They tried password reset but are not getting the reset email.

Thanks! I came here to ask for some board friends. Their names and passwords are not being recognized.

Here are two screenshots from my app. The hearts are in my upper right corner. Every mistake costs me a heart, but I can get a new heart with a practice round. I forget what the gems do, and I don’t know why they are greyed out. I think I can use them to refill my hearts when I run out? The hearts auto-refill each day. I just skip over the speaking bits when I was in public.

Yes, the hearts are on the app. I have also heard that the website is better than the app, but Duolingo functioned for me as a filler activity. A thing to do on my phone when I stuck someplace waiting around. I don’t go anywhere now, and that is why I have fallen away from Duolingo.

I'll be your Duolingo friend, @Matryoshka ! I'd have a friendly competition with you on Portuguese, but I think it is Brazilian Portuguese and I am interested in European. I haven't used my account in some time - I'll have to look up my user name. I've never had a paid account, so I don't know anything about that. I never HAD to upgrade to continue - is that new? I've had to do things like watch ads to get hearts.

Hi. I started a new Foreign Language thread for October. Hop on over! Learning Foreign Languages Thread - October

It was great to discover that so many WTM members are studying foreign languages. I'm not even studying Spanish, but I managed to learn a few things from the September thread! Please feel free to launch into any direction with this thread. I started using DeepL as a translator for Dutch. I like it a lot better than Google Translate. It supports quite a few languages. Alas for me, one of them is not Danish. Link to the September Thread -- For October, I plan to continue with Latin (Level II), Danish (Upper Intermediate), and Dutch (Beginner).

I've actually never seen Borgen. I'm always told that it is a must-see for understanding Danish politics. In my defense, I am just now watching The Wire, which is considered the must-see series for understanding my hometown of Baltimore. And The Wire is 20 years old 🙂

I read the middle grades novel, George by Alex Gino. The main character is a 4th grader who is transgender. It is a sweet and mostly gentle book. There is some bullying and the main character experiences emotional pain. But it is really a rather hopeful book. I almost wish that the author had made the main character a wee bit older because 5th and 6th graders often don't like to read about 4th graders, but many 5th and 6th graders are still kids not tweens. On their website, the author talks about the title of the book, and expresses some regret: "... I have now landed in a position where I have effectively deadnamed my main character. Deadnaming is using someone’s birth name when another name, often a name with different gender markers, has been offered." George chooses the name Melissa - that's not a spoiler. It comes up in the first chapter. Now back to Pirey, a Macedonian novel by Petre Andreevski which is relentlessly grim. Very good, but very grim.

I read a play this weekend: The Trial of the Catonsville Nine by Daniel Berrigan. The Catonsville Nine were a group of Catholic Vietnam War activists. In 1968, they forced their way into a Selective Service draft board office just outside of Baltimore. They stole draft cards and burned them in the parking lot with homemade napalm. It was broad daylight, and they waited around for the police to show up. Berrigan's play is of course a work of art, not a recitation of a court record. But it was a good piece of art. I really liked reading it. Here is a link to Maryland's Public Library resource on The Catonsville Nine if anyone is interested in the straight-up history. The Berrigan brothers (Daniel and Philip) were well known Catholic activists back in their day, and I have been curious about them for a long time. I knew of them but not about them. I have a slew of books lined up by and about Fr. Daniel Berrigan, but the play he wrote was my entry point. Daniel Berrigan was a priest, an activist, and a prolific author. Philip Berrigan (also one of the C. Nine) was also a priest, but he left the priesthood in 1969 to marry a nun and fellow activist. I am also discovering that the other members of the Catonsville Nine have interesting stories. Rabbit trails led me to find out that Philip Berrigan's widow, Elizabeth McAlister, participated in a 2018 anti-nuclear action at King's Bay, GA. Now in her 80s, She was sentenced this summer to time served plus probation. From what I can tell, several of the defendants, including Dorothy Day's granddaughter Martha Hennessy, have sentencing dates coming up in early October. Current events make The Trial of the Catonsville Nine feel not like a footnote to history but more like one piece of a much bigger historical narrative - admittedly a niche one. @Little Green Leaves You might be interested to know that about D. Day's granddaughter, if you didn't already. Were her granddaughters part of the biography you read? It is a different granddaughter (Kate Hennessy) who wrote the fairly recent book about her.

