[JP/NL] Aardbei Koekjes - EarthBerry's language log!

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Re: [JP/NL] Aardbei Koekjes - EarthBerry's language log!

Postby EarthBerry » Sat May 20, 2017 7:55 pm

tommus wrote:
EarthBerry wrote:Button Bashers NL, Podcast 73: Muziek in Games 4.

I had a listen to that podcast. First time I'd been on SoundCloud. So I had a look at what was available in Dutch. I searched on "natuurkunde" (physics) and it looks very encouraging.

https://soundcloud.com/search?q=natuurkunde

Thanks for pointing me in this direction.


My pleasure!
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Re: [JP/NL] Aardbei Koekjes - EarthBerry's language log!

Postby EarthBerry » Sat May 20, 2017 9:02 pm

Page 3! :D

This week has been... not so good (in productivity terms ;)). But, not every week can be super productive, right? As long as it doesn't become a habit. I was admittedly feeling a little burnt out, and used most of this week to indulge in other hobbies. But, it has been refreshing, and I'm raring to go again. Especially since I'm off to the Netherlands next Thursday! 5 whole days of immersion. I'm a bit more forgiving since well, that will certainly make up for the lull this week.

So, as always, I set myself some goals last week. Here's how they went:
* Reach Unit 13/14 of TY Dutch
* 1 hour listening to Dutch
* 2 hours listening to Japanese
* Read 10 more pages of また、同じ夢を見ていた
* Continue to write short paragraphs in Dutch and long paragraphs in Japanese

Not too bad considering I had toned it down this week!

Dutch
Teach Yourself Dutch: 10 / 16 (10/16)
Harry Potter en De Steen der Wijzen chapters: 0 / 17 (0/17)

Don't let that progress bar fool you. I'm on Unit 11! I'm actually near the end of it. I think it's been the longest Unit yet. It covers a lot, so it's taken me sometime to digest it all. I've definitely slowed down with TY: Dutch, but I think that's a good thing. Up until Unit 09 I was moving at a steady pace, almost a Unit a day. But, the units have gotten longer and the grammar has gotten harder, so it's taking me a little longer to work through it. One good thing is I've identified my weak points as I've progressed. Namely, the past tense, word order (but this is getting better as I expose myself to native materials), reflexive verbs, separable verbs (apologies if there's an actual name for these sort of verbs!) and vocabulary. But vocabulary will and always will be a thorn in my side :lol: , but I can easily brush up on the past tense, word order, reflexive verbs, 'separable' verbs and no doubt the further grammar points that will elude me :lol:. I've told myself that I'll buy a grammar book as a reward when I finish TY Dutch. I feel that TY Dutch gives you a solid foundation in which to build upon. It gets quite in-depth, and I must say my understanding has went from 0 to being able to get the gist of a sentence even if I'm not entirely sure about all the words or grammar being used. I feel I'll benefit nicely from a grammar book, as I'll be able to re-visit the troubling parts, and learn some new grammar in the process. I'm the kind of person who chooses a grammar book as her bedtime reading :lol: :lol:. I honestly find it fascinating.

