LDS' Greek Log

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
User avatar
lildreamsnatcher
Yellow Belt
Posts: 55
Joined: Thu Jul 25, 2019 6:54 pm
Location: Poland
Languages: Polish (N), English (C1), Greek (B1), Latin (intermediate), French (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 45#p145945
x 87

LDS' Greek Log

Postby lildreamsnatcher » Thu Jul 25, 2019 8:16 pm

Hi!

I've been studying Greek on and off for a few years now and finally I'm at the point of a serious commitment. I was at war with myself over studying a language I truly love versus studying a "beneficial" language. The first one won, so here I am. I've mostly been self-taught so it's really hard for me to pinpoint my level of proficiency. I'm not a fan of traditional learn-a-language books and typical courses, so I'm trying to learn my own way. It worked with English (and Latin), so I should be fine. Or at least I hope so!

A few days ago I've finished my first YA novel in Greek, which is City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. It took me quite a while, mostly becouse the book wasn't as good as I thought it would be. Next on my list is Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which should be easier, since I already know this book.

I also make my own flashcards on Memrise. So far I've made 1600 of them, more or less, and every single one consists of a word I've encountered "in the wild". But recently I've realized that it's not very efficient for me. I kept scoring 45-70% on the tests and I had trouble recalling most of the words outside of Memrise. So at the moment I'm going through my small self-made dictionary and creating memes with linkwords and fitting pictures. I tested it out and scored 95%, so yeah, it does work for me. I'll keep on doing this, even though it's slower than regular flashcards.

Since I like doing both of those things (reading&memes), my real challenge lies in listening. I plan on watching more movies with Greek audio (hello, Disney!) and youtube videos (I've found a nice guy doing a God of War let's play <3). I've started counting my listening time this week and I'm at 5 hours. Which is not good.

So, TL;DR/Goals:
1) Read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (pages: 0/358)
2) Keep making memes (done: 59)
3) Listen some more (hours: 5)

I'm not sure how often I'll be updating - I have no idea how people do things here so I'll have to look around a bit more ^^. Thanks for reading!
5 x
Please feel free to correct any of my mistakes!

User avatar
Ice Blue
White Belt
Posts: 47
Joined: Tue Jan 08, 2019 9:49 am
Languages: French (N), English
Learning : Russian
On hold : Croatian, German
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=9916
x 129

Re: LDS' Greek Log

Postby Ice Blue » Thu Jul 25, 2019 9:07 pm

Welcome!

I like watching Let's Plays to learn my languages too :D Disney movies also!
I wish you good luck with your studies and am interested to see how you do with Harry Potter - they're not that easy to read, in my opinion.
0 x

User avatar
lildreamsnatcher
Yellow Belt
Posts: 55
Joined: Thu Jul 25, 2019 6:54 pm
Location: Poland
Languages: Polish (N), English (C1), Greek (B1), Latin (intermediate), French (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 45#p145945
x 87

Re: LDS' Greek Log

Postby lildreamsnatcher » Thu Jul 25, 2019 9:55 pm

Ice Blue wrote:Welcome!

I like watching Let's Plays to learn my languages too :D Disney movies also!
I wish you good luck with your studies and am interested to see how you do with Harry Potter - they're not that easy to read, in my opinion.


Thank you very much! <3
It's good to know that Harry Potter might be a challenge after all. Now I'm all excited and very curious :D.
Disney movies are not much of a choice for me, unfortunately – there are hardly any movies with Greek dubbing (to my knowledge at least), so I can't be picky. Thankfully, Disney is quite lovely. I'm way too happy about watching Mulan again for the... third? fourth time? :D
0 x
Please feel free to correct any of my mistakes!

User avatar
lildreamsnatcher
Yellow Belt
Posts: 55
Joined: Thu Jul 25, 2019 6:54 pm
Location: Poland
Languages: Polish (N), English (C1), Greek (B1), Latin (intermediate), French (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 45#p145945
x 87

Re: LDS' Greek Log

Postby lildreamsnatcher » Fri Jul 26, 2019 9:55 pm

An update!

1) Read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (pages: 17/358)

I haven't really read seventeen pages; I read only four today. But I want to keep up with book's numbering so that I won't get confused later on. I'd love to read ten pages every day, but you know how it goes. Also, I'm not sure if I should look up every word I don't know and write it down or just try to understand it's meaning out of context. I'll probably do both, depending on the mood.

2) Keep making memes (done: 59)

+ 7

3) Listen some more (hours: 5)

Just quick twenty mintures.

I have no idea if I'll manage to do some more during the weekend, but I'll try.
Last edited by lildreamsnatcher on Mon Jul 29, 2019 9:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
4 x
Please feel free to correct any of my mistakes!

User avatar
lildreamsnatcher
Yellow Belt
Posts: 55
Joined: Thu Jul 25, 2019 6:54 pm
Location: Poland
Languages: Polish (N), English (C1), Greek (B1), Latin (intermediate), French (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 45#p145945
x 87

Re: LDS' Greek Log

Postby lildreamsnatcher » Mon Jul 29, 2019 9:50 pm

Just as I've thought, I had no time during the weekend to do anything, but now I'm back, well rested and ready for anything o7.

1) Read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (pages: 17/358)
+11
So far so good. No issues and got some new vocab. I'll have to shuffle some of my daily tasks around to have some more time for this. I'm having lots of fun rereading this book!

2) Keep making memes (done: 66)
+6. Who knew that Polish language is so similar to Greek, at least phonetically?

3) Listen some more (5 hours, 20 minutes)
+ 30 minutes

I'll try to do better tomorrow!
1 x
Please feel free to correct any of my mistakes!

