A Very Dead Language Log (Abandoned--Admin, feel free to delete))

[Cèid Donn]

Yes, I do that, although more recently it's been listening to the German audiobook for Metro 2033. I have various audio for my different TLs that I will listen to to help me get to sleep, although some nights it's not quite what I need, especially if my brain is feeling fatigued by my TLs or by human voices. So some nights I listen to white noise or looped ambient nature sounds like rain or ocean waves instead.

EDIT: I finished Jusqu'à la garde tonight and wow. That final scene. I loved the cast, but I don't think I'll ever be able to watch anything else with Denis Ménochet in it now. I found it to be a very thoughtfully made film with a lot of authenticity and artfulness in how it handled the subject matter. The dialogue is a bit sparse, with a some longer scenes that rely on visual story telling rather than audible dialogue, so perhaps not the best film for French study, but worthwhile as a good piece of film-making, for sure. Content warning for people sensitive to issues of domestic violence.

[Cèid Donn]

Pfffft, hayfever. I broke down and took some antihistamines. Once the antihistamines start kicking in, I'm going to be just worthless for studying, it'll be an early night for me. On the flipside, I will probably will get some sleep tonight.

For the short story challenge, I read Maupassant. Why do I do this to myself? It was free, it was on Gutenberg, but geesh, every time I read any Maupassant, I just hate him and the whole pretentious "naturalist school" of literature even more.

We hates it, we hates it forever!



But the good news is, I got my short story for the week done.




***

Short Story challenge

• Week 1: Gaelic -- "Top Twenties" by Michael Klevenhaus, from An Claigeann aig Damien Hirst, Leabhar 1
• Week 2: French -- "Les révoltés de la Bounty" by Jules Verne
• Week 3: Welsh -- "Côt Ruby" by Sarah Reynold, from Cawl: a Straeon Eraill
• Week 4: Gaelic -- "A' Bheinn Òir" by Iain Mac a' Ghobhainn
• Week 5: German -- "Vogelfrei" by Alastair Caimbeul, from Der Schädel von Damien Hirst. Band 1/An Claigeann aig Damien Hirst, Leabhar 1
• Week 6: Welsh -- "Dewis" by Lleucu Roberts, from Cawl: a Straeon Eraill
• Week 7: Irish -- "Madra na n-ocht gCos" (from oral tradition)
• Week 8: Gaelic -- "Tha Adhaircean Mòra air a' Chroadh a tha as Cheò" by Màiri Anna NicDhòmhnaill, from An Claigeann aig Damien Hirst, Leabhar 1
• Week 9: French -- "Boule de suif" by Guy de Maupassant
  
  By the way, in addition to it being free on Gutenberg and other sites, there are audio readings of "Boule de Suif" on You Tube, if anyone is interested. I will stand by my opinion that the story is dreadful (I'll spare you the 12-page lit crit essay in support of my argument) but Maupassant was good at writing in French, so his prose has merit, which is why French students are told to read his depressing stuff all the time.

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The 2019 365 Day Language Challenge : 58 / 365

• Day 58 (Feb. 27) -- French/Gaelic: TWO MONTHS! Only....10 more to go! For French I did a 20-minute session of conjugation practice and a 15-minute session of pronunciation practice. Then I attempted a dictation but did rather poorly--my head just wasn't in the right place for it. Later for Gaelic, I watched 2 Look@ videos on LearnGaelic and and then read/listened to the most recent Litir.

[Cèid Donn]

My brother just reminded me about the Menils, because he mentioned to me that the Rothko Chapel in Houston, TX, is currently closed for renovation. It seems they are going to install a new skylight to improve to indirect, natural light that Mark Rothko had wanted for the Chapel. That the Chapel relies on natural lighting makes it such a lovely space. I spent a lot time at the Rothko Chapel and the Menil Collection when I was going to uni, even made a special trip back to Houston just to see the touring Paul Klee exhibit there back in 2006 (I love Klee, by the way). I actually met Dominique de Menil once, not very long before her death, at a function held at the chapel, for which I had been called upon to contribute as a musician. She wasn't terribly interested in meeting me, but that was understandable as she were quite old and in poor health and I was just nobody to her. But it was an interesting night in my very long, meandering, highly irregular path toward learning French, as how many people can say that in their French learners' experiences they spent an evening with someone who had been an influential figure in the world of 20th century art? The Menils personally had known and/or collected many important artists of the time, including Max Ernst (who is to Dominique's right in this photo), who painted this portrait of Dominique, as the two had been close friends:



Dominique, being a French expat herself (her family left France during the Nazi occupation), was a sort of magnet for French speakers in the Houston area. There were many other French expats there that night, as well as some fluent L2 French speakers, some of whom I knew from uni. That was when I could manage some decent conversation in French. That might have been the last time I used French outside of academic study before putting it completely aside to study a bunch of dead languages for my grad program. I wouldn't take up French again until many, many years later.

