After I kicked the wife and kid out to work and class I put some music on (my foreign language mixtape) and have been listening to it for about an hour and a bit and the UPS guy just rang the bell for a delivery for my downstairs neighbour and I couldn't find the english words to say good morning to him
ended up saying
"guten morgan
wie geht's?
brauchen sie mich zu unterschreiben?
ich danke Ihnen sehr"
it was only when I got upstairs I suddenly remembered this wasn't germany and my german is pretty bad anyway these days so i probably double confused the wotsit out of him
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Re: forgotten how to speak english
I have no idea if your music taste runs to the occasional (or not-so-occasional) hip-hop, but my foreign language mixtape wouldn't be complete without a track called Unpredictable by Australian band The Herd. Combines Czech, Spanish, English, and a spot of Mandarin.
I'm also somewhat partial to Regina Spektor getting her Russian on in Après Moi (humminah)
I'm also somewhat partial to Regina Spektor getting her Russian on in Après Moi (humminah)
Re: forgotten how to speak english
[edited to keep it PG-13]
TheEponymousBob said:
I have no idea if your music taste runs to the occasional (or not-so-occasional) hip-hop
hip hop/rap is about the only thing I don"t listen too. I"ll listen to most other things but just can"t stand hip hop or rap "pull your blooming trousers up and get off my lawn"
I have a thing for 1980s/90s nena
I"m also somewhat partial to Regina Spektor getting her Russian on in Après Moi (humminah)
Yup like some Regina Spektor, Little Boots… At the moment now I have gone back to english language music i"m listening to some Bubblegum pop (at least my definition of Bubblegum) Ellem, Rabbit!, April Smith and have cued up some Ska, Belle & Sebastain, Biffy Clyro & a couple of versions of Poupee de Cire Poupee de Son (the Arcade Fire cover and the Belle & Sebastain cover) for when that play list finishes
TheEponymousBob said:
I have no idea if your music taste runs to the occasional (or not-so-occasional) hip-hop
hip hop/rap is about the only thing I don"t listen too. I"ll listen to most other things but just can"t stand hip hop or rap "pull your blooming trousers up and get off my lawn"
I have a thing for 1980s/90s nena
I"m also somewhat partial to Regina Spektor getting her Russian on in Après Moi (humminah)
Yup like some Regina Spektor, Little Boots… At the moment now I have gone back to english language music i"m listening to some Bubblegum pop (at least my definition of Bubblegum) Ellem, Rabbit!, April Smith and have cued up some Ska, Belle & Sebastain, Biffy Clyro & a couple of versions of Poupee de Cire Poupee de Son (the Arcade Fire cover and the Belle & Sebastain cover) for when that play list finishes
Re: forgotten how to speak english
Depending on what I've been listening to I might switch accents around, or entire languages once I get too tired. Accents are hard to kick, but once somebody starts speaking either English or Dutch I generally respond in the same. I have, however, confused some people by starting off in Dutch while in England.
Re: forgotten how to speak english
about the only accent I haven"t really been able to pick up thank goodness is a brooklyn/american one. I do slip on occasion and say cawfee and stuff like that but on the whole i"ve kept my mongrel british accent (Essex, London, Leicester mix) but put me in wales, scotland, cornwall, germany(mannheim excluded) , france …. and although be talking complete gibberish it"ll sound like i"m a native
- johnbeetem
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Re: forgotten how to speak english
ukscone said:
about the only accent I haven"t really been able to pick up thank goodness is a brooklyn/american one.
There are many 'Mercan accents and dialects. For example, I'm told you can capture all the idiosyncrasies of the Oklahoma dialect with the phrase:
Worsh the wot woll tahrs.
"Wash the white-wall tires". Makes sense to me. I lived in Northern Virginia for while and heard the phrase "bob wahr" a lot -- you use it for making fences. Brooklyn takes some getting used to -- doity poiple boids AKA pigeons. And Bronx? Fuggeddaboudit.
about the only accent I haven"t really been able to pick up thank goodness is a brooklyn/american one.
There are many 'Mercan accents and dialects. For example, I'm told you can capture all the idiosyncrasies of the Oklahoma dialect with the phrase:
Worsh the wot woll tahrs.
"Wash the white-wall tires". Makes sense to me. I lived in Northern Virginia for while and heard the phrase "bob wahr" a lot -- you use it for making fences. Brooklyn takes some getting used to -- doity poiple boids AKA pigeons. And Bronx? Fuggeddaboudit.
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Re: forgotten how to speak english
ukscone said:
TheEponymousBob said:
I have no idea if your music taste runs to the occasional (or not-so-occasional) hip-hop
hip hop/rap is about the only thing I don"t listen too. I"ll listen to most other things but just can"t stand hip hop or rap "pull your blooming trousers up and get off my lawn"
I used to be pretty much the same—and I still absolutely avoid the mainstream US "gangsta" stuff. But a combination of BBC 6Music, a couple of strategically placed side-projects, and music apps like Last.fm and Spotify encouraged me to brach out and I"ve found that there really are "grown-up" examples of the genre that are extremely listenable. Some can arguably be said to sit somewhere between hip-hop and poetry set to music: Faithless, Ghostpoet, Roots Manuva and Sage Francis come to mind—and, of course, the late Gil Scott Heron, whose final album is a thing of beauty.
