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Luso’s Silk Thread - Yürükler, TAC Rare

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
162 messages over 21 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 10 ... 20 21 Next >>
Luso
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Portugal
Joined 5821 days ago

819 posts - 1812 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish
Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical)

 
 Message 73 of 162
18 January 2014 at 1:03am | IP Logged 
Expugnator wrote:
Which books are you using for Sanskrit, Luso? The brand new Assimil? (Sorry if you have
mentioned this before).


I'm not using any books, as I have a teacher, and he's providing photocopies piecemeal. Some years ago, I bought a Sanskrit grammar, but we aren't using even that one.

One advantage of Sanskrit is that, being a sacred language, all the major texts are available on the net for free. So far, the only book I have in Sanskrit is a bilingual (Sanskrit-Portuguese) edition of the Gita, with comments by His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada: O Bhagavad-Gita como ele é.

Being a student of Indian culture I have many translations, DVDs, etc., of a lot of classics of Vedic literature.

As far as the Assimil Sanskrit course is concerned, it was a real possibility. I can assure you that, if I hadn't found this teacher, I would have ordered it. The only drawback, I believe, is pronunciation: even the best CD is no substitute for a real Indian person sitting in front of you, making you repeat everything three or four times (at least).

Edited by Luso on 18 January 2014 at 1:25am

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Zireael
Triglot
Senior Member
Poland
Joined 4411 days ago

518 posts - 636 votes 
Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, Spanish
Studies: German, Sign Language, Tok Pisin, Arabic (Yemeni), Old English

 
 Message 74 of 162
18 January 2014 at 11:23am | IP Logged 
I love the Agni reference :D
His name was used in the Witcher books as the Witcher's signs (sorta-magic). I wonder if the other signs are also Sanskrit... I would have to look them up, as Agni is the only one I can remember off the top of my head. You can probably guess what it did :)
1 person has voted this message useful



Luso
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Portugal
Joined 5821 days ago

819 posts - 1812 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish
Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical)

 
 Message 75 of 162
18 January 2014 at 5:21pm | IP Logged 
Zireael wrote:
I love the Agni reference :D
His name was used in the Witcher books as the Witcher's signs (sorta-magic). I wonder if the other signs are also Sanskrit... I would have to look them up, as Agni is the only one I can remember off the top of my head. You can probably guess what it did :)


I have a problem with that. Sort of. Maybe a small one.

What I mean is that Sanskrit is perhaps the coolest language in the world. There are hundreds of words in use every day and you don't even need to be an yoga (there's one!) practitioner to enjoy them. Some other languages have big regional impacts here and there (Arabic in Portugal and maybe Spain, English in Japan and some other places, etc.) but Sanskrit has a worldwide influence. And low-profile (how cool is that?).

Let's go back to the small problem: the entertainment industry has taken a series of traditional stories and tales and, putting them through the popularity meat grinder, turned them into aberrations. For instance, if I were Japanese, I'd be offended at what recently they've turned one of the best stories of loyalty, service and self-sacrifice into. I think they just pick a nice story and then add vampires, dragons, supernatural powers, or whatever (in 3D, of course). Talk about lack of imagination.

Anyway, this has little to do with you. It was just one of those occasions when you ask yourself "what have they done now?". At least it seems in your example they kept a bit of the original definition.

Edited by Luso on 18 January 2014 at 5:22pm

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renaissancemedi
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Greece
Joined 4118 days ago

941 posts - 1309 votes 
Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2
Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 76 of 162
25 January 2014 at 7:31am | IP Logged 
It's so intresting that you learn arabic and I learn turkish. Generally speaking we have followed an imaginary course into our country's influences through history. All of our languages actually have some connections to our histories, no?

It occured to me, because of your comments both on my log and yours. I don't think it's deliberate at first, at least not in my case. At some point I understood that I was learning languages from our neighbourhood, or that had some historical connection sometime in the past.

Are we trying to revisit a place and time that doesn't exist? Are we connecting to past era's of our own culture? Is it simply a matter of loving languages or is there something deeper going on?


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Luso
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Portugal
Joined 5821 days ago

819 posts - 1812 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish
Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical)

 
 Message 77 of 162
26 January 2014 at 9:04pm | IP Logged 
I'm glad you chose to put it that way. I was born in a multicontinental empire. When I went to Morocco, we met at the centre of Lisbon one day in the morning, got into a 4x4, and ended up dining in a town in the Atlas mountains (after a 10-hour drive that included a ferry crossing and frontier formalities). For me, it's that close, temporally and geographically.

Lisbon is older than Rome. Oh, by just a handful of centuries, nothing more. Just old enough for me to put things into perspective.

Both our peoples left their mark in World History. Mine wrote a few pages, yours a few chapters. During that time, both absorbed a lot, never losing their identities, but having them transformed.

Answering your question, for me there's something deeper going on. I've read a lot about the East. In History, I still learned that they were "the enemy". It seems they had the "wrong" religion. Apparently, the fact that you could take a hot bath in this city a thousand years ago was never deemed very relevant. Which is a pity.

Edited by Luso on 27 January 2014 at 12:08am

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renaissancemedi
Bilingual Triglot
Senior Member
Greece
Joined 4118 days ago

941 posts - 1309 votes 
Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2
Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 78 of 162
27 January 2014 at 7:56am | IP Logged 
Let's do it then, let's learn them all :)

Which moroccan city are you talking about?
1 person has voted this message useful



Luso
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Portugal
Joined 5821 days ago

819 posts - 1812 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish
Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical)

 
 Message 79 of 162
28 January 2014 at 12:26am | IP Logged 
The town where we arrived when we drove to Morocco is Chefchaouen.

If you meant the hot bath, I was not talking about a city in Morocco (although it was ubiquitous there too), but rather in the Al-Andalus: Lisbon.

By the way, today I was here, and I have a pastel de Belém in front of me right now. Not bad. Not bad at all.
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BAnna
Triglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4382 days ago

409 posts - 616 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Spanish
Studies: Russian, Turkish

 
 Message 80 of 162
28 January 2014 at 2:05am | IP Logged 
Thanks for the links, Luso. My son is looking forward to visiting Lisbon and Morocco in the beginning of March so I will share them with him. Also my boss recently spent a couple of weeks touring Portugal and loved it.
BTW, I think it is so cool that you are learning sanskrit.


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