Re: Hello to you all!

What I have found on my travels. The Icelanders are amazed that anyone
bothered to learn their language, the Swedes similarly. The Finns I met
were the same way until they found out I'm Hungarian, then it seemes as
though they took it to be natural that I'd be learning Finnish. In France
I had people laugh at me and suchlike for my Quebecois, so I figured,
okay, let's do this all the way: I started to speak Joual, and every
second word out of my mouth was "tabarnaque" or "ciboie" or somesuch; one
gentleman seemed very upset by the way I spoke French, and at one point
said that he couldn't understand what I was saying, so I told him to learn
to speak French then. He was not amused. In Germany I've never had
anything like Christophe mentioned, rather, everyone I speak to is
convinced that I'm from some little village in the south...in Holland I
got by with English together with the little bit of Afrikaans I know. I
won't talk about Hungary and ex-Yugoslavia since I have familial ties
there and my knowledge of these languages is L1 or close to it.

---ferko

On Fri, 1 Mar 2002, Christophe Grandsire wrote:

> If you think so, then you've not understood anything about the Dutch people.
> They are the only ones who are part of the first group you describe. Neither
> the Germans nor the Spaniards nor the Italians feel proud when you try and
> speak their language. If you don't speak it correctly, they thank you politely
> for your tries and then: 1. never talk to you anymore, or 2. ask you to talk to
> them only in English or French. Believe me, I talk by experience. the Dutch
> people are amazed when you try to speak their language, and will do everything
> to perfect your knowledge. But I can understand that French people have
> difficulties accepting direct constructive critics, they are not used to that.
> Maarten was not annoyed, he was only trying to help me. Only a French person
> bathing everyday in hypocrisy can mistake that for annoyance.
>
> Sorry to be annoyed, but I hate this kind of prejudice on this list. Living 24
> hours a day in the Netherlands, I think I know quite well how Dutch people
> react when you try to speak their language.
>
> Christophe.
>
> http://rainbow.conlang.free.fr
>
> Take your life as a movie: do not let anybody else play the leading role.
>