Veel te Doen, Weinig Tijd…

Nou…ik wilde een post over de nederlandse taal schrijven, maar helaas, ik had geen tijd en helemaal geen zin. Ik ben ook een beetje moe omdat ik heb veel te doen en zo weinig tijd om alles te doen. Bovendien, het is nu lente en ik heb last van hooikoorts..

Ik ben hartstikke bezig met mijn studie en werk. Ik moet een essay over de Griekse “donkere tijden” schrijven, een essay van 3000 woorden. Een hele interessant thema maar ik moet veel lezen en soms heb ik geen zin om na werk gaan studeren. Het is best moeilijk…

A short but sweet post today as I need to get back to my studies. This post is probably riddled with errors so please feel free to correct my grammar and/or spelling.

Links, Links, Links…

I’m still working on a post about the importance of learning Dutch so today I’m going to take the easy way out and share some links that I think are worth checking out.

• How Difficult is Chinese? -Liz has posted a great post about the challenges faced by people learning Chinese on her blog Pocket Cultures. Thoughts on learning Chinese were submitted by John Biesnecker, Ivy, a Singaporean blogger, and your’s truly.
• Mountain Songs - A fantastic website with hundreds of Chinese poems. The poems are mostly written in Classical Chinese and are accompanied by English translations and beautiful photos of the places they describe.
• Extreme Mandarin – A Chinese vocabulary blog with a difference. Yersi’s blog covers a wide range of topics, including Dungeons and Dragons, koala bears and cash.
• Chinese Sans 汉字 – John, author of Chinese Quest, has written a post about the limitations of learning Chinese (or Japanese) without learning the written language. I agree with what he has to say…I cannot make sense of anything written exclusively in pinyin.

That’s all for today. Stay tuned for some original content later this week.

On the Spot – Mohammad

To give myself a bit more time to write a post on the importance of learning Dutch as a migrant living in the Netherlands, I’ve decided to post one more language learner interview. This week’s interviewee is Mohammad, a member of the Italki language learners’ community. Mohammad is a native Arabic speaker who is learning English and Turkish.

Please note that the following interview has been edited for spelling and grammar. Changes to the content have been kept to a minimum.

Which languages are you learning? What level of conversational and reading ability to do you have in each of these? (I’ve avoided using the term ‘fluent’ here for reasons that will become clear below)

I am learning English and Turkish. I would say my conversational and reading ability in English is good and I would like to improve it.

How long have you been learning foreign languages? What was the first foreign language you learnt or were exposed to?

I have been learning English for more than twenty years. The first language I studied was English because it has become a very common  language in the world  these days.

What attracted you to the language(s) you’re learning?

English is very common language in this world and and you can find people who can speak it all over the world.

Which languages would you like to learn in future? What are your reasons for choosing these?

I am learning some Turkish and I would like to learn German.

How do you define ‘fluency’? Do you differentiate between oral fluency and literacy?

Sure, there is a difference but I think one completes the other.

Do you use languages in your job or everyday activities?

I work as an engineer so English is very useful in my job and and it allows me to follow all new things related to my job.

有趣的汉字

It has been almost a week since my last proper update (not counting the two language learner interviews I posted on Saturday) so I thought it was time for me to prove that I’m still alive and well.

My partner has been away on business this week so I took the opportunity to catch up with some chores around the house and some reading. I just finished reading Khaled Hosseini’s book A Thousand Splendid Suns, a heartbreaking tale of two women growing up in Afghanistan. I really recommend it to anyone who hasn’t already read this wonderful book.

I’ve also been spending some time brushing up on my Mandarin as I rarely get the chance to use my skills these days (aside from the occasional translation). I discovered yet another video site, Ku6.Com, on Monday. It can be a little slow but you’ll be able to find hundreds of movies and TV series from all over the world. I watched a few episodes of a drama series called 中国家庭421, which comes complete with Chinese subtitles (perfect for anyone who wants to improve their listening skills). The expression “421″ refers to the composition of the modern Chinese family, where the average child is an only child with two parents and four grandparents, a social system which will put an enormous pressure on young Chinese to support a greying population (this also seems to be the case in many European countries). You can watch the first episode here.

I try to read at least one short text a day in order to keep my reading skills sharp. It’s amazing how I can still stumble upon unknown 汉字 despite years of study, especially in academic or literary works. What annoys me the most is that I have learnt some of these “unknown” characters in the past but have forgotten their meanings after months (years?) of not using them or coming across them in my reading. A Chinese teacher of mine always used to tell us that Chinese characters were our friends. If we didn’t spend time with them every day, they would slip away. An exaggeration, perhaps, but  a good point nonetheless. Mandarin is certainly a high-maintenance language…

Unknown characters that I stumbled upon this week include :

鸳 (yuān) – Mandarin duck (I’m pretty sure I came across this character once or twice during my time in China)

睿 (ruì) – astute, farsighted

嚣 (xiāo) – clamour

掬 (jú) – to scoop up with both hands

There are thousands upon thousands of Chinese characters, though many of these are rarely used in daily life. The exact number of characters needed for comfortable reading is a hotly debated topic. 3,000 is a good start but you’ll still come across unknown characters in the newspapers, especially in place names or anything that uses specialist jargon (e.g. articles on scientific issues). I like to liken the study of Chinese characters to Pokemon : you’ll spend years, perhaps decades, trying to catch them all.

On the Spot – Jiang Wei

One more language learner interview. I received several in the space of a few days so I want to publish them as soon as possible.