In my last post, I mentioned how I was practicing speaking with my boyfriend. Well, I'm in a group chat with some friends on WhatsApp; 3 Dutch speakers (including boyfriend) and 2 English speakers (including me). We were joking around and for some reason, the Dutchies mentioned something in Dutch. The other English speaker (our very good friend), joked that we should only speak in English. I saw this as my opportunity to join in on the joke and *gasp* reply in Dutch! I was nervous since I've only ever really used it with my boyfriend. I'm close to the other two Dutch speakers, but we've only ever used English, and only one of them knows that I'm actively studying. So, I replied in Dutch (I'll save you all the trouble of reading the sentence - it was bizarre), to which one of the Dutch speakers replied in Dutch playing along with the joke. I replied again, and this time he caught me out - he replied in dialect!! :lol: I was puzzled to say the least - much to my boyfriends amusement. I replied again ("Ik snap het niet :oops:"), to which our friend laughed. Then, he asked me to record myself saying my initial Dutch sentence. I was so nervous!!!! Again, my boyfriend is the only person I've tried to speak Dutch to... but, I rose to the challenge. I recorded a short voice message of myself saying the sentence the best I could... accent and all :lol: and off I sent it... They're my good friends, and they are Dutch to a fault. Incredibly straight with me. So I knew, if it was bad, they'd make sure I knew it!! We didn't get a reply until the next day. Much to my surprise, I got a "That's actually pretty good!" :o :o I was beaming with pride! My boyfriend tells me every day my pronunciation is improving, and that I shouldn't be shy... but, it's nice to hear it from someone who is not obligated to compliment you :lol: Not that my boyfriend doesn't scold me when I pronounce something wrong... :roll: I know, to the members of this forum, the above exchange might seem like nothing, but to me, someone who has a history of completely avoiding speaking (Japanese... I'm looking at you!), to be speaking and interacting with the language so early on is really exciting! Not to mention I'm actually communicating with it... it makes it all feel that bit more real! :D Now... I'm meeting with the Dutch friend next week, as we'll all go for dinner on the weekend. Here's hoping I can remain confident, and practice speaking more - this time in an actual social setting!

One of my goals for this week was "1 hour of Dutch listening"... I did that. I did more than just one hour, to be precise :lol: I can't say exactly how long, but I'm going to assume it was within the realm of 3-4 hours :lol: I listened to the Dutch radio while I worked, and after about an hour, ended up actually enjoying listening to it and totally got carried away! I was listening to a music station, but there was a lot of intervals where the hosts talked, guests called in, news segments etc. I kept re-hearing words (especially in the news segments, as they repeated the main headlines for the day), which got noted down. I'm definitely getting more accustomed to the rhythm and flow. Words are becoming clearer. I find myself repeating the radio jingles through the day. They often play Dutch songs and I found myself (very badly) singing the chorus later. It's a very nice addition to my studies :) It has a small impact, but it's nice!

I wrote a small paragraph on Instagram again, plus some small sentences throughout the week on Instagram 'stories', mainly just narrating my day or what I'm doing. Also tried to begin a conversation on the /r/languagelearning subreddit, they have a post there where people post in the languages they're studying. I didn't see a Dutch one so I took the plunge! No replies - not that I'm surprised, it's rare to see Dutch on there - but it felt nice having the confidence to write a small sentence and try to initiate a conversation.

As I'm going to the Netherlands next week and we have some errands to run in the city centre, especially on one day I'll have some time to myself, I'm going to take the time to explore a book store and maybe pick up a book in Dutch. My boyfriend said he has a YA series he wants to recommend to me, so I'll jot the name down and go look for it. I have HP in e-book format, which you would think would be preferable but I find it ... de-motivating? It's harder for me to study from, so I'm thinking I'll pick up HP if they have it. I know there's a particular bookstore in the town over which had most of the HP books, so I might have to stop by there. I'm also considering picking up a Disney DVD or two! As a child, I watched films like Mulan, Pocahontas, Hercules over and over again. The last time I was there, I saw them available for cheap. I think it'd be fun to re-watch them in Dutch :lol:

Japanese
Mata, onaji yume o miteita: 0 / 22
Shin Kanzen Master series: 0 / 50

今週、まずは日本語で書いていきたいと思います!

今週はあまり日本語の勉強できていません。ハロトークというアプリで日本語と英語のグループチャットに入ってみたんですが、人数が多すぎてなかなか会話に入れないのでちょっとやめました。まだグループチャットには入っていますが、何も話せずにこそこそ読んでいる、という感じで。(笑)グループチャットの管理者?が優しい人で、ちょっとお話ししました。ハロトークはよくバグってしまって、少しの間、グループチャットを見れなくなりました。管理者にそれを報告したら、すぐに返事をくれたし、ハロトークスタッフまで問い合わせしてくれました。さすが日本人・・・と思えました(笑)そのチャットにほかの日本人がいるようですが、あまり話してくれません。チャットはほとんど日本語だからだと思いますけどね。英語を勉強したい方より日本語を勉強したい方がいるので仕方ないですね。
This week, I'd like to write in Japanese first!

