Stirring up 2017 with Spoon [ Español | Italiano | Esperanto | Deutsch? ]

[Spoonary]

Glad to find your new log sounds like you have been busy!

Welcome! Pull up a chair! Yeah, I have certainly been busy this year, and I'm even more busy now that I have moved into my own place and I have to do chores etc.

That's right, it's time for a life update. Be warned, there's going to be next to no language stuff in here.

I finally moved into my new flat last weekend and spent two days scrubbing the place from top to bottom as it was filthy. There is still lots of unpacking to do, and all the bills etc to sort out, but I'm in now.

I have to admit that I'm feeling much more emotional than I thought I would, and I think it's going to take me some time to adjust, but I keep telling myself I'm doing the right thing.

In language news, and in the absence of internet, I have returned to where I left off the TV adaptation of El tiempo entre costuras (which I had downloaded on my tablet), where I was happy to see the actress who played Macarena in Vis a vis.

Oh and I also lost my streak on Duolingo

[Spoonary]

Despite being limited to what little mobile internet I have until my internet is set up next week, I check this forum multiple times each day and even think about posting sometimes.

This is just going to be a quick update as I really haven't had the time or energy to do anything major with my languages recently.

Firstly, my Duolingo streak is still 0 at the moment but I have every intention of cracking back on with that at some point and finishing the Esperanto tree off once and for all.

Next, I'm still reading El beso de la mujer araña which is taking me a while because now that I have moved to the other side of the city, have less time on the bus and actually talk to my colleagues during my lunch hour, I don't have any reading time during the work day. Nor do I have the energy to read after work, but I am trying to make a bit of time in the mornings and what I have read of the book so far I liked a lot.

The other night I finished watching El tiempo entre costuras which I also really enjoyed. I think the series is very well-made and the actors did a great job of bringing María Dueñas' characters to life. It is also a very faithful adaptation of the book, which we read in our first club de lectura here on LLorg

Another thing I have gone back to doing is recording myself jabbering on about my life in my target languages using my voice recorder. I did an Italian recording last night and a Spanish one the day before. Maybe I should try Esperanto tonight

[Spoonary]

Well would you look at that - I went to the language café I haven't been to for months (I live closer to it now) this evening and actually had a good time. Nah, I used to have a fairly good night almost every time I went, but it usually boiled down to a tiny bit of Spanish practice (usually with other learners) and a lot of talking about languages in English, which is still fun but not what I went there for.

Tonight, however, I spoke mostly Spanish, with my English friend who speaks really well and a Colombian woman. Also, and this is the important bit, I actually chose to go sit with a couple of Italian girls and struck up a short conversation with them in Italian. This is really significant because every other time I have had the opportunity to speak with Italians in the wild (apart from when I was in Florence) I have found some way to avoid it. However, now that I know that I can maintain a conversation in Italian (thanks to that week I spent a Firenze), I am willing to take advantage of any chance I get to do so.

Update: I haven't done any Esperanto recordings as of yet but I'm feeling positive tonight so who knows what the evening will bring...

[Jar-Ptitsa]

Good luck in your new home. How great to have your own flat.

You've added German in your list? Viel Spaß damit! I could help you with the beginner's questions, if you want. I can speak german fleuntly, but my use of the cases is inaccruate, so I won't help you with those.

[Spoonary]

Good luck in your new home. How great to have your own flat.

You've added German in your list? Viel Spaß damit! I could help you with the beginner's questions, if you want. I can speak german fleuntly, but my use of the cases is inaccruate, so I won't help you with those.

Danke for your kind words!

Yep, that's right, I have every intention of cracking on with German at some point this year. Or when I'm fairly happy with what I'm doing on a daily basis with my other languages at least. I'll be sure to remember your offer when I come across something I'm not sure about.

[Jar-Ptitsa]

I think that you will find German fun and funny. It's becase your own langauge is English, so a Germanic langauge with lots of Romance vocbaulary, so German will seem hilarious after Spanish, Italian and Esperanto.

I find Dutch hilarious because it's the anti-posh language. French and German are elegant, and Dutch is totally ugly, but that's why it makes me laugh and I call it the anti-posh langauge. English is sometimes elegant and sometimes not, very nice language, but not as elegant as French or German, and not as anti-posh as Dutch (not at all).

[Spoonary]

Hello everyone! Remember me?

Yep, it has been almost a month since I last showed my little, blue fishy face* around these parts, but worry not, the wait is over and here I am with a life update!

