Summer has passed, for the most part. My relatives have gone back to Texas for the winter. I'm not outside quite so much, although I do take my regular walks.
I purposely took a break from my blog, although I continued (and continue) studying throughout the break. With the colder weather comes more introspection and solitude, something I specifically avoid in the warm summer months. So now I can begin to get back to journaling my progress and thoughts.
I've continued, as was my plan, to focus on Turkish this year. It's going about as I expected it to go. This year is all about massive vocabulary acquisition, and I think I'm still on track to get my vocabulary above the 6000 word mark. I've finished the second level of Yeni Hitit and am about half way through the last level. Level 3 is largely about reading, and by extension, writing. So I've been picking up the book more sporadically than the first two volumes. For reading, I've just started to read Kayıp Sembol (The Lost Symbol), by Dan Brown. I've read the book in English, so I'm familiar with the story. Even so, I'm estimating it'll take me a little over two months to get through it. So far, there's a lot of new vocabulary for me to soak up, but I like the novel, so it keeps me interested. I still watch a hell of a lot of Turkish TV - around three hours a day. I'm actually quite comfortable watching most of what I find on Kanal D, maybe a little less so with the news on CNNTürk, although the vocabulary is pretty regular and not difficult to understand. The reason I say I'm maybe less comfortable with CNNTürk has to do with the subject matter. It's mostly politics and Syria and, well... politics. It's just not that interesting to me. So aside from the nightly news (really the morning news because of the time difference), I've focused more on Kanal D's programming, which keeps me plenty entertained and interested..
Back in June, my 6 Week Challenge to learn Piedmontese ended, and I considered it a success. I continue to read Piedmontese every day, and to listen to whatever I can find. I also write when I can, although, as I mentioned at the top of the post, my writing and journaling took a big hit over the summer. I love the language and I plan on perfecting it as much as I possibly can.
Georgian is another story.. While I got through Dodona Kiziria's Beginning Georgian and am happy with the results, I've not progressed much further than that. I tried to continue on with George Hewitt's Georgian: A Learner's Grammar, but frankly, I can't stand it. The book is so convoluted and disorganized to be taken as a course. I think it's a decent reference book, though. So I no longer crack that one open very often. My goal was to get to an A2-ish level by the end of the year. I'm not sure I'll make it. If I can find something as interesting as Beginning Georgian, but slightly more advanced, I may still have a chance. But we'll see. Even if I don't progress much further with Georgian, I'll still he content with what I've learned. It's an extremely difficult language - at least for me, and I go through cycles of really liking it and hating it. So I suppose the trick is to ride the high cycles and ignore the low ones.
I'm already thinking and planning how I'll be dealing with the level of Turkish I want for next year, but I still want to keep my plans under wraps for the time being.
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