Conquer Club

Lazy_Pilgrim wrote:Its a really odd language from the limited experiece that iv had of it, i could never get round the change in pronuciation, but then i was trying to learn from an 80+ year only woman :S

Supposedly, English speakers have an easier time of learning the pronunciation than Spanish speakers because we have the very important tz sound in our language... Spanish doesn't.

I hang my head in shame. Like frigidus, just English.

Besides, I've always thought that all you had to do was shout in order to be understood:

Me: Hi there, do you sell bread here?

Shop assistant: monsieur desole, je ne comprends pas

Me: BREAD

Shop assistant: Ahhh hui hui. *points to bread*

No one understands language more than the business end of a kebab knife.

I like to pretend I know old-scandinavian, but I don't.

I can do a pretty terrible Russian accent.

Neoteny wrote:I can do a pretty terrible Russian accent.

I used to be sooo good at accents, but I've totally lost the ability. I'm absolutely horrible. When I try, I swerve, all in the same sentence: Irish then Russian then Spanish then Chinese then Greek then Italian then...

I'm still good at a hick accent, though, because it's my native tongue.

In Spanish, I've been told I a Venezuelan accent, which is pretty right on: my Spanish is a combo of Standard US American Spanish (Univision) and Caribbean... like Venezuela's (IMO).

In Portuguese, I started out speaking with a really excellent Lisbon accent, but because I work with Brazil, I made a conscious effort to effect a Rio de Janeiro accent. FAIL. I think I'm good at it, but whenever I'm in Brazil people always ask me, "Why do you have a Portuguese accent?"

btownmeggy wrote:

Neoteny wrote:I can do a pretty terrible Russian accent.

I used to be sooo good at accents, but I've totally lost the ability. I'm absolutely horrible. When I try, I swerve, all in the same sentence: Irish then Russian then Spanish then Chinese then Greek then Italian then...

I'm still good at a hick accent, though, because it's my native tongue.

In Spanish, I've been told I a Venezuelan accent, which is pretty right on: my Spanish is a combo of Standard US American Spanish (Univision) and Caribbean... like Venezuela's (IMO).

In Portuguese, I started out speaking with a really excellent Lisbon accent, but because I work with Brazil, I made a conscious effort to effect a Rio de Janeiro accent. FAIL. I think I'm good at it, but whenever I'm in Brazil people always ask me, "Why do you have a Portuguese accent?"

lol I can do a hick accent on command now, though it's one I had to learn. For some reason, I do a passable British accent when I'm drunk, but all efforts to do Irish or Scottish, or really anything other than Russian or English result in the linguistic ridiculousness you mention above. That doesn't really stop me, though. It's too much fun.

Neoteny wrote:lol I can do a hick accent on command now, though it's one I had to learn. For some reason, I do a passable British accent when I'm drunk, but all efforts to do Irish or Scottish, or really anything other than Russian or English result in the linguistic ridiculousness you mention above. That doesn't really stop me, though. It's too much fun.

When I was in high school my best friend and I would go to parties in the next town over, and I would pretend to be a foreign exchange student from England (some made-up town in Suffolk, if I recall). Boy, was I a hit! The tragic bit was when I would fall for a boy smitten by my British charm, and would have to cut off all contact because it was a schtick that could only go so far.

btownmeggy wrote:

Neoteny wrote:lol I can do a hick accent on command now, though it's one I had to learn. For some reason, I do a passable British accent when I'm drunk, but all efforts to do Irish or Scottish, or really anything other than Russian or English result in the linguistic ridiculousness you mention above. That doesn't really stop me, though. It's too much fun.

When I was in high school my best friend and I would go to parties in the next town over, and I would pretend to be a foreign exchange student from England (some made-up town in Suffolk, if I recall). Boy, was I a hit! The tragic bit was when I would fall for a boy smitten by my British charm, and would have to cut off all contact because it was a schtick that could only go so far.

I would have been pissed, because I can pretty easily fall for things like that. I just thought of other accents in my repertoire: the Hawaiian/Samoan pidgin English, and the bastardized middle eastern, or whatever it is, that Group X uses for their songs and prank calls. I did it enough at one point to irritate myself.

Neoteny wrote:the Hawaiian/Samoan pidgin English,

How did you pick THAT one up?

btownmeggy wrote:

Neoteny wrote:the Hawaiian/Samoan pidgin English,

How did you pick THAT one up?

I lived just outside of Oahu for a few years. Went to a bit of middle school and two years of high school there. One of the perks of being a military brat.

It's not difficult, once you get the tone of the sentence down. Rather iambic, actually. Then you just have to know the slang and what grammar functions are typically ignored.

btownmeggy wrote:

Neoteny wrote:I can do a pretty terrible Russian accent.

I used to be sooo good at accents, but I've totally lost the ability. I'm absolutely horrible. When I try, I swerve, all in the same sentence: Irish then Russian then Spanish then Chinese then Greek then Italian then...

