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Post by morganstarr89 on Jan 4, 2012 21:09:32 GMT
Moab Is My Washpot by Stephen Fry. Me too!! how fantastic is it?! I love Stephen. |
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ElerVim
Filthy Mayhemer
"If there is one thing I like in a woman, it's me." - TGL in Sweden
Posts: 598
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Post by ElerVim on Jan 5, 2012 7:27:07 GMT
Currently reading James's "Car Fever". I love it a lot more than "Notes"; I find myself laughing aloud a lot more. ;D
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Post by eolise on Jan 5, 2012 17:17:53 GMT
Currently reading James's "Car Fever". I love it a lot more than "Notes"; I find myself laughing aloud a lot more. ;D Me too!! Finished 'May on Motors' a couple of days back. And when Im not feeling for a read, I listen to him on my MP3 player ;D |
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Post by adrianmay on Jan 5, 2012 18:44:54 GMT
Currently reading James's "Car Fever". I love it a lot more than "Notes"; I find myself laughing aloud a lot more. ;D Me too!! Finished 'May on Motors' a couple of days back. And when Im not feeling for a read, I listen to him on my MP3 player ;D Just curious Nat. Are you reading and listening to these books in English or are they translated? I don't read another language well enough to enjoy a book in another language. Just wondering what that's like. How many languages can you read, speak or write? |
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Post by eolise on Jan 5, 2012 19:00:13 GMT
Hey Adrianmay! Ive always prefered to read/listen to the original language, so I have James' books and audiobooks in English!  It always gets dull when reading translations. I don't understand every single word, but I understand the whole thing. I speak and read Dutch, English, German and a little French, Spanish and Esperanto.  |
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Post by aeromanda on Jan 5, 2012 22:07:32 GMT
Wow nat! It is impressive that you can speak/write/read so many languages.  I have a hard enough time with English and it is my native tongue. (LOL) I have always wanted to be multilingual but my attempts haven't been that successful. I just don't have the knack for languages I guess. Currently, I am reading Gone With the Wind. GWTW the movie is my favorite movie of all time. I watched it over Thanksgiving as TMC was running a marathon of it. I realized I hadn't read the book since I started high school and that I should read it again. I finally got around to picking it up again just over a week ago and I am really enjoying it. |
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ElerVim
Filthy Mayhemer
"If there is one thing I like in a woman, it's me." - TGL in Sweden
Posts: 598
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Post by ElerVim on Jan 6, 2012 4:54:30 GMT
Holy cow, Nat! To be multilingual...truly awesome. All I know is English, Spanish, about a year's worth of elementary level Japanese (and some of the characters I can read: Hirigana and Katakana, but no Kanji.. you need to know something like 300 Kanji characters to just read a newspaper), some sign language and sarcasm. Once I've mastered Japanese, I'd love to learn French, Russian and Dutch. |
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Post by meimichan on Jan 6, 2012 5:01:41 GMT
Holy cow, Nat! To be multilingual...truly awesome. All I know is English, Spanish, about a year's worth of elementary level Japanese (and some of the characters I can read: Hirigana and Katakana, but no Kanji.. you need to know something like 300 Kanji characters to just read a newspaper), some sign language and sarcasm. Once I've mastered Japanese, I'd love to learn French, Russian and Dutch. Trust me, you need to know more than 300 kanji to read a newspaper. 2000 is considered decently fluent in the language, but there's over 10,000 kanji. I can make it through children's books and some manga that's aimed at younger ages-for instance, I've got several original Sailor Moon books in Japanese and I can read those. At one point I was able to play through part of a video game not yet translated into English for a little while. I spent 3 years studying Japanese and I try to keep myself at least at year 2 level. But a newspaper? Not a chance. I've tried. Just because I recognize the kanji isn't enough, because I don't always know what word it's supposed to be a part of. Speaking and understanding that language never gave me an issue, but reading and writing it? Yow. I'm currently trying to teach myself French and refresh myself on Japanese. I am fluent in sarcasm. I find it helps with some of my other hobbies.  I also know the entire sign language alphabet, which I tried using on my husband last time I had a tooth pulled, but he didn't know any of it, so I gave up and grabbed the whiteboard. |
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Post by eolise on Jan 6, 2012 7:56:43 GMT
Lol, thanks, Aeromanda and ElerVim. It's great to know, EV, that you want to learn Dutch! Im willing to help you? |
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ElerVim
Filthy Mayhemer
"If there is one thing I like in a woman, it's me." - TGL in Sweden
Posts: 598
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Post by ElerVim on Jan 7, 2012 7:17:57 GMT