User avatar
lildreamsnatcher
Yellow Belt
Posts: 55
Joined: Thu Jul 25, 2019 6:54 pm
Location: Poland
Languages: Polish (N), English (C1), Greek (B1), Latin (intermediate), French (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 45#p145945
x 87

Re: LDS' Greek Log

Postby lildreamsnatcher » Tue Jul 30, 2019 10:21 pm

Alright, so today wasn't exactly a good day for me. The heat got to me so I've only done the bare minimum. But I did switch a bit some of the other daily tasks of mine so I should be getting done more in overall in the next few months. Well, we'll see.

1) Read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (pages: 28/358)
+10
This book is so much better from the previous one – I don't know why I'm so surprised, but I am. I'm not very far and yet I already have tons of new vocabulary (new flashcards!), which makes me very happy. And there are no weird, wonky sentences that stupified me even in English.

2) Keep making memes (done: 72)
+5

3) Listen some more (5 hours, 50 minutes)
0
I need to find something more enjoyable to listen to, but gosh I'm out of ideas at this point. All the audiobooks that I find are old and it hurts me to listen to them (yes, you might call me a sensitive little... bee), I'm not fond of Greek TV (or, to tell you the truth, not fond of standard TV in general) and radio is okay, but not thrilling. I would love to find something I'd really enjoy (besides Disney), but no such luck so far.

Also, now that I think of it, I just might have issues with listening in general, since this is the part I like the least in any language. So, I might be doomed in this regard, but I'll keep trying!

Wish me better luck tomorrow!
2 x
Please feel free to correct any of my mistakes!

Lawyer&Mom
Blue Belt
Posts: 980
Joined: Sun Mar 04, 2018 6:08 am
Languages: English (N), German (B2), French (B1)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7786
x 3767

Re: LDS' Greek Log

Postby Lawyer&Mom » Wed Jul 31, 2019 6:44 pm

What drew you to Greek? 1) I’m curious 2) It may help us think things you might enjoy in Greek.
1 x
Grammaire progressive du français -
niveau debutant
: 60 / 60

Grammaire progressive du francais -
intermédiaire
: 25 / 52

Pimsleur French 1-5
: 3 / 5

User avatar
lildreamsnatcher
Yellow Belt
Posts: 55
Joined: Thu Jul 25, 2019 6:54 pm
Location: Poland
Languages: Polish (N), English (C1), Greek (B1), Latin (intermediate), French (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 45#p145945
x 87

Re: LDS' Greek Log

Postby lildreamsnatcher » Thu Aug 01, 2019 10:00 pm

Lawyer&Mom wrote:What drew you to Greek? 1) I’m curious 2) It may help us think things you might enjoy in Greek.


I actually had modern Greek during my first year at the university, along with Latin and Ancient Greek. I'm completely in love with antiquity so I guess it kinda bled over Greece in general? (although I don't feel the same about Italy, so maybe that's not a valid point). I don't know, I just love the way it sounds and how it works, but it's hard for me to pinpoint the exact thing. It just happened :D.

I didn't update yesterday! But I did some things.

1) Read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (pages: 38/358)
+8, +10
I'd love to read more than +/-10 pages everyday, but I think for now that's my limit. It's better though to go little but steady, right?
One phrase that made me laugh a little was "κάνω κέφι", which I didn't know before, but strucked me as a little silly. I'm sure I'll remember it just fine, thanks to that.
Another curious thing is that sometimes, to realize that my own language can be also silly, I need to look at it from a distance. So when I saw "ζιγκ ζαγκ" it really weirded me out – what's up with that word?! – only to realize that in Polish we have the same thing. It's such an unusual word, I'll have to check where it came from. I've heard it lots of times before, but I've never wondered about it.

2) Keep making memes (done: 77)
+6, +4
The more ridiculous the sentence, the easier it is to remember it. I think it also may apply to strong feelings – if I link a sentence to things I like – TV shows, fictional characters, songs, anything – it really gets stuck in my head. So I'm trying to avoid general sentences, if I can.

3) Listen some more (5 hours, 50 minutes)
0
:)
2 x
Please feel free to correct any of my mistakes!

User avatar
lildreamsnatcher
Yellow Belt
Posts: 55
Joined: Thu Jul 25, 2019 6:54 pm
Location: Poland
Languages: Polish (N), English (C1), Greek (B1), Latin (intermediate), French (beginner)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 45#p145945
x 87

Re: LDS' Greek Log

Postby lildreamsnatcher » Mon Aug 05, 2019 10:40 pm

Another busy weekend that thwarted my Greek plans, but I'm back~!

1) Read Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (pages: 56/358)
+5

2) Keep making memes (done: 87)
+5

3) Listen some more (5 hours, 50 minutes)
+ 2 hours and 30 minutes! Progress!

Bonus: lots of new flashcards!

Oh, and also – if anyone can recommend a good, reliable site with Greek novels and with international shipping, I would be ever so grateful <3
0 x
Please feel free to correct any of my mistakes!

StringerBell
Brown Belt
Posts: 1035
Joined: Mon Jul 23, 2018 3:30 am
Languages: English (n)
Italian
x 3289

Re: LDS' Greek Log

Postby StringerBell » Mon Aug 05, 2019 11:11 pm

Do you know about either of these sites? They ship internationally and carry a large selection of books in tons of different languages (so not specific just to Greek) I've had good experiences ordering Italian and Polish books from both:

https://www.bookdepository.com

https://www.abebooks.com
1 x
Season 4 Lucifer Italian transcripts I created: https://learnanylanguage.fandom.com/wik ... ranscripts


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 2 guests