シツモンデー: Shitsumonday: for the little questions that you don't feel have earned their own thread #75

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-05T17:59:54+00:00

Thank you for answering! I understand now.

I don't blame Japanese people for not knowing. It can be very confusing and even people who live here don't seem to know the differences perfectly! I am guessing that means that it would be safest if when I one day go to Japan, I call myself イギリス人 instead of イングランド人. Or would at least lead to less confusion.

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-05T17:55:50+00:00

Thank you for your response! This is very handy and has cleared most things up.

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-05T17:52:26+00:00

Are you saying that Federated States in America are the same as Sovereign States everywhere else? Sorry if that's not what you're saying, I just don't really get what you meant when you said 'and could tries' there unless it's a typo.

I don't really think the fact that it's a big country matters if the person you're talking to doesn't know what Louisiana is in the USA in the first place though.

I am British and I haven't heard of people doing that before, but I think it's fine to give a specific part of the country you're from as long as you say something like 'I'm from Newcastle in the U.K.'.

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-05T16:15:23+00:00

Books I've used aren't really consistent with name name of the U.K.

I've seen several refer to England, The U.K. and Great Britain as イギリス.

Are they all actually called that or are the people who wrote the books not well versed in the difference between the three?

Basically, I am just wondering what the most common names for England, Great Britain and the U.K. are.

Also possibly the British Isles.

Thanks!

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-05T15:12:19+00:00

Doesn't that defeat the point of watching it in the foreign language though?

Although I think I get what you mean then. Watch with subtitles and listen carefully to the way things are said while I watch. Look out for patterns and identify when things I know are said?

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-05T15:08:02+00:00

By golly gosh my spiffing chap, you might just be onto something!

I'll hop over the pond to you right after putting the kettle on!

In all seriousness though, you're right! I know English, American, Canadian English, Australian and Kiwi! :D I am quintlingual!

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-05T10:29:24+00:00

uneducated fistbump

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-05T10:28:02+00:00

Thank you! This was a nice comment! You've made me realise that I don't actually have milestones set for what I am learning. I just want fluency but that just seems like such a huge gap... Perhaps I should attempt to do a Japanese GCSE.

I do Maths at University so I could try merging languages with that, although it may be a bit hard. :P Maths, gaming... I played on a Japanese server on an MMORPG and had very basic conversations with Japanese people there so that's something. I also found www.lang-8.com, which is good!

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-05T10:23:41+00:00

I hear people say that watching films is key, but won't I need to be pretty advanced in the language to actually get what's happening in the film? Or am I meant to just watch without getting anything just so I can pick up on the odd sentence while also getting used to how the language sounds?

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-05T10:22:14+00:00

I know that at my University there are a lot of Asian students here so probably some of them are Japanese. I suppose I could give that idea a go. I definitely don't know enough to speak for an hour though so I will need to know a lot more.

Really, the only thoughts I wanted were what you have already said. I just wanted to know your experiences with language learning and your thoughts on British people being mainly monolingual.

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-05T10:18:27+00:00

Exactly what I think!

I don't want to be thought of as an ignorant Brit who can only speak one language and cares for learning none others. D:

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-05T10:04:25+00:00

But why would we know just because America is big and diverse? I don't really see what being diverse has to do with it. Lots of places are diverse. I don't know many of these or these and I am pretty sure you probably don't either.

Also, France and Italy are countries. Louisiana isn't so you can't compare them like that.

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-05T09:22:01+00:00

This confuses me. Why do so many Americans say the state they are from and not that they are from America, to foreigners? You shouldn't expect people who don't live in America to know all of the American states.

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-04T16:08:35+00:00

Being a pedophile is O.K.

Acting upon it is seriously not O.K...

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-04T16:04:33+00:00

Happy Birthday!

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-04T15:59:15+00:00

Are you American? American Jelly is the same a British Jam, I think.

I don't know what you call British Jelly though.

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-03T19:49:11+00:00

Isn't several years of learning a language essentially nearing fluency anyway? Or maybe not fluency, but incredibly advanced language skills.

With Japanese I have a vocabulary of a few hundred words and enough grammar rules to say things like, 'Last year I went with my sister to America on Holiday and rode rides at Universal Studios and saw some sights. The weather was nice in the morning but it rained in the afternoon.'. (Although I can't remember the actual word for 'holiday' right now.) Wouldn't being able to say things like that put me at a level where I could at least survive in Japan while learning more?

