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Norway's National Day
May 20, 2013
I mentioned in my last post that May 17th was approaching. The day recently passed, and for Norway, this date is known by a variety of names: Norway's National Day, syttende mai, Nasjonaldagen, and Grunnlovsdagen, to name a few. It is the anniversary of the day in 1814 when the Norwegian constitution was signed in Eidsvoll and declared Norway to be an independent nation after the Napoleonic wars. It's also the day when crazy stuff happens, though all of it is pretty non-militaristic. Children's parades are common and buildings are decorated all around with Norwegian flags. The longest such parade... Read more
Fløyen and Fløibanen
May 16, 2013
Back in Norway! One of the first things I did since arriving (after recuperating from the long flight for a bit) is climb Fløyen, a 320-meter high mountain that overlooks Bergen and gives a view like no other at the top:
There's an option to, instead of climbing the whole way up Fløyen, ride Fløibanen, a kind of railcar that brings you to the summit instead. Fløibanen is one of Bergen's most well-known tourist attractions, but Sindre and I were in the mood to walk to the top; I was eager to get my body re-used to the... Read more
Norway in two days
May 7, 2013
Just wanted to say that I'm leaving for Norway in two days. Sheesh. It really snuck up on me! I have had my head in my exams and now it's already time to leave! =) I'll post again in Norway!
How I'm legally able to keep going to Europe - The Schengen Agreement
April 12, 2013
I've been to and lived in Europe for a total of six months now and am about to do so again for another three. At the beginning, though, I had no idea how I'd go about doing this, or if it was even possible without painstakingly acquiring several visas. The answer for going to the majority of European countries is "yes"...depending on which country you're from!
The Schengen Agreement (named after the town in Luxembourg in which it was signed) is a treaty signed in 1985 that abolishes the internal border controls of as well as gives a common visa... Read more
Guest post: Sindre from Norway on what it's like to be in Florida
March 12, 2013
Hello everyone! Today I have a guest post written by Sindre Hauge Larsen, the Norwegian that I've lived with in Norway and recently came to live with me here in Orlando, Florida. He's going to tell us a little about what it was like for a Norwegian like him to live in Florida for two-and-a-half weeks!
Katie recently wrote about her experiences as a Floridian moving to and living in Norway over several months. She was not on vacation and she didn't get caught in tourist traps; she lived with me and experienced what daily life is like here... Read more
Once more on my way to Norway!
March 2, 2013
It's been an eventful return to the US these past two months. My Norwegian friend came to live with me for 2-and-a-half weeks, we made a winning jam game, and I've been doing more web stuff and programming myself while also in another semester at my uni. But it looks like things are about to get spruced up even more! I will be returning to Norway again and re-experiencing the amazing cultural differences Norway has to provide. This will likely be from around the second week of May until the first week of August, so another three months! The... Read more
GMC Jam #9: 1st Place!
February 16, 2013
The last weekend of January was the Game Maker Community's Jam #9 competition. The GMC Jam is a tri-monthly competition with an average of over 50 entries (79 this time around!) on this large programming forum I frequent; each entry has to be made within the 72 hours from the late Friday to the late Monday during which it's held. I met the Norwegian friend with whom I'm staying because of the GMC, so we're both programmers and decided to team up and make a game. Our game came in 1st out of 79 entries! Download a copy of "That Read more
Japanese hiragana
January 24, 2013
Here are some mnemonics to help with learning Japanese hiragana - which is a good place to start learning written Japanese (Check out this hiragana chart to see the hiragana):
- a: Looks like a man with a snake wrapped around him screaming "AAAA!"
- i: Looks like a pair of legs, perhaps kicking something that goes "IIII!"
- u: Looks like a child pointing out a toy he wants to his mother and going "UUUU!"
- e: Looks like a woman putting her hand up and walking away from a man she's not interested in and going "Eh..."
- o: Looks like a Read more
My 2012 in pictures
January 15, 2013
2012 was simultaneously long and short, but either way, it was a very, very eventful year for me:
The Netherlands Part I
I started the year off still in Dutchville on my December 10th - January 7th trip to the Netherlands. This was the first time I had ever left my own country at all, much less gone to Europe. I watched bikes regularly come within centimeters of cars, witnessed just how liberal Amsterdam is, and participated in and saw the aftermath of New Year's fireworks as well as an awesome example of the extreme efficiency of public transportation. I Read more
Reverse culture shock
January 9, 2013
Hello everyone! I'd like to take this post to discuss a phenomenon I've always wished to experience (and now finally have): reverse culture shock.
It's easy to find stories of culture shock; people go to new places and see new things and meet new people and start new activities and it's completely understandable given that they're not used to these new ways of doing things. While it's indeed an interesting phenomenon in and of itself, I feel it pales in comparison to the psychology behind reverse culture shock; that is, coming back to your country of birth and feeling as Read more
Love and Kittens is now open!
December 20, 2012
A store containing some of my artwork and other designs, Love and Kittens (because who doesn't love love and kittens? :D), is now open here on Zazzle. Check it out and tell me what you think! There's also a link to it in the top navigation bar, and if you want to see some of the t-shirt and sticker designs in their original form, those are located on my Art page.
