Lingua's 2019 Italian, Sicilian, Latin, German, Portuguese Log

[lingua]

Book #20 completed yesterday. La battaglia navale by Marco Malvaldi. This is the sixth in the BarLume series. It's a mystery. What else can I say? I was about 85% done and put it down at the end of a chapter and couldn't get it out of my head so ended up staying up past midnight to finish it. I have noticed with upping my number of books this month I've started increasing my reading speed which is encouraging.

labattaglianavale.jpg

20 actual books = 63 SC books

[lingua]

Reading:
BarLume: A bocce ferme by Marco Malvaldi <-- 12%
Breve storia della moda in Italia by Maria Geiuseppina Muzzzarelli <-- 2% (barely started)


Writing:
I've spent the last 20 minutes writing (for the output challenge) and will continue once I finish this post. I also did some sentences while doing grammar like I usually do.

Talking/Recording:
One 60 minute italki session. Like last week I thought it went better than prior months. I feel like I'm getting some fluidity back. The long break I took was probably a mistake. I also recorded 71 minutes mostly from reading Io non ho paura and a bit from my writing output. I'm listening to about five minutes of the recording afterwards so I can see if my accent is improving. Later tonight I'll listen to the audiobook up to the point I am in the book.

Listening:
podcast: total of 80 minutes
Veneto & Sapori

film: total of 102 minutes
Netflix: Io e te


Grammar/Vocabulary
memrise: review and added new words off and on
clozemaster: did another 100 sentences (approximately)

I spent a couple of hours on grammar this week.

365 Challenge: I've done at least 30 minutes a day. For the month of January I averaged 120.84 minutes. The lowest day was 39 minutes and the highest 302 minutes. So my goal in Febuary is to increase the average.

Book #21. Ciao by Nicola de Blasi. This book was about the etymology of the word ciao. Truthfully this one was a little boring compared to the similar book I just finished on the word bravo. It seemed a little redundant. The author teaches history of the Italian language. While she was able to find evidence of documented use of the word back into the 1800s it didn't become heavily used until around the 70s according to her research. She also talked about greetings in general and how formal the language still was prior to the 70s.

ciao.jpg

21 actual books = 66 SC books

[StringerBell]

I also recorded 71 minutes mostly from reading Io non ho paura and a bit from my writing output.

What do you think of this book? I was contemplating buying it. I don't remember you mentioning it previously (if you did, I missed it somehow, sorry!).

[lingua]

StringerBell, I'm only on page 15 of the book. Recording while reading is somewhat slow for me because I repeat anything I think wasn't a good pronunciation. I see this book on top 10 Italian book lists but I find it a little depressing even with the short amount I've read. The protagonist (narrator) seems like a good kid but the leader of his group of friends has a mean streak and appears to enjoy meting out punishment a little too much to the rest of them when they lose the various competitions they do. The writing itself is easy to understand. Since I already know the plot line I read it with a sense of dread.

[lingua]

Reading:
BarLume: A bocce ferme by Marco Malvaldi <-- 25%
Breve storia della moda in Italia by Maria Geiuseppina Muzzzarelli <-- 47%
Io non ho paura by Niccolò Ammaniti <-- 17%

My reading pace slowed down this week (for the first two books). I'm spending just as much time reading but am distracted and find myself re-reading large chunks of them. This weeks goal is to concentrate. I don't much like Breve storia della moda in Italia which is probably why I have trouble focusing. I have the feeling that in the back of my mind I don't want to finish BarLume because it's the last book in the series. I still have the six BarLume short stories to read in another book but I imagine it won't be the same thing.

Writing:
Did a lot of writing this weekend with exercises and a small amount for the output challenge.

Talking/Recording:
One 60 minute italki session. Recorded 32 minutes of reading Io non ho paura.

Listening:
podcast: total of 46 minutes
Veneto & Sapori

No film at all this week. I have been listening to music instead. Specifically Adriano Celentano. I bought a two disk CD years ago. I don't generally like pop but I'm able to tolerate some of it and don't mind Celentano. The songs are easy to understand as far as what words are being said most of the time though the meaning can be elusive. Same as with English for me. I often don't know what they're saying or what they mean.

Grammar/Vocabulary
memrise: review and added new words off and on
clozemaster: did another 100 sentences (approximately)

Continued to spend time on grammar. I work with different books depending on what I'm in the mood for.

365 Challenge: I've done at least an hour a day since my last log entry. I'm not counting the music in this because it's generally in the background while I'm doing something else.

[lingua]

Reading:
BarLume: A bocce ferme by Marco Malvaldi <-- 52%
Io non ho paura by Niccolò Ammaniti <-- 31%
Dire, fare, brasare by Carlo Craco <-- 0% (will start tomorrow)

Definitely returning to the subject of cooking (by choosing the Craco book) as it's much easier for me to read. It is 11 cooking lessons and some recipes so it should reinforce a lot of the stuff I picked up in the L'italiano per la cucina workbook I recently completed.

Writing:
This week I've written every day mostly talking about what exercise I did that day and how we prepared our meal. Since I know one of the writing tests is writing a letter I am planning to add letters to the writing soon. I tend to have writers block when trying to think of something to write about so I'm going with the mundane for now but ideally it will get easier and I can broaden out.

Talking/Recording:
One 60 minute italki session with the teacher that told me I needed to work on my accent. This time she said she had noticed an improvement which was nice to hear. Recorded 77 minutes of reading Io non ho paura.

