Trellum
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Posts posted by Trellum
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I've been trying to ignore this picture, but today I came from work famished! -and just looking at it is making my mouth water and my stomach growl LOL I would probably skip the cow's stomach, which I take it is tripe? That's the bit I don't like very much because of the smell, so I'd improvise and use meat instead
The cow stomach is what makes that recipe special
I personally adore the Mexican version, it's what a lot people would call acquired taste. Because if it wasn't because i grew up eating that there is no way I'd try it! I'd think it's so gross! The only bad thing about this dish is the strong smell while it's being cooked, but once it's done it's so nice. I always make sure to throw in two whole heads of garlic. -
I'm sorry to hear about your condition, Trellum! But you're right, some of us really shouldn't have any excuse, given your condition and how far you've come in terms of learning new languages. I'm sure you'll inspire a lot of other people whose motivation may be on the wane. Kudos to you, and keep it up
Thank you, I think I have the mental agility of an 80 year old on a very bad day, but there are good days in which my mind is almost as fast and sharp as usual. It might be my neurological issue; I no longer process many emotions the way most people do, but I am not afraid of that test, hehehe. Thanks again, and best of luck to you too, I hope you pick your french up very soon as well
We all need some mental exercise, and what better way than learning a new language? -
I have to say you've done so well of yourself, in terms of learning foreign languages. So don't be too hard on yourself. You must also have a good aptitude for it, so I bet you'll manage just fine if you ever decide to revisit some of the languages you left behind.
Thank you, I hope you can go back to studying french soon
Learning English has been the best decision I have ever made, learning a new language can really pen a lot doors, i'm sure for you too. Just give it a try. It seems this world we are living in is becoming more and more globalized, so that is good for us people who are into language learning More opportunities for us! -
Yes, I'm British! I'm at a strange place with my Polish right now - I can understand someone telling me about their work experience and education but there's no way I could follow a conversation about, say, shopping or movies just yet. My classes are very business-language oriented and it's full of people like me who are learning for career advancement. I suppose you could say I'm doing it for the money and that's a great motivator!
Awesome, I think it's awesome you can understand when they are talking about job experience and education, that is a big deal! Not many people can do that, I've heard polish it's such a tough language to learn, so I really admire the fact you can already do that. Because isn't easy to learn a language you don't quite like, just like me with Dutch, but I guess in a way money is also my motivator to learn it, because well in order to get an ok job there I need to speak dutch. By the way, what's your polish level right now? A2? B2?
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Hmm, I'm not sure if curly hair is really associated with being Indonesian though. But maybe your Indonesian ancestor has curly hair, so that's great!My Dutch is.. well, not very good, to be honest. I mean I know some words here and there, and there are probably words that I've been saying that is actually Dutch but I just don't realize it. But if I was to speak to a Dutch person, I'd most likely recognize at least a few words! I can't make a sentence though, I just know what the words mean haha. And even then I probably can't spell them right since the spelling is almost always different.
I'm not the dutch one
My fiance is Dutch, but I am not. His mother swears they have curly hair because their Indonesian roots, but maybe next time I see her I'll tell her what you told me. You know more since you are Indonesian yourself. You know your country and your people, she doesn't, lol. But she always wants to pretend she knows more than everyone else (even if she knows she is wrong), just some months ago she wanted to direct me while I was cooking a dish from my own country! So to be honest I always take what she says with a grain of salt -
Eh no I didn't just lose interest LOL Life happened and for reasons I'd rather not go into, some thing took precedence over my interest in language learning. Sadly that meant I had to put it in the back burner for a while, and a while just kept getting longer and longer. it's nice to know that i may soon have the option of going back to my learning, because it's something I've wanted to do for ages
RE the history between the dutch and Indonesian; that's very interesting! I never knew about it, and it seems pretty random LOL
Oh the same thing happened to me, when I was 16 I really wanted to learn as many languages as possible, but sadly life got in the way. I still managed to keep improving my English though, but I forgot about all those languages. And to this day I don't know if I'll ever do what I planned
But I'm glad to read you will give this another try, good for you! And yes, I didn't know much about it either until I was in the Netherlands, Indonesia was a dutch colony but gained their independence while ago. It's quite interesting, apparently a lot dutch people have Indonesian ancestry and visce versa. -
Ah, well I suppose I should give some of those languages a 0! I want to add a few more languages and give them a 0 but that won't exactly benefit me so I'll skip on that (being a jack of all trades suck to be honest). And oh my, really? I actually didn't know that! There are a lot of people here who claim Dutch ancestry (they're usually very attractive, upper class people) but I didn't know it's like that in Netherlands as well. That's very interesting though!
