Expug's 2018 Log - Sustainable Dabbling

[Expugnator]

I had the evening off but I did very little Clozemaster again. It works better when I do it little by little during the day, alternating with other tasks. Yesterday I was behind schedule so I hope it's better today. I'm planning on adding some grammar challenges but nothing regular for the time being.

Finished the French comedy Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait au bon dieu ? . It's a good one, funny and dealing with stereotypes with a light humor. Now, l'aile ou les cuisses. Still a long way to go at my personal film list, but then I believe it's doing great to my listening skills to keep doing films at this level instead of sticking to one series. I'm dying to watch some series as well, but I have no time as of now.

I've been collecting a lot of C1 resources for my strongest languages, English, French and German. I wonder if I should open them. They're meant for classroom use.

Being behind schedule, I'm just reading Estonian in parallel instead of pasting it on pastebin and hovering over unknown words (which is more intensively). I'm much more successful at linking Estonian word and translation now, though. so the task is turning out pretty much productive.

The word for business, thing is საქმე (sakme) in Georgian. In Hebrew, it apparently עֵסֶק (asak), and I wonder if they are related through Arabic and through which Arabic word.

Finally finished my tasks a bit earlier, enough to play with Clozemaster a bit more. Tomorrow might be busier, and the next two days I won't be studying anyway.

[Expugnator]

Yesterday I managed up to Indonesian on Clozemaster. Only the text input round for the stronger languages and the Icelandic were left undone. I'm really looking forward to bringing my Icelandic up to my Czech and Finnish level, which is a remarkable jump from what one can understand thanks to a similar langugage (Russian; Estonian), and represents a solid headstart if I ever move these languages up from the dabbling status.

I've received a Welcome to Pro email, and replied to it pointing out once again my review/score issues, but no answer so far. This is one reason that makes me rethink my pro membership. I have the first month to decide if I want full refunding.

The progress is slow, but I'm noticing some increase in comprehension after listening to the Estonian soap opera without subtitles. I can't read Estonian, far from that, so I'm actually missing the subtitles and the machine-translated English ones. So it's not simply a matter of training listening skills. Even so, I'm noticing progress in my overall comprehension, which is very encouraging.

I was writing some instructions to a student and it got me thinking about the ultra-soft imperative with "pode" (you can, you may). It's in between a commandment, an order and a suggestion, and it's meant to avoid any patronizing tone (though depending on the tone it has the most autoritary effect instead).

- Pode ir ajeitando as cadeiras, eu já estou chegando para a reunião.

- Aqui está o material. Pode ir dando uma olhada, na próxima aula a gente vai discutir o tópico tal (this is close to what I wrote).

An interesting formula learned today, sejak kapan (since when) in Indonesian.

Fnal day of studies this week. Hope all goes well tomorrow. I could barely skim through the Hebrew lessons, but at least I'm close to finishing both resources.

[Expugnator]

Back at studying. Three weeks to go, which gives roughly 15 days, but I expect to spend 2 days on translation and leave 1 day earlier. So we can count 12 or even fewer days. Enough to finish at least one of my current two Hebrew resources, I hope, which is what worries me the most.

I basically don't need to look up words individually anymore in Estonian. I can make sense of the sentences and link word-by-word to the translation. That means I may also increase my daily quota to 2 pages instead of only one. Time is a constraint now.

I know, I know I'm slacking FSI Hebrew and wasting a great resource by not paying attention to the drills. Yet I think the dialogues themselves are a powerful graded reading. having to edit the sound files makes me even lazier. If only there was a player that did noise reduction and silence leverage on the go...

Still busier than usual. Not much time for Clozemaster, I can barely make it to Hebrew these days.

[Expugnator]

The German novel I'm listening/reading in parallel has been a bit less interesting the latest days. At least I'm keeping my progress in reading and increasing my fluency. I'm having more trouble with the German non-fiction which I'm reading extensively, but I'm managing it so far.

Today I had more time left so I pasted the Estonian text online for looking it up with the GT add-on. It was practically unnecessary, which shows that my skills have improved.

