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Overview

  • 17 references 15 Confirmed & Positive
  • Fluent in Chinese, English, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish; learning Burmese, Chinese, Kalaallisut, Greenlandic, Sign Language - Norwegian, Spanish
  • 43, Male
  • Member since 2010
  • student & language engineer/programmer
  • linguistics, computer science and language technology
  • From Kraków, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, Poland
  • Profile 95% complete

About Me

CURRENT MISSION

travel to different places, especially the ones where I can practice my Spanish and Chinese

ABOUT ME

a gnostic agnostic

PHILOSOPHY

aretaic deontological consequentialism ;)

Or, in plainer English, I'm quite pragmatic. For example, I believe that helping others should mean thinking how to create most happiness with lowest cost. Look at GiveWell.org to see what I mean.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I surf, I host, and I try to practise my languages.
如果你会说汉语,我很高兴跟你聊天!
Si quieres, podremos hablar castellano.
Kan du norsk, vil jeg gjerne prate med deg!

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I met with great hospitality when I couchsurfed in several places in China, and now I invite people to stay at my place in Oslo.

Interests

* languages (those natural and those for programming)
* mountain hiking/trekking (I'm a lightweight backpacking fan, but not fanatic)
* public transport (especially railways and trams)
* board games (Carcassonne, Agricola, Scrabble etc.)
* meditation (trying out vipassanā/ānāpānasati lately)
* open source software (which gives more freedom to the software world, just as CS does to travelling)
* foot massage (I've learned to do it in China! ;))

  • meditation
  • board games
  • traveling
  • hiking
  • backpacking
  • languages
  • software
  • mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (by Douglas Adams)
Monty Python (Flying Circus, Life of Brian, etc.)
Year of the Devil (by Petr Zelenka)
Angels in America (by Tony Kushner)
Eläkeläiset, Loituma (funny Finnish folk groups performing in humppa and polkka style)
Ryszard Kapuściński
Stanisław Lem

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

My personal list of mountain sights that have had the biggest wow-factor for me:
Mięguszowiecki Szczyt seen from Szpiglasowa Pass
Mountains of Spitsbergen
Tiger Leaping Gorge
Huangshan

Things done? I was pretty amazed that it was possible to communicate in Chinese on tourist level after only 2 weeks or so of listening of the FSI Chinese course (which is available for free). Wherever you're travelling, try to learn the local language a bit, it changes the experience dramatically. Two weeks of learning can make a big difference.

Teach, Learn, Share

I'll be happy to offer you tips about language learning, remembering things and other similar stuff. And I'm always eager to learn a bit of the language(s) you speak!

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greenland, Hong Kong, Italy, Lithuania, Monaco, Myanmar, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, France, Greenland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland

Old School Badges

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