doviende Diglot Senior Member Canada languagefixatio Joined 5984 days ago 533 posts - 1245 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Hindi, Swedish, Portuguese
| Message 97 of 351 02 December 2009 at 3:18am | IP Logged |
Gusutafu wrote:
doviende wrote:
Ya, I was thinking about this with regard to traveling. I'm thinking about sewing a little green-star flag onto my bag or something, just to see if anyone recognizes it and speaks Esperanto to me. |
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Just don't put the star on the front of your jacket, at least not when travelling in Germany...
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Sorry, this makes no sense. Could you explain this please? Does a green star have some alternate meaning in Germany?
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newyorkeric Diglot Moderator Singapore Joined 6377 days ago 1598 posts - 2174 votes Speaks: English*, Italian Studies: Mandarin, Malay Personal Language Map
| Message 98 of 351 02 December 2009 at 4:45am | IP Logged |
Gusutafu is referring to the Nazis requiring Jews to wear yellow stars on their clothing.
I hope no one will use the introduction of Nazism into the thread to veer away from language learning.
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Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6468 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese
| Message 99 of 351 02 December 2009 at 10:38am | IP Logged |
I don't think wearing a green star is a problem in Germany, as it's different enough. Before it was common to learn many foreign languages, German policemen used to wear a green star as a sign that tourists could approach them for help and information in Esperanto. Nowadays, I know many Esperanto speakers who have a star (or the "melono") on their backpack or whatever. Otherwise, it's too easy not to notice that somebody speaks Esperanto.
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Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6701 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 100 of 351 02 December 2009 at 10:59am | IP Logged |
It sounds like a very practical thing - and it shouldn't be restricted to Esperanto. I suspect that much talk in English (outside English speaking areas) could be avoided if you could see which common languages you had to choose from.
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Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5519 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish*
| Message 101 of 351 02 December 2009 at 11:31am | IP Logged |
Iversen wrote:
It sounds like a very practical thing - and it shouldn't be restricted to Esperanto. I suspect that much talk in English (outside English speaking areas) could be avoided if you could see which common languages you had to choose from. |
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Perhaps you could ask? I will not walk around with a bunch of flags like some tourist guide...
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Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5519 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish*
| Message 102 of 351 02 December 2009 at 11:33am | IP Logged |
Sprachprofi wrote:
Before it was common to learn many foreign languages, German policemen used to wear a green star as a sign that tourists could approach them for help and information in Esperanto. |
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Really? When was this? Were policemen instructed in Esperanto, or did this only apply to policemen who happened to know it anyway?
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Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6766 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek
| Message 103 of 351 02 December 2009 at 1:06pm | IP Logged |
I have been to places where the staff or tour guides wore tags saying what languages they spoke, and they would
find someone to help you no matter what your language was.
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