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You
can speak foreign languages
Melvyn D. Magree Originally published in the Reader Weekly July 31, 2008 I’ve had this article in my head for several weeks, but other more serious ideas keep popping up at writing time. It is past time to lighten up. When I use a non-English word or phrase, many people sigh and say, “I never was good at foreign languages.” These people don’t realize that they already know many foreign words and phrases. Do you agree? Da! Ja! Oui! Si! Those four syllables represent yes in at least nine foreign languages, and I’m sure you would have understood any of them if you heard them. Don’t forget OK that is almost universal. The negatives corresponding to these are: Nyet! Nein! Nej! Non! No! If you meet a friend on the street in another country, you might comfortably say: Guten Tag! Bon jour! Buenas Dias! Ciao! If you address someone who is not familiar to you, you might use Madame, Signora, Señora, or Dame. A younger woman you might address as Mademoiselle, Signorina, Señorita, or Fräulein. A man you might address as Monsieur, Signor, Señor, or Herr. If someone did you a favor, you would easily say: Danke! Tack! Merci! Gracias! Grazie! Given that you can say these so well, someone might ask you, “Sprechen Sie Deutsch” or “Parlez-vous français?” You would know enough to respond “Nein” or “No”. When you part from a friend, one of the following would come easily to your lips: Auf Wiedersehen! Au revoir! Adios! Ciao! Arrivederci! Sayonara! You’re a veritable polyglot when it comes to food, some you’ve eaten and some you may just know about. Shall we go to a restaurant, a bistro, or a taverna? Shall we be served by a garçon or serve ourselves at a buffet or smörgåsbord? Poi, sauerbraten, fajitas, burrito, taco, enchiladas, sushi, lefse, scampi (shrimp scampi is a redundancy), pasta, spaghetti (I bet you can name more than three pastas), sauerkraut, wiener schnitzel, strudel, baguette, croquette. Sorry, this list is making me too hungry to continue. Maybe it’s time for a little drink. How about café, latté (milk, not a coffee drink), espresso, cognac, Champagne (made only in France), vino, akvavit (a Scandinavian variant of aqua vita, water of life), whisky (uisge-beatha, again water of life), sake, vodka, ouzo, and beer no matter how you pronounce it. Let’s have some music with our drinks. Should it be played piano or forte? Do you want to listen to a tenor, basso, alto, or soprano? Would you like an opera or a concerto? If you read music, you know a lot more Italian than this little sample. We know dozens of catch phrases: C’est la vie, la dolce vita, c’est la guerre, c’est l’amour, savoir-faire, mañana. We consider many languages too difficult. If they are so difficult, how come a three-year old Finnish kid can learn Finnish? Well, yeah, it is difficult to somebody who has accumulated a lot of a linguistic baggage. I know one of my downfalls in German was der, die, das; two genders in French and Italian are bad enough. However, we know many words in so-called difficult languages. Most of us in Duluth know two Finnish words – sauna and sisu. By the way, the Brimson Sisu is Aug. 23. We also know enough Finnish to know the director of the Minnesota Orchestra is Osmo Vänskä, not Osmo Vanska as some newspapers imply. Russian has the difficulty of an almost completely different alphabet. Some people use this alphabet carelessly. There is a restaurant called bu-ya-ya-itf unifn. I’m sorry; this paper’s printer doesn’t accept Cyrillic characters; I can’t show you how the restaurant spells its name. Despite the barrier of a different alphabet, we have learned many Russian words – tsar (or czar), samovar, soviet, troika, babushka, glasnost, and perestroika. Japanese has two syllabic alphabets of over one hundred characters each plus thousands of Chinese characters. But that doesn’t stop us from our karate lessons or taking a stab at karaoke. We know the difference between a sumo wrestler and a geisha. We know to move to high ground if there is a tsunami warning. We still keep some “dead” languages alive. Many people groan when Latin is mentioned, but you dear reader, know as much Latin as you do some of the living languages above. If you’re patriotic, you should know “E Pluribus Unum”. Every Marine knows “Semper Fideles”. You’ve probably been on many ad hoc committees. If you are a movie fan, you know MGM’s slogan “Ars gratia artis”. If you know the Constitution, you should know the prohibition of ex post facto laws. Fliers are often glad to be on terra firma again. Some celebrities try to travel incognito. People who don’t like change do like the status quo. One final reminder of how much Latin you know: some may think my columns run on ad infinitum; others might use the Modern Latin term: ad nauseum. Whatever you think, macht nichts. ©2008 Melvyn D. Magree |