Wittenberg

Xheneral/General => L'Óspileu/The Chat Room => Topic started by: Breneir Tzaracomprada on August 12, 2022, 11:43:45 AM

Title: Ultralinguals?
Post by: Breneir Tzaracomprada on August 12, 2022, 11:43:45 AM
I was eating lunch at my desk and read this interesting story about a British man who speaks 50 languages.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2022/aug/12/experience-i-speak-more-than-50-languages

I could not help but think how long it would take him to learn Talossan.
@Marcel Eðo Pairescu Tafial @Iac Marscheir
Title: Re: Ultralinguals?
Post by: Ián Tamorán S.H. on August 18, 2022, 12:53:11 PM
I had a work colleague who spoke seven languages - and he spoke rubbish in all of them!


(The word "rubbish" should actually be an expletive which would be automatically deleted!)
Title: Re: Ultralinguals?
Post by: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on August 18, 2022, 03:57:41 PM
My attitude to expletives is that they're perfectly all right here if they're in Talossan. And anyone who disagrees is a hútschind fora da ciúl who speaks a lot of miéida da toro.

But, yes. Anyone who has learned more than one language understands that there's a real distinction between "doing the Duolingo course" and "actually being able to have a conversation". I don't know if my brain froze when I got old, but while I've studied more than 20 languages in my lifetime and I can "read" about 10, I'm only fluent (in speaking/writing) in English and French and no matter how hard I study I don't seem to be able to get my Farsi over that line.
Title: Re: Ultralinguals?
Post by: Breneir Tzaracomprada on August 18, 2022, 04:03:03 PM
Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on August 18, 2022, 03:57:41 PM
My attitude to expletives is that they're perfectly all right here if they're in Talossan. And anyone who disagrees is a hútschind fora da ciúl who speaks a lot of miéida da toro.

But, yes. Anyone who has learned more than one language understands that there's a real distinction between "doing the Duolingo course" and "actually being able to have a conversation". I don't know if my brain froze when I got old, but while I've studied more than 20 languages in my lifetime and I can "read" about 10, I'm only fluent (in speaking/writing) in English and French and no matter how hard I study I don't seem to be able to get my Farsi over that line.

Reading in 10 languages is incredibly impressive. My husband speaks and writes in two and can understand a bit in a few others and he has always seem superhuman to me.
Title: Re: Ultralinguals?
Post by: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on August 18, 2022, 04:05:28 PM
Well, when you're fluent in French, you can bullshit your way through Spanish and Italian with no problem. Language families are useful that way.
Title: Re: Ultralinguals?
Post by: Danihel Txechescu on August 18, 2022, 05:14:42 PM
Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on August 18, 2022, 03:57:41 PM
My attitude to expletives is that they're perfectly all right here if they're in Talossan. And anyone who disagrees is a hútschind fora da ciúl who speaks a lot of miéida da toro.

This is one of the reasons I avoid reading you. I am one of those who disagree.
Title: Re: Ultralinguals?
Post by: Iason Taiwos on August 18, 2022, 06:55:19 PM
Quote from: Danihel Txechescu on August 18, 2022, 05:14:42 PM
Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on August 18, 2022, 03:57:41 PM
My attitude to expletives is that they're perfectly all right here if they're in Talossan. And anyone who disagrees is a hútschind fora da ciúl who speaks a lot of miéida da toro.

This is one of the reasons I avoid reading you. I am one of those who disagree.
Well you obviously don't avoid reading her comments, you replied to one...
Title: Re: Ultralinguals?
Post by: Audrada Roibeardet on August 18, 2022, 08:17:53 PM
Hey, maybe my Talossan isn't as bad as I thought. I know exactly what Miestra said. Haha!
Title: Re: Ultralinguals?
Post by: Mic’haglh Autófil, O.Be on August 18, 2022, 11:59:14 PM
I've got English, French, and Russian, with Talossan being the next challenge (thankfully the French in particular simplifies it).

I also have some very basic phrases in a few others, German and Finnish coming to mind. Once we get east of the Black Sea or south of the Mediterranean, I'm completely lost outside of some Japanese architectural terminology, lol.
Title: Re: Ultralinguals?
Post by: Miestră Schivă, UrN-GC on August 19, 2022, 02:51:39 PM
Quote from: Audrada Roibeardet on August 18, 2022, 08:17:53 PM
Hey, maybe my Talossan isn't as bad as I thought. I know exactly what Miestra said. Haha!

You should set a goal of being fluent in profanity in at least 5 languages. Best thing about Talossan is that you can invent your own profanity. During the time when Penguinea was a going thing, KR1 invented the word Pengátx to cuss us out.
Title: Re: Ultralinguals?
Post by: Sir Lüc on August 19, 2022, 04:13:31 PM
and in case you do invent your own, there's a handy form you can use to submit it to SIGN as an official word of the treisour :p
Title: Re: Ultralinguals?
Post by: Ián S.G. Txaglh on September 07, 2022, 09:25:56 AM
the beauty of being from central european, from a minination (10 M people), is that i can speak fluently five languages (czech, slovak, english, german, russian) and read in few more (spanish, polish, ukrainian) with almost no effort (joking, i practice some regularly, some irregularly, i knew some more, like finnish, estonian, latin, even sanskrit, but no practice means no knowledge today, just shards of this and that).

speaking fluently around ten+ languages is awesome and requires quite some practice. i would probably understand to a certain extent any slavonic language (except slovenian), i get bits in germanic and roman languages, but with no real necessity to use them, i would probably never improve beyond tens of words and pidgin-seized grammar or to keep the knowledge. and the same counts for my today's non-existent talossán, if there was any in past :) although, one can easily understand the expressive language of dame schivă :D