Speak other language besides English [Archive]

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rottensushi

08-11-2003, 09:56 PM

Thank God I speak Chinese and English.

One time I was in an elevator with my girlfriend and this white dude was like stalling the elevator so he could load his stuff onto the elevator. When the elevator door finally closed, I got so frustrated that I spoke very loudly to my girlfriend in chinese. The guy knew I was swearing at him, but he couldn't say anything back because he didn't know what I was saying.

I did that a lot. When I get frustrated, I always talk to my gf in Chinese in a way that they know I am swearing at them.

Have you ever done such thing?

tvbdude

08-11-2003, 10:14 PM

yea but I don't remember the incidents.

Faithless

08-11-2003, 10:22 PM

Walkin down the BART stairs one day, I got frustrated with this Chinese lady for walking so friggin slow in a busy crowd.

I told her "fai ti" (or however it was spelled). She looked back and stepped aside. I said I was sorry, smiled, and walked on. I still feel guilty. :frown:

Chris

08-11-2003, 10:26 PM

ahha have freinds that speak more than 3 language and switch back and forth.

You should see the looks on people's faces when I speak cantonese, mandarin, japanese and english. ahhah they can't decipher.

nonamerasian

08-11-2003, 11:18 PM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (rottensushi @ Aug 12 2003, 12:56 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Have you ever done such thing?[/b][/quote]
I don't think I've ever done that--Not even in my multilingual days.

People would try to talk in other languages about people to me, but I'd answer back in English making it obvious that I'm not the type to do that.

I hate blabbing about people behind their backs and I find it equally foul to pusillanimously talk about people in front of their faces, particularly in a language that they cannot comprehend.

If I really want to say something about an annoying person, I have little problem saying it in a language they can understand (Granted I can speak that language, of course.).

AliBabaIncorporated

08-11-2003, 11:26 PM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (rottensushi @ Aug 11 2003, 09:56 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Thank God I speak Chinese and English.

One time I was in an elevator with my girlfriend and this white dude was like stalling the elevator so he could load his stuff onto the elevator. When the elevator door finally closed, I got so frustrated that I spoke very loudly to my girlfriend in chinese. The guy knew I was swearing at him, but he couldn't say anything back because he didn't know what I was saying.

I did that a lot. When I get frustrated, I always talk to my gf in Chinese in a way that they know I am swearing at them.

Have you ever done such thing? [/b][/quote]
People who do this are just asking for trouble. Plenty of foreigners study Chinese these days. And even if you're speaking a more obscure language, you never know when the guy in front of you might have been an Army translator in the Korean or Vietnam War, grew up as the kid of missionaries in rural Taiwan speaking Hokkien, or something random like that.

I'm really fucking sick of hearing dumbasses standing in front of me talking about me in the third person like I can't understand them. Malay, Japanese, Chinese, whatever.

Uncle Tat

08-11-2003, 11:29 PM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (rottensushi @ Aug 11 2003, 11:56 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Thank God I speak Chinese and English.

One time I was in an elevator with my girlfriend and this white dude was like stalling the elevator so he could load his stuff onto the elevator. When the elevator door finally closed, I got so frustrated that I spoke very loudly to my girlfriend in chinese. The guy knew I was swearing at him, but he couldn't say anything back because he didn't know what I was saying.

I did that a lot. When I get frustrated, I always talk to my gf in Chinese in a way that they know I am swearing at them.

Have you ever done such thing? [/b][/quote]
You win the pussy award of the week.

On a side note, a friend of mine was making fun of black people at a McDonald's while at line (in Chinese). I told him to stfu.

Then the black dude in front of us turned around and told him to stfu too (in Cantonese).

OWNED!!!

Emperor_Mike

08-12-2003, 12:34 AM

Complain? Yes. All the time, actually. Cantonese is, like, my default language for complaining in.

Curse? No. Words cannot cause bodily harm like fists and sharp objects. I'm a "hands on" kinda guy.

teaz0r

08-12-2003, 12:58 AM

i'm too nice to say mean things.

moschikat

08-12-2003, 01:13 AM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (teaz0r @ Aug 11 2003, 11:58 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> i'm too nice to say mean things. [/b][/quote]
e-hed sod.

:lol:

koo ruk mung yoo dee lae . . . .

kimpossible

08-12-2003, 09:55 AM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Uncle Tat @ Aug 11 2003, 10:29 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> </div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (rottensushi @ Aug 11 2003, 11:56 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Thank God I speak Chinese and English.

