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Papiamento cuts in line - B1 in 5 months | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4953 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes  Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 145 of 153 03 October 2013 at 10:05pm | IP Logged |
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Day 4: From Curaçao to Aruba
Some impressions about Curaçao: Papiamentu is the main language indeed. Dutch is spoken all around, I sometimes sensed a bit of hostility or just a general *ignore* mood from Dutch people, as if they were wondering what South-Americans were doing in their private Caribbean beach. It doesn't help the fact that Dutch is the only language I don't understand there. Anyway, I was surprised to see that nearly all radios play music in Papiamentu all the time, with some interruption now and then for programs about hispanic music, for example. Needless to say that Antilleans are much more proud about their language when it comes to music than their colonizers. I've had the chance to research Dutch music back in 2006 and it was really noticeable how even the local bands sing in English. Well, that's another issue. Now the trip from Curaçao to Aruba: iguanamon was right about telling me to be suspicious about Copa: my flight to Aruba was cancelled on June 27th and they didn't find me a replacement on time. I called the travel agency several times in the meantime, on my last attempt they said the flights were confirmed but never informed me of a new flight. As a result, I was supposed to flight to Aruba at 10h30 and had to spend 5 more hours at Curaçao's airport. I'm still studying what to do with the travel agency (it's Copa's fault mostly, but I'm the agency's customer directly), they took me 1 afternoon from my trip which I can't get back. Anyway, we arrived at Aruba, took a taxi to Palm Beach and arrived still on time to go to the beach then pool. Fortunately the islands are too western for their timezone, so it doesn't get dark before 7 pm. I was glad to see that Papiamento was as much alive and kicking at Aruba as in Curaçao. Billboards did get more English, but locals spoke only Papiamento among themselves and listened to the radio in Papiamento. That is to say, no way is English taking over. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4953 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 146 of 153 07 October 2013 at 7:45pm | IP Logged |
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Day 5: Just Palm Beach
This day just confirmed the importance of planning ahead the trip, which I already knew. I agreed on just staying at the beach and so the day went by and we didn't go downtown or elsewhere. Well, at least we could go on a boat and snorkeling in the afternoon. It was my first time on a boat, really, and I didn't feel sick, which means I can consider going on a cruise, since a ship is much more calm, I suppose. As for the snorkeling, it is indeed a great experience but I couldn't enjoy it to its most, because I just can't breathe through my mouth due to some stomach/esophagus issues. In the evening, we had dinner at a nice local restaurant. It was a bit expensive and it was the only place at which food wasn't that well-served, but the service was sooo good, waiters were so gentle and I got to order all in papiamento! 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4953 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 147 of 153 08 October 2013 at 2:28pm | IP Logged |
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Day 6: North and South
So, Sunday was the day for redeeming and employing the time better. We rented a car early in the morning for going to Arikok Park. It was a nice visit, even though I'm used to a semi-arid landscape because some 45 km west from my hometown one can already see such landscape. We'd need a 4x4 to reach some sites, but the beaches and caves we saw were already worth it. Then we visited other two famous beaches in Aruba, and these ones aren't crowded with consumerist tourists: Palm Beach is simply amazing, especially when you consider there is an oil refinery standing next to such clear water. Mangel Halto is also very nice and so clean. Both have locals, but I didn't even see tourists at Mangel Halto. We travelled all the way south-north in the island in order to arrive at Alto Vista Chapel. It took us so much trouble, because a motorcade was taking place, and the roads that would take us there were blocked by so many cars, and everytime we tried to bypass them we got lost! Fortunately we managed to find them, it was a bit later than expected but still worth it! I have seen that church in one of the documentaries I watch, just like I've seen the Arikok Park, and it felt good to be in the place for real. We couldn't do anything cultural on Sunday (like visiting a bookshop), yet we went downtown by car so we at least got familiarized, as we'd have to go back the next day. We spent the rest of the day at a snack bar, then went to the hotel and enjoyed the other bar at Palm Beach. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4953 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 148 of 153 09 October 2013 at 7:57pm | IP Logged |
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Day 7 : In peace with culture
This day we finally could go downtown for shopping (make up in the case of my wife and books in my case). We arrived downtown early, as we had to return the car we rented form the previous day and we got a ride. We entered a supermarket. There were some Brazilian biscuits. We bought yoghurts with labels in Spanish, which tasted differently from what I'm used to, in Brazil we tend mostly to drink yoghurts rather than eat them. Then we took the new streetcar. We expected to view through the main street, which now consists only of the tram line, and get closer to a bookstore I planned to visit, but fortunately I could already find a bookstore on the way, and it happened to have the books I wanted to buy. I got them, my wife did some more shopping. As it was Sunday, the museum we saw downtown was closed. We decided to have lunch close to the hotel, more options. Hotels have no idea how dangerous it is to have an all-you-can-eat lunch for a Brazilian: it is our main meal. Breakfast and dinner is ok, I just can't eat much, but in the case of lunch I took the chance. Lunch and breakfast costed almost the same, which doesn't make sense for a Brazilian, considering how much less we can normally eat on breakfast. The afternoon was the time for parasailing. It was very windy, I waited a little, still more windy but I decided to go nonetheless. It was really worth it, even though it required me effort to keep myself standing instead of leaning to the right horizontally. Great viewing, a nice experience, had the wind been weaker I'd have enjoyed it even more. Dinner was at a Belgian-style restaurant. Got to know new beer brands, and food was ok. Our mistake was to order for 2, it was the only place we did that, because we thought we had to, since we were qualified for early dinner. Pity, because they served much more food than in any other restaurants, and this time doubled, to the extent that the main course almost remained untouched. The food was really good, though, so the problem was indeed that we weren't that hungry. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4953 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 149 of 153 15 October 2013 at 10:57pm | IP Logged |
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Day 8: Back home
Going by bus would take 1 stop, so we couldn't avoid calling a taxi for taking us to the airport. The non-US citizens' terminal is small, but I still got the chance to buy a newspaper. Once again I saw that fast-food restaurant with Japanese cuisine called "Haya Sushi", which is ok for the name of a Japanese restaurant, if only this didn't mean "get dirt" (sujo/sujeira, sucio) in Papiamento. They don't seem to care, though, I believe they have each of the languages at fixed enclosures at their brains. Back in Panama I still got the chance to see the skyscrapers from above, practice some Spanish, and from there I got home. It was a really nice trip and I think we could take the most out of it! Next time I will post something on the book purchases. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4953 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 150 of 153 16 October 2013 at 11:29pm | IP Logged |
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Book purchases
As promised, it is time to talk about my purchases which allowed me to keep going further in Papiamentu. 
