Languages

[sariagray]

In my life, short as it has been, I have studied three languages. French, Latin, and Italian. This does not mean that I can speak or write any of them, of course, but I know enough of each that I can suss out meaning from intermediate level text.

I'm thinking about this now because I've just responded to an email from our Italian partners and, while the woman wrote in English, part of her subject line and email signature paragraph was in Italian. And I could read it!

Then I started thinking about what I knew off of the top of my head in each language. I admit to knowing slightly more than I've listed here, but the Italian word for "blonde" isn't as amusing as the words and phrases that remain etched in my mind. (It's "biondi," if you're wondering).

Spelling is most likely incorrect. Actually, all of this is probably incorrect.

French:

Je nage alla plage avec mes amies. - "I swim at the beach with my friends."

Le fuque secs - I have been told that this means "dry seal" but I don't believe my former French teacher, who was a self-proclaimed one-legged French whore and declared that we should be gay on our own time. Google says it means "the dry Fuqua" which means absolutely nothing to me.

Latin:

Ancilla - "slave girl"

Memento mori - "Remember to die" (i.e. remember your mortality)

Morituri te salutamus - "We who are about to die, salute you" (said by gladiators to...Caesar, or whomever else was in charge - this was my favorite of our daily mottoes)

Something about Grumio, Caecilius, Metella, and Cerberus, their dog. And how Mt Vesuvius erupted. I  think Caecilius died.  I cried. At some point, Grumio was in the kitchen with Caecilius, by the way. I bet they were having sex. Cambridge Latin Course, w00t! (And yes, that Doctor Who episode made me happy.)

Italian:

Nel letto - "in bed"

Mi piace - "I like"

Ho mal di testa - "I have a headache"

Zingara - "gypsy woman"

Mi piace zingari nel letto. Ho mal di testa! - "I like gypsies in bed. I have a headache."

Actually, I  remember "Mangia!"  So let's add that.

Mi piace mangare zingari nel letto. Ho mal di testa! - "I like to eat gypsies in bed. I have a headache."

Like I said, I remember other things. And I admit, je parle francais, mais je ne parle pas bien. Et je parle un peu! I recall the seasons, ete et hiver et printemps. I forgot autumn, though. Lunedi, mardi, merecredi, jeudi, vendredi, samedi and something else are the days of the week. I can count, too. I know my colors, know that my hair est rouge et noir. I know that I love etudier et chanter et ecriver. I still hate etre.

And I have this common problem where I will speak a sentence that's part Italian, part French, part English. I slip "avec" in for "with" all of the time. Just now, I was trying to think of the French word for "hair," but only came up with "cappelli," which is Italian. "Vecchio" is "old" in Italian, too, but I can't remember the French (though "young" in French is "jeune" and I don't remember the Italian). 

Latin is, apparently, a wash. Which is a shame, because it was my favorite to study. "Uxor" is "wife." I remember that and "ancilla." What does that say about me? (Metella and that ancilla who did her hair totally had a thing going on.)

Actually, what does ANY of this say about me? Probably that I'm insane. Carry on.

 

Comments

[lone-star-woman.livejournal.com]

"I like to eat gypsies in bed. I have a headache."

I'm wondering how you would work that sentence into a conversation.

"Gay on your own time?" Seriously?

I feel terrible that I remember next to nothing of the Latin that I was supposed to learn in high school. And I've never taken formal Spanish lessons. I can read it and understand it. (Occasionally, I like to watch the news in Spanish because Jorge Ramos is a silver fox, and dammit, once in a while, I get sucked into a telenovela.) I can speak Spanish fairly well, enough to have random conversations with complete strangers in waiting rooms or in restaurants. I do, however, feel weird about writing in it since I never seem to know where all the accent marks go.

[sariagray.livejournal.com]

I haven't yet decided how to work it into a conversation, but I'm sure it will come up. :D

"Be gay on your own time!" was an admonishment directed to these two boys who would be all snarky with each other in the middle of class. They would be all...fighty. Think Owen and Ianto. They kept interrupting her one day, so she said that. Oh, it was brilliant.

So, not, it wasn't meant to be a life lesson or negative. It's just become my favorite thing with which to (mentally) scold boys who are acting up. Like in meetings at work. :D One day, I'll accidentally say it....