Greek listening-reading has been very productive. It feels almost like a Romance language where I can transfer words continually into my active skills. I feel less repentance for not giving the language the attention it deserves, for not improving it at a faster pace which I would still manage to without burning out.

Finally finished actually earlier. I still need to get back to a layout where I do shorter but productive lessons in Hebrew. Meanwhile, I'll try to do more Clozemaster done than in the past days.

[Expugnator]

Yesterday I managed the full Clozemaster set. I think I'm repeating too many words on the larger decks at the text input rounds. It takes several months to even have all the words within a deck as read, leave alone mastered, in the case of German, Mandarin and Russian.

Harry Hole's novel in Mandarin is coming to an end and so I'm focusing on the story, even if that means not paying much attention to text and only vaguely to audio in Mandarin. I promise I'll pay more attention when I start the next one, Dan Brown's second most recent novel.

So I finished my first more-or-less classical novel/audiobook in Italian: Le meraviglia del Duemila, by Emilio Salgari. I liked the story but not so much. The anacronisms and the not-so-successful futurism exercise are blatant. And since the language is old, the dialogs sound like formal, written language. Not an obstacle for a Romance native, because the more literary you go, the more the languages tend to converge. Not what I'm looking forward to, though.

I got caught off-guard by starting Metro 2033: the audiobook I had prepared so soigneusement is actually in Spanish! I'm reading two other books in Spanish now, so I won't start this translation from Russian. That leaves me with finding something in Italian.I got a couple of classics from Librivox which I might get back to later, but I ended up buying something from Emons. There's not much available at their catalog, even less once you discard the translations. Usually one single novel from each author and not their most famous one. Next time I might check on Audible where I can still buy single audiobooks, like the second volume of Il mercante di libri maledetti. Still not worth a regular subscription to Audible anyway, I might take over one month on each book.

Reading in Georgian has been taking less and less effort; dubbed subtitles start to sound really transparent and I start to anticipate translations after reading the subtitles right before.

It might get good towards the end, or at least so it is with Berlitz Hebrew. I'm getting used to the words, also seeing them on FSI hebrew, Both have very long dialogs which makes them rather meaningful. I'm almost used to Berlitz' transcription, just not enough. A second read through the book later on, when I'm familiarized with the script, might come in handy.

I'm a bit more hopeful about Hebrew and Indonesian. Some words start to stick. I'm looking forward to a more consistent study year. I could be doing more each day for either language, specially Indonesian, but time is a constraint. And yet I'm consolidating the basic vocabulary instead of just moving on frenzily through longer and longer textbooks. At this point, watching series, even if just reading subtitles in the case of Indonesian, could have proven very helpful. I need to check my priorities for next year.

I have something in mind for Hebrew: given the scarcity of "proper" learning materials with both transcript and translation, I'm planning of keeping aside my most often used materials that are long and almost pre-intermediate and just keep reviewing them as a separate resource while I keep moving on through new resources such as grammar references, native materials and the odd intermediate textbook I manage to use.

FSI's thoroughfulness keeps surprising me. It's a reference work, more than a textbook. I'll definitely come back to it for perfecting some topics even if I can't do the drills. I see myself visiting Israel one day.

[Expugnator]

At the Argentinian podcast, I listened to an interview with a Cuban and had a hard time with is accent. Besides the a'o participle, it also seemed as though he had vowel reduction.

I'm discussing guaraní with another Brazilian polyglot. He says that he found it easier to study Tupi (Nheengatu) from a Brazilian author and then address Guaraní with a solid grammar background. The alternative is buying better grammars from Paraguay, which isn't something intuitive to find and Guaraní is taught there rather as native language. Even the Spanish-based resources for Paraguayan Guaraní are fairly limited.

Imagine that you want to study Occitan and you have Occitan in 3 months. And then you have Assimil Catalan. Plus a Routledge Grammar on Aranese. That's the spirit and the dilemma.

I'm still tempted to go for Paraguayan Guaraní anyway. Not the time for delving into languages of Brazil yet. Anyway. time to put an end to this collector's trip.

