March 2019 Language Learning Report

“Eric, all you do is post about what Greek and Latin you are reading. You are so boring!”

That is fair.

Though I am starting off at a slow pace in April, I ended March strong. I did manage to hit my goal of 90 minutes a day in some sort of language study (91.45 minutes logged a day, to be exact), so I am very pleased with that. In terms of content and quality, how did it pan out?

The split ended up being almost exactly 70% Greek and 30% Latin. I did finish up Athanasius’ On the Incarnation and I am very glad to have that in my repertoire of finished texts. I loved it. The content was very interesting and the Greek was challenging, though not soul-crushing-despair-inducing-challenging as Greek can sometimes be. Less easy was Clement of Alexandria’s Exhortation to Endurance (using this Loeb edition). I have also read selections from the New Testament, the LXX, a tiny bit in 2 Clement, the first sixteen sections of book 1 of Dionysius of Halicarnassus’ Roman Antiquities (Loeb), finished up part one of the Conversational Koine class (which was great fun), and spent some time doing some practice composition. More on that latter thing in the next few days.

The bulk of my Latin time was spent listening on my commute. I have dedicated my morning commutes to audio exposure. I have mostly been listening to (but not watching) some Latin tutoring sessions around Lingua Latina per se Illustrata and have been benefiting from that. I think I would get pretty bored watching but it works well for the ride to work. I have also been listening to Quomodo Dicitur as well. When not listening to Latin, I have spent some time listening to ὁ διὰ νυκτὸς διάλογος and have enjoyed that, but mostly I am sticking with Latin on the commute. I continue to spend some time in Caesar and that is just extremely difficult for me, and a little time in Wheelock because I enjoy the grammar discussions (weirdo). The most enjoyable Latin time I had this month was with my kids. All three really enjoy LLPSI. Of course I also still meet with my tutor, which is very valuable and enjoyable, and it helps me be disciplined even when I don’t want to be.

In terms of subjective quality between A (interactive, communicative learning) and D (minimally beneficial because of difficulty or because it's probably not the best kind of exercise for acquisition), the rough (subjective) breakdown is 16% A, 26% B, 42% C, and 16% D. Unfortunately, most of the time I am learning by myself (cuts down on interactive learning) and when I am, most of the time it’s more difficult reading. ὦ Ζεῦ, τὸ ἀναγινώσκειν χαλεπόν ἐστιν!

April

We are already eight days into April and I still haven’t decided what Greek reading I want to focus on. Along with some of the Greek selections mentioned above, I have dipped into Strabo, Italian Athenaze, and Eusebius but nothing is really striking me at the moment. If anyone wants to read through something Greeky and keep a steady pace with me for a little extra helping of guilt trip to keep you going, let me know.

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