KurdishI read one more story from "Carek ji Caran" (Once Upon a Time). It's a children's book with folk tales, and it's my first "real" Kurdish book. It's rather easy to read, and I hope it will be a jump start for me into other kinds of Kurdish literature.
It's interesting how some plots are similar to those of Russian/European folk tales. For example, the story about an enchanted prince/princess who take off their animal skin at nighttime and become a human, and their lover who burns their skin. In the Russian tale, it's a princess who lives in the shape of a frog (see
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Frog_Princess). In the Kurdish tale I read yesterday, it's a prince who lives in the shape of a calf. I wonder if it is modern interference, or if the plots date back to the Indo-European times.
There is one recurring detail in Kurdish tales that I haven't seen in Russian tales. Some plots feature a young girl who is captured by a beast -- and this part is common, but then, Kurdish tales tell explicitly that the girl bears children from the beast, and in some stories, against her will (
).
EDIT: Now that I think again about it, I guess I remember similar plots in Russian tales as well. It's been a while since I last read folk tales in Russian.
TurkishBinge-watched all episodes of "Beni tahmin et" from here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MXLkDVLidsIt's fun, but at this point I'm not sure I'm learning anything just from watching.
As a matter of fact, I'm not sure what to do with my Turkish and Arabic at this point. With Turkish, I know that I should read more academic and specialized stuff to improve my vocabulary, but is there even a point, besides perfectionism, if I won't use it in my daily life? With Arabic, I'm sick of being at a false beginner level and doing beginner level materials, but on the other hand, I find intermediate level stuff too challenging and, as a result, boring, and I don't know how to overcome this stage.