the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

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rdearman
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Re: the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

Postby rdearman » Wed May 10, 2017 3:53 pm

That is the UK additude as well. "Don't care as long as we beat France." :lol: :lol:
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Re: the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

Postby DaveBee » Thu May 11, 2017 12:03 am

Cavesa wrote:So, there is absolutely nothing czech about the song. Czechs mostly don't like it. Czechs had no say in the choice. All this was sacrificed to hope of succeeding with a typical eurovision song. But that attempt failed too, just like it failed before, and just like it will probably fail the next year.

I wouldn't be surprised if most of the songs in the competition were similarily representative.

Therefore, if we have absolutely no chance whatsoever to succeed, we could at least try with a really representative song in my opinion. :-D
I don't think you should look at Eurovision as a contest. For the performers it is probably the biggest audience they are ever going to play for.
Each participating broadcaster is required to broadcast the show in its entirety: including all songs, recap, voting and reprise, skipping only the interval act for advertising breaks if they wish
That's the whole of continental Europe, and Turkey, and Israel, and Australia. A monster record selling opportunity.

If you read the little info pages on the contestants you see that a lot of the songs come from established songwriting teams. Eurovision is a contest worth participating in. Winning is good, but you can sell a lot of records, gain a lot of fans, just by being there.

The french contestant said:
We decided to add English to the original version in order to reach a larger audience, I hope that if people can understand a part of the song they are more likely to like it!
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Re: the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

Postby Luso » Sun May 14, 2017 12:07 am

Our attitude to Eurovision is more like: "We never win anyway".

Oh, wait...
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Re: the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

Postby Cavesa » Sun May 14, 2017 8:48 pm

Yes, but if it's not a contest, than what would be so bad about being more original. And about using their own languages. After all, majority of the world's population loves songs in English, despite most of them not understanding them well. For those people, there is little difference between a song in English and in Finnish.

I know perfectly well, why they are doing what they are doing. No need to explain it. I just find it stupid.
..........
I've been working on my German a bit. But I would need the days to have at least 50 hours each. It is progressing, but not as fast as I would like to.

I could as well do with some work on my French. Inspired by a recent thread on the tutors, I am trying to find a teacher for natives that wouldn't ruin my budget. I hate my level of French, I am seriously ashamed of it, I really should be much more native like after all those years, C2 is simply not enough. If I want to be taken seriously as a doctor in a year and half, I need to improve a lot, especially as I carry the stigma of my nationality and of my university (selling easier MDs in English is damaging our reputation). I feel seriously deceived by almost all the teachers I have ever had. Most teachers and tutors simply are useless (not experienced enough, many not intelligent enough, most not strict enough, and so on) , that is the truth. And the situation is even worse for the advanced learners. So, I would like someone for natives, and I am looking at the offers on superprofs. I need money. Being a medecine student is horrible, I should have been financially independent years ago, if only I wasn't so stupid to go to this school. But if I take on a job, I can as well wave goodbye to France, as my competitors are not having jobs, they are studying hard, they are gaining practical experience, they are well before me.
...........
I wonder how many hours per week total can I put into studying. This is the challenge for this week:
Hours spent studying medicine+languages, time at school doesn't count. Goal? 30 would be satisfactory. 40 would be good.
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Re: the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

Postby Brun Ugle » Wed May 17, 2017 4:32 pm

You're not the only one who thinks the songs should be more original and in languages other than English. Someone started a Facebook group to make their own contest for the best song in each language or language group.
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Re: the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

Postby jeff_lindqvist » Wed May 17, 2017 5:05 pm

At least most of the participants sing in their L2. ;)

(But seriously, I like when a country has a really great song which makes me want to sing along just because of how the language sounds, even if I don't understand a single word of it.)
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Re: the Diaries of a Caffeinated Squirrel

Postby Cavesa » Mon May 29, 2017 10:21 pm

Dear friends, I am closing this log and starting a new one, which means a new beginning.

Why?

As you have noticed, I have been extremely exhausted and findind time for languages with difficulty lately. I have tons of goals and lots of work to do. My studies are crumbling, as usual, and I need to get through this sh-t. My health is at the edge of not holding anymore, truth be told. My mood is overall not good either.

That doesn't mean I should learn langauges less, quite the opposite. After all, I haven't been studying at all for two last weeks again, you cannot study less than that even if you tried :-D When I look behind me, I see a lot of unfulfilled plans. When I remember success, it is something from long ago.

What is going to be new:
-calmer approach
-some goals are definitely staying, some are gonna by changed
-more respect for the crazy dynamics of my life, including some wiggle room for unexpected crap
-simpler progress

And most importantly: more fun. Which includes more language learning.

I've recently been having some real trouble with my efficiency, with the fact I am simply not good enough at anything I do. That doesn't mean I should scratch languages and focus just on medicine, not at all. If I did that, it would end really badly, trust me. I hate it. Or at least, I hate studying it at my stupid outdated faculty. I trully wish I had left the country years ago and studied abroad, where medicine studies make sense. I couldn't.

This just means remembering the most important fact about my learning and my bits of success from the past. I learn the best, when I have fun, when I am genuinely interested in the subject. I put in many more hours, when I am simply enjoying it instead of trying to catch up on the many lost opportunities from the past months and years and failed deadlines. The brain works better, when it is not defending itself from the overload.

There are lots of lost opportunities behind me. This is one of the hardest losses caused by one stupid wrong choice made by a young fool. I gave up a lot of opportunities, as the time and energy are limited, and as my brain has been shutting off some parts, due to this additional unnecessary stress caused by the stupid second rate university that sucks all the joy and purpose out of knowledge. I am much less creative than I used to be. I feel much less intelligent than I used to be. I observe myself and sometimes can hardly connect the woman I have become to the knowledge hungry girl, who amazed herself by fast and independent progress in French ages ago.

I need more fun. Goals are great, but their reaching must be the side product of having fun, it doesn't work the other way around. Fun doesn't mean not studying "boring" stuff, it means giving myself more freedom everyday.

See you in the new log. A much more positive one. Where complaining will be limited to 10% of the posts at most :-D
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