Norway has been fantastic so far, and I couldn't have asked for a better roommate abroad. I've had a great time and have built up my leg Read more
Swedish decks on Memrise
December 3, 2012
My last deck on Memrise now has 307 people who are learning Swedish from it! To celebrate its success, I created another deck, this time not on all kinds of Swedish words, but specifically the body parts in Swedish. Check it out here!
For those who don't know what Memrise is, it's an online flashcard-and-memory game where you learn words and, through Memrise's spaced repetition algorithm, you get tested on those words just when you're about to forget them. It's free and has worked fantastically for me, and seems to be doing a great job Read more
My favorite foreign music artists
November 27, 2012
Listening to artists in my target language is one of my favorite ways to boost my vocabulary and listening/speaking abilities. Here are some of my favorite artists for each language; give 'em a try!
Chinese
* alan (c-pop j-pop) - Japanese, Mandarin
* Alex Fong (c-pop) - Cantonese
* Janice (c-pop) - Cantonese
** Jay Chou (c-pop) - Mandarin
Joey Yung (c-pop) - Cantonese
* Jolin Tsai (c-pop) - Mandarin
* Stephy Tang (c-pop) - Cantonese
Eva De Roovere (folk pop)
* Jurk (nederlandstalig pop)
* Loituma
GMC Jam #8: 2nd Place!
November 22, 2012
So, happy news for me as a programmer! The Game Maker Community Jam #8 competition was held recently. The GMC Jam is a competition with an average of over 50 entries that occurs once every three months on this large programming forum I frequent; each entry has to be made within the 72 hours from the late Friday to the late Monday during which it's held. I met the Norwegian friend with whom I'm staying because of the GMC, so we're both programmers and decided to team up and make a game. Our brainchild/game came in 2nd out of 62 Read more
News sites in other languages
November 17, 2012
Here is a useful list of links for news article sites (like newsnow.co.uk and onlinenewspapers.com and newspaperindex.com) to practice reading in other languages (* means they're some of my favorites):
Danish
Akhbar (Danish news in Arabic) - Arabic
** Avisen (news) - Danish
* B.T. news) - Danish
Berlingske (news) - Danish
* Børsen (news) - Danish
The Copenhagen Post (Danish news in English)
Dagbladet Information (news) - Danish
DR (news) - Danish
* Ekstra Bladet (news) - Danish
Pros and cons of different countries I've been to so far
November 6, 2012
I've found a lot of differences between the US, the Netherlands, and Norway in my travels, and I'd like to espouse on those here. Every place has its advantages and disadvantages, some more obvious than the others:
United States
Cheap everything, including food and electronics: The US is one of the kings of everything cheap. If you want to buy just about anything, you can hop on Amazon or eBay, which often ship to anywhere in the US. Another good example is of course the infamous Walmart: terrible for the economy, fantastic for people's wallets. You'd be hard-pressed to Read more
Common foreign words and their pronunciations
September 10, 2012
Learning similar languages can be quizzical for a number of reasons. Here's a quick glimpse into some incredibly common words in English, Norwegian, Swedish, and Dutch. Notice how the Norwegian, Swedish, and Dutch ones are pronounced:
English | Norwegian | Swedish | Dutch |
| yes | ja ("ya") | ja ("ya") | ja ("ya") |
| no | nei ("nye") | nej ("nay") | nee ("nay") |
| I | jeg ("yiy") | jag ("ya") | ik |
| me | meg ("my") | mig ("may") | me ("muh") |
| me (stressed) | meg ("my") | mig ("may") | mij ("may") |
| you (nominative) | du | du | je ("yuh") |
| you (nominative, stressed) | du | du | jij ("yiy") |
| you (objective) | deg ("dye") | dig ("day") | je ("yuh") |
| you (objective, stressed) | deg ("dye") | dig ("day") | jou ("yow") |
| it | den, det ("deh") | den, det ("deh") | het |
Additionally, "je" ("zhuh") in French means "I", but, from the chart above, we can see that "je" in Dutch is "you". This confused me a little until Dutch and Read more
Literal translation - Dutch
August 29, 2012
Services and auto-translators like Google translate and others take entire sentences and put together a meaning from all the different parts present. When learning a language, however, it's sometimes more beneficial to see word-for-word translations, as it gives you a better idea of the most common sentence structures. In this post I'll go over a few Dutch sentences. A Swedish version will come in the future! So here are some sentences in their original Dutch, a word-for-word translation, and then a reworded translation:
Hoe laat kom je morgen?How late come you tomorrow?