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The 2019 365 Day Language Challenge : 59 / 365

• Day 59 (Feb. 28) -- French/Gaelic/Irish: TWO MONTHS, for real this time! Leveled up one skill to level 5 on my French Duolingo tree and did 20 minutes of conjugation practice and another 30 minutes of French on Clozemaster. For Gaelic, I re-watched the Look@ videos that I had watched yesterday and started a new Memrise vocabulary course. There's not much to choose from with Gaelic on Memrise, but there are few decent ones for more advanced learners. They all seem like older courses whose creators have long left Memrise, so I fear they might disappear after the Decks migration. For Irish, I reviewed what I have done in Intermediate Irish so far. Tomorrow I will use my code for the Ranganna course and, barring any unforeseen complications, start it. My intention is to use this to motivate me to work on Irish every day for the next 3 months.

EDIT: removed my brainfart, sleep-deprivation induced comments about a leap year so not to confuse anyone else.

[MamaPata]

I thought it was funny that you said two months when we still had a day to go, but I figured you just had faith in yourself! (Also, don’t know if that was the joke (hard to tell over the net), but it’s not a leap year!)

[Cèid Donn]

No, I'm just very tired and easily confused this week.

[Cèid Donn]

Hmm, I'm sick, I'm exhausted, I'm having trouble remembering basic things like what day of the week it is, I'm all psyched up to spend my whole weekend studying because I have so much I want to get done...I feel like I'm at uni again.



I got started on the Ranganna Gaeilge gan Stró course. It's very beginner, very basic, and that's fine. I don't really use Irish enough so any and all review is good for me. It's disappointingly short though--only 15 units. From a cursory look-over, I'd say it's fine for a 3-month free trial, but what they ask for a paid sub seems a bit steep. I don't know if you get access all the other two courses with the sub--if you do it might be worth it if you had the money.

The course seems very much structured like the Little by Little/Beag air Bheag course on LearnGaelic--I think that course was actually based on the Geailge gan Stró course or something very similar.

But the main reason I'm doing this course isn't for the course itself, per se, but for something to give me a bit of structure and motivation to work on Irish more for a few weeks. My plan is to start my daily Irish study with that course and then work on other things. The three main concurrent goals I have to go along with working on the course are:

• Get my Duolingo Irish tree to a level 5 tree
• Finish Intermediate Irish
• Complete the Clozemaster Irish course

I should be able to complete all of those in a few weeks, especially if I can manage to work them a little each day, and I have a couple of other resources in mind once I finished those.

As for other stuff, this evening I am determined to finish Metro 2033. I haven't been able to read any of it these past few nights because I'm been either sick or too exhausted by the end of the day. Which is why I'm about to go take a nap, because it's going to be a late night for me.

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The 2019 365 Day Language Challenge : 60 / 365

• Day 60 (Mar. 1) -- French/Irish: For French I leveled up 3 more units to level 5 on my Duolingo tree and did one 20-minute session of conjugation practice. I will conquer French verb conjugation. Yes, indubitably, I will! Actually, doing regular conjugation practice (here) seems to be paying off and that's motivating me to keep it up. For Irish, I worked on lesson 1 in the Gaeilge gan Stró course. After that, I leveled 2 skills from level 2 or level 5 (so 6 tests total) and then reviewed 2 other units on Duolingo. Then I reviewed 50 sentences and learned 50 new sentences on Clozemaster.