I found it hard to get to specific addresses such as those where the bookstores are located, both in Curaçao and Aruba, and two of them I really found by chance. Fortunately I could get what I wanted essentially. I only regret not buying a monolingual school textbook, but that would mean too much money already and I already got plenty of material. I went to Bruna bookstore in Curaçao but there weren't many options, for example, from Aruba. Apart from a newspaper, which I correctly recalled as a 'korant' when ordering, I bought what I could, two novels that seemed to have been translated for Dutch: E otro kara di solo, by marijke Schweitz E sekuestro - Aventuranan di Jassy i Jacky, by Liane Maal. This is the one I started with, aimed at early teenagers and thus reminding me of the Brazilian Coleção Vaga- Lume. I refrained from buying expensive two-volumes Nederlands-Papiamentu and Papiamentu- Nederlands dictionaries with the hope that I would find an English-Papiamentu dictionary elsewhere, and that was what happened. That was at another bookstore on the way back from the Northern beaches at Curaçao. I bough the following books there: Papiamentu Ingles/English Papiamentu - dictionary by Betty Ratzlaff-Henriquez, published in Bonaire. She is not native to the islands! Impressive work. Alameda - Storianan cortico, by Quito Nicolaas. I still hadn't found the novel I was looking for by this Arubian author, so I got this book with short stories to rest assured... Like I said, I ended up not going to the intended bookstore. And the same happened in Aruba, where we found a bookstore while riding the tram downtown, and there I could finally get: Sombra di recuerdo, by Quito Nicolaas - which seems to be the first novel written in Papiamento, or so he says, or at least it is his first one. Impressive work, anyway, wiht 400 hundred pages. Hablemos Papiamento - a textbook from the same author of Papiamentu Textbook, which I used. I checked and, while the English and Dutch contents were the same, the Spanish one was considerably different and had lots of conversational sentences. It was much cheaper than the school textbook I could have bought in Curaçao, as well. On the last day, while at the airport in Aruba, I could find again the novel and other books by Quito Nicolaas, but I ended up buying just another corant from Aruba, as I had bought only one from Curaçao. So, this is what I've got. Not enough for a Super Challenge, but it will keep me busy, and considering how much my French got better after my 4th novel, I believe my Papiamentu will be consolidated when I'm finished reading those books. Being able to use a consistent dictionary makes all the difference, as I'm going to write next once I get back to ordinary log reports. Edited by Expugnator on 16 October 2013 at 11:29pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4953 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 151 of 153 29 October 2013 at 8:18pm | IP Logged |
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So, I finished my first book in Papiamentu! It was the teenager's novel E sekuestro -
Aventuranan di Jassy i Jacky. I liked it a lot! I had to check the dictionary for about 5 times each two pages. It took time because my dictionary is paperback, but it also means I understood nearly everything, because these words I checked could have been inferred from context. That is to say, when I read intensively, I read intensively. The same goes for French, at which I look up about the same amount of words even though I can infer them from context. Overall, I'm happy with the level reached. I'm going to start a new novel tomorrow and keep on watching several Youtube videos. Then when I'm done with the novels I bought I might consider just doing something once in a while in Papiamentu for maintenance. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Expugnator Hexaglot Senior Member Brazil Joined 4953 days ago 3335 posts - 4349 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian | Message 152 of 153 25 November 2013 at 7:15pm | IP Logged |
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This topic is likely to remain in the limbo. I don't have much feedback and the work I'm
currently doing with Papiamento doesn't require/provide much to be reflected upon. I'm still watching videos at Cool FM's YT channel as well as reading an interesting novel, 'E otro kara di solo'. As it is quite likely that as of 2014 I'm going to have a single yearly log, one may expect this log to remain as it is. I'd still warmly welcome any questions and remarks on learning Papiamento, though!! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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