I didn't get a lot of Japanese study done this week. I joined a Japanese-English group chat on an app called Hello Talk but there is too many people so it is hard to get involved, so I kind of gave up. I'm still apart of the group however I just mainly read quietly without saying anything. The owner of the group is a nice person and we talked a little. Hello Talk often bugs out and for a while I was unable to see the group chat. I reported this to the owner and he replied instantly, and even went as far as talking to the Hello Talk staff. Just what I'd expect of a Japanese person. There are other Japanese people in the group chat, however they don't speak much. I think it's because the chat itself is mainly in Japanese. There are more people who want to learn Japanese than there are English (in the group), so I guess it can't be helped.


As I wrote above, really nothing to report on the Japanese front. Still using it at work. Still watching Youtube videos, listening to Japanese music, reading and using Japanese daily. I did actually start subtitling a video :lol:. It's a Let's Play video by a Let's Player (ポッキー) I really enjoy. His video (Outlast 2) was already subtitled in Japanese, so I took it upon myself to translate the Japanese subtitles into English for his (probably small) English audience. It was great translation practice, and I picked up some new words. I also really enjoyed the video :lol: I'm not quite finished but I've done about ~10m of a ~20m video. I plan to continue this and translate his other videos, too :D

I haven't really read Mata, onaji yume o miteita even though I have literally had it with me at all times. I really don't have an excuse other than - I was focused on other things :lol: Dutch has really taken the front seat, although this week it was mainly if I wasn't studying Dutch, I was doing errands or playing video games with my boyfriend. Everyone deserves a rest week, surely?

I still haven't started on Kanzen Master and I'm actually considering signing up to do the JLPT N2 just to give myself a good solid kick :lol:. I did, however, start a Memrise course for Japanese vocabulary. I also signed up for an iKnow.jp free trial and did the placement test for their Core 6000 course. I got placed in Advanced :shock:. Thanks iKnow.jp, it was the funniest joke I'd heard all week.

How next week is looking...
* IK GA NAAR NEDERLAND JONGENNNNS! (I'm going to the Netherlands guyssss!)
* Finish TY Dutch Unit 11
* Speak a whole bunch of Dutch, eat delicious Dutch food, attend a Dutch family party... essentially, be Dutch for 5 days.
* 2 hours of Japanese listening
* Continue writing small paragraphs in Dutch and long paragraphs in Japanese on various social media
* Glance at my Kanzen Master book
* Come home with a new Dutch book

A little more exciting since well, I'm NL-bound! :lol: It'll be an exciting week! Oh, and naturally, I won't be updating next week. I'll update the week after (June 3rd) -

Tot ziens! ;)

EarthBerry
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Dutch to A2/B1
Japanese to C1
Swedish to A1

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Re: [JP/NL] Aardbei Koekjes - EarthBerry's language log!

Postby EarthBerry » Tue May 23, 2017 8:29 pm

Small update, but mainly just some thoughts and rambling.

Swedish.

I mentioned earlier in this log that I've been flirting with the idea of learning Swedish. I don't know why, but these past few days, I've been thinking about it more. I know I really need to focus on Dutch, and I am making progress in Dutch - so it's not like I'm feeling demotivated - I'm just fascinated by Swedish. It doesn't help I love Norse mythology. There's been a little bit of a shuffle at work so I'm no longer sat near the Swedish speakers, so maybe I'm missing the constant stream of Swedish, and trying to fill the gap :lol: I was thinking that when I'm feeling a little burnt out from Dutch, I could maybe treat myself to Swedish on Duolingo. I like Duolingo since it's not too serious. It's a good way to dip your toes into a language. Get a little feel for it, but you don't have to commit. I might satisfy my thirst this way. I'll be sure to report back.

