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Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6010 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh
| Message 33 of 57 19 June 2011 at 1:54pm | IP Logged |
Iversen wrote:
Personally I haven't had a language class since 1981, but from what I read/hear all classes start with short dialogs of the type "My name is blabla, what is your name?" "My name is bloblob, what is your name?" "My name is still blabla, what is your name" and so forth. I do see the point in teaching travellers some useful expressions before they leave home, but but it is not obvious that the ability to have simple conversations should be more important than the ability to read a novel or understand a news broadcast on TV. |
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More to the point, "hello, my name is Cainntear, I live in Edinburgh, Scotland" isn't having a conversation, in that it's something I would never feel the need to say in any language. Having a conversation involves the same grammar as any other language task.
"Conversational phrases" is an oxymoron, because conversation is all about reacting to what the other person says, not answering fixed questions.
1 person has voted this message useful
| slucido Bilingual Diglot Senior Member Spain https://goo.gl/126Yv Joined 6674 days ago 1296 posts - 1781 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Spanish*, Catalan* Studies: English
| Message 34 of 57 19 June 2011 at 4:56pm | IP Logged |
Cainntear wrote:
"Conversational phrases" is an oxymoron, because conversation is all about reacting to what the other person says, not answering fixed questions. |
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Our questions and answers in informal meetings are usually very standard. It makes sense to learn them.
I even think that this patterns in more formal and technical meetings are quite repetitive as well.
3 persons have voted this message useful
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5333 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian
| Message 35 of 57 21 October 2011 at 5:03pm | IP Logged |
I do not understand the need some have to claim to speak 50+ languages. I love the fact that they are eager to learn languages, but I think they would come across so much better if they said they were just studying them, and then just made the fluency claim when they could actually carry a fluent conversation. It does however make sense that they actually believe that they are fluent.
When I was 13 I thought I was pretty good at playing the guitar, because I played a couple of hours a day, and could accompany all the songs that I sang, and everyone was saying what a great guitar player I was. Then I started taking lessons, and realized that I was absolutely clueless, because I had no idea what playing a guitar actually entailed. I would imagine that a lot of the "mass polyglots" are in the same situation.
I don't remember who in this thread said that it was a good thing if you knew at least one language to C1 - C2, because then at least you knew what learning a language entails, and I would second that. I just shake my head at people who have "learned a language" in 24 hours, after having borrowed a course at the local library.
6 persons have voted this message useful
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6010 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh
| Message 36 of 57 22 October 2011 at 4:32am | IP Logged |
I used to think I was rubbish at languages...
Ach entonces j'ai m'enseignato franglitaliàgnol.
4 persons have voted this message useful
| simonov Senior Member Portugal Joined 5588 days ago 222 posts - 438 votes Speaks: English
| Message 37 of 57 22 October 2011 at 11:43am | IP Logged |
Cainntear wrote:
I used to think I was rubbish at languages...
Ach entonces j'ai m'enseignato franglitaliàgnol.
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I take it you meant: "But then I taught myself French, English, Italian, and Spanish."
1. German "Ach" does not mean "but"
2. Spanish "entonces" does mean "then", but, to my ears, sounds a little off in this context. Unless you actually meant something more in the line of "so I taught myself"
3. French "j'ai" would be all right if followed by "imparato", but pronominal verbs require "to be" in both French and Italian, and the pronoun must be inserted between the subject and the auxiliary. So it should not be "j'ai", but "je me suis".
4. a) 'enseignato' doesn't exist, 'enseigner" is French, Italian is 'insegnare'.
b) In French, Italian etc. you do not "teach yourself", you "learn".
I taught myself English/Italian. - J'ai appris l'anglais (tout seul). Ho imparato l'italiano (da solo).
I taught English - J'ai enseigné l'anglais. Ho insegnato l'inglese.
Your strange language concoction might look mildly amusing if you had used a tilde for Spanish 'español', not French 'espagnol'.
No, I'm afraid I did not think your post funny, interesting or useful. So, no vote!
8 persons have voted this message useful
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6438 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese
| Message 38 of 57 22 October 2011 at 7:06pm | IP Logged |
simonov wrote:
Cainntear wrote:
I used to think I was rubbish at languages...
Ach entonces j'ai m'enseignato franglitaliàgnol.
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I take it you meant: "But then I taught myself French, English, Italian, and Spanish."
1. German "Ach" does not mean "but"
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"Ach" is 'but' in Gaelic, not German.
8 persons have voted this message useful
| simonov Senior Member Portugal Joined 5588 days ago 222 posts - 438 votes Speaks: English
| Message 39 of 57 22 October 2011 at 8:40pm | IP Logged |
Volte wrote:
simonov wrote:
1. German "Ach" does not mean "but" |
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"Ach" is 'but' in Gaelic, not German.
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Sorry, my bad, should have checked Gaelic. Thanks for the rectification.
Edited by simonov on 22 October 2011 at 8:42pm
1 person has voted this message useful
| leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6549 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog
| Message 40 of 57 23 October 2011 at 9:38am | IP Logged |
simonov wrote:
Thanks for the rectification. |
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Ouch, that sounds painful. On a lighter note, there is now compelling evidence that these aren't even a good idea
for men over the age of 50. Unfortunately, it was 6 months too late for me.
4 persons have voted this message useful
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