Languages (was Re: [Sca-cooks] globetrotting)

[Siegfried Heydrich]

    But then there was this girl I knew in college (just a wonton short of a
pu-pu platter) who was SO into Tolkein that she was utterly fluent in
Sinadarin (and its many variants). She would mutter in elvish, make obscure
elvish puns (then laugh at her own cleverness while we simply looked at her
as though she had suddenly developed a third eye), scrawl Sindarin slogans
on the wall . . . a premature perv elf fancier. We weren't quite sure what
planet she was from, but we were all quite sure we hadn't yet established
diplomatic relations. And this was before any of us had ever heard of the
SCA. Gawd, she's probably a Laurel by now.
    As long as you didn't get her going on the sad state of Middle earth,
she was OK . . . though I doubt she knew who the president was at the time.
There's multi lingual, and then there's multi universal . . .
    I also had a German professor who was Italian, and had his Masters in
French. He flustered easily, and it was always great fun to see how many
languages we could get him to use in a single sentence . . . especially if
you posed a question in bastard latin . . .

    Sieggy

-----Original Message-----


>At 02:43 PM 5/19/2002, you wrote:
>>Ana, your scout in Outremer, said:
>> > Right, Philippa! I am always thinking in three languages actually :(
>> > Spanish, my first one, Swedish  my second one and English, the third
>> > language I use...
>>
>>Wow. Do you actually think in these languages? Or do you translate them
>>to Spanish?
>
>I don't know about Ana, but...  English is my fourth language.  French
>being my first, Greek my second, Italian my third.  I also am conversant
>(not fluent) in Sign Language, and can understand someone speaking *slowly*
>in Spanish!
>
>I think both in French and English, and at times it throws me for loops,
>because when I get tired, I apparently switch languages without thinking,
>nor realizing what I do...  My wife used to poke me in the ribs and tell me
>"in English please"...  And I'd be boggled, because I had no clue I'd
>stopped speaking English...
>
>I think fluency in other languages is wonderful, as it forces you to change
>your pattern of thinking.  When you reach a good solid point, where you are
>comfortable talking in the other language, you often have to change the way
>you think, as syntax is completely different.
>
>I should point out that it also boggles me the number of people in the US
>that are barely able to speak English, and no other language, when I look
>at Europe, where the majority of people know a couple languages, if not two
>and three...  But that's another topic entirely, and admitedly, a
>generalization :-)
>
>
>Gorgeous Muiredach the Odd
>Shire of Forth Castle (in transit)
>Meridies
>mka
>Nicolas Steenhout
>"You must deal with me as I think of myself" J. Hockenberry