Where Do You Live?

[Syrotek]

lol, yes, i can see the home sweet home part.

you're taking lots of western countries languages. any plan on taking eastern ones?  

[Shinrin Minto]

I want to learn Japanese, and now that I'm moving to Hong Kong, I'm thinking about trying to learn Kantonese Chinese and/or simple Chinese. Not sure yet. But damn, it'd be difficult. wink  

[Syrotek]

I would imagine so. Eastern languages have no latin root. xD

Wow, when you get old, you're going to know like 50 languages.  

[Shinrin Minto]

Many Western languages have no Latin root either. wink Basically the Romance languages are the ones with a Latin root. And I don't really know Romance languages. I'm a fan of Germanic languages. xd

Haha, prolly not, I forget easily. Cause I don't get to know most of the languages that well. wink  

[Syrotek]

Aren't the Romance the influential ones. =P

Well "it's like riding a bike," you can't forget it once you have it in your head. believe me, i tried. Dx  

[[.Onomatopoeia-.]]

Shinrin Minto

Haha, okay. wink

To be honest, I prefer Finland (or similar kind of conditions). I want to have my four seasons and definitely snow in the winter, that's a must. Cause I like winter the best anyway. wink So wherever I will go, I know I will always return to Finland (home sweet home, ay?)

Usually I learn languages by reading, well, whatever I happen to get in front of me, e.g. newspapers, books, ingredients lists in food packages, traffic signs (yah, that's how I learned to read Cyrillic alphabet in Greece.. xd ) and so on. Sometimes I practice with someone I know online or so. And sometimes I might use online stuff, especially dictionaries, but some grammar sites and stuff like that are useful too. smile

Iya: I'm from Finland (as you might have guessed if you read what I wrote above), but currently living in Germany. wink

I would enjoy three seasons. I hate summer, but I love winter too. :D

A friend of mine is Swedish and she learned English by doing what you do too. xD; She didn't know a single word of English when she came here, she just read things and talked to people.

How are you able to afford traveling? Do you have to find a home and a job in the country first before going there or just let everything come along as it comes when you go?

 

[Shinrin Minto]

[.Onomatopoeia-.]

I would enjoy three seasons. I hate summer, but I love winter too. :D

A friend of mine is Swedish and she learned English by doing what you do too. xD; She didn't know a single word of English when she came here, she just read things and talked to people.

How are you able to afford traveling? Do you have to find a home and a job in the country first before going there or just let everything come along as it comes when you go?

Haha, cool! smile

I work and save money. wink And I find a job and an apartment first, it's easier when all is ready. Within the European Union it's relatively easy to get a job because you don't need a work permit (cause Finland is part of the EU too), but in other countries it can be fairly difficult. The bad thing is that usually you can't be really picky with the jobs. sweatdrop You take what you get.

Iya: No, they're just one branch of the Indo-European language family. The only thing is that at least Germanic languages have many loan-words from Latin (and French), but they are two different branches.
In case you or someone is interested in the Indo-European language family:
http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/ballc/oe/oe-ie.html  

[Syrotek]

huh, that cleared out some stuff. thank ya. =D  

[Shinrin Minto]

Np. smile I'm a language freak anyway. wink  

[[.Onomatopoeia-.]]

Shinrin Minto

Haha, cool! smile

I work and save money. wink And I find a job and an apartment first, it's easier when all is ready. Within the European Union it's relatively easy to get a job because you don't need a work permit (cause Finland is part of the EU too), but in other countries it can be fairly difficult. The bad thing is that usually you can't be really picky with the jobs. sweatdrop You take what you get.

I see.
How do you decide on which country you want to go to? And when you do get the job, do you learn the language first and then search for a job?

 

[Shinrin Minto]

[.Onomatopoeia-.]

I see.
How do you decide on which country you want to go to? And when you do get the job, do you learn the language first and then search for a job?

Well, it really depends on the situation. I came to Germany to learn the language better (cause I study it as a minor in the uni). And last spring my boyfriend got a job from Hong Kong, so I thought I'd apply to a uni there to finish my studies, and that's how I ended up deciding to go there this autumn. And sometimes I just want to live in a place which is completely different, to learn about a different culture, or so. And to the US I came for my previous boyfriend (he was American). So basically it can depend on many things.

Usually I search for a job where I need to know only Finnish/English/German/Swedish, cause those are the languages I know fluently. And learning some other language (or bits of it) I do for fun, not for the job. smile  

[[.Onomatopoeia-.]]

Yes, I see. You use your connections. :3

This may be personal, so you don't have to answer, but did you finish college first and got a good job to save up for your first trip? Also, what do/did your parents think of your decisions? Or is this part of your job? Will you settle down into a country eventually?

Once again, I'm sorry about all of the questions. n__n; When I become interested in something, I like to find out as much detail, stories, facts, effects and progress as possible. I guess it may seem I'm kind of just in your business but I always found traveling fascinating. heart

 

[Shinrin Minto]

[.Onomatopoeia-.]

Yes, I see. You use your connections. :3

This may be personal, so you don't have to answer, but did you finish college first and got a good job to save up for your first trip? Also, what do/did your parents think of your decisions? Or is this part of your job? Will you settle down into a country eventually?

Once again, I'm sorry about all of the questions. n__n; When I become interested in something, I like to find out as much detail, stories, facts, effects and progress as possible. I guess it may seem I'm kind of just in your business but I always found traveling fascinating. heart

Yep. wink

I still haven't finished Uni, and actually I'm taking the advantage of Uni connections too (like exchange programmes, doing internship abroad, and so on). so I'm still studying, but I'm about to finish soon and I'll continue my studies in Hong Kong. And since I study, I get money from the government every month, and if you add working and the savings I have, I do pretty ok moneywise. smile My parents encourage me in getting international experience, since they know it's valued highly nowadays in the job markets.

So basically I work sometime in Finland to get money, then do some calculations and count how much I'm gonna get from the government and/or the job abroad, and there we have it. And I can always return home if I run out of money. What costs a lot though is keeping my apartment in Helsinki for myself, but I don't want to give it up cause all the furniture is there and I come back to Finland every once in a while, and sometimes spend longer times there.

I will settle down either in Finland or in Germany at some point, I'm pretty sure. Depends on which path I choose in my love life (which is a complete mess now). But in a couple of years I'm thinking about settling down, getting a good, stable job and having a family. smile After that I will be doing just vacation trips, I think. Although you never know. wink

And I don't mind the questions, feel free to ask more. smile  

[VanillaCreamCoveredOreo]

Wow. Shirin-san, I envy your ability for languages...  

[Shinrin Minto]

Well, here you're basically forced to learn four languages anyway. wink Finnish and Swedish plus one foreign language is compulsory already in the lower forms, and if you go to a uni or equivalent, you need to learn a second foreign language. That makes four in total. wink

Edit: Ok, no Hong Kong for me. Cancelled the whole thing. Damn men. rolleyes