2021: A Spanish Odyssey

[Philipp]

Putin was stationed for several years in Dresden. His German is very good. He was actually in Dresden in 89 when the wall fell. There was an incident when he and his colleagues were confronted by an angry mob protesting outside of their headquarter. I've read that this incident might have impacted his worldview significantly. It's an interesting story. Worth googling.

[Melkor]

AMBIDEXTERITY + LANGUAGE LEARNING:
To make my language learning more exciting, I have decided to assign French to my left hand and German to my right hand to see if writing my weaker language with my slightly-dominant hand will help improve my German.

Any news on this experiment? Has your German improved? If so, how can you tell if it was the result of changing your writing hand, and not purely because of consistent practice?

[SGP]

Putin was stationed for several years in Dresden. His German is very good. He was actually in Dresden in 89 when the wall fell. There was an incident when he and his colleagues were confronted by an angry mob protesting outside of their headquarter. I've read that this incident might have impacted his worldview significantly. It's an interesting story. Worth googling.

Zweisprachiges Post, weil der Skynet jetzt ja auch Deutsch lernt .

Diese Geschichte habe ich gerade meiner Lesewarteschlange hinzugefügt. In der Zwischenzeit (also nach meinem letzten Post wegen Wladimir Putin) hatte ich auch ein bestimmtes YT-Video gefunden. Es zeigte ihn bei einer öffentlichen Konferenz, als er spontan die Wort eines deutschen (?) Politikers für die russischen Zuschauer übersetzt hat.

Just added this story to my reading queue. In the meantime (i.e. after my previous post about Wladimir Putin) I also found a YT video about him. It was about a public conference. He spontaneously translated the words of a German (?) politician for the Russian audience.

[Skynet]

AMBIDEXTERITY + LANGUAGE LEARNING:
To make my language learning more exciting, I have decided to assign French to my left hand and German to my right hand to see if writing my weaker language with my slightly-dominant hand will help improve my German.

Any news on this experiment? Has your German improved? If so, how can you tell if it was the result of changing your writing hand, and not purely because of consistent practice?

More than a fortnight into the experiment, I can absolutely confirm that my German has improved tremendously. What is not yet apparent is the cause of this improvement: switching writing hands or simple determination to learn the language over the past 2 weeks. It would be ideal if other ambidextrous members would share their experiences with language learning.

Yalda Mobarak!
Last night was the northern hemisphere's winter solstice (summer solstice in the southern hemisphere), which heralded the start of winter (summer) using the solar calendar. This also meant that I had another opportunity to work on my Farsi and taarof skills at the Yalda ceremony held by the Iranian students' society, which was attended by the Iranian ambassador to Cyprus. I enjoyed the music (courtesy of the usual suspects - santur and daff) and the general ambiance of the event. Whilst I have no problems talking about things like food, simple petty politics, the weather, what time the Farsi equivalent of Come Dine With Me is showing on ManotoTV, how prices have increased, girls and marriage, traditional clothing and musical instruments, and engaging in taarof; my listening skills come apart at the seams the instant someone speaks at their native speed. This is why I generally prefer the Shiraz accent, because they tend to speak much slower than their Tehran and Mashhad counterparts. I have to admit that my heart sank when I saw a HUGE book with Haffez's work on the Yalda table, that I could not read a single squiggle from. (To someone illiterate in the Perso-Arabic script, it does look like squiggles to me.) Finglish (romanised Persian script) is woefully inadequate! Unfortunately, with my schedule, I just don't have any time for another language in 2019. I even had to jettison Dutch (with its SEVEN orthography reforms since 1804!!!) and Spanish into 2020.

I did have an embarrassing #EpicLanguageFail moment when I was speaking to one of my friend's father who was complimenting me on my Farsi, to which I responded with a jokingly dorost rafte koon (oh, behave yourself). Apparently, because of my far-from-native accent, I said something completely different and extremely rude. When he suddenly paused, looked as his wife and then burst out laughing, I knew that I had blown it. Suffice it to say, I inadvertently learnt foul language (against my 1st foreign language protocol: Thou shall not learn/teach foul language so that thou shall not/cannot become offended/cause others to be offended in thine foreign language) and my little episode became our humour reference point for the rest of the night.

GERMAN:
German has officially eclipsed French as my favourite language. Yes, German is much more sophisticated than French, and has grammar rules that are closer to Persian than French, I find it (G) much easier to understand, decode and transcribe! Standard German (Hochdeutsch) is what all my Assimil courses are in, which is why I was barely able to keep up with a beginner podcast from Munich. If Persian is any guide, I have a very good ear for accents and hope to replicate this success with a language that I am actually literate in, German. Assimil GWOT has now started to steepen, whilst GWE and NGWE are probably 10 lessons behind GWOT. GWOT is a masterpiece and I really do expect to reach B1 reading/writing by the time I am done with it. If I were to compare the French and German WOTs, I would still hazard a guess that FWOT's progression is still steeper than GWOT's. (Can someone corroborate this?)

