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

[kanewai]

I took the Memrise deal too. I'm still not sure how much I'll do ... I added seven languages, but have rapidly been paring them back.

[lingua]

Alternating German and Portuguese every other day is working out for me. I will probably do both languages on at least one of the weekend days. Latin and Sicilian have suffered though. I've no idea how others use Duolingo but I have been doing the first level only for German and Portuguese and if I pass the checkpoint continue on. If I were to fail a checkpoint I'd go back to the beginning and start working on the second level. With Latin there are only three levels and in most cases I was into the second level before continuing.


German:
Memrise German I: Levels 1, 3 & 5 completed
Clozemaster: New: 300 & Reviewed: 227 (multiple choice)
Duolingo: 14 crowns

I'm already irritated with Memrise because the German 1 levels aren't all available on the web version so level 2 & 4 are app only levels. I have the app on my iPad but it's so old the sound quality is terrible so it's unlikely I'll ever do them. I'm already a little bored with Memrise and Duolingo so will choose a German textbook and start creating my own course on Decks.

I'm going back to my old ways and for the Memrise course writing out the sentences and words multiple times because the spelling is going to kill me. At least the pronunciation is not difficult. I will also be searching out some beginner podcasts this upcoming week.


European Portuguese:
Memrise Portuguese 1: Levels 1-3 completed
Clozemaster: New: 210 & Reviewed: 253 (multiple choice)
Duolingo: 10 crowns
Podcast: 10mins

I found a beginner podcast and listened to a couple of episodes with transcript. I have bookmarked a bunch of Euro Portuguese sites and can't recall which site it was I listened to. I've also downloaded a bunch of Podcasts for beginners. I recently updated to Catalina on my mac and am not happy with the split of itunes, podcasts and TV. Apple removed some functionality and now you can't even set an episode to unplayed. I like to listen from oldest to newest but newly subscribed podcasts aren't obeying this rule while the ones that were converted do.

I've always thought Portuguese sounded like a cross between Spanish and French. I find the pronunciation more difficult compared to Italian but I'm starting to get used to it. I have a textbook that I bought a long time ago and will be creating my own course for Decks.


Latin:
Clozemaster: New: 10 & Reviewed: 706 (multiple choice)
Duolingo: 5 crowns


Sicilian:
Decks: Averaged about 9 minutes per day just like last week

I fizzled out of Sicilian this past couple of weeks and only did Decks. I managed to do a total of 25h18m for the 6WC out of a total of 118h38m for all languages.

Italian:
Reading: La linea verticale by Mattia Torre 69%
Reading: Venezia è un pesce ... una guida by Tiziano Scarpa 88%
Reading: Marie Curie e i segerti atomici svelati by Luca Novelli 12%
Decks: Averaged about 2 mins of review only per day
Clozemaster: New: 75 & Reviewed: 406 sentences (text input)

I stopped reading La linea verticale after the sixth chapter as I prefer to read the last two chapters after I watch the last two episodes of the show.

[Elsa Maria]

Hi. I started European Portuguese in November and I am planning to keep at it in 2020, although it will not be my primary focus. I will look forward to reading your log! I am still finding the pronunciation mysterious at the moment

(We also overlap with Latin, by the way.)

[lingua]

Book #80: Marie Curie e i segreti atomici svelati by Luca Novelli. I knew about Curie and her work in radioactivity and that her work ultimately killed her but that's about it. She seemed an amazing woman for the time she was in where she couldn't get into the best schools because of her gender. The one knock against this book compared to the others was more information about her personal life and less about her work than the others. It may be because she worked so closely with her husband.

curie.jpeg

Book #81: Venezia è un pesce by Tiziano Scarpa. This is a guide to Venice but it mostly felt self-indulgent and rather pointless to me. It was divided into chapters of different body parts (feet, legs, heart, etc) and each one was on a different subject but the titles didn't seem to have a relationship to the verbiage with the exception of heart which talked about romance in the streets of Venice. There was also a section on other books about Venice but some of them were unpublished so you could only find them in a library or other institution. Pointless for the average reader. And then a chapter with a conversation between a doctor and detective regarding some suicides that in the end were actually murders. Not surprisingly the doctor was the alleged murderer.

venezia.jpg

I had hoped to complete 100 books by the end of the year but I still have 19 to go so that is not happening. I now hope to complete them by the end of April prior to the next SC.