[Cèid Donn]

I haven't been particularly high-energy lately, so I didn't get as much done as I wanted to this weekend, even though I did do plenty of work and I should be happy with that. It's just I'm dealing with a 1-2 combo of depression from being in physical pain all the time, due to old injuries that would require intensive physical therapy and/or surgery to lessen the pain, and I haven't any insurance, so I live with pain every day and it just wears me down, some days more than others, and depression from some past grief that I have been recently reminded of and so it just lingers there in my mind, despite how much I try to push it away. Life can be very unkind sometimes and it likes to leave us with some pretty terrible memories that just haunt us and remind us of how powerless we are in this life. I might need to spent a night watching La Jetée, John Wick 2 and Grave of the Fireflies alone in the dark, and then scream a lot into my pillow.

Anyhow, what I did get done this weekend:

I finished Metro 2033, somewhat sloppily--I am going to reread some of the last parts of the novel again. But that was the first German novel I've read in entirety since...wow, the late 90s, when I read Der Kleine Hobbit which a prof at my uni lent me (and I never gave back to her ). I will get started on the next book for the book club later this week--it's not nearly as long as Metro 2033 and I opted to read this one in its original French so it should be easier. Maybe.

Also, I finished Hero of the Kingdom III which might be the first time I completed a video game entirely in French (or any other language beside English) without having played in English previously. It's not a very difficult or long game, but it was somewhat text-heavy.

I'm having dreams in Irish or with some Irish, and that's a first. When I had a nap earlier today I had a dream about being in Ireland and trying to talk to a Garda in Irish, but he didn't understand me. I am glad to be working more on Irish, as it feels like I needed to do this--it gives me a chance to really push on with what I've been studying in tidbits for the past several months. However, every time I make an effort to work more on Irish I feel bad about not working more on Gaelic, so I'm trying to think of ways to fit in more Gaelic, all the while not neglecting French.... Pfft. We will see.

***

French Films SC : 53 / 100 -- 4780 minutes (+352 minutes)

• Jusqu'à la garde - 93 minutes
• Au fond des bois (not to be confused with the Italian film or the 2000 French film) -- 105 minutes
• Free Rein Valetine's special with French audio (ne me jugez pas !) - 50 minutes
• 2 episodes of Dix pour cent - 104 minutes
  
  I really liked Jusqu'à la garde even though its topic (domestic violence involving children) is difficult, but as I said in another comment, the dialogue can be sparse in places. As cinema, it's impressive and honest but as a French learning resource, it's not much. Au fond des bois was awful--it is an example of why I am so wary of French film and TV, because even though a certain class of French folk like to think the French are culturally very progressive and so much better than us Americans, their countrymen still can manage to produce insultingly ableist, misogynist, male rape-fantasy garbage like this and call it "sensual" and "daring." A shame, though, because at moments the dialogue was very well-written and could have been a movie to recommend, but no. Don't burden yourself with this one. As for Free Rein, my inner tween girl needed a holiday, OK? Not much to say about it except Susie aurait dû jeter Callum dans la marée et non les clés de son quad ! As for Dix pour cent, I'm trying. I too have trouble understanding some of the actors and it's just not the sort of show that interests me. I'll give it a couple more episodes though.

French Books SC : 27 / 100 -- 1376 pages (+56 pages)

• still reading Les trois Mousquetaires -- 297 pages completed (+56)
  
  Hopefully I will have more time to devote to this this month.

Gaelic Films SC : 16 / 100 -- 1448 minutes (no change)

• In the process of watching the Guthan nan Eilean Series 2: Generations playlist, so nothing to update here yet

Gaelic Books SC : 16 / 100 -- 822 pages (+94 pages)

• completed 10 letters from Leabhar nan Litrichean sincelast update- 10 pages
• reread An Creanaiche - 84 papges
  
  Reading Ann an Glac Ghilleasbaig by Coinneach I. Macleòid next.

***

The 2019 365 Day Language Challenge : 62 / 365

Even though I'm still working on my other TLs, my 365 challenge updates for the next few weeks will be mainly about Irish.

• Day 61 (Mar. 2) -- Irish: I worked through the second part of the 1st GgS lesson. Did 6 reviews and leveled one level 2 skill to level 5 on Duolingo. Managed to get my total XP for Irish over 40k. On Clozemaster I did 99 sentences, a mix of new and review. And I watched an episode of Ros an Rún because just lessons and apps feels a bit dry.
  