What time are you coming Read more
Correcting a beginner
August 23, 2012
In this post I'd like to discuss something that is very beneficial to me when I'm starting out learning a language: getting corrected by people in a helpful way. This goes beyond simply not being rude when telling someone how to reword their sentence; it involves correcting as few things as is possible. When correcting a beginner's sentences, change as few words as is possible to make the sentence make sense. For example, if I'm learning English and I write:
When she go, I Read moreMy Swedish resources
August 19, 2012
It'd be silly for me to continue for too long about learning Swedish without mentioning the resources I use, so here's a list of what I'm currently using, as well as an explanation of when I use it:
- Penn State University Swedish lessons: Used from the very beginning for basic vocabulary and grammar. I happened upon a really nifty bunch of Swedish lessons from a professor. They have been extremely helpful from the get-go, and I advise this to be one of the first things you look at if learning Swedish. There's a great rundown of not only vocabulary, Read more
Germanic mutual intelligibility
August 13, 2012
I've written about how learning one language can help you learn another. Let me show you some examples of what I mean:
English | Norwegian | Swedish | Dutch |
| also | også | också | ook |
| always | alltid | alltid | altijd |
| expensive, dear | dyrt | dyrt | duur |
| (to) have | (å) ha | (att) ha | hebben |
| (to) hear | (å) høre | (att) höra | horen |
| must | må | måste | moeten |
| north | nord | norr | noord |
| tonight | i kveld | ikväll | vanavond |
| (to) want, (to) will | (å) ville | (att) vilja | willen |
| welcome back | velkommen tilbake | välkommen tillbaka | welkom terug |
| with | med | med | met |
As you can see, the Norwegians have similar words to the Swedish, except they differ on a few accounts, such as Read more
Why be a beginner in multiple languages?
August 13, 2012
So, as I learn more Swedish, my Norwegian reading comprehension improves exponentially. It's really quite incredible. My knowledge of Dutch also helps a ton in this regard, for all three are Germanic languages. I'd say about 1 out of every 3 words in Swedish looks/sounds close enough to its Dutch equivalent that I can recognize it immediately. But Norwegians are cheaters! When they don't want me to understand them, they just switch to writing or speaking nynorsk instead of bokmål. D:
I want to take this post to explain why I've switched between a lot of languages lately. This is Read more
Norway makes everything okay!
August 10, 2012
Bergen, Norway!
I've come with news! As I said, there are big changes ahead in my life, and to that effect, I am going to be living in Bergen, Norway for three months! This is made possible via a fantastic friend of mine, as well as some other Norwegian friends in the Bergen area. I will be testing the mutual intelligibility of Norwegian and Swedish first-hand, and blogging about it, of course!
However, with the great news comes some bad news for me: I currently don't have a place to come back to when I get back from Norway. The trip is Read more
A Swedish love affair
August 5, 2012
I've been starting a new chapter in my life over the past few months, which seems to happen every summer; bit by bit, a transformation makes itself known over the horizon, and by the end of the season it's palpable, improving my character in some way or another. There are a few rather large changes happening in my life right now, which I will get to in a separate post. In short, I have amazing friends, and I learn this anew every once and awhile, it seems!
However, I can tell you that I have satisfied myself with re-solidifying some Read more
Tips for traveling abroad and learning online
June 16, 2012
It's time for me to give some tips on how to travel abroad and do some language learning online. Let me start by telling you what I did to get to the Netherlands:
- Talk to people online! We live in a world where you have no excuse to not know tons of people from all over, especially if you engage in activities that are very global, like gaming or learning languages online! ;) There are always tons of people to meet on sites with content you're interested in. I run an IRC channel (Internet relay chat; basically multiplayer notepad with Read more
Beginning comics
June 13, 2012
I decided to begin posting my comics on the site. Check out the first one.
Spanish.txt based on Paul Noble
June 12, 2012
Hello! I've updated the site with a version of my current Spanish.txt file. I'll make sure that it's as recent as possible! This time I'm starting out using the Paul Noble method, which is extremely similar to the Michel Thomas method. I'm checking it instead of the Michel Thomas method out in order to supplement my Spanish knowledge with a different teacher to see if that makes any difference. :)
As I progress through the course, as always, you can read my progress through the file I'll keep updated!
Katie's first Eurovision
May 27, 2012
I watched Eurovision for the first time this year. Let me summarize it for you:
Congratulations to Sweden on winning with Euphoria by Loreen!
A Spanish springboard
May 27, 2012
So, I'm back in the Netherlands, I'm settled in, and I've been thinking about working more on French.
But I can't seem to get myself to do it.
I have been trying to force myself to practice a language I'm not particularly fond of, and it doesn't help that I don't have many current friends who speak French. Of course I could make new ones, but it's a totally different level of inspiration versus when I was learning Dutch while interacting with four Dutchies regularly. For this reason, I am dropping French until I actually know a few French people Read more
Reaching 1000 words in French
May 13, 2012
Well, here I am again in the Netherlands! More information on that coming.
As you can see by the badge on the right, I've completed my mission to get to 1000 words in French. With that, I'll be working more on the site for the next mission. =)
∙ Completed: Reach 1000 known words in French on LingQ! (April 24th, 2012 - May 13th, 2012)
Eurovision and SATW
May 4, 2012
I've discovered a new interest of mine in Eurovision. Listening to some past Eurovision songs has made me excited to be able to tune into the 2012 version. I've always loved foreign music, especially when sung in a non-English language, and from Eurovision, I particularly like Germany's Lena and Norway's Alexander Rybak. :)
Alexander Rybak
Also, if you haven't ever read the webcomic Scandinavia and the World, but you like learning funny tidbits about history and geography, you should check it out. For instance, I didn't know that Scandinavia does not include Finland! I've always dreamed of writing a webcomic like that Read more
A Dutch summer
April 24, 2012
So, it's time to share the news! I wanted to share that I will be spending two months in the Netherlands this summer! I can't believe how much I've fallen in love with the Dutch culture and tolerance, and I'm eager to experience more of this attitude! My Dutch has also gotten remarkably strong, as my reading and listening comprehension continue to build even though I don't work too actively on the language anymore. After awhile, your brain gets used to it and has seen the language for so long that reading and listening become fluid! I'm very excited that Read more
A very exciting summer ahead
April 13, 2012
Hello everyone! I have some big news that I'll share next post, but for now I will tell you that I am very excited for this summer!
