Xenops' Log

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Mista
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Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N), English (QN). Studied Ancient Greek (MA), Linguistics (MA), Latin (BA), German (BA). Italian at A2/B1 level. Learning: French, Japanese, Russian (focus) and various others, like Polish, Spanish, Vietnamese, and anything that comes my way. Also know some Sanskrit (but not the script) and Coptic. Really want to learn Arabic and Amharic.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7497
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Re: Bergenstesten i 2022 eller 2023

Postby Mista » Fri May 14, 2021 5:30 am

Xenops wrote:Norwegian
God dag,
Jeg har nyheter: departementet mitt, på sykehusen, skal lukke denne sommer. Ja, det mikrobiologie departementet, hvor tester vi Covid-19. Men ventet vi for nyheten: det forventet vi. Vi hørte ryktene for mange måneder. Det sykehusen* systemet vil kombinere alt mikrobologie laboratoriene inne i en. Så søker jeg en ny jobb.


I think Jeff answered your question (in Norwegian, though, "sykehusen" isn't plural, just a singular noun with the wrong gender article)

Some more corrections:

close the door = lukke døra. close the department = stenge avdelingen (departementet = a part of the government)

this summer = i sommer

hvor vi tester Covid-19 = this is a subordinate sentence, which means there is no subject-verb inversion

wait for = vente

for many months = i mange måneder (also, I would use "har hørt" or "hadde hørt" in that sentence)

kombinere alle mikrobiologilaboratoriene til ett (laboratorium is neuter)

look for a new job = lete etter en ny jobb. apply for a new job = søke på en ny jobb

So = altså, dermed (in this usage)

Good luck with the job hunt!
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jeff_lindqvist
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Re: Bergenstesten i 2022 eller 2023

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Fri May 14, 2021 6:42 am

Mista wrote:I think Jeff answered your question (in Norwegian, though, "sykehusen" isn't plural, just a singular noun with the wrong gender article)


I saw it as definite plural (similar to Swedish "sjukhusen"), but now l realise that it is "sykehusene", right?
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Mista
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Posts: 608
Joined: Wed May 11, 2016 11:03 pm
Location: Norway
Languages: Norwegian (N), English (QN). Studied Ancient Greek (MA), Linguistics (MA), Latin (BA), German (BA). Italian at A2/B1 level. Learning: French, Japanese, Russian (focus) and various others, like Polish, Spanish, Vietnamese, and anything that comes my way. Also know some Sanskrit (but not the script) and Coptic. Really want to learn Arabic and Amharic.
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... =15&t=7497
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Re: Bergenstesten i 2022 eller 2023

Postby Mista » Fri May 14, 2021 12:12 pm

jeff_lindqvist wrote:
Mista wrote:I think Jeff answered your question (in Norwegian, though, "sykehusen" isn't plural, just a singular noun with the wrong gender article)


I saw it as definite plural (similar to Swedish "sjukhusen"), but now l realise that it is "sykehusene", right?


Yes, exactly. I remember that particular form was mentioned in a class once, because it can cause misundersdtandings. I think the example mentioned back then was "krigen", which is plural in Swedish but singular in Norwegian.
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Xenops
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Re: Bergenstesten i 2022 eller 2023

Postby Xenops » Fri May 14, 2021 10:39 pm

jeff_lindqvist wrote:
Mista wrote:I think Jeff answered your question (in Norwegian, though, "sykehusen" isn't plural, just a singular noun with the wrong gender article)


I saw it as definite plural (similar to Swedish "sjukhusen"), but now l realise that it is "sykehusene", right?


