mr_chinnery Senior Member England Joined 5762 days ago 202 posts - 297 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French
| Message 9 of 17 10 February 2011 at 2:05am | IP Logged |
ellasevia wrote:
Not related to the actual question at all, but for some odd reason I
get really excited when I learn the word for "cheese" in a new language. Just a moment
ago I learned پنير in Persian and I was ecstatic. I remember the same reaction when I
learned сыр and brânză in Russian and Romanian respectively. |
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Lol! I find it a really comedic word in English. Only Italian could make something so
smelly sound so sexy..."Formaggio"...Mmmmmmmm.......
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ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6147 days ago 2150 posts - 3229 votes Speaks: English*, German, Croatian, Greek, French, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Catalan, Persian, Mandarin, Japanese, Romanian, Ukrainian
| Message 10 of 17 10 February 2011 at 2:12am | IP Logged |
mr_chinnery wrote:
ellasevia wrote:
Not related to the actual question at all, but for some odd reason I
get really excited when I learn the word for "cheese" in a new language. Just a moment
ago I learned پنير in Persian and I was ecstatic. I remember the same reaction when I
learned сыр and brânză in Russian and Romanian respectively. |
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Lol! I find it a really comedic word in English. Only Italian could make something so
smelly sound so sexy..."Formaggio"...Mmmmmmmm....... |
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I agree. It just sounds so funny! In Persian, چيز (pronounced just like 'cheese') means 'thing' and چيزى (pronounced just like 'cheesy') means 'something'! Such wonderful things, these languages...
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hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5135 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe
| Message 11 of 17 10 February 2011 at 5:13am | IP Logged |
mr_chinnery wrote:
Lol! I find it a really comedic word in English. Only Italian could make something so
smelly sound so sexy..."Formaggio"...Mmmmmmmm....... |
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There's a reason the word "formaggio" (as well as Catalan's "formatge") came into being, and it had to do with the process, not the product. "Cacio" is still used for cheese in Italian, too.
R.
==
Edited by hrhenry on 10 February 2011 at 5:13am
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DaraghM Diglot Senior Member Ireland Joined 6156 days ago 1947 posts - 2923 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French, Russian, Hungarian
| Message 12 of 17 11 February 2011 at 4:02pm | IP Logged |
The weirdest thing I've done is pretending I don't speak English in Spain. I said I only spoke Irish and Spanish.
<<No hablo inglés sino irlandés>>
Edited by DaraghM on 11 February 2011 at 4:05pm
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Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6016 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh
| Message 13 of 17 11 February 2011 at 5:59pm | IP Logged |
I used to follow a Spanish TV program called "Mil años de Romanico", where a guy wandered round looking at old churches and discussing the architecture. I'd been on a summer school in Santiago de Compostela and we'd done a study of the cathedral, so I knew most of the vocabulary.
It was the easiest program for me to understand, so I watched it every week...
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meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5972 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map
| Message 14 of 17 12 February 2011 at 4:42am | IP Logged |
A few days ago, I tested my French comprehension by watching a TV program about cat food.
I wanted to see how much I could understand without subtitles, and although my listening abilities still aren't so great, I got the gist of it, enough to start worrying about the dietary requirements of my resident felines.
They don't listen to any language I speak to them, though, so they're getting the cheap stinky fish slop they always get. Tant pis!
PS: this thread was difficult to tag!
Edited by meramarina on 12 February 2011 at 4:43am
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leosmith Senior Member United States Joined 6555 days ago 2365 posts - 3804 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Tagalog
| Message 15 of 17 13 February 2011 at 2:02am | IP Logged |
Shouldn't this thread be merged with "you know you're a language geek"?
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meramarina Diglot Moderator United States Joined 5972 days ago 1341 posts - 2303 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Italian, French Personal Language Map
| Message 16 of 17 13 February 2011 at 3:08am | IP Logged |
Yes, it's generally the same theme, but that thread is so long already. We all have so many weird things to reveal about ourselves and our language obsessions that the topic is always being discussed somewhere on the board. (it's good to be weird, though; we're all OK!)
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