Language Barriers and You!

[Brain_Cleanser]

The other day on PSN, I made friends with a guy. Who speaks Spanish. After several failed attempts to connect games to do SpecOps (Yes yes, MW2), he sent me a message.
In Spanish.
Now, my years in highschool language classes were spent in Japanese, so all my working knowledge of Spanish comes form watching Dora the Explorer with my Niece, which is to say "not a lot"
After running a few messages through an online translator, I gave up. It's rude, I know, but I don't speak Spanish, he doesn't speak English, it's just a pain for all of us!

My point and subsequent question at hand are this: When have language barriers inhibited you? What did you do to get over it, if you did anything at all.

I'm all for a universal language, lemme say that, even though it's a logistical nightmare. I'd do damn near anything to get over the language barrier.

 

[NeutralDrow]

I lived in Japan for about a year. While I do study Japanese, my command of the language isn't and wasn't all that great.

Truth be told, even after the year was up, I was little better. I got a little more confident in speaking, which I suppose was a success for an extreme introvert (I managed to cancel my cell phone service and insurance by myself), but that was about it.

 

[Eliam_Dar]

ok, similar story here, but with someone from Germany. I speak spanish and english, and the other dude spoke german, we were doing good (playing L4D2) we knew what to do and everything, but at one point we could not coordinate our efforts and I just gave up and started blasting everything, we ended dying.

 

[DividedUnity]

Ummm I dont think they ever have except for when people speak in a heavy accent like they do in some areas of germany. I can usually have a good conversation with someone but sometimes the accent is so heavy you hear the wrong words. I cant really do anything about their accent but I usaully just ask them to speak slower which is what I did on the exchange trip to Munich

 

[Marter]

I take French in school. I can write just fine, but when the teacher talks to me, I kind of just stare blankly. Luckily he knows I'm not very good at understanding spoken French.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Have you not heard of the Tower of Babel?

I think that there should be a setup on online games that only connects you to people that speak the same language. As in when you set up your Xbox you enter your language and from then on your Xbox can only connect randomly to people who speak that language like in lobbies and such. You can add friends with different languages, just not randomly.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

The only language i hear nowadays is Spanish, and Arabic. But thanks to translator's i sorta know what the heck they're saying but mostly i have no clue so i tune it out.

OP: if you want a universal language this is what it might end up sounding like.

 

[Sir Kemper]

I speak a little french, and on many ocasions I have attempted to speak to the occasional french gamer I encounter.

First time it was a girl on L4D2, The irish man I was playing with kept talking about crsent's whenever she talked. When ever I talked to her in my (god awful) french she just laughed and tried to speak some english.

Again, the same situation happend in a MW2 lobby, I tried to say hello, and I got laughed at and spoken to in a very harsh tone.

And recently, I joined a TF2 lobby with some french players, and attempted to say hello, and perhaps speak a little french to them.

They instantly stopped talking to me once they found out I was canadian.

Why are french gamer's so mean? ;_;

 

[Brain_Cleanser]

Have you not heard of the Tower of Babel?

I have. I was debating weather or not to reference it in the first post, along with a rage against God for destroying it.
Decided the blasphemy wouldn't sit well.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Decided the blasphemy wouldn't sit well.

Good choice. It rarely does.

 

[Outright Villainy]

I'm horrible at languages. 6 years of German in school and I can barely string a simple sentence together, let alone understand anyone. The only language I can speak fairly fluently (or at all for that matter) is Irish, and no one speaks that. It kinda pisses me off, because if more would speak it with me, I'd be incredibly fluent. Ah well.

 

[CK76]

I had to work with Russians once and our common language was German so sometimes it was tricky to communicate.

 

[leviathanmisha]

I take French in school. I can write just fine, but when the teacher talks to me, I kind of just stare blankly. Luckily he knows I'm not very good at understanding spoken French.

Same boat that I'm in...except my teacher will slow down and repeat what she's said. So, I'm picking it up little by little.

 

[DefunctTheory]

In South Korea, I usually just had to say 'I'm an American soldier,' and the populace got the point that I can't speak a lick of their language.

In Iraq, my conversations with Iraqis boiled down to them pretending not to understand what I'm saying, and than having to charge my rifle so they understand that stealing bikes is wrong.

 

[NickCaligo42]

Eh, it's for that reason that I have a lot of problems dealing with international students at my college. They're really friendly and tend to invite me to their parties and stuff, but... and I'm almost ashamed to say this... I really almost can't stand talking to them just because their English is so bad.

Yep. It's a problem.

 

[Marter]

I take French in school. I can write just fine, but when the teacher talks to me, I kind of just stare blankly. Luckily he knows I'm not very good at understanding spoken French.

Same boat that I'm in...except my teacher will slow down and repeat what she's said. So, I'm picking it up little by little.

Mine doesn't he just moves on to someone else.

Good thing my written is very good.

<spoiler=Example time>One time I missed a week of school. I came back to find out our class had been studying for an essay that they had to write from memory. (You could practice writing it, but couldn't bring anything else to class.) I walked in, not having any practice, yet still got a 96.

 

[leviathanmisha]

I take French in school. I can write just fine, but when the teacher talks to me, I kind of just stare blankly. Luckily he knows I'm not very good at understanding spoken French.

Same boat that I'm in...except my teacher will slow down and repeat what she's said. So, I'm picking it up little by little.

Mine doesn't he just moves on to someone else.

Good thing my written is very good.

<spoiler=Example time>One time I missed a week of school. I came back to find out our class had been studying for an essay that they had to write from memory. (You could practice writing it, but couldn't bring anything else to class.) I walked in, not having any practice, yet still got a 96.

Damn...nice...

 

[ajb924]

Language barriers don't inhibit me, because I speak the language of love.

I... I can't believe no one else has qupted this to say good job. Not just on the witty remark, but that it was the first post. Congratulations good sir or madam.

OT: I went to a McDonalds in Yuma, AZ and I couldn't order because the cashier didn't speak anything but Spanish. I had to wait for one of the cooks to stop what they were doing and come up to translate. God forbid the cook ring me up.

 

[AboveUp]

I often sit around in chat rooms with British and American folk that tend to get confused when overly British or American terms get used. I usually get the stuff from both sides, so I just laugh about it. Worst part is that English isn't my first language.

I work with Japanese people. Speak the language a fair bit, but there's always times I don't get what is being said. It gets worse, the Japanese people don't speak the language of this country (Dutch) and have a really bad grasp on the English language. So does my boss, he's Dutch and doesn't speak Japanese.

You don't want to know how much confusion arises on a typical day at work.

 

[Kuchinawa212]

sorta. It does slow things down a good deal, but it's not like it's impossible. I mean if I ran into a building in china and say THE PLACE IS ON FIRE! people would naturally react. They may not know to what, but they know something is up. So could I strike up a converstaion or have a debate with someone that speaks spanish? No. But could I get a simple point across regardless of language. I think so yes.