These past few days have been great for seeing the results of my Dutch studies. My understanding is getting better and better, and my output isn't as bad as I thought. My boyfriend and I had a jokey conversation in a mixture of Dutch and English, we've been organising plans for a meal out this weekend with a Dutch friend and instead of translating the messages, he just handed me his phone... and I could read it all! :D He also made a short phone call in Dutch today and I could hear from the conversation he needed a pen and paper, so was able to handle him one... much to his surprise :lol: I wrote in my last update that I posted on the /r/languagelearning subreddit in a post asking to practice my Dutch. Well, someone replied and we've had a little back and forth in Dutch. I've been writing my responses, and attempting to write more complex sentences. I get them checked by my boyfriend and much to my surprise, I haven't made as many mistakes as I thought I was making. Mainly it's just word choice/word order, but from trying to express more concepts, I've picked up new words and grammar. It's going great.

The real test will be from Thursday on wards, as I'll be staying with a Dutch family for 5 days, and attending a family party. I'm not expecting to be having fluent Dutch conversations, but I'm hoping to understand a little bit more than I did on my last visit :lol:
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Re: [JP/NL] Aardbei Koekjes - EarthBerry's language log!

Postby EarthBerry » Sat May 27, 2017 10:46 am

Mini update

So I'm here in the very hot and sunny Netherlands... :oops:

As I'm here, and living with a Dutch family for a few days, I figured I'd take a break on the studying front. However, I got myself to a bookstore yesterday and bought a book. It's called De Grijze Jager: De Ruïns van Gorlan. It's a YA book, so the language (albeit fantasy) shouldn't be too hard. Just before, I showed it to my boyfriend's mother. She mentioned that my boyfriend has a lot of YA books that he read when he was younger... so we went digging and found he indeed has a lot :lol: He's recommended a few to me, so I picked up two to work through. I'll be adding these to my goals. I hope in a years time to have at least finished 3-5 Dutch books. They're all for YA so it shouldn't be too hard. I'm incredibly lucky to have a lot of native reading material right off the bat! We're also in the middle of planning 3 weeks in the Netherlands this summer, where I'll venture out of my comfort zone and hopefully start using Dutch.

So, TL;DR major influx of native reading materials! Very happy EarthBerry!
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Re: [JP/NL] Aardbei Koekjes - EarthBerry's language log!

Postby EarthBerry » Fri Jun 02, 2017 6:15 pm

Mini update - my trip to the Netherlands!

Well, I'm back from the Netherlands! I got back on Wednesday, but also conveniently came down with a cold, then had two full days of work... It was a sharp kick back to reality, yes. :lol: But it's vrijdag! The weekend begins now... and with it, getting back on track with my studies.

But first, I'll report how my trip was. As I wrote earlier, the main purpose of my trip was to attend a family party. It was a 25th anniversary party, and I believe I can say with confidence, I have never shook so many hands before. Being the girlfriend of the son whose parents were celebrating, I was congratulated by every guest there. What was interesting was... a lot of people greeted/congratulated me in English. I made a joke to my boyfriend that I must have some form of English 'air' about me, maybe the confused blank looks when I wasn't quite sure how to respond to the many gefeliciteerds, but really I just think word had gotten around the family (and friends) about me, so it wasn't too hard to guess who the English girl was :lol: They were all incredibly accommodating, and some of the relatives had heard I was studying Dutch, and asked how it was going. My boyfriends grandma doesn't speak a lot of English, but she tried her very best to communicate with me in a mixture of Dutch and English, even going as far to teach me some words and phrases! :lol: For my first Dutch party, it was great. Very fun. Open bar... need I say more? :roll:

