Friday, June 5, 2009
language, language, language
I always said if I could have one superpower it would be to speak all languages that ever existed. Think about how awesome that would be. Well, I think it would. I'm a madwoman these days stumbling across new blogs with vast amounts of information. I must admit, I thank my lucky stars every day to be alive during the cyberspace generation. When I was a kid, I used to make my mom take me to the library and I would spend HOURS there....browsing the shelves for new things to read about, looking up stuff in the phone books they had there (cuz I couldn't just jump on the internet and look it up)....I had penpals in foreign countries....the thrill of knowing what someone's daily life was on the other side of the planet mesmerized me. Well, at this point in time I'm only fluent in English. I can hold my own in Spanish but I'm definitely not fluent. And as I was reading my friends language blog and there was a posting about the Cyrillic alphabet, I remembered a time last year when I taught myself the Cyrillic alphabet and was determined to learn Russian. Ironically I live in a Puerto Rican neighborhood in Chicago, but my exactly corner....the little tiny enclave that encompasses maybe 6 buildings....are all Russian and Ukranian! I made friends with a lot of them at one point in time and was definitely the odd woman out. So I decided to try to learn. That fell by the wayside when they moved or we lost touch. But I think I want to pick it up again. But very leisurely....I'm committed more to Spanish at this point in time. For your viewing pleasure...here's the Cyrillic alphabet. I think it looks pretty damn cool. What do you think? How many languages can you speak? I always wondered it it was hard if two people are talking to you at the same time in a different language but you are fluent in both do you just "understand" them both at the same time? ha ha.
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2 comments:
That super power would rock. I want it too.
I thought about what you wrote some more. This is what I've heard, if you grow up (from birth that is) speaking 2,3 or even 12 languages you will have a perfect accent and be able to speak them like a native. You will be able to understand the different conversations if you walk into a room of people speaking all those languages. Except, because you learned them at the same time, you might not be the best at translating from on to the other.
If you learn a second, or third language later in life, chances are you will always have an accent. But you will be able to distinguish better between the two and will be a better translator.
For me, at first, it was really hard to switch back and forth between languages. Now, it's so much easier, but it still sort of messes up my grammar.
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