Smoother Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 Ok, so it's a slow Sunday,. I've been for a nice long ride along the beach dodging humanity in all its forms, and canine-ity too, and it's do-do. and I'm taking a break, in the sun ( no haters please). So I wanted to share something that has been on my mind the last week or two: I'm VERY impressed with the quality of written English displayed on this board by people whose native language is not English. Sure, like me, posting from Spain, there are some who are English expatriates writing from non English countries, but most of you do not fit into that category. Sweden, Norway, Finland ( or is it Suomi?), China, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, New Zealand (just kidding TFU), and so many more. How do you do it? Where did you learn your English? School, home, abroad, Internet, Starsky and Hutch, Miami Vice, ABBA, Downton Abbey? we Britts, for the most part, are lousy at languages. There are reasons for this, but I'm not going to defend our language laziness. So, from me, well done, you have my RESPECT! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Spalding Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 15 minutes ago, Smoother said: Ok, so it's a slow Sunday,. I've been for a nice long ride along the beach dodging humanity in all its forms, and canine-ity too, and it's do-do. and I'm taking a break, in the sun ( no haters please). So I wanted to share something that has been on my mind the last week or two: I'm VERY impressed with the quality of written English displayed on this board by people whose native language is not English. Sure, like me, posting from Spain, there are some who are English expatriates writing from non English countries, but most of you do not fit into that category. Sweden, Norway, Finland ( or is it Suomi?), China, Spain, Portugal, France, Germany, New Zealand (just kidding TFU), and so many more. How do you do it? Where did you learn your English? School, home, abroad, Internet, Starsky and Hutch, Miami Vice, ABBA, Downton Abbey? we Britts, for the most part, are lousy at languages. There are reasons for this, but I'm not going to defend our language laziness. So, from me, well done, you have my RESPECT! What an awesome subject and I'm glad you began this thread I just wanted to say how proud I am to be a member of such a fine gathering of people and how the international flavor of this place is what makes it the most special to me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pasi Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 Here in Finland we have to start at 3. class to study foreign language.And again 7. class another foreign language. With finish you can not manage anywhere else but in Finland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Spalding Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 4 minutes ago, Pasi said: Here in Finland we have to start at 3. class to study foreign language.And again 7. class another foreign language. With finish you can not manage anywhere else but in Finland. That is one of the most aggravating things about the United States because the kids here grow up in an environment where they are told by their parents. It only English matters all over the world. As a pediatrician I study about and lecture about many things, but one of my pet projects is that of BRAIN ELASTICITY... Which talks about how with one encourages children to learn more, especially a second or third language, when they are young that their capacity to learn other things as they get older is infinitely greater. Of course, after the recent election in this country, it is obvious that almost a majority of people in this country or ethnocentric and really couldn't care less about people of other beliefs or colors or languages, etc. It is embarrassing to me Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve454 Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 Considering how many Spanish speakers are in the US, especially the border states near Mexico, you would think that Spanish classes would be mandatory, but i don't think they are. But you would also think that with so many Spanish speaking immigrants, that their home countries would teach English, but they don't. I once had a Salvadoran coworker who was asked by my bilingual friend why he didn't try to learn English, he replied there's no need, so many speak Spanish here he could get along without it, so why bother? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pasi Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 I have studied english, swedish and german in the school. After my school years I studied german and portuguese just for fun in adult education. But now I can not anymore manage any other language but maybe in english?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Spalding Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 To me it is all about future intellect... There is 100% proof in countless studies that if you teach young children, second and third languages, their capacity to learn throughout their entire lives is so much greater. Even with THAT knowledge, most ethnocentric people United States don't care if their kids ever speak anything but English... The word "SAD" doesn't begin to capture my feelings about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoother Posted November 20, 2016 Author Share Posted November 20, 2016 Don't t get me wrong, they tried to teach me French in school, but it was sooooo boring, and so bookie. And as a kid who " knew everything " what was the point? Now if they had bussed in some French girls to stay for a week, I'd be fluent by day 7. And I might be able to speak a little French too. ? Besides that boring fact, what good would ability in French have done me? Aside from last Month, and a brief 2 day visit to Brussels 3 years ago, I haven't needed French my whole life. So maybe I should have been taught Germany, ehhh, no. haven't been there since 1967. Esperanto was an interesting idea ( a common language for all) but it never caught on, except in a few episodes of Red Dwarf. "Charmeeta" = charmed to meet you. (Sp?) and if you learned it you would be in a class of one. i believe English has become what Esperanto was supposed to be. I heard there are more English speakers in China than in the USA. It's the language of aviation, the language of shipping, and god knows what else. I've heard that even German pilots flying German passenger aircraft in German airspace, have to talk to German air traffic control in English. That almost sounds fudged up, except, the need for consistency and safety, across the globe has produced this weird situation. i get a chuckle when I hear Dutch or Swedish tourists ordering from their Spanish waiters in English. Don't get me wrong I'd LOVE to be able to speak another language, other that my tiny smattering of French, German, Spanish, and Italian, but my 54 year old brain is as hard as a walnut,. None of Greg the Pimp,s brain elasticity, here. That train left the station years ago. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tilmann Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 Two years in New Jersey (Exit 14) probably left a mark... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rehab1 Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 1 hour ago, Smoother said: we Britts, for the most part, are lousy at languages. There are reasons for this, but I'm not going to defend our language laziness Your English is excellent! So good as a matter of fact you are free to join my 'Exceptionally Large Expanse of Highly Integrated Cortex Within a Functional Network' club! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoother Posted November 20, 2016 Author Share Posted November 20, 2016 ELEOHICWAFN ??? ELEHICWFN ??? I don't t get it. Maybe my language skills need a firmware upgrade. My head hurts. ? Yeah I get the joke about "my English " true story. When I applied to an American community college in Texas ( think inferior college/ university, you non Americans) I was tested in math(s) and English. I had to take remedial english. ? Talk about embarrassing. This is a private chat right? @Rehab1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoe73 Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 Good topic. Since it doesn't directly relate to EUCs, I moved this to "off-topic" section, but left a temporary link in "general discussion". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esaj Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 I started learning English in 3rd grade, although I did have some vocabulary down already before that, thanks to video games Basically you pick one language at 3rd grade and another in 7th, but one of them always has to be Swedish, because Swedish is mandatory in elementary school, thanks to it being the second official language in the country (due to some historic reasons, Finland was part of Sweden a long time ago, and also part of Russia before becoming independent). We have a Swedish-speaking minority (something like 5% of the population) that's mostly centered in the Åland Islands and some coastal cities. Government official are required to be able to speak Swedish in principle, but in practice, I doubt many of them actually could that well if need be I started reading Swedish in 7th grade, but never got any good with it. On top of the elementary school, I started reading books in English sometime maybe around 15 years of age or so. Nowadays I mostly read all novels in English, because the translations are often (but not always) bad. Also, working in software, pretty much all the documentation and books are in English (stuff changes so fast that by the time some more advanced/"niche" book would be translated the information could already be at least partially outdated). Reading and writing English comes pretty naturally to me nowadays, but I rarely have to speak it, so I guess I have a pretty strong accent. Also if someone speaks really fast or has a heavy accent, I might have some trouble understanding it all. Never learned the ins and outs of the grammar really, but I can (usually) tell grammar mistakes because "it just sounds wrong". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoother Posted November 20, 2016 Author Share Posted November 20, 2016 @Tilmann . New Jersey eh? So speaking of accents, do you sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger? Say : " I'll be back", " it's not a tumour" "I'm here to pump you up" yeah I thought so, more like Pee Wee Herman. Pee Wee Tilmann. ?Just kidding, I bet you're quite frightening.? Your Avitar looks like the Terminator. Care to explain over in my " What's in a name" thread @esaj and @Pasi now I get the 3 and 7 references. Finland must have a good education system. So is it Suomi? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Fat Unicyclist Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 3 hours ago, Smoother said: New Zealand (just kidding TFU) He aha koe e kidding tika? to tatou reo motu e rua - reo Pākehā, me te Māori - me te mahi tatou i te tokoiti iti e pai ki te korero Ingarihi. Otaki. But before you even try to Google translate this - don't bother, it isn't as accurate as I had hoped. I understand the challenge of the "uniquely languaged" countries (as mentioned by @Pasi and @esaj)... While it is an option to learn Māori at school here in New Zealand, it is a language that is not widely used around the world. In New Zealand however, English is predominant so we're not quite as isolated by language. When I was in school it wasn't an option to learn something more exotic, such as Chinese - something that the youth of today can benefit from... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tilmann Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 15 minutes ago, Smoother said: @Tilmann . New Jersey eh? So speaking of accents, do you sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger? 1. Jepp, New Joisy, yeah! 2. Nup, more like our blessed political leaders: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoother Posted November 20, 2016 Author Share Posted November 20, 2016 Close enough. If your not too busy with life, work, and family, maybe you could record the other Arnold quotes and this one "Hasta la vista baby" and " insert other media" I bet I'm not the only one waiting to hear our "Arnold's " voice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esaj Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 48 minutes ago, Smoother said: @Tilmann . New Jersey eh? So speaking of accents, do you sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger? Say : " I'll be back", " it's not a tumour" "I'm here to pump you up" yeah I thought so, more like Pee Wee Herman. Pee Wee Tilmann. ?Just kidding, I bet you're quite frightening.? Your Avitar looks like the Terminator. Care to explain over in my " What's in a name" thread @esaj and @Pasi now I get the 3 and 7 references. Finland must have a good education system. So is it Suomi? Yes, Finland is "Suomi" in Finnish and Finnish as a language is "suomi" (with non-capital S). In Finnish, country names are written with a capital letter (like "Englanti" = England) and languages are written with a non-capital letter ("englanti" = English). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pasi Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 51 minutes ago, Smoother said: @Tilmann . New Jersey eh? So speaking of accents, do you sound like Arnold Schwarzenegger? Say : " I'll be back", " it's not a tumour" "I'm here to pump you up" yeah I thought so, more like Pee Wee Herman. Pee Wee Tilmann. ?Just kidding, I bet you're quite frightening.? Your Avitar looks like the Terminator. Care to explain over in my " What's in a name" thread @esaj and @Pasi now I get the 3 and 7 references. Finland must have a good education system. So is it Suomi? Yes, our country is Suomi and our language is suomi. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoother Posted November 20, 2016 Author Share Posted November 20, 2016 So why does everyone else call your country and your language Finland and Finnish, respectively. I would find it rather insulting. we Brits might be responsible, we seem to Change people's names. I was once driving in Italy towards Florence. No matter how close I got I could never see an autostrada sign saying how far to Florence. Finally, I asked my passenger why. She said,,the Italian name for Florence is Firenze. When how, why did we change it to Florence? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esaj Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 15 minutes ago, Smoother said: So why does everyone else call your country and your language Finland and Finnish, respectively. I would find it rather insulting. we Brits might be responsible, we seem to Change people's names. I was once driving in Italy towards Florence. No matter how close I got I could never see an autostrada sign saying how far to Florence. Finally, I asked my passenger why. She said,,the Italian name for Florence is Firenze. When how, why did we change it to Florence? No idea why, but same goes for some other countries in English too, think Germany ("Deutchland" or something along those lines in German), Sweden ("Sverige" in Swedish) etc. We also have different names for countries in Finnish (Germany = Saksa, France = Ranska, Sweden = Ruotsi etc.). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoother Posted November 20, 2016 Author Share Posted November 20, 2016 38 minutes ago, esaj said: No idea why, but same goes for some other countries in English too, think Germany ("Deutchland" or something along those lines in German), Sweden ("Sverige" in Swedish) etc. We also have different names for countries in Finnish (Germany = Saksa, France = Ranska, Sweden = Ruotsi etc.). That was interesting so basically, everyone is doing it to everyone, Saksa Ranska, Ruotsi, fascinating. What is England or Britain, or the United Kingdom? ( I think that's all the Names we have for ourselves). I ca see Saksa, saxony, isn't that a region of Deutchland? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esaj Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 34 minutes ago, Smoother said: That was interesting so basically, everyone is doing it to everyone, Saksa Ranska, Ruotsi, fascinating. What is England or Britain, or the United Kingdom? ( I think that's all the Names we have for ourselves). I ca see Saksa, saxony, isn't that a region of Deutchland? Commonly people refer to United Kingdom as "Englanti" (England), but for other names: Britain = "Britannia" Great Britain = "Iso-Britannia" (with a hyphen) United Kingdom = "Yhdistynyt kuningaskunta" Some others: United States = "Yhdysvallat" Netherlands = "Alankomaat" (or "Hollanti" = Holland) Estonia = "Viro" (also commonly referred to as "Eesti", which I think is Estonian for Estonia) In general, I'd guess Finnish is a pretty hard language to learn, at least for those who mostly speak germanic(?) languages: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoother Posted November 20, 2016 Author Share Posted November 20, 2016 3 hours ago, esaj said: Yes, Finland is "Suomi" in Finnish and Finnish as a language is "suomi" (with non-capital S). In Finnish, country names are written with a capital letter (like "Englanti" = England) and languages are written with a non-capital letter ("englanti" = English). Those same rules apply in englanti too, but auto correct keeps capalising every time I type it , and I can't be bothered to go back and correct it every time. Damn this tablet typewriter ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esaj Posted November 20, 2016 Share Posted November 20, 2016 9 minutes ago, Smoother said: Those same rules apply in englanti too, but auto correct keeps capalising every time I type it , and I can't be bothered to go back and correct it every time. Damn this tablet typewriter ? Umm, no, in English, the names of the languages are always capitalized. I have a faint memory of my English teacher pointing out that I made the mistake of not capitalizing language names... Capitalization: The Names Of Countries, Nationalities, And Specific Languages Countries, nationalities, and languages are always capitalized as they are proper nouns. See also: Proper Nouns and Words Derived from Them English is made up of many languages, including Latin, German, and French. My mother is British, and my father is Dutch. The Mennonites began to worship in the Netherlands in the 16th century. While Americans are very proud of their current nationality, most can trace their roots back to Europe or Africa. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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