Valamphias Newbie United States Joined 5596 days ago 25 posts - 25 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese
| Message 33 of 66 06 August 2009 at 4:30am | IP Logged |
Iversen wrote:
[...] it is just the tiny little detail of getting all the elements to stick together in something that a native Russian can accept that is a bit hard. |
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I don't mean to suggest that every language is equally difficult (ha ha, no), but isn't that always the most difficult part of the whole process? Truth be told, I really think even learning the 2,000 Kanji I need for Japanese is less difficult than "getting all the elements to stick together" and speak at anywhere near a native level.
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vb Octoglot Senior Member Afghanistan Joined 6423 days ago 112 posts - 135 votes Speaks: English, Romanian, French, Polish, Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish Studies: Russian, Swedish
| Message 34 of 66 06 August 2009 at 9:18am | IP Logged |
Sennin wrote:
Don't they get a year abroad at Oxford?? As far as I know, language majors in decent universities have a compulsory year abroad. I don't see how anyone can end up completely in the dark after a whole year in Russia. |
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No, he wasn't in the dark by any means - probably what Iverson said, that getting everything polished and completely plausible is difficult. He spent a year in Russia, could read the great works, write essays in Russian, translate difficult prose to and from English etc.
He mentioned to me recently that the language courses there seem to have been made more intensive since we left, involving more hours of teaching and greater rigour in the examinations. We would have only 2 hrs/week prose translation classes and 1 hr/wk oral classes (the latter only in the final year). That said, the ethos there to encourage self-directed study.
Edited by vb on 06 August 2009 at 9:29am
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mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5925 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish
| Message 35 of 66 07 August 2009 at 12:32am | IP Logged |
cordelia0507 wrote:
Let's credit the members who've chosen less obvious languages and are clearly making great progress. Their examples are really inspiring! This is to acknowledge their success and give them extra motivation to stick with it.
The ones that immediately come to mind are:
Ashley_Victrola, learning Romanian in the US
Tupiniquim, learning Swedish in Brazil
Who else? |
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What about Andee? His profile lists Tok Pisin amongst the languages he speaks and I haven't seen anyone else here that either speaks or is learning Tok Pisin. EDIT: I was mistaken, glossika also knows Tok Pisin.
Edited by mick33 on 07 August 2009 at 12:58am
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cordelia0507 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5839 days ago 1473 posts - 2176 votes Speaks: Swedish* Studies: German, Russian
| Message 36 of 66 07 August 2009 at 1:31am | IP Logged |
For the record, Andee (I believe) is female.
I did notice the Tok Pisin in her profile a few months back, but isn't that just bush English from the islands of SE Asia? I thought she had entered it as a joke!
HOWEVER her provess in Korean is really admirable! She just didn't spring to mind at the time. But she definitely goes on the honour role for her Korean! :-)
The language choices of Ashley and Tup just struck me as very cool. Both give the impresion of being quality focussed learners, no fly-by-night, quickfix approach.
They come from countries where you can no doubt get by without ever learning any foreign language at all. That really makes it more impressive I think. I doubt I'd speak any foreign languages unless circumstances had put them in my way.
Ashley has been hanging in there for many months. Most people would spend their efforts on a more "profitable" obvious langage but she picked Romanian for unkown (to me) reasons, and gives it her best... As I understand it, most people her age in the US would not be able to locate Romania on a map.. Let alone take a lasting interest in the culture and make genuine progress in the language! I think it's really inspiring and who knows what it might lead to?
Likewise I doubt Sweden is even remotely on the radar of 99% of people in Brazil. I have to think very hard to recall a single Swedish person I know who has even been to Brazil. Tupiniquim has no personal connection to Sweden but is capable of writing in completely flawless Swedish and reads fairly advanced Swedish litterature.
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patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7016 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map
| Message 37 of 66 07 August 2009 at 4:18pm | IP Logged |
cordelia0507 wrote:
For the record, Andee (I believe) is female. |
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Actually, he's not. Check his profile and hope that he doesn't mind being called a girl...after all, why would he, he's only Australian and they're quite girly ;-)
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ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5995 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German
| Message 38 of 66 07 August 2009 at 4:43pm | IP Logged |
patuco wrote:
he's only Australian and they're quite girly ;-) |
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No no, Australians are overweight, not effeminate. Not even the women. Though I suppose that there must be some fit, masculine Australians. If there weren't, then who'd control the crocs?
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tricoteuse Pentaglot Senior Member Norway littlang.blogspot.co Joined 6679 days ago 745 posts - 845 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Norwegian, EnglishC1, Russian, French Studies: Ukrainian, Bulgarian
| Message 39 of 66 07 August 2009 at 4:52pm | IP Logged |
cordelia0507 wrote:
There is a Swedish girl blogging (in English) from Yekaterinburg in Russia. She has been studying full time for 5 years and she still doesn't think she's very good. Josefina's Russian Culture/Language blog |
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I don't think there's anything wrong with her Russian since she studies Russian literature in Russian and only gets top grades ;) She's probably just being modest. Her personal blog is one of my favourites!
And I second that Russian takes TIME.
Edited by tricoteuse on 07 August 2009 at 4:54pm
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Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5767 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin
| Message 40 of 66 07 August 2009 at 5:42pm | IP Logged |
ExtraLean, the one Aussie guy I had a major crush on wasn't overweight, on the contrary (140 lbs/ 6'4) so I Do Not Believe.
And he was effeminate, too. :D
Back to topic: fairyfountain for the way she strives for perfection.
I've always thought that I should work on my English but didn't have any self-confidence. Reading her log makes it seem more possible to me.
(So now I hope I do remember correctly that fairy's female.)
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