Be failed

[Argammon]

Sounds like babelfish rather than PHD level. 

Do not forget that it is a hell lot harder to learn English/German/etc., if you are not part of the Indo-European language family.

That is true. On the other hand it should help if you are fluent in english already. On the same notion it is "easy" to learn spanish if you already speak french for example. I wasn't serious anyways. It's not like german is an important language in modern science.

[JTK]

Dennoch gibt es ein "simple english" (zum Beispiel: http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page) und leider kein leichtes Deutsch. Oder?

[CTG]

Babelfish, LOL (no translator, just a single dictionary)... That's why I'm not a german teacher, but a chemical engineer (probably with PhD in the next few months). And as I said before: I haven't talked in German since 1997.

[BonzaiJoe]

I thought your German was pretty good. Any German would get what you're saying...

I'm totally losing my skills at the moment. I should really read a German book. And then a French book. And then pick up the Mandarin again. Hmm.

[Argammon]

Babelfish, LOL (no translator, just a single dictionary)... That's why I'm not a german teacher, but a chemical engineer (probably with PhD in the next few months). And as I said before: I haven't talked in German since 1997.

That's the point. You are not a german teacher but a chemical engineer and a very good one I would suppose. Can you please link to your articles? I read all kind of articles that are not from my own field, be it computer science, medicine, quantum physics or whatnot.

[zaqrack]

I thought your German was pretty good. Any German would get what you're saying...

I'm totally losing my skills at the moment. I should really read a German book. And then a French book. And then pick up the Mandarin again. Hmm.

don't even remind me, I should also exercise my Mandarin - although I luckily I am past a point where its hard to forget the basics.
My German is stuck at the: "I understand almost everything but its hard for me to express myself" level.
On the contrary my Mandarin is described as: "I can tell just about anything, but its really hard to understand what I am told".
Funny

[CTG]

Can you please link to your articles?

Not here, not now. PM, later.

[Usrin]

Only 8 days left until my PhD final exam (szigorlat), and I have learned almost nothing so far. Final exam means 2-3 hours, 3 teachers and 3 subjects chosen by myself from a list. In my case, these are Physical Geology (=1000 pages), Sedimentology (=700 pages) and Research Methods in Stratigraphy (=only 200 pages, but this is the one which will be totally new for me)

It's possible that you'll see a post from me in this topic next Wednesday...

[Chulk]

What do you study, Usrin? My brother is a Geophysicist and those subjects really sounded familiar, so I guess they are related...

[CTG]

No, you are eager beaver. Summa cum laude...

[Usrin]

What do you study, Usrin? My brother is a Geophysicist and those subjects really sounded familiar, so I guess they are related...

I study geology (much more practical and less theoretical than geophysics, that's why I haven't chosen the latter).

[Usrin]

No, you are eager beaver. Summa cum laude...

We'll see... Well, even if I won't fail next week, I will have to finish and defend my thesis for getting the degree. (OK, I admit that I don't worry so much about that part, I think the exam will be the hardest point.)

[Usrin]

Summa cum laude.

You were right. 

No, you are eager beaver.

But this is not true, I was just lucky.

[CTG]

Summa cum laude.

You were right.  

No, you are eager beaver.

But this is not true, I was just lucky.

Usrin PhD (soon)

[Chulk]

Usrin, do you know who Less Bennet is? Just curious...