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Dirty Words In Other Countries...

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23:08 / 24.10.05

Hello everyone. Oddman here. Just wondering how many of you are bilingual, trilingual, fourlingual, octagonal, diagonal...and so on.

So, how many languages do you speak? Why did you learn? What do you want to learn? Do you have any tips to aspiring speakers of a language you have mastered?

I spek fLaless engish, and stumble through a bit of German. I'm getting better, though. I think that if I was visiting Berlin, or somewhere else in der nahe von, I could probably survive as a tourist.

But I'd end up eating a lot of schnitzel...(Unless someone could tell me some excellent german meals in english, or some excellent english meals in german...).

23:20 / 24.10.05

I started Kindergarden (a german word) in French and I continued until Grade 12, from which I graduated with a French Immersion Diploma.

My whole family speaks nothing but English, so I'm slowly losing the French.

I know a couple French swear words: "merde", that's shit. Wait, that's the only one I remember.

I tried to learn Spanish, but I lost that too.

23:54 / 24.10.05

I have worked with Spanish speakers from Latin America most of my adult life, so can communicate in most workaday situations in Spanish. Papito, donde esta la comida por los animales? Necessitas por los ninos, gracias. Oye, niemo! Da me el martillo cabrone. Estas haciendo enojado. &c.

I have read a good bit of Borges and Neruda in Spanish, but it takes a really long time.

00:01 / 25.10.05

I've taken 3.5 years of Spanish and always tested well, but my communication skills have devolved down to those of a five-year-old. And I can't speak Spanish well any more either. If someone needs to communicate with me in Spanish they'd better be prepared to speak to me as the would to a child.

That said, I've recently decided that a tenuous grasp of two languages is not enough, and I will soon undertake the cruel mangling of the French tongue...

00:03 / 25.10.05

Qalyn: Do you work in a zoo?

00:44 / 25.10.05

Dr. Fear, I work at a garden center which, in the autumn months, features a petting zoo. "Necesitas por los ninos" doesn't quite get across what I'm telling "Papito"--it is something I actually said today, but I elided the "ellos", because I wasn't really sure who "ellos" were and didn't want to send him on a wild goose chase; it was just "some people over there". Anyway, these ninos are visiting. They aren't baby animals themselves. I mean, they are, but not like that.

lekvar, every once in a while I hear some jackass speaking French. I hate it. I know there are some French-fanciers around here, but nowhere else could one find a language so obviously evolved around a mouthful of duck-gizzard.

06:24 / 25.10.05

I speak, or rather spoke, both French and Arabic, but since I have rarely used either in the last five years, massive holes have appeared in my vocabulary. Curiously, I've forgotten more of the French than the Arabic, despite it being another Indo-European language.

06:59 / 25.10.05

I was quite good at French, but having given it up once I left school by now I am very rusty to say the least. However, whenever I am exposed to French I am always suprised at how much I can pick up.
I'm currently learning Russian, and am doing quite well imho. I'm going to try and go on holiday there next year, and it would be nice to be vaguely fluent.

All Acting Regiment

07:18 / 25.10.05

Curiously, I've forgotten more of the French than the Arabic, despite it being another Indo-European language.

It's interesting, that. I think I read a replacement theory somewhere that said your mind basically tries to merge similar things together; thus your internal French gets shoved in with English and appears to have unnecesary, deletable words in it- because you already have a full english vocab, your subconcious thinks "Why keep Chien when we've got the far more common Dog?" and gets busdy overwriting.

08:40 / 25.10.05

Talking of German swear words, don't some of them refer to diseases?

09:43 / 25.10.05

I'm kinda tri-lingual,

I was born in Colombia, so Spanish was my first language, then spent most of my youth growing up in South Africa, so I had to learn English and Afrikaans. English is now my predominant tongue.
My spoken and written Spanish has deteriorated quite a bit, in that I often make grammatical errors, but I generally understand everything that is said to me.
My Afrikaans, however is pretty poor now, it does help when in Dutch speaking countries though.

