Friday, January 19, 2007

Do you know multiple languages?

So I was at a friend's house yesterday evening and a conversation came up regarding different medical situations. The doctor in the group began explaining a certain syndrome and is using multi-syllabic words that some of us had never heard of before (of course.) Another member of the group complained and the doctor justified himself by saying, "It's another language."
Well that got me to thinking about all sorts of different "languages" we all speak. I'm a teacher, so I can do "teacher talk." I have had credits and debits explained to me by an accountant (They're not what you may think!) Doctors know a different lingo, reporters yet another, lawyers another. But what about outside our professions?
I'm not into Anchorman, Napolean Dynamite and pretty much any other movies with that type of comedy. So when people start quoting it, I often miss out on the joke or simply have no idea to what is being referred. Isn't that what is most difficult about learning another language? The idioms and other phrases that make up the lingo?

How many languages do you know? Use in every day conversation? Do the other participants in the conversation speak the same language? :)

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