A Rabid Sea-Goat's Log 2017 – French, Spanish, blah blah blah

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Tillumadoguenirurm
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A Rabid Sea-Goat's Log 2017 – French, Spanish, blah blah blah

Postby Tillumadoguenirurm » Mon Mar 06, 2017 6:27 pm

A new log for a new year.


French: Goal: C2.

English, various: OK. Need to work on grammar and general writing.

Spanish: Goal: C2.

Catalan: I like Catalan. Goal: B2-C2.

Irish: Goal: undecided, but I want to be able to read literature at least, I also want to be able to follow a normal conversation some time.

Basque:
Complete beginner. Goal: undecided.


Language wishlist (what's left of it): Konkani, Hindi, Marathi, Russian, German, Nahuatl, Quechua, Guarani. Like everyone else I might change my mind.


New years resolutions for 2017:

-Write at least an A4 page a week in French and Spanish. 

- Take a new official test in English that I can actually put on my cv, work on grammar and etc. with that in mind.

- Take an uncomplicated in person test in French and Spanish, something like a school diploma or similar. Work on things with that in mind, maybe even take classes.

- Get more serious about Irish and Catalan.

- Learn how to at least read Devanagari script, pick a language that uses it and not change my mind every other day.

- Learn to read either German or Russian at least enough to be able to read articles.




I have been somewhat interested in languages for a while now, although in a relaxed hobby-ish kind of way. I got back to other languages than English some time in 2015. I have no idea what my level in any of the languages apart from Basque is at the moment (06.03.2017) Last year I spent most of my free time listening to and reading French, this year I will spend more time on the other languages as well.

As always, if anyone who is not me actually bothers to read this thing, don't be afraid to comment or ask questions (as long as you understand that I have no idea what I'm doing).









Resources for each language, projects, random order.

Post 1: French, English
Post 2: Spanish Catalan
Post 3: Irish, Basque
Post 4: ...reserved
Post 5: Hindi (because 5 is a nice number)
Last edited by Tillumadoguenirurm on Tue Apr 04, 2017 2:07 pm, edited 7 times in total.
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Tillumadoguenirurm
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Re: A Rabid Sea-Goat's Log 2017 – French, Spanish, blah blah blah

Postby Tillumadoguenirurm » Mon Mar 06, 2017 6:28 pm

French, English


French:

Collins easy learning French grammar.
Grammaire progressive du Francais – débutant + intermediare.
Practice makes perfect- sentence builder.
Last edited by Tillumadoguenirurm on Mon Apr 03, 2017 6:03 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Tillumadoguenirurm
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Re:A Rabid Sea-Goat's Log 2017 – French, Spanish, blah blah blah

Postby Tillumadoguenirurm » Mon Mar 06, 2017 6:28 pm

Spanish, Catalan

Spanish:

Collins easy learning Spanish grammar.
Colloquial Spanish 1+2.



Catalan:

Colloquial Catalan.
Teach Yourself Catalan.
Catalandictionary.org.
Last edited by Tillumadoguenirurm on Mon Apr 03, 2017 6:04 pm, edited 4 times in total.
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Tillumadoguenirurm
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Re: A Rabid Sea-Goat's Log 2017 – French, Spanish, blah blah blah

Postby Tillumadoguenirurm » Mon Mar 06, 2017 6:29 pm

Irish, Basque

Irish:

Teach Yourself Irish 1960 version....(right)
Fluff.
Last edited by Tillumadoguenirurm on Mon Apr 03, 2017 6:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Tillumadoguenirurm
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Re: A Rabid Sea-Goat's Log 2017 – French, Spanish, blah blah blah

Postby Tillumadoguenirurm » Mon Mar 06, 2017 6:30 pm

Russian:

Already know how to read Russian script since a long time. Not sure where to begin now and not entirely sure if I want to.
Last edited by Tillumadoguenirurm on Tue Apr 04, 2017 2:22 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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Tillumadoguenirurm
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Re: A Rabid Sea-Goat's Log 2017 – French, Spanish, blah blah blah

Postby Tillumadoguenirurm » Mon Mar 06, 2017 6:30 pm

Hindi:

Teach Yourself, A beginner's Hindi Script.
Teach Yourself Beginner's Hindi.

Not what I wanted to begin with, but what I needed to. I'd rather do Marathi for some reason, really no meaning intended.
Last edited by Tillumadoguenirurm on Tue Apr 04, 2017 2:24 pm, edited 5 times in total.
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2017 so far summary.

Postby Tillumadoguenirurm » Mon Mar 06, 2017 6:34 pm

I'm not sure what I've been doing since Christmas, but here is a short summary of some of the things that I do remember and some of the things that I've been up to lately (that I can remember).


French:

French French, my pretty, pretty French. Nothing exciting so far, I've re-listened the things I listened to last year. Les aventures d'Arsène Lupin, Signè Furax, Bon Baisers de Partout, Les Maîtres du Mystère (series, over 300 episodes I think/disguised under various other names). It's a shame that things have to end. Anyway, I still love these shows. A couple of them are, despite their faults, quite genious like. I've also listened to various modern radio shows/radio-talkshows/documentaries, but I didn't pay all that much attention to which shows or how many episodes, and I won't bother to list the ones that I do remember. It doesn't matter.

Other than that, I've started talking to myself in French. I don't know where or how that happened, but I discovered one day that something I wanted to say out loud was easier to say in French than in English, or even my own language. I just hope that the French I use when talking to myself is a correct version and not just a shitty made-up one.


