Translation: I stayed home yesterday because of a sore throat. I was quite bored so I decided to learn morse code. Easy? A lot . Useful? Not really, but at least I did not waste the afternoon watching Big Brother.
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Morse code
·· ··· - ·- -·-- · -·· ···· --- -- · -·-- · ··· - · ·-· -·· ·- -·-- -··· · -·-· ·- ··- ··· · --- ··-· ·- ··· --- ·-· · - ···· ·-· --- ·- - ·-·-·- ·· ·-- ·- ··· --·- ··- ·· - · -··· --- ·-· · -·· ··· --- ·· -·· · -·-· ·· -·· · -·· - --- ·-·· · ·- ·-· -· -- --- ·-· ··· · -·-· --- -·· · ·-·-·- · ·- ··· -·-- ··--·· ·- ·-·· --- - ·-·-·- ··- ··· · ··-· ··- ·-·· ··--·· -· --- - ·-· · ·- ·-·· ·-·· -·-- --··-- -··· ··- - ·- - ·-·· · ·- ··· - ·· -·· ·· -·· -· --- - ·-- ·- ··· - · - ···· · ·- ··-· - · ·-· -· --- --- -· ·-- ·- - -·-· ···· ·· -· --· -··· ·· --· -··· ·-· --- - ···· · ·-· ·-·-·-
Translation: I stayed home yesterday because of a sore throat. I was quite bored so I decided to learn morse code. Easy? A lot . Useful? Not really, but at least I did not waste the afternoon watching Big Brother.
Translation: I stayed home yesterday because of a sore throat. I was quite bored so I decided to learn morse code. Easy? A lot . Useful? Not really, but at least I did not waste the afternoon watching Big Brother.
Friday, October 31, 2008
Cup vs. Cap
One of the things I regret more about my English learning process is my former teachers not forcing me to pronounce words correctly. My mother tongues just having one fixed sound for each of the 5 vowels doesn't help either and I find it really hard to distinguish between some vowel sounds in English. Let's take for example the words cup and cap. Even if I try as much as I can, it seems to me that my ears are not prepared to distinguish them, and consequently, neither is my mouth. Same thing with reach vs. rich or full vs. fool. Yeah, I know that when listening I can guess which word it is due to context, but believe me, each time I need to say "I would like to go to the beach" I secretly pray for my pronounciation of beach to be: 
and not: 
Finally, I've learned a new expression today in the Skyscrapercity forum: Pun intended. Which can be used, for example, in: "It would be cool if it snowed tomorrow" (pun intended :D ).
and not: 
Finally, I've learned a new expression today in the Skyscrapercity forum: Pun intended. Which can be used, for example, in: "It would be cool if it snowed tomorrow" (pun intended :D ).
Thursday, October 30, 2008
A quick Basque lesson
Two parts in today’s post: First a quick Basque lesson, and second, a link to another free web to learn and practise languages online.
As much as I like learning languages, I also like teaching them. Moreover, it is a way to make a little extra money. I used to teach Basque language when I was a student. Lots of kids here have problems with this language because their parents can't speak it or even if they do, they just prefer to address their children only in Spanish. I am sooo glad to have both languages as mother tongues! Plus, I think Basque is a hard language to learn (well, at least harder than Spanish or other latin-based languages).
For example, it's verb system is quite tricky. Let's take the sentence "Zuek niri harriak bota dizkidazue", which means "You(plural) have thrown stones at me".
As you can see, the auxiliary verb contains inside it all the information about the subject and the indirect object of the sentence (and much more), so "Zuek" and "niri" can be omitted. Cool, right? I would love to learn another language with has a verb system as least as trickier as this one. However this is not a piece of cake to teenage students who a)have no interest in languages, b)get bad marks at school and c)attend lessons just because their parents want to. So imagine their faces when they have to learn Basque verbs.
Well, and finally, here’s another free site to learn languages. Hope you enjoy it. I’ve already signed up for German and Mandarin courses :D
As much as I like learning languages, I also like teaching them. Moreover, it is a way to make a little extra money. I used to teach Basque language when I was a student. Lots of kids here have problems with this language because their parents can't speak it or even if they do, they just prefer to address their children only in Spanish. I am sooo glad to have both languages as mother tongues! Plus, I think Basque is a hard language to learn (well, at least harder than Spanish or other latin-based languages).
For example, it's verb system is quite tricky. Let's take the sentence "Zuek niri harriak bota dizkidazue", which means "You(plural) have thrown stones at me".
