Can you speak a foreign language?

[Freedom for Tooting]

Non. C'est un travial pour la femme monsieur pervo.

Not a Python fan then?

 

[MK Shrimper]

Not a Python fan then?

I am most definitely, but don't remember that.

 

[Freedom for Tooting]

I am most definitely, but don't remember that.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_Hungarian_Phrasebook

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...02FE3283383C9FA74A0702FE3283383C9FA&FORM=VIRE

Enjoy

 

[GBJ]

This might seem somewhat odd, but I’d hope that my credentials on this forum go some way to disproving the idea that I’m a snowflake in any way, shape or form...

...However, I am going to go dangerously close to the edge of snowflakery here.

Anyone else feel a bit uncomfortable using certain foreign words?

The word ‘Black’ in Spanish, is literally negro. So when describing a black cat, you would say un gato negro. Or for a black dress - not my standard attire - you would say un vestido negro.

I guess it’s years of conditioning, that my subconscious is telling me that that word is, at best, risqué. Of course, to the Spanish, it’s just a word. But nevertheless, I can’t help but feel a bit out of place, when/if using it in conversation.

@Tangled up in Blue @manor15 as padrons, I’m looking at you’s here for some clarity, and how you’s adapted to it.

 

[MK Shrimper]

This might seem somewhat odd, but I’d hope that my credentials on this forum go some way to disproving the idea that I’m a snowflake in any way, shape or form...

...However, I am going to go dangerously close to the edge of snowflakery here.

Anyone else feel a bit uncomfortable using certain foreign words?

The word ‘Black’ in Spanish, is literally negro. So when describing a black cat, you would say un gato negro. Or for a black dress - not my standard attire - you would say un vestido negro.

I guess it’s years of conditioning, that my subconscious is telling me that that word is, at best, risqué. Of course, to the Spanish, it’s just a word. But nevertheless, I can’t help but feel a bit out of place, when/if using it in conversation.

@Tangled up in Blue @manor15 as padrons, I’m looking at you’s here for some clarity, and how you’s adapted to it.

I imagine if you're using the word in Spanish it's fine...isn't it pronouned Neg-ro rather than the racist nee-gro. What is a black man in Spanish (Il hombre negro?).

https://www.spanishdict.com/answers...erson-in-spanish-please-help-project-due-soon

Normally we are referred to as moreno/a.

 

[manor15]

It can be uncomfortable, more because of the culture of how they refer to people etc. here, where it’s more direct to say the black person, the Chinese person, etc. whereas in the UK you'd be more PC.

There are certainly comments made here that would shock British people but here it’s as if nothing happened, but that’s the cultural difference where there’s no offence implied and none taken but there’s less sensitivity to it. Not to say there isn’t racism, but you could easily overestimate how much there is based on a typical Spaniard’s jokes/comments.

As MK says, negro is pronounced neg-ro so it isn’t quite the same, but again it depends on the context. I wouldn’t feel as comfortable using it on a tube train in London as I would at a bar in Spain, for example.

The more you use it the less you think of those meanings and as it becomes more natural to speak in that language you kind of flick the switch from English to Spanish and all of those subconscious thoughts switch off really. If you’re thinking about English meanings when speaking Spanish there’s a lot going on at once, but that just comes with practice and time.

 

[GBJ]

What is a black man in Spanish

Sounds like the start of a racist joke, but I’ll wait to hear the punchline before I pass judgement....

 

[MK Shrimper]

Sounds like the start of a racist joke, but I’ll wait to hear the punchline before I pass judgement....

Lol, I did think of that myself but we're all educated, erudite members of the world here, non?

 

[GBJ]

It can be uncomfortable, more because of the culture of how they refer to people etc. here, where it’s more direct to say the black person, the Chinese person, etc. whereas in the UK you'd be more PC.

There are certainly comments made here that would shock British people but here it’s as if nothing happened, but that’s the cultural difference where there’s no offence implied and none taken but there’s less sensitivity to it. Not to say there isn’t racism, but you could easily overestimate how much there is based on a typical Spaniard’s jokes/comments.

As MK says, negro is pronounced neg-ro so it isn’t quite the same, but again it depends on the context. I wouldn’t feel as comfortable using it on a tube train in London as I would at a bar in Spain, for example.

The more you use it the less you think of those meanings and as it becomes more natural to speak in that language you kind of flick the switch from English to Spanish and all of those subconscious thoughts switch off really. If you’re thinking about English meanings when speaking Spanish there’s a lot going on at once, but that just comes with practice and time.

