druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4866 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian
| Message 321 of 457 09 April 2013 at 6:44pm | IP Logged |
How about some Korean food? Jang Su in Riga, Soraksans ;)
That aside, I'm happy to Skype chat/talk to anyone who is interested in Korean. Maybe we can get together a small group and do a phone conference and/or a group chat. Who is interested? And when is the best time for you? It might be best to choose a weekend, depending on our time differences.
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Evita Tetraglot Senior Member Latvia learnlatvian.info Joined 6550 days ago 734 posts - 1036 votes Speaks: Latvian*, English, German, Russian Studies: Korean, Finnish
| Message 322 of 457 10 April 2013 at 2:16pm | IP Logged |
Jang Su doesn't seem to exist in Riga but I should definitely go and visit Soraksans. I don't know how much good it's going to do for my Korean though, judging by the video on their website the waiters there are not Korean.
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That aside, I'm happy to Skype chat/talk to anyone who is interested in Korean. |
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That's great to know. I may take you up on the offer.
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Maybe we can get together a small group and do a phone conference and/or a group chat. Who is interested? And when is the best time for you? It might be best to choose a weekend, depending on our time differences. |
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I'm only interested in text-chatting for now. If there are more people willing we can add each other as contacts on Skype and text-chat anytime. And others can read it later. Findings topics for such chats (especially if they become regular) may prove to be difficult so my suggestion would be to talk about dramas :)
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druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4866 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian
| Message 323 of 457 10 April 2013 at 3:02pm | IP Logged |
Evita wrote:
I'm only interested in text-chatting for now. If there are more people willing we can add each other as contacts on Skype and text-chat anytime. And others can read it later. Findings topics for such chats (especially if they become regular) may prove to be difficult so my suggestion would be to talk about dramas :) |
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Sounds good! I'm always up for talking about dramas ;) If we do regular chats we could also decide on different topics beforehand so everyone can prepare the vocabulary, maybe using topics of TTMIK's Iyagi lessons, for example... My ID is ice-huhn, everyone feel free to add me (please include a message that you're from HTLAL).
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Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5128 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer
| Message 324 of 457 11 April 2013 at 9:40pm | IP Logged |
druckfehler wrote:
For this month, the goal is to communicate in your target language(s). As always, it's up to you to define how exactly you want to tackle the challenge. If you're well advanced, you might look for a language tandem or prepare a challenging topic for discussion with someone who speaks your target language. […] Ideally, you'll do something that suits your level of proficiency and is a little challenging. You have time to post about your experiences with the challenge until April 30. |
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I've completed the April challenge. This morning I had a 20 minute call with a doctor working at a hospital in Bangkok whom I hadn't seen or talked to before. I needed to enquire about the health of a friend, his treatment and therapy prospects. The call went well (also in terms of the information the doctor conveyed to me, at least measured against expectation) and felt quite natural. I was very nervous before the call, partly because of the actual medical content itself and partly because of linguistic challenge. I find conversations on the phone in a foreign language particularly challenging due to the lack of visual feedback and the often less than ideal sound quality. I also had some concerns about meeting the appropriate level of politeness required for this type of conversation.
In preparation for the call, I read a few articles on the internet on the health issue I was going to discuss to familiarize myself with the relevant vocabulary and medical content. I had also talked about the condition earlier with my friend. In direct preparation for the (beginning of the) conversation, I wrote down a few lines I could imagine myself saying. I also wrote down my questions and the topics I wanted to cover. While I ended up not using any of the lines I had prepared, I'm sure it was helpful to gain confidence and get mentally prepared. I'm certainly still far from being fully functional in Thai, but after this conversation I can see myself getting there.
Edited by Bakunin on 11 April 2013 at 10:10pm
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druckfehler Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4866 days ago 1181 posts - 1912 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Korean Studies: Persian
| Message 325 of 457 11 April 2013 at 10:32pm | IP Logged |
Bakunin wrote:
This morning I had a 20 minute call with a doctor working at a hospital in Bangkok whom I hadn't seen or talked to before. I needed to enquire about the health of a friend, his treatment and therapy prospects. The call went well (also in terms of the information the doctor conveyed to me, at least measured against expectation) and felt quite natural. |
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Sounds great! That's a huge achievement!
Bakunin wrote:
I find conversations on the phone in a foreign language particularly challenging due to the lack of visual feedback and the often less than ideal sound quality. |
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Definitely, I think phone conversations are the most difficult thing in a foreign language. Even after a year of living in New Zealand understanding my friends, who I used to talk to everyday without any problems, on the phone was difficult.
The topic of your conversation reminds me of the time when I had to call an ambulance in Korean and had no idea what to say... I ended up telling them 어서 오세요, which I thought would express the sentiment of "Please come quickly", but is only really used to say "Welcome" or "Come on in" when inviting people into a shop, restaurant or similar :D
Edited by druckfehler on 12 April 2013 at 9:15am
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Haksaeng Senior Member Korea, South Joined 6196 days ago 166 posts - 250 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, Arabic (Levantine)
| Message 326 of 457 12 April 2013 at 12:52am | IP Logged |
Bakunin, that's amazing! You must be doing very well with your language studies to have that type of conversation on the phone.
And druckfehler, that's hilarious.
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Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5128 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer
| Message 327 of 457 12 April 2013 at 9:24am | IP Logged |
Thanks, druckfehler and Haksaeng, it feels like a good achievement :) But let's not forget that I wouldn't have been able to take the role of the doctor in the conversation even if I had been competent in the matter. It's quite a bit easier to have a conversation with someone who explains something to you and then engage in a discussion on the topic, than to be the one who explains. So there's still a lot left to work on :)
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Bakunin Diglot Senior Member Switzerland outerkhmer.blogspot. Joined 5128 days ago 531 posts - 1126 votes Speaks: German*, Thai Studies: Khmer
| Message 328 of 457 13 April 2013 at 8:40pm | IP Logged |
Hi everybody, สวัสดีปีใหม่ (happy new year)! Some South East Asian nations (mainly the Buddhist ones, as far as I know) and even some people in China's Yunnan province celebrate New Year from 13 April to 15 April. It's related to the end of the dry season and the start of the monsoon rains and is one (maybe the) most important festivals in the region. Happy new year to everybody on the Asian Team!
Edited by Bakunin on 13 April 2013 at 8:40pm
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