Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

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Iversen
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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby Iversen » Thu Nov 18, 2021 12:57 pm

I have been shanghajed by music again - this time it's my theme collection that has opened its big gab and sucked me in. I have listened to about a third of the files that still had items without themes and jotted down what I heard if I couldn't find in on the IMSLP site. And now I'm going to make a pretty black-ink copy of those themes, and when that's done I'll have to integrate the themes into my existing theme collection. While I'm writing the copy I can listen to speech and glance at my TV or even texts, but not listen to music, nor read continuously, and when I'm doing the subsequent integration work on my computer I can listen to everything and glance at my TV or even texts at will, but not read continuously or study intensively. So my language learning will suffer for a time.

But while have have been jotting themes down I have also spent time on music rather than languages, and in spite of this I did save some time for learning. For instance I have grabbed the airway magazine "Blue" from Olympic, which I got during the flight between Thessaloniki and Athens in 2016 (I was there for the Polyglot Conference). Like many other airway magazines it's bilingual (Greeek-English), and I have periodically used it later, but it's much more comfortable for me to use it now because my Greek has improved. Yesterday I worked my way through two articles, one about scarecrows and the other about the island Despotiko, which apparently once had a population of 'Parians' who made some statues called 'kouroi' - but it has never been investigated as thoroughly as some other places.

Speaking of Greece: yesterday I watched a program in English (with Danish subtitles) about the find of an intact warrior grave near Pylos - the 'gold rich' town of old king Nestor according to Homer - but this grave was several centuries older. Actually it was from around 1450 BC, and it was full of newly produced Minoan artifacts. Now this is interesting, because it says something about the events on Crete. Until around 1700 BC everything went fine on Crete and the Minoans built a series of 'palaces' (whose exact function still is under discussion), and they wrote tablets in Linear A which nobody can read today. But then an earthquake damaged their palaces, and in 1640 BC the supervolcano at Thera/Santorini blew up and smashed the palaces again and (apparently) destroyed the Minoan fleet and hampered agriculture seriously for decades. Because of these calamities Myceneans from mainland Greece could more or less take over the island, but this didn't stop the local people from doing their crafts - and the Myceneans learnt to write from the Minoans, but they just used the writing system to jot down boring messages in Linear A. It would have been very nice to have some historical and geographical texts from that period, but apparently that thought didn't occur to the narrow-minded Mycenean warlords.

OK, the guy in the grave near Pylos was buried around 1450 BC with a selection of Minoan artifacts, including one piece that may actually portray the owner himself or one of his kin. And they are made in a very realistic style, unlike the first 'proper' Greek scultures and pottery images from the following dark period. The problem is that precisely around 1450 something again happened at Crete which finally destroyed most palaces - only at Knossos some activity went on for a couple of hundred years. So the buried man may have been there just before this new disaster, where most remaining structures were burned down and relinquished, and the question is whether he played an active role in this scenario or on the contrary salvaged some artifacts because he liked the hardstrucken Minoans - nobody knows. Anyway, the Iliad counts some warriors from Crete in the army that destroyed Troy, and there are also Greek myths that refer to Crete and 'king Minos' so the old culture there had not been totally forgotten, but since the art of writing was lost during the dark period it was all based on oral traditions and interpretations thereof.

The Mycenean society (which comprised the city-state of Pylos) went under itself around 1200 BC, possibly as a result of the activities of the socalled 'Sea People', but there is also references to a socalled 'Dorian invasion' in Greek literature - however no actual archeological evidence for such an invasion has ever been found. Anyway, nobody wrote aught in Greek for around 400 years, and when the Greeks took up writing again they adapted a Phoenician alphabetical system, not the old Linear A. And it's a late version of this writing system which is used in my Greek study texts.

