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

[lingua]

Evidently they've been translated into 18 or so languages.

[StringerBell]

Book #74: Galileo e la prima guerra stellare by Luca Novelli. The author made the decision to make his series of books autobiographical so it's in the first person.

I put this author on my list as a reminder to check these books out. The fact that they are written in first person is very appealing to me - did I understand right that all the books about famous scientists are in the first person, not just this one on Galileo?

[lingua]

Yes that is the authors style. He is writing autobiographically from the viewpoint of the scientist. The first chapter starts out as Io, Leonardo or Io, Galileo. However, that doesn't mean it stays completely in the present tense though the tenses are the easier ones to remember as far as I can recall. No difficult grammar here. I think they're fun books even for adults. I like his illustrations too. In fact for the SC I only gave myself half the page count because there are so many of them.

[lingua]

Italian:
Reading: Edison: Come inventare di tutto e di più by Luca Novelli: 84%
Reading: Acqua in bocca by Andrea Camilleri & Carlo Lucarelli 54%
Decks: Averaged about 12 mins of review only per day
Clozemaster: New: 324 & Reviewed: 998 sentences (text input)
Watched (dplay): Cucina con Ale: S1 E18-23: 139 mins
Watched (MHZ Choice): La linea verticale S1 E3-4: 48mins
italki: one 1 hour session

Latin:
Decks: Averaged about 6 mins of review only per day
Clozemaster: New: 90 & Reviewed: 583 (multiple choice)
Duolingo: 11 crowns

Sicilian:
Podcast: Lu Curreri di l'UNESCO: 25 mins
Decks: Averaged about 17 minutes per day
Textbook: Beginner's Sicilian by Joseph Privitera: Lesson 5

Most of the above was done during the week. I fizzled out over the weekend preferring to do other activities. Perhaps I'll regain motivation soon.

[lingua]

Book #75: Edison, come inventare di tutto e di più by Luca Novelli. I'm more familiar with Edison than some of the others in this series and the vocabulary for electricity is easier to understand than other scientific fields. This book followed the same format with an autobiographical section regrading Edison's life and a tiny dictionary of electrical related vocabulary.

edison.jpeg

Book #76: Acqua in bocca by Andrea Camilleri & Carlo Lucarelli. This was written by both authors where Camilleri's Montalbano assisted Carlo Lucarelli's Inpector Grazia Negro. This book suffered from poor editing. There were a lot of errors in the Kindle version. I've read nearly all the Montalbano books in English and I didn't think he felt very authentic in this book. I'm not familiar with Lucarelli so I can't say if she did or not. I didn't find it very believable in the end.

acquainbocca.png

[lingua]

Latin:
Decks: Averaged about 2 mins of review only per day
Clozemaster: New: 10 & Reviewed: 545 (multiple choice)
Duolingo: 9 crowns

I've continued to do Duolingo though I'm slowing down as it gets progressively more difficult. There are only two checkpoints so far and I didn't think I would pass the quiz to get past the last one but surprising I did.

Sicilian:
Decks: Averaged about 17 minutes per day just like last week
Textbook: Beginner's Sicilian by Joseph Privitera: Lesson 2, 6-7

I have added all of the words for lesson 6-7 to Decks and did the grammar exercises for lesson 2. I only realized today that I didn't listen to any podcasts this week. I'll remedy that very soon. I looked for a Sicilian teacher on italki as I'd like to do some speaking but the ones that have availability I tried out before and they didn't work for me and the others that seemed promising don't seem to teach anymore since their schedules were empty.

Italian:
Reading: La linea verticale by Mattia Torre 14%
Reading: Venezia è un pesce ... una guida by Tiziano Scarpa 11%
Reading: Darwin e la vera storia dei dinosauri by Luca Novelli 27%
Decks: Averaged about 7 mins of review only per day
Clozemaster: New: 25 & Reviewed: 841 sentences (text input)
Watched (dplay): Cucina con Ale: S1 E24-27: 95 mins
Watched (MHz Choice): La linea verticale S1 E5-6: 48 mins
Watched (MHz Choice): Montalbano: la giostra degli scambi: 111 mins
italki: one 1 hour session

I decided to start the book La linea verticale that the series is based off of. It's divided into 8 chapters and after reading the first one it looks like it roughly matches the eight episodes of the series. The book is useful for reinforcing some of the medical terminology used.

