Morgana's log

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SGP
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Re: Just keep moving.

Postby SGP » Tue Dec 04, 2018 8:33 am

Morgana wrote:We picked a group language (German), and then each of us separately picked one language that the other two would learn. I gave them Romanian. One of them gave me Japanese, the other Korean. I have to admit, those two languages were never in my plans for learning :lol: Neither was Romanian, but to show my team spirit I'm learning it as well.
If it is a challenge, did you (pl.) also keep in mind that some of them are easier to learn then others?

The last language activity I've got going on this December is Pimsleur level I Icelandic. Uh, yup, Icelandic is back, for now.
Didn't see that coming (at least for now), especially after what you previously wrote in the other log.

Maybe breaking from Colloquial Icelandic will rekindle the flame.
As they say, que será, será.

There will be days/weeks/months where I feel invincible,
Like a female version of Super Mario maybe? Talking about that star that makes him blink... #ExplicatoryAnalogy #PersonallyNotPlayingAnyVideoGames

and there will be days/weeks/months where the weight of the task is too much and I feel like quitting. There will be times where it seems like everybody else has better ideas than I do, more time than I do, more achievements, etc. None of that matters. Each day one can choose to be paralyzed in the face of it all, or to keep moving. A mile, a meter, an inch. Doesn’t matter. Just keep moving.
Good to hear about that whole "No Matter if They Learn Faster" idea. Still wondering why exactly so many people out there have the "I must beat everyone at everything" idea.
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MamaPata
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Re: Just keep moving.

Postby MamaPata » Tue Dec 04, 2018 1:06 pm

Hah, what a lovely idea! It's not something I want to do right now but I look forward to hearing how it goes for you!
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SGP
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Re: Just keep moving.

Postby SGP » Thu Dec 06, 2018 6:03 am

Morgana wrote:No. There's no goal or outcome to be achieved other than doing the one lesson per day in each language during December. After the 31st we are all free to quit the entire thing.
I just might try something similar in the future (on my own, and without Duolingo). Simply doing one lesson per day for some time, then moving on.
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Cavesa
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Re: Just keep moving.

Postby Cavesa » Thu Dec 06, 2018 1:51 pm

A great idea, I hope it goes well for you and your friends. I really like that it is activity oriented and not goal oriented, that looks like a very reasonable and motivating way to go.
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SGP
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Re: Just keep moving.

Postby SGP » Fri Dec 21, 2018 5:03 am

Morgana wrote: I've dropped Romanian since last time, but only because I know I won't continue with that language past the 31st. Otherwise, Romanian seemed pretty cool.

Can't disagree. Something Latin-based with great Slavonic influence. Sort of a rarity, I guess. You can't buy that at McDonald's.

As for JA and KO, Duolingo is entirely the wrong medium to start off with in those and I have not succeeded at memorizing/"learning" more than a handful of the characters in each language at this stage.

Now why isn't the (Mean?) Green Owl the best Japanese and Korean from Zero Teacher?

As for German, the longer I continue into the Duolingo tree, the more cognates I see with Swedish, and the less I like German based off of that :lol: It's like Swedish, but spelled funny, and pronounced funny, and eventually it will have way more complicated grammar, why would I do that to myself?? I'm just kidding around.

Do you know that some of "us" could say the very same thing about Swedish, too? "Swedish is like German, but spelled funny, and pronounced funny, and it also has less complicated grammar, but I really need the Vier Superwichtige Fälle Der Deutschen Sprache to express myself!".

But, mind you, this is no Retourkutsche ("return carriage", i.e. a tit-for-tat response). By the way, "Luftspiegelung" (literally it means sth. like "air mirroring") is the native word for the (also well-known) Fata Morgana. And me too, I am Just Kidding Around. Because I am a Schelm. :lol:

I really like the idea of being able to unqueue Swedish in the not-so-distant future once again. And I do hope that this day will come.

What do you think about the following?
I (later) could try to reach Swedish B2, because you are at B1 right now. And then I would press the Swedish Pause Button, so you could try to reach C1, thus "beating" me once again, just as you already are doing right now if you can actively use B1 Swedish. #ThisIsNotReallyAChallengeOffer #SimplyMentioningTheSolePossibilityOfANoEnvyChallenge
#YesIDidReadYourWholePostInItsEntirety

[ ] Yes
[ ] No
[ ] Maybe
[ ] Not telling ya! Because that way, I can secretly plan some more Swedish learning activities, without yourself even realizing anything.
Last edited by SGP on Fri Dec 21, 2018 5:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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SGP
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Re: Just keep moving.

Postby SGP » Fri Dec 21, 2018 5:05 am

I'm glad where I'm at with Swedish but it's not easy. I'm glad pop-up dictionaries exist and that someone on the internet made one for Swedish on Kindle.

If I am not mistaken, the Swedish one, too, is monolingual. Is this approach much more useful to you than using a bilingual one?

Work through Colloquial Icelandic unit 8 continues however. I may actually get it done by the 31st. It just covered impersonal constructions, and how the "subject" in those kinds of constructions is not really a subject, so it isn't in the nominative case. It's a bit weird to get your head around but simple enough to memorize.

