Lilly's log - French, Russian, Spanish and Italian

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blaurebell
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Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3235
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and reluctant Spanish

Postby blaurebell » Mon Mar 27, 2017 7:19 pm

jeffers wrote:The problem, of course, is that huevo can also be a quite innocent word, a lot depends on the context (and the listener). I'm reminded of a story my friend told me about his German teacher. He was acting out different animals while describing them in German, and the students were supposed to guess what animal he was. When he said that he had large ears and he swings his "schwanz" back and forth there was quite a gasp from the students, because they all knew the word but none of them knew it also had quite an innocent meaning. It didn't help that the teacher was swinging his hand in front rather than behind! :lol:


:lol: I can just about imagine that scene :lol: Would have caused plenty of giggles among German high school students too :D

As for huevo ... my husband is Argentinian and for him it definitely sounded like a testicle reference in that context. He also said that in Argentinian Spanish any slang with huevo in it is normally negative.

But then to him Spanish from Spain sounds just wrong on so many levels. He pulls a face when people here use the verb "coger" when they talk about picking up their children from somewhere. One of the beaches is called La Concha, which is an Argentinian slang word for female genitalia. The first time we heard that the local film festival award is called "Concha de oro" we almost fell over from all the laughing :lol:

Language learners have of course a whole bunch of opportunities to embarrass themselves with words like that - One of my friends once ordered "polla" in a Spanish restaurant instead of "pollo" :lol: And another friend - a girl - tried to say that she wants a bunny. She meant of course a pet, but well, that's the Spanish female genitalia word and in combination with "yo quiero" not a good word to use ... especially in front of a bunch of 18 yr old boys. :lol:
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and reluctant Spanish

Postby blaurebell » Mon Mar 27, 2017 7:28 pm

Not expecting any Russian to happen today, because I'm sick like a dog. Must have caught the same bug my husband had the other day :cry: He thinks it might have something to do with watching too much continental Spanish TV though, since we watched 2 episodes of Ministerio del tiempo yesterday and I watched 2 episodes of El Internado this morning. "Would make anyone sick" according to him :roll:

Uff ... how to integrate language learning into bad health days is one of those interesting questions. I normally can't concentrate.
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and reluctant Spanish

Postby Tomás » Mon Mar 27, 2017 8:26 pm

Solamente me quieres un huevo? Por que te quiero un pollo entero.
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and reluctant Spanish

Postby tomgosse » Mon Mar 27, 2017 9:31 pm

blaurebell wrote:
jeffers wrote:The problem, of course, is that huevo can also be a quite innocent word, a lot depends on the context (and the listener). I'm reminded of a story my friend told me about his German teacher. He was acting out different animals while describing them in German, and the students were supposed to guess what animal he was. When he said that he had large ears and he swings his "schwanz" back and forth there was quite a gasp from the students, because they all knew the word but none of them knew it also had quite an innocent meaning. It didn't help that the teacher was swinging his hand in front rather than behind! :lol:


:lol: I can just about imagine that scene :lol: Would have caused plenty of giggles among German high school students too :D

As for huevo ... my husband is Argentinian and for him it definitely sounded like a testicle reference in that context. He also said that in Argentinian Spanish any slang with huevo in it is normally negative.

But then to him Spanish from Spain sounds just wrong on so many levels. He pulls a face when people here use the verb "coger" when they talk about picking up their children from somewhere. One of the beaches is called La Concha, which is an Argentinian slang word for female genitalia. The first time we heard that the local film festival award is called "Concha de oro" we almost fell over from all the laughing :lol:

Language learners have of course a whole bunch of opportunities to embarrass themselves with words like that - One of my friends once ordered "polla" in a Spanish restaurant instead of "pollo" :lol: And another friend - a girl - tried to say that she wants a bunny. She meant of course a pet, but well, that's the Spanish female genitalia word and in combination with "yo quiero" not a good word to use ... especially in front of a bunch of 18 yr old boys. :lol:

I lived in Montréal for three years before I found out that my last name, Gosse, was vulgar slang for testicles. :(

In Europe gosse just means a kid. As in un beau gosse, une belle gosse is a good looking kid. In Québec if you asked the parent of boys, « Comment les gosses ?» you would get a strange look. What a fun life.
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and reluctant Spanish

Postby Jar-Ptitsa » Mon Mar 27, 2017 9:35 pm

blaurebell wrote:
vogeltje wrote:Why "reluctant Spanish"? I know that you live in Spain.


