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Josquin’s Language Symphony (RU, IR, 東亜) | ||
Tags: Gaelic (Scottish) | Gaelic (Irish) | Icelandic | Portuguese | Multilingual | Total Annihilation Challenge (TAC) | Italian | Japanese | Russian | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4653 days ago 890 posts - 1190 votes  Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish | Message 449 of 646 15 June 2013 at 8:43pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
How old are you? 50? :) And even in such age you can find a couple of couchsurfers in every bigger city. Hitchhiking is, indeed, mostly a thing for people in their twenties, but still, it's not a rule. The more of a problem seems to be:
I guess it's a case of many language fans here: they love to learn them, but they are quite introvertic (some of them probably even a little bit egocentric). Even if I'm not a very go-ahead person, I can say that my experience with both, CS and HH, has been extremely fantastic! Definitely don't regret it.
Oh, good I know this...
How does it compromise the "I'm just not the type of guy who loves to meet many new people" attutide? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4638 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 450 of 646 15 June 2013 at 11:05pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Yeah, I'm 28 (just for the record), but whatever! The whole idea of crushing on some unknown people's couch or even getting into their car simply appals me. If I go somewhere I take the train (or the plane if it's far away), and if I stay somewhere I get a hotel room or I stay at a friend's place. Yes, it's more expensive, but I could never (never, never, never...) imagine staying with a completely unknown person!
And why does my language wanderlust compromise my reserved attitude towards making new acquaintances? Languages are a lot more uncomplicated and interesting than most people, so I have no problem hooking up with them once in a while. If I made new friends just as easily as I find new languages to study, I probably wouldn't be here right now. But here I am talking about my life again. This has to stop, because this is a language log and not a therapist's office. By the way, sorry to hear about your private problems. I certainly know what that must feel like, because I'm right in the middle of something myself right now. So, best of luck to you! Edited by Josquin on 15 June 2013 at 11:40pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| prz_ Tetraglot Senior Member Poland last.fm/user/prz_rul Joined 4653 days ago 890 posts - 1190 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Bulgarian, Croatian Studies: Slovenian, Macedonian, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Dutch, Swedish, German, Italian, Armenian, Kurdish | Message 451 of 646 16 June 2013 at 12:05am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Do you know who stays in the hotel rooms nearby you? What if they are terrorists and they have a bomb in the suitcase? There, on Couchsurfing, you have a system of references. Thus, if someone's a terrorist, then has to be a really good actor! You can be betrayed even by your, in theory, best friends. That's why I'm not really afraid. Of course, you can meet people who are completely different than you and you don't have many common topics with them, but still... I haven't met a Couchsurfer who, at least, haven't got a good will. And, actually (IMO ofc), Couchsurfing really adds a brick in creating a better world: if we have an empty space in our houses or anything that we can share with the others, why don't do this? (Ok, I know now why my friends call me sometimes a little comunist).
A lot more uncomplicated - I agree. More interesting? I don't think so.
Oh, c'mon! I don't see anything bad in "heraus mit der Sprache!" attitude ;) I do the same when I start writing. That's why it takes so long for me to write ANYTHING.