Scarecrow (and an un-scared raptor) on Santorini (from BLUE).jpg
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Iversen
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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby Iversen » Mon Nov 22, 2021 5:54 pm

I went to the Language café again today, and it was a total fiasco - no one except me turned up. The last two times only one other person turned up, however I was lucky to have good conversations with both of them, but today not even one other person bothered to come. It was a nice concept, and if just a few other persons had taken it seriously enough to come by more than once it might still have functioned. But I can't see any future for it now. And that means that I have no reason to bother about speaking foreignese, except when I'm on holiday. And maybe I'll move to the countryside in the near future, and then I can also stop speaking Danish.

Speaking about holidays: I'm going to visit a group of chamber musicians in Rostock in December, and they are going to play a trio I wrote for them. And because it would be silly to visit another country for just one event I'll first travel by train to Rostock, and from there to Rostock and back home. My excursion will last one week, and that's enough. I like to visit Germany, and during previous December trips I have enjoyed their Christkindl-Märkte - but due to corona these have been totally abolished in Bayern ('Bavaria'), and I expect them to be rather subdued (if open at all) in Leipzig and Rostock and the other places I see forward to visit here in December 2021. Besides you have to wear masks in Germany, but not yet in Denmark, and they could conceivably close museums and zoo and libraries down even for fully vaccinated people if the current surge continues. So I don't want to be there more than a week.

These are gloomy times indeed... which reminds me of the title of a piece from 1649 by Thomas Tomkins, "A sad pavan for these distracted times". But back then there was a civil war raging in the UK, and precisely in 1649 king Charles I was beheaded and replaced by Oliver Cromwell - so maybe times were even more gloomy back then.

Apart from that: I have spent a lot of time copying themes in black ink with a fountain pen, scanning the result and integrating it into my theme collection. So I have not studied much, but nevertheless found time to work my way through a few more articles from the Greek airway magazine "Blue" - including the last pages of the article about the ruins on the island Despotiko and an article about the Samaria Gorge, which I chose NOT to visit during my first and so far only trip to Crete.

GR: Μιλώντας για την Ελλάδα: σήμερα το πρωί ξύπνησα από ένα όνειρο στα ελληνικά. Ήμουν σε κάποιο είδος σκηνής έξω από ένα μοτέλ (ή ίσως ένα σχολείο). Για κάποιον ξεχασμένο λόγο έπρεπε να γράψω κάτι στα ελληνικά, αλλά αρνήθηκα να το κάνω πριν από είχα βρει το δανοελληνικό λεξικό μου. Βρήκα το ελληνοδανικό βιβλίο πάνω από ένα ντουλάπι (επίσης ένα βιβλίο πράσινο), αλλά μάταια έψαξα μερικά πιθανά μέρη για το άλλο βιβλίο. Αλλά επειδή δεν έχω συνηθίσει να απογοητεύομαι στα όνειρά μου, απλά είπα στον κενό ότι ήθελα το λεξικό μου - τώρα! Και τότε κάποιος εμφανίστηκε και μου το έδωσε. Και κάθισα να γράψω με ένα μεγάλο άδειο σεντόνι μπροστά μου και ένα στυλό βρύσης στο χέρι - και μετά ξύπνησα. Ίσως απλά δεν μπορώ να γράψω ελληνικά όταν κοιμάμαι.Αποκοιμήθηκα αργότερα και πάλι, αλλά μετά η εσωτερική μου μηχανή ονείρων με οδήγησε σε άλλη κατεύθυνση (που δεν έχει σχέση εδώ).

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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby Iversen » Tue Nov 23, 2021 8:35 am

Second day in a row with a Foreignese dream, this time with two words in Spanish and a lot of Latinamerican scenery, As I have written before I'm quite often a tourist in my dreams, and there is mostly not much interaction with other people - this dream exemplifies both things. It started out with me standing in a rather anonymous square, possibly with some other tourists, but I don't remember any specific details about them, and they didn't follow me. I wanted to get to the Zoológico, and I knew the way: up along a street running Northwards. But the strange thing is that I had to pass through several buildings along the way - one that looked like a warehouse, another like a small chapel, and in one case I came out from such a building into a fullblown glittering Chinatown square with a temple at the far side. I grabbed my camera and took a photo, and when I looked right there was a small tightly packed oriental garden, which I also photographed. And then I continued slightly to the right, turned left and continued walking Northwards. Here I had to pass through one more building, but this time it contained the home of a family. The wife was just putting some quite appetizing food on the table, and her husband came to sit down. I couldn't see an immediate exit so I asked the man "¿El Zoológico?", and then he pointed me to the left and indicated that I then had to turn right and exit Northwards, and I did and found a normal street again. But soon after I woke up so I never got to the Zoo.