Thank you both for the corrections, I really appreciate it. :D
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Xenops
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Re: Bergenstesten i 2022 eller 2023

Postby Xenops » Sat Jun 12, 2021 2:02 am

I have been focusing my extra time on job applications of late. Admittedly I’m creating a hurdle for myself: I’m applying to research jobs rather than another medical laboratory scientist job. Like many health-care professionals for the past year or so...I’m burnt out. I need a break. And honestly, even though we are responsible for medical testing and are essential for patient care, we do not get respect like doctors and nurses. Yes, they deal with patients face-to-face—but we perform quality control, we keep the COVID testing continuous, we perform the tests the patient-serving professionals need to make a diagnosis. Laboratorians aren’t treated as well, and I can’t see myself doing this career for the rest of my life. I’m thankful for the opportunities the MLS degree has given me—I got to leave my home state and come to Boston, I’ve had steady employment this entire time, and I’ve gained great skills. My current boss has even offered me a retention bonus by the month if I stay long enough for the department to close—But I’m burnt out. I’ve worked the past year, I’ve worked by myself, I’ve worked long shifts and several days in a row—I have served my time. I don’t owe my department anything. I’ve done all of this during COVID season, and then we learn “okay, we’re closing your department.” No thank-yous, no respect, no accolades--okay then, I’m ready to move on.

But enough of that. Technology-wise, I have developments:

1. I have my old Mac from 2014, and in theory, I should get Gradint to work. I really like the idea of creating audio SRS. I could not pull my previous audio into the program because the tkSnack library is not installed. Researching the Tkinter, it looks like it hasn’t been updated in years. This made me wonder if I really just should learn Python: either to patch programs that people have abandoned, or construct from scratch. I wonder how hard this is?

2. I discovered the https://voracious.app, which is supposed to be a Mac alternative to Subs2srs. This is as far as I got, though:

Image
image uploader

I emailed the developers several days ago, and have not heard back. I then research Subs2srs again, and wondered if I could install Linux on my old Mac and use it there. Judging by my searching, one Reddit thread made it sound like it does work on Arch Linux, but it doesn’t make sense that it does. Not a great confidence booster. Again I wonder if I really should learn Python, because even if I broke down and purchased a Windows, I would still need to know how to install tkSnack, Homebrew, and all of these add-ons for these volunteer programs to work anyway. Like Japanese, I feel if I had a better understanding of programming and what it can do, I would use it. But like Japanese, if you drop me in the middle of a Python conversation, I would get lost pretty quickly...What’s GUI?

3. I want to learn advanced sumi-e techniques. The books published in the US are of the “here’s how you position strokes to kind of look like a cat” variety. I admire works by Sesshu, and see a stark difference in ability. I was shopping on Amazon.co.jp, and realized that they sell decent books in Japanese...In hard-copy and Kindle. So wait, I could use a forwarding service to ship the physical book from Japan to Boston, or I could use a Kindle-reading device?

So part of the previous week was spending researching e-readers, and in which I nearly escaped from wasting $200 dollars. :? I purchased an Onyx Boox Darwin, and was not impressed. It was like an etch-a-sketch run by a buggy computer—portions of the screen would flicker. Since I barely used it, I sent it back to Amazon. Turns out, people will sell bogus Onyx imitations, and you’re only supposed to buy from a specific Amazon store. I discovered that I originally bought the device from a different store. I probably bought and safely returned a fake Boox. :shock:

I realized too, after seeing the small e-reader, that I wanted to have something bigger to read PDFs. I remembered Ogrim posting a review of his e-reader/e-notebook reMarkable, and I thought I would eventually get one for when I return to school. However, after watching this excellent review:



I purchased a Supernote. Objectively, I had these reasons:
1. It’s not as fragile as other devices.
2. It’s a developing company that is responsive to customers.
3. The stylus and writing experience looks amazing.

Honestly, it looks really cool and the customer service sold me. They wrote a blog post saying that since their previous cover couldn’t fit a particular stylus, they would send customers a new one. After reading about Boox and reMarkable customer service being largely absent and silent, my subjectivity geared me toward the Supernote as a reader and a note-taker. They also are responsive on their Reddit. I’ll write a review when I’ve used it more.
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rdearman
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Re: Bergenstesten i 2022 eller 2023

Postby rdearman » Sat Jun 12, 2021 8:57 am

On a phone so I will not write much. But a Mac would support a virtual machine. So you could install Linux on the Mac as a VM and then be able to use all the Linux utilities and binaries.

