Disqus - Latest Comments for randem

Re: Quanto si può imparare della lingua italiana in due mesi?

Randy — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:49:48 -0000

I still have 8.5 months. There's no need to rush it. :)

Re: Quanto si può imparare della lingua italiana in due mesi?

Randy — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 19:49:07 -0000

Thank you!

Re: First Week in Germany, No English. Here’s How I Did It

Randy — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 08:10:54 -0000

That's a really great idea!

Re: First Week in Germany, No English. Here’s How I Did It

Randy — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 08:05:43 -0000

"I said it before and I’ll say it again, context is the KEY. If I don’t know the word for “translate” for example, but I say that I “make a document in English from French”, I have entirely gotten my point across."

This is the subject of a post I'm writing for next week. It seems you and I use a lot of the same tricks! :)

Re: Spanish – the best first choice of second language!

Randy — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 23:52:42 -0000

Well... you'd be better off as far as being able to speak Spanish! :-)

Was there a reason for choosing Mandarin? Is that more useful to you where you live or amongst your friends, perhaps?

Re: Prefixes in Italian

Randy — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 12:01:49 -0000

Quite right! I actually had intentionally left the s- out of this list because it seems to be an interesting feature on its own, and I'm actually planning to devote an entire post to it soon! :-)

Re: Esperanto one week later – am I fluent?

Randy — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 17:08:34 -0000

Mi ne kredas je "ebla" kaj "malebla". Kion oni vere volas, tion povas. Neniam diris mi, ke mi estus spertulo. Mi nur esperis flue paroli. Kaj kion signifas flueco? Flueco nur signifas, ke oni parolas sen malrapidiganti la konversation.

Re: Esperanto one week later – am I fluent?

Randy — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 16:57:28 -0000

While I will readily admit to having seen a lot of Esperanto on Twitter, you must concede that we're talking about Twitter here... a medium where the entire conversation consists of 140 characters or less. Hardly the kind of place where a language thrives, much less an environment that required fluency.

I think the detail that you and the commenters below are getting lost on is "fluency". If you've studied *ANY* language for several years and don't consider yourself fluent, you're either fooling yourself about the definition of the term "fluent", or else you're fooling yourself about the definition of the word "study".

Would you say a five-year-old is fluent in English? He doesn't know what words like "cosmology", or "intermediate", or "xenophobe" mean, but he can keep up his end of a conversation. In fact, he can't even spell very well, and probably gets the grammar wrong from time to time. But I guarantee you that kid is fluent.

Discounting language skill because of a lack of vocabulary is perfectionism. I know many adults with small vocabularies and bad grammar and spelling.

Fluency is nothing more than joining a conversation without slowing it down, and being able to ask for help in the language you're speaking, rather than requiring translation. That's it! Nothing mystical.

Re: The Anti-iProduct Rant

Randy — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 16:47:37 -0000

You *OWN* those CDs, right? Which means you paid for them. Here's something you may already know... you can get that music online, already in the form of an MP3 (ie, not needing to be ripped) and usually for less than the cost of the CDs.

At this point, it's obvious that you're frustratedly pulling at strings to support your position. It would be much more graceful to simply admit that you may have had some undeserved preconceived notions about Apple products (you obviously didn't know much about the iPad) and that you may have been wrong.

Personally, I like Apple products. I've used PCs and Macs, Palms and iPods, smartphones and iPhones, and in every case I have been convinced that the Apple product was better. And since you don't have to replace them as often, they're arguably cheapter. Windows computers, for instance, have to be replaced every couple years because they're built on cheap commodity components.

Of course you're entitled to your opinions. You certainly don't have to agree with me. However, I think your opinion would have been much more meaningful if you had any actual knowledge or experience with the products you're deriding. Most of the things you complained about here were based on things you knew absolutely nothing about.

