Wątek: Languages, accents, dialects...

Strona: 1 z 10

1 z 186: djsenter

Hello.
This thread is mainly about languages.
You can write which ones you like, which ones you know, and would like to learn andmore.
INFJ
08.07.2018 18:07

2 z 186: thespyde

I'm attempting to learn German, but with very little success. The grammar is, well, impossible.

I learned a bit of French in school and enjoyed that.

I always say I took French in school, but had to give it back, grins.
Charles Wells
08.07.2018 18:19

3 z 186: hozosch

I speak German as my mother tongue, so Charles or anyone else who's interested, I can help you out. Besides that, as you see, I speak English quite well, and I also have french in school for three years now, but that's the weakest language as far as my vocabulary is concerned.

09.07.2018 00:13

4 z 186: radiorobbe

German as native language, and of course some kind of english which probably is far from accurate, but the main thing is I can make people understand me. In school I had russian as 3rd foreign language, however without much joy and success. At least I still can read russian braille.
In my area some older people speak a variant of lower german, a dialect which is spoken mainly in northern regions of germany and can sound very different in each region. I can understand this, but need lots of alcohol to speak it myself *lol*.
-- Keiner ist unnütz. Er kann immer noch als schlechtes Beispiel dienen!
09.07.2018 10:04

5 z 186: thespyde

My problem with getting help, and I definitely appreciate the offer, is that I need to touch words, learn to spell them, in my learning of whatever I'm trying to learn. I was greatly aided in my one year of French class, having tapes to listen to pronunciation and Braille to learn how the words look. I suppose it was grade one, but it was still Braille, and I learned better than I am doing now, with just audio.

Then there's the completely, to me, alien grammar, ugh.
Charles Wells
09.07.2018 13:53

6 z 186: thespyde

Ironically, I had basically signed up for a German course that my high school counselor was going to teach. He really wasn't my counselor, not the one assigned to me at any rate, but he was the one I went to, and trusted with all my confidences. Not enough people signed up for the course, so it never happened.

That was also what happened to the French two class, so I wound up taking Latin instead.

Ah, if only, ...
Charles Wells
09.07.2018 14:16

7 z 186: Adventure-Time

I studied French and Latin languages for 4 years and eventually graduated from both at high school. Now I feel like I'll never in my life touch French again, I love Latin though. :D I was learning German for a while at elementary school and regret I gave up on that. At the moment I study the Dutch language at uni, and I'm attempting to learn Russian in my free time. Combining both listening to audio books and reading whatever attracts my attention. Since my mother tongue is slavic like Russian, I was able to get quite a few things relatively fast, however it still definitely is pretty challenging.

09.07.2018 16:28

8 z 186: thespyde

Another sad thing. My wife, back some time ago, ordered a German book in Braille for me. It was never sent. If they intended
to send it we would have had it ages ago. It's a beginners' course. Oh well, life goes on.
Charles Wells
09.07.2018 17:49

9 z 186: pajper

As for me...
English is the only foreign language that I do know, including rudimentary knowledge of old english.
ie. Yeah, I can, and in fact did, read and understand "Beowulf", but have no chance to write anything more sophisticated that basic introduction of myself.

In school we were learning german, but without success.
Grammar is not as complicated, comparing with polish one, but types of nouns...
Examplily, a wardrobe is of female type in polish, while in german of male.
This is completely beyond my ability to embrace. :D
I've dreamd about learning spanish, but sofar noone has been willing to help me, and my attempts to do so alone have gone awry.
So, I do know a plenty of foreign languages: english, eventually english as well as... english. :D
#StandWithUkraine Shoot for the Moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.
09.07.2018 20:25

10 z 186: Louisa

As for me, I just know english, which is my mother-tongue, and afrikaans. I'm lazy when it comes to learning new languages. Although they are interesting to read about.

09.07.2018 21:04

11 z 186: hozosch

@ Pajper: articles are probably the most confusing things for you slavs. :D You do pretty well, I must say.

09.07.2018 22:47

12 z 186: thespyde

Oh, and I almost forgot, when I was younger, also, for all these experiences happened way back when the dinosaurs roamed the earth, lol, I dabbled in Kiswahili a bit. I read an article in some magazine I got at school. It stated how easy the language was to learn, how the vowels always had the same sounds. I never heard anyone pronounce the few words I learned, so I really don't count that as a language I particularly know. In the article they had the numbers one to ten. They had the words for woman, man or maybe sir, and a few others.
Charles Wells
10.07.2018 17:57

13 z 186: djsenter

I personally think that languages learned in school barely mean a thing, it's better to go to a country and learn it in practice.
It's hard, but that's what I had to do, 7 years ago I would never be able to write to you at all in this beautiful, but grammatically impossible language, lol.
INFJ
11.07.2018 18:14

14 z 186: pajper

I cannot agree with you.
Obviously, some practise is somewhat needed.
It's quite impossible to get to know a language without hearing it and speaking in it.
Although...
I know plenty of people living in the UK for years talking...
I cannot say grammatically wrong, because no grammar has been found in their statements. :D
#StandWithUkraine Shoot for the Moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars.
11.07.2018 18:57

15 z 186: railwayguy

I don't agree either. It's always good to learn the basics of a language at school. This helped me much when I moved from Belgium to Canada. Should I not have learned the basics of the English language at school, it would have been much harder for me to learn English after arriving in Canada.

11.07.2018 19:14

16 z 186: thespyde

Yes, I wish that German class had happened. I would have known more than I know now, and learning it when I was younger would have been nice.
Charles Wells
12.07.2018 12:08

17 z 186: djsenter

Well yes, I didn't exactly explain it well.
I meant that although it is good and useful I guess, it's not the right step to end learning, it would be good to go to the country of your interest and learn the language there, along wit the culture and all that.
INFJ
12.07.2018 18:32

18 z 186: Zuzler

You must be really interested in this language and culture to do it.

12.07.2018 18:35

19 z 186: djsenter

Or sometimes, you just don' have a choice.
For example, I had to moe to England, regardless of my opinion, which was both negative, and positive experience.
Never the less, going to another country to learn the language better just takes it to another level.
INFJ
12.07.2018 18:37

20 z 186: Zuzler

Obviously. Practice is the best teacher.

12.07.2018 18:48