ecl@mtgzy.UUCP (e.c.leeper) (03/10/86)
It occurred to me (as I plan my Scandinavian trip which involves five countries and five languages) that *the* two most useful phrases in any language X are: "Thank you." and "I don't speak X; do you speak Y (please)?" (For English-speakers, 'Y' is 'English'; for others, you can substitute the language of your choice.) So...please send me *via email* these two phrases for any languages (especially the less common ones) that you know. If pronunciation is not obvious, please provide transliteration. I can provide the Spanish, (and English, though that's not very helpful) so that's a start. In a couple of weeks, I'll summarize to the net (in net.travel). If it seems useful, I will try to repost (with additions) every six months or so. Yes, I realize that one should try to learn a little more of the language, but for people doing the "five countries in two weeks" routine, it's nigh onto impossible. And I realize that this is very much directed to native English speakers, but since that is the language I speak best (I think!), I'll collect that one. Evelyn C. Leeper ...ihnp4!mtgzz!ecl (or ihnp4!mtgzy!ecl)
anita@utastro.UUCP (Anita Cochran) (03/12/86)
In article <1646@mtgzy.UUCP>, ecl@mtgzy.UUCP (e.c.leeper) writes: > It occurred to me (as I plan my Scandinavian trip which involves five countries > and five languages) that *the* two most useful phrases in any language X are: > "Thank you." > and > "I don't speak X; do you speak Y (please)?" > (For English-speakers, 'Y' is 'English'; for others, you can substitute the > language of your choice.) > This reminds me of a funny thing that happened when we were in Scandinavia last spring. We were there for a scientific meeting and this actually happened to one of our colleagues. The meeting was in Uppsala Sweden. He walked into a restaurant and sat down. When the waitress came up to him, she asked him, in perfect English, "Do you speak Swedish?". Our friend was taken aback by this and asked "Since you speak such excellent English, why should I even try?" (He was not trying to be rude -- he was just surprised). She explained that few people in the world speak Swedish and many people of all countries know at least a little English so, unless they know someone is Swedish, they assume that English will be the language most likely to be understood! We found that anywhere we went in Sweden, Denmark or Norway everyone knew English since they must start learning it in 3rd grade. Most restaurants have menus in the native language and English with, sometimes, either French or German. Though I do not want to appear rude by insisting on English, when we covered 3 countries in 3 weeks, it hardly paid to learn the languages. This was never a problem and the Scandinavians did not seem to resent talking in English. -- Anita Cochran uucp: {noao, ut-sally, ut-ngp}!utastro!anita arpa: anita@astro.UTEXAS.EDU snail: Astronomy Dept., The Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX, 78712 at&t: (512) 471-1471
ingrid@pilchuck.UUCP (03/14/86)
> It occurred to me (as I plan my Scandinavian trip which involves five countries > and five languages) that *the* two most useful phrases in any language X are: > "Thank you." > and > "I don't speak X; do you speak Y (please)?" > (For English-speakers, 'Y' is 'English'; for others, you can substitute the > language of your choice.) > > Evelyn C. Leeper > ...ihnp4!mtgzz!ecl > (or ihnp4!mtgzy!ecl) Swedish-- thank you is "Tack" (not like the tack you affix things to the wall with) and the "I don't speak" sentence would go something like "Jag talar ingen Svenska; talar du Engelska?" (yogg tall-are' ing-in sven-skah'; tall-are' due sven-skah'?)
harald@kvvax4.UUCP (03/17/86)
anita@utastro.UUCP (Anita Cochran) writes: >We found that anywhere we went in Sweden, Denmark or >Norway everyone knew English since they must start learning it in 3rd >grade. This is about true. I bet almost any person in this country at least understands "thank you". And for the language question, "Do you speak English?", if someone dont answer reasonably to this, then either he/she dont speak the language, or you're in Finland :-). -- Harald Eikrem, a/s Kongsberg Vaapenfabrikk, CTG4 dept, Kongsberg, Norway {decvax,garfield,okstate,philabs,seismo,ukc,..}!mcvax!kvvax4!harald -- -- Harald Eikrem, a/s Kongsberg Vaapenfabrikk, CTG4 dept, Kongsberg, Norway {decvax,garfield,okstate,philabs,seismo,ukc,..}!mcvax!kvvax4!harald
chmorris@watrose.UUCP (chmorris) (03/18/86)
In article <499@utastro.UUCP> anita@utastro.UUCP (Anita Cochran) writes: >Though I do not want to appear rude by insisting on English, when we >covered 3 countries in 3 weeks, it hardly paid to learn the languages. >This was never a problem and the Scandinavians did not seem to resent >talking in English. I expect this depends which countries you covered, and how remote an area. When we went to Norway, Denmark and (briefly) Sweden, we found a large number of people who did not speak English! Many of these people knew German (or, exceptionally, French), but in rural Norway the farmer we stayed with did not speak any of these three languages and we were very glad of our Norwegian phrase book. Corinne Morris at the University of Waterloo
pablo@uw-june (David Cohn) (03/18/86)