I will also be updating more often during the summer once the semester is over. For now, I will tell you that my previous goal has indeed been met, and that I am aiming for 900 words in French by Sunday the 15th (aka tax day ;))!
∙ Completed: Converse in French and reach 700 known words on LingQ by April 7th, 2012! (March 30th, 2012 - April 7th, 2012)
Adding comments
April 5, 2012
Hello! With the help of a friend, I was able to add the ability for readers to comment on the articles I post (check this out with the Most Confusing Words in the English Language article). More changes are forthcoming, so stay tuned!
Overshooting my goal by 298 words
March 30, 2012
This post will be short (I'm making a few coding changes to the site), but I wanted to inform you all that I reached my goal of not only 300 known words in French, but 598 words, even a day before my deadline! For this next goal, I'm going to make it to 700 known French words by April 7th.
∙ Completed: Converse in French and reach 300 known words on LingQ by March 31st, 2012! (March 26th, 2012 - March 30th, 2012)
Language badges and French
March 26, 2012
Hello everyone! If you look on the sidebar, you can see that I've put some badges from LingQ up that display the amount of words I know in a few languages according to their website (note: The word count is quite an overestimate: for example, in the English count, "like" and "likes" are counted as two separate words). It updates as I'm working in LingQ, too, so you can see the latest count simply by heading to any page of this blog. I'm proud to announce that over the weekend I reached my goal of 150 known words in Esperanto Read more
My readers are building in number!
March 16, 2012
I've gained a lot more readers over the past days, and for that I thank you all! I will within the next week or two (after a big exam coming up) add the ability to comment on posts I make, a feature I've been meaning to fix up for awhile now. Stay tuned!
Het mijne and calculus progress
March 15, 2012
Hello! I would like to give you all a glimpse at the start of a game I'm making (alongside Chrono Trigger: Crimson Tide). Its current, in-progress name is Mijne ("de/het mijne" is Dutch for "mine"). You can see the beginning steps of creating it by downloading it from the link below:
In addition, I have updated the list of topics I've covered so far in Calculus III. If you need basic tips on how to get through this class, feel free to e-mail me (find my screen name and/or e-mail by clicking the "contact" link on the bar Read more
Semi-conversational Esperanto goal has been reached
February 29, 2012
Hello everyone! I've made a list of English words that I've seen confuse many people:
New article: Most Confusing Words in the English Language
I have also been chatting with Esperantists and improving slowly on the language, but now that spring break is here, I can work properly on it! Expect more progress soon! I've also been updating other bits and pieces of the site not related to languages, and will continue to do so in the coming weeks as well. :)
∙ Completed: Chat with fellow Esperantists continually until February 29th, 2012! (February 17th, 2012 - February 29th, 2012)
My new Read more
Translating my blog posts
February 25, 2012
Starting today, I will make attempts to translate this and further blog posts into all the languages I'm working on or have worked on during the short history of this blog (that is, Dutch and Esperanto)! You can access these translations by going to www.katiejurek.com/nl.php and www.katiejurek.com/eo.php, respectively (or just click on the flags under "My Languages" on the sidebar).
I ask that advanced speakers or natives correct my translations so I can practice and improve those languages. Any help you can offer would be greatly appreciated! :)
Viva la language-learning! :D
Esperanto deserves more conversational time
February 20, 2012
Happy Presidents' Day to residents of the U.S.! Oddly enough, I had classes at university today despite today being a holiday for non-university schools and even for working adults. Interesting.
Anyway, I managed to delve into the time expressions like tempo (time), vespero (night), monato (month), etc. I have successfully learned the ones I wanted to and am moving onto a new goal!
∙ Completed: Learn all Esperanto time expressions by February 17th, 2012! (February 12th, 2012 - February 17th, 2012)
My goal is simple this time: to chat with other Esperantists using lernu.net's built-in chat service. This goal will Read more
February 15, 2012
Hello everyone!
Being satisfied with what you have instead of only wishing for more can drastically improve your mood. I'll post more about this later, but I hope some of you know what I mean.
On another note, over the weekend I have become more comfortable with Esperanto! My vocabulary is growing and I was able to send an e-mail to a fellow Esperantist to practice, and more than just the basics at that! With that, I consider my latest mission completed.
∙ Completed: Have starting vocab and a meaningful exchange with a fellow Esperantist by February 12th, 2012! (February 5th, 2012 - February 12th, 2012)
My next mission will be to learn all the Esperanto time expressions (today, yesterday, tomorrow, last month, this year, etc.) by two days from now; that is, Friday, February 17th.
By the way, I'm going to be adding more school stuff to this web site soon, so stay tuned if you're interested in my adventures with Computer-Science-related classes.
February 6, 2012
Whew! Hello!
