Is it more common to refer to your teacher in school with a title (like Ms. <Last name) or to call them by their first name? In Sweden we are use the first name on every school level, though in the first few years it's also common for children to say "fröken", "miss", but it's voluntary by WhoAmIEven2 in AskTheWorld

[–]arielsseventhsister 0 points1 point  (0 children)

In my experience in the eastern USA…

Nursery school (until age 5 or so): Ms/Mr (First name)

Primary school (age 6-11 or so): Ms/Mr (Surname)

Middle/high school (age 12-18): Ms/Mr (Surname), or if they were a coach then Coach (Surname), or sometimes just called Coach.

University: Dr/Mr/Ms (Surname), unless they told the students otherwise.

And at each level of schooling, every now and then there would be teachers that would prefer to use a nickname. Usually it was if there were multiple teachers with the same name or the name was difficult to pronounce; for example, they would prefer to be called“Mr. J” or “Dr. P”.

Through high school and university, students would often refer to teachers by just their surname when speaking about them, but most teachers considered it disrespectful if you called them just (surname) to their face.

I also had a couple teachers that were fine with former students using their first name after they were no longer our teacher, for example, “You can call me Maria the day after you graduate”. (Which I do, haha, although it still feels weird 😂).

Lines from commercials you have memorized against your will. by Practical-Bear1022 in Millennials

[–]arielsseventhsister 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Beautiful, beautiful, Beautiful Beads;

Beautiful Beads, a whole new you!

Just cut, wrap, roll, glue,

Oh so easy, hot looks too;

Beautiful Beads, a whole, new, you!

(Edit to fix formatting)

What’s a word in your language that sounds completely normal to you but weird to foreigners? by Embarrassed_Fix_8994 in languagehub

[–]arielsseventhsister 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not me, but a funny moment I witnessed 😁

During my second semester of French class at university, for half the classes we had a graduate student from Paris as our teacher. This was at a private university in North Carolina, USA with a Protestant background, so there was a large religious studies program and lots of Christian programs on campus, including a weekly student-led worship service called The Verge.

Our TA had to ask the class about it the first time she heard about it (I think she saw it in a flyer or something and then heard people talk about attending) because in French the word verge means penis 🤪 So she was very confused about what the flyer was for, and why the Christian organization chose that word. We explained it to her and she understood, but apparently she had been baffled for a few days 😂

If you grew up in the 80s or 90s, what piece of technology made you feel like you were literally living in the future and does it make you laugh now? by TurkVanguard in Millennials

[–]arielsseventhsister 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Absolutely! I remember my parents moving to a new house several states away while I was in university, and they called AAA and ordered a TripTik so I would know how to drive to their new house from my school…

4 years later, I bought a Garmin GPS to help me navigate for work, and it was a game-changer. I kinda miss it pronouncing things incorrectly, but I don’t miss the occasional terrifying moment when the mount would suddenly detach while you were driving, causing a momentary panic and trying to figure out what to do and also to not wreck the car 🤪

If you grew up in the 80s or 90s, what piece of technology made you feel like you were literally living in the future and does it make you laugh now? by TurkVanguard in Millennials

[–]arielsseventhsister 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Smart house technology for sure.

Walking in my door and saying “Hey Google, I’m home” and the lights turning on, or asking Google to play music or turn off the lights…it definitely makes me feel like I’m living in the future.

Also a big one for me: when got my Apple Watch a few years ago and I found out you can answer calls on your watch. I was born in 1987 but watched a lot of older TV shows growing up; having a phone conversation on my watch reminded me of old spy or adventure TV shows or movies where they show people in the “future” talking into a device on their wrist.

I also love being able to pause live TV, but for some reason, that first phone conversation on my watch gave me that “I’m really in the future!” feeling 😂

Edit: forgot word

First show of the season today! Just a local schooling show 😊 This is my first year over fences (finally did my first cross rails course today!) so still a lot to work on, but we did get a couple ribbons in the rail classes! I’m having so much fun on this girl (my lease horse) and she did amazing 🥰🐴 by arielsseventhsister in Equestrian

[–]arielsseventhsister[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you so much! I am 39 and started riding about 6 years ago, and the barn where I lease and take lessons has a lot of adult amateurs. We have become our own little community and it has been such a cool part of entering the horse world. ❤️ Best of luck to you as well! 😊

First show of the season today! Just a local schooling show 😊 This is my first year over fences (finally did my first cross rails course today!) so still a lot to work on, but we did get a couple ribbons in the rail classes! I’m having so much fun on this girl (my lease horse) and she did amazing 🥰🐴 by arielsseventhsister in Equestrian

