Language Skills while voyaging

[owly]

True story: When I was in my early teens (late '60's), I briefly decided I wanted to learn French..... I'm not sure why.... I took a short class in French at OMSI.... a few days a week through the summer, but of course didn't get very far. I expressed my frustration to my mother, and she told me that the best way to learn a foreign language was in bed..... "sleep learning?"..... No! she meant find a French girlfriend. What kind of mother says something like that to her teenage son? ;-) She of course denies ever having given me that advice. I never found a French girlfriend, but it was not long and I was learning the Language of Love... the international Lingua Franka. ;-)

[owly]

Originally Posted by EngineerRetired

Have you folks tried pocket talk? Pretty amazing at phrase translation. (not just words) Play it back and hear how it should sound. Really good when you need to make yourself understood or trying to understand someone. https://www.pocketalk.com/

Neat........ something that doesn't require a smartphone!

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by Don C L

Yeah and if you are embarrassed about your Spanish skills, just tell the folks, sorry, you're "embarazada."

ok, that's a joke, best not to say that... unless you really are pregnant...

lol one of my first phrases in Mandarin was (I thought) "I'm full" (ie I can't eat any more) but it was slang for "I'm pregnant".

Then I mixed up the minute differences between "see" and "f*ck" when I said I wanted to go "see" the fireworks.

Hilarity ensued.

[double u]

Ve hafe vays making you appreciate German...!

[dannc]

TV programs, especially those aimed at teaching languages to children, work too. I know people who learned English by watching Sesame Street and similar programs along with other TV programs.

But it does not have to be kids shows. Years ago we spent a couple of weeks on the boat and we were watching South Korean TV shows. The ones we watched were quite good and we actually continued to watch and rewatched on show when we returned home.

The shows were in Korean of course but subtitled. We would watch an hour or two of the show each day.

One day we were docked and I was doing boat chores when I caught myself jibber jabbering to myself in "Korean." I was doing what a baby does when learning a language. Kinda interesting that my brain was wiring/programming itself from watching South Korean Soap Operas.

Later,
Dan

[owly]

Originally Posted by dannc

TV programs, especially those aimed at teaching languages to children, work too. I know people who learned English by watching Sesame Street and similar programs along with other TV programs.

But it does not have to be kids shows. Years ago we spent a couple of weeks on the boat and we were watching South Korean TV shows. The ones we watched were quite good and we actually continued to watch and rewatched on show when we returned home.

The shows were in Korean of course but subtitled. We would watch an hour or two of the show each day.

One day we were docked and I was doing boat chores when I caught myself jibber jabbering to myself in "Korean." I was doing what a baby does when learning a language. Kinda interesting that my brain was wiring/programming itself from watching South Korean Soap Operas.

Later,
Dan

I've always enjoyed subtitled foreign language films, and disliked dubbed language films. It always seems so much more real when in the original language, and I soon find that I'm not even aware of reading the subtitles after awhile..... I'm listening to the dialogue and imagining that I'm understanding it. I wonder how long it would take before you don't even subconsciously read?

[TeddyDiver]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Creole is not a very precise term, for describing a language.

For instance; Creole languages include varieties that are based on French, such as Haitian Creole, Louisiana Creole, and Mauritian Creole;
English, such as Gullah (on the Sea Islands of the southeastern United States), Jamaican Creole, Guyanese Creole, and Hawaiian Creole;
and Portuguese, such as Papiamentu (in Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao) and Cape Verdean;
and some have bases in multiple European languages, such as two creoles found in Suriname, Saramacca (based on English and heavily influenced by Portuguese)
and Sranan (based on English and heavily influenced by Dutch). Papiamentu is thought to have also been heavily influenced by Spanish.

List of creole languages ➥ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_creole_languages

IMHO Papiamento resembles most Catalan..

[Cpt Mark]

In college I had a job as an aide to a high school English teacher. Her classes were a mix of problem aka delinquent kids, slow kids and foreign kids. We would get 2 or 3 new foreign kids from time to time and my job was to just talk to them. Conversational and get them learning English. Some of the kids knew English some knew zero. All of them I sent home with a note. "This child is required to watch 2-3 hours of American TV of their choice per day". The Dad's were all high tech execs in Silicon Valley and I met most of them with that note in hand. The teacher had found the fastest way for these kids to learn English and English as we speak it was letting them watch TV. In 3 months most of these kids were conversational and within 4 months not only conversational but had the slang down pat.

[dannc]

Originally Posted by owly

I've always enjoyed subtitled foreign language films, and disliked dubbed language films. It always seems so much more real when in the original language, and I soon find that I'm not even aware of reading the subtitles after awhile..... I'm listening to the dialogue and imagining that I'm understanding it. I wonder how long it would take before you don't even subconsciously read?