Book #77: Leonardo e la penna che disegna il futuro by Luca Novelli. A lot of this book was reinforcement since I'm familiar with Leonardo and much of his work. I did learn about a few historical events that I wasn't necessarily aware of or had long ago forgotten.

leonardo.jpeg

[lingua]

Book #78: Darwin e la vera storia dei dinosauri by Luca Novelli. Another enjoyable book in the series. This one was more informative since I've not read much about Darwin outside of the basics. It also had more unknown words even though the grammar constructs continue to be easy. This one included an (imaginary) interview of Darwin by the author and it became clear that it was a vehicle for Novelli to urge us to take better care of our planet.

darwin.jpeg

[StringerBell]

Are you reading the Novelli books as kindle ebooks, or physical paper books?

Are there illustrations or are these books just text? If there are illustrations, are they fairly necessary? Would they be missed if you read this in a PDF format that was only text?

[lingua]

I am reading them as kindle eBooks. The illustrations aren't strictly necessary but I think they add to understanding the content. As far as I know they're only available as ebooks or printed copies so I don't believe PDF is an option.

[lingua]

Call me crazy but I added two languages this week. German and European Portuguese. German was my first foreign language and I studied it for a couple of years originally. I've gone back to it a few times and it comes back to me fairly quickly however my level was probably only ever A1ish as far as I can remember. I've dabbled in Portuguese several times as well but not for very long. I started doing Duolingo for both and then Clozemaster. Memrise offered a $30 one year deal so I decided to try their two courses. I don't know how good they are so I'm unsure if I will stay with them or not. I have other materials available that I bought in the past that I can use. Clozemaster has both languages from Italian or English available. In both cases I preferred the Italian which also has sound. I would like to get to a point where I can read in another language like I do in Italian.

I enjoy studying Sicilian, Latin and the various dialects but they aren't languages I am going to immerse myself in and I have always intended to pick these two back up at some point. I picked a ridiculous time to add languages because with the Thanksgiving holiday that just passed and the upcoming holidays for the rest of the year my study time will already be reduced. I'll probably alternate German and Portuguese to every other day so I can concentrate on one at a time.

German:
Memrise German I: Averaged about 1 minute per day
Clozemaster: New: 20 & Reviewed: 36 (multiple choice)
Duolingo: 6 crowns

European Portuguese:
Memrise Portuguese 1: Averaged about 1 minute per day
Clozemaster: New: 30 & Reviewed: 38 (multiple choice)
Duolingo: 4 crowns

Latin:
Decks: Averaged about 1 min of review only per day
Clozemaster: New: 0 & Reviewed: 323 (multiple choice)
Duolingo: 4 crowns


Sicilian:
Decks: Averaged about 8 minutes per day just like last week
Textbook: Beginner's Sicilian by Joseph Privitera: Lesson 8
Peppa Pig: 14mins

I have added all of the words for lesson 8 to Decks. YouTube has Peppa Pig in Sicilian so I listened to five short episodes. I dislike Peppa Pig immensely but the Sicilian didn't bother me as some of the other languages.

Italian:
Reading: La linea verticale by Mattia Torre 26%
Reading: Venezia è un pesce ... una guida by Tiziano Scarpa 11%
Reading: Marie Curie e i segerti atomici svelati by Luca Novelli 1% (barely started)
Decks: Averaged about 2 mins of review only per day
Clozemaster: New: 50 & Reviewed: 312 sentences (text input)

Book #79: Kefir benefici e ricette by Liana Zorzi. This book was about the benefits of Kefir and how to make it. There were also a few recipes that would probably work just as with yogurt. It also talked about tibicos which I never heard of it. Whereas Kefir is fermented milk the tibicos is fermented water (with the help of bacteria and yeast). It is evidently sweeter than Kefir. I don't believe I've ever had Kefir and while I'm willing to try it I thought making it was too much work.

kefir.jpg