Countries and languages

Thank you all for your patience about my mini rant.  Sorry about that!  Sometimes things just build and you gotta let them out.  

I like to think that I'm pretty laid back, but I'm not.  Things get to me, so thank you all for your kindness!

Qcvar: Wow!  I knew a little about that history, but not as much as you told me.  Thank you so much!  I knew about the genocide, but I didn't know the numbers, the reasoning behind it, or who they targeted. Thank you for talking about that.  There are so many dark chapters in history that need to be more out in the open.  I think this is one of them.

I'm glad that you'r heritage is important to you, it should be.  I can't say I view myself as any sort of specific ethnicity.  I think I see myself as being white, I look white, I don't have an accent or speak in any specific lingo, and I never really knew a lot about my heritage until recently.  My ancestors were from Spain, so I don't look hispanic other then I have dark brown eyes and hair, hips, and I'm pretty short.  My skin is pretty pale and my facial features (I've been told) look more Native American then anything.  They funny thing is that I'm a mutt, I have a vary varied background.  My Mom is doing a lot of geneology at the moment and tells me that mostly I'm Irish, English, and Spanish, but also French, Italian, Scottish, Sweedish, Native American ( I have no idea what specific group), Czech, and the list goes on and on.

Anyway, I got off on a huge tangent there.  I definately understand what you're saying about the voter pamphlets.  I wonder why people would take the time to become a US citizen but not learn the language.  Granted those voter pamphlet things are pretty hard to understand sometimes even if you are a native speaker...so maybe there is a reason. I know in Colorado there was a fairly recent vote to add Spanish as a 2nd official language, but it was shot down pretty quick.  I don't know.  Sometimes I think that because we live in America, maybe we have a unique situation since we have such a varying background and history.  I don't know if we can find a benchmark or compare our situation to many other countries because our history seems drastically different.  Maybe I'm just nuts, but I think about that stuff a lot.  *sigh*

Anyway thank you all for being so nice.  I really appreciate it (not that I expected anything different from you wonderful people, but we've all been in that situation where you say something and everyone turns you into a target and jumps down your throat).     

Gee, I feel so out of place.  I live in a small city called Girard in Ohio (which is about 6-8 hours from Toronto, Canada via car).  You probably won't have much luck finding Girard on a map, though.  But you may find Youngstown, our bordering city.

As for languages I speak, I am (sadly) only fluent in English, but I do know a very limited amount of French and Japanese, and I'm about ... 30% fluent in Spanish.  I do love languages, though, and I'd like to become fluent in as many as possible. And if anyone would like to teach me...

As for hertiage, I'm 75% Irish and 25% of a mixture of British and German.  I've been to Ireland three times to visit family, and I would really love to go back again soon.  It's a really pretty country.

suthern CA for meh ^^ hehe. and of course, english is my first language actually..it's my only language,lol.

i'm a dude located smack in the middle of kansas... drawing is my escape because i get to know how much competition i have for later.

On Feb 14, 2006 3:22 pm, Yuuki said:

well i'll be 18 soon is that too old?

On May 6, 2006 6:23 am, Annieo said:


If you're heading off to college, you should look into their overseas exchange programs.  Some of them will allow you to head over to a sister institution overseas for a quarter or so.  I wanted to do exactly the same thing you're thinking, but I can't fit it in my schedule (finishing my major/minor will be hard enough).  I've heard wonderful things from people who have done Stanford in Kyoto, but I don't even have the basic one year of japanese to go.

