Dropped my nexus tablet
Smashed
Cant compose very well on ipod
Am in mourning.
Or withdrawal
2014-03-29
2014-03-26
too much of a good thing?
Maybe it was coming down with a virus plus persistent cough, maybe it was just exhausting the resources of the local town, but about ten days ago I felt that I had hit a wall. I wasnt and still am not making much progress with my Hungarian... constantly the same problems with misplaced accents and double consonants and mixing up A versus Á, somewhat like saying shit instead of sheet I am reasonably ok when dealing with new concrete vocabulary..objects, colors, tzpes of motion..something that i can put into a mental video... But abstract vocab is particularly elusive.. virtue, honor, justice, and the like. i have been trying to learn the equivalent for VIRTUE for about two weeks now... it just took me about 6 full seconds to bring it to the surface. My mnemonic for the word is a KEY... i know the word for key, which is KULCS. The word for virtue is ERKÖLCS, so my mental process is three steps-- remember the key, change the vowel, put the ER in front. But if it takes me 6 seconds to bring up a word in conversation, I am doomed.
In a somewhat typical day I am doing abbout 4 or 5 hours of Hungarian. At breakfast time I read and do vocabb for abouut 1.5 hrs. I head downtown on my bike, get coffee and a snack at aa café, then over the next several hours I am either at one of the schools or at the library. If library, then I read for abbout an hour. Latest reading pleasure--the last two months of the local paper for 1989.. the paper was the organ of the regional communist party.. like a mini Pravda. Up through 20 Dec the main articles are all about Ceaucescu..His trip to Berlin, visitors from Iran, His speech to a party congress, his visit to a factory. Any trip he takes includes the hour and minute of departure, the hour and minute of arrival, the names of people on the trip with him, who greeted him, etc. So he takes this trip to Berrlin around 15 October 1989, meets Honneker, gives a speech, etc etc, all is reported faithfully. I scan the papers for the next severral weeks...absolutely no mention of anything happening in Germany..nothing about the wall, the collapse of goverrnment, nothing. Instead Nicolai is off to another event, greeting the workers at factory X, encouraging greater production of wheat or whatever. On 17 December there were protests in Timisoara, medium sized town close to Hungarian border. News in the paper a couple of days later consists of a transcript of a TV-Radio address bz Nicolai, warningg about foreign agitators and subversive elements, with special mention of Hungarians as the nasty guuzs (Hungary having precipitated the fall of the Berlin Wall during the previous summerr when it effectively stopped blocking people from travel
In a somewhat typical day I am doing abbout 4 or 5 hours of Hungarian. At breakfast time I read and do vocabb for abouut 1.5 hrs. I head downtown on my bike, get coffee and a snack at aa café, then over the next several hours I am either at one of the schools or at the library. If library, then I read for abbout an hour. Latest reading pleasure--the last two months of the local paper for 1989.. the paper was the organ of the regional communist party.. like a mini Pravda. Up through 20 Dec the main articles are all about Ceaucescu..His trip to Berlin, visitors from Iran, His speech to a party congress, his visit to a factory. Any trip he takes includes the hour and minute of departure, the hour and minute of arrival, the names of people on the trip with him, who greeted him, etc. So he takes this trip to Berrlin around 15 October 1989, meets Honneker, gives a speech, etc etc, all is reported faithfully. I scan the papers for the next severral weeks...absolutely no mention of anything happening in Germany..nothing about the wall, the collapse of goverrnment, nothing. Instead Nicolai is off to another event, greeting the workers at factory X, encouraging greater production of wheat or whatever. On 17 December there were protests in Timisoara, medium sized town close to Hungarian border. News in the paper a couple of days later consists of a transcript of a TV-Radio address bz Nicolai, warningg about foreign agitators and subversive elements, with special mention of Hungarians as the nasty guuzs (Hungary having precipitated the fall of the Berlin Wall during the previous summerr when it effectively stopped blocking people from travel
frustration
with persistent cough --though it is slowly disappearing--
with the hotel--food is salty and generally too heavy, last several nights the staff did not turn the heat back on in the evening, so around 3 am i wake up and have to readjust sleep situation to account for cold room. last night i was smart enough to check things out before going to sleep, tested the radiators.. no heat. fortunately i had spotted a portable electric radiator down the hall, so rolled it in and set it on medium.. did the job. but still, i should not have to do it. i have pretty much exhausted the variety offered by the town.. went to the local museum, the library, that,s about it.
I have hit a wall with Hungarian.. vocab that is down is mostly concrete things, objects, colors, action verbs.. things that i can visualize. but moving into abstract territory is hard. VIRTUE,
JEALOUSY, GREED... Hard to pin down the equivalents . I was tring to remember the Hungarian for VIRTUE. My mnemonic is an image of a key, because i know the word for key, whichh is KULCS, and the word for VIRTUE is ERKÖLCS. But it took me about five seconds just now to bring ERKÖLCS to the surface, which is just waaay too slow.
Even so I am spending about 4-5 hours a day strictly on Hungarian. Computer vocab drills, about two hours. Reading, another two. then an hour with either Tomás or Balázs at a local cafá going over stuff I have been working on, plus the two hours a week i spend onn skype with Ákos. Certain things I can read it all depends on the vocab in question. For example a recent newspaper article was all about the return of the storks to their summer nesting areas. I am fine until the article goes off into the economic significance of storks, or environmental implications, and then I just grind to a halt.
