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Tarvos - TAC 2015 Pushkin/Scan

 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log Post Reply
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tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4457 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 985 of 1511
29 November 2013 at 11:11am | IP Logged 
Solfrid Cristin wrote:
tarvos wrote:
If I stay logged on to Interpals for a day, I
think I get about 5 Russians on average
visiting my profile a day. Today I have had, I think 5 Russian conversation partners.
Maybe 6. I have lost count. I don't even have to try, I just need to stay logged on.

I don't even need to do anything. It's like I am all smeared with Russian honey.

It's quite frankly ridiculous. I have to put idiotic amounts of effort in to find
someone
who wants to speak French or Swedish with me, but Russians just deluge me anyway.



You could always give me a call :-) I am fluent In French and even if I might struggle
in speaking Swedish for
a long time, I could always speak Norwegian to you, and point out any obvious mistakes
in your Swedish. Not
that I really think you make many of those anymore.

Also you may consider coming to work in Norway. We need lots of engineers. Normally the
problem is that
they do not speak Norwegian or even English well enough, but between your Swedish and
your native
English you should have no problem at all.

Also you would have ample opportunity to speak Swedish, as Swedes are our second
largest immigrant
group, and 99% of them are about your age. Your chances of finding a Swedish girlfriend
are 100%. We also
have tons of Romanian speakers. You can quite literally not avoid them if you walk in
the centre of Oslo.

We do not have that many Hebrew speakers, but I am sure we can find some here in Oslo.
We have a small
but vibrant Jewish community centered around the synagogue and the Jewish museum.

Also, since we have the EES agreement, you would have all the rights that you have in
any EU-country, and
if you get called in for an interview, you could stay at my house.

How am I doing so far:-)

Of course if you want a warm, exotic country, Norway may not be much of a candidate,
but we are
considered the best country in the world to live in, and have very good labour
protection laws.


Norway would work just fine, my problem here is I've stopped being a pure engineer and
am now basically someone who talks about engineering to people who do not do
engineering. So I fall in the middle of all job vacancies, which makes finding one
hella annoying.

I have a BSc in chemical engineering but an MSc in science communication! (I'll receive
the diploma tonight).

Gracías para la respuesta, Cristina, es muy gentil y estoy muy contento. Pero quizás
voy a comenzar hablar español tambien, no sé cuando.

Quote:
Maybe you're a some sort of local legend between us, native speakers, who can't
believe at first that someone really cares about Russian that much and then in the next
moment sees that it's really like that :)
Maybe the site rates you higher that others and makes it easy for the people to find
it. Anyway, I hope that this situation doesn't upset you and Russian is not too boring
yet :)


Это халява.

Edited by tarvos on 29 November 2013 at 11:13am

1 person has voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4457 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 986 of 1511
02 December 2013 at 10:37am | IP Logged 
"Yes, I'm hearing voices too"

... so hard to study when you feel like you're inflicted with the stay at home and
never leave your room bug...

"But I'm more cut up than you..."

... but you try in your utmost resolve to do something about your situation, what you
want, what you don't want...

...and still you get up at 9 am for an hour of French.

"This is a hatesong, just meant for you..."

Push yourself to the limit, wake up early so you must respond spontaneously even when
you're not wide awake (eyes wide shut)...

write something on a topic which you don't even know well but render it in intelligible
French...

(a small victory, but a victory nonetheless - Pyrrhus does not factor into my equations
anymore)

"These are the last rites, the line is dead..."
1 person has voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4457 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 987 of 1511
02 December 2013 at 4:21pm | IP Logged 
Ok, another mini-language learning marathon completed (ok, 3 hours this time). My usual
languages, namely French, Romanian and Korean. French was surprisingly good - I wrote a
text on the Earth's magnetic field, got it corrected, and my teacher was pleasantly
surprised by the fact I can write well and clearly (not a surprise - I know I can) but
also that I can render it decently well in French (although there is still loads to
gain in automaticity and style errors in French, of which I would make far fewer in
English and Dutch).

My Korean is slowly improving but it's still at a nice A1-A2 level where I can say
simple things but a complex sentence is still out of the question (though I practiced
some more complex formulations today).

My Romanian is very good in terms of my comprehension, my formulations can be a bit
clumsy grammatically (but still very understandable for a conversation). Once or twice
I have to search a bit but it's nothing serious.

And I have an interview for Romania on Thursday.