One time I was in an elevator with my girlfriend and this white dude was like stalling the elevator so he could load his stuff onto the elevator. When the elevator door finally closed, I got so frustrated that I spoke very loudly to my girlfriend in chinese. The guy knew I was swearing at him, but he couldn't say anything back because he didn't know what I was saying.

I did that a lot. When I get frustrated, I always talk to my gf in Chinese in a way that they know I am swearing at them.

Have you ever done such thing? [/b][/quote]
You win the pussy award of the week.

On a side note, a friend of mine was making fun of black people at a McDonald's while at line (in Chinese). I told him to stfu.

Then the black dude in front of us turned around and told him to stfu too (in Cantonese).

OWNED!!! [/b][/quote]
That must have been cool. Open mouth, choke on foot. That reminds me of a couple stories of would-be smartasses.

Viet-Am and JA stopped by cop

My friend, JA, was riding along with one of his buddies, Viet-Am, who was driving. White cop stops the Viet-Am driver, Viet-Am driver decides both car occupants are Asian and white cop must not be smart enough to know difference anyhow. Driver starts hammering away at cop in Viet. White cop responds back in Viet.

:lol:

Two Chinese guys on train in Tokyo

Friends of friends of friends. Were riding mass trans and see one girl they think is ugly sitting across from them. They start to trash her looks right in front of her in Mandarin assuming no one can understand them. This happens for a few stops and the girl shows no response to what they say. Then her stop comes. She rips them a new asshole in Mandarin before getting off the train.

Green_Jade

08-12-2003, 10:58 AM

i've been tempted to curse people out few different times in korean/ASL..but never do... I'd feel like I'd be almost 'teaching' people only curse words in those languages. Because.. you can usually tell when someone's cusing in any language.

HH... i've heard those stories. of people pretending/saying things about another person assuming the opposite party doesnt understand..but... muhahha..

moschikat

08-12-2003, 11:02 AM

*Thank you*

A friend of mine was in New York, and he had to go pee, so he went with his dad. An african-american male came in and used the urinal next to him, and being a curious kid, he peered over and said to his dad (in Thai) - "Whoa! They weren't kidding about black guys huh?"

The african-american man, promptly replied in perfect Thai - "Thank you very much."

:rolleyes:

Yeah, it was my friend Dan. Danai Jira . . . what a dorkass.

Chris

08-12-2003, 11:15 AM

Let see.

People assuming I am an ABC who doesnt know any Chinese. Starts bad mouthing me in Mandarin. I just stood there smirking. When I got of I told to STFU and Watch out who can speak Chinese.

Oh funner. Two Japanese tourist were yammering away in Japanese. Bad mouthing all the Chinese people were uncouth yadda yadda.

I proceed to telll them that San Francisco, a lot of Chinese people do speak Japanese and then proceed to translate it to all the people in Chinese what they said and got off. ;)

Baller-ina

08-12-2003, 12:31 PM

I LOVE it when people get caught doing that....it IS chicken. At least be man/woman enought to say it to their face. If you are not, maybe you should not be saying it at all!

I ALWAYS answer the Mexican night shift at Wendy's in French when they speak to me in Spanish....(I hate that! they are at work in America - speak English!!!). They think I can't speak Spanish and laugh at me...even say things about me. I can't be bothered to say anything back.

I am SLOWLY learning Vietnamese....and am a little scared of knowing what people ARE saying...there are alot of mean folks out there!

kimpossible

08-12-2003, 12:38 PM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Baller-ina @ Aug 12 2003, 11:31 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I am SLOWLY learning Vietnamese....and am a little scared of knowing what people ARE saying...there are alot of mean folks out there! [/b][/quote]
Well these are rare instances. For the most part people aren't talking about you just because they're not using English. I have had a couple of instances like AliBaba's where someone is talking about me in third person while I was right there because they think I can't understand Japanese or Mandarin. But it wasn't an insulting conversation, I was frustrated because I'm right there and there's no reason not to talk to me directly.

purezero

08-12-2003, 01:15 PM

Wow. All of these stories are so fascinating. This stuff kind of happens in my family as well. My brother doesn't speak Cantonese very well, so he speaks in English. And when my grandma pisses him off (which is every day, she's just trying to be nice in a really nails-on-a-chalkboard way) he starts screaming out swear words in English. Although she doesn't understand the words themselves, I'm sure that she understands the meaning behind them.

