Re: Nooj's language journey
Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2018 1:26 pm
A lot has happened since my last entry. Most notably uni has started again.
One of my postgraduate courses is in Spanish. That is to say, the lectures are given in Spanish, the work is handed in in Spanish, the discussions are in Spanish.
One of the courses I audited is Russian. They are moving insufferably slowly for my tastes, so I am studying by myself.
Another of the courses I am studying is Intermediate Arabic. This one is going at a pace I like more. It is nice to finally get some structure to learning standard Arabic. One of the professors is Moroccan, I like being able to talk to her in Moroccan. It is vanishingly rare to find Moroccans here, so I take the time before classes to chat with her.
Yesterday I went with a Spanish person to a nature reserve. We met up with a bunch of French people who came here as au pairs and students. Neither the French nor the Spanish person spoke each other's languages beyond the very basics, despite one of the French guys having taken Spanish as one of his langues vivantes. It looks like the French school system is just as bad as ours.
To top it off, the Spanish girl has basic English so it was not an option to switch to English, she simply wouldn't understand.
I ended up translating between the two groups for most of the day, flipping from Spanish and French and English and Catalan (the Spanish girl grew up in Catalunya). I admit that I really wasn't helping this girl's English, that is to say that she should have been practicing more English with the French instead of both parties relying on me, so I often tried to split off with one French guy and leave her with the rest of French people. It worked, I could hear them speaking English behind me while we were walking around. They were frighteningly obsessed with the kangaroos, like foreigners tend to be, but I was more interested in the platypuses (I managed to see one in the lake).
I admit I was taking this opportunity to speak French and Spanish, which doesn't come by often in my city, but I should have been helping her more with her English.
By the end of the day I was a bit frazzled. I took them to a Korean restaurant where I finished the day by slipping into my native language with the Korean restauranteur and camareros.
At this point I ignore what Spanish and French speakers say about how I speak their language. It used to, but now it no longer matters to me what they think. I know there is an infinity of distance between me and them, so if they say I speak very well, well that's actually damning praise.
One of my postgraduate courses is in Spanish. That is to say, the lectures are given in Spanish, the work is handed in in Spanish, the discussions are in Spanish.
One of the courses I audited is Russian. They are moving insufferably slowly for my tastes, so I am studying by myself.
Another of the courses I am studying is Intermediate Arabic. This one is going at a pace I like more. It is nice to finally get some structure to learning standard Arabic. One of the professors is Moroccan, I like being able to talk to her in Moroccan. It is vanishingly rare to find Moroccans here, so I take the time before classes to chat with her.
Yesterday I went with a Spanish person to a nature reserve. We met up with a bunch of French people who came here as au pairs and students. Neither the French nor the Spanish person spoke each other's languages beyond the very basics, despite one of the French guys having taken Spanish as one of his langues vivantes. It looks like the French school system is just as bad as ours.
To top it off, the Spanish girl has basic English so it was not an option to switch to English, she simply wouldn't understand.
I ended up translating between the two groups for most of the day, flipping from Spanish and French and English and Catalan (the Spanish girl grew up in Catalunya). I admit that I really wasn't helping this girl's English, that is to say that she should have been practicing more English with the French instead of both parties relying on me, so I often tried to split off with one French guy and leave her with the rest of French people. It worked, I could hear them speaking English behind me while we were walking around. They were frighteningly obsessed with the kangaroos, like foreigners tend to be, but I was more interested in the platypuses (I managed to see one in the lake).
I admit I was taking this opportunity to speak French and Spanish, which doesn't come by often in my city, but I should have been helping her more with her English.
By the end of the day I was a bit frazzled. I took them to a Korean restaurant where I finished the day by slipping into my native language with the Korean restauranteur and camareros.
At this point I ignore what Spanish and French speakers say about how I speak their language. It used to, but now it no longer matters to me what they think. I know there is an infinity of distance between me and them, so if they say I speak very well, well that's actually damning praise.