry Potter à les l'école des sorciers - 155 pages

Not sure what to read next. I think I'll take a look at what's on Project Gutenberg.

Gaelic Films SC : 11 / 100 -- 1010 minutes ( +90 minutes)


I hope to go through this series again next week, but on Clilstore with the transcripts there.

Gaelic Books SC : 10 / 100 -- 500 pages ( + 50 pages)

  • Completed re-reading Na Speuclairean Dubha - 50 pages

I'll be re-reading A’ Choille Fhiadhaich again next.

In addition to working on learning more verses of "Òran na Cloiche," I'm re-learning the verses to "Chunna Mise Mo Leannan," at least the ones in the Mary Ann Kennedy & Na Seòid recording, because that's the only source I have for learning the melody:



My Big Fat German Review:

Aside from the nonsensical dream I had last night about a woman berating me for not following "beusachd Bhulgairianach" (Bulgarian manners/etiquette) while speaking Gaelic, I've had several dreams this past week about German. Some of them were about me working in German Quickly or on my Duolingo tree--I can't imagine dreaming about Duolingo is a good sign :P --but also with people speaking to me in German. So it seems my brain is eagerly taking to German again.

I'm on chapter 15 in German Quickly. I'm reading through it and doing the most recent exercises mentally, although it'd probably be better if I went back to writing them out again. With Duolingo, I'm only doing a couple hundred XP a day, but seeing I do not intend to spend all of 2019 working on this tree, I think I need to ramp that up a bit if I'm going to meet my goal in any reasonable amount of time. I completed Allemand 2 on Memrise and will start the third course this weekend--this is all very basic, conversational stuff, but I need to review it since I feel that basic conversational stuff is more important to overall fluency than a lot of people give credit to it, and it's all stuff I haven't used in ages. In addition to watching it with French audio, I am watching Dark on Netflix in the original German. Lastly, given the iffy state of my PC, playing video games as part of my German review is not something I can count for the next few days. So I will take this opportunity to look for reading materials. I am considering the Intermediate Readers by Brian Smith that malach mentioned in their log, as I just want something accessible to practice reading that won't bog me down with a lot of advanced vocabulary, jargon and constructions that I haven't yet reviewed (also, I agree with malach's assessment that one benefit of studying German is there is a lot of good materials out there for it--those crazy Germans and their really good language learning materials! :geek: ).

One drawback of my German review is it is making me mad wanderlust for Scandinavian languages. Swedish, Norwegian, Faroese, Old Norse. For now I'm sating it by listening to Christopher Tin's "Haf Gengr Hríðum" on repeat:



As for Indonesian, given everything that is going on, with holidays, health problems and now my PC woes, I have given myself until the week of Christmas to get back to it. That makes me sad, because Indonesian is a delight, but there's only some many hours in the day and only so many spoons in my cup.

(edited to correct a link and typos)
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Note from an educator and former ESL/test skills tutor: Any learner, including self-learners, can use the CEFR for self-assessment. The CEFR is for helping learners progress and not for gatekeeping and bullying.

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Cèid Donn
Blue Belt
Posts: 513
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2018 10:48 pm
Languages: en-us (n); français, gàidhlig, gaeilge, cymraeg, brezhoneg, español
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Re: Cèid's Super Happy Fun Language Log

Postby Cèid Donn » Tue Dec 11, 2018 5:22 pm

(edited to correct a link and typos)

By the way, Bad Link and the Typos was the name of my college ska band. ;)

Halò a-rithist a chàirdean,

PC surgery is eminent. Still waiting on the delivery of the new hd. In the meanwhile, I'm enjoying all the thrills and spills of an corrupted, unstable OS.

I know I'm pretty late to this party, but over the weekend, I took a closer look at Clozemaster (my user name there is Ceid), in particular for practicing Welsh and reviewing German, and I found it to be rather useful for my purposes. Also, the retro sound effects are endearing, I confess.

