Languages

[mylittlecivic]

what languages do you know or are interested in?

I know we can all speak english - well enough to communicate with each other anyways.


I've been learning a little Italian over the past year or so I can read a bit of it but havent learned proununciations or anything. And lately I've been getting into learning some Gaelic.

[KwikR6]

I know english.

And some jibberish!

[a96710]

I wanted to take Japanese for the fall quarter but it was only available during a time I couldn't make.

[GT40FIED]

Hmmm...I know a bit or most of the following: spanish (and if you know spanish you knowa good bit of italian), german, japanese, cantonese, and mandarin. The asian ones were the hardest for me. With romance languages and german you can kind of figure it out since english is based on latin and germanic principles for the most part. Asian stuff is completely different.

[ebpda9]

well i know english, romanian, and i forgot all the french i used to speak it fluently

[IALuder]

english and japanese.

[pdiggitydogg]

I used to care about japanese

[94_AcCoRd_EX]

English and a little Spanish...

[ChrisCantSkate]

a little spanish, and even less french

[Rob]

I know enough Spanish to get me in or out of trouble as necessary.......

[mylittlecivic]

Originally posted by GT40FIED
(and if you know spanish you knowa good bit of italian),

thats whats helped me alot with italian. i used to take spanish in school.

[GT40FIED]

My ex was like that. Her parents were Mexican so she spoke fluent spanish. Whenever we'd go to an art museum or something of the sort she'd always tell me what the names of the paintings meant which were in italian...even though she didn't know italian.

A little spanish

- Dzur

[95DX]

I know some sign language and a tiny bit of spanish (not enough to do anything though)

[DsBlu01CivEX]

i know spanish...I can read it much better than I can speak it or comprehend the spoken word. And i know a very little bit of german and hawaiian. Used to know more of both, but with out using it, you kinda forget it.

[CD5Passion]

i kinda know Spanish and what the tell is with everyone BUT ME knowing japanese...i part it I should know it....
but I want to really learn Japanese aswell as Gaelic

[GT40FIED]

Dude...Gaelic is a bitch. I know a little (a very little) from a the mother of a girl I know who is from northern Ireland. It's a really gutteral language as far as sound. But once again Darin, you've been watching too much Boondock Saints.

[mylittlecivic]

im learning some phrases in gaelic, heres one for you all to remember.
Tabhair dom dhá phionta leanna, le do thoil. (Give me 2 pints of beer please.)
/tawar dum thaw finntuh lanna, lay duh hell/

I still remember some French from junior high/high school, I know a little German and I'm currently in the process of learning Japanese, so I know a little of that too. And I know a few Chinese words but not much.....

b

[GT40FIED]

Which Japanese dialect are you studying? I assume it's Kanji unless you plan on hanging out in rural Japan. Chinese is that way too...you've got mandarin and cantonese. Those people need to decide on one language and stick with it. Hehe.

[GT40FIED]

Speaking of languages...Anna...the Gaelic in your sig isn't very nice. Hehe.

[mylittlecivic]

ahh but you like it

[Rob]

Originally posted by mylittlecivic
ahh but you like it

I'd like to do something to your thoin

[CD5Passion]

and I have no idea what that means, anna please enlighten me of what your sign means

[IALuder]

^i was bout to post that......

im trying to learn more japanese....i got 5 years of studie and class time.

[CD5Passion]

sf you should teach me some japanese haha

I know english, sign language, some spanish, and when i'm working on cars and trucks i know jebberish....

Originally posted by GT40FIED
Which Japanese dialect are you studying? I assume it's Kanji unless you plan on hanging out in rural Japan. Chinese is that way too...you've got mandarin and cantonese. Those people need to decide on one language and stick with it. Hehe.

China has more than just mandarin and cantonese.

The kanji are just the Chinese characters in the Japanese writing systems, not a dialect. I'm not studying any particular dialect, I'm studying plain ordinary ole Japanese. Of course there are regional dialectical differences in Japanese just as any other language has, but you don't study them in school (at least not that I'm aware of in any way). But the study is of formal, or polite, Japanese, we're not learning much casual language.

