... at least when I started writing this. We'll see how many subscribers (a.k.a. none) I had, since they'll be the only ones prompted to check and see if this thing is still being updated. Because it hasn't.
Chinese is the best. I love it. Great people, love the language, busy as I've ever been, but that really won't ever change, will it?
I've been um, nostalgaic (?) lately, with stuff. Stuff I haven't done in a long time: I'm listening to super old music (like, recently super old, e.g. from Junior High) and reading old books and stuff. It's funny to look back and read your blog (maybe not so much funny as embarassing, not unlike old photo albums).
I spent tons of time with languages I haven't touched since. At one point, I could introduce myself and chat casually in Swahili. Gone. Almost in Romanian. Gone. Hungarian. Never could. German. Was going well. I am now embarrased. Russian? Here's the best news: A good friend of mine is learning Russian, and wants to practice and use it and stuff. That's AWESOME! I never really used Russian with anyone when I was seriously studying it. Shame. But anyway, I've been working on my Pimsleur again, and am 6-8 lessons into the second 'course' or whatever. It's fun.
So, for old times' sake, let's share some exciting linguistic facts:
Lithuanian is, ostensibly, the closet [living] language to Indo-European. Lithuanian. Not Persian, not Albanian or Armenian or Greek or any of that. Weird.
While we're in the Baltics, Latvian is Tonal.
The Zulu word (I feel like I've shared this already) for 'tomorrow' is mañana (not necessarily spelled that way). Strange, no? Well, not as much as you may think. The Spanish settled in [what is now South Africa] in (some year I don't know, but it seemed before the Dutch did. At any rate, they were there a long time ago), and at the time, Zulu speaking people were farmers or whatever, and didn't run businesses and weren't trying to take over the world, i.e. they had no word for 'tomorrow,' because the concept was unnecessary. The Spanish came and introduced the concept because they were so stuff-driven, and needed that structure. Whatever.
Nothing else exciting for the moment, and there's no guarantee I'll ever be back here.
Showing posts with label Russian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Russian. Show all posts
12.10.2007
6.15.2007
What Have I Been Working on?
So yes, this is what I did last night. Did it take an hour? No! 当然不!!! It took two and a half. But I've got it down on paper in Chinese and pinyin, but I think I can pretty much recall the whole thing without having to cheat, except for when I choke. Very exciting. It's coming along well, and I'm really enjoying it, although I was in a conversation the other day with a friend, and all the words he couldn't remember in Chinese came to me in Russian. I need to transfer mentally. When you start playing around like this with different languages (some semi-seriously), you begin to see the glaring advantages of studying multiple languages, and how that different outlook helps you tremendously to understand concepts that may seem foreign at first. Love this book. Anyone that has even a mild interest in linguistics or international communication should cough up the $14 and go get this. Especially if you want to acqure an unbridled lust for languages and a very efficient way to pick them up during commercial breaks. Tres intelligent.
3.02.2007
The Best of...
...me!
In my efforts to get a messenger bag that 'works,' I spent some time at Old Navy and Target, more to look at stuff I WON'T want to buy so I'll have an idea of what I DO want to buy. Well, the first stop was Old Navy, and I bought a bag there. I liked it, but was a little skeptical. I felt like I was wasting time, so I decided to get it. The size is great, and the material is rugged, but I didn't know if it had enough pockets, etc. I broke down and went to the cashier expecting to fork over the $25 it was going to cost. Turns out, my total was just barely over $6. Six!!! That thriled me. It wasn't until this morning that I realized the little journal I bought for the trip fits swimmingly into the little interior pouch. It wasn't until this morning as well that I noticed some extra pockets and pouches that fit my mp3 player, pens, etc. and that thirlled me.
That having been said, I was happy with my purchase, but strolled into Target to finish up some other odds'n'ends. I saw a lady shelving women's shoes, and her nametag read 'Lana.' I asked her a question I already knew the answer to, and she responded with rolled r's and non-English vowel qualities. I asked her where 'Lana' came from, and she said 'It's Russian.' Need I relate my ecstasy? We talked for probably fifteen minutes, and (maybe it was just the coffee, but) I was as comfortable and conversational as I've ever been. We discussed our families and backgrounds, and she wanted to know where I grew up in Russia. She laughed when I told her I was American, and then apologized profusely when she realized I was serious. She speaks German as well, but not very much, so we continued in Russian, but I was on top of my game and kept my cool. I have her contact information and will be ~following up~. I didn't discuss the reasons for our foreign language interest, but she lives in our territory, so we'll see. It was amazing.
Things are almost completely finished coming together for Asia. Holy crap: it's just over a week away.
In my efforts to get a messenger bag that 'works,' I spent some time at Old Navy and Target, more to look at stuff I WON'T want to buy so I'll have an idea of what I DO want to buy. Well, the first stop was Old Navy, and I bought a bag there. I liked it, but was a little skeptical. I felt like I was wasting time, so I decided to get it. The size is great, and the material is rugged, but I didn't know if it had enough pockets, etc. I broke down and went to the cashier expecting to fork over the $25 it was going to cost. Turns out, my total was just barely over $6. Six!!! That thriled me. It wasn't until this morning that I realized the little journal I bought for the trip fits swimmingly into the little interior pouch. It wasn't until this morning as well that I noticed some extra pockets and pouches that fit my mp3 player, pens, etc. and that thirlled me.