Oh, that's fairly straight forward: I like Argentinian Spanish, but due to circumstances that are outside of my control I somehow ended up in Spain. And two thirds of the things I have left to do with my Spanish are now fairly unpleasant things - FSI to get rid of some fossilised mistakes from speaking too early and lots of TV series with Spanish from Spain. I don't particularly like continental Spanish and the series are just so horrifically bad! Can't be avoided though because I'll probably be stuck here for a while longer. :roll: I'm very much looking forward to my full on Argentinian year I've planned for 2018 though. That's going to be fun!


It sounds from your post and log in general that you don't like Spain so much. is it because you live in the Basque Country, and not in a region with better weather or prettier buildings? or maybe you don't like the spanish culture, people etc?

I agree that Argentinian Spanish sounds much nicer :)
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and reluctant Spanish

Postby blaurebell » Mon Mar 27, 2017 9:49 pm

tomgosse wrote:I lived in Montréal for three years before I found out that my last name, Gosse, was vulgar slang for testicles.


Yikes, I'm sorry! If it's any consolation, I always have to spell my name out for everyone, it's so super German. And the only language in which my name doesn't sound completely horrible is German. My favourite is when English folks shout it ... makes me want to scream :roll: I forgave my dad for picking the name since he really couldn't have known that I'd be living in an English speaking country one day - the wall was still up and seemingly eternal when I was born!

Of course last names are even harder to change.
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and reluctant Spanish

Postby blaurebell » Mon Mar 27, 2017 10:16 pm

vogeltje wrote:It sounds from your post and log in general that you don't like Spain so much. is it because you live in the Basque Country, and not in a region with better weather or prettier buildings? or maybe you don't like the spanish culture, people etc?


Well, I kind of stranded here without having much choice in the matter. I think the Basque country is actually the only part of Spain where it's possible to survive the summers. In the rest of the country you get baked pretty thoroughly, I would class it as pretty much uninhabitable. I once visited Madrid in 40°C weather and gusts of hot air hit you when going around street corners. Just like that moment when you open the oven! Both Madrid and Barcelona are great, but I think the summers would be impossible to bear with my health.

I live in a pretty place, beaches, somewhat over the top rich architecture, oodles of tourists. It's great for a visit, but to live, I don't know. Super expensive, cinemas with screens the size of a large towel, hardly any museums, rain rain and more rain in winter, completely overrun by tourists in summer ... I don't know. It's also really difficult to make friends because Basques tend to be somewhat stand-offish with strangers. Perfectly friendly, but not inclusive. Easy to find people to party with, but hard to have a meaningful conversation. It isn't exactly a Siberian labour camp, but over certain periods I get really annoyed with it, usually in winter and in summer. Spring and autumn are actually very nice.

Spanish culture? No idea, the Basque culture is not very Spanish, even though they have some similar traditions. In general I was never much interested in Spanish culture though or even interested in visiting Spain due to the history of Spain. The Basque country is probably right for me in that sense. I was always more of an Italy person. That's probably also why I love Argentina - Argentinians are more Italian than Spanish in their ways.
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Atinkoriko
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and reluctant Spanish

Postby Atinkoriko » Tue Mar 28, 2017 12:19 am

I think I've come up with some sort of solution to your Duolingo problem.

Simply, take a test to skip all the skills. On that test, cheat.

It will unlock the entire tree and then you are at leisure to pick and choose the grammar skills that you really want to do.
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blaurebell
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and reluctant Spanish

Postby blaurebell » Tue Mar 28, 2017 11:21 am

Atinkoriko wrote:Simply, take a test to skip all the skills. On that test, cheat.


To cheat one already has to know at least a bit, so it isn't quite possible. Tried that and failed :D
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Re: Lilly's log - French, Russian and reluctant Spanish

Postby Atinkoriko » Tue Mar 28, 2017 3:30 pm

blaurebell wrote:
Atinkoriko wrote:Simply, take a test to skip all the skills. On that test, cheat.


To cheat one already has to know at least a bit, so it isn't quite possible. Tried that and failed :D


Yeah, just tried it for German and failed although they were very easy. Turns out that Duolingo wants set answers to its phrases and will not tolerate any deviation. So indeed, I was correct but not Duolingo 'The Elephant wants to eat the apple' correct.
The app could certainly be improved
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