Kingdom of Knuffel

what specific sounds are you referring to Alice? Can you give me examples?

I do know in Uni lots of my classmates struggled with properly rolling the th sound at the start of words, such as 'the'. For Flemish and Dutch speakers that can be hard as they're inclined to make sounds closer to a d

But I've personally never had any problems with that

@Popo: I've always been memoriam, I like it ^^

Just as it is easy for Poles to pronounce Japanese but it's crazy hard for the Japanese to pronounce Polish words... (not that anyone has it easy besides maybe Ukrainians and Russians xD)

@jacob: I actually lolled at that knive joke, omg, what's wrong with me XD

@Alice: omg, I knooow! Poles tend to turn the "th" into d, s, z or f, and I remember always wondering what's so hard about this sound, then I realized I'm probably just talented XD #suchmodesty

Haha I have the same though Memoriam, no shame needed :P

I was always correcting my classmates cause half the time they didn't even notice they were saying de instead of the etc and they'd always whine about how hard it is. I never got that c':

like 'oh I don't have that problem its not hard for me at all' *innocent doe-eye look <:

Yeah, and the jealous stares of classmates always asking things like "how do you remember all these words?" "so you don't study at all?" "how do you know how to pronouce stuff?" "can you help me?"
"Idk, I just remember them, they go into my head just like that."
"I study, barely."
"I just know, Idk how I do. I listen to songs maybe?"
"I can try to help you but it's not gonna work for you because you need more studying than I do, so my ways won't help."
Okay, I never told them the last one, but yeah, that was the truth

"Oh I've always read and watched books/movies/tv in other languages"
- 'oh I prefer to read books in our native language'
then you're not going to get far and why are you studying this language now if you don't like to use it??

They'd always get awkward and embarassed too when I wanted to hold conversations in English outside of class. Which I always proposed for their sake, cause practice makes perfect obviously? But they'd always go 'ah no my English isn't fluent or good enough for that, I'll leave that to you' but like...

"don't you get that that is exactly why your pronounciation doesn't improve? You refuse to practice!" was a thought that went through my head a lot :'/

they studied English, but didn't like reading books in English, watching movies without subtitles or holding everyday conversation in English. What even is the logic

Yeah, Poles are the same they rather not strain themselves... I mean, I learned German and didn't really like it so I didn't put much attention into studying (still had a good mark tho), and I was literally forced to learn Russian, which still was easy enough without my effort. And people were like "how do you do it". I don't, it's not my fault I'm a language sponge basically as long as I have contact with the language x.x
But with English I was always super hyped, translating songs on my own etc. But whenever I'd suggest someone would do it, they were like yeah, maybe" and then never tried
They just thought I have some cheat codes for learning languages or something :')

Eh they do say you're either language > math or the opposite (that's not fully factual in a black and white sense but there is some basis to it) and I've never been good at math c':

Since Belgium has 3 languages (Flemish/Dutch, French and German) its quite easy as a young child to grow up with all 3 and thus get a good basis for them, which helps a lot. I got a lot of exposure to other languages as a kid, soaked up a lot of tv shows and books in all 3 languages plus English cause I've always liked the language. So now in the end though I haven't really been immersed in either German or French, my background is still there and when a customer for example comes into work speaking either French, German or English all my colleagues instantly turn to me :'D

Yeah me and math, not a good combo XD

And you're a valuable employee that way XD

Our brain needs all the math room to store our language data! :'P

I am definitely given a relieved look everytime I offer to help a non-Flemish customer, nothing is more awkward than trying to figure out what someone wants to buy when you don't speak a word of the other's language! It's just much smoother to go 'eh Stefanie can you take over here?' than use the barest of sign language and pointing/nodding with a strained smile and feeling like you're an idiot haha

its also nicer for the customer too, I always imagine its hard for them to have to shop in another country, not knowing if the people working will speak a bit of your language etc. We get a lot of truck drivers stopping by cause we're near a big road.

I'd personally be relieved too if I stepped to the counter and asked (for example) 'English?' and the person working replied smoothly back with 'I speak English yes, no problem how can I help you' instead of looking at you awkwardly and apologetically