Share Pics of People Hauling or Towing Something Wrong

[Oaktree]

Now, French are a different breed. They dont speak English (nor Walons speak Dutch) unless they need you, instead of you need them.

Well, we Americans are just as bad, expecting people everywhere to understand English.

 

[bcp]

Well, we Americans are just as bad, expecting people everywhere to understand English.

If they don't, just speak slower and louder.

Bruce

 

[Rockbadchild]

All languages have regional or local differences. I can remember in France being told that French Canadians didn't really speak French. On a tour in Spain, our guide began by telling the Americans that spoke Mexican Spanish a list of things they couldn't say in Spain because it would be considered inappropriate.

100% just like from one part of the US to the other accent and slangs will vary... the more isolated a community is the worse it gets ... I am French from Ontario so if I go to Quebec we will have a different accent and slangs and if I go to France I can understand them very well although I might have to think about what they are saying at times because they also have slangs but if I try to talk to them they will have a very hard time understanding me espicially if I don't adopt their accent plus because I/we don't used totally the same words they are using. Most things has multiple word to say the same thing but I will used the wrong one but they only know one not two ... One example is if we talk about a deer, I will say deer but they don't know what a deer is, the name for them is ''cerf'' as Cervidae (the species family name) myself I know what is a cerf so I can follow the conversation but not the other way around... the list like that goes on and on... I can talk with them but I will used the wrong word and now we are fighting to understand each other with explanation and description... the other way around is less common but it happen espicially if your French languages skills is shallow, one example is they call their children ''gosse'' meaning in English and Canadian French testicl!E, so you would understand while in France a French guy ''say come inside I will show you my ''gosse'' (male reproductive parts )'' you will be like No I am not into this kinda things .... he will think you are rude or something.. French Canadian and France French don't have the same swear words just like in Spanish they are very regional...

At my workplace we have Spanish guys from Mexico, Peru and Spain they all understand each other but their are hiccups in certain and accents.

 

[California]

A couple of zingers we were warned about in Spanish language training, Peace Corps, 50 years ago:

Speaking Spanish, never say you are 'embarrassed'. Because in Spanish, that means pregnant.

And for the Spanish-speaking person learning English, in Spanish 'molestado' just means bothered. Avoid using that word in an English-speaking country. Unless you are really describing an assault.

More recently, speaking with well educated Spanish speakers, I sometimes ask them to correct the 'language of the streets' I learned in the barrios of Venezuela. But I am told my accent is near pure for the Spanish of the Andes region.

Added: My proudest moment was one Saturday when I was bored so I took a regional bus out to a small town an hour away from the metropolis where I worked. Conversing with a coffee shop waitress, she asked me 'are you from Spain?' You don't look Mestizo! (brown people). My Spanish was enough to fool this naive cutie that I wasn't a gringo.

 

[WinterDeere]

I'm sure the image we northerners have of southerners is equally off base

Are you saying they don't all have the verbal and mental prowess of Forrest Gump?

 

[RobertN]

You don't even need to go that far from home for cultural misconceptions. Look at how southerners' image of what "yankees" are like (and I'm sure the image we northerners have of southerners is equally off base). Or how Californians are perceived outside of their state.

I don't even need to go that far. Being from a somewhat rural part of N. Calif, it is amazing the perception and difference between rural N. Calif, Bay Area California, and urban SoCal.

 

[RobertN]

If they don't, just speak slower and louder.

Bruce

And phonetically

 

[RobertN]

Hollywood doesnt quite help our perception of you...

100% truth in that statement!

 

[California]

I don't even need to go that far. Being from a somewhat rural part of N. Calif, it is amazing the perception and difference between rural N. Calif, Bay Area California, and urban SoCal.

So true. An I gotta admit that years of business trips to urban SoCal reinforced the perception I had first learned from TV and movies.

Then - for the 400 miles in between NorCal and SoCal, You'll likely need some Spanish if you detour off the freeway.


Another regional distinction, from the hippie era: [BTDT]: San Francisco had flower children, hopeful pacifist kids who assembled there from all over the country to just hang out. In contrast across the bay in Berkeley this sense that change could be accomplished, was expressed as protests over the conduct of the VN war. Two different cultures.

 

[ning]

All languages have regional or local differences. I can remember in France being told that French Canadians didn't really speak French. On a tour in Spain, our guide began by telling the Americans that spoke Mexican Spanish a list of things they couldn't say in Spain because it would be considered inappropriate.