An update on climate change

Hello dear readers,
Today I write in English so that this article can be understood by more people. I’d like to share some facts on the ever evolving climate change.
In April 2022 over 300 people lost their lives due to another severe flooding caused by climate change. This time it happened in South Africa. Houses and streets were destroyed. It is the biggest natural disaster in the history of this country.
In August 2022 the same thing happened in pakistan. Over 900 people lost their lives due to climate change.
During the summer 2022 it was extremely hot in Europe. In Basel, Switzerland, it was 36° C. The waters were extremly warm, too. The water’s temperatures climbed up to over 25°C, which is critically warm for greylings and trouts. Thousands of greylings died because of too hot water temperatures as well as countless trouts. These beautiful fishes lost their lives due to dried out creeks. In 2021 it rained way too much so that lakes overran, but in 2022 it rained way too little. And when there’s no water there’s no living space for fishes, of course.
Experts say that if we continue like before, in 2026 we will reach a tipping point. From this moment forth, we cannot undo what has been done.
In November 2022, the 27. climate conference took place in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. General secretary António Guterres said: ,,We are on the way to climate hell with our foot still on the accelarator! We are getting dangerously close to the point of no return! Humanity has a choice, cooperate or perish. It is either a climate solidarity pact – or a collective suicide pact! The deadly impacts of climate change are here and now!”
When I heard about this conference in the news, I hoped that they would find a solution for the climate change. But no further steps were taken towards solving the climate crisis. Instead they agreed that the rich countries will help poor countries with an aid fund when natural disasters occur. But this doesn’t solve the crisis, so I found the result disappointing.
For over a year now, since my 25th birthday I haven’t eaten meat, except when it comes to fish. Big farm animals produce a lot of methane, which is even more damaging for the climate than CO2. Furthermore, I stopped flying completely since 2022 for the sake of the environment. I might fly again when they have invented climate friendly airplanes. I think that every human can do something for a healthier planet.
Have a nice day!

The climate crisis

Today I want to write about the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced: climate change. It concerns us all, especially our children and grandchildren.
When I heard about the severe flooding in Germany I was deeply shocked. I couldn’t believe what I saw on television. Experts say that due to climate change extreme weather events are occurring more frequently.
Almost 200 people lost their lives due to an anthropogenic problem: climate change. Natural disasters occur worldwide now. It’s sad to see humans losing their lives because many people travel with vehicles which emit large amounts of carbon dioxide.
I think that it’s about time that we wake up and take action. We need to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. People are dying around the world because of climate change. And also fish. For example, the greyling is critically endangered in Switzerland due to heat waves during the summers. They die because they can’t handle extremely high temperatures. 🙁
Each and every one of us can contribute to solving the climate crisis. For my part, I fly extremely rarely, only once every 3-4 years and only short distances in Europe. I don’t drive a car and use the train to travel. I hope that more and more people go green now that the consequences of climate change are obvious.

Cuando el sueño de tu vida casi se realiza

Hola queridos lectores,
Ha pasado mucho tiempo, lo sé. Hoy quiero contarles la historia de un día de pesca que no olvidaré tan rápido. Estuve pescando con cebos pequeños de doce centímetros, porque se rompió un hueso de mi muñeca y el médico me aconsejó no pescar con cebos grandes. Con este tamaño de cebo se pesca normalmente lucios de 50-80 cm en el invierno, pero siempre hay excepciones.
Entonces un día en diciembre me fui otra vez al río donde siempre pesco. Perdí un lucio de 60 cm, pero continué pescando sin parar hasta que sentí un peso muy pesado. Ni siquiera sentí una mordida. Le dije a mi amigo: “Tengo uno, es muy pesado, creo que es un pez grande.” Comencé a recoger el carrete y cuando lo vi por primera vez mis huesos empezaron a temblar, porque era un lucio de un metro!
Mi amigo trató de ponerlo en la red, pero no encajó. El pez era demasiado grande. El lucio medía más de 1.10m, y su cabeza era más grande que una mano. Era una abuela que tiene aproximadamente quince años. Estuvo encima, pero no en la red, casi pensé que lo tenía, pero se liberó y luego lo perdí. 🙁
Estuve triste por mucho tiempo porque no pude pescar el pez que quise durante toda mi vida. Me senté sin poder creer lo que había pasado. Pasaron diez minutos y luego mi amigo me dijo: “Danilo, el pez está aquí. Si continuas podrás pescarlo otra vez si tienes suerte.”
Entonces continué con el mismo cebo. Pesqué dos horas más y de repente sentí una mordida. Puse el gancho y pesqué un lucio de 80 cm. Por lo menos tuve un poco de éxito.
Es una lástima que no puedo mostrarles una imagen del lucio de 1.10 y yo. Digamos que el sueño de tu vida es ser millonario y un día un hombre en la calle te regala una maleta con un millón de dólares. Y luego alguien lo roba y pierdes el dinero. Exactamente así me sentí yo.
Casi todo el mundo me dijo que es imposible pescar un lucio de un metro. “Tienes que pasar toda una vida pescando para pescar un lucio de un metro“, me dijeron. Pero casi logré mi meta en tres años.
Ahora sé que es posible. Y en 2021 viene mi revancha con el lucio de un metro.

