Enjoying a cup of coffee (or six) in 2024

[jeffers]

It's a bit like imagining a donkey trying to put together an IKEA bookcase.

You put an amusing image in my mind there. Then I decided to see what AI could come up with:

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[MaggieMae]

OMG, what great news to start my morning today! Congrats! To you and hubby! Those scores are great! (And very similar to mine. )

What is not really encouraging: comments of some of my bilingual colleagues like "you think the Swiss German here is hard?! Wait till you get there!!!"

This is actually just false, and said by people who don't pay attention to languages. It's so much easier once you're surrounded by it and listening properly. I refused to listen to Swiss German too much before I passed my C2 speaking exam (which turned out to be the best idea for me, since I was speed running everything), and there was a HUGE difference as soon as I allowed myself to be surrounded by and pay attention to the different dialects. After the initial frustration of trying to understand something new, you'll be just fine. I think it's actually harder when you encounter the dialects so infrequently. (And don't listen to the natives when they say Bern- and Baseldüütsch are SOOOOO hard to understand. They actually speak slower, especially in Bern, so it gives the brain extra processing time.

Don't get me wrong. It's hard, it's seemingly nothing like High German, and trying to speak it only brings confused looks from people at best, disdain at worst, but it's definitely not harder when you hear it MORE often.

But I'm so extremely happy for you! C1 is a huge accomplishment! You've got this!

[Cavesa]

But I'm so extremely happy for you! C1 is a huge accomplishment! You've got this!

Thank you so much! You're a huge inspiration to me! And I'll try not to be scared of the Swiss German

And thanks Jeffers!!! The picture made me laugh!
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My languages are a bit atrophying, but that is no wonder, given how much of my energy is spent elsewhere, such as finding an appartment for the next move, surviving the job, etc.

We got my husband's results It's a tragedy. I feel like trying a reclamation to the scam language school, but I know the chances of succeeding are too low.

Expression Orale: B1
Expression Ecrite: A2

We are both pretty annoyed and angry about it, even though dealing with it as adults.

I'm having an interesting discussion with his italki teacher (waiting for a reply now), with whom he was training right before the exam for a few weeks. Yep, it was not just the nerves, those are his real skills. It sucks. I totally agree with her about some of the huge gaps in his knowledge base. But he was being taught all the skills, had oral classes, had writing feedback

I don't agree with her that there are no estimates for how fast can a learner progress, and I also shut down the well meant trash about "signing up for an exam only when you are really sure about the skills, and taking the time". I really need my husband to start integrating in the society and earning a bit money after all these investments, it's been 100% on me for far too long. And exams are the only thing pushing him to really study. And he is right now smelling some coffee, finally.

Really, why are the French teachers so resistant to the idea "I am learning the language to get a job and I need results that I am willing to invest time and energy in?", the German ones seem to have no problem with this. The French are always acting as if the language was just a hobby.

So, my husband is finally diving into the Progressives. After years of proposing, explaining, insisting. The digital versions are really helping a lot! Now we just need digital Grammaire, niveau intermédiaire, which is weirdly missing in the offer (probably because there is a new edition and they failed to release the digital one asap). So, he's started with Vocabulaire, and Communication. He is also already doing all that the tutor recommended, and will try the only thing not yet on his list: IA conversation.

Now I just need a clear answer, whether she can continue with him or not. She is a certified examiner, which is really good. But she was hinting at leaving Italki soon, even though she still has lots of slots in the calendar.
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My learning: a tiny bit of German tv series: one episode of the Vampire Diaries, need to dive more into it. And get to Italian.

My next job is gonna be boring in the first six months, pretty much shit on the medical experience side, but it will count for my formation and should give me a lot of free time for studying. For the internal medicine exam, and also languages. Now I just need a new appartment.

Aaaand if you are noticing some tiny hints of my burnout or depression: yep, you're right. But I am working on it. A lot of stuff has been rough. But I'll get through it. And in a few months, I hope to be sharing mostly success again!

[Raconteur]

So, my husband is finally diving into the Progressives. After years of proposing, explaining, insisting. The digital versions are really helping a lot! Now we just need digital Grammaire, niveau intermédiaire, which is weirdly missing in the offer (probably because there is a new edition and they failed to release the digital one asap). So, he's started with Vocabulaire, and Communication. He is also already doing all that the tutor recommended, and will try the only thing not yet on his list: IA conversation.

