Are you in Queue?
There are many countries in the world and each country has their own languages to understand each other. To be able to understand each other no matter where you are from, many people study English and English has been Universal language in the world.
In Japan,when I was a student, we started learning English from Junior high school (Age 12-13 years old). We start learning from alphabet, easy greeting phrases such as "Hi,my name is xxx. How are you?" "I am fine,thank you.And you?".
The textbook we used was based on American English and, as you move to more advanced in textbook, you study more focus on listening skill of News, movies, and some classes offered Business English etc.
I like writing and, I love making new friends. One of my English teacher at junior high school introduced me to start making friends overseas a.k.a pen pals. I had so much fun writing to them, learned lots of interesting cultural things not just about them. When I entered into University, I started making plan to visit some of my pen pals in overseas during vacation. I visited USA,Australia, England, France, Holland etc. It was so much fun. Seeing different sceneries, experiencing different culture, meeting friends .. it was very refreshing.
When I first started making plan, I did not think I would have some problems understanding English that local people speak. However, a couple of words,phrases were very new to me. One of which was from time I was in England.
One lady asked me "Are you in queue?"
At the time, I did not know what "Queue" meant. I asked her to write down on paper for me but I still did not understand what it meant and she ended up re-phrase it for me "Are you in line?" I then understood what she meant and I smiled and answered to her.
After that incident, I started noticing you can actually see phrase that use "Queue" but,written different way like "Please Q other side" for train station. It was very interesting experience. Small thing like this can be very interesting thing to tourists like me.
Another encounter with English problem was in Australia. I have been to Australia twice. Very first time I visited in Australia, some of the words they use in phrases were familiar with me but since they pronounce "day" as in " dye", it can be difficult to catch sometimes. When you meet friends in Australia, often times,they greet you "Good day,mate." and you will be hearing sound as in " Good dye, mate". it means "How are you,friends?" in Australia and I noticed they use "cheers" instead of using "see you" or they use "mate" a lot in stead of using "friends".
In Japan, we speak Japanese butthere are dialect and I do not think I would understand some ofJapanese words or phrases spoken by those who live in northern part ofJapan. Sometimes, when news reporter interview people for something,you get subtitle for people to understand what they are talking about.
When you have a chance to travel overseas, look around you and you may find interesting signs. English is universal language but, depending on which countries you visit,you may find unfamiliar words and phrases that is specific to the local area. It will be interesting to learn new words and phrases,too.
Have you seen any interesting signs or had interesting experience when you travel overseas?
In Japan,when I was a student, we started learning English from Junior high school (Age 12-13 years old). We start learning from alphabet, easy greeting phrases such as "Hi,my name is xxx. How are you?" "I am fine,thank you.And you?".
The textbook we used was based on American English and, as you move to more advanced in textbook, you study more focus on listening skill of News, movies, and some classes offered Business English etc.
I like writing and, I love making new friends. One of my English teacher at junior high school introduced me to start making friends overseas a.k.a pen pals. I had so much fun writing to them, learned lots of interesting cultural things not just about them. When I entered into University, I started making plan to visit some of my pen pals in overseas during vacation. I visited USA,Australia, England, France, Holland etc. It was so much fun. Seeing different sceneries, experiencing different culture, meeting friends .. it was very refreshing.
When I first started making plan, I did not think I would have some problems understanding English that local people speak. However, a couple of words,phrases were very new to me. One of which was from time I was in England.
One lady asked me "Are you in queue?"
At the time, I did not know what "Queue" meant. I asked her to write down on paper for me but I still did not understand what it meant and she ended up re-phrase it for me "Are you in line?" I then understood what she meant and I smiled and answered to her.
After that incident, I started noticing you can actually see phrase that use "Queue" but,written different way like "Please Q other side" for train station. It was very interesting experience. Small thing like this can be very interesting thing to tourists like me.
Another encounter with English problem was in Australia. I have been to Australia twice. Very first time I visited in Australia, some of the words they use in phrases were familiar with me but since they pronounce "day" as in " dye", it can be difficult to catch sometimes. When you meet friends in Australia, often times,they greet you "Good day,mate." and you will be hearing sound as in " Good dye, mate". it means "How are you,friends?" in Australia and I noticed they use "cheers" instead of using "see you" or they use "mate" a lot in stead of using "friends".
In Japan, we speak Japanese butthere are dialect and I do not think I would understand some ofJapanese words or phrases spoken by those who live in northern part ofJapan. Sometimes, when news reporter interview people for something,you get subtitle for people to understand what they are talking about.
When you have a chance to travel overseas, look around you and you may find interesting signs. English is universal language but, depending on which countries you visit,you may find unfamiliar words and phrases that is specific to the local area. It will be interesting to learn new words and phrases,too.
Have you seen any interesting signs or had interesting experience when you travel overseas?
I've never gotten the chance to travel overseas. The only place that I'd even be interested to go would be to Israel. I did find your thoughts on the subject to be ver interesting though, and I know that dialects do, sometimes, make it very difficult to understand even a single language.
Even the cultural changes from differing generations make the language quite different. An example would be that in my generation when something was "bad," it meant that is was NOT a good thing, but now, it means that it IS a good thing. I guess that it is true what they say about language being a "growing" thing.
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I think language is very interesting subject. Same language is spoke in England,Australia,New Zealand,Canada, and America and there are some words that can be understood only within the specific countries.
Language changes as years pass by, and like you said, word that used to mean one thing could mean another years later. There usually are trend words, made-up words somebody came up with. Very interesting part of culture.
Also,movies can create trend in language too. Lord of the ring, Avatar .. those movies have language only specific characters/groups speak. Right now, most talked about movie with interesting language will be "Avatar".
In the movie of Avatar, you would hear language of Navi, which University linguistic professor has constructed and,yes he came up with grammar too. It would also be interesting if broad way musical theater started shows using such specific language made for movies. Looks like if you were interested in leaning the language of Navi, you could learn online.
To read full story on Navi language at LA Times,please click here.
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