I know smidgeons of Zulu and French as well. I'd really like to learn French properly, quite useful I think.

10:05 / 25.10.05

i grew up (and still live) in germany, but i don't know of any swearwords relating to diseases... i think. common swearwords are "penner", "pisser" and the ubiquitous but still nice "arschloch" (everybody knows this one).

"hurensohn" is a word you'd better not use towards anybody who's not your very good friend.

concerning my language education: the usual english and french at school, then two years of spanish (don't remember anything, shamefully).

i did one of those student exchange thingies to japan, that's why i speak quite okay japanese. swearwords? sure: "chikusho" meaning shit ("kuso" being another word for that), "yaro" literally something like vegetables, in this case close to fool maybe, and the well-known "baka", idiot. "busu" is used for an ugly girl (which of course there aren't in japan).

i've started to learn korean last year, still not too advanced though.

recommendation for learners of japanese: start with the dictionary form, i don't know why every course out there starts with the masu-form.

10:18 / 25.10.05

I am one of the most monolingual people on the planet. Years of forced french in school have associated bad thoughts in my head with attempting other languages.

However, last year I had a Swedish housemate, with a fiery temper, who became obsessed with soul calibre 2. Whenever his character died, cries of fita resounded around our humble home, which I came to learn meant cunt.

11:12 / 25.10.05

Haw haw, "forced french". If I'd known it was going to be that kind of party, etc.

17:46 / 25.10.05

Talking of German swear words, don't some of them refer to diseases?

I know them all, but I don´t know any with diseases.

Here are some useful swearwords:

Stinkstiefel
geistiges Pantoffeltierchen
Hässlette
Gesichtsfünf
Ikonoklast
Antipoden
Patagonier

Many of those are translations of Captain Haddock´s swearwords.

18:14 / 25.10.05

Smelly boot?
Spiritual little slipper beast?
?
Five faces?
Smasher of idols?
Australian?
Patagonian?

You're havin a larff, Misto, innit?

18:18 / 25.10.05

You can insult my country but that third one better not be dissing the Hoff. That's all I'm saying.

18:38 / 25.10.05

You're havin a larff, Misto, innit?

No, although most of these are funny and don´t work well for insulting anyone.

Stinkstiefel = grumpy person, has a foul mood

geistiges Pantoffeltierchen = somebody, who´s not very smart. Pantoffeltierchen is the smallest creature, so the person is of the intelligence of an one cell organism.

Hässlette = really ugly person. Häßlich means ugly.

Gesichtsfünf = fünf here means school mark D, Gesicht means face; again a really ugly person.

The last three are directly from Captain Haddock himself, he probably had bad experiences with Australians and Patagonians?

18:44 / 25.10.05

The only Spanish swearing I can remember would be from "For whom the Bell tolls,"

"Me cago en la leche tu madre."

Supposedly this is exactly the thing to say if you want to get into a knife fight with a Spaniard.

19:29 / 25.10.05

One could also caje en el pelo.

22:14 / 25.10.05

I knew a bit of French once, but lost it when I started learning Spanish....

My Spanish was pretty good, enough to get through Mexico for a few weeks without having to resort to English, but I lost it when I started learning German...

My German's doing really well, but only with reading it. I don't really have anyone to practice it on, so I just read kids' books all the time so I don't lose it... and I'm afraid of learning a new language in case I lose my German

(to learn German, I did quite well reading the childrens books, and listening to downloaded Pimsleur CDs. 99 half hour lessons! Quite good, but pricey if you buy them)

I was always told 'Chinga tu madre' was the worst thing to say in Spanish. In Poland, the 'K-word' (Kurva) is the strongest to say...

22:21 / 25.10.05

read some stephen king.
he's big in germany and it'll make your conversational german much better.its also morelikely that you'll start to notice idiomatic stuff and, if its one you know, you can have fun spottinig th edifferences.
well, it worked for me.
you do have to be able to get into stephen king, though.
fuck, maybe you should just get yourself some kafka..?

