TAC eskandar (Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu)

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby eskandar » 2017-10-22, 23:21

New priority for the next couple of months until my trip to Mexico City: Spanish! (Edit: And fuck it, I'm gonna start learning Hebrew afterwards, in December.)

Watched videos in Spanish on Youtube today for about a half hour or so. My goal is to focus as much as possible on listening comprehension. I'm wondering if it's better to watch videos without subtitles (and thus really have to focus on actively listening) or to watch them with Spanish subtitles (which makes it easier to quickly pick out and look up any unfamiliar words). So far I've been doing a little of both.

New vocab
engentarse - to get stressed or annoyed in a crowd
abarrotado - crammed, packed, crowded
concurrido - crowded, busy
apodo - nickname
¡a huevo! - hell yeah!
esquite - snack of cooked corn with toppings
recinto - enclosure
albergar - to be home to
Please correct my mistakes in any language.

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-10-23, 1:17

What's making you go to Mexico City, if you don't mind me asking? :hmm:

Also, did I ever mention La Reina del Sur? I've been finding it pretty helpful for listening comprehension and learning new (especially Mexican-specific) vocabulary I would have never, ever learned in Spanish class, like tu carnalito, el mugre güero, se ha vuelto muy pipirisnais y me cae re gordo (which apparently means 'your buddy, the dirty whitey, has become very classy, and I can't stand him').

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby Bubulus » 2017-10-23, 2:26

I think I'd prefer something like "hell of a snob" to translate pipirisnáis. I'd also spell that regordo, since it's an intensive prefix...

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby eskandar » 2017-10-23, 3:12

vijayjohn wrote:What's making you go to Mexico City, if you don't mind me asking? :hmm:

Just visiting for fun! I've never been and always heard wonderful things about it.

Also, did I ever mention La Reina del Sur? I've been finding it pretty helpful for listening comprehension and learning new (especially Mexican-specific) vocabulary I would have never, ever learned in Spanish class, like tu carnalito, el mugre güero, se ha vuelto muy pipirisnais y me cae re gordo (which apparently means 'your buddy, the dirty whitey, has become very classy, and I can't stand him').

Not sure if you'd mentioned it, but I'll check it out. I see that it's set in Spain - do they mix in Castillian expressions or is all the dialogue pretty Mexican?

I knew carnal/ito and güero but not the rest. Another Mexican-specific expression that might be similar to pipirisnais is fresa - young, snobbish, upper middle class types, sort of like "burgers" in Pakistan if you're familiar with the term.
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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-10-23, 3:28

Serafín wrote:I think I'd prefer something like "hell of a snob" to translate pipirisnáis. I'd also spell that regordo, since it's an intensive prefix...

Thanks! I went off Telemundo's subs for both the spelling and the translation. Wiktionary says re is an adverb that was originally a prefix (but the RAE doesn't seem to accept this spelling).
eskandar wrote:
vijayjohn wrote:What's making you go to Mexico City, if you don't mind me asking? :hmm:

Just visiting for fun! I've never been and always heard wonderful things about it.

I've always wanted to take a trip to Mexico. When I was growing up, I felt like everybody got to go there and I never did (because my parents were all "but we don't know anybody there so how do we know we'll all be safe?") even though I spoke Spanish and they didn't! :x (But then for that matter, I'd like to take a trip to India again, too, and the last time I did that, I was almost half my current age, sooooo...).
Not sure if you'd mentioned it, but I'll check it out. I see that it's set in Spain - do they mix in Castillian expressions or is all the dialogue pretty Mexican?

It starts out in Mexico and then moves to Andalusia, and I don't know what happens after that because I've only seen the first few highly abridged episodes from Telemundo's YouTube channel, which nevertheless has the advantage of having subtitles in English and Spanish. So the only real regionalisms I've seen so far are the Mexican ones.
I knew carnal/ito and güero but not the rest. Another Mexican-specific expression that might be similar to pipirisnais is fresa - young, snobbish, upper middle class types, sort of like "burgers" in Pakistan if you're familiar with the term.

