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What languages have you heard today? | ||
Tags: Foreign Languages | Listening | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Ncruz Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5327 days ago 31 posts - 56 votes  Speaks: Spanish, English*, Dutch, Portuguese, Afrikaans Studies: French, German, Italian, Russian, Norwegian, Japanese, Scottish Gaelic | Message 105 of 121 19 July 2010 at 11:33pm | IP Logged |
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Two days ago, I was on a cruise packed with people from all corners of the world. It was the first time that I had ever heard all of the languages that I'm studying, plus many more and some I couldn't identify in such a short period of time.
English Most passengers on the ship were American or Canadian. Spanish We were traveling with my friends from Spain. They don't speak English that well and I prefer to talk to them in Spanish anyway, so I ended up actually speaking more Spanish than English on the trip as a whole. They are about my age (I'm 15 and they're 14 and 12), so I got the chance to hear a lot of new Spanish slang. Several of the crew members were also from Chile, and seeing us speak Spanish addressed us in Spanish as well. Dutch There were about 30 Dutch people on board and I was excited to hear dutch spoken in a natural setting. Afrikaans The girl who worked in the gift shop was Afrikaans and whenever I got bored, I would visit her shop and we would talk in Afrikaans and Dutch. She also knew quite a bit about grammar and helped me with a lot of questions I had. Tagalog and Cebuano Most of the crew was from the Philippines and spoke either Tagalog or Cebuano (I only know because I asked). I'm sure that I also heard a whole host of other languages from The Philippines being spoken, but I'm just not familiar enough with them to identify them or tell them apart. Hindi and other Indian languages/dialects A lot of Indian staff as well. I'm fairly certain that most of them were speaking Hindi, but I'm sure that I heard a lot of other Indian languages too. German and French Lots of German and French tourists on board. Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean There were lots of tourists and staff members from China. There was one large group of Koreans and an even larger one of Japanese. Swedish My grandpa who accompanied us is Swedish and a group of Swedes was staying in the same block of staterooms as us. Norwegian We met a family from Norway on the ship. Portuguese I saw some Brazilians sitting near us at breakfast. Romanian, Serbian, and Hungarian There was a surprising number of staff from Romania, Serbia, and Hungary. Slovak We met some kids our age from Slovakia. Unfortunately they didn't speak anything else, but at least I got to hear their language. Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian? There was a group of Eastern European acrobats performing on board. I heard them speak and I later read that they were from Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus. I'm certain that I heard Russian and Ukrainian, but I know that most people from Belarus actually speak Russian and I'm not yet advanced enough to tell the two apart. And many more that I either couldn't identify, can't remember or just heard in passing. Edited by Ncruz on 19 July 2010 at 11:42pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| PaulLambeth Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5162 days ago 244 posts - 315 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Icelandic, Hindi, Irish | Message 106 of 121 31 July 2010 at 12:22pm | IP Logged |
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I'm in Ireland and visiting areas ranging from extreme tourist hotspots (Cliffs of Moher) to some rather deserted areas. So in the past week I've heard rather a lot of German and French, of which some I'm able to understand (A French boy whose "Bonjour" I responded back with seemed very confused when I told him in French that I was English ... he was about 8) and some Gaelic in the Gaeltacht region that I've been in most of the time, much to my pleasure. I was in a music store in Dingle and the shopkeeper who I'd been speaking to in English was switching constantly between English and Gaelic in several conversations. I also heard some Danish yesterday - I'd only ever heard it spoken once before and I must say it sounds weird, as at first I thought it might've been Welsh until I heard some Scandinavian-esque words slipping in. Oh yeah, I've also heard some Welsh whilst in Wales awaiting the ferry across.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| HazarRrd Hexaglot Groupie United States twitter.com/Armadill Joined 6509 days ago 52 posts - 55 votes Speaks: EnglishC2, SpanishB1, Russian*, Portuguese, French, Italian Studies: Japanese, German | Message 107 of 121 02 August 2010 at 8:52am | IP Logged |
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I live in a house full of crazy international students, so today I got to practice most
of my languages and unfortunately, instead of studying German and having fun I need to log off the forum and continue studying for my finance exam (and it is not fun whatsoever!) :(( 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| psy88 Senior Member United States Joined 5380 days ago 469 posts - 882 votes Studies: Spanish*, Japanese, Latin, French | Message 108 of 121 12 August 2010 at 3:58am | IP Logged |
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Today, I was in a card store owned by an Indian couple. There was no one else in the store except me and the woman owner. She was singing alone to a CD in what I believe was Hindi.I wanted to ask the language but felt it might embarrass her (or me).
Edit: I often heard foreign languages but cannot identify them. Last week I was in a outlet shopping mall. I heard French, German, Spanish, and then over heard other groups of speakers who appeared Asian. Were they Japanese, Chinese, Korean? I really did not know. Edited by psy88 on 12 August 2010 at 4:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Jon1991 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5154 days ago 98 posts - 126 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 109 of 121 21 August 2010 at 5:06pm | IP Logged |
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When I was on holiday in Crete, Greece last week -
Greek English Russian German French Italian Welsh 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| zamie Groupie Australia Joined 5042 days ago 83 posts - 126 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Modern Hebrew | Message 110 of 121 21 August 2010 at 5:20pm | IP Logged |
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oh weird, iv'e been scrolling through this thread, and have become quite a bit shocked
with the lack of langue exposure that's often described here, but i guess that just depends on where you come from. In Australia i'd say i hear every day: mandarin, Japanese, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Arabic, Hindi, Indonesian, Swedish, Finnish, French, Italian, Greek, dutch, and many more that i can't even remember. I hear this while waiting for the bus, walking through the streets and just being at school. By the way, my school is just an ordinary school, but we do have a lot of Chinese speakers, in fact i'd say that i hear just as much mandarin as i do English every day -). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| garyb Triglot Senior Member ScotlandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4996 days ago 1468 posts - 2413 votes Speaks: English*, Italian, French Studies: Spanish | Message 111 of 121 27 August 2010 at 12:06am | IP Logged |
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On a typical day I'll hear English (I live in the UK), Spanish and Italian (I have several friends from these countries), Polish (there's quite a lot of Polish immigrants in my city), French (be it from actual French people or just my studying!), and an assortment of Asian languages (tourists, foreign students, and immigrants). Less frequently I'll hear some Greek or Bulgarian; I used to hear them on a daily basis when I was at University as there were a lot of Greek and Bulgarian students there, especially in my subject area (computer science).
Actually sometimes I wish I were learning Spanish or Italian right now, because I hang about with people who speak these languages several times per week, whereas I don't know many French people. Ah well, when I do get onto these languages they'll be a breeze between the similarities to French and the frequent exposure! Edited by garyb on 27 August 2010 at 12:09am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| justberta Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5374 days ago 140 posts - 170 votes Speaks: English, Norwegian* Studies: Indonesian, German, Spanish, Russian | Message 112 of 121 27 August 2010 at 8:15am | IP Logged |
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I've heard myself speak Indonesian to the dog. And Saami on the radio. English on Al
Jazeera. Norwegian of course. If you say what languages have you READ or SEEN today that would be a much longer list... 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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