I'm sorry to hear about all the frustrations - hang in there! Regarding the Progressives you've mentioned. I am not familiar with this series(?) of materials. Can you elaborate on them and what makes them good? Thanks so much et bonne courage à votre mari pour ses études de français.

[Cavesa]

I'm sorry to hear about all the frustrations - hang in there! Regarding the Progressives you've mentioned. I am not familiar with this series(?) of materials. Can you elaborate on them and what makes them good? Thanks so much et bonne courage à votre mari pour ses études de français.

Oh, I thought I had already annoyed everyone many times with my non-paid marketing of the best workbook series ever!
I used the search function and still didn't find the biggest post I've made about these genious books, I'll recreate some version of it, when I have a few days of free time.

Many days over the last two weeks were used up by some stupid virus, that's been conquering our small hospital. Lots of sleep, pain, nausea, perhaps fever, and now cough that awakens fear, long forgotten since the last huge plague. It is not helpful for learning, working, or pretty much anything.

In a month, I will move again. My husband is handling the visits of the appartments (in French!!!) but so far we have nothing. He's been studying rather diligently, most days 3-4 hours of French, that's not bad. But he is failing at taking Italki hours. Really, he needs the exams. It is not a cheap source of motivation, but it is probably the only one that works.

I am preparing to be bored by work for half a year, but that should give me space to study. Including my languages, and including the SUPER CHALLENGE 2024-2025!!! I am sooo looking forward to it!!!

In the last two weeks, I had energy only for some input.

In German, I was bored by the Vampire Diaries (the same things making them good as not hard practice are making the series boring as hell at time. It makes me consider that perhaps the 13 episode series were an improvement to such 22 episode diluted stuff). Instead I've watched a few other dubbings. 8 episodes (40min each) of The Gentlemen. Rather amusing, but still a bit pessimistic. Is it just my algorythm on Netflix, or are there far too many series about drug cartels these days? I had a bit higher expectations here, but it was not bad.

And 1h55min of the movie Gray Man. If you are interested: not too original, Ryan Gosling is ok, and Prague is there in the role of Prague (a pretty big part of the Small Town side of the river with Rudolfinum, and several streets I know so well, and there are a few more places), Vienna (That's the Prague main train station, the Wilson train station), Berlin (the Alexanderplatz tower is artificially added behind the new building of the National Museum. you can also see there a side of the old building of the National Museum, the whole place is just above the Wenceslas square, by the metro Muzeum). It's funny. You can even here a few tiny bits of Czech from the policemen. The German dubbing was ok.

Overall, I am pretty content that I can watch all this new stuff rather comfortably. I get more and more details without much of an effort, and I can watch stuff to relax. That's cool.

In terms of reading, I've finished a few Czech scifi books (I've brought myself some new stuff from Prague. Yeah, I know, a few are a breach of my "one new book only after finishing one old book" rule, but still. I am very pleased that Scifi grows so well in the Czech Republic, and especially that there are more and more awesome female authors. I've brought a few Sněgonová and have yet to read them (but I already know this author), I've already finished Prazdnota (The Emptiness) by Merglová and loved it (a scifi detective story/thriller). Electrickej strom (an Electrical tree, a rock space opera) by Jarmila Kašparová reminded me by some ideas of Genefort's Les Opéras de l'Espace, the theme of music and musicians, and how that shapes the world or the future worlds, that's a very good one.

In French, I've finally finished Dixen's series Phobos! It was awesome!!! I got stuck a bit in the fourth book, took some breaks, but have finally finished it, and the ending was epic! I wholeheartedly recommend the series. In terms of level, I think it could be pretty accessible to a motivated B1, totally appropriate for B2, and still enriching and also relaxing at C1. I have just a few parts of the "in between" tome left, with some of the origin stories.

In just a month, we are starting the Super Challenge, are we not? Do we have a counting tool somewhere? I am sooo excited to join!!!

[MaggieMae]

Poor hubby. I totally get not really finding motivation to practice a language, (my Mandarin progress, for instance) but I also get the desperate scramble to learn something impossible in such a short time so that bills can get paid (my German progress). It also really sucks, knowing you're about to lose a good teacher, and feeling like you're stuck in limbo trying to find something that works. But I have faith that you WILL find something that works. Heck, if you're moving to a more bilingual Canton, maybe German is more his speed?