I wasn't, but I'm sure I know people like that. :lol:

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby eskandar » 2017-10-24, 16:15

vijayjohn wrote:I've always wanted to take a trip to Mexico. When I was growing up, I felt like everybody got to go there and I never did (because my parents were all "but we don't know anybody there so how do we know we'll all be safe?") even though I spoke Spanish and they didn't! :x (But then for that matter, I'd like to take a trip to India again, too, and the last time I did that, I was almost half my current age, sooooo...).

Now that you're an adult, what's holding you back from taking a trip?

Watched some Mexican standup comedy and a few travel videos in Spanish.

New vocab
cortometraje - short film
¡chale! - no way!, yeah right!, whatever!
muletilla - catchphrase
irse encima - to jump on, attack
raptar - to kidnap
tobillo - ankle
desecho - waste, garbage
chamarra - jacket, coat
bache - pothole
codo - stingy (Mexican slang, aside from primary meaning of 'elbow')
tacaño - stingy
colonia - neighborhood
Please correct my mistakes in any language.

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-10-24, 17:10

eskandar wrote:Now that you're an adult, what's holding you back from taking a trip?

Well, I still haven't found a new job, so money is an issue. I rarely leave the house to begin with, but I would really love to meet certain UniLangers in person first before going anywhere else. There are some people on this forum I've privately spilled my guts to over the years, so I've been dying to meet them, but unfortunately, I've never managed to arrange it. I'd love to meet you someday, too. :)

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby eskandar » 2017-10-25, 2:00

vijayjohn wrote:I'd love to meet you someday, too. :)

I'd be happy to! :) Hopefully we'll get a chance to meet up sometime.

Watched some more Luiki Wiki and started reading a Spanish travelogue to Ethiopia by a Mexican author, El paralelo etíope. My goal is to just read 5 pages a day since I can't dedicate a ton of time to Spanish right now. It's dismaying how even after a decade of learning Persian, reading Spanish remains so much easier for me...

New vocab
cabellera - head of hair
alambre - wire
lacio - limp; straight (hair)
sedoso - silky
desvencijado - dilapidated, rickety
fijar - establish, set up
cobrar - to charge, collect, earn
cosecha - harvest, crop
escoger - to choose, select
brotar - to spring up, to stream
cerro - hill
caño - pipe, spout
escupir - to spit
dádiva - gift, handout
derrocar - to overthrow, topple
tambor - drum
Please correct my mistakes in any language.

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby Bubulus » 2017-10-25, 3:52

eskandar wrote:muletilla - catchphrase

"Catchphrase" in English is quite a positive word, but muletilla in Spanish is somewhat negative. If you say somebody has a certain muletilla, you imply that they should get rid of it. I think WordReference's translation "pet phrase" is pretty good. To say "catchphrase", we normally use phrases such as cosa que dice todo el tiempo or frase que le gusta decir.

codo - stingy (Mexican slang, aside from primary meaning of 'elbow')

Also used in El Salvador. We use it as some sort of invariable adjective: ella es codo, ellos son codo.

colonia - neighborhood

In El Salvador, a colonia is specifically a walled neighborhood with a modicum of collectively paid security. I suspect it
might also mean that in Mexico too. A "neighborhood" is referred to as a barrio or vecindario instead.

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby eskandar » 2017-11-03, 20:42

Serafín wrote:
eskandar wrote:muletilla - catchphrase

"Catchphrase" in English is quite a positive word, but muletilla in Spanish is somewhat negative. If you say somebody has a certain muletilla, you imply that they should get rid of it. I think WordReference's translation "pet phrase" is pretty good. To say "catchphrase", we normally use phrases such as cosa que dice todo el tiempo or frase que le gusta decir.

Thanks, important clarification!

colonia - neighborhood

In El Salvador, a colonia is specifically a walled neighborhood with a modicum of collectively paid security. I suspect it
might also mean that in Mexico too. A "neighborhood" is referred to as a barrio or vecindario instead.

I think you're right. I heard it in a video that I think was indeed referring to a walled neighborhood. I wondered why I didn't know this word for "neighborhood" and had only heard barrio before - answer: because I didn't grow up around walled neighborhoods.

I'm feeling really good about the languages I've been actively working on lately.

