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Small Expectations | ||
Tags: Georgian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6372 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map | Message 153 of 431 01 September 2010 at 9:25am | IP Logged | ||
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A very inspirational post!
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| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5457 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 154 of 431 05 September 2010 at 10:29am | IP Logged | ||
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Came down with tonsillitis this week, which wasn't much fun. I am no doctor, but I'm
sure the awful, exhausting, endless heat and humidity here in Tokyo is weakening my immune system or something. Anyway, I decided I was going to ignore the tonsillitis and, stuffed to the gills with painkillers, I rode my bike five miles each way in 3 million percent humidity and 75 degrees centigrade to my lesson with Medea on Thursday. It was a great lesson. I understood so much more of what she was talking about and was slightly less hesitant and slightly more fluent when I spoke. Unfortunately I paid for my dedication over the weekend, which I spent in agony, exhausted, unable to swallow, and just downright miserable. I dragged myself to the doctor, got some antibiotics and some steroids for good measure, missed the first Saturday Georgian class after the summer break, and am just starting to feel human again now, on Sunday evening. I am not religious at all, but I am praying to anyone who will listen for some rain and maybe just one or two days under 35 degrees! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jon1991 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5358 days ago 98 posts - 126 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 155 of 431 07 September 2010 at 8:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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I've been reading your log and I must say that I'm impressed with your easy going approach to language learning as you really seem to enjoy it and even the fact that you're studying Georgian shows that you have a strong interest in languages.
Your exactly the kind of language learner I look up to, especially considering that you can speak Japanese, German and Russian (Russian is my favourite language, although I have had to make do with studying Spanish and French at University when I start this month) Well done mate, keep it up! Where you from in Blighty anyway? I'm from South East London. Jon. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5457 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 156 of 431 08 September 2010 at 12:54am | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Jon, thanks for the kind words. I'm from sunny Middlesbrough in the North-East (yes,
the official "worst town in the UK" according to Phil and Kirstie) and I went to university in Glasgow. Good luck with your studies - you'll have a great time. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jon1991 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5358 days ago 98 posts - 126 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 157 of 431 08 September 2010 at 6:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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Haha sunny Middlesbrough, I like that one. But I doubt if what Kirsty and Phil are saying is correct as there are far worse places in our little decaying island ^^
I'm starting a Politics with French and Spanish course at the University of Greenwich this month. I can't wait to start! I'm curious to know how you ended up in Japan with an impressive knowledge of Japanese, German, Russian and Georgian. Going by your languages it seems you are into the sciences and technology and like history; I judge this by your reason not to study French, Spanish, Italian etc and your languages represent science and technology. Or is it just simply a fascination with those languages? I'm studying Spanish and Russian because those are my favourite languages and I would also love to travel more in Spain, Latin America and Russia and I'm also a history buff and culture vulture ^^. I choose French as my other foreign language at University because the only other options were Italian (I figured French would be more useful in life and Britain is only 15 miles away from France), German (I have no previous knowledge of learning German), Chinese Mandarin (No way would I reach a good standard of fluency in 3 years) or Japanese (No way would I reach a good standard of fluency in 3 years). I find it strange and frustrating that my University does not offer Russian. Anyways, keep up the good work on Georgian! Jon. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5457 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 158 of 431 09 September 2010 at 1:30am | IP Logged | ||
I wasn't interested in science and technology at all at school, although I have ended up working in that field as a translator of technical documents. Basically, I thought German was a bit cooler than French at school, and once I'd started learning Russian I kind of fell in love with everything about it - the country, the language, the literature, the history, the food... Russian is really still my greatest love, but I found it difficult to get a job there after graduating and so I went to Japan, at first intending only to stay a year, and here I am 14 years later... Georgian was more or less a whim, although it is of course connected to Russian culturally and historically, although not linguistically. It's purely and simply a hobby for me, which explains my laid-back attitude I suppose - I'm not going to beat myself up if I don't study every day. Your degree sounds good. Pity they don't offer Russian, but keep at it whenever you have a chance in your spare time. I used to take out student loans and use them to travel to Russia while I was at university - I ended up going three times. Money well spent! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jon1991 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5358 days ago 98 posts - 126 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 159 of 431 09 September 2010 at 7:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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Wow! Interesting story, especially just deciding to move to Japan. Most people would say that itself requires guts and an open mind.
About the Russian, of course I would love to study it but I'm going to wait and see until I start University about whether I can cope with the workload or not. If I can, I will definitely start studying русский again, but of course, my main focus would be my University course. Here's a random fact about Georgian - do you know that the School of Oriental and African Studies in London offers a degree in Georgian! Tell me, does your knowledge of Russian help you at all with Georgian? I know that they're unrelated languages but surely the historical might and influence of Russia and the Soviet Union would have influenced this tiny country and language, especially in terms of vocabulary. Or is it a Spanish-Basque situation where Spanish has had little effect on Basque. Edited by Jon1991 on 09 September 2010 at 7:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TixhiiDon Tetraglot Senior Member Japan Joined 5457 days ago 772 posts - 1474 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, German, Russian Studies: Georgian | Message 160 of 431 10 September 2010 at 1:54am | IP Logged | ||
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I went to Japan on the JET programme so it wasn't all that brave of me!
I did know about the Georgian degree at SOAS - you can only do it in combination with another subject though. SOAS sounds like an amazing place - I have been known in my geekier moments to browse through its website and dream of degrees in obscure lanugages! Russian doesn't really help with Georgian except for a few borrowed vocabulary words and a couple of grammatical structures that seem to have been borrowed from Russian and adapted to Georgian. For example, in Russian "because" is "potomu chto" and in Georgian "imitom rom", with both words corresponding pretty much exactly in the two languages. On the whole though it does seem to be more of a Spanish-Basque situation, as you say. Will you be doing a year abroad with your degree? I did German and Russian at university and went to Vienna for a year. Had a fantastic time but basically wasted it by getting drunk with my English mates the whole time! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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