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Well, discussed this subject with mah a couple of minutes ago and I'm very interested in knowing what other people think aboot it...

This guy named Stols is my prof Old French at the uni and he once said in one of his disturbing classes that

So, after some thinking... I came to the conclusion that from all the language I know, I haven't mastered a single one of them.
I'm not even sure about Dutch, cause it's my mother tongue, I perhaps don't pay attention to it when I do it, but come to think of it, I'm extremely sure I NEVER made a pun in french and the only puns I made in English were an accident, I mean, it wasn't like "oh! I can make a pun out of this one!"

In other words, for that prof-guy, I haven't mastered English yet, though I'm quite convinced of myself that I can put up a good and deep conversation (bad spelling though) but apparently that's not enough.

Now, my big question here is ... is the prof right? if you can make puns without thinking, have you mastered the language? or how would you define it?

For me mastering a language, means being able to carry intelligent conversion for a long period of time, without switching back and forth from one to another

about any subject? cause if you are interested in ie fashion you can can more easily make a good convo in a foreign language about that than one about ie history

I speak Serbian language as good as i do English. I've mastered them both, in reading, writing and grammar!

Oh and Irene

Volim te!!

yeah, but lil bit, the question is what makes you say you mastered it?
how do you grade it?

Milla Ya tebe kahayu hug
And yerss yes any subject, like just on the spot if you are asked and you can pull it off

Serbian is my mother tongue, which i spoke for 13 years from my birth. And English I started to learn when i was 8 and have been speaking it non stop for the past 6 years, seeing how i live in England.

I obviously speak English good enough to have done my exams well and have been accepted to the University.

and do you have to talk without stopping a lot or what? I mean, fluent, not so fluent , ...

If mastering a language is the ability to make puns without thinking then I've not mastered English - the only language I've ever spoken, and I consider myself to have quite a good grasp of it!

yeah, that's my problem too, cause I'm not sure if can make puns without thinking in my mother tongue

so, ... how would you define it baylin?

I think Silver defined it pretty well for me!

You truly master a language when you can own someone in divaish madman sexually oriented FLAMEWARS

why don't you show us, mah

I wouldn't state a good example as a mod...That, and I would be banned

minor details, mah

you have to show what you mean in order to let me understand what you exactly mean

Yeah Mah show us uneducated language-less folk what you mean

No you see..there's a censorship filter here, so it's not really physically possible!

that or you just proved you haven't mastered english yet

i was pretty close to mastering spanish back home half my friends were hispanic so we would sometimes switch languages mid-conversation. i haven't spoken it for a while though.

so, if you can switch in mid-convo it's good?

guess so...
Anywayz, I do that a lot, I use a lot of english when I'm talking to my friends which is considered weird by elderly people who think were 'desecrating' the national language.
It's just that I use english in almost everything I do (hmm let's see, Tv,Computer,Friends,KMC )
I've been studying english since I was 8, both at school and off-school.
I also used to watch Cartoon Network 5 hours a day (at least) as a kid, for about 5 years, and as a result I'm actully quite fluent in english, and because I've been to england a couple of times (and watched movies and whatnot) I can speak with a pretty good accent, should I want to do so.

English is the only language I can say I've mastered apart from Romanian, but I also know 'some' french and german.

However, I am pretty unaware of many specialty terms (maths,physics,and so on...) because u just don't get to hear a lot of these in movies and such.

I 'can' make puns without thinking(albeit I really don't do it often because I don't really get the chance to talk to some native-english speaker that'd give me the chance to make one) but I actually find it harder to do them the other way around..

but if you don't know some specific terms in a foreign language, you haven't mastered it, no?

not to sound ignorant of the topic, but when your prof says pun...is that "pun" as in a play in words? Just cuz you can quote pun is not necessarily considered mastering a language.

I myself can speak spanish to a degree, but I could not for the life of me come up with a pun.

yes, pun as in "a play in words"

Well, technically, no.. but that's why u call it a foreign language, because it's not your language and thus mastering it shouldn't imply actually knowing it as well as u do u'r own language..

but mastering something means you're very good in it, not that you only are good in a few subjects

aa...but now you should ask yourself, do you actually need to 'master' a language. If you're satisfied by how you handle yourself when communicating, then why would you need more. 'master' is just another word anyway

perhaps it's the nature of some to achieve perfectness with certain things

you said it yourself, very good, no such thing as perfection

Idd...to master a foreign language, all u need (if it can be called easy by any means) is to achieve a good level of fluency in that language, and it also assumes u are capable of forming inetligible and corect sentences with ease..

yes...so why make puns

cause that was what the prof said

I think the prof is wrong.

you want to tell him that in his face?

or not....that's what he thinks, anyway....but you won't get a master degree in a languange from him

not in french no, not by a long shot

Sure...
"Yes mr profesor sir....ofc mr profesor sir, no mr profesor sir, u are very right idd mr profesor sir.."

exactly how I told him about that

well..you can tell him i said he's wrong ..technically

next time I meet, I'll give them your address