Yoshie

4 hours ago, wolfette said:

My experience was a little different to this, so I'll explain that first. I met a Spanish guy that knew absolutely no English at all and he was really struggling here in the UK. My mission was to help him to learn English so that he was able to communicate with people here. He's now a successful guy that's doing well for himself, and I've since learned he's actually fluent in many more languages (French, Italian and Polish, to name a few!). It was difficult to communicate with him initially as I spoke next to no Spanish and he spoke next to no English.

However, I found that there was some brands he knew of from Spain that were also in the UK. Think things like McDonalds and Coca Cola, which are everywhere. He was able to recognise that those things meant food and drink for example. Then, there are words that are pretty similar in both languages which was another bonus, although it did take a bit of working out sometimes. We were also able to draw things sometimes to get across what we were talking about. It didn't take long before we were able to have some conversations, either I had picked up enough words in Spanish to talk to him or he'd picked up enough in English to talk to me. 

While his English is pretty good now (and I like to think that my Spanish is too) we still ask each other about words from time to time. He had never heard "fringe" in relation to the outskirts of somewhere until pretty recently, and had asked me what hair had to do with where he lived. 

Interesting story indeed. Lol at th fringe bit.

When you spend enough time around an unfamiliar language, it becomes easier to pick it up especially if you are genuinely interested in learning the language.

On 5/24/2016 at 2:03 AM, Yoshie said:

Thanks for the responses. I was not necessarily going to post the information to which I'm referring but I had some queries about it to get a better understanding of proofreading itself. For example, if the script has terms like "gonna", "ya" and "wanna", should you change them to standard English? In other words, how would you correct them?

I think so far I'm being misunderstood. Put it this way, I'm not looking for  a proofreader, I just need someone to answer my above question. I just thought that since this is a language forum someone with English proofreading experience might be able to give a response to that particular query.

Just a suggestion, maybe the game could have a multi-player option as well.

You all have shared some interesting tales.

On 5/22/2016 at 6:24 PM, Trellum said:

The first time I was in Norway it felt a bit weird, but not so much because back then I was very young, back then I didn't really see things the way I did before.  So I wasn't really bothered by the language back then,  plus I felt so safe and comfortable back then.  That changed when I was in the Netherlands, I did feel a bit affected because I felt the need to understand what my future in laws were saying about me, lol. 

Ahahaahahaha your last statement is hilarious but I definitely would share those sentiments, can't be too careful eh. Lol.

Thanks for the responses. I was not necessarily going to post the information to which I'm referring but I had some queries about it to get a better understanding of proofreading itself. For example, if the script has terms like "gonna", "ya" and "wanna", should you change them to standard English? In other words, how would you correct them?

On 5/19/2016 at 10:36 PM, petesede said:

It is very hard to learn food from books because so much of it is local.  Fish is absolutely insane in central america, basically every country has a different name for every type of fish (aside from salmon and tuna).   I can go from Nicaragua to Hondorus and half the food would be the same, but with a different name.

I can see where some confusion might take place in terms of differentiating between the local language compared to the standard way of speaking. The book might teach you one thing while the people of whatever area teach you something completely different. More vocabulary in the end I guess.

Hey, I wasn't sure where to allocate this post but if it is in the wrong place, please redirect it where appropriate. Thanks in advance.

Just wanted to know if anyone on here does proofreading for English?

In my opinion, I would want it to be rectified but as you asked, will the manufacturer bother to fix things like those? It would be best on their part to do so and it would help to prevent both workers and customers from mistaking the wrong wording for the correct way of writing or speaking. I also notice these occurrences from time to time and it's rather annoying when you know what it should be. 

I think that it might work if it's a group effort. If majority of the customers or so highlight the issue to the appropriate persons then they would be forced to address it but if it's a one-man-approach then you might be unlucky in getting it fixed.

Who knows, maybe they don't even have an editor within the company so the packaging comes out sloppy and that speaks greatly to their marketing department if you ask me. Maybe you could get the job?! 

Funny I haven't seen anyone mention using vocab/phrase books to assist during your experiences or is that a thing of the past now? I know technology has sped things up quite a bit but I'm just thinking that those simple books help you out a lot when it comes to basic vocabulary and the use of idioms and phrases when interacting with the native folk. 

