The Chat Thread

[Elgarian]

Sorry, I was interrupted while I was posting last night. As I was saying, she ran off ... muttering something about needing to buy you some chocolate, flowers, CDs, and a bottle of single malt.

[greg]

Random question:
How do some people from countries like Sweden or Norway get to be native-level English speakers?

The reason for that question is that I was just watching some video interview with Thomas Haake of Meshuggah, and his English is perfect, yet he denies "being brought up bilingually," but says he's just always had a talent with it for some reason. I know the similarity in languages might help a little, but is the main reason probably just from reading a lot and being exposed to the language a lot?

[The new erato]

Random question:
How do some people from countries like Sweden or Norway get to be native-level English speakers?

The reason for that question is that I was just watching some video interview with Thomas Haake of Meshuggah, and his English is perfect, yet he denies "being brought up bilingually," but says he's just always had a talent with it for some reason. I know the similarity in languages might help a little, but is the main reason probably just from reading a lot and being exposed to the language a lot?

Quite a strong focus in school (I think I had a total of 5 or 6 years of English in school); being exposed to it a lot, and the fact that the languages aren't too remote linguistically. I also had 3 years of German and 2 years of French and to this day can navigate reasonably well around these countries in their native tongues.

[sospiro]

Quite a strong focus in school (I think I had a total of 5 or 6 years of English in school); being exposed to it a lot, and the fact that the languages aren't too remote linguistically. I also had 3 years of German and 2 years of French and to this day can navigate reasonably well around these countries in their native tongues.

I can get by in Spanish & Italian as a tourist but that's my limit. I can speak Swahili but that's another story.

I once came a cropper though in Barcelona for speaking Spanish to a Catalan & was gently chided. I was mortified & got so flustered ended up speaking Italian.

Talking of Barcelona    my friend & I are flying out this afternoon. The main purpose of the trip is to see the Spanish Grand Prix but we're planning on visiting the Picasso Museum and hoping to go to Figueres for the Dali Museum.

There's nothing on at the Liceu which appeals but we've got tickets for http://www.operaflamenco.com/ at the Palau de la Música Catalana.

And if we can get tickets we're going to see FC Barcelona play CD Tenerife at the Nou Camp.

Adiós for now.

[greg]

Quite a strong focus in school (I think I had a total of 5 or 6 years of English in school); being exposed to it a lot, and the fact that the languages aren't too remote linguistically. I also had 3 years of German and 2 years of French and to this day can navigate reasonably well around these countries in their native tongues.

Excellent!
To me, that sounds like a more successful education system than others. Here in the U.S., it's rare for someone to become fluent in another language through school unless they go to college.

Most people either take Spanish or French in high school for 1-4 years (usually both at the same time aren't allowed). My friend from Colombia took English over there, but he had 9 classes at the same time, so didn't learn much from school.

I think it would be better if they made everyone take a foreign language class from 6th grade to 12th grade or so- that'd be 7 years of the same language, and maybe more people might come out of high school actually having learned another language. And they should offer either Spanish, French, or German for that.

[greg]

Anyways...
how do I get this out of my head? It's torturing me...

Lately, all I can think about is being in Japan. But, obviously, it'll be a long time before I even get a chance to visit- let alone, live- there. Every single day is painful, being where I am (thinking of not being there). The only thing I can do is go on Google Street View and pretend I'm there, and I'm doing that constantly lately. I've practically lost passion for just about everything and can only think of going there, just so I can escape into a completely different world.

Hopefully this will pass in time, maybe?...

[greg]

I think I know... distractions!

"When you're in prison, you do anything to get distracted."
"Hope is a dangerous thing- it can drive a man wild."

Taking Morgan Freeman's advice... 

[greg]

God, I wanna play Final Fantasy again...

[Lethevich]

I tried going back to FFVII a few months ago but it was dull as hell. The required amount of time is just grossly wasteful to do at the moment and I guess I burnt out on it on first plays.

I noticed I had a memory card save with everybody with their 2/3 limits (including Yuffie) before entering Junon. Hell yeah for being a geek.

[greg]

The time is the thing that gets me. It's perfect to do if you're in high school or middle school, and have weekends off and few responsibilities- but for me too, now is not good.

VII I've only completed once, and it was quite an experience.
(just now, I remembered that I had tried to play again, but got to Red XIII's village and quit- might still have a save  ).

My opinions on the others:
1-3: haven't played
4: played- pretty good, but not earth-shattering
5: haven't played, even though I own it
6: played the beginning- quit because it was so tedious only being able to play at certain times. Regarded by many as the true greatest FF.
8: haven't played, but want to
9: my personal favorite FF (and 2nd favorite game of all-time). So much charm, huge scope, fun mini-games...
10: liked it a lot, though one thing got to me- the story felt too straightforward and simplistic. Go to one temple, then the next, rinse and repeat. There was pretty much just one twist in the storyline, and it felt kinda cheap. The cutscenes, though, were INCREDIBLE, and still retains at least a little bit of soul.
10-2: strange... awkward. Somehow, I found it fun even though there wasn't much of a story. I don't remember much of it, but I guess I found it to be a fun experiment.
11: online- don't even wanna play it
12: by this point, I think the series has completely lost its soul. The characters and story were COMPLETELY UNMEMORABLE AND BORING. Ugh. However, I enjoyed it because I thought just about everything else in the game was a huge improvement- battle system, graphics, maps...
13: never played it- don't have a PS3. The trailer I saw didn't impress me at all, and according to some opinions I've read online, it confirms my fears that the series has lost its soul. Hopefully it'll pick back up, though.

[Lethevich]

8 is really neat, it has the movie-like quality of 10, but a better setting. Its battle system is much more of a pain in the ass than 7, 9 and 10, though. The rest I don't like. Definitely play 7 though if it's for a first time, it has by far the best plot.

[greg]

I've also heard that random encounters are worse in 8 than any other game, though I don't know how true that is.
I'll have to research whether or not it's possible to run a downloadable copy on an emulator on my PC, though I doubt it since you can't with the other FFs (usually they freeze up at a certain point).

[Lethevich]

Dude, a secondhand PS probably costs about $10 by now

[greg]

Dude, a secondhand PS probably costs about $10 by now

So, just now, looking that up on ebay... there is one. For $10. 0 bids. 
But... I'll have to think it over. There's a few cheap ones for under $20.

[Lethevich]

Maybe keep an eye out on second-hand ads around your town (Cragslist or local newspapers/shops, etc) - it's common for people to get rid of an old console and tons of games/controllers for a really low price.

[greg]

Good advice, thanks. I get the newspaper every day, so I could do that. 

Also great news to see that if I wanted to buy FF8, it's only $20 to buy a brand new copy, whereas a couple of games I have are literally over a hundred dollars because they're out of print. Really tragic to see stuff like that- although I could make a lot of money if I sold one of these games, I just couldn't do it, even if it were for, say, $80. I wouldn't sell it for $1000... (well, I would, but I'd just buy another copy immediately). 

[DavidW]

I've never been a fan of jrpgs... wait... I think it's time to resurrect that old gaming thread...

[greg]

I've never been a fan of jrpgs... wait... I think it's time to resurrect that old gaming thread...

Really? lol 
Man, JRPGs are the only genre I can think of that turns a regular game into a work of art! 

[DavidW]

Really? lol 
Man, JRPGs are the only genre I can think of that turns a regular game into a work of art! 

Random encounters suck.  

[greg]

Random encounters suck.

I completely agree with you there. That's why I like the battle system of something like FF 12, where you actually see the monster and fight (or run away) in real time with a menu.
Just about every other JRPG has random encounters, though, and I don't like it at all.