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Iversen’s Multiconfused Log (see p.1!) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6702 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes  Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 2217 of 3959 15 January 2011 at 7:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Greetings from London, where I have been spending a couple of days running around and looking at things (the zoo and 4 museums today).
This is of course officially English speaking territory, but in the more touristy places there are folders in several languages to placate foreigners like me. And of course people are speaking many different languages around me, but I really can't bother to learn Hindi or Swahili while I'm here (thus saving myself the inevitable humiliation). There are some strange quirks here and there. For instance the train from Stanstead had messages in English, Italian and Spanish - not French, not German, not Russian and neither Chinese nor Japanese. There are also some quirks of English. For instance I have just witnessed a discussion in the tube between a girl who corrected "the painguins" of her friend - it should be Peenguins" while the friend claimed that the birds in question didn't care. I also read in the zoo that the groundbreaking and pretty penguin enclosure with ramps and every else that a peenguin might wish had been emptied of its inhabitants; it will certainly be reopened, but then it will be "for humans". WHAT!!!! Isn't that the lame excuse which humans always have used for logging, making fields and roads and dams and houses for themselves, and now I see it in a zoo?? Shame on you, Zoological Society of London! But English isn't enough to keep me satisfied. I did bring some printouts with Google translations from different languages to keep me occupied in the evenings, but I should have brought some dictionaries too. So right now I'm sitting in an internet caf'e (at 50p/h) so I can surf at my hearts' delight in different languages. See ya' Edited by Iversen on 31 January 2011 at 1:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Hobbema Senior Member United States Joined 5740 days ago 541 posts - 575 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Portuguese, French, Dutch | Message 2219 of 3959 17 January 2011 at 12:37am | IP Logged | |||||
Perhaps the birds might care. Were there to be a system of writing for transcribing their language, it might be useful to write down what the penguins say, for the benefit of those that don't speak their language. You could call that system of writing "Pin gYin" Edited by Hobbema on 17 January 2011 at 12:38am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6702 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 2221 of 3959 31 January 2011 at 12:38pm | IP Logged | |||||
FR: J'ai été absent de ce forum depuis quelque semaines, mais pour une très bonne raison: j'ai visité Bourkina Faso et Mali avec un groupe mixte de Bulgares et Danois, et mis apart quelques jours à Londres avant le voyage nous n'avons pas passé deux nuits dans le même lieu. Donc j'ai choisi de me concentrer sur les activités touristiques du lieu où je me trouvait au lieu des activités de portée internationale. D'ailleurs nous nous avons souvent trouvé dans la situation qu'il n'y avait pas d'accès a 'l'internet du tout. Par exemple nous avons visité le pays des Dogons qui est sans électricité (et pingouins!) sauf dans la ville de Bandiagaré - où l'accès à l'internet n'avait pas fonctionné depuis quelque semaines - et pendant deux jours et demi nous avons navigué sur le fleuve Niger dans un bateau sans electricité. Or, ceci a été une expérience vraiment polyglotte. Bourkina Faso et Mali font partie de la soi-disante Francophonie, mais j'étais le seul (sauf le guide local) qui ait parlé français, et donc j'ai du parfois agir come interprète. Dans la présence des bulgares j'ai parlé anglais, avec les danois (et la seule Norvégienne) j'ai parlé danois, et j'ai essayé de parler uniquement en français à la population locale, sauf quand quelqu'un d'autre de notre groupe avais besoin des renseigments précises. Je vais problement faire un vidéo pour illustrer cette situation vraiment babélienne. En outre j'avais porté quelques guides de language et textes bilingues dont je me suis autrefois servi - par examples extraits des Wikipédias Grèque, Bahasa I + M, Russe et Islandais. Mais mon bagage consistait d'un seul sac à dimensions restreintes et donc je ne pouvait pas apporter beaucoup de livres. I have been absent from this forum for several weeks, but for a good reason: I have participated in a group tour to Bourkina Faso and Mali, two countries which for historical reason have French as their preferred European language (to the extent that all higher education is in French). And even though there are internet cafés in both countries we moved so much around - partly in areas without electricity (Dogon country!) - that I never found time to sit down and communicate digitally. We had 5 Bulgarians, 1 Norwegian and 7 Danes in the group. So whenever there was a mix of Bulgarians and Danes/Norwegians we had to speak English, but Danes and Bulgarians spoke of course their own languages in 'pure' constellations, and I tried to speak French to all local persons - unless some other member also wanted to understand the answer. Strangely enough I was the only one in our group who spoke French, and that included our Danish/Bulgarian tour guide - not that this meant much as he was the most lazy and passive person in this role I have ever experienced. If a crocodile had eaten a group member he would probably just have tried to take some good photos of the incident. Therefore our very competent local guide (from Mali) had to do two men's work. And this man spoke fluently English, French, several local languages and even a bit of Russian. But I sometimes had to help out as an interpreter when group members had gotten in trouble (or just ordinary friendly interaction) with local persons. For my own amusement I brought along some small language guides plus bilingual printouts, so luckily I wasn't restricted to just Danish, English and French. This lead to a couple of amusing episodes involving other languages, such as a situation were one Bulgarian lady had explained how difficult their language was and how different it was from Russian - whereupon I translated their version of the tour program from Bulgarian at sight. Well, actually it wasn't too difficult as I knew the Danish version almost by heart. But after that I think they assumed a little too much about my ability to understand their internal discussions. Edited by Iversen on 14 September 2011 at 1:22am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6702 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 2222 of 3959 01 February 2011 at 10:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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DA: Jeg har nu lavet 'snakkedelen' af min påtænkte flersproglige video om turen til Afrika - og paradoksalt nok tog det en evighed, fordi jeg febrilsk prøvede at holde varigheden under 15 minutter. Desværre gik det ud over henvisningerne til mine sprogstudier under turen, som blev spist af med et hastigt kik på de bøger og udskrifter som jeg medbragte. Jeg skal lige have checket den tekniske kvalitet og lagt nogle fotos på, inden den blivet lagt på nettet. Men ærligt talt: jeg er ikke tilfreds med resultatet. Det er mest blevet til en vekslen mellem fransk og engelsk, men jeg havde planlagt noget betydeligt mere kompliceret.
I have now made the 'speak' of the multilingual video about my African adventure ... eh, adventure? Actually I was transported around in 4wds and on boats, so as an adventure it doesn't quite compare to the expeditions of the first people who visited Timbuctu and the Niger. But it was still the most primitive voyage I have done for a very long time. Back to the subject: I have to check the technical quality of the video and add a few photos, but I will upload it - although I'm quite dissatisfied with the result: it is not nearly confused enough! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6702 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 2224 of 3959 02 February 2011 at 8:54pm | IP Logged | |||||
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FR: Puisqu'il n'y a pas de l'électricité dans le pays des Dogons on utilise des générateurs dans les soi-disant campements où les touristes habitent durant leur séjour - mais seulement dans la soirée, pas 24 heures. Et j'ai vu très peu de paraboles ou lampes qui pourraient indiquer que les Dogons eux-mêmes aient l'électricité dans leur cabanes. Pourtant j'ai vu des téléphones cellulaires là. Le long du fleuve Niger et dans les villes il en est autrement - là on vois parfois des maisons avec des antennes ou paraboles sur le toit.
There is no electricity in the Dogon country so the campements where the tourists stay use generators - but only in the evenings, not all day long. Judged from the lack of TV dishes and antennas the Dogons don't watch TV in the evenings, but along the river Niger and in the city a fair number of houses have these things so there people apparently get rectangular eyes like the rest of us. Btw. I was walking around with a fellow traveller in the town Djenné, and more or less by accident we were invited into a local elementary school where the headmaster explained the way they teach the pupils languages. And at this level it was not only French, but also Fulani (Peul in French). The picture below shows how the alphabet is taught using pictures of things that start with the different letters, - and below a specimen of the language itself:  Edited by Iversen on 02 February 2011 at 9:30pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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