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/lit/ - Literature

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10531169 No.10531169 [Reply] [Original]

I have read 75% of Shakespeare's œuvre of plays and all 156 of his sonnets, yet I cannot, for the life of me, hear nor write in iambic.

What in the fuck is wrong with me? Is it because English isn't technically my first language?

>> No.10531192

Nah, it has nothing to do with English. Meter is musical, not linguistic. You’re arhythmic is all

>> No.10531210

>>10531192
I've been playing the French horn for seven years, and I regularly read the scripture for my church. Are those in the same vein as the meter in poems?

>> No.10531297
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10531297

Naturally if learnt english after childhood you'll never develop a feel for the language

>> No.10531346
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10531346

>>10531297
I was brought up in a Tagalog-speaking household in the Philippines. When I came of age to go to primary school, I was taught in English and Latin. I then started living with my grandparents a year into primary school, and they spoke in a lesser dialect that I didn't understand at all.

Tagalog is really fucking stupid if you ever get to hear it one day. It's a confused language spoken by Americanized Filipinos, who intersperse Tagalog discourse with random, chosen-at-will English words. I think this is what's caused my incompetence with meter in English.

>> No.10531435

>>10531346
My aunt and all of her friends came to the United States by getting married to military guys. They all eventually divorced them and married fairly wealthy business owner type dudes. All they seem to do is drink all day and play some mahjong gambling game.

>> No.10532235

>>10531346
I know someone who also grew up speaking tagalog and his english is rather good for a non native speaker
Wouldn't learning a half english frankesteins monster of a language help you in learning the real one? What makes you think it was worse for you?

>> No.10532253

>>10531346
>I was brought up in a Tagalog-speaking household in the Philippines.

lmao you're a fucking subhuman, what do you expect

>> No.10532380
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10532380

>>10532235
Word order in English is SVO, and Tagalog is VSO. "Taglish" can take either word order and use English subjects with Tagalog predicates or vice versa. You don't get a good feel of either languages when your critical years are spent juggling this bullshit. I doubt that that's the main reason why I can't hear meter, though. A few of my friends can't recognize iambs either, and they're native speakers, so I guess I've got a slight excuse.

>>10532253
My grandparents were Austrian, so it could've been a lot worse.

>> No.10532391

>>10531346
You sound like a shit student and I suspect you’re Ilocano — not Tagalog

>> No.10532403

>>10532391
I'm a shit student, sure, but the latter half is wrong.