LorenzoGuapo Triglot Groupie United States Joined 6449 days ago 79 posts - 94 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: French
| Message 1 of 35 14 February 2011 at 4:40pm | IP Logged |
How many of you try to learn your target language to the point of passing as a native? Also what have been your experiences? Yes I am aware some languages this is not possible just becuase of the overall demographics of the target language speakers so when they look at you they can tell your a not a native, however with two of my target languages Spanish and Portuguese I have been asked if I was from a Spanish or Portuguese speaking country and when I tell them I am not then they immediately ask where my parents are from although my parents are from the US also.
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polyglHot Pentaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5071 days ago 173 posts - 229 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, German, Spanish, Indonesian Studies: Russian
| Message 2 of 35 14 February 2011 at 6:27pm | IP Logged |
I can pass for a native in English and Norwegian.
Sometimes people think that I am German or Russian, maybe I can keep it up for about 5-10
minutes, on airplanes for instance.
Unfortunately due to my blondeness I cannot pass for Indonesian or Spanish that'd be cool
though.
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Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5339 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian
| Message 3 of 35 14 February 2011 at 7:03pm | IP Logged |
I have several times passed for Spanish in spite of my blondness, and I think one of the proudest days of my life, was when I within the timeframe of 10 minutes was asked by a Spaniard if I was Spanish, by a Frenchman if I was French and by an American if I was from the US. They had however just heard me say a couple of sentences and did not expect me to speak their language, which is probably why they came up with such an extremely favourable evaluation.
Spanish is however the only language where I have been able to pass as native for any lenght of time, in addition to my mother tongue, Norwegian.
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Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5852 days ago 5460 posts - 6006 votes 1 sounds Speaks: German*, DutchC1, EnglishB2, French, Italian, Spanish, Esperanto Studies: Latin, Danish, Norwegian, Turkish Personal Language Map
| Message 5 of 35 14 February 2011 at 9:00pm | IP Logged |
It has happened to me quite often that people ask me which nationality I have when I speak Dutch and they know that I live in Germany. I am used to clarify that I have a German passport. For example yesterday I was phoning for the first time with somebody in Dutch, who already knew that I live in Germany. The first question was, which nationality I have, the Dutch or the German.
Fasulye
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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 6 of 35 14 February 2011 at 9:41pm | IP Logged |
I always aim to confuse. :-) My ego gets a great boost when I tell Spanish people I'm Scottish and they don't believe me.
It's great fun, but that's not why I do it. I've always intuitively felt that I can understand something better if I can do it myself. I also find that the more naturally you speak, the more naturally people speak back to you -- and if you want to learn to speak the language properly, you have to hear the proper language, so you have to get speakers to talk to you more naturally.
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Phantom Kat Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5068 days ago 160 posts - 253 votes Speaks: Spanish*, English Studies: Finnish
| Message 7 of 35 15 February 2011 at 1:51am | IP Logged |
I could pass as a native American more than likely due to learning English as a child. I actually have to convince people I'm Mexican because of my light skin and the habit of talking like a book (hey, I write fan-fiction in my spare time, so sue me). Funniest instance was when a guy insulted me right in my face becuase he didn't think I knew Spanish. Loved his face when I showed him I did. :P
- Kat
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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 8 of 35 15 February 2011 at 11:40am | IP Logged |
Phantom Kat wrote:
I could pass as a native American more than likely due to learning English as a child. |
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I'm guessing as a Mexican you mean Pueblo rather than Ojibwa, Cree or Mohawk....
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