How many and what languages do you speak?

[NovaKart]

Homolka? She's a predator who should never have gotten out of prison. I have to wonder at the sanity of whoever fathered those kids, as he must have known who she is and what she did. Living her life in francophone communities can't erase any of that.

Yeah, she was in the news again for a bit with the Luka Magnotta murder. He falsely claimed to be dating her.

I thought what happened with Homolka was the prosecution made a deal with her before the videotapes came out that showed she was very involved in the rapes of the victims if not the actual murders.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Yeah, she was in the news again for a bit with the Luka Magnotta murder. He falsely claimed to be dating her.

Not to turn this into a thread about serial killers, but holy crap. If the police had only done something when he was happily posting snuff videos about kittens, the man he killed and dismembered might still be alive.

I thought what happened with Homolka was the prosecution made a deal with her before the videotapes came out that showed she was very involved in the rapes of the victims if not the actual murders.

Yep, that's what happened. It doesn't make her any less guilty. We don't have the death penalty in Canada, but I'd make an exception for her and Bernardo, and a few others.

 

[Zkribbler]

French is complicated in Canada due to the fact that the French taught in school in Alberta is not the same French that's spoken in Quebec. We're taught the French spoken in France, and while much is the same, there are some words that have a different pronunciation and some phrases/expressions exist in one, but not the other.

That's just plain dumb and stupid.

 

[Quintillus]

That's somewhat fascinating that French French is taught in Alberta. I would have guessed Quebecois French in all of Canada, for the obvious reasons.

At this point, I'm only conversational in English (which I'm also fluent in). At one point in the past, I was also conversational in French, of the French variety. In Ohio, French French is taught (although I did have a French teacher from Belgium for a year, so we learned some of the differences with Belgian French), and Latin American Spanish, although in my dad's generation and native part of the state Castilian Spanish was taught. These probably make sense. Latin American Spanish can be legitimately useful in some cases in Ohio, and despite Quebec being much closer, there is probably more tourism from Ohio to France than Ohio to Quebec. Unfortunately, my French gets a little worse every year due to insufficient use, so while I could speak with French people in French in 2006, that is no longer the case.

I've also dabbled in Spanish, Swedish, Russian, and Esperanto, the latter most recently. In all cases, the lack of IRL people to practice with, or practical situations, has been a limiting factor in keeping up motivation. Although I did have a chance to practice my Esperanto in Ohio a few years ago. The side benefit of being a language few people know and even fewer know natively: when you do run into someone who has studied it, they're probably up for practicing it.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

That's just plain dumb and stupid.

It is, yes. I would hope there's actually a valid reason and not just because of the long-standing political animosity between my province and Quebec (dunno if you ever noticed Evie and I having what used to be an almost annual argument about the Battle on the Plains of Abraham, and then making up to wish each other 'Happy Canada Day/St Jean Baptiste Day").

French French comes in handy if you're going to France, though. While most of the language is the same, some pronunciations differ, and some vocabulary... yikes. I did a bit of research last night, and there are some words that if you get them wrong, you can get into trouble (they're perfectly innocent in one variety of French and rather insulting in another).

I tutored a friend in French one year in college. The rule is (or was; this was nearly 40 years ago and it may have changed) that if you're taking a B.A. and didn't take a second language in high school, you have to take it in college. So my friend was going for a degree in drama, but hadn't taken French in high school (I'd taken years of French by this point and wasn't compelled to continue, but did so anyway). She was EXTREMELY displeased to learn that she would have to take at least a year of it in college, and so while she was struggling through the equivalent of the basic French taught in Grade 10, I was struggling through reading French novels and plays (for some reason the material my instructor assigned was so godawful depressing).

But at least I could tutor her and explain some things. I remember bringing some comic strips that either contained French words and phrases or even ones that were entirely in French (I have two of those - an Archie digest and a Peanuts digest). One of the comic strips was a longer one in which Hagar the Horrible was trying to rob a French shopkeeper, who kept correcting Hagar's pronunciation and vocabulary. Hagar got so frustrated that he left without taking anything.

A few years later, my friend got married and Paris was one of the places they went on their honeymoon.

 

[warpus]

According to the internet in Ontario it depends on the teacher in terms of which French you'll learn.. but that doesn't make sense to me cause surely the curriculum is decided on a basis that goes beyond the teachers?

When I started learning English (in Germany) it was all British. We learned about pullovers, lifts, and flats. When I moved to Canada I had to unlearn some of that, but it wasn't really a big deal

 

[Valka D'Ur]

According to the internet in Ontario it depends on the teacher in terms of which French you'll learn.. but that doesn't make sense to me cause surely the curriculum is decided on a basis that goes beyond the teachers?

Curriculum is decided on a provincial level, yes. But there are various ways to interpret that and still stay within the curriculum. The kids in whatever grades may apply will learn French, but as you say, it's up to the teacher which kind of French to teach them. I'm not sure about Alberta, and never really worried about it too much since all my French teachers taught French French, and for political reasons I really can't fathom ever going to Quebec and needing to know Quebecois French in order to interact with people or situations there. But my last French class was nearly 40 years ago, so maybe some policies have changed. There's a hell of a kerfuffle in Alberta over the draft curriculum the premier and the Minister of Gutting Public Education want to put in. The francophone part of the curriculum is said to be... lacking, to put it politely (I haven't reviewed that part of it, having been sufficiently appalled by the social studies and science and health portions to read all of it). The French immersion teachers are not happy, to say the least.

When I started learning English (in Germany) it was all British. We learned about pullovers, lifts, and flats. When I moved to Canada I had to unlearn some of that, but it wasn't really a big deal

Hm. Sweaters, elevators, and apartments. What I can't wrap my mind around is "jumpers" and "trainers." I read a lot of Harry Potter fanfiction and have watched a lot of Britcoms on TV (Keeping Up Appearances is a favorite and one of the Christmas episodes is on tonight).

To me, a jumper is a short dress that's worn by girls and young women. It's sleeveless, and normally you'd wear a shirt or blouse underneath and probably some kind of leg covering - tights, pantyhose, etc. I wore jumpers to school occasionally.

The term "jumper" in the UK doesn't seem to be anything like that. So every time a HP character wears a jumper or there's a reference on Keeping Up Appearances, I have no idea what they're talking about.

As for "trainers"... it took awhile to realize that those are runners. Every time I see "trainers" in stories, I wonder what the kids are being trained to do. The only sport they play is Quidditch, which doesn't involve running, walking, or jumping.

Oh, and a big difference in vocabulary is "thong." When I was a child in the '60s, thongs were worn on the feet. Nowadays they're called flip-flops, and thongs are underwear that I would never in the entire lifespan of the universe consider wearing.

 

[Chukchi Husky]

A jumper is a pullover or sweater. I've never heard anyone use the word pullover before.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

A jumper is a pullover or sweater. I've never heard anyone use the word pullover before.

Prince Charles uses the word 'pullover.' Way back, not long after he married Diana, his ex-valet wrote a couple of tell-all books (he was fired/quit, depending on who's telling the story) and related Charles' attitude toward saving energy. He disapproves of turning the thermostat up unnecessarily, and has a tendency to say, "If you're cold, put on a pullover."

 

[thetrooper]

I'm almost monoglot.

 

[Josu]

Basque, Spanish and whathever is the language I use in this forum

 

[Aiken_Drumn]

I only speak English. I have attempted French/German/Spanish and Latin back at school, but was woeful!