thorified

It's best to laugh at it, I spent so much money on them xD But the CDs make me happy and I get to support the guys... as long as I can afford it, it's all okay~

Ss501 is band I'm not too familiar with... I've only heard a handful of songs but I liked those? I keep reminding myself I should try more music, but I've had so little time lately I've mostly just stuck with SHINee and JYJ (they're my number 2~) but as you like them so much, I'll try to check out more of their songs soon :D

Yes yes yes I'm so proud of the guys and it's so deserved imo... aww I kind of teared up at Jjong's tweets though, as he said he felt he didn't deserve the award but he totally does... such a sweet and modest person, though.

And of course I voted for SHINee ;D I hope they win!

Heeeey!

You're welcome ^^ I was just about to write you a message myself haha :) It's always nice to meet new people!

And yep, SHINee are my favourites these days ^-^ And have been for over a year now :) I don't think my wallet likes them as much as I do though hehe ;) Are you a big SHINee fan too? :) Btw, did you see the footage of them winning the Daesang award? ;~; Ah I'm so proud of them~~~

Hope you're well~

No worries, life is hectic here as well. Though in my case it wasn't caused by parties, just by too much work haha! But it seems you're having a lot of fun and could also safe on money for books :D That's great! It's safe to say then that you're enjoying your Erasmus experience? :) How are the classes going?

So Yamada-kun *was* shortened, right? I did think it was too rushed. No character development at all, and tbh after the first few episodes the ~humor was too similar, and it just stopped being as fun to me. :( I think I should look for a good Japanese drama to watch next, I feel like the ones I've heard about over the recent months didn't appeal to me as much as they could have..

But still, you managed to catch up with all Running Man episodes! That's quite an achievement ;) Too bad it doesn't count for MDL huh? Haha :D

Christmas starts tomorrow for me! Well, a little bit. I'm going to Disneyland Paris with a friend and they already have the decorations up. I'm so excited. :D Plus my weeks of hell at uni have ended today, so it definitely feels a bit like Christmas! How are you doing? :)

As long as you have fun ^^ I'm actually one of the few among my friends who doesn't like partying, so we just have movie nights to make up for it. ;)

And that's good to hear, glad it worked out in the end :D

Parties are a good way to meet people, I agree. And it is good to meet people ;) I'm just not a fan of them, but it's good to hear you're having fun ^^

I hope the meeting with the buddy worked out. <3

Haha I remember from Vienna there were indeed a lot of parties for the ESN group, yes. I never went, but I can understand how that might cause you to miss out on some sleep ;) But good to hear the classes at least started off nicely!

whut did she just miss the part where you said you had no internet connection or???

^^

As long as we can find some time to answer eventually.. if not even that is possible then we're really too busy ^^

Good to hear you're almost done! But that's a bit rude of those 'buddies'. Indeed why sign up if they're just going to leave you hanging like that? Most strange...

But still... 15 classes sounds a bit excessive to me. =/ I wish you luck! Hwaiting!!

Sorry for the late reply, uni life is so hectic lately!

I'm surprised to hear ths re: the paperwork, but mostly because my friends had no problems at all in Germany. I'm sorry for you :( But I guess they can't help it that it's busy, what with it being Erasmus time and all. Fingers crossed you'll get everything done soon! Bureaucracy sucks so I hope you can put it behind you quickly and focus on nicer things.

Haha yes exceptions. I think we don't have that many in Dutch, but all the same the spelling can be confusing, esp because I've studied German... the languages look alike so I occasionally mix up the grammar and spelling rules. xD;

..17 classes?! That seems very excessive. Don't you have something like a tutor who can help you? There should be someone you can discuss your schedule with. :(

Haha yes I've heard before that the Germans are very bureaucratic... but I believe they should be quite efficient in this department too. Anyway, I wish you luck! Hope you're done soon <3

Yep, 6 years, I did Gymnasium/grammar school and got Latin then. :)

Dutch spelling is quite difficult, also for Dutchies, as for some things there are no clear rules and it seems to be decided upon quite randomly, haha.

And oh, that's strange, I always heard Erasmus got priority when getting into classes O: I hope it works out! Fingers crossed. <3

..my classes personally in Vienna, and I only got the schedule afterwards. But there is indeed a fair bit of paperwork that has to be done, however I don't think it takes two weeks! I solved my paperwork within 3 days, and just went exploring afterwards ;) Some experience is always good. And if you have time to work and can find a job... why not, it's also valuable experience, and you get to interact with the local population too :)

It's okay, no worries :D Hope Germany is treating you well so far!

Studying Latin is cool, kind of like solving a rewarding puzzle every day. :) I took Latin for 6 years, and I still miss it. I considered doing a minor in medieval Latin, but chose business economics in the end. Both puzzles, but of a different kind ;) Yeah, Rome was beautiful, but I'd like to go back with people of my own choosing sometime ;)

Anja (my Polish friend) showed me quite a few of the Polish letters, so I think I know the ones you mean. But I really cannot hear the difference, probably because the same difference doesn't exist in Dutch. Oh yes, I know the Eskimo example too! It's such a fascinating theory, though I don't fully believe in it either. But you're right, it does explain all the loan-words ;)

Ah I remember from Vienna I got my time table really late as well, but that's because I had to confirm..

