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TAC 2012 Russian team - Team Sputnik

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
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Teango
Triglot
Winner TAC 2010 & 2012
Senior Member
United States
teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5557 days ago

2210 posts - 3734 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Russian
Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona

 
 Message 521 of 672
26 June 2012 at 7:59pm | IP Logged 
Wow, I checked my inbox today and found it flooded with heated team posts about visas! (lol)

For my 2 cents or roubles' worth here...I really don't favour the visa processes in any particular country. In my experience, I always end up feeling like I've boarded Kafka's Magic Roundabout and the whole ordeal to get back to terra firma (hopefully on the desired side of some border) is a dizzying affair!

Obtaining a visa is often a mind-numbing, frustrating and expensive process. I've already gone through the dreaded Russian visa process for the second time this year, and I agree it's certainly no fun to stand in lines for registration when you get there either (especially with my dumbo level of Russian). Who in their right mind likes to be treated as an inmate, partially divorced of respect and humanity, and shouted at to fill out the exact same forms again and again? Being side-nodded from kiosk to kiosk by grimacing window cadavers is like some kind of cruel tourist hazing, all no doubt a needless throwback to Soviet bureacracy and a throw forward to job dissatisfaction.

Now my wife and I are applying for visas to the US (we've got an interview at the embassy in the UK coming up soon), and it's just as much of a pain in the neck, once again, as well as in every other flexible part of my mind and wallet. The vast tide of inane rules make very little sense to me, despite my best efforts to decipher their inner da Vinci code, and all the regulations simply flow in rivulets of small print through my sieve-like mind, snaking off like a river of legalese onto some bureacractic happy sunset on the horizon. There's enough paperwork and evidence here to make anyone's eyes spin and then goggle some more, all simply to prove we're not some secret language nerd splinter cell or potential Pacific Ocean border hoppers.

So let's just put politics aside here folks, and simply agree on the basic terms, visas suck! ;)

Edited by Teango on 26 June 2012 at 8:06pm

4 persons have voted this message useful



mrwarper
Diglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
Spain
forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5227 days ago

1493 posts - 2500 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2
Studies: German, Russian, Japanese

 
 Message 522 of 672
26 June 2012 at 8:47pm | IP Logged 
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
An eye for an eye makes everyone go blind. Sometimes we just have to look at the bigger picture:-)

That's hardly interesting for those who have gone blind ;-)

OK, so I generally hate tourists because I perceive them as overall annoying and disrespectful no matter how much money they can leave behind, although I believe there must be tourists of the good kind too. However, the same goes for every group of outsiders (prospective workers or whatever) visiting any country. There are good and bad elements, and you can make statistics based on your past visitors and build heuristics to keep the bad ones out in the future, but no visa system will ever be perfect because human worthiness can't be measured off compliance with bureaucracy alone. Meanwhile we must accept such systems seem overall satisfactory for those who inflict them upon potential visitors, or they'd be promptly doffed (I mean the visas). Just keep waiting, and complain... to the bureaucrats!

So... if I'm not mistaken we're scheduled to do Ypok 6 over Skype in five days time, and we're even two units ahead in our gathering of materials? One thing kind of makes up for the other I guess ;)

Edited by mrwarper on 26 June 2012 at 8:49pm

1 person has voted this message useful



ruskivyetr
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5482 days ago

769 posts - 962 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 523 of 672
26 June 2012 at 9:26pm | IP Logged 
Hey guys! Remember me? Well I'm back :). I'm going to be updating my log again, but due to regular traveling
across the country I may not be able to join the group Skype conversations. I'll keep you all update of course ;).

I'm going to update my log with what I'm going to do for summer languages if any of you are interested enough
to take a look.
1 person has voted this message useful



Solfrid Cristin
Heptaglot
Winner TAC 2011 & 2012
Senior Member
Norway
Joined 5335 days ago

4143 posts - 8864 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian
Studies: Russian

 
 Message 524 of 672
26 June 2012 at 9:27pm | IP Logged 
ruskivyetr wrote:
Hey guys! Remember me? Well I'm back :). I'm going to be updating my log again, but due to regular traveling
across the country I may not be able to join the group Skype conversations. I'll keep you all update of course ;).

I'm going to update my log with what I'm going to do for summer languages if any of you are interested enough
to take a look.


Yay!! Welcome back, you have been missed!
1 person has voted this message useful



Teango
Triglot
Winner TAC 2010 & 2012
Senior Member
United States
teango.wordpress.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5557 days ago

2210 posts - 3734 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Russian
Studies: Hawaiian, French, Toki Pona

 
 Message 525 of 672
26 June 2012 at 9:46pm | IP Logged 
С возвращением, ruskivyetr! Looking forward to your update. :)
1 person has voted this message useful



ruskivyetr
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5482 days ago

769 posts - 962 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 526 of 672
27 June 2012 at 2:21am | IP Logged 
I'm glad that my presence has been missed :). I'm super excited to get started again!

Although all this review will be a pain in the neck...

The bright side: I get to see how much fun it is again ^_^!
1 person has voted this message useful



Woodsei
Bilingual Diglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
United States
justpaste.it/Woodsei
Joined 4798 days ago

614 posts - 782 votes 
Speaks: English*, Arabic (Egyptian)*
Studies: Russian, Japanese, Hungarian

 
 Message 527 of 672
29 June 2012 at 11:38am | IP Logged 
Wow, I've finally come back after so long (I moved again), and I see all these heated
posts about visas! Political, economic, or national pride reasons are very dense
subjects, and people, being so uniquely different, will always have conflicting views on
each.

I'll get around to updating my log within the weekend. Again, thanks for the dialogues as
usual, Kat!
1 person has voted this message useful



Tecktight
Diglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
United States
Joined 4977 days ago

227 posts - 327 votes 
Speaks: English*, Serbian
Studies: German, Russian, Estonian

 
 Message 528 of 672
29 June 2012 at 12:08pm | IP Logged 
Welcome back, ruskivyetr, and hello again, Woodsei!

Nice to see you both again. :)

To Mark: Sorry if I got snappy. The visa thing can get very frustrating, especially when it's discussed as a political
item, rather than a logistical issue.

Best to stick to language-discussions only, methinks.

Hope everyone has a good weekend, and I hope to see (talk) to some of you on Sunday!



1 person has voted this message useful



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