Speaking in Tongues

[sparky]

αχ το τρίξιμο των δοντιών, το τρίξιμο των χεριών..... ~S~

 

[Unkotare]

...
None of the Ivy League schools are worth a damn today ...

How many did you attend?

 

[Unkotare]

...

Do you know what would happen if you stood on a busy street corner holding a sign protesting Chairman Xi?
...

Do you? How much time have you spent in China?

 

[Unkotare]

...
Maybe you are a Socialist/Communist?

Maybe not.

 

[Unkotare]

...

Well, let's see, Communist China is probably Americas most dangerous adversary. How smart of us to educate their citizens so they can go back home and design advanced weapons they can use against us. ...

So they can go back home and tell everyone how much better our freedom, opportunity, and form of government are. Or, stay here and contribute to the USA.

 

[BasicHumanUnit]

ESL right now.

So you mostly teach foreign students English. Lots of illegal immigrants?
Sounds like you're benefiting from government programs. Good for you.

Japan, Russia, Germany, the USA and recently China.
These are now or have been the traditional centers of technological advancement.
What do they all have in common?

 

[BasicHumanUnit]

Maybe not.

You're a school teacher. It is likely.

 

[Unkotare]

So you mostly teach foreign students English. ...

No, I mostly teach American students English.

 

[Unkotare]

... Lots of illegal immigrants?
...

I don't know. I don't ask.

 

[Unkotare]

You're a school teacher. It is likely.

It is a lie.

 

[BasicHumanUnit]

I don't know. I don't ask.

I think you conceal inconvenient truths

 

[BasicHumanUnit]

It is a lie.

Maybe, maybe not

 

[Unkotare]

I think you conceal inconvenient truths

Not allowed to ask, by law. You continue to be wrong.

 

[Unkotare]

Maybe, maybe not

No maybe. It is a lie. Stop lying.

 

[braalian]

The pronunciation can be tricky.

The first time I heard Portuguese (European Portuguese) being spoken I thought it was Russian or some other Slavic language.

 

[Unkotare]

The first time I heard Portuguese (European Portuguese) being spoken I thought it was Russian or some other Slavic language.

When I returned home from a couple of years in China, I was on the T half asleep and the background chatter sounded like Mandarin to me. I knew it wasn't, but my brain was confused.

 

[braalian]

I guess I’d never heard Portuguese spoken before. I expected it to sound more Latino-y

 

[San Souci]

My dad and his parents spoke Spanish so I learned to speak Spanish from a young age.... especially the swear words... lol

Yes. The USA has Spoken.

 

[San Souci]

The point of my classes is to teach the students English (or to improve their academic language skills), but other interesting linguistic developments also take place. When a class is comprised of all Spanish speakers, the students tend to lean on Spanish perhaps more than they should. I start off each year pretending not to speak any Spanish for just this reason. With time, they always figure it out though. However, when a class has a few speakers of Portuguese, Creole, French, Vietnamese, or Arabic the students take to teaching each other their various native languages. The kids get a kick out of it, and in the process they actually improve their English more than they otherwise would. Some speakers of more minority languages actually become pretty good at Spanish by the end of the year. Of course many of them are taking Spanish class too, so that helps. Communication always asserts itself.

How about Brooklynese? (hehe)

 

[Unkotare]

At one point today a group of three Dominicans, one Guatemalan, and one Moroccan were all sitting around trying to speak Japanese. Too funny.