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Get Linguistic! (Europe only)

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Get Linguistic! (Europe only)
Group:European Swappers
Swap Coordinator:Canariangal78 (contact)
Swap categories: Challenges  Miscellaneous  Letters & Writing 
Number of people in swap:13
Location:Regional - Europe
Type:None
Last day to signup/drop:December 20, 2008
Date items must be sent by:January 15, 2009
Number of swap partners:2
Description:

First let me say that the fantastic idea for this swap is not mine, but @hyperoma who hosted it on May 2007.

She appears as no longer active on Swap-bot so I could not resist hosting it again with some slight changes on number of partners etc.

Instead of purchasing a language textbook and sending it to someone, YOU shall teach your partners some words in your mother tongue. It's much cheaper and personal that way :)

For those who get partnered with someone who is a native speaker of the same language as theirs, teach them some of the basics of the language you are learning or WISH to learn.

A few ideas on what to include! Greetings like 'hello', 'goodbye', 'my name is...' - Saying 'Sorry', 'Thank you', 'You're welcome', etc - Numbers - Colors รขโ‚ฌโ€œ How to describe yourself (physically and personality) in a few sentences.

Hand-written please and feel free to decorate the pages (min. 2 pages both sides of the pages).

Along with that please, send 1 small unexpensive item which has writing on the language taught or that represents any of the countries where it is spoken.

Senderรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs choice so, for instance, you might wish to send a fridge magnet, a sticker sheet with the countryรขโ‚ฌโ„ขs flag on it, a button badge etcรขโ‚ฌยฆ

Please add in the comments below the language which is your mother tongue and those you already can write/ speak fluently so that your partner is aware of your language skills and can teach you something different.

Have fun!

This is the version of the swap for members of the European Swappers group only.

There is an international version of it too so feel free to join both :) to increase your chances to become a polyglot in no time at all LOL.

Discussion

ninou 11/29/2008 #

Neat idea!

So I'm French and fluent in English (duh) but I also know a lot of German even though I could always freshen it up a bit (lived there when I was younger).

:o)

AliceInHorrorland 11/29/2008 #

Nice idea^^

I'm from Germany, so I speak German (what surprise). I speak English (quite well, I'd say), had a bit French at school and know some Spanish words/sentences.

SolvaNabila 11/29/2008 #

I am from Norway, speak Norwegian ofcourse ;) and also English. I did have German in school, but I forgot a lot, sad to say... I thought I knew German until I came to Germany hehehe... I love languages, and I do know a little (really a LITTLE) of Kurdish, Arabic (oh ok, not just a little arabic, I can manage alone in North-Africa),French, Spanish, Tamil, Persian, Somali, Albanian, Bosnian....

aams 11/29/2008 #

What a fun swap!

I'm from Finland, so Finnish is my mother tongue. I also speak English, Swedish and Estonian more or less. I'm currently taking Russian lessons and studying Northern Sami by myself. Of all the languages I've studied in the past I still remember some basics of Spanish and German. I love languages and I'm especially interested in small languages. :)

Sasy 11/30/2008 #

I'm German, so this is also my mother tongue. But I also speak English, some French and teeny tiny bits of Turkisch and Iwrit (modern Hebrew)... oh... and Latin - but that doesn't really count as spoken language, right? ;)

andyshandy 11/30/2008 #

I'm a Filipino - fluent in English and the Philippine language which is called Tagalog. I am also studying various European languages: Spanish, German, Irish Gaelic and French. Would be glad if you could send me something that's not on my list!

Can't wait for my partner already! :)(:

pahasiga 12/ 1/2008 #

My native language is Estonian, but I use English and Latvian daily; my Russian and German need refreshing badly (sentences of the type "ich bin sieben Jahre alt" is what I do remember... so you can put in a bit more difficult ones if you wish).

Will we have to write down how is it pronouced, too?

Canariangal78 12/ 1/2008 #

That's a lovely idea @pahasiga ! It might be difficult for some languages but if all of us try it would be great. Thanks for mentioning it! :)

eziukai 12/ 4/2008 #

Hey ;). I'm Lithuanian and I speak Lithuanian and my English is quite well. I studied Russian at school and a bit (only small beggining) French at the university. My dream is to speak French well.. But all languages to learn is ok ;).