I think reading, understanding, and being able to speak is the most important part. I wish I had that with a language. The problem is, while I have an ear for it, I have absolutely no willpower when it comes to study. I am thinking of picking up French or Italian again....

[lone-star-woman.livejournal.com]

Still not comfortable with using 'gay' as an admonishment as it implies that gay is something bad.

I can't imagine trying to learn a language on my own. I learned Spanish because I had to. My mom speaks very limited English, and my dad prefers to speak in Spanish. It's not like I had a choice.

[sariagray.livejournal.com]

I think I'm not explaining it well. The "gay" wasn't an admonishment. Loosely translated, it'd probably be "stop your homoerotic tendencies in the middle of my lessons - I'm trying to teach." I'm pretty sure she was fairly certain they were about to make out and would encourage such behavior if she wasn't in the middle of explaining "er" verbs. :) She was really very lovely and accepting of all people. She was also crazy and English was her third (?) Language, so the things she said were absolutely ridiculous and rarely translated correctly.

And really, I bet you could definitely learn and retain language on your own, especially one of the Romance languages. :D But what you know of Spanish far surpasses what I know of all of the languages combined, so what do, I know? Lol

[aranellaurelote.livejournal.com]

CAMBRIDGE LATIN COURSE!!!!! My god, that makes me miss school ;D (though clearly Quintus and Clemens were the ones shagging...)

I can speak German, Russian, Welsh and English (obvs) I pretend to speak French <- this is very amusing as though I did french to A-level I can't actually remember most words and so end up sticking a few english ones in ;P

[sariagray.livejournal.com]

OMG You're right. I completely forgot about Quintus and Clemens! They ARE! There must be fic out there, somewhere.

I think it's brilliant that you're such a polyglot! And honestly, I think this is the way language may go in the future. Different words from different languages that just seem stick. I could be totally off about this, but I like the idea!

German is one of the Languages Saria Wants to Learn. Irish and Welsh are up there, as is Arabic, Aramaic, Greek (of the ancient variety), and Hebrew. I took about a week of Irish before dropping it, though, because the professor was so boring (which is a horrible reason to drop a course, but it was not mandatory, it was late at night and I was falling asleep, and I had already taken Italian).

And that was so very rambley. :D Sorry! And I will be sure to speak fake French with you!

[hab318princess.livejournal.com]

I learned French (started age 12) and Latin (age 14) as well as English (age 10) as foreign language in school

I still remember the first Latin sentence when I was 14: Marcus currit. Marcus runs. - my son is called (cookie for the guess) Marcus :D

My bad French helped us survive a visit to Paris 11 years ago, now I think I've forgotten pretty much all - I never use it.

English however I've been using constantly :D

[sariagray.livejournal.com]

I wish we learned foreign languages earlier in our education system. It would've been much more...helpful!

I love the name Marcus, and yes! I remember currit now! :D I think I should take refresher courses in all of these languages!

And I am highly impressed with all of the languages you know. :D

[hab318princess.livejournal.com]

My son started French this year aged 8... I'm gutted that it's not German (he never learned)

I only really speak English now... my German is incredibly rusty - considering my passport is German, that is not good

I may know them (add a few lessons Spanish) but I don't SPEAK them

[welsh-scotsman.livejournal.com]

wow. you learnt a lot of languages ;) i only learnt french ;) and random words for most other languages but those are more thinkgs i've picked up over the years ;)

andi find i use french in place of englsih like using oui and bonjour and ca va and so on instead os yes and hello and how are you ;)

you might be interested to know that the welsh for carrot is moron. i found that amazing ;)

dimanche is sunday in french :)
autumn is autumne ( i know. vair boring ;) tres enneyeux) ;)

nice latin phrases though. i'll remember those; )

[sariagray.livejournal.com]

I have learned nothing! I just...sat in classes. :)

Yes! I'm glad I'm not the only one. Whenever someone tells me something that's...well, true, and I need to verify?, my first response is always "C'est vrai!" And I use "d'accord" whenever I mean to say "Okay."

I LOVE that Welsh tidbit! YAY!

And THANK YOU. I knew it was "autumne" but I kept saying "nooo, too easy, must be something else!" And I forget "dimanche" every time. Even years ago, while I was actually in the class! lol