Wednesday, September 26, 2012

vocab

As I am studying for my PhD in Tallinn I have from time to time to read papers in Estonian. Here is a list of words from something I am reading at the moment.

erinevus - difference, dissimilarity
ilmne - obvious, plain, apparent, evident
ilmnema - to appear, manifest
ilmselt - obviously, apparently
ilmsesti - obviously, apparently
ilmsi - in reality
meenutus - flashback, recollection
keelejuht - informant [restricted to linguistic field work?]
kokkuvõte - conclusion, summary
käimasolev - in progress
käsitlema - to treat, deal with, consider moodustama - to form, constitute, make up
lähtuvalt - based on
määr - norm, standard; extent, degree, rate
narratoloogia - narratology
osaleja - participant
püüdma - catch; attempt, endeavour
raamistik - framework
sarnane - similar, alike
sündmus - event, ocassion
temaatika (n) - subject matter
temaatika (s) - thematic, topical
tulenema - to come, arise,  issue from, spring from, stem from
tulenev - resultant
vaatenurk - point of view, angle
võrdlus - comparison
väitma - to claim, allege, argue (a point)
üsna - quite

Friday, September 14, 2012

Say hello and news

Tere päevast teile kõigile,  eesti keele kaas-entusiastid!

I have a request to make of you all, readers of this blog. It would be nice if you could leave a comment below in which you introduce yourself and let me know a bit about your connection with this beautiful language. I'd be interesting in learning what you like about the blog and maybe what you'd like to see in the future.

As for the news, I announced here that I am planning to take the Estonian B2-level exam in September next year (with a pit-stop at the B1 exam in February). I haven't looked at the sample papers in a while (they are available here in Estonian - links to tasks are contained INSIDE the PDF files) but I do know I have much work to do. My main concerns are:

+ Acquiring a natural-sounding syntax
+ Improving grammatical accuracy when speaking
+ Building up vocabulary
+ Getting used to following lengthy spoken texts

Time for me to take another look at the sample papers now.

If you'd also like to learn about the exam and practice a bit you can also go: here and here.