Morgana's log

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zjones
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Re: Insert Log Title Here (Swedish)

Postby zjones » Mon Mar 11, 2019 3:56 pm

Morgana, congratulations on the decision about Icelandic. I know it wasn't easy to let it go. What are your plans for languages going forward?

The lack of resources and native materials for certain languages can be disheartening. Reading about your experience with Icelandic has taught me to look at what's available in a specific language before choosing to learn it. I think that's one of the main reasons I stopped learning Modern Greek, and something that would really bother me if I decided to learn a language like Swahili. I like my introvert activities so I need to have access to lots of media!
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Re: Insert Log Title Here (Swedish)

Postby zjones » Thu Mar 14, 2019 5:23 pm

Morgana wrote:Outside of Swedish, I can't make up my mind. There are all kinds of options I guess, I'm just kinda meh about them all. I can see the merits of going in any particular direction, but I also see the boredom. Why not pick no language and focus on Swedish? Well. Let me tell you why :lol: Swedish got comfortable. It's not amazing, I'm still reading YA books and could "get the gist" of the little tv I cared to watch, so... great! What's the rush? But having a second language around that's less stable or whatever makes me feel anxious about keeping at it everyday and making sure I think and analyze and progress, and that rubbed off on my Swedish learning. I mean, yeah, I procrastinate and take days off but it was still this thing reminding me I can't just stop for a month and hope to come back without losing progress. With only Swedish... well... I'm a little worried I might start letting things slide because improvement is so slow and things feel somewhat stable. I could make a joke about the tired stereotype of comfortable longterm relationships but I'll resist.


I know nothing about the availability of official Swedish language tests, but have you considered taking one? Studying for the DELF really pushed me to increase my abilities in French, as my learning had really slowed down after hitting B1. Of course, I'm studying for a B1 exam, but just the preparation and study have increased my abilities well beyond B1.

Are there any advanced Swedish courses that you can use to get that "romantic spark" back?
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Brun Ugle
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Re: Insert Log Title Here (Swedish)

Postby Brun Ugle » Wed Mar 20, 2019 10:09 am

I had been going to suggest Spanish or Turkish, but it looks like you’ve already been through the same thought process. Both have tons of highly addictive TV shows that are easy to find online and both are big enough to have lots of literature and people to talk to, if you enjoy that kind of thing.
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MorkTheFiddle
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Re: Insert Log Title Here (Swedish)

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Sun Mar 24, 2019 3:04 am

Good luck with Spanish. As you say, there is no lack of resources.
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Brun Ugle
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Re: Insert Log Title Here (Swedish)

Postby Brun Ugle » Sun Mar 24, 2019 7:20 am

Yay Spanish! Seriously, once you get to an intermediate level, there’s no end to the fun that can be had with Spanish. I don’t have Netflix, but RTVE has many of their shows available online and they seem to leave them up forever. And several Latin American TV stations have YouTube channels where they make entire telenovelas available.
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StringerBell
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Re: Insert Log Title Here (Swedish)

Postby StringerBell » Fri Apr 05, 2019 12:07 am

This sounds like a great schedule! Where are you finding books translated into Icelandic? How is the selection?
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Re: Insert Log Title Here (Swedish)

Postby rdearman » Sat Apr 06, 2019 9:07 am

As the administrator I have been sorely tempted to edit your log title! :twisted: :lol:
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Bex
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Re: Insert Log Title Here (Swedish)

Postby Bex » Wed Apr 10, 2019 6:22 am

Morgana wrote:Just waiting for the right language to come along and sweep me off my feet...
Could it be Spanish :D ?
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Re: Insert Log Title Here (Swedish)

Postby StringerBell » Thu Apr 11, 2019 1:03 am

Morgana wrote:I think I am intimidating myself out of Russian because of the mobile stress (and resulting vowel reduction). That's silly, right? Russian stress surely isn't that bad? I want to learn one Slavic language and Russian seems obvious because it's so huge, but... well just about all the rest have incredibly reliable sound-spelling correspondence. Polish is kinda big too and sounds nice, it's just not Russian-big. It's just if I have equal interest in both, I am deciding based on factors like "how many tv shows can I think of in the language" and "how annoyed am I with whatever characteristic in the language" etc.


Well, obviously I'm going to put in a plug for Polish, but really I wouldn't want to convince you to learn if it you weren't into the idea already:
Pros:
1) The stress is extremely predictable (to the point where it's a non-issue).

2) There is a good amount of media (maybe not compared to French or Spanish, but it's still quite impressive and relatively easy to access). I struggle to find audiobooks in Italian (it seems to be a relatively recent thing for them) but I'm spoiled for choice when it comes to Polish audiobooks. There's lots of literature - both classic and modern. A bunch of really interesting-looking movies have come out of Poland over the past decades that I may end up ordering on DVD at some point. I don't know if you are into graphic novels, but Poland also has a pretty robust graphic novel scene. Netflix just became available in Poland this year, and so far there are 2 Polish Netflix originals; Ultraviolet and 1983, and The Witcher will be available this year (and hopefully much more to follow). You can also stream for free (with a VPN) a ton of Polish TV shows from vod.tvp.pl. The only downside to this method is that there aren't subtitles like with Netflix.

3) While there isn't a lot of beginner material, what is available is good quality. Many of the 100 Daily Polish Stories from RealPolish are even available free through LingQ, so you can test them out and see what you think. I bought them (you can buy all 100 or only 10 at a time), and the benefit is that there is an English glossary to the left of each story so you don't have to look up words, you just have to glance to the side if you don't know a word. So far, the textbook that I like the best is from Preston Publishing (and it's ~$13 as a digital download) - it's exercise-based, not dialogue based, but it's designed really well.

4) The language is super phonetic; after reading and listening along to a few RealPolish stories, you'll quickly pick up the phonetic rules and reading will be pretty easy. Much easier than learning a totally new alphabet, like with Russian.

5) Polish is an underdog language; it's often overlooked by language learners so you can think of it as a hidden gem.

6) Poland is an absolutely amazing country to travel around, and unlike Russia won't make you jump through 18 hoops to get a visa; Poland wants you to visit! (I know you're probably not planning to travel there, but you'll know that you easily could if you wanted to!)

Cons:
1) In terms of movies/TV, the main downside is that you need to watch things originally produced in Polish; you really can't watch American stuff dubbed (which is what I do with Italian) because of the Lektor. Basically, Poland takes foreign movies/TV and keeps the original audio while having some dude (the Lektor) talk over everybody in Polish. It's horrible and makes the shows unwatchable.

I can't think of any other cons that aren't related to difficulties with learning a Slavic language in general (which means they'd apply to Russian, too). It seems like you've already started testing out Russian, so you could always give each language a certain amount of time and then decide which one appeals to you more.
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eido
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Re: Insert Log Title Here (Swedish)

Postby eido » Thu Apr 11, 2019 3:04 am

Morgana wrote:Which textbook did you mean here?

The one in my log, "Speak Polish For Beginners: A Practical Self Study Guide." I bought the hard-copy version because I couldn't find the digital version @StringerBell was talking about.
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