Simone 12/ 7/2008 #

I am English, second language Afrikaans. I had a bilingual wedding my husband said his vows in Afrikaans and I said mine in English.

Really want to learn French. Sending my daughter to French Classes.

Planning to visit Europe as soon as I can got a friend in Belgium.

tehuti 12/ 8/2008 #

My native language is English and I'm currently learning Welsh, since I now live in Wales and love the country. My parents were Polish and spoke it at home. I lived in Zagreb (ex-YU, now Croatia) for 5 years. I am a medical translator and translate out of Serbo-Croat, Slovenian, Polish, French, German and Spanish into English. I have a basic knowledge of my working languages and am familiar with medical terminology, however if my partner wishes to teach me in one of these languages, I'd be delighted to learn some slang expressions or similar, because these I do not know at all.

Canariangal78 12/ 8/2008 #

I am excited to see people from a lot of different countries joining this swap!! and it will make the swap far more interesting as we won't know until the day the system assigns partners which language (or languages) our partners are going to teach us.

Tehuti - I am a translator too :) and a qualified legal interpreter!

Thanks for joining you all!

tehuti 12/10/2008 #

Canariangal78, in some ways I'm a bit of a fraud, because I have no formal linguistic qualifications. My academic and work background is biomedical science and my advantage is that I don't just know the terminology, but understand the content and context of these types of documents. I fell into translating by accident, found I really enjoy it, so when clients kept coming back for more I left a job that no longer made me happy and became a fulltime freelance medical translator.

LydiaAbigail 12/11/2008 #

I'm from Norway (and of course therefore speak Norwegian). I'm also fluent in English. At high school I've learned Spanish and German. Otherwise, I'm trying to learn Russian, Finnish, Japanese, Thai Chinese Mandarin, Arabic, Hebew and so on. I'm kind of a language nerd. I can never learn enough. :-P

Canariangal78 12/12/2008 #

tehuti - Not a fraud at all! I think it's so important to understand the context and many who have only studied translation can not do that. My academic and work background is in politics/government & statistics; it was just later that like in your case I fell into translating by accident and never looked back :)

LydiaAbigail - Good of you to be a self-confessed language nerd! :) It's fab you can speak/ write so many different languages.

pahasiga 12/13/2008 #

Our wedding ceremony was in Estonia and in Estonian language; I told later my husband that he had promised to do dishes every day, but he didn't buy it. :( Our wedding party was quaterlingual - the two who led the games explained them in Estonian and Latvian, but between E/L people also English and Russian were spoken. It was a merry party. ;)

My husband is a language nerd. He can (and does) read Latvian, Estonian, Lithuanian, English, Russian, German, Polish and Czech. I feel so inadequate...

Canariangal78 12/13/2008 #

That's so funny @pahasiga but sad he did not buy the thing about the promise LOL. What a lovely wedding it must have been! I wish I could speak/ write in all the languages your husband does!

comeylote 12/17/2008 #

I signed up in this swap's twins (the international version) but when I found this one, I decided to join it... so I dropped myself from the swap

I'm Malaysian and my mother tongue is Malay (Bahasa). Colonized by Britain makes me fluent in English. Took Arabic in high school makes me know some about the language. Took mandarin in University (and watch some dramas) makes me speaks and understand a little bit. Lived in Francophone country makes me speaks French. Be friends with Indonesian makes me fluent their language. Now residing in the Netherlands and catching up Dutch :-)

I wish to learn Italian/Japanese and more of Dutch please!!

Bubasek 12/18/2008 #

I love this idea too. I'm from Czech republic ... so my native langue is Czech :) ... I understand Slovak, Russian and German from School and some English and little Spanish. The Czech could be usefull when visiting our wonderful country and capital :)

kacka 12/18/2008 #

well I am Czech, and understand well Slovak, some German, Russian and a bit of Spanis. Apart from learning Japanese. Nice to see so many language lovers:))

kacka 12/18/2008 #

well I am Czech, and understand well Slovak, some German, Russian and a bit of Spanis. Apart from learning Japanese. Nice to see so many language lovers:))

Canariangal78 12/22/2008 #

Partners have been assigned :0) apologies for the slight delay due to my Internet connection not working at home these days because of the bad weather. I hope you all enjoy thoroughly the swap! :)

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