so that's the scoop about chewing gum - it's not that it stays in your stomach for seven years... actually it goes into your brain and makes it harder to learn foreign languages!I better call a doctor right now and see if he can remove all the Bubblicious inside my skull

QuoteOriginally posted by: samudraNonius,Isnt it time for you to give this forum a test of your serious characters. I am looking forward tothe deep and intriguing passion that reverbrates in your heart. Particularly interesting will be thefact how the emotions gets transformed in the domain of maths. I have always wondered what makes youso popular with girls( I have tired everything under the sun from acting, dancing what not but always failed with girls so you can understand my burning curiousity)? Is it they develop a sense of awe just because they dont understand anythingthat you speak or is it there is such lucidity that it is intoxicating or it maybe simple you are a narcotic dealer giving a good deal( which offocurse I would never believe given you are a quant, so I would assume you are a very smart counterfeiter).On the issue of language I can speak fluently in Hindi, Bengali, English and learned a smattering of Spanish and German. I am very seroiusly thinking of learning Chinese but I dont have time. Learning a language cant be done using a textbook. Learning a language is about learning the people, there culture, there life and the small joy and sorrow that shapes them. I believe you have interest in literature given you write. Writing is a big hobby of mine. Observing people of all types is what is the chief occupation of a writer. Every person we come across in life is an enigma a potential bestseller if correctly packaged and presented. The story of life is interesting and to listen to it the native tongue is the medium.Language, literature and arts encapsulates life in its splendid best. Gives it the hue that enthralls and keeps me wondering how beautiful the world is and how short life is to enjoy all there is .........Firstly, what makes you think girls like me? Secondly, I really don't do very much math anymore, so I doubt that you will glean any mathematical insights or inspiration from speaking with me.

QuoteOriginally posted by: greghmIt's like in everything you study, from Math to Golf, you have a steep at the beginning, then a quite flatter one where you are getting aware of all the stakes, difficulties, fields that exist (that's where you become scared). You know you have to go in nearly all of them without diving completely into it.French must be one of the hardest language to learn. Chinese and Finnish are harder. But there is one thing for sure, you learn it better in the place than in Classrooms. On the grammar side, I believe that there are da same two ways to learn a language : either by speaking it with denizens (that's word I learnt from Karnak) either through books and the hellish grammar. I got 5 outta 20 in grammar in school and I don't make mistake in French cos' I choose to read a lot, it's like talking to locals, you don't think in terms of rules, etc.so when you write something or when you talk about something you know if it's correclty written or spoken because of visual memory for the first and aural (not oral) recognition for the secondFrench is hard because the French make every aspect of existence about 10 times harder than it has to be.

For anyone interested in language: structure, learning, evolution etc, I highly recommend this book:Steven Pinker - The Language InstinctInstructive and entertaining.

Nonius,Ok from your statement I conclude my third hypothesis that you are a counterfeiter. Well I have always thought in that direction. I guess given our mutual interest in theshady aspects of life we can be good buisness partners.By the way you should not say loudly you are starting to forget maths given yoursuccess in impersonating as a quant. Or have you made your loot as a fake quant and wantto move on. Ok we can talk about these things when we meet.

QuoteFrench is hard because the French make every aspect of existence about 10 times harder than it has to be. that's why my ex-b!tch is like that

I'd like to learn Japanese. Any book//tape//cd recommendations?

MikeBell,I tried Japanese for sometime. Very difficult. There is a study package calledMastering Japanese ( part I and II each consists of 9 CDs).http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... s=booksThe difficult part of Japanese is the alphabet. There is kanji, kana and katakana. Kanji is alsoused in Chinese( supposedly there is more than 70,000 kanji pictures). The spoken part may be actually not that difficult but learning to read is not easy. I gave up quickly. Good luck.

QuoteOriginally posted by: samudraNonius,Ok from your statement I conclude my third hypothesis that you are a counterfeiter. Well I have always thought in that direction. I guess given our mutual interest in theshady aspects of life we can be good buisness partners.By the way you should not say loudly you are starting to forget maths given yoursuccess in impersonating as a quant. Or have you made your loot as a fake quant and wantto move on. Ok we can talk about these things when we meet.We are all fake quants. We all feign knowledge when it suits our needs. We all fool ourselves into thinking that this a noble profession, when, in reality, our motives are the obvious ones. Now, having said that, the quant mind is one of law and order. In some sense, the quant mind is the most vulnerable to feelings of guilt about his choice of career. This leads to frustration and chronic misery.

