Register  Login  Active Topics  Maps  

Impressive Learners, keep it up!

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
66 messages over 9 pages: 1 2 3 46 7 ... 5 ... 8 9 Next >>
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.


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.
1 person has voted this message useful



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.


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

1 person has voted this message useful



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?
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

1 person has voted this message useful



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.
1 person has voted this message useful



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.

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 ;-)
1 person has voted this message useful



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 ;-)


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?


1 person has voted this message useful



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


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

1 person has voted this message useful



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.)


1 person has voted this message useful



This discussion contains 66 messages over 9 pages: << Prev 1 2 3 46 7 8 9  Next >>


Post ReplyPost New Topic Printable version Printable version

You cannot post new topics in this forum - You cannot reply to topics in this forum - You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum - You cannot create polls in this forum - You cannot vote in polls in this forum


This page was generated in 0.7031 seconds.


DHTML Menu By Milonic JavaScript
Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved
No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization.