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Ever had the urge to learn a few phrases | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Polyglot2005 Senior Member United States Joined 7199 days ago 184 posts - 185 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 9 30 November 2006 at 3:06pm | IP Logged |
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Im not really talking about visiting another country on vacation or business but more along the lines of wanting to impress someone by just learning a few phrases in their native language with really good pronunciation. This seems like it wouldnt be that difficult to do as your not really learning the language as a whole but just a few phrases.
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| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6901 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 2 of 9 30 November 2006 at 3:44pm | IP Logged |
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I think a good many of us have done that at one point or another. I tend to do it when I'm planning on going on holiday somewhere. I spent two months learning basic Japanese before I went to Kyoto and people were fairly impressed (they were probably being very polite). :p
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| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7216 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 3 of 9 30 November 2006 at 4:35pm | IP Logged |
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I was listening to a couple of friends who spent some time in China. One was there for a month on vacation, the other spent several months there on a project. Both could say things like "gimme a cold beer" in Mandarin. It sounded interesting. I've heard one of these guys speaking Spanish, in which he can say similar things. His Spanish accent was pretty bad, but I kept that to myself.
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| GoodSirJava Diglot Newbie United States down-with-big-brothe Joined 6720 days ago 21 posts - 25 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Japanese, Czech | Message 4 of 9 30 November 2006 at 7:59pm | IP Logged |
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No. I've never been one of those people who learns phrases; I always want to learn the grammar and a lexicon, with stock phrases being sort of secondary. Is this bad?
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| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6779 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 5 of 9 01 December 2006 at 2:53am | IP Logged |
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I learned stock phrases like that, plus the numbers, in Thai before I visited. I had a friend who was fluent as well, so I asked him to explain anything new to me before I went and used it.
By the way, you get better prices in the markets if you barter in Thai instead of English/Calculatorese. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6714 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 6 of 9 06 December 2006 at 4:48am | IP Logged |
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I keep a correspondance with one friend from my time at the university during the seventies. Every time we visit a country we should in principle send a postcard back in the native language of that country. It started when she send me a card in Breton which I spend several hours at the university library to decode. I have since then taken revenge by sending postcards in everything from Scots over Georgian to Thai, Chinese and Korean. Of course I don't know all these languages, but with the help of phrase books and small dictionaries and friendly natives I have until now succeeded in formulating a decent postcard from every major travel destination I have visited. The variety of postcards that I receive is less varied, but I was somewhat disappointed to receive a postcard in French from Vienna, - well Napoleon was there briefly, but otherwise people speak German there. However I did get one in Italian from Rome from her last trip, and those from Iceland have always been in Icelandic.
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| Clintaroo Diglot Senior Member Australia Joined 6882 days ago 189 posts - 201 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Tagalog, Indonesian | Message 7 of 9 06 December 2006 at 6:59am | IP Logged |
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Yes. I'm trying to memorise Tagalog phrases now, but I suppose I'm going a little deeper and intending to find out exactly how the sentences work and how I can manipulate them.
I've also learnt Korean phrases to say when ordering food and introducing myself. I really don't know much at all, but my Korean friends and some Korean people I've met think that it's a riot! :-) Edited by Clintaroo on 06 December 2006 at 7:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| CaoMei513 Senior Member United States Joined 6856 days ago 110 posts - 113 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Korean | Message 8 of 9 08 December 2006 at 9:08pm | IP Logged |
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Yes I have done this :) There is a girl from Brazil that I sometimes talk to online and so I learned how to say "Hi, how are you?" and "I'm fine, thanks" in Portugese. She was suprised! But I have long since forgotten how to say them hehe.
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