Landslide
Well-Known Member
Yeap, it sure sounds fun...
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Speaking 2 languages may delay getting Alzheimer's
- Thread starter sparkchaser
- Start date
beer good
Well-Known Member
On the other hand, unlike English, the spelling and pronounciation is mostly consistent. And it's very easy to form new words when the need arises: you just take two old words, put them between a prefix and a suffix, and voila - brand new noun. Add -ieren at the end, brand new verb. Here's a useful list:
A short collection of long German words
How can anyone not love a language with a word like Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz?
A short collection of long German words
How can anyone not love a language with a word like Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz?
beer good
Well-Known Member
After an EU meeting recently, a bunch of people from all over Europe were sitting around debating which is the most beautiful language. The Englishman asserted that his language was superior. Seeing a butterfly alight on a branch, he remark, "For example, our word for this lovely creature is 'butterfly.' Did you ever hear a word so lovely? So perfectly delicate, just like the creature itself."
"Ah," said the Frenchman. "Ze 'butterfly' is indeed a lovely word, but our word for this beautiful animal is even more exquisite: 'Papillon.'" He repeated the word reverently. "'Papillon.' Did you ever hear such music?"
Soon, they were all into it. The Spaniard offered "mariposa", the Italian "farfalla", the Swede "fjäril", the Greek "petaloudia"...
Finally, the German banged his fist on the table and spoke up: "Hey! What's wrong with 'schmetterling'?!?"
"Ah," said the Frenchman. "Ze 'butterfly' is indeed a lovely word, but our word for this beautiful animal is even more exquisite: 'Papillon.'" He repeated the word reverently. "'Papillon.' Did you ever hear such music?"
Soon, they were all into it. The Spaniard offered "mariposa", the Italian "farfalla", the Swede "fjäril", the Greek "petaloudia"...
Finally, the German banged his fist on the table and spoke up: "Hey! What's wrong with 'schmetterling'?!?"
Peder
Well-Known Member
Very clever!
But you really are a fast man with a scissors to cut and paste snippets from two different threads to create impressions of false conversations that never existed.
If you wish to bitch about me, go to the "Threadkiller" thread. It's set up for the purpose. I'll bump it if you can't find it.
beer good
Well-Known Member
I could comment on this, but I won't. :flowers: Notice how I'm not commenting on the post I'm replying to? :flowers:
Ellen Bialystok is a psychologist and researcher, I know her for her research that has to do with second language acquisition and bilingualism in children, she appears to have now expanded her research to people suffering from Alzheimer's as well.
Perhaps you should have a look at the article mentioned in the original post.
English used to have three genders for both nouns and adjectives: masculine, feminine and neuter. The use of which has, however, become obsolete. I would say somewhere between 1000 and 1200 AD. Not sure.
chiangmaifalcon
New Member
I was going to look up the article about Bialystok, but I forgot. This disproves the theory anyway, as I can speak 5 languages and still apparently have alzheimers disease. Seriously, though, I think the guy in The Producers was funnier than this guy. Or was it a woman? See, I forgot again. Sacre bleu!
Bialystok's article wasn't a comedic piece. :|
chiangmaifalcon
New Member
A comedic piece? What the hell are you talking about? Why is it you know all about gender nouns and multilingual alzheimer disease, but cannot figure out when someone is joking? Forum really needs to lighten up a bit. Do you not see that Bialystock is a funny name? Or perhaps you are joking, and this is like some kind of bilingual gender humor that my idiotic mind cannot comprehend. Help me Obiwan.
Bialystock doesn't seem like a funny name to me. Unusual and difficult to pronounce (the Bia part anyway -- the rest seems straightforward), sure but not really funny. I must not be hanging around with the right crowd.
I've seen both screen versions of The Producers but I don't get the reference and maybe that's why your joke isn't funny to me. You're either not funny, you are funny but aren't using the right vehicle for it, or you've gone native with your humor. I'm still trying to figure out which it is.
How does Thai humor differ from Western or American humor? Do American sitcoms make sense to them? Do they think The Three Stooges are funny? I am genuinely curious.
I've seen both screen versions of The Producers but I don't get the reference and maybe that's why your joke isn't funny to me. You're either not funny, you are funny but aren't using the right vehicle for it, or you've gone native with your humor. I'm still trying to figure out which it is.
How does Thai humor differ from Western or American humor? Do American sitcoms make sense to them? Do they think The Three Stooges are funny? I am genuinely curious.
chiangmaifalcon
New Member
Bialystock was the name of the fat guy who was one of the producers. I cannot remember his first name, but he was played by Zero Mostel. I cannot believe I remember this, but perhaps it is because I am bilingual.
Thai humor is about basically three things: ghosts, shit and falling down. I am perhaps like a native because shit and other bathroom related stuff is hilarious to me, although not so much with the ghosts. I also like the falling down and other stupid stuff. They would love the Three Stooges here if they ever saw them. There are 3 guys here called Mum, Nung and I forget the third guy who have known each other since childhood and often play in same movies and are like Thai version of Three Stooges, but sometimes they play separately. American sitcoms make no sense to Thai people, even when they are translated into Thai. However, Thai people love jokes and laughing more than anything except maybe eating . The funniest shows to me, however, are not even meant to be comedies.
For instance, their was one which translated into English was called Sticky Rice Strong Fighter. This one was action show and hero ate some sticky rice which was blessed by a monk and the hero, who was a kid at the time, eats it and gets super powers.