I don't have much experience with French, but (especially from what I hear on this side of the Röstigraben) native French speakers never expect non native speakers to ever amount to anything in French. It's likely a big reason most Swiss would rather speak English than the opposite language. (Not ignoring Italian and Rätoromanisch here, but they seem pretty ok with speaking other languages, as far as I'm aware.)

But you're moving in a month. Of course you can take a break. It's ok for languages to atrophy a little when you're focused on other huge life events. And as you said, soon you'll be bored at work with more time to dedicate to languages. <3

[Cavesa]

Tiny bits of news: We got an appartment!!!
Now we just need to find someone for the old one, to not pay for more months than strictly necessary.

Life is ok, now getting more into languages again.
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Italian: my conjugations are rusty! Damn. Looks like I'll also add Linguno to my new/old routine.

I've also started to watch a movie on Netflix, it is an original one. Siete donne e un misterio. The idea is good, seven women in the life of one murdered man are stuck in the house and trying to find out who is the murderer. Not sure this good idea works in the movie though. If it was a historical one, sure. But a contemporary setting without anyone calling the police with a cellphone? I am watching it like a tv show, one bit at a time. While I usually binge tv show, as if they were movies.

12 minutes of Nuovissimo Progetto Italiano. I am reviewing the coursebook 2 and doing for the first time workbook 2.
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German: today I was in a café and read a local newspaper. It's incredible! Sure, there were some words here and there, that I don't know. But I overall knew what it was about, could appreciate the points made, etc. And on a variety of subjects!!! Still amazed German is no longer such a mystery
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Hebrew

yeah, I know, crazy. I opened the website of the evil green owl. The main course is horrible, I quickly escaped, it is confusing and I hate the punishment for mistakes and the overall thing. But the alphabet part is pretty good! I'll just do that. But of course it's not ideal. It would be better to have bigger letters (the signs under the letters are very hard to see in some types of exercises), not tiny content and lots of other stuff. And there is no handwriting script. But for a first contact, it is pretty ok.

It is actually really fun, learning to read. I didn't get the normal experience the first time. I spontaneously started to read without being explicitly taught, back when I was four. I simply asked a lot of questions like "what is written there?" and mum answered "supermarket" and at some point I simply started reading whole words and sentences right away. I cannot remember learning it at all. Just being mocked at times (Such as the weird moment, when I was reading a menu upside down, and a random man thought my parents had taught me the menu by heart instead of believing I could read ), but above all having lots and lots of fun with books.

And this language is written from the right to the left, which is yet another very cool difference! I just don't practice writing at the same time. But even if I learn just what is offered here in the game, I will be much better equiped to start a real coursebook.
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But I have faith that you WILL find something that works. Heck, if you're moving to a more bilingual Canton, maybe German is more his speed?

This is something we really fear. This canton is officially bilingual, but in the reality mostly francophone, and the same is true about the next canton. But we fear that afterwards, I might get a better opportunity in the germanophone ones than the normal ones, and I'll tell my beloved "thanks for the French, it's cute, now German please". He'd be more open to Italian though

I don't have much experience with French, but (especially from what I hear on this side of the Röstigraben) native French speakers never expect non native speakers to ever amount to anything in French. It's likely a big reason most Swiss would rather speak English than the opposite language. (Not ignoring Italian and Rätoromanisch here, but they seem pretty ok with speaking other languages, as far as I'm aware.)

The Swiss are not the French, we have rather different experience. Here, they don't switch on my husband. And he told me of a few instances, where the local insisted on French even if the other person tried English.

In general, the native German speakers tend to know much better French than vice versa, so people say that many such situations end up in French! I hear all the time francophones saying stuff like "oh, I had German at school, I should be officially B2. But I've forgotten it all and hope to never use it again!", which is pretty sad in a plurilingual country. The italophones usually also speak either French or German, even though I have no doubts there will be many monolinguals too, I see just a rather specific sample.

The Swiss are the best at expecting French from immigrants and pretty good at expecting it from other foreigners here too. It is not perfect, of course, but much better than in France or Belgium. So, I am a bit surprised to hear this from you, but you are not the only person telling me. I simply don't encounter it so much. Clearly, a longer time of observation is needed.