5 hours ago, Baburra said:

I had a hard time ordering food and asking questions and at the time smartphones weren't that prevalent yet so I didn't have any mobile internet to rely on. Thankfully I could just point at certain items in menus but even then some of them were kind of a gamble, though thankfully I didn't end up ordering anything too weird. If I thought I would be staying there for longer I think I would have just contacted either a translator or a tutor just to help me get started, but nowadays I will probably just rely more on online resources such as this forum. 

Haha at "though thankfully I didn't end up ordering anything too weird." Just before reading that part I was wondering if that had happened. I guess you were lucky lol. A tutor/translator would for sure be handy if you indeed did.

7 hours ago, petesede said:

I have had two experiences living overseas.

The first is living in South Korea for a year.  A few weeks before getting there, I bought a book and learned the alphabet and pronunciation of the different letters and how words and syllables were formed.  I also learned a few basic words and phrases, but not much.  The actual reaction from the people was amazing.  I was in the military, and so few soldiers that go over there for a year bother to learn any of the language besides a couple of words.  I studied pretty hard and by the end of my year was about to understand a lot.  As far as being able to communicate... this is a lesson you will learn anywhere in the world... a decent chunk of people everywhere will know english.  I had a core group of friends, maybe 5-8 people, and there was always one  or two around who spoke decent english.  Besides living overseas twice, I have also traveled a lot to other places, and this is almost always true, especially in tourist areas.. you will almost always find people who can speak english.

My second experience living overseas is ongoing, I have now been in central america for a few years.  As funny as it seems, I had a bigger headstart on korean than I did with spanish.  I came here only knowing a few basic words.  It is also a bit different.  When I was in Korea I spent most of my free time with university students, people around my same age.  Because of this they were well educated and even the ones who didn´t speak english, did have a few years of it in HS.   Here, I work mainly with very poor people, so nobody really knows english.  This really forced my spanish a little faster.. there was no crutch.  Overall, it really depends on the purpose of the conversations.  I can get everything done and understand everything when the conversations are purposeful.  But when people are debating ideas or abstract stuff, sometimes I still get lost.

But probably my most honest feeling is that no matter where you are, if you are trying to speak their language, the people appreciate the effort.  You may still get giggles when you mess stuff up, but in korea especially, people were always so impressed that I was learning korean.   I hate to say it, but in the USA, we are the opposite.  For the most part we ridicule people who are learning english and not getting it right, in other countries they are much more impressed with just the effort.

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I can see why both parties in the language exchange process would react the way they do. For example, the way I see it is that the person being taught the new language might express things awkwardly which would probably cause some ridicule on the native's part while the person teaching their language to the foreigner might find it difficult to express what it is they are trying to teach the learner.

6 hours ago, rz3300 said:

It is very difficult, but of course, it gets easier.  I think more than anything it is frustrating, because you keep thinking that you are there, you finally understand everything, and then you discover you don't, and this happens again and again over and over.  It is also frustrating because when you are there for a while, you start to have to deal with important things, like really important things, and when you have trouble understanding those it starts to anger you if you are not careful.  That was my experience, and if I could go back I would buy an economics focused translation book, if they exist in that language.

I can definitely imagine the frustration especially when it comes to business interaction and so forth. The economics focused translation book isn't a bad idea afterall but yeah, I don't know of any at the moment. 

So I've actually tried the app and I like it so far. I'm comfortable with the setup more so because I am familiar with the language I chose to test it which is French. It's fun so far and it indeed challenges your memory skills. Anxious to see the highest level I'll reach. Thanks for sharing.

Just about downloaded it from Play Store. Will see how it works out.

38 minutes ago, Teira Eri said:

Japan. I did this for Japan. 

Back in 2010 I had the opportunity to enter an International Japanese Language School in Shinjuku. Not knowing the culture or really anything about how to function on my own in an alien society, I went anyway. My initial reaction to the move and to Japan itself was not terrible. I actually adapted rapidly, though handling the language was a trial. There were times when I refused to go out because I didn't want to have answer questions in Japanese (for example, the ladies in the make-up section always come over to ask if you need help -- but I didn't know that then). Of course, there's also cultural misunderstandings that rise up. Japan is a 180 from America.

