Foreign Languages in General + Personal Korean translation request

[Roxie Faye]

[color=#9933ff][size=1]A senior boy at my school just moved here this year. He's Korean and has been living in the US for a while, but I asked him to write in my yearbook... and he wrote in Korean. @_@ There are a bunch of Korean kids at my school, but one of them said the writing was too small, the other doesn't have time, and the last one isn't quite as fluent in some of it, although to her credit she was the only one to TRY and read it. -.-; Exhausting all my RL resources, I turn to my OB buddies, asking for a Korean translator. If anyone (please, I'm begging!) reads Korean, would you be able to translate [url="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/RoxieFaye/Jin_1024x768.png"]this[/url]? Here's a larger size: [url="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v440/RoxieFaye/Jin_1365.png"]here[/url]. (Note: after he says "laugh"/"lol" the first time, the next words are IHHS, not Korean. IHHS is our school. ^^') Thank you!

But I hate making pointless posts that are requests, not discussion, so other than my own request, I thought I'd ask about foreign languages in general: Are there any languages other than English that you speak well, and have you ever done translating?

Unfortunately, I fall into neither of those categories. The most I have accomplished in another language is to speak Spanish conversationally. I can carry on quite a decent conversation (okay, provided that no one is speaking at a mile a minute), but I just don't have an extensive vocabulary. And I suppose, it would depend on who I was talking to. I saw two movies at the end of the year in Spanish (with English subtitles so we could have class discussion on them). One was with Guatemalan/Mexican\ more "formal" Spanish, which I could understand well, and the other was [i]Maria Full of Grace[/i] with Colombian Spanish, which was nearly unintelligible to me. lol.

I've always thought it would be SO cool to be bilingual, and I COULD have been, had my father only spoken to me in Thai as a baby and child. X_x; But nooooo, I don't get to speak anything but English. To me, it's a bit embarrassing. :([/size][/color]

[Dagger]

[QUOTE=MistressRoxie][color=#9933ff][size=1]
I've always thought it would be SO cool to be bilingual, and I COULD have been, had my father only spoken to me in Thai as a baby and child. X_x; But nooooo, I don't get to speak anything but English.[/size][/color][/QUOTE]
It's not as if you've lost your only chance. :p

Re: your yearbook, I could ask my parental unit if no one else replies, but I don't know how good she is with written Korean.

~Dagger~

[eleanor]

[color=dimgray][b]Translation:[/b]

[i]Between our school and your school, the environment is so different that it's hard to adjust. Thanks for the help you gave me (A/N: this sentence was hard to read, it's probably not an exact translation). Don't forget high school life; look through your yearbook and relive your memories. Do well in college. Make a lot of good friends and have a good college life. I'm not worried, but I know that you'll do well. Anyways, if you meet any Korean friends, you'll probably ask them to translate this, right? Thanks, because of you I had a fun 12th grade. Bye*~[/i]

*The person wrote the Korean word 'bye' in a funny, cute way by slightly altering the symboling.

Lol, the person who wrote this made it hard to read. I had to squint my eyes a lot.

My parents spoke to me in Korean and English when I was little, and I graduated from a Korean language school, so I'm pretty much bilingual. I think my parents just expect me to have a good knowledge of the Korean language, and they get angry at me when I get out of practice.

Generally I use both languages at the same time around my parents (usually 2/3 of each sentence being Korean and the rest English) simply because all of my friends are white and I rarely use Korean outside of home. But lately I've been forcing myself to speak only Korean, because I'm planning on taking the SAT IIs for it and I've been volunteering at a Korean VBS.

I think it helps to be in touch with your native tongue, especially if you're a minority. It helps you connect with others of your race, and as a fun bonus point, Korean offers more playful linguistics than English does. ;) You learn things that are lost in translation, which is always cool.

I just finished my 4th year of Spanish in high school, but I sort of hated it lol. I guess my brain doesn't want to learn another language. P:[/color]

[AzureWolf]

[COLOR=maroon]Lunox, everyone's favorite (in that disturbing, pedophilic sort of way) Korean gal to the rescue! That's a cute message.

I'm hackneyed bilingual, in that I can't speak my native tongue, but understand it perfectly. I used to think that was weird, but thanks to Neuroscience, I actually understand how that could happen (knowledge is power!). I'm also moderate at reading and writing Latin, but that doesn't count.

