A language learners’ forum

fcoulter wrote:Given the amount of work you've done on them, I had assumed you were going from Dutch to English. Going the other way is rarer.

I don't understand what you mean. My native language is English. I did go from Dutch to English. It says that at the bottom of all the Dutch Wikipedia pages I translated. It is virtually always better, easier and obviously more accurate to translate into your native language.

fcoulter wrote:My concept of Language Islands is hardly my own.

It seems that you still have not read my reasonably good and concise definition of "language islands" on the main Dutch page, considering the amount of time you have spent commenting on those Dutch pages. Please read it. It has been there all long. How did you miss it? Have another look, right near the top. You can't miss it.

https://learnanylanguage.wikia.com/wiki/Dutch

I agree that it may be better to move that Dutch Language Islands to a sub-page. But I can't do everything at once. Our new link to the Wiki just recently appeared.

fcoulter wrote:

zenmonkey wrote:

fcoulter wrote:

zenmonkey wrote:The concepts Language Islands, Chunking, etc... all should have there own Wiki page like Shadowing, etc have.

Could have sworn I saw something about Chunking in the wiki so I could say that someone beat your to it. Nope.

I would love to see where Language Islands is used the way that it's being used here. When I googled the term, I didn't find it anywhere defined differently than Wikipedia's definition.

Here is a first draft description of Language Islands

Given the other definition of language islands, IMHO you probably should include both definitions. Focus on the one you like, but don't ignore the other one. You may also wish to expand on the concept more.

(I wonder what would happen if you edited the Wikipedia article about Language Islands to also include this definition.)

Given the length of some of the parallel texts, I'm not sure that they qualify as "simple texts that are easy to memorise", but that may be more a sign of my failing memory than anything else. (At Toastmasters, I've discovered that I cannot memorize a speech. I rely on outlines, and fill in the details extemporaneously.)

By the way, I didn't notice this until I pasted that phrase into this post, but memorise is spelled wrong.

As it’s a Wiki - feel free to edit and improve any page I post if you feel it’s relevant to language learning. If I were to write an entry on Shadowing, I would not include the definition for boxing or spies. Here, the geo-linguistic term makes more sense but I’m not sure it’s practical.

How is “memorise” spelled incorrectly?

Edit: I do see I was inconsistent in spelling (British vs American). I may update that later.

tommus wrote:

fcoulter wrote:Given the amount of work you've done on them, I had assumed you were going from Dutch to English. Going the other way is rarer.

I don't understand what you mean. My native language is English. I did go from Dutch to English. It says that at the bottom of all the Dutch Wikipedia pages I translated. It is virtually always better, easier and obviously more accurate to translate into your native language.

I think we're talking about different things. I was talking about learning Dutch from an English base. I think you're talking about translating Dutch text into English.

zenmonkey wrote:

fcoulter wrote:By the way, I didn't notice this until I pasted that phrase into this post, but memorise is spelled wrong.

How is “memorise” spelled incorrectly?

Edit: I do see I was inconsistent in spelling (British vs American). I may update that later.

Apparently my spell checker is looking for American English rather that British English. All I can tell you is that it shows up with a red squiggly line under the word.

Stupid computer.

tommus wrote:

fcoulter wrote:My concept of Language Islands is hardly my own.

It seems that you still have not read my reasonably good and concise definition of "language islands" on the main Dutch page, considering the amount of time you have spent commenting on those Dutch pages. Please read it. It has been there all long. How did you miss it? Have another look, right near the top. You can't miss it.

https://learnanylanguage.wikia.com/wiki/Dutch

I agree that it may be better to move that Dutch Language Islands to a sub-page. But I can't do everything at once. Our new link to the Wiki just recently appeared.

I have read your definition of language island. (I've also ordered the book it came from, but it hasn't shown up yet.) However, it's not the only definition out there. Linguists have a different definition with a very different meaning.

I'll note that the definition you're using isn't the same as the one in the blog post linked to earlier, although it is related. The book's definition may also be different.

The suggestion of a sub-page is a stylistic one. The Language Island section of the Dutch article seems to overwhelm the rest of the article, and as you create more it will become worse. That's why I'm suggesting a Dutch/English (or should it be English/Dutch) Language Islands article.