Language has these things...
By arkaf61
@arkaf61 (10881)
Canada
February 18, 2008 9:28pm CST
...and so does the brain LOL
My first language is Portuguese. If we're going for seconds, I will say that French is the second. So English was tied for 3rd with Spanish. Still when I came to Canada my English was fine.
SOmetimes I would struggle with pronunciation here and there because our brain has trouble recognizing sounds that it doesn't use as often or that don't exist in our primary language, but it wasn't like I came here without being able to understand the language or to communicate.
Still some funny things happened :)
One of the oddest and funniest in retrospect things that happened was the time that I was about 10 minutes in front of a glass door in downtown toronto.
I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but my brain was debating which language to use to decode the sign on the door.
You see push which we will find in many doors, means .. well to push. The trouble is that Puxe - which is pronounced the exact same way as push - is the Portuguese word to ... well pull hehehehe
SO there I am in front of a door that says push to open and my brain is having trouble deciding if I should push or puxe :)
I am not sure if it would ever make a decision when someone opened the door from the other side and I took the opportunity to go in.
Yes.. language has these things LOL
What about you? If you came from another country to the country you are living in now, did language bring any strange or funny situations for you? Care to share?
Or if you always lived in the same place, did you ever visited another country and had a similar experience with language?
I"m curious, I cannot be the only one LOL
1 person likes this
5 responses
@raijin (10345)
• Philippines
19 Feb 08
Our country has a wide diversity of language, locally and foreign. We even have those sub-languages, since Filipino or Tagalog is our first language. If you visit or go to other places, you'll find other sub-languages being spoken by people from that region. I believe more or less than 170 languages being spoken here, including some of the Chinese and Spanish dialects.
Though we don't have any problem in reading the signs, which they usually use plain English or Filipino words on it. The real frustration comes when two different people who came from two different part of the country engages in a conversation, since most of them are also not that familiar with our main language. A simple word can be mistaken as an offensive word, as an offensive words can be taken as a gesture of peace!LoL
It's really hard sometimes, only a third person knowledgeable of both language can determine which one wants to express..
@arkaf61 (10881)
• Canada
19 Feb 08
LOL, now that can be complicated :)
The only places I was where language can be a bit complicated because there were more than one official were Belgium and Switzerland. Good thing French as one of them in both. I never got the hang of flemish even though I had a friend that was from the north. And although I can read German and use basics in a simple conversation it wasn't enough for proper communication.
The funny thing is that when I came here I was quite excited about it being a bilingual country. But there really isn't much of a chance of speaking French outside of Quebec:)
1 person likes this
@p3halliwel2005 (3156)
• Philippines
19 Feb 08
That was very funny. I have never been out of my country. Our main Language is Tagalog my 2nd is English...When I was young my cousins from the US came here so being young I adapted the english language more than my own. When I grew up I have difficulty with some of our own language. Sometimes I don't even know left and right in Tagalog so I have to speak the word in english even if it feels awkward since some doesn't know the language they just seem to say Duh..lol
1 person likes this
@SViswan (12051)
• India
19 Feb 08
There are so many regional languages in India that it's not surprising that the same word means different things in different languages.
And I live in a metro city where there are people from all over the country and all over the world too.
A word that means 'slow down' means 'pass gas' in another language. A word that means 'please come here' in a regional language means a 'prost*tute' in another regional language. It's funny because the same word is said with lots of respect in one language and it's really really bad in the other.
I can think of lots more...but these are the ones that came off hand.
1 person likes this
@arkaf61 (10881)
• Canada
19 Feb 08
LOL yes that sounds familiar :)
When I came here I had to refrain to use the word for knife - faca - or seal - foca - because I kept being misunderstood and people would look at me funny even if I was speaking in Portuguese to my Portuguese friends hehehehe
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
19 Feb 08
After English the two languages I have studied longest are French and Spanish, and I am OK reading either, but when I try to speak French my brain sends me words in Spanish and so forth. It is like the correct word in the wrong language blocks out the correct word in the right one. In visiting places where other languages are spoken I've found, though, that I get along better using perfect English than from broken attempts to talk like the natives.
1 person likes this
@arkaf61 (10881)
• Canada
19 Feb 08
Yes I know the feeling.
I always like to have at least basic knowledge of the language from the place I"m visiting, but sometimes it doesn't work that well:)
English is a simple language - I love the grammar or almost lack of it LOL - although very illogical when it comes to writing, but there are times where I"m forced to remember it's not my first language :)
@laurika (4532)
• United States
19 Feb 08
I see you have some serious problems . LOL. It was realy funny to read that, but back to your discussion. My first language is slovak and then english, german, czech...I reemeber when I was learning german i always mixed the words with english and all the time, when i have a english lesson all the words in my mind come only in german. Thta was kinda confusing, but right now when i am getting better and better in english i don't have that problem anymore.
@arkaf61 (10881)
• Canada
19 Feb 08
Quite serious indeed hehehehe
It doesn't happen that often,actually now it takes me only 3 minutes in front of a door that says push LOL
No, really, when I think about it I find it so funny, but it bothered me at that time when it happened :)
My German is quite basic and I mix my dativ and akkusativ and all those "tivs" , but I can survive on small phrases hehehehe I was just never too comfortable in being das Mädchen because I never felt I was neutral LOL and why do boys have a gender though? heheheh
