FAWC 5: Line, Please!

[PennLady]

I can imagine. Wow. I took Russian in college, and Hebrew. Years apart. Even then, it was all I could do to handle it. And I never approached fluency.

I never got fluent in any of them. I took French in high school, Russian in college (and another year in grad school) and took two semesters of Hebrew my senior year in college because I had space on my schedule. It was hilarious; the teacher was wonderful and loved me because I was the only gentile in the class, plus I could make that guttural "kh" sound (practice from Russian).

Once I made little Easter baskets for the class with their names in Hebrew on the eggs and man, she was blown away.

 

[JAMESBJOHNSON]

I once decorated a Coke can with Egyptian hieroglyphs that were the sounds for COKE and Coca-Cola (they mean nothing either way). King Tut would read COKE and wonder WTF?

 

[JagFarlane]

Ugh that reminds me of deployment soda...where they would pull out all the stored soda from last deployment. The previous one had been several years prior and the cans were all written in Arabic.

 

[SecondCircle]

Ugh that reminds me of deployment soda...where they would pull out all the stored soda from last deployment. The previous one had been several years prior and the cans were all written in Arabic.

Aye, with the little peel away tabs.

 

[stlgoddessfreya]

Meowing. The animal noise thing is a crowd favorite. And if they're good at it, it's nearly impossible to nail the offender. I just ignore. Usually.

Tomorrow is my best day of the week. I don't have any finals to give (just today's to correct), and the only class I have to teach is French 3. They're my favorite.

And they don't meow.

Oh, god. I'm so sorry. 15-20 years ago, that was me.

We used to caw at one of my English teachers when his back was turned because he looked like a big, fat crow sitting on a wire. Seriously, black hair, beady eyes, beaky nose, round belly, flapped his arms when he got excited - he looked like a crow. Once you heard that, you could never look at him and not see it. To be fair, I don't think there was a book we ever read for his class that he didn't throw a copy of at me for something I said in class. He made me leave once because of something I said about Huck Finn and tossed a copy of it at me when I was already out in the hallway. I think he just made me leave so he could get a better shot.

Now we're friends and e-mail each other regularly. I don't know whether it will make you feel better or worse about the meowing student, but eventually she grows up to be me.

 

[slyc_willie]

I studied French, then Russian, then Hebrew. While taking Russian, I'd have to go from English to French to Russian. Then I went from English to Russian to Hebrew. It got confusing in my brain sometimes.

My go-to foreign language seems to be German. Here in Texas, there are, of course, a lot of Spanish speakers and I've become conversational in it. Still, now and then when I want to converse with someone in Spanish, I'll accidentally pepper in some German. It leads to some interesting conversations.

"Como estas?"

"Bien. Et tu?"

"Gut. Danke."

I've joked to my wife that I'm going to end up creating a Spanish-German mashup language. I figure I'll call it Spermish.

 

[sr71plt]

Mine is German, as well, from living there for several years when my folks were stationed there and having gone to a German school. Taking Mandarin damaged the German, though (as did returning to the States and taking German from a sweet young thing who'd never been out of Virginia). German and Mandarin have the same basic sentence structure and while trying to speak Mandarin, I habitually through in German words without realizing it when the Mandarin word didn't immediately come to mind. Although also dabbling in Japanese, Thai, Greek, and French, none of it has stuck. I did learn some British by living among British expatriates in former British colonies.

 

[slyc_willie]

I took a year of French in high school, but it never stuck. My first wife was half-French and fluent in both it and English (British English) and liked to tease me by skipping back and forth. I actually heard quite a bit of that English/French when I lived in London, at least from my wife and her friends. I don't know that it was widespread, but it seemed to me to be a sexier version of Spanglish.

 

[jomar]

I took two years of Spanish in high school, but they used a go at your own pace then so you can imagine how that worked out for the vast majority of students.

My story has been emailed to you, slyc.

 

[slyc_willie]

That makes twelve.

 

[xelliebabex]

I did french and Italian during high school, only little bits of each stuck, particularly the songs we were taught.
My Claim to fame though is that I can swear/curse in a variety of languages and understand the curse words in a few others. That comes from teaching in the multicultural/low socio-economic area I do, and needing to know, if they have just said, "Thank you Miss you're an awesome teacher," or "Fuck off you #@&#!" The first version is just what I like to pretend they said, the second is what I hear more often, when they are using their own languages.

No Spanish but a range of African, Burmese, Middle Eastern and Pacific Islander languages. As well as some colourful German phrases from my step-mother.

 

[drteetho]

That makes twelve.

I am one of those twelve. Yay me!

 

[slyc_willie]

I am one of those twelve. Yay me!

Yeah, and thanks for letting me know who you were.

 

[drteetho]

Yeah, and thanks for letting me know who you were.

Guess that's kind of good to know, right?

 

[NaokoSmith]

Spermish -

Pilot, if you didn't take them out of Virginia, did you at least take the Virgin out of that sweet young thing?

 

[sr71plt]

Spermish -

Pilot, if you didn't take them out of Virginia, did you at least take the Virgin out of that sweet young thing?

Nope, I was in nineth grade and wasn't looking at anyone but myself (for years after that). She and I did battle over how to pronounce German words. There are various choices in Germany, but Virginia drawl isn't one of them.

 

[NaokoSmith]

Nope, I was in nineth grade and wasn't looking at anyone but myself (for years after that). She and I did battle over how to pronounce German words. There are various choices in Germany, but Virginia drawl isn't one of them.

My best friend used to teach English to opera singers at the Conservatoire in Paris. He was from the Midlands and still had quite a strong accent then. He used to laugh heartily about how they would be singing arias with a Birmingham accent!

 

[slyc_willie]

Five days to go bump.

 

[sheablue]

Five days to go bump.

-- Where did the last few days go? Oh yeah, working miracles for my #1 client. See? I told you they always know when there is some FAWCking going on!

 

[slyc_willie]

-- Where did the last few days go? Oh yeah, working miracles for my #1 client. See? I told you they always know when there is some FAWCking going on!

You shouldn't let your clients FAWC with you.

Then again, that might lead to an interesting story in its own right.

 

[stlgoddessfreya]

What's the current roster of FAWCkers?

 

[slyc_willie]

What's the current roster of FAWCkers?

Let's see . . . .

In no particular order, we have:

stlgoddessfreya
AMoveableBeast
sr71plt
slyc_willie
jomar
drteetho
MSTarot
Swilly
xelliebabex


Those are just the authors who have already submitted their stories. Still waiting on PennLady, patientlee, Sheablue and maybe one or two others.

 

[sr71plt]

So, very likely more authors than the last running.

 

[slyc_willie]

So, very likely more authors than the last running.

Which is a surprise to me considering I was afraid everyone would hate the opening line. And to think I almost went with something else.

(of course, who knows? That other line might have worked out better)

 

[JagFarlane]

Let's see . . . .

In no particular order, we have:

stlgoddessfreya
AMoveableBeast
sr71plt
slyc_willie
jomar
drteetho
MSTarot
Swilly
xelliebabex


Those are just the authors who have already submitted their stories. Still waiting on PennLady, patientlee, Sheablue and maybe one or two others.

Working on the end scene now...