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Funny words/ phrases in learning material | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Kannan Bilingual Diglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 6148 days ago 13 posts - 25 votes Speaks: English*, Malayalam* Studies: Tamil | Message 1 of 7 13 May 2011 at 5:24pm | IP Logged |
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There's probably been a thread about this before, but I haven't been able to find it.
Have you ever come across any weird/ funny phrases in beginners' learning materials or phrase-books? "English as she is spoke" doesn't count. I was going through some Sanskrit phrases (on acharya.iit) earlier, and I came across a couple of gems: "This is my elephant" (eṣo mama gajaḥ) was one of the first ones (not particularly weird, just really stereotypical), followed by "My vehicle is a Toyota" (mama vāhanaṃ toyotā). And a lot of the phrases in "Teach Yourself Sanskrit" appear to be literary quotations that are quite funny without context. I wouldn't be able to hold a basic conversation, but who needs that when you can say "This is a further ground- for-optimism", "The forest is as desolate as I", "Anger is a small pleasure" and "I see pleasant forests and shining water."? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Magdalene Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5036 days ago 119 posts - 220 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Mandarin, German, Modern Hebrew, French | Message 3 of 7 14 May 2011 at 12:46am | IP Logged |
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In the Level One, Part 2 textbook of the Integrated Chinese series, the examples of passive constructions include such gems as, "The
birthday cake was smashed by the dog" and "my watermelon was crushed by your couch." With corresponding illustrations. I once watched a YouTube video that ostensibly explained personal pronouns in Vietnamese. The dialogue went something like this: Guy 1: Say, that girl's beautiful. Guy 2: She's married. See? She's walking with her husband. Guy 1: Well then I'll just marry her sister. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Phantom Kat Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5063 days ago 160 posts - 253 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Finnish | Message 4 of 7 14 May 2011 at 1:14am | IP Logged |
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I can't recall the name of the program, but I have this program that I used years ago for learning French (my sister was studying it in high school and bought it). There was a flash card deck with illustrations, and one deck was teaching the use of "ontop", "beaneath," "in," and so on. Some were, "The dog is beneath the desk." Others were like these:
"The gorilla is in the car." "The gorilla is ontop of the car." "The gorilla is beneath the car." Each followed by a comical illustration of a gorilla with a red convertible. xD - Kat Edited by Phantom Kat on 14 May 2011 at 1:15am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| KSAKSA Groupie Australia Joined 5145 days ago 65 posts - 99 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Arabic (Gulf) | Message 5 of 7 14 May 2011 at 10:00am | IP Logged |
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LOL. These are the best type which help me learn Phantom Kat as they help it stay in my memory....
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5335 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 6 of 7 14 May 2011 at 11:16am | IP Logged |
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One of the first lessons in Assimil Spanish with ease includes the dialogue:
- El tabaco rubio, en España, es caro. - El tabaco negro cuesta muchos menos. - Y no fumar es todavía más barato. It is accompanied by a picture of a steam train asking a modern train “¿Usted fuma?” and the modern train answering “Muy poco”. Edited by ReneeMona on 14 May 2011 at 11:18am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| kyssäkaali Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5553 days ago 203 posts - 376 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish | Message 7 of 7 16 May 2011 at 12:57am | IP Logged |
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LE SINGE EST SUR LA BRANCHE!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x1sQkEfAdfY :D Additionally, everyone in my linguistics class got a kick out of "I will not receive cooked rice from your hand" for some reason. :D My Vietnamese textbook also had some goodies like "All the professors danced last night". Plus the chapter on diseases, hospital visits etc. had an illustration of a horrifically sickly-looking man, ribs showing and everything, sitting on a cot, hahaha. I can't remember anything from the Finnish Teach Yourself, but that's probably just because of the fact that it was the worst grammar book I have EVER read. :D Edited by kyssäkaali on 16 May 2011 at 1:00am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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