T2K Lingua

[Marc]

Mmmmmm... mixing Russian with Portuguese seems difficult!!!

I speak Catalan, English and Spanish (in this order), French language being my next target. Although a Catalan can partially understand a text written in French, the pronunciation of your language seems to me an important challenge! I've been working in Italy for a while and I understand the Italian pretty well. There's a lot of similarities between the Spanish, Italian and Catalan, and a lot of common words (the same happens with the Portuguese). It's usual that a word that has become an archaism in one language is an usual word in the other.

[Mohoender]

Originally Posted by Marc

Mmmmmm... mixing Russian with Portuguese seems difficult!!!

Actually not that much. My mother is fluent in Portuguese and her ex-boyfriend was portuguese. When they crossed the path of some Russians speaking in the street they couldn't tell if these people were speaking Russian or Portuguese. Obviously, the Russians were equally puzzled.

Both languages are entirely different but, strangely, they sound in a similar manner.

For the french pronunciation that is quite easy in fact, speak as flat as possible with little if any intonation. I would say that the french language is one of the language using the less possible sounds. From what I know the number of sounds in french is ridiculously low (as I think it is the case for english) and that explains why the french are that bad at learning foreign language. At the opposite end you'll find languages like Portuguese, Russian, Arab... That's also why an Arab (saudi) can learn a foreign language simply by listening to it and, believe me, it is very impressive when a guy is suddenly starting to speak politics or phylosophy in your own language when he has simply been listening to you for about 2 months (not even full time).

[Mohoender]

Some french expressions that may be useful to T2K (France and a good part of Africa)

A couvert: take cover.
A droite: to the right.
A gauche: to the left.
A terre: get down.
Attention: pay attention.
Bougez vous les gars: move it boys.
Dégage connard: get off, jerk.
En avant les gars: move forward boys.
Feu: shoot.
Halte au feu: hold your fire.
Halte où je tire: stop or I’ll shoot.
Je me rends: I surrender.
La cible est sur la côte 22 or La Cible est aux coordonnées… : target is on coordinnate…
Main en l’air : hands up.
Mercy: thanks.
Montez, vite : get on, quick.
Ne tirez pas: hold your fire.
Putain, touche pas: shit, nooo or don’t touch (as you like).
Rendez vous: surrender.
S’il vous plait : please.
Stop: freeze.
Touche pas connard: don’t touch that, you asshole.

Another point as most of us have been in the army, we must all know (from very long term memory in my case) several hand signs that are common to many armies I think and in the field that is useful for the basics. If you understand what I mean, I’ll be happy if someone can refresh my memory about them. I'll also be happy to see some basics from the languages you know.