AMA - seela

[seela]

I absolutely love that your answer to fast food has nothing to do with the stuff the US calls fast food that is slowly infecting the rest of the world.

What do you like about learning and studying languages? Is there anything you dislike about it?

I absolutely love the early stage of learning a new language when progress is quite fast, everything is new and exciting, my brain gets to build new connections and figure out stuff.

I'm currently learning Welsh on Duolingo, and while Duo is extremely frustrating in its general lack of grammar, it's also rewarding to me to figure things out on my own from the sample sentences and then check the grammar to see if I got it right. It's puzzle solving. I like puzzles.

Languages also allow me to see the world and follow the news from multiple perspectives, which I find very useful in this day and age. For example, I doubt I'd know much about what's going on in Central Asia if I didn't at least occasionally read news in a few Slavic languages.

And I also find it difficult to motivate myself to stick with a language and improve my knowledge once I've reached a stage where I can read and understand a great deal. I'm too comfortable ditching a language, which is why I've accumulated knowledge of many but barely master a few. But that's really more a thing I don't like about myself as it relates to learning a language than something that I don't like about learning a language itself.

Oh, I don't like memorizing words. I've always been bad at it.

 

[seela]

Hmmm. Food controversy.

Lets start with pierogis. Is this actually a Finnish dish? A Pole told me that "perogy" (how we spell it in Canada) was simply a Urkranian word for a Polish dish. (lots of people of Ukranian origin in Northern Ontario and the west).

By Fast Food, I imagine Gracie meant McDonald's or Kentucky Fried Chicken. Take Away as they say in the UK.

On Pizza: Hawaiian Pizza, yes or no.

I'd be interested in more about fresh pea soup. Here "pea soup" refers to a thick ham-based soup made of dried yellow peas.

Pierogi as a word is Polish, yes. It's too early for me to remember how Ukrainian feels about using the equivalent of y after a g, but in general perogy could be how Ukrainian speakers would write pierogi in Cyrillic.

The Ukrainian word for the dish called pierogi in Polish is vareniki. The same dish is known by a different name in many countries.

It's not a Finnish dish. I've lived in Poland and picked it to my repertoire there.

I don't eat fast food like you mentioned often. I've never had KFC and I have McDonald's or stuff similar to that maybe once or twice a year, sometimes it's been years between the times I've had anything like it. So I answered how I could, what relates to my life.

Hawaiian pizza is not my go to but I have no problems with it. I'll eat it if someone offers it to me and it's the only option, it's okay. But I wouldn't order it myself. I have no problems with what other people eat and I find the pizza nazism about pineapple and what style of pizza is the correct kind to be quite weird.

The pea soup you describe is a staple here. It's usually served on Thursdays and the accompanying dessert is oven pancake. I had it at work on Thursday last week, and yes, the dessert as well. It's the only dish that has a package deal with a dessert, that's how much of a thing it is here.

 

[seela]

Here's a pic of the pea soup mentioned above. If I make it for someone else, I pass it through a sieve. Here I haven't done it because it was just lunch I made for myself on a day I worked from home.

And here's my example of Karelian pasties. I made this particular batch at my parents' for my dad's birthday a few years ago.

To be honest, store bought ones are usually better, unless you buy pre packaged, because it's impossible to get a home oven hot enough. But the home made ones are still nice. They're bland but they're something a lot of Finns have grown up with, so most people like them.

Usually they're served with butter that has hard boiled egg mixed into it. Just smash everything together with a fork.

Gravlax is easy to make at home. You just need salt and sugar, and salmon obvs. Everything else is extra, but if you wish, you can season it with something else like lemon zest, dill, beet, ginger, garlic, chili...

 

[Primalex]

To not completely ruin the food topic streak:

Has your body ever served as human food tray?

 

[seela]

To not completely ruin the food topic streak:

Has your body ever served as human food tray?

No, and I have a hard time seeing the appeal in it for anyone involved.

But I have served as a cup/bottle/spatula/plate etc. holder several times.

 

[Primalex]

but transplanted somewhere else.

Why?

.

 

[ultramarineblue]

I absolutely love the early stage of learning a new language when progress is quite fast, everything is new and exciting, my brain gets to build new connections and figure out stuff.

