Language seems to be something of a fluid thing in my life. For one, I have a mixed heritage, so I speak more than one language. The ability to speak Spanish is just one of those things that I've inherited from my family. Sure, the accent can throw me off, but I figure I'd be fine if I have to be in South America for an extended period of time.
Similarly, I've started to learned some Kapampangan from the Mild Wife's side of the family. It's not a language that I'm familiar with, but I'm learning bits of it for the same reason that I learned Spanish: I'm around it quite a bit. Interestingly enough, I've realized that some of it actually sounds vaguely like Cantonese. Kapampangan has an interesting way of explaining family relations, to the point where the same word is used for both "older sister" and "older female cousin." However, the word sounds roughly like "ah-che," while the Cantonese word for "older sister" sounds a bit like "che-che." They're not the exact same, but there's a few examples like that that make me think it's not completely accidental.
However, what the people around me speak doesn't quite explain why I know how to say "peach" in French, or why I know what "sarangbi" means in Korean. Basically, I enjoy being able to express things in different ways. For example, it's kind of fun to be able to mix in "je ne sais quoi" to an English sentence. I could try to say the same thing in English, but honestly, it feels like it'd take a bunch more words to express the same thing. I think the closest I've ever come is "there's something about so-and-so, there's an air about them."
Recently, I've realized that in some ways, I'm very much like my dad in this regard. I remember when I was younger, my dad was taking college classes, and he needed to take foreign language classes. Not content with being trilingual, my dad decided to learn some Italian. Yup, he threw in a fourth language for funsies. From what I've seen, it's somewhat similar to Spanish, but it's still another freaking language. It's not like you're automatically going to be able to converse with someone in that language.
The language classes were a thing of the past, though. In the present day, my dad is using Duolingo to continue some of his Italian learning. I don't use the app, but from what I saw of his progress screen, he was something like 100+ lessons in. I'd say he's putting in time to learn. Every now and then, I'll see him speaking into his phone to practice. I was confused the first time I saw him do it, but now I've gotten used to the sight of it happening if I'm at my parents' place for an extended period of time.
You want to know the best part of having multiple languages at your disposal, though? The possibilities for jokes and word play increase exponentially. This was an actual exchange at my parents' house:
Mom: "Can I have some tea, please?"
(my dad gets up to serve the tea)
Dad: "Caldo?"
Mom: "No, I asked for TEA." ("caldo" is the Spanish word for "broth")
Dad: "Yes, but do you want it hot or cold? 'Caldo' means 'hot' in Italian."
My dad speaks both Spanish and Italian, so he knew what he was doing. He was teasing my mom across two languages, and it just so happens that neither one was his mother tongue. My mom laughed about the whole thing, and we all now know what "caldo" means in Italian as a result.
Words in other languages make things all sorts of amusing.
Similarly, I've started to learned some Kapampangan from the Mild Wife's side of the family. It's not a language that I'm familiar with, but I'm learning bits of it for the same reason that I learned Spanish: I'm around it quite a bit. Interestingly enough, I've realized that some of it actually sounds vaguely like Cantonese. Kapampangan has an interesting way of explaining family relations, to the point where the same word is used for both "older sister" and "older female cousin." However, the word sounds roughly like "ah-che," while the Cantonese word for "older sister" sounds a bit like "che-che." They're not the exact same, but there's a few examples like that that make me think it's not completely accidental.
However, what the people around me speak doesn't quite explain why I know how to say "peach" in French, or why I know what "sarangbi" means in Korean. Basically, I enjoy being able to express things in different ways. For example, it's kind of fun to be able to mix in "je ne sais quoi" to an English sentence. I could try to say the same thing in English, but honestly, it feels like it'd take a bunch more words to express the same thing. I think the closest I've ever come is "there's something about so-and-so, there's an air about them."
Recently, I've realized that in some ways, I'm very much like my dad in this regard. I remember when I was younger, my dad was taking college classes, and he needed to take foreign language classes. Not content with being trilingual, my dad decided to learn some Italian. Yup, he threw in a fourth language for funsies. From what I've seen, it's somewhat similar to Spanish, but it's still another freaking language. It's not like you're automatically going to be able to converse with someone in that language.
The language classes were a thing of the past, though. In the present day, my dad is using Duolingo to continue some of his Italian learning. I don't use the app, but from what I saw of his progress screen, he was something like 100+ lessons in. I'd say he's putting in time to learn. Every now and then, I'll see him speaking into his phone to practice. I was confused the first time I saw him do it, but now I've gotten used to the sight of it happening if I'm at my parents' place for an extended period of time.
You want to know the best part of having multiple languages at your disposal, though? The possibilities for jokes and word play increase exponentially. This was an actual exchange at my parents' house:
Mom: "Can I have some tea, please?"
(my dad gets up to serve the tea)
Dad: "Caldo?"
Mom: "No, I asked for TEA." ("caldo" is the Spanish word for "broth")
Dad: "Yes, but do you want it hot or cold? 'Caldo' means 'hot' in Italian."
My dad speaks both Spanish and Italian, so he knew what he was doing. He was teasing my mom across two languages, and it just so happens that neither one was his mother tongue. My mom laughed about the whole thing, and we all now know what "caldo" means in Italian as a result.
Words in other languages make things all sorts of amusing.
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