1 person has voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4457 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 988 of 1511
03 December 2013 at 12:20pm | IP Logged 
Today I wrote some Breton for the first time in weeks! By the way, if all goes through,
there may be some interesting news regarding me and this language. Stay tuned until I
find out more...


1 person has voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4457 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 989 of 1511
06 December 2013 at 2:12pm | IP Logged 
Yes yes! I received my Sinterklaas presents yesterday (so don't bother looking in this
thread for Christmas presents because they are not what we usually do here). Language-
related hauls include:

- the latest Amélie Nothomb novel (La nostalgie heureuse), which reflects on her return
to Japan, where she spent her childhood (speaking of polyglots... Nothomb mentions in
one of her novels that she has studied English, Dutch, German and Italian next to
French, Japanese of course, and also Latin and old Greek. I am not sure to what extent
she still masters Dutch, German and Italian, although she definitely still speaks
English and Japanese - however at the time Ni d'Éve, ni d'Adam was set, she spoke Dutch
to the Belgian ambassadors I believe... so she at least used to speak Dutch somewhat
fluently).

- Jag är Zlatan (Swedish)

- two discworld novels (in English)

- and a Langenscheidt English-Korean/Korean-English pocket dictionary.

I still need a Romanian dictionary to complete my collection. Dutch, English and French
base allowed.

Edited by tarvos on 06 December 2013 at 2:16pm

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Ogrim
Heptaglot
Senior Member
France
Joined 4389 days ago

991 posts - 1896 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian
Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian

 
 Message 990 of 1511
06 December 2013 at 2:32pm | IP Logged 
Hi tarvos, we actually have Sinterklaas here in Alsace as well (Saint Nicolas in French) but still most people here do Christmas presents. Normally on 6 December the kids just get a "männele" (a brioche in the form of a small man) and maybe a small present - like a "teaser" before the real thing on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Anyway, enjoy your presents, I haven't read the latest of Nothomb, but she is one of the French writers (well to be precise, she is a francophone Belgian) I appreciate, so I'll put that one on my list to Father Christmas.
1 person has voted this message useful



tarvos
Super Polyglot
Winner TAC 2012
Senior Member
China
likeapolyglot.wordpr
Joined 4457 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 991 of 1511
06 December 2013 at 2:50pm | IP Logged 
For us it is actually the evening of the 5th of December termed "pakjesavond" (package-
evening) when we get the presents. In Belgium it is sometimes celebrated on the morning
of the 6th of December instead (which is the old saint's birthday), but for us that date
doesn't mean anything.

Sinterklaas is celebrated in some parts of Germany too I think. My German friend said she
was going to get chocolate today, and I remember that it was certainly celebrated in
Belgium. The Netherlands has particular traditions related to it though. For us it is on
the same level as Christmas because most Dutch people never get presents for Christmas
(although my parents used to have some personal traditions associated with Christmas, but
these were only in our family). I also remember that when we were in Canada, my parents
did not give presents with Sinterklaas but for Christmas (their way of integrating? @_@)
1 person has voted this message useful



Josquin
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 4594 days ago

2266 posts - 3992 votes 
Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish
Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian

 
 Message 992 of 1511
06 December 2013 at 3:26pm | IP Logged 
Yes, in Germany, there is "Nikolaustag" on December 6. Children put a boot in front of the door on the evening of December 5 and Saint Nicholas will fill it with nuts, tangerines, chocolate, and small presents during the night. I think this was originally a Catholic feast, but the Protestants adopted it eventually.

However, the real presents are delivered either by the "Christkind" (Catholic) or by the "Weihnachtsmann" (Protestant/Atheist) on December 24, which is known as "Heiligabend". This is the peak of the Christmas holidays, where the entire family sits together around the illuminated Christmas tree and a lot of people still go to church.

December 25 isn't as important to us Germans as it is to other nations. Normally, the family gets together for a festive meal and distant relatives come for a visit. This is basically repeated on December 26.

I heard there was some turmoil in the Netherlands connected with Sinterklaas's little helper, Zwarte Piet. Do you think this tradition is racist? In Germany, Nikolaus is accompanied by Knecht Ruprecht. He used to punish the children who had been naughty over the year with his rod, but I think this kind of "black pedagogy" is getting out of style.

However, Knecht Ruprecht is only clothed all in black, while Zwarte Piet really has black skin. I don't really see the problem though, because Zwarte Piet seems to be positively connotated. Or is it just the cliched depiction of coloured people?

Edited by Josquin on 06 December 2013 at 3:31pm



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