What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

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gsbod
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby gsbod » Wed Apr 12, 2023 5:10 pm

I was really excited to discover this week that a couple of "classics" of 00s J Drama are now available on Netflix in the UK - namely Tiger and Dragon and Ikebukuro West Gate Park. Tiger and Dragon is starting to wear its age now (given that it's nearly 20 years old this is not much of a surprise) but it's still really entertaining and is taking my mind off this stinking cold I picked up over Easter weekend!
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gsbod
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby gsbod » Mon Apr 24, 2023 4:19 pm

My motivation to study has not returned and I'm starting to think I'm done with studying. It's a bit weird, since learning languages and a commitment to lifelong learning has really been part of my identity for a very long time - even if the focus of my studies has changed over the years I'm always replacing one learning project with another of some sort.

But I've been thinking a lot about what I want my life to be like and carving regular time to sit at my desk studying is just not something I want to do any more. There's plenty I can do to enjoy the benefits of everything I've learned to date, which would be a far better use of my time than studying. And what's the point of learning anything if you're not going to use it, anyway?

That's not to say I won't come back to language learning at some point in the future. There's one more language on the list if I am minded to go back into study mode again. But I'm happy to just leave it on the list for now.

As for Spanish, I've only got a couple of weeks left on the course, plus a couple of assignments. I'll keep turning up and doing what I need to do to pass the course (it would be stupid not to), but I won't be doing anything extra.

I'll still use this log occasionally. If I read a particularly good Krimi, I'll need to tell the internet about it, after all :lol:
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gsbod
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby gsbod » Thu May 18, 2023 8:02 pm

I've finished my course, just waiting to receive the final grades for some of the assessments. It's been an interesting, and somewhat humbling, experience, to go through the assessment process having already taken my foot off the pedal. Back when I did German courses, I never had to make any specific effort with the assessments, since I was doing so much on my own initiative my language level was always slightly ahead of what was expected anyway. Spanish has been...different.

It's been very interesting to see what things have stuck, and what haven't. Turns out I'm an ace on using sentence structures with gustar, interesar etc and I'm sure that my experience with German helps a lot with that. On the other hand, I'm still not great with verb conjugations - I'll know what form (tense/person) I'm supposed to use 99% of the time, but how to correctly conjugate it is another matter. Honestly, I think I've always kind of sucked at verb conjugations, just with exposure and practice I get used to enough of the more common forms not to embarass myself completely.

Vocabulary is also interesting. There's a load of stuff I didn't manage to learn. Then there's a load more which I tried to learn but have forgotten already. But I have a weirdly rich vocabulary related to weather, despite not making any particular effort here.

As for motivation, the sad thing is that every time I've turned up to class since Easter, I've always felt really motivated during the class. But once I get back home the motivation to study just evaporates.
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Fortheo
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby Fortheo » Mon May 22, 2023 12:09 pm

gsbod wrote:I was really excited to discover this week that a couple of "classics" of 00s J Drama are now available on Netflix in the UK - namely Tiger and Dragon and Ikebukuro West Gate Park. Tiger and Dragon is starting to wear its age now (given that it's nearly 20 years old this is not much of a surprise) but it's still really entertaining and is taking my mind off this stinking cold I picked up over Easter weekend!


I remember watching ikebukuro Westgate park like 17 years ago. It was a pretty crazy ride and had lots of well known jdrama stars in it. It's great that Netflix picked it up. Do you remember any other jdramas from the 00s that you liked?
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gsbod
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby gsbod » Mon May 22, 2023 4:03 pm

Fortheo wrote:I remember watching ikebukuro Westgate park like 17 years ago. It was a pretty crazy ride and had lots of well known jdrama stars in it. It's great that Netflix picked it up. Do you remember any other jdramas from the 00s that you liked?


Ooh there's a question to take me down memory lane! I watched so many at the time, although I haven't watched much jdrama for years.