Hehehe, I think my mother in law's grandma was Indonesian, my mother in law is so proud of that. But it's kinda funny the only trait that according to her has survived is the curly hair, because her kids are pink/white and have blonde hair and blue eyes. We are always joking about that
My fiance also jokes about that, about how Indonesian he looks, lol. How is your dutch by the way? Maybe we can exchange a few dutch words here and there -
Oh, not really. Just traveling for the sake of traveling, lol! Yeah, the European Union has Greece in it right? I would never have imagined Greece to be in such a situation.:/ Yes, I think Norway is one of the best countries out there and the reasons you stated make it seem such a better place than anywhere else. If I may ask, why is the Netherlands not that good to live in? I always thought that it is such a quiet and nice country. Iceland seems nice too, I read that it has the highest reading rate!
Well financially speaking they are not doing so well, just like is the case for most EU countries. Health care is horrible, and you have to pay around 100 euros a month for it. Plus big part of the country is below sea level, so there is always a risk of flooding. It's scary, because I don't know how to swim and I've always been afraid of dark deep waters
Most of the people I've met are incredibly rude, unstable, and plain nasty. People over there seem to be really bitter, unhappy and extremely antisocial towards foreigners. They also like to gossip a lot and talk behind your back. They like to meddle a lot. I had heard about Dutch people being plain nasty (generally speaking) but I thought it was an exaggeration. It isn't. Norwegians are much nicer. The only thing I like about that place is that a lot things (food) are very cheap, even salmon. In my country salmon costs an arm and a leg D: -
Adobo is like a staple food here. For one, it's easy to cook and the ingredients are few. Oh wow! Thanks for that trivia about adobo! Your menudo looks different from ours. We use pork meat, potatoes, carrots, green peas and green pepper in ours. But it also has tomato sauce in it. Super yummy! I might try using corn as well just like you do, just to change things up. Is Paella from Spain too? That is also one yummy dish!
Yes
Paella is a Spaniard dish. Mexican menudo is very similar to the Spaniard ''callos de cadiz'', but we have improved the recipe, because we like to garnish it with chopped onions, dry oregano, lemon juice and a nice piece of bread. The sauce is made with chili, bit garlic, bit onion, etc. But it's not so spicy. Do you eat your menudo only on special occasions too? Your menudo sounds delicious By the way, the corn we use looks like this:It's all dried out, you are supposed to cook it in a pot separately, but since I am not so patient I always buy the one that is already done (canned or in a bag). You could also try adding chickpeas
They are delicious too! -
I'm glad to see this topic brought up, and I think it would be nice if this info was included in our profile page, rather than just saying "I'm fluent". I'll just mention how long ago I started, since I consider most to be works in progress.
English - Native (53 years)
Spanish - C1 (42 years but rarely use it)
Swahili - B1 (16 years, but haven't used it the last 13)
Thai - B2 (12 years)
Japanese - B2 (10 years)
Mandarin - B1 (8 years)
French - B1 (6 years)
Russian - B2 (5 years)
Korean, Portuguese, Italian, German - not started
I agree
It would be much better to actually see the levels next to each language listed. By the way, awesome list of languages! I think it's really impressing you have taken on Japanese, Russian and Mandarin! - Indonesian (mother tongue)
- English - C2
- Spanish - A1
- Chinese - A1
- Malay - B1
- Dutch - A1
I think I'm rather fluent at English. I've been learning and practicing it for years, but there's always room for improvement. I express myself better when I'm typing though, so I still have to work on my speaking English. Plus I love learning new words, and there are still a bunch of English words that I don't know yet. Expanding my vocabulary is my priority for English right now.
I just started learning Spanish, so that's an A1. Chinese, I tried to learn it in middle school and junior high school but it never really stuck with me. But I do know the basics (or some of them at least). Plus I know how to learn to ten so that's special. I try to talk to my Malaysian friends in Malay since it's pretty similar to my native language, and they fix it whenever I make a mistake. I never learned it through applications or tests, mostly only spoken and written conversations. Dutch.. my mother's grandmother is half Dutch and she talks to her in Dutch from time to time. My mother has forgotten most of it, but she still remembers some, and she often slips in some Dutch into our conversations, and I've just grown to understand it. I don't know how to write them though. That aside, the Indonesian language borrows A LOT from the Dutch, just sometimes in different spelling. According to the Wiki, it is estimated that 10,000 words in Indonesian language can be traced to the Dutch language.I forgot to add that instead of A1 people could use 0, because if you just started learning a language and you can't understand simple texts or know basic everyday phrases, then your level is 0. My bad! And yes, I've heard about the special history between the dutch and the Indonesian people. Did you know a lot people in the Netherlands claim Indonesian ancestry? My fiance's mom claims her grandmother was half Indonesian, hence the super curly hair they all have, hehehe.
