• GingaNinga@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    I would fully expect to get made fun of if I said something funny by accident in a different language. I’ve had that happen when I tried speaking Thai in thailand and spanish in south america and you know what? It is funny! They explain why its funny and everyone has a good laugh and I learned something! Thats how I found out the double meaning of caliente! Languages are hard and sometimes the mistakes happen to be hilarious, its not punching down. I probably sound ridiculous to a native speaker but at least I know that and I’m making an effort.

    • Drusas@fedia.io
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      5 hours ago

      It might be funny to you personally, but other people might be more self-conscious. When I first moved to Japan, I was extremely self-conscious about speaking Japanese because I knew I was making tons of errors and had the vocabulary of a college educated 5-year-old.

        • Drusas@fedia.io
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          4 hours ago

          I was below age at first, not that that stopped me completely. But yeah, when I returned to Japan a few years later, that helped a lot. A lot a lot. Alcohol may be poison, but it’s great for helping you learn a language.

          • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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            1 hour ago

            Also the reason I still have trouble using even the most basic politeness levels in my speech here-- people at the bars definitely weren’t throwing around keigo, and even -masu didn’t often make it past beer #2.