Yeah you’re not wrong with their colourful use of adjectives, most of which wouldn’t fly over here.

I guess, like you say, in the right context it’s obviously pretty innocuous, but that wouldn’t stop me feeling uncomfortable if I were talking to - for example - a black shop assistant about needing a pair of black shoes.

Cultures eh, who would have thought they’d be so different?

 

[GBJ]

Lol, I did think of that myself but we're all educated, erudite members of the world here, non?

Si.

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

This might seem somewhat odd, but I’d hope that my credentials on this forum go some way to disproving the idea that I’m a snowflake in any way, shape or form...

...However, I am going to go dangerously close to the edge of snowflakery here.

Anyone else feel a bit uncomfortable using certain foreign words?

The word ‘Black’ in Spanish, is literally negro. So when describing a black cat, you would say un gato negro. Or for a black dress - not my standard attire - you would say un vestido negro.

I guess it’s years of conditioning, that my subconscious is telling me that that word is, at best, risqué. Of course, to the Spanish, it’s just a word. But nevertheless, I can’t help but feel a bit out of place, when/if using it in conversation.

@Tangled up in Blue @manor15 as padrons, I’m looking at you’s here for some clarity, and how you’s adapted to it.

It really depends on the context I think.Last year we were visiting our younger daughter in Colombia. In Medellin, a taxi driver pulled over to ask a young black woman for directions to a museum we were going to."Oyez negra " he said to her.My wife and I were rather shockes as you couldn't possibly say that to a black stranger in Spain.However the taxi driver clearly meant no disrespect and none was taken.Our daughter later confirmed it was a pefectly acceptable form of address in Columbia.It wouldn't be in Spain these days, though you'll certainly hear it used,indirectly.Political correctness I guess.

 

[GBJ]

It really depends on the context I think.Last year we were visiting our younger daughter in Colombia. In Medellin, a taxi driver pulled over to ask a young black woman for directions to a museum we were going to."Oyez negra " he said to her.My wife and I were rather shockes as you couldn't possibly say that to a black stranger in Spain.However the taxi driver clearly meant no disrespect and none was taken.Our daughter later confirmed it was a pefectly acceptable form of address in Columbia.It wouldn't be in Spain these days, though you'll certainly hear it used,indirectly.Political correctness I guess.

And yet, I bet you don’t hear anyone ever say oyez blanco(a)

 

[rigsby]

Yeah you’re not wrong with their colourful use of adjectives, most of which wouldn’t fly over here.

I guess, like you say, in the right context it’s obviously pretty innocuous, but that wouldn’t stop me feeling uncomfortable if I were talking to - for example - a black shop assistant about needing a pair of black shoes.

Cultures eh, who would have thought they’d be so different?

Ask for shoes of colour. Or point at some black shoes and act dumb

 

[Tangled up in Blue]

And yet, I bet you don’t hear anyone ever say oyez blanco(a)

Absolutely not.Though in Spain (though not necessarily in some parts of Colombia), that could well be because whites represent the "norm."

 

[thenobster]

Lived in Spain for a few years, mostly amongst ex pats so Spanish wasn’t a daily necessity, although I could speak it quite well. My wife did point out that the local Spaniards did struggle with me as I was ‘too essex’ when I spoke.

 

[RHB]

Working in East London over the last couple of years, I’ve been taught/picked up a couple of phrases in different Asian dialects.

Needless to say they’re all insults, panchod.

My French is sometimes passable, I can also ask a girl to dance or come to bed and thanks in German but I find that I don't have a need for those phrases nowadays. Thanks to working with a Jewish gentleman for a few years I can say 'Kiss my arse' in Yiddish. Again not much call for that now.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Mon francais et l'amélioration. Merci beaucoup DuoLingo.

J'ai hâte de l'utiliser en vacation.

Au revoir mon amis!


Disclaimer: Ok, a few words were Googled, but I'm getting to a point I think I could have a basic chat avec Jules et Jim.

 

[Napster]

Mon francais et l'amélioration. Merci beaucoup DuoLingo.

J'ai hâte de l'utiliser en vacation.

Au revoir mon amis!


Disclaimer: Ok, a few words were Googled, but I'm getting to a point I think I could have a basic chat avec Jules et Jim.

Hmmm....

 

[MK Shrimper]

Hmmm....

As long as they spoke very slowly..........

 

[Ex-Member1]

Lived in Cyprus for 10 years in the 1990s, small village with few English speakers. Learned a passable standard of Greek. Yia Sou!