Languid Language Learning

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blaurebell
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby blaurebell » Thu Jul 06, 2017 8:49 am

Ani wrote:Book purchases always seem so justifiable in the wee hours don't they? That seems to be when I accumulate must of my surplus.


For some reason my excess book buying tends to happen at the end of the week. Friday night usually when I have to wait until the next Wednesday for them to be finally delivered :roll: Ordering on Sunday night would make so much more sense!
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Elenia
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby Elenia » Wed Jul 26, 2017 6:28 pm

Well, it's been a while!

I left my laptop charger at home :oops: and only got it on Monday. I spent yesterday and today catching up on what I've missed, more or less.

Pretty much nothing doing on the language front. I have been different stages of lost during Swedish conversation. I caught a cold which made me dizzy and sleepy, got rid of it almost all the way then caught another cold which is making me stuffy and phlegmy. I read a book in English called It's All in your Head about the importance of taking psychosomatic illnesses (and psychiatric ill health in general) seriously. I have managed to live through two maintenance calls in Swedish (one mostly in Skånsk :!: ) and small transactions in shops and with my new neighbours in the lift. I am not yet a real person in Sweden.

Oh.
And Clozemaster.
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby DaveBee » Wed Jul 26, 2017 7:26 pm

Elenia wrote:Pretty much nothing doing on the language front.

I have managed to live through two maintenance calls in Swedish (one mostly in Skånsk :!: ) and small transactions in shops and with my new neighbours in the lift.
This is Rock Star level languaging! Talking on the phone, and then to real people in an enclosed space with no line of retreat!

You'll probably get a medal from the embassy or something. A miniature box of free cereal in the post at least.
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blaurebell
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby blaurebell » Thu Jul 27, 2017 6:20 pm

DaveBee wrote:This is Rock Star level languaging! Talking on the phone, and then to real people in an enclosed space with no line of retreat!


Oh yeah, those two are totally panic inducing situations for me as well. Speaking on the phone to strangers is panic attack material even in German/English, so in any other language I will go to great lengths to avoid it!
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MamaPata
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby MamaPata » Thu Jul 27, 2017 8:12 pm

Elenia wrote:Well, it's been a while!

I left my laptop charger at home :oops: and only got it on Monday. I spent yesterday and today catching up on what I've missed, more or less.

Pretty much nothing doing on the language front. I have been different stages of lost during Swedish conversation. I caught a cold which made me dizzy and sleepy, got rid of it almost all the way then caught another cold which is making me stuffy and phlegmy. I read a book in English called It's All in your Head about the importance of taking psychosomatic illnesses (and psychiatric ill health in general) seriously. I have managed to live through two maintenance calls in Swedish (one mostly in Skånsk :!: ) and small transactions in shops and with my new neighbours in the lift. I am not yet a real person in Sweden.

Oh.
And Clozemaster.


Sounds like it's been really tough! Hope you start to feel better soon! But very impressive language use! If you can survive maintenance calls, then you're doing pretty damn well!
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Elenia
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby Elenia » Thu Jul 27, 2017 10:14 pm

I seem to have misled you all, and now I feel like a fraud! I mean a 'call' as in a visit - I don't think I would have been able to get anything done over the phone!

But - DaveBee, do you still think I'll get that box of cereal?

blaurebell wrote:Speaking on the phone to strangers is panic attack material even in German/English, so in any other language I will go to great lengths to avoid it!


I hate phone calls, and they used to give me great anxiety. My dad helped cure me of that by making me do all of his important phone calls and actually all house phone calls and then by getting me a job as a telephonist in a taxi company on Saturday nights :roll: I mean, I'm grateful, but...

---

Still not much done. Kept a three day clozemaster streak on ALL my language pairs (I'm working through a ridiculous Swedish backlog!) and surprised a lady in the shop by being able to talk Swedish. I had so much more planned for today, but I ended up staying awake until eight this morning so I actually spent most of the day in bed feeling nauseous. I have none but myself to blame. Fingers crossed that tomorrow is better but my boyfriend finally has a day off work so I doubt it will be. We had originally planned to go and see the tax people but he has worked three fifteen hour night shifts in a row and it's his only day off so we'll probably just laze around instead.

