So many languages, so little time. A language log (RU, EO, maybe some others)

[IronMike]

That's usually what I say. So many...so little. That or I paraphrase Roy Rogers: I never met a language I didn't want to learn.

But I learned years ago that I can't learn every language. (Sadly.) I have to organize my study. My desires. I also have other hobbies I enjoy. Not to mention four kids and a wife. And a job. Etc.

A couple years ago I tried a language of the month plan. It was fun for a couple months, then I realized a month was too long. I would become bored at about 3 weeks. (Well, bored isn't the right word. Maybe anxious would be a better choice. Anxious for the next language.)

Two weeks seems to be about right. I still have the drive to continue the language for that amount of time. Earlier this year I discovered the Esperanto-Sumoo, which is basically a reading challenge. Every other month for a two-week period, one commits to a set number of pages in a particular book. You report your success or failure every few days to a moderator. The Sumoo provided a good point in the calendar to base my own language study.

My current job requires a certain proficiency in Russian (B1/B2), so I study that regularly. I work on the Esperanto both because I like the language, but also because one of my daughters wants to learn it, and I've negotiated with the wife so that I can teach her the language next year. (We homeschool.) But now I'm going to add a couple other languages. Unsure which yet, as the languages depend upon the results of some Lingua Franca groups I belong to on FB.

[IronMike]

So. The way I study.

For Esperanto, I do 20-30 XP per day on Duolingo. Duolingo E-o is a review for me. More than that, I read Esperanto books, 3-5 pages per day, depending upon the day. For listening, I love Pola-Retradio, who does a news broadcast about 3x per week. The broadcasts are about 25 minutes long, with varying levels of difficulty. Speaking is harder. I'm not a big fan of Skype or anything like that. But soon I'll have my 16-year old to speak with! My long-term goal will be to take the KER exam sometime in the summer of 2017.

For Russian, lots of reading. I've found that reading actually helps all the skills. I've taken proficiency tests in Russian (B2-C1) for years, and when I've not had speakers to practice with, I've just read. That's helped keep my scores up in reading and listening. Speaking I'm a solid B2, which I'm happy with. Of course I'd love C1 in speaking, but I'm not going to go crazy over it. Here I am lucky that I get to use Russian daily with my co-workers or out in the town. So when I'm "studying" it, I'm mostly reading one of my books and/or watching Russian TV.

Schedule-wise, I am now at the start of my 2-weeks of Russian (started yesterday, 22 May), having finished the "maja sumoo" on Sunday with an awesome 74 pages read! 5 June will start the next language. Check back here in a week or so when my additional languages are decided.

[IronMike]

No real update today except that the two FB Lingua Franca groups I've been watching closely (for my next two languages) are getting exciting. The FSU group has a few in the top 5 that I'm interested in: Erzya, Abkhaz, Mari, Nenets. The Native American one also doesn't have a loser in the bunch; I'd be happy if any of the finalists won, especially Lakota, Choctaw, Quechua. I should know by the end of the month (ties not withstanding) what my next languages will be after Russian.

[Elsa Maria]

We also homeschool, and my child's interest in Latin is the reason I started learning Latin. My child is way ahead of me now, though

[IronMike]

We also homeschool, and my son's interest in Latin is the reason I started learning Latin. He is way ahead of me now, though

Thanks for commenting! I now have proof someone is reading this!

Years ago prior to a visit to Germany and Switzerland, my wife let our kids play one hour of Runescape per day as long as they only played in the "German" world.

Off I go to Iraq (not as fun a destination as where the rest of the family went). Six months later I was relaxing at home and got to overhear my boys, who had returned from their 5 weeks overseas about 3 months earlier, arguing amongst themselves on the difference between axe and hatchet in German. I was so dang proud!

[IronMike]

OK, I know I said "check back in a week" implying that I'd only write weekly, but I learned a bad-a$$ Russian word tonight watching Воронины:

дебил: subnormal, mental slug, nutjob, dumbass, imbecile, debile.

And there it is: debile. An archaic English word (from Middle French through Middle English) for "marked by debility." debility, a word my wife now makes fun of me for having never heard. Now that I'm looking this stuff up, sure, debilitate I've heard and read. But I just never made the leap to debility and of course not to the archaic word.

All this learnin' from Nikolai yelling at Kostya for spending too many rubles on a bday gift!

[IronMike]

Had a great day yesterday, listening-wise.

27 May was Kyrgyz Armed Forces Day. I joined my other military diplomats in the National Philharmonic to listen to a few speeches and then about an hour's worth of patriotic songs. Last year, the speeches were all in Kyrgyz and Russian, which was nice since my Kyrgyz is at about an A1-negative.

Unfortunately, this year all the speeches were in Kyrgyz. No chance for me to practice my Russian. However, since we had to be in our seats an hour early, I did get the chance to talk to the guys in the seats next to me in Russian.

In the evening I had two events with the Kyrgyz armed forces. This time it was all in Russian! Three hours straight of drunken stories (from them, not me) of their experiences fighting for their motherland. It was all-around great practice for my ears and tongue.

Today I learned a new word while watching Воронины: смекать(ся) to figure it out, to get it, to put two and two together.

[IronMike]

Over the weekend I did a lot of Russian, including watching another episode (1.4) of Воронины, and I watched Day Watch, the follow up to the wonderful Night Watch. Lots of reading, too. I searched out books and authors I'd read in English on royallib.ru; I saved a bunch for the future, but ended up settling on reading Metro 2033.

I'm doing the process I'd written about elsewhere (I think), namely, read a chapter (or in this book's case, about 3-4 pages), then go to the English version (on Kindle) and read the same sections, then return to the Russian and re-read those pages. Sure, it takes quite a while to get through a book, but I learn a lot more when I read it the second time around. All in all, I've been able to follow the story just fine. Without certain vocabulary (like drumming, muck, to shiver, to dangle, carcass, to rot, to wink...you get the idea), I am missing some of the color of the story, but that's what happens when I go back over the section the second time.

For the rest of today, I'll relax and enjoy the day that my friends MSgt Ernie Parrish, MSgt Navid Garshasb, TSgt Glenn Lastes and SSgt Shane Kimmett gave their lives for. Requiescat in pace, brothers.

[IronMike]

OK, so my other two languages (to complete my 4 language study cycle) have been decided in two of my lingua franca groups on FB. Starting Sunday, I'll study Choctaw or Mari (haven't decided which to start with).

Choctaw is a Muskogean language of the SE U.S. There are amazingly many resources for it, to include a free online course given by native speakers from the Choctaw (or Chahta) nation. We've also got some fluent speakers of it in the FB group who are helping us, which is nice.

Mari is a Finno-Ugric language spoken in Russia. The beauty of this language is that most of the resources are online and in Russian, so I get to work two languages at once. I also have a pretty good chance of visiting the Mari El Republic while I'm living in Russia starting this August, which will be fun. (About 400,000 of the roughly 700,000 residents of the republic speak it as a mother tongue, so I'll have a 4/7 chance of meeting a speaker every time I talk to someone there!)

[Arnaud]

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