How many languages do you speak?

Tribun · Post by **Tribun** » 2003-06-15 12:24pm

German is my native language.

My English is relative good.

They tried to force me to learn French in school. After two years I finally had the chance to let it drop with a E- at the end. What I remembered about French afterwars, was swallowed by the black dephs in my brain.

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2003-06-15 06:36pm

Drooling Iguana wrote:Let me tell you, Mandarin is one of the most logical, consistant and overall well-designed languages I've ever encountered. Japanese is, well, not.

That's mostly due to the fact that Chinese doesn't use a phonetic system. Without one, conjugation of words is much more limited. This comes at the expense of variety of pronunciation, though, because there are ~10000 characters but maybe 4000 different ways of pronunciation.

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2003-06-16 07:36pm

Drooling Iguana wrote:Fluent English, functional French, a few phrases in Mandarin and a word or two of Japanese.

I was taking a course in Mandarin Chinese as one of my necessary arts electives at college, but had to drop it for a variety of reasons. I later picked up a book/tape to try to learn Japanese, but I'm having a fairly rough time with it.

Let me tell you, Mandarin is one of the most logical, consistant and overall well-designed languages I've ever encountered. Japanese is, well, not.

That's bull, I speak/write/read Mandarin, and it's hard as hell. Speaking and listening is easy for me, since I grew up with it. However, writting and reading it not. With more than 10000 words, it's damn near impossible to remember it all. Then you have to remember which one means what, how to pronounce it, how to use it, etc. My mother is a linguistics professor (PhD and all), and even she needs to look up words occasionally.

Japanese on the other hand, I find very easy. I thought the syntax was easy.

And there is a Chinese phonetic system... Its just not very commonly used. They used it in the textbooks when I was staying there.

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2003-06-16 07:42pm

Near impossible? It is impossible.

If you're referring to pinyin, it's used for typing and also for teaching, I believe. But other than that, well...sometimes I use it when I'm feeling lazy, but other than that...*shrugs*

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2003-06-16 08:32pm

Darth Yoshi wrote:Near impossible? It is impossible.

If you're referring to pinyin, it's used for typing and also for teaching, I believe. But other than that, well...sometimes I use it when I'm feeling lazy, but other than that...*shrugs*

Not pinyin, I'll try to find an example...

Here we go, http://www.chinesetapes.com/chinese_phonetics.htm
That's the one I was talking about...

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2003-06-16 08:37pm

Oh, that one. My folks call that the Taiwanese pinyin. Bears a superficial resemblance to katakana.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2003-06-16 09:15pm

i remember trying with some guys to create pig latin in spanish when i was in high school... uymay efecilday.

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-06-16 09:18pm

I know English (obviously) and am learning Latin.

At my school there is a very peculiar language in which you replace each vowel with the word 'up'. Lupkup thups, supup? What's even *more* suprising is that some people are fluent in it and carry on extensive conversations; of course, they could be just bullshitting.

lux · Post by **lux** » 2003-06-17 12:52am

-English of course

-Dutch - Hebben wij hier een paar Nederlanders??

and of course t3h l33t >.<

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2003-06-17 11:21am

I speak Danish, English and a little German. I also understand Norwegian and Swedish fairly well, but they're basically the same languages as Danish.

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2003-06-17 11:25am

EvilGrey wrote:the divine language of God.

Hebrew?

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2003-06-17 11:36am

I speak fluent hebrew and english (through with spelling errors), can go around in france without making a fool of myself, and learning japanese

Post by **fgalkin** » 2003-06-18 12:33am

Russian, English, and a bit of French.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin

Drooling Iguana · Post by **Drooling Iguana** » 2003-06-18 03:18am

Simon H.Johansen wrote:
EvilGrey wrote:the divine language of God. :D
Hebrew? :?

Bullshit?

Sienthal · Post by **Sienthal** » 2003-06-18 05:16am

English
Engrish (A dialect I have developed after listening to a stoned out friend for an hour)
French
And a minute amount of Japanese,

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-06-18 05:41am

English and Spanish. Plus I can read written Greek well enough to pronounce it, and have no problems getting the accents and that stuff right, but I still have little to no clue what I'm saying...

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2003-06-18 05:47am

German (obviously), and I'm fluent in English with, depending on whom you ask, no, a british, irish, scottish, texan, barely noticeable german or very pronounced german accent.

Hethrir · Post by **Hethrir** » 2003-06-18 06:19am

Simon H.Johansen wrote:
EvilGrey wrote:the divine language of God.
Hebrew?

I think he means Agape

How many languages do you speak?

Tatooine, Jabbas Palace...I am fluent in over six milliion forms of communication, and can readily....

Seriously, just English and l33t. I can also speak pigeon German, but that's really getting more distorted each passing day

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-06-18 06:23am

I speak English, barely.

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2003-06-18 06:25am

Gandalf wrote:I speak English, barely.

Ah, the predicament of the Australian

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2003-06-18 06:25am

Hethrir wrote: I can also speak pigeon German, but that's really getting more distorted each passing day

I'm reasonably certain pigeons speak the same language the world over. The ones in Italy and France certainly didn't sound any different

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-06-18 06:33am

Batman wrote:
Hethrir wrote: I can also speak pigeon German, but that's really getting more distorted each passing day
I'm reasonably certain pigeons speak the same language the world over. The ones in Italy and France certainly didn't sound any different

To the untrained ear, no.

Spanish and Italian sound the same to me.

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2003-06-18 06:42am

Gandalf wrote:Spanish and Italian sound the same to me.

Are you serious? They sound nothing alike! Maybe it's just that I've lived my entire life in a Spanish-speaking area, but I'd imagine that anybody'd be able to tell the difference between Spanish and Italian. I guess I'd imagine wrong, though.

Batman · Post by **Batman** » 2003-06-18 06:48am

Robert Treder wrote: Are you serious? They sound nothing alike! Maybe it's just that I've lived my entire life in a Spanish-speaking area, but I'd imagine that anybody'd be able to tell the difference between Spanish and Italian. I guess I'd imagine wrong, though.

Well, they may not sound the same but I DO find they sound rather similar...

...unless we're still talking about pigeons?

EDITed because I'm too stupid to quote. At least there's no typoes involved this time...

Robert Treder · Post by **Robert Treder** » 2003-06-18 06:50am

Of course I wasn't talking about pigeons; I never discuss pigeons outside of church; it's against my principles.