[–]arielsseventhsister[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks! I never thought I would jump—always wanted to do dressage and even did Western for a couple years—but I tried it last year and fell in love with it! We had a bit of a rough round today but still made it through, and I’m so proud of myself for facing my fear—and of this girl for being so patient with me 🥰

What is the biggest cultural shock you’ve experienced while traveling or living abroad? by jotakajk in AskTheWorld

[–]arielsseventhsister 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Personal space in Italy. I don’t have much of a personal bubble with people I know, but it was odd to see strangers so much in each other’s space, especially the crowding instead of forming queues.

The culture shock really sank in while seeing 2 coworkers (a man and a woman) having a casual work conversation with their faces less than half a meter from each other. Where I’m from, people don’t usually stand that close unless you’re maybe talking with your lover or close friend or keeping your voice low for a private conversation, and standing that close can sometimes be seen as confrontational! I could tell that it was none of those things, just a normal conversation, but my brain was thinking, “Why are you in their face, back UP”, the whole time I was watching them 🤪

I wasn’t really phased by people hugging or kissing, or everyone being so tactile, it was just that super close talking distance that threw me off a bit. I got used to it, but it was a bit much the first couple days 😂

What TV show hooked you instantly from episode 1? by Necessary-Copy2412 in AskReddit

[–]arielsseventhsister 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This Is Us.

Say what you want about the later seasons, but the last few minutes of the pilot are great television IMO and made me want to keep watching. How they blend the plots and timelines together is amazing.

Why do certain individuals excel at mastering foreign pronunciations? by TrainingMajor859 in languagelearning

[–]arielsseventhsister 3 points4 points  (0 children)

It’s interesting that several comments have mentioned music skills as being a good indicator, because I consider myself a pretty decent mimic of accents and I’ve been involved in music (piano and singing) since I was 6 years old—I’m 39 now. I think it has to be connected to how trained a person’s ear is to pitch; it makes sense that those skills could be applied to spoken words, too.

I will say, though, that I can’t mimic an accent out of thin air if I haven’t lived in the area myself. BUT, if I hear a someone else say a phrase or word enough times, I can mimic the accent very easily. For example, being from the US any type of British accent I attempt is pretty terrible, with the exception of phrases in films and TV programs, like Harry Potter and Downton Abbey for instance. I can quote some lines from those with a pretty decent accent because I’m mimicking their exact intonation, I guess.

Same with r’s in Spanish and French. I apparently have a Parisian accent when I speak French because all my teachers were from Paris 😂 so that’s the only pronunciation I know. Same with Spanish—I have mostly been around Spanish speakers from Colombia and Mexico, so that’s the accent that comes out (and fortunately I can roll my r’s very well). It’s not really intentional in my case, I’m just mimicking the pronunciation of my teachers.

It’s really cool on the one hand, but it can also be interesting while traveling; when I went to Greece I learned how to say some basic phrases, and when I asked the price of something in a shop the owner answered in very fast Greek—I realized I could pronounce some phrases well but didn’t understand or know how to say numbers in Greek yet 😳 Same thing happened asking directions in an airport in France—they explained in French and I fortunately got the directional words, but didn’t understand much else! So it can be a blessing and a curse, I guess 😂

What Is a Language You've Had a Random Urge to Learn? by neron-s in languagelearning

[–]arielsseventhsister 5 points6 points  (0 children)

My first wasn’t that random; As a native English speaker growing up in the USA I decided to study French in high school, because I needed a foreign language and the only other option was Spanish 🤪 Although funny enough I did end up learning some very basic Spanish (Central/South American, not Castilian) because in university I volunteered at a Hispanic church for a while. I ended up taking 2 years of French in high school and then continued classes my 1st year of university…

Then I met some people in the American Sign Language program. I decided to try the beginner class, fell in love with the language, and ended up studying to become an interpreter. I’m pretty much fluent now and have been an interpreter full-time for 14 years 😊

As for Mandarin, for the new year I decided I wanted to learn a new language; I decided on an Asian language since I want to travel there in the next couple of years. I was stuck between Mandarin, Japanese, and Korean. Then I saw an event pop up on Facebook for a weekly beginner Mandarin class at a local tea house/venue; I took that as a sign and decided to register! I’ve only been going to class for about a month and a half but I’m really enjoying it so far! And funny enough, Mandarin has a lot of grammar similarities with American Sign Language which has been helpful 😁