  
• Day 62 (Mar. 3) -- Irish: Completed lesson 1 and downloaded some of the audio to start making a playlist for shadowing. Did 4 reviews and leveled up 1 skill from level 2 to level 5--I'm now at 281/320 crowns and I got my tree up to 95% strength. On Clozemaster I did another 99 sentences and watched another episode of Ros an Rún. I wanted to work on Intermediate Irish a bit but I ran out of energy. (I still need to do my Indonesian Memrise courses for the day)

[Cèid Donn]

Ugh, Duolingo is at it again. For you who use Duoling every day, you might have noticed they did a stealth update today where they capped all test-out XP at 20 XP, regardless of the crown level. Why? According to various people, it is due to people abusing a Duolingo design flaw regarding a leaderboard competition feature on the Andriod app. And so instead of addressing the design flaw with the leaderboards, they capped all users, even those of us who don't use the app or don't participate in any XP competitions.

Yes, the XP is meaningless in the bigger picture of learning your TL, but the whole gamification idea that Duolingo is built on is based on the idea of giving users a relatively easy sense of gratification for using their product, which translates for us as time spent working on our languages. As we were saying in Carmody's log, language learning is long and hard and at times it feels pretty fruitless. The big thing that apps like Duolingo have going for them is this way of giving users a feeling of "little steps made" via things like XP and levels. And they just took that away from many of us who had used XP as a personal motivator. So now, what it'll take for me to reach level 25 in Welsh, since I need 3100 more XP, is to grind through 155 tests. Before this update, it would have taken me about half of that time. It doesn't mean anything in terms of my Welsh ability whether I get to level 25 on the Duolingo course or not, but it had given me a goal I could work toward that I felt I could achieve. I probably can still do it, because I'm stubborn like that, but imagine someone who's not at level 24 in their language, maybe someone who only started Duolingo in the last few months, and they had wanted to get to level 25 like other, more veteran users they see on the forum--I mean, the hallowed level 25 has been a sort of status symbol in the Duolingo user community since Duolingo's launch. Now it may feel unobtainable to them. That's not how you should want to make your users feel if you want them to keep using your product.

Granted, this is Duolingo, and Luis Von Ahn has never done a single thing in all my years of using Duolingo to even remotely convince me he knows what he's doing and that he's anything more than an IT snake oil salesman. My main irritation with this is that I hate the crown system, and the testing out feature, which was added to appease those of us who hate the crown system, was my way of still getting some use out of Duolingo that still felt fun and gratifying and not like a long, monotonous slog. I can still use the courses for my own goals, but I expect it will be less gratifying in terms of how Duolingo is designed, so we will see.

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The 2019 365 Day Language Challenge : 63 / 365

• Day 63 (Mar. 4) -- Irish: I like how the GgS lessons have parallel Irish for the lessons' grammar and objectives:
  
  
  
  Unfortunately not all the English directions have parallel Irish texts. But what is there is nice.
  
  I took it easy today, because it's been a rather unhappy day. No, I was not a 90120 or Riverdale fan, but Luke Perry always seemed like one of those genuinely nice people in Hollywood--just read some on the really sweet things people who knew him have said about him--and as a native Angelino, that means something to me. Damn, it just sucks when this world loses kind people like that. (It hits home especially hard because I am not even a decade younger than him and am at an astronomically high risk of a stroke myself.) Anyhow, I just worked a little on Lesson 2 of GgS, did 100 sentences of Clozemaster, leveled up one level 2 skill to level 5 on Duolingo, and started working through Unit 9 in Intermediate Irish. Good enough for me, given today's mood.

[MamaPata]

I really relate to what you’re saying about the levels. I don’t use Duolingo but that kind of logic has always been very motivating for me.

[Cèid Donn]

I am feeling even less positive about this than I was last night, and am toying with the idea of just not doing Duolingo for a while, to see if they reverse this update. As I completely expected, the Duolingo forum is flooded now with people complaining about how this change is demotivating for them with others who are just simply confused and frustrated because Duolingo never informs the community of updates like this ahead of time. This also does not improve my opinion of Duolingo right now.

But oh well. There were other ways to address to abuses happening in the Android leaderboard leagues without penalizing every user--I can think of at least 3 ideas based on ways multiplayer games have successfully resolved similar exploits over the years. They just didn't want to take the time to develop another approach and now they have this mess.

Yeah, I think I'll be taking a break from Duolingo for a bit.