No worries :)

Yeah, I saw You're Beautiful :) Jeremy was such a cutie! I really liked him too. My favourite was Tae Kyung, though. And I must say I didn't really like Shin Woo, but it was a cute drama, and I'm glad I've seen it :)

Ahh, I've been thinking about watching Secretly, Greatly because I really liked Park Ki Woong in the movie/drama I've seen him in. :) I see you've also been watching a lot of Running Man... you're almost caught up, congrats :D

So Yamada-Kun has finished surprisingly early. It was supposed to be 10 eps originally, right? o.O But what did you think of the drama?

Still, one should at least try.

Ahh work and uni. I'm doing it now, and in my experience it's a very busy and stressful experience xD But you learn a lot, too, so it depends really on how much you have to do!

Interesting ;) And I think most people get that feeling, though. At least it happens to me too XD

Stress and procrastination are both logical reactions ;) All the same, good luck with packing! Hwaiting!

..be confusing for the students I guess. But still, I think a mixture of both teaching forms is best, in my experience. First make sure you can understand the language a bit, then start immerse them in it ;)

Pronunciation is indeed super important! But you're right, you do need to be able to hear the difference. I have a Polish friend here too and she tried to 'show' me the difference between certain s-sounds I think it was in Polish, and I just couldn't hear it. For her it was obvious. Reminds me a bit of theories in linguistics as well, Sapir-Whorf I mean, where they say that your word knowledge offers you a certain perspective on the world, e.g. that Russian has different words for light and dark blue, and therefore see those as separate colours whereas the Dutch do not. I think it's the same principle with the s-sound, we don't have the difference, so we can't seperate the sounds.

Latin is super interesting, and still relevant too, like shown in your classes. It's also helpful when studying French, Spanish, Italian. Of course the Germanic languages have quite a lot of Latin influences too, so you definitely do still see it around a lot. I'm a bit sad now that we didn't learn about the change in meanings like you did, though. We just translated classics, but then that was fun too. Latin is such a puzzle, it's lovely to work with the language, but alas, haven't done so in over 3 years now... but the culture is indeed super interesting as well. I had a class on it too, classical culture. We went to Rome too, it was fab :)

Maybe the teacher is insecure too, or they have school guidelines to follow? I think I could understand the hestitation to some degree if classes change teachers each year and you're the only one using this communicative method of teaching, that'd

..by writing articles, or contributions to those (Fandom) And Philosophy book series. XD Still, I think it's something you can only pursue if you're really, really passionate about it, but it seems like he is ;)

Indeed ^^

Of course we do learn things at uni, even if it's not always what you want to learn or what you expected at first. But I guess there's a life lesson in there as well. :P

Plenty of essays all around ;)

..you love, you'll grow to connect that topic with a lot of frustration, so maybe it's better this way. I wrote my thesis on my favourite Medieval work and now I still get slightly annoyed when I look at it even though I love it so much *sighs* Anyway, good luck :))

Ah I see. I guess those are acceptable reasons for why people don't want to become a teacher, but that's really only half of the story, isn't it? There's also success stories out there, but those don't get as much attention. Still, this general attitude to teachers is toxic and I can see why it would be demotivating :(

195 Euros per month sounds quite good! Not that I'm really familiar with housing prices in Germany or Poland, but judging by the Dutch market than 195 Euros is fantastic ;)

If the guy is so well suited to philosophy, then he can probably make his living working with it, either as a teacher (at uni) or..

..this is an effort everyone can make, and an effort teachers should definitely make. I know teachers are also just people, but you are trying to teach people what passes as "correct" and how to make themselves understandable in a language, and pronunciation is such a big part of that! Imo there's really no excuse for not even trying..

YES THIS CYCLE I HATE IT if it wasn't there I could quit my job right now and focus on uni. As it is I make over 40 hours a week for uni work at the moment (seriously, they're cray-cray in this master) and I still work besides that too! Once the crazy schedule ends at the end of October I'll probably have a burnout, I mean darn it. Meh.

Owch writing the thesis over the internet seems hard. But you can do it, hwaiting!! I hope you'll be able to find a subject that at the very least slightly interests you. But take it from me, even if you pick a subject..

..people seem to approve of the idea of getting kids to talk. I remember teaching English at primary school and teaching that in English too. We were explaining games in English and the kids actually got it, and could help with English words as well. But Dutch society is a bit different I think, as about 50% of the media here (or more) is in English (often with Dutch subtitles). But I can imagine that if they're not used to hearing English or speaking in English, that it seems very scary at first.. so in a way I understand, but in a way it's also good: it means you're breaking down walls, and it might benefit them in the long run. :) Being a pioneer is always hard though, alas!

I'm going to admit that my pronunciation isn't good as accents etc. are things I absolutely cannot do. But of course I worked on at least making the right sounds, even if I don't sound fully native. I think..