And I'm not going to get to the zoo in Leipzig either. When I checked my e-mail around midnight there was a mail from my intended hotel there. I had expected new restrictions to be targeted against people that refused to be vaccinated, but in Sachsen they have simply forbidden tourism - only business people can stay in the hotels until mid December, and trains and busses aren't allowed to transport tourists. The purpose is of course to limit contacts from abroad, but it makes me wonder whether the mad rulers of Saxony have lost faith in the vaccines. Now I just fear that the example from Saxony will spread to the other Länder I'm supposed to pass through to get to Rostock.I didn't choose the date myself, and now it seems to be the worst possible time for a trip to Germany. I have bookmarked a page with links to alphabetical lists of restrictions, and I'll have to check that regularly - from now one things can only get worse.

SP:
PD: que yo sepa, no hay un zoológico en la ciudad de Antigua, pero la calle de la foto se parece a las calles del sueño.

F1829a03 Calle Oriente, Antigua, Guatemala.jpg
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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby Iversen » Fri Nov 26, 2021 11:44 pm

My study activities this week have been dominated by German. I have read 2½ books on three successive evenings as goodnight-reading: "Citytrip Rostock Wismar" (in German despite the title), ADAC's Reiseführer to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (commonly known as MV .. for a reason) and the first half of a slightly aged, but well written book about archeology "Forsvundne Verdener" (in Danish, translated from English). All that German is of course caused by my impending trip to Germany, which has been in jeopardy due to you-know-what - and I have noticed that I have prematurely started to think in German (normally it would only be English that did that kind of tricks on me).

I had planned first to go to Leipzig - and what happened: All of Saxony is closed to tourists until (they say..) mid December - but it would surprise me if they let tourists in before 2022. And then I'm supposed to go to Rostock, where they have declared G2+. G3 is the rule in the trains: Geimpt or Genesen or Getestet (vaccinated or recovered after being ill with don't-mention-the-name or tested and found nonguilty). 'Simple' G2 means that you are Geimpt or Genesen, but adding the infamous + means that you also have to present a day-old negative test in Hotels, restaurants and cultural institutions (but it's just G2 at the Christmas Markets) - and then you can spend half your holiday trying to obtain those negative testresults. I have been in contact with my hotel and native MVs about how to survive that, and so far it seems that I can get down there and get tested so that I can see more than the streets and insides of transport vehicles, but it will be a travel attempt against the odds - not what I had hoped for. At least there is a ferry to Denmark so that I can escape home if necessary.

F3631b0x_Ferry_Gedser_Rostock.jpg

GER: Ich habe Mecklenburg-Vorpommern schon früher unter positiveren Umständen besucht, aber vor allem der ADAC-Führer enthält eine Reihe von ungesehenen Sehenswürdigkeiten, die ich sehr gerne besuchen würde. Ich habe sogar eine Liste mit Zoos in der Umgebung gemacht und habe recherchiert, ob es Busse zu den abgelegeneren Orten gibt. G2+ gilt aber auch für Zoos und Museen, und deshalb muß ich meine wertvolle Zeit auf Tests vergeuden. Es könnte aber noch schlimmer sein - Sachsen ist schlimmer, und Österreich und die Slowakei und ... Jedenfalls ist is in MV erlaubt in den Straßen herumzulaufen - in Österreich is dies nur für G2's erlaubt (außer wenn man als ausgehungerte Ungeimpter Essen kaufen muß oder auf dem Wege zu einer Impfstelle sei).