> Evelyn's query reminded me of it because there is a phrasebook in it > which gives a few phrases in 25 different languages. The > words/phrases are listed in the roman alphabet with pronunciation > guides. They are "excuse me", "please", "thanks", "where is ...", > "how much is ...", "yes", "no", and "good". He gives many other > phrases in different parts of the book. Kind of silly, but nice to > have in one place, and fun to read. You'll know what to say to your > Swahili buddies. I bough one of these (Berlitz) while hitching through north Europe. It *was* very useful but not for the reasons that the publisher intended. My rides always spoke some English, frequently perfect English with an American accent. As a source of amusement during long rides, I would attempt to read some of the anglified phrases and they would try to guess what I was saying. Some one the more amusing entries (remember, this is Berlitz!) were: "Excuse me, you've dropped your handkerchief" "Do you live alone?" "Do you *have* to go home tonight?" Really, though, the phases you need are ones that need to be popped out in a moment when there's no time to look up: "Thanks", "Please", "Excuse me". Just asking "English?" is a clear enough question to any European; prefixing it by an "Excuse me" in the appropriate language is even better. --------------- blue skies, -pablo
mlf@grkermi.UUCP (Matt Fichtenbaum) (03/19/86)
>>We found that anywhere we went in Sweden, Denmark or >>Norway everyone knew English since they must start learning it in 3rd >>grade. English has been taught universally in Sweden only since W.W.II, so the "everyone" of whom you speak probably omits older people. I have been in many places in Sweden where my imperfect Swedish was the most effective way for me to communicate with people there. Furthermore, having studied a language doesn't mean that one is comfortable speaking it. Some of the best discussions I have had with Swedes were in our respective languages - I speaking English and the other party speaking Swedish. Speaking a "foreign" language is much more effort than listening to it. Conclusion: many people in Scandinavia will be able to communicate with you in English; some won't, and there will be times that the latter group are the only ones around. -- Matt Fichtenbaum ...Henry VIII, Henry VII, Henry VI, Henry V, Henry IV, Henry III, Henry II, Henry I, William Sydney Porter.
dsn@umcp-cs.UUCP (Dana S. Nau) (03/20/86)
In article <248@kvvax4.UUCP> harald@kvvax4.UUCP (Harald Eikrem) writes: >anita@utastro.UUCP (Anita Cochran) writes: >>We found that anywhere we went in Sweden, Denmark or >>Norway everyone knew English since they must start learning it in 3rd >>grade. > >This is about true. I bet almost any person in this country at least >understands "thank you". And for the language question, "Do you speak >English?", if someone dont answer reasonably to this, then either >he/she dont speak the language, or you're in Finland :-). As I found out on a recent trip to Finland, nearly everyone there speaks English too. If I remember correctly, they all have to learn two foreign languages in school, and most of them choose Swedish and English. I would imagine the Finns have some pretty compelling reasons for learning foreign languages: Finnish is a difficult language to learn (for example, they have no prepositions, but instead have about sixteen cases), and most non-Finns would have little reason for learning it. -- Dana S. Nau, Comp. Sci. Dept., U. of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 dsn@maryland seismo!umcp-cs!dsn (301) 454-7932
jsq@im4u.UUCP (John Quarterman) (03/25/86)
"Thank you" in English is "Ta!" :-)
--
John Quarterman, UUCP: {gatech,harvard,ihnp4,pyramid,seismo}!ut-sally!im4u!jsq
ARPA Internet and CSNET: jsq@im4u.UTEXAS.EDU, jsq@sally.UTEXAS.EDUandrew@stc.UUCP (03/27/86)
In article <824@im4u.UUCP> jsq@im4u.UUCP (John Quarterman) writes: | "Thank you" in English is "Ta!" :-) Oh, I always was taught that ``ta'' was a vulgar acronym for Thanks Awfully --- Not forgetting the plummy voice :-) -- Regards, Andrew Macpherson. <andrew@tcom.stc.co.uk> {aivru,btnix,concurrent,datlog,iclbra,iclkid,idec,inset,root44,stl,ukc} !stc!andrew
steves@tektools.UUCP (steve shellans) (03/28/86)
In article <400@umcp-cs.UUCP> dsn@maryland.UUCP (Dana S. Nau) writes: >In article <248@kvvax4.UUCP> harald@kvvax4.UUCP (Harald Eikrem) writes: >>anita@utastro.UUCP (Anita Cochran) writes: >>>We found that anywhere we went in Sweden, Denmark or >>>Norway everyone knew English since they must start learning it in 3rd >>>grade. >> >>This is about true. I bet almost any person in this country at least >>understands "thank you". And for the language question, "Do you speak >>English?", if someone dont answer reasonably to this, then either >>he/she dont speak the language, or you're in Finland :-). . . . > >I would imagine the Finns have some pretty compelling reasons for learning >foreign languages: Finnish is a difficult language to learn (for example, >they have no prepositions, but instead have about sixteen cases), and most >non-Finns would have little reason for learning it. >-- > >Dana S. Nau, Comp. Sci. Dept., U. of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742 >dsn@maryland seismo!umcp-cs!dsn (301) 454-7932 Years ago I picked up a piece of information that is intriguing, but I have never been able to confirm. It is: The Finnish and Hungarian languages are related to each other but to no other languages. Can anyone confirm? Are there any theories as to how this might have evolved, and when? Steve Shellans Tektronix, Beaverton OR {ihnp4,ucbvax,decvax,allegra,zehntel}tektronix!tektools!steves