I'm currently learning Welsh on Duolingo, and while Duo is extremely frustrating in its general lack of grammar, it's also rewarding to me to figure things out on my own from the sample sentences and then check the grammar to see if I got it right. It's puzzle solving. I like puzzles.

Languages also allow me to see the world and follow the news from multiple perspectives, which I find very useful in this day and age. For example, I doubt I'd know much about what's going on in Central Asia if I didn't at least occasionally read news in a few Slavic languages.

And I also find it difficult to motivate myself to stick with a language and improve my knowledge once I've reached a stage where I can read and understand a great deal. I'm too comfortable ditching a language, which is why I've accumulated knowledge of many but barely master a few. But that's really more a thing I don't like about myself as it relates to learning a language than something that I don't like about learning a language itself.

Oh, I don't like memorizing words. I've always been bad at it.

That's really awesome that you seek out different viewpoints of world news. I think I would really enjoy that as well. Maybe enjoy isn't quite the correct word but more appreciate it.

I struggled with Duolingo for some reason. I have not ever been able to get far with it three times I've tried it.

I think that it isn't necessarily a negative thing to not master every language you study. You utilize them for your interests and purpose of a greater world view. Do you think you lose something by not becoming even more proficient with them?

Here's a pic of the pea soup mentioned above. If I make it for someone else, I pass it through a sieve. Here I haven't done it because it was just lunch I made for myself on a day I worked from home.

And here's my example of Karelian pasties. I made this particular batch at my parents' for my dad's birthday a few years ago.

To be honest, store bought ones are usually better, unless you buy pre packaged, because it's impossible to get a home oven hot enough. But the home made ones are still nice. They're bland but they're something a lot of Finns have grown up with, so most people like them.

Usually they're served with butter that has hard boiled egg mixed into it. Just smash everything together with a fork.

Gravlax is easy to make at home. You just need salt and sugar, and salmon obvs. Everything else is extra, but if you wish, you can season it with something else like lemon zest, dill, beet, ginger, garlic, chili...

I definitely want to make the pea soup and the Karelian pastries. I'm not sure that I would make the gravlox yet though. What kind of texture does it have?

 

[TANSTAAFL58]

Pierogi as a word is Polish, yes. It's too early for me to remember how Ukrainian feels about using the equivalent of y after a g, but in general perogy could be how Ukrainian speakers would write pierogi in Cyrillic.

The Ukrainian word for the dish called pierogi in Polish is vareniki. The same dish is known by a different name in many countries.

It's not a Finnish dish. I've lived in Poland and picked it to my repertoire there.

I don't eat fast food like you mentioned often. I've never had KFC and I have McDonald's or stuff similar to that maybe once or twice a year, sometimes it's been years between the times I've had anything like it. So I answered how I could, what relates to my life.

Hawaiian pizza is not my go to but I have no problems with it. I'll eat it if someone offers it to me and it's the only option, it's okay. But I wouldn't order it myself. I have no problems with what other people eat and I find the pizza nazism about pineapple and what style of pizza is the correct kind to be quite weird.

The pea soup you describe is a staple here. It's usually served on Thursdays and the accompanying dessert is oven pancake. I had it at work on Thursday last week, and yes, the dessert as well. It's the only dish that has a package deal with a dessert, that's how much of a thing it is here.

Haha. I am frequently confused. The Polish guy and the Urkanian in the office did not get along. I do enjoy them however you spell it though.

 

[cookiecat]

Do you have a best friend?

 

[seela]

Why?

.

I've never stayed put in one place over 10 years. I'm starting to feel the itch big time. So it's very likely in 10 years I live somewhere else. Or maybe I live here again but have lived somewhere else during those ten years.

I'd also like to experience learning a new culture again.

 

[seela]

That's really awesome that you seek out different viewpoints of world news. I think I would really enjoy that as well. Maybe enjoy isn't quite the correct word but more appreciate it.

I struggled with Duolingo for some reason. I have not ever been able to get far with it three times I've tried it.

I think that it isn't necessarily a negative thing to not master every language you study. You utilize them for your interests and purpose of a greater world view. Do you think you lose something by not becoming even more proficient with them?

