My choice this time for the recurring postcard theme “Anything You Wish”:
This week, I had four very colourful postcards landing on my doormat.
Colourful red tulips and yellow pansies from the US.
(Thanks, Ginny!)
Colourful street art from the Netherlands.
(Thanks, Jarina!)
Colourful cat from the Czech Republic
(Postcrossing card – CZ-1312098)
Colourful map from Turkey
(Postcrossing card – TR-368430)
Additional funny coincidence with the last one: Earlier in the day, before the post arrived, I had been doing some Turkish lessons on Duolingo. And (as happens every now and then) I had also been asking myself why I’m doing this, with arguments like “It’s not like I even get to send or receive a lot of postcrossing cards from Turkey…” Then I went to pick up the post, and there was this card from Turkey waiting for me! (LOL) And have to admit I felt rather proud to be able to write a few Turkish words in my registration message to the sender (an 11-year-old): Teşekkürler! Harita çok güzel! (Thank you! The map is very nice!)
…
I think it was in August 2016 that I started with Turkish on Duolingo – encouraged by the progress I’d made with Spanish over just a few months in that app. I decided to check out Turkish because I wanted to try a language more ‘foreign’ in its origin and structure (more different from other Western European languages) – but without the added difficulty of a whole new alphabeth. (One reason was that I was curious to get an idea of the difficulties “the other way round”, i.e. for refugees/immigrants from other parts of the world to learn Swedish.) I never expected to advance very far in Turkish – and I haven’t! – but I’m still finding it “interesting”. It’s a bit like doing a puzzle or crossword puzzle… Sometimes one gets stuck and just can’t figure it out; but then, laying it aside for a while and then returning, something may suddenly fall into place…
What I do know is that the Internet, Blogging, Postcrossing and Duolingo have all contributed to “making my world more colourful” over the past decade or so!
13 comments:
What a surprise to visit and see my card! I really like all of these, especially the mural and bikes. You have a natural ability for languages. Your ideal job would have been a translator. When I think of all the words you know, and some days I can't even think of English words I want to use!
these are truly colorful, did not think about them coming like this with tulips, beautiful... i agree with ginny on the gift for languages.
Great postcards. We lived in Turkey a couple of years and never did well with the language.
So true, Monica! For me, blogging has made life more colourful, too! I should learn Turkish... almost all my neighbours are Turkish, and some of them speak no or very little German.
My upstairs neighbours' surname is Akdeniz, and I was delighted to discover the name on the map.
Colour is a great theme for the time being (as for any time!). Mail also puts colours in my world; Postcrossing with its exotics destinations and provenances, it's a great part of this.
I think Postcrossing must be a very good way of trying to transcend our cultural, geographical and language backgrounds. I don't Postcross but I send and receive a lot of cards and mail. I've found blogging a wonderful way of communicating with people throughout the world without the pressures of Facebook.
Meike's statement that she had found her neighbour's name on the map if Turkey made me thing that it was odd to find someone using the name of a region of their country. I suspect no-one in Britain is called Northumberland or Liverpool. Then I realised that use of the same name for a place and a person is not that unusual. Lewis (where I live) is a common forename and surname in Britain. As is Brodie.
Ginny, sometimes it's hard to find the right word no matter how many languages you know! ... As for translating or interpreting as a full time job, I think that must be quite a tough job really. In the past, I tried it occasionally, both when working as secretary, and privately in church context. It does not only require knowing "words" but also understanding the context. And if you find that you either don't understand or don't agree with the ideas expressed by the original speaker/writer, it can get awkward. For example, as secretary in the industrial sector, I could sometimes worry about whether the wrong preposition used in a translation might make a whole big complicated piece of machinery fall down or something... And interpreting half a sentence at a time of what a visiting charismatic American preacher is saying from the church pulpit, without having a clue where his conclusion is going, is not much easier... ;)
Thanks Sandra. I always liked languages... At this time in life, and with all the options the internet has to offer, I can also "afford" to just play around and try things out for fun, without setting my ambitions too high. With the Duolingo app, I was really just curious to see how my brain would cope with learning new stuff after 60. So far, so good... (Although who knows what I may have forgotten instead!)
It's a difficult language, Janet, and I'm not surprised if it takes a long time to get into it even if living there. I have been following two seasons of a Turkish series on Swedish television, around 200 half-hour episodes, and I still feel I only recognize a word here and there.
I know "deniz" means "sea" ... and göl or gölü means lake (a lot of those on that map too). Just checked to make sure, and Akdeniz is the Turkish name for the Mediterranian Sea. But (according to the Wikipedia disambiguation page) it is also the name of "an intercity municipality"; and a surname; and a ship, and an airline, and... :)
Eva, it's certainly fun to get little exotic surprises every now and then in the mail - not just bills and adverts :)
Graham, I had to laugh out loud at your sudden revelation about your own island being another example of names used for both people and places. You could add Harris to the list as well, by the way! ;) ... I have to admit that similar thoughts went through my own head when reading Meike's comment, though. Can't think of a Swedish region (or sea) that is also used as a surname. There are probably plenty of surnames in Sweden too that can be either a surname or a place name, though, even if I can't think of them just now.
What a beautiful reflection post with these colorful postcards! I love the first and third ones. And by the way, you motivate me to continue with my Duolingo French lessons. Thanks for sharing, Monica!
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