cześć!
This is the second weekend of the Polish part of my challenge. It isn't going quite as well as Tamil. On one hand I don't have a new alphabet to learn and the pronunciation is touch but totally doable. On the other, I am finding it super hard to keep the consonant-heavy words in my memory and my main resource is a 1983 copy of Colloquial Polish from Skoob books, which doesn't have the same audio as is now on the Colloquial website. I also don't have any connections with Poland or its culture or history yet and I'm struggling to find the cultural hook.
Colloquial Polih ( or at least my very old edition) is heavy on grammar and teaches you all the conjugations of to be right away which I like. My mind was really rebelling against Colloquial Tamil's 'stealth' approach where they introduce new structures in the text and don't tell you, so you never really learn it. It is quite refreshing to see a verb table and have it be clear when Tamil is so ambiguous.
The resources I am using are The Oxford Essential Polish Dictionary and Routledge Polish; An Essential Grammar. I haven't found any books or TV shows yet but I was excited to learn that Chopin was Polish and I am really enjoying Adam Zamoyski's History of Poland (in English, sigh). I have also been trying to watch all Luca Lampariello's videos about learning Polish.
Overall, I really want to get a decent understanding of this under my belt, but I still feel like doing things in Tamil and I'm worried about my Spanish, which is hamstringing me a bit. I haven't had a chat in another language all week (after Anna Spanish confronted me about not knowing colours). I am doing that thing where I drift and think about Portuguese or Italian and just seem to be busy but not make progress. I think I need to find some Polish friends and learn a bit more about the pOlish community in London.
Showing posts with label Routledge Colloquial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Routledge Colloquial. Show all posts
Two weeks with Tamil
So, I'm two weeks into Tamil. I have done 5 chapters of Colloquial Tamil, found some amazing Tamil you tubers and instagrammers and learned a little more about Tamil culture around the world. I've also managed to find 3 Tamil speakers through social media who have wished me well and who I have exchanged a couple of words with.
I also made a first foray into written Tamil which has been really exciting! I have always admired how it looks but with over 200 letters, I wasn't sure I would even get them to them in a month. In the end a lovely person on instagram triggered it by replying to me in Tamil on instagram comment. I couldn't translate it in app so I had to work out how to use the Tamil key board on iPhone to type the message into Google Translate. Suddenly, by doing it, all the different letters started to make more sense and i got a little flash of insight into the patterns - so very satisfying!
I'm enjoying myself but I also only have a tiny bit more Tamil than I did last week and I'm getting a bit distracted learning about more general culture in India - so I need to refocus. Therefore, I have booked a italki class in Tamil tomorrow.
Wish me luck!
Tamil resources:
Verb table Colloquial
Tamil audios
Tamil Youtubers
Steffi Ulagam
Nandini
I also made a first foray into written Tamil which has been really exciting! I have always admired how it looks but with over 200 letters, I wasn't sure I would even get them to them in a month. In the end a lovely person on instagram triggered it by replying to me in Tamil on instagram comment. I couldn't translate it in app so I had to work out how to use the Tamil key board on iPhone to type the message into Google Translate. Suddenly, by doing it, all the different letters started to make more sense and i got a little flash of insight into the patterns - so very satisfying!
I'm enjoying myself but I also only have a tiny bit more Tamil than I did last week and I'm getting a bit distracted learning about more general culture in India - so I need to refocus. Therefore, I have booked a italki class in Tamil tomorrow.
Wish me luck!
Tamil resources:
Verb table Colloquial
Tamil audios
Tamil Youtubers
Steffi Ulagam
Nandini
Day one with Tamil
Vannakum to my first day in Tamil!
I spent a lot of time reading about the culture and relationships of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lankan Tamil communities. The answer... it's complicated, probably more so than I can get a handle on through a bit of googling. I found this article on Tamil community relations in India and Sri Lanka and this article on Chinese and Indian influence in northern Sri Lanka very interesting.
My other task this morning was (importantly) figuring out what Tamil foods I could try locally. Mutton rolls look promising.
I then remembered about the language and did the first chapter of Routledge Colloquial Tamil. I can see why these books don't get the best reviews, you have to be pretty intrepid to pick up all the words that get thrown at you later. The word for sugar cane juice comes up in a random dialogue once and you're meant to remember it forever. Right.
This chapter taught how to introduce ourselves, pronouns, suffixes and the future conjugation for some useful verbs like eat and drink. Interesting the future tense is used to describe habitual actions. Third person pronouns and conjugations are used to be polite, so that all feels familiar although learning new endings literally sends me to sleep - I actually had to have a couple of naps during this chapter.
Written language is being introduced very gradually and in a way that's more focused on recognising words on signs than writing, so it looks like I might be illiterate in Tamil by the end of the month! Recognising the spoken verb conjugations and working out what they are is pretty hard. But oh well, it's day one....
The challenge of retaining this information and adding to it is on!
I spent a lot of time reading about the culture and relationships of Tamil Nadu and Sri Lankan Tamil communities. The answer... it's complicated, probably more so than I can get a handle on through a bit of googling. I found this article on Tamil community relations in India and Sri Lanka and this article on Chinese and Indian influence in northern Sri Lanka very interesting.
My other task this morning was (importantly) figuring out what Tamil foods I could try locally. Mutton rolls look promising.
I then remembered about the language and did the first chapter of Routledge Colloquial Tamil. I can see why these books don't get the best reviews, you have to be pretty intrepid to pick up all the words that get thrown at you later. The word for sugar cane juice comes up in a random dialogue once and you're meant to remember it forever. Right.
This chapter taught how to introduce ourselves, pronouns, suffixes and the future conjugation for some useful verbs like eat and drink. Interesting the future tense is used to describe habitual actions. Third person pronouns and conjugations are used to be polite, so that all feels familiar although learning new endings literally sends me to sleep - I actually had to have a couple of naps during this chapter.
Written language is being introduced very gradually and in a way that's more focused on recognising words on signs than writing, so it looks like I might be illiterate in Tamil by the end of the month! Recognising the spoken verb conjugations and working out what they are is pretty hard. But oh well, it's day one....
The challenge of retaining this information and adding to it is on!
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