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Post by catgirl on Nov 29, 2009 14:34:46 GMT -5
I know my mums european languages (english,norwegian) but not my dads, vietnamese. He failed to teach me, plus I dont know my vietnamese family at all. Its a shame though...
You cant always learn it all can you? 3 mother (or father) languages maybe too much work?
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Post by paul101 on Nov 29, 2009 17:35:28 GMT -5
Well, I can speak fluent English, pretty good French and pretty good Irish. (Mom) For Dad, the same goes for English and Irish, but my Mandarin and Cantonese aren't that great, nor is my Japanese. Although, my German teacher said I should study Japanese because she's half herself and she said learning Japanese was one of the greatest decisions she ever made. I might, as we do go to Japan a lot.
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quiapo
Junior Member
Posts: 188
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Post by quiapo on Jan 18, 2010 22:41:36 GMT -5
I cannot speak my grandmother's language, which is hokkien, but I speak Tagalog and Spanish. My grandson who is recently born, is half korean, and he will be spoken to in Spanish and Korean. It would be unrealistic to expect Tagalog Filipino culture to prevail in our Australian setting, when our social milieu among Filipinos here is with Spanish speaking Filipinos. It is sad but as generations roll on and people migrate, cultural milieus change. My grandson may elect to socialise with Tagalogs, just as Jefe has done.
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Post by bulaklak on Jan 21, 2010 0:32:27 GMT -5
Armenian Proverb: Ինչքան լեզու իմանաս՝ այնքան մարդ էս You are as many a person as the languages you know. My grandmother speaks Western Armenian but I only know a few words and phrases. Yes, No, Hello, How are you, I'm hungry, names of foods, things like that. I never bothered to learn because there wasn't a large Armenian community where I grew up and we didn't visit my mom's relatives much. I don't think they liked us... As it is unlikely I'll end up living in Armenia (they speak the eastern dialect anyway) learning Armenian would not be very useful. On the other hand, Armenian is a very old language and the western version is only spoken in the diaspora. It would be sad to see it die out. I'd like to continue learning Armenian if I could find people to talk with. I speak Tagalog (more like Taglish) with my Filipino friends and extended family. I'm used to being spoken to in Tagalog but responding in English. Its a bad habit that I'm trying to correct. When my parents got married, my father tried to teach my mother Tagalog but they gave up after awhile so we just speak English at home. Another perk of learning languages is being able to say things in public without other people understanding.
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Post by FreckleFoot on Jan 29, 2010 12:30:28 GMT -5
My father is Chinese and speaks Cantonese. He never taught me. He tried once, but I was too young and after that he never tried again and also became too busy to teach me. So the only language I know that says anything about my heritage is English.
I do wish I could speak Cantonese because my grandma speaks no English. I would love to be able to communicate with her. Another reason would be I do feel as if I am 'missing out' in some way and failing to acknowledge a part of myself by not speaking the language and not being very familiar with the culture.
I'm not trying to learn right now as I am occupied with French and other studies. There is a chance of moving to China, but then I would be learning Mandarin and not Cantonese. At least I would be able to write to my grandma though!
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hypeforlife91
Full Member
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Post by hypeforlife91 on Jan 30, 2010 0:44:36 GMT -5
^I can speak conversational Cantonese, the informal kind. My mummy taught me when I was growing up. I cannot understand any formal Cantonese at all. You know like the style that news reporters and the media uses? Nope, don't get it. But I cannot write or read any Chinese so I can't really have a job as a translator. Sucks cause they can work from home.
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Post by FreckleFoot on Jan 30, 2010 4:21:28 GMT -5
You're probably the same as my Chinese cousins: they can listen to and speak conversational Cantonese, but they cannot understand formal and they cannot read or write. I'm qualified to do a similar job where you can work from home, but actually finding work... that's a big problem. Several people have suggested translating for me (French or Japanese), but they always want qualified translators and that involves studying for about 5 years!
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hypeforlife91
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Post by hypeforlife91 on Jan 30, 2010 9:44:28 GMT -5
^ Sugoiiiiiiiiiiii, you understand Nihongo? Me too. Studied it in school. Odd cause I know how to write Japanese and read some, but I don't for Chinese haha.
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Post by FreckleFoot on Jan 30, 2010 10:47:50 GMT -5
Hontou desu ka! Interesting coincidence! I also studied it for two years. I think the kanji helps to recognise some characters, but not when the Japanese have used simplified characters. Then I'm lost! LOL
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Post by Ganbare! on Jan 30, 2010 16:27:37 GMT -5
I wish I could reasonably start learning Japanese but I have so much work on my hands with Mandarin let alone maintaining and improving my French, English and Spanish fluency.
Sad to have such a low natural propensity to learn languages but my efforts are rewarded when I can click with people because of common cultural gound.
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Post by jefe on Feb 2, 2010 13:18:00 GMT -5
Too bad Proboards banned use on non-English languages on the forum.
Years ago we had a lot of threads in a dozen different languages.
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hypeforlife91
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Post by hypeforlife91 on Feb 2, 2010 22:19:16 GMT -5
^ That really sucks. But doesn't really effect my Chinese since I can't read/write it. I can type like this though: Gum yut gno yau bang. Kut do sei sei ha. (Today I am sick. Almost died of coughing.)
My Cantonese-speaking friends used to type like that online and I do too. But not everyone gets it immediately as it isn't very formal. It's just something people I know well and I do. xD
D Taco Bell ho ho sik ah!
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quiapo
Junior Member
Posts: 188
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Post by quiapo on Feb 21, 2010 1:38:19 GMT -5
it is sad to lose a culture in a family. My grandson was born 2 months ago, and he will speak the language of his mother -Korean, the language of where he lives - Australian, and my contribution will be to speak to him in Spanish. I am realistic enough not to expect him to learn Tagalog, but there aren't significant tagalog speakers in our social millieu(all the Filipino connections speak in Spanish). I too had to give up trying to know my grandmother's language, which was hokkien, though I did acquire many aspects of that culture through social interaction.
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Post by toyomansi on Feb 23, 2010 1:05:10 GMT -5
Right now I'm in my mother's small hometown in the province, and people we meet ask if I know how to speak the local dialect, Ilonggo. When my mom replies "No, but she knows Tagalog", they go like "Ah too bad..." and they don't bother speaking to me in Tagalog. Even though Ilonggo is the native dialect of my relatives, I don't find it that relevant to learn since it's only spoken in this small area only... While Tagalog is the official language that everyone knows.
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Post by purpletrapezoid on Feb 24, 2010 23:04:17 GMT -5
My mom speaks English and Indonesian. My dad speaks English, Indonesian, Japanese, and Chinese. My grandma speaks Indonesian, Dutch, Japanese (I think), and English (but she's not very good at it). But I only speak English, a bit of Spanish (from taking two years), and Indonesian. I also used to know Korean (they taught it in my elementary school), but I forgot all of it. I wish I hadn't... then I would be multilingual.
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