@hopeistheword Furious Hours looks like a book I would like. Added to the TBR. I'm still trying to get up the courage to read In Cold Blood. @Dreamergal I co-moderated a book club discussion of Enrique's Journey with a group of ESL (English Second Language) learners. It was so great to read that book with a group of people from so many different cultures and with so many different immigration experiences. I forget most of the book now, but the shared reading experience is a great memory. @Violet Crown As a liker of contemporary mass music, it is probably not a book for me...but the title Why Catholics Can't Sing cracks me up.

My 2020 started with an old friend (40+years) cutting me out of her life. That was the first week of January, so not COVID-related. But it sure was the harbinger of things to come. I still have a broken heart about it. I live about an hour away from two of my closest friends, so it is not like we got together all the time. But they have resumed all pre-COVID forms of socializing, and I have not. I'm hoping we can ride this out, as they are like sisters to me. I'm sort of walking on eggshells with them, mostly by deflecting invitations and avoiding the topic on the phone. However, I've made up my mind not to sit back and take passive-aggressive comments about me never leaving the house or calling me a scaredy cat. So they are going to have to care about how I feel, too. Or we are not going to make it. I don't have good friends who live in my town, and when I moved here four years ago I failed to invest much in new friendships. Instead, I relied on my old friends and a steady stream of out-of-state houseguests. That was a mistake. I do indeed know some like-minded people here, and am grateful for the precious few opportunities I have to socialize with them. Like Patty Joanna said, I can't make new old friends, but I really do have to work on making new friends. Thank goodness I have robust online friendships. That has often stood between me and despair. Hugs to all of you who are grieving friendships and lack of social contact. I am with you in that. It must really hurt for those of you whose kids have lost their friends in the process.

We talked about Banned Books Week not too long ago. Well, it is next week! Banned Books Week 2020: September 27th through October 3rd. Sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA), it is "an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Typically held during the last week of September, it spotlights current and historical attempts to censor books in libraries and schools. It brings together the entire book community — librarians, booksellers, publishers, journalists, teachers, and readers of all types — in shared support of the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular." In honor of Banned Books Week, I am going to read the middle grades novel George by Alex Gino. The ALA calls it the most challenged book of both 2018 and 2019. "When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl."

I think you might like Sigrid Undset (1882-1949). She won the Nobel Prize in 1928, and her most read work is the Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy. A number of BaW posters have read it. Undset converted to Catholicism at a time when there were very few Catholics in Norway, and an exploration of Christianity in 14th century Norway is at the core of the trilogy. The first book is The Wreath. The newer translation by Tiina Nunnally is the one I recommend. I am over-the-moon excited that a new Nunnally translation of another Sigrid Undset trilogy (Vows, Volume 1) is about to be released. These books are still too hard for me to read in Danish, let alone Norwegian. Sigh. Someday. I also love The Alberta Trilogy by Coral Sandel (1880-1974). The first book is Alberta and Jacob (transl. Elizabeth Rokkan). I think these are underappreciated classics.

I'll be focusing on two books this week: FICTION: Pirey (1980) by Petre M. Andreevski. This Macedonian novel is very engaging, and I look forward to picking it up each day. The back cover describes it as "...one of the most celebrated novels of modern Macedonian literature. Set during the Balkan Wars, the First World War and the years soon after, the story follows the major political shifts in the Balkans at the end of the Ottoman Empire and their catastrophic impact on a Macedonian village and a married couple, Ion and Velika." NON-FICTION Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez. I need to read one chapter per day in order to finish it before the library takes back its digital copy. I appreciate the book, and find it enlightening. I keep reading snippets out to my husband. But I find reading it a chore. It is a constant stream of statistics, and I much preferred Biased: Uncovering the Secret Prejudice that Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer Eberhardt. Biased mixed statistics with relevant personal story, and kept me more engaged. They are a good pairing, though. Invisible Women focuses more on things like product design, clinical trial design, and the appalling lack of gender-segregated data in nearly every sphere. Biased focuses more on the criminal justice system.

@wintermom yikes I apologize if I offended. Do you think it correct to say that the introduction of nynorsk was due to a desire to have a language that was further removed from its former union with Denmark? That was my understanding, but maybe I am wrong.