One last note... while I disagree with this one post, I do like your blog, and I hope that we can avoid sparking some kind of Steve-hates-Benny style rivalry. :-)

Re: The Anti-iProduct Rant

Randy — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 16:38:36 -0000

Actually, there is a real keyboard, available as an accessory. And it's quite worth owning if you plan to use the iPad as a main device rather than as an accessory. Also, Flash is dead. Apple *intentionally* neglected to support it because they want to drive people toward HTML 5, which has real power. And what's so small about 64gb? Only a few years ago, people couldn't conceive of using so much space!

Regarding internet access, all iPads have built-in WiFi, just like your laptop. And there is an option to buy them with built-in support for AT&T's 3G network as well... though I really don't know whether or not that's useful outside of the US.

As concerns your "rich" comments, though, I think it's offensively hypocritical for anyone who owns a computer, nevermind TWO computers, to refer to Apple products as aimed at rich people. The price tags on both of your computers were higher than that of an iPad -- I guarantee it.

Re: The Anti-iProduct Rant

Randy — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 13:52:18 -0000

Also, to get back to the iPad's relevance for language learners... how many times have you purchased a language book that came with CDs and you had to synch up and pause and fidget with controls while you read along?
What if your book was on an iPad, and you could just touch the [audio] button and hear it spoken?
Better still, what if you could have your whole library of such books with you, at all times, without it requiring a backpack and a twisted lumbar?
What if those books could now easily include additonal visual features, like Rosetta Stone or LiveMocha style exercises at the end of each chapter?
What would it be worth to you, to be able to access Busuu or LiveMocha while you're on a plane, or a train, or in the waiting room at the doctor's office?

Re: The Anti-iProduct Rant

Randy — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 13:46:09 -0000

I think it's possible that you've got some misconceptions about what the iPad is, how it works, and who it's intended for.

First, you say you can't afford an iPad, but then you follow up by saying that you own a computer. This indicates to me that you think they are separate devices and that users are intended to own both. This might have been true for iPhones or iPods, but the reality is that Apple wants the iPad to *replace* computers for most people. Once you understand this, your price argument becomes invalid.

Second, you complain about internet access and the need to keep sites lightweight and accessible as if this were a disadvantage to the iPad. In reality, the fact that apps reside on the iPad makes this an advantage! You can install the app when you are somewhere (like the library) with internet access, and then pulling updates, such as the latest blog post, is actually an extremely lightweight activity. Once again, the advantage goes to the iPad.

Your final paragraph gives away your real misconception: you think that Apple products are only for rich people. This is a bias, not a fact. Once again, I want to point out that anyone who can afford a computer can afford an iPad. While iPhones may be rightly judged as expensive toys (though I would disagree!) the same isn't true of iPads, because it will do (in most cases) everything you currently do with your computer, but it will do it without the crashing and the device drivers and the viruses and the headaches.

Re: Connections, conjunctions, and conversational glue for Esperantists!

Randy — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 12:50:04 -0000

The mistakes are much fewer! I'm really getting the hang of this stuff.
I just need to stop thinking "la" and start thinking "ĝin". Heheh...

Re: Review of Some Language Learning Communities: Busuu, Livemocha, LingQ, and Hello-Hello

Randy — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 08:37:18 -0000

If I can butt in with my own opinion here, I don't think any of them word particularly well with immersion, though I think LiveMocha comes the closest because it helps you tie the visual thought to the word in your mind. (If you're reading my blog, you know that I think word-for-word translation is a horrible way to learn.)

Of course in your situation, having already previously studied the language, I agree that LingQ is probably the best for what you want to do.

Re: Asking and answering questions in Esperanto

Randy — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 13:47:59 -0000

Koran dankon!

Re: Esperanto, a first look

Randy — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 10:57:38 -0000

Mi akordas ankaŭ, sed konfido naskas konfidon - eble esperanto estas bona por ies unua lingvo. Mi ankoraŭ pensas ke hispana lingvo estas pli bona. :)

Re: Esperanto prepositions, prefixes and suffixes

Randy — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 18:02:22 -0000

Timulo estas tima viro. [coward?]
Senlaborulo estas viro ke ne havas laboron. [unemployed?]
Maldekstrulo estas viro "sur la maldekstra" politike. [leftist? liberal?]
Malriĉulino estas virino ke ne havas multan monon. [poor girl?]
Vidindaĵo estas io inda de esti vidata. [something worth seeing?]
Malsanulejo estas ejo kie homoj iri kiam ili malsanas. [hospital?]
Eksmalsanulejestrino estas virino ke estis ĉefo de malsanulejo sed nun ne estas. [former hospital administrator?]

