Just Another Hang-Out: Because Unilateral Decisions Matter

[Raype]

Yeah, our teacher always used to tell us that in France they go to great efforts to preserve the French-ness of the language. So instead of borrowing an English word, they'll make up one in French. I guess when it's a language that was borrowed from another country and culture to begin with, people are less picky about that? Interesting.

Aye, I hink there's a few wee similarities with oor dialect tae~ Becaus aw thae Scots went on up tae Canada in yon Highland Clearances an' that.

Oh no, they're still super protective of the language and are doing similar things to try to preserve their overly flowery way of saying things. The difference is, the average french Canadian doesn't care (especially among the youth). Throw in the fact that most of them wind up speaking English pretty fluently and you've got a recipe for linguistic disaster. Which is why you get the occasional francophone going on and on about how they need to "enforce french only schools" and "require signage to use FRENCH ONLY language, or at least formal french first and more prominently". And various other things. I guess similar things happened in France. But due to the different structure of their society, they were able to more or less win. Here in Canada it's just a matter of time before we wind up with a lot of people speaking frankenfrench which winds up being a completely different language from European French. They will, of course, blame Ontario for this. Because that's how they roll.

No.

Guess I'll be shaking my own fist then.

you need to get out more.

But it's cold outside. And there's bears out there. And bugs. And this one time I saw a squirrel that looked mad at me for some reason.

Well, it reads "SuperStupidhead" under your name, so I think that should be a clue of some sorts...

(gosh, what are you people turning me into? )

That one is Elmdor's handiwork. Moral of the story, don't make bets with staff.

Give in. Sooner or later we all develop the ability to say something slightly mean. But we all do it because we love.

I know Canada. Ralph sang your hymn in the Simpsons once. It goes like: "Oh, Canada-aaah!".

Yeah, we really need to swap that one out with something more up-tempo. It's kinda hard to get pumped up for a sporting event when it always opens with something that sounds like it came from a church service. And not even one of those cool gospel services.

...

I repeat, y u no sense?

I think while you're in Japan you should get one of those maps that has Eurasia on the left and America on the right. That way you can make more sense of things. It'll also serve to remind you of just how stupidly massive the Pacific Ocean is. Something many people don't actually realize.

[Elin]

So I guess the basic idea there is that Quebecois french is the kansai dialect of french. Sorta.

やっぱそうやねん〜

I'll have to do my best to pick up Okayama-ben next year. Which... no Japanese person I know seems to be able to tell me anything about. Apparently it has a fair bit in common with Kansai, as Okayama's just outside the Kansai region. But... it's different? I don't know. I guess we'll find out.

[foggy_han]

Aww, what's wrong with Portugal? I don't know much about it. Not even any of the language. I've dabbled in lots of romance languages, but not Portuguese for whatever reason~

Oh? Your brother studies Japanese? Cool. Where's he studying~?

Well... I think we may be more known for "port wine" and... ugh... football players like "cristiano ronaldo"...

European portuguese, although similar to the one spoken in Brazil is actually very different in the gramatical structure,
which often leads to confusion/misunderstanding between them, partiularly if you are picky on the language... like me...

Yeah, my younger (and only) is studying here in Portugal, at a University that is split in four big pavillions.
He is studying both Japanese and Mandarin Chinese.
We use to speak some lines in Japanese here at hom, but his level is currently above mine... by far...
He must be your age, I think... okay, I am pretty sure...
(Sorry, I kinda researched your page a bit... and since you placed your birth date there... )

[Mohit]

[foggy_han]

Stop reading, "stalky".

やっぱそうやねん〜

I'll have to do my best to pick up Okayama-ben next year. Which... no Japanese person I know seems to be able to tell me anything about. Apparently it has a fair bit in common with Kansai, as Okayama's just outside the Kansai region. But... it's different? I don't know. I guess we'll find out.

そのせりふは、ちょっとわかった。

[Raype]

やっぱそうやねん〜

I'll have to do my best to pick up Okayama-ben next year. Which... no Japanese person I know seems to be able to tell me anything about. Apparently it has a fair bit in common with Kansai, as Okayama's just outside the Kansai region. But... it's different? I don't know. I guess we'll find out.

From my limited exposure (blah blah, occasional anime, blah blah), it seems to be one of those wacky sub-dialects. Kind of like how european english is pretty standard, but you've got some marked differences between how an Irishman would say things and how a Northern Britain (who's pretty close geographically) would. Or kind of like how Tan doesn't talk like a Texan despite the fact that both his version of english and that of stereotypical rich Texan would both be marked by Americans as being "from the south" and both being a bit similar in ways. Like how that discussion we got into a while ago about "suicide" and "swamp water" would probably be easier to follow for someone from a similar geographical area due to shared terms than it was when it was between an American and two Canadians from vastly different corners of the country. Most of it seemed to come off as a sort of accent though. Could just be my filthy gaijin ears talking though.

[Elin]

I guess similar things happened in France. But due to the different structure of their society, they were able to more or less win.

Yeah, it probably helps that in France, we're their closest English-speaking neighbour, and we weren't exactly on good terms for most of history. Whereas in Canada, you have English communities and French ones living side by side in the same country. Short of breaking off and forming their own country, I think they're going to have a hard time stopping French Canadian kids picking up English slang and idioms. :'D

I think while you're in Japan you should get one of those maps that has Eurasia on the left and America on the right. That way you can make more sense of things. It'll also serve to remind you of just how stupidly massive the Pacific Ocean is. Something many people don't actually realize.

I think that's the problem. Our map pretty much cuts off at the edges after Japan / Australia. Making it look like you could happily row a canoe a little ways across the water from Japan and find yourself in Canada.