My friend from the Netherlands is finally here! He arrived in Florida yesterday after 15 hours of travel from the Netherlands. I'm excited to say he'll be staying with me for a bit. It's really great seeing him again. :)
And there's other good news about yesterday too, of course! By simply taking the chart from lernu.net (a site for Esperanto learners), rearranging it in the opposite direction (that is, switching the rows and columns), and putting the question words in an order that was easy to remember (who, what, where, when, how, why, etc.), I was successfully able to memorize the Esperanto correlatives; thus, that mission is complete! I also succeeded in another personal mission by its deadline, which was yesterday as well, so I'm feeling particularly swell. :)
∙ Completed: Be comfortable with Esperanto pronunciation and correlatives by Sunday, February 5th! (January 29th, 2012 - February 5th, 2012)
My next mission is to be able to have a meaningful conversation with a fellow Esperantist and know a handful of starting vocabulary words by Sunday, February 12th!
January 29, 2012
Hi there! I bring good news! I have finished Michel Thomas's advanced course in Dutch, and can create sentences with a whopping 25 different tenses. I also speak Dutch rather naturally now, especially common or simple sentences, and I will continue to improve this ability for years to come!
The final version of the Dutch.txt has been uploaded, and will be available in another section even after I replace the nifty link on the right sidebar with an Esperanto-related file. For now, however, I am moving onto Esperanto! Known as an international language (because it brings people together), it is an incredibly simple yet useful language. There are no verb conjugations, and it has extremely regular rules. For example, nouns end in "o", adjectives end in "a", infinitive verbs end in "i", and adverbs end in "e"! You can find tons of exceptions to this rules in other languages, but not very many in Esperanto! Hence, the point of me learning an artificial language like Esperanto is because of how incredibly quickly one can get acquainted with others who don't speak English, but have also sought out the same international language in order to communicate with others who don't speak their native tongue!
Now, the best goals are SMART: they are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound. I am going to be specific with my next goal and say that I want to be completely confident with Esperanto pronunciation and the difference between the correlatives (which include question words, "this", "that", and far more). My goal is measurable in that I will be speaking with fellow Esperantists in an Esperanto chatroom, where I can monitor my progress with the correlatives. This goal is also most definitely both achievable and realistic. However, where I'm faltering for the moment is having my goal be time-bound, because my friend that I hung out with a ton in the Netherlands will be here for three months starting a week from now, and spending time with him will be my focus for many days! That doesn't mean I'm abandoning my language learning or this blog by any means, though; simply that I cannot say exactly when I'll have my current goal's due date. For now, I am going to schedule it for one week from today, as in, the very day that my friend arrives!
∙ Completed: Finish the Michel Thomas advanced course in Dutch by Sunday, January 29th! (January 16th, 2012 - January 29th, 2012)
My next mission is thus to be comfortable with correlative forms and pronunciation in Esperanto by Sunday, February 5th, 2012!
January 16, 2012
Hello! I was caught up in doing all kinds of things in the Netherlands, but now I'm back home and starting a new school semester! Here's a very short list of some things that happened:
-
Met a great and close online friend of mine, at whose house I ended up staying for three full weeks!
Lived in Amsterdam, Utrecht, and Noordwijkerhout
Stuffed my face with so much Dutch food it's criminal; my favorites include appelflappen, pannenkoeken, and stroopwafels, pictured in order:
I cannot even begin to describe the incredible kindness of the family who kept me for those weeks (letting me stay for so long, making dinner for me every day without ever once complaining or making me feel bad, etc.); though, of course, they have their quirks, too. The person I stayed with also began becoming a very close friend of mine, and he may be visiting me soon in the United States (soon as in less than a month!). Overall, it was a fantastic experience, and I definitely will have more trips lined up. My next likely destination is Norway! More on that later!
So with that, I declare my Dutch mission...ALmost complete! I still want to finish the Michel Thomas course for Dutch, and I have less than one CD left before I move onto my next language. Two hints: it's known as an international language and it was artificially created (in that it did not develop naturally over time). More posts about my stay in the Netherlands are upcoming, but I wanted to share the good news!
∙ Completed: Learn a new Dutch word every day until December 10th! (August 23rd, 2011 - December 10th, 2011)
So! My next mission is to finish the Michel Thomas advanced course in Dutch by Sunday, January 29th!
Only a few hours 'til Amsterdam; also, penguins!
December 9, 2011
My flight leaves at 6:20 PM, in 3-and-a-half hours. My nerves are bouncing like crazy but I absolutely love the feeling. I'm almost to Amsterdam! =)
Also, penguins!
Changing my appetite
November 15, 2011
I am changing my appetite over the coming weeks to get myself out of the habit of having humongous American portions of food. The fact is that over here we're extremely prone to becoming unhealthy fast because of the extreme excess in food portioning. I was fed to absolute bursting at my mother's place recently and she gave me quite a few snacks to take home, that is, tons of sugar cookies and chocolate! I have easily gained 5 pounds in the week of eating them before they expired, which I managed to accomplish but was not rewarded kindly by Read more
To Amsterdam I go!
