TAC 2018 - Antea (Finnish, Swedish)

[voron]

I also wonder if I need to have previous knowledge of Persian in order to better learn Kurmanji

Not at all. There are enough resources for Kurmanji that make it accessible without any knowledge of Persian.

Go for it! It's not hard and the cultural insight that you get from learning it is priceless.

[vijayjohn]

Yeah, in fact, Persian doesn't even help that much with Kurmanji IMO. It just helps a little in my case because I happen to know a little bit of it lol. It's like how you don't need to know French just to learn Spanish.

[linguoboy]

I am stuck with Irish

How do we unstick you?

[Antea]

I am stuck with Irish

How do we unstick you?

Thanks! When I stopped I was at lesson 4, so I can still catch up. I have not forgotten the previous lessons, so I will try to continue with one or two more lessons tonight.

I suppose that the problem is that I find it difficult because it’s very different from the other languages I have learned. But I feel attracted to it and I don’t want to give it up. Although being realistic, I suppose I will just reach a passive knowledge of it. But if I could at least gain some knowledge as to being able to understand it, even the reading, it will be Ok for the moment.

[księżycowy]

It is hard, in my opinion and experience, to gain an active knowledge of Irish easily short of living in a Gaelteacht. A passive knowledge (or reading knowledge, if you will) is a good starting place.

[vijayjohn]

I wonder how much active knowledge of Irish I've gained from trying to study it passively.

Actually, I wonder whether I'd have an easier time speaking Irish than Icelandic or K'iche' even though I have been exchanging a few messages in both languages in their respective study groups! B'fhéidir gur cheart dom a iarraidh Gaeilge a labhairt.

I don't know whether that made any sense at all, but what I meant was 'maybe I should try speaking Irish'.

[Antea]

Yes, we should try to speak every language we study

[voron]

Hey Antea,

you say you watch lots of videos in different languages,

why don't you share at least some of them? I think it can make your blog more entertaining and useful for others.

[Antea]

Hey Antea,

you say you watch lots of videos in different languages,

why don't you share at least some of them? I think it can make your blog more entertaining and useful for others.

Ok, but I am subscribed mostly to TV channels on YouTube, like Aljazeera, Alarabiya, France24 Arabic, DW Arabic, Skynews Arabic. I can post some videos that I found interesting (maybe this one is too long ).

https://youtu.be/48WYgNiL1jk

[vijayjohn]

What about for your other languages?

[Antea]

https://youtu.be/4EoZZHh8_N0

[Antea]

https://youtu.be/Gp0NZKDJLUI

[voron]

https://youtu.be/48WYgNiL1jk

This was nice, I liked it.

[vijayjohn]

I haven't watched any of them yet, but they all look pretty interesting.

[Antea]

Well, all is obviously a mess in my TAC. I don't know any more at which point I am.

Let me see, I started with Hebrew, and I don't want to let it go, but on the other hand, I am only watching things in Arabic, which is not the best way to improve the former. In relation to Swedish, I have now finished my Assimil book, so now I'm supposed the have the basis and I should be practising it, along with Icelandic, which is not so far from the first. But instead of it, I am trying to understand the basis of Kurmanji vocabulary, and also trying to remember its vocabulary which is obviously miles away from Germanic (and I don't even want to mention Irish).

And I am just starting the summer... I think I should put some order and also establish some priorities

[voron]

But instead of it, I am trying to understand the basis of Kurmanji vocabulary, and also trying to remember its vocabulary which is obviously miles away from Germanic

They are both Indo-European, so they are not so terribly far from each other. You can find a lot of cognates (if you use an etymological dictionary).

[vijayjohn]

Kurmanji roj 'day' is related to the English word light, baş 'good' is apparently related to be, ez 'I' is related to I, im 'am' is probably related to am, Kurd is apparently related to करना ('to do') in Hindi, and ew 'he/she/it' is apparently related to the, to give a few examples.

[Antea]

Oh, yes. And what about "xwendekar"?

[voron]

Oh, yes. And what about "xwendekar"?

xwendekar

I'm using this Kurdish dictionary which has etymological information:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/deta ... heng&hl=en

EDIT: Actually, this information is availabile on Wiki as well:
https://ku.wiktionary.org/wiki/xwendin#Ji
https://ku.wiktionary.org/wiki/kar#Ji

[Antea]

A little bit of German, for a change.
https://youtu.be/CkxWOkKDuRc