Languid Language Learning

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MamaPata
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby MamaPata » Tue Aug 08, 2017 4:41 pm

rdearman wrote:
Elenia wrote:I wish London parks had rabbits in them.

I've seen rabbits in London parks before. There is a ratio of 1 rabbit per 10000000000000000000 pigdens.

Elenia wrote:I watched the first few minutes of 'Au Service de la France'

It is really good. I like it, but I don't think they are going to do another season. :( I especially liked the scene where some Americans try to explain why President Kennedy being a womaniser is a political problem to a bunch of French men in the 60's.


I'm kind of starting to get into it - but I do have problems with the second hand embarrassment! I keep watching through my fingers. :lol:

Impressive work on the ordering - that always makes me panic.
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Elenia
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby Elenia » Thu Aug 10, 2017 12:48 pm

rdearman wrote:
Elenia wrote:I wish London parks had rabbits in them.

I've seen rabbits in London parks before. There is a ratio of 1 rabbit per 10000000000000000000 pigdens.


I feel somewhat bitter about this! Which park? I might have to camp out there...

MamaPata wrote:
rdearman wrote:
Elenia wrote:I watched the first few minutes of 'Au Service de la France'

It is really good. I like it, but I don't think they are going to do another season. :( I especially liked the scene where some Americans try to explain why President Kennedy being a womaniser is a political problem to a bunch of French men in the 60's.


I'm kind of starting to get into it - but I do have problems with the second hand embarrassment! I keep watching through my fingers. :lol:


I get really bad second hand embarrassment, sometimes I even have to leave the room! This is making the show sound a lot more difficult than I thought it would be! :lol:

Morgana wrote:Kalmar! It is very often mentioned in the Linguaphone course :lol: Is it that rare to see wildlife in larger cities? I take rabbits for granted where I live. And squirrels, groundhogs, chipmunks, geese :|


Well, it depends on the animal and where in the city you are. There are, as rdearman said, tons of pidgeons in London. In central London that is probably the only animal you'll see without looking for them. Up where my family live in Cockfosters, there are loads of different types of birds, including parakeets. It's quite amazing to hear their call and look out and see one perched on the frosty branch of a tree in the middle of January. They've done shockingly well in London. There are also lots of squirrels, although mostly grey squirrels. The red squirrels are now severely engangered because of grey squirrels. And of course there are tons of foxes in the suburbs. My friend, who had lived in a small town in Germany all her life, saw her first fox when visiting me and she thought it was amazing. I told her she would change her mind when she heard them.

https://www.tripsavvy.com/get-to-know-l ... fe-1583697 - of these, I think I've only seen the peacocks and the ravens. In much of the touristy areas of the city, however, it's simply too busy and too concrete for most animals.

---

I have not used Clozemaster all of this week. I will get back to it at some point. The last time I used it, I got rid of my German to French course. I really dislike both the French courses I play, but thought I'd keep the Danish based course as it's not too big.

I also bought a month's lingq membership the other day, taking advantage of a special offer that meant the first month is only a dollar. I am using it for Finnish. I went through a dialogue and a bit, looking up grammar in 'From Start to Finnish' and a basic grammar that I have in my Finnish treasure chest. The more I learn of Finnish, the more I love it.

Yesterday I ended up reading a French site about life in Sweden for a while, then applying to volunteer for the Swedish Red Cross, which included a bit of writing. I only wrote about a hundred words, but it's better than nothing.

Still sick :(
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MamaPata
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby MamaPata » Fri Aug 11, 2017 12:15 pm

Elenia wrote:Well, it depends on the animal and where in the city you are. There are, as rdearman said, tons of pidgeons in London. In central London that is probably the only animal you'll see without looking for them. Up where my family live in Cockfosters, there are loads of different types of birds, including parakeets. It's quite amazing to hear their call and look out and see one perched on the frosty branch of a tree in the middle of January. They've done shockingly well in London. There are also lots of squirrels, although mostly grey squirrels. The red squirrels are now severely engangered because of grey squirrels. And of course there are tons of foxes in the suburbs. My friend, who had lived in a small town in Germany all her life, saw her first fox when visiting me and she thought it was amazing. I told her she would change her mind when she heard them.


Squirrels bloody everywhere. The one that always amuses me is that my Australian friends love the squirrels, whereas they drive me mad.
:evil:
We get the parakeets too - the urban legend is they escaped from the zoo, but I have no idea if it's true or not.

Impressive work on the volunteering application! That's a tough thing to write! Fingers crossed!
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aokoye
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby aokoye » Sun Aug 13, 2017 8:47 am

MamaPata wrote:
Elenia wrote:Well, it depends on the animal and where in the city you are. There are, as rdearman said, tons of pidgeons in London. In central London that is probably the only animal you'll see without looking for them. Up where my family live in Cockfosters, there are loads of different types of birds, including parakeets. It's quite amazing to hear their call and look out and see one perched on the frosty branch of a tree in the middle of January. They've done shockingly well in London. There are also lots of squirrels, although mostly grey squirrels. The red squirrels are now severely engangered because of grey squirrels. And of course there are tons of foxes in the suburbs. My friend, who had lived in a small town in Germany all her life, saw her first fox when visiting me and she thought it was amazing. I told her she would change her mind when she heard them.


