| Do you speak more than one language? |
| Yes! |
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25% |
[ 4 ] |
| No. |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
| I'm working on it! (learning) |
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43% |
[ 7 ] |
| I'm fluent in multiple languages |
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12% |
[ 2 ] |
| I'd like to... |
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18% |
[ 3 ] |
| Absolutely not interested ... |
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0% |
[ 0 ] |
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| Total Votes : 16 |
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 Dedicated Citizen
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Fri Jun 19, 2020 5:37 pm |
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| bohemian wrote: |
| I agree Rayven. I wonder, in modern times at least, how many languages we have lost in the last two centuries. Regional dialects being ground down to being nonexistent in terms of the national language, tribal languages becoming nonexistent because the tribes either get wiped out, or are forced to integrate into a culture and society that they have no understanding about how it works. |
I don't know how many but I suspect quite a few. I think the saddest reason is that English is so prevalent. The younger people probably see no reason to learn an old language. It's fine to learn English but don't lose your national languages!
| Blazestorm wrote: |
Rayven... Scottich Gaelic and Irish. Wow - those are, to my understanding, tough languages to pick up! ... but you should try!!  *go! go! GO!* |
They can't be any worse than Asian languages. White people don't even have the tongue for them.  When I was trying to learn some Tagalog it was tough. Especially words with "ng" in them. They pronounce it different, more gutteral and high up in the pallet, and I just can't do it.
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Rayven, I look at your avatar and think "Queen Sparklebutt!"-Tam
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 Knight of Zantarni
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Fri Jun 19, 2020 8:17 pm |
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| bohemian wrote: |
| LillieRose wrote: |
| (if you think Australian English is weird, try listening to Kiwi English ). |
Excuse you Lillie, how exactly is Australian English weird? *glares at Lillie* 
I've never left Australia, but apparently, I have a slight Kiwi accent that is from the southern tip of the south island.  |
>.> Oz English is weird, mate. >.>
You pronounce your "e"s wrong.
| Blazestorm wrote: |
Lillie! Thanks for weighing in, and for the hints and tips! 
I have been taking an online class on Italian Opera (which I really need to finish), which, I've noticed was helping with the Italian - especially when I could watch/listen to a video with double subtitles, and I just bought a couple books (both Italian and French) with short stories that are aimed at language learners. I'm also delving in to other language-learning web sites more to test, try, and round out my current understanding of Italian. And again, doing more textbook reading. |
You're very welcome. 
Watching movies or tv series or documentaries in your target language with subtitles in your native language is also very good practice. You're practicing your listening and pronunciation at the same time.
I used to love those books that had a text on one language on one page and the text in a different one on the other page. I don't even know if they make those anymore but they were super helpful to me back when we were doing Shakespeare at high school and uni.
Also, I found summarized readers in target languages very helpful to get started with reading. Once you manage to read through those with a degree of understanding, the next step is reading your chosen material in its unabridged form. Super helpful because you already know what to expect, so you have time to pay attention to the nuances.
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Fri Jun 19, 2020 8:20 pm |
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Your Majesty
Yeah, that's why I found your situation so relatable
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is rat, is wyrm.
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Queen of the Realm
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Sat Jun 20, 2020 1:15 pm |
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| LillieRose wrote: |
| ...those books that had a text on one language on one page and the text in a different one on the other page. |
They still make them. I just found some online at Amazon for Italian and English. I didn't look for other languages. I used the "No Fear" version for Shakespeare in the couple of classes I taught on him and his works - I always found it amusing to have a translation of English in to English, but it did bring some clarity and helped the kids overcome that "old English" stigma they seem to have when it comes to Shakespeare.
LOL, Bo, I have to admit, I've wondered how well we'd be able to understand each other if we were speaking instead of typing! 
English is weird, especially when you start comparing the different variations...
Rayven, you might have a point there. I don't know how to compare learning Scottish or Irish with learning the Asian languages or any other language. I do know that for a native English speaker, some of the pronunciation for French consonant or vowel combinations, or full words can very different and a little weird, but it's do-able... maybe not to the degree of appearing native if you were living in France, but possible...
