Category: Asides Page 3 of 5

[:en]Wee gobbets.[:de]Kurze Nebenbeiträge

Als ich das Erwerben einer Fremdsprache zum ersten Mal wirklich ernst genommen habe, ist es mir aufgefallen, dass mein Gehirn neben den Fortschritten mit der Sprache selber auch eine Art Käfig für meine Gedanken erschaffen hat. Es war als wäre der Wortschatz in meinem Kopf so kategorisiert und gestaltet, dass ich meistens instinktiv gewusst habe, ob ich bereits wüsste, wie ich meine Gedanken auf „fremdisch“ aussprechen konnte, bevor ich überhaupt mal den Mund geöffnet habe. Ob ich das Wort „Baumrinde“ kannte, war sozusagen genauso wichtig als zu wissen, das ich das Wort kannte.

In der Tat wurde es aber dann schwierig, meine verrosteten Sprachkenntnisse aus der Schulzeit anzuwenden. Französisch habe ich leider seit über einem Jahrzehnt nicht mehr gesprochen, aber neulich auf Reise durch Frankreich fand ich, dass ich oft versucht habe, Dinge zu sagen, die weit über meine Kompetenzen hinaus gingen. Dabei war mein Kopf sich recht sicher, ich wüsste wie das sagen könnte. Irgendwo steckte die Anmerkung, das Wort sei auf „fremdisch“ bekannt, nur auf welchem fremdisch war dabei nicht erwähnt. Wie man es sagt scheint hier zweite Geige zu spielen hinter was man sagt.

Jetzt wo ich es vorhabe, eine zweite Fremdsprache anständig zu lernen, merke ich wie mein Hirn versucht, einen zweiten Zaun um meine Fähigkeiten in der neuen Sprache zu bauen. Ich frage mich welchen Einfluss dies auf meine erste Fremdsprache haben könnte. Wird der Kopf die erste Fremdsprache in den engeren Raum einpferchen wollen? Oder wird der alte Zaun abgebaut und diese Fremdsprache behandelt wie meine Muttersprache? Werde ich zünftig über meine eigenen Gedanken stolpern, wie jetzt auf französisch? Oder muss ich mich über die selbst auferlegten Hindernisse meines Geistes quälen, um mich auszudrücken?

By Fips

On 14th May 2013

In Asides, Languages

Learning a Second Foreign

By Fips

On 14th May 2013

In Asides, Languages

Dieser Eintrag ist auch auf Deutsch verfügbar.

When learning foreign in earnest for the first time, I noticed that whilst making progress in the language itself, my brain also found ways of hemming in my thoughts. It was as if my mind’s vocabulary was labelled and categorised, such that I often instinctively knew before opening my mouth whether I knew how to say what I wanted to ‘in foreign’. Knowing the word for tree bark was as important as knowing that I know the word for tree bark. Interestingly, this made trying to use languages from school more difficult: when travelling in France, a language I’ve barely used in the past decade or so, I often found myself trying to say things my mind believed me capable of saying. It would have me starting sentences, confident in the knowledge that I knew the word or phrase ‘in foreign’, only which foreign wasn’t mentioned. It seems actually knowing what to say plays second fiddle to knowing what one is able to say.

Now with the intention of learning a second foreign properly, I find my mind building a new ring fence around what can and can’t be said in the new foreign. I wonder what effect this might have on the old foreign – will my brain try to corral it into the smaller space, or might the fencing be removed altogether and treated like my native tongue? Will I find myself stumbling over my own thoughts as in French, or will I need to battle over my brains’ self-imposed hurdles to express myself?

President Sarkozy will not be the one to tell French schoolchildren that the borders of Europe extend to Syria and Iraq, ((Earlier report on Sarkozy’s election here [in German].)) should Turkish overtures to the EU be fully accepted. One must assume then, that he would have no problem explaining that the current borders of the EU extend to Morocco on mainland Africa, or that France itself shares borders with Brazil and Suriname. Or perhaps that under fifty years ago, its borders extended south to the Sahara Desert.

The question of Europe is a naturally contentious issue. Assuming one isn’t to treat it as a mere archipelagical extension of Asia, Europe has one of the most fluid and imprecise geographic borders of any of the continents. Claiming that Europe ends with the Atlantic Ocean, the Urals, the Volga or the Bosporus is perhaps all very appropriate, except that none of today’s borders actually conform to the logic. Whilst the EU might today stake the strongest claim to defining Europe, would Sarkozy’s schoolchildren really see it that way? Their idea of Europe is as likely to be influenced through football and music, as much as through other political and international bodies.

By Fips

On 4th October 2010

In Asides, Politics

It might not be particularly well featured, but Google Docs does at least provide a quick and easy way to share your documents, albeit with messed up formatting and various other caveats. Today, however, I came across a problem uploading some small files which produced the rather pallid error message “Server rejected.” Something wrong with my files? With the browser upload? With the server itself? No idea.

Fortunately there was an easy, if rather roundabout fix available: simply email the files to my Gmail account, and use the option there to open them with Google Docs. Bingo!

By Fips

On 6th May 2010

In Asides, Technology

It’s a fairly common problem with Windows. Somehow a program manages to create a file with a name containing illegal characters or otherwise outside the file system’s parameters. No matter what you try, you just can’t rid yourself of it. The file certainly isn’t in use and being locked up by another program. Trying to delete or rename the file only results in Windows telling you the file cannot be found: “This is no longer in <location>. Verify the item’s location and try again.” Even running the Command Prompt with administrator privileges doesn’t allow you to move, rename or delete the blasted thing!

Fortunately, I managed to find an easy solution. Fire up the 7-zip File Manager, and rename the file from there. Bingo – don’t ask me how Vista couldn’t manage it, or indeed why 7-zip could, but at least now you can delete the damn thing! Kudos to the guys on this forum for the answer.

By Fips

On 19th November 2009

In Asides, Technology