Played with Duolingo. Some people have treasure chests next to their names... I want one. Not going to happen with Hebrew, though, this is a bit too difficult for me at the moment. I'm not comfortable with the writing. I do wish this time I'll stay a bit longer, so that I get comfortable with the writing.
And READING the writing. This is one reason why I like Maltese best of the Semitic languages. Latin letters.
Jeg kan virkelig lide Dansk. Mængden af vokaler er spændende. Det er svært og det gør mig lykkelig.
Now, Arabic... it is difficult, but not because there would be anything difficult about the Arabic language. The pronunciation is OK, the grammar is relatively easy, the vocabulary is just as much a thing to memorize as in any language.
The problem is the apparent lack of logic in how the language is being taught and presented.
As if the people who know it and teach it, don't understand there is NO LANGUAGE ON EARTH THAT IS NOT LOGICAL. As if "you just have to learn it", and I HATE that attitude. "It just is that way, don't ask."
Reminds me of my religion teacher. I asked what they meant with "The man has now become like one of us", and she told me that I shouldn't ask, the Bible is not logical and comprehensible, and there are these things in there, to test our faith. If we can believe everything without questioning, then we believe. And I went all Galileo. "I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use."
I didn't SAY anything, but that was the moment I stopped trying to understand Christianity.
Now... to have that attitude when it comes to religion and holy scriptures, I'm OK with that. But to have that attitude when it comes to languages... No.
And then there's the alphabet order... Logically it should go
'alif, ba', jim, dal, dhal,
ha', waw, zayn, ha', kha',
ta', za', ya', kaf, lam, mim, nun,
sad, dad, 'ayn, ghayn, fa', qaf,
ra, shin, sin, ta', tha'
and not
'alif, ba', jim, dal,
ha', waw, zayn, ha',
ta', ya', kaf, lam, mim, nun,
sin, 'ayn, fa', sad,
qaf, ra, shin, ta', tha',
kha', dhal, dad, za', ghayn
The last letters are just thrown in the end, even when it's obvious they are related to the letters I put them next to, in, what to me is, a logical order. (Based on the ancestral alphabets.)
"It's because saad isn't derived from samekh, we don't have a samekh, so we put the siin in that spot and then saad... just somewhere."
Yes, I know, I'm being stupid, there's most certainly a reason to why they did it this way, and it's most likely better than mine, (even if for the reason that these are their alphabet, not mine), but I don't care. Arabic has become one of these "look at that bitch eating crackers as if she owned the world" kind of things to me.
(Well... it's not as bad as Aramaic... Those guys really let it get to their heads. I mean... if you have to tell people how your thing is the best evah and go so into pathos mode that you are crying you and your language are so poetic and amazing and best evah, and blend in God, too... I'll pass. Thank you.
I mean, see this: it's the "Aramean Syriac flag". I haven't seen many things as nazi as this. Now, it could be because I live where I live... in "Little Assyria". About 80% of people living here are Assyrian/Syriac with the "we built the Stonehenge and all the pyramids in the world and everything else, and we invented the wheel and all the languages and everything, and we were the first in everything, we!"and the Right Wing USonian Born-again Evangelical Christian "God is on our side and everyone else will burn in hell, and if I can help it, they'll do it today" attitude.)
Uh. On to Greek. I don't much like this language either, but it's easy. I already learned the alphabet in school for maths, and there's a lot of loan words in most languages from Greek. I also really want to read Mara Meimaridi's Witches of Smyrna and about Katina's Deck, and there's much more resources about that in Greek and Turkish than any other language.
Studied a bit Korean. That's really wonderful now when the net is full of resources :-D Thank you K-pop and K-drama! And thank you, fan girls. :-) I don't usually appreciate you much, but this you did well :-)
A little bit of Irish. Iiri as it's called in Finnish and Gaeilge (Irish pronunciation: [ˈɡeːlʲɟə]) in Irish.
A bit of Duolingo... I hate it that the "tree" gets unlit as time goes by without me being there, but... uh. I suppose it's as it is. We do forget.
But, here's something. It is religious. I assume Christian, but I see no reason why Dieu couldn't be any God. The lyrics are pretty easy, and just ignore the God part if you don't believe. And I like the song a lot.
Je ne suis qu'un homme, je suis comme toi, crois-moi!
Je pleure et je ris, je vi et je souffre parfois.
De ces mots si durs posés sur les murs de nos cœurs et nos vies
Derrière nos armures se cachent nos blessures qui étouffent nos cris
Je vois que tu crois que tout est fini pour toi
Je ne te laisserai pas t'en aller comme çà
On est tous pareils, on cherche l'étincelle qui embrase la vie
L'espoir qui éveille, qui donne des ailes, qui redonne l'envie
L'envie de vivre et de poursuivre
bien plus que survivre, retrouver l'envie de vivre
Un rêve brisé mais il te reste du temps
tout reste possible à celui qui croit vraiment
laisse-toi porter, laisse-toi aimer par celui qui détient
les clefs de la vie, l'amour infini, un nouveau lendemain
L'envie de vivre et de poursuivre
bien plus que survivre, retrouver l'envie de vivre
L'envie de vivre et de poursuivre
bien plus que survivre, retrouver l'envie de vivre
Ne laisse pas ton cœur sombre
Crois, oui tu verras si tu crois!
Renaître en toi, l'envie d'aimer
D'être là, d'être porté par la foi
L'envie de vivre et de poursuivre
bien plus que survivre, retrouver l'envie de vivre
Dieu donne l'envie, Dieu donne la vie
Bien plus il est la vie, mon chant, mon choix, mon tout, mon cri, ma raison de vivre
Bien plus il est la vie, mon chant, mon choix, mon tout, mon cri, ma raison de vivre
Dieu donne l'envie, Dieu donne la vie
Bien plus il est la vie, mon chant, mon choix, mon tout, mon cri
Dieu donne l'envie, Dieu donne la vie
Bien plus il est la vie, mon chant, mon choix, mon tout, mon cri,
Ma raison de vivre
Going through hiragana. And, you know how Duolingo works. One can guess a lot and then there's the "cheat" option - one can put the cursor on the words and get the meaning... so I do that a lot, in the beginning. Now, I don't know hiragana. Or so I thought. And then I caught myself reading it to figure out the right answer :-D Just to forget it in the next question and trying to guess again :-D Until I remembered that I actually KNOW this sign. :-D
But, no, Duolingo is NOT a good place to learn letters.
I like this one. I don't quite agree with the mnemonics, but most of it works beautifully. Really good, japanesepod101.com!
And after that Duolingo's Hiragana goes like a dance :-D A very nice companion, I have to say.
Anyway, now I know Hiragana, tomorrow I'm going to learn Katagana.
BTW, I am working with Kanji as well.
And I did one step of Spanish as well.
Antes de que alguien comente en mis múltiples idiomas, quiero decir que no estoy compitiendo. Estudio idiomas para mi propio entretenimiento y placer. No me importa la fama ni los títulos. No estoy vendiendo nada. No estoy tratando de lograr nada. No tengo plazos ni metas. Así que no importa si otros lo hacen de manera más eficiente o mejor. Bien por ellos. Me alegro por ellos. Estoy impresionado. Y luego voy a mis estudios estacionales y aprendo algo, o tal vez no. No importa.
So.... started a Memrise course for the sounds. Again, Duolingo launched a course without audio. :-( Bad Duolingo! Bad! I do hope they get Finnish with good audio, it's not that different!
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