Ein Update

Hallo
Ich entschuldige mich für die Inaktivität. Ich dachte, ich schreibe mal auf Deutsch. Diese Sprache bzw. Schweizerdeutsch ist meine Muttersprache.
Hier ein kleines Update:
Ich konnte diese Saison noch keinen Meterhecht fangen. Ich habe allerdings zwei 97 cm lange Hechte ans Band bekommen. Es fehlten nur drei kleine Zentimeter. Nun haben wir die Schonzeit erreicht und dürfen nicht mehr auf Hechte fischen. Der Sinn und Zweck der Schonzeit ist es, die mit Eier gefüllten Weibchen ablaichen zu lassen, damit wir auch in Zukunft noch unsere geliebten Hechte fangen können. Deshalb fische ich erst wieder im Mai auf Hechte. Sobald ich den Meter geknackt habe lasse ich es Euch wissen.

Happy fishing & language learning!

Mes résolutions pour l’année 2019

Bonjour tout le monde !

Aujourd’hui j’aimerais vous raconter mes résolutions pour l’année 2019.

Pour commencer je veux que vous sachiez ce que j’ai appris par rapport aux langues. Je n’ai pas ajouté d’autres langues. En fait, j’ai beaucoup pratiqué les cinq langues principales : L’allemand, l’anglais, le français, l’espagnol et le suédois. Ces sont les langues que je parle le mieux. Je me suis concentré sur ces langues.

J’ai négligé un peu le portugais et le néerlandais. Pourquoi ? Parce-que je me suis dit que si j’améliorais mon espagnol et mon suédois, en 2019 je serai capable de me concentrer sur le néerlandais et le portugais car ces langues sont très similaires.

Voici donc mes résolutions pour l’année prochaine :

  1. Je veux pratiquer toutes mes langues régulièrement
  2. Je veux me concentrer sur le néerlandais et le portugais, mais ne pas oublier les autres langues
  3. Je veux pécher un brochet d’un mètre

Le plus grand brochet que j’ai péché en 2018, c’était un femelle de 96 cm.

J’aimerais vous montrer quelques images :

Même si j’ai investi 150 heures, je n’ai pas réussi à pécher mon brochet d’un mètre. À la place, j’en ai péché quinze plus petits. Cependant, j’ai péché un poisson d’un mètre, mais c’était un silure, pas un brochet, qui mesurait 1,12 m.

Je vous tiendrai au courant de mes progrès. Quand j’aurai réussi mon but de pécher un brochet d’un mètre, je vous informerai.

Bonne année ! Merci à tous les lecteurs qui lisent mon blog !

À bientôt !

Hur man fångar en stor gädda

Hallå allihopa!

Idag skulle jag vilja skriva på svenska. Det här inlägget handlar inte om språk utan om att fiska. Jag älskar att fiska gädda, och för två veckor sedan fiskade jag upp en stor gädda som var 83 cm.

Om du vill göra detsamma så kan jag berätta lite om hur jag gjorde. Först måste man veta vad gäddor äter. Gäddor är köttätande, vilket betyder att de äter andra fiskar, men också sina artfränder. Dessutom måste man imitera en fisk. På marknaden finns det många plastfiskar.

Här är några beten som jag tycker fungerar bra i Schweiz. Om du bor i ett annat land fungerar de också där, inte bara här.

På bilden kan du se en Westin Shad Teez, några Ivy-Baits, en Fox Rage Natural Classic Shad, en Sawamura One Up Shad och en Fox Twister. Min gädda på 83 cm tog den blåa Ivy-Baits Shad 16 cm.

Hur lyckades jag lura den vackra gäddan?

