Bla bla bla

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
Tomás
Blue Belt
Posts: 554
Joined: Sat Oct 10, 2015 9:48 pm
Languages: English (N). Currently studying Spanish (intermediate), French (false beginner).
x 661

Re: Nooj's language journey

Postby Tomás » Tue Feb 28, 2017 1:49 am

Thanks for that post. I'll probably never study Arabic but that is very interesting to know. My family lived in Rabat for two years back in the late 1960s when I was a small child, but I only had French lessons in school there. No Arabic, unfortunately. But at least I got a little bit of French.
1 x

nooj
Brown Belt
Posts: 1257
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:59 pm
Languages: english (n)
x 3358

Re: Nooj's language journey

Postby nooj » Wed Apr 26, 2017 12:47 pm

My french is rushing ahead at breakneck speed. It comes in spits and spurts like that. Sometimes i feel motivated to put effort into one language and drop another completely.

Over the holidays i went to Andalucía, malaga, granada and Cádiz...i had no plans, no place to stay, i knew no one there. I basically ended up meeting people in the street, clubs, bars...we ate together, drank together, they invited me over to their places...i really love southern spain. The people are just...nice. I could see myself easily living there for years and that scares me a little.

i love the varieties of spanish spoken in the south! Each region speaks différently, a sevillano speaks very différently from a granadino and they speak differently in turn from a gaditano. My favourite dialect of the south to this point has to be from Cádiz. I expected more difficulties actually, given that andaluz has the reptuation of being 'hard', but not really. Although murciano does challenge me. Spanish is spanish...

My next job will take me to Uzbekistán in a couple of months, so i need to learn uzbek and russian and hopefully (if i get time) i can break out my persian, rustified, in tajik speaking places!!
2 x
زندگی را با عشق
نوش جان باید کرد

nooj
Brown Belt
Posts: 1257
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:59 pm
Languages: english (n)
x 3358

Re: Nooj's language journey

Postby nooj » Fri May 05, 2017 1:10 am

I also tried out for a job in mallorca and got accepted surprisingly, so i have to choose between mallorca and uzbekistan. In mallorca i could continue my spanish journey and start a new one, mallorquin (the variety of catalán spoken there). In uzbekistan i could finally learn russian and uzbek and id be ideally placed for my next goal of living in iran. I donno...

I read an interesting article. Its very hard to not fall into sentimentalism or romanticism, but the author is a linguist and she treats the subject with the appropriate amount of scientific rigour and personal sensitivity.

http://m.nautil.us/issue/30/identity/th ... -languages

Its reminiscient of my own expérience with korean, the only language i spoke until 5 and now is restricted to talking with my family. Unless i marry another korean or move back there, i doubt i will pass my korean on to my children (if i ever have any). They will be cut off from my entire korean side of the family. They may not even be able to communicate with their grandmother. My mother speaks little english.
2 x
زندگی را با عشق
نوش جان باید کرد

User avatar
druckfehler
Yellow Belt
Posts: 92
Joined: Wed Oct 28, 2015 8:30 am
Location: Germany
Languages: German (N), English (C2+), Korean (B2), Persian (A2), Portuguese (passive A2/B1) , French (remnants), Mandarin (bits and pieces)
x 144

Re: Nooj's language journey

Postby druckfehler » Wed May 24, 2017 10:36 pm

nooj wrote:Korea reminds me of Morocco in a lot of ways: the social conservativeness, the family life style, the communitarian culture.


Interesting log! What a great opportunity to work in many different countries!

It's especially interesting for me to read about your comparison between Korea and Morocco. And that you're very keen on living in Iran because you get along well with Persians.

I studied Korean for several years (just for fun) and tried to immerse in the culture as well as I could. After Korean, I started studying Persian and from my German perspective I see so many cultural similarities! Among those the things you also mention about Morocco, but also small things like what constitutes good/bad manners. It's a fascinating topic. Is this the big East vs West cultural difference? How many of those differences are consequences of being pronouncedly patriarchal cultures? Do the cultural similarities stem from ancient trade connections through the Silk Road (I admit I have no clue about this stuff)?
Anyway, sorry for derailing your log like that! I'm curious to read where you'll be going next and which languages you'll subsequently focus on.
1 x

nooj
Brown Belt
Posts: 1257
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:59 pm
Languages: english (n)
x 3358

Re: Nooj's language journey

Postby nooj » Sat May 27, 2017 8:36 am

Is this the big East vs West cultural difference?


I think traditional Western cultures, at least around the Mediterranean, are similar in this respect to Morocco.

In Korea there was a time when putting elderly people into nursing homes would have been unthinkable...we often lived with our parents (or even grandparents) and we had a duty to look after them, care for them and this was true in the West and East in traditional societies. People still living with their parents is not an uncommon thing in Spain, Italy, Greece...

Confucianism had a massive influence on Korea and you know this meant that we were extremely family oriented, with the father at the head of the family. But that's no different from any other traditional patriarchal society.

3washrek mbruka and have a blessed Ramadan everyone!

