When Donkeys Fly: Michael Bradley at Chievo, pt 1 [R]

So you are saying Mike is a cunning linguist?

 

Seven months of immersion in a country should get him to a good level, but I strongly doubt he is fluent, considering his presumable lack of knowledge of Italian or another romance language previously. Although, he does have experience learning a 2nd and 3rd language which probably did progress him more rapidly. Definitions and degrees of "fluency" can also be debated ad nauseam. Anyway, good on Michael for his accomplishments on and off the field. He is a true professional.

 

True, but it is not your forum so I think we'll discuss what we like in a thread about Michael Bradley. This thread is about him. And as you can see by the conversation with several people participating, his language skills seem to be of interest. Plus, it definitely helps his play in many ways. It's not like they were talking about something completely off topic, which often happens.

 

Theez gie's maik Italian sound liek a pees uv caik...

http://www.spellingsociety.org/aboutsss/leaflets/whyeng.php

 

You should check the Chandler thread out. The month of March has been solely dedicated to proper spelling of Nuremberg and the uses of the umlaut.

 

Chinese is tonal, Japanese isn't. Makes Chinese much harder in my book. My wife is Chinese and I can't even consistently hit the right tone when I'm saying her name! But yeah, those are examples of unrelated languages to English and other European languages. Most of the European ones are incestuous by comparison, if we're talking degrees of relation.

 

Man -darin?

 

Most Europeans are incestuous anyway. Maybe that's why Europe seems to be a good place for a guy who used to play for his father.

 

While that graph is interesting, I really do think it comes down to personal ability. I have studied both Spanish and Russian and, honestly, Russian was just as easy to pick up as Spanish.

 

What the......?

I'm really surprised by that. I only took a year of high school but studying French after Russian was like just memorizing a few different words. The grammar is so intuitive to an English speaker in French. In Russian a slight change of ending makes "I love horseradish sauce" into "I love giving oral sex" Always a good dinner conversation.

 

Anyway! Great Bradley freekick on the first Chievo goal. Was it registered as his assist?

 

Um, dude. We are trying to have a discussion about language acquisition here.

 

Oops, excusez moi for interrupting.