Jag fiskade i en älv när det var mörkt och kastade ut beten. Jag lät betet sjunka till botten där gäddorna oftast är. Jag tog in betet och ryckte i det 4-5 gånger, lät det sjunka i fyra sekunder, ryckte i det 4-5 gånger igen, och väntade tills jag kunde känna botten. Jag lät bara betet sjunka till botten varannan gång, för att undvika att få sjögräs på kroken. Jag gjorde detta så länge jag kunde tills jag kastade ut betet igen.

Efter några timmar kunde jag känna att en fisk nappade på betet. Jag drog direkt upp spöet för att få fisken på kroken. Det kändes bra. Efter en halv minut såg jag att det var en stor gädda och då blev jag glad. Den vägde ungefär 3 kg. Vi åt den och jag måste säga att jag gillade den väldigt mycket.

Min dröm är att fiska en gädda som är över en meter. Nu investerar jag mycket mer tid i det.

Jag önskar er lycka till med att fiska er stora gädda.

Ha det bra!

Cómo no olvidar un idioma

Ultreya, y buenos días a todos mis lectores.

Sin duda, un políglota tiene que enfrentarse a dos desafíos: aprender nuevos idiomas y conservar y no olvidar ninguno de ellos; porque si uno no usa el idioma que aprendió, lo olvida y… ¡mucho! Para dar un ejemplo, si uno no cuida su jardín regularmente, la verdura se daña.

Para no olvidar mi español, me escribo regularmente con un “pen-pal”, es decir, un amigo con quien intercambio dos idiomas: alemán y español. Yo siempre escribo en alemán y él en español. Además, hablo por lo menos una vez por semana con alguien en el idioma español. Puede ser un tutor o profesor de italki o alguna otra plataforma. También, siempre me corto el pelo en una peluquería española. Así, no olvido mis conocimientos en el idioma, y aprendo mucho más.

Entiendo que ya es difícil mantener cinco idiomas. ¡Imagínese diez! Yo, dependiendo de lo que signifique hablar, diría que hablo cinco a un nivel bastante alto, y hablo otros dos también, pero no con una fluidez increíble.

Mi consejo es: “Pasito a Pasito, suave suavecito” como dice Luis Fonsi en la canción “Despacito”. Viva el idioma. No sólo es aprenderlo y luego olvidarlo. Use el idioma a lo mejor dos o tres veces por semana. Los idiomas son herramientas increíbles para comunicarnos con los demás, y hay que conservarlos en nuestros cerebros, porque son un tesoro de la humanidad.

¡Hasta la próxima entrada! 🙂

HOW TO WIN THE LOTTERY

Ultreya!

It has been said many times by a lot of polyglots around the world: “Languages have completely changed my life, how I see life, my life got better and better.”

Let’s say you want to win the lottery, and have already wasted hundreds of dollars trying to win it. If you keep doing that, it’s very likely that you’ll end up having spent thousands of dollars without any reward. Think about the fact that language learning is not that expensive. It can be expensive if you have to pay teachers, etc. But if you buy yourself a course, speak to friends, do tandems, use the internet, it’s almost free. And you can win the lottery by doing that.

What do I mean by winning the lottery? Well, instead of filling your wallet with money, you fill your brain with words. The things you’ll experience cannot be replaced by money.

Learn a language, or even two, three or more over the course of some years. A lot of people say that it’s possible to learn several languages at the same time. My suggestion would be to not learn more than two simultaneously.

What would you do if you had to learn five languages over the course of ten years? Would you start tackling every single one at once, or would you start with one, and then add a language every two years? I would go for the latter example because it makes more sense to me.

Choose a language. Make sure you like the sound of it. Make a list, write down 10 reasons why you want to learn this language. You should read them when you don’t feel like studying anymore. Start small. Spend more and more time with the language, and do it regularly. It’s better to do 30 minutes a day than to spend an entire Sunday studying your target language.

I can assure you, it will change your life. It will change your perspective, the way you see things. You’ll start to understand more and more things, and probably even get a better job with a better salary.

One final tip: the earlier you tackle difficulties, the easier it gets. The bigger the effort, the bigger the reward.

I wish you all good luck with your studies!

WHY YOU CAN LEARN ANY LANGUAGE

Hello dear readers!

As the title says, in this article I want to convince you that you can learn any language, even if it’s an extremely different language to your own native tongue. Do you believe me? If not, let me break it down for you.