Holy cow, Nat! To be multilingual...truly awesome. All I know is English, Spanish, about a year's worth of elementary level Japanese (and some of the characters I can read: Hirigana and Katakana, but no Kanji.. you need to know something like 300 Kanji characters to just read a newspaper), some sign language and sarcasm. Once I've mastered Japanese, I'd love to learn French, Russian and Dutch. Trust me, you need to know more than 300 kanji to read a newspaper. 2000 is considered decently fluent in the language, but there's over 10,000 kanji. I can make it through children's books and some manga that's aimed at younger ages-for instance, I've got several original Sailor Moon books in Japanese and I can read those. At one point I was able to play through part of a video game not yet translated into English for a little while. I spent 3 years studying Japanese and I try to keep myself at least at year 2 level. But a newspaper? Not a chance. I've tried. Just because I recognize the kanji isn't enough, because I don't always know what word it's supposed to be a part of. Speaking and understanding that language never gave me an issue, but reading and writing it? Yow. I'm currently trying to teach myself French and refresh myself on Japanese. I am fluent in sarcasm. I find it helps with some of my other hobbies. I also know the entire sign language alphabet, which I tried using on my husband last time I had a tooth pulled, but he didn't know any of it, so I gave up and grabbed the whiteboard. I somehow knew from your name alone that you were awesome, Meimi. I have probably referred to James as James-kun at some point in time and nobody understood that (maybe I should use May-kun/May-sama...sounds better). Would James's nickname in Japanese be "Teichou ga osoi"? I somehow don't think that is correct...I can spell out all of the TG3's names and nicknames in Kata and I think I translated James's first and last name in Katakana for him when I sent him some of my art last month. He'd be huge in Japan, if he ever gets to go back again. He'd like it there, methinks. If he stays for longer than a day. ;D Sailor Moon manga, way awesome (love the series, Tenou Haruka was my favorite; Fushigi Yuugi, MagiPoka and Gokudo are my other favorite series...I have a Kero-chan plush sitting on my dashboard that watches me drive horribly). At one point in time, I knew all of the Katakana and Hiragana syllabary and I could tell you what something said (if I knew what the word was), but not always what it meant, rendering my knowledge rather useless. It's like a two step process I find with learning Japanese; being able to speak it is very different than being able to write it or read it. The instructor I had in college had said that 300 was the minimum you should know, but I think she was being too conservative. When I was in my 7th grade English class one day, they had a poster of the alphabet in sign language above our whiteboard and I ended up teaching myself the alphabet because I was so bored. I picked up an ASL book and taught myself a few words as well. A good friend of mine and I in high school would refer to a teacher I had a crush on as a "silly rat" b/c his name rhymed with rat (Matt). I can count to 10, and I know a handful of nouns and verbs...that's about it. If someone tries to talk to me in ASL, I think the most I could answer back that I don't understand them. Nat, I would love to learn Dutch! My aunt is from the Netherlands and I love learning foreign languages. I also love learning about other cultures as you learn the new language. |
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Post by Vivienne on Jan 7, 2012 14:59:34 GMT
Many, many Japanese speak English. I'm all for them using their translators 100%, but the odds of that many Japanese being encountered and none of them speaking English is quite low. It also made the race harder.
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Post by meimichan on Jan 7, 2012 16:14:52 GMT
Aww shucks elervim. You'll make me blush.  I'm reading that as "late of slow" so...possibly. I'm more than a bit rusty in my Japanese. My two favorite anime series are Rurouni Kenshin and The Slayers. I think I learned more about Japanese history on my own because of the first show, and the second is one of the silliest things I've ever seen while still having a really good story and characters. I also like Fushigi Yuugi but sometimes(often) I really do wish the main character would get successfully murdered already. I was going to put the show titles in kana, but figured that might be kinda mean. *is reminded of how very very badly I want to go to Japan now* Another Dutch friend from Twitter once taught me a Dutch curse word, I think. It was a very similar word to an election candidate WI had back in April. The candidate's name was Kloppenburg, and apparently this is similar to a Dutch swear word? ;D I wouldn't mind learning Dutch either...or lots of other languages, I've had Chinese on my radar too, but I'm trying to get good in the ones I do know bits of first. No sense trying to take on too much at one time, and I know it takes a lot of work to get this stuff to stick in my head, especially when I'm not conversing in it at all per day. One of the best parts of learning a new language, in my opinion. Vivienne, from what I understand, most Japanese schoolkids are taught how to read and write in English more than how to speak it. In the big cities and major tourist areas though, you're right, they'd probably have come across some English speakers. I was kind of surprised the first bunch of teenage girls they ran across didn't start trying to speak English, since the younger people are more likely to speak English and give it a try on tourists. But we likely didn't see everything that was filmed. And that is one of my favorite races. Wonder if I should tell my husband what to watch this morning. |
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Post by eolise on Jan 7, 2012 17:00:30 GMT
Kloppenburg?? All I can think of is 'klootzak' as curseword, but that's it really, not really similar.
