Languages You Speak/Would Like To Speak/Are Learning
Original post
Posted by Account deleted, 18.08.2007 - 17:35
Personally...
- (As you *might* have noticed) I speak English. Not really well, but I think I can say I know the basis. But it is not my first language: French is. I don't want to sound pretentious or anything, but I speak French really well. Yet, it is the third language I learnt.
- My mother language is Arabic, it was the first one I learnt as I am Moroccan and was born in Morocco. But my parents speak French more than Arabic, and I started going to a French school when I was 5, thus, I started forgetting Arabic. I was still as able to understand it as before, but I couldn't speak it anymore, past my 8th birthday. (Some other important factors were involded, but it is not necessary to mention them.)
- The second language I learnt was Spanish, because of/thanks to Spanish TV channels and my grandmother, who only spoke Spanish and Arabic. But when we left the city where we were living (Tanger, just in front of Spain), I stopped watching Spanish channels, and left my grandmother as well, and then, forgot Spanish too
.- That's when French comes. It became my first language around 8. As the French school system wants it, I started learning English at 11. And I unexpectedly didn't have any difficulty with it. I have always had the best mark in that subject, without making any effort for that. Unfortunately it is still not enough. I realised my level was not as good as I thought it was.
- The next year, (I was 12) I chose Latin, but I had to stop after a few months, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to start Spanish the following year. I started re-learning Spanish at 13.
- But since I took Spanish at 13, I couldn't take German at 15. I had too many subjects and the teachers wouldn't let me add German. Yet it is the language I really want to learn. I like the sonority of it, and I watch German TV channels just to hear it, even if I don't get a word of it
.- As a consequence, the two languages I can speak the best are French, and English.
As you see the topic is vast, there is a lot to say...
| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 61010  |
Written by Lucerna on 01.05.2014 at 12:41 I tryd to read Miltons Paradise Lost in Middle english, It was  when someone translated in modern english, ir read again .. it was easy but till someone translates
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die''  apos;'[image] I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
Loading...
|
| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 61010 |
Written by Ernis on 01.05.2014 at 01:16 US has bases in Japan and S Korea.... how can they do militarye xeracse together, what are solders english knoweladge 
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die'' apos;'[image] I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
Loading...
|
| ANGEL REAPER Posts: 3687  |
Written by Bad English on 01.05.2014 at 12:59 solders do not speak to each other but high ranking officers communicate ....probably using army translators on both sides ...
---- "Cross is only an iron,hope is just an illusion,freedom is nothing but a name..." "Build your walls of the dead stone...Build your roofs of a dead wood..Build your dreams of a dead thoughts" 
Loading...
|
| Lucerna Posts: 29  |
It's an interesting question. The soldiers could easily communicate with each other if they are from the same country. If their commanders are from different places then I'd assume they have a translator at hand to translate everything. Although, I can easily imagine they would be bilingual instead; way more convenient.
---- 达到光亮之前我是个小龙 | Last.fm
Loading...
|
| Tormentor666 Posts: 222  |
Written by Lucerna on 01.05.2014 at 12:41 It actually is. Old English had the influence of other Germanic languages, but Modern English has suffered many changes through history and therefore has developed influences from some other languages. As a Germanic language, it conserves some of the features of Anglo-Saxon but it also has influences of French and other Romance languages, not only on its lexicon but also on its grammar. I would say English is quite a rich language despite the overall believed simplicity it bears.
---- WARFARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Loading...