This interview was sent back to me by Jiang Wei, a Chinese man who is learning English and is a member of the italki community.

Please note the interviewee is not a native English speaker so the interview has been edited for grammar and spelling. Changes to the content of the interview has been kept to a bare minimum.

Which languages are you learning? What level of conversational and reading ability to do you have in each of these? (I’ve avoided using the term ‘fluent’ here for reasons that will become clear below)

English. Beginner level in conversation while intermediate in reading.

How long have you been learning foreign languages? What was the first foreign language you learnt or were exposed to?

English : More than 10 years of classes in middle school and university.

What attracted you to the language(s) you’re learning?

To read professional materials as well as communicate with people around the world.

Which languages would you like to learn in future? What are your reasons for choosing these?

Only English. No reason to learn another language.

How do you define ‘fluency’? Do you differentiate between oral fluency and literacy?

Yes. I would like to define “fluency” more related to speaking English.

Do you use languages in your job or everyday activities?

I  work in MNC where English is necessary for email and some conference calls but English is not used in my home activities.

On the Spot – Aziza

It’s been a while since I posted a language learner interview on the blog so here is Aziza’s interview. Aziza is Russian native speaker who is learning English and Arabic and is a member of the italki language learners community.

Please note that the following interview is from a non-native English speaker and has been edited for spelling and grammar. Changes to the content of the interview have been kept to a bare minimum.

Which languages are you learning? What level of conversational and reading ability to do you have in each of these? (I’ve avoided using the term ‘fluent’ here for reasons that will become clear below)

I am learning English and Arabic.  I can read, write and communicate in a common theme in the Arabic language at intermediate level.

How long have you been learning foreign languages? What was the first foreign language you learnt or were exposed to?

I have been studying the Arabic language for 6 months.

What attracted you to the language(s) you’re learning?

It is a very interesting, attractive activity during which we can improve ourselves and our knowledge.

Which languages would you like to learn in future? What are your reasons for choosing these?

I want  to learn French and German in future.

Smart.FMはちょっと。。。

こんにちは、皆さん。今週は仕事でとても忙しかった。疲れた。。。

iKnow のウェブサイトはSmart.FM になりました。でも、Smart.FMの名前とサイトはちょっと。。。

今夜はMySoju で＜よい子の味方＞の番組を二分を見ました。このドラマ番組、面白可笑しいです。

日本語で書きますのこと、とても難しいですよね。。。

Quelle Semaine!

What a week it has been! My mother was in hospital on Monday (discharged on Tuesday, thank God), I spent 3 hours travelling home on Tuesday, work was insanely chaotic on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and yesterday a pleasant evening with some friends was cut short when their cat started hissing and running around their house as if possessed. I do hope their cat is alright as I have two of my own and would be worried sick if they started acting like their’s did…

So needless to say, there was little time left in the day to devote to language study or updating this blog! Hopefully things will be back to normal this coming week.

I’m taking a month’s break from my “One Foreign-Language Book a Month” challenge as I need to work on an essay for the archaeology course I’m taking (the current module focuses on classical archaeology).  Lately, reading time seems to be limited to the two hours I spend commuting to and from work each day so I think it makes sense for me to spend that time doing the necessary background reading for my course and essay. I’ll find other ways to fit in some language practice into my busy work days…

I have a few links to blogs, websites and news articles that might be of interest to fellow language learners :

• Button Gaffe Embarrasses Clinton - An example of how a mistranslation could lead to a potential political catastrophe. I wonder if anyone proofread the gift before it was given to Hillary.
• Les Tribulations d’une Caissière - I stumbled upon this blog via an article on the TimesOnline website. The blog’s author, Anna Sam, is a French university graduate who has recently published a book about her experiences as an undervalued and frustrated supermarket clerk. The blog is written in French but you can read a translation of an extract from her book by clicking on the TimesOnline link above (it can be found towards the end of the article). I’m sure there are many university graduates – in France and elsewhere – who can sympathise with her situation.
• Chinese Cultural Heritage Net - Entirely in Chinese but a great source of reading material for those who are interested in China’s cultural heritage and archaeological sites.
• Kanji Clinic – A fantastic resource for anyone struggling with Japanese kanji and vocabulary. Most of the articles are centred around a particular theme (e.g. colours, animals, medical terms) and include mini quizzes at the end of most articles to test your knowledge of the kanji discussed. Many of the articles explain Japanese cultural and social issues, such as the origins of Japanese festivals and the meanings behind some of the most common Japanese surnames.

That’s all from me for now. I have a few “word-building” posts in the pipeline and may have a few more language learning interviews to share with you all in the very near future.

それでは、じゃまたね！

MySoju.Com

A short post from me today as I’ve had quite a long day at work and spent nearly 3 hours getting home due to problems with the trains. Apparently someone was hit by a train along one of the major routes but I’m having trouble finding any information about it on the local news…

I just wanted to share a link to a great site I discovered over the weekend : MySoju.Com. You can watch many Korean, Japanese and Chinese-language drama series and movies for free and it reminds me of how CrunchyRoll used to be before they removed most of the free content. So far I ‘ve watched a few episodes of Shota no Sushi (based on the manga series of the same name) and Virgin Snow, a story about the love between a young Japanese artist and a Korean exchange student set in Kyoto (one of the most beautiful cities in the world, in my personal opinion).

It’ll probably be a matter of time before the site is closed down or the webmaster is asked to remove the links to the videos so enjoy it while it lasts.