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I found myself a xxx today :-) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5129 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes  Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 12 07 June 2014 at 3:22am | IP Logged | ||
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I found myself a Russian today :-) That may not sound like much of an achievement, but finding the right kind
of Russian can be difficult. I had already found a few Russians, but they have been in Norway so long, that they speak Norwegian too well. This means that our language of communication is Norwegian, and I never get to speak any Russian with them. I hang onto them anyway, since they are really nice people, and because I think long term. This one, however, is perfect. She speaks no Norwegian and little English so our language of communication is Russian. She is also super cute, pregnant and delighted to have someone helping her with her Norwegian, because she does not have a job and cannot afford to pay for Norwegian classes, so it is a match made in heaven. I have already started to think about how I could help her get clothes for her baby. I have lots of friends and relatives who have clothes and toys, and I also have some myself. I met her because we have just moved offices, and one of the guys transporting boxes for us was Russian. We chatted a bit (that is he talked, I listened and occasionally I even understood a little :-) and then he asked if I had anyone to practice my Russian with. I said no, and he told me that he had a friend who needed someone to meet up for Norwegian practice, and would I be interested? I was, of course, and today we spoke for over two hours. Given that I had already had a three hour Russian class today, I was all warmed up, so it went quite well. I was not really prepared to explain Norwegian language and grammar in Russian, but I guess I'll pick up the necessary vocabulary. My other Russian friends I have found on the train, on the train station, in a local shop and at work, and one is my ex-Russian teacher. Have you found any TL speakers locally, and if so, where have you met them? 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4164 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans | Message 2 of 12 07 June 2014 at 5:51am | IP Logged | ||
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I found an Afrikaans speaker...in court of all places! I can say I very honestly never expected to find anyone from South Africa in my area (we're very Eastern European out this way), let alone someone who speaks Afrikaans.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 3894 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 3 of 12 07 June 2014 at 8:13am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm so lucky as to find native speakers of both my target languages just by walking out the front door. :)
And still I don't find enough opportunities to practice my French or Breton with actual people. :P 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| rdearman Senior Member United Kingdom rdearman.orgRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5031 days ago 881 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian, French, Mandarin | Message 4 of 12 07 June 2014 at 8:46am | IP Logged | ||
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I can speak to some of my work colleagues in French. Although mostly the colleagues who speak French but are not French. AKA Germans, Hungarians, and Portuguese people who speak French.
The people with whom I cannot speak French with are the English (who don't know how to speak French) and the French (who always speak English to me). It is funny the people who could help me the most don't seem to want to tolerate my attempts to speak with them. So I'm going to wind up speaking French with a Hungarian accent at this rate! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| vonPeterhof Tetraglot Senior Member Russian FederationRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4567 days ago 715 posts - 1527 votes Speaks: Russian*, EnglishC2, Japanese, German Studies: Kazakh, Korean, Norwegian, Turkish | Message 5 of 12 07 June 2014 at 9:26am | IP Logged | ||
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There's probably literally thousands of restaurants and cafés offering Japanese cuisine in Moscow, but the one that's the closest to my apartment happens to be run by a subsidiary of a noodle shop chain that's actually from Japan. It's pretty popular with the Japanese people living here, so in theory it shouldn't be too hard for me to run into a native speaker. Unfortunately, I only ever get to go there on weekend afternoons when it's full of expats enjoying their day off with their families, and it doesn't feel right to intrude upon that with my conversation practice.
The Japan Foundation's lectures on the methodology of teaching beginner-level Japanese I've been attending were a godsend though. About a third of the attendees are Japanese people interested in teaching Japanese as a foreign language, so this has been the perfect venue to interact with native speakers on subjects we share an interest in. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6704 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 12 07 June 2014 at 2:00pm | IP Logged | ||
I usually don't approach people because of their native language, but if were - and if I'd count those who regularly visit the main library here in town, I could find speakers of Arabic, Persian, Lithuanian, Estonian, Thai, Persian, Mandarin, Russian, Polish, French, Dutch, German, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Spanish, Turkish, Kurdish, Japanese, Italian, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian and maybe something else. Edited by jeff_lindqvist on 07 June 2014 at 6:24pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 4925 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 7 of 12 07 June 2014 at 5:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have an aunt that loves to gamble at the casino, and I go with her sometimes.
Unfortunately, I run out of money long before she does, so I usually end up in the deli at the back of the casino, which happens to have WiFi. I'll sit there and go through lessons, audio, text, whatever to pass the time waiting for my aunt to finish up (it can sometimes be hours!) I wouldn't say I've befriended them, but I occasionally run into a group of elderly Ojibwe ladies there. While we don't really have complete conversations in Ojibwe, they're usually able to answer any language-related questions I might have. And they still wonder why I bother to learn their language. R. == 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 6951 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 8 of 12 07 June 2014 at 6:04pm | IP Logged | ||
I'd run into them here via Couchsurfing, friends or classes. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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