Thatzright Diglot Senior Member Finland Joined 5671 days ago 202 posts - 311 votes Speaks: Finnish*, English Studies: French, Swedish, German, Russian
| Message 217 of 3737 28 December 2009 at 4:05pm | IP Logged |
When the first thing you think about after you wake up in any situation and at any time is going through everything new you learned about your target languages the previous day in your mind.
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xd3qu1n0x Newbie United States Joined 6682 days ago 11 posts - 22 votes Studies: Korean, Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 218 of 3737 30 December 2009 at 3:39am | IP Logged |
Oh man, some of these had me roaring with laughter =D
... when you read through all 28 pages of this thread in about 40minutes~
... when you make international "prank calls" on Skype just so you can authentically practice different situations in your target language~
... when on Twitter you tweet using different languages to circumvent the 140 character limit~
... when your language ability is so well-known on your campus, that incoming native speakers of a language you study are given your description and forewarned not to say anything "sensitive" around you~ O_O
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kyssäkaali Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5552 days ago 203 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish
| Message 219 of 3737 30 December 2009 at 1:19pm | IP Logged |
xd3qu1n0x wrote:
... when you make international "prank calls" on Skype just so you can authentically practice different situations in your target language~ |
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Lol! I'm curious what exactly you mean by this? Do you call foreign businesses with skype and try to seek customer service in the language or something? I'm a bit curious. Sounds like fun. :)
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xd3qu1n0x Newbie United States Joined 6682 days ago 11 posts - 22 votes Studies: Korean, Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 220 of 3737 31 December 2009 at 4:22am | IP Logged |
kyssäkaali wrote:
xd3qu1n0x wrote:
... when you make international "prank calls" on Skype just so you can authentically practice different situations in your target language~ |
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Lol! I'm curious what exactly you mean by this? Do you call foreign businesses with skype and try to seek customer service in the language or something? I'm a bit curious. Sounds like fun. :) |
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Yea, haha, that is pretty much exactly what i do. It was an earnest mistake initially, i had to make an important call to China and somehow a secretary with severely limited English picked up. After we struggled through the conversation (in my terribly broken chinese) i felt strangely satisfied, and well.. it got my devious side thinking.
I decided to look up all sorts of Japanese, Korean, and Chinese businesses in those countries and try to do things over the phone i normally do at home in English. If you make elaborate scenarios and get them talking a bit, it can turn out to be a realistic test of your ability. What's more surprising, is if i start out in their language very few of them try to switch me over to English. Not a bad pastime when your tired of looking at the books, lol.
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Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5566 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian
| Message 221 of 3737 31 December 2009 at 6:17am | IP Logged |
...when your hand is aching terribly from practicing Chinese and Japanese characters for 2 hours straight, but you want to continue because they're just so damn cool.
I'll give my hand a rest though and listen to a ChinesePod episode. Getting a bit of an early start on TAC 2010 here I guess! :)
Edited by Levi on 31 December 2009 at 6:21am
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ymapazagain Senior Member Australia myspace.com/amywiles Joined 6958 days ago 504 posts - 538 votes Speaks: English* Studies: SpanishB2
| Message 222 of 3737 31 December 2009 at 2:35pm | IP Logged |
When it's 30 minutes after midnight on New Year's Day and you're getting ready to do a unit of Pimsleur
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Jimmymac Senior Member United Kingdom strange-lands.com/le Joined 6152 days ago 276 posts - 362 votes Studies: Spanish, Mandarin, French
| Message 223 of 3737 31 December 2009 at 2:44pm | IP Logged |
ymapazagain wrote:
When it's 30 minutes after midnight on New Year's Day and you're getting ready to do a unit of Pimsleur |
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That is, without doubt, the geekiest thing so far.
Well done!
I envy you.
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ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5480 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew
| Message 224 of 3737 01 January 2010 at 2:04am | IP Logged |
Another...
when your family is celebrating the New Year and watching the latest Harry Potter movie on BluRay (in which you can change the language audio to like ten different languages), and you sit in your room to study because they won't let you change the language.
and...
while sitting on the ski lift, you test yourself and try to think in your target languages as much as possible as well as do a bit of case drilling for Russian out loud when no one's on the lift with you :).
Edited by ruskivyetr on 01 January 2010 at 2:06am
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