plumbem Newbie United States Joined 4019 days ago 9 posts - 10 votes Studies: French
| Message 401 of 568 28 November 2013 at 12:02am | IP Logged |
I have not read all 50 pages of this thread; only the 1st and the 50th. It is uncanny.
I am an American with a Dutch mother. I spoke Dutch as a small child but it was
discouraged due to my parents' fear of delay in English acquisition. I started learning
Dutch independently and lived in the Netherlands for a year or so after college. I am
currently brushing up on my French to aid my Peace Corps application but my hope is
actually to end up in Indonesia (for the sake of the intersection between my bi-
cultural identity and its ugly colonial legacy). I don't know your particular reasons,
but this is way way way too cool.
Foucault is a philosopher (labeled by others as a post-structuralist or post-
modernist.) He is often concerned with the ways in which institutions (schools,
prisons, sexual norms) are barriers to meaningful historical change and more
disturbingly the ways in which revolution (in some forms) can counter-intuitively be
reinforcing to the status-quo.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4703 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian
| Message 402 of 568 28 November 2013 at 3:01am | IP Logged |
Plumbem - That is crazy! I read your log too, and the similarities are totally nuts. I
think my Dutch dad even immigrated at 27-ish too.
And yeah, the reason I'm interested in Indonesia (and why I might travel there next year)
is because of the Dutch colonial legacy there. After studying in the Netherlands and
learning the language, I thought it was only "fair" in a sense to familiarize myself with
the other side of the equation.
Also, you have family in Groningen? I've only been there once, last year, but it was
really pretty. Great art museum.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
iguanamon Pentaglot Senior Member Virgin Islands Speaks: Ladino Joined 5262 days ago 2241 posts - 6731 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Creole (French)
| Message 403 of 568 28 November 2013 at 1:44pm | IP Logged |
Well, I knew you would be unable to resist the siren call of French! Have you seen the "radioboeken" site from Radio Nederlands? They have about 50 or so audiobooks of short stories in Dutch, French, Spanish and a few in Afrikaans. They're free to download. Unfortunately, I can't find any text at all. Perhaps my inability to speak Dutch is a hindrance in searching. Check out my Radiobooks- short story audio.
The radioboeken site also has a section called radioboeken voor kinderen and radiolivres pour enfants with Dutch and French versions of the same books. You could listen to one in Dutch, then to the same book in French. Maybe, you might even be able to find text somewhere.
Good luck with your French, Hekje!
Edited by iguanamon on 29 November 2013 at 5:52pm
2 persons have voted this message useful
|
Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4703 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian
| Message 404 of 568 29 November 2013 at 5:42pm | IP Logged |
Oh my gosh, I love the link! This is absolutely perfect, as I can listen to them in the background at work. What a
great resource.
By the way, I think I may have stumbled upon the reason why there are no texts:
Radioboeken wrote:
Ce sont des textes inédits écrits spécialement pour être écoutés et qui ne seront pas
publiés sur papier.
These are (?) texts specially written to be heard and which will never be published on paper. |
|
|
So it looks purposeful for sure, definitely no fault of your Dutch.
iguanamon wrote:
Well, I knew you would be unable to resist the siren call of French! |
|
|
Indeed! Well, my birthday has passed, so that's my excuse for (possibly foolishly) wading into the three-
languages-at-a-time pool. :-)
Thank you for the very kind well-wishes!
1 person has voted this message useful
|
geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4688 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian
| Message 405 of 568 29 November 2013 at 6:20pm | IP Logged |
Hekje wrote:
Indeed! Well, my birthday has passed, so that's my excuse for (possibly foolishly) wading into the three-
languages-at-a-time pool. :-)
|
|
|
Have fun, but be warned--the rabbit-hole has no bottom...
2 persons have voted this message useful
|
Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4703 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian
| Message 406 of 568 29 November 2013 at 6:50pm | IP Logged |
geoffw wrote:
Have fun, but be warned--the rabbit-hole has no bottom... |
|
|
I'm starting to get that sense.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4703 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian
| Message 407 of 568 30 November 2013 at 9:06am | IP Logged |
Dutch
Today has been productive. I watched half an episode of Je Zal Het Maar Zijn -
the November 19 episode - and I read to page 202 in De ontdekking van de hemel.
Every time I pass another 100 pages, I feel like I've made some kind of big
accomplishment.
But I am really writing as an excuse to share here this awesome thing! Namely, that
Arnon Grunberg, everyone's favorite cool uncle, is currently writing a novella while
having his brain waves measured. After he's done
and the book's published, fifty "ordinary" people will read the book while having their
brain waves measured too. The idea is to understand what kind of mental and emotional
process a maker goes through while making, and to see if that process is in any way
analogous to the experience of receiving the work.
So, one: Arnon Grunberg continues to be awesome.
And two: turns out, Arnon Grunberg lives in Manhattan. In Midtown! We could
totally hang out! (We're probably not going to hang out.) But seriously, he is so
close! I went to his website to see if he had any readings coming up, but he hasn't
done a talk in New York since this May. I liked his Facebook page so in case anything
does come up, I will know.
I don't even know what I'll do if I get to meet Arnon Grunberg. I guess I should say
something to him in Dutch, but I'll probably just start crying from pure joy.
Indonesian
I did Assimil 10.
French
I did Assimil 3. My passive understanding is already rapidly returning. I have
forgotten a lot of nouns, but verbs, pronouns, and conjunctions are all largely there.
I guess this shouldn't be a huge surprise given that I've been using a French-language
textbook for Indonesian, but it's still satisfying.
Edited by Hekje on 01 December 2013 at 1:05am
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4703 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian
| Message 408 of 568 03 December 2013 at 8:01pm | IP Logged |
Dutch
You guys, I have crazy news (!!!!) relating to my last post. However, it doesn't seem right to write about it on here,
at least not for a few weeks. But it's crazy.
Let's see, what else... I did finish that Je Zal Het Maar Zijn episode from November 19, and I'm on page 276
in De ontdekking van de hemel. Harry Mulisch sure knows how to write a drama.
Indonesian
I did Assimil 11 and translated "Cobalah Mengerti" by Peterpan into something I cross my fingers and hope is
correct. I remember doing this same thing with Dutch! Ah, the sweet unknowing.
French
I have done Assimil 4 and listened to one of the short stories from Radiolivres (thanks again Iguanamon!).
In general, with the latter, it felt like the narrator was reading too rapidly for me to understand much. I did not
even really get the plot of the story. That's okay though; it's to be expected.
1 person has voted this message useful
|