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Tarvos - TAC 2015 Pushkin/Scan | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 5152 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 889 of 1511 30 September 2013 at 11:46pm | IP Logged | ||
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I really didn't have much success with Interpals, but then, I look for obscure languages
such as Georgian, and I have found more Georgians through sharedtalk . Will keep in mind these tips for when I try again to write, tarvos ! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4693 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 890 of 1511 01 October 2013 at 10:23am | IP Logged | ||
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You are welcome.
As for me, I've been busy with my studies, but have found a bit of time for other languages. In particular, I completed my first mini-mission which was to speak Korean for an hour (although my level was so bad I had to throw some English in) but at least I managed to string a few sentences together and noted everything down in a Google-Docs document so now I will never forget the Korean equivalent of "I know" or "I understand" or "What did you do last night". I also did a Swedish session on Sunday which went so smoothly that you could well say I speak fluent Swedish. But I wouldn't, or we'll have the language police on me. I've written a lot of Russian, Romanian and Swedish lately, and even though I mess up my grammar in all three of them it feels good to know that a conversation without strain for either party is possible. Even in Romanian this is a possibility now so that means I must have done something right. If only I could get to that level in Korean or Hebrew or Breton... By the way, expect another travel update (long overdue) today. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Hekje Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 4689 days ago 842 posts - 1330 votes Speaks: English*, Dutch Studies: French, Indonesian | Message 891 of 1511 01 October 2013 at 8:12pm | IP Logged | ||
That's impressive, awesome job! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4693 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 892 of 1511 01 October 2013 at 11:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Russian
Some more travelogue for you guys today. Day 13: Illusion, 02.08.2013 Yesterday night, Anya and Dasha lit up candles and we sat in their room singing folk songs (Russian ones).Although my knowledge of Russian folk songs is next to nothing, we also listened to some Russian rap produced during the Second Chechen War, which was pretty moving all in all. Apparently we can all sing quite well. Today is not being of much interest so far. I've developed a musical obsession again (thank heavens it was one of those...) Illusion is taking over my brain. In some ways that is good, although some of the memories it brings back are not so pleasant. The evening we spent with Yuliya (another friend of Anya's - notice the trend?) at the белое озеро (white lake), but it was not as interesting as I had hoped. The lake is more of a pond and ultimately it simply consists of that, a few cafes and some food stands; just a place where getting drunk in public is moderately excusable. I also received some nasty mosquite bites and I don't know how I got them or why they seem to keep hurting. Not even copious amounts of Nestosyl can save me. Day 14: Pizza and Cards 03.08.2013 This morning started with the fine opportunity to sleep in for a bit. Saturday, so Anya did not (mysteriously) disappear down some dark Tomsk alleyway. Not that you will find many of them in Tomsk; for Russia, I think this is where you could possibly find the best mix of safety and equality. Anya still had some, erm, interesting work to do, which consisted of taking pictures at something called the Anti-Cafe, which seems to be some sort of youth club. I spent some time playing Tower (wooden tower building is not my strong suit), but getting Anya to say занудный голландец is of course a victory in itself; she shouldn't have challenged me to play table football. I know how to play THAT, and I consequently wiped her out with ease three times in a row. Fortunately (for her) she taught me how to play a Russian card game... which I botched the first four time. Then as I finally got the hang of the Rules of the Game I started winning more often. Guess she's only better at practical stuff then, huh. Anya and Dasha chastised me for not eating enough, but ever since I fell ill some years ago I have lost the appetite I used to have. Part of being a chronically ill human being I guess. Day 15: New Siberia 04.08.2013 (Tomsk-Novosibirsk) I woke up at an ungodly hour for a Sunday (5:30 am), why are long-distance trains so poorly timed.... but Anya seemed to be all cool about it. She even went as far as to call me a cab, and to say goodbye to me at the train station (or more like hug me goodbye on the train.) I think there are few more hospitable people than the Russians - once you get to know them, nothing seems a bridge too far. I am not sure if Anya in particular understands that I admire her in so many ways I could write a song about it just like Foreigner, but in case she reads this: thank you so much Anya! you're the best host I could ever dream of!! Truly a heroine! On the train to Novosibirsk I sat across from a woman who had the babushka temperament down to a T. About as interesting as watching paint dry. Better than the maniac cab driver to the station though, Russian drivers seem to think speeding is the national sport, and this one seemed to be a particular idiot. My insistence on always wearing the seatbelt did not go amiss... Novosibirsk itself is dull and grey and I have already decided I am going to use this time to catch up on the internet happenings, buying supplies and generally laze about, because I still have 3 long journey legs to go. The only good thing about the hostel I'm staying in is that the owner also speaks Hebrew. Mine is poor though, but it earned me a Facebook friend request and a lot of admiration for the fact I speak Russian as well. Edited by tarvos on 02 October 2013 at 11:26am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4693 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 893 of 1511 04 October 2013 at 11:17am | IP Logged | ||
