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Quirky things in old language materials | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| WentworthsGal Senior Member United KingdomRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4888 days ago 191 posts - 246 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Swedish, Spanish | Message 17 of 41 05 January 2012 at 10:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have an old Scandinavian phrasebook and at the front it has some information about the different countries, travelling there etc and also on how many pairs of nylon tights you're allowed to bring accross the border! Made me chuckle for sure! :o) Oh and also a bit about tipping the shoeshine boy! :o) love it! Edited by WentworthsGal on 05 January 2012 at 10:03pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6909 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 18 of 41 06 January 2012 at 1:00am | IP Logged | ||
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Oh, this reminds me of a dialogue I came to think of the other day. One of the first chapters of my Spanish textbook took place at the customs... (from memory, translated to English):
Customs officer: ...anything else to declare? Traveller: — Yes, wine. Customs officer: — Wine? How many bottles? Traveller: — Two or three... Customs officer: Two or three? Traveller: Well, four. To read about a guy trying to get away with an extra bottle of wine, two-three years before we were even allowed to drink alcoholic beverages... I found that amusing. :D 7 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 19 of 41 06 January 2012 at 2:26am | IP Logged | ||
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I had a German reader that began with something along the lines of "Death is a sad but irrefutable fact of life. We all shall die one day. We must accept it, for such is our fate."
The publishing year was something like 1990, so I don't know what happened there... 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5967 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 20 of 41 06 January 2012 at 11:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have a Living Language French course from around 1955. I found it in a thrift shop and it was in excellent condition. In fact, it still had promotional material enclosed in the box, or, in other words, SPAM !
Back then, though, you could only pass along one copy to a friend. Oh, to have the old days back again . . . eh, no thanks, I personally don't go back that far and I appreciate Internet resources too much. But I thought the bit of spam included was amusing and tried to take a picture of it. I don't have a scanner. I set it up under a lamp and you can see it here. I forgot to remove Oscar the Grouch from the photo - that was a mistake - but I like the effect: he's looking into the future, decades ahead . . . and his eyes are bright and wide with premonitions that one day, language spam and extraordinary claims of easy fluency will be everywhere . . . everywhere . . . 
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| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6597 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 21 of 41 07 January 2012 at 12:36am | IP Logged | ||
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Is anyone going to try this for a 6 week challenge? :P
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| FuroraCeltica Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6865 days ago 1187 posts - 1427 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 22 of 41 07 January 2012 at 1:50am | IP Logged | ||
I don't know if it would be a good 6WC, but it might be a good collaborative writing project where everybody posts the quirky things they find 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5565 days ago 938 posts - 1840 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 23 of 41 07 January 2012 at 3:08pm | IP Logged | ||
This is wise, sage and stoical advice. I would welcome more things beginning with momento mori rather than 'you can learn German in 8 hours' 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5967 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map | Message 24 of 41 08 January 2012 at 5:18am | IP Logged | ||
Maybe this theme is very important! I made a vintage discovery only today a little like this. At a book sale I often attend, I found Methode Berlitz: Illustrierte Ausgabe für Kinder. Publication date is 1923. I had to sit on the floor and read it immediately, and I had such a good laugh that I had to explain to the ladies in charge just what was so funny. There's a strange cemetery lesson for children to study. The illustration depicts a lady in mourning clothes, sobbing and sprawled over a fresh grave. The questions the reader must answer are these (my translation). 1. What do you see in this picture? 2. Why is the lady dressed in black? 3. Who is buried under the headstone? 4. Where are the dead? 5. Can we live for a thousand years? 6. Do all people die at an old age? 7. Do you want to die young or become old? 8. Can we live without air? 9. Do we still breathe when we are dead? 10. Is George Washington still alive or is he dead? 11. Has he been dead for a long time? 12. Does a butterfly live to be very old? 13. How old are you? Unsettling, to say the least. 9 persons have voted this message useful |
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