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A bit of anything - living languages | ||
Tags: Using Foreign Languages | Living Language | Catalan | Romance Languages | Latin | Russian | German | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4965 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 65 of 109 12 September 2014 at 4:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I wish I had your enthousiasm for writing, Ogrim. I need it for my languages that are at an intermediate stage, but I keep postponing it. I'm glad to know you got your Catalan text corrected! It's quite encouraging to have people willing to help you with a language that is surrounded by another one.
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| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4438 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 66 of 109 12 September 2014 at 5:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Expugnator, I wish I had more time for writing, because I really like to write and I find that it is a great way to practise and activate your language skills. That being said, I have been procrastinating quite a lot when it comes to Russian. I am no longer used to write by hand, and writing Russian on my PC takes a long time as I still do not know the layout of the Russian keyboard by heart and need to look at a printout of it - which makes it very slow. Now I've started using my iPad for writing Russian instead, it is much easier as you can just switch to the Cyrillic keyboard with one touch. Then I can just e-mail the text to myself to pick it up on the PC and copy/paste it into Lang-8, or this log or a Word doc depending on what I want to do with it. Another advantage of the iPad is that you get suggestions for corrections if you spell a word wrongly. (But that's enough advertisement for Apple;)
Yes I was really happy to get a correction from a Catalan so quickly, I have no idea how many native Catalan speakers there are on Lang-8, but as long as there is one or two who is willing to correct my text it's enough. Edit note: Expugnator, I forgot to say that even if you may not write a lot, you are certainly one of the most consistent and persistent language learners at this Forum, and I feel my routines are pretty lousy when I compare them with yours. Edited by Ogrim on 12 September 2014 at 5:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Via Diva Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4033 days ago 1109 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek | Message 67 of 109 12 September 2014 at 5:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, Apple wouldn't be the first on the market, they don't have Swype (or have they finally changed that on the recent presentation?) :)
I understand the greatness of a spell-checker, but I use one on my laptop as well, I have three dictionaries installed in Opera (and it might be working even easier with some other browsers). 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4965 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 68 of 109 12 September 2014 at 7:23pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I also use iOs and I find it practical, though I use it more for Chinese; I'm still reluctant to write Russian, even if my passive skills improved a bit this year. Don't get impressed by the 'amount' I do, it's far from effective, others have better tips on how to reach fluency in their languages.
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| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4438 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 69 of 109 18 September 2014 at 3:47pm | IP Logged | |||||
Today Scotland votes on independence. I consider myself a rather neutral observer, so I will not discuss the merits or not of saying "Aye", but having followed the debate quite closely over the last few weeks I have been struck by the fact that the question of language seems entirely absent from the debate. There are natural reasons for this, after all English is the dominating language in Scotland, although many speak Scots, and a few Gaelic. Still, I could not find anything about language in the White Paper the Scottish Government has published on independence. They have some brief answers to questions around Gaelic on their website. They also have a short sentence about Scots:
Searching on internet I also came across an interesting article about Scots: This one in the Guardian dates from 2011 and talks about the return of the Scots language. Here is the conclusion of the article:
According to the 2011 UK census, 1.5 million people are able to speak Scots, and around 110.000 claim it as their first language. For Gaelic, the figures are much smaller, about 87.000 people indicated some ability in Gaelic, with 57.000 indicating it as their native language. I guess the experience from Ireland shows that you cannot force a language upon a people, but language and identity go hand in hand, both at an individual and a collective level, and it is no wonder that nationalist and independence movements often will hold up language as an identity marker. That it is not highlighted as much in Scotland as for example in Catalonia is probably easy to understand, the great majority of people living in Scotland have English as their native language. However, regardless of what the result of the referendum will be, in a small way the situation of Scots and Scottish Gaelic has also been put on the agenda by this historic event. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4438 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 70 of 109 07 October 2014 at 3:48pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Sursilvan
