Wanderlust support group 5

[Osias]

What? Isn't learning about a different culture what causes the desire to learn even more, including the language?

[vijayjohn]

It can, but this is the first time I've ever heard of culture shock resulting in wanderlust.

[Osias]

[Linguaphile]

I'm with Osias here - that type of video inspires wanderlust in me, too. The point of that type of video is to point out the things that were surprising and different to someone who experienced a particular culture. It's really interesting to see (since that type of video not only shows aspects of a culture, but also points out which aspects the person who made the video found surprising - they're not always the same ones that would have surprised me, and that's kind of interesting to see, too). Anyway the videos aren't about the negative phase of the actual experience of culture shock (which does have positive phases too, by the way) - they're about the cultural surprises and yeah, they always inspire me to want to learn more about the language and culture in question, too (or BOTH cultures, if both cultures involved are different from mine - as in this case, Brazilians talking about German culture).

[Ciarán12]

This video brought back my wanderlust for German:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSXpboZ5NQE

Literalmente tudo naquele vídeo vale pra Irlanda também tirando a parte dos fogos de artifício (que não se vendem nos supermercados mas se usam sim na noite do Ano Novo). O negócio dos apartmentos a gente resolve por colocar o sobrenome E o número.

[Osias]

Literalmente tudo nesse vídeo vale pra Irlanda também tirando a parte dos fogos de artifício (que não se vendem nos supermercados mas se usam sim na noite do Ano Novo). O negócio dos apartamentos a gente resolve por colocar o sobrenome E o número.

É, eu ia perguntar como faz na Alemanha quando tem gente com o mesmo sobrenome. Meu medo é que os alemães respondessem com 'isso nunca acontece'.

[Osias]

So this is the day I'll listen to German radio stations and the thread 'share german music' (or something). I love the Internet.

[vijayjohn]

I'm with Osias here - that type of video inspires wanderlust in me, too.

I think maybe it doesn't have an effect on me personally because the differences between my heritage culture (i.e. Indian culture) and the one literally surrounding me (i.e. American culture) are so much bigger than a lot of other cultural differences people report, including the ones in this video. "Brazilians have apartment numbers and Germans don't" seems much more trivial of a difference to me than "Indians think obsessing about planning out the future is a crucial life survival skill and Americans think it's unhealthy." The moment I step outside this house, I might as well be on another planet. These kinds of videos don't usually seem to go in depth with exploring cultural differences.

[Osias]

But that's what make them so interesting! Germany is not another planet, the differences are small, however curious. I think I could learn German fast and go there with little, that's the feeling I get.

[Linguaphile]

But that's what make them so interesting! Germany is not another planet, the differences are small, however curious. I think I could learn German fast and go there with little, that's the feeling I get.

Yeah, sometimes the trivial differences are the fun ones, because they let you start to imagine what it would be like to live there. Even (or especially) in places where the cultural differences are very large in comparison with what I'm used to, I like to learn about the small everyday details. The big differences are often already well-known (so it's not that I don't want to hear about those, too, but rather that often I already have). The little things generally aren't so well-known and that makes them more surprising. This type of video often focuses on that very sort of thing because it's often "the things no one told us before we went there" - no one told them because they were small things, but now they're telling us, and that's interesting. It's also just plain interesting to know what surprises other people the most or which things they consider the best things to include in a short video. Knowing the importance of planning for the future in a particular culture is a useful thing too, but the small trivial details fill in gaps one little piece at a time and let me understand daily life in a particular place in a slightly deeper way than I did before.

[vijayjohn]

You can only hear so much about the trivial differences of a given culture before they stop being all that interesting IMO, though. I've been hearing about quite a few of them in the case of German culture, so these particular ones don't really do much for me. They may even be the sort of thing I think I'd rather find out by actually going there. Everything is trivially different anyway. Even we are different from ourselves at different moments in time, in some sense; our bodies are not static, so the processes that go on inside it at one moment are not exactly the same as the ones that go on at another.

[n8an]

I'm really keen on learning Romanian. I have no idea why - it's never interested me before - but I'm going with it

Surprisingly, for quite a big language, there aren't many great resources. I'm thinking of purchasing TY but I've heard mixed reviews of it.

[Yasna]

Jesus Christ, some sort of in-person Duolingo Swedish meet-up just started a few meters away from where I'm sitting. I'm not interested in Swedish. I'm not interested in Swedish. I'm not interested in Swedish. I'm not interested in Swedish.

[voron]

Surprisingly, for quite a big language, there aren't many great resources. I'm thinking of purchasing TY but I've heard mixed reviews of it.

Assimil Romanian is good. (AFAIR there is no English version of it, I did the Italian version).

[vijayjohn]

I'm thinking of purchasing TY but I've heard mixed reviews of it.

TY is fine. They just don't translate everything in the dialogues. This isn't that unusual for TY.

[Antea]

I am wanderlusting again for Scottish Gaelic, but last time I tried it didn’t go very well Maybe I should try again

[vijayjohn]

I tried sort of secretly doing Scottish Gaelic with someone else (NOT księżycowy!) once, but they didn't stick with it for very long.

[księżycowy]

Yeah, no. That wasn't me.

[vijayjohn]

I specifically mentioned you only because people may not be aware that I've tried studying languages together with people other than you before.

[księżycowy]

But, but I thought we were exclusive!