As we say in 'American English' when playing basketball "no harm, no foul" ...
t.

Dang1 ju2 zhe3 mi2.

Well I have to admit I would probably choose the first possibility. ;-)

P.S. There is an old saying which goes something like this:
'A man is valid for as many persons as the number of languages he speak'.

Easy for YOU to say !
t.

Oops! Forget to mention the translation.

A spectator sees more than a player in the heat of a game.

But you already knew that, didn't you?

Hi,
speaking of overhearing someone, when they don't realize, YOU understand what they're saying about you.
Had rather a funny experience in Vienna a few years back on holiday.

Mum & I were browsing around a gift shop in Vienna.. I'd spotted a couple of items I was intending on buying including quite an expensive music box. I was happily chatting to mum ( in English) whilst chewing gum
( not very ladylike chewing gum, but so what)
From behind the gift counter we heard one sales lady say to the other (quite sarcastically in German)
wish the cow would stop chewing & buy something.
With that, we walked up to the counter & mum in fluent German, asked the price of a couple of items.
You should have seen their jaws drop, once they'd realzed we'd understood every word they'd said. haahaa
Mum's still got her German accent, I don't have one , because I grew up in Australia speaking English. Even after 50 + years, mum still has an accent.

Alas the sales lady's lost a few hundred dollars in sales.
best wishes
Rikki
[QUOTE]Originally posted by DonM:
[B]I would like to learn Spanish because there will soon be as many Mexicans in the US as there are English. It would be fun to understand what they are saying about us in the Mexican Restaurants.

Hi Guys,
have a question.
When you speak a number of languages, what language do you actually THINK in.
For me it's English. Grew up in an English speaking country, even though we spoke a certain amount of German at home, mainly because my grandmother wasn't good at speaking English.

best wishes
Rikki

Well said, Taike.
You could not have made it any clearer.
You can play golf with me anytime.
Oh!! Roger, I believe the first one was a moral victory for us, don't you aggree?
Ray

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Ray The Saint

Sorry,
Roger is on another topic. My first mistake today!!
Ray

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Ray The Saint

I read this whole thread. My personal �the most meaning in the least number of words� award goes to Mr. 9000 for the following:

�There are so many things a person already has to contend with that keeps life bogged down that i just want to say to the clerk at McDonalds:" ".. just gimmie a dam hamburger without pickles please �

��why not one language..one Sun,one language,one life one speech.�

**********************************

As for me, Lucky, sure I�m refreshing my Spanish (luckily I learned it in high school), and I�d also like to learn Italian, German, and French so I can sing in those languages but there�s just not enough time to do everything...and earn a living too, so it ain�t gonna happen!

Sure there�s the prestige and respect and benefits multi-lingual people enjoy, but we live in a world now where leisure time (to learn ANYTHING) is a precious commodity. I spent 4 hours at Sam Ash tonight trying different keyboards. Why 4 hours? 3 of those hours were spent learning how to operate each one, because, as usual, the salesman didn�t know what he was doing. I could have spent those wasted 3 hours studying a foreign language, couldn't I?

Lucky