Random Raves VIII: Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough

[cardgame]

That is one sick dust storm!

rave: no HW tonight

 

[really]

Back from a wedding in the US. Had a great time and met loads of lovely people.

I'll wait for the pictures to filter through facebook and post one.

Back to work tomorrow though.

 

[Nerowannabe]

Back from a wedding in the US. Had a great time and met loads of lovely people.

I'll wait for the pictures to filter through facebook and post one.

Back to work tomorrow though.

So how kindly did you take to the other yanks(the ones not involved with the weddings)? You know airport and all.

 

[Dumanios]

I have a 4 day weekend here!

 

[Mirc]

I've had my first full dream in German!!!!!

I can still remember when I had my first complete dream in English! (it happened in England, on my first trip to an actual English-speaking country)

I must be getting better at it!!

 

[really]

So how kindly did you take to the other yanks(the ones not involved with the weddings)? You know airport and all.

Grand - it wasn't my first visit and I speak English almost like a native so no problems, except for a 2.5 hour wait for a train from Jamaica -but I met one of the bride's cousins so had some company.

Being able to clear immigration and customs at Shannon is very handy - you arrive and walk off at JFK as if you are a domestic passenger.

Edit: My experience was Montauk / East Hampton and Manhattan below 89th street. That is a good cross section of US society isn't it?

 

[Rossiya]

I've had my first full dream in German!!!!!

I can still remember when I had my first complete dream in English! (it happened in England, on my first trip to an actual English-speaking country)

I must be getting better at it!!

Heh, I thought I was crazy having dreams in other languages. Obviously I am not.

 

[Kerozine]

Biology is pretty neat.

 

[Mirc]

Heh, I thought I was crazy having dreams in other languages. Obviously I am not.

I almost never think in just one language, so it's pretty easy to understand that I don't dream in only one language either. It happens to anyone who speaks at least one foreign language fluently.

I think the only times when I only think in one language are when:
1) I'm writing a text or a post in a langauge
2) a few minutes (~20 minutes to 1 hour) after watching a movie or hearing a story or a play in a certain language.

Because of its Germanic roots, English helped me a lot with learning German, so ever since I got here I've been thinking pretty much solely in English mixed with German (the latter only if the thoughts I have on my mind are simple enough - I would do it always, if only I could...). I've pretty much intentionally forgotten that I have a mother language, until I become fluent in German. Having a dream in German proves to me that I can think in it, without problems. Okay, I still cannot express myself coherently if I have to explain something complicated to someone, but at least my brain is getting used to this particular kind of thinking. Learning a foreign language is like re-building the categories with which your mind works, one can never become fluent in a language if one constantly translates from another language.

Edit: BTW, tomorrow I have a German exam, which if I don't pass, will send me back to Romania.... I have absolutely no fear though, and somehow through some weird effects of the psychological factors involved, I've become way, way more confortable with speaking in German in the last 2 days or so.

 

[Rossiya]

I almost never think in just one language, so it's pretty easy to understand that I don't dream in only one language either. It happens to anyone who speaks at least one foreign language fluently.

I think the only times when I only think in one language are when:
1) I'm writing a text or a post in a langauge
2) a few minutes (~20 minutes to 1 hour) after watching a movie or hearing a story or a play in a certain language.

Because of its Germanic roots, English helped me a lot with learning German, so ever since I got here I've been thinking pretty much solely in English mixed with German (the latter only if the thoughts I have on my mind are simple enough - I would do it always, if only I could...). I've pretty much intentionally forgotten that I have a mother language, until I become fluent in German. Having a dream in German proves to me that I can think in it, without problems. Okay, I still cannot express myself coherently if I have to explain something complicated to someone, but at least my brain is getting used to this particular kind of thinking. Learning a foreign language is like re-building the categories with which your mind works, one can never become fluent in a language if one constantly translates from another language.

Edit: BTW, tomorrow I have a German exam, which if I don't pass, will send me back to Romania.... I have absolutely no fear though, and somehow through some weird effects of the psychological factors involved, I've become way, way more confortable with speaking in German in the last 2 days or so.

I learnt German at school, and since I finished school I don't learn it anymore, and I am very grateful for that. Whether it was because of the teachers or not, I ended up having no enthusiasm in it at all, and was glad to see the back of it.

As for not being able to become fluent in a language if one constantly translates from another language, that is totally true. Even putting it most practically, one can't have a conversation with someone in another language by thinking of something in your mother tongue and then translating it in to the other. The conversation would be disjointed and all.

Good luck with your exam tomorrow! Not that, it sounds, like you will need any luck.

 

[Ulyaoth]

Really? I've always wondered that, if people who know multiple languages just go translating from their original language and still always think in that language or if they actually think in the new language. I randomly think whatever few things I remember in Italian(like numbers, letters, days and months) at times but that's about it. I really have to go reading and watching some Italian things.

 

[Rossiya]

Yes, you should.

 

[WildFire]

After 4 months I got transferred back to my old job. Hooray!

 

[really]

I have dreamt / thought in French and Italian at different points in the past - usually once I have been in a country for 4+ months and my language skills are at their best.

I have also lost some of my fluency in English at these points, taking a few seconds to think of words or formulate a sentence.

 

[Ulyaoth]

???

You're Irish, I thought you speak English?(I know about Irish gaelic, I just thought it was a side language and most spoke English)

 

[Shylock]

I aced if not got a perfect score on my Trig exam. I got home safe after my tire was flattened by a nail and I had to put the spare on and I got a new 1TB hard drive.

 

[Tee Kay]

Quite a rainy day today.

I love rain.

 

[Mirc]

Really? I've always wondered that, if people who know multiple languages just go translating from their original language and still always think in that language or if they actually think in the new language. I randomly think whatever few things I remember in Italian(like numbers, letters, days and months) at times but that's about it. I really have to go reading and watching some Italian things.

If you don't constantly think in the foreign language(s) that you study, even after years of practice you will always sound "slightly unusual". That's the problem with learning a foreign language in your own country, unless your country is itself multilingual (Switzerland, Belgium, African ex-colonies of various European countries, etc). That's especially visible in sentence and phrase structure. Romanian has a very different sentence structure to English, and German is entirely different (although one can still see traces of the old Germanic word positioning in English, it evolved so much that it's its own category now).

Some examples of those old similarities with English and German:
1) The so-called V2 positioning in some fixed phrases. In German, if there's anything before the subject, the subject moves AFTER the verb, so that the verb is always second (in main sentences only). For example, one wouldn't say "yesterday I went to the theater" but "yesterday went I to the theater". In English it's not so anymore, but you can still see traces of it in some fixed phrases, like "so am I" (instead of "so I am") or "not only DID THEY not agree with me, they..."
2) verb at the end of secondary sentences. In German, the verb is always at the very end of the sentence, if the sentence is secondary. But that used to be so in English too! Example: "I have no idea where they all WENT", and not "I have no idea where went they all".

Although it can be truly difficult at times, especially if one doesn't do so at a very early age, learning a foreign language is an eye-opening experience.

 

[Camikaze]

I got to make ice-cream with liquid nitrogen in Physics today. And it was perhaps the best ice-cream I've ever had.

 

[really]

???

You're Irish, I thought you speak English?(I know about Irish gaelic, I just thought it was a side language and most spoke English)

Only joking - accent, pronunciation, emphasis make a difference. I think I only had to repeat myself twice on the whole trip. I just had to talk slower than usual.