So it seems my luck hasn't been the best lately - my laptop screen shattered in my carryon bag, so sadly I can't upload the comic I promised. I have a replacement monitor when I get home, but its days as a laptop are over. At least it's lasted this long!
So instead you'll have to humour me by reading yet another odd story from my recent travels.
Do you think you can generally predict a persons next "line" when you're in a routine situation? I arrived in Finland a few days ago for my last trip within Europe, but I speak not a word of Finnish. I went to the grocery store to buy food to eat at my hostel, pulling out a €20 note to pay for 12.10 in groceries. At this point the cashier asks me something, I dig in my pocket and shake my head.
So take your best guess! If this were you, what would you assume he asked? I'll leave my answer in the comments, I can only guess that it's the right one, but who knows!
Showing posts with label tasha. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tasha. Show all posts
14 May 2009
07 May 2009
Storytime!
No comic this week - I wrote one, but I decided to save it for next week since I'll be in Finland, and probably not too keen on writing one! So instead, you get a recent story that I just couldn't figure out how to turn into a comic, and a look into my other nerdy side...
Yesterday the new Star Trek movie came out in cinemas here in France. I love having bragging rights (haha, I got to see it two days before you all!) so of course I went to the first showing of the day. This is France, however, so that means the movie was dubbed into French.
Now my French is good enough by now that I have no trouble following a movie in French. I don't mind it too much, especially if I haven't yet seen the movie in English (that way I don't get nitpicky about the voice actors). Still, there are certain things I find horribly amusing, and this particular instance has to do with a certain character in the movie - this isn't really a spoiler in case you worry about those things. Now as you may or may not be aware, there is a character named Chekov, a Russian ensign that in the original series was known for his crediting all inventions to Russia, and of course his odd pronounciation of certain words.
And I was both amused and pleased to hear this preserved in French!
Yes, that's right, a stereotypical Russian accent perfectly preserved in French. I always wonder how different accents come through in certain languages, because often I can't hear it myself excepting in English. I've been told that I speak Italian with a French accent and Korean with a Japanese one, but honestly I can't hear that, and just attribute it to having studied the similar language first. But to hear this! It was all I could do to keep from bursting out laughing in the theatre.
I'm just disappointed they didn't seem to do the same for Scotty. But then I'm told French people can't really distinguish between anglophone accents anyway - it's why they all assume I'm English!
Yesterday the new Star Trek movie came out in cinemas here in France. I love having bragging rights (haha, I got to see it two days before you all!) so of course I went to the first showing of the day. This is France, however, so that means the movie was dubbed into French.
Now my French is good enough by now that I have no trouble following a movie in French. I don't mind it too much, especially if I haven't yet seen the movie in English (that way I don't get nitpicky about the voice actors). Still, there are certain things I find horribly amusing, and this particular instance has to do with a certain character in the movie - this isn't really a spoiler in case you worry about those things. Now as you may or may not be aware, there is a character named Chekov, a Russian ensign that in the original series was known for his crediting all inventions to Russia, and of course his odd pronounciation of certain words.
And I was both amused and pleased to hear this preserved in French!
Yes, that's right, a stereotypical Russian accent perfectly preserved in French. I always wonder how different accents come through in certain languages, because often I can't hear it myself excepting in English. I've been told that I speak Italian with a French accent and Korean with a Japanese one, but honestly I can't hear that, and just attribute it to having studied the similar language first. But to hear this! It was all I could do to keep from bursting out laughing in the theatre.
I'm just disappointed they didn't seem to do the same for Scotty. But then I'm told French people can't really distinguish between anglophone accents anyway - it's why they all assume I'm English!
30 April 2009
Comic #5: Nuances
Sorry for using a bit of a "rerun" - this is from my original comic and due to and uncooperative computer I'm repurposing it for language use.
In Korean there is a word hyuji which literally means "rest". You can add suffixes to make new words, such as hyujishil, a room where one rests, and hyujiso, a rest area (as in one off the highway). However, as I found out, it's important not to confuse hyujishil with hwajangshil, which is where you'll actually find the toilets.
And yes, they sell waffles at rest areas in Korea. I don't know why.
23 April 2009
Comic #4: Style
Do you generally associate a language with a style of dress? I've never thought about it that way, but when I had this girl approach me certain I spoke English because of what I was wearing, I was a bit shocked, to say the least. The shocking part of course, she then couldn't identify the country (England? Canada? Australia?), but seemed to assume only an anglophone girl would be wearing jean shorts and a rugby shirt that says "Ireland".
Do you generally look at a way someone is dressed and say "oh, he must speak Italian" or something similar? Does a common language really imply a common culture? Or is it just for anglophones? It does have me wondering.
02 April 2009
A quick anecdote!
First of all, I apologize for not posting a comic last week - I had a nasty cold. That and homework means no comic this week, and two weeks of spring break wandering through Europe means I'm putting my weekly post on hiatus until late April - I know, I just started this thing! What am I thinking? I hope to come back with plenty of fresh ideas to amuse you with.
Now it's story time...
I know I've mentioned in my comic how often my accent is misconstrued - I blame it on living so many places that I'm not sure how I'm supposed to sound anymore. Even talking with other Americans I'm told I sound Canadian. I don't mind, I'm even considering going there for grad school. So I've gotten to the point where I go somewhere with English speakers and expect it.
So what do I most definitely not expect? Well, that would be the things that a cold apparently does to my voice. I was slightly sick two weekends ago when I went to Edinburgh - wasn't about to cancel the tickets! So whilst wandering about the city, I stopped in a coffee shop to kill time and warm up, ordering my black coffee and chatting with the barista as he pours it.