(I know I should be talking to him all the time in Swedish. It just... hasn't happened. He speaks and my brain just refuses to cooperate. I'm hoping it'll get better once I get back to some decent input. Annoyingly, I left most of my books at home. My boyfriend does have a few in Swedish, but he also has looooaaaaads of really good books in English that I want to read, so...
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Elenia
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby Elenia » Sat Jul 29, 2017 4:26 pm

Thanks, Mama Pata!

---

I now have a Clozemaster streak of five whole days! Who knew I could stay on that long! Almost all of my to review sentence backlogs are cleared, but it still takes a ridiculously long time. I am nonetheless reluctant to drop any single language or pairing. I'm hoping on speeding through the Swedish/Dutch sentences so that I have just a little more time to do something useful with my days...

I suggested that I read something to my boyfriend in Swedish, and we realised that the perfect option was just sitting on our shelves already: a collection of Tove Jansson's novellas. I started reading through the first one yesterday while he was out, writing down the unknown words in preparation. I got through about three or four pages before I had to stop, and will look up the unknown words today and maybe add them to my much neglected corpus. My boyfriend and I used to read to each other a lot more than we do now. We have The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente unfinished (he was reading to me) and I used to read fair bit to him in German, although he couldn't really understand me at all. But I have only read once to him in Swedish, so this will be a new and interesting challenge. Plus, more Tove Jansson. Who wouldn't want that?
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Elenia
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby Elenia » Sat Jul 29, 2017 10:03 pm

Quick update to say that I've finally finished listening to Sommarboken. I want to now relisten to Charmen med tarmen while writing down the important words. It's a shame, as it seems that the book is no longer everywhere in the shops. This is one thing that I really miss and will continue to miss about London (apart from my family!): the huge and many bookshops. I wish I could just have brought Foyles here with me!
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Elenia
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby Elenia » Sun Jul 30, 2017 7:10 pm

I have now cleared my Clozemaster backlog and evened out how much I do each day. This means I will be spending less time with it in future - hopefully.

I also have read through the first half of the first chapter of the first novella in the Tove Jansson book. I've looked up about half of the vocabulary that I wrote out, and shall hopefully do the rest tonight. We are going to make pickled red onions and then dinner. So I'm not sure if I will have time, but I do hope to finally read a bit more of my Finnish Agatha Christie. Clozemaster is really great and I am actually learning from it, but I want to start applying it to something that is not Clozemaster so that it doesn't disappear as soon the cards are 'mastered'. I also want to find something Finnish to listen to, but my Finnish is so non-existent that I can't even begin to look for anything.

I am really regretting the decision to not bring a single German book with me. I probably would not have read that much of it anyway, but now I don't even have the choice to not read it!

The other day I found out about Meänkieli. It is a dialect of Finnish that is spoken in Northern Sweden, and just knowing that it exists makes me ridiculously happy. At least texts in it should be accessible to me once I have solid Finnish. I don't know what it sounds like, but there is a radio station that broadcasts in it each week morning. So exciting! If it is aurally similar to Finnish, maybe I can listen to it while I'm looking for something Finnish to listen to instead?
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Elenia
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Re: Languid Language Learning

Postby Elenia » Tue Aug 01, 2017 1:38 pm

We spent most of yesterday out. About three hours were spent at Skatteverket to get myself registered here in Sweden. I was very nervous about it, as a lot of the information I received was confusing. We were waiting in a queue outside the building for about fifteen to twenty minutes and then once we got into the building had to wait almost two hours. When we were finally seen, however, it only took about ten minutes! Everyone was really friendly and I got a sort of complement on my Swedish.

Afterwards we went to the park, where a Mama duck and her two ducklets (they were bigger than ducklings) came to say hello. This has absolutely no relevance to anything, but it was so cute that I had to share. They came out of the water, waddled right up to us, then waddled back down again. I came to the conclusion that they were hoping we had food.

Finally we went to the library, where I had a look at all the foreign language books and language learning materials. I'll definitely be returning :D

I only managed to keep my streak on Clozemaster by doing ten reviews for each language. I was way too tired and also headachey to do more. So it goes, so it goes.
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