With Welsh, Clozemaster seems to be helping with my issue with transitioning in and out of studying Welsh. After a just a few sessions of Welsh on Clozemaster, I found I was able to work with printed materials or on Duolingo without that dreaded sense of the gears in my head just not wanting to switch over the Welsh. With German I started with the German<French course and found it likewise helpful. I even started the French<German course for more reiteration. And in an act of uncharacteristic self-restraint, I have not yet signed up for either the Occitan or Pietmondese courses, despite those being two languages I have long wanted to learn but haven't largely due to the lack of materials that an isolated self-learner like myself could use....but I may have sent Clozemaster a message requesting a Faroese course, as well as Swedish and Norwegian courses from French. A girl can dream. :D

Clozemaster also gives me a welcomed break from Memrise. I have a 188 day streak in my Memrise French advanced vocab course (the only course with which I bother keeping a streak at the moment) so, yeah, I might be feeling a little fatigued with the whole Memrise thing. Granted my streak on Duolingo is 179 days right now, but unlike Memrise, I don't have to do the same course everyday to maintain that streak, so that's not quite the same, at least for me.
2 x
Note from an educator and former ESL/test skills tutor: Any learner, including self-learners, can use the CEFR for self-assessment. The CEFR is for helping learners progress and not for gatekeeping and bullying.

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Hank
Green Belt
Posts: 325
Joined: Wed Dec 16, 2015 12:35 pm
Location: Missouri, USA
Languages: English (N), Spanish (intermediate), Welsh (studying)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1833
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Re: Cèid's Super Happy Fun Language Log

Postby Hank » Wed Dec 12, 2018 4:05 pm

Croeso! Dw i’n dysgu Cymraeg. Dw i’n hapus bod dysgwr Cymraeg arall gyda ni.

I’m sure that’s terrible. :lol:
1 x
Future travel plans:
2020: Cruise to Dominican Republic, Turks and Caicos, Bahamas

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Cèid Donn
Blue Belt
Posts: 513
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2018 10:48 pm
Languages: en-us (n); français, gàidhlig, gaeilge, cymraeg, brezhoneg, español
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Re: Cèid's Super Happy Fun Language Log

Postby Cèid Donn » Wed Dec 12, 2018 5:10 pm

Hank wrote:Croeso! Dw i’n dysgu Cymraeg. Dw i’n hapus bod dysgwr Cymraeg arall gyda ni.

I’m sure that’s terrible. :lol:
Diolch yn fawr iawn! Dw i'n mwynhau dysgu Cymraeg yn fawr er bod yn anodd ar adegau.

As far as I can tell, your Welsh is fine. I'm no expert by far but I could understand what you were saying. That counts for something, right? ;)
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Note from an educator and former ESL/test skills tutor: Any learner, including self-learners, can use the CEFR for self-assessment. The CEFR is for helping learners progress and not for gatekeeping and bullying.

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eido
Blue Belt
Posts: 841
Joined: Tue Jan 30, 2018 8:31 pm
Languages: English (N), Spanish (C1)
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Re: Cèid's Super Happy Fun Language Log

Postby eido » Wed Dec 12, 2018 5:53 pm

Cèid Donn wrote:One drawback of my German review is it is making me mad wanderlust for Scandinavian languages. Swedish, Norwegian, Faroese, Old Norse.

Yes, join us. Or, rather me. (Well, there is @Expugnator.) Faroese is my new baby. I've had some stuff to do the last few weeks and might rearrange my study plan, so Faroese might get shoved out for a while, but I still have plans to learn it. I love Faroese pronunciation and spelling, and the islands are beautiful. I mention in my log how I love their national dress, too. Eventually I'm going to go through the Faroes podcast, too which talks about everything a farophile could want to know about. I can't wait. What do you like about these languages?
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Maiwenn
Orange Belt
Posts: 243
Joined: Mon Jan 25, 2016 11:26 am
Location: Grand Est, France
Languages: English (N) & French
focusing on: MSA & Moroccan Arabic
backburner: German
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7321
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Re: Cèid's Super Happy Fun Language Log

Postby Maiwenn » Wed Dec 12, 2018 8:06 pm

Noswaith dda, Cèid! Sut mae? Maiwenn ydw i.

