DC Returns

[DiscerningCatholic]

Eh. I'm actually not as upset about it as I thought I would be. It's not final or anything yet - I doubt it will be, actually, but whatever - and dropping the major wouldn't be a huge sacrifice to me since...well, let's just say that BC isn't exactly known for its music department. I love my piano teacher but the rest of the faculty can be very difficult to get along with. It'd be a bummer, but certainly not the worst thing to ever happen. And yes, I sing a little bit. The sound of my voice isn't the best but I can sing weird intervals accurately (ex: descending minor ninths), so my class voice teacher first semester loved me.  I sing in the concert chorale and a ministry choir under the patronage of St. Gregory the Great. That second one is a TON of fun. We sing for the more traditional Wednesday 9:30 Masses and we did all kinds of fun stuff last year like Sicut Cervus, O Vos Omnes for the New Evangelization Symposium Mass, and the Arcadelt Ave Maria for the Immaculate Conception Mass. I'm still trying to get our director to let us do the Biebl Ave Maria sometime next year. 

[DiscerningCatholic]

So I decided to learn Russian over the summer and it's the best worst decision I've ever made. 

[dominicansoul]

здороваться

 

[vee]

здороваться

 

bless u

[DiscerningCatholic]

здороваться

 

спасибо

(I really don't speak much so don't expect this thread to morph into a DC Speaks Russian thread. lol)

[DiscerningCatholic]

Got my wrist figured out! Turns out I strained a muscle in my thumb from going too hard during piano practice. Add that one to the repertoire. 

[dominicansoul]

I've been fortunate not to damage any wrist, fingers, etc in my lifetime...  I'm really quite surprised by that...

[vee]

She probably plays a lot more than you do at this point ds.  Although I have heard ds play the keyboard and she is very gifted.  I havent heard dc play anything so iono.  As for me I play the flute and have no injuries and you'll have to ask my neighbours what they think of my abilities.  So far though I havent had any notes under my door saying something like "forget ode to joy, how about ode to shut the heck up!!!"   

[dominicansoul]

But I played for over 30 years!  lol.  And you play the flute very well.  You are gifted.    

[AccountDeleted]

спасибо

(I really don't speak much so don't expect this thread to morph into a DC Speaks Russian thread. lol)

I studied Russian briefly. I can't remember anything except

Я понимаю, по-русски.

Which is pretty useless if that's all you know! 

[MarysLittleFlower]

Eh. I'm actually not as upset about it as I thought I would be. It's not final or anything yet - I doubt it will be, actually, but whatever - and dropping the major wouldn't be a huge sacrifice to me since...well, let's just say that BC isn't exactly known for its music department. I love my piano teacher but the rest of the faculty can be very difficult to get along with. It'd be a bummer, but certainly not the worst thing to ever happen. And yes, I sing a little bit. The sound of my voice isn't the best but I can sing weird intervals accurately (ex: descending minor ninths), so my class voice teacher first semester loved me.  I sing in the concert chorale and a ministry choir under the patronage of St. Gregory the Great. That second one is a TON of fun. We sing for the more traditional Wednesday 9:30 Masses and we did all kinds of fun stuff last year like Sicut Cervus, O Vos Omnes for the New Evangelization Symposium Mass, and the Arcadelt Ave Maria for the Immaculate Conception Mass. I'm still trying to get our director to let us do the Biebl Ave Maria sometime next year. 

I love Arcadelts Ave Maria and do you mean Sicut Cervus by Palestrina? I'm in my church choir where we sing this sort of thing...i love it :D

So I decided to learn Russian over the summer and it's the best worst decision I've ever made. 

Oh I'm fluent I'm Russian... Haha... Feel free to ask any questions if you want. Its probably a hard language to learn but I grew up with it so I had it easy

Привет   

[DiscerningCatholic]

I can actually read most words, so I'll be able to work with the director on pronunciation for the most part, but I don't understand but ten or so words. lol I know how to ask where the refrigerator and the bacon are, so I'm good, right? 