[StringerBell]

I'm hoping that you plan to write some kind of Year in Review where you discuss your reflections on which skills did (or didn't) improve, and how you feel about the overall experience of doing a SC.

[lingua]

German:
Memrise German I: Levels 6 & 8 started
Clozemaster: New: 80 & Reviewed: 213 (multiple choice)
Duolingo: trees on: food, adverbs, questions, places
Reading: Café in Berlin by André Klein: Chapter 1 - Die Wohngemeinschaft
Grammar book: PMP German Verb Tenses: Started Chapter 1
Grammar book: PMP Basic German: Started Chapter 1
The German Project: Lessons 1-9

I've cut back on Memrise and Duolingo as I've concluded they aren't the best sources for me. They are fine as vocabulary builders but not that great for grammar. On Memrise I moved between two levels because one was numbers and one was small talk. This course has a lot of sentences and I don't want to get overloaded on them so early in my studying. On Duolingo I do only one level of a tree on a specific subject each session. I also found a verb only course on memrise with the top 100 German verbs so started that because I want to learn more verbs right off the bat. I'm also writing the conjugations out so they stay in my memory.

Café in Berlin is the first book in a series of short stories. There are around 10 of these books. The book is about Nico from Sicily and his travels. Each chapter has a glossary at the end of it for many of the words in the story. A Wohngemeinschaft is a shared apartment. Dino lives with three other guys from different countries in the apartment and is learning German. I bought a few of the Practice Makes Perfect German books several years ago so started working with German Verb Tenses and Basic German. The Verb book assumes you already know some German so I had to skip some parts since I don't yet have enough vocabulary to translate but I did do some basic conjugation in the present tense. For the basics it started off talking about gender and how the/a/an change depending on the four cases. I know the cases are difficult for me. I understand the concept but using it isn't necessarily simple while in the midst of writing or saying something.

I found this site https://www.thegermanproject.com/german-lessons/introduction which includes 15 free lessons. I did the first 9 and found it very helpful with pronunciation. It's slightly humorous in how the material is presented.


European Portuguese:
Memrise Portuguese 1: Levels 4, 6 & 8 completed & 9 started
Clozemaster: New: 72 & Reviewed: 367 (multiple choice)
Duolingo: negatives, colors
Grammar book: PMP Beginning Portuguese Chapters 1-3

I'm doing the same thing with Portuguese. Only one level within a tree per session with Duolingo and moving around the levels in the Memrise course to choose what I feel like learning. For example one level was only on the permanent "to be" verb and I felt doing that sooner was more important than some of the other subjects. I also found a top 50 verbs course and am working through that.

Like with German I bought the Beginning Portuguese book a few years ago and started working it this weekend. The chapters are very short. I've already forgotten what was in them. But it was very basic and not much new for me at this point. The nice thing about the PMP is it is geared to European Portuguese but does point out the differences with Brazilian Portuguese. I would like to find a beginner reader as well but haven't yet. Is anyone familiar with one?


Latin:
Clozemaster: New: 29 & Reviewed: 425 (multiple choice)
Duolingo: home, gods, shop, hobbies, activities

Not doing much with Latin at the moment because of the two new languages but trying for one leve in a tree in duolingo and a bit of Clozemaster each day so I don't forget what I've learned up to now.


Sicilian:
Decks: Continue to review words every few days and sometimes learn new ones


Italian:
Reading:In mezzo al mare by Mattia Torre 41%
Reading: Einstein e le macchine del tempo by Luca Novelli 9%
Decks: Averaged about 2 mins of review only per day
Clozemaster: New: 75 & Reviewed: 281 sentences (text input)
Talking: one 1 hour italki session
Watched (MHz Choice): La linea verticale S1E7-8
Watched (MHzChoice): Stanotte a Venezia
Watched (dplay.com): Cucina con Ale S1E28-31
Podcasts: DiWineTaste: 97mins

I finished the last two episodes of La linea verticale and immediately completed the book. In this case I enjoyed the show more than the book because of the visuals. The series very much follows the book down to the word in the dialogs. I thought this was well done. Funny, cynical, quirky and a little sad. Amazon had two other books by Mattia Torre so I bought them and started one of them. In mezzo al mare contains six shorter stories. I'm mostly in maintenance mode with Italian since the bulk of my time is with German and Portuguese now.

