Enjoying a cup of coffee (or six) in 2024

[Cavesa]

29 minutes of Linguno (yay! spelled it correctly!!!) Italian, still a three star silver pinguin. And also digging a gap between the easier levels up to A2/3 at 83,7% and the B1/1 at 68,1%. I'll probably add that level tomorrow or on sunday.
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After the entshittification discussion, I'd just like to mention some examples of the opposite, some great finds that other logs have lead me to: Latinitium and Legentibus really make me wanna return to Latin. And AroAro has mentioned Deutsch mit Schmidt, which has a good looking podcast for B2-C2 (how comes the Germans make relatively much more stuff for the high levels than the Spaniards, French, Italians? Are we not supposed to succeed at the romance languages?), and publishes some interesting looking books that I'll consider.

[Severine]

how comes the Germans make relatively much more stuff for the high levels than the Spaniards, French, Italians? Are we not supposed to succeed at the romance languages?

I've noticed this too. I think Germans expect more from us, or have more faith in the ability of people to learn their language, perhaps?

For what it's worth, I'm on the second day of my Legentibus trial and definitely like it. It's going to be my primary source of audio material for the super challenge, I think, because (1) the audio is really high quality and the narrator's restored classical pronunciation is excellent, and (2) it's so convenient to have a lot of listening material all in one place without having to search.

[Cavesa]

how comes the Germans make relatively much more stuff for the high levels than the Spaniards, French, Italians? Are we not supposed to succeed at the romance languages?

I've noticed this too. I think Germans expect more from us, or have more faith in the ability of people to learn their language, perhaps?

I used to think it was a Czech thing in relation to language learning (the attitude "German is for rational people, who will make more money. French is for naive girls, who want to feel romantic"), but nope.

I think the Germans know that few people pick their language out of love for it, for its beauty, or whatever. They know the most attractive feature of their countries and cultures is money. So, they might be just expecting learners to be motivated enough to learn well enough for work.

In terms of the romance languages, the industry might be too spoiled by people learning them for fun, for beauty, for holidays, etc. And also a huge factor imho are the anglophones. Several huge and rich countries, that primarily pick romance languages (when they have to pick something, because they believe the romance languages to be easier than German), and the anglophones don't really take them seriously and learn much.
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18 minutes of Linguno, got the GOLDEN PENGUIN one star!!!
Now, time to endanger it right away by going up a level, and adding Passato Progressivo and Presente Congiuntivo to the mix!
Ok, not right now, I'll follow the advice and first get 90% in the A2/3

[Cavesa]

DOBBY IS A FREE ELF!!!

At least for a few hours. I ended at the previous work at 20h today, and I am starting the new one at 7am tomorrow.

Just so that I am surely not sad to go, and less afraid of the next job, the last days at this job were really horrible. Yesterday, we were really under flood of patients, understaffed, with patients unpleasantly complaining (please complain, but to the people responsible, not me) and it was all really shitty. I was really at the end of my forces, even crying once or twice. So, today, it was a rather calm day at work, and there was a TV team with a camera to make some sort of reportage on our hospital.

The boss that I have no respect for anymore (a total hypocrite, bad at managing people, mysogine,... fortunately not my main boss) was shining with joy, and clearly had put extra effort into his looks too. Another colleague even wondered (not directly in front of him) whether he had his teeth whitened for the occassion. So, he was playing a total comedy for the television. Including asking a colleague to be a fake patient (didn't work out, he looked too fit, got a different role to play), and first throwing me out of my consulation room for the filming, and then later complaining I was taking too long to take another patient, because "The TV is here, and we have patients in the waiting room!!!". Really, disgusting. His service has been falling apart, and he puts this comedy on to further mislead people before a highly pertinent referendum.

It was really hard to stay barely polite. I was half a milimeter from telling him I didn't care at all about his opinion and had no respect for him.

The only person slightly breaking his stupid fairy tale was my patient from yesterday, but she surely won't make it to the final cut. The lady had accidentally cut two of her fingers, and yesterday waited for several hours to be seen, and overall was rather unhappy (understandably). I did some unpaid extra time, suturing a superficial but ugly wound on one of the fingers (the one with no missing pieces). Today she came for a wound dressing change. I didn't see her but I've heard she told the camera some true stuff.

For the rest of the day, half the hospital was joking about the TV filming our walls and empty chairs.
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Overall, this was not a good year. The previous one had been well worth it, I finished it proud, optimistic, and excited to continue. This year was a huge mistake.

The redeaming quality were my colleagues, a wonderful group of people. We've really enjoyed working together, and supported the hardships much better. Excellent people, many with very interesting experience, and a high % of immigrants. I also liked very much most of the nurse teams, and all the physiotherapists,ergotherapists, nutritionists, radiology technicians.

Most of my superiors were very good and I loved learning from them, not like today's tv star. The bad ones were mostly concentrated in one department. But most of them are excellent doctors and people. It's a shame most won't stay in this hospital for long (some are already leaving or preparing to leave), due to the constantly worsening conditions.

Unfortunately, the year here was a huge wasted opportunity as far as my growth as a doctor goes, because only like 1/5 was spent on the type of work I needed for my progress. But at least it is something on the CV. Really, the hospital had been presented as something totally different from the contemporary reality.

On the personal level, this year was a disappointment too. None of my dreams and projects was fulfilled. At times, I was really low with moral. And just to make my April even more chaotic, with appartment hunting, moving, and switching jobs, and lots of paperwork, my grandmother died last week. Great timing.

