Berengaria’s Comments (group member since Nov 11, 2021)

Berengaria’s comments from the Language Learners and Polyglots group.

Kalliope wrote: " As for French and Italian, I could include 12 for each - one a month.."

You're goal's been updated! Really well done, Kalliope, congrats on already having completed the January goal!

I'm working on improving my Italian, too, but I'm not nearly as advanced as you are. 1 in Italian per month sounds wonderful!

Sportyrod wrote: "Yes. I am partway through story three. I’m also focusing on the same things as Paul. I agree the repetition is good and the gradually increasing level of difficulty. I had a refer to the dictionary..."

Me three. The repetitions are great. I also really like the fact that he includes different genres!

I've had to refer to a dictionary more than a few times, as a fairly good amount phrases that are not explained I don't know. I'm not quite up to A2 yet.

On Memrise, I'm also making a vocabulary course for the stories to support the retention of new words. That's taking some time, as it also includes "useful phrases" in order to learn some grammar in context.

That's been a great help in getting the words to stick even if frustrating when I type an entire sentence...and get it wrong because I forgot ONE accent mark! (Arg!!😂).

Vicky wrote: "Hi Berengaria and everyone else! For my challenge I've decided on the following:

--Russian: Mayakovski, Poems Владимир Маяковский. Стихи и поэмы
--German: for this challenge I plan to plough thro..."

Good luck: you can do it! *shakes pom poms*

Dave is also doing a Russian goal, although he's a beginner. I haven't heard of Erich Salomon, but if you already read older German texts, then you can handle private correspondence. No worries there!

can I add 2 in swahili and 1 in chinese(Mandarin.."

They're added! Really, Swahili has overlap with Arabic? Cool! I didn't know that. 👍

Congratulations on finishing 2 of your goal reads!!

Has everybody finished the 2nd story in Olly's Short Story book? What are your thoughts, Paul & Rod?

Calla wrote: "I plan to finish 6 books in/dealing with arabic and 6 in french."

Hi Calla! I'll add you to our group.

We have a chat going on another thread in this profile. If you'd like to keep us up to date on your progress and see where others doing the challenge are with their reading (highly recommended) then hop over and introduce yourself. We have a number of people with a goal for French this year (myself included) but no one else with Arabic.

Iamthesword wrote: "I finished the first book: Éric Vuillard's CONGO. "

Congrats! 👏 1 down, 10 to go! Glad to hear it was enjoyable.

Rebecca (pagescollective) wrote: "I want to join with a goal of 12 books. I think one a month is a good goal, especially since I will be starting out with children's books, which I should get through faster"

Hi, Rebecca. Do I have your info correct? US/English and your 12 books are all for Spanish?

Rebecca (pagescollective) wrote: "Hey! I just saw this because of your comment on my reading challenge xD

I'm definitely interested in a language reading challenge!"

Cool! We're 11 people doing the challenge this year. Just hop over to the group chat thread (on this profile), let us know what goal you want to set for yourself and I'll add you in!

Sportyrod wrote: "Oops. No more spoilers since we are reading the same story in a different language. But brace yourself Berengaria. The next story continues with the sexist roles. "

Competed the first chapter of story 2 and...yep.

Woman:"Which trail shall we take, the left or the right?"
Man: "Let's take the left"
Woman: "Uh, okay, but I think I'd rather take the one on the right."

Reader: THEN WHY DID YOU ASK HIS OPINION???

Man: 'Why?"
Woman: "Well, there are these rumours about that trail. Some people have seen a big, hairy creature there..."
Man: "Really? And you believe these rumours?"
Woman: "Uh...I don't know. (I guess) we can take that one. *she seemed worried*

Reader: LADY, SLUGS HAVE MORE SPINE


I'd read that it's common for the creators of language learning texts to show female characters as chronically confused, asking for impossible (= illogical) things, and as being agreeable to everything a male character suggests in order to demonstrate the grammar & vocab functions in a unit.

I seriously thought that was something from the 60s- '70s, as I have NEVER seen it in German language teaching materials. I'm kinda shocked to see it here in a brand new text, truth be told. (My book was first published in 2020)

I agree, Rod. Seems like A2 to me as well. I think my Icelandic is not as good as your Swedish, but I'm able to keep up mostly, too.

This is fun. It's like we're in a book club. All reading the same text at the same time, just in various languages. HOW COOL!!!!