Languages, in general, I think are important to learn the "right" way, because otherwise it gets harder to progress and the level of potential fluency declines. That's how I am with Latin, and - well, it's hard to "unlearn" haha.

Make sure when you learn a language, do it in an "immersive" style, not relying on your dominant language to learn a new one.[/COLOR]

[Panda]

My first language was Japanese. My family is pretty new to the US so it's pretty much what the family spoke around the house. My older cousins were all born in Japan and the younger ones, like me, were born here in the States. When my older brother started school and had to take the English as a Foreign Language class my parents made us speak in English at home all the time to make sure we did well in school. So we are just in the habit now of hearing them speak in Japanese and we respond in English. At least this way my hubby can understand half of a conversation. lol

Now that I am older I very rarely speak in Japanese since I am really embarrassed by my terrible American accent. I love being able to understand two languages I just wish I were a bit more fluent. I understand why my parents wanted us to stick to English as our language but it really would have made my college Japanese class much easier. lol

[eleanor]

[QUOTE=AzureWolf][COLOR=maroon]Lunox, everyone's favorite (in that disturbing, pedophilic sort of way) Korean gal to the rescue!
[/COLOR][/QUOTE]

[color=dimgray] I also regularly wear my hair in pigtails and top it off with some cat ears. *thumbs up!*[/color]

[Revelation]

[size=1][color=#8B008B]Dang, Lunox. You beat me to it. I was in the midst of translating when I got sucked into watching Korean drama. But, anyways I concur what Lunox translated. As for the sentence that Lunox found hard to read said something like "Thanks for talking to me." or something like that.

Like Lunox, I speak both Korean and English, usually combining the two to speak Konglish. I also finished my fourth year of Spanish and my first year of Japanese. Apparently people think I should take a linguists class in college.

Anyways, my first language is Korean and English is my second language. I'm fluent in both; I can read and speak Korean but when I write Korean, it looks a lot like a chicken scratch. I bounced around Korean Language Schools but I never graduated. I kind of regret it but I've got the rest of my life ahead so, it doesn't really matter much.

As for translating, I've done that a few times for my mother if my father wasn't with her. I also translated a few times for some Korean exchange students who I've befriended. But other than that, I haven't done much.

That's my language life story. I think I might continue learning Spanish and Japanese in college, and take a Korean language class as well. I'm also thinking of beginning Latin and Chinese. [Wow, don't I sound like an overachiever? >_<;;;][/size][/color]

[ChibiHorsewoman]

[quote name='Lunox][color=dimgray'] I also regularly wear my hair in pigtails and top it off with some cat ears. *thumbs up!*[/color][/quote]

[color=#9933ff][font=lucida calligraphy]Yes, and I have red hair and freckles and go out to get drunk every weekend and hunt leprechans.



Hmm foriegn languages. My family is 5th generation Irish/Dutch/German so I don't have any alternative languages.

I have had different clients though who were either from Germany or Italy and still speak in their native tongue or had parents who constantly yelled at them in Italian. But that never happened to me. However I do try to speak Italian and German (my scant knowlege of it) with my Italian and German clients. And I try to speak Spanish with my daughter's babysitter.

I'm currently trying to learn French. But right now my only teacher is a friend from Quebec. So any help with that would be greatly appreciated.[/color][/font]

[r2vq]

[color=#007520]I'm like AzureWolf with my native tongue for the reasons Panda listed. Though, as the years have been passing (and with less and less contact with people who speak my native dialect) I'm finding it more and more difficult to understand words I used to understand.

Being born in the Visayan area of the Philippines, my first language was a form of Bisaya, [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cebuano_language]Cebuano[/url] really. That was the only thing I really spoke until I turned two and moved to Canada. From then my parents intensively taught me English so I could advance in the schools. Now years later, I have few people who prefer to talk to me in Cebuano rather than English, and there are no classes to take it since most of the Filipinos in this city speak the national language, [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tagalog_language]Tagalog[/url].

I have completed three years of Japanese via Saturday class, but I've stopped because it interfeared with my schedule at work.