The trip overall was very relaxing. 5 days of mostly Dutch immersion. I was very pleased noticing that I was able to follow some of the conversations around me, and on the first night my boyfriend and his parents had a BBQ in the back garden as the weather was great, and stayed quite warm into the night. As it got later, it naturally cooled down a bit. At one point, his mother turned to me and asked, 'niet kald?', and I responded instantly 'no, I'm okay' (d'oh, English!) which surprised us all :lol: I felt more at home this time, although not being able to understand just everything, I could catch onto the gist of conversations (most of them were centered around daily life and had a lot of context, so it wasn't anything too complex!) which was incredibly motivating. I was also once again, amazed and humbled by the Dutch and their English ability. We had to make a quick visit to the dentist, and the dentist, upon finding out I was English and spoke little Dutch, started speaking with me in fluent English. I get embarrassed every time. :oops: It's amazing just how well they can speak English... and you have me, just barely conversational in Dutch, although I am trying :lol: He asked me about what I did in England, and I mentioned I work in language-related field (translation, to be precise). This started up a conversation about Japanese... :lol: A conversation I've had many times...

"Do you have any relation to Japan? Japanese relatives?"
"No, none at all."
"What made you learn it?"
"Well... [insert another tale for another time]"
"Oh, right. Have you ever been to Japan?"
"No, money's tight, heh"
"Oh, such a shame, you've been learning for so long...!"

and so on :lol: It was very nice of them to make small chat with me, though.

I'll be going back to the Netherlands in 3 weeks... for 3 weeks! I must say, this visit really put some oil in my gears. It no longer feels like an unknown language, or a set of grammar rules... it feels like a language I can use and am familiar with. I'm incredibly lucky to have so much exposure right off the bat. I'll be kick starting my studies again tomorrow, and I can't wait!
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Japanese to C1
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Re: [JP/NL] Aardbei Koekjes - EarthBerry's language log!

Postby EarthBerry » Mon Nov 13, 2017 1:41 pm

Woooooow!

Long time no see. It is now November. My last post was in June... :oops:

Well... where do I begin? I guess I should start where I left off. I was in the Netherlands for 3 weeks... and it was amazing! We had so much planned, such as a day-trip to Amsterdam and Antwerp, none of which actually happened. :lol: Turns out parking in Amsterdam is quite a hassle, and the weather wasn't too great for Antwerp... but none the less, I thoroughly enjoyed my 3 weeks there. Lots of trips to Albert Heijn, a few family dinners, outings with friends... lots of Dutch immersion. Which... begs the question, I guess...

How is my Dutch now?

It's stagnated. During my trip in summer, I was working hard on Duolingo, aiming to finish the Dutch tree. However, as a result, I got incredibly burnt out. I more or less 'quit' studying from about August to now. I must admit, upon returning to the UK, my boyfriend and I had a new apartment to furnish and make into a home. My boyfriend was starting a new job here, and well, to cut a long story short, we just had a lot of 'adulting' and life to take care of. However, as planned, it's all calmed down right before Christmas/New Year, leaving us to enjoy/pursue our hobbies as we see in the new year. In my case, languages!

My goals are as follows...

Dutch is taking a lot of priority. Although it has stagnated, I can also report, my comprehension has came along heaps and bounds - so it's not all bad! My boyfriend's parents actually visited us last week, and I spent a whole afternoon in IKEA... completely in Dutch. I found myself responding to them and following the conversation, which is great and all, but I should be responding in Dutch! So, I think my goal for now is output. I believe I've had enough input, even though I haven't been actively studying, I've still had moderate exposure to Dutch on a daily basis. I'll continue to have a good amount of exposure, but I'll be backing it up with active study this time. By this time next year, I would like to be a solid B2 in everything. It's time to get serious with nederlands! :twisted:

How do I plan to achieve B2 by next year? That remains to be seen. To avoid burning out again, I'm starting off slow. I'll be doing Memrise daily, and I'll be using Routledge's Intensive Dutch daily. As it does exactly what it says on the tin, that is, being quite intensive :lol:, I'll be dedicating 1 hour a day to it for now. I'll ramp this up as I get back into the groove.