I'm still good at a hick accent, though, because it's my native tongue.

In Spanish, I've been told I a Venezuelan accent, which is pretty right on: my Spanish is a combo of Standard US American Spanish (Univision) and Caribbean... like Venezuela's (IMO).

In Portuguese, I started out speaking with a really excellent Lisbon accent, but because I work with Brazil, I made a conscious effort to effect a Rio de Janeiro accent. FAIL. I think I'm good at it, but whenever I'm in Brazil people always ask me, "Why do you have a Portuguese accent?"

A friend of mine does a passible chinese accent. I say passible because it could even be a south east asian accent like Thai or Vietminese(sp?). I can do a fair German accent, mostly because I'd like to learn more than the scant little I do know as things stand.

A kid that I went to High School with (a year younger then me), whenever he would start reading aloud for several paragraphs, his voice would just automatically switch to an Irish accent. None of us could ever figure out why though.

My old teacher could do a ridiculously good southern american accent.

muy_thaiguy wrote:A kid that I went to High School with (a year younger then me), whenever he would start reading aloud for several paragraphs, his voice would just automatically switch to an Irish accent. None of us could ever figure out why though.

Yeah, an irishman reading...
(ducks, waves white flag, says "only kidding!)

btownmeggy wrote:

Neoteny wrote:I can do a pretty terrible Russian accent.

I used to be sooo good at accents, but I've totally lost the ability. I'm absolutely horrible. When I try, I swerve, all in the same sentence: Irish then Russian then Spanish then Chinese then Greek then Italian then...

I'm still good at a hick accent, though, because it's my native tongue.

In Spanish, I've been told I a Venezuelan accent, which is pretty right on: my Spanish is a combo of Standard US American Spanish (Univision) and Caribbean... like Venezuela's (IMO).

In Portuguese, I started out speaking with a really excellent Lisbon accent, but because I work with Brazil, I made a conscious effort to effect a Rio de Janeiro accent. FAIL. I think I'm good at it, but whenever I'm in Brazil people always ask me, "Why do you have a Portuguese accent?"

I used to speak French fairly well, but I'm out of practice. But a French friend told me I spoke "comme une vache espagnol" - "like a Spanish cow". I think she meant the accent.

jonesthecurl wrote:

muy_thaiguy wrote:A kid that I went to High School with (a year younger then me), whenever he would start reading aloud for several paragraphs, his voice would just automatically switch to an Irish accent. None of us could ever figure out why though.

Yeah, an irishman reading...
(ducks, waves white flag, says "only kidding!)

Well, like most people here, he has Irish ancestry, but was born and raised in the US and otherwise has an American (or, if you want specifics, Mountain West) accent.

muy_thaiguy wrote:

jonesthecurl wrote:

muy_thaiguy wrote:A kid that I went to High School with (a year younger then me), whenever he would start reading aloud for several paragraphs, his voice would just automatically switch to an Irish accent. None of us could ever figure out why though.

Yeah, an irishman reading...
(ducks, waves white flag, says "only kidding!)

Well, like most people here, he has Irish ancestry, but was born and raised in the US and otherwise has an American (or, if you want specifics, Mountain West) accent.

Jim Nabors is famous for originally NOT having a southern accent when he sang ... he has since learned to sing with an accent, but at first did not because he learned to sing from the radio. Maybe the person who taught this guy to read had an accent?

Can i speak more than 1 language?
Nein, to be precise.

Apologies to Blackadder.

suggs wrote:Can i speak more than 1 language?
Nein, to be precise.

Apologies to Blackadder.

always a good quote

oh and where did u disapear to lol?

4- English, Spanish fluently
italian and french partially

Engish and I'm learning Tagalog and some Ilocano. The School French I was taught is not what Quebecers or most Canadian French speak so I've forgotten most of it. My wife also knows some spanish and has taught me some. Unfortunatly for me my German Grandfather wanted to 'fit in' when he came to Canada in '33 so he didn't teach my father or my Uncles/Aunts German so I've only learned a tiny little bit of German and I have a horrible accent. It would seem I'm not very gifted with laguages but I keep soldiering on.

mandyb wrote:4
english, french, spanish and body
all fluently...

Liar... Prove it.

no idea what u want me to say.......

siete un idiot
vous êtes vraiment
mi francés es malo

some of that might not be perfect but its enough to get by

sam_levi_11 wrote:no idea what u want me to say.......

siete un idiot
vous êtes vraiment
mi francés es malo

some of that might not be perfect but its enough to get by

Now speak Japanese backwards.

i wouldnt know it forwards or any way

DaGip wrote:I was better at speaking German in college, but I have lost most of it. I know enough to tell people I am hungry or thirsty...

Useless, what good is it to know another language if you can't use it to pick up on hot women?