- Zuek: You (subject, plural, it can be omitted, you will see why later)
- niri: at me (indirect object, it can be also omitted)
- harriak: stones (direct object):
- harri: stone
- ak: indicates that it is countable, plural and direct object - bota: to throw (Main verb in infinitive form. Usually verbs in Basque have a main verb and an auxiliary verb)
- dizkidazue: auxiliary verb. It contains a lot of information which can be broken down as follows:
- di: the verb is in present tense and needs a direct and an indirect object
- zki: the direct object is plural (stoneS)
- da: (at me). The indirect object is first person singular (me)
- zue: the subject of the sentence is second person plural (you)
As you can see, the auxiliary verb contains inside it all the information about the subject and the indirect object of the sentence (and much more), so "Zuek" and "niri" can be omitted. Cool, right? I would love to learn another language with has a verb system as least as trickier as this one. However this is not a piece of cake to teenage students who a)have no interest in languages, b)get bad marks at school and c)attend lessons just because their parents want to. So imagine their faces when they have to learn Basque verbs.
Well, and finally, here’s another free site to learn languages. Hope you enjoy it. I’ve already signed up for German and Mandarin courses :D
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Scary weather
I was looking this week's weather into Google. It's really scary...
I'm feeling wet already.
I'm feeling wet already.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Reading memories
OK, I know that the main purpose of this blog was to improve my English and look for someone to point out my mistakes. So, I promised myself that I would write quite often here but I am not fulfilling it. My best excuse is this last month I've been writing a 30 page article about software agents for this journal (in English, of course). I hope that my crappy English and sometimes dubious algebraic proofs make the cut.
Well, after this brief introduction to redeem (?) myself, let me talk about my relationship with books. I love reading all kind of books in any language I can understand. My mum taught me to read when I was 4 and since then I have devoured trillions of books. I've learned so much through them...Seriously, I can't understand people who are fond of never having read a book. But I guess that's their problem...
My first reading memories are related with Teo, a red-haired boy whose mission was to help kids learn about their environment. I had more than 20 books of this collection and everyday my dad would read me one story (I was 2 by then). I think that in the end I knew most of them by heart. Then I grew up a little bit and started to read by myself. The "Barco de Vapor" was without doubt my favourite collection. I think those books were classified in 4 levels (white, blue, orange and red) with regard to their difficulty. When I reached the red level (I suppose I was about 11), my mum decided that it was time for me to read books for teenagers, such as The Baby-sitters Club. Yeah! Books that talked about hanging out with friends and boyfriends? That was a totally new experience for me! Some years later, when I was at university, books about Java, SQL or "HTML for dummies" became my best friends, basically because I was so busy studying the whole day that I didn't read anything else.
And now...well, I read about 1h30 every weekday (basically because I spend that time on a train while going to work). So imagine... that's at least one book every week. Probably my following acquisitions will be the ones in the picture. Have you read any of them?
Well, after this brief introduction to redeem (?) myself, let me talk about my relationship with books. I love reading all kind of books in any language I can understand. My mum taught me to read when I was 4 and since then I have devoured trillions of books. I've learned so much through them...Seriously, I can't understand people who are fond of never having read a book. But I guess that's their problem...
My first reading memories are related with Teo, a red-haired boy whose mission was to help kids learn about their environment. I had more than 20 books of this collection and everyday my dad would read me one story (I was 2 by then). I think that in the end I knew most of them by heart. Then I grew up a little bit and started to read by myself. The "Barco de Vapor" was without doubt my favourite collection. I think those books were classified in 4 levels (white, blue, orange and red) with regard to their difficulty. When I reached the red level (I suppose I was about 11), my mum decided that it was time for me to read books for teenagers, such as The Baby-sitters Club. Yeah! Books that talked about hanging out with friends and boyfriends? That was a totally new experience for me! Some years later, when I was at university, books about Java, SQL or "HTML for dummies" became my best friends, basically because I was so busy studying the whole day that I didn't read anything else.
And now...well, I read about 1h30 every weekday (basically because I spend that time on a train while going to work). So imagine... that's at least one book every week. Probably my following acquisitions will be the ones in the picture. Have you read any of them?
Friday, September 26, 2008
A little anecdote...
As you could read in my previous post, I spent some days in Germany last month. Here's a little anecdote that happened to us.
