. i will NEVER forget well heeled now, and will use it to show off.
Kate wrote:Hava --
No problem! For years I've been lurking here, only taking the registation plunge recently, but I want to mention that I have always found your posts to be of great interest, and your viewpoint of great value, as one of the posters here not from the more or less dominant "North American/UK" cultural perspective.
It's easy for me to know what you experience with English!!! Once upon a time I studied in Europe at German-language universities, avoiding English speakers like they had the plague (to become fluent in German), refusing to listen to English-language radio or TV. Initially, I would have terrible headaches every evening from concentrating so HARD, not just in uni seminars, but when shopping or asking the dialect-speaking bus driver for directions.
And I made an ass of myself regularly! One time I walked into a tobacco store to ask for a package of "HB's," a German brand of cigarettes, and instead asked for "eine Schachtel (pkg) 'BH's, bitte!" The shopkeeper stared at me quizzically, then started laughing so hard he couldn't speak for several minutes. "B.H." is the usual abbreviated slang form of the word, "Brüstenhalter, which means "brassiere," so I had just asked for a package of women's bras. Oh, well. Speaking a foreign language fluently (as an adult learner) means being willing to become child-like again, asking lots of questions; being willing to look like an idiot for a very, very long time - in other words, a sense of humility; being willing to temporarily lose your own sense of humor, too! ("How do I crack jokes in this 'other' system of words and meanings?!?") Etc. etc.
[p.s. I realize I'm getting off topic badly. Is it better to send private messages or go to the place labelled "Lounge" where I have not yet worked up the courage to make an appearance?]
edited for a typo