Kunst014_sctPeter.jpg

Auch in Dänemark nimmt die Ansteckung zu, aber unsere Zahlen sehen dramatischer aus als sie sind - hier testet man nämlich täglich 200.000 Menschen in einer Bevölkerung von etwa 6 Millionen (PCR - Erstickungstests nicht inbegriffen), und es ist klar, daß man mehr Infizierte findet, je mehr man testet. Die relevante Zahl ist der Positiv-Prozent (Anteil positiver Ergebnisse unter den Getesteten - heute 2,10%), aber die Journalisten vergessen in der Regel ihn zu erwähnen - sie heulen und brüllen statdessen über die steigenden absoluten Zahlen. Und jetzt kommt die Omikron... whoaa...

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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby Iversen » Sun Nov 28, 2021 10:15 pm

I waited until the early evening to switch on my PC, and therefore I was not tempted to work on my music collection. Instead I have read the latest issue of Esperanto (the magazine of UEA), I have (re)studied some Russian texts about balalajkas and the town Petrozawodsk and done a wee bit of Greek wordlist/repetition - and watched television with the sound turned on.

The Esperanto magazine is mostly devoted to short reports from events around the world, and they are generally somewhat dry. The most interesting thing is actually that it has been possible to make real meetings this year instead of just digital ones, but I wonder whether this has been possible (or allowed) the last month or so around the world. In Europe there is currently a surge in covid, but this time a large part of the Europeans are vaccinated which ought to make a difference - even if the infection numbers are almost at the level of the December-Januar surge people are generally less ill. I don't know enough about the situation on other continents, but I noticed that one of the TV experts said that the positive percentage (% of infected among those tested by PCR) in Gauteng in South Africa in one month has risen from 1% or 2% to over 30% because of the nasty omikron variant - it was at 2.31% today here in Denmark. So maybe there will be fewer live events in the next issue of the magazine. I have read that there may be an updated vaccine ready in a couple of months, but then I'll probably have had my third dosis with the old formula and can't get the new version. Luckily I'm not addicted to cheek kissing, hugging, dancing and singing or any similarly dubious practices.

EO: Tamen estis interesa artikolo de Federico Gobbo, kiu verŝajne estas la sola universitata instruisto de Eŭropo en Esperanto (en Amsterdamo). Li lamentis ke ĉe la kunvenoj kiujn li ĉeestis, oni foje parolis en Esperanto kaj pri Esperanto, sed ne estis sufiĉe da regula empiria esploro pri la lingvo - ekzemple pri aferoj kiel trajtoj en la lingvo de denaskaj parolantoj kontraŭ la lingvo de lernitaj Esperantistoj (mi rifuzas skribi 'samideanojn' ĉar ni ne ĉiuj havas la samajn ideojn). Li eĉ uzas la vorton 'umbilikismo' pro la manko de transversa esploro.

As for Russian:

RU: Я уже использовал эти два русских текста раньше (и упоминал их в этой ветке), поэтому их легко понять - даже не заглядывая соответственно в переводы на испанский и африкаанс. Но у меня не было готовых новых двуязычных текстов, поэтому я просто взял несколько старых.

PS: I have now made some new Russian study texts about the kosmonaut Egorov, infarction of the thalamus and Korsakov's syndrome, with translations into Catalan, French and Frisian in that order (and no, I don't study Frisian, but it looks funny).

As for Greek: I had more than 300 words from "δεκαριο" to "διέρχομαι" lying around on a dictionary based wordlist, and then I added around 80 from recent text studies, and then I did the repetitions this afternoon. The original wordlists have the usual three columns (target, translation, target), and when I do repetitions I take the translation columns in small pieces and try to reconstruct the original words in my target languages. When I copy the translations I do read the original words, but that's actually part of the exercise - one more repetition instead of a memory test. And then I get the memory test when I reconstruct the second column, but in a 'light' version because I have seen the original words just minutes earlier.

