Learning the meaning of words

[mushroom 13,082]

After 13 years living in Spain, I’ve just learnt the meaning of a word that I thought meant something completely different.

Carne = meat

Carnicería = butcher… yeah and nope.

Carnicería actually just means carnage  

Sometimes language is a weird thing and Spanish is right up there at the top  

Anyone else speak other languages that have similar strangenesses in it?

[jukel123 8,235]

I speak Scottish fluently. There are many head scratchers for beginners. For example: ya fenian,bead rattling  bass. ( You are a Catholic b*****d who habitually prays whilst clutching rosary beads)

Where the f**k are ee frae? ( Where on earth are you from?)

Div ee fancy your chances big guy? (Tall fellow, Would you like to engage in a no holds barred fight?)

f**k off hame, the famine's o'er ya Kunt! ( Please leave Scotland you of Irish and Catholic descent, there is no longer a famine in Ireland you vagina.)

The only king Billy is Billy McNeil. ( We do not recognise the Dutch protestant  King William of Orange as a legitimate king. We do however recognise the former Celtic captain and manager Billy Mcneil as a great football player.)

I hope you next ride is a broken bottle ya bluenose basta. ( When next you engage in sexual intercourse, I hope you choose to plunge your penis into a broken bottle you Glasgow Rangers supporter.)

I could go on all day, it's a totally different, very complex language.

Edited May 11, 2024 by jukel123

[mushroom 13,082]

6 minutes ago, jukel123 said:

I speak Scottish fluently. There are many head scratchers for beginners. For example: ya fenian,bead rattling  bass. ( You are a Catholic b*****d who habitually prays whilst clutching roseberry beads)

Where the f**k are ee frae? ( Where on earth are you from?)

Div ee fancy your chances big guy? (Tall fellow, Would you like to engage in a no holds barred fight?)

f**k off hame, the famine's o'er ya Kunt! ( Please leave Scotland you of Irish and Catholic descent, there is no longer a famine in Ireland you vagina.)

The only king Billy is Billy McNeil. ( We do not recognise the Dutch protestant  King William of Orange as a legitimate king. We do however recognise the former Celtic captain and manager Billy Mcneil as a great football player.)

I hope you next ride is a broken bottle ya bluenose basta. ( When next you engage in sexual intercourse, I hope you choose to plunge your penis into a broken bottle you Glasgow Rangers supporter.)

I could go on all day, it's a totally different, very complex language.

I wouldn’t say scotch is weird…  

 

 

[jukel123 8,235]

11 minutes ago, mushroom said:

I wouldn’t say scotch is weird…  

 

 

I'm  English but I get the joke. The jocks get very irate if you describe them as 'scotch'. Scotch is a drink or refers to a Scottish product, for example scotch beef.

The jocks are very easily riled( just mention 1966 very loudly). Someone said: " It is not difficult to distinguish between a ray of sunshine and a scotsman."

[mushroom 13,082]

Meant Scots.. my apologies to no one in Scotland lol

[chartpolski 23,930]

1 hour ago, mushroom said:

After 13 years living in Spain, I’ve just learnt the meaning of a word that I thought meant something completely different.

Carne = meat

Carnicería = butcher… yeah and nope.

Carnicería actually just means carnage  

Sometimes language is a weird thing and Spanish is right up there at the top  

Anyone else speak other languages that have similar strangenesses in it?

I speak English, well, as much as a Geordie can ! And also get by in Arabic. I can have very basic conversations in a couple of other languages, and can manage a menu in a few other languages. 
Interesting that Spanish is a Romance language, but the Germanic/ Anglo Saxon “carnage” isn’t to far from the Spanish for “ butchery “.

My grandson is fluent in spoken, written and reading English and Arabic and is learning Japanese. Three massively different languages.

He’s won his school spelling bee two years in a row against older children, so I’m guessing he has an aptitude for it !

Cheers.

[mushroom 13,082]

Any romance/Latin derived words in English (middle and modern) is a direct result of the 1066 Norman invasion.

Well done to the lad, nothing wrong with being intelligent  

[jukel123 8,235]

The brits seem very embarrassed to try even basic words in foreign countries. 

I don't mind having a go and can get by in French and Spanish. My Mrs refuses to utter a single foreign word. I kid her on that she thinks she's an  upper class English woman to posh to speak to the natives.