I believe virtualbox runs on Mac and it is free from Oracle.
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Xenops
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Re: Bergenstesten i 2022 eller 2023

Postby Xenops » Wed Jul 07, 2021 10:12 pm

Hello everyone, my name is Xenops, and I’m a perfectionist. :D

(and everyone says: Hello, Xenops!)

Because of my legalistic background, I grew up to be the absolute perfectionist—I always cared about how my actions might be perceived by others: “what course of action would look best? Which course would get the most approval?” This line of thought dominated all others, and I left little room for personal traits or desires. In fact, I hated interests that others wouldn’t approve of. Including loving the Japanese language and culture, and really wishing I didn’t. I felt like God was giving me temptations I could not overcome, and that he could only be a cruel God.

Imagine my freedom of sloughing perfectionism. This has dominated my thinking for so long. It affected every single small detail in life, to the point that I felt bound by my grandfather’s observation: “if you don’t do anything, you can’t fail!” For I felt failure equated with shame—I am a horrible person if I can’t perform correctly.

As a consequence of being more free each day, I can give myself grace to fail, and ultimately grace to experiment. I felt hindered to play with the languages I’m learning, because I’ve been afraid of mistakes. I only relied on text books that give the answers, and then found frustration because textbooks are boring. Now I feel I can enjoy the mining of each vocab word more fun, and see the language learning process as exploring a culture rather than performance to be kept.

Now an interesting benefit: the pull of wanderlust has decreased. Because of perfectionistic ideals, I have felt the need to study more than the two necessary languages, and I wasn’t sure how I would accomplish this. Take Korean for example. I do have a curiosity about their comic industry, and about their culture. But now I can accept that satisfying this curiosity would take more time and energy than I have available. Japanese and Norwegian are hard enough. ;)

Now, about those languages in particular, or rather finding media in said languages.

Japanese
I recently got a V. P. N. And I’m not sure why I waited so long. Actually, yes I know why, it feels illegal, but oh well. I found it most fruitful to set it to Japan. That was the final step to my being able to purchase Kindle Unlimited from the Japanese Amazon. I’ve had so much fun browsing their art and comic technique books, and I found 2-3 books I want to purchase for keeps. Also, the price of buying a Kindle book is nearly half of buying the physical book and having it shipped here.

I’ve also explored Japan Netflix. I thought it was interesting that they have all of the current seasons of Attack on Titan, but the American version only has the first season. They have a bigger anime section than the American one, and many have both Japanese and English subtitles, so I’ve been using Language Learning with Netflix extension.

With my tutor, I started something different: I want to be able to read manga, preferably manga I like—Yotsuba! Isn’t my cup of tea. So I have both the Japanese and the English editions of Bakuman, and my tutor and I have been analyzing the grammar and vocabulary. This is a manga I regularly read, and it might be the only slice-of-life one I like. I also figured it might need more guidance than using Attack on Titan, where the dialogues consist of:

Erwin: Attack! To the left, retreat!
Eren: I’m going to kill them. I’m going to kill them all.
Levi: Clean that speck of dust, you #%!
Mikasa: Eren.

But I love it anyway.

Norwegian
Americans, and probably other groups, have this image of Japan being closed to the outside world: we can marvel at their language and entertainment, but we can never become a fellow human, walking beside them.

Norway fits this image better. Honestly, it’s been frustrating trying to find media to consume. I saw that the basic newspaper added an additional payment option to Vipps—Klarna--but still I cannot purchase a membership unless I provide a Norwegian address. I tried getting memberships at Discovery+ and Viaplay, but they both require Norwegian credit cards, not international ones. I was really disappointed with the former, because they had Avatar and MLP, presumably in dubbed Norwegian.

