Language Rambles (Japanese, Dutch and Norwegian)

[appelkoekje]

Hei! Jeg heter Luna. Jeg kommer fra England. Jeg snakker Engelsk, Japansk, og litt Norsk og Nederlandsk. (Although basic, corrections are welcomed )

There's only one thing to remark, really: we only use capital letters for names of places, not for languages and nationalities or anything like that. So you have to write engelsk, japansk, og litt norsk og nederlandsk.

Tusen takk! Noted

[appelkoekje]

September is here!

Reading challenge & Japanese

Thus begins my 読書の秋 challenge! Unfortunately, I didn't get around to making a thread, so if anyone wants to participate and have their own "reading autumn", by all means do so! And let me know, so I can follow your progress! To re-iterate, I've chosen a book I wish to read over "autumn". I use " " as the end date for this challenge is December 31st So it's a little bit of winter, as well. It's very simple. Finish reading the book by then, and reflect on the challenges, the successes and what I have learned.

I'll be updating with an overall summary of my progress weekly, but every time I update my log I might mention how it's going. It's very casual, and it's just something to encourage me to stick to one book and finish it.

As mentioned before, the book I have chosen is 花散る頃の殺人. It seems to be a collection of stories centered around a 女刑事, a female detective. The first short story is called あなたの匂い。Your scent. I'm very intrigued by it already I read the first chapter in the bath today. The vocabulary isn't too hard, and it's quite comfortable to read. Some words trip me up but I am able to guess their meaning from context.

Which actually leads onto my first success: The very first sentence of the book is as follows - 急いでいる朝に、せっかく穿いたストッキングが伝線することほど苛立つものはない。I understood every word except 伝線, though from the context I could guess the meaning. I also guessed the reading correctly which surprised me I'm usually way off. But I guessed from the context, it meant when you get a run in your stockings. After that first line, and being able to guess it from context, I knew I had made the right choice! This book seems perfect for my level, not too many unknown words, but enough to make it worthwhile to read.

There are 313 pages in the book. It seems the last few pages are an interview with the author, but we'll include it still. Chapter 1 was 16 pages. So, that puts me at 16/313 pages. We're off to a strong start! I'm looking forward to reading chapter 2 at some point today. If I somehow manage to finish this book before the end of the challenge, I'll move onto a second book and see how far I get.

I believe I have a group call scheduled at some point today with a native and some learners. I hope it goes ahead as I haven't scheduled in any phone calls with natives this weekend, though I'm sure I can arrange something for tomorrow if needs be.

Norwegian

Decided to make my updates a little more neat and separate by languages. Not a lot to report. I finished Chapter 2 of Norsk på 1-2-3 today. I started it not last night, but the night before, but got too tired and was unable to finish. Poured myself a cup of tea and finished it today. I might do a review of the word order part, however, as there was an exercise at the end of the chapter and I got most of it wrong! It does give a very brief introduction to word structure, so it could just be that the introduction was too brief, and it might expand later on. I will review it though, just to cement it. I plan to complete some more units on Duolingo today. Right now, Duolingo is good for vocabulary drilling

Hvordan har du det?
Jeg har det greit. Men jeg er litt trøtt. Jeg må vasker klær.

A little writing practice! I heavily relied on a dictionary. Does anyone know any good EN-NO/NO-EN online dictionaries? Takk på forhånd.

Dutch

Little to nothing outside of asking my boyfriend how to say something in Dutch. I plan to finish off Unit 6 in Teach Yourself: Complete Dutch this evening, and do a few more units on Duolingo to reinforce vocabulary. Might watch some Dutch youtubers, as well. Must think of a way to incorporate using more Dutch with my boyfriend. English has always been our primary language, so it is quite difficult making the step! Even starting off small is difficult as my knowledge is so limited. I shall see what I can do.

[brilliantyears]

I'll join you in your 読書の秋 challenge the moment the 6 Week Challenge is over!

[appelkoekje]

I'll join you in your 読書の秋 challenge the moment the 6 Week Challenge is over!

Awesome! Good luck with the remainder of the 6 week challenge!

[Expugnator]

Yesterday, I did Duolingo on the way to work, and found a nice textbook to study from! It's called Norsk På 1-2-3, and it's written in both Norwegian and English which I am loving I did the first unit last night, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I can now (somewhat) introduce myself in Norwegian.

This is pretty good indeed, but I only found out about it when my Norwegian was already past its level. I also recommend Hugo's Norwegian in three months to start from and Learn Norwegian by Klouman as the most comprehensive Norwegian textbook out there.

[appelkoekje]

Long time no post!

