Sunday, March 22, 2015

Circus Act

If you speak another language, you get used to people treating you like a clown

19 comments:

  1. Mein Luftkissenfahrzeug ist voller Aale.

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  2. The more annoying thing is when people assume that we could speak in the language that we are learning fluently and perfectly even though we had just taken a few classes.

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    1. "Oh, you started to learn [language]? Order our meal for us at this ethnic restaurant!"

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    2. Really annoying!

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    3. How about: "Oh, you started learning Arabic? Order our meal in this Iranian restaurant!"

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    4. How about: "oh, you started learning Arabic? Order our meal in this Kurdish restaurant!" :P

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  3. I never know what to say, either.

    I remember that for Japanese, I decided on a sentence that I could then simply trot out when asked to play "performing seal". (It was "nano o ittara ii desu ka?", which I hope means "what would you like me to say?".)

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  4. Watashi no hobakurafuto wa unagi ga ippai desu. That's japanese for my hovercraft is full of eels. That's the standard phrase I use when someone asks me to say something in japanese.

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  5. If in doubt, make it up. XD

    "Je suis un peu etránge parce ce que mon sange est dans le sac."
    "Eres la persona más fea que nunca he visto en mi vida."
    "Ich bin eine minkehoffer mit gösse rot und weine mübbe laf."

    Yes, I don't speak German, but for any non-German speaker I could probably say something convincing (I hope there's nothing rude and only gobbledigook in that "German" sentence, lol). The French sentence might not be correct, but it's passable to non-francophone ears. :P

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    1. And as in the Spanish sentence, you can hide insults. ;)

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  6. I don't get it. If someone asked me to say something in the language that I'm learning (which is English, by the way), I wouldn't hesitate. This just means they're interested in other languages, and there's nothing wrong with it. Helping them doesn't make me a "circus clown", it just makes me a polite person >.>

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    1. True. We can all learn to be patient and tolerant... but by the 100th we can't help feeling a bit irritated :). Hence this is a comic :)

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  7. I can certainly feel the frustration; I've been there, only the other way around; while I've lived abroad, mostly in English speaking countries, people often ask me to say something in my native language or usually something specific in my native language like "hello" or "good night". Then they try to repeat it and make fun of it. Like any form of curiosity this can be fun and interesting for the few first times, but 500th time is not fun anymore. It is not wrong, but can be annoying and definitely not fun.

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    1. Yes it is extremely annoying, I feel you. I have been asked to speak in Mandarin (my first language) so many times by my English speaking friends so that they could repeat it, and apparently, 'learn' the language. But almost always they would be like, 'ching chong ching chang'. And I always get annoyed by that. -.-

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  8. I actually have been on BOTH sides of this type of discourse :D. I'd be thrilled with a language I don't know, and someone would be thrilled with hearing my native language. I have a double standard.

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  9. I have to use this the next time someone ask me to say something in Chinese. XD

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  10. Say something in Swedish!

    "Jag vet inte, vad vill du mig säga?"
    (I don't know, what do you want me to say?)

    Cool! Say something else!

    "Jag är inte en marionett, du håriga apa"
    (I'm not a puppet, you hairy monkey)

    Wow! Such a beautiful language!

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