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You know you’re a language nerd when... | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Belardur Octoglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5611 days ago 148 posts - 195 votes  Speaks: English*, GermanC2, Spanish, Dutch, Latin, Ancient Greek, French, Lowland Scots Studies: Biblical Hebrew, Italian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Korean | Message 3105 of 3737 07 October 2013 at 9:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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You log back into the forum after four years because you realize you just plain miss talking about
languages... 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| cacue23 Triglot Groupie Canada Joined 4299 days ago 89 posts - 122 votes Speaks: Shanghainese, Mandarin*, English Studies: Cantonese | Message 3106 of 3737 09 October 2013 at 12:14pm | IP Logged | ||
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Did I just finish reading this ENTIRE POST? Over a span of several months alright, but still.
2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| languagenerd09 Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom youtube.com/user/Lan Joined 5100 days ago 174 posts - 267 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Thai | Message 3107 of 3737 10 October 2013 at 12:30am | IP Logged | ||
I did that at University, my friend lives in my city but was born in Sierra Leone when her mum worked there but her family originates from Lebanon, so I automatically asked her something like " hal tataqallameena al-arabiyah?" to her reaction being a shocked face and nodding. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| mick33 Senior Member United States Joined 5924 days ago 1335 posts - 1632 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Finnish Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish | Message 3108 of 3737 10 October 2013 at 1:28am | IP Logged | ||
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When I watch a French video about Jacques Lacan on YouTube that is supposed to have Spanish subtitles, but I see that the subtitles are actually Portuguese. I don't get upset about this, rather I think to myself "YAY I get to test my passive reading skills in Portuguese!"
And when I get way too excited about the above video and immediately log on to this forum to write this post, but respond to another discussion thread first. Edited by mick33 on 10 October 2013 at 1:45am 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| espejismo Diglot Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5051 days ago 498 posts - 905 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: Spanish, Greek, Azerbaijani | Message 3109 of 3737 10 October 2013 at 3:59am | IP Logged | ||
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When your friend wishes you a happy birthday in German, and you understand it only because the week
before that you looked up how to say happy birthday in Yiddish... 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| montmorency Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4828 days ago 2371 posts - 3676 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Danish, Welsh | Message 3110 of 3737 10 October 2013 at 5:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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When your wife says to you "stick the kettle on", and as you ponder that non-standard
usage, wonder about such non-standard usages in other languages, and how being able to handle them and use them actively and appropriately must mark one of the differences between a native speaker and a second-language speaker. "stick" is of course a dictionary word (noun and verb), but I doubt if that expression is one that would be taught to a learner. Other possibilities might be: "shove the kettle on" or "plonk the kettle on", although I can't say I have heard either frequently. The "standard" usage would be: "put the kettle on" (as in the nursery rhyme), but perhaps the "correct" usage ought to be: "switch the kettle on", but I doubt if many people say that normally. I'm guessing that "put" comes from the days before electric kettles, when you would either put an old-fashioned kettle on to one of the gas burners on the cooker hob, or even further back, when you'd put it on to part of an old-fashioned "range" (like my grandparent's generation used to have), something like this: 
Owners of "Aga" cookers can still do this: Aga 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cacue23 Triglot Groupie Canada Joined 4299 days ago 89 posts - 122 votes Speaks: Shanghainese, Mandarin*, English Studies: Cantonese | Message 3111 of 3737 11 October 2013 at 4:08pm | IP Logged | ||
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... when you watch the Italian opera "Otello" (by Domingo!) subtitled in Spanish, with no knowledge in either language, trying to guess what the heck the characters are talking about with the help of an understanding of the plot of the original play.
By the way, you do get to learn things. I'm not planning to learn either Italian or Spanish yet, but just think how someone who focuses on these two languages would benefit from watching an opera that way. Edited by cacue23 on 11 October 2013 at 4:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ogrim Heptaglot Senior Member France Joined 4639 days ago 991 posts - 1896 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian | Message 3112 of 3737 11 October 2013 at 4:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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When you set the languages on your iphone to French, on your iPad to German, on your Kindle to English, your laptop to Italian, your hotmail account to Spanish and your gmail to Norwegian.
3 persons have voted this message useful |
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