Into the neverlands: Jamming around the Babel tower: lingua cacophonica

Jamming around the Babel tower: lingua cacophonica

Tuesday, September 02, 2008

I was learning English as the first foreign language as of the age of 9 in my hometown Vilnius (first sentences being Hello my name is Dick and I take a rubber to school), but before that by watching the adaptation of the immortal classics of Ilf and Petrov at home on black and white screen I cracked русский язык (the year I started the school was the first the kids didn't have to learn it, thus I never mastered the handwriting and my typing in Russian is very sloooooow) although currently English words spring to my mind much faster than Russian. Then about six years of German as the second language at school (with little success as the teacher aus Deutschland was speaking better English than anybody else among the teachers), followed with Norwegian for a year in the uni (with even less success because of a similar reason, but enough to read the signs in Bergen) and French for three months - I opted for the course instead of getting a driver's license (as a result I was hitching in Minervois and my Je suis Lituanien mais j'habite au Irlande was enough to get by).

So when it comes to Dutch, I'm afraid it becomes a bit of a cross-cultural cacophony. Jeg heiße Lina. Ik spreak geen Nederlands, mais ik will studie. Wawawiwa!

On a more serious note, after discovering International Neighbour Group in my new alma mater I registered for a Dutch course there which is being introduced as informal and seems to be reasonably priced (at 25 Euro per semester plus 20 Euro for books) and starts in the end of September. Can't wait.