Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5568 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian
| Message 1297 of 3737 07 December 2010 at 5:33pm | IP Logged |
muflax wrote:
...when you are thinking about finally getting a Facebook account, but can't decide which language to set your account up in. English, my thinking language? Would alienate some friends. Japanese? Don't know anyone who could even read it. German? Would alienate others. Pali? Not good enough yet. (I should have taken the Sumerian classes when I had the chance...)
Nah, probably better to not spend time on this social stuff and just learn more. Who needs people when you can have books? |
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The language you choose on Facebook is just the language things are displayed to you in. The only things people will see in a foreign language are things you type. And you can change your display language at any time. I change mine every few days.
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Qbe Tetraglot Senior Member United States joewright.org/var Joined 7136 days ago 289 posts - 335 votes Speaks: English*, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew Studies: Japanese, German, Mandarin, Aramaic
| Message 1298 of 3737 07 December 2010 at 6:10pm | IP Logged |
...when your desk at work contains more language-related books than work-related books. (A quick look at my own desk shows 6 computer books and 12 language books.)
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muflax Diglot Newbie Germany muflax.com Joined 5562 days ago 11 posts - 17 votes Speaks: German*, English
| Message 1299 of 3737 07 December 2010 at 6:22pm | IP Logged |
Levi wrote:
muflax wrote:
...when you are thinking about finally getting a Facebook account, but can't decide which language to set your account up in. English, my thinking language? Would alienate some friends. Japanese? Don't know anyone who could even read it. German? Would alienate others. Pali? Not good enough yet. (I should have taken the Sumerian classes when I had the chance...)
Nah, probably better to not spend time on this social stuff and just learn more. Who needs people when you can have books? |
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The language you choose on Facebook is just the language things are displayed to you in. The only things people will see in a foreign language are things you type. And you can change your display language at any time. I change mine every few days. |
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I was aware of the display settings (which would be Japanese anyway because 漢字 are just so neat and compact), but what I meant was, in which language I should write myself? I can only really count on being universally understood if I write in English, but I don't always feel like it and it seems weird to me to provide personal information in a different language than the one I use in conversation. Some public messages in English, some in German, I don't like that.
Luckily, I'm enough of an introvert that I don't have many friends to actually weird out (and managed to get one to learn a bit of Japanese!) and my reluctance is really just an aversion to inconsistency. I associate different languages with different... attitudes (personas?) and the ones I'd be most comfortable writing with aren't the ones that my friends typically see. But then it's a bit silly because I don't expect to actively use Facebook much, going by experience and having spent more time on setting up text editors than on being social this month...
You know you're a language nerd when you ramble on too long about language choices the way others do about clothing. ;)
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Omenapuu00 Tetraglot Newbie United States Joined 5109 days ago 10 posts - 19 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Russian, Swedish
| Message 1300 of 3737 07 December 2010 at 6:42pm | IP Logged |
...When you're taking Mandarin, Junior-level Spanish, Russian, and second semester Arabic classes during your first year at University and then drop out because you realize if all you want to study is foreign languages, you can learn more in an hour on your free time than a whole semester of schooling. Plus, you won't be surrounded by people with poor accents and no passion for the language ;)
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horshod Pentaglot Groupie India Joined 5771 days ago 74 posts - 107 votes Speaks: Hindi, Marathi*, Bengali, Gujarati, English Studies: German, Spanish, Turkish
| Message 1301 of 3737 07 December 2010 at 8:38pm | IP Logged |
Omenapuu00 wrote:
...you can learn more in an hour on your free time than a whole semester of schooling. Plus, you won't be surrounded by people with poor accents and no passion for the language ;) |
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So true!
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psy88 Senior Member United States Joined 5592 days ago 469 posts - 882 votes Studies: Spanish*, Japanese, Latin, French
| Message 1302 of 3737 08 December 2010 at 3:34am | IP Logged |
Omenapuu00 wrote:
...When you're taking Mandarin, Junior-level Spanish, Russian, and second semester Arabic classes during your first year at University and then drop out because you realize if all you want to study is foreign languages, you can learn more in an hour on your free time than a whole semester of schooling. Plus, you won't be surrounded by people with poor accents and no passion for the language ;) |
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And save yourself a heck of a lot of money!
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Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5568 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian
| Message 1303 of 3737 08 December 2010 at 7:48am | IP Logged |
...when you're crazy enough to study 漢字 in extremely dim lighting conditions.
2 persons have voted this message useful
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Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5568 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian
| Message 1304 of 3737 08 December 2010 at 8:17am | IP Logged |
...when you're listening to an explanation of a horrible tragedy in your target language, and you can't stop smiling because you find yourself understanding every word.
8 persons have voted this message useful
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