Saim's log 2017-2019
Posted: 2017-01-15, 18:19
[flag=]ar-apc[/flag]Levantine Arabic[flag=]ar-apc[/flag]
This is going to be the year when I get to a conversational level of Arabic, I can feel it. I've really been enjoying studying Levantine Arabic over the past couple of weeks. It's gotten a lot easier because I already had quite a lot of grammar and vocabulary internalised after years of uncomitted study, I just couldn't really use any of it. I'm also quite used to the Arabic script now due to spending so many dozens of hours reading Urdu news and working on Urdu flaschards, and knowing Urdu and Punjabi well has given me a stronger cognate discount. Hebrew also makes the grammar a lot easier.
I was initially planning to go through the entire Colloquial Syrian Arabic textbook before going onto media and tutoring, but I don't think that makes much sense. I've realised that combining sources makes stuff more likely to stick.
Resources:
Talk in Arabic (videos with transcription + translation, I'm not sure if I'll bother much with the explicit "lessons" that are in English)
Learn Arabic Naturally (videos with transcription + translation)
Gloss (lessons based on audio with transcription)
Lingualism Levantine Arabic diaries (audio with transcription and translation)
(Thankfully there seems to be a lot more available for Levantine than for when I tried to get into Moroccan!)
I think I'll also get a tutor for once or twice a week. I might do some fusha here and there as well, but it's not going to be my main focus. I'd like to finish the Qur'an this year as well (so far I've only finished Surat al-Baqarah), so while I'm doing that I'll keep an eye on the original text as well even though I won't actively study it.
My Arabic notes are here.
[flag=]tr[/flag] Turkish [flag=]tr[/flag]
I've really gotten into Turkish. I was a bit worried it would be the next language to push away Arabic, but so far I've been able to juggle both. I'll try and get my tree gold on Duolingo while learning songs (including lyricstraining.com) and practicing sentences from Glossika.
[flag=]he[/flag]Hebrew [flag=]he[/flag]
I'm going to try and do as much input as possible to consolidate my upper-intermediate level. Thankfully it's not hard to find Hebrew media with accurate subtitles in Hebrew. I've already watched the first season of the Legend of Korra in Hebrew, so the next thing to do with that is. I can know sing along to Hebrew lyrics (before it was pretty hard without Romanisation) fairly easily so that's a good avenue that's opened up.
[flag=]hu[/flag]Hungarian[flag=]hu[/flag]
My goal for Hungarian is similar to Hebrew, just that my Hebrew is probably a bit better. I will watch dubbed series with subtitles, the subtitles don't correspond perfectly to the dubbed audio but it's good enough and at this level is even helpful in teaching synonyms. I remember I also found the transcript of some old film so I'll watch that as well... can't remember where in my computer I put that though.
Russian, French, German
I've realised that I'll probably never manage to motivate myself enough to sit down and study these languages consistently, because I always think "shouldn't I be studying something weirder?". So whenever I feel like learning a bit of them I'll indulge myself. It's not like they're difficult for me at this stage.
This is going to be the year when I get to a conversational level of Arabic, I can feel it. I've really been enjoying studying Levantine Arabic over the past couple of weeks. It's gotten a lot easier because I already had quite a lot of grammar and vocabulary internalised after years of uncomitted study, I just couldn't really use any of it. I'm also quite used to the Arabic script now due to spending so many dozens of hours reading Urdu news and working on Urdu flaschards, and knowing Urdu and Punjabi well has given me a stronger cognate discount. Hebrew also makes the grammar a lot easier.
I was initially planning to go through the entire Colloquial Syrian Arabic textbook before going onto media and tutoring, but I don't think that makes much sense. I've realised that combining sources makes stuff more likely to stick.
Resources:
Talk in Arabic (videos with transcription + translation, I'm not sure if I'll bother much with the explicit "lessons" that are in English)
Learn Arabic Naturally (videos with transcription + translation)
Gloss (lessons based on audio with transcription)
Lingualism Levantine Arabic diaries (audio with transcription and translation)
(Thankfully there seems to be a lot more available for Levantine than for when I tried to get into Moroccan!)
I think I'll also get a tutor for once or twice a week. I might do some fusha here and there as well, but it's not going to be my main focus. I'd like to finish the Qur'an this year as well (so far I've only finished Surat al-Baqarah), so while I'm doing that I'll keep an eye on the original text as well even though I won't actively study it.
My Arabic notes are here.
[flag=]tr[/flag] Turkish [flag=]tr[/flag]
I've really gotten into Turkish. I was a bit worried it would be the next language to push away Arabic, but so far I've been able to juggle both. I'll try and get my tree gold on Duolingo while learning songs (including lyricstraining.com) and practicing sentences from Glossika.
[flag=]he[/flag]Hebrew [flag=]he[/flag]
I'm going to try and do as much input as possible to consolidate my upper-intermediate level. Thankfully it's not hard to find Hebrew media with accurate subtitles in Hebrew. I've already watched the first season of the Legend of Korra in Hebrew, so the next thing to do with that is. I can know sing along to Hebrew lyrics (before it was pretty hard without Romanisation) fairly easily so that's a good avenue that's opened up.
[flag=]hu[/flag]Hungarian[flag=]hu[/flag]
My goal for Hungarian is similar to Hebrew, just that my Hebrew is probably a bit better. I will watch dubbed series with subtitles, the subtitles don't correspond perfectly to the dubbed audio but it's good enough and at this level is even helpful in teaching synonyms. I remember I also found the transcript of some old film so I'll watch that as well... can't remember where in my computer I put that though.
Russian, French, German
I've realised that I'll probably never manage to motivate myself enough to sit down and study these languages consistently, because I always think "shouldn't I be studying something weirder?". So whenever I feel like learning a bit of them I'll indulge myself. It's not like they're difficult for me at this stage.