Tristano's log 2017: Wanderland in the Netherlusts

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Tristano
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Location: The Netherlands
Languages: Native: Italian
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Studies: German
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Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5141
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Re: Tristano's log 2017: Hebrew

Postby Tristano » Sun Mar 12, 2017 10:16 pm

I finished reading "Eva en El labirinto", in Spanish.
The response is: this book is horrible.
Zero originality. Take pride and prejudice; restrict the cast to four people: the protagonist, the BFF, the bad one that is actually good and the good I've that is actually bad. Instead of rich noble people are three lesbians and one bisexual (and that is not a problem). Oh and the father that has the only utility to have an heart attack. No descriptions, no background. No social struggles, that would make sense since we are talking about a minority. Plus detailed descriptions (but still pretty bland) of sexual intercourses that don't add anything. It's worth noting that it is for free on Amazon, and still I think that it's not worth the price.
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Tristano
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Location: The Netherlands
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Studies: German
Can't wait to put his hands on: Scandinavian languages, Slavic languages, Turkish, Arabic and other stuff
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Re: Tristano's log 2017: Hebrew

Postby Tristano » Wed Mar 15, 2017 12:14 pm

I started a new book.
This time I'm going to have a somewhat bigger challenge because it is in a language I don't speak and I've never read before. The book is 1984 from George Orwell, in the Portuguese version (I bought it in Lisbon).

Knowing Italian, French and Spanish Portuguese is a sort of a walk in the park to read. It looks like Spanish spoken by a Romanian guy who drank too much Palinka.

Het seems toe bie very recognizebaar with some woord dat lijkt aluhelueluelue but overall niet zo ströndj.
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Tristano
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Location: The Netherlands
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Re: Tristano's log 2017: Hebrew

Postby Tristano » Thu Mar 16, 2017 9:57 pm

I'm watching the TV series the Shannara Chronicles and the fact me remember that I have the whole series of books in Dutch on my Kindle. Maybe it is a better idea than reading 1984 in Portuguese? I'm just afraid that reading an entire collection of books be a very autopunitive experience.
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Tristano
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Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 7:11 am
Location: The Netherlands
Languages: Native: Italian
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Studies: German
Can't wait to put his hands on: Scandinavian languages, Slavic languages, Turkish, Arabic and other stuff
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Re: Tristano's log 2017: Hebrew

Postby Tristano » Thu Mar 23, 2017 9:02 am

I'm back studying Hebrew! I'm going to finish the whole Pimsleur course like declared.
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Tristano
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Location: The Netherlands
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Studies: German
Can't wait to put his hands on: Scandinavian languages, Slavic languages, Turkish, Arabic and other stuff
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Re: Tristano's log 2017: Hebrew

Postby Tristano » Thu Mar 30, 2017 12:45 pm

With my current pace I will learn Hebrew in 15 years. In the meanwhile I noticed that if I try to switch to English in a phone conversations most of the people switch back to Dutch. Considering that I always had the opposite problem back in the days it is quite an achievement.

I'm slowly becoming a stereotypical Dutch person that has a limited knowledge of English and couldn't care less about improving it because in the end Nederlands is veel belangrijker dan Engels. En ook meer cool! Engels is de taal die de buitenlanders gebruiken wanneer ze geen Nederlands kunnen praten ;)
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reineke
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Re: Tristano's log 2017: Hebrew

Postby reineke » Thu Mar 30, 2017 1:27 pm

Tristano wrote:With my current pace I will learn Hebrew in 15 years. In the meanwhile I noticed that if I try to switch to English in a phone conversations most of the people switch back to Dutch. Considering that I always had the opposite problem back in the days it is quite an achievement.

I'm slowly becoming a stereotypical Dutch person that has a limited knowledge of English and couldn't care less about improving it because in the end Nederlands is veel belangrijker dan Engels. En ook meer cool! Engels is de taal die de buitenlanders gebruiken wanneer ze geen Nederlands kunnen praten ;)


It's too late, Tristano. Your writing skills are too good to claim you have a limited knowledge of English. Maybe Dutch helped improve your sentence structure. A stereotypical Dutch person is awesome at English. A stereotypical Italian, on the other hand, works better in your example. I am not sure about the positive self-image, though.
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Tristano
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Re: Tristano's log 2017: Hebrew

Postby Tristano » Fri Mar 31, 2017 2:28 pm

reineke wrote:It's too late, Tristano. Your writing skills are too good to claim you have a limited knowledge of English. Maybe Dutch helped improve your sentence structure. A stereotypical Dutch person is awesome at English. A stereotypical Italian, on the other hand, works better in your example. I am not sure about the positive self-image, though.


Hey Reineke,
Thanks for your compliment about my English. I must cordially disagree on what you wrote though:

- the stereotypical Italian doesn't have a limited knowledge of English. He doesn't know any English, like many of our (absolutely not) beloved politicians showed to the whole world making the Belpaese do a lot of figure di merda.

- the stereotypical Dutch with amazing knowledge of English is actually probably less than 10% of the people. The others have a very limited vocabulary and /or an indecent pronunciation and/or horrible grammar or a passive only understanding or not even that. It is easy to be mistaken here: expats and tourists live in a bubble, mostly in the Randstad or Utrecht, mostly in the city center. There is where the English heroes live. Such knowledgeable English speakers live in a much lesser percentage in other regions where the expats almost never dare to venture. Don't expect the same experience when you go to random villages in Friesland, Drenthe or Groningen for example. The serious risk you run there is to find someone with horrible Dutch speaking a dramatically platte Drents or Gronings and trust me, it's not a nice experience.

The Dutch themselves joke about their weird version of English, called Dunglish. For reference, Google Dunglish and go to the Facebook page "make that that cat wise" ;)
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Tristano
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Location: The Netherlands
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Studies: German
Can't wait to put his hands on: Scandinavian languages, Slavic languages, Turkish, Arabic and other stuff
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=5141
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Re: Tristano's log 2017: Hebrew

Postby Tristano » Tue Apr 11, 2017 9:23 pm

I got the news that my Israeli colleague will soon no longer work with my unit and with that two things vanish:
- casual practice
- the motivation I started Hebrew

Now I have three options:
- I continue with Hebrew, even if I will probably never ever speak it again in my life - there are only two teachers on Italki and they are very expensive. Pros: good as first semitic language. Cons: much less possibilities than Arabic.

- I start Portuguese because: very easy +1 and will both reinforce and ruin my Spanish. Pros: easy, I can already read native books without ever having it studied. Cons: yet another romance language.

- I restart Russian like it was my original plan before I took the Hebrew way. Pros: I fulfill my current biggest language love. Cons: too wise, I must do something stupid and waste precious time. It's written in my contract.

- I start another language and then change my mind and go back to the previous three options. Pros: funny. Cons: stupid.
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Expugnator
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Re: Tristano's log 2017: Hebrew

Postby Expugnator » Tue Apr 11, 2017 10:08 pm

It's sad that you're letting go of Hebrew, tristano, but I understand that your motivation is gone.

If I were you I wouldn't take any other Romance language seriously. I'd either pick Russian, which you have reasons for learning, or pick another language of your choice.
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zenmonkey
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Re: Tristano's log 2017: Hebrew

Postby zenmonkey » Tue Apr 11, 2017 10:33 pm

Just so you know, there are actually many many people on italki that speak Hebrew and request exchanges. You don't need a teacher for casual practice and there are more than two teachers ... Anyway, best of luck with your motivation and new family!
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