I was born in Rome, Italy. After four months there, my parents decided to move back to Switzerland. Had I stayed there, I would have obviously learned Italian. Until now I cannot hold a conversation in Italian because I’ve never learned it. The same goes for any child born somewhere in the world. Let’s suppose you were born in Sevilla, Spain. After eight months in Spain, your parents got a job opportunity in Japan. They both grew up in Japan, speak fluent Japanese and now they move back there. At home in Japan, they’d only speak Japanese with you, so you’d lose your Spanish completely. Your brain would have adapted itself to the envirement, to the language that’s being spoken where you live, to the language that flows in and out of your head.

Do you get it? You can learn any language, you just need to expose yourself to it. It doesn’t matter how different the language might be to your native one. You can learn Vietnamese, Xhosa, Thai, Mongolian, Finnish, Somali, Zulu, really any language. There are no limits. You can learn whatever you want if you have the proper mindset. Attitude is altitude. Don’t let anybody set your limits. Someone’s opinion on you does not have to become your own reality. The only limits are those that you set yourself. Dream big, think big, but start small, that’s right, start small. Step by step, inch by inch, minute after minute.

I wrote an article a few months ago called ,,How attitude affects language learning”. Head over to the front page to find the post listed among others on the right.

Please tell me in the comments what language you’re going to learn now that you’ve read this article. A language that you thought was too difficult for you? A language that everybody says is impossible to learn and don’t even give it a shot? I want to know!

Happy language learning everybody! Greetings from Switzerland.

HOW I LEARN LANGUAGES

Hello! 🙂
A lot of people ask me how I learn languages. What are the first steps that I take? Well, in this article I want to tell you how exactly I go about my sweeties.

1. I make sure that I’m motivated and that I like the sound of the language. If this is not the case, I will probably quit, so it’s important to know why you’re learning a language. Maybe I have a friend that speaks the language that I want to learn. This, for example, can be a major boost. Always know why you’re doing something, and then all hell’s going to break loose, in the good sense! 😉

2. I get hold of a language course and listen, read, work through the textbook and do grammar drills. I want to stress the fact that I do little grammar, I prefer listening and speaking.

3. I learn the most basic verbs to get started and conjugate them. For this I usually buy a book where I can find all the conjugations I need. I write them down and combine them with other words I’ve already learned.

4. I listen an awful lot. This helps me to get used to the rhythm of the language. For me that’s a key factor. I learn grammar by listening, mostly, I don’t like strictly grammar based approaches. When we learned our first mother tongue when we were children, did we do grammar exercises? No, we listened and through this activity we learned grammar. I listen to podcasts, YouTubers, interviews and other sources of audio input.

5. I make a lot of mistakes. Now, you might strive for perfection, but in language learning perfection doesn’t exist. There’s always more to learn. I myself strive for perfection, but to reach such a high level you have to make an awful lot of mistakes. It takes years to get to a level of perfection. I’d say after having lived 15 years in a country, you might have reached a native like level, unless you’re a beast and learn extremely quickly. But for most people, it takes years. It is impossible to not make mistakes. Let’s suppose your learning Japanese. Japanese has a completely different word order, so you will automatically make a lot of mistakes, although you’re trying not to. The language you’re learning is not yours yet, you’re not familiar with the grammar rules, so you will end up making mistakes and run across disappointments. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes, it will happen and it’s absolutely normal. I try to make as many mistakes as I can. Of course, I don’t want to, but it’s a natural process. The more mistakes you make, the better you’ll get.

6. I revise the words that I’ve learned on a daily basis. I like to use a little book where I write them down and before going to sleep I read them out loud. Not only do I jot down words, no, I always like to see words in a context. So instead of just writing down the raw words, I create sentences. Luca Lampariello, my greatest inspiration, talks about the fact that only uttering or learning just one word is not the way it works. You have to see the word in a context. ,,Context is absolutely king in language learning”, he says. He also stresses the fact that reading is extremely important when it comes to learning a language efficiently. By reading you don’t only focus on one word, no, you see the whole and you’re basically applying the technique I just revealed, which is to see words in a given context. Check out his blog, you can read the article in English and German.

Forget it: the secret of remembering words

7. When I completed half the language course, or earlier, depending if it’s a language of the same language family as my mother tongue or to a language that I’ve already learned, I start talking to native speakers. At that stage, I’m still working with the book but mostly I spend time talking to native speakers or asking them how you could say this or that. I write down sentences and words that I think are important.

8. I vary my activities. Not only do I learn with books, no, with audio input, watching YouTube videos, watching movies, reading but most importantly I talk to people in their language, even though I make a lot of mistakes. I might also play Habbo in various languages, which is a virtual world, basically like Sims, where you can chat to improve your skills.

That’s it. It’s as simple as it seems. Happy language learning everyone! 🙂