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Whom would you meet if you could?

 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
34 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4 5  Next >>
Chung
Diglot
Senior Member
Joined 6915 days ago

4228 posts - 8259 votes 
20 sounds
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish

 
 Message 1 of 34
13 October 2013 at 6:59am | IP Logged 
Forgive me for what seems a bit out of my character on this board, but I started thinking recently about the people behind the handles.

There have been times when I've thought about meeting some of the members here in person and I figure that if people these days meet based on communication via the ether, then using this forum as a springboard would be fair game too. Certainly there are the polyglot conferences or congresses for the Esperantists. Yet as impressive as the attendees there often are, what about the people here of more "modest" accomplishments (especially those like I who are diglots, or moreover those who are monoglots but enthusiastic about learning their languages anyway) or who simply can't make it to those events? In other words, my mind isn't on only the acknowledged polyglots.

This is a bit of a variation of the thread "Most helpful member" but I've come to realize that as of now, there are some people here whom I admittedly would be especially keen to meet even though I could be just as happy to meet anyone here if they can put up with my quirks and interest in linguistics and affection for certain languages.

In alphabetical order:

bela_lugosi, Henkkeles, Kafea - They study Northern Saami. That is all.

Cavesa - I remember her comment that I was tempting her to learn Finnish because I posted a link to Nightwish's Erämaan viimeinen - among the few songs in Finnish done by the band. I'd be happy to meet her in person and also introduce her to one of my Czech friends who loves everything Finnish, not to mention that my friend is a huge fan of Nightwish.

daristani - I have this image that daristani is some kind of academic specializing in Turkic languages. Certainly there's been evidence of a solid grasp of Turkish and awareness of the languages and cultures further east. Finding people in my neck of the woods interested in Central Asia for its languages and cultures are few and far between.

Expugnator - If only because I could try to convince him to get off his ass and start studying a Slavonic or Uralic language, haha.

hribecek - There could be something off about meeting a Brit in the Czech Republic and then speaking Hungarian.

sans-serif - The least that I could do for all of the comments that he's made on my translations of Finnish to English is to buy him a few rounds; after that we'll then see who speaks Finnish better!

Serpent - I usually enjoy her posts that are tinged with indifference to institutionalized learning although I have to disappoint her in that I'm no longer as keen as she is on football. The fact that she loves and speaks Finnish makes it even more unlikely that I could ever not want to have a drink with her.

Solfrid Cristin - We don't have any target languages in common but she reminds me of one my friends of about the same age who's multilingual and has an easy way with people. That friend is a delight to talk to, and I suspect that Solfrid would be the same way. If we can't talk about languages, we could swap travel stories.

Tecktight - She hasn't posted in a while but I have a soft spot for anyone who loves Estonian as much as she does. I'm not even sure if she's still studying Estonian but I hope that she got a chance to make a detour to Estonia while studying in Russia.

vonPeterhof - Even though we don't really have any target languages in common (I might start studying Kazakh one of these days, and he might pick up BCMS/SC again), I often enjoy his posts/replies in threads requiring at least some background of linguistics. Informed but not at all a jerk about it.

I have to concede that anyone who studies a Finno-Ugric or any Slavonic language other than Russian* as a foreign language would probably get my attention too (Arekkusu, DaraghM, Evita, FuenfKatzen, lorinth, mick33, Mooby, prz_, stelingo, Tiktok, tricoteuse et al.) If I were to get wind of such a person in real life standing near me, I'd have to fight my impulse of linguistic nerdiness from rushing up to that person and trying to strike up a conversation.

I don't want to turn this into a popularity contest out of high school, but if you could, whom here would you especially like to meet in person (or daresay even befriend in real life?).

* Russian does nothing for me similarly to how French does nothing for Serpent. Besides I don't know enough Russian to do more than exchange a few greetings and don't see myself making the effort in the foreseeable future to go past that stage.
4 persons have voted this message useful



Via Diva
Diglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
last.fm/user/viadivaRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 3993 days ago

1109 posts - 1427 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: German, Italian, French, Swedish, Esperanto, Czech, Greek

 
 Message 2 of 34
13 October 2013 at 7:01am | IP Logged 
I think it would've been great to meet everyone who is reading my practically useless log. It might be funny thing to read, but I really think that my case is kinda rare over here, and people actually can get much more when reading logs of other people. Especially I want to meet those who bothers to comment there :)
I myself is useless from the point of my target languages, but as a native Russian speaker with diction problems and quite an imagination when it comes to speaking/ writing I could be a testing point for someone who wants to master Russian :)
1 person has voted this message useful



Bao
Diglot
Senior Member
Germany
tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5
Joined 5525 days ago

2256 posts - 4046 votes 
Speaks: German*, English
Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin

 
 Message 3 of 34
13 October 2013 at 7:57am | IP Logged 
Serpent, Cavesa and Via Diva are the ones I'd somehow like to meet, only if I knew who they were I'd be much too shy to talk to them. Scrap that, I'd simply be too shy to talk to them either way.
3 persons have voted this message useful



vonPeterhof
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 4531 days ago

715 posts - 1527 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German
Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish

 
 Message 4 of 34
13 October 2013 at 1:28pm | IP Logged 
Chung wrote:
vonPeterhof - Even though we don't really have any target languages in common (I might start studying Kazakh one of these days, and he might pick up BCMS/SC again), I often enjoy his posts/replies in threads requiring at least some background of linguistics. Informed but not at all a jerk about it.
Aww thank you! As someone both lacking formal training and certification in linguistics (bite me, Clugston) and frequently having a hard time expressing one's opinion online without coming across as hostile and/or condescending, this means a lot to me.

As for BCMS, I'm definitely thinking of picking it back up at a later time. I picked it up this year because we were planning to go to either Croatia or Montenegro for a family holiday, but those plans fell through. Since I'm studying to take the JLPT N1 (highest level Japanese proficiency test for non-natives) in December I've kinda put all my other languages into retention mode (and ended up picking up Latin in a moment of weakness, teehee). This doesn't apply to BCMS, because I haven't really got the chance to pick up anything worth retaining yet - if I do manage to travel to the region at some point in the future I don't wanna go around spouting tourist handbook phrases with Russian stresses and intonations. I'm thinking of eventually starting from scratch with something like the FSI course.

Bao wrote:
Serpent, Cavesa and Via Diva are the ones I'd somehow like to meet, only if I knew who they were I'd be much too shy to talk to them. Scrap that, I'd simply be too shy to talk to them either way.
Same here, only my top three names would probably be the Scandinavian trio of Solfrid Cristin, Iversen and Ari.
3 persons have voted this message useful



montmorency
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4587 days ago

2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 5 of 34
13 October 2013 at 11:23pm | IP Logged 
Not sure if I want to "finger" anyone on this forum, not because I wouldn't like to
meet them, but that picking out any one or some might cause offence to the others!

So I'll do it differently, and say I'd be very curious to meet, for example:

-Professor Arguelles (technically he is a forum member, but not active for a long long
time)
- David James
- Benny Lewis

(oh, of course, they are members too, but also not regular posters these days).

and many others, but those are the ones that first come to mind.

I'd be quite curious to meet FX, but I think that's even more unlikely to happen than
meeting the first three.


And although I have no interest in learning Japanese, I'd be kind of curious to meet
Khatzumoto.



Edited by montmorency on 13 October 2013 at 11:24pm

3 persons have voted this message useful



Expugnator
Hexaglot
Senior Member
Brazil
Joined 4925 days ago

3335 posts - 4349 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, Norwegian, French, English, Italian, Papiamento
Studies: Mandarin, Georgian, Russian

 
 Message 6 of 34
14 October 2013 at 7:23pm | IP Logged 
Haha thank you Chung! Bear in mind that Estonian is on my plans for the next year and
I've already learned some BCMS in the past! You and daristani are surely people I'd like
to meet, just like the Georgian learners and several other members I'd not due to the
risk of forgetting someone important.

It is much easier to associate nicknames-personal info-interests in a real-time chat than
in a forum, so, it takes time to get to remember people correctly.
1 person has voted this message useful



sctroyenne
Diglot
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5150 days ago

739 posts - 1312 votes 
Speaks: English*, French
Studies: Spanish, Irish

 
 Message 7 of 34
15 October 2013 at 12:07am | IP Logged 
I'm actually kind of surprised that there haven't been organized regional meetups for
this forum before. Other online communities I've participated in have eventually made
that step. I've met Swift and chatted about leveling up in French to become fluent enough
to study in France. It's nice to have online discussions but it's not quite the same as
having a lively chat in person (plus it's a nice confirmation that flesh and blood people
like you with your same niche interests really do exist).
1 person has voted this message useful



montmorency
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4587 days ago

2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 8 of 34
15 October 2013 at 1:16am | IP Logged 
sctroyenne wrote:
I'm actually kind of surprised that there haven't been organized
regional meetups for
this forum before. Other online communities I've participated in have eventually made
that step. I've met Swift and chatted about leveling up in French to become fluent
enough
to study in France. It's nice to have online discussions but it's not quite the same as
having a lively chat in person (plus it's a nice confirmation that flesh and blood
people
like you with your same niche interests really do exist).



Well, there is now a HTLAL "Language Learning Den" Google+ Community.
It was partly, or mainly for organising hangouts for practicing one's TLs, but no
reason (I would have thought) why hangouts can't be used for general talk about
languages.


1 person has voted this message useful



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