Sportyrod wrote: "Thanks for the encouragement :)"

Excellent, Rod!👏 If you can read without needing more than just what's in the chapter vocabulary help, and understand virtually everything in the plot, then I'd agree, you're at least a solid A2 for reading understanding. Congratulations! You can ace this!

Yep, that's the same intro story as in the Icelandic one, too, except placed in Iceland. (Which is a bit of stretch in credibility)

Critique:
I found the first story a tad bit sexist in that the the sister -- the main female character -- is portrayed as being painfully shy, nervous and in constant need of her (adventurous) brother's reassurance and presence.

If it's just the one story, okay, could be characterisation, but this dynamic seems to continue into the 2nd story, were the female character there is similarly leaning on the much more adventurous male character for guidance/information/instructions. I hope the dynamic doesn't continue on.

So far, that's the only critique I'd have of the book. I'm finding it quite helpful otherwise. How about you, two? Any critique thus far? Paul?

F wrote: "Hi, I'm interested and would love to participate, I can't in the first half of the year as it's my last semester in uni, but I will join right after that.

I gave up on this book, the font was tor..."

Hi F and Happy New Year. Cool! You can join at any time. Just hop into the chat thread and let us know you're there. We are about 12 so far. :-)

Paul wrote: "Sorry for the double post! I think I posted this in the wrong thread. Here it is again:"

Congratulations, Paul! Quite right, don't need to plow on when it's not speaking to you. Looking forward to your review of Christie (when it arrives!)

For everybody's New Year's enjoyment, here is a comedy video about "11 things only Polyglots will understand" from Olly Richards-- many of us are reading his short story books.

I recognise all of these, but my biggest peeves are # 5 and # 8. I could strangle #8 and I've had the #11 conversation dozens of times.

What ones resonate with you all or trigger you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzT4G...

Peter wrote: "I have already started two foreign language books during the Xmas vacation: ."

I saw the Italian short story book in my feed when you updated, Peter. Looks like a good resource and I'm looking forward to your review of it. Gogol...goodness, that would be quite a challenge. Here's some applause to keep you motivated! 👏👏👏

Paul wrote: "Would it be worthwhile and interesting to the group members to have links to international testing centers to determine their estimated ranking in each of their target languages?


I think it would, but I'm not sure if I've seen any that aren't for the big 4 (English, French, Spanish, German). And yes, it's A1 to C2...which is the highest of "independent use" (not fluency).

Paul wrote: "Merci beaucoup, danke sehr, muchas gracias."

de rien, keine Ursache, de nada! ;-)

Sample "Status Update" for this thread:

I've started in on "Short Stories in Icelandic" by Olly Richards (A2-B1 level) a bit early because I wanted to see if a) his recommended method of "story learning" works and b) test my own level of Icelandic. Is it really A2?

Answer:
a) I'm not yet convinced. It's more of a supportive method for the easily discouraged or newbies than something for more experienced learners / those who know how to study effectively.

If you are interested in his story-learning method, he explains it at length here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPqWN...

Reading through the first story "Crazy Meat Soup" using his method lead me to believe that it was a daft, slightly sexist written-for-learners story as you might find in most easy readers.

After looking up ALL unknown words and sentences, it turned out that the story was much better written and with a better vocabulary choice than it appeared from my...answer b) A1 (+ some advanced vocab) level. (The slightly sexist quality remained though)

I'm looking forward to story 2 to see if the same thing occurs!

Paul wrote: "Quick administrative question! "

In this thread, English would be preferable so everybody could read your comments, but like you've been doing, direct questions/answers in the target language are good. We have a Spanish native speaker now, so you can pose questions directly if some come up to Kalliope. (Nice extra!)

Personally, I think it would be fun to know peoples' thoughts WHILE reading -- that is: status updates-- and how they are finding the language aspect of the book they are reading.

This is because most of us will be reading much more slowly than normal with these and it can start to get lonely/depressing to be going at such a crawl without feedback and encouragement. (Or at least that is my experience)

Status updates could be in both in English and the target language, if you like. I'll post one after this message as an example.

A link to the final review would be great! Perhaps with a general overview/summary in English as a "teaser". I'm sure many of us would like to admire your efforts. 😀

Sportyrod wrote: "Welcome new members:)"

Cool, Rod! Spanish is close enough to English in many ways that you'll certainly be able to pick up some. And chat away. Language learning is a group activity really, as it's all about communication. :-)