My language skills are as follows:
Setswana: Native speaker
English: near native, I've spoken it all my life, It's the most commonly spoken language and official language of Botswana.
French: A1 (studied for 5 years at university, studied in France for 3 months) Now rather rusty
Italian: A1 studied for a year, then spent 3 months in Italy with sole purpose of learning the language. Now rather rusty
That's very interesting, but why haven't you continued learning further? You lost interest?
Good topic Trellum!
I am a native Spanish speaker, who learnt English at school. I also studied Italian for two years, but I didn't feel confortable with the teacher so I quite.
And four years ago my husband and I moved to Brazil so I had to learnt Potuguese.
In my case:
Spanish - Native Speaker
Portuguese- C2
English- C2-C1 (If I am not in touch with the language, I start to lose vocabulary and other things).
Italian- A1 (But, I am going to study again soon).
Wow..!!! You already speak Portuguese fluently? That is so interesting and hello fellow Spanish speaking buddy
Portuguese looks and sounds a lot like Spanish, that is one of the several reasons why I haven't felt like studying it (I've a neurological problem and I might get confused easily), but we will be close to Portugal, so I probably should. It's a beautiful sounding language Where are you from by the way? I'm curious because we are both native Spanish speakers I love to hear the stories of fellow Spanish speakers who took a leap of faith and decided to move to a different country! Just like I am doing -
I would say:
Hungarian - Native Speaker
Romanian - C2 (I live and grew up here)
German - C2 (I also lived in Germany in Austria and went to school there)
English - C2 (Virtually everything I do or everywhere I look has something to do with the English language)
That is so interesting! So your parents are Hungarians living in Romania then? I met someone once who was originally from Hungary, what a beautiful language that is, but so hard to learn! The husband of my sister in law is trying to learn it, no idea how he is actually going
Kudos to you for getting all those languages to level C2! That is truly admirable! Not many people can say they have mastered 3 different languages -
French, C2 is more than just understanding. C2 is more like when you have already dominated said language, then you can say your level is C2. When you understand absolutely everything you hear and read, ''differentiating finer shades or meaning'' as well as a good knowledge of slang in said language. At this level you can say you have mastered the language, and can express yourself with ease, as if you were using your own mother tongue
A1 is more about understanding basic things, use and understand basic phrases used in everyday life, etc. -
That`s so cool. We this type of meal in Romania as well. But over here, we make a soup out of the cow stomach, with vegetables and sour cream. It is one of my favorite soups.
As for what is special about my language. Well, Romanian is the closest related Latin language to actual Latin. It is even more related to it, then Italian, although Italian comes pretty close. And as other posters said, my native language Hungarian, is one of the hardest to learn for a foreigner, simply because it has no language family, except Finnish, which is also very hard to learn. I could not have learned Hungarian, if I have not have been brought up with it.
Cool, I had no idea you were Romanian
I have heard they also make a soup with the stomach of the cow in Italy, someone told me, but I'm not so sure Because that person says so many things that are often highly inaccurate, lol. But seriously, that soup sounds delicious! What kind of vegetables are used? I might give it a try one day -
I'll admit that it can be quite hilarious and entertaining, but only when you actually have a grasp of the language and at least understand the basics already. When you're learning a completely new language though, it's hell. For example, like I mentioned before, I'm learning Spanish, and one of the questions required me to translate "Soy el oso" (or something like that) which translates to "I am the bear". It didn't make any sense and I doubted myself multiple times, like "Is that really the translation?". Because it didn't make any sense whatsoever. Then there was another one which translated to "Your duck is my dinner". I feel like they screw me up really badly, especially when you're taking the shortcut tests where mistakes do matter.
Loooool, omg... yes, that sounds totally like Duolingo. I think for a more advanced student this site wouldn't be a good choice either to be honest, if only they used more realistic examples, because seriously I speak Spanish and i say things like ''soy el oso'' everyday xD Of course not
I tried to give this site a try when I had zero knowledge of dutch, I did learn a few words there, but those out of context sentences didn't help the case. So I quit and I doubt I will ever go back. Actually I think Duolingo was holding me back and confusing me a lot. -
Repeating phrases over and over again = active listening? I could be wrong, but it sounds like someone just decided to name their method "active listening". I've heard a lot of discussion regarding active vs passive listening. Active listening is when you pay full attention while watching TV, movies, listening to the radio, etc. Passive listening is when you have something playing in the background, or you just don't pay full attention to what you're listening to. I'm not a linguist so I don't know if these are linguistic terms.
