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 Post Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 12:24 pm 
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Plus it's no use to learn to say "where is the bathroom" if you won't understand the answer.

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 Post Posted: Mon May 27, 2013 8:56 pm 
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I think knowing the words for various drugs would be useful. My lesson was learned by a trip to France. I needed something to sooth itching and was in an area where English wasn't known by everyone. That was an...interesting bit of miming at the drug store.

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 Post Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 1:25 pm 
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AlternateTorg wrote:
[*]Do you speak English?


I don't think it's actually at all necessary to be able to say this in any foreign language. You can ask the question in English; if the other person doesn't understand, then the answer is 'no'.

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 Post Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 6:08 pm 
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Then, "Can you get someone who speaks English?"

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 Post Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 6:50 pm 
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"Do you speak English?" is short. "Get me someone who speaks English" is the obvious implied question if the answer is no.

Knowing how to say "please" is pretty useful. Aside from being courteous, it can be used as a crudely-worded request for help. Indicate an object in a store and say "please," and it's clear you wish to buy it. Tack it in front of the name of your hotel, and it's obvious that you're asking for directions.

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 Post Posted: Tue May 28, 2013 9:51 pm 
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AlternateTorg wrote:
"Do you speak English?" is short. "Get me someone who speaks English" is the obvious implied question if the answer is no.

Knowing how to say "please" is pretty useful. Aside from being courteous, it can be used as a crudely-worded request for help. Indicate an object in a store and say "please," and it's clear you wish to buy it. Tack it in front of the name of your hotel, and it's obvious that you're asking for directions.

Tack on what Heinlein said about knowing how to say thank you.

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 Post Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 2:09 am 
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I can say thank you in a few languages.

There is

Domo Hairy Gecko.

Murky Buckets.

Donkey Shorts.

She She.

and Much Grassy Ass.

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 Post Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 2:12 am 
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Seems about right.

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 Post Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 3:34 am 
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Quote:
"Do you speak English?" is short. "Get me someone who speaks English" is the obvious implied question if the answer is no.


Ah, right. That makes sense. Somehow, I'd missed that implication.

Quote:
Tack on what Heinlein said about knowing how to say thank you.


"Thank you" in Afrikaans is "Dankie", which is pronounced exactly like "Donkey".

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 Post Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 4:39 am 
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Jorodryn wrote:
Domo Hairy Gecko


I can figure out what the other languages you're going for are, but this one has left me baffled.

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 Post Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 10:07 am 
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I think what he's going for there is "domo arigato."

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 Post Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 12:52 pm 
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funny, I thought gato was cat.

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 Post Posted: Wed May 29, 2013 2:36 pm 
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Gato is Spanish for cat. For instance, "Tengo un gato en mis pantalones." "I have a cat in my pants." (which was a hilarious day in Spanish class...)

Domo arigato is Japanese for 'Thanks a lot', with domo being 'much/very' and arigato being 'thanks'.

That said, when saying thank you in Japanese, more often you will be saying arigato gozaimasu (if in a more formal situation) or just arigato if among friends.

Domo - as in just saying 'domo' by itself is multi-use among native Japanese speakers, meaning (depending on context) 'thank you', 'excuse me', or 'sorry' to name a few. It's just one of those ways you use to acknowledge someone else. That said, it is very informal, and generally shouldn't be used unless among friends.

What really makes it difficult for non-native speakers to learn is learning to write in Japanese. Compare (assuming you have Japanese fonts on your computer, otherwise below may seem jibberish):

Romaji - Nihongo wo hanashimasuka? (Can you speak Japanese)
Hirogana - にほんごをはなしますか? Ni-ho-n-go-o-ha-na-shi-ma-su-ka-?
Katakana - カンヨウスペアクジャパネズ? (Might have gotten it wrong, but roughly 'Can you speak Japanese?' - katakana is used to spell out foreign words/names/phrases)
Kanji - 日本語を話しますか? (This is what you would normally see)

Romaji is generally only used by Western audiences who don't know how to read the other three, and basically involves spelling it out.
Hirogana is the simplest way to write Japanese, effectively having one hirogana per syllable. On a side note, if you were to see a person in a manga speaking entirely in hiragana, it generally implies they do not know Japanese very well (such as being a foreigner). Alternatively...
Katakana is how the Japanese write most foreign words or names. If you see someone in manga speaking in katakana, they're likely speaking in a foreign language (often English). It is also used for sound effects in manga.
Kanji, however, is the tricky part. They're the most complex characters, and, based on the situation in which they are combined together, may have completely different meanings. For instance, 夢 means dream, and 中 means inside, but if you put them together with 夢中 it can mean daze/trance/delirious - literally dreaming inside.

And then you start stacking formal vs. informal wording on top of that, the use of honorifics like -san/-sama/-sempai ect., always referring to someone by their last name (calling a Japanese person by their first name, without any honorifics at all, is very rude - that form of address is reserved for very close friends or loved ones)... and the sheer amounts of contextual layered meaning that tends to come across with it...

Gah. Yeah. It's definitely an interesting language to learn.

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 Post Posted: Thu May 30, 2013 4:58 pm 
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I lived on Okinawa for 4 years and learned a bit of the language. I made the gato comment to be funny, but I do appreciate the lesson.

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 Post Posted: Thu Jun 06, 2013 6:43 pm 
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I have that feeling I always get right before a major move - excited, sad and filled with dread. Excited because I look forward to leaving Wichita for a bigger, more interesting city. Sad that I'm leaving all of the wonderful people I met behind. Filled with dread that I'll actually hate everything about my newest hometown.

And of course, it makes me remember everyone I've ever moved away from. I've been a nomad all my life, and now that I'm approaching 30, I'm slowly realizing that I want to find a permanent residence - or at least a place I'd consider as home with no foreseeable plans of moving.

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