A language learners’ forum

I only have two things to report today.

Firstly, I have edited the title of this log, adding '2015', because I want to start a new log in 2016; something a bit more organised, with well-defined goals on the first page and progress bars etc. I am also considering starting to learn German next year (although probably not on the 1st January) and I don't want that experience to be lost in a messy log like this one so... I guess I'll have to come up with a new title by January

Secondly, instead of going shopping today, I decided to stay in, curl up on the couch with a mug of peppermint tea and finish (por fin) El tiempo entre costuras by María Dueñas. (Huzzah!) I gave it 3 stars on Goodreads as I said I would, because, despite there being some interesting characters and plenty of changes of scenery and plot twists involved, I am just not a fan of this kind of book. There was too much historical content to maintain my interest at certain points and I can only be curious about textiles and dressmaking for so long. I know the book was 600+ pages long but I don't know if it took me so long to read because of the dense language used, my sub-par Spanish reading skills (I'm working on it!) or a combination of both. I did find, however, that after about half way, I wasn't having as many problems with the writing style or use of language as I had at the beginning, so I guess that's a positive thing to note. Overall, I am glad I read this book, as it has no doubt helped my reading ability/speed in Spanish and also introduced me to a plethora of new words which I might just recognise the next time I see them. Lastly, I just want to say that, in my opinion, the epilogue was a terrible, tacked on and unnecessary pseudo info dump. Fin.

Aquí os dejo una canción que me resulta un tanto graciosa.

Haha, guess I was right in thinking that 600 pages are going to be boring compared to the short series My mum is a fashion designer so it was amazing to watch it with her (with Russian subs), but reading about this stuff doesn't sound nearly as interesting

What was in the epilogue? I loved the way the series ended, even if it was a bit cheesy... at least I didn't see it coming from his first apperance

I came here to read your opinion about the book, but omg I didn't know it about the job!!! Buenísima suerte!!!!!

Also, in Russian we also commonly use the equivalent of "we with my sister", when really meaning just two people. To me it's almost the counterpart of modestly putting yourself last in "my sister and I", or more colloquially saying "me and my sister" I've not noticed this in the Romance languages though, perhaps exactly because it's so natural to me.

Hey Serpent. Thanks for dropping by!

Yeah, I'm sure the series is a lot easier to digest than the 600-page mammoth was!

The epilogue contained information about what some of the characters did after the story ended. At the end of the epilogue, though, there was a bit about "what Marcus and I may have done but you'll never know so ooooh, look how mysterious I am and I even wrapped it all up with the title of the book" Pur-lease

Haha! ¡Gracias! Now I definitely have to update you all about whether or not I get the job, I guess

It's interesting to hear that this plural phenomenon is also used in Russian. The first time I heard it was when talking to my Polish friend, but her Spanish was amazing, so I don't think it was just influence from her native language (if, indeed, Polish also contains this kind of thing). Besides, I am sure I have heard it used since by native Spanish speakers. Interestingly, I found an example of it (I think) when I was reading in Italian today. *rummages around for kindle* So, as the story goes, the narrator tried to row to Sardegna with his brother Marco in a dinghy:

"Ci guardiamo con Marco e capiamo finalmente cosa era successo. Eppure noi a tutt'oggi, quando con Marco ripensiamo a questo episodio, non pensiamo di averla fatta così grossa..."

Correct me if I'm wrong...

Congratulations on finishing "El tiempo entre costuras". I've read less than a half of the book.

Anya wrote:Congratulations on finishing "El tiempo entre costuras". I've read less than a half of the book.

Thanks Anya! How are you finding it? Do you think you will make it to the end? I found that after the half-way point it got easier because the end was in sight. Good luck!

For the moment I still like the book so I hope I will reach the end.

It's time for an update!

First of all I'll talk about the elephant in the room - the interview I had on Tuesday morning. Well, it turned out to be a competency-based interview, followed swiftly by a translation to Spanish which I had 20 minutes to complete, then another 20 minutes in which I had to write a reply to a mock complaint email (in English), and finally half an hour chatting with the HR coordinator for Portugal about the ins and outs of the job.

