the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

[Cavesa]

Since it's less than two weeks into the year, I find three books pretty impressive too, especially in a foreign language. I've still only read one.

I have some kind of mysterious respiratory thing going on too. Maybe I caught it from you. I can't figure out what the problem is since I'm not actually sick, but it's very annoying.

Thank you, Brun Ugle

I think it is totally possible. My cough obviously doesn't consider it necessary to follow logic and it takes the pneumology textbook for a recommendation, not binding rules of this game.

I've just spent 55 minutes on 3 units in the GdU. And it was a disaster. Ok, the first two weren't that bad. But unit 76 was terrible, I had a half of it wrong. I am quite ok with subjuntivo presente and its uses. But once they start mixing préterito imperfecto de subjuntivo, I get confused and make mistakes even in the stuff I used to get right. Well, this will take a bit of time to digest. And there préterito perfecto de subjuntivo waiting for me in just a few units. I am scared

[Jar-Ptitsa]

I had a cough as well in December, and azithromicin was great, after about two days my cough was better then over. It was an irritating tickle in the throat-cough that wouldn't disappear. I hope that you and brun ugle get better soon. So many people have this cough.

The poor squirrels: they kill them upstairs with poison I can hear them when they die becuase it's above the ceiling in my room. I think squiirels are cute, but some people call them rodents. Are they the red or grey ones in the Czech republic? In London they're grey, but in Belgium they're red.

[Cavesa]

My cough is more like the somebody-trying-to-rip-my-lungs-out type of cough. But it is still just the second week of this, so it may still get better long before the spring begins. I like to be an optimist sometimes

I am in the middle of Lektion 10. It is on various dialects of German. I am failing this terribly. Hopefully. at least the grammar exercises are gonna be more or less ok. I am near the end!

In Spanish, I may be progressing faster again. There is a treasure of units not incluing subjuntivo a bit later. So, I am gonna mix the hellish lessons with the non-hellish ones. Perhaps this way, I will find some of my lost enthusiasm for GUE B.

How can anyone kill squirrels?!
We've got mostly the red ones, but I've seen a gray one too. They are beautiful. And no, I haven't been sharing my coffee with them.

[Jar-Ptitsa]

Your cough sounds very nasty!!!!! Mine wasn't nice, I coughed a lot and for example lost my voice some days and had to whisper or write. When I saw my doctor I whispered and by mistake he whispered as well once, it was really funny, we laugehd about that. But my throat made me cough, the tickle, and he said that it (my throat) seemed infected (not to see it, but feel it lower than you can see in your mouth). I didn't have a sore throat at all, or fever or cold or flu, only the cough. Get better soon.

Yes, I agree about the squirrels. If I were the prime minister or president I would ban it so that they can't kill them, although they don't care about the law. I agree with you as well that squirrels are beautiful. There are millions of the grey sqirrels in England, I see lots each day, but in belgium I didn't see them often, although I was in the countryside or small town. I think that the red ones are shy and the grey ones are not.

Which dialects of German? German has so many!!! The Spanish subjunctive is confsuing for me too, but my Spanish is rubbish in general

[MamaPata]

Some of the push to kill grey squirrels is because they overwhelm the red squirrels. I think red squirrels may have become endangered in the UK at one point, but that may just be exaggeration. I always find it funny, because for me, grey squirrels are just boring and annoying. But when friends come from Australia, they're really amazed by them!

There are also black squirrels in parts of France...

[tiia]

I was going to write more or less the same as MamaPata did about the grey squirrels. AFAIK the rest of Europe doesn't really have this kind of problem, at least I've never heard it from some other places.


It would be interesting to hear the German dialects as well. I can distict a few ones quite clearly, but it always depends on the speaker how much you notice the dialect.
Some dialects are usually easier to recognise than others... I don't think I would guess Frankfurt right. I mean there is some dialect in Hessen, and I now how they say "Hessen" there, but other than that...

Btw. also Germans don't understand all of the dialects themselves. E.g. I almost don't understand "real" bavarian dialect. Or I once had a craftsman, who spoke a really strong saxonian or other local dialect and to me it could have been nearly any language. I knew he understood me, but I didn't really had any clue what he was saying. I was just happy when I understood that I should sign the paper, that he had done his work.

On TV they often provide subtitles for Swiss-German speakers, because then it's quite common that people don't understand it. Although quite often they are understandable. Sometimes they also do this for other people with a really strong and difficult dialect, but for Swiss-German speakers they do this rather frequently.

[Brun Ugle]

The grey squirrels are American (that's why they're so pushy and rude)*. They are not an indigenous species to Europe; they were introduced here. Their populations tend to get out of hand because they apparently don't have a lot of predators here to keep their populations down. Something probably needs to be done to cull them sometimes, but I'm not sure poison is the best method. Hopefully it is fast-acting and not too painful, and doesn't have any unintended victims.

* I can say that because I'm American too.

[Systematiker]

I feel bad for the squirrels - I have tons of the grey ones here, and they've slowly learned to stay away from my backyard. It used to be a problem for them, the cat would bring them to me.

German dialects are quite fun, I think. I can get by in a couple of them (and have some stuff in them), Swabian and Bavarian (Minga, to be specific on the latter), and Im interested in Siebenbürger sächsisch. Actually, the Southern German dialects have a few grammar features that are unique, and some are easier for native anglophones than standard German. Höflichkeitskonditional is great.

Regarding the dialect in Hessen - I knew a guy I used to joke with that his dialect must be called "hässlich"

[Elenia]

To weigh in on the squirrel business: red squirrels are now massively endangered in England because of grey squirrels. I haven't seen a red squirrel here since I was a child, I don't think my almost-seventeen year old brother has ever seen one. It's a shame. Grey squirrels are banned on the Isle of White and there is even a special customs thing to make sure no one tries to smuggle them on the island

Otherwise: on my year abroad, we all realised that squirrel is often really hard to say in other languages. My German friend despaired of ever teaching us to pronounce it correctly, and she also despaired of ever saying it correctly in English herself. I can't even remember what it was in Danish, all that I remember was that it was extremely difficult to get my tongue around. And I even found it difficult in French. Tricksy squirrels!

[Brun Ugle]

To weigh in on the squirrel business: red squirrels are now massively endangered in England because of grey squirrels. I haven't seen a red squirrel here since I was a child, I don't think my almost-seventeen year old brother has ever seen one. It's a shame. Grey squirrels are banned on the Isle of White and there is even a special customs thing to make sure no one tries to smuggle them on the island

Otherwise: on my year abroad, we all realised that squirrel is often really hard to say in other languages. My German friend despaired of ever teaching us to pronounce it correctly, and she also despaired of ever saying it correctly in English herself. I can't even remember what it was in Danish, all that I remember was that it was extremely difficult to get my tongue around. And I even found it difficult in French. Tricksy squirrels!

It's easy in Norwegian. "Ekorn." It's fun because it's kind of like acorn, but the first vowel is a bit more of an eh sound.

Also, squirrel was my first word when I was a baby. I guess I was always a weird child.