That having been said, I was happy with my purchase, but strolled into Target to finish up some other odds'n'ends. I saw a lady shelving women's shoes, and her nametag read 'Lana.' I asked her a question I already knew the answer to, and she responded with rolled r's and non-English vowel qualities. I asked her where 'Lana' came from, and she said 'It's Russian.' Need I relate my ecstasy? We talked for probably fifteen minutes, and (maybe it was just the coffee, but) I was as comfortable and conversational as I've ever been. We discussed our families and backgrounds, and she wanted to know where I grew up in Russia. She laughed when I told her I was American, and then apologized profusely when she realized I was serious. She speaks German as well, but not very much, so we continued in Russian, but I was on top of my game and kept my cool. I have her contact information and will be ~following up~. I didn't discuss the reasons for our foreign language interest, but she lives in our territory, so we'll see. It was amazing.
Things are almost completely finished coming together for Asia. Holy crap: it's just over a week away.
2.20.2007
Fun Filled Day
I spoke to people in five languages yesterday (yes, one of them was English). I wouldn’t call them conversations necessarily, because some of them only consisted of “Hello. How are you? I don’t speak [language]. Thank you. Goodbye,” but they were what they were. They were as follows:
1. English
2. Russian- talked to a Ukrainian waitress at a swanky bar-type Mexican restaurant in Russian, as well as another character below.
3. Turkish- cashier at Marshall’s. Name was Sima; asked if it was Persian. She said yes, but that her parents were Turkish. Started talking; she said she didn’t really speak it, but she still had an accent. Maybe she couldn’t understand me at all, so I said ‘My Turkish is bad.’ (Turkcem kötüdür.)
4. Romanian- Employee at Target speaks Romanian. Said the very little I could say, but amounted to a small teeny tiny conversation. Asked her if she spoke any other languages. She said Russian, so I all but attacked her with Russian, and then she told me that despite her having studied it for 12 years, she doesn’t like it, so she hasn’t learned it. However, she did say she speaks…
5. French, and asked me if I spoke it, and I said coolly: ‘pourquois pas?’ and finished off with the other somewhat incoherent things I could say in French, and I’m sure she saw right through it, but she smiled and that was it.
All in all, those escapades made my day. What ISN’T making my day is the STUPID issues I’m having with my media player screwing up my fauxPod. For some reason it thinks I told it to remove tons and tons of my media at random, and it isn’t getting put back into the list of ABSENT media files to sync NEXT TIME, and now my library has gaping holes in it. It ALSO saw fit to create doubles (and sometimes triples) of highly unnecessary photos I never intended to carry around with me, like one of mom’s friends wedding showers. (Good thing I had triples of 100 pictures of a bunch of women standing around candles and cake, right? Cuz that doesn’t take up 2GB of storage unnecessarily.) So now I’m (hopefully) rebuilding the stuff and filling in the holes without adding quads of stuff I’ve already got on there. Sorry, WMP 11, although you’re cool with some new awesome features, you’re also a forerunner of Vista: I just think you’re unnecessary, and it’s too bad you lost some of your totally awesome features, like the ‘jump to artist/album’ from the search function, etc. You’ve lost some awesome features, WMP 11, and some new ones that you have are about as useful as a RadioShack in an Amish village, (or redundant/useless item of choice in compromising situation of choice).
For the love o’ Pete…
1. English
2. Russian- talked to a Ukrainian waitress at a swanky bar-type Mexican restaurant in Russian, as well as another character below.
3. Turkish- cashier at Marshall’s. Name was Sima; asked if it was Persian. She said yes, but that her parents were Turkish. Started talking; she said she didn’t really speak it, but she still had an accent. Maybe she couldn’t understand me at all, so I said ‘My Turkish is bad.’ (Turkcem kötüdür.)
4. Romanian- Employee at Target speaks Romanian. Said the very little I could say, but amounted to a small teeny tiny conversation. Asked her if she spoke any other languages. She said Russian, so I all but attacked her with Russian, and then she told me that despite her having studied it for 12 years, she doesn’t like it, so she hasn’t learned it. However, she did say she speaks…
5. French, and asked me if I spoke it, and I said coolly: ‘pourquois pas?’ and finished off with the other somewhat incoherent things I could say in French, and I’m sure she saw right through it, but she smiled and that was it.
All in all, those escapades made my day. What ISN’T making my day is the STUPID issues I’m having with my media player screwing up my fauxPod. For some reason it thinks I told it to remove tons and tons of my media at random, and it isn’t getting put back into the list of ABSENT media files to sync NEXT TIME, and now my library has gaping holes in it. It ALSO saw fit to create doubles (and sometimes triples) of highly unnecessary photos I never intended to carry around with me, like one of mom’s friends wedding showers. (Good thing I had triples of 100 pictures of a bunch of women standing around candles and cake, right? Cuz that doesn’t take up 2GB of storage unnecessarily.) So now I’m (hopefully) rebuilding the stuff and filling in the holes without adding quads of stuff I’ve already got on there. Sorry, WMP 11, although you’re cool with some new awesome features, you’re also a forerunner of Vista: I just think you’re unnecessary, and it’s too bad you lost some of your totally awesome features, like the ‘jump to artist/album’ from the search function, etc. You’ve lost some awesome features, WMP 11, and some new ones that you have are about as useful as a RadioShack in an Amish village, (or redundant/useless item of choice in compromising situation of choice).
For the love o’ Pete…
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