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Mistaken for a Turkish Cypriot | ||
Tags: Turkish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6272 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 1 of 9 20 January 2009 at 11:26am | IP Logged | ||
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I was in a shop in a part of London with a large Turkish-speaking population. I spoke in Turkish. A little later one of the people there asked me, "Are you from Cyprus?"
It turned out I was thought to be a Turkish Cypriot. My Turkish is not perfect, but many Turkish Cypriots in London handle English better than Turkish, though they can speak and understand the latter. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Marc Frisch Heptaglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6665 days ago 1001 posts - 1169 votes Speaks: German*, French, English, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Italian Studies: Persian, Tamil | Message 2 of 9 20 January 2009 at 1:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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Take it as a compliment. I remember having been asked if I was from Québec and thought it was a very nice compliment for my French skills.
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| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6272 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 3 of 9 20 January 2009 at 1:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was fairly pleased. I probably wouldn't be mistaken for someone from Turkey, though. My Turkish is not good enough.
It isn't the first time people have wondered where I am from. Years ago, I was speaking French in Brussels and I was asked if I was from Luxembourg. Speaking in one or other L2 tends to create confusion about my origins, I find. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MostDef Newbie Canada Joined 5809 days ago 10 posts - 10 votes Studies: French | Message 4 of 9 04 February 2009 at 7:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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You should consider yourself very lucky in being mistaken for a native speaker william, Congrats! PS Out of Curiousity William what is your ethnicity (That is if you dont mind answering?) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| William Camden Hexaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6272 days ago 1936 posts - 2333 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish, Russian, Turkish, French | Message 5 of 9 05 February 2009 at 6:31am | IP Logged | ||
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I am a Scot with Polish ancestry, but I have a rather "Mediterranean" look, so in terms of appearance, I could pass for someone from the Balkans, Cyprus and some parts of Turkey.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| sprachefin Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 5746 days ago 300 posts - 317 votes Speaks: German*, English, Spanish Studies: French, Turkish, Mandarin, Bulgarian, Persian, Dutch | Message 6 of 9 08 April 2009 at 4:21am | IP Logged | ||
Interesting though that you wouldn't be speaking very good Turkish but yet taken for a Cypriot. =) Do not be so modest. If you were speaking Turkish with them, you probably were recalling words and pronouncing them a bit differently. Happens to me all the time with English. I have been exposed to Turkish as there are a lot of Turkish immigrants in Germany. I plan to learn it and I hope to learn it faster than normal. I have Turkish friends who are really into hanging out with me, but they have horrible German. Absolutely horrible. I will be getting lots of vocabulary from Arabic though so that is a plus. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Dark_Sunshine Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5765 days ago 340 posts - 357 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 7 of 9 08 April 2009 at 12:05pm | IP Logged | ||
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That's definitely a compliment to your language skills. I am often mistaken for native Polish by Polish people in London, unfortunately not due to my language proficiency (I can't speak a word of it) but apparently because of my looks (I had no idea there was a particular 'Polish look' before!). I'm wondering if I should learn Polish for this reason- then I could have a conversation with all of the random Polish people that approach me, and maybe trick other Brits into believing I'm Polish!
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| Ham Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5989 days ago 21 posts - 21 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 8 of 9 09 April 2009 at 4:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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I would indeed take it as a complement, thinking you were a native speaker after all.
I have often been mistaken for a German by my fellow british due to my accent, which I am told is weird, though I've only been in Germany about a week in my life. Also dutch, swedish and east european. Strange... 1 person has voted this message useful |
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