Duolingo can be extremely frustrating. It offers little to no explanation to many things. If you're not language oriented, I'm not sure how useful it would be. Of course you'll learn phrases but will you be able to expand from those without having the grammar explained to you, I'm not sure.

I do Duo in spurts. I tend to be active for about 2 months and then forget about it for 6 months or so. I don't think there's a right or wrong way to use it. I found it very useful when I was reviving some of the languages I already knew but hadn't used in a long time.

But yeah, I do get a lot of use out of my language skills as is. I think if I knew them better, I would get even more use out of them. It'd be more comfortable and easier so maybe I'd read even more.

And at the very least it might be easier to answer the question about how many languages I speak.

Although I do remember seeing an interview by my university professor where he was asked how many languages he speaks. He told the reporter never to ask the question from a linguist ever, because it's one of the most difficult questions to ask. It made me smile, it was relatable. Not that I'd call myself a linguist, but anyway.

I definitely want to make the pea soup and the Karelian pastries. I'm not sure that I would make the gravlox yet though. What kind of texture does it have?

The texture of gravlax is similar to raw fish, but it's a a little firmer, because the salt pulls out liquid from the fish.

 

[seela]

Do you have a best friend?

Yes I do. She's been my best friend since high school and she's coming over on Saturday, yay!

She lives a little ways away so we don't see each other as much as we'd like, but when we get together it's always like we last saw each other the day before.

We sometimes go months with no contact whatsoever, but that doesn't matter either. She's my best friend and I'm hers.

 

[Primalex]

Did you ever try one of those ************-style porn webcam chats, where you get matched with random people for sexting?

 

[seela]

Did you ever try one of those ************-style porn webcam chats, where you get matched with random people for sexting?

Nope.

I don't cam even with people I know and clothes on, so doing it in some stage of undress with someone I don't know seems rather unlikely to ever happen.

And sexting as in using words? Nah. It's not my forte in Finnish, so I assume I'd be even more awkward in English.

 

[ultramarineblue]

I've never stayed put in one place over 10 years. I'm starting to feel the itch big time. So it's very likely in 10 years I live somewhere else. Or maybe I live here again but have lived somewhere else during those ten years.

I'd also like to experience learning a new culture again.

What other cultures would you like to fully experience by living there?

Duolingo can be extremely frustrating. It offers little to no explanation to many things. If you're not language oriented, I'm not sure how useful it would be. Of course you'll learn phrases but will you be able to expand from those without having the grammar explained to you, I'm not sure.

I do Duo in spurts. I tend to be active for about 2 months and then forget about it for 6 months or so. I don't think there's a right or wrong way to use it. I found it very useful when I was reviving some of the languages I already knew but hadn't used in a long time.

But yeah, I do get a lot of use out of my language skills as is. I think if I knew them better, I would get even more use out of them. It'd be more comfortable and easier so maybe I'd read even more.

And at the very least it might be easier to answer the question about how many languages I speak.

Although I do remember seeing an interview by my university professor where he was asked how many languages he speaks. He told the reporter never to ask the question from a linguist ever, because it's one of the most difficult questions to ask. It made me smile, it was relatable. Not that I'd call myself a linguist, but anyway.


The texture of gravlax is similar to raw fish, but it's a a little firmer, because the salt pulls out liquid from the fish.

You explained the exact thing I don't like about Duo. I like learning about the grammar and being able to make connections that way. I like understanding it more. I tried reviving a language I studied twenty or so years ago but was not very successful because it seemed rather disjointed.

 

[Dreamliner]

Do you knit seela?

and if you do, do you enter the heavy metal knitting championship in Finland?

 

[seela]

What other cultures would you like to fully experience by living there?

I don't really know, I haven't thought about it so closely. I have regretted not taking up a job offer I once got in Montreal, so maybe that would be a good place to start.

The pay wasn't amazing so I didn't dare take the job because I had just spent a large chunk of my savings so I wouldn't have had that much buffer after moving to Canada. But I've regretted not risking it and taking the job several times.

You explained the exact thing I don't like about Duo. I like learning about the grammar and being able to make connections that way. I like understanding it more. I tried reviving a language I studied twenty or so years ago but was not very successful because it seemed rather disjointed.

I'm the same way. I need grammar.

