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You know you’re a language nerd when... | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| cmmah Diglot Groupie Ireland Joined 4524 days ago 52 posts - 110 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Irish | Message 2521 of 3737 10 August 2012 at 9:34pm | IP Logged | ||
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When you're slightly annoyed that after showing so much interest in Italian culture ("I wish I was Italian", "I'm Italian
at heart" etc etc), your mother hasn't opened the Italian self-teaching book/CD course you got her. And your first though after is: ah well, maybe I can put it to use sometime. When you think that listening to music in your native language is a waste of time. When you're going to reach for something (whether it be a chair, a cup, a bar of soap) while thinking in your TL, and stand there with your arm hanging outstretched, while you try to remember what the word for the object is. You refuse to pick it up until you remember what the word is, or alternatively, reach for a dictionary. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4821 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 2522 of 3737 10 August 2012 at 10:20pm | IP Logged | ||
Hold that thought. I think there is a sitcom in this! :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5960 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 2523 of 3737 11 August 2012 at 12:20am | IP Logged | ||
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When the possible demise of your favorite language forum seems to have been a near extinction-level event -- But that would not be the collapse of your entire language life as you know it, because you know that if this still-flourishing landscape of online linguistic diversity were reduced to dead crusty rubble tomorrow, you'd do your best to be one of those hardy little critters that escapes to other places with a few pieces of it in your hand and everything you've learned here in your head -- -- and you'd continue enriching your outrageously multilingual vocabulary on another landmass, which, if you are anything like me, and I hope you are not, would involve a great deal of unnecessary pathos which would be inappropriate, yet entertaining, in this newly established cavelike craggy lonely refuge in some now-unknown blank ugly area that would certainly be dark and cold for a very long time. --sorry, you must know that I can never resist a really, really wacky extended metaphor! Language program learning dialogues are so dull that they provoke strange reactions on my pages, but I truly do not know where this stuff comes from. In my offline language learning I'm more practical and straightforward, or I'd never learn a thing, and moreover, I would be deeply embarrassed if you all knew just how often I use the word "landmass." (I studied Faulkner, an extragavant stringer-together of images and adjectives, way back in my university days, if that's any excuse for this kind of thing. And it isn't) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6896 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 2524 of 3737 11 August 2012 at 12:45am | IP Logged | ||
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... when you pay more to purchase Ultimate edition of Windows, only because it allows
you to switch the OS language (and four years later you find out there's free software for that, while you're back on XP, stuck with the interface in your mother tongue ;)) ... when you get all stalky and follow people in the street just to find out in what language they're talking or, alternatively, to listen to your target language 'live'. ... when you set up a temporary forum when HTLAL goes down and check it (and HTLAL) every ten minutes instead of going out and enjoying the weather. ... when you start to actually regret spending half a day talking/reading/working/doing anything in your native language. ... when you start/go back to a language although the timing couldn't be worse, just so that you can take part in your first 6WC. ... when you start going through some veeery simple vocabulary in Swedish and end up looking up its etymology, and checking the Danish and Norwegian equivalent for no reason at all. ... when you start studying Arabic only because you have a chance to do so, and there is this nice crash course within a 5-minute walking distance from your home... you can't let it go, can you? Edited by Julie on 11 August 2012 at 12:46am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| psy88 Senior Member United States Joined 5584 days ago 469 posts - 882 votes Studies: Spanish*, Japanese, Latin, French | Message 2525 of 3737 11 August 2012 at 2:59am | IP Logged | ||
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when you were hesitant about going on vacation because you would not have access to this forum but then, right before you leave for vacation, you find it is under attack and so would not be able to access it anyway. You feel better until you start to worry that it will not be available when you return. You do return and are really happy that it is back to normal.
when one of the highlights of your vacation included hearing the less commonly spoken of your target languages (French) spoken by other visitors. Even better, you discover a French TV channel. You also are happy to find a Spanish speaking family is staying at the same hotel and you can interact with them. when the most interesting and touching part of your vacation was observing two small girls, about 4 years of age, playing on the beach. They are chatting and having a lot of fun. One girl brings her new friend over to her parents and introduces her to them.They then run off to play some more. Later, the other girl in turn brings the first over to meet her family. This mom in turn comes over to the first. The parents then realize that their daughters have been playing and laughing all day but (drum roll) one only spoke English and the other only French! The French speaking girl's parents spoke French and some English; their daughter only knew French. The name by which the English speaking girl had introduced her friend was not the girl's name. They were communicating and playing and having a grand time but could not speak each other's language. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5560 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 2526 of 3737 11 August 2012 at 10:54am | IP Logged | ||
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...when you haven't been on this site in months, because you were too busy studying languages.
...when the passenger seat in your car looks something like this: 
10 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6590 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 2527 of 3737 11 August 2012 at 1:41pm | IP Logged | ||
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Cool pic for sure!
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4821 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 2528 of 3737 11 August 2012 at 5:05pm | IP Logged | ||
When I was young, a French family moved in a couple of doors from us, with a little boy and girl of around that age. At first they spoke no English, but in what seemed like a very short time they were speaking not just English, but English in the local accent which tickled me no end. :-) 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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