I'll keep up with my usual input. Dutch Youtubers, mainly. My boyfriend has began using even more Dutch in our daily lives, which is fantastic, as he's doing it purely of his own accord :lol: . We recently got a kitten (Luna, she's 4 months!) and he primarily uses Dutch with her. He also has a habit of asking me simple questions in Dutch, or responding to me in Dutch. I'm incredibly grateful for it! Even if half the time he doesn't realise he's doing it... :roll:

As for Japanese, well, my Japanese is at that awkward B2 level. I'm stood at the wall that says C1, and I need to use native materials to climb it. :lol: I'm in that awkward spot where I know enough to do what I want to do... i.e, watch Youtube videos, dramas, read books. I can do it all comfortably. I can comfortably converse in Japanese... so there's nothing really nagging me to improve. I know my vocabulary needs improvement, and I definitely need to sharpen up on my grammar, but all of this can be done by continuing what I'm doing. So I'll be doing exactly that :lol: I'll continue to talk to Japanese friends, watch Japanese Youtubers/dramas/films without subtitles and read books. Hopefully, I'll eventually see the top of the C1 wall! Just have to keep climbing.

I'm still tempted to start Norwegian/Swedish. It's been months and the desire is still there. I don't think it'll ever actually leave me! :lol: But I'm going to just keep it to Dutch/Japanese for now, and once I'm in a comfortable study routine, probably introduce one of those into my routine. Torn between which one, to be honest. I love how both sound, I love both countries and I know both Norwegians and Swedes. Though, I probably know more Swedes than Norwegians! :lol: I'm sure when the time comes, I'll work out which one I want to study and go forward with.

Good work if you made it this far :lol:

It's great to be back, and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's progress!
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Japanese to C1
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Re: [JP/NL] Aardbei Koekjes - EarthBerry's language log!

Postby EarthBerry » Tue Nov 14, 2017 10:54 am

It's a cold wintry morning here in the UK. I'm currently being warmed up by a comforting cup of coffee. I'm feeling motivated and ready to tackle languages today!

I'll start today's (hopefully short...) post today with some musings.


Gaming with languages
I'm a huge gamer. So, naturally, I try to combine language learning and gaming. I've been quite successful thus far! The Sims series are available in a plethora of languages; I've been recently playing it in Dutch. It's also available in Japanese, too. Excellent for 'every day life' and 'around the house' vocabulary. Strongly recommend it! I also played an MMORPG called Final Fantasy XIV in Japanese for around 2 years. I played with a Japanese guild and it's safe to say my Japanese sky-rocketed in that time. I'm an advocate of studying languages by doing things you enjoy, and I can say with confidence it is definitely a solid learning method.

However... some games have limited localisation and are only translated into common languages, e.g French, Spanish, Italian, German... and so on. It's very rare to see a game translated into Dutch (that's why The Sims being available in Dutch is so great!) or a Scandinavian language. The reason I've been musing about this lately is I've recently picked up a World of Warcraft (commonly written as WoW) again. It's fully localised into a lot of European languages. It makes me almost regretful I'm not studying any of them! :lol: In such a text-based and story driven game, it'd be such a good study tool. I am tempted by German, and with it being similar to Dutch, I feel I'd have an easier time picking it up. Plus, there is a bustling gaming community in Germany, so I'd definitely be able to use it in future. Plus, it means I could play WoW in German... :lol: ! Priorities, eh... :D

I wonder if any other users here are gamers, and how they combine languages with gaming?

A little something I found
I got this from a Discord server. It's a 'language challenge', where you're given a topic to write about in your target language each day. It's a simple and cute little challenge, but as my goal for now is output, it's been ideal. I've unfortunately 'missed' about 5-6 days as I've been busy :lol: but I'll be starting again today. I'm hoping, over the course of the exercise, my answers get longer and more detailed. For my first attempt, it was as follows...


