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Ex Pats and Brummies abroad

Eric Gibson said:
A funny story I heard about speaking the language, a young guy trying to impress his Spanish girlfriend's father by saying, in Spanish how important he was, caused a stunned silence, what he'd actually done was tell the man he was impotent.
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It can work the other way. When in Portugal and faced with young ladies trying to push a destination or restaurant, I use the impersonal “you.” After been taking back a bit they laugh and I can have a good conversation until the wife drags me away!
 
Pete,

Kalimera. Bar staff and taverna staff in most tourist area can cope with basic requests in at least six languages, though very few are actually fluent in anything other than English and Greek. Move off the beaten track and your problems start! and you resort to sign language, pictures in a menu, or a local Greek who has travelled far and wide and knows a smattering of everything! :)

My other half always carries a small English/Greek dictionary in her handbag and her Greek is umpteen times better than mine.

Maurice :cool:
 
There is an App for Apple devises, and I presume Android, called Speak and Translate which is very good. You can translate speech and text, but it is also of great use for pronunciation of your second language.
 
I would love to see how it copes with accents and slang! Greeks coming from Athens struggle when they come to some of our villages, just as I do trying to understand my Dundee son-in-law. He might just as well be chewing a gob full of pebbles when he tries to talk to me! :)

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri said:
I would love to see how it copes with accents and slang! Greeks coming from Athens struggle when they come to some of our villages, just as I do trying to understand my Dundee son-in-law. He might just as well be chewing a gob full of pebbles when he tries to talk to me! :)

Maurice :cool:
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Funny, I worked with a guy his nick name " marble mouth "
 
sospiri said:
I would love to see how it copes with accents and slang! Greeks coming from Athens struggle when they come to some of our villages, just as I do trying to understand my Dundee son-in-law. He might just as well be chewing a gob full of pebbles when he tries to talk to me! :)

Maurice :cool:
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I have very little problem problem with my Brummie accent when in the English to Portuguese mode. The other way round is sometimes a bit of a problem, but that can be an advantage in helping you speak more clearly in your chosen second language.

As far a slang is concerned, you will be already aware that it is difficult for people from many other countries to keep up with British slang, and speak just plain English. There maybe a problem the other way round.

But for a Lady Godiva, it’s very good.
 
One of the problems encountered these days, particularly with younger people it seems, is the speed at which they speak. There is a tendency - probably inspired by advertising or texting - is to speak too quickly.
Now this can be a big disadvantage for older people or those with impaired hearing. It is made far worse when trying to follow a spoken foreign language.
I suspect that if some people spoke more slowly they may make less unintentional faut pas/gaffes. One technological aid that has helped to create a change of emphasis for present day speech has been the microphone. Public speakers and clergy were always taught to project their voices to the back of the hall/church. This had the effect of a deliberate, usually coherent, and quite audible speech to be heard.
 
Pedrocut said:
I have very little problem problem with my Brummie accent when in the English to Portuguese mode. The other way round is sometimes a bit of a problem, but that can be an advantage in helping you speak more clearly in your chosen second language.

As far a slang is concerned, you will be already aware that it is difficult for people from many other countries to keep up with British slang, and speak just plain English. There maybe a problem the other way round.

But for a Lady Godiva, it’s very good.
Click to expand...
I used to try and insist my family didn't talk slang to my partner as she wouldn't understand, so Nan always did the opposite! She did a lot of eyes, eyebrows, harumphing and hands and shoulders to my partner's mum, who did it back, I don't if they really understood each other. So my partner now says a bit clipped, 'bend your wrist', we don't have much money but we have a laugh, it is a bit dark over Bill's mother's, and 'fanny apron' which she got of Nan except Nan's saying was fanny pinner.
 
I had a play with computer translators ..
What Maurice posted in #130
I would love to see how it copes with accents and slang! Greeks coming from Athens struggle when they come to some of our villages, just as I do trying to understand my Dundee son-in-law. He might just as well be chewing a gob full of pebbles when he tries to talk to me

Google's translation into Japanese
アクセントやスラングにどのように対応するかを楽しみにしています！ 私がダンディーの義理の息子を理解しようとしているのと同じように、アテネから来るギリシャ人は私たちの村のいくつかに来るときに苦労します。 彼は私に話をしようとするときに小石でいっぱいのゴブを噛んでいるかもしれません

Microsoft's Bing translating the above Japanese back to English.
I'm looking forward to how you can respond to accents and slang! Just as I'm trying to understand Dundee's son-in-law, Greeks coming from Athens struggle when they come to some of our villages. He might be biting a pebble-filled gob when he tries to talk to me!

Near but not quite ... it decided that Dundee had a son-in law ...;)
 
I put the same into the Translator and then put the Portuguese translation back in and it came up with...

I'd love to see how this deals with accents and slang! Greeks from Athens fight when they come to some of our villages, just as I try to understand my Dundee son-in-law. He may well be chewing a gob full of rocks when he tries to talk to me
 
Alan,

Yes, we have neighbours who either gabble away in fast Greek (Cretan dialect) or will slowly work with us to help us understand what they are saying, even though they may speak nothing other than Greek themselves. I suppose it depends upon how much patience they have.

We used to have a cashier in the local IKA (Greek equivalent of national Insurance) office, who despite having a very good understanding English, insisted that we speak Greek. "That's OK mate, I've got all the time in the world, have you?" with a long queue of agitated people behind me. He soon agreed to communicate in English, otherwise I think they would have leapt over the counter and throttled him. :)

I've generally found the Greeks to be a very friendly people and we have many Greek friends, who thankfully speak English and are keen to improve their knowledge of our language, and who nevertheless are appreciative of our attempts to speak theirs.

