any cunning linguists?
 

ok... after that bad joke...
.
in my "hello..." thread I was speaking about the various language they speak here and that's got me thinking about the make up of the cellar...

do any of you kid n kidders speak any "foreign" languages

I like to think of myself as multi -lingual speaking both American -AND- British English as well as a bit of French.

:p:

I have Tourist Lingo in French, German, Spanish* and Italian.
Which means I can say Please, Thank You, Sorry/ Excuse Me (essential to a Brit) Hello, Goodbye and order drinks and food reasonably well. My Dutch is on an even lower level, but I can at least say Hello in Dutch - I am then replied to in English, to my relief. But the Dutch like you if you make the effort, whereas the French are appalled if you mangle their language.

I should have tried to keep up my French. I've lost pretty much all of it.
I was taught by a native French-speaker from the age of ten and was reckoned to have a good accent because of it. I spent some time in France - attended a French school - and got on quite well. But I was appallingly homesick - something I never expected. I think that gave me a real fear of ever leaving my country. I know many people who dream of moving abroad - I am definitely not one of them. I could handle Wales. Maybe.

Although moving to Toledo has its own appeal...

* ETA my Spanish is Catalan, which is slightly different to standard Spanish. I learned it in holiday resorts/ from tourist guides, as opposed to having language lessons.

I speak fluent Geek, although with a slightly Nerdish accent.

And German.

I speak jive.

And some french.

I am fluent in pig latin.

tourist[stolen from Sundae] Italian and Spanish and extremely fluent in Sarcasm :eyebrow: [hence the overuse of eyebrow guy]

Parseltongue.

:P

I can tie your little thing into a knot with my tongue too....

Sundae speaks fluent sex.

English (preferably BE)

I can get the drift of Italian, French and Middle English but not much speaking/writing capabilities in those.

I was fairly fluent in French in my late teens, when Rosetta Stone was an actual stone.

Oh yeah, I speak a little Spanish too. For example, I know that como se llama means "what is the name of your llama?"

From Blackadder II, I learned "un fuego grande" meant a big fire, and "les testiculos" were testicles. And yes, in the episode the two were linked.

Education is just everywhere!
And yet Infi & I get paid for it :)

In Spanish I can say "two cold beers, please", "where is the bathroom", and "eat my meat" (my older brother had Spanish in high school).

I hope he didn't forget to teach you por favor!

ETA - it's already there in your post!
My post seems redundant now, but I'm keeping it as an intersting point (IMHO)

I think when Americans abroad are considered rude, one of the main reasons is that they do not use please and thank you as often as Europeans.

From working in a London restaurant I realised it was a cultural difference and nothing to do with manners, but it's a surprise when you first encounter it. On the one hand you're treated like a servant, but on the other you get a bloody big tip! And the Americans you meet when you're not wearing work clothes are happy to divulge their whole family history (including salaries) as soon as you've said hello.

Thank you
Btw - I'm the youngest of 5 and make absolute oodles of money ;)

Ohh and hello * LOL*

Aaaah but you have an English wife.
I know the English.
They fight dirty.
And think dirty...

Hello! backatcha anyway.
Send me a bar of chocloate or a cuckoo clock sometime.
(I'm technically European, I am allowed to make crass generalisations)

sundae - people from the midwest of the US say please and thank you all the time.

We're the friendly Americans! You're prolly getting a lot of a*holes from the coasts. ;)

I'se gonna say: I'm all about please and thank you, thank you very much. But Bri's right, you have some dubious coasties running around, probably with mucho expendable cash who don't feel they HAVE to say please and thank you, never having worked behind a cash register or the like. ;)

Youze guyz are coastists!:p:

OH, I know more Spanish (grassy ass, means thank you) and some German (donkey shit, means...um, thank you again?)

Well we didn't mean YOU, spexx. :) Some of my best friends are coasties. ;)

I speak redneck, hillbilly, hippie, jive, wigger, Texan, a smattering of urban, and Merkin.

I do not speak or understand politics, religion, or bullshit.

six years of French study, left unused for so long it's all gone now.