Many of my family members, as well as family friends, think that my brother and I cannot speak any Cantonese at all because we are the only ABCs in the family. So they start speaking in Cantonese about how bad it is we don't understand our own language. And when I respond to them (in Cantonese) they're all surprised. Man, sometimes I want to slap them.

And this one time, I was walking down the street towards the bus stop after work. And this Hispanic guy said, "Hola, la chinita." I was on the phone at the time, so my mind wasn't quite working in translating mode, but once I got to the bus stop and stopped to think about what had happened, I just busted out laughing.

BigLew

08-12-2003, 01:28 PM

I curse in spanish sometimes but I don't think it's the same effect because usually people know what I am saying. From time to time my girl curses at me in Hakka.

Baller-ina

08-12-2003, 01:31 PM

Well these are rare instances. For the most part people aren't talking about you just because they're not using English.

Yeah, yeah, I know. But it has happened to me plenty of times with Spanish speakers...you would think that with so many people in the US knowing SOME Spanish that people would not assume you can't understand them.
I don't assume people are talking about me....ever....it's just when you CAN understand...that sucks.
My boyfriend tells me it happens all the time to him....(he does not look 'typical' for his country)...He just laughs it off....

AliBabaIncorporated

08-12-2003, 02:29 PM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (BigLew @ Aug 12 2003, 01:28 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I curse in spanish sometimes but I don't think it's the same effect because usually people know what I am saying. From time to time my girl curses at me in Hakka. [/b][/quote]
Your girl can curse in Hakka?

There's hope for the younger generation :dance:

BigLew

08-12-2003, 02:40 PM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (AliBabaIncorporated @ Aug 12 2003, 01:29 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Your girl can curse in Hakka?

There's hope for the younger generation :dance: [/b][/quote]
I think it's cursing, she'll only tell me what she said if it was something nice.

YuheiCarreau

08-12-2003, 03:01 PM

When I visited my sister at Georgetown she and her boyfriend came and got me from the airport. Back at her apartment, he and I were chowing down on some Chinese leftovers while she spoke to her friend in Japanese. I listened for a while, but she was just recounting the trip back so I concentrated on the food. At that point her boyfriend, who was a little drunk, turned to me and said "This chicken's gonna make me grow breasts!" (apparently my sister and her roommates had been teasing him about the growth hormones in the chicken before I got there) and started shoveling it into his mouth. I busted out laughing, and my sister and her friend gasped in shock and turned towards me. Apparently they'd been talking about her boyfriend, and they'd both forgotten that I could understand Japanese; I hadn't actually been listening to what they said but I pretended that I had so they'd kiss me ass to keep it a secret from him ;-P.

In the spirit of HH and AliBaba's complaints, the other day I accompanied one of my mother's students and the famous Japanese potter (plus his two kids) who she was hosting on a sightseeing trip around NYC. When they came to pick me up, the woman introduced me as Yuhei, to which the potter responded (in Japanese) "Yuhei? Isn't that a Japanese person's name?". My mother told him that she was married to a Japanese man, and he nodded. Then about 10 minutes later he finally looked at me and said "Huh. He really does have the face of a Japanese" :unsure:.

Later that day I met with a friend and recounted the story to her as we went to meet with her college friend, who was Japanese. My friend introduced me at the door and she said something like, "I know this is rude but what kind of name is Yuhei?", and I told her it was Japanese. "That's what I thought," she said. Then a little later while she was telling my friend a story she stopped in the middle and asked, "so can you speak Japanese? Are you half Japanese? Am I totally crazy?" :rolleyes: Oh well, at least she was nice about it, but since I have that conversation with every single Japanese person I meet, it gets a little tiring...

kimpossible

08-12-2003, 03:03 PM

Yuhei, are you Japanese?

achtungbaby

08-12-2003, 03:16 PM

Moving to Diaspora. It's not exactly the best place for this, but this isn't exactly a rant...

