Proper English

Ahnimus

Jackhammer wrote:

I don't know if it's something about europe.

Personally, I guess I find it interesting.

I can make myself understand in french, english and german.

I should go on with german, as I still have much to learn, but I die to learn Japanese

I want to learn French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, Cantonese and Mandorin. I'm sure there are others I can't think of right now. I basically want to speak all languages. Sadly, I can't even speak good German after a couple of years of studying.

Jackhammer

If you want to learn fast, go live in that country.

Just got 4 years in germany, and will move on soon.
Next stop will be probably Japan ^^

I don't see over that. Not already. I like to go somewhere and live the culture I find interresting.

If I still live in a few years, we will see

Ahnimus

Jackhammer wrote:

If you want to learn fast, go live in that country.

Just got 4 years in germany, and will move on soon.
Next stop will be probably Japan ^^

I don't see over that. Not already. I like to go somewhere and live the culture I find interresting.

If I still live in a few years, we will see

I would love to live in germany for a while. But don't you need a Zertifikat Deutsch to work there?

The main drawback to moving around is not actually pursuing a career. I could be CEO of the company in 10 years if I don't keep moving.

Jackhammer

Well, I'd say it's a way of life.

I don't expect career, stability, money, or whatever.

I just move along where I want, I'm lucky I'm able to do it, and I hate people who wants to prevent me from it

Ahnimus

Jackhammer wrote:

Well, I'd say it's a way of life.

I don't expect career, stability, money, or whatever.

I just move along where I want, I'm lucky I'm able to do it, and I hate people who wants to prevent me from it

Yea, I'll probably still be stuck in the same position in the company for the next 20 years anyway.

Jackhammer

And now...

You have a kind of steady life, if I understand. I don't know, house, car, work, whatever...

I'm like on the run But I do live a lot of experiences that I'm glad I had in my short time on earth.

What's the best? No idea ^^

Collin

German is a beautiful language, I'm from Belgium and we get it in our schools because our country is trilingual (Dutch, French and German). Unfortunately, the focus wasn't on grammar but on vocabulary. There was a time when I knew das Deutsche Fällesystem but forgot all about it. Had French for 8 years and forgot the grammar as well, once you stop using a language it just fades away. Now I study English (we also had English in high school), Czech and my native language Dutch. I might pick up German again in two years, or French or maybe even Hungarian, who knows.

Sonja_S

Ahnimus wrote:

Thank you, that certainly illustrates the diversity of the word. I guess that's why I have difficulty with it.

I'm finding it really hard to learn just one other language. How can you speak multiple languages? I suppose growing up in europe would help.

Fortunately I've always been good with languages (and hopeless in things like math and chemics ).

In our school system, you start to learn English in 3rd grade of elementary school. In high school you usually have English for 4 years and then add another language and in some school types you even have to learn Latin. Since I can't do anything the normal way though, I had French for 9 years and English for 5. My French sucks badly by now though because I never use it. I can get food and drink in Arabic though

Sonja_S

Ahnimus wrote:

I thought Schwein was pig, it made sense because we also use Swine in english. Or is it the lower-case version that means "fucking"?

I also heard that Schwanz is "dick" but direct translation produces "Tail" as well as "dick" "cock" etc..

I said to someone once "Saugen mein Schwanz" and they didn't understand :(

We should start a german language thread or something, I'm getting some good input out of this.

Schwein does mean pig. I just translated it to fucking because I don't think there's an expression 'it's piggish hard' in English

It does mean both tail and dick. 'Saugen mein Schwanz' would be 'Lutsch meinen Schwanz' though and my Grandmother's catholic ashes are rotating in her grave right now

mookie blaylock 10

is "misuses" a word?

mookie blaylock 10

hippiemom wrote:

I couldn't help but think of our own dear pychosinlove when I read this It was like a puzzle most of the time, trying to figure out what the hell he was on about. He certainly did liven the place up though!

haha true, true...:D

mookie blaylock 10

Ahnimus wrote:

Yea you have the pronounciation Mischievous right Eli.

We do hack up a lot of words to make them different though. A lot of people pronounce four like fo and it's a most basic word.

isn't it "pronunciation"?

Eli

Yes, the noun is "pronunciation," and the verb is "pronounce".

Examples: How do you pronounce your last name?
Chinese pronunciation is very difficult.

dunkman

mookie blaylock 10 wrote:

isn't it "pronunciation"?

i fucking love it when this happens!!!

well spotted Mooks :cool:

Collin

Smellyman wrote:

How come Brits don't pronounce R's or other letters like the T in water. It often comes out wa'er?

It's the glottal stop, it's just their way of talking, I guess. The omitted "t" is replaced by the glottal stop, which is an allophone.

Grammatical things really bug me too (see I could've said "also" so "too" would be proper also. ). English is pretty f'd up anyway w/ rules on top of rules w/ exceptions etc, so depending on how much education one has, or if they even care, English is always going to be screwed up.

Actually, I think English is a fairly easy language, especially if you (as a non-native speaker) just want to learn the basics. Of course, it gets more complicated when you want to learn English on a higher level, but I think that's because of semantics rather than syntax or grammar. I study translation studies and the most difficult part is semantics, because English can be very tentative, it can express certain things Dutch (my native language) cannot.

Ahnimus

mookie blaylock 10 wrote:

isn't it "pronunciation"?

So it is, I've never noticed that before. Why did we remove the "O"?

It kind of reminds me of "Discombobulate"
dis‧com‧bob‧u‧late  /ˌdɪskəmˈbɒbyəˌleɪt/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[dis-kuhm-bob-yuh-leyt] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–verb (used with object), -lat‧ed, -lat‧ing. to confuse or disconcert; upset; frustrate: The speaker was completely discombobulated by the hecklers.

"Dis" is an opposite prefix
dis-
pref.
Not: dissimilar.

Absence of: disinterest.
Opposite of: disfavor.
Undo; do the opposite of: disarrange.

Deprive of: disfranchise.
Remove: disbud.

Free from: disintoxicate.
Used as an intensive: disannul.

Yet, there is no such word as "Combobulate"

So, how can you be discombobulated, if you were never combobulated to begin with?

Discrepencies in the English language are many. I like German the way it compounds words like Krankenwagen.

Krank - Sick
Wagen - Vehicle

Guess what it is? An Ambulance!!!

We just have to call it an Ambulance instead of a Sickvehicle.

Sonja_S

Ahnimus wrote:

Discrepencies in the English language are many. I like German the way it compounds words like Krankenwagen.

Krank - Sick
Wagen - Vehicle

Guess what it is? An Ambulance!!!

We just have to call it an Ambulance instead of a Sickvehicle.

*lol* I never thought about it that way. You can use 'Ambulanz' too btw.

dunkman

Ahnimus wrote:

Discrepencies in the English language are many.

There appears to be a discrepancy with one of yours again!

Ahnimus

Sonja_S wrote:

*lol* I never thought about it that way. You can use 'Ambulanz' too btw.

I didn't know that, thanks. What is more proper though? Don't german people stress formal speech in some situations?

Ahnimus

dunkman1974 wrote:

There appears to be a discrepancy with one of yours again!

Good eye