|
| Ernis 狼獾 Posts: 6807  |
Written by Tormentor666 on 01.05.2014 at 08:51 Old English is to English what Latin is to Spanish... more or less. You can understand old Castilian because it's the more recent form of your language than Anglo-Saxon is for modern English. In case you haven't noticed, Old-English and Latin together are more closer to each other as they, eventually, are sister languages from one mother language... Indo-European language split into several groups which, in turn, split into other languages (which also influenced each other). At the moment one could say that the main extant groups are the "Germanic-Romance" languages and the "Balto-Slavic" languages... Greek, Albanian and Armenian are also Indo-European but broke off earlier and developed in their own ways. Either way, Romance languages are "new" languages because they are offshoots from Latin. English is technically still an "old language" which has adopted many features from the Romance language and thus looks like a "new" language... As English is currently in a similar situation Latin was centuries ago, who knows if it's going to give birth into an even newer group of different languages. Either way... here's a nice example of Indo-European acting like a group of dialects... "My brother and mother were in Stockholm for eight days." "برادر و مادر من حشت روز در ستکحلم بودن" (Baràdar u màdare man hasht ruz dar Stockholm budan.) same things... but this Persian sentence doesn't have the word "for" (برا/bara) and uses "eight lights" instead of "eight days"... because "ruz" means "light" (yes, it's "luz/lux" with an R) Брат мой и мать моя восемь дней в Штокголме были. (Brat moi i mat moja vosem dnei v Shtokgolme bõli.) Same thing... only Russian has replaced the word "eight/hasht/acht/oct" with "vosem"... the verb is still the same... "b-" Frater meus et mater mea diebus octo in Stockholmia erant. Mein Bruder und meine Mutter acht Tage in Stockholm waren. Mon frère et ma mère étaient huit jours en Stockholm. Mio fratello e mia madre erano otto giorni a Stockholma. (Italian uses "at" instead of "in"... yes, Latin "ad" is the same as Spanish, French and Italian "a" which is the same as English "at"...) Also... Italian and French use the word "diurnum" (giorno/jour) which would make "otto giorni" "eight dailies"... Mi hermano y mi madre estaban ocho dias a Stockholm... Spanish uses "stay" instead of "be" in many phrases... "I stay pretty tired at the moment/Do you stay ready for going out?" yes... estar/stay/stehen/ایستادن(istaden) is the same verb... also it replaces "brother/brat/bruder/bradar" with "germanus" which comes from "germen" that means "sprout"... modern English "germ" is a shifted meaning... ignore that... Bhi mo bhràthair agus mo màthair i Stocolm ocht là. Irish places the verb at the beginning of the sentence and has the word "là" for "day"... As you see... it's pretty much the same language with very similar grammar... learning its different varieties ain't really hard because there's nothing in any of them that another one wouldn't have... the numerals are pretty much the same (one two three/yek do se/un duo tres/uno due tre/odin dva tri/ein zwei drei) the grammatical particles and their functions are pretty much the same (nd/ng/nt) for "-ing" (living/viviendo/lebend/vivente) and "in/en/i" for "in"... basic concepts are pretty much the same such as "year/jahr/hora/uhr/hour" for a time unit... notice how Latin uses the word initially in its broad sense, then, in Romance language the meaning is narrowed down to that of "hour" and English adopts the Romance word for the "60 minutes" unit while using its own version "year" for "365" days... it's essentially using two pronunciation variables of one word for two distinct meanings. English has also replaced several of its own words with Romance versions while German retains their own word. Example: Comoinis - becomes "communis" in Latin, "gemeinde" in German and "gemaene" in English... Some time later English replaces "gemaene" with the more archaic (and fancy-looking) Romance word "commune"... but the word is still the same... Speaking about reconstructing older pronunciation... it's possible because sound changes usually follow predetermined patterns... also, you can check the written forms in a particular language and its relatives. Example... "Viginti" in Latin was with a "golf" sound, not "George" sound because the latter would not have resulted in modern "veinte" and "venti" (and "twenty"... because "viginti" used to be "dviginti") the sound "G" (as in "golf") tends to wear off if placed between vowels... (see what happened to "regina" and "viginti" and "vigilantes" in Spanish...) Ukrainian also reduces "G" to "H"... mispronunciation of several old words stems from the fact that new languages apply their new rules to ancient words... Written by Bad English on 01.05.2014 at 12:59 Not every person there is a soldier. Military personnel may be expected to learn languages (or they can use interpreters) but ordinary Kyoko Matsushima from Kumamoto prefecture has no pressure to excel in foreign languages. Written by Lucerna on 01.05.2014 at 01:20 青 means "blue-green"... You could say "达到光亮之前我是个小龙。" (Before reaching the light I was a little dragon.) Or "我以前是个小龙，然后我达到了光亮。" (Before I was a little dragon, then I reached the light.) Any native Chinese speakers are welcome to correct me because they most probably need to. What message does this phrase carry anyway and where did you find the Chinese version?
Loading...
|
| Tormentor666 Posts: 222 |
Very accurate, Ernis. That's more or less what I tried to explain in a few lines. Did you study linguistics by any chance?
---- WARFARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Loading...
|
| ANGEL REAPER Posts: 3687 |
On side note i find interesting that Russian word for one (number 1) is "Odin" and Swedish vikings were the ones who made first Russian kingdom in middle ages along with Slavs who were their footmen ... note that south Slavs have different word for same thing ...