I tried switching the V.P.N. to Norway, and the Netflix selection for Nordic shows is still pitiful. I’m guessing they don’t have much influence there yet. The Swedish Amazon site didn’t look promising for Norwegian content.

I guess it’s really impressive that I can purchase books from Bokkilden.no—previously I bought a textbook, and an audiobook to go with my Bokmål bible. The past couple of days they have a sale on kids’ graphic novels, so I bought a couple of series. One series is on their best-selling list.

So I’m not seeing myself using a lot of TV series for language exposure. In combination with my textbooks and tutor, I will probably study Det Nye Testamentet for my visual/audio feed. I’m actually more familiar with its content than HP. The approximate number of unique words in the Greek New Testament is around 5,000, so the Bokmål translation will give a decent amount of vocab.
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iguanamon
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Re: Bergenstesten i 2022 eller 2023

Postby iguanamon » Wed Jul 07, 2021 11:14 pm

Xenops wrote:...So I’m not seeing myself using a lot of TV series for language exposure. In combination with my textbooks and tutor, I will probably study Det Nye Testamentet for my visual/audio feed. I’m actually more familiar with its content than HP. The approximate number of unique words in the Greek New Testament is around 5,000, so the Bokmål translation will give a decent amount of vocab.

I have used the Bible in Haitian Creole, along with the Thru the Bible Chapter Study. Sadly, for Norwegian, there is no transcript that I can find for Norwegian.

I wouldn't start with the New Testament. I think you'll find the Old Testament, especially Genesis and Exodus, to be more approachable for learning and consolidating everyday language... at least I did and do.

A couple of years ago, I watched a Norwegian series in dubbed Portuguese called "Beforeigners". It's on HBO Max. You may find several other Norwegian series strewn about on the various streaming services available in the US. I seem to remember that the BBC (Britbox in the US) has a lot of Norwegian shows available- usually crime series. I don't know if there's a Norwegian shopping show streaming ala improbablediscussion's French via shopping-themed reality television. If there is, that could help. Frankly, I don't think it will do you much good to watch a Norwegian series with English subs right now.

One thing learning languages with few resources available has taught me is to be creative when I can't find what I would normally like to have for resources for learning. Searching in the language will help. Look for tales, audio-books, radio plays, youtube videos, podcasts and resources aimed at newcomers to Norway (there has been significant immigration). Peppa Pig is available in Norwegian. If you can get past the snorting, it should help with getting started. Granted, of course it's not as exciting as adult material, but, it can be made to be comprehensible by searching English transcripts or watching the corresponding English version. Try pm'ing BrunUgle. She's had experience helping foreigners learn Norwegian. When you hit a brick wall, try going around it.
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Mista
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Re: Bergenstesten i 2022 eller 2023

Postby Mista » Thu Jul 08, 2021 1:40 am

For TV, why not check out the free option? At https://tv.nrk.no/, I think all their self produced material is available worldwide
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Re: Bergenstesten i 2022 eller 2023

Postby DaveAgain » Thu Jul 08, 2021 3:30 am

Xenops wrote:
Norwegian

Norway fits this image better. Honestly, it’s been frustrating trying to find media to consume. I saw that the basic newspaper added an additional payment option to Vipps—Klarna--but still I cannot purchase a membership unless I provide a Norwegian address. I tried getting memberships at Discovery+ and Viaplay, but they both require Norwegian credit cards, not international ones. I was really disappointed with the former, because they had Avatar and MLP, presumably in dubbed Norwegian.
Norwegian series currently available on UK TV are: These are offered via UK Channel 4/Walter presents. The Walter Presents bit also partners with broadcasters in other countries.

https://variety.com/t/walter-presents/
https://squareeyedworld.wordpress.com/c ... sents-usa/

I've noticed MHz Choice beings cited as a source of European TV by Lingua.
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