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Beware of "secret" languages ;-) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Ikarias Triglot Newbie Spain multilinguae.wordpreRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6017 days ago 29 posts - 36 votes Speaks: Spanish*, EnglishC2, GermanB1 Studies: ItalianA2, DutchA2, FrenchA2, Mandarin | Message 33 of 173 12 August 2008 at 2:51am | IP Logged | ||
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Very funny experiences ^^.
Once I was in Zürich with some friends (all Spanish) having a bier when a couple of girls passed by, then we all shouted "GUAPAS!!" (Beauty) when they turned around and said "Somos de Salamanca" (We´re from Salamanca (Spain)). Funny and unexpected :oP 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6128 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 34 of 173 14 September 2008 at 7:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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My family is Greek and when out in public we often use Greek as a secret language. Fortunately, almost no one speaks it here (or none that we've come across) so we haven't had any unfortunate incidents like some of the above posts.
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| izan Bilingual Tetraglot Newbie Spain letmewritealittlebit Joined 5855 days ago 20 posts - 34 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Basque*, EnglishC1, FrenchC1 Studies: German | Message 35 of 173 06 November 2008 at 9:57am | IP Logged | ||
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I was once in a supermarket in Vancouver with a friend of mine (we were on vacation in Canada). We were talking in Basque about the quite dubious quality of some of the vegetables there when a woman approached us and told that we were the first Basque speakers she had met since she left the Basque country 10 years before. Coincidentally, few hours later, another Basque man who lived in Vancouver stopped us and told us exactly the same. I wonder how many Basque people live in Vancouver and do not know about each other's existence just because they don't have the chance to speak Basque with anyone else.
4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6689 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 36 of 173 07 November 2008 at 4:16am | IP Logged | ||
Maybe the Greeks around you just didn't react? During my travels around the world I have several times met individuals or groups who spoke Danish, and normally I don't choose not disclose my own nationality - I travel to see foreign places and meet foreign people, not other Danes. And remember, there are only 5 mio. of us - Greeks are much more common. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SamD Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6645 days ago 823 posts - 987 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Portuguese, Norwegian | Message 37 of 173 07 November 2008 at 8:15am | IP Logged | ||
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I wonder how well Latin would work as a secret language.
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| Talairan Tetraglot Senior Member Spain Joined 6578 days ago 194 posts - 258 votes Speaks: Afrikaans, English*, Gypsy/Romani, Dutch Studies: Spanish, Flemish, Galician, Aramaic | Message 38 of 173 07 November 2008 at 9:13am | IP Logged | ||
So long as you didn't try it in the Vatican ;) 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Aquedita Triglot Senior Member Poland myspace.com/aqueda_v Joined 6000 days ago 154 posts - 164 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese Studies: Mandarin | Message 39 of 173 08 November 2008 at 3:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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In some time my friend from Sweden who can speak English, Swedish, Japanese and Mandarin will visit me. If we speak Japanese in Poland it will feel like a secret language, but we met in Japan so we spoke English there with broken Chinese. Unless we got drunk, then we would somehow switch to Japanese any way :P
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| Sydney Groupie Yugoslavia Joined 6438 days ago 58 posts - 71 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Serbian | Message 40 of 173 08 November 2008 at 4:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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This is a slight twist on the topic-- I know a guy who lives in the USA who is accustomed to using Serbo-Croatian as a "secret language" and being able to make cracks about the Americans around him. Well one time there was an American girl he worked with standing next to him and he said to our group of ex-Yugoslavs, "She's put on a lot of weight!" And then he turned bright red when he realized he was still speaking English! Whoops.
Personally I think it's best to avoid the practice of speaking about the people around you assuming that they won't understand, it can only lead to trouble! 11 persons have voted this message useful |
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