Monday, June 16, 2008
The Word
There always seems to be a word in a language that is hard for foreigners to say, but the locals relentlessly persuade you to attempt it over and over. They all seem to know the word, and all act like it’s the easiest thing to say in the language. In Spanish the word is otorrinolaringólogo. Yes, that is a word- it means nose doctor. I can now do a simi- decent attempt on the word but still far from perfect. I have racked my mind for a while now but finally come up with a word that seems about as difficult for them to say (I am kinda of proud of myself ) The word? Worcestershire sauce. Yeah, yeah I know technically two words but it is hard to compete with a language where electrodomesticos (domestic electronics) is one word. So next time someone prods me on to say otorrinolaringólogo, I will- and then ask them to say Worcestershire sauce.
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2 comments:
Hehe! I can so relate! Congrats on finding a word! :D
The word that gets Danes is refrigerator. They also have trouble with consonant clusters like thr, and switching between ws and vs. My husband has finally trained himself to be able to say "throw the squirrel's wavy vowels through the refrigerator" and it's like a party trick. Everyone gets so impressed!
The Danish phrase they get foreigners to say is rødgrød med fløde. I've been practicing for years!
That's a good one. Revenge. I love it.
I've been enjoying your blog! I looked around and didn't see a way to email you. Would you mind emailing me at the address on my profile? You can take a look at my blogicito to see that I'm a normal person (in Honduras) and not a stalker. ;-)
I'll be back to read more. Thanks
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