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What SL teaches about other countries/cultures

Pamela Galli

By Pamela Galli,
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Rolig Loon

Rolig Loon

Posted
Posted
2 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said:

Almost every language has more sounds than there are letters in the alphabet.
And sometimes pronunciation is regional as well. So we have to make the best of it.

Quite true. After I posted another tongue twister here the other day, my mind drifted to the even trickier phrase that I remember learning when I was studying Swedish: "Sju sjösjuka sjömän på ett sjunkande skepp."  It has a mess of sounds that are not common outside of Scandinavia and are not even hinted at by the way they are spelled.  I still can't say it without making Swedish friends break out in uncontrolled laughter. 

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Cinnamon Mistwood
Cinnamon Mistwood

This is actually one of the reasons I downloaded SL and went inworld to begin with.  I wanted my world to be bigger and to have more viewpoints.  I am keenly aware that my personal world is very small

Pamela Galli
Pamela Galli

To me the most fascinating and valuable thing about Second Life is how it brings people from all over the world together to share perspectives and insights about different cultures.  What insight

Orwar
Orwar

Yes ..

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Sukubia Scarmon

Sukubia Scarmon

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Sid Nagy said:

I live about a mile from the German border and to be honest I totally feel at home when I'm in Germany.
More than half of my vacations are spend there. What can there be better than a nice cold Weizenbier in a German Biergarten on a sunny Sunday morning or afternoon?
Okay, maybe if there is a view over the Alps included.

Reading this made me realize I am the WORST German, since I'd say EVERYTHING is better than beer, haha. I will never understand how anyone can drink that, much less in the morning. :D Let's make a deal, you can have all the beer, I get the vla and stroopwafels! :D

1 hour ago, Syo Emerald said:

And I love being the exception! 🥰

But yes... I do understand what you mean, although I could never pin point why.

Yeah, that's definately a bit harder. Since I know it's a specific subset of Germans for both of us, I'd say it's about seclusion in essence. Maybe even about identity, need to give that some thought. How German do you feel? 

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ChinRey

ChinRey

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, Rolig Loon said:

"Sju sjösjuka sjömän på ett sjunkande skepp."  It has a mess of sounds that are not common outside of Scandinavia and are not even hinted at by the way they are spelled.

It's actually pronounced almost exactly as it is spelled - by Swedish pronounciation rules that is. The only irregularity is the "sk" in "skepp" that is pronounced "sj" (or "sh" if you think in English).

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StrongZer0

StrongZer0

Posted
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7 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said:

Almost every language has more sounds than there are letters in the alphabet.
And sometimes pronunciation is regional as well. So we have to make the best of it.
For the Dutch language we even created a few extra letter combinations like the ij and the ui. And some are pronounced differently than internationally expected like the sch.

Not here in Japan. You need to know about 2000 kanji to read a newspaper. Plus here, you need to also know hiragana and katakana. They still sprinkle a little of romaji there and about, just to mix it up a bit. :-). I think they got the sounds covered here and in China. 

Somehow my point that it was an English guy, a British dude who was my sales guy that was saying this. His ability to make fun of himself and his country was a valuable lesson. We all talk our individual cultures too seriously way too often. I can give you an ear full on US idiosyncrasies too. 

Being lucky enough to be born in the US and live in 3 countries and travel for work and pleasure to several others has been great, and maybe makes me a little cheeky about a few thangs too. But, I'm no grammar Nazi! LOL

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Rolig Loon

Rolig Loon

Posted
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1 minute ago, ChinRey said:

It's actually pronounced almost exactly as it is spelled - by Swedish pronounciation rules that is. The only irregularity is the "sk" in "skepp" that is pronounced "sj" (or "sh" if you think in English).

True enough, but "sj" is not the same sound as an English "sh". "Sj" is more heavily aspirated. We don't have that sound in our mouths. 

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Sid Nagy

Sid Nagy

Posted
Posted (edited)
13 minutes ago, CaithLynnSayes said:

Not trying to be nitpicking (i totally am) but there's a typo in that sentence ;)

I copied that sentence from someone else in this thread  who isn't a native Dutch speaker and politely ignored the typo.

 

And no worries, I have been teaching Dutch (among other things) for well over 30 years, so I know a few things about Dutch spelling, grammar and childern's literature.
And I like it when a non native gives it a go.