On the language level, it was a standard Suisse Romande experience, not really much true bilingualism. Some German patients, yes, but that could have been anywhere. Some German documentation and transmissions (like once a month or two), I loved that, I would have liked to get more. At least one italophone patient a week, sometimes even a few of them in a day. Lots of people speaking languages I don't know (mainly Portuguese). Bits of Spanish (I really need to relearn that).
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Tommorrow is a new day, and I am starting at a different hospital, different type of work, and so on.

Until Sunday, I was very worried and scared.

Today, I am happy for the change.

Whatever comes, it won't be as bad as it's been here. At the very least, there is a lot of potential for personal life, including languages, for studying medicine, for spending time on stuff I don't know yet and on getting good medical habits and experience.

And in the next six months, I will have regular hours and free weekends!!!

[stell]

My condolences on the loss of your grandmother.

I wish you the best of luck in your new job!

[Cavesa]

Thank you. I am fortunately back. It was so harsh as a journey. Not only I hate airports and flying (in spite of it being not only the fastest, but also often the cheapest way). And that was still not the hardest part by far.

But now I won't go for a long time. Which means more time for building the life here, good. The first task: unpacking stuff, to not live in the cartonland anymore I really hope to find my favourite glasses soon. And my To Be Read pile, for the SC.

On a much brighter side: I have quickly fallen in love with this canton. Much better weather, much more beautiful scenery, it looks like I could even find hobbies here, that can happen with other real people. The new hospital is very promising. And the new service I am in, while not really good in some ways, is ok people wise, I will have time to study, and also half a year of regular life with free weekends, and really getting out of the hospital on time vast majority of the days. I have a very good direct superior, but he leaves in a weak

The mostly unpleasant experience of flying also brought something good: my first 80 pages for the German Superchallenge. I'll write about the book later, I really hope it will be a bit better later on. So far the fantasy book is quite ok, very good for my German, but nothing too original or creative. But I'll try to keep my mind open

[Cavesa]

Commonly spoken languages at my new job, apart from French of course.
Serbian and Portuguese. German as a non-native language of some Serbian speakers. Italian, either native or this time the main non-native language of a Polish native. Romanian as a non-native language of a Serbian speaker.

But yeah, some people make no sense even in their native language that I understand perfectly. That's just human.

More about extensive reading in German, as it is a very interesting experience for me (whether for you, I leave to your evaluation):
-I am getting a bit more comfortable. I am 100% convinced that the first jump in ability is just getting through the "oh no, it's foreign" panic the brain turns on.
-I can read almost comfortably, the words missing are not missing in the story that much, it's just like back when I started reading in French or even in English. Some pages completely ok, some a bit vague (long descriptive passages typically)
-I am very much used to the comfort in my other languages, and spoiled by the romance languages having such a mild learning curve after the first or second one.
-I read SLOWER than in my other languages. Which is at times stressful (I really expect too much from myself), but it also means books are enjoyed for longer. Well, this one still needs to improve in order to be really enjoyed. (It is good for my German, it is ok for me as a reader, but it is something extraordinary)

Yep, I started each of these with "I", which is (I hope) not a sign of being too self centered, but simply the fact that these are my impressions. I am curious about yours.

Aaaand yeah, I think C2 Italian and C2 German are in my long term plans. No hurry, but the comparison of me in these languages with the luxury of freedom in French and English, that stings a bit. Oh, and perhaps I should get my English tested, just for fun. And perhaps the bragging rights, even though English is not rare or special enough to really be something to brag about.

It would also be a nice little experiment. Reaching C2 with tutors and stuff (German) and reaching C2 completely on my own (Italian). We know which one is cheaper. But how about the rest of the differences?

[jeffers]

More about extensive reading in German, as it is a very interesting experience for me (whether for you, I leave to your evaluation):
-I am getting a bit more comfortable. I am 100% convinced that the first jump in ability is just getting through the "oh no, it's foreign" panic the brain turns on.
-I can read almost comfortably, the words missing are not missing in the story that much, it's just like back when I started reading in French or even in English. Some pages completely ok, some a bit vague (long descriptive passages typically)
-I am very much used to the comfort in my other languages, and spoiled by the romance languages having such a mild learning curve after the first or second one.
-I read SLOWER than in my other languages. Which is at times stressful (I really expect too much from myself), but it also means books are enjoyed for longer. Well, this one still needs to improve in order to be really enjoyed. (It is good for my German, it is ok for me as a reader, but it is something extraordinary)

Yep, I started each of these with "I", which is (I hope) not a sign of being too self centered, but simply the fact that these are my impressions. I am curious about yours.

"Oh no, it's foreign", yep I can relate. It's nice when I feel myself getting over the shock and getting into the flow of the language (even if too slowly). The only language other than English I'm becoming remotely comfortable in is French, and yes, the shared vocabulary with English certainly helps a lot. Last night I read the first short story of a collection in Hindi, and I felt a lot of the feelings you wrote about with your German. Some whole sections were perfectly clear, and then a few paragraphs contained unkown word after unknown word... or rather, words which seem familiar but which I couldn't quite place in the context. One positive for me reading Hindi is that it very much takes me back to happy times when I lived there, so there's a positive feeling which I get from Hindi that I don't get in the same way from my other languages. My Hindi reading is still far too SLOW, which means I can't keep up with native subtitles, but hopefully I will nail that problem over the course of the SC.