2021 Fashion On The Ration Challenge

Laura_Elsewhere

@florianatwobob and @Cherryfudge - I'm now really intrigued. How else is Taliesin pronounced? I've never heard anything other than tally-EH-ssin, or something approximating that... 
The very first time I spoke Welsh outside the classroom I went to the pub with Welsh-speaking friends, and they coached me all through my first pint and I went nervously up to the bar, and quavered out my order in Welsh, to which the barmaid replied, IN ENGLISH, "ocht, whit bit of Scotland're you from? Ah'm frae Aiberdeen!" 

Apparently I speak Welsh with a distinct Scots accent - which I don't have in English! Normally I sound like a cross between Sandi Toksvig and Penelope Keith... but when I speak Welsh, out comes a Scots accent from somewhere!  

Cherryfudge

Laura_Elsewhere said:

I've never got on with Duolingo, but I strongly suspect that's me, as I know lots of folk who are doing well

I thin it's a 'horses for courses' sort of thing. My French teacher at school was supposed to be be good but I was absolutely terrified of her to the extent that when I found an old exercise book with her writing a few years ago, I went cold. She just wasn't the right teacher for me. However, she instilled a few phrases (Ou est mon mouchoir' and 'Tirez les rideaux', yes I use them often ). ('Where is my hanky' and 'Draw the curtains'). Sorry about the lack of accents by the way, I can't do them unless I'm on my phone.

Like you, I can read French. I had the odd experience of reading art gallery explanations to my husband from the French and not understanding the English so he had to explain to me what I'd said. 

I've heard elsewhere that six weeks is somehow a turning point when you are immersed in a language and after that it gets better.

Cherryfudge

Laura_Elsewhere said:

@florianatwobob and @Cherryfudge - I'm now really intrigued. How else is Taliesin pronounced? I've never heard anything other than tally-EH-ssin, or something approximating that... 

I thought 'tally ay sin', but I may be wrong.  

Laura_Elsewhere said:

The very first time I spoke Welsh outside the classroom I went to the pub with Welsh-speaking friends, and they coached me all through my first pint and I went nervously up to the bar, and quavered out my order in Welsh, to which the barmaid replied, IN ENGLISH, "ocht, whit bit of Scotland're you from? Ah'm frae Aiberdeen!" 

That's hilarious! I know someone from Aberdeen who thinks the English pronunciation of 'khaki' is very funny so I wish I had your ability to spell it out.

Liverpool_Anne

@Laura_Elsewhere and CAFGirl, I gave up new year resolutions years ago because I failed miserably every year. I also reflect all the time, along the lines of that worked so I'll do that again or that didn't so next time I'll do it differently. After years of teaching and having my time ruled by the clock I got to the point that I no longer wear a watch and avoid targets, SMART or otherwise. They can be very limiting.
Take care everyone

florianatwobob

@Cherryfudge my very limited Arabic isn’t repeatable in polite company. Dad was with the Royal Navy in Egypt…….

I made a elderly Welsh chaps day when I pronounced it properly. He’d just passed his security questions and then dared me to try pronouncing it. The phonetic spelling is more like Tal-ee-es-in

PipneyJane

Laura_Elsewhere said:

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  

I would love to get to that point, @Laura_Elsewhere, dreaming and thinking in French while in France.  Sadly, my brain hears "foreign language" and clicks into German.    Hopefully, I'll get there eventually.

- Pip


PS:  I've joined @Cherryfudge's Language Learners thread.

florianatwobob

@Laura_Elsewhere the anglicised version I was taught originally was Tal-is-in

PipneyJane

Cherryfudge said:

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.

Don't apologise.  I'm really enjoying reading about other people's experiences with languages.  It's why we're one of the busiest threads in the forum - we chat about virtually anything.  (Incidentally, we made it into the Forum Retrospective because we are so chatty)

If anyone wants accountability for things other than their coupons, I've started a New Year's Resolutions thread.

- Pip

Laura_Elsewhere

The nice thing about our being chatty and friendly, though, is that it stays friendly and nice... I've been in a number of groups where people can't tell the difference between "my opinion is..." and "this IS how it is and if you disagree then you are Wrong and I am Right and you are Stupid and I am perfect"...!  

I think, were we to meet in real life, it would be pretty familiar. I think we're none of us putting on some fancy show of perfection or claiming to be other than we are... which is lovely!  

Cherryfudge

PipneyJane said:
we made it into the Forum Retrospective because we are so chatty)

Oh wow! We are cool!

If anyone wants accountability for things other than their coupons, I've started a New Year's Resolutions thread.

- Pip

Great idea - I'll pop on over there thanks! And @Liverpool_Anne, I think the trick may be to resolve to try to do some of something or 'improve' and not set targets. That way, one day's work and you're a winner!