Great minds and all, Ratwyrm 
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Dedicated Citizen
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Sat Jun 20, 2020 7:00 pm |
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| Blazestorm wrote: |
| Rayven, you might have a point there. I don't know how to compare learning Scottish or Irish with learning the Asian languages or any other language. I do know that for a native English speaker, some of the pronunciation for French consonant or vowel combinations, or full words can very different and a little weird, but it's do-able... maybe not to the degree of appearing native if you were living in France, but possible... |
I've always heard learning English is very hard. We can't possibly know if that's true since it's our native tongue. I just think it helps if there are some similarities in the languages you know and the ones you want to learn. Having said that, the ones I want to learn aren't very close to English so it will be hard I'm sure. LOL The vowels and certain pairing of letters are pronounced totally different from how we pronounce them.
I remember my French teacher telling me that no one can speak French as well or as fast as the French people. I guess she would know, she lived there for a bit when she was a child. She said that it was nearly impossible to speak as fast as them even if you are considered fluent in French.
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Rayven, I look at your avatar and think "Queen Sparklebutt!"-Tam
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Queen of the Realm
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Mon Jun 22, 2020 12:00 pm |
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I've heard that too about English. Lillie - how did you find learning English?
And yes, I had a friend who's sister lived in Paris for years and apparently still couldn't pass for anything other than an outsider if she asked for anything more than a coffee.
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Dedicated Citizen
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Mon Jun 22, 2020 1:57 pm |
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Pfffft *rolls her eyes at Lillie* there is nothing wrong with the way we say our e's. The real question is how the hell do you understand what the Kiwi's say most of the time.  I've seriously heard some thiiiiiiiiick Kiwi accents and really have to listen closely to what they were saying to understand what was going on or just guess what they were saying.  I had a telemarketing call and the woman was a Kiwi and we had a great chat...not talking about whatever it was that she was supposed to be talking to me about. Was on the phone to her for an hour just laughing about nothing.
Blaze, I'd like to think that we would be able to understand each other well enough as we know and at least understand basic English. However, it's understandable that the biggest issue would be our comprehensive understanding, not to mention the fact that regionally the English language is hugely varied. And the fact that the slang, regional colloquialisms and other bits and bobs could and would definitely confuse people who don't have an understanding that different locations have different cultures even though they speak the same language, and therefore the language is most of the time subtly different and in most cases in the definition of a common word that is changed due to its use in slang. I'll use something that American lecturers commonly use as an example, in Australia, if I were to ask for a "rubber" it has two different definitions, the main one being used to rub out a mistake, but we can also say eraser, the "slang" definition is for a condom.
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Court Jester? Bo?
Bo, official Zantarni nudist.
Rayven: *gets hit in the face with some underwear* Wow Bo sure likes to get naked!
Riley: Bo, the Goat Whisperer.
Blaze: Bo, you're just chaotic...
9695/10000
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Dedicated Citizen
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Mon Jun 22, 2020 7:58 pm |
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We use that as the slang for condom too but we don't call an eraser that. Off the top of my head, the only other time we might say rubber is to describe what something is made out of. Like rubber tires.
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Rayven, I look at your avatar and think "Queen Sparklebutt!"-Tam
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Queen of the Realm
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Mon Jun 22, 2020 8:35 pm |
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| Rayven wrote: |
| ...but we don't call an eraser that... |
We did when I was a kid in the northeast.
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Dedicated Citizen
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Mon Jun 22, 2020 11:57 pm |
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I just picked up the Dummies book and it is 6 in 1 books. So looking forward to actually sitting down and going through it...after I set up my new Nintendo Switch.
I actually wonder how different the English language is throughout the USA. I mean, if I were to start talking, not only would I confuse everyone around me, I'd also confuse myself...not that that is a very hard thing to do.
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Court Jester? Bo?
Bo, official Zantarni nudist.
Rayven: *gets hit in the face with some underwear* Wow Bo sure likes to get naked!
Riley: Bo, the Goat Whisperer.
Blaze: Bo, you're just chaotic...
9695/10000
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Queen of the Realm
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Tue Jun 23, 2020 12:25 am |
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| bohemian wrote: |
| I actually wonder how different the English language is throughout the USA. |
It can be very different, depending on the region. There is different slang, different preference for words for something ("soda" versus "pop" versus whatever, as an example), different enunciation (dropping letters or sounds... or adding them!), and there can be some very strong regional accents. It can be difficult to understand somebody who comes from one of these "heavily accented" regions.
