I had this thought the other day. It's a thought one only really has after having studied another language for some time. Even having said that, I think I need to back up just a bit.
I'm not sure how things work in the rest of the world, but here in the United States of America, foreign language instruction can be somewhat challenging. For example, in most parts of Western Europe, English is taught- mainly because of business requirements... I believe this is also true of Japan. In the U.S.A., Spanish is more likely to be taught than any other language, primarily because of cultural reasons (and, because of the perceived ease of learning Spanish).
When I was in high school (gymnasium), I elected to take four years of German. This was slightly odd, but pretty much fit in with my character. Prior to that, I had a couple years of Polish in grade school. In college, I was exposed to Russian and French. Courtesy of the United States Air Force, I met Czech, Jennifer and Slovak. I have studied a few other languages more casually, as well as working on some computer languages.
So, today I'm writing this- not so much as a polyglot, but as someone who has studied a number of languages and survived.
My original thought was "words in another language" that were memorable. I have a short list of these, and they make me laugh- not because of their definitions, but just because of the way they sound to this particular English speaker.
My very favorite German word is "zusammengestossen". Like many German words, its a compound and pretty long. "Stau" is another great German word- it essentially means "a freakishly long traffic jam involving multiple wrecks". You won't find that definition in the dictionary, but that's pretty much what it is. Also, another long-time favorite German word is "ausgezeichnet". One word almost got me in trouble in Germany, and I can laugh about it now. I had to find an apartment "on the economy" before Jennifer could join me in Europe, so one of the guys in the squadron who was married to a German woman took me to a German realtor. His knowledge of colloquial German was pretty good, but I had studied it in high school, so my German knowledge was a little different than his. We were talking to the realtor, and my new friend was trying to explain the paperwork process back at the base. There are a good number of words that are cognates in the two languages, but in this instance he picked a false cognate, saying "der Prozess" for "the process". Before the realtor had the opportunity to inquire further, I quickly interjected, "Kein Prozess! Kein Prozess!", because, of course, anyone who has taken more than a few years of German would immediately remember that "Der Prozess" is the title of one of Franz Kafka's most famous works, which in English is "The Trial"- as in, a trial in a court of law!
"Merde" is my favorite French word. It's so portable, and quite down-to-earth. (I really can't think of "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" without the scene of Napoleon in the bowling alley popping up!). "Roi" and "Rue" are also favorites. They're a few of the first words I encountered that were used to instruct the correct pronounciation of the French "r".
пожалуйста is my favorite Russian word (yes, I took a semester of Russian!) It's quite a complicated word to a native English speaker, but it embodies Russian-ness. нравиться is another favorite. I should make note here why these particular words are favorites: in Russian, these words are fairly complex sounding to the ear accustomed to English sounds. And, their English equivalents are fairly simple in comparison.
Lastly, there's a Czech word that brings back fond memories- "potřebovat". It's a very basic word, and not particularly funny, except I had this one classmate who absolutely could not pronounce this word, and every time he tried it sounded like some lost in love wildebeest howling in bewilderment after eating a jar of pickled hot peppers. He would turn red, and everyone would laugh!
So that's a short version of some of my language experiences.
Not much to report on the database front, but I had something of an epiphany at an employment agency today which is data related. During the interview, I was asked what sort of position I was seeking. I replied, "I'm more of a generalist than a specialist," and proceeded to explain some of my job background. As I was doing this, I suddenly realized that I had more data analysis experience than I had given myself credit for.
As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.
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