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Beware of "secret" languages ;-) | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4673 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 169 of 173 10 January 2013 at 11:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
I see this thread has been resurrected, so I'll resurrect this gem, which blows my mind...I used to spend time in DC regularly, and over a long period of time I literally didn't make one trip to DC without hearing someone speaking Russian in public at least once. Maybe he can try out his super-secret Chinese on the next trip to DC. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Sumthae Diglot Newbie Poland studyinglanguages.wo Joined 4326 days ago 6 posts - 8 votes Speaks: Polish*, English Studies: Indonesian | Message 170 of 173 13 January 2013 at 8:49am | IP Logged | |||||
I don't understand how a white girl can feel invisible there. I'm always in the spotlight, stares, broken English thrown at me (best is: "Good morning, Mister" thrown at me in the evening ;)), asking for photos, etc. I'd like to be more invisible. :D A man asking my Indonesian girl friends on the market about me, a mother for of a girl asking an old lady from neighbourhood about me, when I'm standing probably not even 2m from her. Once a man said, that some people might be shy to ask a foreigner. But I see a lot of men or women not being shy at all, and asking foreign girls questions without any problems. So I'm unsure what is it. Maybe they really consider that a white person possibly can'[t speak their language, but it's just plainly stupid, when everybody around tries to convince me Indonesian is much easier than English. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| MarlonX19 Diglot Groupie Brazil Joined 4150 days ago 40 posts - 51 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English Studies: French | Message 171 of 173 09 July 2013 at 3:40am | IP Logged | |||||
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I haven't experiencied many situations like these but I remember one I was in the classroom and one of my classmates made somethings that pissed me off and I practically screamed something like ''f**k you man'' (Sometimes I scream in English when am angry) We were having Geography class, our teacher only looked at me like ''I understood you'' then she looked away... None of my classmates speak English but they surely understand a few words (mostly bd word) in English, Im sure my geography teacher also understood the ''f**k you man'' part.
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| zografialep Hexaglot Groupie GreeceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4124 days ago 41 posts - 71 votes Speaks: Ancient Greek, Greek*, EnglishC2, GermanB2, Spanish, Latin Studies: Russian | Message 172 of 173 02 September 2013 at 8:16am | IP Logged | |||||
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When we were younger 9-12 years old, me, my brother and my cousins had ''developed a
sectret language. It was actually pretty simple : we used in every sullabe no other vowel but i(pronounced e like in beetle). So for instance when one should say 'Pos se lene?''(what's your name) in greek, we would say ''pis si lini''. It was great, effective and not too hard. The other kids thought we were from another coutry and the parents that we're crazy, so we could say anything we wanted. Sometimes we still use this language, but just for fun.It brings back great memories... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| zografialep Hexaglot Groupie GreeceRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4124 days ago 41 posts - 71 votes Speaks: Ancient Greek, Greek*, EnglishC2, GermanB2, Spanish, Latin Studies: Russian | Message 173 of 173 02 September 2013 at 8:40am | IP Logged | |||||
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A couple of weeks ago I was in Germany with a friend also from Greece. Naturally we
talked in greek when we didnt want people to understand us and most people looked at us pretty confused.It felt incredibly good, being able to say whatever you wanted! So one day we where in a supermarket, wating in the line to pay and we were talking about how great it is that nobody can understand us and we can say things and insult whoever we want without being noticed. And while we are saying these stuff, the guy in front of us, who was Asian btw, turns around, says to us hello and starts talking IN GREEK! Turned out he had lived an amount of time in Greece..! But it doesnt end there. We were both red and laughing incontrolably when the man in front of the Asian guy turns to us and starts speaking in greek too! He later said he is Bulgarian(Bulgaria and greece are neighboors, so there are some bulgarians that have learned greek) . Needless to say at this point we were so embarrassed, our faces had turned bright red and we just wanted to get out of there. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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