Used to be very good with languages as a kid. Have long since forgotten most of the French I learned though, and the Spanish. Learned some German in my 20s and have forgotten most of that too *laughs*

Why, thank you very much.:)

Spexx is ok. He's our coastie :p

Spanish, spanish, and more spanish. I'm not fluent by any means, but I can understand more than I can come up with on the fly, and I can almost always reorganize whatever I need to say using words I do know.

I think I've mentioned this before, but... way back when I worked in pizza delivery, about once a night we'd have a Spanish-only customer call in. Our boss would speak to them in English, but with a painfully stereotyped, drawn out Spanish accent. "Joo wanna peeesa por deeliberry, mang?" And I swear to god, most of them were able to understand.

Sir, you repeat yourself.

I speak English, Strayan, some German and some Japanese.

Quite a lot of Japanese just is English with an accent. They even use a special phonetic script (katakana) to write foreign loan words, so they're easy to pick out.

Sando................Sandwich
Digi-Cam............Digitial Camera
Furatto Sheetsu....Flat Sheets
Pirro keisu...........Pillow case

Spanish is at present strongest from at-least-weekly practice. Russian is still fairly solid, French now the weakest.

The French have been the weakest...

We need Limey here, she's a cunning linguist as she demonstrated for both Dana & me.

Re Americans saying please & thank-you, I noticed it in films too.
Someone walks into a bar, sits down and beckons the bartender over. "I'll have a beer."
That is appalling manners in England! Firstly, you say "Excuse me" if you want to get someone's attention. More likely you will stand/ sit politely until you are noticed. Then you ask for a beer, in the same way you would ask a friend (even though you are going to pay for it). "Can I have a beer, please?" When given it you thank the bartender, and thank him again when he gives you your change. And maybe even add something like, "Lovely, thanks!" as if he has given you a prize rather than doing his job.

The above is mostly tongue in cheek. But true.
No, just kidding. Even though it is true.

I am well aware that Americans have good manners. I think there is a bit of a cultural difference though. I think you'd find our customer service quite surly for example.

most of the English pubs I go into the landlord or bartender will just look up and say

"same again Greg?"



and I go into a lot of pubs !!!!!!!!!!!
http://www.legaljuice.com/drunk%20ma...inebriated.gif

That's pretty much the way it is here Sundae, except once you get really drunk, then the bar staff just hope you can stay standing without assistance.

Ugh. At my now defunct club, I hated when people would say to the bartender: give me 10 eyes, eyes being a type of gambling ticket.

Give me? How about "Can you get me" or "May I have"?

But, I hated being called 'barmaid' when I bartended. No one called the male bartender 'barbutler.'

There are a lot of people with bad manners. I doubt Americans, rude as we are, have the corner on the market. ;)

Movie conversations match real conversations about as well as pigs get fitted with wings.
I'm not even sure whether British pub scenes reflect reality. I know on Coronation Street, people often leave drinks undrunk (when everyone I know knocks them back prior to leaving). But the truth is a SCENE CAN BE SHOT so many times thata apart from being a continuity nightmare it can actually make an actor sick. James Marsters was called on to down a bottle of "spirits" (ie coloured water) to establish his character in Torchwood. He vomited between takes. Commitment.

So, no.
I don't judge teh Merkins on film and TV, really.
And as I said, my experience was positive as I understood rudeness was not intended.
I hope to get to America at some point. And say, "Please! Oh please! Oh oh oh! Please, more!"

"Oh God! Thank you!"

And that's only when being served a burger ;)

ETA - barmaid is still okay here.
I have no probs with it, and it is still in general use.
Check back with me in a couple of yers time, I might have changed my mind.
I grew up with authoress, murderess, poetess etc
(and those were just my friends)

:lol:

Barmaid is still in usage here too. I just never liked it. It seems like I should have my boobs hanging out and a really short skirt on, and be really ditzy.

I know, that's my hang-up and it's not a horrible word, I just couldn't stand to be called that. But I'd always get a laugh with "Hey, you don't call Dane 'barbutler' do you?" My customers loved to get me fired up. ;)

Tick, tick, oops!
I rarely wore a short skirt (far too impractical) but my "girls" haven't been easily contained since I was 17.