Starting to understand more from the Estonian soap opera. I expect to see a boost in comprehension when I resume using subtitles.

I started listening to my newly purchased Italian audiobook, Mi piaci da morire. Yes, chick lit, which couldn't be more useful for learning daily conversation. The narrator describes her daily activities and feelings with a vocabulary that would please the fiercest CEFR examiner for the B2 stage. Much better than high brow literature for that matter.

Accomplished Language Textbook: The Berlitz Self-teacher Hebrew



I was caught off-guard by the conclusion of this book at lesson 34, as I was assuming it would last till lesson 40. That's just a detail, as there is a lot of content in those 34 lessons. It works more like a graded reader centered around dialogues. All lessons have transcription and translation; the earlier ones are dotted. I'd have preferred to keep going with the dots instead of the awkward transcription system, similar to the one I find in my (not-so-old) Berlitz Italian and German books which I didn't make a good use of thanks to its format. That is to say, this format wasn't enough for me to learn German or Italian, as when I got them I didn't even know how to use such material and was expecting it to evolve like a normal textbook. This Hebrew one, though, is worth checking. I plan to get back to it later, when I'm more familiarized with transcription, for consolidating dialog and even activating some sentences. In the case of Hebrew, we can't really disregard any resources with transcription (clumsy as it is) or translation.

Now the time has come to make good use of my newly-acquired German fluency and finally do Langenscheidt . Fingers crossed. Hope I don't get stuck due to lack of transcription or translation. On a side-note, I'll start studying from the method that needs special fonts to work and which I can only study from at home, in parallel.

[Expugnator]

At Side om Side I heard the verb "nøster", "Da nøster vi opp i det". I knew that Norwegian had tusenvis of synonyms to "tired", but not to "looking forward to" - gleder meg til, ser frem til, now that nøster, and counting.

Guaraní has a fairly phonetic spelling, so after the videos I'll be watching on Youtube I won't find it much trouble to study from textbooks with audio. I have full-time support from native speakers after all. I need to take advantage of this opportunity. So, now I'm officially dabbling in Guarani. I started saving on a folder the translations a guy posts at the Whatsapp group. That guys translates mostly internet memes, which consist of very lively language.

The reader at Langenscheidt uses the alveolar flap/trill for the 'r' instead of the fricative I'm more used to, which I'll keep adopting anyway. I like the book so far. Pity that I don't have the answer keys, which makes the exercises practically useless.

Another Indonesianpod101 level is over and again comes the struggle to find the next best material. For the time being, I'm sticking to the next level, Beginner. The mere reason I'm reflecting first is that those divisions within pod101 are not so much intuitive. Actually, there's a jump in dialog/sentence length from the Lower Beginner to the Beginner levels, but from what I could infer the Beginner level will make use of several abstract nouns and prefixed verbs that I keep seeing on Clozemaster, so I expect some synergy to happen.

My dabbling in Guarani consists of a single 3-minute TY video and two rounds of Duolingo (which adresses rather the Jopará). I'm looking forward to Duolingo Jopará while I'm rather lazy about languages I'm already studying from other sources. That means that only novelty and the scarcity of resources might motivate me to use Duolingo, i.e. when I have to resort to it as my main resource.

Today I gathered many more resources. I think that at least the A1 stage won't be a problem, and the challenge will be rather to keep improving later> I plan to ask around on the WP group rather often.

[Mista]

At Side om Side I heard the verb "nøster", "Da nøster vi opp i det". I knew that Norwegian had tusenvis of synonyms to "tired", but not to "looking forward to" - gleder meg til, ser frem til, now that nøster, and counting.

I won't insist on anything without knowing the context, but normally, I would say that "nøste opp" means to figure something out or sort it out.

And the litteral meaning of the verb is this:
https://www.garnstudio.com/video.php?id=269&lang=no

[Expugnator]

Yes you're probably right, at least that was the first impression I had. I don't know how the "looking forward to" meaning ocurred to me. Actually the context would fit for the Russian Договорились when setting an appointment.