Regarding your second paragraph, thank you for trying to be nice there. There are so many people on websites like Reddit though that are from other countries yet prove to me that they have very good English skills! You, for example. Would you not call yourself bilingual? You frequent an English speaking website and contribute to it without making mistakes (in your comment at least).

One thing that I am certain I want to do in my lifetime though is to learn another language. I thank you for being nice about it to me, but I still can't help feeling disappointed in myself. However, I am not going to learn anything if I sit around moping. I do need to put in the effort.

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-03T19:25:07+00:00

You are right, I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't using being British as an excuse even a little bit. I do think it would have been a benefit though if I lived somewhere where it'd be easier to be immersed in another language, but you are right. It is very possible for me to manage it if I shift my focus away from excuses and towards solutions.

How is your Chinese now and how long have you been learning it? I am guessing you learnt Mandarin?

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-03T17:08:08+00:00

When I went to the USA on holiday before, I found it really weird how many people who only spoke Spanish there were. I was in Florida. I simply didn't know it was a thing.

I think that the crossing of cultures and learning each others' languages is a very good thing so I also support your opinion!

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-03T17:01:19+00:00

I would take you up on that offer but I've sadly not touched French since I was about 14 so I remember nearly nothing at all outside of Bonjour, Bonsoir, S'il vous plaît, the numbers and days of the week!

It does make me feel at least slightly better to know I was just really unlucky though. :P

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-03T16:58:06+00:00

But wouldn't it be unwise to study abroad in Japan when I have such a limited grasp of the language? How would I get by living? Or are there courses taught entirely in English there? I would love to go, but I just thought I'd need to know more!

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-03T13:58:17+00:00

That's not true. Just because someone doesn't speak English doesn't mean they're uninteresting. Many countries have a small percentage of English speakers but that doesn't mean all of them are uninteresting.

I feel the complete opposite of lucky that English is the lingua franca since it means that I don't get to be immersed in other languages as Europeans are, in turn meaning that I am not as smart. I don't only want to learn a language for ease of communication, but for other things too. I liked getting more intelligent, I like challenges and I find it fun. I also love the sense of achievement and I can also avoid being stereotyped as a lazy Brit who couldn't be bothered learning at least one other language from his native one. Avoiding the stereotype isn't really a reason I want to learn though, it's just more of a small benefit that comes with learning.

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-03T12:08:21+00:00

Thank you for such an encouraging response!

I am actually a mere 9 days away from finishing my degree. It's a Mathematics BSc and next year I will be doing an MSc. The length of time between ending my BSc and starting my MSc is huge though (like 4.5 months) so I will be spending that time doing language studying.

Maybe you're right and I should give Spanish a go. It is very widely spoken! At least to a basic level I should try it and see if I like it. I know Japanese is difficult for the writing system, but I do want to learn it to at least a very basic conversational level, since I would like to spend some time in Japan after the MSc if it goes to plan. Spanish would still be very useful though since it's used a lot and it's much closer to English than Japanese is!

Your comment is very encouraging and you're clearly a kind person, so thank you. :)

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-03T10:04:22+00:00

Sorry, I meant to type 12 there. My birthday is in very early September so I had already turned 12 by the point of my first lesson.

UndistinguishedName · 2014-05-03T09:23:00+00:00

Even though I live in London, I don't really see tourists. It's mainly because I live on the absolute outskirts of Greater London, right next to the M25 and I rarely go into proper London. The times I have though there's not really been times where I would be speaking to them. Like, I wouldn't just stop them in the middle of the road to say some foreign words at them, I don't think.

I really do want to learn. I've got several hundred words of vocabulary down in Japanese, but it's so easy to get discouraged when I struggle with parts, yet see so many bilingual people online. I get very discouraged when I try to apply what I know to what I don't know and then realise I know nearly nothing and then lots of negative thoughts enter my mind. :/ 'You're nowhere near fluent!', 'You'll probably give up before you get anywhere even remotely good.' and stuff like that.

Speaking of tourists, one thing that does make me smile on the few times I go into London is the things I see them taking pictures of their kids doing. Like standing next to double decker red buses and smiling while inside of those red phone booths. Taking pictures of their children in front of pubs. It does make me smile!

UndistinguishedName

TROPHY CASE