My basic morning routine (mijn standard ochtend routine)
Elke ochtend wanneer ik wakker word, geef (ik) de kat te eten. En dan zet (ik) thee, (en) dan bekijk (ik) mijn emails.

The (ik)s were my boyfriends corrections. I went into 'Japanese' mode and in my original answer, purposely missed them out! :lol: Something I'll have to iron out. But my response was very simple, but I'm confident by the end of the 'challenge' I'll have more detailed answers, granted I do Routledge's Intensive Dutch alongside it. ;)

I can post the picture here if people are interested in participating as well :D

Today's plans are,
- Memrise
- 1 hour of Routledge Intensive Dutch

I'm excited to crack on!
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Dutch to A2/B1
Japanese to C1
Swedish to A1

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Re: [JP/NL] Aardbei Koekjes - EarthBerry's language log!

Postby Tofu » Tue Nov 14, 2017 2:29 pm

Do you need to do anything special to use the Sims in other languages, or is the localization built in?
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Re: [JP/NL] Aardbei Koekjes - EarthBerry's language log!

Postby EarthBerry » Wed Nov 15, 2017 8:02 am

Tofu wrote:Do you need to do anything special to use the Sims in other languages, or is the localization built in?


It's built in... to an extent. Apparently changing the language of Origin will change the in-game language. The following languages are available: English, German, French, Russian, Polish, Swedish, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Chinese (Traditional), Japanese, and Korean.

Here's a thread on changing the language: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Technical-Iss ... -p/3460471 :D

Hope it's helpful!
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Re: [JP/NL] Aardbei Koekjes - EarthBerry's language log!

Postby EarthBerry » Fri Nov 17, 2017 6:59 pm

Nothing major to report, so I figured I'd write about the odd two days I've had at work.

As I've mentioned here before, I am very fortunate to work in a very international office. My job is language related, and every day I'm exposed to a lot of foreign languages. It's not unusual for me to do work with Indonesian, Malay and Thai... and on some rare occasions, Vietnamese. I can't speak any of those languages, but I'm still able to complete my work. It's difficult to explain :lol: Anyway, I made it known to my boss a few months ago that I can read Korean. Now, this has made me the unofficial go-to person for Korean... which is... not good to say the least! :oops: I can read just enough to complete the work, so it's not all too bad. Fortunately, word on the 'street' is we've hired a Korean speaker (who I'm very excited to meet, and thank!! I will be free of my responsibilities...) who will come in to do our Korean work. But as they start next week, I was tasked with catching up on the huge pile of Korean work which had piled up... which included a lot of Youtube advertisements... I must have spent roughly 4 hours reading and listening to Korean. :lol: My brain was fried by the end! But I finally finished all the work. Such a sense of accomplishment. :lol:

While doing it, I kept thinking to myself: If only I actually seriously studied Korean. I keep starting it, but I never stick. Even though it's grammar is similar to Japanese, and there are similar words... I just can't seem to enjoy Korean. It's a shame! It would make my work easier. After about 2 hours of Korean youtube videos, some words started popping up again, and others just sounded exactly like Japanese (the word for promise yaksok(?) sounds exactly like yakusoku in Japanese!)... and again, I sat there like, 'if only I could enjoy Korean'. Maybe one day! :lol:

I also had to do some 'on the spot' Japanese translation today. I'm awful at it. It came out in jumbled English... :lol: I did manage to grab a Dutch magazine to add to my collection. I've about 4-5 magazines to 'work' through now. If I used all the Dutch materials I have at hand, honestly, I would be fluent by now :lol: But that's the plan! I plan to utilise all of them over the coming months... so we shall see how it goes... :mrgreen:
1 x
Please feel free to correct any mistakes!
Current goals for 2017
Dutch to A2/B1
Japanese to C1
Swedish to A1


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