Back to repeating phrases over and over again - is it effective? If that's all there is to it, I wouldn't say it's useless, but it certainly isn't very well rounded. There are 7 "skills" I think about when learning languages: reading, writing, conversation, listening, pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar. All skills reinforce each other, but that doesn't mean you can neglect skills and get the same result. In fact, I find that well rounded learning methods outperform unbalanced ones. The OP method doesn't include reading, writing or conversation, and may not be very strong in vocabulary or grammar. It's probably a good technique for improving listening and pronunciation, but that falls short of being a good language learning method imo.
It's weird, because in the manual of said course they clearly mentioned active listening. And given the fact after this course the person is supposed to reach a A1 level, I don't think it's so bad. This is a government course you need to study in order to pass that test... well, I really have no choice.But it hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be. You hear, repeat and complete exercises. The layout is the same, it's a bit boring. The text comes with a word list too, but guess what? Despite that I have already reached level A1.
But I will surely need check some grammar books, I was so mad at first because there were no grammar bits. Just a few sentences at the end of the lesson, with some bits of it in bold, they were intended to serve as grammar points... but they weren't related to that lesson in particular.
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I'm trying to finish English but it keeps tripping me for no absolute reason with it's unnatural and stupid translations. I could have finished it an hour ago but no, because heavy rain equates to raining cats and dogs for God knows what reason. I'm extremely annoyed with Duolingo at the moment so I'm probably never going to finish a language there. I'll admit that the website has a nice and friendly layout, but whoever is responsible for those translations needs to get fired.
I hear ya, I hate their out of context sentences... things like: ''the bear likes beer'' or ''I am a banana''. Dutch is filled with some really crazy sentences, I think whoever made that course thought it would be so funny to include translations like those. For me it was kinda funny at first, but after a while it gets old and tiring. What Duolingo needs is a touch to reality and revamp all those courses... give us real examples that makes sense instead of really random sentences that seem to have been constructed by a 6 year old with a very vivid imagination.
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It's out of context learning, which isn't always a bad thing in small doses, but shouldn't be the main method of learning a language at any point in your studies, imo. I believe you should try to get words, grammar, etc in context. For example, read a paragraph where you encounter a few new words. If you find it helpful, as many people do especially in the early stages, you can then take these new words and memorize and/or review them. But I wouldn't advise spending most of your time doing this, and I wouldn't advise drilling lists of words and sentences that you've never encountered in context.
That was my problem with Duolingo and the reason why I stopped ''learning'' with it. I didn't like all that out of context learning, specially because I was starting to learn dutch, and all those phrases used made no sense at all. So I did learn some words, but I started to wonder how could those words could be used, or if it was ok to use them in certain way in some phrases... because everything was so out of context. I know they have to keep things simple, but no need to be so random, I'm talking about phrases like: ''ik ben een banaan'' or ''the bear likes to drink beer''.
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Cool app, sadly it seems there is only one person teaching dutch in there, and she lives in Spain. Plus it seems dutch is not even her mother language
Otherwise very cool app, I am sure it will be handy for people learning other languages -
That's exactly my experience. I visited Groningen in 2009 although Dutch was (and still is) completely unknown. Yet, everybody speaks English there. On the other hand, if you want a job, especially a front office job, you need to learn it.
My father's girlfriend works in Itervoort as a truck driver and knows only basic English and has a rard time reading instructions and information. It's possible to get a job without knowing Dutch, but in most of the cases it is either a low income job it it involves a lot of physical work.
Yeah, I was told the same. Not the kind of job I'd like
I was told basically the same, the really intense jobs are for people who don't speak dutch, but if you really want to get ahead you need to learn it well. So far I am at level A1. I can understand very basic texts... I've checked some reading practice test and wow! If it wasn't for memrise I'd not know so many of those words. Not cool those people use words that we didn't even get to study in the official course. -
I don't know how they can do it O_O it's difficult enough to learn 1 let alone more than one at a time
Agreed, I know for a fact I'd not be able to handle more than 5 languages at once. I'm sure I'd not reach a high level spreading my efforts into 6 or 8 different languages, just crazy. But to each their own. It's interesting to discuss this though, since we are on a language learning board
I'm amazed to see most people here don't like the idea of learning more than 5 languages at once -
But what are his goals? I personally only feel sorry for the ones who expect to reach a high level doing this. There are plenty of multi-language learners who are thrilled if they are able to small talk a little in a language. Some call this "just flirting", and it's surprising to me how many prefer this to reaching a high level. If that's what they're after, more power to 'em, right?