One of the things I try when I visit a foreign country is to address locals in their own language. Germany was not an exception, and I was eager to practice my basic skills in Deutsch (I took German lessons at university, just for 4 months, and since then I’m self-taught). Unfortunately, I guess I still have to polish either my grammar skills or pronunciation (or both) quite a lot. We were having breakfast at the hotel and we wanted to have some warm milk. So, I called the waitress and told her: “Wir möchten heisses Milch trinken, bitte.” Apparently my pronunciation was awful because she brought as warm coffee. As my partner was laughing (at me), I called her again and tried to explain that we didn’t want warm coffee, but warm milk. OK, she seemed to have understood, but she brought us cold milk. I felt a little bit embarrassed about calling the waitress again because the room was crowded and she seemed overworked. Fortunately, the woman who was sitting by us had heard our previous conversations and volunteered to call her again and clarify the misunderstanding. Oh, we finally had warm milk!!! However I’m still doubting whether my sentence was right or not…
One of the things I try when I visit a foreign country is to address locals in their own language. Germany was not an exception, and I was eager to practice my basic skills in Deutsch (I took German lessons at university, just for 4 months, and since then I’m self-taught). Unfortunately, I guess I still have to polish either my grammar skills or pronunciation (or both) quite a lot. We were having breakfast at the hotel and we wanted to have some warm milk. So, I called the waitress and told her: “Wir möchten heisses Milch trinken, bitte.” Apparently my pronunciation was awful because she brought as warm coffee. As my partner was laughing (at me), I called her again and tried to explain that we didn’t want warm coffee, but warm milk. OK, she seemed to have understood, but she brought us cold milk. I felt a little bit embarrassed about calling the waitress again because the room was crowded and she seemed overworked. Fortunately, the woman who was sitting by us had heard our previous conversations and volunteered to call her again and clarify the misunderstanding. Oh, we finally had warm milk!!! However I’m still doubting whether my sentence was right or not…
Sunday, September 21, 2008
My trip to Germany, part I
Last month my boyfriend and I spent a week in Germany. We visited both Berlin and Munich. As it was our first time there, there were trillions of places we wanted to see. I will try to summarize our trip in the following posts. Please, give all the credit of the pictures to my boyfriend. I want to say that our experience was really good, even if it rained almost every day, and I also had the chance to practise a little bit of German!
Day 1: East Berlin
We reached Berlin at about 4p.m. so that day we still had some hours to stroll. We decided to visit the eastern side of Berlin following this fabulous guide. Our first stop was Alexanderplatz, a large open square surrounded by several notable structures such as the Fernsehturm (TV Tower). It is also a public transport hub and in the following days, it would become the starting point of our journeys.
Just by Alexanderplatz, Marienkirche(Kirche==Church, Marienkirche==St Mary's church), which is believed to date from the 13th century. And if you look around, you will see one of my favourite buildings in Berlin, the Rotes Rathaus (Rot==red, Rathaus==Town Hall), which is the Town Hall of Berlin, built in the 19th century. In front of it, the Neptunbrunnen (Brunnen==fountain). You can see both of them in the picture. Following towards the River Spree, the Marx-Engels-Forum, a public park named after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, with a statue of both of them in the middle.
After that we went towards the Nikolaiviertel, where we visited several buildings: the Nikolaikirche(Nichola's church), the Knoblauchhaus(aka. the Garlic House, Knoblauch==garlic, Haus==house), home in the 19th century of architect Eduard Knoblauch. (By the way, the light pink colour of the house reminds of the one of the garlic... I'm not sure but I think that must be intentionally done...). Just by them, the Ephraim Palais; the Altes Stadthaus, former town hall of Berlin (alt==old) and the Palais Schwerin/Münze.
After that we strolled towards Klosterstrasse to visit the Parochialkirche (17th century);
the Palais Podewils and the Franziskaner Klosterkirche (see pic) from 13th century and which is in ruins.
It was getting dark so we visited 3 last spots: the Stadtgericht(the Court), the restaurant Zur Letzten Instant, which is said to be the oldest tavern in Berlin; and finally the Berliner Stadtmauer, a lesser known wall in Berlin from the 13th century.
That's all for today. I guess it's time to go back to job. Software agents need me.
Day 1: East Berlin
We reached Berlin at about 4p.m. so that day we still had some hours to stroll. We decided to visit the eastern side of Berlin following this fabulous guide. Our first stop was Alexanderplatz, a large open square surrounded by several notable structures such as the Fernsehturm (TV Tower). It is also a public transport hub and in the following days, it would become the starting point of our journeys.
Just by Alexanderplatz, Marienkirche(Kirche==Church, Marienkirche==St Mary's church), which is believed to date from the 13th century. And if you look around, you will see one of my favourite buildings in Berlin, the Rotes Rathaus (Rot==red, Rathaus==Town Hall), which is the Town Hall of Berlin, built in the 19th century. In front of it, the Neptunbrunnen (Brunnen==fountain). You can see both of them in the picture. Following towards the River Spree, the Marx-Engels-Forum, a public park named after Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, with a statue of both of them in the middle.After that we went towards the Nikolaiviertel, where we visited several buildings: the Nikolaikirche(Nichola's church), the Knoblauchhaus(aka. the Garlic House, Knoblauch==garlic, Haus==house), home in the 19th century of architect Eduard Knoblauch. (By the way, the light pink colour of the house reminds of the one of the garlic... I'm not sure but I think that must be intentionally done...). Just by them, the Ephraim Palais; the Altes Stadthaus, former town hall of Berlin (alt==old) and the Palais Schwerin/Münze.
After that we strolled towards Klosterstrasse to visit the Parochialkirche (17th century);
the Palais Podewils and the Franziskaner Klosterkirche (see pic) from 13th century and which is in ruins. It was getting dark so we visited 3 last spots: the Stadtgericht(the Court), the restaurant Zur Letzten Instant, which is said to be the oldest tavern in Berlin; and finally the Berliner Stadtmauer, a lesser known wall in Berlin from the 13th century.
That's all for today. I guess it's time to go back to job. Software agents need me.
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