nineveh_uk

Early October: the next level German course does not run. I resolve to continue to work and to keep up the previous year's German.

Period since early October: I do next to no German

Yesterday evening: periodic check more in hope than expectation reveals that a WIP has updated for the first time since late August. Two new chapters! I switch off my light far too late, on account of reading German.*

Meanwhile, speaking of language learning in the interests of hobbies, it is the final episode of series four of The Bridge tonight! My colleague's husband had the temerity to ask her to wait to watch it with him when he comes back from the three week research trip he's left on today. Surely grounds for divorce! (She said no, obviously.)

*Badly.

I have to decide whether to sign up for next year's German class. Realistically, I am going to sign up for next year's German class*, but no thanks to the information about it, which makes it sound astronomically boring. This is an adult evening class, by definition going to be taken by people who are not of school/student** age and considering their exciting future career in Germany***. So why on earth does the proposed programme involve quite so much job-related stuff??? There are many interesting things in German-speaking nations, it would be nice to talk about some of them instead of time management. Here is the thrilling prospect:

( It is long, so I will cut it )

Meanwhile in other language news, a much worse crisis: when I accepted Firefox's invitation to speed it up by "refreshing" it (which has indeed worked), it didn't mention that this would include getting rid of Adblocker and my add-on for pretending to be in Norway so I can watch the skiing when it is not at a convenient time on Eurosport (or I need more skiing). This would be a minor annoyance were it not that the new version of Firefox is incompatible with said widget. Aargh! Apparently there is something similar I can do with Chrome so I will try that, but I do feel that "By the way, you will lose everything you customised to make it work for you" was something they could have mentioned.

*At least once I had done the Deutsche Welle test myself to check I'm at the required level, because I'm not sure I believe it really.

**Students get much cheaper classes through the university. I could do them too, except I can't because they are when I am at work.

***There were a couple of people last year who might potentially work in Germany or Austria one day, but they would be doing so in English.

I have a stinking cold* and am looking what my father would describe as "pale and two". Which with my last post, requires a poll:

[Poll #2056140]


*Which at least has brought an end to the jaw/earache I was having last week that was beginning to make me have dark thoughts about wisdom teeth.

There are many people on my flist who are impressively fluent in several languages. Then there are the rest of us, for whom the sensation of watching this vid will probably feel very familiar.



I particularly like the way it keeps giving one hope before turning incomprehensible again.

I have suspected for some while that the government has a secret plan to turn back time, the Tories because they think everything has been going downhill since the Great Reform Act*, the Lib Dems because it's the only way they're going to get into government again for another century.

This afternoon, I received disturbing evidence that the plan may be succeeding. As I manoeuvred my trolley away from the supermarket check-out and towards the exit, I heard a young man* exclaim, "I say!"

I didn't think anyone, ever, said "I say"** any more. I am certain I have never heard anyone say it before. I would have noticed. I first came across it in children's books, and though it's absolutely ubiquitous in interwar fiction, it seems bizarrely unsayable now. I think I tried once, but felt like such an idiot even in the contemplation that I never did.

The world is reversing on its axis. It is the only explanation.

*Definitely not a hooray henry. Quite the opposite.

**Exclamation mark optional.