Oh... and because I live in Canada, I have 9 years of French under my belt... but if I try to speak much of it... Japanese comes out. >_>

-r2[/color]

[Sara]

[quote name='Revelation][size=1][color=#8B008B]Apparently people think I should take a linguists class in college.[/size'][/color][/quote][color=#b0000b]If you're interested in languages, I really recommend it. I took a linguistics class my first semester at the U, and I adored it. I've been taking them ever since.

My confidence level is extremely low, but I've taken almost eight years of German. I also took a year of Swedish (which was exceptionally fun! If you ever have the opportunity, especially if you've had any contact with German, I urge you to take Swedish), and I'll be taking some beginning Swahili classes this coming semester (if everthing goes as planned).

I've also studied Middle High German, Old English, and Old Norse, but of course those aren't spoken anywhere anymore.[/color]

[Nerdsy]

[color=deeppink]I'm learning Klingon right now, and by "right now" I mean "have been trying for a good 4 years now but I only know how to say 'We will meet in the cocktail lounge.'"

It's hard to learn when you're so lazy. : ([/color]

[Sara]

[QUOTE=Nerdsy][color=deeppink]I'm learning Klingon right now, and by "right now" I mean "have been trying for a good 4 years now but I only know how to say 'We will meet in the cocktail lounge.'"

It's hard to learn when you're so lazy. : ([/color][/QUOTE][color=#b0000b]What's the syntax for that like?[/color]

[Nerdsy]

[quote name='Sara][color=#b0000b']What's the syntax for that like?[/color][/quote]

[color=deeppink]I haven't learned the syntax yet, so I don't know. : P[/color]

[Guest Apeiron]

As per request via text-message from Roxie, I am instructed to deliver the following message,
"Thank-you for the translation help everyone!!! ^^"
This message wil self-destruct in
Five Cinq Funf Cinco Cinque Go Bes Piec
Four Quatre Vier Quatro Quattro Yon Dört Cztery
Three Trois Drei Tres Tre San üç Trzy
Two Deux Zwei Dos Due Ni Iki Dwa
One Un Ein Uno Uno Ichi Bir Jeden
Zero Zero Null Cero Zero Rei Sifir Zero
[CENTER][B][SIZE=4]BOOM!!!![/SIZE][/B][/CENTER]

[CENTER] :animesmil [/CENTER]

[Anakoni Stark]

[SIZE=1] My native tongue [sadly] is English, I dont understand why my parents couldnt of spoken to me in Tagalog [my actual native language] for the first few years of life, as a result, I can understand what they are talking about but cant give any input in the proper language.

I also speak Japanese, due to the fact that I lived on the island of Okinowa, just South of the mainland.. but it's not very good, I know how to write the characters and speak it, but the speaking gets butchered because of the slight London accent I have.

The other languages I'm learning are French and German, I'm not taking classes or living in France or Germany, I'm learning both languages by friends and relatives.

My parents and relatives say that Spainsh would help me in understanding Tagalog [or any other Filipino dialect] so I took Spainsh I this last school year. It was hard but once I got the hang of it, it technically became my second language, if I dont feel like struggling with my parents' converstations I usually reply to them in Spainsh.[/SIZE]

[celestialcharm]

[QUOTE=r2vq][color=#007520]
Oh... and because I live in Canada, I have 9 years of French under my belt... but if I try to speak much of it... Japanese comes out. >_>
[/color][/QUOTE]

[COLOR=DarkOrchid][FONT=Book Antiqua]For me it's a mixture of French and Spanish because I took a beginners Spanish class in grade 10. It was so embarassing when my Spanish teacher asked me how I was in Spanish at prom, I answered in French. But, I am taking Spanish again as a course in university.

Anyways, I wish I could speak another language fluently. When my sister was younger, my mom sponsered my aunt to some from Curacao to come live with them (I wasn't born yet) in Canada. My sister spent alot of time with my dutch and [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papiamentu]papiamento[/URL] speaking aunt. So, when she was learning how to speak, my aunt was learning English. My mom said that my sister could communicate with my aunt in papiamento. But, it ended up that my sister needed speech therapy in elementary school because she couldn't pronounciate some of her letters.

My mom never thought it was important for us to learn, so we're all English speakers. :( Plus, it was probably because the government thought my aunt was just faking that she couldn't speak English. Crazy 80s.[/FONT][/COLOR]