One of my favourites has to be Kekkon dekinai otoko, which I rewatched fairly recently. I also remember enjoying Maou, Moto Kare, Honey and Clover (I found the anime creepy but the drama version was great), and of course Nodame cantabile. I still have a soft spot for Hana yori dango - even though it's completely ridiculous.

There are probably others that I've forgotten about!

Edit: And Trick as well!
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby Fortheo » Mon May 22, 2023 4:56 pm

gsbod wrote:
Fortheo wrote:I remember watching ikebukuro Westgate park like 17 years ago. It was a pretty crazy ride and had lots of well known jdrama stars in it. It's great that Netflix picked it up. Do you remember any other jdramas from the 00s that you liked?


Ooh there's a question to take me down memory lane! I watched so many at the time, although I haven't watched much jdrama for years.

One of my favourites has to be Kekkon dekinai otoko, which I rewatched fairly recently. I also remember enjoying Maou, Moto Kare, Honey and Clover (I found the anime creepy but the drama version was great), and of course Nodame cantabile. I still have a soft spot for Hana yori dango - even though it's completely ridiculous.

There are probably others that I've forgotten about!

Edit: And Trick as well!


I still love Nodame cantabile. I even read the manga in French a year or two ago and I enjoyed it despite missing the actual music aspect of it. It's such a good feel-good story. I enjoyed honey and clover, too. Hana yori dango is ridiculous, but highly addictive :lol: . I haven't seen the others that you mentioned, so I'll add them to my list. Thanks.

My favorite was always a romance/coming of age type j drama from 2004 called orange days. It also had a bit of a music theme to it because one of the characters came from a musical family and played violin. I have good memories of that jdrama, but I was also easily amused by anything Japanese back then :? , so I wonder if it still holds up to my current taste.
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gsbod
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby gsbod » Mon May 22, 2023 5:32 pm

I remember I wanted to watch Orange Days as it was one of the slightly older dramas that seemed to get a lot of love, but I never got around to it. I can't remember why. It might be because I couldn't get hold of it, but it's so long ago now I can't remember!
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gsbod
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby gsbod » Thu May 25, 2023 11:04 am

I've got all my assessments back from my Spanish course now and I did a lot better than expected. I feel like a bit of a fraud, to be honest, given that I made a lot less of an effort towards the end than some of my classmates. It's nice when you work hard and achieve a good result. When you don't work hard and still achieve a good result, not so much. (Still better than working hard and not achieving a good result though).

Really though, I think it's just a combination of the fact that it was a beginner level course, so expectations are quite low, and also my general experience as a linguist means that I have a good set of general skills that can help boost my grades whatever language I'm being tested on. Also it turns out my instinct for verb conjugation is a bit better than I'd given myself credit for...
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gsbod
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby gsbod » Tue May 30, 2023 3:17 pm

Yay I went to London and went to Foyles for the first time in nearly 4 years. It feels good to be back.

I went high brow / low brow in the German section and picked up a Nele Neuhaus and Daniel Kehlmann's Tyll.

I also picked up a couple of the Anaya vocabulary books for Spanish. So I guess this means I do plan to continue studying it...
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Re: What next? (learning Spanish, maintaining German, random dabbling...)

Postby Caromarlyse » Thu Jun 01, 2023 5:25 pm

gsbod wrote:Yay I went to London and went to Foyles for the first time in nearly 4 years. It feels good to be back.

I went high brow / low brow in the German section and picked up a Nele Neuhaus and Daniel Kehlmann's Tyll.

I also picked up a couple of the Anaya vocabulary books for Spanish. So I guess this means I do plan to continue studying it...


Which Nele Neuhaus did you go for? If it's the most recent one in the Pia Kirchhoff series then you're in for a treat.

I went to Foyles in early February and was quite disappointed. To be fair, I'm not quite sure what I expected (and I tend to buy electronic versions of books and research them to death beforehand), but I didn't see anything interesting, i.e. nothing that made me think that it was an out-of-the-norm stock choice.
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