Pedro,

I used to know a little basic Spanish, but Portuguese is a definite no-no. My French is just about passable, but vocabulary very limited. I even once learned a bit of Norwegian from an ex-girlfriend, but although we are friendly with a group of Norwegians that stay in our village four or five times a year, I feel that it is lost forever, and, like most Scandinavians, their English is very good indeed.

Maurice :cool:
 
Maurice, I put the translation of the end of your comment back in the translator and it came up with the following. It shows that even slight differences can alter the sense. Here you might detect that the girlfriend was English and you learned a bit of Norwegian together.

I knew a bit of basic Spanish, but the Portuguese is definitely not- no. My French is almost passable, but very limited vocabulary. I even learned a bit of Norwegian with an ex-girlfriend, but although we are friendly with a group of Norwegians who stay in our village four or five times a year, I feel like it's lost forever, and, like most Scandinavians, their English is really Very good.
 
In the company I worked for we spent much time in Trier Germany and although we could speak and understand some German they could perfectly understand English. When we wanted to comment privately among ourselves we used 'backslang' which they could not understand. It was amusing to watch them ... they could hear 'English' but could not understand it.

We used to practice before we went to such meetings but I can't use it these days ... my brain isn't nimble enough !
 
One of the languages I thought I might have a go at learning was Swedish. In the 1950 there were lots of Swedish students holidaying in South Devon. Some lovely looking girls by the way. They were very much in demand. ;) However, they all spoke good English.
After the Torrey Canyon disaster in 1967 South Devon found that the place was suddenly favoured by Dutch visitors. A few years later I did a fair amount of maintenance at a holiday centre, The owner had opened an office in Rotterdam so the centre was well over 50% full of Dutch visitors. A Dutch lady, married to a local farmer taught the owner and staff some of the Dutch language. They need not have bothered all the visitors spoke English.
Apparently the Torrey Canyon was shown on Dutch tv stations and they realized what a lovely place the SW of England was so chose to holiday here.
 
Alan,

Not long after my well-qualified son & his family moved to Brussels, he was told that he needed to be fluent in French to get a job, so he spent a year immersed in French. The first offer he had was with Belgium's third largest mobile phone company, where he still is many years later, despite many takeovers. He found that all the software people he was being put in charge of were Dutch and all the Company used English as their everyday language!

Maurice :cool:
 
Pedro,

I can only speak for Greek and say that they have a long way to go yet. Yes, they get the basic meaning right most of the time, but you wouldn't use one to do your Greek homework. It reminds me of someihing an ex-pat said to me about 12 years ago when we were discussing learning Greek. "My wife's been going to Greek language lessons for 5 years now and still can't speak it. I don't bother, but I can talk to the taxi drivers". Most taxis drivers just want to know your destination, left, right, straight on, & how long have you neem here? And they can cope with it in English or Greek.

With three genders, the usual array of tenses, the tendency to omit personal pronouns and rely on verb endings most of the time, no question marks, but rely on the inflexion and context, plus the numerous different endings to nouns and adjectives depending upon gender, pronoun or implied pronoun, it's not surprising that computers don't make a very good job of it. According to the British Embassy, it's the fourth most difficult language in the world.

Maurice :cool:
 
Sometimes even the best English speakers from foreign lands get caught out. The company I worked for had an evening conference where a Swiss chap gave a presentation of his recent research. He started by saying "Good night ladies and gentlemen". We would of course might have started with "Good evening" whereas "Good night" is always used when you are saying goodbye to somebody. A German visited us and he said that he had arrived to the UK "with an aeroplane". In German travel is often indicated by the word "mit" e.g. "Ich bin mit dem Auto gefahren", which means "I travelled by car", although the word "mit" can also be translated as "with". Dave.
 
I do not text. However, I wonder how those who frequently - some, it seems perpetually - would get on with a foreign language. I assume you would have to be fluent in the language. It presumably would make any translation almost unworkable.
 
On the same topic with a different angle, I do a lot of work with factory automation using PLC;s (programable logic controllers) HMI's (human machine interface) & facial recognition controls. The later being the newer technology is actually less difficult to deal with. The primary manufactures of equipment for the other two are Siemens (German) and Allen Bradley (US/English). We are in the process of delivering to customer in China using AB controllers programmed in English then they converted to Chinese. Sounds simple but not always. It depends where in China as the language and accent varies greatly. Also the conversion ALWAYS needs an adjustment. Sometimes when you use Siemens in an English speaking country it becomes difficult for some reason. We did a job for a company in Turkey built in the US with Siemens controls, we put a little extra in the budget for that one!
 
Interesting observations in the above posts. I spent 5 years studying Portuguese in England and got an "A" level at the age of around 55. Although I have only had the translator for a few weeks I think it would be useful tool while studying a language. Also, if you don’t live in the country you can get a bit rusty.

Greek must be difficult as you also have a different alphabet. But learning and speaking another language doesn’t have to mean perfection, and it can very rewarding.
 
Bob,

IKEA should be good as some of the Scandinavians speak better English than many English people do. And I presume that as much of their stuff is melemine-faced chipboard, it is made in Sweden. The closest we have to IKEA out here is an ordering shop in Heraklion - they keep very little in stock on the island so I understand, although I have never used them here.

Chinese and its many variants is well out of my league.

Maurice :cool:
 
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