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Benvenuti, Bienvenue, Croeso and Welcome.
Hi, I’m Juliet. Join me on my language learning journey and discover my thoughts on different aspects of language learning with the A Language Learning Tale Podcast. Today, the subject is …
NOT THE FIRST THING TO DO
Or
IS IT TIME TO GET COLLOQUIAL?
One of the first things some people do when starting to learn a language is to go on a search for colloquialisms, slang and swear words, in the language they’re learning. But is this a good idea? And if not, why not?
So, the first thing you’re going to go up and say to a native is something only the locals ever say, or, swear at them? You do realise that if you do that, bad things might happen?
The problem with any slang, offensive, or not, is that it’s just too easy for a foreigner, with little knowledge of the language, or even with a significant amount of knowledge, to get the context completely wrong. Just because you swear like a trooper in your own language, doesn’t mean you should be doing it in your target language. Plus, simply looking up a list of words on the Internet will, obviously, give you the words, but it, generally, isn’t going to give you the context. And context is very important with this kind of language. Also, you might just change one word in a phrase, by mistake, and completely change the meaning.
Firstly, in order to understand these things, in general, their construction, their meaning, their reason, you need to have a good understanding of the basics of a language. Without that, you can’t put these things into any kind of context. Once you get more advanced in a language, you will start recognising them, and be able to understand them, but using them is unlikely to be easy, because a lot of constructions for colloquialisms, for example, don’t make sense in terms of the grammar of the language. They are unlikely to come naturally to you, unless you’re living in the country and have had a lot of exposure to such language.
The next thing you need to consider, talking specifically about offensive language, is that different things will be offensive to different people and this won’t be the same things as in your own language, because we’re talking about a completely different culture. However, just like in your own language, there will be words that, perhaps, younger people use that older people find offensive (a lot of general swearing can fall into this category) and, vice versa, there might be phrases that older people use that are not now what is usually termed politically correct, but that they find perfectly normal. By using any offensive language in a conversation, you could bury yourself in a very deep hole that’s impossible to get out of. If you need to swear, you probably should just do it in your own language instead. Of course, that may still be offensive to those of a different culture, if they know what it means.
So, if you must look up the swear words as your first language learning exercise, okay. Do it. Know that they exist. But think very carefully about it before actually using them.
On the other side of the coin, though, coming across colloquialisms, particularly quaint sayings, and discovering their meaning, and trying to match them to sayings in your own country, can be a lot of fun. I enjoy finding these kinds of sayings in novels, for example, and trying to work out what the equivalent is, which isn’t always easy. For example, I’ve seen ‘con un pugno di mosche’ used a couple of times in Italian now and the first time I saw it I didn’t know what it meant, but it did seem to be a saying, rather than literally talking about a fistful of flies. It took me a while to track it down, but I got there. Basically, it’s a phrase, meaning having nothing to show for it, empty handed. All you’re going home with, or have ended up with is a fistful of flies. I quite like this phrase. Am I ever likely to use it in conversation? Probably not, because on the spur of the moment, I’d likely forget it even exists. Would I recognise it if someone else said it? This particular one, yes. Might I use it in my writing? It’s possible I’ve already have done that.
That’s all for today’s episode. Don’t forget to join me again next time, for more language learning tips, tricks and tales and in the meantime, check out the A Language Learning Tale YouTube channel for additional, non-podcast content.
Ciao, salut, hwyl and bye for now.