Setswana Study Group

An area with study groups for various languages. Group members help each other, share resources and experience. Study groups are permanent but the members rotate and change.
Speakeasy
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Re: Setswana Study Group

Postby Speakeasy » Thu Jul 12, 2018 11:32 pm

Setswana Language Course
I am not a student of African languages. Nevertheless, quite recently, while searching information on a particular vintage language course that I recently purchased, I came across a website which, coincidentally, offers home-study introductory language courses for a number of languages one of which just happens to be Setswana. See below for the information that I presently have on the vendor.

The Vendor’s Products
I have a copy of a vintage P.I.L.L. French course that was produced in the 1960’s-1970’s by what-appears-to-be the previous owners of the copyright of the P.I.L.L. method and I will be submitting a positive review of it in near the future. Essentially, the course employed a mixture of the audio-lingual and the programming learning methods to bring the student to an A1 level; actually quite solid, really! As to the current vendor’s language Linguaphone PDF courses, I recently filed a comment on the method under the General Linguaphone discussion thread; it would be glaring inconsistency on my part were to recommend such materials to you now. I have absolutely no information on the other courses in their inventory and it seems to me that the vendor is offering something of a “pig in a poke” and this includes their Setswana course. Nevertheless, as you expressed your interest in locating materials for the Setswana language, I thought that you might wish to know about the apparent availability of the Rosebank Language Centre’s course.

The Vendor
Rosebank Language Centre
Rosebank, Braamfontein and Quellerina in Johannesburg
South Africa

Although the website seems professionally-prepared, it seems to be more of a “drop box” for communicating with the prospective customers than a conventional website for conducting transactions; that is, electronic order placement, calculating and assigning shipping charges and taxes, order processing, preparation of an invoice, notice of receipt of final payment, confirmation of dispatch, et cetera. Communications with the vendor are can be initiated via a “Contact Us” portal which, if you submit a question via this portal, as I did, it will generate an automated invitation by Email to you to create an account. This would seem to suggest that the vendors are willing to communicate with registered account-holders only. Bizarre, quoi? Payment instructions are quite specific (prepayment directly to a bank account). In the present age of electronic payment via internationally-recognized credit cards, via PayPal, and the like, I find this just a tad unusual. I am not suggesting that the vendors are running a dubious business operation; I know absolutely nothing about them. However, by not providing what-have-become wide-spread, secure, electronic order-processing facilities, they are not doing much in the way of encouraging new customers to make a leap of faith! Here is the LINK:

Rosebank Language Centre
http://www.rlconline.co.za/
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zenmonkey
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2528
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 7:21 pm
Location: California, Germany and France
Languages: Spanish, English, French trilingual - German (B2/C1) on/off study: Persian, Hebrew, Tibetan, Setswana.
Some knowledge of Italian, Portuguese, Ladino, Yiddish ...
Want to tackle Tzotzil, Nahuatl
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=859
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Re: Setswana Study Group

Postby zenmonkey » Mon Jul 16, 2018 1:57 pm

Added :
Setswana Study Group on Memrise: https://www.memrise.com/group/266585/
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I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar

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zenmonkey
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2528
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 7:21 pm
Location: California, Germany and France
Languages: Spanish, English, French trilingual - German (B2/C1) on/off study: Persian, Hebrew, Tibetan, Setswana.
Some knowledge of Italian, Portuguese, Ladino, Yiddish ...
Want to tackle Tzotzil, Nahuatl
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=859
x 7030
Contact:

Re: Setswana Study Group

Postby zenmonkey » Mon Jul 23, 2018 4:08 pm

zenmonkey wrote:... and On-line Chat
The next session is July 23rd at 20:00 Central European Summer Time (UTC +2)

Feel free to join it at: https://hangouts.google.com/group/BzdExCkHZAjIrqjU2


Just a reminder.
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I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar

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zenmonkey
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2528
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 7:21 pm
Location: California, Germany and France
Languages: Spanish, English, French trilingual - German (B2/C1) on/off study: Persian, Hebrew, Tibetan, Setswana.
Some knowledge of Italian, Portuguese, Ladino, Yiddish ...
Want to tackle Tzotzil, Nahuatl
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=859
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Contact:

Re: Setswana Study Group

Postby zenmonkey » Mon Jul 23, 2018 7:22 pm

On-line Chat
The next session is Monday, August 6th at 20:00 Central European Summer Time (UTC +2)

Feel free to join it at: https://hangouts.google.com/group/BzdExCkHZAjIrqjU2


Dumelang!

As 'homework' the group agreed to define a short personal 'island'. A few sentences to memorise that are useful in describing yourself or who you are, etc... We will post them in this thread before the call and can then help each other correct or expand.

