zompist bboard

Reflecting on my time in Scandinavia I'm beginning to see what you mean. I just remembered one of our hosts in Denmark, a nice young couple, who actually asked us if it was okay if they spoke Danish to each other while we were around. I was flabbergasted that anyone would so much as think that would...

The language of our meetings depends entirely of those who are present, and what languages they're comfortable with. There's a good chance you'll be in a room with mostly French speakers or people who speak French well, but I'd say 80% of the time everyone defaults to English in a mixed group setti...

Vijay wrote:In every company I can think of with members who spoke different languages, business was always conducted in English.

So even in say, Norway, business was conducted in English?

My question specifically involves Europe but it could apply to elsewhere. Boards of directors of major companies often elect independent directors who have no affiliation with the company. These directors often come from different countries than the home country of the company. For example, AP Mølle...

This is great. You're missing a few though. Putain de merde is perhaps the most common swear word I heard in Belgium (and among my French colleagues) with the exception of putain alone. Garse is one of my favourites. It means cunt, prostitute, it's extremely au premier degrès. Interesting, because t...

D'abord, si on ne partage pas les photos, je ne pense pas qu'il soit tabou ou sexiste. En plus, on a tous le droit de prendre des photos de tout ce qu'on peut voir du point de vue de la propriété publique. Une fois, j'ai pris un cours de photographie où le prof nous a encouragé de prendre des photo...

Finlay, je mélange toujours les deux. Jal peut témoigner de combien de temps j'ai mélangé le néerlandais et l'allemand. Mais je fais pareil avec le français et l'espagnol. Finlay, I always mix the two. Jal can attest to how many times I have mixed up Dutch and German. But it's the same for me with ...

hwhatting wrote:

Viktor77 wrote:I graduated with my MA in French this weekend from the University of Illinois.

Congratulations!

Thank you!

jal wrote:

Viktor77 wrote:Did Old English take the adverb ending -līce from Old Norse?

Really Vik, sometimes you should just Google .


JAL

I did, actually. I didn't expect etymonline would have -ly in their database so it didn't occur to me to look there.

Vijay wrote:I think everything but that palatalization is pretty common all over North America.

Yea, reduced initial 'st' seems weird to me and we practically speak close to the same dialect. Can you give an example?

Heute hab ich erfahren, dass "earwax" auf Deutsch "Ohrenschmalz" heisst. Today I discovered that "earwax" is called "ear grease" in German. Das ist ja ekelhaft. That's disgusting. In het nederlands, is het "oorsmeer." Wat is de oorsprong van "oorsmeer"? :P På den anden side, er Dansk mere kedelig. ...

Did Old English take the adverb ending -līce from Old Norse? And now Modern English is dropping this Old Norse innovation?

Adjective/adverb replacement is common in my own speech. I often catch myself saying 'good' for 'well' or 'bad' for 'badly.' But I don't think I've ever extended it to other adjectives such as 'serious.' Is there a limit to the replacement? Can it be done for long adverbs? For example, "He did it di...

A West Virginian senator on CNN keeps saying "I take it serious" instead of using the adverb "seriously." Is this characteristic of Appalachian English?

He also just said "the goodest country in the world."

It's interesting listening to this guy.

Damn it, why do I try to write in Dutch. I never succeed. Weil du davon etwas lernen kannst? Dein Niederländisch ist wirklich nicht so schlecht, aber du must versuchen, etwas weniger Französich ein zu mischen :). Because you can learn something from it? Your Dutch is really not that bad, but you mu...

Godverdomme, pourquoi est-ce que je tente d'écrire en néerlandais? Je n'y réussis jamais.

Damn it, why do I try to write in Dutch. I never succeed.

Ayer estaba en Chicago para visitar mi hermano que saldra hoy en avión del aeropuerto de Ohare por la Sudáfrica por un mes. En el Loop, fuimos de vista en casa un amigo que vive en el piso 29 de un rascacielos. Su apartamento da sobre el parco de Millennium y el lago de Michigan. Era muy bello. Me ...

Thanks again, Jal. Hopefully this time I will write in better Dutch since I really am trying to learn it. Mijn auto is opnieuw kapot. De wisselstroomdynamoklamp heeft weggeroest. Ik herhaal dat een stale klamp weggeroest heeft. Mijn auto heeft ongeveer 250.000 mijl gereden en waaneer je kreegt zo'n...

You know better than to use Google translate :) helling = slope, ramp. That said, I'm not sure how to translate "gradient" here. I think you need to rephrase. Ik heb het alleen voor enkelinge woorden gebruikt maar ik weet wel dat het niet zeker is, het is alleen gemakkelijk. I only used it for indi...

Ok, ja, ik gebruik ook oranje en geel op mijn kaart, zodat ik een helling maken kan. Ik heb gewoon Eurovisie gekeken. Wat me betreft, Oekraïna was niet zo goed een gastheer als Zweden. De grappen van de gastheren niet vaak werkten. Ok, yes, I also use orange and yellow on my map, so that I can crea...

I graduated with my MA in French this weekend from the University of Illinois.

Ik heb nodig van nieuwe kleding voor mijn nieuwe baan als leraar in een privaatschool. Ik ben aan het inkleuren een kaart van mijn nieuwe stad, Memphis. Ik kleur alle goede buurten groen in en alle slechte buurten rood in (ik gebruik online middelen), omdat wanneer ik een appartement online vind, k...

Ryusenshi wrote:I think it depends on context. If it's very clear from context that you mean "a party", I guess it can be alright. If you call a person "bamboula", then it's a racial slur.

I've just learned the word "shindig".

'Shindig' is a fun word but it wreaks of the 60s/70s so only use it ironically.

These are stylistic corrections. I used ''mineurs de fond' because I found it more commonplace than 'mineurs de charbon'. I suppose it was a bit of an overextension. I know that 'ils font grève' works but the context to me felt like it needed the definite article to put an emphasis on the action of ...

French has a word for 'to masturbate with a dildo' se goder . I'm having a hard time being surprised by this, though. Also I recently learned that apparently the French word bamboula 'shindig' has a racial connotation I didn't know about. I'm a bit sad because I liked using this word in silly contex...