Do you understand English?

[scolil]

A friend of mine used to teach spanish and used this very subject as his first lecture. His point was to establish expectations for the universal standard of the spanish language!

[Giulietta]

E se voçês fossem todos cagar, mais a merda da conversa, hem??

Não têem mais nada para fazer?? Vão brincar com os vossos pirilaus, sim meus lindos??

Esta agora......

[AjariBonten]

If you really want to see the Tower of Babel, just look at the language differences between the male and the female of the species, in any language, LOL

[sailingdog]

Unfortunately, English, in its multiple forms, has become a lingua franca for many tasks—aviation, navigation, electronics, high-end computing, etc... The fact that the UK had so many colonies also helps it along, since it is spoken in many, many countries... more so than French... but then again...who'd want to speak French.


However, most foreigners do a much better job with English than English-speakers do with other languages. In many countries, like Korea, Japan, and China, learning basic English is a requirement...that doesn't seem to be the case in the USA... where many high school grads are effectively illiterate in their native language.

[Robby Barlow]

Originally Posted by AjariBonten

If you really want to see the Tower of Babel, just look at the language differences between the male and the female of the species, in any language, LOL

If I were bloody Einstein I wouldn't be writing bloody posts on bloody Sailnet FHS!

Oh and by the way, still haven't figured out what "LOL" stands for!

Y Giu, yo tambien te quiero, tan elocuente como siempre!

[AjariBonten]

Dog, you hit that one out of the park ..... we have to be the least multi-lingual country in the world.

Alex's Fred puts most of us to shame. It's funny; when Val or Tommy commented about how well Fred understood English when they were out there, and if he didn't they could explain in French, or LATIN for gods sake.......

When my wife read that she put our German studies on the fast track.....

RB, LOL means Laugh Out Loud
LMAO means Laughing My A$$ Off, ;-)

[jerryrlitton]

Originally Posted by Robby Barlow

You might think you do, but English is a languages spoken on at least 3 continents - Europe, America & Australia/New Zealand, and although us ignorant foreigners assume it to be the same, it is not so.
Unfortunately, this means that a simple phrase pronounced for example by an Englishman, will not be correctly understood or interpreted by either of the other 2, or us.
For example : A Brit says "I'm pissed" Short, simple and to the point, but what does he mean?
The American would assume that he has had too much drink and that he was feeling slightly the worse in consequence.
The Ossie or Kiwi, if they were able to think, well I couldn't imagine their reaction due to lack of experience.
Europeans, on the other hand, wouldn't give a hoot 1/2 the time no matter what a Brit says.

But, what the Brit was really trying to convey was that, even though he was stone sober, he was unhappy with the current situation. Or more precisely : "If you c*?§ don't shut your *?!%§ing mouth right now I'm going to beat the S*** out of you, you *?!%ing S.O.B."!
Now if a simple misinterpretation between people who supposedly speak the same language can lead to a major punch-up, does it still surprise you that we have so many wars in this world of ours?

That is incorrect ref "pissed"...An American would say he is mad as in upset, a Canadian or a Brit would say he was drunk.

Jerry

[Robby Barlow]

The inability of the Brits, or the Yanks, to learn or speak a foreign language is due to the fact that, a long time ago, anybody who didn't speak English just was not worth talking to anyway. So why bother to learn, just speak louder or hit harder and they'll understand sooner or later.

[Valiente]

The French is rusty and the Latin is 30 years old, but I have to say while speaking Portuguese was rough, and listening was very difficult, reading it was relatively straightforward.

French is barely spoken in Toronto, and the type of French spoken in Quebec (there's more than one type spoken in Canada) is hard to follow even for speakers of France French, so to speak. I heard Alex firing off his French over the phone, and I could follow him better than I could follow the Acadians who replied to him in the background.

It's the same with any widespread languages. Brazilian Portuguese might be a separate language in a few hundred years, and Brazilian slang seems to be cropping up in Portugal. I can recognize Argentinian Spanish (it's very correct sounding, like it was taught by German engineers or something), but also because they've still got the vos/tu distinction. I understand that Chilean Spanish is also pretty unusual sounding compared to Castilian Spanish.

Of course, a lot of accent variation in North America is less geographical in distinction than economic.

[PBzeer]

In any conversation, context is the key to any phrase or word that doesn't seem correct for what is being said. For example, whilst a Brit may say bonnet, and a Yank said hood, in reference to cars, if either said they raised the bonnet/hood on their car, context would give you the meaning.

Paying attention is the cheapest investment you can make in life. It cost you nothing, and can gain you much.