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I've been more busy with university as usual, but I do manage to study some Korean every
day, and that is pretty much the only language on which I manage to focus. I've managed to complete until TTMIK level 2, lesson 6. My plan for my next Korean lesson is to prepare some stock phrases that I am going to sprinkle throughout the conversation. That won't be for another 10 days though. Besides that I've been busy working - I've still got a postman job on Saturdays and I've been doing tons of tutoring the past weeks (mostly Dutch). Just giving people someone to talk to in Dutch for $10 or so an hour (less if you book packages.) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4693 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 894 of 1511 06 October 2013 at 11:20am | IP Logged | ||
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No real change in the situation. I still regularly write e-mails and message in a gamut
of languages (the 7 speaks on my left + Breton, not done much in Hebrew) and I'm still working through some Korean podcasts. I've got to TTMIK 2x11 now. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4693 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 895 of 1511 07 October 2013 at 3:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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French
This morning I did a quite interesting exercise. As many of you know, I am the opposite of a linguist by trade (I consider myself a sort of failed engineer). However, I have a quite special focus; I am a science communicator, which means I task myself with the discussing of science and scientific topics to a wider audience than just scientists. This includes things like science journalism, science marketing, communication disciplines, and so on. The most famous examples are of course things like the Magic School Bus or Bill Nye the Science Guy (classic 1990s) but it's a modernising discipline that has many parallels with policy management and so on. However, because I consider my French a well-developed language, that I would like to improve further, I have armed myself with a tutor in order to discuss details of my life about the "vulgarisation" of science. However, it is all in French. I'm thus discussing French text structures, sentence structures that is focused on my need to be able to speak French professionally. The previous lesson was a little bit on the easy side - my French vocabulary is super large and I don't really have problems with general texts, so we've done an exercise with a 5-minute video clip of a science bulletin in French on TV, where we analysed the structure of the announcements, the titles, the explanations, the visuals and so on. Rhetorical devices, and so on. However, because this is a specialised department, it means I am learning vocabulary - but of a more jargon kind. And even my teacher has trouble in this department - some terms are hard even for her. A very interesting foray into the depths of a language. Sometimes depth is called for. I'm noting down the unfamiliar vocabulary I encountered here: - je suis dessus (familier) = "I'm on it!" - ondulatoire = undulatory, creating waves (from onduler = to cause waves) - mosasaure (this because I knew it, but my teacher didn't - she spelled it as Mozazor, and I had to explain this word to her) = mosasaur (a type of extinct marine reptile common during the dinosaur epoch) - objectif grand-angle = wide-angle lens - une vis = a screw - visser = to screw - une vis-ecrou = a screwnut mechanism (here in reference to insectoid muscle movements) - une anguille = an eel - une nageoire = a fin Furthermore there were some wordplays that used idioms that are typically French - "fait de la resistance" refers to a French movie, but I don't know it. (Maybe emk does?) Overall a very interesting exercise, and my teacher noted in the page it was designed for C1 level students. So I guess I am trying to get to C1 now? Edited by tarvos on 07 October 2013 at 5:29pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| akkadboy Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5394 days ago 264 posts - 497 votes Speaks: French*, English, Yiddish Studies: Latin, Ancient Egyptian, Welsh | Message 896 of 1511 07 October 2013 at 4:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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It seems you really went in depth here, I didn't know what a mosasaure was.
Just some precisions : - "onduler" means "to undulate" or "to cause (something) to undulate". In the same way, I think "ondulatoire" means "made of waves" rather than "creating waves". - "une vis"/"une vis-"écrou" - "faire de la résistance" is not a word play and doesn't specifically refer to a movie (although there is a widely known popular movie called "Papy fait de la résistance") I read that you've started Korean, good luck with it ! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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