Aug
13

The ‘Couchsurfing’ Lifestyle

admin Lodging, Social Networking, Travel Add you comment
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It keeps amazing me sometimes how the internet brought so many people closer together. Since my travel activity is highly restricted to my financial abilities, I still try to get in touch with like minded people, explorers, adventurers, and polyglots.

I discovered Couchsurfing about 6 months ago. Couchsurfing is not as much focussed on cutting costs, but it is more a way of life. It is built on the principle idea that there is a basic trust among people, and that participants offer their couch, guest bed, mattress, or any possibility for guests to stay one or more nights. On the other side, participants may search the Couchsurfing database to find lodging opportunities at their destination. In addition to actually finding a place to sleep, the most important benefit of couchsurfing is to get to know the locals as you would otherwise not have. Hosts (those offering their couch) often also offer to show guests around town, they might introduce you to some of their friends, or invite you to come along at a party.

How to register

Couchsurfing is free for everyone, and all it needs is a registration at the website. Once registered, you can make a profile, upload some pictures of yourself, and tell something about yourself. Your main goal is to achieve a basic level of trust, so that if you are approaching people to host you, that from looking at your profile they will get a pretty good idea of who you are, what your passions are. As you are building your profile, you can also indicate whether or not you would be able to host people. Not everyone might have this possibility due to various reasons, so you may also indicate that you are unable to host people, but you’ll be happy to show visitors around town or meet up for a coffee.

Participate in local events

Couchsurfing has a large message board system, allowing you to exchange information and ideas around a variety of topics. Many couchsurfers meet up locally at a regular basis, and this would be your first step into meeting up with other couchsurfers live in order to get a good idea of what it’s all about. Also, if you are traveling you might want to see if there are some events at your travel destination and simply join; Couchsurfing does not know any boundaries.

Building trustworthiness

There is always the elementary question: who can I trust, and who can I not. Remember, Couchsurfing is accessible to everyone, and there might be some people who are abusing the website for their own interests. In order to build a trust system, Couchsurfing has build a strong reference system (here you can read what others are writing about another person), a ‘vouching for’ system, and the possibility to have your identity and your address verified. Using these three parameters, you can easily identify who is more trustworthy, and who is not. In order to start building your references, it is recommended to become active in the community as soon as you can; join local events, or participate in the forums.

Couchsurfing is a great platform to save additional money on lodging, but moreover it is a way of life. Members are typically students, individualists, or very open-minded people who want to have a different kind of travel experience.

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Aug
13

Great Misapprehensions And Prejudices

admin Highly Amusing 1 comment
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I must have written by now a hundred times that I love traveling, and I’ll repeat it yet again… because I do. Mostly entertaining I find some common misapprehensions and prejudices about foreigners, their language and habitat. Don’t get me wrong, such misapprehensions and prejudices are unavoidable, since no person is able to know about all cultures in detail. Yet it is amusing.

I compiled a list of 9 misapprehensions and prejudices which I find not only amusing, but which I encounter over and over again. Any suggestions or extensions of this list are highly appreciated and extremely wanted.

  1. The Netherlands is a German province – My all-time favorite, since I am a Dutch national and currently living in Germany. Believe it or not, The Netherlands is a recognized and separate country, with its own government and its own language. In fact, Dutch would almost have become the universal language of the United States… and they lost by one vote.
  2. They speak Chinese in China – Yes, and no. China has 9 official languages. If you’re traveling to Inner Mongolia, Cantonese Chinese is not going to help a lot. Mandarin Chinese is the official and political language of China, but it’s not spoken everywhere and by everyone.
  3. Paris is a country – No it’s not, it’s the capital of France.
  4. Europe is a country – No, it’s a continent.
  5. All Italians are members of the mafia – Sure, and so are Russians, Bulgarians, Hungarians, the Chinese, Romanians, Serbians, Albanians, Arabs, Nigerians, South Africans… you get the point.
  6. All there is on the Arabic peninsula is sand – Believe it or not, there are cities, coastal areas, roads…
  7. Germans all wear ‘lederhosen’ (leather trousers) – Sure, and they go to work like that, and they eat sausage and French fries each and everday day… actually many wear jeans and suits as well.
  8. Traveling to Brazil will get you killed – I have to admit, certain areas do not meet certain safety standards. But then again, the 192 million people living there seem to get along fine, and there are many areas in Europe or the United States I don’t want to be in either.
  9. They speak Spanish in Brazil – Not they don’t, they speak Brazilian Portuguese.