@wintermom Yes, my text is bokmål. If I recall correctly, nynorsk came about as a way to de-Danishify (yes, I made that up) Norwegian. I’m content with being able to read Norwegian. It is *so* close to Danish, and Norwegian literature has a lot to tempt me.

Really nice to see you here, @Hunter 🙂

Ooh, I would love to know some of the titles. You probably know this already, but Danish had a major orthography revision in the late 1940s. The main changes were (1) to stop capitalizing common nouns and (2) to change from aa to å. Some place names retained the aa. Aalborg is an example.

Wow, I am super happy to read through this conversation! @Quill It took me a long time to feel this way, but now I cherish my mistakes. Especially if I became terribly embarrassed. Because I typically then never make that particular mistake again. I was shamed by a train conductor in Denmark when I used the wrong gender for a lid. I was asking for a lid for my coffee, and she gave me a smack down. It was forever seared in my memory that a lid is et låg not en låg. Not deferring to your daughter is a tough one. I would have the same problem. @Pen A common suggestion is that you use a book you already know, or one that you can also have available in English. Are you going to return to Portuguese? Or take up a different language? I don't know how easy it is to get Portuguese books in the USA. That's another issue! Some older children's books that are available in MANY languages are the Harry Potter Books, Astrid Lindgren (Pippi or Ronja seem relatively easy to find), The Hobbit, and The Little Prince. Maybe the Little House Books. Winnie the Pooh. These are off the top of my head. @Violet Crown I should have said streaming rather than Netflix. That was just sloppy posting on my part. And there you go tempting me with the Criterion Channel again! Truth be told, I don't watch a lot of Netflix myself. I am, however, an avid YouTube watcher. @wintermom To me, Norwegian looks like Danish with typos, lol. I imagine the reverse is true for you! I just bought myself an old, beat-up copy of a Norwegian textbook (Norsk, nordmenn og Norge 1: Textbook for Beginning Norwegian) so I could puzzle through the differences. I don't see any reason why I can't learn to read Norwegian with relative ease. I like this book because it is all in Norwegian and it is visually very old-school. But I don't really know what to recommend to you for Danish. I learned Danish while living in Denmark, and while I own a ton of stuff much of it is only sold from Denmark. You are not a beginner. What do you feel like you are lacking? Listening practice? Reading materials? Maybe I can point you to something useful. @Dobby's Sock What brings you to Danish? And thank you for the show recommendations. I have seen Dark, but not the others.

FYI, this thread is a spin-off of a discussion we were having in the Book of the Week thread. So if you want to discuss books or audiobooks (English or non-English) hop on over there, too. Those are really nice textbooks, @maize Simplified language for science isn't easy to come by! As a retired homeschooler, I don't think to look at the Bilingual Board, so I am glad you posted it here. Eventually, I want to learn Portuguese so I will start squirreling away resources now.

OK, here it is: The foreign language lovers thread - September edition. Of course, everyone is welcome. I just tagged the posters who have been geeking out on languages with me this week. I hope I didn't forget anyone. @Seasider too @Pen @Violet Crown @Junie @Matryoshka @Dreamergal @Little Green Leaves

This thread is for discussing all things related to learning foreign languages. All foreign language lovers are welcome, no matter what language you are studying or daydreaming about studying. I'll throw out a few ideas, but take it any direction. I'll plan to do a monthly thread, unless I end up just talking to myself 🙂 What language(s) are you learning? What are your goals? What resources are you using? And here is a very important question: What are your favorite non-English Netflix shows? Maybe I'll do a longer intro later. For now, I'll just say that I am actively working on Danish, Dutch and Latin. My Danish is at a fairly high level, and my Dutch is beginner level. I'd say I'm at High School Level 2 in Latin. I couldn't think of a clever thread title, so let me know if you think of one.

I’m taking a casual survey. Is there interest in a Chat Board foreign language thread? Maybe a monthly one?

Thanks, @Pen I was not familiar with Carlos Drummond de Andrade, and I am always happy to find out about international poets. I see that there is a bilingual Portuguese/English edition of his poems - added to the TBR pile! P.S., the Lisbon poets are of course European Portuguese, but I believe that the YouTube video was a Brazilian Portuguese speaker.