As for my next language, I heard someone speak a language with ejectives and implosives a few days ago and asked them what it was. They told me it was Hausa. It sounds so nice! There are quite a few Hausa speakers here in Morocco because of immigrants from Niger and other countries. But I'm still working my butt off on Tashelhit, so I can't switch languages yet. In fact it's one of the reasons why I chose (for sure??) Mallorca, because there's quite a lot of Moroccan immigrants in Catalunya. I can keep on practicing my Arabic and Tashelhit or maybe even learn another Berber language like Tarifit...man, if only I could dedicate myself to languages full time. :|
1 x
زندگی را با عشق
نوش جان باید کرد

nooj
Brown Belt
Posts: 1257
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:59 pm
Languages: english (n)
x 3358

Re: Nooj's language journey

Postby nooj » Mon Oct 09, 2017 11:25 am

A Spanish friend of mine tipped me off to a discovery that has revolutionised my life.

It turns out that dubbings of cartoons in Spain's other national languages are infinitely better than the Spanish dubbing, especially if it is in Galician.

Thus, I've been watching Shin Chan in Galician, which I don't fully understand...but is quite great, because I'd never seen it in English either! It's quite funny.

Now, if only someone would do this for Steven Universe...
0 x
زندگی را با عشق
نوش جان باید کرد

nooj
Brown Belt
Posts: 1257
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:59 pm
Languages: english (n)
x 3358

Re: Nooj's language journey

Postby nooj » Tue Nov 07, 2017 10:49 am

Okay, I've fallen madly in love with Basque.

My housemate was Basque and she taught me a few words and expressions like aita (father), eskerrik asko (thanks), egun on (good morning), gabon (good night). At the time I wasn't too interested, I'm ashamed to say, because I was more focused on Spanish.

But now that I'm back in Australia, I've been consumed with a ravenous desire to learn other Spanish languages. The last month I've been studying intensely Catalan from the ground up. I found a Casal Català (a cultural association) here in Sydney. I got to attend a Castanyada and even take part as part of the pinya, the base, in the casterell, the tower building that they do. It's awesome. I also ate panellets for the first time, which were very tasty. I never knew so many Catalans lived in Sydney. I was surprised and happy that I could mostly understand them when they talked to me, although my spoken Catalan clearly needs more work, because sometimes I resorted to Spanish when I didn't know what to say. If only I went to Mallorca like I wanted to! It gives me a lot of motivation to keep on going.

To help with listening, I am currently watching Merli and Com si fos ahir on TV3. TV3 has subtitles so that helps. There's also a lot of great Catalan folk music. I even found, thanks to a Catalan friend who is really into metal, a death metal band, Vidres a la Sang. For reading, I am reading a Catalan translation of Anne Frank's diary. For writing, I'm doing a language interchange chat with a Catalan person I met online.

The last week, I've been reading Basque grammars. My GOD this is a fantastic language!
1 x
زندگی را با عشق
نوش جان باید کرد

nooj
Brown Belt
Posts: 1257
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:59 pm
Languages: english (n)
x 3358

Re: Nooj's language journey

Postby nooj » Wed Nov 08, 2017 1:52 am

Image

I am there in the bottom left...somewhere. It's worse than a mosh pit at a concert!

The kids are fearless. My goodness.

There is also a Basque cultural house, a txoko (a gastronomical society) in Sydney, called Gure Txoko (our txoko) Basque Club Sydney. I've signed up for lunch and I'm going to try out the little Basque that I've learned this week!
1 x
زندگی را با عشق
نوش جان باید کرد

garyb
Black Belt - 1st Dan
Posts: 1572
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 12:35 pm
Location: Scotland
Languages: Native: English
Advanced: Italian, French
Intermediate: Spanish
Beginner: German, Japanese
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1855
x 5992
Contact:

Re: Nooj's language journey

Postby garyb » Wed Nov 08, 2017 10:27 am

I was lucky enough to catch the Castellers in front of the Sagrada Familia when I was in Barcelona a few months ago. Impressive show!

Image
3 x

nooj
Brown Belt
Posts: 1257
Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2017 12:59 pm
Languages: english (n)
x 3358

Re: Nooj's language journey

Postby nooj » Thu Nov 09, 2017 12:58 am

Question, what was the general atmosphere like when you were there in Barcelona? As a tourist, did you have any problems (strikes, protests)? I'd be interested to know what were your impressions.


Yesterday, I met a French embassy worker who came to visit Australia and improve her English, she's actually living in Tangiers. We talked about our experiences living in Morocco and the political situation in Morocco and how it compared to Tunisia where she also lived.

Tunisia is probably the most well-off Arab country. Although the new democracy has problems, the people are highly politically engaged, there's much more freedom of speech, people actually have hope about the future, and expectations of their politicians.

In Morocco people keep mum. Bad-mouthing the king will get you a prison sentence. Everyone knows that he and his buddies have their hand in every business and take the profits, but most Moroccans think that an oppressive regime is better than chaos: they point to the carnage in the Middle East and say that at least Morocco isn't like that. But stability (I'd say stagnation) at what price?

Anyway, all this in French. I am much too harsh on French sometimes, it IS a lovely language in and of itself. But it still feels...like a tool. It doesn't feel homely to me like Spanish does, I have to think about the words I'm using :|
0 x
زندگی را با عشق
نوش جان باید کرد


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: DaveAgain, Tumlare and 2 guests