izan Bilingual Tetraglot Newbie Spain letmewritealittlebit Joined 5862 days ago 20 posts - 34 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Basque*, EnglishC1, FrenchC1 Studies: German
| Message 17 of 3737 17 September 2009 at 11:31pm | IP Logged |
...when you blame your local bookshop for not having a Basque-Slovene dictionary.
... when your boss says that she has found a research paper written in dutch which, based on the pictures, seems interesting and you volunteer to read it even if you don't know a single word in that language. (and finally you realize that that was the best day ever at work)
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pohaku Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5644 days ago 192 posts - 367 votes Speaks: English*, Persian Studies: Arabic (classical), French, German, Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 18 of 3737 17 September 2009 at 11:54pm | IP Logged |
When you stop tourists on the street, after ambling along near them as inconspicuously as possible for a block or two just to overhear their conversation, to ask them what their native language is. (There are a lot of tourists where I live.)
When you develop a sudden desire to study a given language just because you find a handsome book written in that language.
When you have kept an Assyrian (i.e., Neo-Aramaic) children's textbook for 35 years just in case you might ever want to learn Assyrian--even though you haven't met a single Assyrian since the original fellow gave you the book.
When a friend, looking to give away some books before moving away, asks, "Do you read fiction?" and you reply, "In English?" And she says, "Oh, yes, I forgot that you realized several years ago that you had read enough fiction in English for the rest of your life and it was time to read only in other languages." And then she said some other things like, "You are one of the weirdest people I know, but I mean that in a good way."
When you don't understand why your partner would want to choose DVD subtitles in our native language.
16 persons have voted this message useful
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Rhoda Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5593 days ago 166 posts - 196 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Latin, Swahili, Ancient Greek, German
| Message 19 of 3737 18 September 2009 at 12:12am | IP Logged |
When you walk down the street muttering conjugations and declensions to yourself.
When you know at least ten ways of saying "corrugated iron sheet."
When you hear strangers speaking a foreign language and you stalk them for hours.
When your tiny dorm room/bedroom contains more language materials that the biggest library or bookstore in the area.
When songs come on the radio and you automatically translate them to a foreign language.
When your friend mentions he is taking an Arabic class and you spend an hour interrogating him about what methods he's planning to use, what dialect he's learning, and how many hours he spent learning it in advance over the summer.
Edited by Rhoda on 18 September 2009 at 2:52am
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tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5859 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish
| Message 20 of 3737 18 September 2009 at 1:45am | IP Logged |
When you know how to "rent a deck chair" in seven languages, without any chance that you will ever rent a deck chair in any language.
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ExtraLean Triglot Senior Member France languagelearners.myf Joined 5987 days ago 897 posts - 880 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German
| Message 21 of 3737 18 September 2009 at 1:48am | IP Logged |
tommus wrote:
When you know how to "rent a deck chair" in seven languages, without any chance that you will ever rent a deck chair in any language.
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Lol, I now have a new learning goal.
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modestblues Newbie Bahamas Joined 5550 days ago 33 posts - 54 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French
| Message 22 of 3737 18 September 2009 at 1:50am | IP Logged |
I'm a language nerd. I just happen to be very bad at them. It's pretty depressing actually.
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psy88 Senior Member United States Joined 5584 days ago 469 posts - 882 votes Studies: Spanish*, Japanese, Latin, French
| Message 23 of 3737 18 September 2009 at 4:38am | IP Logged |
When, in your hunt for new books to help in your study,you buy a book that seems really great,only to discover when you get home that you had already purchased it a month ago(but never had time to open it).
When you misspell a word in your native language because you have confused it with a similar word in your target language.
10 persons have voted this message useful
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MegatronFilm Triglot Senior Member United States peligrosa.tumblr.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5931 days ago 130 posts - 275 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, French Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 24 of 3737 18 September 2009 at 5:45am | IP Logged |
MäcØSŸ wrote:
When you use foreign grammar in your native language.
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Hahaha, when I'm tired I sometimes use Spanish grammar while I speak English.
By the way, I think this thread made me love everyone here even more. So nerdy.
...when you've already planned out the languages you're going to teach your future kids. You may not know them
yet, but you will!
...when monolinguals with no interest in languages are people you will probably never date.
23 persons have voted this message useful
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