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You know you’re a language nerd when...

  Tags: Language Geek
 Language Learning Forum : General discussion Post Reply
3737 messages over 468 pages: << Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ... 389 ... 467 468 Next >>
Belardur
Octoglot
Senior Member
Germany
Joined 5361 days ago

148 posts - 195 votes 
Speaks: English*, GermanC2, Spanish, Dutch, Latin, Ancient Greek, French, Lowland Scots
Studies: Biblical Hebrew, Italian, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, Korean

 
 Message 3105 of 3737
07 October 2013 at 9:59pm | IP Logged 
You log back into the forum after four years because you realize you just plain miss talking about
languages...
4 persons have voted this message useful



cacue23
Triglot
Groupie
Canada
Joined 4049 days ago

89 posts - 122 votes 
Speaks: Shanghainese, Mandarin*, English
Studies: Cantonese

 
 Message 3106 of 3737
09 October 2013 at 12:14pm | IP Logged 
Did I just finish reading this ENTIRE POST? Over a span of several months alright, but still.
2 persons have voted this message useful



languagenerd09
Triglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
youtube.com/user/Lan
Joined 4850 days ago

174 posts - 267 votes 
Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese
Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Thai

 
 Message 3107 of 3737
10 October 2013 at 12:30am | IP Logged 
beano wrote:
You meet someone in your own country who has family roots in a different
land and you immediately start to
wonder if they can speak another language.


I did that at University, my friend lives in my city but was born in Sierra Leone when
her mum worked there but her family originates from Lebanon, so I automatically asked her
something like " hal tataqallameena al-arabiyah?" to her reaction being a shocked face
and nodding.
1 person has voted this message useful



mick33
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5674 days ago

1335 posts - 1632 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Finnish
Studies: Thai, Polish, Afrikaans, Hindi, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Swedish

 
 Message 3108 of 3737
10 October 2013 at 1:28am | IP Logged 
When I watch a French video about Jacques Lacan on YouTube that is supposed to have Spanish subtitles, but I see that the subtitles are actually Portuguese. I don't get upset about this, rather I think to myself "YAY I get to test my passive reading skills in Portuguese!"

And when I get way too excited about the above video and immediately log on to this forum to write this post, but respond to another discussion thread first.

Edited by mick33 on 10 October 2013 at 1:45am

4 persons have voted this message useful



espejismo
Diglot
Senior Member
Russian Federation
Joined 4801 days ago

498 posts - 905 votes 
Speaks: Russian*, English
Studies: Spanish, Greek, Azerbaijani

 
 Message 3109 of 3737
10 October 2013 at 3:59am | IP Logged 
When your friend wishes you a happy birthday in German, and you understand it only because the week
before that you looked up how to say happy birthday in Yiddish...
2 persons have voted this message useful



montmorency
Diglot
Senior Member
United Kingdom
Joined 4578 days ago

2371 posts - 3676 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Danish, Welsh

 
 Message 3110 of 3737
10 October 2013 at 5:08pm | IP Logged 
When your wife says to you "stick the kettle on", and as you ponder that non-standard
usage, wonder about such non-standard usages in other languages, and how being able to
handle them and use them actively and appropriately must mark one of the differences
between a native speaker and a second-language speaker.

"stick" is of course a dictionary word (noun and verb), but I doubt if that expression
is one that would be taught to a learner. Other possibilities might be:
"shove the kettle on" or "plonk the kettle on", although I can't say I have heard
either frequently. The "standard" usage would be: "put the kettle on" (as in the
nursery rhyme), but perhaps the "correct" usage ought to be: "switch the kettle on",
but I doubt if many people say that normally.

I'm guessing that "put" comes from the days before electric kettles, when you would
either put an old-fashioned kettle on to one of the gas burners on the cooker hob, or
even further back, when you'd put it on to part of an old-fashioned "range" (like my
grandparent's generation used to have), something like this:



Owners of "Aga" cookers can still do this:

Aga




1 person has voted this message useful



cacue23
Triglot
Groupie
Canada
Joined 4049 days ago

89 posts - 122 votes 
Speaks: Shanghainese, Mandarin*, English
Studies: Cantonese

 
 Message 3111 of 3737
11 October 2013 at 4:08pm | IP Logged 
... when you watch the Italian opera "Otello" (by Domingo!) subtitled in Spanish, with no knowledge in either language, trying to guess what the heck the characters are talking about with the help of an understanding of the plot of the original play.

By the way, you do get to learn things. I'm not planning to learn either Italian or Spanish yet, but just think how someone who focuses on these two languages would benefit from watching an opera that way.

Edited by cacue23 on 11 October 2013 at 4:12pm

1 person has voted this message useful



Ogrim
Heptaglot
Senior Member
France
Joined 4389 days ago

991 posts - 1896 votes 
Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, French, Romansh, German, Italian
Studies: Russian, Catalan, Latin, Greek, Romanian

 
 Message 3112 of 3737
11 October 2013 at 4:36pm | IP Logged 
When you set the languages on your iphone to French, on your iPad to German, on your Kindle to English, your laptop to Italian, your hotmail account to Spanish and your gmail to Norwegian.


3 persons have voted this message useful



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