Learned another 20 words of dirty Esperanto today, along with 15 more high-frequency items in Catalan.
In other news, I think that the language spoken by the family we met near the Zocalo is not in fact a variety of Nahuatl, but probably something in the Zapotecan family. I have written down a copy of the 100 item Swadesh list in English and Spanish, and will try to collect their words to better determine what it is that they speak.
Fins després!
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Català Avui
Picked up another 25 words/phrases of Catalan today!
Also while we were out near the Zocalo today, we talked with a family from Oaxaca. The grandmother spoke no Spanish, although she understood some. Her grandsons speak and understand both Spanish and Nahuatl, but no English. We managed to ask them how to say several different common words and phrases, and so I collected about 50 samples of their dialect. Very interesting!
Fins després!
Also while we were out near the Zocalo today, we talked with a family from Oaxaca. The grandmother spoke no Spanish, although she understood some. Her grandsons speak and understand both Spanish and Nahuatl, but no English. We managed to ask them how to say several different common words and phrases, and so I collected about 50 samples of their dialect. Very interesting!
Fins després!
Memrise, an experiment
So, as I mentioned yesterday, I have started using Memrise to learn Catalan and to practice some other language skills. The site aims to make learning anything fun.
It combines flashcards containing mnemonics with spaced repetition to help learners. It also has a nifty garden metaphor where new items to be learned are seeds to be planted, then nurtured in the greenhouse of short-term memory, then moved to the garden of long-term memory. Periodically you water (review) your plants (memories) to keep them from wilting (being forgotten). It's clever and it works.
Also good is the fact that there is lots of pre-made (largely community-contributed) content. However, the quality of the flashcards varies; not all items have mnemonics (called mems on the site), and some of the items have typos. There is a curation system to make corrections to cards, but I haven't really explored it yet.
The site incorporates a point system so that you can track how well you're doing with your learning and various leaderboards by day, week, month, etc.
The site also has an iPhone app so that you can review on the go, but it is in beta and still needs some work.
All in all, Memrise shows a lot of promise and I will keep using it. I hope to learn more about how the site works and possibly take part in its growth and future direction.
www.memrise.com
It combines flashcards containing mnemonics with spaced repetition to help learners. It also has a nifty garden metaphor where new items to be learned are seeds to be planted, then nurtured in the greenhouse of short-term memory, then moved to the garden of long-term memory. Periodically you water (review) your plants (memories) to keep them from wilting (being forgotten). It's clever and it works.
Also good is the fact that there is lots of pre-made (largely community-contributed) content. However, the quality of the flashcards varies; not all items have mnemonics (called mems on the site), and some of the items have typos. There is a curation system to make corrections to cards, but I haven't really explored it yet.
The site incorporates a point system so that you can track how well you're doing with your learning and various leaderboards by day, week, month, etc.
The site also has an iPhone app so that you can review on the go, but it is in beta and still needs some work.
All in all, Memrise shows a lot of promise and I will keep using it. I hope to learn more about how the site works and possibly take part in its growth and future direction.
www.memrise.com
Friday, August 3, 2012
Today's Learning
Another 15 words/phrases of basic Catalan and 10 words of Esperanto slang...
BTW, I am using Memrise to learn these and finding it interesting. I may write more about Memrise later in a separate post!
BTW, I am using Memrise to learn these and finding it interesting. I may write more about Memrise later in a separate post!
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Reviving This Blog
I want to come back to writing at least a little something on here every day. I thought a good topic might be to post at least one thing I have learned each day.
Today it was 20 words/phrases of basic Catalan :)
Fins després! (see you later)
Today it was 20 words/phrases of basic Catalan :)
Fins després! (see you later)
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Thanks to D.H.
Sitting in awareness -
What happens next?
Turning 'round the arrow of attention,
The direct way, the rapid way
It seems-
So much of what the wise ones
Have to say makes more sense now.
What next?
Remember to keep looking
with the single eyeless eye
Remember to keep seeing
Who You really are
Deeper deeper
Clearer clearer
Remember to remember God
Practice disappearing.
What happens next?
Turning 'round the arrow of attention,
The direct way, the rapid way
It seems-
So much of what the wise ones
Have to say makes more sense now.
What next?
Remember to keep looking
with the single eyeless eye
Remember to keep seeing
Who You really are
Deeper deeper
Clearer clearer
Remember to remember God
Practice disappearing.
Monday, January 17, 2011
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