I’d love to read more…

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Aug
13

How Cyrillic Supports Phishing, And What To Do About It

admin Criminality Add you comment
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During the past 6 or 7 years, phishing has increased in popularity enormously. In short, Phishing refers to a criminal practice of obtaining the victims username and password for a certain purpose. Usually, victims will receive an e-mail, supposedly from a bank or financial institution, asking the victim to click a link in that e-mail, which would redirect them to the bank or financial institution, and then to confirm username and password. In reality, victims are referred to an exact copy of such a site, and all personal data is being recorded, so it can be used by criminals to log into the victims account.

Since some time, Cyrillic alphabet characters are permitted into a URL just as the roman alphabet. As many Cyrillic characters are identical to that of Roman characters, phishing criminals can trick victims by inserting a Cyrillic character into a link, in stead of a Roman one. You may want to try the following test (the first link is the normal link redirecting to the official website of Citibank, the second link contains 2 Cyrillic characters: “c” and “a”; the second link will not open an existing website as of the writing of this article):

http://www.citibank.com

http://www.сitibаnk.com (take a close look at the error web address claiming to be non-existent; it is “www.xn--itibnk-6nf5k.com”, not www.citibank.com)

Therefore, be careful not to open fraudulent links in e-mails. Best to type in the URL manually in the browser’s window.

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Aug
13

Practicing Your Languages With Internations.org

admin Language Practice, Social Networking Add you comment
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I am a member on various social networking sites. I use them to keep in touch with old and newer friends, but also to attend various events. About two months ago I discovered Internations. Internations is a social networking platform mainly for expats, or people living abroad. Internations is a free of charge platform, operating world wide, with the option of extended services for a fee. I have attended my first event in July, planning to attend again the upcoming event in two weeks.

I was very positively surprised about the German Frankfurt community, and I can imagine the positive vibe is present at other events around the world. Mostly, English is spoken, but I realized later on that it is a great opportunity actually to practice foreign languages. At the past event, I met people from Russia, Kazakhstan, France, Germany, and the Phillippines. The vibe is definitely very good, the people relaxed.

I am looking forward for my next event with them.

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Aug
13

Weird and wonderful vocabulary from around the world

admin Vocabulary Add you comment
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I found an article today, posted by the independent, about weird vocabulary and expressions in foreign languages. I had a good laugh reading this.

Since I don’t like stealing someone else’s articles, you can visit the website here.

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Aug
13

Learning A Language With Rosetta Stone

admin Software Add you comment
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With a wealth of possibilities available today to learn a language, it feels as if the world has truly become smaller. The options are endless, from language schools, to language travel courses, distant learning, and professional software packages to make language learning easier.

One software solution, which has been around since 1992, is Rosetta Stone. I tried Rosetta Stone already in 1998, when my interest in learning Chinese was growing steadily. Although it was quite costly, me being a student at that time, I bought the software package and started exploring. For me, it was the first time using a software solution like this, and also engaging into a self-learning course.

My first impression of Rosetta Stone was great. The software is greatly organized, it is intuitive, clear, and simple. The Rosetta Stone courses are based on how a person naturally learns a language as a child. The course starts with simple words and basic phrases, represented by pictures, becoming more complex as one advances through the course.

Still, one of the major issues I faced during my self-study course was the discipline to continue the course over a longer period. Studying the language using a software solution is fun, but the fun part starts diminishing slowly when the words and phrases become longer. At a certain point, one realizes that learning is just as an integral part of the learning process as fun.

To be honest, I quit using Rosetta Stone already in 1998, due to a lack of motivation, and different priorities. Additionally, using a software solution is great, but various language courses taught me that nothing can replace a real teacher, who can correct you in pronunciation, translation, and grammar. Therefore, I tend to see software packages as an additional bonus on top of traditional learning methods.

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