For the writing systems so far I've only picked up hiragana. I plan on learning katakana before summer's end if things go well, and hopefully will start my study of the kanji in the fall.....but considering how slowly I've been studying on my own, I probably won't start the kanji this year.

b

[GT40FIED]

Originally posted by Shardsofxapril
and I have no idea what that means, anna please enlighten me of what your sign means

Pog Mo Thoin...Gaelic for "kiss my ass". And now you know. Oh...and I'm with Rob Mwahahaha.

[IALuder]

i would be happy to....i would have to go get my college books i learn from.

well becuase i'm from poland i know polish and english is my second language, i can also understand russian and know very little german

[CD5Passion]

do you (those who knoe japanese) think I could possibly learn it by myself, are there any good books out there that you might recommend because it is soemthign I reallllly wanna learn

[GT40FIED]

Originally posted by Shardsofxapril
do you (those who knoe japanese) think I could possibly learn it by myself, are there any good books out there that you might recommend because it is soemthign I reallllly wanna learn

The phonetics aren't really too hard...but I'll be damned if I learn the written language. Books on tape (or CD) usually work best for learning languages since you can hear someone else saying the words. I learned a good deal of the basics just by watching a ton of Japanese cinema. PM me for a list of badass Japanese flicks that I used to learn (subtitled of course).

[IALuder]

^ thats the best way to learn any language imo.

look on ebay for some books. maybe there might be some childrens book you could start off on. thats how my teacher tuaght us.

Originally posted by Shardsofxapril
do you (those who knoe japanese) think I could possibly learn it by myself, are there any good books out there that you might recommend because it is soemthign I reallllly wanna learn

The first 2 semesters of my courses (semesters of informal classes, not university classes) are from Kodansha International's Japanese for Busy People. There are audio tapes/cds that accompany the book that is useful. It's a decent start for someone with no Japanese experience and a great gateway to further studies. You can learn just fine on your own if you take the time to listen to the cd (which I haven't been doing enough of) and study the book.

Here's a tip....learn hiragana first and then use the Kana version fo the book rather than the roomaji version. It's much more natural.

Worry about the kanji later.....

Best way to learn any language is through immersion, something I'm hoping to do someday but haven't found any Japanese speaking friends yet, they all speak Chinese...dammit.

b

I took Spanish two years in high school them I went to college and took more spanish so Im trying to be fluent. When I was in the desert I hung out with the Italian's sometimes for dinner or lunch and Italian is very similar to Spanish since I was conversing with them a little back and forth. German seems real hard to learn along with French. Don't care too much for Jappanese or Asian or anything like that...

[GT40FIED]

German is actually pretty easy to figure out since english is mostly latin-germanic. I'd really love to learn more Latin (my dad was a former priest and had to learn Latin for masses...but I don't know a whole lot), but my school doesn't have any Latin courses. We do, however, have Korean which is weird since there aren't any Asian people in this podunk town (I swear, I've seen like 5) and I'm not sure how many Koreans you'll come into contact with in your life. I'd prefer Japanese or Chinese.

[GT40FIED]

Originally posted by Shardsofxapril
do you (those who knoe japanese) think I could possibly learn it by myself, are there any good books out there that you might recommend because it is soemthign I reallllly wanna learn

Another good place to go is here . JEDI! Or rather the Japanese-English Dictionary Interface. Just make sure you click on Romaji (strange...I've always seen it spelled Roomaji) as the output type so you can read. Roomaji is basically just a romanized version of Japanese words...i.e. there's letters instead of characters so you can sound it out.

Originally posted by GT40FIED
Another good place to go is here . JEDI! Or rather the Japanese-English Dictionary Interface. Just make sure you click on Romaji (strange...I've always seen it spelled Roomaji) as the output type so you can read. Roomaji is basically just a romanized version of Japanese words...i.e. there's letters instead of characters so you can sound it out.

There's varying ways to spell it....romaji, roomaji, roumaji, it all depends on the system of (insert spelling here) you use.

I haven't seen that one yet, thanks for the link.

b

[GT40FIED]

It's a great site unless you want to look up a generic word like "one". Now...I know the number one is "ichi", but you get like 50 different phrases containing the word "one" (most of which don't contain the word "ichi"). But it's great for a lot of stuff.