The big thread on understanding eachother (language comparisons and stuff)

gaasc said:
This i actually kinda embarrassing. Do Spanish people mock Latin American accent as much as we mock theirs? Same for Argentinians and Mexicans, Colombians, communists Venezuelans, the lot.
Click to expand...

I've never heard of a Spaniard mocking any of the LA accents but I bet they do ;)

Are there any spanish people in the forum?
 
I have a Spanish aunt who'd practically fume out the ears if you called her Mexican (which, since she lived in Texas, happened a lot).

Not sure about whether or not they make fun of each others' accents, though.
 
Nati said:
I've never heard of a Spaniard mocking any of the LA accents but I bet they do ;)

Are there any spanish people in the forum?
Click to expand...
We have that guy from Barcelona.
[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Wi1d0FNgdQ[/YOUTUBE]
They're not from Barcelona.

Is it hard to learn chinese?
 
Last edited:
^ your posts are becoming increasingly weird and random. Kudos!
 
You can sort of trail the french who one day took a boat across the mediterranean and walked south calling dibs on everything they saw :D

"Do you have a flag?"
 
I actually only found out recently that there is an Irish speaking area, and dialect in Newfoundland :blink:

And a Gaeltacht in Ontario


I suppose it shouldn't be that surprising with the mass migration and such, but still...

The Irish are taking over the world!! :p
 
Weird. I just watched one of the subtitled Team Schrick eps, and it seems like the Germans must've borrowed "cool" from us...or am I imagining kooky things with my ears?
 
Yup altough to be fair cool is sort of worldwide slang. But they are big fans of stealing words instead of making one up. Guess what they call a computer? :p
 
Last edited:
A komputerenmaschinetypenlongwordaaaaaaccccccppppppdddffffttttttspspppsssssschmaschedtogetherkaka?

(I keed, I keed.)


Also, it's fun when we steal words from other languages, too. My life would be incomplete without "siesta."
 
Last edited:
ninjacoco said:
it seems like the Germans must've borrowed "cool" from us
Click to expand...
We have imported quite a few English words into our language in the past few decades, especially when it comes to modern technology. Before, importing French words was much more en vogue. ;)

AiR said:
But they are big fans of stealing words instead of making one up.
Click to expand...
Actually, we are quite big in making English-sounding words up instead of proper German ones. Because it sounds so cool and modern. :rolleyes:

Guess what they call a computer?
Click to expand...
"Rechner". :p At least that's common around my IT friends and colleagues.
 
Living in Okinawa I have a unique opportunity to get first hand experience with a different language. A good many locals do speak at least enough English to make everyday things easy but then there are those who don't speak a word of it. The written language is a bigger barrier and much tougher to overcome. I bet there's a lot of really neat stuff around here but I have no idea what any of it is because I can't read the signs.

There was one interaction I had about a week ago that was particularly interesting. These two men, who I assumed were tourists because they looked and acted a little different than the locals, approached me and tried to start a conversation. They asked if I spoke Japanese and that simple question pretty much exhausted my knowledge of the language. Then they asked if I spoke Spanish which I thought was a bit odd. Then after that they continued in Japanese as if I'd said I understood it. After a little while and some hand gestures/pointing to help out I figured out that they wanted me to say a greeting into a video camera.

Things like that make being here all the more interesting. :)
 
For many people finns might sound very monotonic when they speak in english or other languages, but theres a very good reason for that.
In the finnish language stress is always placed on the first syllable of the word, and it's quite hard for us to try to move the placement of stress away from the first syllabse, even when we speak other languages.
 
My biggest problem with just about any foreign language (most of my experience is with French) is the letter (or equivalent sound) "r." I cannot for the life of me "roll" it for Spanish, and only towards the end of my 5 years of study began to pronounce the phlegmy French "r," though I still feel I'm doing it wrong as it's quite painful if my throat is dry.
 
I find the Japanese inability to copy English words properly both funny and interesting. i wonder why they can't do it.

Copying words from other languages FTW, spanish just sounds odd without ?mall, sandwich,pie,E-mail,mouse,souvenir, etc. ?
 
thevictor390 said:
My biggest problem with just about any foreign language (most of my experience is with French) is the letter (or equivalent sound) "r." I cannot for the life of me "roll" it for Spanish, and only towards the end of my 5 years of study began to pronounce the phlegmy French "r," though I still feel I'm doing it wrong as it's quite painful if my throat is dry.
Click to expand...

Worry no more young man. I'll teach you as much as I can, first is the art of the Gallic shrug, a.k.a Le Shrug followed by "honhonhon":

shrug.jpg


(Must say he could have done it better. No respectable Frenchman would ever slightly smile nor look friendly when doing it, I'm sure he's a fraud.)

Next time I shall teach you the art of white flag waving.
 
villej said:
For many people finns might sound very monotonic when they speak in english or other languages, but theres a very good reason for that.
In the finnish language stress is always placed on the first syllable of the word, and it's quite hard for us to try to move the placement of stress away from the first syllabse, even when we speak other languages.
Click to expand...

I just read that aloud in my head in a rally driver accent.
 
Last edited:
gaasc said:
I find the Japanese inability to copy English words properly both funny and interesting. i wonder why they can't do it.

Copying words from other languages FTW, spanish just sounds odd without ?mall, sandwich,pie,E-mail,mouse,souvenir, etc. ?
Click to expand...

It is strange, most Japanese words seem pretty pronounceable to us, but it doesn't seem to work the other way around. Then again, we do it too. Just look at cr?pe (in French rhymes with step, in English rhymes with grape). Yet we have no problem with cr?me...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top