Too much food for the brain

So we took a good start with our Russian class. We have a new teacher this year which corresponds to a new style. She is a native speaker and we will talk talk talk this year. That's good. I think we are all ready for it. We have seen most of the basic grammar and vocabulary the previous years; the foundations have been laid and we can now start putting the acquired knowledge into practice.

There is a little nostalgia sometimes. Our previous teacher is teaching the first year Russian on the same evening in the classroom next to ours. So we peep into the classroom during the перерыв and remember the days where we were now learning the cyrillic alphabet. We started the first lessons with about 25 students. Only 9 of us persevered. Well done, classmates :-)

In the meantime, I am wondering whether I should quickly start learning some Spanish as I will be going to Bilbao next weekend. I think I will drop the idea. First of all, Bilbao is located in the Basque part of Spain and many people speak Euskera there, not Spanish. Next to that, I am in the middle of a lot of training at work: project management, activity based management and that sort of topics; quite different I know but there is a limit to how much new information someone can absorb. Can food for the brain also be overdone? Is there something as a Brain Mass Index?

Anyway, I decided that this weekend at least I will give my brains a little rest and instead will shamelessly 'hang out' with my little daughters - read: dress up as a princess or a witch (the latter being mostly my role), paint your face in all colours, watch 'Oggy and the cockroaches', 'Looney tunes' and other sorts of other crappy tv entertainment (and laugh like crazy), jump on the trampoline, colour Top model and Disney drawings,...

First schoolday

Classes started again last week, on 1 September to be precise. My daughters had an excellent first schoolday, happy to see all their friends again. And mummy had the same experience in the evening :-)


Yes, we had our first Russian lesson last week. I wasn't really looking forward to it. One reason was that I had finished the German course only a few days before. I had really enjoyed the course but it was also very intensive and I felt as if I could use a break. But no no, I was going to jump from one language into another.

Another reason why I was reluctant to go, was that I had started wondering why I was putting all this time and effort in a language that I - let's be honest - still do not speak after 4 years of evening school and that I do not need in my life at all, not for private reasons, not for professional reasons.

But I went to that first lesson after all and hey, almost all classmates of last year were there and it was good to see each other again. And by the end of the lesson, I had this feeling of 'come on, I will go for it another year'. But I have a goal! I must open my mouth this year. I am one of these people who are reluctant to speak a language as long as they can make an utter fool of themselves.

So, be my witness: I will have conversations, I will communicate in Russian by the end of the year! Otherwise I quit.

Russian is not an EU language

Russian is worthwile studying because it is one of the 23 official EU languages, I read yesterday on one of these language school websites. Well, that is definitely not true.
TRUE: Russian is worthwile studying.
TRUE: there are currently 23 official European Union (EU) languages.
BUT: Russian is not one of these 23.


If you are now curious which languages are among the lucky 23, you can find them on http://europa.eu

For those wondering: the languages mainly used internally by the EU institutions are English, French and German. So it is not the case that all internal documents are written in 23 languages.
But everything that is law or concerns the EU citizens directly, is translated in all 23 official languages. That is the language policy roughly explained. And I consider it fair, despite all the resources needed for this, because you should be able to find out about your rights and obligations in your own language. Not every citizen masters a second language.

On the webpages of the European Commission, you can find more details and the piece of legislation on which this language policy is based. Enjoy!

Show me the beauty!

While I was adding a book to my I can recommend page yesterday, I wondered why certain books or dvd's did not make it to my shortlist. I had a quick look at the unfortunate ones and concluded that a lot of them have in common that they focus on the dark side of Russia.


It is my impression that it is in - especially among (mostly male) correspondents, journalists, photographers - to show anything but the beauty of Russia.

I am certainly not going to plead that we should ignore the problems there are in Russia (as well as we shouldn't ignore the problems in any other country). I understand people do freeze or drink themselves to death, there is prostitution, maffia, a huge gap between the poor and the rich.

But showing only the poverty and misery doesn't give a correct image either. It leads to situations where people wonder why on earth I am interested in Russia as it is such a grey, cold, poor country. And isn't that a missed opportunity?

On the same square...

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Deutsch Deutsch Deutsch - piece of cake

www.toonpool.com

If this were Twitter, I wouldn't have the feeling I had to add anything to the title (and could go to bed now).
But this is a blog, so a few words...

I'm completely immersed in German. Hausaufgaben jeden Abend... I have been preparing my second oral presentation tonight. Next week we also have our final exam already.


There are definitely pro's about this concentrated way of learning a language (every morning for three weeks). My level is improving at lightning speed. I already watched a few good movies in German last week and I started reading a detective in German yesterday, all very doable.

Of course, it helps that German is so similar to my Dutch and it turns out that once you have learned a language before (I learnt German during secondary school), you don't forget it - you just have to find it back in your memory somewhere and then upgrade it.

When I think about how I struggle with Russian sometimes, this German course is like a piece of cake. It gives my selfconfidence a boost :-)

(Maybe I shouldn't say this before I have succeeded in the exam... the bear and the skin, you know... which makes me decide to go to bed now so that I can study tomorrow morning... so: Gute Nacht!)