How would you say "It's not a train"?

WHAT MAKES A GOOD LANGUAGE

LEARNER?

QUIZ

TEST YOUR APTITUDE FOR LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Test your aptitude for language learning by doing this quiz, adapted from The Sunday Times Magazine. Write your answers on a piece of paper, then add up your scores to find out how good a language learner you are.

1. Learn the following Samoan words (Samoa is in the South Pacific):

toalua — husband

tamaitiiti — child

loomatua — old woman

tamaloa — man

taulealea — youth

Did you find this task

a) easy and fascinating?

b) very difficult?

с) not easy; the words look the same?

d) so boring you didn't even try?

Exhausted after swimming the river, Fred decided to get some sleep, but the boolles made it impossible, and even the smoke from his camp fire didn't keep them away.

What is a boolle?

a) wild animal;

b) giant mosquito;

c) a kind of noise;

d) don't know.

Someone asks you the way in very bad English. When he/she doesn't understand your reply, do you

a) say it again but louder?

b) get irritated and give up?

c) draw him/her a map?

d) find out if he/she speaks another language you know?

4. Here is a new language:

ek kum chuchu — the train is coming

ek namas chuchu — the train is very big

nek kum niva chuchu — the train isn't coming

ek chuchu — it's a train

How would you say "It's not a train"?

a) nek chuchu niva;

b) ek niva chuchu;

c) nek niva chuchu;

d) don't know.