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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5129 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes  Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 9 of 27 12 December 2014 at 4:03pm | IP Logged | ||
I usually tell them this (or a variant) too, except in English. But I'll add that I'd be happy to have a conversation with them in whatever language they're asking about if they'd like. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7155 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 10 of 27 12 December 2014 at 4:35pm | IP Logged | ||
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"Why?" or "Excuse me?" in the relevant language other than English work for me.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4098 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 11 of 27 12 December 2014 at 4:39pm | IP Logged | ||
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If it's someone who should know better, or someone who's a bit snotty about it: "What do you want me to say?" in the target language.
If it's someone who couldn't really be expected to know better (children, mentally handicapped relatives, etc.) or who are genuinely curious about what the language sounds like: I recite two or three lines of a song or a poem that I know well. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Luso Hexaglot Senior Member Portugal Joined 6060 days ago 819 posts - 1812 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, EnglishC2, GermanB1, Italian, Spanish Studies: Sanskrit, Arabic (classical) | Message 12 of 27 12 December 2014 at 5:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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I just say the word "something" in the relevant language. It answers the question and pisses them off.
If they insist, I usually say "isto não é um número de circo". Also popular elsewhere, I see. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5955 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 13 of 27 12 December 2014 at 6:38pm | IP Logged | ||
I am perhaps a bit anomalous in that I do not see anything wrong at all with someone asking someone to say something in another language. I do not see it as a crime nor a possible flag for mental deficiency on the part of the person posing the question. Rather, as suggested in part of your comment, I assume it is honest curiosity. I have asked exactly that question of others: I recently encountered someone who spoke Icelandic natively, and I was thrilled and asked them to say something in Icelandic. I could alternatively have simply said "Good for you" and left it at that but I was honestly curious. From my perspective, if I had asked how to say something more specific, it runs a greater risk of being perceived as challenging, along the lines of "You say you speak Icelandic, but let's put this to the test: how would one say "X" in Icelandic. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tristano Tetraglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 4046 days ago 905 posts - 1262 votes Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: Dutch | Message 14 of 27 12 December 2014 at 7:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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if someone asks me to say something in Dutch today, I would answer hogesnelheidsvliegtuigen or something like
this, and then I would ask him to repeat. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Xenops Senior Member United States thexenops.deviantart Joined 3824 days ago 112 posts - 158 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 15 of 27 12 December 2014 at 7:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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I just volunteer the language: I figured they will ask anyway.
My sentence transition goes like this: (pardon the lack of special characters: this computer doesn't like them) "and I speak a couple of languages: hablo un poco de espanol, pero necesito mas practica, y nihongogasukoshiwakarimas, parlo un po' di Italiano". The curious then are satisfied. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 4098 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 16 of 27 12 December 2014 at 7:35pm | IP Logged | ||
I never said it was a flag for a mental deficiency. I said that people with various delaying diagnoses get an essentially limitless supply of assumed "good intentions". People who do not show great interest in the language before or in connection with asking for some random words, however, do not. Putting someone on the spot just for the heck of it is annoying at best, rude at worst, and given the attitude most people who ask about languages without showing great interest, it's generally a bit on the unpleasant. Perhaps it's mostly my situation. Since I moved to Brittany, the questions multiplied by 20 and they usually start with something like "But isn't French completely impossible to learn as a foreigner?" or "So, are you completely native yet?" complete with massive disinterest if I say anything other than "It's impossible and I am a massive failure." Come to think of it, the questions about life in France are mostly the same. "Yeah, but isn't it completely impossible to get past the bureaucracy? Oh, it's no worse than Sweden, well, zzzzznooore, I'm not listening if you're going to talk about something positive." 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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