Sixth Post!

[hoisinsauce]

"The thing about illegally breeding fire-breathing possums is that you gotta keep a bucket of water handy."

*Those fools! Fire-breathing possums are greasy; water will only feed the flames! Oh, if only I could tell them of my empire...*

(Context: https://secretfanspace.dreamwidth.org/1839.html?thread=2678831#cmt2678831)

Talk fandom! Making things! Reading, writing, drawing, whatever! Miscellaneous life chatter! Meme's happy to see you again!

(start a comment thread by replying to this post)

Comments

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I like it best when it suddenly skips in difficulty, so that it dumps a bunch of stuff it hasn't taught me in front of me and goes "make sense of this", and I have to use some creative thinking to get things right. That's the way I prefer to learn. :P

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

Eg: there's a jump between unit 2 and 3, where it starts asking which spelling corresponds to which pronunciation (where there's a letter that acts more like a modifier than a distinct sound) but it hasn't taught the relevant letters. So you get one wrong and you work out the rule for what that letter must do from that. And at the same time, it's added a few new letters into the mix with no explanation. Suspect I've done things in the wrong order, but it's more enjoyable that way.

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

(Then I tried the French one. It assessed me as being on unit 27 in its level-assessor thing, but idk why because I'd got everything right on that, so I tried picking random later units to skip to. I did unlock some, but kept narrowly missing others. My trouble is that I understand a fair chunk of stuff but I don't know how to say anything for myself, and my grammar is nonexistent, so when it asks me to write something I just kind of make up some pseudo french. I'm quite impressed at how close I get, but duolingo has higher standards (or does not realise quite how little I actually know, and thus does not appreciate the circus-trickery of my performance). ;_;

(There was one that required a translation for something like "You will go online at your place later." Me: "Tu vas browser chez toi plus tard." Was guessing every word, got a surprising amount right. XD But alas, for "browser" is not how you say "go on the internet" in French lmao. Even though I thought it sounded quite plausible. :'() )

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

Nona, between this and the Arabic, I am very concerned that I’ve somehow been posting in my sleep. I’m frustrated with the lack of vocab in the early Arabic.

Last time I tried Arabic, the Mondly apps were more fun than Duolingo, and I learnt a fair chunk of vocab around animals and things like that, but this time around the Mondly apps don’t let me access much if anything without paying, which I’m not going to do.

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

"they climbed up on the table"

"Elles sonts... climbees sur la table?"

(Elles sonts montees sur la table)

;_;

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

> It’s only recently that I have discovered what I think is the truth: Franglais is the language that the English think the French ought to speak.

>To put it another way: it’s because we can’t stand the French.

> It should be obvious to everyone that we are more like the Germans than the French. The French are a Latin, Mediterranean race, much given to growing pointed moustaches, eating snails and stabbing their wives’ lovers. Racially we are more akin to the Germans, and share their taste for such things as beer-drinking and heavy cooking.

http://www.mileskington.com/More%20Miles/ARTICLES/Franglais.html

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

Hard disagree, my french is bad but my german is fucking horrendous. I can roughly read romance languages. Idk how anyone can read german. (And sometimes I feel like all the german aspects of british culture are the bits I Do Not Get. XD)

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

Das ist nicht gut. Es ist sehr einfach.

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

Nein, das ist nicht richtig!

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

Tu parles bon Franglais por une frog, mais tu can ne passe pas.

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

Mon pere peux parle le francais; c'est son deuxieme langue. Quand j'etait une enfante, j'ai demande, "donne moi des cours du francais." Il me repondit: "Non, parce que c'est le langue du colonisateur." Je lui repond: "tu es un liar, tu es just lazy."

Il rire a moi.

Il finalement m'a ecrire une (UNE!) etude au sujet des pommes de terre. De memoire: "Nous nous avons mangerons les pommes de terre. Fantastique!"

Je lui demande: "Pourquoi est-ce 'nous nous' deux fois comme ca?"

Il: "Je ne sais pas. C'est une grammar thing. Arret avec tes questions."

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

Hahaha. Mais, les pommes de terres sont tres important.

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

🎵Quand j'etait
Une jeune fille
Mon papa
M'a emmene en ville
A manger toutes les frites🎵

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

Is this you saying that you’re so Norman upper class, you don’t relate to the more germanic culture of the rest of the country? I shall fetch your cowflesh, my liege.

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

In MY circles we call it 'beef'.

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

I don’t speekses ne french.

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

“A humourous misunderstanding ensues” https://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/item126611.html

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

dohohoho

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

SA

But, hey, I have a friend whose family is apparently descended from German peasants, and who finds German easier than French. So I mean what can I do in the face of such overwhelming evidence OTHER than say that I must be directly descended from William the Conqueror.

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

German has the same traps. I remember our teacher impressing upon us that we were NOT to say "Ich bin heiss" because it meant "I am horny", and that one needed to be careful not to confuse "Ich habe blaue Augen" ("I have blue eyes") with "Ich habe blaue Eier" ("I have blue balls").

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

I do like the little reading comprehension story things. I wish there was a higher ratio of those to drills.

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

Until the redid the whole system and made it boring, you could just plug through the stories easily. I did notice the French course has a much bigger emphasis on comprehension of short passages of text or audio compared to other courses I’ve done.

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I think it has already helped with my lamentable grammar and my fuzzy knowledge of words like "assez" and "puis".

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

Oh! Also, have you found the separate ‘learn the letters’ icon at the bottom of the screen, on the map?

Re: How's Life?

[(Anonymous)]

I did! I've been doing it to revise them, but I prefer first learning them in a more logic-puzzle way xD