Ok, Lemmy, let’s play a game!
Post how many languages in which you can count to ten, including your native language. If you like, provide which languages. I’m going to make a guess; after you’ve replied, come back and open the spoiler. If I’m right: upvote; if I’m wrong: downvote!
My guess, and my answer...
My guess is that it’s more than the number of languages you speak, read, and/or write.
Do you feel cheated because I didn’t pick a number? Vote how you want to, or don’t vote! I’m just interested in the count.
I can count to ten in five languages, but I only speak two. I can read a third, and I once was able to converse in a fourth, but have long since lost that skill. I know only some pick-up/borrow words from the 5th, including counting to 10.
- My native language is English
- I lived in Germany for a couple of years; because I never took classes, I can’t write in German, but I spoke fluently by the time I left.
- I studied French in college for three years; I can read French, but I’ve yet to meet a French person who can understand what I’m trying to say, and I have a hard time comprehending it.
- I taught myself Esperanto a couple of decades ago, and used to hang out in Esperanto chat rooms. I haven’t kept up.
- I can count to ten in Japanese because I took Aikido classes for a decade or so, and my instructor counted out loud in Japanese, and the various movements are numbered.
I can almost count to ten in Spanish, because I grew up in mid-California and there was a lot of Spanish thrown around. But French interferes, and I start in Spanish and find myself switching to French in the middle, so I’m not sure I could really do it.
Bonus question: do you ever do your counting in a non-native language, just to make it more interesting?
I can count to ten in English (native), Japanese (did Karate for about a decade) and Spanish (took classes in middle and high school).
I can … read and listen to Spanish and maybe understand at about a 2nd or 3rd grade level… very much out of practice.
I would not say I can speak Japanese or understand it … basically at all, unless the conversation entirely consists of either counting, or using nouns describing Karate forms, lol.
The first time I dated … a combination weeabo and owns her own horses, horse girl, who was actually taking Japanese in college to major in it…
She asked me a very grammatically basic question in Japanese, a yes no question…
And I responded ‘Osu!’… and then quickly learned that that is not a standard Japanese word for ‘yes’, that would be ‘Hai’, and that Osu … basically only contextually makes sense in the context of a dojo or some other sports/military type setting.
Apparently in proper/normal? Japanese it is a casual greeting amongst martial arts practitioners… but I was literally drilled to say it as an enthusiastic, affirmative response to any command.
EDIT: Also, this will sound insane, but I swear to god this actually happened: Many years after the aforementioned clarification from my at the time gf… I later encountered a man who told me he was … a yakuza, specifically a yakushi… we chatted for hours, he showed me how one of his fingers had been severely busted at the knuckle.
He explained to me that… there had been a fuckup on his part, but his… direct superior decided to basically accept some of the blame for the fuckup of this guy I met, and struck him with the blunt side of the blade instead of the sharp side… and then exiled him.
Which was why he was in America, and could no longer safely return to Japan.
Anyway, he explained to me that the reason why… most Japanese say ‘yon’ instead of ‘shi’ to mean ‘4’ … is because ‘shi’ is also the character/sound that… basically means ‘death’.
Which then circled around to why he referred to himself as a ‘yakushi’.
As he explained it to me, it meant that he had both dealt, and been sparred from death.
… I have no idea if what this guy was saying is actually true, if he actually was a yakuza… but he did tell me these things and seemed very serious about them.
That’s fascinating! I mean, there are yakuza, so it’s not like someone telling you they’re a ninja. Although, there are probably technically ninja, too… but it anyone was going to tell you they were a gangster, it’d probably be an ex-gangster who wasn’t in hiding.
Anyway, cool story.
We learned “hai” in Aikido. I don’t remember hearing “osu” used. All my Japanese phrases are counting and related to training, but some are generally useful. When to use “arigato” vs “domi arigato”, vs “domo arigato gozaimashita” (escalations in politeness); “onegaishimas”. I doubt, learning it Nth-hand removed from an actual Japanese speaker, that my pronunciation is at all comprehensible. And I’ve forgotten so much :-(
I remember a few more terms and phrases…
But… ok so this may also sound ridiculous, but basically, when I speak in Japanese, I find my tone just naturally shifts to be lower, bassier.
I am decently good at singing in English, and am a baritone.
But when I just normally speak in English, its usually a bit higher pitched than the middle point of my singing range.
… But when I speak in Japanese, it is either at or lower than the middle point of my English singing range.
I do not do this intentionally and am not sure why… I do this, lol.
Maybe it is again trained into me from associating shouting out numbers and osu in Japanese with very intentional diapraghm/breathing control from Karate?
That’s really interesting, and your theory sounds good. All martial arts have their personalities; Aikido is very structured, but not loud; Wing Chin is very quiet, and more laid back; Jiu Justsu is pretty quiet, too, except for a lot of grunting. Karate is quite martial - it reminds me of being in the Army. I’ve never studied it, but one of my friends did, and I sat in on a couple of classes. There’s an awful lot of shouting.