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Another weekend with next to no language learning. Not even my non-fiction headstart I tend to set in. I was planning on starting the Hebrew CD course, to no avail. Well, at least the month of December sees some good signs of social life, which is very rare during the year. Well, I kept my gym playlist up-to-date with over 30 new songs. I'm stil sorting out my resources for Guarani, which is hard because the sources for Guarani also share material for Tupi and this can be very confusing, as the varieties are said to diverge like Portuguese and Romanian.

I'm managing to concentrate better on Side om Side. I played it fullscreen today and had to look up very few words, while even ignoring the subtitles altogether for a few times.

Langenscheidt Hebräisch is quite accessible so far (except for the fact I don't have the answer key). It's indeed my most favorite textbook format. Short lessons, just the essential grammar. I hope it doesn't escalate and try to teach me an entire conjugation in a lesson like FSI does.

For some reason, I'm seeing "baik" used in Indonesian as a hybrid of adjective and perfect marker, like the Chinese 好. Today's first lesson at the Beginner level is rather formal/business with many sentences using the men- prefix plus the abuse of the particule terah, which also seems to be a perfect aspect marker.

Plugging along with Duolingo Guarani Jopará. Duolingo's insistence in teaching useless sentences first and repeating too much in the beginnign gets on my nerves. No wonder I keep dropping it whenever I can follow normal textbooks more comfortably, and why I never get back to it for stronger languages as planned. Never got down to doing Duolingo Greek or Mandarin.

Memrise has a couple of Guarani courses but I'm not really on the mood for that either Too much microlearning leads nowhere. I'll keep using the youtube course and Duolingo until I notice I am comfortable enough to start a textbook proper. Studying a language that lacks an easily accessible online dictionary and where I'll have to rely on asking around on Whatsapp requires different tactics.

I hadn't seen a calmer study day in months. I managed to finished the normal+extended schedule pretty early, then I did some more Guarani dabbling - most apps just teach vocabulary instead of sentences -, then I organized my material for Guarani (I can't forget to count the two books I have as paperback, one of which hasn't arrived yet, a recommended grammar book), then I finished a pending translation. Then Clozemaster, including the text input rounds.

[Expugnator]

Worked until 10 pm yesterday, so there was enough idle time for starting anew and even for running out of activities. I resumed Speakly.me - still impressed with its quality; I tried all my Duolingo courses but Hebrew, as my phone was charging; I tried the grammar challenges at Clozemaster and I'm not much impressed. With the Norwegian one particularly, the standard form is hanging over the blank space, which gives a hint on vocabulary and limits the exercise to sheer declension; not what I'm looking forward to. It didn't happen in other languages such as German and Russian, so I don't see the point with Norwegian.

And then I started Hebrew native materials! It was the series 30 ש"ח לשעה, which I find interesting so far. I had double, Hebrew and English subtitles. I enjoyed the activity a lot! The characters speak very fast, almost eliding phonemes and syllables, but I might get used with time. The potential is enormous. I might learn the colloquial language rather quickly while becoming familiarized with verb usage and how to vocalize some frequent words, in a much more efficient way than mining for the few sentences with audio on textbooks or the text-to-speech on Clozemaster which I seldom get to use. I still won't turn it into regular study now, though. I might wait for another Assimil wave first, either reviewing the new or doing the old one.

Reading Georgian keeps getting easier. Today I realized that the word for immediately, right away, sofort, tout de suite sounds alike in Georgian მაშინვე (mashinve) and Mandarin 马上 (Mǎshàng). Yeah, I know how the Chinese one behaves etimologically.

Finished Proyecto Nocilla, finally. A very unique work, but I'm happy I've reached its end and now I can read "normal" books. I'm going for a suggestion from tarvos' log, but other than Carlos Ruiz Zafón, which I'm listening/reading in Greek, I'm short of urban or sci-fi contemporary fiction in Spanish. I need to read important books in Spanish because reading for the sake of reading is no wise use of my time, as I could read Spanish before I studied it. Finding those books, on the other hand, requires a lot of time that could be spent otherwise.

Another day with an app-learning frenzy. I'm starting to get used to Duolingo again.