Native speakers that don't want you to learn their language

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Re: Native speakers that don't want you to learn their language

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-04-11, 1:34

Michael wrote:I'm not sure if this is characteristic of all of the peoples of the Balkans, but (in contrast to Germans, Dutch, Swedes and Norwegians) the Albanians I know have been quick to switch to their language once I speak to them in it, even when I was starting out and still relatively new to the language, and they've had a lot of patience with me and will gladly lower the speed of their speech to accommodate me.

I noticed something like this in Croatia when I went there for my cousin's wedding, yes. I spoke Croatian with everybody I could speak to in Croatian there. (A lot of people I met there apparently didn't speak anything but Shtokavian Croatian anyway even though we were in the countryside near Zagreb). The only time I specifically remember someone responding to me in English there was when I told a Croatian friend of the bride's (in Croatian) that I was the groom's brat, since apparently that word can be used to mean 'cousin', and he asked me in English, "You're his brother? :?" (The groom didn't have a brother :lol:). Then I think I said something like "ne, ja sam sin njegove tetke" (no, I'm his aunt's son) and he goes "oh, I see!" (in English again).

I talked to the Roma in the band playing at their post-wedding party, too. That was interesting; it ended up being in a mixture of no less than four languages. :P (My Croatian, their Serbian, my Romanian Vlax Romani, their Serbian Vlax(?) Romani, plus German, Turkish, and even a bit of Hindi the band leader attempted. There might have been some English somewhere in there, too, but I don't recall hearing or speaking any :)).

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Saim
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Re: Native speakers that don't want you to learn their language

Postby Saim » 2017-04-24, 7:31

vijayjohn wrote:I told a Croatian friend of the bride's (in Croatian) that I was the groom's brat, since apparently that word can be used to mean 'cousin', and he asked me in English, "You're his brother? :?" (The groom didn't have a brother :lol:). Then I think I said something like "ne, ja sam sin njegove tetke" (no, I'm his aunt's son) and he goes "oh, I see!" (in English again).


For future reference the most natural way to disambiguate this in Serbian is to say brat od tetke (i.e. Ja sam mu brat od tetke). :)

הענט

Re: Native speakers that don't want you to learn their language

Postby הענט » 2017-04-24, 8:10

vijayjohn wrote:
Michael wrote:I'm not sure if this is characteristic of all of the peoples of the Balkans, but (in contrast to Germans, Dutch, Swedes and Norwegians) the Albanians I know have been quick to switch to their language once I speak to them in it, even when I was starting out and still relatively new to the language, and they've had a lot of patience with me and will gladly lower the speed of their speech to accommodate me.

I noticed something like this in Croatia when I went there for my cousin's wedding, yes. I spoke Croatian with everybody I could speak to in Croatian there. (A lot of people I met there apparently didn't speak anything but Shtokavian Croatian anyway even though we were in the countryside near Zagreb). The only time I specifically remember someone responding to me in English there was when I told a Croatian friend of the bride's (in Croatian) that I was the groom's brat, since apparently that word can be used to mean 'cousin', and he asked me in English, "You're his brother? :?" (The groom didn't have a brother :lol:). Then I think I said something like "ne, ja sam sin njegove tetke" (no, I'm his aunt's son) and he goes "oh, I see!" (in English again).

I talked to the Roma in the band playing at their post-wedding party, too. That was interesting; it ended up being in a mixture of no less than four languages. :P (My Croatian, their Serbian, my Romanian Vlax Romani, their Serbian Vlax(?) Romani, plus German, Turkish, and even a bit of Hindi the band leader attempted. There might have been some English somewhere in there, too, but I don't recall hearing or speaking any :)).


Yes. I remember two Romani guys speak to each other in a documentary. They spoke Romany, but switched to Serbian and finally to German, because one was from here and the other one from Balkan. Naturally the Greek Romany won't have words like peklos (hell) or samoobsluhos ( self-service shop) which are used in Slovak Romany.

Michael: You must be lucky then, because when I was trying to learn and practice some Albanian on Paltalk, they wouldn't want to. The only Kosovare I knew told me a couple of sentences, but didn't like to speak to me in Albanian. The only thing I remember him saying is that Tosk Albanian sounds like hillbillies to him.

I know a bartender from Prizren who keeps telling people he's from Croatia or Montenegro. Wonder why.

(This is different from Arabs or Turks who are very keen to speak in their language. )

vijayjohn
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Re: Native speakers that don't want you to learn their language

Postby vijayjohn » 2017-04-24, 12:04

Saim wrote:
vijayjohn wrote:I told a Croatian friend of the bride's (in Croatian) that I was the groom's brat, since apparently that word can be used to mean 'cousin', and he asked me in English, "You're his brother? :?" (The groom didn't have a brother :lol:). Then I think I said something like "ne, ja sam sin njegove tetke" (no, I'm his aunt's son) and he goes "oh, I see!" (in English again).


For future reference the most natural way to disambiguate this in Serbian is to say brat od tetke (i.e. Ja sam mu brat od tetke). :)

Ohhh, OK. Thanks! :D


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