FRENCH:
My CLE regimen is going well! I can confirm that I am seeing a sharp reversal in the marginal benefit derived from time invested curve with French. I accept this as totally normal and healthy as I did not expect the parabolic progression that I experienced over the last 4 months to continue indefinitely. If anything, what I need to focus more in the New Year is more speaking. I speak French as slowly as I do in English to nascent L2/3 English speakers and my knowledge of slang/colloquial French is virtually inexistent (then again, I do not speak slang in Shona and English either as a rule.) I have been looking at past DELF B2 papers, and realise that the sample speaking exercises that I have seen would be answered perfectly in standard French. Whilst I certainly am not aiming for affected speech status, I have never felt comfortable using slang in any language, especially with strangers and people with whom I am not well acquainted. Apparently I was born in the wrong millennium!

2019 Language Resolutions:

1. French:

DELF B2 (Pro, if it's offered in Mediterranean/Middle East) in Q1 2019.
Complete C1/C2-rated grammar, writing and reading courses by Dider, Hachette and CLE. Q4 2019
L/R Segond (1910) Bible Q1 2019.
Read newspapers and financial publications. Q1 2019
L/R business and finance podcasts. Q1 2019
Join language exchanges (Verbaling, SharedTalk, etc) Q1 2019
Start a French public speaking society in my university. Q3 2019
Wild Card: Publish an academic paper in French. Q4 2019

2. German:

TestDaF/B2 Zertifikat in Q4 2019.
Join language exchanges (Verbaling, SharedTalk, etc) Q1 2019
L/R Lutherbibel (2015) Q2 2019
Wild Card: FSI German

3. Assimil Collection:

Scour the planet for Business Spanish, German and Dutch editions.

4. Language WanderLUST:
Ignore the urges of Spanish and Dutch, no matter what!

[SGP]

A question about the title. So it's not off-topic after all.

What parts of the world do you plan to linguistically dominate?

[Skynet]

A question about the title. So it's not off-topic after all.

What parts of the world do you plan to linguistically dominate?

Europe, Africa, South and Central America and the Middle East with French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Persian and possibly-but-currently-unlikely Arabic & Russian.

[SGP]

A question about the title. So it's not off-topic after all.

What parts of the world do you plan to linguistically dominate?

Europe, Africa, South and Central America and the Middle East with French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Persian and possibly-but-currently-unlikely Arabic & Russian.

Publically sharing your World Domination Strategy?!?!? Eh, how come, colega? (Disclaimer: I am not trying to dominate the world). Maybe I could remind you of some of your competitors... like Scrooge McDuck. He is a tough one. Scottish ancestry.

[Skynet]

What a stunning Sunday it has been! Not only was I translating the church service in French for several refugees from the Francophone Maghreb, but when I got home, I was greeted by a superlatively friendly senior Belgian couple who moved in during the morning. I helped them with their belongings (Boy! Do they have a lot of possessions! How did they ship all of that stuff here!? PM, please take notes. ) and after talking for a while (in French) I discovered that they wanted help with improving their English and also play contract bridge! I am currently beyond ecstatic, and can already see that high score on the speaking section of the DELF B2 (Pro?)!

[PeterMollenburg]

What a stunning Sunday it has been! Not only was I translating the church service in French for several refugees from the Francophone Maghreb, but when I got home, I was greeted by a superlatively friendly senior Belgian couple who moved in during the morning. I helped them with their belongings (Boy! Do they have a lot of possessions! How did they ship all of that stuff here!? PM, please take notes. ) and after talking for a while (in French) I discovered that they wanted help with improving their English and also play contract bridge! I am currently beyond ecstatic, and can already see that high score on the speaking section of the DELF B2 (Pro?)!

Awesome! Such experiences are magical, human, motivating, rewarding and just plain beautiful. Your French is bringing you well earned rewards and it’s a joy to read you relating these moments. And I think you meant DALF C2 Triple Pro +++.

Keep up the awesome progress! The tables are turning as you become an inspiration to myself and others in setting new standards in your rate of progress while completing masses of language courses and reaping the rewards for all your incredibly impressive hard work and commitment coming from your dedication to constant improvement in languages.

Merry Christmas Skynet, world domination is within reach, do not head to Russia in winter, stick to your objectives, don’t be drawn in by ANY wanderlust and your success is set to continue.

[rdearman]

Sharing your strategy is not good. Perhaps you need a refresher course on Evil Overlords List" ??