---- "Cross is only an iron,hope is just an illusion,freedom is nothing but a name..." "Build your walls of the dead stone...Build your roofs of a dead wood..Build your dreams of a dead thoughts"
Loading...
|
| Ernis 狼獾 Posts: 6807 |
Written by ANGEL REAPER on 01.05.2014 at 22:33 Coincidence. Odin as the name of a deity stems from "Wodan" which means "fury" and thus makes Wodanaz/Odin "Furious"... Odin/(J)edin as 1 in Slavonic languages stems from "oinos" which means 1 and gives "ein/edin/odin/one/ek/yek" etc... Also... in Russian, the deity is 'odin while the number is actually ad'in (sound-wise)... Written by Tormentor666 on 01.05.2014 at 22:18 Historical linguistics from Verona University...
Loading...
|
| ANGEL REAPER Posts: 3687 |
Written by Ernis on 02.05.2014 at 00:09 maybe, but still seems interesting thing....
---- "Cross is only an iron,hope is just an illusion,freedom is nothing but a name..." "Build your walls of the dead stone...Build your roofs of a dead wood..Build your dreams of a dead thoughts"
Loading...
|
| Ernis 狼獾 Posts: 6807 |
Written by ANGEL REAPER on 02.05.2014 at 00:12 True... Also the fact that the island Ibiza can be pronounced pretty much like the Russian verb "ебиться" (jebitsa) which describes accurately why people go there nowadays...
Loading...
|
| ANGEL REAPER Posts: 3687 |
Written by Ernis on 02.05.2014 at 00:30 ha that's good one 
---- "Cross is only an iron,hope is just an illusion,freedom is nothing but a name..." "Build your walls of the dead stone...Build your roofs of a dead wood..Build your dreams of a dead thoughts"
Loading...
|
| Tormentor666 Posts: 222 |
Written by Ernis on 02.05.2014 at 00:09 Nice. I studied English Philology, but only did one year on Historical Linguistics, of course focused in the history of English, so my knowledge on this field is very limited... but always been very interesting to me, so I'd like to learn more of it on my spare time. So if there's any work you can recommend, I'd be thankful.
---- WARFARE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Loading...
|
| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 61010 |
Written by ANGEL REAPER on 01.05.2014 at 14:05 They do ... how then NAGO solders in Agfa could comunicate, frencha nd americans, latvians and danes ...many millitary colages studies are in english... I supose japs and koreanms must know there english ... blue, frindly, tango down, LZ ... negative, affurmitive, fire in the hole, and such thinks ...
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die'' apos;'[image] I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
Loading...
|
| ANGEL REAPER Posts: 3687 |
Written by Bad English on 03.05.2014 at 01:31 footmen do not need to know same language but officers do...its all that hierarchy package with military, however its handy for joint operations to know same language... better brush up on your military knowledge if ya wanna join MI6 there pal
---- "Cross is only an iron,hope is just an illusion,freedom is nothing but a name..." "Build your walls of the dead stone...Build your roofs of a dead wood..Build your dreams of a dead thoughts"
Loading...
|
| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 61010 |
Written by ANGEL REAPER on 03.05.2014 at 01:35 you cant be officer if you dont know well all latvian and IMO baltic solders knows it in airforce and navy all must have ...
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die'' apos;'[image] I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
Loading...
|
| Lucerna Posts: 29 |
Written by Ernis on 01.05.2014 at 22:09Thank you so much! I will edit my signature shortly. The meaning behind it is kinda metaphoric and difficult to explain as it refers to an old poem of mine as well as my lover whose name roughly translates to "giver of light". My nickname, Lucerna, means lantern or lamp, referring to the same light. All in all it's mostly a reference to a recurring metaphor I use in poetry.
---- 达到光亮之前我是个小龙 | Last.fm
Loading...
|
| Leni Posts: 70  |
Written by Ernis on 02.05.2014 at 00:30 ha, i never thought about that  you right)))
Loading...
|
| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 61010 |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1GJUTfa4ds how much you lads can understand ow came I get 95% of this conveartion in Glasgewgian or shait 'ak 'p ''cent ''rom ''hughlglands
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - ''Speak English or Die'' apos;'[image] I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
Loading...
|
| ß Problem? Posts: 916  |
At this moment in time, I'm currently learning Korean. I've decided to put German on the back burner since the amount of use I would make use of it would be minimal. I can only really. picture myself conversing with my mom and relatives. I was considering Japanese but the thought of having to learn Kanji has put me off for the time being.
