TAC 2010 - Taydr (Fi, Ja, Is & Sv)

[Yserenhart]

Alright, changed again to reflect my decisions regarding what languages I'm doing.

[flag]fi[/flag]
Reason for learning: I love the language. Nice and simple, I fell in love with it upon listening to Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan, and finding out it was the base for Tolkien's Elvish just further cemented that love.

Know already: I can tell the time, sort of discuss careers, objects, locations, describing things. Still need a dictionary even for the basic things at times though. I have managed to have a couple of short basic conversations entirely in Finnish over MSN.

Goals: Mid-intermediate by the end of the year. Possibly aiming for high-intermediate if I can. Aiming for 3 hours a week.

Materials: Finnish: An Essential Grammar, a PDF dictionary that is quite bad, a WSOY electronic dictionary, livemocha courses, a native Finn to talk to over MSN, Finnish chat.

[flag]ja[/flag]
Reason for learning: I blame Final Fantasy. Although I'll admit to having a bit too much of a love for Visual Kei, which is what really got me wanting to learn Japanese. It's nice to understand what you're listening to. Also the possibility of teaching English in Japan after I finish uni is a nice one.

Know already: A few kanji, some hiragana, and a few basic phrases.

Goals: Between low-intermediate and mid-intermediate by the end of the year. Also knowing all hiragana, all katakana, and at least the grade one and two kyōiku kanji. Aiming for 3 hours a week.

Materials: A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar, A Dictionary of Intermediate Japanese Grammar, A Dictionary of Advanced Japanese Grammar, a kanji dictionary, livemocha courses, kanji lists, kana charts, Japanese chat.

[flag]is[/flag]
Reason for learning: I've always had an interest in the Nordic languages, particularly Old Norse and Proto-Norse, and Icelandic is the closest I can get without trying to learn a dead language.

Know already: Nothing.

Goals: A basic grounding in grammar and vocab. I aim to do at least 3 hours a week, maybe more.

Materials: Colloquial Icelandic, The Syntax of Icelandic, Icelandic chat.

[flag]sv[/flag]
Reason for learning: To compliment my learning of Finnish, and to open up knowledge of the continental Scandys.

Know already: Nothing.

Goals: A basic grounding in grammar and vocab. I aim to do at least 3 hours a week, maybe more.

Materials: Colloquial Swedish, Swedish: An Essential Grammar, Swedish chat.

[TheKickInside]

Do you have a link to the Levantine course and the essential grammar, by any chance?

[Yserenhart]

Do you have a link to the Levantine course and the essential grammar, by any chance?

Indeed I do.
Arabic: An Essential Grammar
Colloquial Arabic (Levantine)

You should find those nice and helpful.

[TheKickInside]

Thanks.

Also, a question. Are there a lot of native speakers of Maori left in NZ or does the gov't just push the language to promote the indigenous culture? I've always wondered that.

[hashi]

Thanks.

Also, a question. Are there a lot of native speakers of Maori left in NZ or does the gov't just push the language to promote the indigenous culture? I've always wondered that.

There are native speakers left. But I read somewhere that only 20% of Maori can actually speak their language (and not necessarily natively). And yeah, the government does push the language to some extent. We have things like the Maori language week and most logo's and that for government departments include the Maori name and so on.

[Bubulus]

Do you have a link to the Levantine course and the essential grammar, by any chance?

Indeed I do.
Arabic: An Essential Grammar
Colloquial Arabic (Levantine)

You should find those nice and helpful.

I'm just adding the first one to the Resources thread Nadi recently opened in the Arabic forum. TheKickInside, you can also find many links there that might prove helpful.

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=29247

Don't forget to read the comments for the second one (the slight criticism to the book).

[Yserenhart]

Thanks.

Also, a question. Are there a lot of native speakers of Maori left in NZ or does the gov't just push the language to promote the indigenous culture? I've always wondered that.

There are native speakers left. But I read somewhere that only 20% of Maori can actually speak their language (and not necessarily natively). And yeah, the government does push the language to some extent. We have things like the Maori language week and most logo's and that for government departments include the Maori name and so on.

And of course it is compulsory in most primary and intermediate schools for at least the basics to be taught to all students. Not sure if that's specifically in the curriculum though.

And with the ministry logos and the like, I'm pretty sure it's a requirement for them to be in both languages. I'm also pretty sure that all official documents of the government for public release have to be available in Māori as well.

[kibo]

I'm sorry, but you can't post links to sites who contain copyrighted material, otherwise Unilang might get into trouble. In future you can use the PM function.