Squirrels bloody everywhere. The one that always amuses me is that my Australian friends love the squirrels, whereas they drive me mad.
:evil:
We get the parakeets too - the urban legend is they escaped from the zoo, but I have no idea if it's true or not.

Impressive work on the volunteering application! That's a tough thing to write! Fingers crossed!

Wait - parakeets?! We definitely don't have those in the wild in Portland (nor have I seen any in Berlin). I am a fan of the red squirrels, if only because I'm so used grey squirrels and fox squirrels (they're a brownish color). When I was going to school in NY there were black squirrels which were also fantastic.
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Elenia
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby Elenia » Sun Aug 13, 2017 5:12 pm

aokoye wrote:Wait - parakeets?! We definitely don't have those in the wild in Portland (nor have I seen any in Berlin). I am a fan of the red squirrels, if only because I'm so used grey squirrels and fox squirrels (they're a brownish color). When I was going to school in NY there were black squirrels which were also fantastic.


There are a number of theories about the parakeets, pretty much all of them are about them having escaped either a zoo or private collection. Black Squirrels? I didn't even realise such a thing existed! I haven't seen a red squirrel in the UK in years. The Isle of Wight still has a good population of red squirrels, and Australianesque laws for grey squirrels.

---

I haven't done anything apart from Lingq and the tiniest bit of Clozemaster. I'm enjoying Lingq more now than when I last used it, and am even using the SRS function - which could be improved, but is not too bad. I have my volunteer interview tomorrow, and I am somewhat terrified. Wish me luck, all!
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aokoye
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby aokoye » Sun Aug 13, 2017 6:10 pm

Elenia wrote:
aokoye wrote:Wait - parakeets?! We definitely don't have those in the wild in Portland (nor have I seen any in Berlin). I am a fan of the red squirrels, if only because I'm so used grey squirrels and fox squirrels (they're a brownish color). When I was going to school in NY there were black squirrels which were also fantastic.


There are a number of theories about the parakeets, pretty much all of them are about them having escaped either a zoo or private collection. Black Squirrels? I didn't even realise such a thing existed! I haven't seen a red squirrel in the UK in years. The Isle of Wight still has a good population of red squirrels, and Australianesque laws for grey squirrels.

Yeah I didn't realize they existed until I actually went to that school! They are the unofficial mascot of Sarah Lawrence College. Apparently they are the official mascot of another small liberal arts college in the NE.
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DaveBee
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby DaveBee » Sun Aug 13, 2017 6:26 pm

aokoye wrote:
Elenia wrote:
aokoye wrote:Wait - parakeets?! We definitely don't have those in the wild in Portland (nor have I seen any in Berlin). I am a fan of the red squirrels, if only because I'm so used grey squirrels and fox squirrels (they're a brownish color). When I was going to school in NY there were black squirrels which were also fantastic.


There are a number of theories about the parakeets, pretty much all of them are about them having escaped either a zoo or private collection. Black Squirrels? I didn't even realise such a thing existed! I haven't seen a red squirrel in the UK in years. The Isle of Wight still has a good population of red squirrels, and Australianesque laws for grey squirrels.

Yeah I didn't realize they existed until I actually went to that school!
I got slightly freaked out seeing black swans in Hyde Park. I thought reality was broken for a moment there.
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby Systematiker » Mon Aug 21, 2017 1:17 am

Sounds like you're doing pretty well!

The wildlife thing is pretty cool too - the other day, my wife texted me about some strange creatures they saw in the yard. Turns out we've got groundhogs, much to the delight of both wife and son (who've never seen them before). We also have lots of rabbits and chipmunks, but then, we're pretty rural here. My colleague had a bear in his garden last week!
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Elenia
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby Elenia » Tue Aug 22, 2017 9:13 am

Continuing the wildlife log, I saw hedgehogs by my apartment the other day. I can't remember ever having seen a hedgehog before in my life, although I probably did when I was a lot younger. Naturally it was dark, so I couldn't see them very well :(

---

I've done no real study for over a week, but I have used Swedish almost every day. I had my volunteering interview on Monday, which went really well. I will have my first shift this coming Thursday. I have also used Swedish with a neighbour, a person performing market research, a couple of my partner's friends and service people. I got switched on once, quite rudely, while checking into a hotel, but everyone else was fine.

I have finally got my hands on a physical copy of Charmen med tarmen, which I have started reading. It is such a comfortable read! Way more comfortable than the same in German :oops:
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby DaveBee » Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:02 am

Elenia wrote: I had my volunteering interview on Monday, which went really well. I will have my first shift this coming Thursday.

Do you know what you'll be doing?
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