Loading...
|
| Karlabos Meat and Potatos Posts: 5658  |
Written by ß on 24.07.2014 at 23:34 Yep. That alone is already enough to make Japanese and Chinese the two worst languages to learn, imo
---- "Aah! The cat turned into a cat!" - Reimu Hakurei
Loading...
|
| Ernis 狼獾 Posts: 6807 |
Written by ß on 24.07.2014 at 23:34 For real? Kanji are awesome! Especially if you're proficient... but you need to use them (read and write) on a regular basis, otherwise your brain will just discard them... I used to write essays in Chinese... now I have to look up everything on the dictionary...
Loading...
|
| ß Problem? Posts: 916 |
Quote: To each their own. I know that there's really no way around learning Japanese without Kanji. I suppose the only benefit of it over Chinese is that Japanese isn't tonal. If I somehow muster up the motivation, I'll give it it a shot one of these days.
Loading...
|
| ANGEL REAPER Posts: 3687 |
I have noticed a strange thing few days ago.I was watching some random Swedish channel on TV .And i shit you not,the language sounded familiar to me although i never learned a word of Swedish.I mean i could understand meaning of phrases and at least 1/3 of the words spoken .hell i might try to learn the damn language.
---- "Cross is only an iron,hope is just an illusion,freedom is nothing but a name..." "Build your walls of the dead stone...Build your roofs of a dead wood..Build your dreams of a dead thoughts"
Loading...
|
| Karlabos Meat and Potatos Posts: 5658 |
^That happens to me to. If I listen to someone speaking in Italian, for instance I can actually understand some things even though I never had contact with it By the other hand I recall being like on the 2nd year of german studying and not being able to get anything at all on a conversation =(
---- "Aah! The cat turned into a cat!" - Reimu Hakurei
Loading...
|
| Marcel Hubregtse Grumpy Old Fuck Elite Posts: 40071  |
Written by Karlabos on 07.08.2014 at 16:36 Quite logical... since your native language is Brazilian Portuguese which is a Romance (also referred to as a Romanic or a Latin or a Neo-Latin) language, just like Italian whereas German is a Germanic language and hence totally different to your ow language.
---- Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.) 05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996 
Loading...
|
| Ernis 狼獾 Posts: 6807 |
Written by ANGEL REAPER on 07.08.2014 at 11:55 I've always heard that Swedish is really easy. I've never really dug into it because 99.99999999% of Swedes are 100% fluent in English, therefore, why would I want to torture them with my below-average Swedish if we can have flawless conversations in English... You will understand basic written Swedish if you know English and German...
Loading...
|
| ANGEL REAPER Posts: 3687 |
Written by Ernis on 07.08.2014 at 21:20 not just Swedish,i also figured out written basic Spanish so i can understand texts in Spanish (well a quite large part of it).though i cant really get the spoken one (mostly cause Spanish is spoken quite fast). on topic of Swedish language : yeah i know that Swedish is one of easier languages to learn if you know English but the fact that surprised me is that just by knowing english i could understand stuff (bear in mind that i suck in literature and languages-well kinda- ).It was interesting .
---- "Cross is only an iron,hope is just an illusion,freedom is nothing but a name..." "Build your walls of the dead stone...Build your roofs of a dead wood..Build your dreams of a dead thoughts"
Loading...
|
| Ernis 狼獾 Posts: 6807 |
Written by ANGEL REAPER on 07.08.2014 at 22:33 Well... Spanish is also related to Swedish and English... they're all neighbouring sub-groups within the Indo-European family, and they also share a significant Latin/Greek-based vocabulary which has replaced several local words (for example the Latin prefix "trans-" used while the English version would be "through-", or the Greek word "holo" instead of its English counterpart "whole"...) ... Besides, Spanish is also relatively easy compared to English... Here's a good one... whole-nut chocolate = holonuclear chocolate... Either way... "Por favor/Please (literally "For favor"), use el disinfectante antes(before) de tocar(touching) al(literally "at the" bebe(baby)"... is there even a point to translate "disinfectante"? Spanish and English (and Italian) are closer to each other than Estonian and Finnish...
Loading...
|
| Troy Killjoy perfunctionist Staff Posts: 21306  |
I don't think Spanish or Italian are that close to English. English takes more influence from German, Latin, and French than it does from Spanish.
---- "Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something."
Loading...
|