But I was fortunate enough to have amazing friends. We studied together, tackled the attractions of Tokyo together, and basically made sure we were never alone in our adventures. 

I graduated from that Japanese school, returned to America briefly and am now living and working in Tokyo, Japan. Living in Japan in rough. No lie. Tourists get it a bit easier, but those foreigners living in Japan don't get that kind of flexibility. People are not very patient--just passive aggressive. If you don't understand something immediately, you're deemed as stupid. If you don't sacrifice for the group, you're considered selfish. There's also the people who assume that because you're foreign, you're not fluent. You get avoided, spit on (literally) and hassled. But...in spite of that, I'd rather be in Japan than anywhere else at the moment. 

Spit on??!! Why, that's most appalling to hear to say the least. Wow. I do know persons from where I'm from who moved there to teach English. Based on their experiences and what I understand is that yes, they (Japanese) are not necessarily as welcoming as other people from elsewhere but not to generalise at all. I met a Japanese young lady some years ago while I was attending university here in my home country. I was boarding off campus at the time and she came to live at the same residence. She came to learn English and along the way fell in love with our culture. Anyway, she was quite the opposite of the stiff perception that some of them give off. She's actually a sweetheart and we've maintained a friendship ever since, enough for me to call her my dear friend. So I guess it just depends on the types of persons you end up interacting with which is what creates your experience whether good or bad.

15 minutes ago, lingvo said:

It was quite uncomfortable, not being able to not properly communicate. Tons of eh?, uh?, ummm, please repeat, and barely gets everything. And native monolingual people tend to talk too fast that make you feel very unwelcoming with your attempt to learn the language. Is very different to talk to a native bilingual. But that struggle is great to develop true fluency and not an artificial one. Learning is struggle and expanding your comfort zone to adapt all the new info you're gathering.

I understand what you mean especially when you spoke about the difference between a monolingual native speaker and otherwise. They do tend to speak faster than others which might make you less willing to take on the challenge but you push through nonetheless.

Ha! This situation always makes me cringe because for the most part, I don't like to have to correct someone's speech but at the same time, I don't want them to be mispronouncing their words (for their sake and my ears lol). Depending on the person, sometimes I let it slide but if I realise that I can correct/help them, I subtly do it by repeating the word(s) in the right way ensuring that they don't feel offended. However, with some persons, they'll get offended regardless of your gentle approach. I never want to come across as a 'know it all' so as I said, it depends on the situation.

If you have traveled or lived in a foreign country for an extended period and you were unfamiliar with their language at first, what was your initial experience like in terms of relating to the folk and working around the language barrier? Say you were there for at least a month.

Red lines or not, I continue to write the way I was taught which is the English way. I also try to be consistent with it instead of switching back and forth like some people tend to do. I just ignore the red lines unless it's a definite mistake on my part. I get your point though.

Didn't think of being multi-lingual as a tool against Dementia and such but I guess it makes sense. I do know that it helps when you in foreign countries that speak the respective languages to find your way around and conversing with the natives of those countries. You can even in turn help someone out of their situation whatever it may be, you could help to translate/interpret for them. Also, it helps you to meet new people simply through the different languages and better yet, it grants you work opportunities.

I like this idea a lot. I think it would help to speed up the learning process as well in terms of exchanging knowledge.

I definitely found flash cards to be a must when I studied the French & Spanish and studying on a whole. They help you to break down and highlight the most important pieces of information. When you do that, as you look at the card, you should be able to figure what that specific card is about and this will help you to grasp and memorise the information quicker. Even if you don't have ready-made ones you can make them by cutting pieces of paper and that will work just the same. All the best with your studies. 

I haven't been there yet but I've always wanted to go since I was a child. Hopefully things would have cooled down by the time I get there. *Fingers crossed*

4 hours ago, linguaholic said:

Welcome Yoshie! Hope you have fun here and learn lots of new things.

Best

L

Thank you so much. See you around.