You might say that this is far too easy, but I have earlier made many tests where I did my repetitions and then later covered the translations in the original three-column wordlist to test whether I actually had learned the foreign words - and my results were quite acceptable so I know that my method works. But obviously not all the words enter my active vocabulary from the beginning. To get some notion about that I should probably copy the translations without looking at the target language columns, but I have not prioritized that kind of test. Methinks that would be material for future (amateurish and grossly unscientific) research projects ...

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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby Iversen » Mon Nov 29, 2021 6:14 pm

Today's language café was a total fiasco, like the one last week, and I won't come again there before the pandemy has ended. Instead of speaking I sat down to read, but only things in Danish - a whole book about water towers and parts of a book about the totally incompetent railway administrators and politicians who have wasted insane sums on idiotic and superfluous projects. But I also read a couple of science mags, and in one there was an article that finally explained (in Danish) why lifeforms can't be based on silicon. Both carbon and silicon are tetravalent and can form covalent bindings, but only carbon can form double bindings, haha. And if you attach four hydrogen atoms to one carbon or silicon atom then CH4 is stable (Methane), whereas SiH4 (Silane) will autocombust at ordinary temperatures. So if you were made of silicon and farted in an atmosphere with oxygen there would be a deadly explosion. And your shit would be made of quartz which is crystalline and only melts at more than 2200 degrees celsius (ouch!). So there in one fell swoop we got rid of a number of farflung theories about possible alien lifeforms.

And language learning .. well, I have watched BBC and there was a man from Genova who explained in Italian how to make foccaccia. But he may be dead now. I have of course also checked the situation in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern once again - the borders could be closed without warning because of the omikron, which seems to be even more contagious than the delta, but nobody knows yet whether it also is more deadly. Maybe our clever scientists could produce a variant of covid that could outcompete all other variants, but leave people relatively unharmed. And then we could offer that as an alternative to the no-vacs. Otherwise this circus can go on for years.

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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby Teango » Mon Nov 29, 2021 7:04 pm

Iversen wrote:I also read a couple of science mags, and in one there was an article that finally explained (in Danish) why lifeforms can't be based on silicon...

Ja, endelig! I asked my science teacher the very same question when I was 6, but sadly only received a board eraser around the lughole and a cloud of chalk dust for my daring curiosity. Now I truly realize the colourful and intricate perils involved...thank you for sharing, Iversen, and finally laying this scientific spectre to rest.
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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby luke » Mon Nov 29, 2021 7:48 pm

Teango wrote:Ja, endelig! I asked my science teacher the very same question when I was 6, but sadly only received a board eraser around the lughole and a cloud of chalk dust for my daring curiosity. Now I truly realize the colourful and intricate perils involved...thank you for sharing, Iversen, and finally laying this scientific spectre to rest.

I also got a face full of chalk dust my science teacher's eraser but that was for talking to my neighbor.

The good news is, he bought me fudgsicles every time he saw me in the lunch room after that, always accompanied by, "remember that day I threw an eraser and hit you right in the face and there was an explosion of chalk dust and the whole class burst into laughter..., hey, do you want a fudgsicle?" :lol:

That fudgsicle dividend got paid for 2 years.

I hope you made out well, as well.
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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby Iversen » Wed Dec 08, 2021 7:41 pm

I have just returned from my trip to Rostock (plus a couple of days at my mother's place), and my next project will be to organize the photos I took and write a travelogue. As I have mentioned before the reason that I went there now was that a group of chamber musicians had found my trio for clarinet, viola and cello on the IMSLP site and intended to play it the 4. December. But then a new wawe of covid hit both Germany and Denmark, and it was a close call that the trip couldn't be done at all.

