The other side of the "Language violation" thread

[Rusty]

Is it just me, or do you really like it when non-native speakers of your language say something that's not quite right?? I'm not entirely sure why it is; maybe I'm just fascinated about how the same thing is put differently in another language. For example, English people talk about having dreams, but as far as I can gather in Finnish you see dreams (at least a couple of Finns have talked to me in English about how they "saw a dream last night", I assume they've just translated directly from the Finnish phrase). There's something oddly great about things like that. Just a different way of looking at things... or something. I've even started doing it a bit in English; I can't think of any examples at the moment, but I'll be sure to fill you in if I remember. Unless this thread dies because no one knows what the hell I'm rambling on about.

 

[rahvin]

well, i do know what you're talking about.

for instance, i love the way english assumes you might know better, while italian sticks to a rather pedantic knowing more. the idea of possessing more knowledge being in fact a way of enhancing your interpreation of reality sounds just cool to me.

and that's the only example i can think of right now, but others will likely come to mind...

 

[Legende]

yeah, when italians say "know you better" they mean "get to do you"... well that's my opinion =D

 

[rahvin]

yeah, when italians say "know you better" they mean "get to do you"... well that's my opinion =D

agreed. yet i'm uncomfortable with, for instance, the idea of "asking someone out" instead. it's a bit as if you wanted to tell them: hey, you, get out of here please.

 

[Legende]

hahahah "Do you wanna go out?"
-XD OH SURE!! I always wanted to but never had the courage to propose!!
-... so WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?! MOVE YOUR ASS!!!
... °_°

 

[hyena]

i'm trying to think about foreigners speaking italian and their mannerisms. one specific thing i encountered several times while, for example, reading fanfiction is: polite speech is often turned into medieval speech due to subtle nuances that are unknown to most learners. for example, if i want to be polite on the phone and say 'May I speak with mr. rahvin, please?" i'd say "Posso parlare con il signor rahvin, per favore?". Alas, dictionaries often do not mention that while "mister" is formally equivalent to "signore" if you use this word instead of the common contraction "signor" you'll sound really funny. "Posso parlare con il signore rahvin, per favore?", although very similar, sounds like "May I speak with Lord rahvin, please?" and it would also make people raise an eyebrow... sounds really something out of the middle ages.

 

[rahvin]

i find "lord rahvin" quite appropriate.

 

[Arch]

i find "lord rahvin" quite appropriate.

I don't.

 

[Naku ist krig]

Sadly I make mistakes time after time.

 

[Rusty]

Oh, something that I've started doing is making compound words that really shouldn't be allowed. For example, earlier I was involved in a conversation (online) about a trip to London, but instead of calling it a "trip to London" I called it a "Londontrip". Doing that is fun (don't ask why), and is inspired by non-native speakers of English sometimes doing the same. I also like it when people mix up at/to/in.

i find "lord rahvin" quite appropriate.

 

[MagSec4]

I always like speaking English with non-native speakers, I find it ..cute.
For example, in Finland I would hear things that sounded pretty funny and interesting to me.. such as when they say 'she' or 'her' referring to a man, or 'he'/'him' referring to a girl. ..because in Finnish there's no distinction.

Also, since English isn't my native language either, I myself did such things. When I was learning English, my Spanish would influence my sentence structure (since it's quite different) and trivial expressions a lot ..which I guess made me sound retarded :q

 

[Northern Lights]

I always want to say hold a speech because that would be the literal translation from Swedish...

 

[Arch]

In my Japanese 2 class, there's this Vietnamese student who have a difficult time pronouncing certain words.

For example, the word for breakfast in Japanese is 'ban gohan' [ばんごはん]. It's pronounced 'baw'n go hawn' (long vowel 'o' in go and "aw", like when the doctor checks your tonsil)

This student, for the life of her, couldn't get the vowels right. She pronounces it 'beng go heng'. So the instructor asked her (the student) to repeat after the instructor for the right pronounciation. After 12-15 tries, the instructor gave up, because the students couldn't get it right. How hard is it to say "baaaaaa"?

 

[Misanthrope]

I always like speaking English with non-native speakers, I find it ..cute.
For example, in Finland I would hear things that sounded pretty funny and interesting to me.. such as when they say 'she' or 'her' referring to a man, or 'he'/'him' referring to a girl. ..because in Finnish there's no distinction.

Also, since English isn't my native language either, I myself did such things. When I was learning English, my Spanish would influence my sentence structure (since it's quite different) and trivial expressions a lot ..which I guess made me sound retarded :q

I found this to be a problem too. In spanish there is more than 1 way to construct frases and they are all equally right, so when i write or talk in english i tend to instinctively change around the frase order to my particular way of talking.

 

[hyena]

How hard is it to say "baaaaaa"?

If rahvin didn't love my current sig so much, i would consider this quote as an alternative.

 

[fireangel]

*heh* Arch, you could suggest this person to listen to Dimmu Borgir or so. I think they have that part in their lyrics quite often

 

[Malaclypse]

well, but how hard is it for native english or american people to pronounce an umlaut? they just don't get it. same problem with the japanese student. and i would probably twist my tounge before pronouncing for example hungarian stuff.

 

[fireangel]

VC: Also true. And there are languages, where the meaning changes with the "height" of the tone you pronounce a syllable in (some south-east-asian ones for example). So this is pretty difficult for others aswell. Also in some african languages, there are letters represented by what we would call a sound, like the "!" (named so for the foreigners, don´t think they use that sign themselves) in !Kung-language.
Of course our letters are a sound each, too, but we are used to them, that is the difference.

 

[MagSec4]

One thing native English speakers just cannot seem to get how to do to save their lives is pronounce the Spanish (or Finnish) 'R'
I have had several experiences, not unlike the one Arch tells, where I try to help someone, step by step, movement by movement, how to make that 'R' sound.. and I just have to end up giving up.

 

[Arch]

I love it when languages have their rolling R's.