Book #82: La linea verticale by Mattia Torre. Luigi has cancer and this is about his 21 day hospital experience with the staff, doctors and other patients. Luigi's wife is pregnant with their second child. With his release from the hospital his prognosis is not good. There are also a couple of side stories about a priest and a few of the other patients.

lalineaverticale.jpg

[lingua]

German:
Memrise German I: Continued to review and add a couple of levels
Clozemaster: New: 378 & Reviewed: 528 (multiple choice)
Duolingo: trees on: stuff, accusative pronouns, house/furniture & conjunctions
Reading: Café in Berlin by André Klein: Chapter 1 - Die Wohngemeinschaft review & Chapter 2 Multikulti read
Grammar book: PMP German Verb Tenses: Continued with Chapter 1
Grammar book: PMP Basic German: Continued with Chapter 1
Watched (MHz Choice): Professor T: S1 E1-4

Professor T was originally a Belgium series and was remade in France and then Germany. Professor T is an eccentric OCD germophobe who helps a couple of cops solve crimes. It's quirky and humorous so I found it enjoyable. While I used subtitles, I also listened carefully and was able to understand quite a few short simple sentences. The speaking in this series is very clear which makes it easier to understand. I've reread the first chapter in Café in Berlin several times this week and read the second chapter once. I'm reading this very slowly to make sure I understand everything before moving ahead very far. I can't say if this is a good plan long term but I'm giving it a try since my primary goal is to read German books.


European Portuguese:
Memrise Portuguese 1: Completed (it's short)
Memrise Portuguese 2: Completed Level 1
Clozemaster: New: 253 & Reviewed: 280 (multiple choice)
Duolingo: trees on: numbers, present tense, body parts, prepositions
Grammar book: PMP Beginning Portuguese Chapters 4-5

Portuguese seemed to fall on my busier days this week so I didn't get as much done as with German. I managed to complete the top 50 verbs (by usage) and will continue to review them so I remember them for more than a day or two. I am certainly not an expert on Portuguese pronunciation but in the Memrise Portuguese course the primary speaker was not pronouncing the last vowel for a lot of words. I checked Forvo for Portuguese pronunciation and the majority of speakers do pronounce them so I am becoming disillusioned with the MR course.

I picked up a couple of new books. One is Italiano Portoghese and the other a Portuguese essential grammar published by Routledge. It had an introduction about the language and how it differs between Portugal, Africa and Brazil. It also touched on the Asian countries that still have Portuguese speakers (like Macau for example). I like the Rutledge book. It goes into a little more depth than PMP books do in regards to grammar points.


Latin:
Clozemaster: New: 60 & Reviewed: 939 (multiple choice)
Duolingo: trees on: nature, feast, places

Just like last week I'm doing minimal Latin.


Sicilian:

I didn't realize I had done no Sicilian this week until I started writing this. I must remedy that soon.


Italian:
Reading:In mezzo al mare by Mattia Torre 41%
Reading: Einstein e le macchine del tempo by Luca Novelli 62%
Decks: Averaged about 1 minute of review per day
Clozemaster: New: 274 & Reviewed: 977 sentences (text input)
Podcasts: DiWineTaste: 52 mins

Reading time is diminished at the moment (too many late nights) though it should pick back up this coming week. For most of this year I averaged at least two hours a day of Italian and for the month of December it's just shy of an hour however I've still managed 30+ minutes per day.

[lingua]

Book #83: Einstein e le macchine del tempo by Luca Novelli. This book was divided into the bio section regarding his work and life plus the small dictionary of terms like most of the other ones.

einstein.jpeg

[lingua]

New 2020 log here:
https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=12257