2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Liverpool_Anne

Hi all, I too did French and German at school and still find German easier to understand although it was so long ago I have lost a lot of it. Our German teacher was actually Austrian so I probably have an Austrian accent, while our French teachers were a mixture of French and English so no idea what sort of accent I have. When I lived in Kuwait I did learn some Arabic but it was difficult to practice as everyone I met while out and about wanted to speak English though the market stall holders were lovely when I asked for my f + v in Arabic and taught me the names of everything. I could read the Arabic alphabet and managed to read quite a lot of things but I didn't always have the vocab to understand it. I was told while on holiday in Tunisia that I spoke 'high' Arabic, by that they meant as it is in the Quran. Again I have lost most of it now. I do love to listen to other languages and the seats in front of me at the footy are sold through a travel agency, pre covid, and the person I sit next to and I play guess the language . We do quite well but basque had us stumped . Portuguese is a very interesting language as it often has words that are spelt like Spanish and have the same meaning but are pronounced completely differently. The first time I heard it spoken in Portugal I thought it was possibly Slovakian and I was fascinated. I once spoke to a Russian interpreter who spoke English and Japanese who was obviously a very good linguist who told me English and Japanese were in the same linguistic family. That totally blew my mind. I am not a natural linguist so have no real understanding of what he meant but it was very interesting talking to him.
Take care everyone and happy New year, see you all on the new thread.

PollyWollyDoodle

Thanks for the above - I have always wanted to learn Latin and I started with Duolingo during lockdown, but have really struggled with it. They didn’t seem to explain the rules, and I wasn’t finding it much fun. 

I might try Duolingo with another language - I studied French to degree level but I’ve lost a lot of it now, and I’ve got as far as Italian O-level without actually taking the exam. I’ll investigate Wheelocks for the Latin. 

florianatwobob

@Liverpool_Anne your Arabic reminds me of a conversation I had in Morocco. One of our tour guides was Berber and knew ‘High’ Arabic , ‘Low’ Arabic for day to day conversations, French, Berber and English. He was fascinating to talk to. 

It also reminded me that I have a ‘low’ Welsh accent, apparently I sound like I’m from round Cardiff but it gave me brownie points when I correctly pronounced Taliesin rather than Anglicising it when speaking with a customer. 

maryb

I tried to brush up my Latin this year (ie completely relearn it as I have forgotten it all). But most of the resources out there on the internet are American and use a different declension order from the one we learned in school and I just got too confused.  British schools back in the day used Kennedy’s Latin Primer which uses Nominative, Vocative, Accusative, Genitive, Dative, Ablative.  That much I CAN still remember and it stops me getting on with the American approach 

CAFCGirl

Chiming in to say I was planning on joining the Duolingo brigade this year and then got all excited seeing people on the thread discussing it.

Planning on Spanish and roping my son in too. He'd already started using some Spanish words in conversation just randomly. I studied it at GCSE level but Id not dare having an actual conversation in Spanish as I'd be butchering it! So I've bought him a Spanish workbook and we'll Duo together.

Laura_Elsewhere

I've never got on with Duolingo, but I strongly suspect that's me, as I know lots of folk who are doing well - one friend can now have slow conversations in Scots Gaelic, going from not even one word a year back! 
I did French and Latin at school - Latin for 7 years, French for 6 - and when working in the South of France 15 years ago (! time flies...) I managed fine despite failing everything at school really badly. I'm bad at exams but good at communicating. I was told I spoke "Francais de la rue" - the French of the street, I think only a bit up from pidgin But they did tell me before I left that when I arrived I spoke French like an Englishwoman (ie dreadfully) but now, ah now I speak French like a a Scotswoman (the Auld Alliance is very strong in those parts!) which still makes me smile... 
I wouldn't pass exams, but I can read a newspaper and communicate if I need to. For several years afterwards I had the advantage of going to international conferences where often I was the only native English-speaker so I would seek out groups where the common language was French and after a few minutes my brain would click over and I'd be fine. I only worked in France for 3 months but I was dreaming in French by the 6-week point and on occasion when asked the better way to say something in English, is it this way or that way, I genuinely wouldn't know because I hadn't thought in English for so long. And that was with spending all evening chatting online to friends on message-boards and forums in English! 

