Multilingual and Polyglot Wannabee Thread! MK I

Original post by Decerto

Good idea. I like the fact that I will be able to insult people in other languages without them understanding what I am saying.

I used to do that all the time to a Norwegian girl I knew a while back, only she learnt what I was saying and then caught me out :sad:

I never bothered to learn Norwegian back then to understand her jibberish but in hindsight, I wish I had :lol:

Reply 7243

Original post by Octopus_Garden

thatitootoo
The word you're looking for is RomanTic! Not "Romanic". You can use "Romance language" instead, if you like.

No you're wrong, Romanic languages is a perfectly acceptable reference. Romantic is not acceptable when referring to Romance (or Romanic) languages.

Reply 7244

Ronove

Original post by tehFrance

No you're wrong, Romanic languages is a perfectly acceptable reference. Romantic is not acceptable when referring to Romance (or Romanic) languages.

'Perfectly acceptable' is a stretch, I would say. I'm pretty sure if you walked into either of my old uni departments and said 'Romanic languages' to the linguistics lecturers there, the majority of them would wonder what on earth you'd been reading and why you hadn't studied any of the go-to linguistics works/researchers. Or perhaps (if my theory detailed above was correct) why you had been studying linguistics in another language.

Reply 7245

Original post by Ronove

'Perfectly acceptable' is a stretch, I would say. I'm pretty sure if you walked into either of my old uni departments and said 'Romanic languages' to the linguistics lecturers there, the majority of them would wonder what on earth you'd been reading and why you hadn't studied any of the go-to linguistics works/researchers. Or perhaps (if my theory detailed above was correct) why you had been studying linguistics in another language.

It's perfectly acceptable to the people I know, there's alternation between the two mind. Why would they question the language to which you studied linguistics? Are you not able to study it in another language? Does it have to be English only? :colonhash:

Reply 7246

Ronove

Original post by tehFrance

It's perfectly acceptable to the people I know, there's alternation between the two mind. Why would they question the language to which you studied linguistics? Are you not able to study it in another language? Does it have to be English only? :colonhash:

If you're writing linguistics essays in English, it kind of pays to know the vocabulary used in the English-speaking field. The focus and dominant theories can also differ quite a bit from language to language.

Reply 7247

L'Evil Fish

OP

Original post by Octopus_Garden

Also, where was the pas? I thought you could leave out the ne, but not the pas?And then I have the cheek to wonder why he doesn't trust me.

I don't know what went wrong there... The whole sentence was a shambles... I got excited over reading the Russian :colondollar:

Reply 7248

Original post by 21stcenturyphantom

Honestly, I'm pretty shallow when it comes to deciding to learn a language. If I hear it and I like the sound of it, I want to learn it. It's that simple for me. This can be a problem because I can be unrealistic and say to myself 'Maybe I should learn X language...no, I want to learn Y first..wait, what about T? Yeah T was fun..but..etc etc.'.

Admittedly, for a few languages my desire to learn them is just fanciful, such as Scottish Gaelic or Welsh, as obviously whilst I'm studying for my A levels I'm not going to spend huge amounts of my time learning a language such as Scottish Gaelic which has so few speakers compared to other languages that I could learn, such as Spanish or Russian for example.

I think whilst I'm young (25 so...youngish? I still feel young! :tongue:

) and in education I'm wanting to focus on more widely spoken languages.

Haha Don't worry, I totally understand. I fell in love with Irish after watching a short film in the language, but it's just one of those fantastical moments that you know will never happen because something else will come along and take up my attention and time... Sigh... The hardships of a wannabe polyglot. :tongue:

Reply 7249

Original post by Octopus_Garden

http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/forgot_algebra.png

That's basically the problem. People like that have children, and they spend their children's school years saying things like, "Don't worry, I was always rubbish at maths. You're just like me It's never been a problem for me, because no-one needs this outside school. What's the point of trigonometry?"

To a point, they're right- it would appear that employers cared very little whether one had O-level Maths, unless one was going into a specifically mathematical career.

However, not only are there more mathematical jobs these days (like everything to do with computing), a C at GCSE is -actually- really important for almost all jobs.