Yesterday I noticed that if I do duolingo on the computer gather than use the app, it offers at least a little grammar in Welsh as well. That cleared up one weird thing I'd been wondering about regarding the conjugation of to be.

 

[seela]

Do you knit seela?

and if you do, do you enter the heavy metal knitting championship in Finland?

I'm embarrassingly uncrafty. No knitting for me.

I tried to crochet at one point in my life. I posted the end result in the crafty people thread here and just now went looking for it to show the evidence of my uncraftiness. Sadly the pics have disappeared.

I made a potholder that wasn't exactly square and then embroidered a lithium atom on it.

 

[Dreamliner]

I'm embarrassingly uncrafty. No knitting for me.

I tried to crochet at one point in my life. I posted the end result in the crafty people thread here and just now went looking for it to show the evidence of my uncraftiness. Sadly the pics have disappeared.

I made a potholder that wasn't exactly square and then embroidered a lithium atom on it.

OMG, seela is an agent dropping radioactive material, I need to vacate this cancerous environment!

 

[seela]

OMG, seela is an agent dropping radioactive material, I need to vacate this cancerous environment!

Yesterday you found out I'm a hussy, today you found out I'm an agent (although lithium isn't radioactive)...

Soon you'll tell everyone my big secret that in real life I'm a hairy dude called Bob. Nothing gets past you these days!

 

[midwestyankee]

Yesterday you found out I'm a hussy, today you found out I'm an agent (although lithium isn't radioactive)...

Soon you'll tell everyone my big secret that in real life I'm a hairy dude called Bob. Nothing gets past you these days!

You are, by any measure, the prettiest hairy dude named Bob I have ever seen.

 

[Primalex]

You are, by any measure, the prettiest hairy dude named Bob I have ever seen.

*Bob Ross paints a sad little tree*

 

[seela]

*Bob Ross paints a sad little tree*

I have nothing on Bob Ross!

 

[ultramarineblue]

I don't really know, I haven't thought about it so closely. I have regretted not taking up a job offer I once got in Montreal, so maybe that would be a good place to start.

The pay wasn't amazing so I didn't dare take the job because I had just spent a large chunk of my savings so I wouldn't have had that much buffer after moving to Canada. But I've regretted not risking it and taking the job several times.


I'm the same way. I need grammar.

Yesterday I noticed that if I do duolingo on the computer gather than use the app, it offers at least a little grammar in Welsh as well. That cleared up one weird thing I'd been wondering about regarding the conjugation of to be.

I understand that regret but also the caution for huge risks too. I want to travel in Canada. I haven't really been there except maybe once just across the border.

*Bob Ross paints a sad little tree*

* Just a happy/sad little accident*

 

[seela]

I just saw that your started your AMA!
Do you have or know how to use weapons? What kind? Why, or why not?

I don't have any weapons unless you count my claw-like nails and razor-sharp wit.

I guess I know how to point and shoot though. I went to a firing range once when I got a gift card for a class there. I didn't like it. The instructor was awful and not helpful at all. He kept telling stories how he was the best shot in the army and how even his instructors in the army hated him and were jealous because of it and how he's just all around misunderstood and boohoo pity me. He made awful sexist comments, too. It didn't feel safe, and he was just highly unhelpful with everything I tried to ask.

I was very bad at shooting. Mid class another instructor came in and showed me how to do things properly and it went better after it.

I shot with two handguns. The first one was some lightweight thingy that I was given because I'm a girl. The second was the same gun the police carry here and that was a lot better fit to me and I shot a lot better with that one. Up to a point...

Because the instructions I got from the range when I signed up for that shit of a class were poor, as in I was only told to show up 10 minutes before my time, I was wearing a shirt with too deep a neckline on. When I was shooting with the second gun, an empty shell (? I don't know gun terminology, sorry) jumped out of the gun and down my shirt. It was hot and burned my neck and boob.

I thought I had somehow shot myself and almost started to cry. I had burn marks for a while after that class. I was shaky and scared most of the time and as my reaction to being scared and uncomfortable is getting wet, I felt like a complete freak there.

So, not my thing. But I was told about how to safely handle a gun, where to hold my fingers, how to load it etc, so I guess I do know at least a little how to use weapons?