m7040
Elite Member
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2006
- Messages
- 3,722
- Location
- Frederick maryland
- Tractor
- Kubota M7040, MF 203 industrial, ZD331, RTV 1100 , Kubota Minix excavator, Unimog 404
Finnish is hard to learn. It is not in the Nordic language family. Some say it relates to Hungarian. I can get by fine in Sweden, Norway but in Finland only if they speak the minority language SwedishGood evening! 23 now, high was 25, low this morning was 22. We got a light snow last night. Just enough to turn things white.
Little worried about the forecast. We are planning to leave early Saturday to go see family in MD for Christmas. Weather forecast is concerning.
Replaced the float valve and flapper in the downstairs toilet today. It was time. Actually went fairly easy. Unusual for a plumbing project for me.
I have always felt not being able to speak another language besides American English was a failing for me. Especially when I became International Product Support Manager. But in construction equipment and steel mills, English is the language of the business. but oddly, I did learn a couple of languages. I had German in school, and could function in Germany after listening for a bit. I picked up some French, Spanish, and Italian as well. I became able to follow and hold a conversation in Greek. The Greeks use English technical terms. I picked up Greek be listening to what was said before/after the technical term. I taught myself to read Greek. But once I would leave a country, I couldn’t speak the language again until I listened to native speakers. Never could pick up any Finnish and only a few words in Turkish.
Everyone stay safe out there!
Good for you learning to speak Greek. That is not an easy language to learn. I find that often when trying the local language they switch to English because they sense you are struggling so it gets harder to practice
In some of the places I have been at out in rural areas they spoke only the local language and ordering food in restaurants was pointing to a line on the menu without knowing what I would get. But over time I would learn what tasted good.
But some dishes I could not eat. Remember this place that gave me what looked like a cherry on a small dish and thinking it was a sweet it almost burned out my mouth. Never again
But around the world people are caring and try their best to understand you and help is what I found
In technical and commercial meetings it helps to understand the language so when they talk among themselves you can pick up their plans to take advantage and then when you leave you say goodby in perfect local language much to their surprise
I dealt a lot with Japanese suppliers for major equipment and except for Judo terms that escapes me to understand. But once a deal is made they work very hard to fulfill their contractual obligations. But if they want to be non responsive to an issue they go into "don't understand" even though I know perfectly well they do.
I remember we had a local maid in Poland that was taking care of the Villa out in the country close to the Russian border. And she cooked for us also. We wanted her to get us some chicken and trying our best to flap our arms etc to make her understand that the menu should change. When we returned the next day the basement was full of live chickens
But I also bought several 15000 HP fans from Denmark and that was interesting when they discovered that I was fluent in Danish.
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