Strange thing is that my music tastes seem to be growing backwards to the rest of me. In my late teens and early 20s, it would be fair to say my preferences ran towards "Dad rock" (saw Pink Floyd at Earls Court in "94 ). Now here I am listening to and recommending hip-hop and even the occasional dance track (Django Django are awfully good)!
Edit: and now I"ve just gone and found out that the artist I was listening to today (Gotye) is currently no. 1 in the singles chart! That hasn"t happened in years! Lovely album, though; distinct traces of Sting and/or Peter Gabriel in their better days.
TheEponymousBob said:
I have no idea if your music taste runs to the occasional (or not-so-occasional) hip-hop
hip hop/rap is about the only thing I don"t listen too. I"ll listen to most other things but just can"t stand hip hop or rap "pull your blooming trousers up and get off my lawn"
I used to be pretty much the same—and I still absolutely avoid the mainstream US "gangsta" stuff. But a combination of BBC 6Music, a couple of strategically placed side-projects, and music apps like Last.fm and Spotify encouraged me to brach out and I"ve found that there really are "grown-up" examples of the genre that are extremely listenable. Some can arguably be said to sit somewhere between hip-hop and poetry set to music: Faithless, Ghostpoet, Roots Manuva and Sage Francis come to mind—and, of course, the late Gil Scott Heron, whose final album is a thing of beauty.
Strange thing is that my music tastes seem to be growing backwards to the rest of me. In my late teens and early 20s, it would be fair to say my preferences ran towards "Dad rock" (saw Pink Floyd at Earls Court in "94 ). Now here I am listening to and recommending hip-hop and even the occasional dance track (Django Django are awfully good)!
Edit: and now I"ve just gone and found out that the artist I was listening to today (Gotye) is currently no. 1 in the singles chart! That hasn"t happened in years! Lovely album, though; distinct traces of Sting and/or Peter Gabriel in their better days.
Re: forgotten how to speak english
Once, I ordered a snack from a railway station café in England... in Finnish.
I'm not entirely sure the staff noticed.
I'm not entirely sure the staff noticed.
The key to knowledge is not to rely on people to teach you it.
Re: forgotten how to speak english
Chromatix said:
Once, I ordered a snack from a railway station café in England... in Finnish.
I'm not entirely sure the staff noticed.
I ordered food at at Taipei MacDonalds once by assuming that the person on the other side of the counter was effectively a limited Finite State Machine. Therefore I just needed to fulfill his next state logic requirements
Me : Nehau (spelling !)
Him : Nehau, blurfl blurfl blurfl
Me : Big Mac Meal
Him : blurfl blurfl blurfl
Me : Nods head (in response to the question :do you want to go large)
Him : blurfl blurfl
Me : Coke !
Him : blurfl
Me : hands notes over using both hands and smile saying 'Shey Shey' (spelling !).
Before anyone accuses me of being linguistically imperialistic I'd like to point out (in case you didn't already know) Taiwanese and Mandarin have four tones, Cantonese has 5, get one, JUST ONE, and the sentence totally changes meaning.
For example the phrase
"How is your Mother"
by getting just one tone wrong turns into
"I copulate with cats"
Therefore I restricted my linguistic capability to
Nehau (Hello)
and
Shey Shey (Thank you)
Sadly Firefly didn't exist back then or else I might have faired better !
Once, I ordered a snack from a railway station café in England... in Finnish.
I'm not entirely sure the staff noticed.
I ordered food at at Taipei MacDonalds once by assuming that the person on the other side of the counter was effectively a limited Finite State Machine. Therefore I just needed to fulfill his next state logic requirements
Me : Nehau (spelling !)
Him : Nehau, blurfl blurfl blurfl
Me : Big Mac Meal
Him : blurfl blurfl blurfl
Me : Nods head (in response to the question :do you want to go large)
Him : blurfl blurfl
Me : Coke !
Him : blurfl
Me : hands notes over using both hands and smile saying 'Shey Shey' (spelling !).
Before anyone accuses me of being linguistically imperialistic I'd like to point out (in case you didn't already know) Taiwanese and Mandarin have four tones, Cantonese has 5, get one, JUST ONE, and the sentence totally changes meaning.
For example the phrase
"How is your Mother"
by getting just one tone wrong turns into
"I copulate with cats"
Therefore I restricted my linguistic capability to
Nehau (Hello)
and
Shey Shey (Thank you)
Sadly Firefly didn't exist back then or else I might have faired better !
- liz
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Re: forgotten how to speak english
Poupee de Cire, Poupee de Son - did you ever come across the Dubstar version? It wins by a mile for me.
Bums. Could have sworn I had an MP3 of it, but I don't seem too. Of to hunt the internets.
Bums. Could have sworn I had an MP3 of it, but I don't seem too. Of to hunt the internets.
Director of Communications, Raspberry Pi
Re: forgotten how to speak english
Sorry guys my usual forgetting of putting in single words has once more struck.