Salud dit, Cèid! Mont a ra mat ganeoc'h? Maiwenn on.

Just wanted to drop by and add to the chorus of people praising your log. A couple decades ago (!) I taught myself a tiiiiny bit of Welsh using the Teach Yourself book (with cassettes!). Then a few years ago, I took a Breton class while living in Brittany. I've forgotten most of it, but reading your log makes me want to get back into Celtic languages. :) I wish you all the best of luck and am looking forward to following along with your log.
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SC reading: 3819 / 10000 AR
SC reading: 3334 / 5000 FR
SC reading: 65 / 2500 DE :?

Corrections are always welcome. :)

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Cèid Donn
Blue Belt
Posts: 513
Joined: Thu Nov 15, 2018 10:48 pm
Languages: en-us (n); français, gàidhlig, gaeilge, cymraeg, brezhoneg, español
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Re: Cèid's Super Happy Fun Language Log

Postby Cèid Donn » Thu Dec 13, 2018 1:38 am

eido wrote:Yes, join us. Or, rather me. (Well, there is @Expugnator.) Faroese is my new baby. I've had some stuff to do the last few weeks and might rearrange my study plan, so Faroese might get shoved out for a while, but I still have plans to learn it.

My plate is pretty full right now with what I want to get done before 2019 officially arrives, but from time to time I like look around at what's available for Faroese. I might try to work on one of the Memrise courses next year. I'll have to see. I'd love it if it was on Clozemaster, but it's not. Alas.

What do you like about these languages?

As a language family, they always seem to be around whenever I pursue my own particular interests, in languages, music, etc. I like how they sound, too, and there's just a certain appeal about them for me. I've studied Swedish in the past--don't quiz me on it without letting me get in a quick refresher, though :mrgreen: --and I really enjoyed it. It's one of the languages I hope to get back to next year. Right now I just dabble with it when I have the time.

Maiwenn wrote:Salud dit, Cèid! Mont a ra mat ganeoc'h? Maiwenn on.

Mont a ra mat ganin, trugarez, Maiwenn !

Maiwenn wrote: Then a few years ago, I took a Breton class while living in Brittany. I've forgotten most of it, but reading your log makes me want to get back into Celtic languages. :)

Wow, lucky you! I would love to visit Brittany some day. Breton was the second Celtic language I studied after Gaelic, and the one I made all the mistakes with in regards to how to approach learning another target language. So it's a kind of badge of honor for me in that I managed to get anywhere with it. :lol: Right now I mostly just use it to read social media from Breton speakers, as I've had to put it aside for now while I study Welsh, because trying to learn both side by side is just :shock:. But nothing compares to Breton, in my opinion. It has a very special place in my heart. And while I'm not one to try to sway anyone from their chosen path, if you do decide to take up a Celtic language (or two!) again, you'd have my support! ;)
1 x
Note from an educator and former ESL/test skills tutor: Any learner, including self-learners, can use the CEFR for self-assessment. The CEFR is for helping learners progress and not for gatekeeping and bullying.

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Brun Ugle
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2273
Joined: Mon Jul 27, 2015 12:48 pm
Location: Steinkjer, Norway
Languages: English (N), Norwegian (~C1/C2), Spanish (B1/B2), German (A2/B1?), Japanese (very rusty)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=11484
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Re: Cèid's Super Happy Fun Language Log

Postby Brun Ugle » Thu Dec 13, 2018 7:10 am

Cèid Donn wrote:Breton was the second Celtic language I studied after Gaelic, and the one I made all the mistakes with in regards to how to approach learning another target language.

I’m a bit curious about what kind of mistakes you mean and what you learned from them. How would you approach the language if you were to start now, having learned from that experience?
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