I’m Wen. I’m a native English speaker with a non-native accent.
I was born in Malaysia, where multilingualism – albeit only the basilect/mesolect forms – was/is the norm. I moved to French Canada for college, then English Canada for grad school, and I now live in Chicago. I became interested in the ability for languages to transcend cultural boundaries when I, as a child, saw how surprised and chuffed my grandmother was when an Indian co-worker of my dad’s spoke to her in her (rare) native Chinese dialect. I decided then that I wanted to be like him.
Languages (N): English
Languages (C-level): Malay
Languages (B-level): Mandarin, Cantonese, German, Brazilian Portuguese
Languages (A-level): Teochew, Hokkien, Indonesian
Languages (Interested): something in the Slavic language family
Thank you for sharing that lovely story about your grandmother! I’m fascinated by the different things that have gotten people started in their love of languages.
Thank you Judy. I really appreciate it eh. (the Canadian side of me suddenly decided to show up)
Funny story: I was accepted to the University of Minnesota for grad school some years ago and the fine folks there flew me in to wine and dine me, so I got to spend a wonderful weekend touring Minneapolis and St Paul.
I don’t know if other language-learner types get into these obsessive phases where they try learn everything they can about the culture of the place they’re visiting, but happens to me quite often, and it happened to me that time as well.
I read all I could about Minnesota culture, from Minnesota nice to the Fargo drawl to the Prairie Home Companion. I ended up not attending grad school there (due to some personal circumstances, uff-da!) but at least I now know what lutefisk is – though I’ve never gotten to try any. One day perhaps.
I’m curious, do you say “ope”? (for oops.) It’s a very midwestern thing, but not sure if the usage extends as far as Minnesota.
I do say “ope” and a very Norwegian “yaah” for yes. Lutefisk is definitely an experience, I recommend having it piping hot, dripping with butter and wrapped in lefse.
That sounds delicious! And I know many struggle with texture, but I embrace texture in food.
I tried to learn Danish once but struggled with the non-phonetic orthography (and the numeral system). I imagine Norwegian is more consistent? (I once said “rødgrød med fløde” to a Norwegian professor and he said in Norwegian it sounds like “rodgrod med flode”)
Oh, wow! What a small world. I live in Chicago, too.
I’m a native Brazilian Portuguese speaker… and now I’m dabbling into German and Japanese. I can never make up my mind. Haha
Ah! Entendi. Obrigado por me corrigir – muito bem (adv, very well) ≠ muito bom (adj, very good). Tem outra churrascaria nos subúrbios que se chama Chama Gaúcha que é muito boa também.
Legal.
Acabei de ver no Google… fica em Downers Grove. Eu nunca fui… é boa?
Também tem um restaurante brasileiro em Aurora chamado “U Samba?”. Já ouviu falar?
I’m fascinated by the different things that have gotten people started in their love of languages.
