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Solfrid Cristin TAC 2012 Team Sputnik | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Tecktight Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member United States Joined 4787 days ago 227 posts - 327 votes  Speaks: English*, Serbian Studies: German, Russian, Estonian | Message 97 of 270 29 March 2012 at 11:14pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Have a safe flight over, Cristina! I'm sure you'll have a fantastic trip. I can't wait to hear
all about it when you get back. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5145 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 98 of 270 01 April 2012 at 12:27pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I will write more in detail when I get back, but the short version is that I am a lot better at communicating
than last time. My hostess claims that my Russian has become very good, but since she still insists that her daughter hang around to translate whenever things get too complicated for me - which happens every 90 seconds on average, I take that with not a pinch but a bucketload of salt. Still, there is substantial improvement since last year - and a lot of it is due to the 6WC. I have now also started to read Russian. I understand very little of it, so it is really an uphill battle, but it worked once upon a time with French and Italian, and I am determined to see if it can work with Russian as well. If I force my reading Russian challenged brain to just read on, I must at some point get more than the gist of it - which is what I am getting now. On a good day :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4518 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 99 of 270 01 April 2012 at 12:35pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Вы молодец!
Improvement is better than no improvement, right? :D 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| hribecek Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5160 days ago 1243 posts - 1458 votes Speaks: English*, Czech, Spanish Studies: Italian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Toki Pona, Russian | Message 100 of 270 01 April 2012 at 6:47pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Hi Solfrid Cristin
I've been following your log since the start of the year and followed the one you wrote last year, but this is my first post. For some reason I never got around to writing here and telling you that your log is fanastic and one of the most interesting. So now I've done it! Have a good time in Ukraine. :)) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Tecktight Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member United States Joined 4787 days ago 227 posts - 327 votes Speaks: English*, Serbian Studies: German, Russian, Estonian | Message 101 of 270 01 April 2012 at 6:51pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Cristina, accept a little teensy pinch of salt if you insist upon it,
but I think sugar as a reward is more in order. We all know you rock at languages and will undoubtedly succeed with Russian. Your accent and speech is already good--I can attest to that. And the last time I spoke with you, you were dozens of learning-hours behind where you are now, so you can only be even better now! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5145 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 102 of 270 01 April 2012 at 10:56pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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@ tarvos: Thank you for the encouragement!
@ hribecek: Thank you for your kind words. I sometimes wonder whether anyone reads it at all or whether I am just writing it for my own amusement, so it is great to sea that my log is not only read, but actually appreciated. @ Tecktight: Thank you - you always manage to make me feel better about myself! It is weird though, because one minute I suddenly can say and understand anything I want, and then the next minute I am unable to understand or say the simplest of sentences. I also butcher the Russian language and in particular the grammar to a degree which would make a Russian cry, but my friends are very patient with me. Otherwise I tonight had what in Norwegian is known as a " Baptism of fire", which means you are thrown into a situation and must do as best you can. My daughter celebrated her 16 th birthday today, and we had a party for her ( I am so full right now that I can't eat for two days) - and halfway through the evening the kids left and I was left with no interpreter. First I froze for a moment, but then I started talking with the grandmother, and since she lost her husband last year, she cried in my arms, and I simply had to keep up as well as I could linguistically. She talked about how empty her life was without him, how much she missed him, and how sad she feels now without him. I suggested that perhaps she would meet a new man sometime, but she said she could not even think of that. Her husband was just 4 years older than me, and it feels so strange that he is gone. He used to sing Beatles songs for me, and was so happy that there was someone who could appreciate that. Last year I brought him a new songbook with Beatles songs and he was overjoyed. It feels so strange that he died just a couple of months later. Anyhow, I managed to keep up some kind of conversation all through the evening, got masses of compliments for it and was so happy to have managed without an interpreter. We discussed Bielorussian politics ( or actually the grandmother talked and I nodded). She is a big fan of Lukashenko, so at that point of the conversation I just kept quiet. We also discussed Slavic languages, and the common Greek and Russian vocabulary. Unfortunately I managed to put my foot in it when talking about her sister, who I had been told had separated from her husband, and since she vehemently denied that, I pretended that I had meant to say something entirely different, but had mixed up. So pleased that we can communicate, anyhow. This is a much better way for me to learn languages. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| mrwarper Diglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Spain forum_posts.asp?TID=Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5037 days ago 1493 posts - 2500 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2 Studies: German, Russian, Japanese | Message 103 of 270 02 April 2012 at 6:47am | IP Logged | ||||||||
"Baptism by/of fire" is pretty universal actually. Used in English since at least 1822 according to the WP stub shown by Google, and imported from French, so no wonder it has spread in 200 years even if it's not a New Testament quotation (or is it? -- I always thought it is).
We lost my grandfather seven months ago, and every other conversation involving my grandmother has been like that ever since. Perhaps it's easier to escape their grip with a little help from the language barrier. I certainly wouldn't like to have a baptism like that! Glad to see you managed yourself, though. Congrats, and keep up the good work!
Ah I think I may need some swim or sink to make me talk before I think I can actually do it ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Skuld Triglot Newbie SpainRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5031 days ago 31 posts - 43 votes Speaks: Spanish*, CatalanC1, EnglishC1 Studies: German, French | Message 104 of 270 04 April 2012 at 11:19pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
It is a New Testament quotation, as you can read at the stab linked above. Mathew 3:11. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_3:11. I do not completely agree with the verse interpretation done at the Wikipedia, but this is a very personal issue. And it's very late tonight for me... ;)
We have not met yet, Solfrid, but I think I understand your feelings.
Sorry to read this about your grandparents, mrwarper. Specially about the grief of your grandmother. Anyway, tomorrow will be the fourth anniversary of the losing of one of my grandfathers... Edited by Skuld on 04 April 2012 at 11:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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