"They laughed when I said I could cut his nuts off in French"
In the wake of Barack Obama's complaint, er, maybe I shouldn't use that word- statement that Americans don't know other languages, coupled with Jesse Jackson's recent complaint, er, comment about Obama, I have put together a little quiz for those who are multi-lingual. Wouldn't it be great if all Americans were language-proficient enough to score 100% on this quiz?(and if anybody needs to pick up a new language, it's Jesse Jackson.)
Match the sentence with its language.
1 Je veux couper ses testicules
2 Yo quiero cortar sus huevos
3 Ich will seine Eier ausreissen
4 Phom jak tat luuk khong khaw ook (phonetic alphabet)
5 Eu quero cortar os testiculos dele
6 Io voglio cortare i suoi coglioni
7 Mi ke corta su testiculonan
8 Jag vill skara av hans ballar
9 As /ash/ noriu nupjauti jo seklide
* The author reserves the right to make minor mistakes. Corrections are welcome.
a Lithuanian
b Papiamentu
c Swedish
d Thai
e Spanish
f Italian
g Portuguese
h French
i German
Answers:
1 h
2 e
3 i
4 d
5 g
6 f
7 b
8 a
Now total up your score. If you got 0 right, you are an American.
If you got 1-3 right, you just guessed right (law of averages).
If you got 4-6 right, you work for the State Department.
If you got 7 right, you are a European.
If you got all 8 right-you are Barack Obama.
Oh, the translation?
"I want to cut off his nuts" (English)
What? No "Thelo na sou kopso ta arxeedia"...the gods will feel shunned !!
ReplyDeleteThe Greeks were in tears laughing on the news last night while they were translating this...
Sorry, I don't do Greek. And what was your score, Linnea?
ReplyDeleteGary, here are my two cents worth. In Germany they would not say "Hoden abschneiden" maybe "Eier ausreissen", but I never heard anyone use that expression. While living in California, I knew more families, mine included, where several languages were used. The assertion that Europeans are mostly bilingual is false, some extremely well educated might be and maybe the younger generation is feeling the necessity to learn English or other languages, the older generation like mine certainly not. Not everyone has the talent to learn languages as easily as you.
ReplyDeleteYou know, just because I am conservative doesn't mean I can't be a closet European ;-), but truth be told the Papiamentu and Lithuanian got me.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Barak the Magician could clear up the "nu cu lar" or "nu cle ar" and the "to MAY to" "to MAH to" issue. He has so much to do...
Buenos dias! Just practicin' so I can be a good Americana too!
Linnea
Hey I got 7 and I'm not an European. And what? No Hebrew!
ReplyDeleteFindalis,
ReplyDeleteI don't know Hebrew, but long may it be spoken.
Ingrid,
ReplyDeleteOf course, you are correct. There are many monolingual Europeans, and Americans are just as capable of being bilingual if placed in the right environment.
I will edit my post to include your correction even if it's not part of the German everyday lexikon. (Maybe it has something to do with our American suppressed sexuality.)
Linnea,
ReplyDeleteLithuanian has to be the hardest language in the world. If you know Spanish, Papiamentu (a creole) can be learned in weeks.
Actually Gary Japanese and Chinese are harder. Also Korean.
ReplyDeleteRussian is also a hard one.
Certain languages are harder for different people depending on what their native language is. I considered Thai easier than Lithuanian. The problem with Lithuanian is that it has such a complex system of noun declensions with 7 cases.
ReplyDeleteGary, another misconception. Europeans are a lot more sexually repressed than Americans. I never had any of my American friends cringe when sex was mentioned, but Germans do. They only act like they are open about sexuality, in truth, they are sooooooo uptight about the subject. What you see in public is not what you get in private. Time for another book.
ReplyDeleteSo that's why I didn't have that many girlfriends when I was in the Army in Germany.
ReplyDeleteJust kidding.
Gary, those girls (I'm sure you knew some) where not repressed that's why they were so hated by the rest of the uptight population. You know, in their eyes we were all sexually promiscuous, that's why you perverted Americans liked us so much. Not kidding!
ReplyDeleteIngrid,
ReplyDeleteMy feeling was always that the girls who hung out with Americans were no more sexually active than those that would only hang out with German guys. They were looked down upon because they hung out with Americans.
Do you think Jesse Jackson suffers from repressed sexuality-and that's why he wants to cut...
Oh never mind.