Also, we have "pockets" of shared ethnicity and culture (I don't like using these terms, but I'm thinking of places like "Little Italy", "Chinatown", "Little Havana" or whatever) which can make things interesting, because within and around those areas of the US, the language tends to be more a mix of American English (plus the particular regional dialect) and the ethnic language(s) ... it can be a bit of a hodgepodge.
All in all though, it's not bad... probably no worse than you and I understanding each other speaking, or either of us speaking with a born-n'-raised Brit... the occasional weird word (which we probably already understand means the same thing as our preferred word for the thing being mentioned), maybe a bit of an accent, but 99.5% understandable.
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Dedicated Citizen
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Tue Jun 23, 2020 11:47 am |
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| Blazestorm wrote: |
| Rayven wrote: |
| ...but we don't call an eraser that... |
We did when I was a kid in the northeast. |
 Wow. I did not know that. If I'd said that here all I would have gotten was giggles because they'd have thought I was talking about condoms.
Bo-I agree with Queen Blaze. I think you'd get along just fine. We're pretty good at adapting. We are a land of immigrants after all. We're used to trying to figure out what someone is trying to say. LOL I remember this cute little old Chinese lady that was a customer of mine when I worked at Walmart up in the city. She would thank me in her language and even though I couldn't understand the words I just "knew" she was telling me thank you. She and her husband came through my line quite often and she said it every time confirming my original impression.
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Rayven, I look at your avatar and think "Queen Sparklebutt!"-Tam
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Queen of the Realm
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Tue Jun 23, 2020 1:51 pm |
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| Rayven wrote: |
| Blazestorm wrote: |
| Rayven wrote: |
| ...but we don't call an eraser that... |
We did when I was a kid in the northeast. |
Wow. I did not know that. If I'd said that here all I would have gotten was giggles ... |
And now you know.
...another example of American dialect variations: I grew up using the word "Bubbla" (translated to "bubbler" from the Boston(ish) regional accent) for "Water/Drinking fountain"... And yes, I intentionally lost that accent a long time ago - to the point now that I can have difficulty understanding somebody from the same area I grew up in if they're heavily accented (not everyone is).
I have found that upper New England's accent is different than Boston... is different from the NYC area... is different from rural NY... is different from DC... is different from Maryland, different from the Carolinas... is different from the Deep South... and everything shifts again going west through Tennessee or through southern Mississippi. New Orleans area has its own accent. Accents shift again as you get in to Texas. Folks from the upper midwest (Minnesota, Illinois) have their own subtleties... etc. Seattle area has a different cadence to their speech patterns than the east coast and a different drawl, if you want to call it that. California is its own beast entirely... etc.
The weird/cool/funny thing is that if you start at the top northeast of the US and travel south down the coast, you can hear and actually track how the accents are changing as you go. But it is still undeniably American English the entire way.
And I've always loved the "ethnic pockets" of culture that can be found in the US... but even if you find a pocket that speaks the language you are trying to learn (getting back to the more specific thread topic), it's still a mix of the language or languages... "Chinatown" tends to be a repository for anything vaguely Asian in origin, "Little Italy" becomes fragments of words and such from ALL the various dialects across Italy over the decades, often misremembered and misunderstood as the language has passed through the generations.
This can make practicing a learned language difficult in the US, because you basically have to relearn the language according to the impure and adapted variation of it that you find in these pockets, and I'm not sure how applicable this variation on the language would really be if you suddenly had to "really" speak it...
... the US is so weird.
Have you had a chance to look at the Dummies book yet, Bo? How are you finding it?
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Dedicated Citizen
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Wed Jun 24, 2020 6:20 pm |
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Queen Blaze, I'm glad you lost that accent. It's too weird. *imagines Queen Blaze saying Bubbla*
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Rayven, I look at your avatar and think "Queen Sparklebutt!"-Tam
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Queen of the Realm
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Wed Jun 24, 2020 11:07 pm |
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LOL Rayven! Yeah, me too. Fortunately, my family's accent wasn't completely horrible.
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