When I was in school about hundred years ago I thought it was scary to learn English, a foreign language. The thing that scared me was, what if I can’t learn it properly, what if I say the wrong words, spell them bad and so on. What if I don’t understand the language.
I was one of those quiet kids when I was born. Didn’t say a word the first year. But after that I started to talk in full sentences right away, I’ve been told. Makes perfect sense to me. I have always wanted to do things correct and well from the start. Of course I didn’t try my language word for word, of course I studied it in silence until I was sure I could make it sound like the grownups speaking with sever words in a row!
I couldn’t do that with the English language. So I learned in constant fearness of doing wrong all my school years. Luckily I have grown out of that fear now 🙂
Anyway, that was not what I was gonna tell you. This was:
You have a word in English that I always struggled with. It didn’t make sense to me.
The word was Eventually.
In Swedish we hve a word “eventuellt“. Not at all the same meaning as eventually, but they almost looked the same and sounded very similar in the beginning of the word.
I still stumble in this word when I wanna use it. I have to check out if I remember the meaning of the word right.
This is what google translate says about those two words
The French “éventuellement” and the English “eventually” also sound about the same with a completely different meaning. And that is not the only English faux-ami ! I should have learned Swedish, my big boss being Swedish ! Have a lovely day, Anna.
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Have a lovely day you too! I hope your big boss is a nice Swede 🙂
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I guess English speakers mixed this up thoroughly!
Eventuell in German also means possibly. So there are already 3 of us (Swedish, French, German) with the same meaning and only English with the screwed up meaning ^^
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Then we are right and they got it wrong 😄
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I think that is the problem we all face when learning a new language. We can’t let the fear of making a mistake hold us back. We also must not forget that we all make mistakes – even in our mother tongue. So give it your best shot.
Leslie
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Thanks. It’s more fun to learn languages when you’re not afraid of doing wrong.
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The only way to do no wrong is to do nothing Anna. Get ready for a lot mistakes because you and I weren’t meant to do nothing.
Leslie
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You are so right! Thanks for wise words. Didn’t think of that.
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😉
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I love this post! When I first met my adopted children, they wouldn’t speak English to me, but would speak to my bios in English when I wasn’t around. I didn’t believe it at first. Sure enough, I hung out their door one night and I heard him speaking broken English. He didn’t want to speak for fear it wasn’t right. It took me speaking my terrible Latvian to him, for him to giggle and realize it was OK if it wasn’t perfect. However, the first time I traveled to Latvia, I felt that same fear when I went to use my Latvian…am I saying it right? Do they understand me with my accent? Is this the right ending for a male? LOL! The joys of learning new languages! ❤
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Thanks for sharing your story. Learning new languages and allow people to say wrong can mean new ways of using the language, so I think we should try without fear of saying the wrong words.
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Yes, I agree!!! :-). 🙂
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😃
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Lol at being in school a hundred years ago. Cheers, I love this
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Maybe it wasn’t hundred years ago, but it feels like ancient time. It was the 80’s but that is a long time ago 🙂
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Fascinating but not sure about til slut. Some words just don’t work in another language!
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You just gave me the theme for next Speak Swedish post. I agree, some words doesn’t work well in other languages!
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Will read it soon. I think what matters is that we wish to communicate with each other and forgive our mistakes or the language differences! Spanish people seem very good at that and we have a Spanglish lunch!
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The spoken language is only one way to communicate. We can fill in the blanks with so many other ways to communicate 🙂
The important thing is that we never stop try talking to each other even if we’re from different languages.
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That is so very true and blogging helps us share insights.
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I agree 🙂
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