Ogrim's Krambu - a plethora of languages, mostly European, both old and new

[tastyonions]

Another notable feature of Colombian Spanish is the use of the suffix "-ico" rather than "-ito" for diminutives, for example ratico, gatico, and so on.

[Ogrim]

Time for a bit more about my trip to Colombia.

We spent the first two full days in Bogotá. I must say I was surprised how modern the city is. Maybe that just shows a prejudice we Europeans often have about countries in Latin America, but when I say modern I mean highly digitalised. No problem at all paying with credit and debit cards almost everywhere, very good wifi in most hotels and restaurants, lot of new high-raise buildings, and in some areas you could just as well imagine being in any big European or North American city.

Our friends in Bogotá had to go to work during the day, so they had arranged with a taxi driver they know to take us around and show us the sights. We visited the main attractions, like El Museo de oro, the Botero museum, La Quinta de Bolívar, the historical centre with the Cathedral, Plaza de Bolívar and the Presidential palace. We also took the funicular up to Monserrate, which is on the top of one of the hills surrounding the city.

From Bogotá we went to Cartagena, where we spent three days exploring the walled historical centre, or Old town, which has conserved most of its colonial style, low buildings in a style you also find in the Canary Islands, narrow streets and a "malecón". Cartagena is undoubtedly the most touristy place in Colombia, and the street vendors know that, so they are everywhere, selling you anything from Cuban cigars to fake Rolexes and all sorts of food and beverages. There are also "street rappers" and you risk to be followed by one or two of them with a boom box, improvising some rap lyrics about you until they get tired of following you or you give them a few thousand pesos. (You get 5000 pesos for 1 euro, so it's not like they ruin you. )

Outside of the Old Town there is not that much to see, except the ruins of the castle called San Felipe de Barajas, really a fortress the Spanish built to keep away invaders (mostly the French and the British) during the 17th to 19th century. Cartagena also has a very modern part called Bocagrande with several skyscrapers and lots of big, modern hotels.


Cartagena

After that we went to Santa Marta and had a relaxing day on the beach. Both Cartagena and Santa Marta are at the Caribbean coast, so while we had about 20 degrees Celsius in Bogotá the temperature was around 32 C up at the coast.

Our final stop was Parque Tayrona, a nature reserve where we spent a day of light "trekking", seeing monkeys, birds and enjoying the tropical flora. We stayed at a small hotel just outside the park itself, but still inside the tropical forest, and it was a great experience.

Colombia has suffered from a bad image in the media. A lot of people think primarily of drug wars, kidnappings, guerrillas, political unrest and crime when the country is mentioned. Of course there are still problems, and as a tourist who looks decidedly un-Colombian one has to take simple basic precautions when walking about, and avoid going to certain areas or through empty streets at night. We really enjoyed our visit and would like to go back some day to see other parts of the country.

[tastyonions]

Ha, accosted by rappers, that’s a new one on me. Sounds like a good trip.

[Ogrim]

Ha, accosted by rappers, that’s a new one on me. Sounds like a good trip.

I hadn't experienced street rappers either until I came to Cartagena. At least it is an original way of asking for money!

I am back at the treadmill, I have had lot of work to catch up on after two weeks away, but I do find time to study languages again, only this time I am not going to push myself to another burnout. I take it easy, but I have more or less managed to get back to the level of Croatian I had reached last autumn (which to be honest was not that impressive) and now I am very motivated to continue as we are going back there this summer.

I am also enjoying Latin a lot, and in addition to the material available on Legentibus I am reading text in an old book from my university years which I found in our flat in Spain last Christmas. It is called Medieval Latin, edited by K.P. Harrington, for The University of Chicago Press, first published in 1925. My edition is from 1962 and it is a compilation of texts written between 380 and 1645, so it covers a vast time period and writers as diverse as St Beda, pope Gregory the Great, Erasmus Roterodamus, Sir Thomas More and John Milton. It is a great source of medieval prose and poetry, and I really enjoy it. The book has almost 700 pages so I have a lot of great material to work with.Right now I am reading the story of Abelard and Heloïse from the 10th century.

I do want to get back to Classical Greek, but I am also tempted to take up modern Greek again, which I studied for a short period many years ago (when I was active on HTLAL). Until I make up my mind I just do a little bit of Classical Greek whenever I feel like it, without a clear study plan.

I also try to keep up Dutch by reading and listening to news on the radio or watching some short TV programmes.