October 28, 2011
I've bought my ticket to Amsterdam for December 9th to January 7th. I'm, as you can imagine, exTREMEly excited, though I won't let time go to waste while waiting for the date to come; there is more Dutch to be learned and games to be programmed! I'll be flying with KLM, the Royal Dutch Airlines, an airline I chose specifically because it was Dutch. I want to immerse myself as fully as possible and it was only a few dollars more expensive, so why not?
If any of you Nederlanders want to go out for a cup of coffee or Read more
Friends are there for me
October 14, 2011
I cannot believe how selfless my friends are. I'm overjoyed at the incredible lengths some of my friends are willing to go to make my travel plans go as smoothly and without a hitch as possible. I love them so, so much. I really don't know what to say.
Back from Minneapolis with cool memories
September 28, 2011
I took a trip to Minneapolis, Minnesota this past weekend and had a wonderful time meeting an online friend of mine. Though it was only for a short day-and-a-half (most of which was spent at the Mall of America), it was a great trip and one I won't likely forget anytime soon. You see, I was actually born in Minnesota, but I moved down here to Florida when young. I found my friend's Minnesotan accent to be amusing, especially since most of my family except for me has it, too. ;)
The flight over was also incredible. I hadn't been Read more
Easing my carpal tunnel syndrome
September 20, 2011
I'm feeling a lot better now that I have my new mouse, mousepad, and wrist splint from Amazon! They're working just dandy, so I hope to have my wrist strength back relatively soon. This will make my life a lot easier! :P
As a side note, there's nothing like looking like an idiot and not caring in public. ;)
My learning style with languages and programming
September 18, 2011
Today I discovered very clearly something about myself. In a move to get me extra motivated in my programming class, I have bought a book to help me along. This may not seem like much, but as soon as I made the purchase, all my anxiety about falling behind in the class fell away; I realized that I know myself best when it comes to my own learning. The professor teaching the class is just barely out of college himself and going for his Ph.D, and thus assumes that all of his students are like him and know a lot Read more
September 13, 2011
When learning a language, it's essential to keep yourself interested in the language by reading and listening to things you actually enjoy. Repetition will never teach you a language; you need to be excited about what you're doing! To that effect, I've just made a cool purchase:
I'm looking forward to opening this baby up and owning my first ever Dutch book. You can read some Dutch books online, but possessing one in your hand is so much more inspiring and real!
As a side note, I've developed a minor case of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome and have bought a new mouse, mousepad, and wrist splint to help remedy it. This happened over the summer as well, but recent bouts of calculus and physics homework have aggravated it again. Keep your wrists healthy! :)
September 10, 2011
Hello there!
I've decided to do something that I hope will interest some of you: I will upload the file containing most of my language work in Dutch so far (stay tuned to the end of this post, or check on the sidebar to the right), and this will be done every time I update so the most recent version is always online. I start off every language that I can with the Michel Thomas method, and I write down everything that I learn to say, as well as its translation and some notes. This should be especially something for those of you also learning Dutch!
I am also going to start putting up the words that I'm learning every day. I'm pretty busy with university at the moment, but I promise that at least once every few days I will update this site with the new words. As always, everything will be dated (because I have some OCD tendencies ;)).
With no further ado, here is my Dutch phrase file as a .txt: Dutch.txt
September 7, 2011
As I begin to get more comfortable with my university schedule and a good rhythm for studying, I absolutely see now that the diligence and positivity with which I learned Dutch over the past few months has made me somehow quicker in programming, as well! This confirms my hypothesis that feeling confident in myself in general will carry over to every facet of my life. :)
I'm finding that learning Dutch words and a few things here and there is easy during the week, but the vast majority of my language study has to take place on weekends since a lot more time is available. There's always time to learn a language; sometimes you may have to restrict it to during wait times (standing in line, etc.) during the week and splurge during the weekends, though! It's a treat to look forward to at the end of every week. :)
September 4, 2011
I'm finally beginning to settle down into a university routine, which is good for my morale. :)
I went to a Labor Day party hosted by my elder brother today and it was quite nice seeing my mother, sister, and brothers all in one room for the first time since last Christmas. There were quite a few people there (at least 20) stuffed into a four-bedroom-but-still-very-crowded house. I got to see my brother's cat, Kyp, who fell asleep on and liked me when he was younger (not that he doesn't like me anymore, of course! He was just more interested in chasing flies today ;P).
In site-related news, I put up a gallery, where I'll be uploading photos of my sight-seeing adventures as well as of silly things like screenshots of my characters in The Sims (I enjoy creating simulated characters for my favorite games, movies, shows, etc.).
August 28, 2011
This weekend has been full of progress in Dutch. I started speaking to another one of my closest Dutch friends over Skype and he laughed at my "immigrant" pronunciation of the word "zevenentwintig" (twenty-seven), but he commented that I said everything quite well! ;)
As I mentioned briefly in my last post, I thought that being back in university would slow down my progress in Dutch. To the contrary, I've been using the time I have between classes to study my phrasebook. I've learned so much within the past week, and the greatest part is that I've forgotten hardly any of it. I'm feeling my way around more complex Dutch sentences as well as longer and compound verbs that I didn't understand before.
