Learning foreign languages
I wonder if anyone here having difficulty learning foreign languages?
I am absolutely no genius on this.
When I learned Spanish I had extreme hard time on numbers and pronouns (in Spanish subjects are defined as "male" or "female")
When I learned French I had extreme hard time on tense
Now I am listening quite a lot of musical and classical songs but a lot of them are sung in Italian.
I want to learn a bit of Italian but think of the nightmere I had with Spanish and French I don't know if I can handle it
I feel so jealous when I see other people having no problem learning them
A friend of mind can speak SEVEN! French, English, Czech, Hungarian, German, Italian, Spanish I wished I could be him
I am absolutely no genius on this.
When I learned Spanish I had extreme hard time on numbers and pronouns (in Spanish subjects are defined as "male" or "female")
When I learned French I had extreme hard time on tense
Now I am listening quite a lot of musical and classical songs but a lot of them are sung in Italian.
I want to learn a bit of Italian but think of the nightmere I had with Spanish and French I don't know if I can handle it
I feel so jealous when I see other people having no problem learning them
A friend of mind can speak SEVEN! French, English, Czech, Hungarian, German, Italian, Spanish I wished I could be him
Comments
What always messed me up were:
1. the tenses: der/die/das/die type stuff
2. figuring out if the word was masculine, femine or neither
3. readingthehugerunonwordsthattheGermanlanguageseems tobesofondof
and how the hell do you say "readingthehugerunonwordsthattheGermanlanguageseem stobesofondof"
Other than the above, German is a very easy language for English speakers to pick up.
Originally posted by podmate
3. readingthehugerunonwordsthattheGermanlanguageseems tobesofondof
and how the hell do you say "readingthehugerunonwordsthattheGermanlanguageseem stobesofondof"
"Die riesenlangen Wörter lesen, die die deutsche Sprache so zu mögen scheint"
Other than the above, German is a very easy language for English speakers to pick up.
Really? I am a german, so I'm not that experienced with having to learn it, but I always thought that it'd be pretty difficult to learn German as a second (or third or whatever) language. It's got so many little "disturbances" like a words gender (der/die/das, similar to french where it's le/la/les AFAIK). Or a huuuuge amount of irregular verbs. Or, when actually *speaking* German, the 'umlauts' (ä, ö, ü) and so on...
greetings,
durandal
EDIT: My 100th post, whoohoo
What's interesting, I do understand some French. So if someone talks about computers, technical problems, photography, architecture etc I can understand surprisingly lot of it, even spoken. Written is easier but the French hate me as I have to answer in English (or Spanish or Italian or whatever other languages the person talking in Frenchs understands). I have never studied French.
And similar is valid to some other languages. If they are Roman/Latin based, or if I just know any language close enough to them. So - I'd say the languages of which I can understand a written text or spoken random discussion can easily double the amount of languages I would say I speak. I can even understand the sense of this, and I pretty 200 % sure have never studied .. Danish?
Originally posted by durandal
"Die riesenlangen Wörter lesen, die die deutsche Sprache so zu mögen scheint"
I wondered how long until someone posted a translation, but shouldn't it be:
DieriesenlangenWörterlesendiediedeutscheSpracheso zumögenscheint
I remember finding a massive word in our textbook. It was 47 characters long!!
I'm stepping out of my area of expertise here, but I've been told that Old English was at least partly (and maybe as much as 40%) based on Old German.
I know that while trying to learn German I found numerous similarities between spoken English and German. I wish that I had continued to study German, I really love the language.
I finally met a German who had spent many years in the southern part of the U.S. and he told me that it was my Southern drawl that was messing up my German.
Can you imagine German spoken with a redneck accent? Ohhhh, it was bad. No wonder those crazy Dutch were laughing at me.
Going to Venice tomorrow. Outside of "pizza" and "spaghetti," I don't know a lick of Italian. I plan on grunting and pointing a lot.
My wife speaks 3.5 languages (she's forgetting Spanish quickly). She really helped me with my German when I was first learning it, by getting me to speak only German for a good solid week.
