[Laura]

So is he.

[maadio]

Well not any more. A few months ago I walked across a big stage and got myself a piece of paper that says I'm smart.

[froggee501]

I constantly find myself talking in french... quoi (instead of what) or Quelle heure est-il? (instead of what time is it).... yeah... hard to understand me...

And yes, I have English right after French.

[beanbag]

I've grown up bilingual, so I've always thought separately in two different languages (and I was glad to see there are others on here who do that too lol). I've noticed when I'm trying to calm myself down, I speak in english and when I get really emotional (angry/upset, usually) I break off into assyrian. To add to the confusion, I'm learning arabic and persian (which aren't that confusing, now that I think of it) and I've taken spanish and french. Thankfully, though, the whole switching languages back and forth only happens with english and assyrian, otherwise I'd be in a nice mess.

[Laura]

I am envious, beanbag. I think it's really cool when people speak English and another language like Spanish at home, but when it's some obscure language like Assyrian, that is awesome.

[ICTHUS]

Originally Posted by beanbag

I've grown up bilingual, so I've always thought separately in two different languages (and I was glad to see there are others on here who do that too lol). I've noticed when I'm trying to calm myself down, I speak in english and when I get really emotional (angry/upset, usually) I break off into assyrian. To add to the confusion, I'm learning arabic and persian (which aren't that confusing, now that I think of it) and I've taken spanish and french. Thankfully, though, the whole switching languages back and forth only happens with english and assyrian, otherwise I'd be in a nice mess.

Wow Beanbag, thats so awesome...

I'm Catholic, and I've always wanted to go to one of those older Rite Churches (like the Melkite or Byzantine Catholics) but I wouldnt be able to understand the Liturgy (I COULD always get an English Missal) The Melkite Liturgy is in Arabic, and I believe the Byzantine liturgy is in Greek.

I *have* been to a Greek Orthodox Church as well. I understood parts of it. I was very proud of myself!

[Elizabeth]

Since my second language is sign language, I can't very well speak in it, but I have caught myself signing to someone who doesn't know sign language if I'm across the room from them, or if I've just been talking with a deaf person, I'm kind of in "ASL mode" and forget to go back to English.

[maadio]

Speaking from an entirely non-visual point of view, that would be awesome (and a bit creepy...)

[beanbag]

okay...I tried to post this reply yesterday and my internet shut down...thankfully I had copied it (cuz it was a long one) into word lol.
***

It *is* neat to speak the language Jesus spoke...I'm excited about the Passion movie coming out...I watched the trailer and when he's on the cross, instead of saying "Eloi, Eloi" like it says in the Bible, the actor says "Alahi, Alahi" which is our word for "My God"!

Something people generally don't seem to know (at least in my experience) is that, unlike Latin, Assyrian (or modern Aramaic) is not a dead language. It changes alot, mainly in pronunciation, plus there's all the different dialects and stuff. Of course, for technological stuff we just use telephone (pronounced something like "teh-leh-pone" cuz most older Assyrians can't say "f" lol), and mix in words from the language of whatever country we're living in because most people don't really want to bother with making up new words. My dad, however, is a different story.

So I kind of branched off from what I started out saying...

In the raza (mass), the chanters (I have no idea what you call them in English) use classical Aramaic (and a lot of them mumble (in a relaxing, soothing way), too...that mixed with the incense makes for a very comfortable sleep-inducing environment. <-- me at my gramma's church trying to stay awake. ) so I don't understand a lot of what they're saying. But thankfully, the sermon itself is in our everyday Assyrian, so if I've made it through the beginning, I know what the priest is talking about lol.

An interesting fact I'm kind of proud of...

When all the disciples started going out into the world after Jesus' ascension, Thomas (we call him Mar Toma) came to the Assyrians and the majority of them became Christian. They went to China and India and evangelized there, and a huge number of people in those countries became Christians, too. They've unearthed churches in China built by Assyrian missionaries, but of course with the type of government they have there, there's not too much publicity about past Christianity. However, in India there are very many Christians whose families have been believers for ages and ages, and in the remote parts of India (like in the mountains), the sermon is preached in Hindu, but the raza is done in classical Aramaic, just like ours!

So yes, I thought that was very neat and I'd tell you all about that.

[starry_gazer]

I live in belgium so I grew up bilingual , we spoke english at home and then at church and school I got flemish , and then in 5th grade I got french and now in 11th grade I get german , so when I graduate from hightschool I am fluent( sp?)in flemish, french, english and a little german. THat is really cool cause I mean all the countries here in europe are pretty close together and so when you go on vacation we can understand the people
I think knowing other languages is cool !!
I do get mixed up sometimes, I mean at home we talk english and flemish through eachother, it's funny to hear, there it is easy cause you know they understand you but at school I sometimes don't know a word and I know it in english and it just frustrates me
but sometimes I'll just suddenly say that is that word in french and then I think what the heck , how did I know that ??
it's really weird
but it does give you an incredible advantage , when your gone somewhere you'll always find someone who knows at least one of the languages

[Laura]

Flemish...that's really cool! Teach me a phrase. What language is it most like? French?

[starry_gazer]

Flemish is most like dutch, but we got french and english and german words in there
here I'll teach you something , we'll the soubd of it can't teach you but the way we write I can :

Het is vandaag een mooie dag , de zon schijnt en het is warm buiten.

Translation: It is a nice day today, the sun is shining and it is warm out.

it's really cool to be able to talk and the weird thing is just in my country you can go from one end to the other and you'll meet tons ef different dialects , I mean some people from one end don't understand the ones from the other end and belgium isn't that big , it's kinda small accually

but it is cool

[h20mysticshadow]

Originally Posted by Laura

Even if you only speak one language other than your first, do you ever mix up the two (or however many there are)? For instance...I recently misspelled "cuatro" on a Spanish quiz (spelled it "quatro"). I guess that's what I get for dabbling in French and Italian, too. A couple of times I've found that my mind recalled the Spanish word for something before I could think of the English word. That's always a little bit scary.

Yes, I have experience it too. And its so bad when you are so disoriented mixing languages while talking to other people and they just say, what are you talking about.... so embarassing... I have a hard time learning French and Dutch. Now, I only remember on how to introduce myself in French
but not a single word in dutch. ughhhh so hard this language. I like Italian, Spanish and Portuguese because the words have similarities and you can read the way it is written. French and dutch you write it and you read it differently. Maybe I'm not that smart. lol but I really really love to learn french.