Thanks, but it's definitely better now. I just have constant problems with concentration/procrastination/whatever... And, of course, I have to cope with my backlogs now. Kinda tough, but well... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4638 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 452 of 646 03 July 2013 at 7:32pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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WEDNESDAY, 03 JULY 2013
There is not much to report at the moment. I am mainly busy with my social life and I have already found some of that "positive direction" Teango had wished me. As I already announced I am just learning languages for fun at the moment, so there are no more Anki sessions or the like to report. Moreover, I'm happy with my intermediate levels in Russian and Icelandic, so I'm not doing anything in these languages besides reading now and then or listening to podcasts. I know there is still much to learn in order to reach perfection, but as perfection isn't my goal right now, I'll happily neglect those languages. I can brush them up any time when I feel the urge to do so. So, there remain Japanese, Gaelic, and Irish: 日本語 I'm in unit 7 of Colloquial Japanese right now. The topic of the unit is describing people. In points of grammar, it deals with the plain form of verbs, compound sentences, reported speech, and several ways of expressing time relations ("before", "after", "when"). Moreover, it teaches the last five katakana and ten new kanji. I must say I have a hard time remembering the katakana. They all look so much alike! Hiragana and even kanji are much easier to remember. It's interesting how Japanese adjectives behave like verbs when using a "-te form" for joining them: 背は高くて、痩せているそうです ("Apparently, he is tall and thin"). Gàidhlig I'm in unit 26 of Lehrbuch der schottische-gälischen Sprache. I have dealt with the comparison of adjectives and the future tense of regular verbs (as well as the relative future) in earlier units and now I'm dealing with the plural of nouns and adjectives. Unfortunately, there are very few rules for determining which declension pattern a noun follows, so one has to learn the plural form by heart. Adjectives are much easier: They simply take the ending -a, if they're monosyllabic, and are lenited in the nominative and dative. That's it. Additionally, I have to learn the future tense forms of some irregular verbs and the modal verbs "faod" ("may") and "feum" ("must"). Language fun fact: Gaelic uses the future tense for habitual actions, which are expressed by the present tense in every other language I know. Gaeilge Yes, I know. I promised not to study Irish, but I simply couldn't resist. However, Learning Irish is a rather dry and grammar-heavy book, so I ordered Colloquial Irish from Amazon, which arrived today. I already went through the pronunciation exercises and the first dialogue. I don't know why, but Irish somehow has an even more "Celtic" feel to it than Scottish Gaelic. Maybe, it's because of the different pronunciation of broad and slender sounds and the fact that there also is eclipse and not only lenition. On the other hand, maybe it's just because Irish is absolutely fresh and new, while I already know some Scottish Gaelic. Anyway, I'll keep dabbling in Irish for the time being. Yeah, that's it for today. Not even as bad as I thought it would be. I have really reduced my workload drastically, but I nevertheless managed to make some progress. That feels good! @prz_: You're right about people. If you meet the right ones, they are much more interesting than languages. I only had a hard time finding those people, but I think I might have (re)discovered some now. :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4509 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 453 of 646 03 July 2013 at 7:37pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Interesting that you think like that. Ages ago, when I was learning the Japanese alphabets, I learned the katakana very quick and easily, while I gave up learning the hiragana, because I thought they looked too much alike and got pissed trying to remember them. Haha! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Josquin Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 4638 days ago 2266 posts - 3992 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Latin, Italian, Russian, Swedish Studies: Japanese, Irish, Portuguese, Persian | Message 454 of 646 03 July 2013 at 7:51pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Really? Maybe, I just haven't read enough katakana words by now. I have to read hiragana in Colloquial Japanese all the time, while katakana are rather rare. At least there are special exercises for katakana reading practice.
My favourite katakana are シ ツ ン ソ メ ノ as well as フ ラ ク タ ヌ ス ヲ. How did you manage not to confuse those -- not to speak of writing them correctly from memory? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| fabriciocarraro Hexaglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member Brazil russoparabrasileirosRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4509 days ago 989 posts - 1454 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, EnglishB2, Italian, Spanish, Russian, French Studies: Dutch, German, Japanese | Message 455 of 646 03 July 2013 at 7:59pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Ahahaha you have a point, but I guess my brain likes these "square-ish" forms better than round ones.
I started learning them because I wanted to translate the players' names on my Winning Eleven 2000 from Japanese to the Latin alphabet, so as all of them were foreign players, their names were in katakana. I ended up "translating" all of the game's players, and during that time I just practiced by writing my name, my friends' names, my relatives' names, etc. in katakana, so the "knowledge" fixed in my mind in about a week I'd say. Then, when I tried to move on to hiragana, all the rounded symbols got me confused, to me they all looked alike and I gave up both hiragana and Japanese. But hey, I was 12 I guess haha probably today they'd be easier. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| liammcg Senior Member Ireland Joined 4398 days ago 269 posts - 397 votes Speaks: English* | Message 456 of 646 03 July 2013 at 8:49pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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Glad to hear about the positive direction in your life, Josquin.
Yes, Gaelic plurals can seem a bit...all over the place, though I find them much easier than the Irish ones. A lot of the time you simply add "-an" to the end of the noun to pluralise it. E.g. Eilean > Eileanan. This would be Oileán > Oileáin in Irish meaning the distinction between one or many islands rests on the difference between a broad and a slender N. Best of luck with Irish, beir bua! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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