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Linguistic Ignorance | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5324 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 33 of 156 26 August 2010 at 3:35pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Or more precisely -- some have been more conservative in the recent past. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6892 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 34 of 156 26 August 2010 at 3:49pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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X is the hardest language in the world. (Can be said of any language but Esperanto and Spanish)
Also, some monolinguals tend to hear the phrase 'I'm learning/studying X' as 'I have a flawless command of X'. This is reflected in statements such as, 'You're learning Chinese? You must be a genius!' (Does it take a genius to attempt to learn something? I rather think that NOT having to spend several years of my life to learn it would make me a genius...) and in the fact that they'll suspect you of being a fraud if you can't translate the ridiculous things they demand on the spot ('OK, then how do you say the Pledge of Allegiance in Chinese?') 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| zamie Groupie Australia Joined 5196 days ago 83 posts - 126 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Modern Hebrew | Message 35 of 156 26 August 2010 at 3:53pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
And that's why I don't tell anyone I learn German. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5324 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 36 of 156 26 August 2010 at 4:49pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I was asked lately to "say something in Japanese". They then proceeded to question my pronunciation by saying "Isn't it supposed to sound rougher than that"?
2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| tracker465 Senior Member United States Joined 5295 days ago 355 posts - 496 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 37 of 156 27 August 2010 at 5:47am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
Well what is said above is true, but I think that the following (taken from dictionary.com) is necessary for further clarification:
Seeing as there were Germanic tribes in both the Netherlands and Germany, the word seems to refer to all Germanic people, not just modern Germans or the Germanic tribes in Germany. Now regarding this whole name confusion thing between German and Dutch, as well as the languages, this is what bothers me. Having grown up in south-central Pennsylvania, USA, there are a lot of folks with German ancestory here. From my understanding, up until World War 2 (or was it WWI...I think it was the second though), a lot of people still spoke a German dialect here in my state. Now the number of speakers is mostly confined to the Amish. The thing is though, that this dialect is often called "Pennsylvania Dutch" although now more and more language specialists are using the term "Pennslyvania German". It is frusterating for me though, because whenever I tell someone that I am learning Dutch, the person most likely will make a comment that makes me realize that they think I am talking about the German dialect, and not the language spoken in the Netherlands. Argh! 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6493 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog | Message 38 of 156 27 August 2010 at 7:28am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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"Japanese, Chinese - they all sound exactly the same. Ya know, they just open their mouths and say stuff and it's all,
ya know, funny. They sound exactly the same to me." She was a cute Chilean girl, so I tried to explain without losing my temper, but she never answered my calls after that day, so I must have failed. Also, a polyglot who shall remain nameless recently made a big deal about trying to learn an asian language, apparently because they are difficult and use scripts that are different from English. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| maura Bilingual Octoglot Newbie Spain Joined 5163 days ago 1 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Spanish*, Galician*, Portuguese, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Dutch Studies: Danish, Russian | Message 39 of 156 27 August 2010 at 11:56am | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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In Spain among older people there was sort of a proverb, meaning it seriously: English is a very hard language, your write "Shapeskeare" (pronounced in the Spanish way) and read it "Schopenhauer" I heard it myself as I was younger, in the late seventies- first eighties. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||||||||
| Guus Triglot Newbie Singapore blog.yago.sg Joined 5198 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Mandarin | Message 40 of 156 27 August 2010 at 12:47pm | IP Logged | |||||||||||
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I've seen a language school promoting "Belgian" courses. Wonder how that would sound...
2 persons have voted this message useful |
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