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Beware of "secret" languages ;-) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| acadien Triglot Newbie Norway Joined 6260 days ago 32 posts - 52 votes  Speaks: French*, English, Norwegian Studies: Spanish, Swedish | Message 17 of 173 01 November 2007 at 4:58pm | IP Logged | |||||
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That's hilarious bela lugosi! It just goes to show that one must be careful even when speaking a "secret" language. Come to think of it even the "small" languages are spoken by thousands of people so there is always a small risk.
Keep them coming people! I love this! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Grace Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6222 days ago 5 posts - 10 votes Speaks: English*, Hawaiian Studies: Norwegian | Message 18 of 173 03 November 2007 at 6:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
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We are reminded of that often. My husband and I will speak in Navajo (another language not included on this list for
profiles!) to talk about things we do not want others to hear. We also joke and call each other names that are actual body parts. When we visit his family on the reservation, we have to remember to *stop* that, as once he was overheard (by an elder, nonetheless!) calling me a female body part (with affection). I was mortified! 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Vlad Trilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member Czechoslovakia foreverastudent.com Joined 6569 days ago 443 posts - 576 votes 2 sounds Speaks: Czech*, Slovak*, Hungarian*, Mandarin, EnglishC2, GermanC2, ItalianC1, Spanish, Russian, Polish, Serbian, French Studies: Persian, Taiwanese, Romanian, Portuguese | Message 19 of 173 03 November 2007 at 7:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I was pretty ashamed of myself one time, when I was working at the Quiksilver store at Times square in NYC. In that place it was quite common to meet people from my country, simply because there was such an insane amount of different nationalities going through the store on a daily basis, so I when I talked in my language to someone, I was paying attention not to insult anybody or use swear words, or anything.
But one time there was this kid from my home city from Slovakia so we were talking in a dialect a bit and there was a different man looking through some clothes. so I asked this man if he needed anything. And.. some customers especially foreigners and men who didn't speak english well wanted to 'keep their face' so sometimes they pretended they either didn't hear me ask them something or just pretended that I bothered them..and this man for one reason or the other didn't answer. so I said to this Slovakian kid: Takych ludi milujem bazmeg...which is something like.. I hate people like this + swear word.. then the kid left and then I went again to the man to help him and asked him where he was from and he replied directly in Czech: No ja jsem z Ceske Republiky, which means: Well, I'm from Czech republic... I was sooo ashamed of myself that time.. Edited by Vlad on 03 November 2007 at 7:29pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Karakorum Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6554 days ago 201 posts - 232 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (Written)* Studies: French, German | Message 20 of 173 04 November 2007 at 1:51am | IP Logged | |||||
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The thing that sucks (or maybe rocks) most about LA is that there are no secret languages. Everybody is busted because nobody can count on anything. I stopped counting on Arabic being a secret language when an Asian girl asked me why I just said ass in Arabic.
7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6257 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 21 of 173 04 November 2007 at 3:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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A Turkish waiter made a disparaging remark about me to his colleague in Turkish once, presuming I would not understand. I made a point of thanking him for the lovely meal in Turkish afterwards. He looked a little perplexed.
8 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6753 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 22 of 173 05 November 2007 at 12:57am | IP Logged | |||||
Hilarious! 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Dana7 Tetraglot Newbie United States Joined 6392 days ago 32 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, French | Message 23 of 173 09 November 2007 at 3:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I used to babysit for some German kids who were used to no one else being able to understand them when they spoke German. So despite the fact that I spoke to their parents in German and sometimes to them, they would ignore it and discuss their elaborate plans for avoiding bedtime and tricking me into giving them more dessert right in front of me. So I guess pretending ignorance has its benefits too.
6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6257 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 24 of 173 09 November 2007 at 3:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
I never realised LA was such a melting pot of cultural awareness. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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