Tristano's log 2015 (principally Dutch but not only)

[Tristano]

No activity

[PeterMollenburg]

No activity

Sounds like you're in need of some inspiration from somewhere... go out and find it! Don't stop now with your learning... (yes i'm telling you off)

[Tristano]

Hi @PeterMollenburg, hehe, thanks for your message
It's actually something different.
There is an enormous change in my life and this change requires me to learn Dutch at the very best possible.
Being here with my real name and my pictures suggests me not to say too much about it because of my professional life.

Let's say: I'm in a moment of pause from every learning, but this is just the quiet before the tempest. Helaas, since my number one goal is proficiency in Dutch I better stay far from any other type of language learning until this goal is achieved. Especially from new languages.

[PeterMollenburg]

Hi @PeterMollenburg, hehe, thanks for your message
It's actually something different.
There is an enormous change in my life and this change requires me to learn Dutch at the very best possible.
Being here with my real name and my pictures suggests me not to say too much about it because of my professional life.

Let's say: I'm in a moment of pause from every learning, but this is just the quiet before the tempest. Helaas, since my number one goal is proficiency in Dutch I better stay far from any other type of language learning until this goal is achieved. Especially from new languages.

I know your situation in terms of focusing on one language. I'm not sure if I'm getting a sense of disappointment that you have to focus on just one language, but in my experience despite the wanderlust it's actually quite rewarding focusing on one language for a while- you won't be missing out and you'll always be able to return to other languages later- and you'll have the added bonus that maintenance in your now higher level language (Dutch- when you get to that level) will not take much effort at all, especially if you're living where you are surrounded by that language.

Good luck with your Dutch mission!

[Tristano]

I know your situation in terms of focusing on one language. I'm not sure if I'm getting a sense of disappointment that you have to focus on just one language, but in my experience despite the wanderlust it's actually quite rewarding focusing on one language for a while- you won't be missing out and you'll always be able to return to other languages later- and you'll have the added bonus that maintenance in your now higher level language (Dutch- when you get to that level) will not take much effort at all, especially if you're living where you are surrounded by that language.

Good luck with your Dutch mission!

Thank you very much!
I realized only now I never answered you.
I'm indeed a little bit disappointed that I can't add new languages for the moment. The novelty helps me to get motivated also with the other languages, and I like to keep my brain trained with always new things.
Indeed the advantage of Dutch will be that I won't need to spend any effort to maintain it, since I can't avoid it at all (like English).
My French and Spanish (and especially Spanish) are getting pretty rusty. I find a shame that I didn't reach a level that is stable enough where I'm comfortable to write and perform activities in it (even if I have no problems to have conversations with people).
Portuguese is there in my waiting list. I feel that I have to decide which one between Spanish and Portuguese to bring at a good level first.

I made a list of the other languages that I would like to learn at a certain point in time:

Germanic
Icelandic (reading)
Swedish (understanding)
German (understanding)

Latin
Spanish (mastery)
Portuguese (writing/understanding)
Romanian (understanding)

Slavic
Russian (understanding)
Polish (understanding)
Croatian (understanding)
Czech (understanding)
Bulgarian (understanding)
Macedonian (understanding)
Slovenian (understanding)
Slovak (understanding)
Ukrainian (understanding)

Others
Arabic (reading)
Turkish (reading)
Persian (reading/speaking)
Hungarian (reading)
Mandarin (understanding)

For understanding I mean reading/listening.
I'm not extremely interested in production, but even in the case I'm more interested to write than to speak.
Unfortunately for some reason I can't decide which one to do next. I can of course go for the entire slavic branch but that takes very long time to face.

--

On the other hand, I'm going to break the inactivity period.
I'm going to subscribe to a semi-intensive Dutch course and I did a placement test. My teacher said that I'm almost B1. She told me that I reached a very nice level studying alone, and I just need to fill the gap to a real B1 level, so that I can subscribe to the course B1 to B2.
So I have some time to fill the gap and that gives me an extra 'motivatie'

[Tristano]

I bought the book Nederlands in Actie. The teacher who evaluated my level of Dutch is one of the authors. I'll use that book to fill my gap.
I'll try to study everyday one hour before to go to work (huge commitment, believe me).
Still, I'm thinking about the next language to learn.

Portuguese?
Pro: Easy (enough), it allows to complete the conquer of (the basic knowledge of) the major languages spoken in America and after that only Romanian would remain as major latin language (sorry Catalan... I don't think I will study you, don't be mad at me).
Cons: Boring! Another easy latin language.

Russian?
Pro: It opens the gate to the slavic languages and a totally different world with great literature.
Cons: It will require me years.

The whole Slavic branch up to A2 and Russian last?
Pro: well, it's cool
Cons: even more years!

Arabic:
Pro: A whole new world with a so fascinating culture and literature, plus many other languages borrowed a huge deal of vocabulary
Cons: It will require me the same time of the whole slavic branch. And then I still can't speak because I need to learn a dialect.

Icelandic:
Pro: after Dutch and Icelandic learning German is a breeze.
Cons: well, it's useless

Swedish
Pro: a second (third if counting English) germanic language that is not too difficult, plus gives me some help when I will face Icelandic
Cons: I fear it can interfere with Dutch

Persian:
Pro: nice
Cons: I guess it's much easier to learn after having learned Arabic

Turkish:
Pro: Agglutinative language, totally different story. Presence of many Turkish people in the Netherlands.
Cons: I'm not sure how much I will actually use it.

Hungarian:
Pro: same as Turkish
Cons: same as Turkish

[Sarnek]

Persian:
Pro: nice
Cons: I guess it's much easier to learn after having learned Arabic

Sorry to chime in, but I just wanted to point out that Farsi is nothing like Arabic. In fact, it's an indoeuropean language. Only the script is somewhat similar.

[Tristano]

Persian:
Pro: nice
Cons: I guess it's much easier to learn after having learned Arabic

Sorry to chime in, but I just wanted to point out that Farsi is nothing like Arabic. In fact, it's an indoeuropean language. Only the script is somewhat similar.

Hi Sarnek, thanks to drop in.
I am aware about Persian being indoeuropean and have very little resemblance with Arabic. However, there are some factors that still suggest me that learning Arabic first will make my task at least a bit easier:
- I'm used to the script
- I know a good number of arabic loanwords that summed to the french and germanic loanwords will give me some more vocabulary for free
- I guess that handling the irregular plural forms in the arabic loanwords will be easier if I know arabic first

Said that, maybe the advantage of knowing Arabic before to study Persian is not that relevant. I didn't hear anything about it.

[Expugnator]

I'd go for an agglutinative language. Turkish, probably. It's really fun to be able to express concepts in a more elegant and concise way. Besides, Turkish has a duolingo course, Assimil, good music and many other resources, the spelling is almost phonemic.

[Soffía]

Icelandic:
Pro: after Dutch and Icelandic learning German is a breeze.
Cons: well, it's useless

*waves little flag for Icelandic*

It is useless, there's no denying that, but it belongs to a lovely country, it has a charming sound (to me), and it unlocks a surprising amount of quality literature given the small size of Iceland's population. You can also read Old Norse once you've learned Icelandic, so it's a two-for-one deal.

If you ever have any questions about learning Icelandic, let me know!