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M. Obama: "butterfly" in 20 languages

  Tags: Multilingual
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion (Topic Closed Topic Closed) Post Reply
36 messages over 5 pages: 1 2 3 4
Cthulhu
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Canada
Joined 7224 days ago

139 posts - 235 votes 
Speaks: French*, English, Mandarin, Russian

 
 Message 33 of 36
28 March 2011 at 6:15pm | IP Logged 
CaucusWolf wrote:

It suprises me how closed minded people really are. When one lumps a specific group together saying they're all the same it leads to things like the holocaust. I'm very suprised that some of these posters didn't get banned or that this thread didn't get locked.


Wow. Just...Wow. Apparently saying that a very large majority of Arabs are Muslim is going to lead to genocide; if I'd known I definitely would've been more careful about stating commonly known statistics. I don't really see the connection personally, but that's the *butterfly* effect for you. I'll be more careful in the future about stating the obvious on the internet.

Personally, I've never cared much for butterflies, but then none of my languages have very good words for them...Dragonflies are totally where it's at; even in English, how much cooler are dragons than butter?

Edited by Cthulhu on 28 March 2011 at 6:17pm

3 persons have voted this message useful



Abdalan
Triglot
Senior Member
Brazil
abdalan.wordpress.co
Joined 5047 days ago

120 posts - 194 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, French, English
Studies: German

 
 Message 34 of 36
28 March 2011 at 6:57pm | IP Logged 
TerryW wrote:
Abdalan wrote:
The first lady of EUA, Michelle Obama, ... said to her
two daughters (Malia and Sasha) that they should learn to say at least the word
"butterfly" in 20 languages.


When I read your quote, I, like a lot of the the other responders in this thread
thought that it's pretty much a silly task language-learning-wise to "at least" learn
butterfly in 20 langs.


Hi, TerryW. If you read again the Message 6 you are going to see that I tried to show
exactly the contrary. "Of course, the focus is not the very word butterfly she cited,
but to know at least a little of 20 languages. فهم - to refer to CaucusWolf's hint."

There weren’t butterflies in scenery on stage. In her earlier remarks she didn’t
mention "borboletas" - nothing came of that either – the focus the was, as I said in
my first message was the "need to prepare young people to succeed
through education". With a number of teenagers around, she was "encouraging
them to focus on getting a good education, experience new cultures and to be ‘citizens
of the world’"...

...but Raquel Helen Silva, 20 years old, girl that discoursed before M. Obama, told us
that she became orphan since early childhood. Since the earlier stages of her life
always studied in public school but her life changed after a cultural-exchange program:
"I started learning ‘butterfly’ in one language, but now I know in twenty", so...

TerryW wrote:

News articles quoting M. Obama wrote:
"Don't be like me and not know -- I only know
'butterfly' in one language," she said, before turning to her daughters, who
accompanied her. "So Malia and Sasha, you got to learn 'butterfly' in at least 20
languages, okay?" she said.



TerryW wrote:

When I read your quote, I, like a lot of the the other responders in this thread
thought that it's pretty much a silly task language-learning-wise to "at least" learn
butterfly in 20 langs.


Erros, like straws, upon the surface flow; he who would search for pearls must dive
below.

Edited by Abdalan on 28 March 2011 at 6:58pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Abdalan
Triglot
Senior Member
Brazil
abdalan.wordpress.co
Joined 5047 days ago

120 posts - 194 votes 
Speaks: Portuguese*, French, English
Studies: German

 
 Message 35 of 36
28 March 2011 at 8:26pm | IP Logged 
Cthulhu wrote:
Personally, I've never cared much for butterflies, but then none of
my languages have very good words for them...Dragonflies are totally where it's at;
even in English, how much cooler are dragons than butter?


There is much to say about butterflies than one may think – When I get back to this
thread my pulse raced a little. I don’t know how to swim butterfly stroke, but surfing
through this forum, butterflies fluttered in my stomach.

Should I give up and get back to my loved book Madame Butterfly? No... I’m learning
French. I need some help. I already know how to spell "papillon", but it has something
to do with "papillotage"? "Papillons noirs" such is my mood.

But I didn’t dream about ‘mariposas’ nor woke up with the Buddhist Zhuangzi thought
(once Zhuangzi dreamt he was a butterfly; he woke up but he didn't know if he was
Zhuangzi who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuangzi) I
am not a butterfly because I know it was Mary, "mariposa". Flutter by, butterfly.

Schmetterling was cited, but what does "schmettern" means? Mary is a singer?
You all know that the gallego "volverta", butterfly, comes from the Latin
"volvere" and the snowflakes are called "volves de neu" and "vulva" is of the same
family. The "vulva" is the "volverta" and much more... Dear Mari, I really care about
butterflies.

"I get high when I see you go by,
My oh my.
When you sigh my 'mind' inside just flies,
Butterflies..." (John Lennon)

1 person has voted this message useful





newyorkeric
Diglot
Moderator
Singapore
Joined 6380 days ago

1598 posts - 2174 votes 
Speaks: English*, Italian
Studies: Mandarin, Malay
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 Message 36 of 36
29 March 2011 at 10:01am | IP Logged 
I think it's time to close this thread.



4 persons have voted this message useful



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