Rap sin romontsch, eisi pusseivel? Aber gie, la musica romontscha ei buca mo canzun populara tradiziunala ni pop lev, mobein era rock ed ussa, rap. Il giuven Ivo Orlic alias Giganto, da Rabius en Surselva, ha fatg igl emprem album da rap romontsh. Schebein jeu sun buca in grond fan da rap, duei jeu dir che il album, numnau G-punct, ei da gronda qualitad. Giganto, che ha 19 onns, scriva sez la musica ed ils texts, che van da l’amur, il dolur da cor e la critica sociala al rap da scandal; entingas canzuns sun indicadas sco explicitas. “G-punct” ha 17 canzuns e per il plipart dat ei videoclips sin Youtube. Il clip il pli elaborau e dalla canzun “L’aura”, che ha ina atgna pagina web: L'aura Giganto fa rap sin sursilvan, e la canzun “Rätoromans” ei in “himni” als idioms romontschs e a la Rumantschia, aber buca al lungatg construiu Rumantsch Grischun, per il qual Giganto di “F***k off.” Jeu drovel ch’il ei ina fetg buna caussa ch’igl ei pusseivel da far in album da musica rap sin romontsch. Quei muossa che il lungatg ei buca morts, e chei dat ina generaziun giuvna che drova il romontsch per exprimer ses sentiments e patratgs d’ina fuorma moderna. Ins sto buca emblidar che sulettamein 50000 persunas tschontschan il romontsch, schebein artists sco Giganto han segir entings fans nella Svizra tudestga, franzosa ni taliana. Rap in Romansh, is that possible? Oh yes, Romansh music is not only traditional folk music or soft pop, but also rock and now, rap. A young man, Ivo Orlic alias Giganto from Rabius in Surselva has made the first ever Romansh rap album. Personally I am not a big fan of rap music, but I must say that this album, called G-punct, is of great quality. Giganto, who is 19 years old, writes the music and lyrics himself, and the lyrics goes from love stories and heartbreak via social criticism to scandal rap; some songs are marked with “explicit”. G-punct has 17 songs, and for most of them are there video clips on Youtube. The most elaborated clip, for the song L’aura, even has its own website: L'aura Giganto raps in sursilvan, and the song “Rätoromans” is a “hymn” to the Romansh idioms and the Rumantschia, but not the constructed language Rumantsch Grischun, to which Giganto only says “F***k off”. I must say that it is really a good thing to see that it is possible to make a rap music album in Romansh. It shows that the language is far from dead, and that there is a young generation using Romansh to express their feelings and thoughts in a modern way. Let’s not forget that only 50000 persons speak Romansh, although artists like Giganto certainly have fans in the other language communities of Switzerland as well. Edited by Ogrim on 07 October 2014 at 3:49pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4438 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 71 of 109 08 October 2014 at 6:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Romontsch sursilvan
Jeu cуntinueschel miu viadi el mund musical da la Rumantschia. Ieri haiel ludau l’ovra dal rapper Giganto, ed ussa less jeu tschontschar dad ina dunna che conta in tut auter stil. Astrid Alexandre ei naschida en Port-au-Prince, Haiti, nua che lavuravan ses babs, oriunds dalla Belgia e da lungatg franzos. Cu ella veva tschun onns ei la famiglia semudada in Surselva, e lu ha ella scuviert il tudestg ed il romontsch. Pervia da quei ei ella daventada trilinga, ed ella scriva ses canzuns sin ils tres lungatgs, ed era sin engles. Ella ha detg ch’ella sappi buca decider sin quel lungatg scriver ina canzun, e che quei vegni sco da persuls. Il stil dad Astrid Alexandre ei eclectic, aber jeu tertgel che oravontut ei ella inspirada dalla “chanson française”. Ins patratga ad ina Barbara, ina Patricia Kaas ni era ina Carla Bruni cullas “Little French songs”. Ussa ha Astrid Alexandre presentau siu emprem disc cun 11 temas, ed ella conta sin romontsch, spagnol, franzos, engles e tudestg svizzer. Las melodias ein bialas, harmoniusas e da temps en temps era melancolicas. Il cуntrast cun il rapper Giganto ei gigantic, aber quei ei la bellezia dalla musica, quasi tut ei pusseivel ed ins po guder tut stil da musica, era sin romontsch. (Note, in the second word and another one further down in the text I have used a Russian “u” to avoid being censored by the software which otherwise would think I had written a dirty four-letter word in English... I continue my journey through the world of music in Romansh. Yesterday I praised the work of the rapper Giganto, and today I would like to talk about a woman who sings in a very different style. Astrid Alexandre was born in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where