How did I do?

Re: Esperanto prepositions, prefixes and suffixes

Randy — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 16:51:15 -0000

Good call. I will add it when I update the text to fix any other erros.

It was a bit of hyperbole when I said it on Twitter, but I'm only a couple of days into my study, and I actually think there's a good chance of success at my one-week fluency goal. It's amazing how much I can confidently say and understand in a language that, just a few days ago, I knew nothing about!

Re: Esperanto prepositions, prefixes and suffixes

Randy — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:46:46 -0000

Oh, yeah, that makes sense.

Re: Esperanto prepositions, prefixes and suffixes

Randy — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 13:45:08 -0000

Fantastic! All of those make sense to me, except this one:
- Mi tranĉis ŝin per tranĉilo.

I wanted to say I cut *myself*, not her. Did I do it wrong?

Re: Fluent in one week? The Esperanto challenge!

Randy — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 07:57:14 -0000

Great. Thanks!

Re: Spanish – the best first choice of second language!

Randy — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:26:01 -0000

Very cool! Thanks!

Re: German 3 month mission: Sit C2 exam

Randy — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 12:49:58 -0000

One other note... I wonder how relevant your experiments with "input methods" will be in light of your five years of academic experience. In spite of not feeling fluent, you do *know* German, and many of those tools (you mentioned LiveMocha, for instance) are designed to start with no knowledge and build you up to a constructive basic level.
Maybe you'd do better with a frequency list and a chat window?

Re: German 3 month mission: Sit C2 exam

Randy — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:58:39 -0000

I love crazy and impossible challenges.... because there's the chance that you might actually succeed, which would be awesome!

I think that you got the "shoot for the moon" saying backwards, though. I believe it's supposed to go: "shoot for the moon, because even if you miss, you still end up among the stars".

I'll be particularly interested in your updates this time around. German is a favorite of mine, but my situation is similar to yours, in that I studied German in school for a couple of years but I never reached fluency. But I've been rekindling my love for German since starting my web site, and I hope to maybe spend a little time there myself some time soon.

Re: My first impressions after learning the Arabic alphabet

Randy — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 10:55:11 -0000

While Arabic may "appear" difficult, it's actually not that hard. There are only 28 letters, and no vowels.

Japanese, on the other hand, looks really difficult to me on first glance. This page http://www.freejapaneseless... shows clearly what we're working with: 5 vowel sounds, each made by 13 consonants, (with the exception of two consonants which only make three vowel sounds) for a grand total of 61 symbols! This first impression seems to be validated by the Japanese alphabet songs I found on YouTube just now.

I'm not gonna lie... that looks like a lot! However, it's certainly not impossible -- obviously, since any Japanese child is capable of doing it. :-)

On a very brief first glance, I can already see how a few generalizations might make it easier. Most of the "-a" characters seem to have a "1+" shape, like a straight vertical line next to a cross shape. The "-i" characters seem to have a theme of "straight line ending at the bottom with a big curl". The "-u" characters are mostly semicircles, whether rounded or angular. Etc.

I don't know how useful that observation is, but in my experience anything you can do to start relating to the characters will help you to commit them to your memory.

Also, it might prove useful to spell out English or Dutch (whichever you prefer) words in the japanese characters, so you can get more accustomed to seeing them. For example, you could put a card next to the computer that says "ka-ma-pi-u-te-ra" in the Hiragana, to help drive those sounds into your head. Also, particularly useful for exercises like this are any words with repeating syllables, like "ba-na-na", because you can see the same character twice and you'll remember it more easily.

I hope you find *something* helpful in all this nonsense I just wrote! :)