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Post by meimichan on Jan 7, 2012 17:10:48 GMT
Kloppenburg?? All I can think of is 'klootzak' as curseword, but that's it really, not really similar. Yep, that was it! Maybe my other friend's just got a dirty mind? |
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Post by Vivienne on Jan 7, 2012 17:41:04 GMT
I've wondered where the saying "bloody nora" came from. Apparently it was a cockney saying bloody horror and since they drop the h and do other things to words it has morphed into "bloody nora".
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Post by eolise on Jan 7, 2012 21:47:47 GMT
Kloppenburg?? All I can think of is 'klootzak' as curseword, but that's it really, not really similar. Yep, that was it! Maybe my other friend's just got a dirty mind? Lol, well, she mustve had that indeed yea. ;D a 'klootzak' is just a ball of a man's thingy, btw. |
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Post by missburlo on Jan 8, 2012 0:43:13 GMT
Moab Is My Washpot by Stephen Fry. Me too!! how fantastic is it?! I love Stephen. that is a brilliant book. Stephen fry is just amazing. I got a right bargain today Top Gear Annual 99p @ The Works |
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ElerVim
Filthy Mayhemer
"If there is one thing I like in a woman, it's me." - TGL in Sweden
Posts: 598
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Post by ElerVim on Jan 8, 2012 6:49:11 GMT
Aww shucks elervim. You'll make me blush. I'm reading that as "late of slow" so...possibly. I'm more than a bit rusty in my Japanese. My two favorite anime series are Rurouni Kenshin and The Slayers. I think I learned more about Japanese history on my own because of the first show, and the second is one of the silliest things I've ever seen while still having a really good story and characters. I also like Fushigi Yuugi but sometimes(often) I really do wish the main character would get successfully murdered already. I was going to put the show titles in kana, but figured that might be kinda mean. Nah, I would've figured it out if you had it put it up. It may take me a while, so long as none of it is in Kanji, I'm good. Slayers is awesome - I've only seen the first season. I have so much anime that I want to watch and the list is a mile long. I'm in the middle of Axis Powers Hetalia which is really quirky, but hysterical. Have you ever seen Dragon Half? It lurks on YouTube and is the shortest, weirdest parody anime you will ever see, if you haven't already. ;D Yeah, I find in Fushigi Yuugi, Miaka needs to jump off a cliff every now and then, but I just love the group she has with her; a ton of guys with magical powers that kick butt and unconditionally support one chick? It rocks in my book. Reverse harem for the win! The first true subtitled anime I'd seen was Ranma 1/2 (I had watched DBZ and Sailor Moon in the bastardized version on Toonami way back in the day when I got off of school, but realized the error of my ways and watched Sailor Moon properly in the subbed version later on when I had access to it). I just hate that Ranma has so many episodes and I don't think I got further than 20. At least it isn't as bad as One Piece. The series is over 500 episodes? Really? Ugh. That makes two of us; I've been dying to go to Japan for years, and I am trying to like fish more - it'd expand my palate. Problem is I really hate rice. Lovin' pot-stickers all the way, though. I'd love to try okonomiyaki and I could live off of Mizo soup and green tea ice cream the rest of my life if I had to. I've found (at least for me) is that by listening to Japanese music and reading it along in Romanji has helped me pick up the accent and pronunciation correctly. And for some reason, I find men easier to understand than women. Not sure why. The exam I had in college for Japanese was interesting; the teacher asked us really basic questions, like "what did you have for breakfast today (in Japanese, obv)?" I blanked and said, "Eto..Piza to beeru wa tabemash*ta (it censored me..grr)." One of the first things they taught us was American things in Japanese (biru, suteki, keki, aisukurimu). Cheaters.  |
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Post by britishsteamwave on Jan 14, 2012 12:31:33 GMT
Rozen Maiden Vol 1.  |
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Post by lew on Apr 20, 2012 20:44:21 GMT
Well seeing as it was a New York Times best seller, or something like that, Fifty Shades of Grey, Darker, freed ......I need a room of pain ;D......anyway interesting, opened a whole new world for me ;D Not the best written book/s, but it rather enthralled me, now where's those handcuffs ;D And I'd rather like a Christian Grey ;D.....