"So, what brings you here from Australia?"
By the by, I may still be updating my travel blog so feel free to check it out.
Now it's story time...
I know I've mentioned in my comic how often my accent is misconstrued - I blame it on living so many places that I'm not sure how I'm supposed to sound anymore. Even talking with other Americans I'm told I sound Canadian. I don't mind, I'm even considering going there for grad school. So I've gotten to the point where I go somewhere with English speakers and expect it.
So what do I most definitely not expect? Well, that would be the things that a cold apparently does to my voice. I was slightly sick two weekends ago when I went to Edinburgh - wasn't about to cancel the tickets! So whilst wandering about the city, I stopped in a coffee shop to kill time and warm up, ordering my black coffee and chatting with the barista as he pours it.
"So, what brings you here from Australia?"
By the by, I may still be updating my travel blog so feel free to check it out.
19 March 2009
Comic #3: Improvising
Click to enlarge:
I'm lucky enough to have studied so many languages, that some that I haven't make sense to me sometimes. Meaning I was able to read street signs in Portugal, order food in Catalonia, and so on. Sometimes the languages I have studied are the ones that give me a bigger problem - I know I only had a semester of Italian for example, but for some reason I would get mad when my horrible accent would make people switch into English for me. It's not like I could properly speak in Italian anyway! Still, what was even more fun was people coming up to me and asking for directions or some such - I would know what they were asking, but either not know the answer or not know how to say it. A little embarrassing! I guess when you travel alone people are going to mistake you for a native - it's much more likely for someone who knows the city to be wandering it alone without a map.
I'm lucky enough to have studied so many languages, that some that I haven't make sense to me sometimes. Meaning I was able to read street signs in Portugal, order food in Catalonia, and so on. Sometimes the languages I have studied are the ones that give me a bigger problem - I know I only had a semester of Italian for example, but for some reason I would get mad when my horrible accent would make people switch into English for me. It's not like I could properly speak in Italian anyway! Still, what was even more fun was people coming up to me and asking for directions or some such - I would know what they were asking, but either not know the answer or not know how to say it. A little embarrassing! I guess when you travel alone people are going to mistake you for a native - it's much more likely for someone who knows the city to be wandering it alone without a map.
12 March 2009
Comic #2: Barcelona
Click to make it larger:
This has a little backstory to it: I tend to travel alone and without many plans, so when I was in Barcelona and noticed some lost Japanese tourists trying in vain to understand what a man was trying to say to them in Catalan, I used my rusty Japanese skills to try to help, since I understood mostly what he was trying to say (about the cable car being closed). They were just so shocked that I spoke Japanese and grateful for my help that I ended up staying with them most of the day and really speaking only Japanese - except when we ordered food. I certainly never thought my Asian language skills would be useful in Europe, but I guess that's what makes languages worth learning - they can help you meet people and go places you never would otherwise.
This has a little backstory to it: I tend to travel alone and without many plans, so when I was in Barcelona and noticed some lost Japanese tourists trying in vain to understand what a man was trying to say to them in Catalan, I used my rusty Japanese skills to try to help, since I understood mostly what he was trying to say (about the cable car being closed). They were just so shocked that I spoke Japanese and grateful for my help that I ended up staying with them most of the day and really speaking only Japanese - except when we ordered food. I certainly never thought my Asian language skills would be useful in Europe, but I guess that's what makes languages worth learning - they can help you meet people and go places you never would otherwise.
10 March 2009
Why hello there!
Bonjour, 你們好, こんにちは, 안녕 하세요, Hola, Buon giorno, Dia dhaoibh, Guten Tag, etc...
I'm Tasha, known also as seoulless. I've long considered myself a language nerd in the foreign language sense; every one I wrote in above I have taken at least an intro course in... I just wish I had time to be good at all of them! Even so, knowing just a little bit helps, and that's what I intend to show. I wrote the comic posted here last week, and I hope everyone enjoyed it, because I'm going to try posting one weekly or at least bi-weekly, as well as other anecdotes about my linguistical adventures in Europe. I'm keeping a travel blog as well, but sometimes the interesting bits about language aren't always a good fit there.
Basically I'm a college student with fleeting interest in various languages and the wanderlust to go with it all. I spent half a year in Fukui, Japan as an exchange student in high school, 6 months doing two very different programmes in Suwon and Seoul, South Korea summer and fall 2007, and this spring semester I'm studying abroad again in Montpellier, France. This time I have free weekends, and am trying to see as much of Europe as possible, but since I don't speak every language here, it's the mix that sort of falls out of my brain that makes it all interesting!
At least, I hope I'm not the only one who finds it interesting.
I'm Tasha, known also as seoulless. I've long considered myself a language nerd in the foreign language sense; every one I wrote in above I have taken at least an intro course in... I just wish I had time to be good at all of them! Even so, knowing just a little bit helps, and that's what I intend to show. I wrote the comic posted here last week, and I hope everyone enjoyed it, because I'm going to try posting one weekly or at least bi-weekly, as well as other anecdotes about my linguistical adventures in Europe. I'm keeping a travel blog as well, but sometimes the interesting bits about language aren't always a good fit there.
Basically I'm a college student with fleeting interest in various languages and the wanderlust to go with it all. I spent half a year in Fukui, Japan as an exchange student in high school, 6 months doing two very different programmes in Suwon and Seoul, South Korea summer and fall 2007, and this spring semester I'm studying abroad again in Montpellier, France. This time I have free weekends, and am trying to see as much of Europe as possible, but since I don't speak every language here, it's the mix that sort of falls out of my brain that makes it all interesting!
At least, I hope I'm not the only one who finds it interesting.
03 March 2009
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