YuheiCarreau

08-12-2003, 03:29 PM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Hello_Hapa @ Aug 12 2003, 06:03 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> Yuhei, are you Japanese? [/b][/quote]
:pissed: ;-P

Chris

08-12-2003, 05:39 PM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (YuheiCarreau @ Aug 12 2003, 03:29 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> :pissed: ;-P [/b][/quote]
Yuhei are you REALLY HALF JAPANESE ;)

azizgilani

08-12-2003, 09:03 PM

Here in Houston my dad is a slum lord. Our maintenance guys all speak spanish and english. My dad liked to speak urdu with me on front of them so that they can't understand what we are saying. They would then return the favor by speaking in a form of Spanish that I have never heard before. After a few weeks of this, all sides agreed to just communicate in english in front of eachother.

Its pretty weak to hide what you are saying on front of someone. I spend a lot of time in Europe and South America and have picked up enough vocabulary in the languages there to understand the gist of sidebar conversations. I make it really clear that its not appropriate to communicate in a language that isnt english while i am around. (our company's official language is english, its a swiss company) and sometimes surprise them with a reply if they decide to speak finnish/portuguese/italian/whatever...

Eros

08-12-2003, 11:05 PM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (BigLew @ Aug 12 2003, 03:28 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I curse in spanish sometimes but I don't think it's the same effect because usually people know what I am saying. From time to time my girl curses at me in Hakka. [/b][/quote]
I do the same (curse in Spanish). But from how many people speak Spanish in the US, how similar some of the words are (idiota is an example), and how I say them, it's not like I'm hiding what I'm saying. It's just an odd habit I developed.

Ogumo

08-16-2003, 09:04 PM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Eros @ Aug 12 2003, 10:05 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I do the same (curse in Spanish). But from how many people speak Spanish in the US, how similar some of the words are (idiota is an example), and how I say them, it's not like I'm hiding what I'm saying. It's just an odd habit I developed. [/b][/quote]
como este habito sucedio?

BigLew

08-16-2003, 09:08 PM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Ogumo @ Aug 16 2003, 08:04 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> como este habito sucedio? [/b][/quote]
I don't think your spelling that right.

Ogumo

08-16-2003, 09:19 PM

You are probably correct.

amietron

08-17-2003, 04:08 AM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (professor frink @ Aug 12 2003, 10:21 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> my mom and sister speak japanese in front of me, forcing me to understand their conversation- which is actually working. i just reply in furyomusume curses: 'oorusendeyo, omaye!'

love,
prof. frink [/b][/quote]
that's adorable! :luv:

BeTheReds

08-17-2003, 07:54 PM

from my livejournal...(http://www.livejournal.com/users/yujin)

Sorry that my LJ seems to be negative all the time. I am actually enjoying myself here, it's simply that I only write on LJ when something pisses me off.
Anyway, this is not about ALL AAs in JET, just a few of them.
First of all they think they are above all the White people in Japan due to their Asian-ness. (I may actually be guilty of this too, but I am not so obvious about it.)They refer to White people as GAIJIN even though they know White people hate that. Even though they are frickin far away from each other, every weekend they will travel far far distances to meet each other, god forbid they hang out with any of the White Jets in their area. If you ask them where they are from they will say they are from Taiwan/Korea/Japan/China/Phils/Vietnam or whatever Asian country of their roots, and not acknowledge that they are Americans when it is clear from their fashion, accent, and whatever else that they are Americans. All that aside, I think again, the most annoying thing is that they think they are above all the stupid White JETS (who there are tons of actually) and won't give any of them the time of day.
Why am I writing about this? There was a JET conference in Shinjuku on monday tuesday and wednesday of this week for recontracting JETs. After the conference, JETs from all over the country who have not seen each other in 10 months or so started looking for stuff to do, usually it was drinking, clubbing, or what have you. Two Korean American JETs got on the elevator with me and started speaking to each other in broken ass Korean so as not to be detected by the other JETs. And they said basically they felt all weird with all these white people everywhere. In the lobby there was a large group of AA jets that were all going to hang out with each other that night in places that don't allow GAIJIN in them.
At breakfast and lunch they all segregated themselves from all the white and black JETs and lied to people that seats were taken when they were actually not. I struck up a conversation with one of them in one of the congerences I went to. I asked the guy, so where are your from? And he replied "I am Chinese." And I asked him, No, I mean, Where are you REALLY from? He looked at me and said "WTF is YOUR problem?" If we were in the USA he would have answered the first question "I am from Burbank, CA..." or wherever and hope I asked him where he was REALLY from so that he could call me a racist for not considering him American. Cuz lots of Asian Americans love making people look like they are racists when they are not.
Back to the elevator, when those dudes started making fun of this other guy I started lauging at them, and politely told them that I understood what they were saying, and then the questions about my ethnicity ensued, and they said since I was not really Asian that it really was none of my business what their attitudes are. Some other Asian-Americans who I talked to were saying that their Korean-ness had helped them adapt to the country, and as such they did not feel comfortable hanging out with whitey.
What makes all this funny and ironic is that on the last night of the conference, I was chilling with all the Korean (from Korea) JETs, and while it is understandable that they do not hang out much with white JETs due to language barriers and cultural differences, they repeatedly criticized all the AA JETs for saying they come from Korea when they have lived their entire lives somewhere else. All those AA jets who have diluded themselves that they were more Asian than me, or more culturally accepted by Asians were all busy getting drunk in the Gaijin district of Roppongi while I was munching on Hwae and singing Korean songs at the Noraebang with the Korean JETs who considered me one of them... or at least considered me different from most KAs and white JETs.
Maybe no one who reads my Journal will understand any of the things I am talking about, but these AA JETs are just silly