His goals are to master all those languages o_O ALL! The boy is super motivated, I have never seen someone as motivated as him, but I'm sure he'd do more if he focused on only 2 or 3 languages at once. He is very smart, but I really think he is not using all his potential... his English could be better! He reminds me a bit of myself when I was younger, I wanted to learn as many languages as possible, but I only focused on one or two at the time. I lacked that kind of motivation (he is so motivated!), but I managed to master English and improve my Spanish orthography greatly.
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Oh I didn't even realise that "ñ" was from the Spanish lol! But yes, it seems to be because we were colonised for about 300 years so we got a lot from their culture into ours. Even the alphabet and some words from their language got into our own. Adobo is also a Spanish food? I didn't know that! You learn something new everyday. Menudo, well I know this one's Spanish because of the singer group.:) Really? Sad to say I haven't met any pure Spanish women, though I've met half-Filipinas and half-Spanish ones.
Yes, there are so many things we have inherited from the Spaniards over here as well. Adobo is also eaten here, I had it when I was little, it comes from the spanish verb ''adobar'' that simply means ''to marinate''. My dad used to prepare ''pollo adobado'', that was my favorite
I love eating adobo, but it's been a while since i don't eat it. We also like menudo, but I think in Spain they call it ''callos de cadiz'', they prepare it using the meat from the stomach of the cow and chickpeas as the main ingredients, our menudo is similar, but instead of using chickpeas we use corn It looks like this:- Chris_A and lingualbabe
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I'm currently learning Polish, Not really for fun but because there's been a large influx of Poles coming to my city and the surrounding area. I work in the office of a recruitment agency and we work with a lot of them. I'd like to be able to communicate more effectively with them. It would do my promotion prospects a big favour too!
So I am guessing you are British? I must admit I have felt tempted to learn polish, because over the place where I will be living there are a lot polish people working there. So I guess learning some polish could be really useful, since in my future job I might come in contact with a lot of them
But I am not so sure, polish is one of the many languages that has never attracted me. By the way, how advanced is your polish now? I ask because I am currently learning a language I don't even like nor I ever planned to learn, but I'm forced to learn it since I am moving to the country where said language is spoken. -
Europe is one of my dream destinations. I sure hope to learn these languages before I go there lol! Norway seems like a great country. My former classmate resides in Norway now and she seems completely happy. Yeah, Korean is extremely hard to learn especially if you're not into it so much. Good thing I love K-pop and Korean dramas so I am really motivated to learn the language.
Awesome! Are you coming to study to Europe or something like that? If you want to live in a good country... pick one that is not part of the European union, Norway is one of those countries and people live so well there. I really wish I was moving there and not the Netherlands (nothing good about the Netherlands really) the language is much easier to learn, life quality is great, new mothers get one year off from work to spend it with their baby, healthcare is excellent and very cheap, etc. Iceland is also a great place
Most countries that don't belong to the European union are.
I personally adore the Mexican version, it's what a lot people would call acquired taste. Because if it wasn't because i grew up eating that there is no way I'd try it! I'd think it's so gross! The only bad thing about this dish is the strong smell while it's being cooked, but once it's done it's so nice. I always make sure to throw in two whole heads of garlic. 
Learning English has been the best decision I have ever made, learning a new language can really pen a lot doors, i'm sure for you too. Just give it a try. It seems this world we are living in is becoming more and more globalized, so that is good for us people who are into language learning 
Most of the people I've met are incredibly rude, unstable, and plain nasty. People over there seem to be really bitter, unhappy and extremely antisocial towards foreigners. They also like to gossip a lot and talk behind your back. They like to meddle a lot. I had heard about Dutch people being plain nasty (generally speaking) but I thought it was an exaggeration. It isn't. Norwegians are much nicer. The only thing I like about that place is that a lot things (food) are very cheap, even salmon. In my country salmon costs an arm and a leg D: 
It would be much better to actually see the levels next to each language listed. By the way, awesome list of languages! I think it's really impressing you have taken on Japanese, Russian and Mandarin! 
Otherwise very cool app, I am sure it will be handy for people learning other languages 
How do you stay motivated?
in Language Learning
Posted
Right now I am still struggling to stay motivated, I've some bad days in which I just wish to go to bed and forget about studying dutch, but I know I'm just a few weeks away from my exam and i need to do everything I can in order to pass it. Right now my main problem with Dutch is I can't yet express myself so well,but I now understand what I read and at some extent what I hear. I'm not nervous at all (neurological malfunction?) but I am not 100% sure I'll do so well. So right now my motivation is not to let down those who trust I will pass this test, by not passing it I'd be letting a l people down...