For us, it took less than two weeks before we could start understanding SOME of the language. I was starting to be able to parse the language and understand a bit here and there. Twas really remarkable.

Yeah, I hate dubbing, just subtitle what is being said.

We watch a fair amount of British and Irish TV and we have to turn on the subtitles for the wife to understand what is being said...

Our last trip to Ireland we had no real problem understanding people, until one day we were on a bus in Dublin, and a group in front of us were talking. I could barely understand them, which was partly because of the noise of the bus, but they really had a different accent that was throwing me off.

I used to work with a guy from Liverpool, UK. Took a month or so for me to understand a word he was saying. He supposedly was speaking English.

Later,
Dan

[wiekeith]

I've got no idea if this is going to work - linking to Youtube that is - but here goes. https://youtu.be/-V2MfBoBiyw

[dannc]

Originally Posted by Cpt Mark

... Some of the kids knew English some knew zero. All of them I sent home with a note. "This child is required to watch 2-3 hours of American TV of their choice per day". The Dad's were all high tech execs in Silicon Valley and I met most of them with that note in hand. The teacher had found the fastest way for these kids to learn English and English as we speak it was letting them watch TV. In 3 months most of these kids were conversational and within 4 months not only conversational but had the slang down pat.

I read more non US "newspapers" the US ones, including some in Asia. Because of the Asian papers and watching South Korean TV shows, I knew a bit about South Korean teenage culture and K-Pop. Fascinating subject it is.

I work with someone from Taiwan and we were discussing Taiwan and somehow I said something about K-Pop. She was shocked I had ever heard of K-Pop, much less knew what it was.

Flip side of this, is that when we were in China and watching TV, we would see young people mimicking American subculture which they had to pick from various media. Really odd seeing young people in China throwing US gang signs... I wonder if this is still allowed today...

Later,
Dan

[bobnlesley]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Nice point, music is a language, too. Also, harmonica and concertina are nice ship worthy instruments. But really, whatever you like to play, bring it along...

Over the years I've shipped a Nepalese flute, an Irish whistle, two harmonicas and for a short while at the beginning, a guitar; I could've been a maestro by now had Lesley not given them all away - the guitar and second mouth organ went without her even telling me.

[atoll]

Originally Posted by GordMay

Creole is not a very precise term, for describing a language.

For instance; Creole languages include varieties that are based on French, such as Haitian Creole, Louisiana Creole, and Mauritian Creole;
English, such as Gullah (on the Sea Islands of the southeastern United States), Jamaican Creole, Guyanese Creole, and Hawaiian Creole;
and Portuguese, such as Papiamentu (in Aruba, Bonaire, and Curaçao) and Cape Verdean;
and some have bases in multiple European languages, such as two creoles found in Suriname, Saramacca (based on English and heavily influenced by Portuguese)
and Sranan (based on English and heavily influenced by Dutch). Papiamentu is thought to have also been heavily influenced by Spanish.

List of creole languages ➥ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_creole_languages

Creole languages are living languages,with a lot of slang involved,but being able to speak french and spanish already fairly well, i find picking up a guide to the local patois is very helpful,if only to learn the local names for fish, vegetables and common terms.

A lot of the time mastering the accent is more important than learning the actual dialect when you have a reasonable comprehension of the mother tongue if you want to make yourself understood , impress the boat boys and ladies in the market and get to the next level of immersive travel!

[anacapaisland42]

Don't underrate Latin
Bill

Originally Posted by owly

On long passages, it is not uncommon to go weeks without touching the wheel or adjusting the sails. One couple who were rescued during the famous Queen's Birthday Storm claimed to have never hand steered their boat!!


With the language tools we have available today, this seems like a perfect opportunity to practice foreign languages... I wonder how many cruisers do this.... designate French only days or Spanish only days.... togalog? Thai? How about learning to speak Australian ;-)


I have no foreign language to speak of.... I can understand a bit of German, but that's not particularly useful. I've always enjoyed meeting European young people, and listening to them speak "European"......literally.... between each other, often using words and phrases from English, Spanish, French, and German so interchangeably that you can't pin down a single language.........Esperanto never took off, but they seem to have crafted a universal language of their own.


Interestingly, I find that though I speak no Spanish, I can often pick up something written in Spanish and puzzle it out..... but spoken and written are two different things. I've learned for example that Cuidado Piso Mojado means "careful, somebody's pissed" on the floor....... from shopping at Costco ;-)


................... I think I need to work on my Spanish a bit more ;-)

[radamspse]

Originally Posted by anacapaisland42

Don't underrate Latin
Bill

Ha Ha, the classics!! I studied latin for one to two years wasnt really proficent in it. these days it really is only good for biology and deciphering Mottos!!

But what stayed with me is the ability to swear in Latin!!