Karen Chance Fans discussion
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Learning Languages
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My native languages are Russian and Hebrew, and of course I know some English.All my high school years I studied Arabic, so I know a lot of Arabic words but I cann't connect them to a Sentence...
So if you want some samples just ask :)
Wow, that's impressive Alina! I'm constantly amazed at the smart people in this group. :)
Shalom Alina! Where in Israel ate you from? My MIL is from a kibbutz. Mannit. (I think that is the spelling.)
Japanese and Arabic! cool.My native tongue is portuguese, but I can speak english (duh), manage some spanish and now I just started french :D
though, being self-taught, is kind of hard, so I don't even dream onlearning Japanese or Arabic yet ):
Maggie wrote: "Shalom Alina! Where in Israel ate you from? My MIL is from a kibbutz. Mannit. (I think that is the spelling.)"Maggie shalom to you too :)
anyways kibutz Maanit is located in north of Israel and I'm from Petah-Tikva which located near Tel-Aviv in the center of the country.
Well after another year of Italian I'm near fluent. It's exciting to be able to have a real conversation with someone in another language and not trip over my words all the time.
Claire, aren't you half Italian? Correct me if I'm wrong. To be able to speak in a language that is not your mother tongue fluently, without overanalizing is a great feeling.
My mother tongue is romanian, but since I live in Spain, I have the sensation that I speak spanish better, then if I read a book I seem to like/understand it better if it's in english and if/when I get really mad now I tend to cuss in catalan, when I was little I used to do it in hungarian. I'm a strange person, I know.
I would love to learn russian, but it seems impossible (I saw how the alphabet is and how some words sound, and it's difficult)
The little bit of french and german I thought I knew...puff...2 years without practicing and I'm forgetting. It's horrible to once be able to have a little discussion in a language you used to and then when you have the opportunity to do it again your brain doesn't want to cooperate.
I feel that I'm getting dumber and weider the more time passes.
*sorry for any typos you may find when I write*
I have to confess I giggled a little at "mother thong". Sorry, Missdevora. :)I'm in awe of your language skills, though.
@Missdevora I think you mean "mother tongue." A "thong" is usually a type of skimpy underwear, unless you're in Australia where I think "thong" may mean flip flop.And I'm a little over 3/4 Italian. I have 1 grandma that's Irish.
Uuuups! *blushes and giggles* Now that was a big typo! At least it was funny, LOL. Luckly there is the edit button.I heard about the flip flops being called thongs.
I also find intersting that in Britain 'pants' is an underwar and in USA they are trousers.
In Barcelona (Spain) the word 'bikini' can mean a swimmsuit or a sandwich.
Hahaha! I wonder which came first: swimwear or the sandwhich
the swimwear came first!The awkward moment is when you eat a bikini just wearing a bikini! And that happens quite a lot as there are plenty of cafeterias or bars near the beach where you can order the sandwich.
I'm very amused. Why did they name the sandwich that?
That's really interesting, Missdevora. I love how different local customs develop around the world.
I'm Irish and therefore had to learn Irish Gaelic in school. Sadly, this means we didn't really learn any swear words, which is a shame 'cause I'm sure Irish probably has some really poetic cussing. There's "Póg mo thon" - pog ('o' as in 'bone') muh hone - which means 'kiss my ass' but I think a lot of people know that one already.
It's always important to learn the swear words in every language. I would make that my first priority! ;)
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For the less filthy minded: Dia duit (DEEya gwit) = hello (lit God be with you). The correct response is: Dia is Muire duit (DEEya iss MURRa gwit) which also means hello. Or God and Mary be with you. BUT sometimes, if the person greeting you is feeling extra generous they might start with Dia is Muire duit. Then what do you do? Why you escalate matters! The response is: Dia is Muire duit is Pádraig (DEEya iss MURRa gwit iss PAWdrig) - God and Mary and St. Patrick be with you. Now you are in a saint-off. Your loquater (from now on your OPPONENT!) will probably answer with the same list but with addition of one of the major regional saints like Bríd, Finnbar or Íde. You do the same, adding yet another saint. You continue exchanging greetings, adding religious figures until one of you runs out. This person goes to hell. The conversation ends with a simple "Slán abhaile" (slawn aWAL-ya) meaning 'safe home' or just "Slán." This is an exaggeration but only a slight one.
That language seems so incredibly difficult only because of the pronunciation. Are there are a lot of difficult grammar rules?
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Ohh and to follow up on the "kiss my ass" - in Danish it's "kys min røv"(which is a litteral translation) or "kys mig i røven" (which is the frase we actually use which Means "kiss me in the ass" xp
I'm sorry I don't have enough brainpower right now to write the phonetics!