I don't mind making a complete arse of myself in a foreign language, I've had a lifetime experience of making an arse of myself.

Takes me a while to get back to English when I get home. I'm still in gracias ,por favor and driving on the right  mode for a few days.

[chartpolski 23,930]

10 minutes ago, mushroom said:

Any romance/Latin derived words in English (middle and modern) is a direct result of the 1066 Norman invasion.

Well done to the lad, nothing wrong with being intelligent  

I once spent an entire long haul flight trying to converse in my pidgin Italian with a steward , he kept me well supplied in drinks and was very pleasant, but as I disembarked, he whispered “ by the way, I’m Spanish”, I replied “ ces’t la vie” and he laughed…. 
Cheers.

Edited May 11, 2024 by chartpolski

[Neal 1,870]

I'm no good at foreign languages (apart from, like most, a smattering of french) but I learnt BSL when I was getting into teaching.

However, I've always been good at imitating voices and accents. When I went to Paris in the early 90s during my Fine Art degree I took along a phrase book and simply read the phrase I needed before going in each shop. My girlfriend at the time was from Coniston and had an accent half way between George Formby and Orvill the duck. Everywhere she went it was immediately apparent that she was NOT french. Because of my french accent everybody assumed I was a local, which lead to a few embarrassing incidents when they started "chatting" to me.

[jukel123 8,235]

I hailed a taxi in Madrid and told the driver in Spanish we wanted to go to the airport. He understood and with a 'si senor' he sped off. I sat back smugly, thinking I was an international jet setter.

Unfortunately he misunderstood my lousy Spanish and took us to the 'puerto' (port) and not the 'aeropuerto' (airport).

Doh!

Edited May 11, 2024 by jukel123

[mackem 26,779]

15 minutes ago, jukel123 said:

The brits seem very embarrassed to try even basic words in foreign countries. 

Not me,I can say “Excuse me,how much for a blow-job off your sister?” In Punjabi,and this morning I made an old ex-Gurkha smile when I asked his name in Nepalese.

[chartpolski 23,930]

My two children went to school in the Middle East in an English/ American school curriculums and learned Arabic as their second language, but when my son went to boarding school in England for his final few years, he was taught German, for some reason that escapes me !

My two nieces who are New Zealanders we’re taught Japanese and Chinese as second languages.

Id say these days, just in my opinion, mind you, the languages a youngster would need are, in order of importance  are; English, Chinese, Spanish, ( because of the South American countries that speak it), Arabic, Japanese, French.

One of my late sons fiance’s was South African and she spoke Afrikaans, Arabic, English, French, Italian, and the Xhosa “click language.she was an interpreter at the British Embassy…….I had a labourer In Saudi who was Somali, he spoke his own language as well as English, Arabic and Italian …… funny old world , isn’t it ?

Cheers.

 

[chartpolski 23,930]

8 minutes ago, mackem said:

Not me,I can say “Excuse me,how much for a blow-job off your sister?” In Punjabi,and this morning I made an old ex-Gurkha smile when I asked his name in Nepalese.

And tagalog, Thai and various central Asian dialects……

Cheers.

[mackem 26,779]

4 minutes ago, chartpolski said:

My two children went to school in the Middle East in an English/ American school curriculums and learned Arabic as their second language, but when my son went to boarding school in England for his final few years, he was taught German, for some reason that escapes me !

My two nieces who are New Zealanders we’re taught Japanese and Chinese as second languages.

Id say these days, just in my opinion, mind you, the languages a youngster would need are, in order of importance  are; English, Chinese, Spanish, ( because of the South American countries that speak it), Arabic, Japanese, French.

One of my late sons fiance’s was South African and she spoke Afrikaans, Arabic, English, French, Italian, and the Xhosa “click language.she was an interpreter at the British Embassy…….I had a labourer In Saudi who was Somali, he spoke his own language as well as English, Arabic and Italian …… funny old world , isn’t it ?

Cheers.

 

My kids speak flawless Cantonese,my missus speaks English and French as mother tongues.I was in a fake designer handbag shop an hour outside Istanbul the other week,the guy in charge spoke Turkish,English,French and German,brits don’t feel the need to learn I think as most people wherever you go in the world want to practice their English.