[bsnnkv]

Always fun to see two of my worlds collide!

I studied Dari own my own and at college as an elective, and ended up taking a job with the ICRC to investigate ISAF war crimes in Afghanistan right after I graduated

These days Dari is my most comfortable second language (and I have quite a few of them)

I'm not sure if, given I had to start from scratch again, I'd go down this route - the description and screenshots seem very overstimulating for me

The most important parts of my language learning in Dari (and Pashto) - the "aha" moments if you will, were trying to express something, making a fool of myself, making everyone around me laugh, and then being gently corrected in a long-winded way (usually because I couldn't understand a simpler, more direct correction)

In hindsight this feels like a very equitable cultural exchange - I learned something valuable about the language and culture while giving my interlocutors a funny memory to share with their friends and family

[jean_lannes]

Let me ask: what sort of background is necessary to get jobs based on your skills in a second language? I'm very into language learning as a hobby, but would it be necessary to get a degree before applying to these sorts of jobs? Where would one even look for jobs?

[bsnnkv]

Keep in mind this was over a decade ago -

What happened for me was that the ICRC was so desperate for Pashto speakers in Afghanistan for this sort of work (they weren't allowed to hire people for the war crimes investigation work from Pakistan or Afghanistan due to neutrality stuff) that for a time they ended up accepting people who had learned Dari (ie. demonstrated the ability to learn) and gave them 3 months in-country to work with a Pashto teacher and learn enough to be able to be functional in their jobs

This was right after the financial crisis, I had just graduated with a liberal arts degree and had no other job prospects, and I had an interest in Afghanistan, so being paid to learn Pashto and possibly having a job afterwards seemed like a very lucky break to me at the time

[maininformer]

I speak Farsi and I am really curious about some of these blunders if you could share

[bsnnkv]

Using the word pistan instead of sina when talking about "chicken breast" (the cut of meat)

[maininformer]

Hahaha, well fwiw, my sister and I call chicken breast "pestoone morgh" jokingly. So if anything it could show your mastery of the language

[y-c-o-m-b]

Well you got another good laugh out of it from me LOL

As an Iranian-American, I've made similar blunders in trying to communicate with my Mexican friends and colleagues. "Hey amigo, do you need a chauqeta?" I would ask to the eruption of laughter. If you look up "Chaqueta", translation services will happily tell you it means "Jacket". Don't trust it. Apparently to some Mexicans it also means jerking off.

[cblum]

Somewhat kinda related: I grew up in a Brazilian town that borders one of our many Spanish-speaking neighbors. We used to make fun of the folks across the border for pronouncing pizza like piça (“pissa”), which on our side of the border was a vulgar word for penis.

[fluoridation]

I think your friends were just being jerks. The primary meaning of the word is indeed "jacket". It'd be like saying to someone "I need a blunt tool" and them making fun of you because you just said you need a tool to make cannabis cigarettes.

https://dle.rae.es/chaqueta

[williamdclt]

It's not because it's technically right that it's not funny. Your english example isn't particularly funny so you wouldn't have the same reaction, but you could easily imagine plenty of sentences using "cock" or "pussy" that would be.

I know that some cultures consider it rude to laugh at this sort of things when it's not the speaker's native language (brits don't even correct me when I misuse/misspeak english because they think it's rude), but for many (most?) cultures it's really not, that's not being a jerk

[citizenpaul]

I've come to the general conclusion from experiance that people whom only know their native language are at best moderately hostile towards other languages and multi-lingual people.

[speakspokespok]

Own using "chaqueta" instead of "chamarra".

This is a regional bro distinction. I have certainly heard chaqueta used by respectable people in Jalisco. This joke is a reflection of people that don't travel.

In Jalisco y Nayarit the normative word for the large beer bottles is caguama. In central MX that word is ghetto.

[dotancohen]

Anki is great for building one's vocabulary. It is not meant to be the only tool used for learning a language. But actually learning a language is much easier and goes much faster when one has adequate vocabulary.