Daily Check in Oct 10, 2018

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ohjodi
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Re: Daily Check in Oct 10, 2018

Post by ohjodi »

alliesmama4 wrote: Thu Oct 11, 2018 8:26 am I thing is would be fun to take a class but living in the Midwest and not traveling I do not see the point.. However thank you for showing an interest and making suggestions. Janet Alliesmama
Same here......Disabled and Broke on the Prairie, lol I wouldn't have anywhere to use Spanish, except for the Mexican restaurant in town, and even there it's not necessary. I think I've seen four Mexians in town. Might just be the same guy, lol

In high school I had a really good Spanish accent, because until I was 15 I lived in Mexican/Puerto Rican neighborhoods in Chicago. We moved to central Illinois where I don't think my classmates ever heard Spanish, before, lol Not sure about the teacher, either
ohjodi
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Mrscreative
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Re: Daily Check in Oct 10, 2018

Post by Mrscreative »

floridacatlover wrote: Thu Oct 11, 2018 8:34 am A good free option for learning languages is the Duolingo app. I’ve used it before and will use it when my class ends. Not good if your computer doesn’t have sound, however.

Spanish is the most useful language and doubly so here in Florida. But I’ve always loved French and I’m thinking of traveling to New Brunswick, Canada next summer. NB is a bilingual province but my great grandmother is from a rural area in the Acadian part of the province.
Actually all of Canada is bilingual which is why all packaging is in both English and French. However, there are definitely regions and cities in that country where French is more widely spoken. But even in those regions English is also spoken albeit with a French accent. Quebecois French is very different from Parisian French both in the accent and Quebecois French has a lot of English words thrown in - a completely different dialect.
SandiSAHM
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Location: Oklahoma

Re: Daily Check in Oct 10, 2018

Post by SandiSAHM »

My first language is French, but it does me little - actually zero, LOL - good in Oklahoma. I've run into ONE French-speaking guy here, he was an American who lived up north and had studied it as a minor and had lived in France for a while, he spoke the language like he'd been doing it all his life.

But, living in OK, my kids are learning Spanish, not French. Interestingly enough I understand about half the Spanish I hear. Latin-based is Latin-based, some Brazilian friends speak Portuguese to each other and I pick up on about 1/4 of that. Portuguese, for a Latin-based language, has a whole other feel to it. I'm told that Brazilian Portuguese is not as straight-forward as what you hear in Portugal.

My mom (French) was irked when I told her the kids are learning Spanish 'cause it's useful. Seriously Mom, if we lived in or near the French speaking part of Canada, there might be a point but here, nearly every subcontract construction guy we've had to talk with in the last 10 years has been a native Spanish speaking guy. When they need directions I can usually get them to the right place.

Come to think of it, I should learn Spanish right along with them.

Can my brain do that AND relearn my job? Will it seize up instead?

If you don't hear from me, I've seized. :lol:
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Jackielou
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Re: Daily Check in Oct 10, 2018

Post by Jackielou »

To add to the French langauge talk here....

I used to be able to speak French fluently, but now can for the nost part just read it fairly well. The French I learned in high school was Parisian in nature. The French spoken in Quebec is quite different. I had a friend who moved from Northern Ontario to Toronto who spoke an entirely different French from either, and the French spoken in Saskatchewan is still different yet.

In saying this though each area can understand each other, but if you travel to Paris and use French dialect not from Paris you are told by many you are speaking slang.
Jackie
http://inthelandofthelivingskiesii.blogspot.ca/
SandiSAHM
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Re: Daily Check in Oct 10, 2018

Post by SandiSAHM »

Its funny, because I've lived in the... I guess it's the south? NC, TN, OK? Right across that swath that isn't "way" south like GA, MS, TX, but still 'south' since... 1977, and I have heard many a fascinating spin on American English. DH tells me that as of the first gas station we hit in NC I talk to the locals as though I'm from there and it doesn't turn off again until we hit TN on the way home :lol:

France, tiny little country that it is, has regional differences, but I barely noticed for... decades. There's a town - famed as the town where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake - Rouen. Gorgeous little place despite that bit of history. In Normand French it's pronounced "Ehr-wahn" where that 'wahn' second syllable is sort of swallowed up into one short sound instead a longer one and is pronounced, as DH puts it "through your nose" (sadly I have a Normand nose, so it makes the sound really well ;) ).

One of my cousins married a guy from Marseille, we were talking about places I'd visited, I told him I really like Honfleur and 'Ehr-wahn' a lot and he gave me a look. Apparently people from Marseille pronounce Rouen way more like it's spelled: "row-ehn." He had no idea where I was talking about, LOL and told me I had a northern accent.

I thought well that figures I'd be southern in one language and northern in the other!
alliesmama4
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Re: Daily Check in Oct 10, 2018

Post by alliesmama4 »

SandiSAHM wrote: Thu Oct 11, 2018 9:20 pm Its funny, because I've lived in the... I guess it's the south? NC, TN, OK? Right across that swath that isn't "way" south like GA, MS, TX, but still 'south' since... 1977, and I have heard many a fascinating spin on American English. DH tells me that as of the first gas station we hit in NC I talk to the locals as though I'm from there and it doesn't turn off again until we hit TN on the way home :lol:

France, tiny little country that it is, has regional differences, but I barely noticed for... decades. There's a town - famed as the town where Joan of Arc was burned at the stake - Rouen. Gorgeous little place despite that bit of history. In Normand French it's pronounced "Ehr-wahn" where that 'wahn' second syllable is sort of swallowed up into one short sound instead a longer one and is pronounced, as DH puts it "through your nose" (sadly I have a Normand nose, so it makes the sound really well ;) ).

One of my cousins married a guy from Marseille, we were talking about places I'd visited, I told him I really like Honfleur and 'Ehr-wahn' a lot and he gave me a look. Apparently people from Marseille pronounce Rouen way more like it's spelled: "row-ehn." He had no idea where I was talking about, LOL and told me I had a northern accent.

I thought well that figures I'd be southern in one language and northern in the other!
Sandi when my niece and I were doing our 5 week European trip we ran in to a man that lived in Australia but lived in Wales as a child.. We sort of connected since my Grandfather came from Wales and this man had lived in Wales not too far from where my grandfather came from. Anyway we were talking one day and I realized I did not understand a word of what he was saying.. I told him I did not understand a word you are speaking. He said, Well I hope you realize I am speaking English for your benefit. If I spoke Australian you would have an even harder time understanding.

We use to have a house on a lake in Minnesota that we went to for the summer. It was 4 hours from the Canadian border.. The people there told us they had a hard time understanding our southern accent.. What the heck.. We are from the Midwest and if someone from the deep south were to visit them they would think they were from a foreign country..lol.
Janet Alliesmama
Janet Alliesmama
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