her Belgian, French-speaking parents were working. When she was five, the family moved to Surselva, where she discovered German and Romansh. Thus, perfectly trilingual, she writes her songs in three languages, and even in English. She has said that she can’t really decide in which language to write a song, it comes to her by itself. Astrid Alexandre’s style is eclectic, but I think that it is inspired above all by the “chanson française”. One thinks of a Barbara, a Patricia Kaas or even Carla Bruni with her Little French Songs. Now Astrid Alexandre has given out her first album with 11 songs, and she sings in Romansh, Spanish, French, English and Swiss German. The tunes are nice, harmonious and sometimes also melancholic. The contrast to the rapper Giganto is gigantic, but to me that is the beauty of music, almost everything is possible and one can enjoy any style of music also in Romansh. Astrid Alexandre Edited by Ogrim on 08 October 2014 at 6:10pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4438 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 72 of 109 28 October 2014 at 11:17am | IP Logged | |||||
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Deutsch
Am Wochenende bin ich mit der Familie in München gewesen. Wir sind drei Tage in der Stadt gewesen und am Montag haben wir Schloss Neuschwanstein, das sich etwa 90 Minuten in Auto von München befindet. München ist eine schöne Stadt, es gibt viele interessante Museen, schöne Parken und Gärten, man kann gut essen und natürlich viel gutes Bier trinken. Obwohl es vielleicht ein Stereotyp ist, muss ich sagen dass München hat die perfekte Kombination von deutscher Effektivität und bayerischer Gemütlichkeit. Ich habe doch ein seltsames Erlebnis gehabt: In einem Restaurant wo wir gegessen haben, gab es einen Kellner, der nicht mit mir in Deutsch sprechen wollte. Meine Frau und ich haben Spanisch miteinander gesprochen, aber ich habe natürlicherweise den Kellner in Deutsch angeredet. Als er mich in Englisch geantwortet hat, zögerte ich für einen Moment, aber ich kann es nicht ertragen, wenn man mich immer in Englisch anredet, weil ich ein Tourist bin. Also habe ich ihn immer in Deutsch gesprochen, und er hat die ganze Zeit in Englisch geredet. Meine Frau hat gut gelacht davon. Ein Kuriosität: München ist wahrscheinlich die einzige Stadt wo man surfen kann, obwohl man weit vom Meer ist. Im Englischen Garten gibt es eine artifizielle Welle, und jeden Tag kann man dort Surfern sehen. Der Schloss Neuschwanstein ist eines der bekanntesten Monumente Deutschlands, und man sagt, dass es das „Disney-Schloss“ inspiriert hat. Leider muss ich sagen dass, wie es so oft passiert mit berühmten Monumente, es eine Enttäuschung war. Obwohl es ein Montag in Oktober war, gab es eine große Menge Touristen, und der Besuch des Schlosses dauert nur eine halbe Stunde. Man lernt fast nix über König Ludwig II, „der Märchen-König“, der das Schloss bauen ließ, und ich hatte das Gefühl, das die Ziel ist dass die Touristen so viel Geld wie möglich spenden. Schade, weil die Geschichte von König Ludwig faszinierend ist und der Besuch wäre interessanter, wenn die Guides ein bisschen mehr darüber sprächen. (This weekend I went with the family to Munich. We spent three days in the city and on Monday we visited the Castle Neuschwanstein, which is a 90 minutes’ drive away. Munich is a nice city, there are lots of interesting museums, beautiful gardens and parks and one eats well and there is of course a lot of good beer to drink. Maybe it is a cliché, but I think Munich as the perfect combination of German efficiency and Bavarian “Gemütlichkeit”. I had one bizarre experience though. In a restaurant, I was speaking Spanish with my wife, but I talked to the waiter in German, of course. He answered back in English, and I was a bit taken aback, but decided to pursue with German, as I cannot stand it when they talk to me in English just because I am a “tourist”. So I went on in German, and he went on in English, and my wife thought it was very funny. A curiosity: Munich must be the only city miles away from any sea where you can do surfing. In the English Garden they have created an artificial wave, and every day you can see surfers practising their sport here. Neuschwanstein is one of Germanys best known monuments, and apparently it inspired the “Disney-castle”. However, I am afraid it was a disappointment. Even on a grey Monday in October, there were a lot of tourists, and the visit of the castle itself only lasts thirty minutes. You learn next to nothing about King Ludwig II, the “Fairy tale King” who had the castle built, and I got the feeling that the whole purpose was to get tourists to spend as much money as possible. It is a shame, because the history of King Ludwig II is fascinating, and the visit would have been much more interesting, if the guides had talked a bit more about him.) Edit: On this site there are some nice pictures of the artifical wave (the Eisbach Welle) and a video of a guy surfing in the middle of winter. Edited by Ogrim on 28 October 2014 at 12:02pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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