Tsamayang sentlê, borra le bomma!

ps: we are currently mostly focusing on 'An introduction to spoken Setswana' either in pdf form or the Memrise course. Feel free to join us at any time.
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I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar

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Brun Ugle
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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: Setswana Study Group

Postby Brun Ugle » Thu Jul 26, 2018 6:53 am

I think we should all join the 6WC with Setswana and challenge each other to get the best score.
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zenmonkey
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2528
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 7:21 pm
Location: California, Germany and France
Languages: Spanish, English, French trilingual - German (B2/C1) on/off study: Persian, Hebrew, Tibetan, Setswana.
Some knowledge of Italian, Portuguese, Ladino, Yiddish ...
Want to tackle Tzotzil, Nahuatl
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=859
x 7030
Contact:

Re: Setswana Study Group

Postby zenmonkey » Thu Jul 26, 2018 7:10 am

Brun Ugle wrote:I think we should all join the 6WC with Setswana and challenge each other to get the best score.


I'm ok with joining the 6WC but I've seen the crazy scores on there. I'd have to be a language hermit to even approach the best score. How about 42+ hrs in the period.
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I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar

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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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Contact:

Re: Setswana Study Group

Postby Brun Ugle » Thu Jul 26, 2018 9:55 am

zenmonkey wrote:
Brun Ugle wrote:I think we should all join the 6WC with Setswana and challenge each other to get the best score.


I'm ok with joining the 6WC but I've seen the crazy scores on there. I'd have to be a language hermit to even approach the best score. How about 42+ hrs in the period.

I meant the best Setswana score. We’d compete with each other, not with people like Smallwhite.
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User avatar
zenmonkey
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2528
Joined: Sun Jul 26, 2015 7:21 pm
Location: California, Germany and France
Languages: Spanish, English, French trilingual - German (B2/C1) on/off study: Persian, Hebrew, Tibetan, Setswana.
Some knowledge of Italian, Portuguese, Ladino, Yiddish ...
Want to tackle Tzotzil, Nahuatl
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=859
x 7030
Contact:

Re: Setswana Study Group

Postby zenmonkey » Thu Jul 26, 2018 10:12 am

Brun Ugle wrote:
zenmonkey wrote:
Brun Ugle wrote:I think we should all join the 6WC with Setswana and challenge each other to get the best score.


I'm ok with joining the 6WC but I've seen the crazy scores on there. I'd have to be a language hermit to even approach the best score. How about 42+ hrs in the period.

I meant the best Setswana score. We’d compete with each other, not with people like Smallwhite.


In.

(I want to be smallwhite when I grow up.)
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I am a leaf on the wind, watch how I soar

kulaputra
Orange Belt
Posts: 221
Joined: Sun Jun 10, 2018 4:04 am
Languages: English (N), Kannada (semi-native, illiterate), Spanish (~C1), Hindi (A2 speech, B1 comprehension), French (A1 speech, A2 listening, >=B1 reading), Mandarin Chinese (~A1)
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Re: Setswana Study Group

Postby kulaputra » Thu Jul 26, 2018 12:20 pm

Can I ask why Setswana was chosen? I think it's great to see people committed to an off-the-beaten-path language, especially from regions of the world that get little coverage from language learners. I'm just wondering why (if there is a why; perhaps the answer is just, as Mallory said of climbing Everest, "Because it's there").
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Iha śāriputra: rūpaṃ śūnyatā śūnyataiva rūpaṃ; rūpān na pṛthak śūnyatā śunyatāyā na pṛthag rūpaṃ; yad rūpaṃ sā śūnyatā; ya śūnyatā tad rūpaṃ.

--Heart Sutra

Please correct any of my non-native languages, if needed!

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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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Contact:

Re: Setswana Study Group

Postby Brun Ugle » Thu Jul 26, 2018 12:55 pm

kulaputra wrote:Can I ask why Setswana was chosen? I think it's great to see people committed to an off-the-beaten-path language, especially from regions of the world that get little coverage from language learners. I'm just wondering why (if there is a why; perhaps the answer is just, as Mallory said of climbing Everest, "Because it's there").

It’s Rdearman’s fault. He started it. He had read the Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency books and decided he wanted to travel to Botswana. So he thought he would learn a little Setswana before going. Then, when we were at the Polyglot Gathering, there was a no-English zone, and we just had to stop talking when passing through it because we had no other common language. We thought we should find a second common language. Since the main problem was that Rdearman and I have no other common language, I thought the most logical solution would be for me to learn French or him to learn German. But everyone else thought it would be more fun if we all learned a new language and it should be something that no one else there was likely to speak so that we could have a secret language. Thus, Setswana was chosen.
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