Support Your Local Library

I went to the library today and checked out 1944's An Invitation to Portuguese. It builds on your knowledge by asking questions and giving answers in Portuguese, plus some grammar notes, which is the only place English appears (fine by me). Seems like a good method, but this book is so old-fashioned, it's amusing and quaint.

Grammar en Español

I've been reviewing my Spanish over the last couple of days using my Side-by-Side Spanish & English Grammar book. I edited the notes I took, and realized how little I had decided to keep from what I had scribbled down. That's a good thing though, because that means I remembered a lot.

I'm not obsessed with grammar, but since I primarily concentrate on reading and writing, it's kind of hard not to have a certain amount of focus on it.

Say It in Polish

I'm still very much a beginner at Polish, although I do know and recognize some things. One of the hardest things about Polish is the pronunciation. I actually don't think it's all that difficult, but there are some groups of letters that take practice. Polish abounds with "sh" "ch" "zh" sounds, which are fine on their own, but it's not uncommon for these sounds to be combined, making some words a bit of a challenge. There are also two nasal vowels: ą (this one I have down pretty well) and ę (this one I need to work on more). I also keep wanting to pronounce y like "ee," but I think it's supposed to be more like "ih."

Random

The University of Iowa's Department of Spanish and Portuguese has an interesting and interactive dialect page here. Unfortunately, not all countries listed have examples. Transcriptions are available, so one can follow along - good practice for beginner's.

A Little Serbian Something

Зовем се Кели. Американка сам и наравно говорим енглески. Не говорим српски, али учим и разумем мало. Са српском, студирам пољски и бугарски.

Zovem se Keli. Amerikanka sam i naravno govorim engleski. Ne govorim srpski, ali učim i razumem malo. Sa srpskom, studiram poljski i bugarski.

My name is Kelly. I'm American and of course I speak English. I don't speak Serbian, but I'm learning and understand a little. Along with Serbian, I'm studying Polish and Bulgarian.

Way to state the obvious, huh? ;) I'd love to know how I did so far, but may try to get a few more entries in before I seek native-speaker help, although if any native speakers are reading, please critique away. :) Serbian is quickly becoming my favorite of the Slavic languages.

Nieuw Boek

By this time I've gotten the book my older sister found for me, which is the Dutch version of In Watermelon Sugar by Richard Brautigan. Should be interesting. :)

A Bit-O-Bulgarski

Here's another basic sentence:

Има много хубави къщи на страната.

There are a lot of beautiful houses in the country(side).

I'm not 100% sure it's correct though. I do, however, know how to say, вали дъжд, and it's coming down super hard!