English:

Looking for a decent grammar book, I've found some at the local library that I might borrow. There is also one or two decent online sites that explains grammar that I need to take a closer look at.
The most difficult thing with English so far is sticking to one type, and the grammar sometimes follows. I'm mostly used to spoken English and not so much school English, so I might need to spend some time on learning how to write things correctly. I also have a habit of mixing things up, so my English tend to come out as a weird-ass personal hybrid of pretty much everything that I know, including things that might not be strictly English. I need to figure out a way to fix that. My problem with English isn't vocabulary though, it's grammar.


Spanish:

Spent some weeks in Spain around Christmas. I didn't talk all that much with anyone actually Spanish, but I think I did okay when I had to, except for one time when I asked someone if a straying dog was their uncle. It's something I could have gotten away with saying, but it was not what I wanted to say at the time. Funny how your mind can take these stupid shortcuts in the worst possible moments.

I bought a French-Spanish dictionary, in hindsight I regret not getting a Spanish-Valencian one instead. The bookstore had these Valcencian ones in several sizes and types. Maybe next time. I managed to break both my smartphone and my tablet when I was there and needed to get new ones, so I had to find a store where someone spoke English since my Spanish was not (and is still not) quite good enough for buying expensive thingamajingies. Easier said than done, but then I already knew that. I found one eventually, but... I've since learned that my Spanish phone don't like the Norwegian climate.

I've also re-listened to the Historias de Medianoche episodes from Cadena SER, as well as the ones that were published since I wrote about it in my previous log. Currently anxiously awaiting the next episode of Máscara Blanca.


In addition, I've listened to all of the available episodes of El Siniestro Dr. Mortis, a very famous radio-thing from Chile, although somewhat old by now. Don't misunderstand, the Spanish used is very neutral and more or less devoid of those Chilean things that no one else understands. I've also read about about 10 of the comics related to it so far.

I've listened to a couple of audiobooks that I found on ivoox, one of them Captain Blood (a doctor that ends up a pirate) by Rafael Sabatini, but in Spanish of course. The reader had a nice voice.

A funny thing – I listened to that one just last night. I also read last night that the creator of Dr. Mortis wrote some books with the same character, so naturally I went to Amazon, just in case. What do I find when I type Dr. Mortis? I find a book, a health related book, written by someone who has supposedly been a ship's surgeon, and who has had guts enough to call themselves Igor Mortis.

Patterns what. That's downright beautiful. Of course, I know that I saw what I wanted to see. Still, it's one of those things that makes me laugh.

By the way, I don't really like horror, nor comics. Trying to learn Spanish intentionally and for realz this time has done weird things to my brain.


Catalan:

I broke the old tablet that I had a book in Catalan on and I haven't yet been able to stop being too lazy to transfer said book from my computer to the new tablet.
Have done some reviewing of Catalan vocabulary on Memrise, and also listened to some random things on ivoox. I can't remember the names of any of them. I really do like Catalan though.


Irish:

Almost done with my private version of someone else's version of the Duolingo on Memrise.
Will finish the someone else's version of Duolingo on Memrise before I do the Duolingo version on Duolingo.

I also have a Teach Yourself Irish book from 1960 on my computer now, but the spelling makes me nervous. I will work through it anyway, starting today.

Memorised Irish prepositions(?Right?) while playing Assassin's Creed Rogue. The game is shit but Shay is adorable (cute but stupid) and the boat is pretty. I actually started playing this in Spanish, but the English voices annoyed me less than the Spanish ones, so I've been using that while memorising Irish instead. I wish the game had Irish subtitles at least, that would have been neat.
Have been looking up related vocabulary though, but still have a lot left.


Basque:

Lol, give me a moment.

Have started with Basque vocabulary on Memrise and an old and apparently unpublished version of an Alan King book. I also have a Colloquial (I think) Basque book on the botter of a cardboard (?) box. I haven't taken it out in at least a year, but I know that it's still there.





Suddenly I'm at the end of the post. I can't think of anything else to write right now, other than that I've also gotten a large notebook where I have space enough to write down dates and important (re)sources for all of the languages.There is a couple of things that are related to my New years resolutions that I haven't said anything about, but I will have to come back to those in one of the following posts.
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Tillumadoguenirurm
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Un Chien Andalou(p)

Postby Tillumadoguenirurm » Mon Apr 03, 2017 5:44 pm

There must be something wrong on the network because everyone seem a little down lately.
Or at least I am, and it's not a language related burnout, just sick of everything at the moment. I haven't done much language related things, but I haven't done much else lately neither (<see).

Have only found one place around where I live where I could take classes with other people in Spanish or French, but they haven't written back to me yet, I will probably have too look for someone else in other cities.

Re-listened to things that I already know well by now, am also sort of reading books in Spanish, Catalan and French. Also listening to sound clips that I found on Ivoox of Ernesto Sevilla, a Spanish stand-up comedian from Albacete (?). I have no idea what he's talking about most of the time. It makes a lot of annoying sounds*.

Only writing because I'll be around adding things to my lists anyway. Writing a log is boring.

Will likely go to Spain again some time in May. Bé. I like going somewhere, I just don't like having to go home again.

Learned the sound of and how to write some Devanagari letters: अ, आ, इ, ई, ए, ऐ, क, ग, न, ट, ठ.




*In seriousness, this one is actually pretty clever. Relatively easy to follow, worth a try.

https://ar.ivoox.com/es/2399441
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Tillumadoguenirurm
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Re: A Rabid Sea-Goat's Log 2017 – French, Spanish, blah blah blah

Postby Tillumadoguenirurm » Tue Apr 04, 2017 2:39 pm

By the way, if anyone has a Goodreads account, here's mine: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/400 ... mushgattoi.
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Carmody
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Re: A Rabid Sea-Goat's Log 2017 – French, Spanish, blah blah blah

Postby Carmody » Wed Apr 05, 2017 8:07 pm

How are things with the Devanagari . Is there much literature available in the language that you find interesting to read? I am happy with old texts but not familiar with specifics re titles.
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