22:52 / 25.10.05

I speak Danish as my mother tongue, and English pretty close to fluently.
I know bits and pieces of German and French from school, but I never really bothered to put in the effort, so it's not impressive.
Finally, I know single words and phrases of a number of languages, e.g. from watching way too much anime.

For those with an interest in learning Danish, a few words, might be helpful to get you started (although I hear it hideously difficult for non-danes to get the pronunciation right):

Pikspiller - Literally, 'wanker'.
Fladpande - 'Flat forehead', a generel insult, implying stupidity.
Møgludder - 'Trash hore', but that doesn't convey the emotional content. Popularised by the rapper Jokeren.
Røvhul - 'Asshole', plain and simple.
Fnatmide - Name of the parasite that cause scabies. A generel insult, but often meaning someone who is annoying, but insignificant.

wembley can change in 28 days

07:17 / 26.10.05

My French is rusty as heck, my German spotty, and I'm still learning the Finnish. Try these out:

Perkele = Satan
Saatana = Satan
Helvetti = Hell (notice a theme here?)
Vittu = Cunt
Haista vittu = the equivalent of fuck off, literally it's "smell cunt."

So delicate, those Finns.

07:33 / 26.10.05

Hey LykeX, I was taught a few swear words by some Danish girls, only one I remember was something like footkannister (sp) supposedly derogatory to a woman of ill repute? Means something like fuck can?

07:52 / 26.10.05

Hudu f'sormok u f'oxx kemm ghandek.

It's Maltese.

07:54 / 26.10.05

...inti l'oxx

07:59 / 26.10.05

you do have to be able to get into stephen king, though.
fuck, maybe you should just get yourself some kafka..?

Kafka, of course. If you adopt King speak, you´ll sound like an idiot. Those King books are really dumbed down german.

Now with Kafka, you´ll sound accomplished:

Liebster Vater, Du hast mich letzthin einmal gefragt, warum ich behaupte, ich hätte Furcht vor Dir.

09:11 / 26.10.05

Those King books are really dumbed down german.

You mean it's actually possible to dumb King down?

11:13 / 26.10.05

I've been learning Spanish on and off for a few years, and have just spent 6 months living in Valencia. I reckon I really need a solid year to get over the hump from phrases to conversations. Back in England my co-worker is also learning as he has a Mexican girlfriend, so we spend all day practicing to each other. I'm hoping to make the move permanent within the year, so if anyone knows of any live music engineer or theatre technician jobs in Spain, let me know!

Regrettable Juvenilia

11:55 / 26.10.05

I'm a big fan of the French expression for simpleton, homme impair.

12:08 / 26.10.05

homme impair, nice!

Last year in Paris, I tried to stick that little piece of paper, that´s meant to be a subway ticket (not even half the size of the London stub) into the appropriate machine; thereby blocking one of the subway entries. And one Parisian looked at me miffed and called out:

"Ah, Monsieur Geniale!"

12:19 / 26.10.05

English is my mother tongue and I kinda speak French fluently. Kind of.

I teach classes in French and everyone seems to understand...but I am still kind of comedy foreign person with the funny accent and horrible errors.

I am always trying to improve my German. But my idle nature gets in the way.

Scrambled Password Bogus Email

12:19 / 26.10.05

Meshaste, sallop and malpop are all rather handy creole expressions likely to get you into a knife fight. Actually, only with respectable folks, and they don't pull knives, generally.

Laver deux te gueno, bouer gl'eau la, on the other hand, will have you in a fight in no time.

I love Dominican curses. It's always framed as a piece of advice, as in "Why don't you..." followed by some really offensive suggestion that you are really unlikely to wish to pursue. Creative stuff.

12:29 / 26.10.05

Mistoffelees, I think the French call a Brazilian wax a "ticket de metro"? Something to do with the narrow magnetic strip on the back of the ticket.

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