The OH-SO FASCINATING ancestry or ethnicity thread.

[Raine]

Originally Posted by right-track

We have Polish workers at my works...one girl try's to teach me Polish words.
Simple stuff like "hello, good morning" etc, but I cant get my tongue around the pronunciation. It's well tricky.

polish sounds easier than english but the accent is kinda strange. I've tired speaking it but. . . my friend then doesn't understand me.
Kinda like how I tried to teach her japanese.

[littleknowitall]

Originally Posted by right-track

We have Polish workers at my works...one girl try's to teach me Polish words.
Simple stuff like "hello, good morning" etc, but I cant get my tongue around the pronunciation. It's well tricky.

I tried teaching crowquill to pronounce the fuller version of llanfairPG once, that was a rather interesting experience :S
And isn't japanese like, impossible to learn?

[sleepy jack]

Originally Posted by moley

I tried teaching crowquill to pronounce the fuller version of llanfairPG once, that was a rather interesting experience :S

>.>
I got that one bit right! You said it was good for a first try..

[littleknowitall]

It was until you gave up half way through and said 'er...does that say robin williams in there?' i was just shocked you understood what i meant about how to pronounce the double l, no-one ever gets that right :S.
Gotta give youcredit for that.

[right-track]

Originally Posted by Raine

polish sounds easier than english but the accent is kinda strange. I've tired speaking it but. . . my friend then doesn't understand me.
Kinda like how I tried to teach her japanese.

The only language I have a incling about is Thai. Most words are monosyllable and easy to remember, so long as you get the tone right for the particular word. Thai has 5 tones...low/flat/high/rising and falling. Therefore 1 word can mean 5 different things, depending on the tone.

I spent about 6 months in South East Asia and learned enough to struggle through. Pointless really as their English is quite good.
Made the effort though.

[guitar777]

I've got a little bit of Comanchee and Cherokee blood in me but mostly my acestors came from England.

[Raine]

Originally Posted by right-track

The only language I have a incling about is Thai. Most words are monosyllable and easy to remember, so long as you get the tone right for the particular word. Thai has 5 tones...low/flat/high/rising and falling. Therefore 1 word can mean 5 different things, depending on the tone.

I spent about 6 months in South East Asia and learned enough to struggle through. Pointless really as their English is quite good.
Made the effort though.

Most Asian languages are tonal languages
One of the worst tonal languages is Cantonese (Chinese dialect). half the time it sounds like a bunch of grunts and snorts.

But Thai is a simple language. Compared to japanese or korean. I don't think I have enough room in my brain to learn another language.

[sleepy jack]

Originally Posted by moley

It was until you gave up half way through and said 'er...does that say robin williams in there?' i was just shocked you understood what i meant about how to pronounce the double l, no-one ever gets that right :S.
Gotta give youcredit for that.

I couldn't get that, it was crazeh! & it really did look like it said Robin Williams in there...

[littleknowitall]

it was almost, any dislexic wouldn't have known otherwise....