IF I'M GOING for this uni course in French/German/Dutch translation in Mainz I'm going to have to refresh my rusty French (no study in 18 years) on top of my German. I did study some Dutch when I was enamoured with the idea of moving to Amsterdam and completed half a Linguaphone course, which means in theory I would have had a vocabulary of about 700 words... but THAT was 18 years ago too!So I decided the thing to do is give up entirely googling anything in English and migrate exclusively to their French, German and Dutch portals. I have just been reading up on blue roses and la situation linquistique en suisse (Switzerland) on French Wikipedia.
Looking back I can see I have been extremely lazy in my attitude. But I also see that my attitude has been nothing unusual for an English-speaker. In many parts of the world it is quite ordinary to have to read books, conduct business
and look up information in one's second, third or even fourth languages. I think if I can pick up this attitude, instead of grumbling to myself that this is "like looking at a beautiful view through a dirty window" (which is pretty much what it's like having to read a text in an idiom where not every word is familiar and a few are downright incomprehensible) and remind myself that I'm killing four birds with three stones (or whatever I'm doing: what is the metaphor? I'm killing two birds with one stone three times then.)... If I can do this then maybe I will qualify to get on that course, maybe I'll actually get on it, maybe I'll go and do it and graduate with flying colours and everything will change for the good.I can but try (!!)
15 comments:
Good for you to try. That is all anyone can do.
I'll have to try very hard ~ I'll be up against the crème de la crème of cosmopolitan young Europe all wanting the same thing...
I never realized how linguisticallyl lazy I had been for years until very recently. I think if I can use these languages practically I'll be on the right road..
I wish I had studied languages too but over here in Canada, it's next to impossible to use them.
Of course, we had to take some French but I dropped it to take Spanish which turned out not to be available the place we moved to. I took it by correspondence about 20 years ago but never learned to really hear or speak it - only read. And then we have never really used it even in our many visits to Cuba.
Well the best of luck with it Gleds, I wish you well. :)
Jeannie:I never really thought of that... no opportunity to use lanuages in Canada... apart from French in Montreal... Don't you get lots of French TV channels then?
You know until Celine Dion came along I never really realized these Quebequois really did think in French and have not that good English... before that I just assumed they were doing it to be pretentious(!)
Akelamalu: merci/danke/dank je!
Americans re languages ~ laziest on earth; Americans re geography ~ most ignorant... I know... but then again I'm not sure we Brits are v much ahead of ya on either front
having said that I remember being in a tube train and a man stood up and said in French "is this the train for Eichmond?" and 2 other people apart from me (who was too shy and stayed quiet) were able to help him ~ and it really surprised me how many Brits speak French. There are said to be at least 1 million fluent French speakers in the UK (but I'm sure most were BORN in France or Francophone Africa, haha!)
It did surprise me that Brad Pitt, I think it was, or else another film star of his ilk did a role where he played a white South African and he said how the accent was a bit odd and how up until this film he'd never heard it before..! ~ and I thought WHAAAAT!!?! 30/40something movie star in "cosmopolitan" Los Angeles does not know what major minority accent of English sounds like, that really struck me
Maybe it is true that more Americans live like ostritches, head in sand
We are lucky here because we can jump on a plane or even a train and be proper abroad within 2 hours!!
I noticed when I last tuned into AM radio at prime time mid evening the airwaves were full of Dutch and German from across the water
they come across louder and clearer than they used to, since everyone migrated to FM and digital...
thanks for reading to the end of this blabber!!
Languages are always nice to learn if you can practizise them. My dutch DIL doesn't want to learn French although their child (which is underway) will speak it with my son whose mother tongue is French. I don't know what she has against french, but it's quiet annoying when she sits here and doesn't understand a word and I always have to translate !
Did'nt know that Harrods was sold to the Qatari royal family ! Still can't believe it !
My pleasure, Gledds. Thanks for the reply.
And, yes, I think the British are far less ignorant than most Americans.