Yes, English is of course an important problem, and it is discussed in the media from time to time. Mostly in the sense of strenghtening the really Swiss languages at schools, giving a more bilingual experience and motivating people more.

I don't know, whether I simply have a too weird sample around me, but I actually work with quite a lot of bilinguals. Like half my superiors is bilingual (French-German, or French-Italian. Not sure whether to count in this discussion also immigrants). A minority of my peers at work is bilingual, several are learning German. Almost no nurses are bilingual, otherwise they'd already work somewhere else Among the patients, there is a smaller part that is bilingual, and we occassionally get a germanophone monolingual.

But you're moving in a month. Of course you can take a break. It's ok for languages to atrophy a little when you're focused on other huge life events. And as you said, soon you'll be bored at work with more time to dedicate to languages. <3

I don't want them to atrophy, I've worked so hard
Yep, I am already scared of that job, but let's hope it will be ok, or I'll find ways to be happy outside of it for the necessary amount of time.

[Cavesa]

I need to vent a particular situation from yesterday. Or two. Actually, I had two weird experiences at work yesterday, both cultural/multinational/multilingual, etc.

The less worrying and simple one that still really annoyed and angered me: I am used to patients, who speak other languages and may not be good at French. I do a lot to get the communication going, I try other possible common languages (nope, it is by far not always English), try hard to understand, simplify my speech etc. It usually works fine. When I try Spanish on lusophone people, it is not because of a stupid belief "it is the same thing", but because actually a lot of them either speak Spanish as a foreign language (and better than English, since it is so much simpler for them), or some lusophones are actually capable to exploit the similarities enough for communication.

Yesterday, I had a couple of middle aged lusophones (no old/handicapped people you would easily forgive monolingualism to) coming for the woman's eye problem (of course a tiny nonsense that should have motivated a GP consult, not hospital). I couldn't understand at all what the problem was, their attempts with a translator app made no sense at all (the level "I work in a white room" of no sense in the situation), and so on. I could see no hint of what was wrong at the first sight (no red eye with pus coming out etc.). So, before I went and found a bilingual med.student to translate for me, the couple managed to say something I totally understood: they openly complained I couldn't speak Portuguese!!! They didn't try other languages, they couldn't put together more than a few simple words in French, not a single full phrase. They fully expect to be served in their language anywhere they go.

How dare they complain? How comes they can just live here in Portuguese? My husband doesn't have the privilege of a romance native language, suffers to learn French and make progress, we've paid a lot for this. I had to retake a French exam, just because the old one was two or three months older than the limit, I paid it from my pocket. And these entitled spoiled brats just create their own Portuguese parallel society here and dare to complain a doctor in a francophone region doesn't speak Portuguese? Such people really deserve deportation.

And nope, they were not working just as temporary low skilled low educated construction workers or cleaners. The woman actually worked in a lab in healthcare. How comes that some healthcare workers HAVE to pay and prove their French level, and this healthcare worker can just create her own little Portugal here and complain about a doctor actually expecting the local language from her?

Too bad these people do not get charged double for their medical consultation, as it actually takes twice as much staff and work.
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The second one was a heartbreaking and enraging situation. You know the "when in Rome, do as the romans do" and "when you go there, respect their laws and culture" stuff? It doesn't apply to everybody. When a european company goes to China, it will have to obey all the laws, including the openly discriminatory ones. When a chinese company comes to europe, it doesn't really have to follow the local laws, and the people do not have to follow the same cultural standards. And the individual immigrants/expats do not have the same basic protection as other workers.

I had a very nice, intelligent, highly performing middle aged Chinese woman as a patient. Upper management/direction of an international company. She speaks Mandarin, English, French. For a few weeks, she has had some huge problems, that are most probably a very strong burn out, exhaustion, but also might be a decompensation of a few somatic problems. When I asked the questions, I found out this lady wakes up early enough to have videocalls at 4am with China a few times a week, on top of working all the time and also being called sometimes on weekends. She is part of upper management, so all the "you have responsibility, no max work time as the usual employees" trash is pushed on her. Over the last few years, several of her colleagues were fired, and majority of their work was dropped on her. In more than three years, she took less than three weeks of vacation in total.

But all this is still not the most shocking part.

