Languages

Yeah, I learned the Spanish Spanish.

Bloodraine:

Plus, my Spanish teacher once mentioned that referring to Catalan as Spanish can be offensive sometimes, so I think she was making the point that there is quite a difference.

Well she's right. Never, I mean NEVER tell a Catalan that he is Spanish, the most probable thing is that he might yell at you

Catalans don't think they are Spanish, they want independence.

rehabreject:

When someone speaks proper Spanish, with the right speed and pronounciation (like the 'c' in 'Valencia'), it gives me goosebumps...

btw, When I say Spanish, I mean Catalan.
Does anyone here learn (or speak) anything different?

But Catalan isn't Spanish, it's a totally different language mixing French and Spanish, and Catalans don't pronounce the "Th" for "c" or "z" like:

Valenthiaç

Sprry for the double post!

Meski:

rehabreject:

When someone speaks proper Spanish, with the right speed and pronounciation (like the 'c' in 'Valencia'), it gives me goosebumps...

btw, When I say Spanish, I mean Catalan.
Does anyone here learn (or speak) anything different?

But Catalan isn't Spanish, it's a totally different language mixing French and Spanish, and Catalans don't pronounce the "Th" for "c" or "z" like:

Valenthiaç

Sprry for the double post!

Ooh, maybe I'm learning Castillian then. I always mess them up.
I should actually find out what language I've been learning for the last three years

Rudolf Schmidt:

But it's all gonna be replaced by Newspeak by 2050...so...be goodthinkful.

When I read that, I actually got sort of afraid.

1984 scared the fuck out of me, just imaging that a civilization like that could take place. [/offtopic.]

Yes, a language thread This year I realized I wanna be a language teacher. And I have said I will do anything, but teaching. Oh, well. So far, if you include my mother tongue, I can speak three languages, Croatian, English and French. And I will take a three month course of Spanish over the summer and I will have to study Latin next year when I enter high-school. I just adore languages, I would like to know as many as possible, because I like communicating and using different languages. My favorite are Croatian and English. French is very difficult, I still have trouble with it and I have been studying it for four years. English is beautiful and my favorite are adjectives, I have a thing for them XD I have a problem with spelling though, I like reading and talking more.

I hate to see my language fade. Croatian journalist are using too many English words and I am sick of that, its killing my language. Its not that I mind that we use words that are already a part of the language and Croatian language doesn't really have an original substitute for them like CD or Internet, but we also use words just because we will seem more hip if we do. I see "backstage", "show business", "event" in every magazine and we have our Croatian words for every one of those terms. Its like you will look old-fashioned if you use real Croatian words. And even the names of festivals, fairs and other events have names that are in English. I mean I know we want to attract tourists, but cant we just translate the title and not make it all English in the beginning. I consider Croatian to be very rich, I mean we have 10 different words for one item since in every part of Croatia you have different phrases for different things. Its a really difficult language and I hate to see it being forgotten and wasted for nothing.

And I agree with Meg, it seems to me that people from countries that don't have global languages tend to learn more languages because of communication then for example people who are from a English speaking country. In Croatia we study English from the 1th grade and an extra language, German, French or Italian, depends on what school you attend. I mean you have to study English and an extra language is if you want it. But when I went to the 1th grade we didn't have that option and since I studied English in the kindergarten and I wanted to continue so I go extra to a language school. And basically now you need to know at least one more language to get a job.

I think one of the neat things is that some languages do have a core relation. I would say that I am English-French bilingual and I have a friend who has just started taking Spanish. I've been able to understand what she says to me when she types in basic Spanish because it uses similar structure to French. I've noticed the same when I had a German-English friend teach me some phrases. To me, it just sounded like a heavily-accented version of English.

Dr. Cuddy:

Yes, a language thread This year I realized I wanna be a language teacher. And I have said I will do anything, but teaching. Oh, well. So far, if you include my mother tongue, I can speak three languages, Croatian, English and French. And I will take a three month course of Spanish over the summer and I will have to study Latin next year when I enter high-school. I just adore languages, I would like to know as many as possible, because I like communicating and using different languages. My favorite are Croatian and English. French is very difficult, I still have trouble with it and I have been studying it for four years. English is beautiful and my favorite are adjectives, I have a thing for them XD I have a problem with spelling though, I like reading and talking more.

I hate to see my language fade. Croatian journalist are using too many English words and I am sick of that, its killing my language. Its not that I mind that we use words that are already a part of the language and Croatian language doesn't really have an original substitute for them like CD or Internet, but we also use words just because we will seem more hip if we do. I see "backstage", "show business", "event" in every magazine and we have our Croatian words for every one of those terms. Its like you will look old-fashioned if you use real Croatian words. And even the names of festivals, fairs and other events have names that are in English. I mean I know we want to attract tourists, but cant we just translate the title and not make it all English in the beginning. I consider Croatian to be very rich, I mean we have 10 different words for one item since in every part of Croatia you have different phrases for different things. Its a really difficult language and I hate to see it being forgotten and wasted for nothing.

