Languid Language Learning

[Elenia]

Thank you all for the congratulations...

I guess now is a bad time to saw we've been engaged since last April? It's just taken me pretty much all that time since then to get used to the idea. I wouldn't let anyone talk to me about it the first few months, and if anyone tried, I left the room. Very mature, I know

I was doing really well for about five minutes there on the studying side of things, and then I slowed right down again. I'm getting used to working again, which is done mostly in Swedish. I have also started playing the game 'Backpacker' in Swedish, and I'm really enjoying it! I'm learning things, not only in Swedish, but also generally. It has the added plus of being pretty good prep for På Spåret - there have definitely been some questions and facts which have come up in previous destinations. Here's to Friday!

P.S. to Ogrim - sadly it will likely be only bilingual although my partner and I have three languages in common

[Elenia]

Although my work load at the Red Cross is less than when I was doing similar work for Oxfam, it is certainly more tiring. I find I don't have much energy for anything at all most days - something probably compounded by a fairly likely mild vitamin D deficiency, potentially a lack of B12 too.

To combat this, I'll try to remember to take my vitamins every day, and will try to get back to having a fast bed time and a 'screen free' period before sleeping. I want to start up with weekly goals again (inspired by Yuurei - it's come back around to me!), but had been waiting until I settled in to working again. However, that seems like it'll take a while, and having the goals and a bed time might actually be more helpful. I feel like my Swedish is stagnating because I'm not studying actively, and so it feels like certain conversations are much harder than they need to be. And now I am speaking Swedish five days a week, that extra difficulty becomes a mental drain.

That being said, I will start small with only TWO goals:

1. Listen to one FSI lesson
2. Do 70 sentences on Clozemaster

Otherwise, I will maybe try to get in some listening to Norwegian, as my partner and I will being going to Oslo at the start of next month. My understanding of Norwegian is basically nil, so I doubt this will help at all, but I wanted to learn to understand Norwegian this year anyway so...

[Brun Ugle]

You need to start drinking your fish oil everyday. Nummy nummy.

Moving to a new country and having to deal with a foreign language every day, even if you sort of halfway knew the language beforehand, is exhausting. I had studied Norwegian before moving, but I still really struggled when I got here. It put me completely off studying for a while.

You’ll never understand Norwegian. It’s hopeless. I still meet people sometimes with dialects I can barely make sense of. Sometimes I wonder if they’re even speaking Norwegian. Like maybe they’re really just very drunk Danes trying to speak Swedish or something.

[jeff_lindqvist]

Speaking of Norwegian, I accidentally ended up on the tv.NRK.no page (which works like SVTplay). I don't think everything is accessible from Sweden, but some is (I saw the first episode of the drama/comedy series Nesten voksen).

[PeterMollenburg]

Although my work load at the Red Cross is less than when I was doing similar work for Oxfam, it is certainly more tiring. I find I don't have much energy for anything at all most days - something probably compounded by a fairly likely mild vitamin D deficiency, potentially a lack of B12 too.

To combat this, I'll try to remember to take my vitamins every day, and will try to get back to having a fast bed time and a 'screen free' period before sleeping. I want to start up with weekly goals again (inspired by Yuurei - it's come back around to me!), but had been waiting until I settled in to working again. However, that seems like it'll take a while, and having the goals and a bed time might actually be more helpful. I feel like my Swedish is stagnating because I'm not studying actively, and so it feels like certain conversations are much harder than they need to be. And now I am speaking Swedish five days a week, that extra difficulty becomes a mental drain.

That being said, I will start small with only TWO goals:

1. Listen to one FSI lesson
2. Do 70 sentences on Clozemaster

Otherwise, I will maybe try to get in some listening to Norwegian, as my partner and I will being going to Oslo at the start of next month. My understanding of Norwegian is basically nil, so I doubt this will help at all, but I wanted to learn to understand Norwegian this year anyway so...