First of all, I must confess that my languages have been abandoned of late in favour of playing video games for hours and hours. I have always been a true fan of video games and, in fact, do much of my daily language input by watching lets plays and videos about gaming news in my target languages. The thing is, since I started university and all of that jazz, I haven't had an up to date home console, nor the time/freedom to play one (I have mainly played games on my laptop/handheld devices). Now, however, I have my own place and quite a bit of time to myself, so I bought a playstation 4 and we're very much in our honeymoon period.

Although I spend the vast majority of my limited free time now engulfed in some colourful world or other, I have kept a very loose grip on both Spanish and Italian by watching youtube videos and reading (I finished El beso de la mujer araña, which I thought was brilliant and will write more about in the Español sub-forum, and I also watched Almodóvar's Todo sobre mi madre for the first time, which I really enjoyed). I have also had a few opportunities to speak Spanish recently, thanks to the language café which I went to a couple more times before our switching to late shifts at work spoiled the fun for me; and also to bumping into my old Spanish teacher at the bus stop the other day and having a good 10 minute conversation with her.

I mentioned before (I think) that I am struggling to organise my time now that I am living on my own, and that I always seem to have something grown-up to do which keeps getting in the way of my leisure and intellectual activities. However, I finally feel as though I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, or at least that I now feel motivated to get a grip on my life and start steering it in the right direction. Therefore, I aim to include more focussed language study into my daily routine this month, so watch this space for that!

Oh, and I am also supposed to be planning a short trip to the Basque country and the north of Spain in April so that's a thing...

It feels good to be back!

*Speaking of my fishy face, the copy of Finding Dory I bought myself last month has Italian audio and subtitles included, which I took advantage of straight away!

[Spoonary]

Hello? Is anyone there?

Do you remember when, a month and a half ago, I said I was back and would be doing all sorts of focussed language learning activities? Yeah, that didn't happen...

As I don't really have any excuses (nor do I really need to have any, given that posting on this forum is optional, of course), I'm just going to get right into what I've been up to and pretend it hasn't been more than a month since I last wrote anything here.

So, that trip to the north of Spain isn't happening. When it came down to planning everything, I really didn't think I was in the right place (emotionally) to be essentially backpacking around in a foreign environment for a week or so on my own, so I decided not to. Instead, my cousin and I are going on a short trip to London and then Bristol to see a couple of musical theatre productions (Wicked and Blood Brothers). I absolutely adore going to the theatre, but I haven't been for a while, so I thought this was a great opportunity to do something I love and get away for a bit. It will also leave me with a few more days off work afterwards, which I wouldn't have had if I had gone to Spain.

Other than that, there really isn't an awful lot going on in my life. It was my birthday on Thursday, which I enjoyed although I really didn't do anything special, and work is going as well as it can under the circumstances.

But now it's time to get to the nitty-gritty, the languagey stuff you're all interested in (I hope)
Within the little language contact I have had this month, Spanish has definitely been the protagonist. I finished reading the translation of 1984 after some time, which was just as spectacular as I remember it being in English, so I'm glad I picked that up so long ago on my year abroad. I have also been speaking a fair bit of Spanish just lately, at the language café and with a friend of mine who was so enthusiastic about everything Spanish that he has moved to Spain and abandoned me However, he has left behind a now mutual friend of ours who is from Colombia. She's a wonderful woman who actually does private Spanish tutoring. I am going to have to talk to her about organising a few sessions methinks

Meanwhile, I have started reading a new book in Italian - Sgrammaticando: Salviamo l'italiano dalla rete. Yes, it's the recent foray into the world of books by Fiorella Atzori, the creator of the youtube channel Sgrammaticando, and so far so good. Now, this is not a traditional grammar book, nor (in my opinion) is it a book aimed at students of Italian, really (not that I expected it to be, but I think some of those who follow her youtube channel may have done). This is the sort of book you have on your coffee table so that, when you have 5 minutes to spare, you can pick it up and read a chapter or two and have a giggle. It's a compilation of common mistakes that Italians make when speaking/writing, corrected and explained in a light-hearted manner, sprinkled with Italian culture. As I say, I'm enjoying it.

I also started the German Language Transfer course at some point, so the 'Deutsch?' part of my log title is still pretty accurate

[rdearman]

Sgrammaticando: Salviamo l'italiano dalla rete (Sort of like "Eats shoots and leaves" ?? )

[Elenia]

I'm jealous of you, getting to see Wicked! Do stop by Foyles while you're in London! Also, the Oxfam Bookshop in Bloomsbury tend to be pretty well served in terms of foreign fiction. If you want to pop by my Oxfam shop as well, let me know. I'll try and stockpile some Spanish and Italian books for you