I had first booked two nights in Leipzig in Sachsen (Saxony), but then Sachsen simply closed its borders for tourists - including tourists from other parts of Germany. Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (where Rostock is the largest town, with Schwerin as the capital) introduced the notion 2G+, which means that you have to be not only Geimpft or Genesen (vaccinated or recovered), but also tested - and tests in Germany are only valid for 24 hours. Luckily trains and busses only require 3G - that is vaccinated or recovered OR tested (getestet). In some other 'Länder' you can get along with just 2G, but in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern you even need to be tested to visit restaurants, museums, Christmas markets, ordinary shops and hotels. People who don't meet the requirements are only allowed to buy essentials like food, gasoline and medicine - and for some reason bookstores also are seen as essential, but not for instance shops that sell clothes or toys. Speaking of bookstores: I bought a couple of small Langenscheidt dictionaries and a book "Die seltsamsten Sprachen der Welt", but this time no sci mags - I had only brought a very small bag, which already was close to exploding.

When I left Denmark I was still not sure how to get the necessary daily quicktests, but it seems that at least the largest towns now have mobile test units where you can get tested without a reservation ("Termin"). I could in principle reserve a slot via my 'handy' or mobile phone, but I'm still not comfortable using it, and I have read that many places actually are booked up, so those blue boxes with their termin free tests saved my trip. However only one test per week is free - after that the price is 15€ per test.

My German stood up to the test - apart from a whole evening in the company of native speakers I had several long conversations with employees at the museums and zoos, who had more time at their hand than usual because the visitor numbers have imploded - after all, if you have to be tested to visit a museum or zoo (and maybe pay 15 $ for it), then local residents might decide that such a visit could wait a month or two, and the number of foreign tourists was minimal. At my hotel there was a Swedish travel group, but in the streets I didn't see many tourists. And in some museums I simply was the only visitor, so the staff had lots of time to talk to me. And the chamber musicians clearly liked my composition.

GER: Wie gesagt, ich mußte die ersten beiden Tage meiner Reise stornieren, konnte aber über Hamburg nach Rostock auf 3G-Basis fahren und in meinem Hotel einchecken, da ich vor der Abreise mich zu Hause hatte testen lassen. Den ersten vollen Tag habe ich für 22 € eine Bahnfahrkarte für alle Nahverkehrszüge in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern gekauft und bin nach Schwerin gefahren. Ich hatte damit gerechnet, schlimmstenfalls im Schneesturm durch die Straßen eitel waten zu müssen und nur Lebensmittel aus Supermärkten gekauft zu essen, aber in Schwerin sah ich ein Riesenrad und eine Straße mit Weihnachtsmarktbuden, und dazwischen fand ich eine blaue Kiste mit Termin-losen Tests - und die Schlange war nur 5-6 Leute. Hurra, die Fahrt war bis 11:30 Uhr am nächsten Tag gerettet (und der morgendliche Schneefall hatte aufgehört). Ich habe dann Schloßmuseum und Tierpark gesehen, bin danach nach Wismar gefahren und habe da noch zwei Kirchen und ein Museum gesehen. Und nach meiner Rückkehr nach Rostock besuchte ich den dortigen Christkindlmarkt, wo es ein System von Armbändern gab, die gegen Vorlage von Impf- und Testnachweisen ausgegeben wurden - und dann konnte man Süßigkeiten und Kuchen und Weihnachtsgeschenke nach Belieben kaufen, aber ich habe mich damit begnügt, in einem Buchladen einzukaufen.

Weihnachtsmarkt_Rostock.jpg

Am nächsten Tag (Freitag) konnte ich auf der gestrigen Prüfbescheinigung noch den Rostocker Zoo besichtigen, und später erfuhr ich, daß es auch in Rostock blaue Termin-freie Prüfbehälter gibt (auf dem Neumarkt). Damit war ich bis Samstag Mittag gerettet und besuchte am Nachmittag zwei Museen und am nächsten Tag noch eines in Warnemünde. Und um genau 16 Uhr Samstag bin ich bei den Kammermusikern angekommen und habe hier an einem kombinierten Essens- und Musikabend mit sieben einheimischen Rostockern teilgenommen, und ich konnte mich tatsächlich auf gleichem Fuß mit ihnen unterhalten – nur mit einem einzigen kleinen Problemchen. Wir diskutierten über Gentechnik, und ich erwähnte nebenbei, daß die alte Familie der Nebengelenktiere (Edentata) nachweislich genetisch aus zwei Gruppen besteht, die eigentlich nicht eng miteinander verwandt sind: Faultieren und Ameisenbären versus ... ja, was? Zum Glück konnte ein anderer Teilnehmer das Wort erraten, das mir fehlte: Gürteltier. Und natürlich kenne ich dieses Wort (nach vielen Zoobesuchen), aber ich konnte es nicht hervorrufen, als ich endlich die Gelegenheit hatte, es zu benutzen. Ansonsten verlief der Abend hervorragend, und mein Trio für Klarinette, Bratsche und Cello schien sowohl den Musikern als auch dem Publikum zu gefallen.