ChinaLama

08-17-2003, 08:06 PM

that was a great turn-around on the Chinese American dude, eugene. mad props.

of course if you asked someone like me, i'd say no i really am from shanghai. what you've never seen a 1 1/2'er before? but someone like me w/ no foreign language skills wouldn't be in Japan to begin with, not over a long time anyway.

SunWuKong

08-17-2003, 09:02 PM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (BeTheReds @ Aug 17 2003, 10:54 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> from my livejournal...(http://www.livejournal.com/users/yujin) [/b][/quote]
hahhah i love what you said to that Chinese dude.

TyTea36

08-18-2003, 12:10 AM

waaaah, goum yup shuin ge? :gross:

no, i have never put someone down in another language other than english.

AliBabaIncorporated

08-18-2003, 05:07 AM

In the lobby there was a large group of AA jets that were all going to hang out with each other that night in places that don't allow GAIJIN in them.
a giant agglomeration of AA guys really think they're gonna walk up all dressed like Americans and screaming in loud-ass English to some hostess bar with Gaijin Okotowari printed prominently on the door and a few chinpira bouncers itching to push someone around, and actually get in without problems? ah, "Asian-American brotherhood" :lol:

Ogumo

08-18-2003, 04:14 PM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (AliBabaIncorporated @ Aug 18 2003, 04:07 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> a giant agglomeration of AA guys really think they're gonna walk up all dressed like Americans and screaming in loud-ass English to some hostess bar with Gaijin Okotowari printed prominently on the door and a few chinpira bouncers itching to push someone around, and actually get in without problems? ah, "Asian-American brotherhood" :lol: [/b][/quote]
Hahaha unity indeed that is the brother love eh?

Mr.Lum

08-18-2003, 04:19 PM

i speak/write english, i can speak spanish cant read it too well tho. i can also understand a little bit of fijian not a whole lot tho.

SunWuKong

08-21-2003, 04:06 PM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (AliBabaIncorporated @ Aug 18 2003, 08:07 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> a giant agglomeration of AA guys really think they're gonna walk up all dressed like Americans and screaming in loud-ass English to some hostess bar with Gaijin Okotowari printed prominently on the door and a few chinpira bouncers itching to push someone around, and actually get in without problems? ah, "Asian-American brotherhood" :lol: [/b][/quote]
that leads me to wonder if there are a lot of non-Chinese Asian Americans in HK. the only one that i knew when i was in HK was a friend of mine who is a Pakistani Canadian guy.

seanp

08-21-2003, 04:35 PM

du ma :ph34r: :blink:

Anyway, my sister used to do it casually untill she got busted by this french hapa viet guy :D

Napoleon Chynamite

08-21-2003, 04:41 PM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (SunWuKung @ Aug 21 2003, 03:06 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> that leads me to wonder if there are a lot of non-Chinese Asian Americans in HK. the only one that i knew when i was in HK was a friend of mine who is a Pakistani Canadian guy. [/b][/quote]
I'm guessing that HK doesn't attract nearly as many asiaphiles (Asian American or some other type of American) as Japan.

