My language and life situation as of August 2018

Two years ago, in 2016, I wrote this:
http://ujoelee.blogspot.com/2016/08/im-just-language-learner-not-polyglot.html
Let's see how far I've gone this year.

On 30 July 2018, I passed the Goethe C1 exam in Kuala Lumpur. I have German C1 written on my resume, and I speak the language well enough to communicate with native speakers. Consider this a birthday present exactly one month in advance.

I believe my speaking ability in German overtook my Mandarin sometime in 2017. Most probably in mid-year. The opportunity to teach A1 and A2 learners gave me a strong push to improve my reading and speaking especially with monolingual textbooks which I had not up to that point in time used.

At the end of 2016 I had found a few language exchange partners via the HelloTalk app. In February 2017 I got to know Nataša from Bosnia, who was learning superintensively on her own and was at that time active on the DW - Deutsch lernen Facebook site. In fact from mid-2016 up to late 2017 I diligently hand-copied all the "Aufgaben & Lösungen vom (date)" on a daily basis and also other postings on verbs, easily confused phrases and so on.

Thanks to Nataša I got inspired to learn Serbian. I listened to songs, watched YouTube videos, basically the same thing I did to learn German. However, German learning took up 90% of my time and so my Serbian is still at the A1 stage. It's not yet up to a level I can really converse in.

Now that my German is firmly established at C1 level, I can learn more Serbian, but soon I shall start a new full-time job, and with that means less time for everything else. Still I am very grateful to be given the chance to step back into a so-called "normal" life after years in the wilderness.

Nobody knows the future. I do not know if all these was "pre-planned" by a higher power, but I do know that when I started to learn German seriously in early 2016 (even before the CELTA course started), it was like an inner conviction that I would go far with it.

It didn't happen overnight, it took time and meeting the right people along the way. People who practiced speaking or chatting with me, people who gave me the chance to share my passion and knowledge, people who guided me with advice, feedback and suggestions, people who opened doors for me, people who corrected me when I made mistakes. I am grateful for all these.

Even when I was down and out in terms of career and finances I still had the dream of going to Europe one day. I wanted to be in a German-speaking environment and experience being there, interacting with like-minded people, savoring the cool weather and participating in a culture different from the one that predominates in my home country. Now I am one step closer to the dream, the immediate challenge is to deliver the goods in my work first.

In a month I will be forty. Ever since some thing happened in the past seven years or so, I just knew that my life path will never be conventional. I just cannot live the same stereotypical conventional family life or career path that many others live. It has to be something that suits me and that I can do better than other things.

Well, as they say in German, "die Hoffnung stirbt zuletzt". I believe as long as I continue to do the right thing at the right time, stay true to myself and do good, constructive things in life, I will survive. There will of course be down times, but they shall not be fatal.

Malaysian Chinese Guy speaks Serbian

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GdSA70rtFZY
Video length: 1 minute 14 seconds.
Malaysian Chinese Guy speaks Serbian. Posted 27.12.2017 on YouTube by U Joe Lee

Serbian:
Zdravo svima! Snimam video ispred Petronas Towers. Ja sam Jovo, dolazim iz Malezije i živim u Kuala Lumpuru. Kuala Lumpur je glavni grad Malezije. Govorim engleski, kantoneski, maleziski, mandarin, nemački i mali španski. Nikada nisam živeo u Srbiji ili Bosni ili Hrvatskoj. Ali učim srpski jezik, jer imam prijateljicu Natašu koja me uči. Nataša iz Bosne je veoma srdačna. Učim sprski sa Natom. Ona je dobra učiteljica. I ja mogu da pričam sa ljudima iz bivše Jugoslavije. Volim da učim srpski, putovanje i jedem u restoranu. Slušam muziku Lepe Brene, Severine, Nine Badrić, Jelene Rozga, Dine Merlina, Učiteljica. Volim Republiku Srpsku i Srbiju! Srećan Božic i Srećna Nova Godina, zbogom. Ćao. 

English:
Hi everyone! I'm taking this video in front of the Petronas Towers. I'm Joe, I come from Malaysia and live in Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur is the capital of Malaysia. I speak English, Cantonese, Malay, Mandarin, German and a little Spanish. I've never lived in Serbia or Bosnia or Croatia. But I'm learning Serbian because I have a friend, Nataša, who's teaching me. Nataša from Bosnia is very nice. I'm learning Serbian with Nata. She's a good teacher. And I would like to talk to people from the former Yugoslavia. I like to learn Serbian, travel, and eat in restaurants. I listen to music from Lepa Brena, Severina, Nina Badrić, Jelena Rozga, Dino Merlin, Učiteljice. I love Republika Srpska and Serbia! Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, bye. Bye.