Listening:
podcast: total of 79 minutes
Veneto & Sapori

This must be a record for me of doing no film for two weeks in a row. It's mostly been replaced with the increase in reading time.

Grammar/Vocabulary
Continued with the usual exercises, memrize and clozemaster

365 Challenge: I've continued to do at least an hour a day since my last log entry.

Finally finished book #22. Breve storia della in Italia by Maria Giuseppina Muzzarelli. The author is a teacher of history with a focus on medieval times. This book covered the history of mostly Italian fashion though it touched on other countries when it was pertinent. While it mentioned the medieval times it primarily covered the 1800s and 1900s. The book was written in 2014 so I'm not clear on why she barely mentioned the 2000s. The first part of the book was boring and I was ready to give up on it at one point but then it got more interesting. It covered color and design of fabric, influences of fashion design, contributions by (mostly) famous designers, a bit on manufacturing and fabrics used then and now in general. And touched on the relationship of art and fashion.

The other problem was a lot of unknown words due to her writing style and fashion related terminology that I was not familiar with. I also thought the book could use photos because I was sometimes a little vague on what kind of garment she was talking about even with descriptions. As it turned out there are some photos in the back of the book but it would have been better to place them where the garment was described.

I don't recommend this book unless you have a burning interest in fashion history. In spite of finding some of the book of interest it was still a bit of a slog.

brevestoriadellamodainitalia.png

22 actual books = 71 SC books

[lingua]

Book #23: A bocce ferme by Marco Malvaldi. This started off as a cold case from 50 years in the past and then when some information came out a new murder is committed. It was a little twisty at times but an enjoyable read.

abocceferme.jpg

23 pysical books = 76 SC books

[lingua]

Reading:
Sei casi al BarLume by Marco Malvaldi <-- 66%
Io non ho paura by Niccolò Ammaniti <-- 31%
Dire, fare, brasare by Carlo Craco <-- 18%

I've primarily been reading this past week due to some non-typical circumstances. On the downside I've barely had time to do any other activities. No writing, talking, podcasts or Italian film this week. A tiny bit of grammar and vocabulary study. This week should be back to normal.

On another note, I have never had any interest in learning French. But I noticed this series called Chefs in French on MHz Choice and watched the first three episodes of the first season. I even picked up a few words here and there but had to rely on the subtitles. I liked it because it's cooking related with a bit of intrigue. I guess it won (or maybe was only nominated for) some kind of award. It counts for nothing towards my Italian goals and is a minor diversion.

[lingua]

Reading:
Sei casi al BarLume by Marco Malvaldi <-- 74%
Io non ho paura by Niccolò Ammaniti <-- 43%
Dire, fare, brasare by Carlo Craco <-- 28%

I do a good portion of my daily reading while walking on the treadmill but I twisted my ankle about a week ago so haven't been walking which has caused a downward trend in reading. It was a minor twist and I will restart walking tomorrow so I should finish at least two books this week. To meet my 100 books goal by the end of the year I need to average 7.7 books a month. It's doable but won't be easy.

The Cracco book is a joy to read as I hardly have to look up any words. Evidently my food and cooking vocabulary comprehension is at a high level. I think that is also true of investigation/mystery vocabulary. I've read four of the six BarLume stories and should complete the last two this week. Most likely my next mystery will be Pista Nera by Antonio Manzini. This is the first book in the Rocco Schiavone series. I hope I'll like it as there are eight books in the series.

Writing:
I lost my writing habit as easily as I started it last month. I did several pages of grammar exercise writing this weekend and several days of writing. I don't know if I'll ever be ready for the B2 test since it's going to take a lot of work to get my writing level up but if nothing else this has given me the push to be more consistent with my studying and I feel like it's paying off.

Talking/Recording:
One 60 minute italki session which went well. I'm definitely regaining my fluidity. I recorded about 52 minutes of Io non ho paura and 8 minutes of my writing. After five hours of recording I noticed yesterday that I was speaking faster and I feel looser with my speech. I'm glad I decided to do this as it seems like it's helping a lot. Talking for an hour straight is tiring on the vocal cords though. It's different than a conversation where I am speaking at a more relaxed pace and also listening.

Listening:
podcast: total of 148 minutes
Veneto & Sapori which was active from 2008-2012. I'm into the late 2010 episodes now and they started adding an interview component. They interview people in various food industry or from restaurants.

I also spent several hours listing to Italian music: Adraino Celentano, Irene Grandi, Olivia Sellerio, Pino Daniele and Toto Cutugno. Sellerio sings in Sicilian and Daniele in Napoletano and Italian so I don't necessarily understand everything but the other three sing very clearly so they're easy to understand.

Grammar/Vocabulary
Wasted too much time trying to work with Anki and Quizlet as a Memrise substitute. I will continue to work with all three so I have backup if the Memrise replacement Decks becomes defunct. Spent five hours on grammar exercises this weekend. I'm doing less Clozemaster recently.

365 Challenge: I've continued to do at least an hour a day since my last log entry. Still averaging about two hours a day. For February my longest day was 352 minutes and my shortest was 40 minutes.

[lingua]

Book #24: Sei casi al BarLume by Marco Malvaldi. This book includes six short BarLume stories. Short stories are difficult and of the six I thought four were successful, one was ok and one was not very good. They were all previously published in a compilation of short mystery stories by the same publisher (Sellerio) along with other known Italian authors such as Camilleri.

seicasialbarlume.jpg

24 actual books = 81 SC books