TAC Meera 2013

[Meera]

That's really cool, Vijay

[Meera]

Update
Been very busy lately but trying to keep this up.

[flag]fa[/flag] I think I am improving with Persian although slowly. I actually saw Argo a week ago in theaters, and I could understand a lot of the Persian that wasn't subtitled so I was happy! I also been working on the new lesson of Chai and Conversation and it's been helpful. I think I may be finally clicking with Persian! I also just got Netflix which has a ton of Persian movies on it, so I'll be getting good practice

[flag]hi[/flag] Still trying to get through Umrao Jaan. It's quite hard to get through. I have been reading articles on BBC in Hindi. I reinstalled my Hindi Rosetta Stone Level 2 and have been doing it consistently. I also been watching Hindi movies and Tv shows like always.

[flag]tr[/flag] Sadly I haven't done anything

[flag]fr[/flag] Ironically I have been doing a quite of bit of French lately. I'm almost finished my French in 10 minutes a day and I watch twenty minutes of France 24 in French daily, although I understand little. I'm also using my textbook from school, which is pretty bad but the only thing I have for French at the moment. I need to get more stuff since there is a so much stuff out there for French.

I have been bad lately and have been doing Bengali also, its hard to keep away from it I've also been doing Indonesian a little, again its hard to keep away from it.

[Bijlee]

^^ Stop making me want to learn Malayalam, Vijay >.<

I have been bad lately and have been doing Bengali also, its hard to keep away from it

Why are you so anti-Bengali lately, Meera?

[Meera]

No, I'm in love with Bengali, so in love with it if I start doing it I never study any of my other languages. Bengali is my favorite language along with Hindi/Urdu .

[vijayjohn]

^^ Stop making me want to learn Malayalam, Vijay >.<

It's interesting that you say that, given how negatively even Malayalees view Malayalam But let me tell you a story:

A few years ago, one of my mom's friends was telling my mom various real-life stories in front of me, code-switching between Malayalam and English (as Malayalees do). Occasionally, she would interrupt her story in mid-sentence by turning to me and saying, "mOnE (son), cover your ears!" This always made me crack up instantly, because I was already old enough to drink. What could she possibly say that I was too young to hear?

So maybe I'll just tell you to cover your eyes before I say something about Malayalam But I'm not a censor today, because you're learning Bengali and, you see, Kerala has a lot in common with Bengal. (Although I bet every part of India has something in common with Bengal! And of course, our languages are completely different and unrelated, but still, I can say a lot about Kerala by just talking about Bengal ).

They're both very lush and green and right next to the sea, with all sorts of plants and animals. Our villages look very similar, too; every time my dad sees a random village in a Bengali movie, he says it reminds him of the village where he spent part of his childhood. We even have the same weed infestation on our rice paddies. (One time, my mom turned on the TV and told my dad they were showing a documentary on Kerala. It wasn't on Kerala at all; it was on Bangladesh! And there they were, the same weeds all over again).

We have a lot of cultural similarities as well. We have a long history of post-independence communism. We eat rice all the time. We eat every part of a fish, and we eat a lot of fish (and seafood when/where it's available). When we can, we eat meat, too, even beef!

[Bijlee]

Ah interesting . I wish Indian languages had more prestige.
Hmmm... I've never really thought of Kerala and Bengal as very similar... Well, I mean as any much more similar than any other two Indian states(or places in south asian rather- as to include Bangladesh).

[TeneReef]

Oh, Malayalam is so much more difficult than Tamil.
Too many Sanskrit words with an agglutinative Dravidian grammar is a formula for tongue twisters (and don't you forget that soooo important contrast between dental and alveolar T's and N's while speaking @ 200 km/h ).

At least in Tamil, basic words are much shorter since most Sanskrit words were expelled at the end of 19th century when Brahmin Tamil lost its prestige.

And the alphabet, Tamil alphabet can be learned in 4 hours.
Malayalam alphabet in 4 months (reformed one), or in 4 years (annoying old alphabet which made a resurrection, and it has not fewer than 950 conjunct forms...so many you can't find a complete Malayalam syllabary ).

some examples:

patronage
M: rakSaadhikaaritvam
T: aadaravu

light (not heavy)
M: bhaaramillaatta
T: ileesaana

library
M:granthaśaala
T: noolagam

ivory
M: aanakkompu
T: tandam

flag
M: pataaka
T: koDi

moon:
M: chanRAn, tingal
T: nilaa

Examples are from Longman's English-Kannada-Malayalam-Tamil-Telugu dictionary.
I cannot say Malayalam and Tamil are that similar...Portuguese and Italian
are closer than Malayalam and Tamil. Mix Tamil and Sanskrit, and you get Malayalam.
That's why it's the most difficult Indian language.

One more thing, I don't know why Malayalis speak Malayalam as if it were a tonal language.
Tamilians call it ''Mallu twang''

And, unfortunately there is no material on Malayalam.
Even music and movies from Kerala are not very good.
I don't like the message they send: 60 year old dadies being in love with 18y.o. girls
Malayalam movies are boring, and music is always the same (100% traditional Carnatic songs and never anything else...It gets boring after 3 movies...In Tamil and Bengali movies, you get a mix of everything...traditional, modern, dance, pop, electronic, classic etc I wish Rahman made a soundtrack for a Malayalam movie, that would make a revolution).
No wonder, Tamil movies are more popular in Kerala.
When you go to Kerala, speak Tamil, and people will respect you.
Both Asin and Vidya Balan had terrible experience with Malayalam movie industry,
and they fled from that mess to better projects outside Kerala.