To another week of optimism and success! :)
August 25, 2011
Two nights ago I made a huge breakthrough in Dutch. When someone hears a language that they don't speak, they'll often think that the person speaking is doing so too quickly. More often than not, the listener's ears are simply not attuned to discerning the sounds in that particular language. For me, this is no longer the case with Dutch, as my listening comprehension is catching up to my reading: I can now understand the individual words someone is speaking in Dutch instead of just hearing a jumble of sounds. This is a huge step in the right direction, and it came nearly all at once. I was studying my Lonely Planet Dutch phrasebook outside of my calculus class two days ago and found that, when I had come home and started listening to Dutch music, I could pick out individual words. I may not be able to spell them or even know what they mean, but I can't complain!
I also noticed yesterday that this comprehension increase extends to Japanese as well for whatever reason, though not nearly to the same degree. I think the theory behind that is simply that I've been focusing on language a lot lately, and getting my uni mindset back has perhaps worked in my favor in this regard. I'll surely find out the true culprit with the next language! ;)
Uni update, teaching, and more natural Dutch
August 23, 2011
I've met all of my professors now and I can declare with great pleasure that this semester I don't have any terribly rude or unbearable instructors (not that I know of at this point, at least!). This is fantastic news given that professors for computer and math courses have the tendency to be foreign at my university. An accent is fine, but the teacher not being able to be understandable or speak very good English is a huge hindrance to students!
This brings me to the topic of teaching English in foreign countries. If I ever teach English somewhere besides Read more
August 21, 2011
I can happily announce that I have achieved my goal of being able to carry on a decent conversation in Dutch! My speaking and listening abilities have been improving and I can safely say I'd be just dandy if dropped off in the Netherlands this very moment. Of course, I'm going to be working on my Dutch for awhile yet, but I am happy to add Dutch to the languages in which I could help someone in a service environment or at a job. Learning Dutch has changed a lot for me: I feel more confident in myself, more excited to delve into Dutch culture, more motivated and able to learn languages, and, heck, even more worldly!
I will continue to update with my progress and with language-learning tips! University starts up again for me tomorrow, but that doesn't mean I'll stop learning languages entirely! I'm on too much of a high from my success so far to let it all falter so easily! =)
∙ Completed: Learn conversational Dutch by August 22nd (July 14th, 2011 - August 21st, 2011)
August 9, 2011
I've been learning a lot about my own emotions recently alongside my Dutch studies. I'm starting to put down on job applications and the like that I know enough Dutch to be able to handle merchandise-related issues and general customer service. Of course, this is unlikely to ever be needed, because most Dutch people speak English, especially if they live in the United States!
I like being more empathetic. As I progress in language and speaking to my friends about their problems, I've noticed that there's barely anything I'm afraid of anymore when it comes to job duties. When I got my first job at Honey Baked Ham, I was insecure and unsure of my abilities. Now it seems so silly to me now to have been such a worrywart when all I had to do was ask if I had a question. Often times I did ask, but then would have a mental countdown in my head of how long I had to wait until I allowed myself to ask another. It was really a silly way of doing things, but it was better than never asking anything at all and screwing up people's orders left and right!
Thus, my language endeavors have taught me confidence, and this confidence of course now extends to many other areas of my life! :)
July 30, 2011
I spent the day at Orlando Science Center with my friend from Ohio (after leaving the house of my other friend where we had a bonfire the night before). Little did I know that, along with getting some fantastic pictures of the animals on the bottom floor of the place (esPECially the bearded dragon and crayfish!), I would also get a chance to practice my Japanese with real Japanese natives.
After spending time in basically every room the museum had to offer, my friend and I happened upon a Japanese family of about 5-6 people messing around with a specific attraction, one where it was emphasized that if you increase an object's orbit, it'll slow down considerably. This was done with a large chrome marble that the family was throwing into orbit constantly. They seemed very happy and approachable, and I had already identified their language as Japanese a few minutes prior, so I jumped in to talk to them. I was still a little shy, so I only said a handful of one-word phrases, but the reaction was incredible! As soon as I said 凄い/Sugoi! ("Amazing!"), they all looked up at me. The little boy present even repeated what I said in the more masculine fashion, which sounds more like "suge". My interaction with them prompted the little girl to hand me the marble with a big smile on her face! I repeated what they did, and since the way I threw the marble made it take longer to fall out of orbit, I whined 速い/Hayaku! ("Hurry up!/Faster!") Now they knew that me speaking their language was no accident. The oldest lady there turned to me and said "You speak Japanese?" and I said "A little bit," returning her smile. Boy, there was a lot of smiling going on! :)
The little girl threw the marble back into the machine again, and when it finally fell out of orbit, I said a playful やった!/Yatta! ("Hooray!/Yay!") They left a few minutes later with the little girl calling じゃね/Ja ne! (See ya!) to me. I returned a さよなら/Sayonara ("Bye") and she said it back.
I feel very invigorated for my mission after today. Speaking with natives, even some short phrases, was an incredible experience, and they were more than willing to talk to me! Their good mood positively influenced mine and I was on a high the rest of the day. :)
July 26, 2011
Today was a good day that reinforced even further my desire to travel. As I was standing on the beach looking out over the Atlantic Ocean from about six stories in the air, I realized just how small human beings are, and yet how incredibly interesting each one of them can be. Here I was with a friend gazing at this vast, blue ocean, so tranquil and serene, and it hit me that humans can make me feel that way, too, just like the calm evening waters of the ocean. I enjoyed this day very much, if for nothing else, than certainly for this realization, among others.
