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Most surprised reaction from natives? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Jappy58 Bilingual Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 4638 days ago 200 posts - 413 votes  Speaks: Spanish*, Guarani*, Arabic (Levantine), Arabic (Egyptian), Arabic (Maghribi), Arabic (Written), French, English, Persian, Quechua, Portuguese Studies: Modern Hebrew | Message 81 of 91 07 July 2012 at 12:34am | IP Logged | |||||
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@montmorency: It's hard for me to put a finger on how complex Quechua is. It's practically my third native language since I started learning it at a young age alongside growing up with Guarani and Spanish. One notable feature, however, is that some of the dialects differ from one another widely, and by some linguists they're considered separate languages in the same "Quechua family." I've personally understood most Quechua dialects I've encountered, but it's true that some can differ widely from one another.
The indigenous people and the situation with Quechua isn't 100% bleak, it's just not as bright as it could be, and they do tend to be less well off than some other groups. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| sacha Triglot Newbie United States Joined 4527 days ago 22 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Quechua | Message 82 of 91 07 July 2012 at 7:13am | IP Logged | |||||
Montmorency, the history is very sad indeed. Yet I never realized what was going on under my nose right in Quito until one day, some craft vendors offered to treat me to lunch in exchange for my help translating with tourists (I loved doing that, especially since some of the women craft vendors were some of the very few monolingual Kichwa speakers I knew so translating for them and talking to them was valuable language practice). They took me to a relatively expensive restaurant (not better food, just higher prices). It turned out that this was where they had lunch every day. I expressed surprise that they went to such an expensive place. "Here they serve Indians," was the response. I looked around and all around me were highland Indians in traditional dress. It wasn't until that moment that it dawned on me that I had never seen an Indian in traditional dress eating in a restaurant -- ever. Yet that is the kind of thing that is invisible to foreigners. Check out, when you are in Peru, how many Indians in traditional dress you see eating in restaurants. (I am not talking about people dressing in traditional clothes and pretending to be Indians to play music for the customers.) There are so many things that are invisible when you are a foreigner in a country. 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| sacha Triglot Newbie United States Joined 4527 days ago 22 posts - 60 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Quechua | Message 83 of 91 07 July 2012 at 7:24am | IP Logged | |||||
There is not a precise way to measure "complexity," but Quechua is a very learnable language, which has contributed to its widespread use as a lingua franca and its survival. It is very regular -- outside of a few standard idioms, it is 100% regular, and I don't know any other natural language that is 100% regular. Its grammar is very economical and pragmatic (I give an example in the Native American Languages thread). That said, the northern branch (spoken in Ecuador and parts of northern Peru and southern Colombia) would probably be considered the simplest to learn for an English speaker. Quechua is really a language family more than a language. The various branches are mutually unintelligible and have major differences in grammar. But the southern branch (spoken in the Cuzco valley south through Bolivia) has a number of delightful features, lacking in the northern branch, that make Quechua extra neat and fun. I have studied Quechua on and off for thirty years. I would love to participate in a thread about this delightful language. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| languagenerd09 Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom youtube.com/user/Lan Joined 5100 days ago 174 posts - 267 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Mandarin, Japanese, Thai | Message 84 of 91 08 July 2012 at 3:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I think i've had a few 'surprise' reactions ...
Norwegian - when I was with my friend (who's Norwegian), I went to visit her in Stavanger and in a cafe, I said "god dag, jeg vil gjerne en kaffe, tusen takk" and the reaction was "snakker du norsk?" - with a rather surprised sound Spanish - when I've been on holidays with my parents, I start with the simple words expected by a tourist, like "gracias" etc. Then I would break out a phrase or a question and the native usually then asks in a confused way "¿hablas español?" - it's then great how I hold conversation for a good twenty minutes or so. French - this happened in my home city here in the UK, there is a French café called "ma provence" and I asked the lady (in English first) "Are you from France?" and she'd responded "Yes, from the South" and I then responded with "ah, incroyable, je parle un peu français, mais je voudrais améliorer ma grammaire et prononciation" - the reaction "Uf! je suis impressionné!" Now, whenever I go to the café - she'll always speak to me in French, I'd walk in and hear "Salut! ça va?" etc :) Edited by languagenerd09 on 08 July 2012 at 3:39pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5056 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 85 of 91 08 July 2012 at 8:28pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I managed to get a surprised reaction from a native English speaker.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5334 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 86 of 91 08 July 2012 at 8:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
Details, Mark, details :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5056 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 87 of 91 08 July 2012 at 9:31pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I made a small report about the Gagarin's flight using rather complex language, it was my
decision, because my teacher advised me to use simpler costructions. The Scottish who was surprised had a little bit strange view of Russia or considered my speech from the native speaker's point of view. He valued "high" English. He pointed me out and praised me. I wish I had had my current level of English that time. Edited by Марк on 08 July 2012 at 9:48pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| maydayayday Pentaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5219 days ago 564 posts - 839 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese Studies: Urdu | Message 88 of 91 08 July 2012 at 9:36pm | IP Logged | |||||
Cristina! Tut! Vicarious living ? I was using my imagination. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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