Spanish: Still plugging away at the travelogue I'm reading, and I started watching season 1 of Narcos on Netflix. Inspired by Osias, I put the Spanish subtitles on, so that I can't get lazy during the Spanish dialogue and can even pick up some new words during the English dialogue. It seems like they did at least pay a little attention to language (the constant use of listo is very Colombian) though Wagner Moura's pronunciation grates on my nerves, and I hate how contemporary the English-speakers' dialogue is ("fuckwad" strikes me as incredibly 21st century; I think it was virtually unused in the 80s). That's a minor quibble, but it reminds me of how powerful a thing native fluency is. I doubt I'll ever be able to watch a TV show in a second language and casually notice something like that.

Persian: Despite earlier feeling discouraged at how much easier it was to read Spanish, I realized how much that has to do with the specific text as well. I do have to look up at least a couple of words per page in El paralelo etíope, whereas when I read literary criticism in Persian (the subject of my research and therefore the genre I'm most comfortable reading) sometimes I can go a few pages without a single unfamiliar word. That feels really good, especially knowing that this contains a set of vocabulary that even educated native speakers wouldn't necessarily know.

Arabic: I haven't been doing much though I'm dying to get back to working on it. Saim mentioned Readlang in his log so I decided to check it out. I went to the site's Arabic library and chose a text rated C1: احسن القصص. Granted, it's one of the stories of the prophets and that kind of vocabulary is probably my greatest strength in Arabic, but I read the whole first page with great ease and without needing to click on a single word. Either they rated the text much harder than deserved (which is what I think - it should be B1 or B2) or my reading level has reached C1 (doubtful). In any case Readlang didn't appeal to me much so I think I'll go back to reading a book with a dictionary (or dictionaries, as the case tends to be for Arabic) when I can spare the time.
Please correct my mistakes in any language.

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-11-03, 20:55

eskandar wrote:I think you're right. I heard it in a video that I think was indeed referring to a walled neighborhood. I wondered why I didn't know this word for "neighborhood" and had only heard barrio before - answer: because I didn't grow up around walled neighborhoods.

It probably doesn't help that barrio is the only one of those words that's also been adopted into English. :P

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby eskandar » 2017-11-04, 17:52

At first I thought I'd just brush up on important vocabulary for traveling, but at this point I'm all in, writing down every unfamiliar word (even ones I could correctly guess from context) and entering them into Anki. Vocab addiction is real...

Recent Spanish vocab

camión - bus
escupir - to spit
desvencijado - dilapidated, rickety
colar - to strain
paupérrimo - impoverished
polvoriento - dusty
banqueta - sidewalk
zanja - ditch
lodo, fango - mud [is there any difference between these two?]
paraderos - whereabouts
sobresaliente - outstanding, noteworthy
hoyo - hole
grieta - crack
explanada - promenade
camellon - traffic island
pulga - flea
vitorear - to cheer
gemir - to moan, groan
lancha - boat
espada - sword
sacar provecho - aprovechar
no te pases - don't get carried away; don't go too far
agua de la llave - tap water
soplarse - aguantar
secuestrar - raptar
terruño - homeland; home turf
sicario - hitman
hembra - female
detener, detenerse - to stop (vt, vi)
pegado - stuck
llanto - crying, sob
pararse - to stand up
sacudir - to shake
aporte - contribution
entrometerse - to meddle, to interfere
lanzar - to throw, to launch
encarar - to face, confront
tajada - share, slice
ceder - to cede, give up
reembolsar - to refund, reimburse
espantar - to scare, frighten
plomo - lead
Please correct my mistakes in any language.

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby Bubulus » 2017-11-05, 17:39

eskandar wrote:lodo, fango - mud [is there any difference between these two?]

lodo is much more common.

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby Saim » 2017-11-05, 19:28

eskandar wrote:Arabic: I haven't been doing much though I'm dying to get back to working on it. Saim mentioned Readlang in his log so I decided to check it out. I went to the site's Arabic library and chose a text rated C1: احسن القصص. Granted, it's one of the stories of the prophets and that kind of vocabulary is probably my greatest strength in Arabic, but I read the whole first page with great ease and without needing to click on a single word. Either they rated the text much harder than deserved (which is what I think - it should be B1 or B2) or my reading level has reached C1 (doubtful). In any case Readlang didn't appeal to me much so I think I'll go back to reading a book with a dictionary (or dictionaries, as the case tends to be for Arabic) when I can spare the time.


