tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4710 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish
| Message 2401 of 3737 16 June 2012 at 10:57am | IP Logged |
vermillon wrote:
tarvos wrote:
This reminds me of a play by Amélie Nothomb I
finished a few days ago. The play
effectively asks the question whether, during a war where you're freezing cold and have
no heating resources bar a library, whether you would burn the books to keep warm (and
which ones you'd burn first). |
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I'd say she's going further by implying that even out of war time these books could be
burnt without remorse!
By the way, I really love this author, and considering the shortness of her books, I'm
sure they make very pleasant readings for learners of French. |
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That they do :)
When you find out you understand some words of spoken Italian in a sentence and almost
buy Assimil Italian with Ease because of it
2 persons have voted this message useful
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emk Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5535 days ago 2615 posts - 8806 votes Speaks: English*, FrenchB2 Studies: Spanish, Ancient Egyptian Personal Language Map
| Message 2402 of 3737 16 June 2012 at 8:59pm | IP Logged |
Iversen wrote:
When you buy a book about Carcassonne pas en français ou espagnol ou
anglais, mais en catalan et en russe - et vous déplore vivement qu'il n'existe pas en
ancien français et occitan aussi. |
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…when correctly pronouncing the name of a French city will cause you to accidentally
switch languages in mid-sentence. :-)
…when you've surrounded yourself with people who don't find anything odd about that.
4 persons have voted this message useful
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Ismeme Granger Newbie United States Joined 4585 days ago 26 posts - 65 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish
| Message 2403 of 3737 16 June 2012 at 11:12pm | IP Logged |
When you spend a two-hour car ride just ranting about languages and many variations
there upon.
When your mother isn't surprised by this.
When you are fascinated by a sauce bottle just because it has the title in a Balkan
language(and because it doesn't say which one, but has a bunch of flags on it, you
endeavor to figure out which language is being shown.) It is Romanian, and it means
'Monk's hodgepodge.' Cool, isn't it?
When the rice interests you simply because it has Arabic writing on the bag.
When because the sauce is Balkan and the rice is Middle-Eastern, the fact that you will
be eating them together amuses you and makes you want to learn a few basic phrases in
each to use at dinner.
1 person has voted this message useful
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Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6600 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 2404 of 3737 17 June 2012 at 3:51am | IP Logged |
jeff_lindqvist wrote:
Hypothetical examples:
asdf ertr dgdfkj lijbvivof - Where's the nearest police station?
kjrlke dsvfkgj tyrölf clvöxölh - How much is this pack of cigarettes? |
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When you want to learn this language :)
When you think tyrölf looks like a Scandinavian borrowing.
Edited by Serpent on 17 June 2012 at 3:51am
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Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5069 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish
| Message 2405 of 3737 17 June 2012 at 4:15am | IP Logged |
Iversen wrote:
When you buy a book about Carcassonne pas en français ou espagnol ou anglais, mais en
catalan et en russe - et vous déplore vivement qu'il n'existe pas en ancien français et occitan aussi. |
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When the mid-sentence switch between English and French doesn't phase you...
When you don't consider yourself as having studied French although you know enough to understand the second
half of that sentence completely.
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wv girl Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5242 days ago 174 posts - 330 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Spanish
| Message 2406 of 3737 17 June 2012 at 1:34pm | IP Logged |
You know you're a language nerd, and so do your friends, when they bring you back The Welsh Learner's Dictionary
as a souvenir from their trip to England, and you are immediately curious about a language with so many Ws.
Edited by wv girl on 17 June 2012 at 7:08pm
4 persons have voted this message useful
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Mowli Triglot Newbie Norway Joined 4926 days ago 19 posts - 40 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Mandarin
| Message 2407 of 3737 17 June 2012 at 8:34pm | IP Logged |
When someone at your door asks: "Do you speak Norwegian?" and you enthusiastically tell them yes and a bit of German too. Then you realize that they are just wondering if they should speak to you in English or Norwegian when convincing you to follow Jesus.
When people ask you if there are many foreigners in the area you live. Again your answer is enthusiastically yes. Well, at least I can live here cheap AND get to overhear Spanish, German, French and lots of other languages every day.
3 persons have voted this message useful
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Hampie Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 6662 days ago 625 posts - 1009 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Latin, German, Mandarin
| Message 2408 of 3737 17 June 2012 at 8:41pm | IP Logged |
Serpent wrote:
jeff_lindqvist wrote:
Hypothetical examples:
asdf ertr dgdfkj lijbvivof - Where's the nearest police station?
kjrlke dsvfkgj tyrölf clvöxölh - How much is this pack of cigarettes? |
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When you want to learn this language
:)
When you think tyrölf looks like a Scandinavian borrowing. |
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Let's make it ;)?
1 person has voted this message useful
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