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Post by Morgause on Nov 29, 2008 10:08:21 GMT 9.5
I speak Portuguese of course, no surprise in it and I learned English in school from my ten to my eighteen years old. I've also studied three years of French in school, from twelve to fifteen years old but my teacher was not very good and I didn't learn it very well. Today I can understand French but when I try to speak, I can't remember a single word, is very frustrating! This year I've started to study Italian and Germany in University. Italian is not very difficult because it's very similar to my mother language and Germany is so totally different that it ends to do not being so hard to learn.
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Post by Maellowyn on Nov 29, 2008 20:23:35 GMT 9.5
Arwen17 I'm studying History and that is why I'm learning Greek and Latin - how else shall I understand any document of Charlemagne or Caesar? For interpretation you can't always rely on the translators work. But with the Elven-languages I agree with you. I myself bought two books about learning Elvish - and that is one of the reasons why Gaelic is so fascinating to me. And Finnish is so cute too - Ymmärrättekö minua? But I wish I had more time - I think nearly every language is worth of learning. MorgauseYou are studying German at the UNI - möchtest du üben? So if you need help with German just tell me ;-)
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Post by Rita, Oh Yes! on Nov 30, 2008 14:42:10 GMT 9.5
I'm so jealous of all you multi-lingual people. The one sucky thing about growing up in an English Speaking country is the lack of imperative to learn extra languages. I wish I could have started learning other languages when I was a kid, which is supposedly the easiest time to do so.
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Post by Incapability on Nov 30, 2008 18:01:13 GMT 9.5
It really is. The older you get (and by older I mean past puberty), the harder it becomes. But it's never too late to take a language up. It's reported of Cato maior, a dried-up old Roman who absolutely loathed the Greeks for being all soft and cultivated and artsy and un-manly, that he started to learn Greek at a very, very old age. So, if he can, you can too!
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xxdarkanddreamlessxx
Citizen of Mirandatia
Im in love with my lust Burning angel wings to dust
Posts: 8
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Post by xxdarkanddreamlessxx on Dec 3, 2008 4:52:17 GMT 9.5
thats soo cool you all speak awsome languages ...i can speak spanish but thats to common to be cool
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Post by Morgause on Dec 3, 2008 10:57:33 GMT 9.5
Hey, thanks Maellowyn! I will ask for some help when I find myself struggling with German! By the way, Incapability, what part of Germany are you from? Just asking because you said your local dialect is a mix of many languages. In German classes my teacher (who is from Frankfurt) said that the local dialects are based on the German language. Is it totally true?
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Post by Incapability on Dec 4, 2008 3:57:54 GMT 9.5
I'm originally from Nethersaxony (I'm never quite sure how to spell this stuff ). And the dialect really varies from one village to the next. For example, in my region, we say "weul'n" for "work really hard", and about 40 km to the south, they say "wullack'n" (which is way cooler, imho). Naturally, all the dialects are related to standard or high German, but (I'm not an expert on German linguistics, so careful with what I say) I don't know which has its origins where or what influenced what. I'd personally say that the dialects are older than the common language and that the roots lie there, not the other way around. And our dialect is certainly close to Dutch. In reading, I can usually figure out what an easy text is about. Also very helpful with signs . So, there really is no simple answer, but rather ties everywhere and into every direction.
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Post by Morgause on Dec 5, 2008 3:32:50 GMT 9.5
I'm originally from Nethersaxony (I'm never quite sure how to spell this stuff ). And the dialect really varies from one village to the next. For example, in my region, we say "weul'n" for "work really hard", and about 40 km to the south, they say "wullack'n" (which is way cooler, imho). Naturally, all the dialects are related to standard or high German, but (I'm not an expert on German linguistics, so careful with what I say) I don't know which has its origins where or what influenced what. I'd personally say that the dialects are older than the common language and that the roots lie there, not the other way around. And our dialect is certainly close to Dutch. In reading, I can usually figure out what an easy text is about. Also very helpful with signs . So, there really is no simple answer, but rather ties everywhere and into every direction. Oh right, I got it! Thanks, Incapa! Well, with only three years (I'm now in the first one) to study the German language, I will be very happy if I even understand Hochdeutsh!
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Post by Incapability on Dec 5, 2008 4:59:26 GMT 9.5
In that case, you're smarter than I am, because I just re-read my post, and I haven't the foggiest what I was on about. And you'll do fine with your German studies. It's an annoyingly morphological language, and very mushy in places, but I'm sure there's some logic in there somewhere. Btw, I'm very curious, how does German sound to a non-(native) speaker? As harsh as everyone is saying?
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Post by schaffner15 on Dec 5, 2008 11:14:26 GMT 9.5
N'est pas ?
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Post by Arwen17 on Dec 7, 2008 9:32:20 GMT 9.5
@incap yes it does sound harsh to non-german ears from my experience. its usually compared to the sound of someone trying to hock a loogie i suppose because of the deep throat noise of the language.
english doesn't sound as harsh as german, but it is harsher than any of the romance languages. what does english sound like to you, incap??
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Post by Libitine on Dec 7, 2008 10:10:30 GMT 9.5
I speak Spanish pretty ok(ish). lol But I do wish I knew more languages.
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Post by Incapability on Dec 7, 2008 23:34:47 GMT 9.5
Hock a loogie? I tried to look that up, but it refused to be found. Could you explain? I love idiomatic expressions! To me, English sounds a bit like a duck quacking. Sorry And French sounds like the murmuring of a small river.
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LadyoftheNight
Mirandaholic
Everywhere I go I am spellbound
Posts: 161
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Post by LadyoftheNight on Dec 8, 2008 7:10:03 GMT 9.5
Just gonna post for the sake of telling everyone I speak Greek and some German, French, Latin and understand some Finnish
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Post by Morgause on Dec 9, 2008 1:59:09 GMT 9.5
Where did you learn Greek? Is it taught in schools in England? Just curious, because here nobody learns Greek. To Incapa, yeah, usually people say that they find German an harsh language, I think it happens because of all the consonants, in Latin Languages you have much more vowels than in German. For me, personally, I don't think it sounds harsh, I like the sound because it's different . Curiously, when I'm at the German class, I feel that the pronunciation has a little bit of french, but every time I tell it to someone who is learning or speaks German, they look at me like I was insane lol. Well, my German teacher never complains about my pronunciation, she even says that is good, so looks like thinking in French helps me to speak good German...
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