I only use Readlang as a built-in browser dictionary. I haven't bothered with any of the texts they have in their library or the flashcards it automatically makes from the words you look up.

Serafín wrote:
eskandar wrote:lodo, fango - mud [is there any difference between these two?]

lodo is much more common.


Curioso, yo habría dicho fango, seguramente por influencia del catalán fang.

Le he preguntado a un amigo barcelonés como traduciría fang al castellano, y ha dicho que lo más comun sería barro, siendo fango más bien literario. Cuando le he sugerido la palabra lodo, me ha dicho "no sé la diferencia, pero es algo distinto" (es catalanoparlante, tal vez sea por eso). ¿Se usa esta palabra en El Salvador también? ¿Hay algun matiz en el significado?

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby Bubulus » 2017-11-05, 20:24

Saim wrote:Curioso, yo habría dicho fango, seguramente por influencia del catalán fang.

Le he preguntado a un amigo barcelonés como traduciría fang al castellano, y ha dicho que lo más comun sería barro, siendo fango más bien literario. Cuando le he sugerido la palabra lodo, me ha dicho "no sé la diferencia, pero es algo distinto" (es catalanoparlante, tal vez sea por eso). ¿Se usa esta palabra en El Salvador también? ¿Hay algun matiz en el significado?

"Barro" para mí no es más que un material para elaborar cosas, con cierto contenido de arcilla (clay with dirt). (O un sinónimo de "grano (de la cara)".)

Pero el DRAE dice que también significa lodo. Quizá en España significa esto.

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby eskandar » 2017-11-06, 1:15

Saim wrote:I only use Readlang as a built-in browser dictionary. I haven't bothered with any of the texts they have in their library or the flashcards it automatically makes from the words you look up.

Makes sense. It seems really useful but everything I want to read in other languages, I have in print and not online. I wish I was dedicated enough to read things like the news simply for language practice.

Tiene sentido. Me parece muy útil pero todo lo que quiero leer en otras lenguas, tengo en papel y no en línea. Ojalá que yo fuera tan dedicado que pudiera leer cosas como las noticias sólo para practicar idiomas.

New vocab

carrillo - cheek
atenazar - to grip
herramienta - tool
avecinar - to approach
hierro - iron
demorar - to delay
amenazar - to threaten
medias - calcetinas
sobornar - to bribe
colmar - to fulfill, satisfy
grifo - tap, faucet
pozo - well (of water)
ponerse bravo - to get mad
matiz - nuance (gracias a Saim ;))
Please correct my mistakes in any language.

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby eskandar » 2017-11-15, 18:36

I've been trying to focus on Spanish, but I actually found something online in Arabic that I wanted to read, so I thought I'd give Readlang another shot. I guess Arabic is still in Beta and most of the translations it suggests are not really helpful. Nevertheless I did get the following:

New vocab

إبان during
زهاء approximately
صعيد level
أباطرة emperors
فخامة eminence, excellency
صاحب الفخامة His Excellence (title for eg. president)
Please correct my mistakes in any language.

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby Car » 2017-11-15, 19:32

AFAIK, they actually use Google Translate for at least some language pairs. You could try some of the alternatives like LWT or the ones they mention:
http://lwt.sourceforge.net/

I couldn't get LWT to run (I'm using LingQ instead), but maybe you have more luck.
Please correct my mistakes!

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby eskandar » 2017-11-16, 8:04

Thanks Car. I've had much better luck with Google Translate itself for Arabic. Maybe I'll give LWT a shot one of these days.

New vocab (Spanish)

gozar - to enjoy
oveja - sheep
viuda - widow
zumbido - buzz
blanco (n) - target
criado - servant
Please correct my mistakes in any language.

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Re: TAC 2017 eskandar

Postby Car » 2017-11-16, 10:42

You're welcome. I really wasn't happy with Readlang (I used it for French->German) myself. I don't need GT for French (I look up the words elsewhere), so I can't compare, but it seems it's not that great for some language pairs and IIRC, Readlang only is maintained, but not developed any more.
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