I live in Italy, this is rather odd for me because I'm american. My dad's in the Air Force. whn I lived in america I felt that people who lived in my country should speak my language, but since I moved here I've sort of changed my opinon, or at least become more patient, the italians who live in and around our base (actually it's thier base, we just sort of borrow it) have all learned to speak a little english, especially shopowners. most people here (talking about american's now) try to learn enough of the language to get around, but it's hard because they can't just study all the time, they have full-time jobs and families. quite often they'll have us kids in high-school take italian for a language class and then cart us around as translators XD

okay, done ranting now... alright maybe not. what I'm trying to say is that american's tend to think that people should learn engilsh if they come to live in america, but they don't relize how hard it is to learn a language, and how much time it takes. they've never gone into a store and been completely frustrated because they can't get the shopkeeper to understand that they want weed killer, not kill-all. And they've never been resuced by some nice local who knows just enough of both languages. I swear, these people are my heros!!! also, personally I have a hard time learning any language, some people can pick it up in no time and others struggle. what we need is mutual understanding, and patience. lots and lots of patience

whew.... now I'm done

my part:
I'm from the Netherlands... my home language is Dutch, but my English is pretty fluent (including mistakes that real English jabbing peeps make lol)

Next to my two basics, I practicly understand German... if taken the time... a bit of French (mostly reading)

I also get some Japanese, which I just find interesting XD

On Feb 14, 2006 2:36 pm, Lilimayhem said:


I took Japanese for a few years- once you get over the different sentance structure, it's alot like Maori- they write how it how the word sounds. it's rather cool. The character sweren't hard for me to remember- the words are. I remember a few though-

Watashi wa Susaan Raagu desu- Neko wa suuki desu ne! Suugaku ga suuki desu. I'm pretty sure that's how it goes... Dragon is Ryuu, and from there onward, I'm stuck on Katakana for Jap- English translation!!! XD Oh- I can read Haichuu too!! Yuuummy!! :3

On May 7, 2006 5:45 pm, Dollmaker said:


I wouldn't suggest stalking me ^^; I suck at grammer in my OWN language let alone another

Hello,

Very interesting topic. I once worked with this guy from France. He could speak 12 Languages Fluently. I"m Born Here in The USA I can barely name 12 Languages.

Ok for me. I'm Hispanic. So I speak Spanish, Spanglish, English and Ebonics.

 

On May 7, 2006 2:10 pm, arkillian said:

Your name is Susaan and you love your cat!  ^_^  Namae wa Kendora! Kedo...  Neko wa daisuuki desu yo!!  Wakarimasu ka?

Watashi wa totemo hentai desu yo!  LOL  That my most recent accomplishment.  Naughty sentences are always fun to put together when learning a new language.

 

On May 7, 2006 5:45 pm, Dollmaker said:

 

Don't stalk me i can only say hello good bye cat dog, always in my heart, i'll be missing you and I love you  (i know the lest 3 from a song)

Wilderkarde, soy de Québec pero estoy aprenyendo espagnol!!! Voy a praticar contigo!!!! Hablo frances, por supuesto, y ingles tambien.

On May 8, 2006 10:30 am, Sliverbane said:

You very much want hentai!! NAUGHTY NAUGHTY!!!

Gee, I don't think I can form sentences with any languages I know...except English.  And Wilde, I wasn't aware that Ebonics was an actual language.    Uhm...I can count to at least five in every language that I know, though.  With the exception of Japanese, I can count to 12 or higher.  ^^;;  Whoo for counting!

And I'm very fluent in Pig Latin.

According to California law ebonics is a language.

Lilimayhem, Puedes practicar con migo todo lo que  queres. Puedo es espanol. :-) Puedes practce Sanglish con migo, as well. I wish I knew how to put the  accents oh the letters. like ~ over the n in espanol.

On May 11, 2006 7:01 am, Dollmaker said:


Maori is the same type of counting system as Japanese- if you find Jap's easy, then Maori is simply word replacement. In fact, Maori say their words the same as the Japs too- except Maori have WH and a few other sounds that the Japs don't have

1 to 5 in Maori- Tahi, Rua, Toru,Wha, Rima.

They add numbers to the end of numbers to get over 10 like Japan does too

Tekau ma waru- 18 (Tekau is 10, Waru is 8)

There you go- you learnt to count in Maori too

(We HAVE to learn it at school in New Zealand. It's becoming compulsary to have a certain level of training in it- I just know words...)