Should be
"get one, JUST ONE, wrong and the.."
Normal operation will, one day hopefully, return !
Should be
"get one, JUST ONE, wrong and the.."
Normal operation will, one day hopefully, return !
- liz
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Re: forgotten how to speak english
I have found what I am looking for, and am happy. And I do not endorse piracy. I had totally forgotten it had Sacha Distel in it too.
Speaking of the mangling of languages in song, what about Muse's I Belong to You (Mon coueur s'ouvre a ta voix)? Now, I LOVE Muse. I've been to see them in concert twice, and I experienced a twinge of jealousy when Matt Bellamy started dating Kate Hudson. But the way he sings the French in that song still makes me cringe and hunt for the fast forward button.
Jane Birkin's French never made me feel like that. Brigitte Bardot's English (or whatever the hell it is), though, in Gainsbourg's Comic Strip, is another thing entirely. Des CLIP! CRAP! des BANG! des VLOP! et des ZIP! SHEBAM! POW! BLOP! WIZZ!
I recommend a swift download if you've not heard it before. It's like nothing else.
Speaking of the mangling of languages in song, what about Muse's I Belong to You (Mon coueur s'ouvre a ta voix)? Now, I LOVE Muse. I've been to see them in concert twice, and I experienced a twinge of jealousy when Matt Bellamy started dating Kate Hudson. But the way he sings the French in that song still makes me cringe and hunt for the fast forward button.
Jane Birkin's French never made me feel like that. Brigitte Bardot's English (or whatever the hell it is), though, in Gainsbourg's Comic Strip, is another thing entirely. Des CLIP! CRAP! des BANG! des VLOP! et des ZIP! SHEBAM! POW! BLOP! WIZZ!
I recommend a swift download if you've not heard it before. It's like nothing else.
Director of Communications, Raspberry Pi
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Re: forgotten how to speak english
liz said:
I have found what I am looking for, and am happy. And I do not endorse piracy. I had totally forgotten it had Sacha Distel in it too.
They had him on Last Chance Lottery years ago, in a slot where some poor singer has to cover a song based on the spin of a wheel. He landed on Wannabe by the Spice Girls. It wasn"t pretty.
I have found what I am looking for, and am happy. And I do not endorse piracy. I had totally forgotten it had Sacha Distel in it too.
They had him on Last Chance Lottery years ago, in a slot where some poor singer has to cover a song based on the spin of a wheel. He landed on Wannabe by the Spice Girls. It wasn"t pretty.
Re: forgotten how to speak english
ukscone said:
[...] germany(mannheim excluded)
best!
Really, I used to live there for nearly 2 years and I never really got it. Just like the flavor of English they speak in Nice/Antibes.
btw. for learning English from German music I recommend Tocotronic.
[...] germany(mannheim excluded)
best!
Really, I used to live there for nearly 2 years and I never really got it. Just like the flavor of English they speak in Nice/Antibes.
btw. for learning English from German music I recommend Tocotronic.
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Re: forgotten how to speak english
My brother works for http://www.french-music.org - his job is to bring the Sound of France to les non-Francophones. (And the sound of non-Francophones to France - Marina from Marina and the Diamonds made him a carrot cake this Christmas, which made me so jealous I…simply don't have words.) Despite the Sacha Distel/Jonny Halliday reputation, there's actually a lot of really good stuff across the Channel. I heartily recommend a band called Phoenix (who sing in lovely, approachable English) if you want to dip a toe.
Director of Communications, Raspberry Pi
- liz
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Re: forgotten how to speak english
Oh - and Jonathan Coulton's Je Suis Rick Springfield is always good for a giggle. Un superstar!
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Re: forgotten how to speak english
Oh definitely some decent French stuff; I"m quite partial to Emily Loizeau and Clare Denamur myself. The lovely Martha Wainwright also released a semi-live album of Edith Piaf songs a couple of years back.
And Bill Bailley has a number called Doctor Qui, though I understand that"s intended to be Belgian.
And Bill Bailley has a number called Doctor Qui, though I understand that"s intended to be Belgian.
Re: forgotten how to speak english
@Liz Not that we should make enquiries with regard to a lady's age but are you old enough to remember Rapido on TV in the 80s?
- liz
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Re: forgotten how to speak english
Vaguely, yes. Although I was at boarding school at the time, so didn't get to watch much TV.
Director of Communications, Raspberry Pi
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Re: forgotten how to speak english
Hi Ukscone,
Personally speaking, the human language interface completely fails after long un-interupted coding sessions. For example, when working at Argonne National Laboratory, I used to have an office without windows. After more than 10 hours of coding without a break, I used to find it was more natural to look blankly at someone or write down a FORTRAN subroutine rather than actually speak.
Regards,
Will
Personally speaking, the human language interface completely fails after long un-interupted coding sessions. For example, when working at Argonne National Laboratory, I used to have an office without windows. After more than 10 hours of coding without a break, I used to find it was more natural to look blankly at someone or write down a FORTRAN subroutine rather than actually speak.
Regards,
Will