The only songs I liked were in fact plagiarized copies of Western songs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP2GcePozMs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-NJXphlIdA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uavZeEeMsSQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7N0-krbtn8

[Meera]

[flag]hi[/flag]/[flag]ur[/flag] - Getting into the nitty-gritty of actual "Urdu" grammar. Well, I should say Persian and Arabic influence on it. I got through both chapters on it this week, but still its hurting my head. The Persian influence not so much, but the Arabic influence is a lot, especially the verbs. But I'm glad I did get through these two chapters because it cleared a lot up for me in reading Urdu news.

[flag]fa[/flag] Up to chapter 13 on my teach yourself Persian. This book SUCKS. At Chapter 13 and haven't learned anything new yet Just bought "Media Persian" for more vocabulary practice!

[flag]fr[/flag] Bonjour tout le monde! So French is going well, except I think the pronunciation is pretty hard though. As much as I try to imitate the sounds it never comes out right I think the grammar is pretty easy though, except sometimes very annoying.

[Meera]

[flag]fr[/flag]
Two French Exercises I did:

These were fill in the blanks with correct form.

Je viens d’Amérique.
Je vais en France.
Il a vingt euros.
Vous voudriez un verre de vin rouge.
J’ai besoin d’un verre d’eau.

I have to say who wants the following things :
Je voudrais du café.
Elle voudrait jus d’orange.
Il voudrait lait.
Nous voudrions pain et confiture.
Vous voudrions jus de pomme.

[Meera]

[flag]fa[/flag]

[ Some exercises form Living Language Persian:
Chapter 1 :
A)Fill in the Banks with the correct form of the verb.
1) من اینجا هستم
2) شما در تهران هستید
3) او خانم من است
4) تو دوست من هستی
5) ما در کانادا هستیم

B) Complete the dialouge
سلام ! حال شما چطوره ؟خوبه ؟
بله، خوبم ، مرسی . حال شما چطوره ؟ خوبه؟
من خوبم. ممنون. شما در تهران زندگی میکنین ؟
بله، خوب، من باید برم.
بسیار خوب ، خدا حافظ.
خدا حافظ

C) Use words in the parentheses to introduce the person
1) اسم من رامین است
2) اسم شما شبنم است
3) اسم او جیم است
4) اسم ایشون مانی است
5) اسم ما رامین و شبنم است


Congjugate (رسیدن) in present tense
1) می رسم
2) می رسی
3) می رسد
4) می رسیم
5) می رسید
6) می رسند

[Meera]

Is there anywhere online to learn Cyrillic? I want to read Tajik as well, so I was just wondering

[TeneReef]

Please update your Bengali stats.
dhonnobaad

[Bijlee]

[flag]hi[/flag]/[flag]ur[/flag] - Getting into the nitty-gritty of actual "Urdu" grammar. Well, I should say Persian and Arabic influence on it. I got through both chapters on it this week, but still its hurting my head. The Persian influence not so much, but the Arabic influence is a lot, especially the verbs. But I'm glad I did get through these two chapters because it cleared a lot up for me in reading Urdu news.

What are you using for it?

[OldBoring]

I have to say who wants the following things :
Je voudrais du café.
Elle voudrait jus d’orange.
Il voudrait lait.
Nous voudrions pain et confiture.
Vous voudrions jus de pomme.

You used the partitif in the first sentence (du café), but why not in the other ones?

[Meera]

Please update your Bengali stats.
dhonnobaad

Okay, আমি হইবে

[Meera]

[flag]hi[/flag]/[flag]ur[/flag] - Getting into the nitty-gritty of actual "Urdu" grammar. Well, I should say Persian and Arabic influence on it. I got through both chapters on it this week, but still its hurting my head. The Persian influence not so much, but the Arabic influence is a lot, especially the verbs. But I'm glad I did get through these two chapters because it cleared a lot up for me in reading Urdu news.

What are you using for it?

"Urdu: An essential Grammar" by Ruth laila Schmidt. Its quite good, and dense.

[MillMaths]

I have to say who wants the following things :
Je voudrais du café.
Elle voudrait jus d’orange.
Il voudrait lait.
Nous voudrions pain et confiture.
Vous voudrions jus de pomme.

You used the partitif in the first sentence (du café), but why not in the other ones?

The partitif SHOULD be used in the other ones as well.

Je voudrais du café.
Elle voudrait du jus d’orange.
Il voudrait du lait.
Nous voudrions du pain et de la confiture.
Vous voudriez du jus de pomme.

[Meera]

I have to say who wants the following things :
Je voudrais du café.
Elle voudrait jus d’orange.
Il voudrait lait.
Nous voudrions pain et confiture.
Vous voudrions jus de pomme.

You used the partitif in the first sentence (du café), but why not in the other ones?

Its a mistake Do you use "du" with all food/drink?

[Meera]

I have to say who wants the following things :
Je voudrais du café.
Elle voudrait jus d’orange.
Il voudrait lait.
Nous voudrions pain et confiture.
Vous voudrions jus de pomme.

You used the partitif in the first sentence (du café), but why not in the other ones?

The partitif SHOULD be used in the other ones as well.

Je voudrais du café.
Elle voudrait du jus d’orange.
Il voudrait du lait.
Nous voudrions du pain et de la confiture.
Vous voudriez du jus de pomme.

Merci Nehushtan!

[TeneReef]

I have to say who wants the following things :
Je voudrais du café.
Elle voudrait jus d’orange.
Il voudrait lait.
Nous voudrions pain et confiture.
Vous voudrions jus de pomme.

You used the partitif in the first sentence (du café), but why not in the other ones?

Its a mistake Do you use "du" with all food/drink?

I think DU is partitive genitive.
Do you want some + food/drink?