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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6597 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes  4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 9 of 25 06 December 2006 at 8:06am | IP Logged | ||
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This has happened to me in Prague - we asked a couple about how to get somewhere. The couple turned out to be from Slovenia, so the conversation was in Slovenian, Russian, English and Czech :)
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| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7156 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 10 of 25 06 December 2006 at 8:23am | IP Logged | ||
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On my first trip to Slovakia a few years ago, I stayed at the home of one of my friends' parents. At that time I couldn't speak any Slovak. However, the father also spoke Hungarian, while the mother also spoke some German and Polish. Needless to say, I did things the hard way and used Hungarian with the father and German and Polish with the mother. Things would have been less complicated if I had known some Slovak (i.e. their common language), but I had to make do with such convoluted communication instead.
Still it was quite good since my mind had to be sharp even while relaxing at their home. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6768 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 11 of 25 06 December 2006 at 8:52am | IP Logged | ||
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Reminds me a bit of my wife's company, where I have to constantly switch between Japanese, English, and French to talk to people. And it would help things if I added Turkish to my repertoire. :)
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| Haky216 Bilingual Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6590 days ago 11 posts - 11 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, Armenian* | Message 12 of 25 30 December 2006 at 4:45pm | IP Logged | ||
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This happend in France when I visited some family members in Paris. My family there doesn't speak english, and I speak limited french, so the only mode of communication was Armenian. My friend doesn't know Armenian, so there was literally 3 languages constantly being spoken at, dinner, for example.
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| orion Senior Member United States Joined 7021 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian | Message 13 of 25 31 December 2006 at 11:30pm | IP Logged | ||
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I used to work with two guys, one Chinese and the other Russian. They both spoke English but with rather heavy accents. Their accents in English were so heavy that they could not understand each other in English, so I would act as "interpreter". For instance, the Chinese guy would say something to me in English, and I would repeat it to the Russian guy, also in English. It was rather strange that they could both understand me, and I them, but they could not understand each other. I must admit it was fun being completely fluent as an interpreter for once!
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| Aritaurus Tetraglot Senior Member Canada Joined 6574 days ago 197 posts - 204 votes Speaks: Cantonese, English*, Japanese, Mandarin Studies: Spanish | Message 14 of 25 03 January 2007 at 10:03am | IP Logged | ||
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I remember when I was at Narita airport in Tokyo, I was waiting for my flight to Hong Kong near the gate and I decided to go grab something to eat. I went to this food stand and I saw a Hong Kong Chinese lady having communication problems with the Japanese clerk in English. Basically, the lady wanted to buy two lollypops for her kids and asked how much they were. The clerk kept on saying " se aru furi " - they are free. The Chinese lady misunderstood and thought he meant that he has to buy three so she kept on saying " three ? no no, I only want two ! ". Afterwards, the clerk kept on saying " no ! furi !!! ". They just kept on repeating and repeating until I had to step in. I just told the lady in Cantonese that he means that candies are free. Afterwards, I asked the clerk in Japanese to confirm that the candies are free and then translated back to the lady. I felt real good that day ! Edited by Aritaurus on 03 January 2007 at 10:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Giordano Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7174 days ago 213 posts - 218 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Cantonese, Greek | Message 15 of 25 08 April 2007 at 2:02am | IP Logged | ||
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One side of my family is Italian and the other side is Anglophone. At Christmas we were all together, along with two Francophone aunts (both by marriage). It seems like there's always at least three languages being spoken.
Another time was when I went out with some German exchange student friend from my school (an English school) and they invited some other German students who were attending French schools, so they spoke to each other in German and we had to speak to them in English and French. Yet another time was when I had an argument with my Spanish boss and I was on the phone in Italian while she was complaining to her sister about me in Spanish (which I understand) and I was answering her in English and Spanish while talking on the phone in Italian. And a last one, which I'm not sure really fits. One time a lady came into the store where I used to work and I was speaking to her in Italian. We talked quite a bit since she had a lot of questions, and only after a long while did I realize that she was speaking Portuguese the whole time. By the way I'm from Montreal too. Edited by Giordano on 08 April 2007 at 2:04am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ellasevia Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2011 Senior Member Germany Joined 6142 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 16 of 25 07 December 2008 at 1:12pm | IP Logged | ||
When my grandmother (a native speaker of Greek and a fluent speaker of English) speaks to the family, you can almost always count on her weaving back and forth between English and Greek. An example sentence that she might say would be: "GREEKLISH": Πού είναι το βιβλίο that I was reading yesterday? ENGLISH: Where is the book that I was reading yesterday? GREEK: Πού είναι το βιβλίο που διάβαζα χτές; (pu Ine to vivLIo pu dhiAvaza CHTES?) Edited by ellasevia on 07 December 2008 at 1:15pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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