I don't think I'm really ditzy, but when I was in my early twenties I could very much play it :) Over/ under charged you? Oh I'm sorry, I have big tits. Got your drinks wrong? Sorry - tits. I can't hear you? Sorry, my fault, great big tits.

I was pretty good actually.
The owner of the pub had a speech he gave to all new barmaids, about no customer wanting to come in and see a miserable face. Every time that door opened we looked up and smiled. And if there was no-one needed serveing we kept an eye on them until they were ready to order. And if the pub was already full we kept a list in our head as to who came in first. And we remembered their drinks.

I was a foxy 19 year old at the time, and could have got a job posily sulkily in any of the toewn centre bars. Instead I learned my trade under a dictatorial Spaniard (called Benito!) and I'm so glad I did.

As a cow orker at the Country Club once said, bartending requires 'acute awareness.' To be good at it, you do know who was there first, what people typically drink, when they need a refill, if they like to re-use their ice or start fresh...

Oh honey, I was a cutie in my 20s too, but what really wowed them was my winning personality and quick wit. ;)

My ex and I (we got together from working at the bar together) would be talking about a person from the bar, couldn't remember their name, and would say "what's he drink?" "Oh, gin and tonic with a twist" (unusual in that lemon twist isn't usually favored over lime) and then go "OH, HIM! Yeah, I remember him!)

The owner also taught me to slip the regulars a free drink from time to time: they pay the utility bills, he said.

Wow! Ben would have seen a free drink as the ultimate betrayal!
He said more than once that none of his customers gave him anything for free (actually, not 100% true, but many worked in insurance or accountancy) so why would he give them something free in return?!

He gave them looks at the barmaids!

He was a hands-on employer as well. In that he put his hands on all of us!
But he co-owned the pub with his wife (as well as another rarely seen business partner) and had five daughters. So he might squeeze us from time to time, but he was as protective as any Spanish father if he thought anyone was taking advantage of ut.

He twice lent me A LOT of money, no questions asked. Once was when my bf left me with a horrendous electricity bill, after promising he would sort anything outstanding after he dumped me and left our shared flat. I was still in love with him and too ashamed to ask, despite his salary being 3x mine.

The next was when my deadbeat bf ran up £150 bar bill and I felt it a matter of honour to pay it back. Weeks of wages pissed away. Yeah - I left him.

Myself and the student nurses that made up the majority of the other evening bar staff recognised customers by their drinks too. I made a habit of befriending the ones that no-one else liked. The impolite ones, if you will. I hated to be inactive, so would rush towards an unpopular customer, rather than hold back.

I also ended up being known as easy to work with. I've worked with some real mardy arses in my time, but have made out that they are real charmers for 4 hours. It was a good move all told, and got me more shifts.

They would probably think you were mocking them, and give you bad service. :) I liked the people who were nice, but quick about it--if you sit there and try to chat with me like I'm a human being, that just means you're holding up the line and going to get me in trouble.

That's a bar wench!

And since then you've both improved like fine wine.

That was supposed to be a sexor joke.
Didn't work....

Awww, shucks, thanks Spexx. ;)

Now that the thread has strayed, my post will seem boring and off topic. Just to add to the original question of the thread, I learned French and Chinese but lost most of it from years and years of lack of use. I now can only speak English and Vietnamese fluently.

One of my French instructors was from Vietnamese aristocracy. Her father was an Ambassador and she went to school in France. Another instructor, who was from France, had a husband who was a soldier killed in Vietnam. Small world.

Though etymologically, maybe they should.

A butler is FAR above a maid!

Butler <-- M Fr. botellier, the guy who handles the bottled goods -- his duties about serving milord's table seem to have started out as something like a sommelier's.

English, French and a little German. In general I find Americans to be far more obsessive aabout their manners -sending notes to thank people for thank you notes sent for gifts that were given inperson and thanks said at the time..... but yes, ordering is different. I always thought I'd never say "can I get....", or "I'll take a...." but I do. I aleways say thank you, though. "May I have...." tends to throw waitstaff off balance and then you have to go through 10 painful minutes of how they love your accent and where are you from and how they're saving to go to England......

English (Br), Russian (fluent), French (better than it ought to be after years of neglect).
But then I do work as a translator of Russian.