She probably plays a lot more than you do at this point ds.  Although I have heard ds play the keyboard and she is very gifted.  I havent heard dc play anything so iono.  As for me I play the flute and have no injuries and you'll have to ask my neighbours what they think of my abilities.  So far though I havent had any notes under my door saying something like "forget ode to joy, how about ode to shut the heck up!!!"   

I think it has less to do with being gifted and more to do with trying to play Gershwin and Chopin with VERY small hands. lololol

I studied Russian briefly. I can't remember anything except

Я понимаю, по-русски.

Which is pretty useless if that's all you know! 

For a while, I knew how to ask people if they could speak French...in French. Pretty useless. And then I realized that if I ever ended up in a French-speaking country, I would be asking if they knew ENGLISH. I can ask the same question in Russian, but I'm too lazy to do battle with the Russian keyboard to type it in.

[AccountDeleted]

I can actually read most words, so I'll be able to work with the director on pronunciation for the most part, but I don't understand but ten or so words. lol I know how to ask where the refrigerator and the bacon are, so I'm good, right? 

I think it has less to do with being gifted and more to do with trying to play Gershwin and Chopin with VERY small hands. lololol

For a while, I knew how to ask people if they could speak French...in French. Pretty useless. And then I realized that if I ever ended up in a French-speaking country, I would be asking if they knew ENGLISH. I can ask the same question in Russian, but I'm too lazy to do battle with the Russian keyboard to type it in.

Yeah, the first thing it seems a person learns in any language are things like the numbers (I can count in Japanese up to ten) and then a bunch of useless phrases. It's much more important to know things like "Where is the toilet?" or "Do you speak English?"

After all, how often does one need to say "La plume de ma tante est sur la table"? I even learned a whole story in French about how I broke my leg skiing and need a doctor.  

And in addition to learning useless French and Russian, I also learned how to say such helpful things as "Italian isn't very difficult" (in Italian) or "Give me a kiss." (a bit dangerous). Why?

My German teacher at least taught us some fun beer drinking songs, even if we didn't learn much useful conversation in his class.

Languages are fun but these days I am perfectly happy with English. My only problem now is trying to remember which country I am in for the spelling -  color, colour  etc.

[DiscerningCatholic]

Honestly, I hated Rosetta Stone because literally all I learned in an entire year of French was absolutely useless. Like, I can tell you that a red ball is in a wagon in your yard next to the green car, but I can't ask you to call an ambulance or ask for directions to the nearest supermarket (very, very important). 

The first song I learned in Latin other than Adoro Te was Gaudeamus Igitur, which happens to be a popular 18th century drinking song. Hooray for homeschooling! Needless to say, I haven't used that since. 

I am not ashamed to admit that I started learning Russian solely because their alphabet is so darn cool looking. I can count to ten, tell you what my name is, where I'm from (seh-sheh-ah), but those are probably the only things that I know that will actually be useful. 

And I'm sure that "La plume de votre tante" that is "sur la table" is lovely, but...

Edited August 11, 2015 by DiscerningCatholic

[AccountDeleted]

Honestly, I hated Rosetta Stone because literally all I learned in an entire year of French was absolutely useless. Like, I can tell you that a red ball is in a wagon in your yard next to the green car, but I can't ask you to call an ambulance or ask for directions to the nearest supermarket (very, very important). 

The first song I learned in Latin other than Adoro Te was Gaudeamus Igitur, which happens to be a popular 18th century drinking song. Hooray for homeschooling! Needless to say, I haven't used that since. 

I am not ashamed to admit that I started learning Russian solely because their alphabet is so darn cool looking. I can count to ten, tell you what my name is, where I'm from (seh-sheh-ah), but those are probably the only things that I know that will actually be useful. 

And I'm sure that "La plume de votre tante" that is "sur la table" is lovely, but...

Well, I can confidently assure you that any language you learn will get better if you have an alcoholic drink. My SIL's mother speaks only Quebecois and I speak mostly only English but we each have a smattering of the other's language. As we sat on the sofa and drank wine, it was amazing how fluent we both got in each other's languages! We were laughing and having a wonderful time!  (can't find the wine emos)