Gattina: is your daughter in law from the Netherlands, or are you sayihg she's Flemish-Belgian and into that politics thing where one side refuses to help the other even if soeone was dying on the street speaking the wrong language they would get ignored type of thing... Surely the kid is going to have to pick up French at some time in his life so why not now? With a Dutch-speaking mother it's hardly as if he's going to lose his mother-tongue...
My step-nephews all speak mother tongue Welsh because their mother is a Welsh speaker and speaks to them naturally in her own language. My step-brother is English like me and of course uses English, though he understands Welsh very well, in fact I'm sure by now he's a fluent speaker. But she would never in a million years actually PREVENT her children from learning English... The situation with Welsh in Wales is also very political... in a way it's more acute because if Welsh doesn't get used it really will die out which would be a terrible shame. Unlike Irish in Ireland and Gaelic in Scotland which have about 30,000 native speakers each (though Irish civil servants are obliged to take a GCSE-equivalent level test giving basic command of the language and a vocabulary of about 1500 words...) there are at least 500,000 mother tongue Welsh speakers... I don't know how many have learned it as a 2nd language ... maybe as many as 200,000 more... sorry to digress. Maybe I ought to put up a post on this...
Yes Harrods SOLD! But why so cheap? For a 7-storey shop with one MILLION square feet of commercial space, which ties it with Macy's as largest store in the WORLD... why only £1.5 billion/$2.5 US? I'm no expert on business but that sounds LOW
On the other hand, Harrods makes only about £50 million or so profit a year (not much, surely for a store of its size: that's only £50 per square foot per year) ~ it means the Qatari royals have paid THIRTY YEARS' PROFITS for this shop!!
I suppose the building and several acres plot Harrods stands on must be worth a bomb... but still...
The Sun newspaper said hopefully now someone will rip out the famous Egyptian Escalator Mohammed al Fayed installed in the centre of the shop. it features beautiful incence, amazingly opulent design (probably something like a top Las Vegas casino)... the Sphynxes are said to bear Al Fayed's face on each one. But NO CAN DO: Mr Al Fayed made sure this escalator is a LISTED MONUMENT that can never be altered or destroyed... so his face stays on those Sphynxes for ever!! (Or until London is nuked.)
SB: thought I did used to think of Americans as out-of-touch (which is so ironic as a lot of them seem to think they're THE BUSINESS)... I always reminded myself that just as many Brits are surely the same way... Maybe the difference is that America seems to have an enormous population of rednecks who know nothing of the outside world whereas our equivalent population would be far smaller... Also, as in the Brad Pitt example (perhaps it was Matt Damon: someone like that ~ can't remember...) it seems to be that middle-class liberal intelligensia types also are less well-informed than their British counterparts. But their British counterparts are probably far less well informed than most Europeans!!!
....sorry SB I keep typing "though" as "thought". Because I am STUPID
PS Gattina: do the Belgian Royal Family speak French or Dutch at home? Or do they make damn sure they keep this a secret??!?
My Dear Gledds,
You are anything BUT stupid.
I love the British. I even lived in Wolverhampton, but only for a summer. I felt right at home.
No I know I'm not...
Ah! But I do like to play dur on occasion ~ haha! Ya know I don't tell people in the real world of my intellectual proclivities ~ the assistant at the methadone pharmacy was quite perplexed to find me reading a Japanese kanji book "are you learning Japanese?" she asked. "SLOWLY!" I replied. "Very, very SLOWLY..." (Even slower now that I'm diverted on to this Euro-path...
GAH I'm ashamed that I only speak English but just toolazy to try anything else. Even French is evading me at the moment. Sorry, I've been tardy and missed your quiz but back on track now! Cheers :)
I think unless you are lucky to be naturally gifted with languages you need to live and breathe the new language in situ if possible - I think those school exchange programs are a great idea.
I can only just make myself understood with French; lots of smiling, shrugging, pointing but if I get asked a question ... help*!*
I worked with a young Australian girl who's parents were Italian and she wanted to go over to Italy to visit Grandparents and other relations but because her parents had refused to speak Italian in the home she was having to pay to learn via a language school :(
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