Ah, then I totally agree. I was expecting you to give an argument about extreme stress and high expectations to do well from parents and how that is connected with poor maths grades, which was why I wanted to understand more in the first place, but you surprised me with the opposite! :biggrin:

Reply 7250

Octopus_Garden

16

Original post by AquisM

Ah, then I totally agree. I was expecting you to give an argument about extreme stress and high expectations to do well from parents and how that is connected with poor maths grades, which was why I wanted to understand more in the first place, but you surprised me with the opposite! :biggrin:

The same happens with lots of subjects, but perhaps particularly MFL are the next most frequent subject after Maths. Parenting forums can get quite, erm, heated with threads like "school says son has to do a language. Is this true? I was always awful at languages, and I don't want a poor GCSE affecting his application for medicine in four years' time".

I particularly remember the poster who threw a huge strop because her son was told to attempt to speak French in his French lesson., after he asked to take his jumper off in English. "It's not fair to ask him to do that, he's awful at languages just like me"<-- actual quote!

Reply 7251

Original post by Octopus_Garden

The same happens with lots of subjects, but perhaps particularly MFL are the next most frequent subject after Maths. Parenting forums can get quite, erm, heated with threads like "school says son has to do a language. Is this true? I was always awful at languages, and I don't want a poor GCSE affecting his application for medicine in four years' time".

I particularly remember the poster who threw a huge strop because her son was told to attempt to speak French in his French lesson., after he asked to take his jumper off in English. "It's not fair to ask him to do that, he's awful at languages just like me"<-- actual quote!

HAHAHA Repped you for that. :yes:

Reply 7252

Yawn11

20

This is my kind of friend.

I've been learning French all summer, it's been an interesting journey so far.

At first it was because I felt a 2nd language would be a supporting factor in applications for graduates schemes. But as I've gone and stuck through it I've realised achieving much more by doing this, and breaking down a barrier that would have previously prevented from communicating a particular population. On top of that, it's been great exercise for the brain. Things have gotten difficult as I've reached questions and conjunctions of words, I'm at a point where I would've given up had it not been for the burning passion built over time.

I plan to apply to be on a language scheme once I return to Uni.

Reply 7253

L'Evil Fish

OP

Original post by Yawn11

This is my kind of friend.

I've been learning French all summer, it's been an interesting journey so far.

At first it was because I felt a 2nd language would be a supporting factor in applications for graduates schemes. But as I've gone and stuck through it I've realised achieving much more by doing this, and breaking down a barrier that would have previously prevented from communicating a particular population. On top of that, it's been great exercise for the brain. Things have gotten difficult as I've reached questions and conjunctions of words, I'm at a point where I would've given up had it not been for the burning passion built over time.

I plan to apply to be on a language scheme once I return to Uni.

Bonjour! Je suis content entendre que tu l'aimes :smile:

quand as-tu commencé apprendre le français? Like when in the summer?

Reply 7254

username321708

2

Original post by AquisM

Haha Don't worry, I totally understand. I fell in love with Irish after watching a short film in the language, but it's just one of those fantastical moments that you know will never happen because something else will come along and take up my attention and time... Sigh... The hardships of a wannabe polyglot. :tongue:

Hah isn't that the truth! Glad to see I am not the only one here who does that! :tongue:

Well today is my first day at college and hopefully I will be told whether my Spanish language class is running, or whether I have to enrol on a distance learning A level and miss out on all the fun. :unimpressed:

Reply 7255

Original post by 21stcenturyphantom

Hah isn't that the truth! Glad to see I am not the only one here who does that! :tongue:

Well today is my first day at college and hopefully I will be told whether my Spanish language class is running, or whether I have to enrol on a distance learning A level and miss out on all the fun. :unimpressed:

Good luck! Hope your class is running! :yes:

Reply 7256

Octopus_Garden

16

Original post by AquisM

HAHAHA Repped you for that. :yes:

Thanks! By the way, that woman actually complained to the school! That the French teacher asked her son to speak French...

Reply 7257

Original post by Octopus_Garden

Thanks! By the way, that woman actually complained to the school! That the French teacher asked her son to speak French...

What an atrocity! I would never expect my children to have to speak French in French lessons, nor do maths in maths classes, nor play football in PE lessons... :tongue:

I don't know how some parents can claim to be parents at all.

Reply 7258