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You know you’re a language nerd when... | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5927 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 1441 of 3737 19 February 2011 at 10:24am | IP Logged | ||
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Friday morning I saw a jar of jam with a picture of blueberries on the label with the words "Syld Blåbär", which is Swedish for blueberry jam. I picked up the jar hoping to read more Swedish words on the label. Unfortunately for me, the other information on the label was in English, though I did find out that the jam was made in Sweden for Ikea. I have no reason to buy new furniture, but I think I will be going to the Ikea store next week anyway.
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| Psychedelica Diglot Newbie NetherlandsRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5315 days ago 7 posts - 11 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English Studies: Spanish, French, Swedish | Message 1442 of 3737 19 February 2011 at 11:40am | IP Logged | ||
Haha, the reason I love Ikea is because it's Swedish, I always get the urge to speak Swedish when I'm there. And I love how the dummy books in their bookcases are always in Swedish! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| yawn Bilingual Tetraglot Senior Member United States Joined 5429 days ago 141 posts - 209 votes Speaks: English*, Mandarin*, FrenchC2, SpanishC2 Studies: GermanB1 | Message 1444 of 3737 19 February 2011 at 10:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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^ Hahaha, that's cute. :D
You know you're a language nerd when you are having a German lesson with a native teacher when all of a sudden your mother, whose first language is Mandarin, bursts into the classroom along with a Spanish teacher, saying in Mandarin that she does not understand what the Spanish teacher is trying to tell her. You then translate from Spanish to Mandarin for your mother, reassure the Spanish teacher in Spanish that now she understands, and then proceed to explain to your own German teacher in German what is going on. That was probably one of the most epic moments I've ever had as a polyglot. :P I was at a language school when this happened, so there were many teachers teaching their own native language. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| skyr Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5036 days ago 15 posts - 43 votes Speaks: English*, German, Swedish Studies: Italian, Icelandic, Czech, Slovak, Serbian | Message 1445 of 3737 20 February 2011 at 2:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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You arrange to meet a friend who you haven't seen in 6 months in London at 3pm. You actually arrive at 10am but plan to spend 4 hours browsing the university bookshop for rare second-hand language books you (may) need. Coming away with a bilingual Serbo-Croatian dictionary from 1942 fills you with more joy than celebrating your birthday with the friend
...when you've converted all your 1980s/1990s language tapes and videos to MP3 or .flv format and then burned them to CD and DVD and stored them to your hard drive and external drive. Despite all these copies you're still unable to throw away the original tapes/videos just in case the copies on modern technolgy get lost, burned, warped or damaged all at the same time ...when you give a biology presentation at school/university and give impromptu etymologies of scientific termingology and you don't stop yourself as you think it's good for people to learn about their language ...when you think it would be immense fun to create a parallel Icelandic language that's been heavily influenced by 500 years of Finnish and South-Slavic languages, taking into account phonetic shifts, vowel harmony etc ...when you can't bring yourself to watch the UK-produced series of 'Wallander' as the pronunciation of 'Ystad' is cringingly wrong... You get so annoyed by it that you consider writing to the producers, recommending that the actors use Professor Arguelles' 'shadowing' technique in order to improve their pronunciation ...when you trawl online second-hand bookshops, desperately seeking editions of language textbooks that were printed in the 60s/70s/80s (before you were born) when grammar was 'taught properly', as you get annoyed that 21st century language textbook writers only mention 'grammar' three times in the entire book and avoid teaching the 'locative' or the 'middle voice' at all costs ...when your IPOD's 'top 5 most-played' list is TL versions of Postman Pat, Bob the Builder and soppy ballads, songs that you'd never ever listen to (sing along to) in your native language. ...when you go to your local supermarket daily in order to get accustomed to hearing Polish and Russian, although you aren't actually studying them yet, but they may come to you in a dream You and your classmates end up having a 5-course meal at a restaurant (you only planned on having coffee) because some speakers of your TL sit on the table next to you. You and your classmates decide this is a perfect opportunity for simultaneous interpretation practice and play 'spot the dialect/accent' ..when this is your third and bigget contribution to this website so far! 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| skyr Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5036 days ago 15 posts - 43 votes Speaks: English*, German, Swedish Studies: Italian, Icelandic, Czech, Slovak, Serbian | Message 1446 of 3737 20 February 2011 at 5:40pm | IP Logged | ||
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Oh, some more...
...when you think using packaging and manuals for language-learning is one of the best vocabulary-building and translation exercises you've ever heard! ...when you think that buying Polish and German cheese, bread etc, although more expensive than national brands, will create a better ambience for your language studies and thus improve your learning ...when you call random numbers in Southern Sweden, known for having a 'harder-to-understand' accent, asking if "[Jan] is in?" and, although this person doesn't exist in your life, you feel the aural/oral practice you gain, far outweighs the strangeness of such practice *off to investigate the contents of the recycling bag-> 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6145 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian | Message 1447 of 3737 22 February 2011 at 2:50am | IP Logged | ||
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...when you decide that if you have to do some science homework you might as well make it fun and worthwhile by writing your essay on nuclear power in French, since your teacher said that he wasn't going to read it anyways. I hope he doesn't notice all the accent marks (le réacteur nucléaire) when I show it to him to check it off tomorrow. :P
Edit: I decided to write only part in French... And then the other three parts in Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. :) Edited by ellasevia on 22 February 2011 at 7:35am 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| LazyLinguist Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5606 days ago 105 posts - 125 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1448 of 3737 22 February 2011 at 1:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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When you are on a relaxing holiday abroad, get the inspiration to take up the local language, and can't
wait to get home asyou have the appropriate Assimil in the post. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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