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Thank you, merci, danke, спасибо, 谢谢, etc | ||
Tags: Multilingual | Vocabulary learning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Levi Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5568 days ago 2268 posts - 3328 votes  Speaks: English*, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish Studies: Russian, Dutch, Portuguese, Mandarin, Japanese, Italian | Message 1 of 24 16 May 2010 at 12:48pm | IP Logged |
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This is, without a doubt, one of the most powerful expressions you can learn in any language. Working in an environment where I have to deal with customers who often speak languages other than English, I often take the opportunity to thank the customer in whatever language I overhear them speaking. Even if I don't really know much of the language except how to identify it when it's being spoken and how to say "thank you", the person will always appreciate that I put in even that small amount of effort, and my attempts never fail to elicit a smile.
This is especially the case when the customer does not expect me to know anything about the language. There are a lot of French Canadians around here, so it isn't so surprising that a cashier knows how to say a simple "merci". But today I had a Chinese customer who was talking to someone in Mandarin on his phone, and when I thanked him in Mandarin as he was leaving he seemed pretty surprised and complimented me on my pronunciation. That made my day, and maybe his as well. This is an area where most people would not be able to tell if he was speaking Mandarin, Korean or Japanese. So here's my tip: learn how to say "thank you" in all the languages you are likely to encounter in your daily life, and just for fun some less likely languages as well. You won't be sorry you learned it when you find yourself in a situation where it's useful. So let's compile a list here of "thank you"s in as many languages as we can muster. Let me begin with the five from the title of this thread. English: thank you French: merci German: danke Russian: спасибо (spasíbo) Mandarin Chinese: 谢谢 (xièxie) Edited by Levi on 16 May 2010 at 1:12pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| mrhenrik Triglot Moderator Norway Joined 6080 days ago 482 posts - 658 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 24 16 May 2010 at 12:56pm | IP Logged |
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Norwegian: takk
Swedish: tack Danish: tak (^ all pronounced pretty much the same) Japanese: arigatou (+ gozaimasu for politeness) Spanish: Gracias Italian: Grazie All I could think of now. A few useful phrases in every language is nifty indeed! Edited by mrhenrik on 16 May 2010 at 12:58pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
 Fasulye Heptaglot Winner TAC 2012 Moderator Germany fasulyespolyglotblog Joined 5848 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 3 of 24 16 May 2010 at 1:32pm | IP Logged |
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Good initiative, Levi!
I'm surprised that you "forgot" Esperanto: Koran dankon! Dutch: Bedankt! Dank u wel! Dank je wel! French: Merci! Turkish: Tessekür ederim! Sag olun! Portuguese: Obrigado! (says a male person) Obrigada! (says a female person) Latin: Gracia! Fasulye Edited by Fasulye on 16 May 2010 at 4:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5454 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 4 of 24 16 May 2010 at 1:37pm | IP Logged |
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Catalan: Gràcies!
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| ReneeMona Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5336 days ago 864 posts - 1274 votes Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2 Studies: French | Message 5 of 24 16 May 2010 at 2:47pm | IP Logged |
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Papiamentu: Danki
Afrikaans: Dankie, Baie dankie Greek: ευχαριστώ (efcharistó) Arabic: شُكْرًا (shúkraan) In Dutch you could actually use: bedankt hartelijk bedankt hartstikke bedankt vriendelijk bedankt zeer bedankt heel erg bedankt reuze bedankt hartelijk dank vriendelijk dank dank je dankjewel dank je hartelijk dank je zeer dank je vriendelijk dank jullie wel dank jullie dank jullie hartelijk dank jullie zeer dank jullie vriendelijk dank u dankuwel dank u hartelijk dank u zeer dank u vriendelijk mijn dank is groot And as if this weren’t enough, we also feel the need to use thanks, danke, gracias and merci occasionally. Edited by ReneeMona on 25 May 2010 at 12:06am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| PaulLambeth Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5374 days ago 244 posts - 315 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Icelandic, Hindi, Irish | Message 6 of 24 16 May 2010 at 5:16pm | IP Logged |
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Icelandic:
Takk (to a friend or in a friendly situation) Takk fyrir (more full) Þakka þér fyrir (polite, to someone you don't know, e.g. at a bank) (pron: Thah-ka thi-er fi-rir) Þakka þér kærlega fyrir ("thankyou kindly") (kærlega pron: k-eye-rt-le-ya ... roughly) Finnish: Kiitos 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| LanguageSponge Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5767 days ago 1197 posts - 1487 votes Speaks: English*, German, French Studies: Welsh, Russian, Japanese, Slovenian, Greek, Italian | Message 7 of 24 16 May 2010 at 5:49pm | IP Logged |
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Welsh - Diolch yn fawr.
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| ruskivyetr Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5482 days ago 769 posts - 962 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew | Message 8 of 24 16 May 2010 at 6:19pm | IP Logged |
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Gmadlobt -Georgian :)
Most people just drop the g and say madlobt though. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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