July 22, 2011
I was able to encourage a friend to begin Michel Thomas's Language Learning Method today, and he blazed through the first disc of French mere hours after he started it! I'd normally suggest he go a bit slower, but as long as he's motivated, I won't get in his way! This made me feel pretty accomplished given that he had a seriously stubborn attitude about language learning beforehand, even calling me overconfident and cocky for thinking I'd be able to speak Dutch this December! All it takes is the right materials to get you started, and once you've gained the insight that learning languages is not hard, you're on your way to becoming an efficient and happy language learner!
July 21, 2011
Today was a beautiful day of thought and progress. When I did my Dutch study earlier this afternoon, I noticed that my mind could very quickly come up with the correct Dutch words and phrases. I'm starting to be able to think in Dutch! This is definitely a milestone! I am very happy with the events of today. :)
Writing in Dutch to a Dutchie for the first time
July 20, 2011
Sometimes you need to just stop thinking and ACT. Today I accomplished this. I spoke to my Dutch friend in Dutch, and I even took his corrections of my grammar into consideration (I'd normally be too embarrassed to do this). Much improvement in such a short time!
It's the little things that can make you truly feel satisfied and alive.
Get the "scary" part over with!
July 19, 2011
I've been bonding with my best Dutch friend lately and I've come to a decision: it's time to switch our friendship from just English to Dutch and English. I'm going to stop overthinking and ACT; this consists of me asking him to slow down a slight bit when speaking Dutch as well as me saying a full sentence in his own tongue to him tomorrow (I say tomorrow because he is 6 hours ahead of my time zone, EDT).
It's time to jump straight into the deep-end and get the unpleasant part over with!
July 18, 2011
One of the best language tips I can think of would be to sing to music in your target language. The number one area on which this works is pronunciation, which I like getting down to a science before starting to learn too many words if at all possible. It takes a lot of the average person's stress out of learning a language, being able to look at at least 75% of words and say "I know how to say that aloud."
I've also noticed that singing a song in another language can have a slightly different system from the way it's usually spoken (I'm looking at you, Japanese!) so when it is pronounced that way to sound cooler (or for whatever other reason, haha) you'll be able to recognize what's being done rather than thinking the way you originally thought something is said is wrong. This process has indoctrinated me the pronunciation of Dutch, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish. Sometimes you'll be pleasantly surprised; for instance, Japanese and Spanish have remarkably similar pronunciation on the vast majority of words, but you wouldn't expect that from a Latin vs. an Asian (more specifically Japonic) language!
My Spanish school experience
July 17, 2011
One of the two white girls outta place!
Ever since I've found a method of learning languages that works for me, I've found that the academic approach I used in school for four classes' worth of Spanish is vastly different and focuses FAR too heavily on writing. I didn't actually SAY much in Spanish until the fourth class, which often required it. This meant that I only began speaking about the time I was in an atmosphere that was almost entirely dominated by native Spanish speakers. This can do a number on one's confidence! I had always spoken to myself to practice, but taking three classes where others Read more
Michel Thomas audio language method review
July 15, 2011
Here is a very short snippet of my thoughts on the Michel Thomas audio language learning method, which I use to introduce myself to a language before speaking it with natives:
The Michel Thomas method is one I regard very highly. It is an audio software, but don't let that discourage you! I've had my fair share of terrible audio materials before, or ones that were unsatisfactory at best. However, with Michel Thomas, I went through the Japanese course a few months ago, but what I learned I still remember quite well! I love the pacing and the vision is Read more
Setting up the blog
July 14, 2011
I'm setting up my blog so I can consolidate a lot of my online work into one main site. This will make it far easier to update my progress in one area instead of branching out into several!
In more relevant news to this blog, my Dutch has steadily been improving over the past few weeks. I'm really getting motivated and delving into the process of improving my speaking abilities!
Inspirational Quotations
"The limits of my language means the limits of my world."
- Ludwig Wittgenstein
"Do one thing every day that scares you."
- Eleanor Roosevelt
Table of Languages by World Rank
Please keep in mind the following is based on an estimate.source source
| Language | World Rank (# Natives) | Native Speakers | Secondary Speakers | Total Speakers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mandarin Chinese | 1 | 845 mil | 180 mil | 1025 mil |
| English | 2 | 335 mil | 613 mil | 948 mil |
| Spanish | 3 | 329 mil | 61 mil | 390 mil |
| Arabic | 5 | 232 mil | 220 mil | 452 mil |
| Russian | 8 | 144 mil | 106 mil | 250 mil |
| Japanese | 9 | 122 mil | 1 mil | 123 mil |
| German | 11 | 90 mil | 28 mil | 118 mil |
| French | 17 | 68 mil | 52 mil | 120 mil |
| Polish | 26 | 40 mil | < 1 mil | 40 mil |
| Dutch | 44 | 22 mil | 3 mil | 25 mil |
| Swedish | 92 | 8.3 mil | <1 mil | 8.3 mil |
| Norwegian | 129 | 4.6 mil | <1 mil | 4.6 mil |
