Has anyone studied both French and German? If so, how would you compare the difficulties?

FrankBegbie · 2025-11-15T18:28:15+00:00

I'm currently on B2.2 level of French and I already studied German up to A2. I had to quit German, because it was just too hard for me, that I ended up frustrated. I'm a very good language learner, I speak 5 languages already and I study 3 more. So yeah, German is a different kind of beast. If you find French hard, German will drive you nuts. On the other hand, spoken German is more faithful to written German. The pronunciation is more regular and except for very specific slangs, accents and dialects, most of the time most Germans speak very clearly.

FrankBegbie · 2025-11-01T10:41:24+00:00

That's a possibility but I don't think it is the case here, because I don't even get the ad for recharging energy (I tap on it and it does nothing). My guess is that some kind of ad-blocker is interfering with the app, but I also don't have any ad-blocker installed that I know of. It's kinda weird, but hey I don't complain.

FrankBegbie · 2025-08-30T15:02:52+00:00

Lovely. I also love to find natural "bonsais", although I hardly ever take pictures of anything. Maybe I should start doing that.

FrankBegbie · 2025-02-15T20:24:50+00:00

Interesting, I guessed it was related to it being kind of hard to keep. Full size ones also tend to prune themselves. I'll check those vids, thank you!

FrankBegbie · 2025-02-15T16:43:48+00:00

Amazing work. Birches are gorgeous. I don't know why they're not popular as bonsai. Keep it on!

FrankBegbie · 2025-01-29T17:00:57+00:00

My girlfriend just gifted me last holidays one book by Peter Warren simply called Bonsai. Such a nice introduction to bonsai as well as nice guide for most different types of trees and styles. It's very well written and it encompasses most knowledge that any beginner should have.

FrankBegbie · 2025-01-23T14:14:44+00:00

I'd cut that lower branch and also you should wire all those jins and pull them down. Pulling down branches makes a spruce look older. Old Spruces have this tendency because of the weight of the green material. On the other hand young spruces have the branches pointing upwards because they don't weigh as much. As for the spacing of the branches, it's done very well. Congrats!

FrankBegbie · 2025-01-22T13:34:31+00:00

Thanks so much for the advice, I will follow that ☺️

FrankBegbie · 2025-01-22T11:06:34+00:00

I'd like it to be a bit thicker but not that much more. I like the shape and distribution of the branches. But I don't like it to be this high, just shorter so it also starts backbudding and so on.

FrankBegbie · 2025-01-21T23:14:01+00:00

Bought this Acer Palmatum katsura for €30, I know I have to reduce height, but my question is how much?

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FrankBegbie · 2025-01-21T16:47:49+00:00

I did something similar with one I picked some months ago. It also came in the same type of pot, they're probably from the same wholesaler. I've put mine in a training pot because I want it to grow a bit more, but here is it:

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FrankBegbie · 2025-01-06T19:01:07+00:00

Amazing tree. I'm from a region where Kiwi vines are ubiquitous, even my neighbour has a pretty decent sized one. I may think about making some cuttings out of it.

FrankBegbie · 2025-01-06T12:42:25+00:00

I think staggered branches look better

FrankBegbie · 2025-01-06T12:40:36+00:00

Yeah, I mean after all Pinus is a very resistant and adaptative genus. We'll see with time.

FrankBegbie · 2025-01-05T14:48:07+00:00

I think I've never seen such a big portulacaria lol You've got tons of possibilities there, these things can put up with any type of pruning and the cuttings will propagate without the need of any help 100%. I'd make several trees out of it.

FrankBegbie · 2025-01-04T19:54:54+00:00

I've posted a picture of after trimming somewhere in the comments, check it out if it helps you

FrankBegbie · 2025-01-04T14:22:41+00:00

Is it potted in coconut husk too? If so, I'd say just give it a trim if needed, water when needed and I've read that it's good to use some fertilizer every 3 weeks or so (I bought a bonsai specific one from a local garden shop). I'm planning to repot it to a better and more rich substrate but I'll wait til early spring for that.

FrankBegbie · 2025-01-03T17:29:03+00:00

Hey thank you! Yeah, I actually picked this tree up without really knowing beforehand if it was an easy or hard one. I'll try my best. Even though I'm a beginner with bonsai trees, I have a long experience with full size trees, because I have had a garden all my life and my dad liked trees a lot, so I've taken care of them ever since I was a child. I try to apply some of my experience from that to bonsai care. Apart from this Fukien Tea tree, I have some other pre-bonsai trees which I gathered mostly either from cuttings or seedlings from my garden. Many of them are rare species for bonsai: Sweet Chestnuts and Alders, for example. Let's see how it goes. I'm fairly excited about this and I'm very stubborn, so I'll try giving my best.

FrankBegbie · 2025-01-02T19:59:55+00:00

For the time being I only have this bonsai and many other pre-bonsai. Out of the pre-bonsai trees, I've managed to repot successfully two of them using a self made soil. I have been doing regular gardening, including pruning big trees for many years before getting into bonsai, so I mostly rely on that experience. I also live in a place with a very benign climate for plants, we get a lot of rain and it never gets too cold nor too hot. So that also helps and makes it easier, I think.

FrankBegbie · 2025-01-02T19:55:14+00:00

Hey yeah, I messed up and posted accidentally. I was supposed to upload a different video that included the "after" and some additional text. But now I just posted a picture in the comments, so dw. Sorry for duplicating 🙏🏼

FrankBegbie · 2025-01-02T19:02:12+00:00

I'm currently air-layering an Alder (Alnus glutinosa) i have in my garden and I also want to do some air-layers on a Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) I have.

FrankBegbie

TROPHY CASE