[Inferno.]

So, Mountain Dew Energy gives me headaches. Shame I just bought 4 500ML bottles of it.

[Elin]

Well... I think we may be more known for "port wine" and... ugh... football players like "cristiano ronaldo"...

European portuguese, although similar to the one spoken in Brazil is actually very different in the gramatical structure,
which often leads to confusion/misunderstanding between them, partiularly if you are picky on the language... like me...

Yeah, my younger (and only) is studying here in Portugal, at a University that is split in four big pavillions.
He is studying both Japanese and Mandarin Chinese.
We use to speak some lines in Japanese here at hom, but his level is currently above mine... by far...
He must be your age, I think... okay, I am pretty sure...
(Sorry, I kinda researched your page a bit... and since you placed your birth date there... )

Haha, I know lots of Portuguese footballers. Mostly thanks to international tournaments and some of them playing here in Britain. :'D Aside from that, I know a little about Portuguese / Spanish relations through European history classes. But not much else. Maybe I'll visit that area someday. I've never ever been as far as Spain, much less Portugal.

Yeah, a friend studied it at the university here, and I'm pretty sure she said they taught her Portuguese as it's spoken in Portugal. I guess it's a nearly identical thing to what Ray and I were talking about with French, really. A European language being taken to the American continents and running out of control.

Oh. I did exactly the same thing in university, actually. Though I wasn't able to take Mandarin very far because of timetable clashes. I'm jealous~!

That birthdate isn't right. :'D I'm way older~

[Mohit]

So, Mountain Dew Energy gives me headaches. Shame I just bought 4 500ML bottles of it.

[Elin]

Wawawawa, already 2:30. :'D I should really disappear and practice piano now. It's been lovely speaking to you all, and spending some time in the Hangout again for the first time in forever. Take care, guys~!

[foggy_han]

Hi, Inferno. ^^

Haha, I know lots of Portuguese footballers. Mostly thanks to international tournaments and some of them playing here in Britain. :'D Aside from that, I know a little about Portuguese / Spanish relations through European history classes. But not much else. Maybe I'll visit that area someday. I've never ever been as far as Spain, much less Portugal.

Yeah, a friend studied it at the university here, and I'm pretty sure she said they taught her Portuguese as it's spoken in Portugal. I guess it's a nearly identical thing to what Ray and I were talking about with French, really. A European language being taken to the American continents and running out of control.

Oh. I did exactly the same thing in university, actually. Though I wasn't able to take Mandarin very far because of timetable clashes. I'm jealous~!

That birthdate isn't right. :'D I'm way older~

You probably are about my age then... x´D

He says learning the origin of Chinese characters is actually helping him learning the Japanese Kanji.

Bye, Elin.

(oh, and I play piano too. )

[Raype]

Yeah, it probably helps that in France, we're their closest English-speaking neighbour, and we weren't exactly on good terms for most of history. Whereas in Canada, you have English communities and French ones living side by side in the same country. Short of breaking off and forming their own country, I think they're going to have a hard time stopping French Canadian kids picking up English slang and idioms. :'D

It get a bit more complicated than that too. As a bilingual country, we teach both languages. In my case, as a native English speaker, it meant winding up with a couple half-hearted attempts at making me understand French which more or less gave me the ability to understand the jist of what's being said and say a few basic phrases to get by. In Quebec a lot of schools push for English because no matter what field you go into you'll inevitably wind up talking to a few people that aren't English speaking (Quebec does a lot of business and trade with the Northeastern US, where if you're lucky you might find a few people that speak Spanish, but almost never anyone that speaks French). If you want to be a successful French Canadian, the ability to speak English is as important as the ability to read and write.

Then there's the immersion schools where they amp things up to 11 by throwing in a bunch of English and French kids together so that they can pick up bits of each others language. Math class could be in french while Social Studies winds up being in English. A lot of those schools wind up pretty popular too, because you have an English immigrant population trying to learn french to get by while you have all these French people trying to learn English for when they inevitably move somewhere else in the country or even go abroad. And certain parents love the idea of bilingual kids because it always looks damn good on a resume. But some people take offense to those schools since it's also sort of a breeding ground for shared words and slang. Cue the French purists who advocate closed borders and demand more funding for segregated schooling. Which they also see as a way to decrease influence from those dirty English speaking peasants on the direction of their province.

I guess the short version is that there's two factions, one that's got its eyes on the future and wants everyone in Quebec to speak both languages and another that feels like Quebec should go become more self governing. Of course, the latter group is something of a joke, up to and including their political party. So it's not like anyone takes their whole "Quebec should be a self contained nation within a nation" spiel as anything other than another "LAWL Quebec" moment.

I think that's the problem. Our map pretty much cuts off at the edges after Japan / Australia. Making it look like you could happily row a canoe a little ways across the water from Japan and find yourself in Canada.

"Lost on an island in the Pacific"? What's the big deal, the pacific is just those little blue lines on the edges of the map. It's not like it's big or any-holy fuck

[foggy_han]

"Lost on an island in the Pacific"? What's the big deal, the pacific is just those little blue lines on the edges of the map. It's not like it's big or any-holy fuck

Yeah, it is the "biggy"...

Well, time for me to leave too.
(seems like scotland is in the same time zone as portugal... )

See you around, everyone.

[Raype]

You probably are about my age then... x´D

My powers of deduction have you in the neighborhood of 23.

(Elin is 29. She says she isn't, but she totally is. )

Yeah, it is the "biggy"...

Well, time for me to leave too.
(seems like scotland is in the same time zone as portugal... )

See you around, everyone.

Also a total misnomer. "Peaceful/Pacifist ocean"? Those tidal waves don't lie, yo.