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Kuji’s Krazy Log II | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5252 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French) | Message 409 of 706 23 January 2014 at 10:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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Obrigado, expugnator. I don't use it anymore either. A few years ago,I made several friends there. I do think it's time for our man in Japan to start speaking. Try Interpals for a possible language exchange partner.
I know the last thing you want to do when you get home is teach more English, but it's a good way to get in some practice for yourself for free. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4837 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 410 of 706 24 January 2014 at 2:16am | IP Logged | ||
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Thanks guys. Yeah, there are jerks everywhere, but I expected that. I will be ready when I have an opportunity to speak to someone who is willing to speak back in Portuguese. :)
I've been putting off speaking for the longest time. Voice chats would be ideal, but I'm never in a situation where I am alone with a computer for more than a few minutes. But I could, of course, do things like real-time text chat, penpals, etc. - something to get the "output juices" flowing. InterPals seems nice for that kind of thing. I'll look into it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4837 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 411 of 706 24 January 2014 at 2:19am | IP Logged | ||
I don't work on any active translation drills. I do feel a need to do something active like that, but to be honest, I have no idea where to begin. Do I just take what I read in English and translate them? Oh, and what is VK? (I probably know it, but don't know it as VK.) Edited by kujichagulia on 24 January 2014 at 2:20am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6587 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 412 of 706 24 January 2014 at 2:51am | IP Logged | ||
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Nah, it's the Russian site vk.com that tries to be as successful as facebook (and in Russia it is). So if you don't want to register on facebook, you can use VK to meet native speakers:)
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4837 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 413 of 706 24 January 2014 at 6:33am | IP Logged | ||
I see. Thank you! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4837 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 414 of 706 24 January 2014 at 6:50am | IP Logged | ||
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MY TRIP TO SPAIN
I know some of you are just dying to know how my trip went, so here it is. I spent one night in London and five nights in Spain in December/January. After London, we flew into Barcelona on the 28th. My wife disliked Barcelona almost from the beginning. She likes old, historical-looking, stereotypically European-style buildings. She could walk around London all day, and she enjoyed Italy and Paris as well. But she didn't like Gaudi's works, and the rest of Barcelona seemed bland. Barcelona does have an old city, which she found somewhat charming, but overall she was disappointed. I didn't think Barcelona was as bad as she thought; I found it interesting. But by the end of our two nights there, she was talking about never coming back to Spain again. Panicked, I said, "But what about Portugal?" Because I have a huge interest in that place. She said, "If I'm not coming back to Spain, I'm not going to Portugal." I don't know why she sees the two countries as a sort of package deal. But at that time it seemed that, unless I found a way to go by myself, I wasn't going to be able to visit Portugal at all. That all changed when we took the train to Madrid on the 30th. We both agree that Madrid was better than Barcelona. It is simply a fantastic city. It has the older buildings that my wife loves so much. The restaurants and tapas bars are fantastic, and there's something nice about the atmosphere. The charming historic towns of Segovia and Toledo are only a short distance away, and we went to both. After spending time there, my wife cannot wait to make a second trip to Madrid. Jumping on the opportunity, I managed to show her some pictures of Lisbon and its historical sites and old buildings, and now she wants to go to Portugal, too! Perhaps Madrid with a "side trip" to Lisbon. Concerning language, I was surprised at how much my Portuguese helped me read and understand Spanish. It wasn't a lot, but it turned out to be helpful when we were shopping at the supermarket and looking at food (sometimes the packages even had Portuguese written on them), menus, buying metro tickets, etc. For some reason, I was able to recall some Spanish words I learned in high school: numbers, how to order, asking where things are at the store, how to get to the metro station, etc. I wonder if my Portuguese studies, combined with being in Spain, had something to do with recalling those Spanish words. My wife saw how that helped us, and now she doesn't think that my studying Portuguese before I'm fluent in Japanese is such a dumb idea. She even said, "Why aren't you studying Spanish instead of Portuguese?" Anyway, fantastic trip. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| 1e4e6 Octoglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4280 days ago 1013 posts - 1588 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch, Swedish, Italian Studies: German, Danish, Russian, Catalan | Message 415 of 706 24 January 2014 at 7:12am | IP Logged | ||
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It is probably better to visit now, Spain and Portugal. The last times that I went to
Madrid and Barcelona were several years ago, during the June summer hell. Temperatures hovered around 36 C, and I think that I almost passed out everyday whilst there, and walking was difficult to the extreme heat. I remember that it was so bad that I purchased a parasol to shield myself from the sun. How about learning both Spanish and Portuguese concurrently? I have heard about avoiding very similar languages simultaneously, but I think that if done intelligently, it might actually help from each other. The structures are not always similar, but many times are, and can be learnt simultaneously. Edited by 1e4e6 on 24 January 2014 at 7:17am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6587 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 416 of 706 24 January 2014 at 2:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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I agree, especially when you focus on the passive skills it's no big deal. In Kuji's case there's just that little tame beast called Japanese :-)
1 person has voted this message useful |
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