Finally I realise that I have neglected Romansh for too long. Although I still subscribe to the digital version of the only Romansh newspaper, La Quotidiana, I have not read any books for a long time and I've hardly watched any Romansh TV lately. I am therefore trying to find time for that as well.

[Ogrim]

The last two weeks have been quite good. I am advancing with Croatian, and I am more or less back to the level I was when I stopped studying last autumn. As we are certainly going to Croatia this summer, the motivation is high again to get beyond basic beginner level.

I keep on reading some pages of Latin every day, and I've decided to "read" my Latin school grammar again, just to refresh the morphology and syntax of the language.

On the other hand, I have decided to take it easy with Classical Greek, and I allow myself to dabble a bit more in other languages, both old and new, giving in to wanderlust. So I've spent a few days learning Hebrew script and getting a general feel for the language and I've picked out my Langenscheidt course in modern Greek from my bookshelf. I've also started a book in Catalan, a language I haven't touched for a couple of years, and I've been reading some Romansh and watched some Romansh TV programmes.

I have some inclination to return to Arabic at some point, but that will probably not happen this side of the summer. Maybe after my vacation in Croatia. Time will tell...

My next trip won't be so exciting as Colombia (or Croatia for that matter), as I am going to Norway for a week at the end of April to meet family and friends. But at least it will give me an opportunity to practise my Norwegian again , I hardly ever speak it, except when I am on the phone with my sisters,

[tastyonions]

But at least it will give me an opportunity to practise my Norwegian again :D , I hardly ever speak it, except when I am on the phone with my sisters,

Use it or lose it!

[Ogrim]

But at least it will give me an opportunity to practise my Norwegian again , I hardly ever speak it, except when I am on the phone with my sisters,

Use it or lose it!

I don't think I will ever lose my native tongue, but I may not be totally "up to date" with all current vocabulary and expressions used by youngish people. I probably would find it hard to go back to using Norwegian in a professional setting. I am not sure, but I suspect I would find it easier to pass a C2 exam in English than in Norwegian now. After all, English has been my main working language for the last 28 years, I basically stopped working in Norwegian in 1995. Also, the last 15 years I work about 50/50 in English and French. At home I speak Spanish, and with all my other language ambitions there is little time for Norwegian.

I am continuing with Croatian at a leisurely pace, I do some Latin every day, and I keep switching between reading books in English, Catalan, French, German and Italian hight now. I also have a Spanish novel waiting for me. It was a birthday gift and the plot is set in the city of Salamanca in the 17th century. It seems to be a bit in the "genre" of the Da Vinci Code, i.e. a mystery about a lost manuscript that tells some important secret. It is a genre that started to bore me a few years ago, but I will give it a try and see how it goes.

I've spent a few hours on Classical Greek as well, just so I don't totally forget what I have learnt, but it's mostly been revisiting texts I already worked on last year.

Although I always hope to profit from short holidays to do more language study, I know from experience that it is not always easy, especially when I'm visiting family and need to find time for old friends. I am going to take my Croatian courses with me to Norway, and I always have Legentibus on my smartphone and a lot of books on my Kindle so I should be able to do something during my stay there.

[Ogrim]

This is my post number 1000 on this forum, hooray! It's taken me a while to get here, as I joined the forum in July 2015, so at this rate I will get to 2000 in 2031. But that's not something I really think about.

I'm back from my visit to Norway, and it was really good to see the family there again, as it had been a year since last time. I especially appreciated seeing my father. Since my mother passed away last year, he's in a care home, at 92 he cannot look after himself anymore, and his memory is not what it used to be, but at least he remembered my name when he saw me, so that was a good thing. I spent great times with my brothers and sisters and met up with friends as well. Although I will never move back to Norway, it always feels good to visit. It won't be too long before next time, as we will spend Christmas with my sister this year.

I did manage to study some Croatian while I was there, and I read some Latin, but that was about it. Now that I'm back I'm also returning to a more serious study routine and hope to get in some serious work on Croatian over the next two months as we will be flying to Split mid-July. I know I won't be at a level where I can converse in Croatian at that point, but at least I should be able to understand more and possibly have simple conversations.

The other day I overheard a short conversation between some Russians in a shop, and I realised that I have forgotten quite a lot of vocabulary. They said words that I know I knew, but I just couldn't remember their meaning. It made me want to refresh my Russian again, but I've decided to wait until I feel more confident with Croatian. At least I want to finish the Assimil Croatian course before returning to Russian.

If only I had many more hours in the day (and the energy to make efficient use of those hours)!