You know you're a language nerd when…

General discussion about learning languages
Cavesa
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby Cavesa » Sun Sep 03, 2017 1:37 am

MiaLaGagoo wrote:...you stop asking silly questions :lol:


...or when you invent better ones :-)

Basically the progress from "I did the whole RS Mandarin, why am I not fluent?" to "Why can't I find a decent Estonian-Xhosa dictionary?" :-D
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby geoffw » Sun Sep 03, 2017 1:27 pm

Ogrim wrote:When you are back at your favourite cash machine and you are thrilled because they have added a few more languages, including Russian. So you promptly decide that from now on, you will only make your cash withdrawals in the language of Pushkin whenever you are in Valencia.


Or similarly, when a software prompt to "Choose your language:" causes paralysis by analysis. Is there a realistic likelihood that something will go wrong if I miss a word? How strong a language does it have to be? How hard will it be to switch back later, if I have to? Is this choice permanent? (Wait, there are how many local varieties of French/German/etc. to choose from?) Then the software exits because you took too long. When you start up again and successfully make a choice, you immediately feel the loss of all the other choices you didn't make. But then you use the software for its intended purpose (e.g., you get your cash out of the machine) and you find yourself thinking: Wait, that's all? That was like, two sentences, half in English! All they did was put an -o on the end of the English word! Are there really people who can't figure out, in context, that "credit" and "credito" are the same thing? But maybe it's all about politics and cultural conflict, really, and not about utility at all, and maybe...

...at which point you hear an annoyed voice behind you, saying "Dude, come on, how are you STILL not done??"
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stelingo
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby stelingo » Sun Sep 03, 2017 5:38 pm

You'll still anxious not to miss your daily study session even when you're feeling ill and have been throwing up.
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William Camden
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby William Camden » Sun Sep 03, 2017 7:22 pm

stelingo wrote:You'll still anxious not to miss your daily study session even when you're feeling ill and have been throwing up.


After she moved to Russia, Catherine the Great was so keen to learn Russian (she was a German princess by origin, from Anhalt-Zerbst) that she took Russian lessons even in winter in an insufficiently heated room, and barely survived a bout of pneumonia as a result.
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stelingo
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby stelingo » Sun Sep 03, 2017 8:55 pm

William Camden wrote:
stelingo wrote:You'll still anxious not to miss your daily study session even when you're feeling ill and have been throwing up.


After she moved to Russia, Catherine the Great was so keen to learn Russian (she was a German princess by origin, from Anhalt-Zerbst) that she took Russian lessons even in winter in an insufficiently heated room, and barely survived a bout of pneumonia as a result.


You're comparing me to Catherine the Great? Very kind of you. But I think I'll skip the pneumonia. :)
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby rdearman » Sun Sep 03, 2017 9:21 pm

Pneumonia is caused by bacteria, not cold rooms. :)

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health ... pnu/causes
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby Bluepaint » Sun Sep 03, 2017 9:31 pm

rdearman wrote:Pneumonia is caused by bacteria, not cold rooms. :)

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health ... pnu/causes


When people these days still go to doctors for antiobiotics for a cold or don't read patient information leaflets thus incorrectly dosing their meds we can hardly be surprised 18th C. Russia was a bit off on biology :P anyway can't the cold somewhat supress your immune system thus making you more susceptible to illness? Perhaps it is negligible for most people these days but in the days where hygiene, sanitation and medicine were lacking maybe it did make a difference.

Now I need to make an on-topic point. Ermmmmm when you still practise your French pronunciation even though your cold is so bad not even your closest friends recognise you?
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby rdearman » Sun Sep 03, 2017 9:35 pm

Rhian wrote:
rdearman wrote:Pneumonia is caused by bacteria, not cold rooms. :)

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health ... pnu/causes


When people these days still go to doctors for antiobiotics for a cold or don't read patient information leaflets thus incorrectly dosing their meds we can hardly be surprised 18th C. Russia was a bit off on biology :P anyway can't the cold somewhat supress your immune system thus making you more susceptible to illness? Perhaps it is negligible for most people these days but in the days where hygiene, sanitation and medicine were lacking maybe it did make a difference.

Now I need to make an on-topic point. Ermmmmm when you still practise your French pronunciation even though your cold is so bad not even your closest friends recognise you?

Actually a cold would probably help with French pronunciation. :lol:
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby Bluepaint » Sun Sep 03, 2017 9:44 pm

...when you're sick and were going to get an early night but you're still up moderating surrounded by boxes of tissues and painkillers :lol:
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William Camden
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Re: You know you're a language nerd when…

Postby William Camden » Tue Sep 05, 2017 10:42 am

Rhian wrote:
rdearman wrote:Pneumonia is caused by bacteria, not cold rooms. :)

https://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/health ... pnu/causes


When people these days still go to doctors for antiobiotics for a cold or don't read patient information leaflets thus incorrectly dosing their meds we can hardly be surprised 18th C. Russia was a bit off on biology :P anyway can't the cold somewhat supress your immune system thus making you more susceptible to illness? Perhaps it is negligible for most people these days but in the days where hygiene, sanitation and medicine were lacking maybe it did make a difference.

Now I need to make an on-topic point. Ermmmmm when you still practise your French pronunciation even though your cold is so bad not even your closest friends recognise you?

It could have been pleurisy or some other ailment, like flu. Or perhaps even simple exposure. It seems she took lessons in Russian in the morning, after getting out of bed, still wearing bedclothes with perhaps a nightgown, and did not wait for the servants to light the fire in the room to warm the place up. The practice is supposed to have resulted in an illness that nearly killed her. Of course, she would not be the last recently-arrived German in history to underestimate the Russian winter...
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