That goes for the topic in the Arabic forum as well, Renaçido.

[Bubulus]

No problem, in fact, I intentionally posted *those* resources thinking that if moderators considered them inappropriate then the links would just get erased.

[Yserenhart]

I'm sorry, but you can't post links to sites who contain copyrighted material, otherwise Unilang might get into trouble. In future you can use the PM function.

That goes for the topic in the Arabic forum as well, Renaçido.

Ah whoops, I'll make sure to avoid posting such links in future then. My apologies for unintentionally breaking that rule on copyright material.

[Yserenhart]

Small update on my progress:
[flag]ja[/flag] Over the past couple days I have managed to learn the kanji 一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八、九、十, and their on readings, as well as a few of the kun readings.

[flag]mi[/flag] I managed to write an introductory mihimihi. That's about it.

[flag]fi[/flag] I read a bit of Finnish: An Essential Grammar, but haven't really learned anything new.

I'm going to have to really step it up if I plan on reaching my goals.

[hashi]

Small update on my progress:
[flag]ja[/flag] Over the past couple days I have managed to learn the kanji 一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八、九、十, and their on readings, as well as a few of the kun readings.

[flag]mi[/flag] I managed to write an introductory mihimihi. That's about it.

[flag]fi[/flag] I read a bit of Finnish: An Essential Grammar, but haven't really learned anything new.

I'm going to have to really step it up if I plan on reaching my goals.

TAC hasn't technically started yet

[Yserenhart]

TAC hasn't technically started yet

Gotta get into the habit though, or I'll get nowhere when it does start.

Which is only 3 days off

[Yserenhart]

So, the first day. Not quite going to plan.

[flag]fi[/flag] Got in an hour of grammar study, focused on non-finite verb forms. It took me a lot longer than expected to go through two pages of Finnish: An Essential Grammar.

[flag]ja[/flag] Did an hour of studying Kanji. Got through the first part of lesson 1 from Basic Kanji: Book 1.

[flag]mi[/flag] Didn't get anything done.

[Danial]

Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan <3

Haha Onnea! ^^

[lumiel]

[flag]fi[/flag]
Reason for learning: I love the language. Nice and simple, I fell in love with it upon listening to Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan, and finding out it was the base for Tolkien's Elvish just further cemented that love.

You're the first person I've ever heard calling Finnish nice and simple.
Olet ensimmäinen ihminen, jonka olen kuullut kutsuneen suomea mukavaksi ja yksinkertaiseksi.


I like Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan, too.
Minäkin pidän "Kuolema Tekee Taitelijan" -kappaleesta.

[lumiel]

[flag]fi[/flag]
Reason for learning: I love the language. Nice and simple, I fell in love with it upon listening to Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan, and finding out it was the base for Tolkien's Elvish just further cemented that love.

You're the first person I've ever heard calling Finnish nice and simple.
Olet ensimmäinen ihminen, jonka olen kuullut kutsuneen suomea mukavaksi ja yksinkertaiseksi.


Kuolema Tekee Taitelijan is a beautiful song.
Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan on kaunis laulu.

[hashi]

If you're interested, Danial and I are going to start a skype chat for Japanese learnings. Should you want to join in, feel free to add me to skype, the username is in my signature.

[Yserenhart]

You're the first person I've ever heard calling Finnish nice and simple.
Olet ensimmäinen ihminen, jonka olen kuullut kutsuneen suomea mukavaksi ja yksinkertaiseksi.


Kuolema Tekee Taitelijan is a beautiful song.
Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan on kaunis laulu.

Minä olen tarkoittanut miksi minä opettelen on mukavat ja yksinkertaunen. Ei kielit.
I meant the reasons why I'm learning are nice and simple. Not the language.



Kyllä, Kuolema Tekee Taitelijan on hämmästyttävä. Minä olen ajattelen tekemällä kuoro versio.
Yes, Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan is amazing. I'm thinking of making a choir version.

If you're interested, Danial and I are going to start a skype chat for Japanese learnings. Should you want to join in, feel free to add me to skype, the username is in my signature.

If I had skype I would definitely be interested, but I don't, nor do I have a mic at the moment, as the one I had decided to break. When I get a new one I'll join up though.

[hashi]

If I had skype I would definitely be interested, but I don't, nor do I have a mic at the moment, as the one I had decided to break. When I get a new one I'll join up though.

Don't need one. Judging by the other unilang skype chat, it'll be once in a blue moon that we actually get around to voice chatting ^^. If not, you can always listen in anyway.