While fighting the local variety of virus last week I started to watch game of thrones. have exhausted that, and now am doing the latest season of sherlock. i did binge when i was just out of energy and kept moping about, but now it is no more than one episode per day, generally around 9 pm, after I have done a good faith effort in hungarian during the day.
with the hotel--food is salty and generally too heavy, last several nights the staff did not turn the heat back on in the evening, so around 3 am i wake up and have to readjust sleep situation to account for cold room. last night i was smart enough to check things out before going to sleep, tested the radiators.. no heat. fortunately i had spotted a portable electric radiator down the hall, so rolled it in and set it on medium.. did the job. but still, i should not have to do it. i have pretty much exhausted the variety offered by the town.. went to the local museum, the library, that,s about it.
I have hit a wall with Hungarian.. vocab that is down is mostly concrete things, objects, colors, action verbs.. things that i can visualize. but moving into abstract territory is hard. VIRTUE,
JEALOUSY, GREED... Hard to pin down the equivalents . I was tring to remember the Hungarian for VIRTUE. My mnemonic is an image of a key, because i know the word for key, whichh is KULCS, and the word for VIRTUE is ERKÖLCS. But it took me about five seconds just now to bring ERKÖLCS to the surface, which is just waaay too slow.
Even so I am spending about 4-5 hours a day strictly on Hungarian. Computer vocab drills, about two hours. Reading, another two. then an hour with either Tomás or Balázs at a local cafá going over stuff I have been working on, plus the two hours a week i spend onn skype with Ákos. Certain things I can read it all depends on the vocab in question. For example a recent newspaper article was all about the return of the storks to their summer nesting areas. I am fine until the article goes off into the economic significance of storks, or environmental implications, and then I just grind to a halt.
While fighting the local variety of virus last week I started to watch game of thrones. have exhausted that, and now am doing the latest season of sherlock. i did binge when i was just out of energy and kept moping about, but now it is no more than one episode per day, generally around 9 pm, after I have done a good faith effort in hungarian during the day.
2014-03-12
Somewhat steady state
During th last couple of weeks I have made a few appearances at the Benedek Elek school, doing conversation exercises, trying to help some of the students prepare for oral exams coming up soon. It makes such a difference whether I meet with students who really are interested and those who are there just because it is a class. Yesterday, talking with Julia"s group, it was like slogging through honey. But I could see myself getting through to about 4 out of the 20. Later that afternoon I went over to the Reformatus gimnázium just next door to chat with about 8 of Melinda"s students. Izabella, Bence, Tomás, Balázs, Istvan, Helga, József, and...... the tall one, the one who is playing semi-pro basketball already. Balázs and Tomi were quite engaging, witty, a bit edgy. József is very serious, he thinks he wants to go to seminary for training as a Calvinist pastor.
I found out that they can apply for Hungarian citizenship if they wish....the ballplayer has only a Hungarian passport.
Took a bus trip to Korond last saturday, checked out a couple of stores selling traditional pottery, carvings, fabrics. In many respects it reminded me of the market in Nuevo Laredo, the town right across the Rio Grande. Overall this quality was higher, toys were solid wood, fabric was finished, the pottery is much like it has been made for over 100 years. I maz be able to buy some nice plates and have them shipped to me in BP so I can give them to Tata friends as gifts. But ran into a hiccup on return. The bike lock refused to open. Just simply would not. Correct combination, I am sure sure sure sure sure, it just simply would not open. Took taxi back to Gizi -- i had gone to the store and had bought milk and fruit--explained my woes, and about an hour later a colleague of Gizi"s son shows up with a power carbide saw which hacks through the cable in about 5 seconds. So at least I am mobile again. I bought a decent bottle of wine yest, gave it to Zita, who will make sure it gets to her brother and to his colleague.
Looking ahead, I have planned everything from 22 April to 1 May, when I return to Hungary. But I am thinking of a trip to Brasov and then renting a small car to go into the mountains, which you just cant do unless you have a car. Or are willing to hike which with my knees I am not.
I found out that they can apply for Hungarian citizenship if they wish....the ballplayer has only a Hungarian passport.
Took a bus trip to Korond last saturday, checked out a couple of stores selling traditional pottery, carvings, fabrics. In many respects it reminded me of the market in Nuevo Laredo, the town right across the Rio Grande. Overall this quality was higher, toys were solid wood, fabric was finished, the pottery is much like it has been made for over 100 years. I maz be able to buy some nice plates and have them shipped to me in BP so I can give them to Tata friends as gifts. But ran into a hiccup on return. The bike lock refused to open. Just simply would not. Correct combination, I am sure sure sure sure sure, it just simply would not open. Took taxi back to Gizi -- i had gone to the store and had bought milk and fruit--explained my woes, and about an hour later a colleague of Gizi"s son shows up with a power carbide saw which hacks through the cable in about 5 seconds. So at least I am mobile again. I bought a decent bottle of wine yest, gave it to Zita, who will make sure it gets to her brother and to his colleague.
Looking ahead, I have planned everything from 22 April to 1 May, when I return to Hungary. But I am thinking of a trip to Brasov and then renting a small car to go into the mountains, which you just cant do unless you have a car. Or are willing to hike which with my knees I am not.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)