Serbisch lernen: Kako da učiš bolje srpski jezik

[I transcribed Alex Rawlings' "How to learn better Serbian" YouTube video and let Nataša, a native speaker of Serbian, correct the grammar. Here's the result for "Serbisch lernen" reference.]

Zdravo svima! Zovem se Alex i hoćU danas sa dA vam kažem kako možete na učite bolje srpski jezik u inostranstvu. 

Ja sam iz Engleske I nikada nisam živeO u Srbiji, ali bio sam tamo nekoliko puta, ali samo za tri ili četiri dana ali mnogo volim srpski jezik i učim ga pošto hoću da se vratim u Srbiju... Na odmoR. 

1. Imati srpske prijatelje 

Ako hoćeŠ dobro da učiš jezik, treba ti vežba. Moraš da vežbaš malo jezik svaki dan. Ja imam mnogO srpskIH prijatelja koji pomažu mi sa sprskom jezikom i mogu svaki dan da vežbam malo na Fejsbuku ili Skypu (ili kako dan, you don“t need this) ili samo pišemo emails. 

Srpski jezik ima mnogo slenga, znači tebi treba ta pitaš srpskE prijateljE kako da kažeŠ to, kako da kažeŠ drugo i ovako možeš bolje da učiš kako pričaju u Srbiji.

2. Kupiti dobre knjige 

Nažalost nema mnogo srpskiH knjiga ali možeš nekoliko tako kupiš. Ova knjiga se zove Više od reći i ona je srpska knjiga iz srbije iz od Instituta za StranE JezikE u Beogradu. Ja radim sa ovOM knjigOM pošto mislim da je dobra i ima sve na ćirilici i LATINICI znači možeš dobro da učiš srpski na dobrOm nivoU.

Ova takođe je dobrA knjiga sa srpski jezik ali je malo velika takođe. Nisam radio  sa ovom knjigom (pošto ne znam zašto, becouse, I don“t know why). 

Ali mnogi, mnogi su mi rekli da je dobra. Na internetu takođe ima mnogo da čitaš. Ovo je National geographic iz Srbije i jedan drug Richard Simcott mi je kupio ovo u Skopju (mislim, I think)  i ja sam čitao malo National geographic na srpskom da učim bolje. 

3. Putovati vozom u Srbiji 

Mislim na najbolji savet da učiš bolje srpski je da ideš u Srbiju i da putuješ u vozu. U Srbiji ljudi pričaju i upoznaju se u vozu i možeš dobro da vežbaš srpski jezik. 

Ja sam bio jedan put u Srbiji kada nisam dobro razumem srpski jezik, ali putovao sam ceo dan u vozu. Pričao sam sa sa Srbima, oni su mi rekli mnogo o Srbiji, oni su mi pomogli sa srpskim jezikom i posle puta pričao sam bolje na srpskom i ne znam mislim da je odličan savet za tebe ako hoćeš da učiš bolje srpski.

Hvala vama i svaka čast.


Quelle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAr2QaRpx2k

=====
English subtitles

"How to learn better Serbian"
Hello everybody! My name is Alex
and today I want to tell you
how to learn better Serbian abroad.
I'm from England and I have
never lived in Serbia.  
I have been there a few times
but only for three or four days.
I really like Serbian.
I'm learning it because I want to 
go back to Serbia on holiday.

1. "Have Serbian friends"
If you want to learn a language well,
you need practice.
You have to practice it every day.
I have lots of Serbian friends
who helped me with Serbian,
so I can practise a bit every day
on Facebook or Skype,
or we just write emails.
Serbian has a lot of slang
so you have to ask your Serbian friends
how to say this, how to say that,
like that you can learn better how they speak in Serbia.

2. "Buy good books"
Unfortunately there aren't a lot of
books for Serbian
but you can buy some.
This book is called „Vise od Reci“,
this is a Serbian book from Serbia
from the Belgrade Institute for Foreign Languages.
I work with this book
because I think it's good,
it has everything in Cyrillic and Latin
so you can learn Serbian to a good level.
This is also a good book for Serbian
but it's a bit large.
I haven't worked much with this book
because ...
I don't know!
Lots of people have told me it's good.
On the internet there's a lot to read too.
This is National Geographic Serbian.
A friend of mine, Richard Simcott, bought
me this in Skopje,
so I've read a bit of this in Serbian
to learn a bit better!

3. "Travel by train in Serbia"
I think the best tip for learning better Serbian
is to go to Serbia
and travel around by train.
In Serbia people speak on trains
and get to know each other.
You can really practise your Serbian there!
I once went to Serbia when
I didn't understand Serbian well
but I travelled for a whole day on a train.
I spoke to the Serbs.
They told me lots of things about Serbia.
They helped me with my Serbian.
After the journey I spoke better Serbian!
I think this is a great tip
if you want to learn better Serbian!
Thanks and good luck!

Thanks for watching!
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