While this lady was at hospital, waiting for her labs results and to see me again, another woman showed up. She was already ringing the nurse's alarm bells and my brave colleague tried to get rid of her. Nope. I found the two women together, my patient clearly nonverbally in a defense situation, not someone supported by a friend. This other woman started very arrogantly interrogating me in English. Like "will you keep her for long? what is her problem? What labs are you doing?" And she seemed surprised that my first question was "Who are you?", she lied that she was a friend. She obviously wasn't. I gave just some general answers, not giving info but also trying not to leave my patient as the target of wrath.

Like twenty minutes later, I have my patient in consultation, to speak about the results, stuff to do, a certificate of work incapacity, the follow up with her generalist. The other woman just opens the door and tries to enter the consultation, asking a clearly rhetorical "can I come in" while already having one foot inside. She seemed extremely surprised, when I refused. I told her "no, I prefer to have only the patient or their family in here". The look in her face. Our stress. And no security available (we have him just for a few hours a day). The woman just said something in Mandarin to my patient, and fortunately got out.

Fortunately, the patient's family came to pick her up, her husband managed to send that woman away, and I know the patient does have support in him. And she also already tries to find a situation solution, including a lawyer etc. She is fortunately still capable of getting angry and outraged, that is a very good sign.

I was immediately asking myself, whether the "guard" was controlling her just for the company, or also for their government. This rang all the bells that my education in a postcommunist country gave me. Here, the communist behaviour serves the capitalist values. My dad told me I was probably right, this was exactly the same functioning and control as back in the communist Czechoslovakia. And that the only "justice" there is, that the arrogant guardian is surely also guarded by someone in her turn.

It is so unfair and hard to accept. Even Chinese individuals in Europe are not protected at all. They usually have strict limits on how long they can stay and then have to return for an amount of time. And as I've just seen, even normal individuals are really controlled, that's a totalitarian thing. We pretend to care about human rights, but everybody is just bowing before the Chinese government and totalitarian society, no limits imposed even in our own space. No protection, no pushing for improvement. The arrogant "guard" was just expecting me to comply, no idea about doctor confidentiality, no idea about proper manners, just expected to be answered to and obeyed.

I did my tiny part, what I could. But I know it is not enough. Even if this strong and admirable woman manages to stay, change jobs, gain citizenship, it is highly probable China has some of their family, even distant, back at home available for punishment/revenge. That's how the communists did it in my country, but that was more than 30 years ago, not in the 21st century.

No clue what will this family do, their options are limited, despite living in Europe. And it breaks my heart.

[Cavesa]

28 minutes of Linguno, Italian conjugation

I really need to redrill this, and I really really like Linguno, even though it is not perfet (yet).

The verb drills are awesome. You type, you get the right hints. You have to drill the set till you write them all correctly.
And I love the sentences Some are the usual stuff. Some are pretty funny. Like the combination of "Perchè stai tenendo in mano un coltello?" "T. si è sentito umiliato" and " È diventato irritato" A thriller in verb drills!!!

The minor issues:
1.I cannot find how to change the base language for the sentence translations and many are simply missing in Czech. I know that Tatoeba doesn't have as many sentences translated in the less popular languages, just let me pick a different language of translations.
2.I am not sure, whether the later sets also count for the earlier ones, whether practicing the easier stuff in the more advanced mixes also adds % to the earlier levels. And this is something, where gamification makes a lot of sense actually.

I am curious about their vocab drilling. But for now, not gonna dive into another vocab drilling app. And I might also wait till the word banks grow much bigger.

[Cavesa]

Not much language learning happening, too much work and also had a medical formation that I had to prepare to, it was great!

But language use is happening and there are tiny bits of note:

1.My Spanish may be extremely bad, but there are still things to recover. It was pretty useful with a Spanish speaking patient a few days ago.

2.While my Italian might need more maintenance, it is still good and so much value for the investment! Just yesterday, I called an Italian doctor, because I had their patient in our hospital and didn't really understand the logic of the care up until that point. It really helped. Yep, sometimes just going to the source is the most efficient way to get things done.

3.My French. I may not pass for a native, but I certainly pass for a much more long-term immigrant! At the course I attended, a few people asked, at which Swiss faculty had I done my medical degree I seem to pass for someone, who's been here for like 10 years, not bad! A tiny moment of pride

Oh, and I've just signed up for 4,5 super challenges. Yeah, not too logical to sign up for 2 doubles and a half, but that's the way it is. German and Italian doubles, and Spanish half, once I start reanimating the language.