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Cristina’s way TAC 2013 TEAM MIR/SPARTA | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5332 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 153 of 248 21 March 2013 at 5:46pm | IP Logged |
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@Teango : Really dense asteroid field right now. Hoping to see the end of it soon. Loved the flowers :-)
@ Thanks tarvos, I am working on it. .............. Chaotic and complicated as my life is right now, I still have to do my job. And part of my job is to go to meetings abroad, so here I am in Brussels. Just. For the very first time in the 40 years that I have been travelling by plane on my own, I lost my flight on Tuesday. After having sat at the airport patiently for two hours, waiting for my flight... I simply mixed up two flights to Brussels, so when I went to the gate to catch my flight, I discovered that my flight had left 20 minutes before, and even though I cried and begged and ran to every service desk in the airport, they could not get me on the other one. Fortunately my company has a good travel agency, so I eventually got on another flight somewhat later in the evening. On that I had to go by Copenhagen, and naturally what was supposed to be just changing between two gates next to each other, became a race across the airport, since the plane had had a malfunction and we had to change plane and gate. By the time I got into my seat on the flight out of Copenhagen I felt like I had been doing a very realistic audition for the German film "Run, Lola, run". And I arrived 3 hours and a half late for an appointment. Anyhow, there are always little linguistic perks going abroad, this time in the shape of a Mexican girl next to me on the plane, and a really nice and talkative Italian taxi driver in Brussels. The Italian was delighted to speak his mother tongue - even if mine is rusty, and we had half an hour of really nice conversation on our way to Brussels. The meetings have been mostly in English, but there has been some French round and about. A colleague gave a vivid introduction to a book she had just read, and after that I simply had to buy it. The first paragraph of the book (haltingly translated from French goes like this): " You were old, you were fat, you were short and you were ugly. You were a male chauvinist pig, you were vulgar, you were insensitive and you were cheap. You were an egoist, you were brutal and you had no culture. And I was crazy about you.... Even when my passion was so strong that I would have exchanged my future for an hour in your arms, I never failed to see you for what you were: a pig". The book is about Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the man who might have become the president of France had he not been caught with his pants down in a New York hotel, and is written by a female journalist who had an affair with him. I look forward to reading it on the plain. Otherwise I had a very interesting French conversation with my taxi driver on the way out to the airport. He was from Ruanda, and had had most of his family butchered in the horrors which happened there, and he made the interesting observation, that it was a good thing the Belgians lived in a democratic country, or they might have had the same situation as in his country. I had never thought of it like that before. I also learned that his country used to be a Belgian colony, something which I did not know - I just knew about Kongo. He gave me his card and asked me to call him the next time I was in Brussels, so I guess he must have enjoyed the conversation as well. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4705 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 154 of 248 22 March 2013 at 8:29am | IP Logged |
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On Rwanda and DR Congo - they were indeed Belgian colonies, and because of that, the
French that they speak will occasionally contain a Belgicism (Congolese say septante and nonante if I am not mistaken), due to their colonial rule. My French teacher also recommended a film on this the other day, a French arthouse film of some sort that is being shown at a local arthouse film festival here. Are you getting annoyed by the wet snow down there as well? 200 km above you the weather has been cold, lame and dumb and this March is annoying, I want my goddamn spring back. When I was in Brussels I saw a lot of African immigrants. Particularly Congolese. But usually them lot live in the poor neighbourhoods. Edited by tarvos on 22 March 2013 at 8:31am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Woodsei Bilingual Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Woodsei Joined 4795 days ago 614 posts - 782 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Egyptian)* Studies: Russian, Japanese, Hungarian | Message 155 of 248 12 April 2013 at 5:53am | IP Logged |
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Christina, great to be back and following your log again. I sheepishly admit I never
dropped by since the TAC started. I've been held down by a mass of very tough situations.I hope you're doing alright and hope to see you back soon! In regard to the chocolate comment, I think the lady was being nice by saying your daughter's as gorgeous as chocolate. I don't know if she was Egyptian or Russian, but in Egypt, it's a common saying to liken a very pretty girl to chocolate, as chocolate is adored by Egyptians. It's a sweet compliment there, not a perverted one :) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5332 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 156 of 248 13 May 2013 at 6:48am | IP Logged |
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@tarvos: Wet snow does not exactly scare a Norwegian :-)
Woodsei: I am specialising in masses of tough situations right now, so I can sympathise with that. And I am happy to have confirmed that the chocolate remark was probably a compliment - I took it as such at the time. Have I mentioned that I love my job? Of course it has its ups and downs like every other job, but it gets me to nice places. For a series of reasons all our family travelling plans for this year have been cancelled, but I told the girls that if it was possible, I would try to take them with me on a job trip, as that would cost less. I had however told them that I wouldn't be able to anyway, when my sister stepped in and offered to take them to meet me, and payed for their tickets and hotel. Have I mentioned that I adore my sister? So the other day I told them that I had some bad news and some good news. The bad news was that they would have to help my sister and me carry our suitcases up a long, narrow, steep staircase. The good news was that the staircase was located in Rome. My ears are still ringing from their yells of joy. So here I am in Rome, ready for two days of meetings, and then my sister and daughters will join me. I talked Italian for about half an hour in the taxi in from the airport yesterday - and although I feel incredibly rusty, I could say what I needed to say. On a few occasions I could not remember the word, but then I just worked around it. The driver of course assured me that my Italian was fantastic, and had I spoken Russian like I speak Italian I would have jumped for joy, but since I still remember what it was like to be near fluent in Italian I feel like a machine which has not been maintained for a few years. I watched a little bit of TV and noticed with relief that my comprehension was still good - I understood most of what was going on. So now all I have to do is talk as much as I can the next couple of days. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kujichagulia Senior Member Japan Joined 4845 days ago 1031 posts - 1571 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Portuguese | Message 157 of 248 13 May 2013 at 8:15am | IP Logged |
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I want your job. Wow, jetsetting!
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| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4705 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 158 of 248 13 May 2013 at 8:45am | IP Logged |
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Cristina, it doesn't scare me either, it's just one of those "oh god not again we've had
this for four months can it stop now" kind of things. Enjoy Roma, it's a brilliant city!!! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| renaissancemedi Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Greece Joined 4356 days ago 941 posts - 1309 votes Speaks: Greek*, Ancient Greek*, EnglishC2 Studies: French, Russian, Turkish, Modern Hebrew | Message 159 of 248 13 May 2013 at 9:28am | IP Logged |
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Rome is amazing, but check out Florence as well if it's possible. A different kind of amazing.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5332 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 160 of 248 13 May 2013 at 12:41pm | IP Logged |
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Kujichagulia: I am sure you will find a similar one day:-)
Tarvos: No, I am sure you are not :-) Renaissancemedi: I have been to Florence, but all to briefly. I once got a scholarship to study Italian language and history of art in Florence - all expenses payed. It is one of the few regrets I have in life that I felt forced to turn that down. Do you know my definition of heaven? - Really nice hotel - 10 seconds to a gelateria - 20 seconds to cake shop - 30 seconds to the Tiber river - 1 minute and 30 seconds to Trastevere -and a glorious three hours free before my meeting. The only thing I miss are my daughters, who will come on Wednesday. Bliss :-) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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