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Emily GreenPurpleFireDragon's avatar

I wonder if the idea behind “a gente” came from a native Brazilian language?

I learned from a Colombian that when addressing people they’re close to, with whom they usually use the familiar “tú”, about a very serious matter, they use the formal “usted” instead. I don’t know where it comes from but seems particular to Colombia.

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Michael's avatar

Reminds me of parents calling their children by their full name sometimes when delivering a serious warning or administering a dressing-down. So instead of "Say, Ellie!", they would say: "Now listen to me, Eleanor Yolanda Dougherty!!!"

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Emily GreenPurpleFireDragon's avatar

Ohhhh interesting 🤔🤔

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Tanya Mozias's avatar

I wouldn't be surprised if it came from an indigenous Brazilian language, it seems like quite a few things in Brazilian Portuguese are.

So interesting re "tú" vs "usted"!

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Katie's avatar

I love this story! A few weeks ago, I posted on my Facebook page that native English speakers don’t use “whom”very often and it’s completely acceptable to say “who” in most situations. Some people got quite upset with me and some tried to tell me I was wrong!

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Tanya Mozias's avatar

Yep :) Sounds familiar!

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Carmen Luisa's avatar

I had to laugh at the story of the old lady, she must be so proud she knows something others don’t despite learning Hebrew so late in life. I feel like I have now no I excuse to really learn Persian well 😂

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Tanya Mozias's avatar

She was quite a character!

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Michael's avatar

Very cool! Thank you! Impressive grandmother. Her accent (or a good substitute for it) came across really well in your transcription :)

Maybe "ulpan" is the operative word here: the people who learned Hebrew in an ulpan - or the people who now utter things in another kind of ulpan (which also means 'studio'): I believe some (all? most? many?) newscasters in, say, "Reshet Bet" (one of the radio networks of the Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation) say "Esrim u shtayim" as well - when they speak using their public broadcasting register. FWIW :).

Thanks for raising the points about change and register; it's a good antidote to the widespread belief that there is a "correct" (and maybe unchanging?) way to speak a language and if people don't follow _the_rules_, it means that "the language is going to the dogs".

Having learnt (learned?) that the grandmother is a stickler for what she perceives as correctness, I now wonder: did she say "ashev" or "eshev"?

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Tanya Mozias's avatar

She definitely said "eshev", I this was just a typo :)

Oh and most Israelis nowadays say "yishev" anyway, using the 3d person singular (same as 'he will sit') form for 1st person. I don't think that grandmother was aware of that but if she were, she wouldn't approve :)

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Michael's avatar

Yeah, I noticed that, and no she wouldn't :)

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CynthiaCM's avatar

I believe the current term is “bruh,” but I don’t think I’m allowed to use it since I’m not GenZ!

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Tanya Mozias's avatar

I think you're right! I have outdated information because I'm so far removed from the American Gen Z (both geographically and demographically :))

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Jun 10, 2024
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Tanya Mozias's avatar

I think there are Ulpan-like classes online, but I don't know how it works and how much they charge. If you learned it school then you probably have the basics so just need to be exposed to the language and have speaking practice... I learned Hebrew a really long time ago in the pre-internet era (oh my good I feel old now) so I'm not really up to date on the resources today, but I keep seeing ads for Citizen Cafe Tel Aviv (a Tel Aviv based online classes) and I just checked their website really quickly and they look alright. Alternatively, if it was me I'd probably just start watching Peppa Pig in Hebrew.

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Jun 10, 2024
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Tanya Mozias's avatar

👌

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