QuoteOriginally posted by: MobPsychoQuoteOriginally posted by: NoniusMob, finally an articulate reaction from you. I sense that you have read my tale. Anyway, my memory is quite good, and your previous commentary about my writing style DID NOT point to the cartoonish nature of my characters, but, rather something much more inarticulate. Nevertheless, yes, my characters are shallow. Then again, they don't need to be deep for these purposes.Also, I recall that my closing line, or my near closing line, was approximatelyQuotemore Hunter Thompson, less disembodied Virginia WolfIs that a good example of what you are referring to as inarticulate, perhaps because I misspelled Woolf?MPby the way dude, I do respect your mind....I just can't make heads or tails often.

QuoteOriginally posted by: andymLearning a foreign language as an adult is a pretty masochistic activity, given that the rewards are so slender for the time invested. You can practice / study your ass off, and you will probably never be as fluent as a native 8 yr old. Sad, but true. And this has little to do with your level of immersion. andym,Things are not so bad. I have a counter-example I think it's all a matter of interest and intent. Adults simply don't have the time to really, really get into a new language.

Best way to learn ANY language?Well, Nonius, my friend I would have to say that, besides having a bed partner that does not speak your language (That has to be the very best way, dawned if is it not!) buy a foreign channel!! Make yourself to watch all kinds of movies, tv shows, etc in that languages as spoken by native speakers in "natural" ways

QuoteOriginally posted by: MaeloBest way to learn ANY language?Well, Nonius, my friend I would have to say that, besides having a bed partner that does not speak your language (That has to be the very best way, dawned if is it not!) buy a foreign channel!! Make yourself to watch all kinds of movies, tv shows, etc in that languages as spoken by native speakers in "natural" waysSo, in lieu of hiring a French teacher, I could just go out and spend about 500 a pop on a combo of sex and French Lessons. Sex does indeed provide a good accouterment to learning a language, sort of like cumin on swordfish.

QuoteOriginally posted by: MaeloBest way to learn ANY language?Well, Nonius, my friend I would have to say that, besides having a bed partner that does not speak your language (That has to be the very best way, dawned if is it not!) buy a foreign channel!! Make yourself to watch all kinds of movies, tv shows, etc in that languages as spoken by native speakers in "natural" waysThat's called "learning by osmosis". Doesn't really work that well (in my opinion).

QuoteOriginally posted by: MobPsychoQuoteOriginally posted by: NoniusMob, finally an articulate reaction from you. I sense that you have read my tale. Anyway, my memory is quite good, and your previous commentary about my writing style DID NOT point to the cartoonish nature of my characters, but, rather something much more inarticulate. Nevertheless, yes, my characters are shallow. Then again, they don't need to be deep for these purposes.My original commentary absolutely did point to the idea - and I am paraphrasing now - that when a character's eyes so much as blinked, you failed to assign a "hidden" motive to it. You moved past various characters at your psychedelic white trash intellectual gathering in South Florida, but did not give these characters a chance to move the world - and this is new phrasing today - only to sit there like dalmatians on a lawn with shock collars.My comment then was that the world is not, in fact, animated by people's ambitions, or passions, or schemes. But - and this was my argument at the time - in order to write fiction, you have to pretend that it does. I gave an example either in that post (and/or in another post soon after that), that when somebody wins the lottery in a fiction, you have to portray him not as having gotten lucky, but as having persevered, or something.If my original commentary was inarticulate, it was only because I did not want to come across as making a Herculean effort to tear down what you had constructed. Even if it did not convey my point clearly - which I thought it did - it at least conveyed the casual and amateurish nature of my reaction and critique accurately. And even if your gratitude expressed for my critique at the time was not genuine, it conveyed that you received it in the correct, informal tone.MPMP, a few more remarks...My inspiration comes from the following writers....1. Gogol (and to a lesser extent, Bulgakov, although I consider him to be a watered down version of Gogol).2. Tom Wolfe. 3. The Writers of the Simpsons.4. F Scott Fitzgerald.5. Henry James.6. Dostoevsky.The first three on the list, to a large extent, do not develop characters into the degree that you have demanded in your post. Most of the characters from the writings of the first three sources are mere caricatures of humans. Rather, these writers rely on literary absurdity and irony to convey their respective ideas. Their genius lies in the development of absurd plots that tear down and expose various absurdities and contradictions in society. The last three, pretty much in the order that I’ve listed them, develop real life characters on a much deeper level. I should qualify this by saying that Fizgerald and James elected to focus on luxurious and flowery language, while Dostoevsky, by sheer brute force, was able to pry open the Human Soul with simple words. Nobody even comes close to Dostoevsky in this respect. In fact, I would in theory like to write like Dostoevsky, but this would be a full time job. (By the way, I have a strong suspicion that Fyodor really did kill someone in his life, and that he got away with it.) He really, at the end of the day, is a philosopher, and much of the dialogue in his writings reflects, well, self-reflection and introspection. In the end, in my limited amount of time (roughly one hour per day), I end up attempting to ape the styles of the first three on the list.