A lot has happened in the past few months. A lot.

I'm currently writing this from my new home in the Netherlands. I moved here at the end of November 2018. I lived with my boyfriends family up until this week. We moved into our own house just yesterday. It has been an experience so far to say the least!

Naturally, since I've moved here, I have been surrounded by Dutch every single day. It has done wonders for my listening! I haven't been using Dutch as much as I would like. I'm very socially anxious and so, it is difficult for me to converse in a different language (even though I love it). It's gotten to the point now where I'm just responding in English. It's a habit I would really like to kick. I have been attending intensive A0>A1 Dutch classes since the beginning of January 2019. My boyfriend, me and the tutor all agreed that while I am already A1 in reading/writing/listening, my speaking is literally non-existent, so it's best I start at the lower levels and work from the bottom. It has been helpful as I can now confidently pronounce 'g', though my 'r' and 'sch' need a lot of work. I'm also solidifying basics, learning about Dutch culture, and getting a lot of practice with speaking. As it's 'intensive', the lessons are taught 95% Dutch and about 5% English, which I think is fantastic. The teacher speaks slowly and clearly, so it is easy enough to follow. With exposure, you realise you've learned things without being explicitly told what it was. Great method and it allows for us to learn naturally. I'll be attending these classes up until April, and with the rate they are going, I fully expect to be conversational in Dutch by then. We get tons of homework which focuses on learning vocabulary, re-enforcing things we learned in class, and training our listening. It's tough to fit into a schedule as I am working here as well, but incredibly helpful.

I work 3 days a week at a small company. Naturally, a large majority of the workers are Dutch, however there are 3 who are not. They attended the same classes I did, and are now all conversational and manage to keep up with the natives. They're incredibly kind and helpful, and they use only Dutch with me. I'm very fortunate that my colleagues are determined to get my Dutch up to scratch, and have an unwritten 'alleen Nederlands' rule when it comes to talking with me I am very grateful as it is another situation that requires me to use Dutch. I unfortunately reply in English because of habit, but I am slowly trying to replace my 'yes' with 'ja', my 'no' with 'nee', and so on and so forth.

My boyfriend and I are trying to have 'alleen Nederlands' days. I've suggested we do it on the days I have Dutch class, as I'll already be using the language on those days, and it's a nice warm up for me, and to get me into the habit. As my speaking improves, we'd probably introduce more 'only Dutch' days.

As we are finally living on our own again, and I have 2 free days in the week, some household tasks will fall to me, such as running errands in town. I have my own bike (finally!), and I think this Tuesday I will challenge myself to cycle into town and do some shopping. We live in quite a small town, the kind where you can bump into your hairdresser while grocery shopping, or see your doctor in the bookstore. Also the kind where I could quite possibly be the only native English speaker here. My biggest fear about going into town is being stopped by someone who recognises me for a small chat... a neighbour, a hairdresser... I don't want to make the exchange awkward by saying 'Oh, sorry, ik spreek een beetje Nederlands...'. Especially in stores, up until now, I've always went with my boyfriend so he has handled the transactions... the few times I have, I've been too scared to say anything other than 'dankjewel'. But, I will be brave on Tuesday, I will do some shopping, and I will ask 'Kan ik pinnen?' and 'nee' to the bonnetje... It is my challenge!

Norwegian has taken such a back seat it is no longer in sight. I will get back to it, but right now, getting to A2/B1 in Dutch is my main objective.

Japanese is ... the same as ever. Slowly progressing. I continue to watch Japanese TV shows, read Japanese books, and use Japanese with natives. There is a Japanese conversation meet up in the town over I would love to get to... once I work out the Dutch train system...!

[appelkoekje]

I've decided I want to be B1 in Dutch by the end of the year.

The thought hit me today as I thought about my life here. I never graduated University and I've always wanted to go back. I've been looking at courses here and a large percentage of them are taught only in Dutch. I figured I should also set a more solid goal with Dutch, which could lead onto eventually going back into University. I figured I'd start off small, so, first step is... B1 in Dutch by December 31st, or somewhere close to it.

I've set some mini-goals for the first half of the year. Finish X book by Y date, finish Z course by a certain date and so on.

Let's see how this goes...

[Elsa Maria]

Congrats on your new adventure in the Netherlands, and I will look forward to reading your log. Best of luck with the shopping expedition! It sounds like you well prepared for success.

I'd been playing around with Dutch before, but now that one of my (young adult) children is living there I have a lot more motivation. I just got back from a visit to both the Netherlands and Flanders, and I brought home way too many books

There is a new Dutch Study Group thread, by the way.