And I agree with Meg, it seems to me that people from countries that don't have global languages tend to learn more languages because of communication then for example people who are from a English speaking country. In Croatia we study English from the 1th grade and an extra language, German, French or Italian, depends on what school you attend. I mean you have to study English and an extra language is if you want it. But when I went to the 1th grade we didn't have that option and since I studied English in the kindergarten and I wanted to continue so I go extra to a language school. And basically now you need to know at least one more language to get a job.

It's the same here (France): you can read many english words in any magazine. You talk and use them naturally. It's common now.

Talking about languages at school, it's not the same at all though: you have to learn a foreign language from the 6th grade. You can choose between English and German. Then, you have to choose a 2nd language in 8th grade: for those who chose English as 1st foreign language, they can choose Spanish or German as 2nd foreign language. But for those who chose German as 1st foreign language, they don't have choice and have to take English as 2nd foreign language. About Latin, I don't know. I studied it for 5 years (from 7th grade to University except in highschool) but it was an option only at my time.
Then, you can choose a 3rd language in highschool such as Italian, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, and more..

Anyway, it's not like you have the choice to learn languages. 2 is the minimum.
And you'll always need them.
Here, employers don't even read your résumé if you don't talk at least english, german and/or spanish. But apart from work, languages are necessary on a daily basis.

I don't think what language you speak matters, but that you speak at least one fluently and are able to communicate with it. I can't stand speaking to people with poor English when they have no excuse for it being bad. If it isn't your first lanuage or something such as that I can understand that. But when you've grown up in an English speaking nation and your grammar makes me want to beat you with books there is a problem. You've been speaking it since you were what? 2? Maybe even sooner. It's so important to speak your native language well, yet you see kids failing their (in my case) English classes. There is no excuse for that aside from you not applying yourself. You can do amazing things with a language. Visual and musical art are both wonderful of course, but the power you have with words is something else.

As for second languages, I can name maybe 3 people who in my grade take their second language class seriously aside from myself. America requires two language credits for college acceptance, that's it. You don't actually have to speak that language or know anything about it, as long as you took the classes in highschool. Now, it would be wrong to say that you absolutely have to speak another language in America. You can easily get by here without knowing any other language... you really don't need to be that great with English to be honest Personally, I think learning other languages is fun. I know in German we don't just work with the language, you learn alot about German speaking countries cultures as well. Now, I think that is really important. If you don't take anything out of a language class, at least learn about the culture so you aren't totally oblivious to the world around you. It's important to be educated about the world around. Knowing other languages is a wonderful skill to have, but I don't think its vital. I do however think that if you're centered on the small, tiny fragment of the world you live in you won't get very far.

Agreed. When your world has a ten kilometer raidus, well, that's no good. And language helps break those boundries. And it also gives us GSBians something to talk about. Like the first girl I talked to on here was Swedish. She taught me some Swedish phrases (all of which I forgot) and Dreya helps a lot of people with Spanish.

I noticed something interesting though. In parts of South America, they pronounce "v" as a soft b, according to those little notas cultural in my old textbook.

In West Bengal, they speak (duh) Bengali and there is no v sound. Anything with "va" is pronounced as "ba". Interestign connection. I'm starting to wonder if it has anything to do with geography.

And also, I want to learn Sanskrit. Sansrkit, being *the* root language, makes it easy to learn any other language. And Sanskrit speakers will have very little issues with learning German.

Cecilia:

It's the same here (France): you can read many english words in any magazine. You talk and use them naturally. It's common now.

Talking about languages at school, it's not the same at all though: you have to learn a foreign language from the 6th grade. You can choose between English and German. Then, you have to choose a 2nd language in 8th grade: for those who chose English as 1st foreign language, they can choose Spanish or German as 2nd foreign language. But for those who chose German as 1st foreign language, they don't have choice and have to take English as 2nd foreign language. About Latin, I don't know. I studied it for 5 years (from 7th grade to University except in highschool) but it was an option only at my time.
Then, you can choose a 3rd language in highschool such as Italian, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, and more..

Anyway, it's not like you have the choice to learn languages. 2 is the minimum.
And you'll always need them.
Here, employers don't even read your résumé if you don't talk at least english, german and/or spanish. But apart from work, languages are necessary on a daily basis.

I know, I still don't like i though. And I agree with the job employment, if you don't know English you are never going to be employed.

rehabreject:

Bloodraine:

Meski:

I love the spanish language, it's much easier than any other language I think. Maybe for some people it's hard to learn and hard to write as it is written in the Fenician Manuscript (written like I'm writing right now).

Spanish is a language that only needs to be said as it's written, but not in a strong way like English but in a soft way.

Spanish has some different letters from English, e.g.

Ñ: Enye, like, España -> Espanya
LL: Eye, like, Pollo -> Poyo

And if you change the language like Catalan, Gallego and some other Spanish related lingos you can have letters like this one:

Ç: Cerilla, like, Barça () ->Barsa

Think this is enough.