You are probably aware Elenia that there are certain orange glasses and screen filters to block blue light from electronic devices, which means you can continue watching and not upset your body's awake/sleep states, in theory. In my reading, the only advice I have in this is, if you opt for the glasses, definitely do not use them during the day, or your body will become super confused as you'll be blocking out important light (see next paragraph and link below for the importance of sunlight). Anyway worth looking into/searching online (for anyone) curious. I also came across another interesting read at one point, which could be useful for those at extreme or near extreme latitudes on the planet and struggling to adjust to the lack of light in winter. It was some kind of a 'light generator' that at a certain hour each morning would produce light that your body would like (as opposed to going outside if it's already light and you don't have the time or it's not suitiable, or if there's no light yet).

On the topic of Vitamin D, I have also read some decent information suggesting that being behind glass (windows, car windows, wearing glasses - sunglasses, reading glasses, contact lenses) blocks our body's ability to produce melatonin, important in immune function, mood regulation, circadian rhythm, sleep, healthy skin. Another conspiracy anyone? Sunglasses companies do not like the idea that you shouldn't wear sunglasses (or should reduce your use of them). The reason behind such advice is that sunglasses block melatonin production by not allowing UV light to interact with the retina and in turn the pituitary gland, which in normal synergy would create melatonin and even helps the skin protect itself against the sun. Yet another piece of evidence imo that shows that we are living at odds with nature. https://philmaffetone.com/sun-and-brain/. Marketing focuses on the negatives of the sun, but there are plenty of positives.

[Brun Ugle]

Speaking of Norwegian, I accidentally ended up on the tv.NRK.no page (which works like SVTplay). I don't think everything is accessible from Sweden, but some is (I saw the first episode of the drama/comedy series Nesten voksen).

I think NRK makes its own stuff available everywhere, but things that were produced by other countries or sometimes in cooperation with other countries’ broadcasting companies are usually restricted because their rights to them are limited.

[Elenia]

@Brun - Is it possible to pretend to understand Norwegians? The old 'nod and smile' routine. Or do you think my time will be better spent getting drunk with Danes in Copenhagen every Friday night?

@Jeff - Thanks for the link! I forget about NRK. I once managed to watch a documentary about sharks from the UK on it, but have never used it otherwise. Now I have the link open, so it's almost one hundred percent more likely that I'll use it sometime this week

@Peter - I'm already a glasses wearer, so no ball an extra pair. I figure I can make use of my time with no screens before bed as a wind down time, and get down on some reading that otherwise gets put off in favour of more aimless browsing, or write, or knit... basically do something a bit more productive then click about on the internet! While we're talking dangers of glasses and benefits of sunlight on the retina... I got my first pair of glasses aged six or seven, and was assumed to be long sighted. I am now extremely short sighted anything more than 10-15 cm from my face is a blurred mess. It's terrible to try and prescribe glasses to young children - even as an adult I can hardly say what is better or worse in sight tests. But that leads down a dangerous garden path so I won't talk more about it. What I wanted to say is that I once read an article or book where it was suggested that those who go out and expose their eyes to natural light and sunlight in their childhood are less likely to need glasses. I spent a lot of time inside reading as a child, and also read a lot in poor light, despite my parents' warnings, so that probably didn't help my retinal development at all.

---

I learnt a new word this week, by the way: gem, which means a paper clip.

I also managed a very short conversation in French at work. It turns out that one of the girls is half French. She was very surprised and impressed when I spoke to her a bit in French, after hearing her speak it. I wasn't as terrible as the last time I tried, so woohoo!

[rdearman]

Or do you think my time will be better spent getting drunk with Danes in Copenhagen every Friday night?

I find this is generally good advice for anything in life.

[Brun Ugle]

Norwegians have told me that even though they understand Swedes, the Swedes "refuse" to understand them. I think part of it is that Sweden is a bigger country and we probably have more exposure to things like Swedish TV then Swedes have to Norwegian media. Also a lot of Swedes and Danes come to Norway to work so we are used to hearing them and they don't usually bother to learn to speak Norwegian, even though they obviously have to learn to understand it. So, you will be understood even if you can't understand. I guess it might not be too useful though if you ask something and don't understand the answer.

[zenmonkey]

This might be like the effect where Americans that speak French complain that the French refuse to understand them but in reality some French are just bad at adjusting to people who don't differentiate phonemes.

Phonemic dedifferentiation difficultly?