Language learning in a pandemic world

[Chung]

I live in USA and I am 65 years old. The world seems to be entering into a pandemic nightmare. It is difficult to study giving that this virus appears to affect everyone. I concluded that maybe I should place my French study into maintenance mode: no new Anki cards, no FSI study, no pronunciation. Normal Anki reviews without news cards. Just Read, Radio listening, and Serial watching as well as wrapping up the little grammar study I do. Of course, all these activities in French. A type of Language sabbatical. I guess my trip to France and Poland will be likely postponed till the Fall -if we make it! Am I overreacting? How others are dealing with these distractions? Disregarding it? Maintenance? Can you focus at all?

It's sapped almost all of my motivation and time to study languages. I'm struggling to think of much else other than this damned disease, the associated bombardment of bad news and uncertainty, and what utter failures politicians and public health eggheads have been (excepting those in Taiwan, South Korea, and Germany). It's unlikely as hell that I'll be travelling this year while next year is iffy too since I wonder which airlines will still be in business then and how many countries will reopen their borders such that that travellers can visit without going through automatic isolation of 14 days on arrival, and then another 14 days of isolation on returning to the home country.

With a stay-at-home order, working at home is a blessing and a curse, and I'm spending a lot more time on chores. I'm still getting my regular income but my productivity is down since I'm doing things through VPN on home internet rather than directly on the office setup and enduring a hit to collaboration (chatting/talking with Teams isn't the same as collaborating in the flesh). Completing tasks and projects takes more time than before and whatever time I've saved by not commuting has been eaten up in my living room by plugging away at my laptop through VPN. In my line of work, it doesn't help that a lot of my company's clients are negatively affected by the changes to economic activity. We're even busier than before as they've looked to us for extra help to figure things out despite everyone being in suboptimal conditions (I do recognize that I could be in an even worse position if I were working in a hospital or nursing home given the appalling/infuriating shortage of PPE and ventilators).

Outside work, I'm doing cleaning and laundry more often while shopping takes more time than before because of the restrictions on occupancy in stores which means that I have to wait in a lineup outside all while keeping 6 feet of separation between each person. The most that I've been able to do over the last little while with foreign languages is to read (somewhat absent-mindedly) some encyclopedia articles for kids in German at Klexikon as well as some cartoons/satire (e.g. ruthe.de (German), Ludas Matyi (Hungarian)). I can't even stand watching much of the German news program for kids logo! since it's dominated by stories related to the coronavirus.

[Cavesa]

The six hour turnaround ended up being more than 24 hours. Thankfully, the swab has come back negative.
Criteria for testing changed yesterday and a lot more testing was done in the area we live and work in as it is THE hotspot in Australia. I imagine that delayed results.

Great news! But the wait is normal, unfortunately. You're right. But tons of testing is the way to go.

My wife doesn’t work with Covid positive patients but does work hands on with other patients, with no PPE.

Nobody can say for sure that they don't work with Covid positive patients. Yes, most of us outside the emery/infections/rea/icu do not work primarily with the covid+ patients. But still. And one such a patient can spread the virus to several people without PPE. It happened here too, they thought we were safe too and joked about it.

I have told her she still needs to stay away from me because I don’t want her rotten cold!

Good. But it still too late for that.

[jmar257]

This virus has been great for me, language learning-wise (not worth the trade-off of a global pandemic, obviously). I'm working from home, which means I can fill extra time at work (which has been slower) with language learning stuff that's not reading on my phone or listening to podcasts. And I've just been reading more in general, since it's not like I'm able to do anything on nights or weekends. Lately though, I've started missing being able to do things, especially since I'm basically limited to running and bodyweight workouts; but if that's my worst complaint from all this, I realize I'm lucky.

Hope everyone here is getting along fine.

[Iversen]

Testing is definitely the way to go, but substances needed to do the tests has been hard to get, and therefore the authorities here in Denmark have focused primarily on very sick patients (those that are hospitalized) and only recently on those that tend to them - with the rest of the population still just being told to stay at home if they feel ill. When those test chemicals (or whatever it is) become easier to get then the testing will spread, but probably not to the level where everybody can be tested regularly. There are however some research groups that will be tested regularly to see how large a proportion og the general population have been infected and how many have gotten through the disease and acquired natural immunity. And then the learned guys can calculate the average number of persons each infected person infect. It has fallen to 0,9 here, which shows that you CAN flatten the curve' without putting a ban on leaving your home - but only when people grasp that they have to keep a distance and avoid touching possibly polluted surfaces etc. etc.

Actually it has been announced that preschool children and the 'small ones' in public school can return to their kindergartens and schools on Tuesday next week (unless they are ill in any way - then they must stay at home). It is expected that this will raise the transmission rate to maybe 1.2, but this is not seen as a disaster. Actually the authorities here are worried that it will take too long time to develop a 'group immunity' of some 60-70 % in the population if something isn't done - but it has to be done at a level where we don't see an exponential growth in the number of seriously ill patients - and then it is of course logical to let the small children and their parents take the first step to a reopening of society since young people are supposed to be less ill than elderly people and people who already have chronic diseases. When this policy was announced the prime minister of course denied vehemently that the reason could be the one I just described - but then there wouldn't be any reason specifically to start the gradual and slow reopening with kindergartens and small classes in school.

The main thing that shouldn't be reopened this year (unless a vaccine OR an efficient cure is developed) is gatherings of many people, and even though it may be sad for some people it is logical that music festivals, large sports events and similar things should be among the last things to reopen - and bars and very popular eateries should also stay closed for a very long time. Sweden kept them open, and that could be the explanation for the higher death toll the Swedes now face, compared to Denmark and Norway - but they are still way below places like Italy, Spain, France, the UK and USA. As for the shops - well, most shops here have found ways to keep customers well separated, and this has become even easier because the Danes now actually mostly stay at home even they aren't ordered to do so.

Logically museums and zoos could open tomorrow, but without guided tours for at least a period of several months. As for libraries .. well, with gloves since you can't see whether somebody has touched a certain book before you. And the computers have almost certainly been touched - so library visits with gloves: okay, without gloves: ahem, maybe not. Visits to frail and elderly persons should also still be minimized because they may die if they get infected. And handshaking and hugging and kissing (and shouting at each other!) should be avoided like the plague ... because those things are exactly those that most efficiently will propagate the plague.

Apart from that: since I already am retired my personal life is almost unaffected by the pandemy, except that I miss my travels and my visits to museums and zoos.

[Adrianslont]

I thought some people might be interested in this for linguistic and fun reasons.

This is actually a public service coronavirus announcement from the New Zealand Police. Kiwis are different. And funny.



How does it fit in with this thread? Most people will get some rare exposure to kiwi English vowels, a splash of Maori and some simultaneous translation of standard kiwi English into youthspeak.