Lol that's okay. To be honest the pronunciation is the easiest part of Irish. The grammar is hella difficult and it's tough to master the natural flow of the syntax. Maybe I just find the pronunciation easier because I started learning it at age 5, so I never consciously sat down and learned pronunciation rules like for German or French, I just kinda absorbed them. I spent a good 12 years learning Irish but I was never fantastic at it. Literary Irish was still illegible to me, possibly because the very poetic style used by Irish writers. The fact that words and pronunciations vary hugely from region to region doesn't help. Ugh, Irish is a bit of a sore subject for me, cause IT'S SO BADLY TAUGHT, ARGH, THERE IS ZERO CONSISTENTLY AND EVERYONE EXPECTS YOU TO KNOW STUFF YOU'VE NEVER BEEN TAUGHT BEFORE!! I . . . have a lot of feelings about Irish. It's a beautiful language and it's so awfully dealt with. *cries*
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Fortunately it's something that I do not have to deal with anymore now that I've left secondary school. Phew.
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I actually know more swear words in French and German than Irish :D
I love this thread! What a fascinating mix of languages, nationalities and personalities
I've always thought it a little sad that they don't teach Gaelic in Scotland. I remember being gobsmacked one time standing in a pub in one of the northern islands listening to the people around me chatting away in Gaelic. But apart from a few remote areas, absolutely no-one speaks it and it's not taught in any schools.
And I thought we had it bad! What really bugs me are the people who can't understand why it's sad that the language is essentially dying out because it's not 'useful'.German swearwords:
Scheiße - shit (the one everyone knows)
Ficken - to fuck
Fick dich - fuck you
Schlampe - bitch
Arschloch - asshole
Bastard - bastard
Leck mich am Arsch - kiss my ass (lit - lick my ass. Ew)
Schwanz - cock
Pimmel - cock
Pisser - prick (there about infinity dick slang words like any language)
French:
Merde - shit
Baiser - to fuck
Baise toi - fuck yourself/fuck you
Salope - bitch
Connard - asshole
Salaude - bastard
Bite/queue/pine - infinity dick words
Bonus round - Irish-English slang:
Langer/langball - useless vulgar annoying person
Plonker - absolute twit
Mad sham - cool dude
Shtorey? - what's up?
Sorrrrraaaaay - attracting the attention of someone whose name you don't know/starting a fight/both
Beor - girlfriend/my boo (if I ever describe someone or something as 'my beor' I mean I like them a lot)
Fien - fella/boyfriend
Feck - like fuck but less offensive
Shite - shit but pronounced differently
There's some other rude ones but they're fairly universal so I don't think I need to tell ye :D
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Lol, no problem! Being a language student has some advantages :D if anyone else wants to share some regional slang or idioms in English, you should cause I love this sort of thing.
Mod
Shit = lort
to fuck = this has a LOT of slang here's a few - knalde, kneppe, bolle - those are the most common.
fuck you = fuck dig
bitch = kælling
asshole = røvhul
Bastard = see 'asshole' :) we have the word bastard but it's rarely used unless you're talking about an illegitimate child, and then still rarely.
Kiss my ass = kys min røv or kys mig i røven
cock = pik, diller,
and a little fun one:
fuck me = piss mig da i øret (which litterally means "well piss in my ear" - I have no idea where it comes from but it's quite popular these days)
Or when americans stub there toe and yell fuck, we yell "for helvede" which means "for hell" it isn't considered to be an actual swearword, but it's frown upon being used at work or at posh gatherings.
oh and shut the fuck up = luk røven (which means shut the/your ass)
Right that's all I can think of right now :p
Lol, those are good, I like! Also interesting to see the lexical similarities between Danish and German.
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Ah okay :) the words do look alike but that makes sense :)
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Hey you never know when that might come in handy! Possibly I'll send Cassie to Denmark in a fic some day :D although, I must confess I know very little about the country. Apart from the usual stereotypes you know how it is lol.
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Well don't hesitate to ask if there's anything you wanna know :) I sure wont if I need to know something about Ireland ^^
Everything you need to know about Ireland in 3 words: Rain, booze, Catholicism.
Lol, just kidding, we're a bit more complicated than that really. There's also spuds. And sheep.
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What are spuds?
Should have included that in the slang lol! Spuds are the main staple of the Irish diet aka potatoes. To be fair, I should also include the Irish tendency to be extremely chatty and friendly even to strangers. In Ireland, it's perfectly normal to smile at people on the street just cause you've made eye contact. In other countries I'm told this is viewed as being a bit weird. Also we party hard. Can't beat Irish weddings and funerals for a proper knees up, lol. Sometimes the funerals are bigger parties than the weddings cause you need an invite for the wedding, but you just show up to 'pay your respects' at the funeral. And by that I mean, come for the craic.
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Karen Chance Fans
Books mentioned in this topic
Japanisch, bitte: Nihongo de dooso (other topics)Japanisch, bitte!, Arbeitsbuch (other topics)
And I speak Spanish. Or, spoke Spanish, since I haven't really used it in at least a year. It would interesting to see what I really remember!
@Missdevora I actually really want to learn Romanian.