The whole process was exhausting, and I have to admit that the Spanish translation caught me completely off-guard. It was about leadership practices and things I didn't completely understand so, as usual, wordreference saved my hide. After having forced my brain into pseudo-business Spanish mode, I had to then change back over to polite, professional English mode, which was pretty jarring.

I didn't shine like the sun, as I would have liked, but I did the best I could have done at the time and I really hope it was enough. They said they would be in touch with me on Monday, so here's hoping it will be good news.
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On the language front, I really haven't done much of anything this past week. I played around on Duolingo the other day, watched an episode of Pasporto al la tuta mondo (Esperanto) and thought I should like to take Esperanto a bit more seriously again, but then I got distracted by something else.

I have been reading Voi siete qui (2014) which is an ebook compilation of very short stories, written by the general Italian public and submitted to the Radio24 programme of the same name. I haven't read very much of it so far but it's nice to have these bite-sized chunks of Italian to pick up and read when I have <5 minutes.
I have also re-read the 30 odd pages of Splendore that I had already worked through, so I am now ready to carry on with the story of Guido and Costantino when I have a longer period of free time to devote to it.

By "popular" demand, I am now in charge of the forum's Spanish book club, so there will probably be another Spanish book working its way into my 'Currently Reading' list on Goodreads pretty soon, alongside the Egyptian history book I am slowly getting through.

¡Hola Spoonary!

I just caught up on your log. I'm sending you lots of good thoughts for the job! I really hope that everything works out!

Thanks for taking over the book club. While I'm full of good intentions, everything goes out the window when work gets crazy. So I appreciate you for keeping up with reading and discussing, even when most people dropped out. While I liked the book, it just didn't "catch" me - no surprise, really, since I don't particularly like historical fiction. Anyway, I think it's a good idea to choose a shorter book for the second go-around.

Buenas Stelle. Gracias por pasarte por aquí

Thanks a lot. I really appreciate all the support everyone here is giving me regarding this job. I just hope it doesn't all end in tears and grumpy log posts!

It's no problem at all. I am grateful to you for taking the initiative and starting the club in the first place. I just hope that I can go some way to keeping it running smoothly. If you ever feel ready to take back the reins, just let me know and I'll have them all warmed up for you

Yeah, I think the choice of book had a lot to do with the generally waning interest, but hopefully this next one will maintain people's attention long enough for them to reach the end. As I said from the beginning, historical fiction isn't really my kind of thing either, but I am not one to give up on a book once I start, so it was my stubbornness (and curiosity about what would happen to Sira next) that dragged me through to the last page.

I also have to thank you for writing about Fallo de Sistema on Arthaey's log. I have listened to about 20 minutes of the episode you linked to and I'm loving it so far

And we're in December already. Can you actually believe it? Oh how the second half of this year has flown!

In personal news, I have new glasses, so everything looks strangely magnified Also, I still haven't heard back about that job I was supposed to hear about on Monday. Apparently they were having some problems with their computer system yesterday and were going to get back to me after a meeting they had but that didn't happen. And so we wait

Let's go over to the reading corner now, where my stack of 'currently reading' books is getting ever taller (even though half of them are e-books and therefore don't technically have any height). After seeing that both arthaey and Stelle were reading Apocalipsis Z by Manel Loureiro and remembering that I had it on my kindle, I decided to read "just a few pages" and got hooked. I am only 16% through so far but whenever I pick it up I read more than I planned to so it won't take me long to get through. However, it's a trilogy! The book is set in Pontevedra, in Galicia, Spain, which is a city I spent one day and one (very fun, alcohol-fuelled) night in while living in Santiago de Compostela (in 2013-14). I don't remember much about that particular city, but I cannot forget the typical Galician weather: constant floods of rain, humidity and a freezing cold (yet humid) winter. So, every time the author mentions the weather (e.g. "Lleva lloviendo sobre Galicia desde hace tres semanas sin parar, y la humedad se cuela por todas partes."), I can't help but grin and remember the good times I had there

I am planning on going to the language café this evening, as I missed it last time when I was feeling too tired to go. I miss the awkwardness and the simple conversations. I miss encouraging beginners that they too can one day reach the dizzy heights of shaky C1ish language skills if they persevere and put the work in. I will report back if anything interesting happens.