Yllättävän ymmärrettävää!
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As by the the rules of the forum please stick to the language of the first post in the thread. If you want to have a conversation in Finnish make your own thread.
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I’m in the USA and wish I could speak multiple languages. I studied Spanish is school, which is most relevant where I am, but don’t have enough practice to keep it up. It was enough to travel through Spain and I can still read it okay. I’m just hesitant to try speaking it anymore.
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So just a funny story about language learning. 20 years ago, I had one American friend staying at mine for a about a week during the summer. Obviously we taught her Finnish words and phrases. And we roll our r’s and she was getting quite good in that as well.
We were having a lovely midsummer celebration then, and were at the south-west archipelago area. Then as we were exiting the area, we were on a ferry with a bunch of people, and then this happened:
Earlier she had learn to ask “do you have…” whatever it was that she needed. Now, later she asked me for more Finnish words with the letter r in it, just to practise her rolls. And I started listing some words and for the life of me I dunno why, I said herpes. And she asked, what’s that? And I said, it’s the same, herpes. Now, the clever girl she is, she put two and two together and said, not so quietly, in Finnish, “do you have herpes” 
Lesson learned. If I want people to learn how to roll their r’s, I won’t use the word herpes as an example. But we had a good laugh then, and I still find it amusing.
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Much the same as with French in the southern Netherlands (now Belgium). French was the official language and that of the upper class for centuries. It took till recent times to give flemish/dutch the same status as french. And in Wallony, the french speaking part of Belgium, most people still refuse to speak or understand dutch. The '‘taaloorlog’ or language wars are still raging in Belgium.
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I love this conversation! I have learned a lot about Mexico and the 68 independent indigenous languages in the country, plus 140 something variations within those languages. I even think @Olivia and @Milele that sometime in the past we have talked about this before. But I could be remembering wrong. Anyway. I was in the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico for 4 months or so in my 20s and the people I lived with were Zapotecan, speaking Zapoteca. The villages that have maintained these indigenous languages were so remote for the most part that this is how they maintained the languages over these centuries, but that also means that villages that spoke the same language had variations between them that it was sometimes a challenge for people to communicate with each other. How fascinating that was for me! I met a woman who visited our village and she was doing research and working on developing a written form, as all of these languages are spoken only, not written. She was starting with a dictionary and some understanding of grammar and structure and so on. I have a travel journal where I wrote several words down phonetically and at the moment I only remember the greeting and the farewell. Hello: Sácu chín. Goodbye: Sácu shí
What was interesting to me is that the names of things were influenced by the land around them and the ancient stories passed down. There was a “mountain,” a big foothill separating my village and the one next to it and there was a story about a mystical pair of stones found on the top, one black and one white. Their names for those colors supposed came from what they were told by gods that the stones were named and the villages had the same Spanish name but the Zapoteca word for black was attached to the town name for one and the word for white was attached to the town name for the other. All those little villages have Spanish names given by the priests that spread Catholicism and it’s all Saint so and so blah blah plus an indigenous word. You can guess why they did that. The villages already had names.
I follow an Instagram by someone who provides a Nahuatl word of the week and I’m learning so much. That’s the language of the Aztecs and Mexican Spanish has borrowed several adapted words from that language as well, including chocolate. Which then spread around the world since chocolate comes from the Americas.
Adding on to the indigenous languages in Mexico are all the hundreds of others all over Latin America and it is just so fascinating.
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Oh and just to add that the woman was doing research and documenting because these languages are slowly being lost to migration, people leaving, choosing Spanish over their mother tongue. I hope languages can be preserved.
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It is the same in England after the Norman conquest, the old french language was spoken at court and in the nobility etc. A lot of the language still exists today in different ways. Absolutely fascinating, and yet most English people hate learning languages at school.
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If I had a smarter brain, I would have wanted to be a linguist. It’s fascinating. We need more word nerds here 
Hey @Matt ! Join us would you 
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I almost went that direction after reading Noam Chomsky and taking a linguistics class 
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A funny story, folks who speak an indigenous language first and then learn Spanish frequently speak it with an accent. I came home speaking more fluently than ever, but my mom teased me that I had an accent! I couldn’t hear it, she said it was more sing song like and she said it sounded “pretty!” So weird to think about. Since then I’ve heard others who have that kind of accent and I agree.
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One reason probably is that English has such a strong lingua franca position especially in the West.
I was told in high school that we learn different languages in order to understand others and to be understood. That’s a given if you’re coming from such a secluded language group as I do.
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Pronunciation of xocolatl/chocolate
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That’s so cool Rosa! It’s something else to get to stay in area where the language is spoken, and get to be in the culture and all. 
And you know, how you every now and then bump on stuff on the internet, but you’re not sure if it’s true? Because I read this thing where someone was saying that this one indigenous language is dying, maybe in Mexico (I don’t remember anymore), because the two people who still speak it are older and not in good terms, so they’re not speaking to each other. Have you come across this story? I just don’t know how legit it is.
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I’m influenced by the English speakers around me. The more I listen to Muricans (like @Ravikamor @SoberGuyUSA @Fury) the more I pick up their style and manner. If I spent a few months in England I would sound yet different.
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Yes, very true. I think it largely stems from us not starting to properly learn until secondary school (so 11 onwards), by which time it is so much harder. We don’t emerse ourselves in the language either. It comes from a position of arrogance that we will be understood which is really embarrassing.
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Honestly, I wouldn’t doubt it! That sounds so Mexican, too, not to stereotype too much, but that stubborn grudge holding is a THANG!
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I still speak English with a Swedish accent. No matter if I spend time in UK or US.
Fun thing is that whenever I’ve used Romani for a longer time (like a few hours l) Which doesn’t happen that often nowdays, since there’s not a lot of people to talk to,I then speak Swedish with a Romani accent when I’m changing back.
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Right. I started English on 3rd grade, as 9 year-old. Swedish and German a few years later. Italian when I was 16.
Now, I hear that Finnish parents put their kids in English, French, German etc kindergartens so that they would learn a foreign language as early as possible.
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English is taking over here. More and more shops people working there don’t speak dutch, just english. Not good but reality.
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