Hello, Marcelo!

Welcome to this list. Thank you for your interest in the Interlingua
language and in the field of consciously created languages in general.

On 12/24/06, Marcelo Yuji Himoro <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi.
>
> Sorry for writing in English. (Am I breaking any rules?) I still have
> not started studying Interlingua. Actually, I think it would not be
> that hard to write this message looking up every single word in the
> dictionary, but I could not ensure the accurancy of it.
>

No problem. Despite not everyone understands English here, there is no
problem for a beginner to ask some questions in English. After all,
you are not required to know how to write in Interlingua from the time
you are born! :)

> I must confess I was kind of reluctant about Interlingua at first. I
> thought it was not fair since neo-latin speakers would be more
> benefited of it than others.

Caring for "fairness" depends on your definition of fairness and your
objectives for learning a language. Some people care, but I do not
care much for "fairness" in the sense of complete neutrality.  I have
learned Interlingua because it gives me a good grasp of vocabulary
that is widely recognized in many countries of the West, and also
helps me to discover a lot of issues about my native language, the
Portuguese. I would bet Interlingua gives you a good "head start" if
you intend to learn more than one of its control languages, because,
if you learn Interlingua, you will have learned a subset of their
vocabulary.

> I can speak some Japanese, so I kind of
> understand how hard it can be to them to learn a western language.
> But, if you come to think, it is way better to have something
> understandable by a wider "audience" at first glance than having a
> language made from scratch no one can understand without prior study.
>
> My concern is, however, about slangs, bad words and daily vocabulary.
> How could one say something "Cool!"

Cool! = Bon! / Interessante! / Amusa me!

> , scream "Fuck of*!" or even say

"Fuck you!" = "Vade futuer se!"

> "I'm a High School student" in Interlingua?

"I'm a High School student." = "Io es un studiante del ensino medie."

> Then you would say: "Why
> would someone want to write about that in Interlingua?". My answer
> would be: "If I were to write a blog, a diary, a journal, how would I
> write about my reality? Say I did not study enough and know got to
> take make up tests?

"I did not study enough and now I have to take extra tests." = Io non
studiava assatis e ora io debera facer testes de recuperation.

> Say I've failed my university entrance tests?

"I have failed my university entrance tests." = "Io non esseva
succedite in le testes de admission al universitate."

> How
> about saying I'm fed up of something?". IMHO, if I am unable to say
> this sort of things, then Interlingua is nothing but a artificial
> language made for formal texts. Nothing against it, I was really
> excited about it, but I would like to hear from you about ways to
> bypass that. Having a defined vocabulary for all that just would not
> do it: we have lots of cultural differences, what could be done
> without stumbling on this question?
>

No problem! This is a frequent misconception that can be solved by
knowing further information. Many people believe that "artificial"
languages are not, by their own nature, bound to be applied for the
whole range of expressiveness of "natural" languages. However, there
is nothing that would forbid an "artificial" language of being as
expressive as a "natural" language. We use Interlingua for normal
conversations as we would use, for instance, Portuguese. If you are
interested, I suggest you to learn Interlingua and check for yourself
that we can say anything in it that we could say in other languages.
We can even write poetry, develop puns and say bad words, and (if you
are lucky enough) have love and sex in Interlingua :D.

>
> Merry Christmas for you guys!
>
> Thanks in advance,
> -Yuji
>

Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Antonielly Garcia Rodrigues

P.S.: maybe there is some word here and there in my translations that
is incorrect. If so, this is *my* fault, not the fault of Interlingua.
It is because I am still not completely fluent in Interlingua writing.
I have begun to study it this year, but as you can see I am already
able to write a lot in it. :)

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