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Post by FizzyLogician on Apr 20, 2012 22:03:10 GMT
Fifty Shades of Grey and the sequels are in my "To read" pile. I just finished Charlotte and Emily, which is a fictionalized account of the lives of the Bronte family. It was interesting, although I'm not sure about the historical accuracy.
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ElerVim
Filthy Mayhemer
"If there is one thing I like in a woman, it's me." - TGL in Sweden
Posts: 598
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Post by ElerVim on Apr 21, 2012 19:50:27 GMT
Fifty Shades of Grey... you'll have to tell me how that is, I've been curious about that book, but I have a ton of others lined up.
Currently reading Bossypants by Tina Fey and Wise Secrets of Aloha by Kahuna Harry Uhane Jim. I never seem to read one book at a time. ;D
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Post by lew on Apr 24, 2012 15:11:13 GMT
Fifty Shades of Grey... you'll have to tell me how that is, I've been curious about that book, but I have a ton of others lined up. Currently reading Bossypants by Tina Fey and Wise Secrets of Aloha by Kahuna Harry Uhane Jim. I never seem to read one book at a time. ;D I was too, mention handcuffs and spanking, and that was the book for me ;D it's ok, worth a read, not the best book ever, but it led to other books that are rather naughty, more handcuffs and spanking ;D coughs ;D which were far more enjoyable ;D Think I'll leave it at that ;D |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on May 31, 2012 2:21:38 GMT
I'm a mystery fan, and I just finished the last book in a series called HER ROYAL SPYNESS by Rhys Bowen. The book was called NAUGHTY IN NICE, and I loved it. I also adore Nice; my SO lived there in his teenage years so he knows it well and still has friends there.
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Post by devil-may-care on May 31, 2012 4:09:20 GMT
Rhys Bowen is an excellent author. I love her Evans series set in Wales.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 2, 2012 17:41:37 GMT
Has anyone read the Maisie Dobbs series by Jacqueline Winspear? I have absolutely DEVOURED those books; I have actually stayed up all night reading them because I can't bear to close them.
Because of my occupation of college professor, most of my reading amounts to Latin during the academic year, so it is a pleasure to launch into some good fiction for a change!
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Post by devil-may-care on Jun 3, 2012 1:01:29 GMT
The Maisie Dobbs series is fabulous! Our mystery reader's group read the first one in the series several months ago, and most of the members have been reading the rest of the series on their own. Masterful description by Winspear! ;D
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Post by FizzyLogician on Jun 3, 2012 2:16:24 GMT
I'm reading "The Feminine Mystique" by Betty Friedan. I didn't take any Women's Studies courses in college and this is the first time I've read it. Very interesting to see the role of women in the US in the 1950's, and what inspired the backlash of a feminist revival in the 60's.
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Post by FizzyLogician on Jul 13, 2012 22:35:01 GMT
Come on ladies, fess up. What are you reading on your summer vacations, while lolling in the sun, or watching it rain? Anybody read "Mick"? Are you going to?
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Post by jacqui on Jul 29, 2012 19:07:06 GMT
Ok just finished 50 shades of....
Its an ok book, kept a lonely woman company for the last few weeks. I will probaly read the others just to complete the story but i'm in no hurry to do so.
Now back to some proper reading, looking forward to JK Rowling's adult book The Casual Vacancy. In the meantime i feel a classic coming on...some Steinbeck i think ;D
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It always gets dull when reading translations. I don't understand every single word, but I understand the whole thing. 
I have a hard enough time with English and it is my native tongue. (LOL) I have always wanted to be multilingual but my attempts haven't been that successful. I just don't have the knack for languages I guess. 
I also know the entire sign language alphabet, which I tried using on my husband last time I had a tooth pulled, but he didn't know any of it, so I gave up and grabbed the whiteboard. 
I love a man who can handle a gun 