I would like to teach myself Russian; also, I have just bought myself a small Latin dictionary as I've forgotten so much that even the average church defeats me now. 

I don't tend to use this period for annual reflections - I try to use Advent as it used to be, four weeks of reflection like Lent. But also, I don't exactly make New Year Resolutions because they always feel to me like just setting up another way I can fail... I think of things I'd like to do/be/make, yes, but I do that year-round, not just at this time of year  

CAFCGirl

Much the same @Laura_Elsewhere

I like to reflect on what I could do/might do/want to do in the coming year but I don't want to be in the mindset of 1 hours exercise per day, 1 hours reading, switch off tech by 8pm everyday, only homemade meals from 1st Jan onwards. Setting myself up for failure by day 2 etc...

I think however the drive to believe in something changing this coming year is so strong, as we go into what, year 3 (?!) of the C***d Chaos. I think for many we just want to feel like something could be different, ourselves included, or that we cant control pandemic life but we can control what we do in this life.... even if its something small like Duolingo once a day   

Cherryfudge

Proper reply to you all in a bit but I've started thread. If you'd like to join in, please do! I don't know what the etiquette of these things is but personally I'm fine with people just reposting what they've put here so long as it makes sense out of context.

Language-learners' chat — MoneySavingExpert Forum

PS Apologies for taking over this thread somewhat! Hence the move elsewhere.

Cherryfudge

florianatwobob said:

@Cherryfudge it does sound like an interesting story. Hopefully your mum will reveal all someday. 

Although born and bred in the south (northern Home Counties ) my dad was Cumbrian whilst my mum was from Surrey. As a result I have a habit of picking up the rhythms of speech (more than the accent). I’m also left with a colourful mishmash of dialect words and naval slang from Dad. 😉

Sadly Mum is no longer with us but I have a feeling she wouldn't tell the whole story: she had a way of dropping in enough information to tell the tale without letting on the things she wanted to keep to herself. I do have her diaries though, and they make amazing reading... again, without certain details that she didn't even confide there.

Cherryfudge

Liverpool_Anne said:

When I lived in Kuwait I did learn some Arabic but it was difficult to practice as everyone I met while out and about wanted to speak English though the market stall holders were lovely when I asked for my f + v in Arabic and taught me the names of everything. I could read the Arabic alphabet and managed to read quite a lot of things but I didn't always have the vocab to understand it. I was told while on holiday in Tunisia that I spoke 'high' Arabic, by that they meant as it is in the Quran. 

My Dad spoke Egyptian Arabic as he lived in Egypt during the war. I remember him telling me he had tried to talk to someone from Saudi Arabia but they had to use French as the two versions of Arabic were disparate. All I can say in Arabic now is 'Buckra, fi'el mish-mish' ('tomorrow, when the apricots come') (i.e. I'll get round to it some time). About sums up my progress in the language, doesn't it?  

@PollyWollyDoodle, @maryb, I struggled with Duolingo's Latin. I needed more explanation, but I remember being totally and utterly confused with the 'genitive, dative, ablative' teaching from school. I struggle with grammar terms in English as well despite a Grammar School education: it just doesn't seem to fit with the way I learn. I need to make friends with some Romans, obviously.

florianatwobob said:

It also reminded me that I have a ‘low’ Welsh accent, apparently I sound like I’m from round Cardiff but it gave me brownie points when I correctly pronounced Taliesin rather than Anglicising it when speaking with a customer. 

Ooh, I can do that one! Only because I read the book, which explains it. Mind you, I only think I can pronounce it, no one has ever had the chance to check.

maryb said:

I tried to brush up my Latin this year (ie completely relearn it as I have forgotten it all). But most of the resources out there on the internet are American 

I find this a stumbling block with Duolingo French: having to remember that football and soccer are what we call American Football and Football, then in French you have le football. Les toilettes are 'the restroom' so mentally I skip straight to English when I see 'les toilettes' just as I do with 'le milkshake' (why does Duolingo have such an obsession with milkshakes?) or 'le weekend'. I also get confused with words like 'awesome' - how am I supposed to know whether in the minds of Duolingo writes that equates to 'great' or 'super', as I'd say in my English English? Then I have to translate again to 'super' (soopair) or genial (zhenayal)... so I often get it wrong.