Contamination

[larryhammer]

One year I'll get the hang of learning a language without interference from a previous language. With Icelandic -- not that I'm trying to learn it, beyond ye phrasebook material -- once again* I find German getting in the way: when reaching for a word, if I don't know the Íslenska, the Deutsches pops in its place.** This is especially disconcerting for prepositions. Asking for a bus ticket nach Stykkishólmur, instead of til, will only confuse the nice salesperson. Especially if I've already established myself as an English speaker.***

* Our last visit did wonders to my conversational German. Favorite moment: three young Germans in a hostel kitchen, befuddledly watching a low-budget Icelandic knock-off of The Dating Game as they cooked dinner. Finally one figured out what was going on, and explained it to her friends -- or tried to, for it took several go-rounds. The confusion was great fun all around, but left my Icelandic even worse the next day.

** I have the same problem with Spanish invading my Latin.

*** We got the distinct impression, last time, that Icelanders want to know straight off which language a conversation will be in: starting with a cheerful "Góðan daginn"**** then switching to English seemed to disconcert many.

**** GŌ-dhahn DIE-in -- soft g is a glottal stop. And in conversational Icelandic, many word endings get slurred into a shusch. This is disconcerting, but helpful when you're not sure what's the case taken by nouns after til.

---L.

Comments

[returnoftheblog.livejournal.com]

I have a friend who is Latino along with the rest of his family. They're fluent in both English and Spanish and thus flip between the two seemingly at random. (You've probably heard of this before as Spanglish). This results in hilarious surreal/WTF (to me, at least) moments like the following:

My friend's brother: "Spanish spanish spanish bare minimum spanish spanish spanish..."

My friend: "Spanish spanish tissue paper spanish spanish spanish..."

And my favorite...

Friend: "(talking with his grandmother) Spanish spanish spanish spanish spanish..."
Me: "Are you plotting to kill me again?"
Friend: "MUERTO GRINGO! MUERTO GRINGO!"

[larryhammer]

Local Spanish radio stations are hysterically funny with the Spanglish. Rapid-fire frontiera dialect Spanglish. I get further watching Mexican TV shows than listening to the radio.

"MUERTO GRINGO!"

Heh heh.

---L.

[returnoftheblog.livejournal.com]

One time I was channel-surfing and I ran across the Spanish channel right in the middle of what seemed to be some Mexican equivalent of Jerry Springer. There were tons of circus-freak-grade weirdos up on stage, and there was a talk show host, and then apparently either a fight or an argument came up, and then in the midst of all the Spanish I hear curse words beeped out. Having utterly no clue what was going on, my thoughts were, "...WTF?"

[larryhammer]

Spanish Springer clones are freaky. I prefer shows like ¿Que Dice La Gente? (Family Fued clone). And, of course, telenovelas.

---L.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Listening to Japanese is like this, since there are so many English borrow words in the language.

[larryhammer]

And they don't always mean what the word means in English. Or sound like it, but that's another issue.

---L.

[returnoftheblog.livejournal.com]

http://cardhouse.com/japan/hamu.htm

[azang.livejournal.com]

Language aside, although it sounds like you're having a great time with that too, have a wonderful time!

[larryhammer]

Oh, it's fun all right. Even if my brain wants to return to learning kana.

---L.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Latin invades my Spanish. I think it's perfectly reasonable that Spanish-speakers in Mexico should use the same nouns that the ancient Romans did. :-)

[larryhammer]

Well, they do. In much the same way English-speakers do.

---L.

[kchew.livejournal.com]

My French contaminates my Spanish, which sometimes has some Latin in there too, and Spanish shows up when I need French. The Japanese intrudes annoyingly into all of the above, but fails me when I need it most.

Contamination is inevitable. Embrace your inner Babel. :)

[larryhammer]

Two-way contamination -- oh joy.

Then again, if an Icelandic word appears in my German, that'd be a pretty good sign -- for my Icelandic, anyway.

---L.

[palomapus.livejournal.com]

I don't even try to understand local Spanish. My father was from Spain so his Spanish was much different from what people speak here, and my SPanish is pretty spotty to begin with. I tend to play romance language hopscotch -- can't find Spanish word, go to Italian, run out of gas in Italian leap to French word. Funny thing -- the Spanish is the weakest of my meagre romance language knowledge!

[larryhammer]

You have no idea how much this heartens me.

---L.

How do you say "Tag, you're it!" in Icelandic?

[jenward.livejournal.com]

Tag, you're it.
Here are the rules:
Each player lists 8 facts/habits about themselves. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning before those facts/habits are listed. At the end of the post, the player then tags 8 people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

:-)
Jen W.