There is always a lot of blood and violence, but there is a censor law here that certain things have to be blurred, like faces of people on Cops. If someone smokes a cigarette, when the cigarette touches smokers lips, it is blurred. If someone drinks whiskey or beer, when glass touches mouth it is blurred. If someone points a gun at somebody, if gun barrel is close to guy it is blurred, but if farther away it is not. If people kiss, when their lips come together they are blurred out. Do not ask me to explain this. I cannot and niether can anyone here. it is just the way it is.
If you get a chance, check out the Thai movie Som Tam, which I here is available in US. It is comedy about huge farang who is a mild mannered guy until he eats som tam, which is a very spicy kind of papaya salad and like the national food of Thailand. When he eats it is so spicy he goes berserk and beats up everybody and becomes a pro wrestler. It is a funny movie, even for farang.
Also, if you ever see a cartoon called Klong Kluay, which means banana leaf, in America, my daughter did the voice of the pink elephant in the English language version.
Thai humor is about basically three things: ghosts, shit and falling down. I am perhaps like a native because shit and other bathroom related stuff is hilarious to me, although not so much with the ghosts. I also like the falling down and other stupid stuff. They would love the Three Stooges here if they ever saw them. There are 3 guys here called Mum, Nung and I forget the third guy who have known each other since childhood and often play in same movies and are like Thai version of Three Stooges, but sometimes they play separately. American sitcoms make no sense to Thai people, even when they are translated into Thai. However, Thai people love jokes and laughing more than anything except maybe eating . The funniest shows to me, however, are not even meant to be comedies.
For instance, their was one which translated into English was called Sticky Rice Strong Fighter. This one was action show and hero ate some sticky rice which was blessed by a monk and the hero, who was a kid at the time, eats it and gets super powers.
There is always a lot of blood and violence, but there is a censor law here that certain things have to be blurred, like faces of people on Cops. If someone smokes a cigarette, when the cigarette touches smokers lips, it is blurred. If someone drinks whiskey or beer, when glass touches mouth it is blurred. If someone points a gun at somebody, if gun barrel is close to guy it is blurred, but if farther away it is not. If people kiss, when their lips come together they are blurred out. Do not ask me to explain this. I cannot and niether can anyone here. it is just the way it is.
If you get a chance, check out the Thai movie Som Tam, which I here is available in US. It is comedy about huge farang who is a mild mannered guy until he eats som tam, which is a very spicy kind of papaya salad and like the national food of Thailand. When he eats it is so spicy he goes berserk and beats up everybody and becomes a pro wrestler. It is a funny movie, even for farang.
Also, if you ever see a cartoon called Klong Kluay, which means banana leaf, in America, my daughter did the voice of the pink elephant in the English language version.
Cool. Excellent info. Thanks man.
The blurred thing is odd.
The blurred thing is odd.
chiangmaifalcon
New Member
You are welcome. Some more strange stuff here is that it is taboo to touch anyone on head, as it is supposed to be sacred part of body. Feet are of course lowest part, and it is bad manners to point bottom of your feet at people, especially at a monk. So it is a common thing in comedy here for guy to stick feet in somebody's face. People laugh like hell at this and they do it in every movie.
This is not comedy stuff, but there are soap oeras every night. There are basically 3 channels, and every channel shows 1 show on Monday-Tuesday, 1 show on Wednesday-Thursday, and one on Friday-Sunday. They start at 830 pm and end at 1030 pm. Thai people are addicted to these shows, and many people object to the amount of violence in the action shows. They are very graphic with blood everywhere, but the special effects are awful. One good thing about them is good guys always win. They have the same themes. Rich people are always bad. Poor people are always good. Unless they are poor people who get rich. Then they are usually bad too at first but then turn good again. Sexually promiscuous people are bad and always die a horrible death.
The one thing that bugs me is that every single farang on Thai tv shows is bad. They are either a gangster or corrupt businessman. They always beat up the poor innocent Thais, until the end when the Thai hero beats the hell out of farang, who is usually twice the size of the Thai guy.
One other thing that I think is bad is that all actors on Thai tv shows are light skinned, either Chinese or Koreans or half-farang Thais. This is because, even though most all the Thais are very dark skinned people, they worship white skin. They spend money they cannot afford on skin lightening stuff which never works, and avoid the sun like the plague. I think the tv reinforces this skin color inferiority complex. Also, for some reason, Thai people are not overly fond of black people, even though most of them are just as dark-skinned themselves.
This is not comedy stuff, but there are soap oeras every night. There are basically 3 channels, and every channel shows 1 show on Monday-Tuesday, 1 show on Wednesday-Thursday, and one on Friday-Sunday. They start at 830 pm and end at 1030 pm. Thai people are addicted to these shows, and many people object to the amount of violence in the action shows. They are very graphic with blood everywhere, but the special effects are awful. One good thing about them is good guys always win. They have the same themes. Rich people are always bad. Poor people are always good. Unless they are poor people who get rich. Then they are usually bad too at first but then turn good again. Sexually promiscuous people are bad and always die a horrible death.
The one thing that bugs me is that every single farang on Thai tv shows is bad. They are either a gangster or corrupt businessman. They always beat up the poor innocent Thais, until the end when the Thai hero beats the hell out of farang, who is usually twice the size of the Thai guy.
One other thing that I think is bad is that all actors on Thai tv shows are light skinned, either Chinese or Koreans or half-farang Thais. This is because, even though most all the Thais are very dark skinned people, they worship white skin. They spend money they cannot afford on skin lightening stuff which never works, and avoid the sun like the plague. I think the tv reinforces this skin color inferiority complex. Also, for some reason, Thai people are not overly fond of black people, even though most of them are just as dark-skinned themselves.
beer good
Well-Known Member
I saw a variation on this article a few weeks ago. Very interesting.