Recently had a Polish experience. Reading about it might be a bit useful to you, too.

"Jest" (he/she/ [it?] is) takes the instrumental case. So when someone states that "he/she" is _____ , this means "instrumentalizing" that noun in order to express something.

And "mam" (I have) takes the genitive case. This is like saying "I have [some/all] of a certain thing".

What I am trying to say is that there is some inner-language logic. After knowing it, remembering grammar could be even easier.


Though, now that I think about it, I haven't applied the same effort to remember the genders of words. I kind of hope it all just "comes together" with time because I can't see brute force memorization being The Way.

First, I learned German Word Genders. #GermanSpeakingBabyHomeSchool #ToddlerTeachings
Then, a long, long time later, it was about these Retro-Italian Daughters. They are very talkative. They kept providing me "all the day" with some Word Gender Information. And I did try both of "Robotic Rote Memorization" (a.k.a. Brute Force) ;) and the immersion and exposure approach. Now guess which one worked better for me?

Mostly because I'm unwilling to brute-force-memorize 8-)

Underbar!
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Neurotip
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Re: The 2019 post.

Postby Neurotip » Fri Dec 21, 2018 7:36 pm

Wonderful that your language garden is growing vigorously again :)
Morgana wrote:Icelandic: Gosh A2 reading would be nice by the end of next year :lol: I laugh because I've already been at this language for nine months.

It's been my main project for the last twenty months and I'm only just hitting the far end of A2. No laughing matter :roll: Who was it that said Icelandic is a rock that language learners frequently run aground on?

But if you carry on with it I might have to do so too, otherwise you might overtake me while I'm sunning myself on a Greek island 8-)
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Re: The 2019 post.

Postby zjones » Fri Dec 21, 2018 7:57 pm

Morgana wrote:French: I tested out at A2 listening on Dialang a few months ago with French, after years without touching the language (apart from some false starts at bringing it back). I bet I could be at a B1 with a bit of effort. As for learning, I had initially said I want to do it for free and I might stick to that, with Duolingo and Lingvist, but I also might feel that paying for a course is easier and go that route instead. When the time comes, I'll switch over to reading and listening to native materials. But this language isn't a focus, and I may set it aside at any time, so no guaranteed outcomes! I don't know where to buy ebooks/audiobooks. I'm trying to move away from depending on Amazon for everything.

Non-language-specific (and even non-language) goals: Be okay with inconsistency and slow progress. Be braver. Change things up when I get bored. Don't be afraid to set things aside when they feel overwhelming. Explore non-language hobbies. Move a little more, eat a little better. Drink more tea and eat less chocolate. Remember to appreciate where I am.


I'm sad there's isn't a heart smiley for me to use, because I just love your non-language-specific goals! "Be braver" is one of the things I'm trying to work on this year too. And hey, drinking more tea is always a good idea. (Have you ever tried DavidsTea? They're expensive, but great for a treat.)

As far as French goes, there are plenty of great ebooks and audiobooks available, but I've always used Amazon and Audible for these purchases. For the current French series that I'm reading, Autre-Monde, the audiobooks are Audible exclusives so I wouldn't be able to get them elsewhere. What genre are you interested in reading?

If you want to work on French listening, there's a podcast that I think you'd like! It's called Change ma vie and is all about being healthier emotionally and mentally. It's my French guilty pleasure. I've been wanting to recommend it to my friends and family, but then I remember that it's in French and they won't be able to understand it. :lol: You would probably be able to understand it, because Clothilde speaks fairly slowly and clearly and she doesn't use slang. It's on iTunes and Spotify.
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Re: Slow and (un)steady: Swedish and others

Postby eido » Tue Jan 01, 2019 1:24 am

I’d say continue your research.

Find out what sources you can use. Japanese and Korean aren’t as commonly learned as Chinese or Spanish, so there aren’t many sources to pick from that are of the same quality or scope as those for the bigger languages. Hangul is easy to learn. The two basic Japanese syllabaries have taken me a lot more time to learn because they have a different, less obvious logic than Hangul. I still have trouble with them. Korean doesn’t have a pitch accent system, but it has a more complicated sound inventory. Each has their own ways of being easy or hard for the language learner - you just have to pick your poison. The good thing, though, is they mostly have regular verbs with a regularity to the irregular ones. So they’re not like Romance languages. (Although I’d argue there’s logic there, too.)

I suppose you need to decide what would draw you to one over the other, or if you like both for different reasons. I’m in the latter camp.

You can check out all the study groups for more information. I just made a Korean one!
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reineke
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Re: Slow and (un)steady: Swedish and others

Postby reineke » Tue Jan 01, 2019 3:01 am

While more and more schools are offering Chinese, Japanese has consistently remained more popular in the US (K12 and higher education). In 2016 Japanese has overtook Italian which made it the fifth most popular foreign language in the US. You won't have any trouble finding resources for Japanese even if you were to look for reasonably priced reference works covering narrow grammar topics written in plain English.

Korean has recently seen a huge percentage increase in terms of enrollments due to the popularity of Kpop etc. There will be fewer resources compared to Japanese but you should do just fine.

Your no.1 resource you should be worrying about is time.
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