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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| randy310 Senior Member United States Joined 7069 days ago 117 posts - 117 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 25 of 54 17 August 2005 at 10:08am | IP Logged | ||
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Language learning is not really a yardstick of intelligence. Intelligence is the ability to use what you know in solving new problems and furthering existing knowledge. Take Spanish for instance. The entire language is out there for anyone who wants to learn it. You don't have to come up with anything new. A person of average intelligence can become a polyglot with hard work and sensible planning. But say designing the next generation of computer means creating something new based upon what already exists to extrapolate it to the next level. Don't get me wrong I find languages and anything else foreign incredibly fascinating. The human brain has an incredible capacity for soaking up information. Edited by randy310 on 17 August 2005 at 10:09am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Seolyk Newbie United States angelfire.com/scifi2 Joined 7038 days ago 23 posts - 25 votes | Message 26 of 54 22 August 2005 at 11:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think getting even isn't a good reason to start learning a language, but here I am, someone who is learning Icelandic because someone told him it was one of the hardest languages in the world and couldn't pass up a challenge like that. (although I am enjoying learning it. Its harder than norwegian, but learning norwegian first certainly is helping some of the vocabulary and grammar) *fear my overuse of parens*
anyway, as long as you yourself want to learn the language, by all means do it. I find language learning fun, and I hope to use it as an ESL teacher and/or missionary someday. Another fun hobby is conlanging... but thats a whole 'nother topic. If you do start learning japanese, you might want to invite the guy to learn with you, I find its easier to learn when you have a partner to practice with :) Then again... *lets his younger immature side free for a second* you could do it all on your own and rub it in his face and say, "YEAH! take THAT!" Forgive the rambling, its a bad habit I know. -Seo 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tim.mccravy Newbie United States Joined 5784 days ago 19 posts - 21 votes Speaks: Spanish | Message 28 of 54 27 January 2009 at 9:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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A boss I had one time continuously tried to impress me with his astounding knowledge of Spanish, which he said he just "picked up" by being from San Antonio. Truth is he didn't know three words in Spanish, unless you counted "Tequila," "taco," and "sombrero." Finally, he decided to impress me when I called him on his language ability, and he turned to one of the dishwashers (I worked in a restaurant at the time) and said "Teeny hombre?" The dishwasher looked confused and I corrected his verb, but not his Texas accent, and so he tried again, trying to say "Tienes Hambre" (are you hungry), but what came out was something like "Teenez Hombre," which the dishwasher understood as "Tienes Hombre?" (Do you have a man?) She looked first at me, then at him, and told me, in Spanish: tell him I'm married!
I've never laughed so hard in my life. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Rael Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6633 days ago 24 posts - 25 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: Korean | Message 29 of 54 30 January 2009 at 1:13am | IP Logged | ||
Great story. Very funny. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| skeeterses Senior Member United States angelfire.com/games5Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6622 days ago 302 posts - 356 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Korean, Spanish | Message 30 of 54 02 February 2009 at 2:16pm | IP Logged | ||
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Moderator,
One time I was reading the section on Show-offs that you wrote in the language learning guide and you mentioned 1 guy who claimed to speak 5 languages, including Swiss German. Could you tell us more about him? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Suriya Tetraglot Newbie Thailand Joined 5794 days ago 34 posts - 38 votes Speaks: Thai*, Laotian, English, Japanese Studies: Spanish, French, Welsh | Message 31 of 54 04 February 2009 at 4:26am | IP Logged | ||
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It makes me wonder how someone has the audacity to proudly say they 'speak' the language that they only know a few words and/or phrases. I mean, isn't it easy to prove that they couldn't and put them in embarrassment for the rest of their lives? Lao and Thai are more or less identical. About 97% (maybe 98.5% even) of the lexicon are the same, just spoken with different accents (or tones if you're familiar with Oriental Languages), I think perhaps about as much as Scottish accent differentiates from English accent. I can understand Lao as much as I understand my own tongue and I've been practising speaking with Lao accent (imagine an English person try to speak with Scottish accent... how rude lol), yet I'm still quite timid to say that I speak Lao.
Ignorance is truly bliss... Edited by Suriya on 16 February 2009 at 12:20pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| SlickAs Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5881 days ago 185 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French, Swedish Studies: Thai, Vietnamese | Message 32 of 54 04 February 2009 at 7:20am | IP Logged | ||
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Look, I have a story from today.
I went to the local "International Language" bookstore today, (for any Melbournians reading, on Glenferrie Rd and Barkers in Hawthorn / Kew) and although it is not the first time I have been, and I felt I recieved attitude the last time, I went there looking for a specific book: CLE International "Phonetique en dialogue nivau advancèe". I arrived and the store was busy with Range-Rover driving mothers with their private school 13 year old girls. So the woman who is probably the store owner comes and speaks to me. And the titles of the books are in French. And she clearly believes she speaks French, but her pronunciation is 'beginner'. So she does not have my book, but pushes me towards beginner and intermediate books. I tell her that I am looking for something more advanced. No go. So my girl-friend wants to get together the Australian accent before we leave. So I ask about her English as a second language books, and if she has a book / CD series on perfecting an Australian English accent. Again she pushes beginner books at me. Like with pictures of an orange, and "Orange" written below it. I say that is beginner and she is not understanding me, and she replies "Of course you know that once you are over 14 you will never learn to speak without an accent!" Now keep in mind here, we are in Australia, the bottom corner of the world where we are surrounded by English and people never really master foreign languages. I tell her "Well actually, I got my Spanish accent into decent shape ..." "Yeah, but you can never get the <pathetic attempt at rolled> 'r's' together." I roll my 'r' Dhe replies "My shop assistant is Colombian ... she has worked with these English pronunciation books ... I have a phone call to make ..." And she leaves me there. I can kind of feel the challenge to my Spanish like I am a lier about my mastery. I wander back to the counter and wait for the Colombian woman to finish with her customer. She says to me "Are you going to buy this French pronuncition book? Now in Montreal (or Europe) you would just change languages to the easiest without ceremony, which I did. I replied "No, pero ... Mira, otra cosa. Estoy buscando ..." and explain what I am looking for. And she leads me back to the ESL book section, and starts trying to speak to me in English. I continue in Spanish ... she says to me in English "Why you speak me in English?" and I can see she is insulted (in that I am insulting her English ... she is paid to speak English and would be without work with only Spanish). I apologise for insulting her English and speak to her in English. Now she is recommending books called "Three vs Tree", but she can not pronounce the difference. So I correct her. Now she is really angry (why would an Anglophone speak to me in fluent Spanish, ask for English pronunciation material when he is native?). She recommended that I go to a better language bookstore downtown, and I excused myself and left. Now clearly, to me, the Australian woman owns the store, but only speaks intermediate French. She is a pretender in her way. So one of us walks in, and she is intimidated. Especially by my much better French. So much so that she sends me to the Colombian to put me in my place. But because my Spanish was better than the Colombians English, she took offense. "What are you saying? My English is no good?" It left me scuttling to the door. I will never be back, and I am sure they are saying "Good ridance, let us work with 13 year old language students that never get beyond intermediate ... we will get them good grades in year 8 German". And I say "How can you run a language store and be touchy about your language ability?" So we part. Language snobbery costing them money. I will go downtown from here on. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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