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Josquin’s Language Symphony (RU, IR, 東亜) | ||
Tags: Gaelic (Scottish) | Gaelic (Irish) | Icelandic | Portuguese | Multilingual | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | Japanese | Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| AlOlaf Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4942 days ago 491 posts - 617 votes  Speaks: English*, GermanC2 Studies: Danish | Message 609 of 646 12 April 2015 at 7:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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Josquin, you let me know I’m not alone. I’m no polyglot, but I know what it’s like to feel the pull of many passions. I admire you for having the courage to follow your inspiration.
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| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4482 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 610 of 646 12 April 2015 at 7:47pm | IP Logged | ||
"Mazel tov" isn't really the right thing to say here. It's a highly idiomatic expression better translated as "congratulations," though that's still only an approximation. You tell someone mazel tov after something good happens, not before. At least once you've started your studies, I would instead say "yasher koach," which loosely translates to "may you be strengthened such that you can keep doing the good thing(s) you did/are doing." Another option would be to say Hatzlacha, or B'hatzlacha, as in, success to you! All of the above are expressions long used in Yiddish long before Modern Hebrew existed, btw. Much success to you! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4482 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 611 of 646 12 April 2015 at 8:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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And after writing that last post I read the posts in between...
While I think of myself as one of the "obsessed" people you describe, I think I can relate quite a bit, nevertheless. I tend to be bored to tears by textbooks, Anki decks, etc., which is why I spend all my time reading Harry Potter and watching TV, etc. And I've also dabbled all over, but have had some serious thinking to do about why I'm working on certain languages and whether it's meaningful to me. For quite some time now, I've been doing little to no "studying," even as I kept actually using certain languages. Just recently, however, I'd gotten back into some textbook study (tempered, as usual, with lots of "distractions," like TV shows and novels), and I've actually intentionally not written about it in my log, because sometimes it's felt like that's the surest way for me to lose interest--and I'm doing it for myself, not for the people on HTLAL (who are absolutely incredible, don't get me wrong). Enjoy whatever you decide to do with your time, and if we happen to see you around on HTLAL sometime, great! 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BAnna Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4416 days ago 409 posts - 616 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Turkish | Message 612 of 646 13 April 2015 at 5:31am | IP Logged | ||
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As ever, I wish you all the very best. Hope the thesis preparation goes well and your music brings you joy! Language study will still be there when/if you decide you want to take it up again in future.
--And in interest of full disclosure, your decision has enabled me to feel quite a bit less guilty that life has been such that I haven't had time for language studies recently, so I really thank you for that :) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5128 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 613 of 646 13 April 2015 at 6:37am | IP Logged | ||
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Feeling guilty is a waste of time. Particularly over your hobby which is supposed to bring you joy :-) I have
had so many other things which made me feel guilty (responsibilities to family and work which are almost impossible to fulfill 100%) that my language studies simply have had to play second fiddle - even when it comes to guilt. I try to focus on what I achieve, and not on what I have not achieved. I could f course feel bad about not studying as regularly as some here do, or that I do not pull as many hours as others do, or that I do not learn as fast as some do, but I chose not to. Waste of time. I do as much as I can under my circumstances, and the studies bring me joy. That is all that counts :-) 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4638 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 614 of 646 14 April 2015 at 6:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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TUESDAY, 14 APRIL 2015
Thank you, guys! As always, you are simply the best. I was worrying way too much, so thanks for your support! I think I have decided how to continue my studies. As I said before, I was studying way too many languages, so I reduced them drastically. I decided to take a break from Irish, Japanese, and Portuguese for the time being and concentrate on Russian and Italian instead. As far as Russian is concerned, I'll simply continue watching Кухня and reading Russian books, so there will be no "formal" studying. However, I will brush up my Italian by using a Langenscheidt course. I have been wanting to do this forever, because I haven't really used my Italian in ten years apart from listening to operas and reading some Italian music theory now and then. I can understand Italian quite effortlessly, but my active skills have gotten rusty, so I'll simply go through the course and brush up my grammar and possibly also my vocabulary. While listening to the recordings of the first dialogues, I noticed just how much I love Italy and the Italian language. I have a much deeper connection with Italian than with e.g. Portuguese, because I have great memories of Rome, Venice, Capri, and Naples. So, getting my Italian up to notch again should be a pleasure. Vi ringrazio della vostra gentilezza! Ci vediamo presto. Ciao! Edited by Josquin on 14 April 2015 at 7:03pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6497 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 615 of 646 15 April 2015 at 10:24am | IP Logged | ||
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Well, there are more operas in Italian than in Portuguese or Irish, so when you have to cut down it is logical that you choose to keep Italian on your agenda. But operatic Italian is weird ...
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4638 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 616 of 646 17 April 2015 at 6:32pm | IP Logged | ||
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FRIDAY, 17 APRIL 2015
Well, I'm not really studying Italian in order to understand operas (although that might be a handy side-effect), but rather because I really love this language and want to regain my active skills. As I said, I can understand everyday Italian pretty well, but I have problems expressing myself and applying grammar correctly. That's why I want to brush it up. So, I'm using Langenscheidt's Praktisches Lehrbuch Italienisch and I'm on unit 3 right now. So far, I haven't encountred anything that was really unknown to me, but I already had some epiphanies concerning useful expressions and grammatical rules, such as the intricacies of forming the plural with -cie and -gie vs. -ce and -ge. I have no problems understanding the dialogues, but I really notice my grammar has deteriorated. I even had to refresh my knowledge of some irregular verb conjugations in the present tense. That never used to be a problem. Anyway, after rediscovering my freedom in language studies, a lot of my enthusiasm has come back. I just needed to remind myself that I'm not studying for the forum and not even for writing this log, but because I enjoy it. This way, I even managed to do some Portuguese on the side by listening to some of the dialogues of Portugiesisch mit System. And then there's Hebrew, which is tempting me again. I don't want to make the same mistake as before and study too many languages at the same time, but it's really, really hard to resist the urge of learning some Hebrew. Well, maybe I'll make a little game out of it. I have to deliver a presentation in Munich two weeks from now, so I might use studying Hebrew as a little "reward" for successfully preparing and delivering the presentation. This way, I can make sure I concentrate on important things first (i.e. my presentation) and do the pleasant things (i.e. dabbling in Hebrew) nevertheless. Also, I have a singing lesson next week and I haven't been practising for days, so my voice probably sounds as rough as a grater. I will have to make sure to practise regularly for the next days, so my teacher won't berate me. ;) And then, I'm dealing with a recurring health problem which I had hoped was gone, but that seems to have been false hope. Well, in other words, I'm quite busy at the moment, but it's a good kind of business - despite the health problem, which I hope will take care of itself. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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