Do you read books in more than one language?

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by HarryT

That's interesting. I know that children use "tu" when talking to each other, but wouldn't it be considered rather rude for a child to use "tu" rather than "vous" when talking to an adult, or have times changed now so that's no longer the case?

I was thinking the same, I believe only very small children would use "tu" instead of "vous"... but I understand the distinction is probably harder to teach to English-speaking children, and it can be better to start by teaching only "tu", and then progressing on "vous" when they are a little bit older (and they have at least heard about the "thou" and "thine" )

[HarryT]

I live in one of the parts of England in which "thou" and "thy" are still alive and well in the local dialect, so it would probably be a relatively easy distinction to teach here .

[Ben Thornton]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I live in one of the parts of England in which "thou" and "thy" are still alive and well in the local dialect, so it would probably be a relatively easy distinction to teach here .

And where liv'st thou, where thy countrymen speak so?

[HarryT]

Lancashire and Yorkshire dialect. Don't tha' know?

[Ben Thornton]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Lancashire and Yorkshire dialect. Don't tha' know?

Aye, gradely - but there's no distinction between you/thee, is there? I (mistakenly) thought that you meant there was a dialect which retained that distinction in English - unless there is one?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Ben Thornton

Aye, gradely - but there's no distinction between you/thee, is there?

Yes, there is. People will say "thee" to one person, but "you" to many people, which is certainly one of the distinctions between the two. I agree that the "formal/informal" distinction probably has been lost.

[Ben Thornton]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yes, there is. People will say "thee" to one person, but "you" to many people, which is certainly one of the distinctions between the two. I agree that the "formal/informal" distinction probably has been lost.

I was thinking of the latter distinction, but you are right. I wonder why the I/we vs. thee/you distinction has remained, while the formal/informal one hasn't. Was the formal distinction ever there in English? In Shakespeare, there is "Assuredly, you know me" directed at Cleopatra (who, one would think, would merit a formal address) - it's not clear to me why this wouldn't be "Assuredly, thou know'st me" or something like that.

[Ben Thornton]

I've answered my own question (to some extent at least) from here.

[ficbot]

Originally Posted by Jellby

I was thinking the same, I believe only very small children would use "tu" instead of "vous"... but I understand the distinction is probably harder to teach to English-speaking children, and it can be better to start by teaching only "tu", and then progressing on "vous" when they are a little bit older (and they have at least heard about the "thou" and "thine" )

Yes, they do introduce it later. The aim is to teach the most common/useful forms first so that the children can begin communicating ASAP. Most of my students are under 7 years old and will not be communicating with anybody but me right now, and I will not be insulted I think even if they did try to talk to a French person, they would get cut some slack for being very small and for genuinely making an effort.

That said, I have spoken with several French people who were scandalized when I mentioned this detail, so I suppose the English-speaking creator of the program may not be seeing the social nuance in the same way as a native speaker. I had a conversation with Verencat about this when I met her in person in which I had several questions about when 'vous' is used

I can post one of my stories, if you want to read it The illustrations are all from Google Images and I am not sure if I have 'rights' to share the story as a consequence unless I cut out the text only...

[digitaldolf]

Dutch is my mother tongue, English is my second language and German my third.
I like reading books in their native language if possible. Books that are originally written in any other language than these three, I like to read in my native language: Dutch.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by BKeeper

Language is an amazing thing. I have found that the same person speaking a different language seems to reveal a slightly different personality.

Each language is ultimately a just different platform (cage?) from which to contemplate reality, there isn't a 100% overlap, just the hope that we mean "quasi la stessa cosa."

actually i completely agree with this, it goes back again to the "tone" or "colour" of the language, which i feel can be quite distinct. i know there are sometimes things that we say commonly in french which i still have no idea how to express in english, because even if i know a litteral translation it doesn't have the same *tone*. i think i also feel slightly different when i am speaking in english than in french, and there are some subjects i find much easier to discuss in french than in english, although i have a decent vocabulary in both languages.

Originally Posted by Jellby

I was thinking the same, I believe only very small children would use "tu" instead of "vous"... but I understand the distinction is probably harder to teach to English-speaking children, and it can be better to start by teaching only "tu", and then progressing on "vous" when they are a little bit older (and they have at least heard about the "thou" and "thine" )

meh, it really depends on circumstances. children / young people should in theory say vous to adults but more specifically to adults they don't know (and inversely, adults say "tu" to any child, whether they know him or not). most children say "tu" to their adult family members and friends and this is quite normal and not at all shocking. it's only in the real haute-bourgeoisie where there are a few families where you will hear the children say "vous" even to their parents ; i find *this* far more shocking than a child who says "tu" to a stranger they don't know...

[Madam Broshkina]

Originally Posted by SplogSplog

Foreign languages were the main reason I bought an eReader. Since retiring a couple of years back, I have become pretty heavily involved in language learning.

Pretty early on I discovered that the US Foreign Services Institute courses (used by the government to train diplomats for overseas postings) can be downloaded free of charge as PDFs.

It turns out these courses are very comprehensive (some are several volumes, each over 1000 pages long) and there was no way I could print them out, and reading them on my laptop screen gave me a headache. I bought an iRex DR1000, and put a bunch of these FSI courses on it. It has made a heck of a difference - so that I now study these courses for several hours a day.

Here is the Link to the FSI Site.

http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php


Here you can access audio, text and tests in 41 different languages.

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Madam Broshkina

Here is the Link to the FSI Site.

http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php


Here you can access audio, text and tests in 41 different languages.

Thank you.


Great textbooks.
I have had a look at the Czech textbook and it is a great text. At the moment it is a little bit outdated and many, many of the facts that refer to the "good old socialistic Czechoslovakia" are only nostalgic memories.

I was hoping I would find good quality English textbook there for my wife, but, I guess, American diplomats already speak good enough English

[jblitereader]

Yes, just because I can. Why limit myself?

In fact, I have put hundreds of ebooks in Vietnamese up download on my own website.

[Shayne Parkinson]

I mostly read in English (my mother tongue), but occasionally I read in French, in an effort to improve my skill (or at least to slow down my loss of skill ) with the language. I can't read anything too demanding, though.