Edited by Sid Nagy
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Rat Luv

Rat Luv

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, StrongZer0 said:

When I lived in the UK, I had a sales guy working with me that said two things that I still find funny today.

1. England would be a great country if we only had a roof

We do get some sunshine, you know! 🌞 But only for about four weeks :o

2 hours ago, StrongZer0 said:

I miss London Taxis

Just walk to where you need to go and pay yourself £25 🙂

I am a bit jealous about Japan, would love to live there...sometimes 😍

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Silent Mistwalker

Silent Mistwalker

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Lindal Kidd said:

What's the equivalent of a misogynist vis a vis the metric system? Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure your dad was in the minority. I and almost all of the engineers I worked with preferred the logic of the SI system.

Thanks for the insults. I'm not even going to bother to try and edit the word tools in after the word metric in the post you quoted. There was absolutely no reason to label my dad as a misogynist of any kind and insult me in the process.

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Lindal Kidd

Lindal Kidd

Posted
Posted
1 hour ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

Thanks for the insults. I'm not even going to bother to try and edit the word tools in after the word metric in the post you quoted. There was absolutely no reason to label my dad as a misogynist of any kind and insult me in the process.

Sigh. That isn't at all what I meant, and I'm sorry you feel I insulted you and your dad.

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Madelaine McMasters

Madelaine McMasters

Posted
Posted
7 hours ago, Lindal Kidd said:
9 hours ago, Silent Mistwalker said:

My dad was an engineer (mechanical) and he hated metric. 

What's the equivalent of a misogynist vis a vis the metric system? Whatever it is, I'm pretty sure your dad was in the minority. I and almost all of the engineers I worked with preferred the logic of the SI system.

I'm an electrical engineer and woodworker, descended from a mechanical engineer and woodworker, descended from a civil engineer and woodworker. Professionally, my great grandfather worked entirely in imperial, Dad worked in a mix, I worked entirely in metric. Our shared love of woodworking remains stubbornly imperial.

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Arielle Popstar

Arielle Popstar

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, Sukubia Scarmon said:

Reading this made me realize I am the WORST German, since I'd say EVERYTHING is better than beer, haha. I will never understand how anyone can drink that, much less in the morning. :D Let's make a deal, you can have all the beer, I get the vla and stroopwafels! :D

Was a time while staying in Enschede that I very much enjoyed German sausage with a Grolsch biertje and a vlaflip for dessert, even if it wasn't quite noon yet! I drank my lifetime quota of beer but I still enjoy the occasional german sausage on a bun with all the fixings though unfortunately it is hard to find vla and bessesap in Canada like it tastes over there. 🤔

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StrongZer0

StrongZer0

Posted
Posted
6 hours ago, Madelaine McMasters said:

 

In IL we call that the north. My favorite line being, drive back to Illinois. I drove to WI once in the winter, and it was brutal. The further north I drove the lower the temperature got, the more dead deer caucuses I saw; laying on the side of the road, and I learned that people in Wisconsin have no clue what the left and right lanes are for. LOL

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Orwar

Orwar

Posted
Posted
15 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

More than half of my vacations are spend there. What can there be better than a nice cold Weizenbier in a German Biergarten on a sunny Sunday morning or afternoon?
Okay, maybe if there is a view over the Alps included.

   Weissbier + Weisswurst = a next to perfect lunch.

   I also very much enjoy a good Apfelstrudel. My bakery teacher reminisced about his time as an apprentice in Austria and instructed us to stretch the dough so thin that one could see the alps through it, like his teacher had taught him - we had no alps around my school though, so we had to settle for seeing the cars in the parking lot through it instead.

13 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

"Sju sjösjuka sjömän på ett sjunkande skepp."

   Or sju sjösjuka sjömän sköts av sju sköna sjuksköterskor.

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StrongZer0

StrongZer0

Posted
Posted
14 hours ago, Rat Luv said:

We do get some sunshine, you know! 🌞 But only for about four weeks :o

Just walk to where you need to go and pay yourself £25 🙂

I am a bit jealous about Japan, would love to live there...sometimes 😍

Yeah, that taxis are not cheap, that is for sure. I did luck out once when I first got there. A taxi driver noticed my very American accent and asked if I had been to London before. I told him "no" then he said that he needed to take a break, turned off the meter and gave me a driving tour. Down Marble Arch, past the palace, over to Green Park and SoHo. It was great.

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