F4528b05_Gürteltier_AalborgZoo.jpg
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Iversen
Black Belt - 4th Dan
Posts: 4768
Joined: Sun Jul 19, 2015 7:36 pm
Location: Denmark
Languages: Monolingual travels in Danish, English, German, Dutch, Swedish, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, Italian, Romanian and (part time) Esperanto
Ahem, not yet: Norwegian, Afrikaans, Platt, Scots, Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Albanian, Greek, Latin, Irish, Indonesian and a few more...
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=1027
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Re: Iversen's second multiconfused log thread

Postby Iversen » Mon Dec 13, 2021 6:23 pm

I have just returned from the weekly Language Café, and against expectation it wasn't a fiasco this time. Obviously I couldn't come while I was in Germany, and twice before that nobody came apart from me. So today I just sat down and looked at the pitch dark seascape and the mini Manhattan which our mayor and his party is building in the water. His predecessor først changed the name of my town from Århus til Aarhus to make it more palatable to foreigners - and then he and his party started to build a new quarter named "Aarhus Ø" ... I fail to see the logic.

Anyway, I noticed a man who looked longer than the usual two seconds at the poster advertising the event, and I asked him whether he came for the language café. Well, not exactly, but he was interested in hearing more about it. And when he by accident revealed that he could speak a little bit of German his fate was sealed - we started a German conversation. And then a Berlinerin who had arrived in Denmark just two months earlier with her wife came (probably because she had heard us speak German), and she said that she could understand some spoken Danish, but not speak it yet. So we shifted to a mixture of slow Danish and German to accommodate her, and that conversation lasted a full hour. Actually I suddenly catched some unmistakably Swedish words from her, and she revealed that she also spoke fluent Swedish - but we didn't follow that trail. It did however explain why she already could read Danish and understand at last some of the things we said after just two months.

Two other ladies who had been sitting in the same area, gazing at the Ø left while quietly speaking Danish, greated us when they left, and I picked up the trace of an accent in their Danish. It turned out that they were Dutch (or at least had been living for quite some time in the Netherlands), but it is not likely that I'll ever see them again - otherwise we may have a Dutchophone* session for the first time ever. And later a man passed by, but he didn't speak German. However he revealed that he might be interested in Spanish, so maybe later. All in all this shows that there is a need for speaking opportunities in many languages, but the unorganized language café format is clearly not what these people are looking for - unless we can get back to the olden days of yore, where there were so many participants that you could be almost sure to find someone to speak to in your preferred foreign language.

If today also had been a failure I would probably not have wasted more time getting there each Monday, but now my decision is flowing in the wind - corona has apparently not yet scared people enough to keep them away from the library, and I see many people in the streets and the restaurants, but at least some of the elderly may be too afraid to come. The hardcore nightlife has been closed down by order from above, restaurants have to close at midnight and you have to wear masks and show corona passes in shops and transportation and many types of institutions (though not in libraries - at least for the time being), but the general attitude here is nevertheless reasonably relaxed.

F6148a05_Ø by day.jpg

PS: I don't know the adjective for Dutch speak communities, sorry. On the other hand I am reasonably confident that the conversations of people from Sachsen speaking their local dialect can be characterized as Saxophone..
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