Everyone learns differently, though, but maybe immersion or something intensive could be helpful for you.
Originally posted by Leonis
Giaguara, I thought you were Italiano
I am not a man.
.
Originally posted by segovius
Near where I come from there is a village called in my native language:
llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio gogogoch
which has 59 letters. Always a problem when you have to ask for a taxi to it after a night out on the tiles heh. It is also the longest domain name in the world at:
http://www.llanfairpwllgwyngyllgoger...ogogogoch.com/
I guess not too many people visit it
Hey, I thought you were Texan, not Welsh. Cofion annwyl ..
Originally posted by Giaguara
Hey, I thought you were Texan, not Welsh. Cofion annwyl ..
Why Texan ?
Some poeple think that you are a man Guiaguara. They certainly did not see your tatoo
Originally posted by Powerdoc
Why Texan ?
Some poeple think that you are a man Guiaguara. They certainly did not see your tatoo
I thought he was a Texan, as his location, at least according g to AI, is Texas.
Powerdoc, I think Leonis is just having problems remembering that words can be male or female. At lest the words are only male or female, I get lost when in some languages there are male, female and gender neutral words.
And if you have trouble with masculine, feminine and neutral noun classes, the so-called Hottentots had more than thirty - so consider yourself lucky.
Originally posted by segovius
Hehe - you know Welsh too Giaguara...
I'm in Paris but I just meant to inderline it wasn't the one in Texas - guess it didn't work
Oh well ... not just Paris, France, or Paris, Texas .. Welcome to Paris!
No, I don't speak cymru. But I can recognize some written words. And I do have a postcard that says LLANFAIRPWLLGWYNGYLLGOGERYCHWYRNDROBWLLLLANTYSILIO GOGOGOCH in front of my computer .. just in case someone wants to guess my passwords.. Seriously, writing down that one word takes like a half an hour for anyone dylsexic like me. \
Originally posted by Hassan i Sabbah
In Dutch, 'hottentottenlegertentententoonstellingsruimten' is a useful word that means 'an exhibition ground for the tents of Hottentot soldiers'.
And if you have trouble with masculine, feminine and neutral noun classes, the so-called Hottentots had more than thirty - so consider yourself lucky.
Awww... minchia!
Hm, places to visit ... maybe these should be posted in the what do do after divorce thread instead?
(85) TAUMATA_WHAKA_TANGI_HANGA_KOAUAU_O_TAMATEA_TURIPUK AKA_PIKI_MAUNGA_HORO_NUKU_POKAI_WHENUA_KITANA_TAHU
A hill in New Zealand. This Maori name was in general use, but is now generally abbreviated to Taumata. The name means: the summit of the hill, where Tamatea, who is known as the land eater, slid down, climbed up and swallowed mountains, played on his nose flute to his loved one.
(66) GORSA_FAWDDACH_AIDRAIGODAN_HEDDO_GLEDDOLON_PENRHYN _AREUR_DRAETH_CEREDIGION
A town in Wales. The name means: the Mawddach station and its dragon teeth at the Northern Penrhyn Road on the golden beach of Cardigan bay.
(58) LLAN_FAIR_PWLL_GWYN_GYLL_GOGERY_CHWYRN_DROBWLL_LLA NTY_SILIO_GOGO_GOCH
A town in North Wales. The name roughly translates as: St. Mary's Church in the hollow of the white hazel near to the rapid whirlpool of Llantysilio of the red cave. It is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.
(41) CHAR_GOGAGOG_MAN_CHAR_GOGAGOG_CHAR_BUNA_GUNGAMOG
Another name for Lake Webster in Massachusetts. Probably the longest name in the United States.
Originally posted by podmate
I "studied" German for 3.5 years in High School. I can speak a little 18 years later.
What always messed me up were: ...
You were just born a few centuries too late... In our english lessons at school, we once read Shakespears "Romeo and Juliet". IIRC, there was this famous sentence "Dost thou love me,...".
So in the past, the english grammar was more complex and more similar to german (distinction betwenn formal (you=Du) and informal (though=Sie) form of address, conjugation (dost, do, ...)).