SunWuKong

08-21-2003, 08:15 PM

</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Gumby @ Aug 21 2003, 07:41 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> I'm guessing that HK doesn't attract nearly as many asiaphiles (Asian American or some other type of American) as Japan. [/b][/quote]
well maybe they're there and i just never ran into them.

robotic

02-27-2004, 03:20 AM

in frustration, i do that a lot of times! i wish i wouldn't, and be more in control and think twice about what i say.

John0101

03-05-2004, 12:49 AM

Me and my friend use to go into Trader Joes and replace bottles of root beer with bottles of Bass, Guiness, etc. It was a steal, 2-3 bux for 4 bottles of Bass, Guiness or other quality liquor. One time we planned to confuse the lady by pretending that we couldn't speak english. So we walked up and started speaking Chinese loudly, when she ranged up the total we started to argue in Chinese and swearing in vietnamese like "dou ma". The whole stunt was made to look like we didn't understand how much it cost so we argued about money. The cashier lady just stood there shocked and smiling. It was so funny, I couldn't stop laughing for 10mins after the incident.

rocketbunny

08-27-2004, 06:14 AM

I only speak English, but I want to learn Tagalog. My mom has tried teaching me a few common phrases. I still don't understand the syntax, and the fact that so many words have many syllables makes it hard for me to make the proper pronunciations. :frown:

Napoleon Chynamite

08-27-2004, 10:05 AM

asvenus

09-02-2004, 07:26 AM

heehee im kind of a hyprocrit thats sitting on the fence here....cos me and my mum like to slag off random whities in her language when we see them put even a foot wrong....and we act all self righteous and smug like its our right as 'double minorities' (woteva!!) to be mean as hell to everyone!!

BUT ive had it done to me, sometimes in languages i understand (boringly Euro ones..i wish i knew other Asian languages) and i got abit miffed...so i dunno...although i LOVE seeing peoples faces when you reply back to them in their language...heemuthafukkinheee

mndeg

09-02-2004, 02:00 PM

MANDARIN

theres no one that speaks mandarin in illinois, at least around where I live
mostly koreans and cantonese people

edit:oh yeah cantonese speak mandarin but its not their primary language

most other people my age can't speak their own language, or they have to think quite a bit before being able to say anything
weak.

for this soon to be parents out there: don't be afraid of speaking in your native language at home, it won't make your son or daughter any worse of an english speaker

ZiJing

09-02-2004, 08:36 PM

i speak cantonese and mandarin, and i'm one of the only....3 people that speak cantonese in my state. and right now i dont know anyone else in my school that speaks either...oh wait...i have a friend who's half cantonese, and insanely smart...though he can only count to ten...lol, anyways 90% of the asians i hang out with speak mandarin. the other 10% are either korean, japanese, or vietnamese

qtpah2ie

09-05-2004, 01:53 PM

mabuti ^^

so NOW you speak tagalog?!?!?
chinese + korean + tagalog ...
what's next! xP

robotic

09-07-2004, 10:22 AM

i speak urdu, but... everyone here is either pakistani, indian or someone who understands south asian languages.

so not much use, i think :D

hooligan

09-07-2004, 10:24 AM

i speak urdu, but... everyone here is either pakistani, indian or someone who understands south asian languages.

so not much use, i think :D
what's urdu?

Napoleon Chynamite

09-07-2004, 12:39 PM

so NOW you speak tagalog?!?!?
chinese + korean + tagalog ...
what's next! xP

Shanghainese......for you
:wink:

Filiprish

09-07-2004, 01:30 PM

I'm trying to become fluent in Spanish. It's a very important language in North America and will open a lot of doors for me careerwise. I've pretty much accepted the fact that I'll most likely never learn Tagalog. It's all good.

SunWuKong

09-07-2004, 01:51 PM

what's urdu?

it's a South Asian language. i have a Pakistani Canadian friend that speaks it.

kuilong

09-09-2004, 01:01 PM

what's urdu?

It's a language that originated in India (around Lucknow, I think) and is traditionally associated with Indian Muslims. Today, it's the national language and most commonly spoken language in Pakistan.

Urdu and Hindi are often viewed as dialects of each other, since they're often mutually intelligible -- especially when it comes to colloquial speech. It's harder to understand in formal speech, because Urdu tends to favor Persian or Arabic borrowings while Hindi favors Sanskrit. Urdu is also written in a derivative of the Persian script, whereas Hindi is written in Devanagari, the Sanskrit script (the one with a line on the top).