I like Spanish, I've been learning it for 5 years now, but I find it terribly hard. XD
Then again, I find nothing easy, and compared to some people in my class I find it 'easy', I guess. I think Spanish sounds really nice, but I'll never be able to talk with such speed

I'm learning Spanish at the moment and I think it's a beautiful language. It's kinda humbling to think that so many millions of people speak it across the whole world.
When someone speaks proper Spanish, with the right speed and pronounciation (like the 'c' in 'Valencia'), it gives me goosebumps...

btw, When I say Spanish, I mean Catalan.
Does anyone here learn (or speak) anything different?

I used to learn Spanish and is was one of the easiest languages to pick up. In terms of spoken exactly as written, I think Latin beats Spanish. Apparently the language that beats all is Swedish, I think. There are never any exceptions and all the constanants and vowels are always the same.

Ol' Blue Eyes.:

Rudolf Schmidt:

But it's all gonna be replaced by Newspeak by 2050...so...be goodthinkful.

When I read that, I actually got sort of afraid.

1984 scared the fuck out of me, just imaging that a civilization like that could take place.

It scared me at first to think that that's how the world was going to be...two decades ago. I loved how ironic the title was whilst I was learning it. It makes me thank that Orwell was really humble in not even considering that his novels would survive this long. I'm pretty sure I included that in my literature essay.

Iwannajumpout:

I think one of the neat things is that some languages do have a core relation. I would say that I am English-French bilingual and I have a friend who has just started taking Spanish. I've been able to understand what she says to me when she types in basic Spanish because it uses similar structure to French. I've noticed the same when I had a German-English friend teach me some phrases. To me, it just sounded like a heavily-accented version of English.

I know, sometimes it's difficult cause I tended to mix up French and Spanish when I used to study it, but it is very interesting. All Romance languages were derived fron Latin of course which came from Sanskrit and a few other roots. There are even similarities between Thai and Spanish, English, or French sometimes, just phonetically though.

Cecilia:

It's the same here (France): you can read many english words in any magazine. You talk and use them naturally. It's common now.

Not as bad as in Quebec though. But that's Canadian French, Quebecois, so they have an excuse.

It's even like that in Thai. The Thai language is beautifully simplistic. We had no tenses, we don't usually use the word 'you', and most technology related stuff are just compound words that are so obvious that even Laos or Burmese understand them, and their language is only a sinch similar.

Example, Thai for refrigerator is doo yen, literally 'cold box'.

But for some reason, you hear a lot of phonetically translated English words in Thai and it's really annoying. I don't like it.

It happens here too. In the Telugu newspapers. You see words in English that have been written in Telugu. I mean, if you're talking about a game like cricket, okay. There's not word for that. But if they're about a cricket match, Telugu has a word for match.

Instead, they write "crikaytu myachu" in Telugu.

Anji:

Cecilia:

It's the same here (France): you can read many english words in any magazine. You talk and use them naturally. It's common now.

But for some reason, you hear a lot of phonetically translated English words in Thai and it's really annoying. I don't like it.

I guess it's normal. I think it's ok.
I remember, once I was reading Croatian words and some made me laugh like "frižider" or "tuš" because it's phonetically the same words in French.

Dr. Cuddy:

I hate to see my language fade. Croatian journalist are using too many English words and I am sick of that, its killing my language. Its not that I mind that we use words that are already a part of the language and Croatian language doesn't really have an original substitute for them like CD or Internet, but we also use words just because we will seem more hip if we do. I see "backstage", "show business", "event" in every magazine and we have our Croatian words for every one of those terms. Its like you will look old-fashioned if you use real Croatian words.

Same in Germany. xD I don't really care though.


So anyway! Languages.

I've learned English since 3th grade. [Now you learn it in kindergarten already] and Latin for 3 years now.

I obviously like English and I consider to take a job in that direction, I don't know what exactly, but it'd be cool if it included English...
[Although speaking English fluently isn't very special anymore so hmm.]

I like the English language a lot, I don't like Latin. I'd like to do a French curse at some point, maybe..
I like listening to British and American accents.

And when I'm 18 I wanna go to the USA and do stuff, so I think English had some afftect on my life. XD

HOP TEH HOPPUS.:

[Although speaking English fluently isn't very special anymore so hmm.]

It's not that obvious.
Here, there's a big difference between people talking english and people writing english.
Most of them are good at writing it but just very bad at talking it fluently.
I guess it's just that learning english at school is not like having a real conversation, as you'd do if you met some english person.
Like I say "it's raining today, where's my umbrella?" if I meet some hot dude in a bar. Add the big French accent and it's done

They teach us the basic stuff but not enough vocabulary, not enough pronounciation lessons..

Cecilia:

Here, there's a big difference between people talking english and people writing english.

Yeah. Its funny, because here, people don't worry about their written work, which is 25% of your grade, but everybody always gets scared shitless for the speaking exams. I know I do, even though they're worth the same mark overall.