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Beware of "secret" languages ;-) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Siberiano Tetraglot Senior Member Russian Federation one-giant-leap.Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6496 days ago 465 posts - 696 votes  Speaks: Russian*, English, ItalianC1, Spanish Studies: Portuguese, Serbian | Message 41 of 173 09 November 2008 at 12:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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Few times I spoke in Italian to my friends being at my work, with my boss sitting next to me, I said that I don't like it and am searching a new one. 2 weeks later I'm not fired yet and am on a good "account" xD
This is actually weird: we're an IT company with clients and project managers in the US, and everybody is supposed to speak English. BUT I see that only me and maybe 1-2 people among 50 are able to speak really fluently. Others are notably worse. We're in a city where many students and graduates learn 2nd/3rd/4th f.l., but here, in IT crowd, it doesn't seem to be the case at all... aie seenk aie undestent not bet, maie eengleesh goot. Edited by Siberiano on 09 November 2008 at 12:39pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| scop Diglot Groupie Ireland Joined 5852 days ago 70 posts - 73 votes Speaks: English*, Irish Studies: German, Ancient Greek | Message 42 of 173 19 November 2008 at 6:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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For Irish people this one is easy considering that very few people bother to learn our language. Works quite well for talking about the opposite sex or making decisions say about leaving a party early or something.
On a side note Irish prisoners in British jails traditionally spoke in Irish for obvious reasons ;-) 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6275 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 43 of 173 21 November 2008 at 2:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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Certain Native American languages were used by US forces in World War II, especially when fighting the Japanese. I believe there is a film about that, though I never saw it. The assumption was that these languages were so obscure that no Japanese would know them.
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| TheMatthias Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6249 days ago 105 posts - 124 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin | Message 44 of 173 21 November 2008 at 4:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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The movie was "Windtalkers" and in addition to them using Navajo as the secret language they also created a code
in that language. Like... Turtle = Tank etc. So it was a secret code in a secret language!! Matt 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cisa Super Polyglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6422 days ago 312 posts - 309 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Hungarian*, Slovak, FrenchC1, EnglishC2, Mandarin, SpanishB2, RussianB2, GermanB2, Korean, Czech, Latin Studies: Italian, Cantonese, Japanese, Portuguese, Polish, Hindi, Mongolian, Tibetan, Kazakh, Vietnamese, Modern Hebrew | Message 45 of 173 22 November 2008 at 3:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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Haha, my secret language is my native one, I can use it anywhere outside the Hungarian-speaking area, nobody understands what I´m talking about. Of course, when in company I don´t, but it can be really useful if you want to discuss things the "only between us"-way. Some English speaking friends even complained, that I could discuss anthing with my Hungarian roomate, while when they were talking in private and still everybody could understand.... ;) Edited by Cisa on 22 November 2008 at 3:17pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Leopejo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 6112 days ago 675 posts - 724 votes Speaks: Italian*, Finnish*, English Studies: French, Russian | Message 46 of 173 22 November 2008 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | ||
Apart from some obscure common origin, some grammar similarities and a few similar words, Finnish and Hungarian have "being a secret language" in common! ;-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6275 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 47 of 173 23 November 2008 at 7:28am | IP Logged | ||
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In the recent German-language film The Counterfeiters, there is a scene where a "secret language" is not so secret. The film is set in a concentration camp where Jewish inmates with special skills are set to forging money and documents for the Nazis. One of the workers is turning out substandard work and the SS major in charge of the work asks the man's supervisor, another inmate, what is wrong. The man doing inferior work mutters to the supervisor in Polish that he is really a railway track layer and claimed to have special skills to get transferred from the Sobibor camp. The supervisor tries to cover for the man by saying a special chemical is needed for the work. The SS major listens to this, then speaks in Polish, tells the other man to clear off and says to the supervisor, "Don't try to deceive me again."
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| synchrollama Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5846 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 48 of 173 25 November 2008 at 10:00pm | IP Logged | ||
There is a substantial Hispanic population at my high school; they speak to each other in a not-very-articulated mix of Spanish and English. I am fluent in English and pretty proficient in Spanish (Spanish 3, if that means anything to anybody), and I have a very difficult time understanding the specifics of what they say. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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